Sermon
by Rev. Tommy Allen
November 19, 2006
John 4:27-42
27 Just then his disciples came back. They
marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?”
or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water
jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a
man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30
They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him,
saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat
that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one
another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to
them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the
harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are
white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages
and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice
together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another
reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.
Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many
Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He
told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him,
they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41
And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the
woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have
heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Background…
·
John
4:1-15…disciples left Jesus, he meets “woman at well,” offers her “living
water.”
·
John
4:15-26…she thinks he’s nuts [lunatic]; he’s a prophet [liar]; “I who speak to
you”…[Lord]
·
We
finished without seeing her response…today we will.
We’ll look at three
things: I. The Power of the Gospel (27-30).
II. The Work of the Gospel (31-38).
III. The Scope of the Gospel (39-42).
I. The Power of the Gospel (27-30).
A. It reveals
self-righteousness (v. 27).
1. The
disciples were amazed that He spoke with a woman and yet no one said…
a) To
her—What do you seek?
b) To
Him—Why do you speak to her?
2. Rabbis,
typically, didn’t speak to women—especially loose women—in public.
a) Rabbis,
typically, didn’t speak to fishermen and tax collectors either.
b) Whether
it is because she is amoral or female [i.e., sexism], the disciples are
“outed.”
i. Moralism,
sexism, racism, etc., are all a form of self-righteousness. In other words, for some reason you think
you are better either because of your gender, your race, etc.
ii. The
gospel says that it is not only our “badness” that separates us from God, but
also our [damnable] goodness.
3. While the disciples are shown up for their false “goodness,” the
woman has been freed to admit her “real” badness.
B. The power to
change anyone (v. 28).
1. The woman
left her waterpot!
a) Symbolic—she
came to the well at midday, looking for physical water and instead she found
“living water.”
b) The
“living water” has become, in her, a well springing up to eternal life—she
can’t contain it.
2. She seeks
those who have despised her and used her.
a) She told her story.
b) Challenged
them as to whether or not Jesus might be the Christ.
i. This is our only responsibility regarding
evangelism—tell our story, point to Jesus.
You decide for yourselves.
3. They
went…and were coming to Him…
a) At
the very least, He was a prophet.
i. He
told the woman “all that she had done.”
ii. The
experience had changed her to such an extent that they were curious.
b) At
best, He may be the Messiah.
i. The
only way to know for sure is to check Him out for yourself.
·
Address
unbelievers—have you honestly checked out Jesus?
·
Have
you really examined whether he might be the Christ or have you avoided
Him—because He might be the Christ?
II. The Work of the Gospel (31-38).
1. Disciples
urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
a) “I
have food,” He said.
i. Did
someone bring him food while we were gone?
B. My food…
1. Is to do
the will of Him who sent me…
a) Satisfaction
found in being obedient to the Father’s will.
i. Irony is that Jesus knew that God’s will
for Him included being crushed and scorned and crucified….in other words, He
willingly embraced suffering on behalf of those He came to save and, more than
that, was “happy” to do it.
·
Isaiah
53:
1 Who
has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the
LORD been revealed?
2
For He grew up before Him
like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched
ground;
He has no stately form or
majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be
attracted to Him.
3
He was despised and forsaken
of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief;
And like one from whom men hide
their face
He was despised, and we did not
esteem Him.
4
Surely our griefs He Himself
bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him
stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5
But He was pierced through
for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our
iniquities;
The chastening for our
well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are
healed.
6
All of us like sheep have
gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own
way;
But the LORD has caused the
iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
7
He was oppressed and He was
afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to
slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent
before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8
By oppression and judgment He
was taken away;
And as for His generation, who
considered
That He was cut off out of the
land of the living
For the transgression of my
people, to whom the stroke was due?
9
His grave was assigned with
wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in
His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His
mouth.
10
But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to
grief;
If He would render Himself as a
guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the
LORD will prosper in His hand.
11
As a result of the anguish of
His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous
One,
My Servant, will justify the
many,
As He will bear their
iniquities.
12
Therefore, I will allot Him a
portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty
with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to
death,
And was numbered with the
transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of
many,
And
interceded for the transgressors.
ii. Jesus knew all of this awaited Him and,
although the thought frightened Him, the fruit of his obedience “satisfied” Him.
b) He derived His satisfaction not only through
obedience to God’s will, but to accomplish
[finish] God’s work.
i. The “work” was nothing less than the
reconciliation of all things to God through the blood of His cross.
ii. The first Adam sinned in the garden
bringing alienation upon himself and the human race and a curse upon all
creation. Jesus came as the last Adam
and on the cross He bore the sin of the world and the curse upon creation, and
when He died complete reconciliation was accomplished.
·
His
last words on the cross weren’t: “Okay, the slate is clean, now they can gut it
out.”
·
Instead,
He cried, “It is finished!”
iii. There
is nothing that you or I could ever do that could make us acceptable or more
acceptable to God than the work of Jesus on the cross.
·
The
only “work” we have to do is receive the reconciliation He accomplished,
live in its freedom, and communicate that same message to those
who haven’t heard it.
1. Farming
metaphor [proverb]—“Do you not say, four months…?”
a) I
say, “Lift up your eyes…the fields are white…”
i. I wonder if He was looking down the hill,
pointing out the Samaritans working their way toward them.
2. Already, he who reaps is receiving wages…gathering
fruit for eternal life.
a) Is He, again, referring to the woman—in the
disciples’ eyes, no doubt, a very unlikely reaper.
3. I sent
you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you
have entered into their labor.
a) The
prophets? John the Baptist?
b) In
a very real sense, the woman…they are about to enter into her labor!
III. The Scope of the Gospel (39-42).
A. Many Samaritans
believed because of the testimony of the woman.
1. People
find it hard to “argue” with a changed life (cf. John 9).
B. They ask Jesus to
stay—He did.
1. Jesus’
priority was gathering “those yet to believe.”
a) Even
when He was training His disciples it was to the end that they would go into
all the world baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit.
C. Many more
believed, not because of the word of the woman, but because of the words of
Jesus.
1. They
concluded—He is indeed the Savior of the world!
a) Jews
looked for Jewish Messiah.
b) Samaritans
looked for the Samaritan Messiah.
2. They had
discovered the world’s Messiah.