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Would you turn in your Bibles, please, to John chapter four, the Gospel of John, chapter four. We'll begin reading at verse one. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples. He left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through Samaria.
So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from his journey, zat- sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. We'll just stop at that point, and we'll see how time holds up, whether we continue on. Let's just ask the Lord's blessing on this portion that we read. Our Father, we thank you for these words that were just before us. We know that these words were written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life through his name.
Father, first of all, we would pray that everyone here in this audience this morning may have believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then our Father, for all of us who have believed, just fill us with him this morning. For we know that when our eyes are in Christ, all else seems to fall in place, whether it's in our individual lives, in the home, in the assembly, wherever it might be at work. Just we ask that you would fill us with Christ so that our eyes might be taken off ourselves and centered on him, in whose name we pray.
Amen. This beautiful story of the Lord Jesus meeting a woman at the well is one which I'm sure is probably familiar with most of us this morning. At least we're familiar with the information contained therein. But, as is often so often the case in the Word of God, it's one thing to know a portion intellectually, and it's quite another thing to have that portion reach your heart. We know this, don't we? We've all experienced this. You know, you can know a story, you can tell it backwards and forwards, and yet that story has never really touched you and never really affected you.
And I, it is my prayer this morning that, as we look at these verses, our hearts might truly be touched when we consider the person of Christ in relation to this woman. Now, the first verse that I want to draw to your attention in this portion is verse four. Just a simple phrase, but he must go, or he needed to go through Samaria. Now, geographically, this was the only way, really, to go to, from Judea to Galilee, and that was his destination. He was leaving Judea, as verse three tells us, he was heading for Galilee.
And if, if we had a map up here on the land of Israel, I could show you that in order to get from Judea to Galilee, Galilee is north of Judea, it's a province within Israel, you had to go through Samaria if you were going to go, so to speak, on a straight line, or as the crow flies. But many of the devout Jews would not go through Samaria because they considered Samaria, uh, to be defiling. Because the, the Samaritans, during the period of their captivity, had many Gentiles came into the land, and they intermixed and intermarried, and they were not considered pure Jews.
And they did not worship in Jerusalem. They had their own place of worship, which was considered by the Jews inferior to Jerusalem and the temple there, and so they were looked down upon. If you just turn for a minute, just keeping your finger there in John four, I want you to look at a verse in Matthew chapter ten, which is most interesting in relation to this story. I think it's very, very important that we, we keep this in mind as we look at the story. In Matthew ten, the Lord Jesus was, um, sending the twelve disciples out to preach, um, to the surrounding towns and villages.
And you'll notice in verse five, these twelve, it says Jesus sent out and commanded them. Notice, he commanded them, saying, do not go into the way of the Gentiles and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. Notice he commands them, don't enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, the lost sheep of the house of Israel would be basically Judea or Galilee. While the Galileans were not considered as well educated as the Judeans, uh, though they were considered somewhat inferior as far as their background goes, nevertheless, they were considered truly the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But they were not to go into Samaria. Notice it is very clear, the command is very clear. Now, that leads us then to the question then, why would the Lord Jesus, after he clearly told his disciples not to go into a city of Samaria, why did he have to go through Samaria? He could have gone around it. After all, he even had the power to have gone over it, so to speak, because he did do this on occasions, very rarely, but he did. But he chose to go through Samaria. Now, we learn as we examine this that certainly there were two basic reasons for this.
First of all, he had a very important scriptural lesson to teach his disciples, and he wanted to lay the groundwork for that, because he was going to teach this to them later. Second of all, it wasn't the geography that compelled him to go through, but it was grace. He knew there was a woman there to whom he wanted to speak. We'll see the reasons why he wanted to speak to that woman in just a few minutes. But oh, to think that one woman compelled the Lord Jesus to go through what was a forbidden land to the Jews.
Rather a striking thought, isn't it? But let's first of all just consider, he wanted to lay an example of scripture. We notice, as we look at this, that he was leaving Judea. Verse three makes that clear. Judea, he did not receive a good reception. He was basically rejected by the Jews in Judea, basically, certainly by the leaders, certainly even by most of the populace. He was basically rejected. Now, as we read along in this portion, we will discover, for example, if you look at verse forty three in the fourth chapter, that after the two days, he departed from there and went to Galilee, so that he spent, it was two days had gone by at this point from the time he left Judea, going through Samaria.
And then we read in verse forty five, so when he came to Galilee, the Galileans having received him, having seen all the things he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also had gone to the feast. Some of the Galileans had been to the feast, had, had heard what he said, had seen what he did, and he was received there on the third day. Now, keeping that in mind, just keep your, again, keep your finger in this portion because we're going to keep coming back to it. But would you turn to the Hosea, one of the minor prophets? You know, the Lord Jesus came to fulfill scripture.
And, um, so often, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew, this is referred to, his fulfilling of scripture. Now, if you can find Hosea, I have to always sing the books of the Bible. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, right after Daniel, right? You'll find Hosea. We don't refer to these books very often, so we don't, you know, really get to know their locations too well. But if we look at Hosea chapter six, we read some interesting words. It says in verse one of Hosea six, Come and let us return to the Lord, for he has torn, but he will heal us.
Now this is speaking of the Jews. He had torn them. The Jews had gone through a long period of tribulation and trouble. It says he will heal us. He is stricken, but he will bind us up. Notice this, it says after two days, he will receive us. On the third day, he will raise us up that we may live in his sight. Let us know. Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning. He will come to us like the rain. Now, read that portion because in that portion, the third day is pictured as a day of revival, of resurrection, so to speak, of Israel.
And it's not uncommon in the scriptures for the third day to be resurrection. The Lord Jesus was raised the third day, wasn't he? And this is telling us that there's a day coming when the nation of Israel is going to be received, when they're going to be restored. Now, we see in this portion in John four, the Lord Jesus was picturing this. The first day, at the beginning, he was rejected by the Jews. And that's exactly what has happened. We're living during that time when the Jews have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, by and large.
There's a small elect, which Paul speaks of over in Romans, that will receive the Lord Jesus as their savior, and they will be saved the same as the Gentiles. But by and large, the nation, the leaders, and the people have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. They rejected him in Judea, and they've inject- rejected him at large. So he went through Samaria to show to his disciples that there's a day coming when the gospel would go forth to the Gentiles. Because the Jews rejected him, he left, and he was showing them that there was a day coming when they would preach in Samaria, and they would preach to the Gentiles.
And if we were to go into the book of Acts, we don't have time for that. But he said to them there, as he was ready to go back to heaven, he said, you'll be witnesses unto me, both in Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And so in the second day, he's received by the Gentiles. But then the third day, he goes to Galilee, and there he's received by the Jews. Because there's a day coming when he will be received. There's a day coming when the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. And the Jews, there will be an elect of Jews on the earth who will have gone through seven years of great tribulation, and they will welcome the Lord Jesus.
They'll receive him back. You might say, well, you know, all of this is really not that important, is it? You know, I mean, what, what does all of this matter? Well, it is important, because it, it makes us understand why the Lord Jesus went out of his way to speak to this Gentile woman. Because he wanted to demonstrate that the grace of God was going to go outside of Israel. It was going to go to the world. And that's why he's spoken of as we move along in this portion. If you look at verse forty two, we see this most remarkable title of him.
He is the Christ, notice, the Savior of the world. How significant that title is. You see, that's what he was demonstrating here in the fourth chapter. He came to be the savior of the world, not just of the house of Israel. But in his omniscience, he also knew this, the woman was there, and he wanted to reach that woman. Luke tells us over in his gospel, nineteenth chapter, verse ten. he says, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Seek and save. And we see him here as the one who came to seek. And that's so beautiful. Have you ever stopped to consider this morning that the Lord Jesus may be seeking you? Have you ever thought that perhaps things may have happened in the last week the way they did? Maybe it was an especially difficult week for you. Maybe it was one of those weeks where it seems as if everything went wrong. I know we all have weeks like that. And you wonder why this happened and why that happened.
Maybe you lost a good friend, and that kind of made you stop and think. Did you ever think that God permits and allows things to come into our life to make us realize that his son is seeking us, that he wants our life. That we've been living our life for ourselves and for our own selfish ends, to meet our own selfish desires. But the Lord Jesus Christ says, I want your life. I'm seeking. Now, this woman didn't know this at this point, but the Lord Jesus knew what she needed in her life, and he knew he was the person to meet that need, and he came and sat down at this well for that very purpose.
And what we're going to discover is, as we, as we go through this portion, that the Lord Jesus amazingly revealed more truth to this woman than he did probably to anybody else during his lifetime here on earth. Just in the previous chapter, in John chapter three, he was talking to a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. Now, the Pharisees, Nicodemus was supposed to be a very learned, a very intelligent, a highly trained man in religious affairs, and yet he didn't really teach him too much, just the basic truth that he needed to be born again, that he needed a new nature.
But he comes to this poor, ignorant woman who had no religious training of- to speak of, who was looked down upon and despised by men like Nicodemus. And yet to her, he reveals some of the most amazing truths about worship that we have anywhere in the Bible. Now, as we go on with the story, we read that the Lord Jesus came to a city of Samaria called Sychar. We read this city was near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Is this an accident? That the Lord Jesus just happened to come to a plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. I don't believe there's any accidents in the life of Christ. As a matter of fact, I don't think there's any accidents in the life of a Christian. I think things happen by design. And let us just look at a portion of scripture in relation to this. Keep your finger there again. I think you'll find this verse most interesting. If you turn over to Joshua chapter twenty four, And this verse in relation to John four five is a most amazing verse.
John 4, or 20, Joshua twenty four and verse thirty two. The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt. Remember Joseph, when he died in Egypt, he left, he left a command with Jacob's brothers that when he, that he should be brought out of Egypt, up to the land of Canaan. He wanted to be buried in the promised land, the land that God had promised to his fathers. So they brought those bones.
They, they honored his command. When they left Is- when they left Egypt, the Israelites carried Joseph's bones in a coffin and took them to the land of Egypt. And it says they buried those bones at Shechem. Now this is the place, at Sychar. It's the same place. They buried at Shechem the bones of Joseph in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamar, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph.
So here he was, at the very plot of ground where Joseph's bones were buried. I'm sure nobody knew exactly precisely where, but there he was at that plot of ground. Now, why is that significant? Well, God used Joseph to be the savior of the world, and that's precisely what Joseph became. God sold Joseph out of the land of Canaan that he might go to the, to the great Gentile power of Egypt and live there, win favor with Pilate, with the Pharaoh, and become the distributor of grain during a great famine.
And the Gentiles from all over the world came to Egypt during those seven years of famine. And when they came to Egypt, Pharaoh said, go see Joseph. He'll meet your need. He's got what you're looking for. And so they went to Joseph. Now here the Lord Jesus is centuries later, coming to a starving Gentile who needs him to demonstrate that he's going to be the savior of the world, that he's going to be your savior and my savior. We notice that it says in verse six that he went to Jacob's well, and being wearied, he sat, he sat thus by the well.
And here we see the Lord Jesus Christ sitting there, tired, worn out, more than likely thirsty, because I think it, the drink he asked for was not only to, for contact with this lady, but I think he was truly thirsty. Sitting by the side of a well. Think of the humiliation. Someday, he would be sitting on a throne, ruling over the world.
But here in this chapter, he's sitting on a little well in the despised little town of Samaria, in- in Samaria, waiting for a woman to come to that well. We think of the humanity of the Lord Jesus, not just his humility, but his humanity. He was able to get tired. He was able to become thirsty, even though he was God himself in the flesh. Even though he was very God of very God, yet his body tired, his body thirsted.
You know, I'm glad I have a savior like that. I'm glad I have a savior that, that understands the weariness of life. Because I've found that life can become very weary. Have you? I found, I know what it is for bones to ache, the body to be tired, and really to be weary in life's journey. What a consolation it is at night, when wearied of body, to be able to raise my eyes to my Savior and say, Lord, you know, you understand, you've been this way before me.
You know exactly how I feel. My heart goes out to those that do not have such a sanctuary, who at the close of day, hearts heavy, broken, and weary, have no one really they can call out to, have no one they can talk to because they don't know him. He's a stranger to them. But oh, to know the Lord Jesus in a way that you can know his sympathy and his love. And then we see something of his patience.
He sat there, and he sat there expressly to wait for her. I'm not sure what time of day this was, that, uh, commentators of the scriptures argue about this, so I'm not going to get into their argument. Some say the sixth hour, well, that in Hebrew time, that was noon. And some say, no, the sixth hour, that was exactly what it says, that was the sixth hour, uh, that was Roman time, and therefore it was evening. Um, I- I'm not about to, because I don't really have the ability to settle that point, but whatever hour it was, whether it was noon, whether it was evening, whatever it was. He sat there at that well, and he was going to wait for that woman.
Think of it. Just think of it. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who came from heaven to live on this earth just a short thirty three years, who only traveled about for three of those years, who had multitudes that wanted to see him, not particularly because they wanted him, but they wanted his healing powers. But he took time to sit at a well to wait for one person. I don't know what that does to you, but that, that sends the chills up and down my backbone.
To think that his concern for one person was so compelling, so demanding on him, that he would sit and wait for her. There was somebody who wrote some lines about that, and I think, I can't help but think they must have had this in mind. I just read them to you. Time after time, I went searching for peace in some void. I was trying to blame all my ills on this world I was in. Surface relationships used me till I was done in.
And all the while someone was begging to free me from sin. He was there all the time. He was there all the time, waiting patiently in line. He was there all the time. Oh, when the revelation of this breaks into a soul, to think that the Lord Jesus is there waiting in line to get into your soul. You're so busy with surface relationships, so busy trying to, to fill that emptiness, that void in your life, and the one and the only one who can do it is there waiting in line patiently.
And that's the picture we have here of the waiting. Well, the woman came. Of course she came, in verse seven, God would see to that. It doesn't take long for a seeking sinner to find a seeking Savior. God sees that they're soon brought together. He arranges that, you know. If you're truly seeking the Lord, he'll see that you find him. And the woman of Samaria came, still not knowing who he was, of course, to draw water.
We look at this woman. She was basically an outcast. We don't read anybody came with her. We don't get any suggestion there was anybody else there at the well. Some have suggested that she probably came to the well at this time, whenever it was, because this was normally when most people didn't come to the well. In other words, it appears she chose a time to come because other people didn't want to be around her. She didn't know that day, when she customarily came, that there was somebody there at the well.
In fact, somebody that knew she was coming. And so she came. And notice who began the conversation. She didn't. He did. It was he that took the initiative, and that's always the case, you know. We come to Christ because he came to us first. Don't ever be under the mistaken idea that you came to Christ in your own initiative. He said, all that the Father gives me, I will draw unto me.
He does the drawing, like a magnet, he pulls us toward himself. How does he do this? We're going to see this exemplified in the life of this woman, but he brings us to a total end of ourselves. Until he's able to do this, you see, he can't draw us to himself. As long as we're satisfied with ourselves and our life and what we're seeking, what we're doing, we don't want him. So it's his desire to bring us to an end of that. To help us to see that this life has got nothing to satisfy us, nothing to give us, but emptiness and void.
When he gets us to that place, then he can draw us to himself. And so he began the conversation, and he asked her for a drink of water. That's how he begins. Give me a drink. Somebody has said that he asked for a small vessel of water, that in exchange he might give to this woman a fountain of water. And that's basically what he was doing.
And so, in marvelous condescension, he was certainly capable of drawing the water himself and getting it to drink. But he wanted this contact with this woman. And so, he goes on then, and uh, he seeks to draw out her curiosity. For you notice, when he asks for the drink, the woman says, how is it that you, being a dru- Jew, asked a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
She could see he was a Jew. This seemed quite evident to her, and she was mystified that he would want to have any association with her whatsoever. And of course, it is when we reach this point in our life that the Lord Jesus is really able to deal with us. That is, when we consider ourselves so bad, so terrible, so wicked, so foolish, that we would think he would want nothing to do with us. They got it?
Christ has to bring us to that point until he's able to reach us. As long as we're satisfied with ourselves, as long as we think, you know, I'm really something, I'm doing something in life, I'm accomplishing something, I'm a fine person, I'm a good man, I'm a very religious person. You know, as long as we have any high opinion of ourselves, we're not ready to come to him. But it's when we've just come to the end of our ropes, we've come to the end of ourselves. And so that's, that's the stumbling block. That was the stumbling block with the Jews in Judea. We are not willing to come to the end of ourselves.
You know, we keep thinking there's something within ourselves that we can hold on to, that's worthwhile, that's good, that can accomplish something, that can do great things. And so we hold on to this, not realizing that God has condemned us because of our sin, and there's nothing good about us. There's none good, no, not one. And it's when we come to the end of ourselves, and we can actually say, Lord, why? Why would you call on me? What- wh- why would you seek to speak to me? I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy that you should speak to me.
Remember Saul of Tarsus, when he was on the road to Damascus. He had been out killing Christians and trying to destroy the Church of Christ. And from heaven he heard the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think he was absolutely astounded that the Lord Jesus Christ would speak to him when he was seeking to destroy the very Church of Christ. And so this woman is astounded. And Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God, verse ten, and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
Amazing statement. He's saying, I've got something to give you that nobody else, no, no other place, nothing else can ever give you. I've got living water to give you. And we're going to see as we get further on the passage, down the passage, he will talk about this some more. But let's just go on for just a couple more minutes. Let's look at verse eleven. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. Now let's note her question back there in verse eleven. She says, you have nothing to draw with.
She looks at him. She doesn't see that he has any container, any bucket, any vessel. And then she looks at the well, and she says, this, this is a deep well. There's no way you're going to get any water out of this well without a container. Where, where are you going to get this living water? And you see how this woman was looking at the physical. He still hadn't gotten across the point to her that what she needed was inside spiritual, that her problem, her deep problem in in life was her heart, what was going on inside.
You see, she just saw the physical. He he was saying giving her water, she figured it had to be water that she would drink, that it would be physical water. And I guess she thought that somehow this physical water would do something magical to her. Maybe she kind of had a concept like Ponce de León did when he landed down there in Florida, and he was looking for that, uh, fountain that if he drank it, you drank the water, you would change into a, a body that would live forever. And so we, he called it the fountain of youth. And I, I think she somehow had some kind of concept like this, that somehow some great dramatic miracle was going to take place, uh, with some water, some physical water that he was going to give her.
And you know, this, and I just want to finish with this point. We won't, we won't get a chance to get into other verses, but I- I want to stress this point to finish. The one thing that the Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus, has to teach us through the Spirit of God is that our great need is spiritual. It is inside of us. It is not physical. You know, we look to God to, to somehow... We want to call on God and think he'll solve all our problems. You know, that we can just call on God and, and he'll kind of be sort of our, our little, um, servant, you know, kind of like the, the Arabian that rubbed the bowl and, you know, and his genie came and went and did his, his various, uh, tasks for him.
And this is kind of the way we want God to be, that, that if we call on him in crisis, that he'll come and help us through this problem, and he'll help us through that problem. And, you know, if, if, uh, this has gone wrong, that he'll take care of that. If we need a job, he'll, he'll get us a job, and if we, if, uh, we have somebody that's sick, he'll, he'll make the person sick that's better. If we're losing our house, he'll give us another house, or, or if we need a new set of clothing, he'll give us a set of clothing. And that's kind of what we, what we feel, you know, this is our need, and God ought to be doing for us. We don't see that our real need is that we're sick inside. That no matter how many things God would give us of this earth, we'd never be satisfied.
That what we do, what we need is not improved conditions down here in earth. Improved conditions will never meet our need. But we have a soul need, a soul thirst that has to be satisfied. And the Lord Jesus has come to meet that need. That's far more important. Now, I would like, in by the grace of God, and if he so spares us, that I'd like to continue in this chapter next Lord's Day, uh, in the evening. And I'm just going to pick up with verse twelve, and, uh, we'll continue on with that portion.
But I'd like us, if Dorothy will come up to the piano again, I'd like us to close with a hymn that I think speaks of the very thing that we have been talking about this morning. Number three oh six. Number three hundred and six in your Red Hymn Book. Why don't you just notice, we're gonna, we're gonna sing all four verses, but I want you to notice the third verse of this hymn. I tried the broken cisterns, Lord. You know, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of the broken cisterns. He says in, in the Jeremiah that the people of Israel had gone after broken cisterns.
They tried to find satisfaction by the cisterns. A cistern, you know, is a place that holds rainwater. They tried to find satisfaction by the water that was here on earth. But he says, but ah, the waters failed. E'en as I stooped to drink, they'd fled and mocked me as I wailed. And I want to tell you something, folks, this morning. If you haven't learned it yet, you're going to learn it. That the cisterns of this earth will never, never satisfy you. You can go in for everything this world has to offer you, and you're gonna come out thirsty.
And he says, now none but Christ can satisfy. None other name for me. There's love and life and lasting joy. Lord Jesus, found in it.