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Sermon by Rev. Tommy Allen “The Sixth Husband” John 4:15-26 16 Jesus
said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him,
“I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no
husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not
your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The
woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers
worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is
coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the
Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for
salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when
the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father
is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship
him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The
woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ).
When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak
to you am he.”
(John
4:15-26, ESV) A few years ago I spoke at a camp with over 700
kids and, frankly, I was intimidated. The
first night I was lively and animated and tried my best to be persuasive. Afterward, the man who brought me there
said, “Tommy, it was great tonight and I think you connected, but I brought you
here because I wanted someone who would just ‘let loose’ and challenge these
kids with the person of Jesus.” For the
rest of the week that’s what I did and, by the end, many kids had come to put
their trust in Him. We began, a few weeks ago, to look again at the
gospel of John. And, although all the
gospels challenge us with the person of Jesus, John is the one who “lets
loose.” There is no ethical teaching
like the Sermon on the Mount or parables; there are just wild personal claims. All of his claims revolve around the statement: I
AM.
Perhaps his greatest claim, in this book, is
simply I AM [period]. In other words,
He claimed to be God. When Moses met
God in the burning bush, he said, “Tell me your name.” God replied, “I AM.” In John 8, Jesus is dialoging with some Jewish
leaders and they say, “Surely you are not greater than our father Abraham?”
• Jesus replied, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and
he saw it and was glad.” Their reply, “You are not yet fifty and you have
seen Abraham?”
• Jesus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I
am.” And they picked up stones to stone him—they knew
exactly what he was claiming. In Mere
Christianity by C.S. Lewis, he makes the case that if you really consider
the person of Jesus, you have only three options. He is a lunatic, a liar, or Lord. You see, he claimed to be God and to have the
authority to forgive sins and give new life to people. If he wasn’t God and made these claims then
you might look at him and say he is crazy.
On the other hand, if you think that he wasn’t God, but he was simply a
“good moral teacher,” then you are also in a bind because if he taught good
ethics, but isn’t God, he is a liar—which means that he isn’t so good after
all. The third option is
“belief”—trusting that all he says is true, which makes him Lord. Today, as we look at “the woman at the well”
again, we’ll see that she is challenged with all three questions: 1. Is
Jesus a lunatic? 2. Is
Jesus a liar? 3. Is
Jesus the Lord? I. Is Jesus a lunatic? (15-18) A. Background: 1. Jesus sits at the well of Jacob, when a Samaritan
woman approaches—he asks for a drink. Instead of
water, she gives him “lip” [she’s not “the good Samaritan”]. 2. Jesus makes the claim, “If you knew the
gift of God and who it is who says…you would have asked him…and he would’ve
given you ‘living water.’” 3. The woman responds, “Are you greater than
our father Jacob…?” Jesus makes the claim,
“Whoever drinks this water…but whoever drinks the water I give will never
thirst…a well springing up to eternal life.” B. He’s nuts! 1. Woman:
“Okay pal, give me some of this ‘living water’ so that I will not have to be
thirsty or come all the way here to draw.” 2. If he is crazy, he is “crazy as a
fox.” He says, “Go call your husband…” a) A “King Lear moment”—the “fool”
has seemed to hit upon the truth and she gives it to him…sort of. b) The woman says, “I have no
husband.” i. The
problem with trying to hide the real truth is that you can’t hide from Someone
Who can see everything.
• Festival in Basel, Switzerland called Fashnacht. Much like Mardi Gras except since Basel is Protestant,
the partying is during Lent instead of before it. Everyone wears a mask.
• Salvation Army also comes each year and places huge posters around
the city that say, “Gott sieht hinter deine Maske.” God sees behind the mask. ii. The
woman is about to realize this. C. The Truth. 1. Jesus, “You are correct…” a) He points out not only her sin,
but also probably her brokenness. i. She has had five husbands because either…
ii. Either way, she is living with a man who
is not her husband…which, to say the least, wasn’t “kosher.” 2. The problem with Jesus is that while you might
write Him off as a lunatic because of the claims He makes about Himself, you’ve
still got to deal with the claims He makes about you. a) If you believe, or at least feel
in your gut that the claims He makes about you are true—then you feel guilty
because you are, you feel broken because you are, and then His claims aren’t so
crazy after all. If you feel a need for
forgiveness, then you have the option of trusting the One who says, “I am the
bread of life that satisfies your soul hunger, the light of the world, the good
shepherd…” 3. The
other option is to avoid the truth. The
woman tries this, and she uses the oldest method in the book—religion. In other
words, instead of using religion to find the truth about herself, she uses it
to avoid the truth about herself. Notice how she changes the subject. II. Is
Jesus a Liar? (19-24) A. She gives Him the
benefit of the doubt, but instead of dealing with the truth of herself, she
changes the subject and asks Him the most probing question of the day. 1. The woman says, “Our fathers say…this is
the place where people ought to worship; you [a Jew] say Jerusalem is the
place. [Implicit: Where do you say?] B. Jesus responds. 1. You are asking the wrong question. The issue isn’t where, but how? a) Samaritans worship what you do
not know, Jews worship what we know…salvation is from the Jews. i. Remember,
the Samaritans only embraced the teachings of the first five books of the
Bible. Even there, there is the hope of
the great priest who would bring a final once- for-all sacrifice and a great
prophet who would bring people back to God. ii. The
Jews embraced the whole teaching of the Old Testament, seeing in it the history
and promise of a future redemption. b) The hour is coming [they all
looked forward] AND NOW IS…when true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth. i. In
other words, both the Samaritans and the Jews [and Presbyterians and Baptists,
etc.] are caught up in externals, when in fact, the issue is internal. ii. Spirit—our
heart, mind, and soul. iii. Truth—according
to what the real issue is. c) Anything else is simply going
through the motions, but it can’t change you or reconcile you to God. i. Most
worship in most religions is designed to gain the favor of God [by doing the
right things, being at the right place, etc.]. ii. Christians
worship, not to gain the favor of God, but because they have it. ·
We sing of His saving
deeds in history in order to remind ourselves of what He has done. ·
We praise Him, not to
curry favor, but because He has actually done something for us in the person of
His Son. You see, the woman tried to avoid dealing with
Jesus by deferring to religion.
However, if He is a prophet as she has said, which means by definition He
is not a liar, she no longer has that leg to stand on. He’s not a lunatic or a liar. That brings us to the next question… III. Is Jesus Lord? (25-26) A. She doesn’t try to change the subject again;
that didn’t work before. 1. Instead, she tries to defer to a later
point. a) Woman: “I know that Messiah is coming…he
will declare all things.” 2. In other words, she tries to end the
discussion by saying, “When Messiah comes, then He will tell us all things…and
then I’ll deal with Him.” a) She probably thinks that He will
defer as well. Or at the worst, begin
talking about Messiah. He does, but
what He says must be the most shocking words she ever heard [or anyone could
ever here]. B. Jesus:
“I who speak to you am He.” 1. He has dispatched with the “lunatic”
argument and the “liar” argument and now, standing before her claims to be
Lord. a) Two levels: i. I
am Messiah…I am He. ii. Ego
eimi—I Am. C. Our response? 1. A
few years ago, in Orlando, attending a supporting church, a sweet old lady came
up to me and said, “You look just like a man I was praying for this morning.” a) Me:
“Really, who is he, where does he live?” b) She:
He is a church planter in Seattle, WA. c) Me:
I who speak to you am he! 2. She had two options: a) Call me a lunatic and laugh or call me a
liar and slap me. b) Embrace me. She did.
She lunged at me and hugged me and kissed me and said, “I always hoped
I’d get to meet you and now I have.” 3. These are the options laid before
us as we deal with Jesus. a) We laugh at him or slap him in
the face or… b) We embrace him. I pray you’ll choose the latter. |