Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well reveals his mission to transcend ethnic and social barriers to offer spiritual salvation. Despite the historical animosity between Jews and Samaritans, Jesus initiates a conversation, offering the woman "living water" that quenches eternal thirst, contrasting it with the physical water from the well. Through a dialogue that exposes her past and her understanding of worship, Jesus progressively reveals himself, first as a prophet and ultimately as the Messiah, the Savior of the world. This encounter highlights the power of personal evangelism and the transformative nature of encountering Christ, leading to the salvation of many in the Samaritan city.
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Well, good evening, everybody. It's nice to see you. Thank you for coming along to listen to an Englishman, in spite of what was said as anchors away. But we've got the cannon. And just a reminder for you, you'll not forget Precious Seed magazine, will you? Some people have kindly signed up for it at the back. I know there are, I think, thirty rooms in the lodge, so that's thirty signatures. There are a few other visitors around, too. So if by Friday evening we haven't got forty signatures on the yellow sheet of paper at the back, the doors will be locked and nobody will be out until we've got them.
So kindly remember, if you'd like to get the magazine, please do that. Thank you very much. Now, would you turn, please, to the Gospel of John chapter four, the Gospel of John chapter four. John four and verse one. I'm sorry, verse number four. John four and verse four. And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Saikar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearyed with his journey, sat bussed on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink, for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which I am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself and his children and his castle. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hither.
The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saith thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship you know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is the Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that when Messiah cometh, which is called Christ, when he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her, I, let's speak unto thee, am he. Verse twenty-eight. The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and saith to the men, Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. He is not this the Christ. Then they went out of the city and came unto him. Verse number thirty-nine. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him, for the saying of the woman which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would carry with them, and they abode there two days. And many more believed, because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard them ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. And I'm sure God will add a blessing to the public reading of His own word. Now, it is our exercise during this conference week to concentrate our thoughts upon the Lord Jesus Christ. In our first address, we spoke of His incarnation.
In the second, of His presentation. in the third of his temptation and in this the fourth we will be speaking of his revelation to this woman of Samaria now of course it's interesting that in this passage of course it is quite a bit to do with water and the Bible says a lot about water and John's gospel says a lot about water too for example at the very beginning of the Bible the Lord God moved on the face of the waters right at the very beginning of the Bible we are introduced to water and right at the end of the Bible in Revelation twenty two there are some who are exhorted to take of the water of life freely in John's gospel of course in John chapter one they're standing in water as John is baptizing and in John twenty one they're standing on the seashore again by the water John's Gospel is saturated with water.
In John's Gospel, you have water in pools. You have water in brooks. You have water in wells. You have water in springs. You have water in rivers. You have water in seas. And you've even got water in pots. So that John's Gospel is full of water. It is therefore significant that in John's gospel and only in John's gospel does our Lord Jesus Christ say, give me to drink. And it is only in John's gospel where he says, I thirst. So that the gospel of John saturated with water is the occasion for our Lord Jesus Christ to say, in John four, give me to drink.
And at his crucifixion, I thirst. So these things are not without significance. And as I say, John's gospel is full of water. Now, this chapter opens up in an interesting way. Because if you look at the verses we didn't read just to mention them in passing, when, therefore, verse one, the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. Though Jesus baptized not but his disciples, he left Judea and so on. So the Pharisees had heard something. There was some information floating around that they had heard. And what was it? That Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John was.
And of course in connection with that information the question that we should ask ourselves is who was counting? I'm sure John the Baptist wasn't counting. I don't think he was that sort of man. And I'm sure the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't counting either. But there were some professed followers who perhaps were nothing more than troublemakers and they were counting. And therefore there had sprung up amongst the followers a spirit of competition. And there is even today sometimes among the servants of the Lord a spirit of competition which is to be despised because it should not be so in the things of God that there should be a competitive spirit between his servants nor his disciples.
So how did the Lord Jesus respond to this spirit of competition? We read that he left Judea. He would have nothing to do with it. He left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And so that's just a little lesson for us at the beginning, that we ought not to be parties to a spirit of competition that sets one against another. Having said that, we then read verse four. and he must needs go through Samaria. He was going to leave Judea, which was in the south, and he was going to go to Galilee, which is in the north, and the province that lay in between them was Samaria, and therefore he must needs go through Samaria.
Why must he? Was there no other way? Well, certainly, geographically, there were other ways. For example, instead of just going due north through Samaria, he could have gone west and taken a boat and sailed up the coastline until he got to Judea, sorry, until he got to Galilee. Or he could have gone east and gone up that way. So geographically, he didn't must need to go through Samaria at all. religiously he did not must go through Samaria in fact Orthodox Jews would certainly not have gone through Samaria if they had been making that same journey they would have gone in a different way in fact they would have traveled east they would have crossed the river they would have gone up on the eastern side of it and as soon as they had cleared Samaria they would have crossed back into Galilee because the Jews despised the Samaritans and Orthodox Jews certainly would not go through Samaria.
Thank you very much. So he must needs go through Samaria, says our text. So we say, why must he? Well, the reason that he must needs go through Samaria was this simple fact that he had to meet a woman at a well and lead her to himself. And that was sufficient cause for him to leave the hustle and bustle of the place where he was in Judea, where there were so many following him that rumors were starting about how many they were. And so he left all that excitement and all that hustle and bustle and all that blessing that was there to make a lonely journey to meet a single woman by a well.
you know it is still today the means the best means of communicating the gospel is not so much in the gospel campaign but in speaking one to one and here our Lord Jesus Christ does that but I want you to understand something here that the Samaritans were of a different culture and we are living in a world today where there are completely different cultures. In fact, one of the articles in Precious Seat is about Brook Street Assembly, Brook Street Chapel in Tottenham in London, which was founded over a hundred and fifty years ago.
And now in Tottenham in London, there are over one hundred different cultures. And the big problem of the Assembly is how to bring the gospel to them. But you see, what our Lord Jesus Christ did here He didn't go and hold an open-air meeting in Samaria, but he went and he found one woman and spoke to her. And that woman actually held the key to the whole town of Syker, because once she was saved, then many others got saved too. And it might just be that in amongst the folks of the other culture, to whom we find it difficult to preach the gospel, If we can win one of them for the Lord, then they perhaps can win the rest that you and I can't reach.
And so therefore, I emphasize the importance of personal evangelism, particularly today and particularly in crossing cultural barriers. So he must needs go through some area. This was what he set out to do. Verse five. Then he cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Syker, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. So the part of the country of the Samaritans that he was in was Syker. Now Syker is significant because we are told, as we shall be seeing in a moment or two, that Jacob's well was there.
But there were other things there too. For example, buried at Saikar were Joseph's bones. You remember that Joseph, way back in Egypt, you remember that Genesis ends with those words, and they embalmed him and put him in a coffin in Egypt. And somebody said that that's the best that Egypt can do for you, is to put you in a coffin. But you remember before he died, Joseph called his brethren together and he said, that God would bless them and one day he would take them out of this place and take you to another land, he said. And when you go to that other land, he said, I want you to take my bones with you.
Now, it's interesting that he said to take his bones. He didn't say, take my body with you. He knew the promise of the Lord that they would leave Egypt. But he judged as well that it might be some time before they left Egypt. And so he said, take my bones with you. It's interesting that they carried his bones around with them for forty years. And then after forty years, as they arrived in the land, they buried them at Saika. So Jacob's well was there and Joseph's bones were there. Israel's shame was there as well. Because remember, the young man of Shechem.
who wanted to marry Dinah and to remember that Israel's sons, they, in a sort of deceitful way, killed all the men of her family. And Israel said to them, he said, you've made my name distinct in this place. So it's interesting that that was at Syker II, where Israel's name stank. And of course, we're glad, aren't we? We remember too that another thing that happened at Syker is Joshua's farewell speech happened at Syker too. But we're glad, aren't we, that although Israel's name stank at Syker, that our Lord Jesus Christ's revelation also took place at Syker's well.
And so therefore on that occasion he comes to this town of Syker near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. How did he sit on the well? Thus. So what does thus mean? Well, we are given some hint about it. He was wearied with his journey. So there he was, sitting, by the well. And if you and I had passed by and looked at him, we would have come to this conclusion, that here was a man.
who was tired and hungry and thirsty, and that's just what he looked like as he sat in the well. He sat just like that on the well. And here at the beginning, therefore, of this story, we have again another little picture of the humanity of the Lord Jesus, that he was a real man, and as a real man, he was content to suffer the privations that real men suffered. And being wearyed with this journey, he sat just like that on the well. And it was about the sixth hour. So what time was it?
Well, gospel preachers often from this passage, when they preach the gospel, they say it was noon. They're going by Jewish time, of course. And they say that it was significant that the woman came to the well at noon when the sun was up. when nobody else would be there. However, I was going to say that I don't think that holds much water, and I suppose that would be the right phrase to use in John's Gospel. I suspect that the time given here is Roman time. John was the last of the Gospels to be written. And when John wrote his Gospel, the influence of Rome had increased in the land. And John has more things about Rome in his Gospel than any other writer.
For example, all the others speak about the Sea of Galilee, but John calls the same sea, the Sea of Tiberias. So there's a Roman influence there, and therefore I suspect that this is Roman time, and it's therefore six in the morning or six in the evening. It's not important which it is, but I suggest to you that it was not noon. There cometh a woman of Sumeria to draw water. Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink. Now, that's interesting. The disciples had gone away into the city to buy meat.
This woman turns up at the well, and Jesus speaks to her. And he says, Give me to drink. I think it is significant that he makes the first move. I suspect in all our salvations, he made the first move and it's very sometimes very important for you and for me with other people that we wish to influence for the Lord that it's important that we make the first move too now the first move doesn't need to be would you like to come along to church the first move doesn't need to be do you know the Lord the first move might instead of saying what can I do for you, might be saying, you can do something for me.
The Lord said to this woman, give me to drink, he said. And maybe, therefore, if you're next door neighbor's not a Christian, but he's interested in old cars, you might like to talk to him about his old car and cultivate an interest in old cars or whatever else interests him or her and ask for information to be supplied to you. That's what the Lord did. He took the initiative. He said, give me to drink. Then set the woman of Samaria unto him. And you can see the suspicion in her mind. She said, how is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me, which I am a woman of Samaria?
How is it that thou being a Jew? How did she know he was a Jew? He hadn't told her he was a Jew. So how did she know him? Well, perhaps it was the way he was dressed. He may have been dressed like a Jew. Or he may have looked like a Jew, facially. Or it may have been his accent when he spoke. Or it may have been all three. But she came to this correct conclusion. As he asked her one simple question, give me to drink. she rightly assessed that he was a Jew and this is what puzzled her she said how is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which I'm a woman of Samaria because you see Orthodox Jews they didn't want to talk to people of Samaria they certainly didn't want to talk to women of Samaria and in some ways Orthodox Jews were a bit like Orthodox brethren, because sometimes Orthodox brethren would hardly even speak to their own wives, never mind
anybody else's. And this particular Orthodox Jew, because that's what he was, we saw that earlier, he was born, he was made under the law, and his parents ensured that the law was kept in that home. This Orthodox Jew, our Lord, speaks. to a woman of Samaria. And she's puzzled by that. And she says, I don't understand. How is it that you, being a Jew, are asking drink of me, which I am a woman of Samaria? Of course, the fact that you didn't understand was not unusual. Because if you take time to compare John three with John four, Nicodemus and the woman of Samaria, you will see that neither of them really understood.
Although one was well taught, He said, how can a man be born when he is old? He didn't understand. So how could this poor woman understand? John three, it's Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. John four, it's a woman. John three, it's a man. John four, it's a woman. John three, it's a Jew. John four, it's a Samaritan. John three, it's a ruler. John four, it's a servant. John three, he's orthodox. John four, she's certainly not orthodox. John three's by night, John four's by day. John three's Jerusalem, John four's Samaria. John three he's speaking to the highest, John four he's speaking to the lowest.
And yet neither of them, neither of the two understood them really. And therefore this woman is puzzled by this. How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which I'm the woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans? Haven't they? Well, you say no. No, they haven't. Well, how do you know they haven't? Well, of course, the Bible tells them that they haven't. Does it? Really? Well, the Jews did have dealings with the Samaritans. In fact, a Jew will have dealings with anybody if he can get anything out of it. But more importantly, You and I know that the Jews had dealings with Samaritans because we read that verse that the disciples were gone away into the Samaritan city to buy meat.
So the Jews did have dealings with the Samaritans. So what does this verse mean then? Well, I think it means something different. In a moment the woman would say to him, thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep. And she was saying, thinking to herself, well, this man has got no bucket or vessel in order to draw the water and in order to drink the water and therefore if he's going to drink the water he'll have to drink it from my vessel and she was aware that the Jews were very strict about the vessels that they drunk out of and what she was really saying was this how is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me, which I am a woman of Samaria, for Jews do not share drinking vessels with Samaritans.
So then, having said that, the Lord Jesus says to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, which he didn't, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, which he didn't, thou wouldest have asked of him, which he didn't, And he would have given me living water. Now, what does he mean when he says he would have given her living water? Well, you and I say, well, we judge that what he meant was that he would have given her the Holy Spirit. Do you think that's what the Samaritan woman thought?
She was probably like those who wished not, whether or not there were any Holy Spirit. So that's not what she was thinking. Look what she says. Verse eleven, the woman said unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well was deep. I mentioned that to you. From whence then hast thou that living water? Now, if you go to the Middle East and to Jerusalem and to the places round about, they will show you lots of places. And they claim that this is the place where Christ was born. This is the place where he was crucified. This is the inn and the road to Samaria, the inn where they, you know the story, I mean this in my mind, they show you all these things.
And honest guys will say to you, well, we think it is. We're not too sure. It may not be. Don't get too carried away by it. But the one place that they can show you that's still there is sighters well. It's still there to this day. apparently when it was dug it was about a hundred and fifty feet deep now that's some depth the water at the top of the well they took it out with buckets and the top water at the top of the well was still water but the well was fed by a spring at the bottom and therefore the water at the bottom It kept springing up. That's what the word the Lord uses later.
It kept springing up, bubbling up. So when the Lord Jesus Christ said to her, and you and I with our theological backgrounds have said this, I will give unto thee living water. She thought he meant he would give her running water. Not the still water from the top of the well, but the running water from the bottom of the well. So she says, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. How then can you get the running water? That's what she thought. You can see the conversation is now in two different planes altogether.
And sometimes that happens when we talk to one slave folks down a bit. We're talking about one thing, and they think we're talking about something quite different. So the woman says, art thou greater than our father Jacob which gave us this well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle now this woman said now look Jacob who dug this well drunk the still water from the top his children drunk the still water from the top and at animals his castle drunk the still water from the top now here you come along And you're going to drink and give me to drink of the running water from the bottom.
Are you greater than our father Jacob then? Of course he could have paused and said, Yes, I am. And you and I could put our caption over this part of the story that are greater than Jacob is here. And so this goes on. Now I want to draw your attention to a couple of things just at this point. The woman saith unto him, Sir. Now, that is a mark of respect. When she spoke to him first, she said, How is it that thou, you? She said, You. Now she says to him, Sir, a mark of respect.
Now, whatever happened, a respect was beginning to grow. And if you and I are ever going to win any souls for the Lord, Like our neighbors, our workmates, or our friends, there has to be, on their part, some respect for us. And respect is earned. It doesn't come freely. So she said, you, she said, you asking drink of me. Then she says, sir. Now it's nothing to draw with and dwell as deep. There was a little bit of respect beginning to come in. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
Well, that was true enough. Everybody knew that. That's why they had to come time and again to the well. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. Now we know what he's talking about, but she didn't. she still thinks it's the running water at the bottom of the well. So the woman said to him in verse fifteen, sir. She said, now you see, the respect is maintained. Sir, she said, give me this water. So why does she want this water?
Now I thirst not. Neither come hither to draw. She said, I would love to have this water because if I did, it would save me an awful lot of time and an awful lot of trouble. so I would like to have this water please sometimes when people express an interest in the Lord and the things of the Lord they might do it for convenience sake they might do it in an emotional situation and this woman now is looking at the Lord and she's progressed from you a Jew to sir and sir.
Now, look what the Lord says to her next. Jesus saith unto her, this is verse sixteen, go call thy husband and come hither. So what's he doing? Why is he introducing this? Is it because that before a person comes to Christ they cannot come on the basis of emotion he is now addressing himself to her conscience and the conscience has to be struck and attacked by the gospel before a soul can respond in the proper way so he says go call thy husband Now that put the woman on a bit of a spot.
But this woman would have made a good precedent of the United States because she told the truth, but she didn't tell the whole truth. She said to him, the woman answered and said, I have no husband. Now that was absolutely right. There was nothing wrong with that. She certainly did not have a husband. Jesus said unto her, thou hast well said. Now you see, first of all, two things that he did, I forgot to mention the previous one. When the woman said, art thou greater than our father Jacob, he could have said, well, yes I am. But he was not prepared to get into a needless argument.
And if we're going to bring souls to the Lord, we have to be careful to avoid needless arguments. Because these things will always come up. but the Lord just ignored her. He let it go. Sometimes it's just as well to let things go. Now, of course, instead of condemning her, and that reminds us, doesn't it, of verse seventeen of John three, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. That's what he had in mind, and he doesn't condemn her. In fact, he condemns her. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband.
For he said, Thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. So what happened to the five then? You might say to me, well, they all died. Well, maybe that's why the sixth hadn't taken the plunge. And if you see what I mean. But For whatever reason, probably for other reasons than that, the five had left her, or she had left them. And now, of course, the six was not her husband. Or as somebody has put it quietly this way, she had already had five husbands, and she was now currently being husbanded by a man who was not her husband.
So, in that, said the Lord, thou hast said truth. The woman saith unto him, Sir. That's the third time she's called him, Sir. And even after he attacks her weak point, even after he tells her gently that she's telling lies, that she's being deceitful, that she's withholding the truth, that she's, as we Britishers would say, handling the truth economically, she still calls him, Sir. So see how this was progressed. You, a Jew, she said.
Sir. Sir. Sir. So what does she say? The woman said unto him, verse nine, then, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Now that was a big step from sir to a prophet. It was an even bigger step for a Samaritan. because the Samaritans did not accept, only accept, of the first five books of the Old Testament. Therefore, people like Isaiah and Jeremiah and others like that, they didn't rate his prophets at all.
In fact, the Samaritans believed that the last prophet that ever lived was Moses. Now you see the step, the leap that this woman has taken? She says, sir, she said, I perceive that thou art a prophet, an amazing step. Now you can see how this revelation is working, can't you? You are true, sir, sir, sir, a prophet, a prophet. Doesn't he lead her gently? I mean, if that had been you and I at the well, we might have stood up by the side of the well and said, Luke, excuse me, well, I'm a prophet.
But he let her find that out for herself. And she worked that through. And while she's working on it, that's the way she's going to come to know the Lord. He's gently leading her. Then she says, our fathers worshipped in this mountain, but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place for men ought to worship. Now, what's she talking about? Why is she going on about this now? What has this got to do with anything? Well, sometimes, you know, if you think you've got somebody and they're on the road to salvation and you think they're about to make the step, and then they suddenly say to you, well, what about all the people in Africa that have never heard the gospel?
that's roughly what this woman was saying she said look I've got a big problem here and it's about the right place to worship really her big problem was she didn't know the person who should be worshipped but the place of worship was to her seemed to be important and so she was offered a tangent just as the Lord had appeared to do earlier what the Lord says to her woman now it's interesting that he keeps calling her the same thing her appreciation of him is growing but his appreciation of her didn't need to grow because it was the same all along so he says to her woman believe me this is verse twenty one the ark cometh when you shall know they're in this mountain because the Samaritans believed they worshipped them and have broken down old temple in the top of the mountain and they believed that there was a place to worship.
That neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. You said, ye worship, ye know not what? Now, what does that mean? Ye worship, you know not what? Well, they knew they were worshipping God, and he knew that they were worshipping God. But they were only able to worship God insofar as they knew him. And the only extent to which they knew him was as he was revealed in the first five books of the Old Testament. They didn't have any of the rest of the Old Testament to help them in their appreciation of God. So he's saying to the woman, you worship a God that you don't really know.
We, the Jews, he said, we know what we worship because they have all of the Old Testament. So you might say to me, well, what is worship? Well, I mentioned to this earlier day the basis of worship is to move towards someone and embrace them and kiss them. But what is worship really? And I suppose here what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying towards this, look, worship has got something to do with the knowledge of God. Therefore, for you and for me, and for the assembly here at Park of the Palms and for your assembly wherever it is, the worship next Sunday should be better than the worship last Sunday.
Why? Because in the meantime, we should all have gotten to know God a bit better. And worship is tied in with the knowledge of God. And if we want the morning meetings to be better, we need to get to know God better. Because that will come out in the worship of the people. I want to leave that bit for the moment. But, you know, there's a lovely phrase there. The father is this. The father is spirit. Sorry, the worship of God. For God is a spirit. And the father seeketh such to worship him. You know, the father is seeking for worshipers. He's looking for... He's on the lookout for worshipers.
You know, sometimes I think if the... if the I don't know what the national what the local newspaper is here but let's say it's the Gainesville Times or something that next Sunday morning there was a photographer from the Gainesville Times outside here as we all came out and he took a picture and then he took it back to his picture editor and said look I need a caption for this I wonder what they would write miserable Saints leave chapel would that be right Well, sometimes we do leave it looking a bit miserable, don't we? But actually the real caption would be this, the true worshippers.
They worship in spirit and in truth. And you see, this was the thing that caught the imagination of them nearly two hundred years ago, like Anthony Norris Groves and Jay and Darby and others of that ilk, that they worship God in spirit and in truth without any help from anything material no men in special garments no emblems to carry they realized then for the first time amongst all their generation that God was a spirit and the only way to worship God was in the spirit without help from anything else And that is still the beautiful simplicity that we have and that we celebrate and that we protect in our morning worshiping in spirit and in truth.
The woman said unto him, I know that Messiah has comeeth, which is called Christ, and when he cometh, he will tell us all things. Now that's again another thing that sinners use, isn't it? They say, well, Well, it'll be all right on the night. You go your way, I'll go my way. The woman said, look, we've got differences, but when the Messiah comes, then we can all make up our minds because he has. And the Lord Jesus Christ looked her in the eye and said, I that speak unto thee, am he. Isn't that beautiful? I that speak unto thee, am he. But that point his disciples came and they marveled that he spoke with a woman.
Like, why, I've been explaining to you. So they marveled and they couldn't get over that. We won't say anything about that now. But it says, then the woman left her water pot. That's strange because she had come to Philip. So why did she leave her? Had she forgotten in her excitement? Did she know that she was coming back again? Or had she now got... the living water and therefore would never thirst again until the water pot was superfluous for whatever reason she left it I suspect the real reason is that she left it so that they could have a drink out of it so she left the water pot and went into the city and said to the men come see a man which told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ.
And for you have that phrase, the Christ, it means the promised Messiah. You are Jew, sir, sir, sir, a prophet, the Christ. Amen. many of the Samaritans in that survey believed on him for the saying of the woman which said he told me all things that ever I did you see as I said to you at the beginning this woman held the key to sight her strange that she should she held the key to sight her and many more were saved as a result can I just say this if you have been praying for somebody or working for somebody to bring them to the Lord keep at it keep going with it it was um Moran went to submission rate many years ago some of you will know the story better than me to the Pharaoh Islands he preached the gospel for fifteen years and nobody got saved then a lady got saved he
was so pleased he married her then thereafter Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more got saved. So that even today, the assemblies are almost the national church of Pharaoh. Keep at it. There's no telling. But once the door opens, anything can happen. And the door opens here to Saqqa and the men of the city here. Now just want to finish, boy, drawing your attention to what they're saying. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and they abode there two days.
Now, that's not very long. You don't get many preachers coming and staying only two days today. They might stay two weeks if you're not careful. In the north of Ireland, they stay two months and even more. So be careful when you invite a preacher, because you never know when he might leave. But the Lord reckoned that two days was enough. And many more believe because of his own word. and set unto the woman. I think this is delightful. Now we believe they said, not because of thy saying, but here's the phrase, for we have heard him ourselves. And I want you to go away from this meeting tonight, and indeed from this conference week, being able to say, we have heard him ourselves.
And what did we say? And know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour, of the world. Isn't that amazing? You, a Jew, the Savior of the world, and all in a few moments of revelation on a sunny day but sikers well. For in the past there had been shame, for in the past there had been hope because Joseph's bones were buried there, and Joseph's bones are probably still there but there's a hope there that even one day as we'll see later in the week even Joseph's bones will be taken away from that place so the circus well was a well of hope and there the woman progressed in her understanding of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ you a Jew sir sir sir I perceive that thou art a prophet.
This is the Christ, said the man. This is the Savior of the world. Oh, that you and I could appreciate him the way the woman did. Oh, that you and I could appreciate him the way the man of Cycle did. That in our experience, he might grow and grow and grow till he fills our mind, till he fills our vision, till he fills our hope, till he fills our home, till he fills our heart, until one day we together shall fill his heaven.
May God bless us where it dwells. Our Father, we thank you for the opportunity of studying this portion of thy word tonight. that so often was used in the preaching of the gospel. And yet it