The Incarnate Word
No matter what our background,
we must sincerely believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God
in order to inherit eternal life.
Here's Dr. Gene Getz:
The key phrase in this Principle is
no matter what our background.
And we're going to see the continuity here
in relationship to what Jesus is going to do in terms
of encountering the woman at the well.
But it's very important that we see this event
against the backdrop of what He's
already done in His encounter with Nicodemus.
And so I'm going to show you some
very interesting contrasts which helps
to illustrate this Principle that states
no matter what our background.
And here are the contrasts.
I'm going to do them quickly:
Nicodemus was a Jew [a very religious Jew];
the woman was with a Samaritan,
with whom Jews would not socialize.
There's a contrast there.
But notice this contrast:
Nicodemus was committed to keeping
the Mosaic law.
To the last detail, I might add.
The woman of Samaria had been
married five times and at that moment
was living with a man out of wedlock.
And you know how the religious Jews
and religious leaders felt about the
subject of adultery in terms of
Old Testament law. Another contrast:
Nicodemus was highly educated;
the woman was no doubt uneducated.
By the way, in fact in that particular arena,
most of the women were uneducated.
But that's not just true of a group of women.
That was true of Peter, James, and John.
They were not educated like the
religious leaders. Like Nicodemus,
a member of the Sanhedrin.
And then here's another contrast:
Nicodemus was a man of high standing
among his peers. High standing.
This woman was probably considered an outcast
even among her own people.
So you have these incredible contrasts.
And John chose these two stories back to back
to illustrate this concept, this Principle.
No matter what our background,
we need to believe in Jesus Christ.
And we can believe in Jesus Christ and
inherit eternal life.
But there's another reason that John
records the story of this woman.
Now it's interesting, earlier on,
when Jesus first left Judea to go to Galilee
because of the tension.
We showed you this basic map.
And they probably left Jerusalem,
went across the Jordan,
bypassed Samaria. And went on down to Nazareth,
then to Cana, where He worked His first miracle.
Then on down to Capernaum where He settled in.
But at this point in time, we're going to see
He's back in the Jerusalem area.
We've already seen this.
He met Nicodemus who was a religious leader.
But notice, we read basically, that He
must go through Samaria.
Very clearly it says in the scriptural text,
Jesus had to travel through Samaria.
In this case, He's going to go directly
into a territory that the average Jew
would never go.
And I think Jesus in His sovereignty, has chosen
this at this particular moment in time.
Now that happened?
He meets a woman at the well.
And He asks her for a drink.
This was at Jacob's well in Sychar.
Near Sychar.
Notice the woman's suspicion:
How is it that you, a Jew,
ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?
she asked him. ...
And then John comments:
...For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
Let alone a woman of Samaria.
And so when Jesus offered her this living water,
he went on to offer her living water.
And notice how her responses reflected suspicion--
this continued suspicion:
Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God,
and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,'
you would ask him, and he would
give you living water."
But the sarcasm is still there.
You see, she probably questioned his motives.
Why are you talking to me a woman?
What do you want?
And so she says to Jesus, when he said:"I can
give you living water":
"Sir", said the woman,
"you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. ...
You can feel the sarcasm:
...So where do you get this 'living water'?...
What are you talking about?
Where are you heading? What's going on here?
...You aren't greater than our
father Jacob, are you?
He gave us the well and drank from it himself,
as did his sons and livestock."
Now what happened here is that
Jesus told her that she would get thirsty again
from this water in the well.
That He had water to drink for her which would
cause her never to get thirsty again.
Well notice another sarcastic response:
..."Sir", the woman said to him,
"give me this water so that I won't get thirsty
and come here to draw water."
And it was a long way, as it were,
up a hill, up a mountain, to get water.
So she doesn't understand what's going on.
She thinks she does.
But then, he got her attention because
He said to her, "Go call your husband".
She said, "I don't have one".
He says: That's right, you've had 5.
And the one you now have is not your husband.
And all of the sudden, boom.
The whole tone of the conversation changed.
It changes:
"Sir," the woman replied,
"I see that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,
but you Jews say that the place
to worship is in Jerusalem".
And at this point, as I said,
the conversation changed.
The one of the conversation.
He has her attention.
She's beginning to understand what it
really means to have living water.
At least she wants to know more about this
because this is not just water down in that well.
And Jesus went on to explain to her
who He really was.
And notice the response:
Then the woman left her water jar,
went into town, and told the people,
"Come, see a man who told me
everything I ever did.
Could this be the Messiah?"...
See they understood the Old Testament.
They understood particularly, the Pentateuch.
The Samaritans were very devoted to
the first 5 books of Moses.
And so she understood some of the Old Testament
prophecies and so she's processing.
Now notice her faith is growing.
Her knowledge is growing.
Could this be the Messiah?:
...They left the town and made their way to him.
Their story was very convincing.
And so they came through the valley,
up the hill, and came to Jesus.
And of course, Jesus really shared with
them the truth that He had actually
shared with this woman.
But notice what they said.
And I think this reflects saving faith.
Not just on the part of the woman
in this later conversation,
because she probably came back with them.
But in their experience of meeting Jesus.
Now there's a lot of detail, you see,
we don't understand but here's what they said:
...[And] they told the woman,
"We no longer believe because of what you said,
since we have heard for ourselves and know
that this really is the Savior of the world."
And what that confession says,
that when she went back to that city,
they had quite a conversation.
She told them a lot.
And when they came to Jesus as a result
of her testimony. Or at least her confession
about the Messiah--could this be the Messiah?
There was an intense conversation
as Jesus shared with this group of people.
And I think what John wants us to know
is that they actually came to faith in Christ as
the Savior of the world.
Now here's a Reflection and Response
question, and that is:
What other spiritual lessons can we learn
from this dramatic story?
Now first of all, I want to share that
Principle once again so you can see how
I've chosen the story and the aspects of
that story which relate to this Principle:
No matter what our background...
Jew or Samaritan, rich or poor,
educated or uneducated,
a lot of knowledge or no knowledge,
or little knowledge.
...No matter what our background,
we must sincerely believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God
in order to inherit eternal life.
And that's why John chose these
2 stories back to back--to show that contrast.
So the question simply says,
what are other lessons we can learn?
And there are a lot of them.
In fact, in the Life Essential Study Bible
I just simply list some of these.
I don't develop them. Such as effective communication
in communicating with people.
Jesus illustrates that.
Overcoming prejudice.
Wow, this was one of the things He was
trying to teach His disciples.
Because they were really suspicious
when He was even talking to a woman.
And Jesus wants them to know, these disciples,
that He came for the whole world.
Because they don't believe that yet.
Or true worship.
We could develop that whole theme.
But I just for a moment, as I close out
this Principle, want to share with you
what we can learn about communication.
You see, these are two different individuals.
Nicodemus was a religious Jew.
He was a theologian, as it were.
He had a lot of head knowledge.
And when he came and said:
You must be a teacher from God,
because no one could do these miracles
that You're doing.
Jesus began where he was.
And He hit him with a theological issue.
At that moment they were dialoging on
a very high level in terms of theological
information and the Old Testament.
And Nicodemus was a religious leader himself.
And so Jesus challenges him with the
concept of being born again.
And then said: Nicodemus,
you're a religious leader and you
don't understand what it means to be born again.
Well let's take it another step.
And Jesus moved him on into his understanding,
beginning where Nicodemus was
in his particular approach to thinking.
Contrast that with the woman at the well.
She had no theological background.
She had just come to draw water.
She was probably a woman that had
a very bad reputation in that town.
Married 5 times, living with a man
now that wasn't her husband.
And so what does Jesus do?
He begins where she is.
Her need was literal water in that well.
And so He begins with that issue, that concept.
And He says: Give me a drink.
And from saying give me a drink,
He moves from the water in the well
to the living water.
That He could give her where she would
never thirst again.
Now the reason I share that is,
that's a great Principle of communication.
When we're trying to share the gospel
of Jesus Christ or even a message of
helping someone who is unbeliever.
To begin where they are, and move them
from that point of interest and concern, into what
they really need to hear about God's message.
It's a great passage that illustrates
not only communication but a lot of other
concepts that we could look at in this passage.
That's the uniqueness of the Word of God.
Multiple messages even within
one passage of Scripture.