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[0:00] John chapter 4, that's where we're going to be today. Jesus, he loved to use parables. And parables are stories, they're earthly stories that have a heavenly truth.

[0:13] And Jesus is often comparing the kingdom of God to a harvest. And in John chapter 4, we don't see a parable, right? But what we see is an actual event that is displaying a parable.

[0:30] And Jesus, as he's talking to the Samaritan woman, he's at Jacob's well. And he's sowing seeds into her life. And as the conversation continues, she goes from seeing Jesus as just another Jew to seeing him as a prophet.

[0:47] And then as the conversation concludes, she sees him as the Messiah. And like the disciple Andrew, she sees him as the Messiah. She goes running into the city and she tells other people about Jesus.

[0:59] And while she's gone, the disciples start having this conversation with Jesus. And then the whole section of this portion, it concludes with the whole city coming out to meet Jesus, believing in him.

[1:12] And he stays there for two more days, teaching them about the kingdom of God. And it's a pretty amazing little chapter. I love it particularly because it connects a lot to what we get to do, Denardo and I, with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

[1:28] It's like a city festival happening with Jesus himself. It's actually kind of cool. And so we're going to dive into this a little bit today and look at verses 1 through 42.

[1:43] The setting here is this portion of scripture takes place after the Passover, where Jesus had gone to Jerusalem. He was at the Passover and he's now recently spoken with Nicodemus in chapter 3.

[1:57] He has, well, then he went out and started baptizing. And John the Baptist was out there too. And so there's a portion there in chapter 3 where John points people to Jesus.

[2:10] And that's where John says, you know, his disciples are complaining that they're baptizing more people. And there's more people going to Jesus than there are coming to you. But John clarifies for them.

[2:21] And in verse 30 of chapter 3, he says, he must increase and I must decrease. Some of you have probably seen that as a bumper sticker, right? And then verse 36, John finishes there and he says, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life.

[2:37] And he who does not believe the Son does not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. This is kind of the setup for where we are in verse 1.

[2:49] And let's read real quick verse 1 through 3. It says, therefore, and I'm reading New King James, so forgive me. Jared uses King James. But New King James, 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.

[3:15] You know, it's a quick note. In order to avoid unnecessary controversy and unnecessary persecution, Jesus leaves Galilee, or excuse me, leaves Judea and he goes to Galilee.

[3:29] And most people, you know, when we look at, I'm going to show you a map. This is a picture, modern day. I took it from Google. So I was looking at a bunch of other maps, but I like this one better. Just to kind of illustrate the point, Jerusalem is here, down by just west of the north end of the Dead Sea.

[3:48] And so there you have Jerusalem. And most of the time, he was going up here to Nazareth. And in the middle is this place called Samaria. And most of the time, you would go all the way around Samaria.

[4:03] And so the Jews didn't want to go through Samaria. But here we're going to read in verse 4 that he's on a mission. And it says in verse 4, but he needed to go through Samaria.

[4:13] And so what we have now is rather than taking this wide route with that white line and going around across the Jordan River and around up to the north of Samaria and back over the river and into the area of Nazareth and Galilee, he's going to go straight through the middle.

[4:31] And so this is actually unusual, but I like how they pointed out, how John points out in here in the Gospel of John, he needed to go through Samaria.

[4:41] And this is very unusual. But verse 5 and 6, he says, So he came to a city in Samaria, which is called Sikar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

[4:56] Now Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being weary from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. This city is actually a very significant city in Israel.

[5:13] Right now, present day, it's part of the West Bank. And so it's not a place that a lot of people get to go. But it's a very significant place. And the ancient name for Sikar is Shechem.

[5:25] And so if you've heard that one recently, as Pastor Jared's been sharing about Abraham, in Genesis 12, verse 6, we see Abraham.

[5:37] That's the first place he goes to when he comes from the land of earth. He builds his first altar there, and he settles there for the first time in this place called Shechem.

[5:47] In a few weeks, we're going to start hearing about Jacob. Jared just shared he fled. When he comes back, he comes to this place of Shechem, and that's where he meets Esau.

[6:01] He's in Shechem, and Jacob then buys a piece of land near the city, and he raises an altar to God there in Shechem.

[6:11] So in Genesis 34, Dinah is defiled in Shechem, defiled by the man Shechem, which is who the city is named after.

[6:25] In Genesis 35, Jacob buries his gods and commits his life to God in Shechem. And then Genesis 37, Joseph is actually sold to his brothers in a place that looks a lot like this.

[6:39] In the fields and pasture lands of Shechem, because that's where we see Jacob tells him, hey, your brothers are taking care of the sheep in Shechem. Go check on them. And so his brothers sell him into slavery here in Shechem.

[6:52] In Deuteronomy 27, this is where the blessings and the cursings happen. Moses instructs the people of Israel, when you go into the land, you're going to have, on Mount Gerizim, you're going to share the blessings.

[7:07] And on Mount Ebal, you're going to share the cursings for those who don't follow the law. And so that happens here in this valley. And you can see here the modern day city up on the top of the screen, Mount Gerizim over there on the, I guess, your left and on the right, Mount Ebal.

[7:24] And that big dot right in the middle is the biblical Shechem. Then you're going to see on there, too, Jacob's well is there and then Joseph's tomb. And what's nice about this picture is Jesus would have been coming from the left side of the screen.

[7:39] And so the first place he would have come to before the city is Jacob's well. And so this is actually, here, let me show you, this is Mount Gerizim. It's not a big mountain.

[7:51] I'm from the west coast where there's mountains. Over here in the east coast, you guys have foothills. They're smaller, kind of like these. But this is Ebal. It's on the other side there.

[8:03] And then Jacob's well, this is inside a Greek Orthodox church that they claim. It's his well. I saw some older black and white photos as well of them going down into almost like a tunnel into a house that's under the ground.

[8:17] And so this is actually under the church in that same old tunnel. But they built a church on top of it. And it's a very interesting well. And we'll get to that in a little bit.

[8:28] But also on here, this is where Joshua, over here in Shechem, he gives his final address to the people. As you see on this map, it's where Joseph's bones were actually buried.

[8:40] Shechem is also in 1 Kings chapter 12. It's where Rehoboam, he goes there to get crowned king. And that's 1 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 10.

[8:50] And then in 2 Chronicles 10.25, this is also where Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, he makes his home in Shechem.

[9:03] And so Shechem has a lot of history. It's not just a city that Jesus decided to stop into. There's a lot of significance here. And it's important to know this background as we kind of look into what's going to happen.

[9:16] The next thing, though, is we've already read it, verse 6, the second part, is where Jesus, he sits down as one sits when they're weary. And I like that because he's sitting down and he's tired.

[9:31] Right? Sometimes we see these pictures of Jesus and he looks like this masculine guy and never gets tired. But the scripture doesn't show us that. The scripture shows us the humanity of Jesus Christ. Matthew 2, excuse me, 4.2, we see when Jesus is going out to be tempted, it says, when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry.

[9:55] Right? How many of us have been hungry? Well, Jesus was hungry. I hope none of you have waited 40 days to eat. But Matthew 8.24 says, Hebrews 2.17 and 18 says, And there's a comfort in that.

[11:00] That we have a God, a Savior, who's not just a superhero like Captain America or somebody like that. But he really does sympathize with us. And he was one of us.

[11:10] He got tired. He was hungry. He was weary. And so after this long journey, he's weary at the well. And it says that it was about the sixth hour. And so the sixth hour is really, that's noon.

[11:23] It's about the middle of the day, right in the heat of the day. And so the days and hours, if you need to want to take note, they usually start about 6 a.m. And so if you ever hear somebody say the ninth hour or the tenth hour, the sixth hour, it's referring to from 6 a.m. onward.

[11:42] And you can just count from there. But in verse 7 and 8, at the middle of the day, we read that a woman from Samaria came to draw water.

[11:56] And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. You know, it's not really the time of day when somebody would be going out and drawing water.

[12:09] It's the hottest part of the day. Most of the time, you know, none of us, I think, Kelly, you work in the day outside, right? It's hot. And it's not a fun time to be outside, especially in the summer.

[12:23] But here in the middle of the day, you've got this woman coming out to the well. And to me, that's kind of a sign. Oh, that's interesting. And so verse 9, it says, Then the woman said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

[12:41] For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. You know, at this time, the Samaritans were viewed as lower than a Gentile. The Jews had no interaction with them.

[12:51] They had no respect for them. They just really didn't care about them. They thought they were pretty bad. Historically, we see where the Samaritans came from.

[13:03] When Samaria fell, the northern kingdom, the Assyrians sent those Israelites all over the place. And they repopulated Samaria in 2 Kings 17.

[13:15] And what we see there in 2 Kings 17, I'm going to turn there. If you'll turn there as well, we're going to read a little bit. In 2 Kings 17, you have, from verse 24 to the end of that chapter, the resettlement of Samaria by the Assyrians.

[13:35] And they bring people from all over the place. And what happens is, because they don't, in their mind, they don't understand how to worship God, the lions and things start coming to kill them.

[13:46] And so they start complaining. And the king of Assyria sends over and tells them, send in some of the priests from the Israelites that we sent away. Send them back to teach them how to worship the God of the land.

[13:56] But in verse, I'm going to jump a little bit, but in verse 33, they sent them back. They taught them how to fear the Lord. And verse 33 says, They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods, according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away.

[14:16] And to this day, they continue practicing the former rituals. They do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes. Or their ordinances, or the law and commandment, which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom God, whom he named Israel.

[14:36] With whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outright stretched arm, Him you shall serve.

[14:54] Him you shall worship, and Him you shall offer sacrifices. And I'm going to jump down to verse 40. It says, However, they did not obey, but they followed their own rituals.

[15:07] And so these nations feared the Lord, yet they served their carved images. Also their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers did even to this day.

[15:18] These Samaritans that have come in, they know, they were taught, granted, they were taught by the wicked Israel nation, Israeli nation, the northern kingdom.

[15:31] They were taught how to serve the Lord, but they never really did it. They only feared Him because they didn't want to die. And even in the book of Ezra, chapter 4, the Samaritans, they come and they want to help rebuild this wall, or excuse me, rebuild the temple.

[15:46] But Zerubbabel, he refuses to let them be a part of it. He said, We'll build this ourselves. It's interesting, too, to see how Jesus, he mentions in the parable of the good Samaritan.

[15:59] He uses a Samaritan to illustrate his point of what does it mean to love your neighbor. And then he has another encounter with a Samaritan when the ten lepers come, and only one of them comes back to say thank you, and it's a Samaritan.

[16:18] There's this interesting connection with Samaritans throughout the New Testament as Jesus is interacting with them. Verse 10, back in John chapter 4.

[16:35] Jesus now answering the woman, he says, 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. I think this is a great phrase that Jesus is using to capture her attention.

[16:52] You see, the gift of God that made me think immediately of John 3.16 and 17, where we read in just a few passages before where Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten Son.

[17:08] Whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

[17:22] I think this woman is coming out to the well, and we know because we can read ahead. But Jesus knew because he knew all things.

[17:32] This woman is hopefully getting her attention caught by Jesus Christ, right? Remember, he's sowing seeds into her life. And what we see in these few verses is that this woman, she knew judgment was coming for her bad choices in her life.

[17:54] But Jesus offered her living water. And that's a very interesting thing because I think a lot of people in the world today, they recognize that judgment is coming, but they don't want that.

[18:08] They want mercy and grace. Isaiah 44.3 says, God says, For I will pour water on him who is thirsty and the floods on the dry ground.

[18:20] And I will pour my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring. You know, the secret of this living water, it's really the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

[18:34] John 7, Jesus will say later, he says, On the last day of the feast, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

[18:49] He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of water. Excuse me, rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive.

[19:05] For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. It's a beautiful picture here. He's capturing her attention and getting her ready and curious about this living water.

[19:17] In verse 11, she says, Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get this living water? You know, and the woman, she's still, she's thinking about a physical water that she can have in her hand.

[19:31] And the physical challenges even, the challenges and limitations that it's going to take for Jesus to get this physical water that she's thinking about. This living water.

[19:42] And it shows a great picture of those that don't believe, you know, they're not yet thinking spiritually. Jesus is talking spiritually. The second Corinthians 2, 14 says, But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

[20:07] The relationship that we have with the spirit, there's really three. The first one, I'll put it up here, sorry. The first one is that the Holy Spirit is with you and he's pointing you to Jesus.

[20:20] That's that first relationship that we have. He's with everybody in the world. And what he's doing is pointing to you, to your need for Christ. And then when you believe in Christ, he's in you.

[20:31] The Holy Spirit comes and lives in you as a believer in Jesus Christ. And then there's that third relationship where the Holy Spirit will come upon you to empower you or enable you to do the work that God has called you to do.

[20:46] And so all of us as believers have the Holy Spirit in us. And there's times where the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you just see God do some amazing things through some people. And you just wonder, how is that happening?

[20:58] What's the power of the Holy Spirit? It's not us ourselves that are doing it. And so this woman here, she asks about this living water because in her mind, she's still thinking about physical water.

[21:11] And so then she's going to go in in verse 12 and she says, Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock?

[21:23] The part that stuck out to me there is the greater than because Jesus is. Hebrews 3.3 says, For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house.

[21:42] Matthew 12.42, Jesus tells the Pharisees that the queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

[21:56] And indeed, a greater than Solomon is here, referring to himself. John 8.53, they're asking Jesus, Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead?

[22:11] The prophets are dead. And who do you make yourself out to be? In verse 58, Jesus says, He is greater than Jacob.

[22:26] He's greater than this well. He's greater than the sons. This well, to be honest, doesn't look very nice. It looks like something... Yes.

[22:38] It's just a well in the ground. It's a hole in the ground. And Jesus, He's greater than... But remember, He's not a wow factor.

[22:49] He's described in the book of Isaiah 53. There, He's described... He says that, For He shall grow up before Him, God, as a tender plant.

[23:02] And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. Jesus isn't this outstanding, awesome-looking guy.

[23:15] Everybody's going to say, I want to follow that guy. He's not top 10 on Facebook because everybody knows Him, or Instagram, or TikTok, or all these things.

[23:26] In this day and age, He's not really good-looking. But people are following Him. He is greater. And the whole Bible points to this one man.

[23:39] And so she's asking this question. She's putting her hopes... Her hopes are in the association with this well. Her hopes are in the association that because she's drinking from this well that the great Jacob drank from, and his sons, and his livestock, that she's going to be okay.

[23:59] Because it's a ritualistic thing. She's not even a true daughter of Jacob. But she's hoping in that. And sometimes I think we can fall into that same lie, that if we're associated with a historic religious icon, that's going to make us righteous.

[24:15] And that's not true. You know, the Jews fell into this trap. And they thought that they were righteous because they were Abraham's children. We see that in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

[24:29] But you see, God has no grandchildren. He only has children. And each and every one of us have to make a decision for Christ on our own. And Jesus addresses this right away with this woman in verse 13.

[24:43] He says, Jesus says this. He says, whoever drinks this water right there, they're going to thirst again. But whoever drinks the water that I shall give will never thirst.

[24:55] You know, this water. Jeremiah, in the second chapter, he gives this great, well, it's God speaking.

[25:06] He says, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

[25:21] You know, when we are spiritually thirsty, we go looking for ways to quench that thirst. And that's what this woman is doing. She's looking for a way to quench the spiritual thirst that she's got.

[25:35] But the only way we can do that is to quench our thirst through Jesus Christ. He says here, verse 14, There's a difference between a well like this and a fountain.

[26:05] It's real simple. A well, it's deep, and it requires human effort to get the water out. But a fountain, the water comes up to you.

[26:17] And it's beautiful imagery that when we come to Christ, it's not about our labors. It's not about our works. He gives us a fountain of water and says, here it is. You don't have to do anything. Here's this water.

[26:28] In Revelation 21, 6, Jesus, he says, Oh, excuse me, this is an angel. No, it's Jesus. I'm sorry. It is done.

[26:39] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

[26:53] Psalm 36, 9, it says, For with you, the Lord, is the fountain of life. And in just a few chapters, John 6, 35, Jesus is going to say, I am the bread of life.

[27:08] He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. It's a beautiful picture. And this woman, she's starting to pick up on it.

[27:20] And she says, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. She doesn't want to come here to draw water anymore.

[27:33] She's still thinking about physical water. But Jesus is still talking. He's talking about spiritual things. And so in Romans 8, 5, it says, For those who live according to the flesh, they set their minds on the things of the flesh.

[27:49] But those who live according to the Spirit, they set their minds on the things of the Spirit. And so Jesus is now addressing, he's going to go into the main issue of her life. Because she knows that she's spiritually thirsty.

[28:03] She can feel that thirst coming up and welling up inside her. And Jesus, he's about to address it. But in verse 16, he says, Go call your husband and come here.

[28:16] And the woman answers and says, I have no husband. Jesus said, Jerry, you have well said. I have no husband, for you have had five. And the woman, excuse me, and the one whom you have now is not your husband.

[28:31] In that you have spoken truly. Although we walk, many of us, we might. We may walk around in this life and believe in our mind that no one knows the secrets of our hearts.

[28:45] But they're not hidden from God. And this woman just found that out. He sees all. He knows all. Psalm 33. The Lord looks from heaven and sees all his sons, men.

[28:56] All the sons of men. Psalm 90, verse 8. You have set our iniquities before you. Our secret sins are in light of your countenance. Hebrews 4.13.

[29:08] And there is no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Jesus, he knew all these things.

[29:21] He knows what's in our hearts. And this woman, she was actually guilty of adultery. Five husbands. And another one that's not hers. And we've all sinned. It may not be adultery.

[29:32] It may be something else. But we have all sinned. Romans 3.23. All sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But Jesus deals with the sin in our lives and brings light to the secret things of our hearts.

[29:45] And he doesn't just show up and say, hey, you're a sinner. Here's your sin. Look at it. And then leave us there saying, hmm, well, you're really a terrible sinner.

[29:56] Too bad for you. Right? Jesus doesn't do that. No, he offers us forgiveness and mercy because he loves us unconditionally. Just like we read in John 3.16.

[30:11] John 3.18 says this. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

[30:23] And the names of God, they're really beautiful. First one. Emmanuel means God with us. It's a beautiful name that God is actually with us. I'm going to go quickly because we are running out of time.

[30:35] Jehovah Sidkenu. The Lord, our righteousness. I can't pronounce this one, so bear with me. Jehovah. The kid. But the Lord who sanctifies you.

[30:46] Jehovah. Right? And then you're probably all familiar with this one. Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. And all of these are related to he's our Savior. He's our God.

[30:58] And this is something that the woman, she's hearing now because he knows all things and he's talking to her. And the next thing she says is in verse 19, sir, I perceived that you were a prophet.

[31:11] A prophet was known for knowing things. We see that with Elisha in the gifts, the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14. We see there that the gift of prophecy, when it's used correctly, people come in from the outside and their sins are convicted of them because they're made known.

[31:31] There's this idea that prophets can make the secret things made known. And the Samaritan woman, she sees Jesus as a prophet, so now she wants to ask him a question about worship.

[31:42] And so she's looking at it and says, hey, you know, she goes into this question. And our fathers, they worshiped on this mountain, which is Mount Gerizim.

[31:56] And you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place to worship. And just kind of skipping through that real quick, there's verses that point to why she would think that. But 2 Chronicles is where God tells Solomon he's going to choose that place after he's built the temple in Jerusalem.

[32:13] And he says, this place, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. And so the place of worship that had been ordained and set up by God was Jerusalem.

[32:26] But Jesus is responding in a way here to her that's going to bring a future hope. In verse 21, he says, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.

[32:43] You worship what you do not know, and we know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

[32:55] And the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. You know, three points there.

[33:09] Soon, this point of where to worship is not going to matter. That's one thing he's saying. The other one is that salvation does come from the Jews, and we see that in Romans 9, verses 4 and 5.

[33:21] You can look that one up later. And then finally, God is spirit, and he's seeking spiritual worshipers, not just ritualistic or practices or vain repetition.

[33:33] He wants us to love him from the heart. Now, on this side of the cross, right here and now, it's not about where we worship, but it's more about how.

[33:43] It's about being honest with God about who you are, and in his sight, and your need for a savior. We are a sinner saved by grace, and that's how we can worship the Lord is just from a thankful heart, from thankfulness.

[34:02] I believe that this woman, she had a genuine desire to know and worship the living God, but she didn't really know how to do it. And so she was looking for the Messiah, and she's so overwhelmed with what she's hearing from Jesus, and yet she's longing for Messiah to come and make everything clear to her.

[34:22] And she has this hope, and that's where we see that in verse 25, she says, I know that Messiah is coming, who's called Christ, and when he comes, he will tell us all things.

[34:34] And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Messiah is coming. That's Daniel 9. I believe she was familiar enough to know he was coming sometime soon.

[34:48] And he's going to tell us all things. Deuteronomy 8 is where Moses talks about a prophet that will come, and he will reveal all things. He will be the word of God to you. And so she's hearing these things, and then Jesus says that he's the Messiah, and when she hears this, she just becomes speechless.

[35:05] He can't talk. And she went from seeing Jesus as a Jew, just another Jew, then he was a prophet, and now he's the Messiah.

[35:17] And from there, the disciples, they start coming in here in verse 27. At this point, his disciples came, and they marveled that he talked with a woman. Yet no one said, what do you seek?

[35:28] Or why are you talking to her? Sometimes if you just hear that, you think that they're going to say that to the woman, but they're saying it, they're thinking it to Jesus, right? But nobody said anything. And the woman left her water pot.

[35:44] And I like this part because the very reason that she came to the well, and her efforts to satisfy her thirst in this life, it's a beautiful picture. She's left all of that.

[35:55] And it's a beautiful picture because she left her hopes and dreams, her reason for coming to get water, she left it in the hopes that the living water that Jesus spoke about would truly satisfy her spiritual thirst.

[36:07] And she went back into the city. She left her water pot, went to the city, and said to the men, come and see a man who told me all things I ever did. Could this be the Christ?

[36:20] Wow. And then they went out of the city and came to Jesus, came to him. Now, she believed that the Messiah would know all things.

[36:32] We saw that in verse 15, 25. And then Jesus told her about herself and claimed to be Messiah, and it caused her to believe. Could this be Messiah? It's not really a question. It's more like, could this be the Messiah?

[36:43] You guys should come listen. Give me some moral support. She simply went back to the city, shared her encounter with Christ, and people came to believe. And it's a lot like the disciple Andrew in John 1.

[36:57] We see him. He went and found his brother, so we found the Christ. And they brought him to Jesus. It's beautiful, beautiful pictures here of really instant evangelism.

[37:11] But in the meantime, this is while she's going back to the city. The disciples are there. And his disciples urge him, verse 31, to eat something and say, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know.

[37:26] Wow. And therefore, his disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? And Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

[37:43] You know, as Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman, he was sowing seeds of the gospel into her life. And really opening her heart to hear the good news of the gospel. And after Jesus tells her that he's the Messiah, she runs into the city.

[37:57] The disciples come back, and they're encouraging him to eat. He says, I've got food to eat which you don't know. But he's clarifying that in verse 34. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

[38:10] He's talking about the joy and the satisfaction that comes from doing the will of God. It makes me ask the question, you know, what brings me satisfaction that's greater than food?

[38:24] What brings joy to my heart that skipping a meal seems like nothing? Well, for Jesus, it was doing the will of the Lord. It was finishing the work that he was sent to do.

[38:35] And the time that he had invested in speaking to the Samaritan woman was more joyful to him than eating a meal. And I find that amazing because Jesus loved to eat.

[38:46] Most of the time we see him, he's fellowshipping with somebody over a meal. He's always eating. And sometimes we joke around with Calvary Chapel, and sometimes we'll call it Calvary Chapel, because I think we like to eat.

[38:59] And we like to get together and have fellowship over a good meal, just like Jesus did. But his joy didn't come from the food that he was having at these fellowships. His joy came through the work that was being accomplished.

[39:13] In John chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus said that he came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. And this is the work of the Father. Jesus had spent time sowing seeds of the gospel into this woman's life, and it brought him joy.

[39:28] We often can get distracted in our lives. And the things pull our attention away, like little devices in our hands or TVs or entertainment of other sorts. We can get distracted.

[39:40] And when we're distracted, we can miss what God has for us and all the things that he wants to do in and through our lives. You know, his work for us is perfect.

[39:51] His will for our lives is perfect. And the work that he wants us to do, because his will for our lives is perfect, the work that he has for us to do is completely satisfying.

[40:05] And what is that work? Well, Matthew 28 says that we're to make disciples. We're to share the gospel and help others to grow in the Lord. 2 Peter 3.9 says that God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

[40:23] In John 6.29, it says that the work of God, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. We're commanded to follow the example of Christ and not the world.

[40:35] And here we see Jesus sharing the gospel with a Samaritan woman, somebody that the Jews didn't associate with. We must be sharing the gospel. We must be about the business of proclaiming the gospel.

[40:49] And in verse 35, Jesus gets down nitty-gritty. He says, Do you not say there's still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look and see.

[41:01] Look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. In this phrase, it was often used to kind of say, oh, we've got time. There's no need to rush. But Jesus was telling the disciples to lift up their eyes and look.

[41:14] Look at the fields. We're going to go to this one real quick. Just imagine that you're out there at that well and you're seeing the city. Just look up. Look what's coming. Right? Jesus was saying they needed to be working now for the harvest that was about to come.

[41:27] Because indeed, even today for us, the harvest is ready. And it is today. And as we see world events around us, we know that the coming of Christ is very, very close.

[41:38] And we need to lift up our own eyes. We need to get our focus off of ourselves and onto the work that the Lord has called us to do. We need to look and see that today is the day of salvation.

[41:52] The people wanted to hear the good news. These people are Shechem. And the people all over the world are waiting to hear the good news. People in McAdamville, people in Gaston County, all greater Charlotte.

[42:03] They're waiting to hear good news. The disciples, what they couldn't see with their physical eyes was that the woman was coming back with the whole town with her. A harvest was coming.

[42:13] Jesus had been at work sowing seeds of the gospel into her. And she's bringing people to hear more about this wonderful Messiah and what he has to say about this living water.

[42:25] And now he's calling his disciples to enter into that work and be there with him. Verse 36, he said, And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

[42:42] For in this the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for that which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labors.

[42:54] Here, some people might look at this kind of as a negative thing where they did all the work, but they didn't get the fruit. In Christ, it's not.

[43:05] It's a positive. It's a positive because when we're in Christ, we put others first. And we rejoice when somebody comes to repentance, regardless of how it happens. You know, we may have been working and sharing the gospel for years and then somebody shows up from somewhere else.

[43:21] They share the gospel one time and the person goes, oh, okay, I want to accept Christ. Praise God, right? It doesn't matter how the repentance comes, but that it comes. And here in John, Jesus, he's sowing seeds into this woman's life.

[43:35] And the disciples, they're going to take part in this harvest that is about to happen right before their eyes. God is calling you and I to be laborers in the fields around us.

[43:45] And he's calling us to pray for more laborers. We see that in Matthew 9. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

[43:59] Verse 39. It says, many of the Samaritans of that city became believers in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me that he told me all that I ever did.

[44:14] You know, many believed this woman because of her simple encounter with Jesus. There's no sign of miracles that were done here. And this woman, she just simply shared her testimony, invited people to come and meet Jesus.

[44:26] And they did. In verse 40, it says, so when the Samaritans had come to him, they urged him to stay with them. And he stayed with them two days. And many more believed because of his word.

[44:38] And they said to the woman, now we believe not because of what you said. For we ourselves have heard him. And we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.

[44:50] Even though the Jews and the Samaritans didn't associate Jesus, he stays here with them for two days. And it's a great picture of discipleship. You know, they find out he's Messiah.

[45:05] They believe that he's Messiah. And they really don't want him to go. So they urge him to stay. We see that kind of displayed throughout scripture where even in Genesis, Jacob, he wrestles with God.

[45:17] And then he holds on to him and he won't let go until he blesses him. Song of Solomon. It says, scarcely I had passed by them. And when I found the one I loved, I held on to him and would not let him go.

[45:33] Proverbs 4, 13. Take hold of instruction. Do not let it go. Keep her for she is your life. God is good. We need to hold on to him.

[45:44] And that's what these Samaritans were doing. And I love the part where it says in verse 41, many more believe. And they believe not just because of her word, but because of the word of God.

[45:56] And that's one thing we love here at Calvary Chapel is teaching through the word of God. John 6, it says, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak, this is Jesus.

[46:08] To you are spirit and they are life. Matthew 7, 28 and 29. And so it was when Jesus had entered, ended saying these things that the people were astonished at his teaching.

[46:20] For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. The word of God, it pierces the heart of man. It's a very powerful thing. And these Samaritans are saying, we believe not just because of your testimony, but because of his word himself.

[46:36] And so we want to encourage new believers even to get into the word. And we need to be in the word ourselves. And that last verse, verse 42, they hear this testimony.

[46:48] And they say that Jesus, he is the savior of the world. And in closing, just Jesus is for all people. Samaritans, Gentiles like us and Jews.

[47:00] And he is for the whole world. He's not isolated for one nation over another or one race over another. He is for everyone. Jesus is for all people.

[47:13] John 1, 29 says, the next day, John, this is John the Baptist. He saw Jesus coming toward him. And he says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[47:27] What an amazing testimony. And this woman, that's what she realized when she went to the well. Father God, we thank you so much for your word. It's so encouraging. There's so much more in here that we didn't cover.

[47:39] But Father, that's why we get to read it every day. We just let you be our teacher. Help us, Lord, to be sharing our testimony.

[47:51] Maybe you want to do something similar with us where we tell people what you have done in our lives and it transforms an entire city. Lord, that would be amazing work of the spirit. To help us to stand boldly for you, boldly for our faith.

[48:05] I pray you just empower us this week to stand strong for you and be a light for you in our workplaces and in the fields where you have sent us, Lord. We ask this in Jesus' name.

[48:16]  Amen. Well, thank you so much. God bless you guys. Have a great week. Amen.