The Salvation of a Whosoever

In this episode we explore Jesus' dialogue with a Samaritan woman who needed salvation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hello. Welcome to Scripture Simplified. This is Tim Wolf. We continue our study in the book of John, reading from John's Gospel chapter four, beginning with verse one, and reading through verse twenty six. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria which is called Sikar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, set thus 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 into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which 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 wouldst 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 cattle? 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 saith 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, and that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You 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 worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he cometh he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He. In John three sixteen, that very popular and wonderful verse, Jesus promises eternal life to whosoever believes in him. In that verse Jesus uses the word that demonstrates that the gospel message is for all humanity, not simply one nation. The benefits of the gospel will be extended to all races. It is whosoever I love that word, whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. I have entitled this message The Salvation of a Whosoever because Jesus extends eternal life to a non Jewish woman. Let's set the scene of this narrative. During Jesus' day, the land of Israel measured approximately one hundred and fifty miles in length. It was divided into three primary Roman provinces. Galilee in the north, of course, that was the primary base for Jesus' ministry. In the south lay the province of Judea, with Jerusalem there. And between Judea and Galilee lay Samaria. Now, if one was traveling from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north, the fastest route would be to go through Samaria. Taking the alternate route would take twice as long. This is the practical explanation for Jesus stopping to rest at Jacob's well. In Samaria, Jesus is in the region in which the patriarch Abraham sojourned and received the promise that through his seed or offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Paul affirms this in Galatians chapter 3, verse 16. Paul writes, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. On this day Jesus will reveal to a non-Jewish woman that he is the Messiah, the Christ. He will also reveal that he's not simply a Jewish Savior, but the Savior of the whosoevers. I think sometimes we all need to be reminded of who will be in heaven. It will be a company of the whosoevers. In Revelation we find the four and twenty elders in celestial harmony singing this song. Jesus is just outside the city of Sikar in Samaria at a fork in the road and resting at a well that had been dug by Jacob many years before. The disciples had gone into the city to buy food. It is about noontime. The text tells us that Jesus is wearied with his journey and is sitting on the well. Being noon, he's probably thirsty as well, however, he has nothing to draw water with. A Samaritan woman is approaching the well to draw water. This well is about a half mile from Sikar. Now was there water in Sikar? There certainly was, but it was a well that was probably well visited by other women. And when we see something a little later of her lifestyle, we understand why this particular woman might prefer the solitude that this well afforded. What we see here is first a spent soul, a spent soul. This woman is coming to draw water for the satisfaction of her physical thirst, but she has a parched, dehydrated soul. Jesus, who knows what is in the hearts of all, has a complete x-ray of her inner life. As Jesus will reveal to her later in their dialogue, she has been married five times and is presently living with a man without marriage. What is going on here? She has an inner discontent and a longing to find lasting satisfaction and peace. Her multiple marriages give evidence to this great search. I say she is a spent soul. Her vitality, energy, willpower, and passion for life are gone. She's burnt out, fried, withered, shattered, and overwhelmed. She's apathetic and languishing. She's running on fumes. She is at the end of herself. One can't help but think of the Lord's story of the prodigal, who wasted his wealth on righteous living and was brought to utter poverty and abandonment. How many spent souls have the feeling of abandonment and despair? King David certainly felt that sense of loneliness and despair when he writes, Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul there is no help for him in God. It seems that this woman who approaches Jesus at the well has probably burnt bridges to healthy relationships and possibly has been given up as a lost cause. It's very possible that she is at the end of her youthful beauty and carries a sense of great despair. It is particularly concerning when you possibly realize and say, I did this to myself. She might have been saying something, or any spent soul might be saying, I made this bed and I deserve to lie in it. Or why should God help me? I've often compared this state to the feeling of being adrift at sea on a raft, with no land in sight and no boat on the horizon. Worse than that, the rescuers have given up on finding you. They are moving on with their lives. I'm thankful we see that for every spent soul there is, secondly, a searching Savior. Now it's important to note that before this conversation begins, Jesus knows the sordid details of her life. He knows about her marriages and her infidelities. When Jesus is speaking to the seven churches of Asia, as recorded in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, he uses the phrase, I know, seven times. One of our great problems is that with the knowledge that we have of ourselves, we have great difficulty believing that a holy God would take any interest in us at all. When this woman talks about the religion of her countrymen, she talks objectively. She speaks as one who thinks that religion is for those who are much better than her. In spite of all that Jesus knows about her, he is wanting to provide for her forgiveness, cleansing, and a new heart. Now the woman recognizes Jesus as Jewish and is surprised that he would talk to a Samaritan woman, as John writes, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Now I found this summary of the problem. It says the deep animosity between Jews and Samaritans, which led to a strict prohibition of social and religious interaction, was rooted in centuries of ethnic, political, and religious conflicts. Jews regarded Samaritans as impure, racially mixed half-breeds who practiced a tainted version of faith rather than true followers of Yahweh. So the woman naturally responds to his request by saying, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest, drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? Now how did she know that Jesus was a Jew? It could have been by his dress or by his dialect. William Barclay writes from an ordinary religious leader, from one of the Orthodox church leaders of the day, the Samaritan woman would have fled in embarrassment. She would have avoided such a one. If by any unlikely chance he had spoken to her, she would have met him with an ashamed and even hostile silence. But it seemed the most natural thing in the world to talk to Jesus. She had at last met someone who was not a critic, but a friend, one who did not condemn, but who understood. Jesus then brings her some glorious news. If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Now the woman responds in the natural by saying, You don't have anything to draw with, and the well is deep. Are you greater than our Father Jacob who gave us this well and supplied his family and livestock with life giving water? Jesus said, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman is still thinking in the natural, and she basically is saying, Now that is the kind of water I could use. I'm tired of coming out here every day for my daily water supply. But Jesus keeps searching. He keeps up the dialogue because he has an interest in this woman's eternal soul. He says, Go, call thy husband and come hither. She said, I have no husband. Jesus said, Thou hast spoken the truth, you have no husband. You've had five, and the one you're living with is not your husband. Jesus is beginning to hit his mark with this woman. He longs to give her what only he can give. She takes the next step. She's not quite there yet, but she takes the next step in her understanding. She says, Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. Well, a prophet's good, and Jesus was a prophet, but so much more than a prophet. She must come to understand that the one she is talking to can bring to her forgiveness and reconciliation to God. Then she begins to talk about the Samaritan worship and the Jewish worship locations. You see, the Samaritans had a separate worship site than the Jews. They worshiped on Mount Gerizim. And of course, the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. But Jesus reveals something to her that was revolutionary. Jesus said, the hour is coming, and now is when God will look to make his temple in the human heart. True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is seeking such worshipers. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now Jesus makes his love and power known to her by revealing his identity as the promised Messiah. She says to him, I know that Messiah comes, which is called Christ, and when he's come he will tell us all things. And Jesus replied, I that speak unto thee am He. You know, something that Jesus revealed in Matthew chapter nine, in the healing of the paralytic. He said to the paralytic, My son, your sins be forgiven you. Before he healed him, before he told him to take up his wet bed and walk, he showed that he had the authority to forgive sins. And he had this authority to forgive sinners because he had come to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus would be the substitute for the lost sinner. No matter how deep somebody has gone into sin, no matter how spent their life has been, Jesus can redeem that life. And Jesus, as we will see in a subsequent episode, Jesus longed. It was his satisfaction. It was his food, if you will, to win souls. So many. An article in Guidepost speaks of Hemingway's story called The Capital of the World. It's a story about a father and his teenage son, Paco. And it's set in Spain. The son wants to become a matador to escape his father's control, so he runs away to the capital, Madrid. The father, desperate to reconcile with his son, follows him and puts an ad in the newspaper with the simple message, Dear Paco, meet me in front of the Madrid newspaper office tomorrow at noon. All is forgiven. I love you. The next day at noon in front of the newspaper office, there were 800 Pacos, all seeking forgiveness. So let me say to you, you may feel that you're out on that metaphorical raft I was talking about earlier, but don't concede to despair. Even though all maybe have consigned you to the file of lost causes, there is a Savior who is seeking you and longing for you to simply receive the gift of living water. And I pray that in hearing this message, you would simply receive this gift. And all you have to do is receive it. And you will have a new life. That life-giving water will flow from your innermost being. I want to close with the lyrics to a Zach Williams, I think it's Zach Williams song entitled There Was Jesus. It says, Every time I tried to make it on my own, every time I tried to stand and start to fall, and all those lonely roads that I've traveled on, there was Jesus. When the life I built came crashing to the ground, when the friends I had were nowhere to be found, I couldn't see it then, but I can see it now. There was Jesus. For this man who needs amazing kind of grace for forgiveness at a price I couldn't pay. I'm not perfect, so I thank God every day. There was Jesus. In the waiting, in the searching, in the healing, and the hurting, like a blessed, a blessing buried in the broken pieces every minute, every moment where I've been and where I'm going, even when I didn't know it or couldn't see it, there was Jesus. On the mountain, in the valleys, there was Jesus. In the shadows of the alleys, there was Jesus. In the fire, in the flood, there was Jesus. Always is and always was. And if it could just reach one person, you know, Jesus, he stopped by that well, and he rejoiced that he was able to win one soul. Now, many more got saved that day. But I think he rejoiced in seeing that woman receive a new life, forgiveness, cleansing, a new beginning. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this marvelous book that we're exploring. It seems like in on every page we find this offer of salvation. That's the purpose. He wants John wants people to believe and in believing receive everlasting life. So I pray, God, that that person who may hear my voice, hear this message. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to them and draw them. And right now, where they are, whether they're in their car listening or on their computer, on their phone, I pray, Father, in the name of Jesus, that they will say yes to the one who loves them more than anybody else in the universe. And that's you, Jesus. Thank you for being there for all of us. In Jesus' name. Amen.