I invite your attention to the
gospel according to John, chapter 4. The gospel according to John,
chapter 4. I was unable to be with you last
Lord's Day and in hospital, but I'm delighted that Brother Mitch
was prepared to preach, and Sean, thank you for the live stream.
We were able to catch it there in the hospital room, and we're
so blessed by that, and so we pray the Lord will continue to
bless that ministry. But we're glad to be back with
you here again this day. John chapter 4. I'm going to do something that
I very rarely do. I'm going to expound a whole
passage. And this is going to probably
take two or three, four weeks or so. I'm going to go from verses
1 through 43 in John's Gospel on Jesus and the Samaritan woman. When I was preparing my exposition
this past week, I was reminded that how many times I have stepped
out of the pulpit after preaching a message and I say to my beloved,
I've always wanted to preach that. And she says, well, you
always say that. Well, I suppose that's true.
You know, there is just so much in this book to preach and so
little time to preach it. But we're going to go through
this In the next position, it will not be point by point, but
it will be verse by verse, sometimes line by line. And we're going
to be looking at the subject of Jesus and the Samaritan woman,
which is in the next position of John chapter 4, verses 1 through
43. And let me read it to you. John
chapter 4, verses 1 through 43. When therefore the Lord knew
how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John, then parenthetically we read, though Jesus himself
baptized not but his disciples. He left Judea and departed again
into Galilee. And he must needs go through
Samaria. That is a remarkable verse. Jesus had to do something. It was necessary. He must needs
go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria
which is called Sachar, near to the parcel of ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus,
therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat 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. Then parenthetically we read,
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, Jesus, 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 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 said 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 thou
saidst truly. The woman said 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 ye shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye, Samaritans, ye
worship ye know not what, We, Jews, 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 a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said unto him, I know
that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come,
he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee, am he. And upon this came his disciples,
and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, what
seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? 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. Is not this the Christ? Then
they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the meanwhile,
his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto
them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said
the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him out
to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat,
my food, is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish
his work. Say not ye, there are yet four
months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift
up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already
to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth
wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein
is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you
to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor. Other men labored,
and ye are entered into their labors. 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 tarry with
them, and he 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 him ourselves,
and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the
world. Now after two days he departed
thence and came into Galilee. It's a rather lengthy passage,
but that's why it's going to take a while to get through it
line by line. And we'll start today, and we'll
start at verse number one. when therefore the Lord knew
how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John. So we have here a mention of
John the Baptist. Pharisees did not like that man. Of course, John was not much
of a man of correct etiquette. He was not
out to win friends and influence people. He was out to declare
a message. And he did it. John the Baptist
was the last of the Old Testament prophets and the first of the
New Testament preachers. And he was not liked. by the
Pharisees. Now, the Pharisees would have
been the religious leaders of the land. They would have been
mainly down in Jerusalem, meeting with the Sanhedrin, the council
of 70 elders that ruled Israel. And they heard about this man
who had just come out of the wilderness, a voice in the wilderness,
standing in the Jordan River and preaching the gospel. and baptizing those who repented
of their sins. So they went and checked on him,
a little suspicious of him. So they went to check on him,
and the more they learned of him, the less they liked him, for a number of reasons. First
of all, John did not have their authority to preach. Now that is a serious matter
when you live in a place that has an established religion,
a religion that is recognized by the state as the official
religion of the state, and that was true with the Pharisees and
Judaism. Nobody could preach without their
authority. And here comes this one. He did
not go to Jerusalem. He did not go visit them to ask
if he could have a license to preach. He just started preaching. And that did not sit well with
them. They went to him and asked, who authorized you to do this? Well, God authorized him. If God has authorized you to
preach, you need no other person's permission to preach, no other
authority to preach. But the Pharisees did not like
John because he did not have their authority. Furthermore,
he severely rebuked them and called them a generation of vipers,
just a den full of snakes. He furthermore said of them,
The axe is laid to your root. You're coming down. They did
not care for that. He severely rebuked them. Nobody
talked to a Pharisee the way that John did. Then furthermore,
he identified himself as the forerunner of the Christ. I'm the voice of one crying in
the wilderness. There is one coming after me.
the Christ, He's coming after me. And the Pharisees would say,
now John, if the Lord was going to send somebody to be a forerunner
of the Messiah, it would surely be one of us, not you. You've
not been to seminary, you've not been properly trained, you're
just a backwoods preacher, and surely you don't think you're
the one who's going to be the forerunner of the Messiah, do
you? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I've been told to
lift up my voice as a voice in the wilderness and preach. And
so they resented the fact that he said he was the forerunner
of Messiah and that Messiah was not preceded by one of them.
Then furthermore, they resented him because he baptized many
followers. He had many disciples. The Scriptures
declare that all Judea went up to hear John standing there in
the Jordan preaching the gospel and baptizing those who believed
the gospel that he preached and repented of their sins. And now
he's gathering a bunch of disciples after him and the Pharisees are
resenting this man. They were very glad when Herod
imprisoned him and beheaded him. And now they hear, lo and behold,
much to their great dismay, this Galilean is baptizing more disciples than
John. So now, they thought they had
nothing to worry about much about John, since he's going to be
put away, but now this Jesus, this Jesus, He's not one of us,
he's not even from Judea, he's a Galilean, from Cana no less,
and of Nazareth where nothing good ever came from. And now
they hear that much to their dismay, Jesus is baptizing more
disciples than John did. Although, parenthetically we
read, Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples. I want
you to notice in that verse, Jesus' humility. His humility. He did not baptize. It is probably
that he baptized no one. He did not baptize. He was not
one of those who brags and boasts about how many people he baptized. I've known some preachers of
that sort. and kept a record of everyone
they ever baptized. I once heard a missionary tell
how many tracts he had passed out over the past year, and kept
a record of how many tracts he had passed out. Well, Jesus did not keep such
records as these. He did not baptize anyone. That's
his humility. He was not the sort of person
who wanted to be the center of attraction. Furthermore, since
Jesus baptized no one, no one could say, I was baptized by Jesus. We have
seen some who have gone to the so-called Holy Land, and they
were believers when they went, but since they were in the Holy
Land, They took advantage of the opportunity to be baptized
in the same place where Jesus was baptized. Well, what difference
did that make? Can you imagine if Jesus had
baptized someone and he'd be walking around, who baptized
you, Andrew? Jesus baptized me. Jesus permitted
none of that. He was a man of great humility.
He was not a man who sought attention for himself. He would preach
the gospel and then he would say, Andrew, baptize that believer. Peter, you baptize that believing
woman. He would assign his apostles,
thankfully he had 12 of them, he would assign his apostles
the task of baptizing those who believe this gospel. Furthermore,
this speaks of his mission. Notice, his humility. Second,
it speaks of his mission. Paul the Apostle imitated Jesus
Christ when he said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel. Paul was not a baptizer. He writes
in one place, I can't recall who I, oh, I think I might have
baptized that one. But Paul was like Jesus. He preached
the gospel. He says, he didn't send me to
baptize. He sent me to preach the gospel.
And this is what Jesus Christ did. He was a preacher. He was
not a baptizer. This speaks of his mission. It
is the mission of every gospel preacher. Woe is unto me if I
preach not the gospel. Never do I read in scripture
anyone say, woe is unto me if I do not baptize someone. No,
not at all. The woe is unto those who do
not preach the gospel and this speaks of the mission of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now we come to verse number three.
He left Judea and departed again into Galilee. Jesus, at this
time, lived in the city of Capernaum. You can read that in chapter
2, verse 12. Capernaum. The last four letters
of that name, N-A-U-M, put an H in the middle and you have
the word Nahum. Capernaum was the city of Nahum. It is said to be where the prophet
Nahum had lived. It's on the Sea of Galilee, on
the north side of the sea. Jesus had been raised in Cana,
but when He began His ministry, He went down to Capernaum on
the Sea of Galilee. And it was there that He was
living at the time of the passage now before us. Now He had gone
from Capernaum to Jerusalem in Judea to observe the Passover. Every Jewish adult male from
the age of 30 years and above was required to be in Jerusalem
thrice every year for the three holy feasts. Jesus went thrice
every year from Galilee down to Jerusalem to observe a feast. And here the feast that he was
observing was the Passover according to chapter 2 verse 13. So he had gone from Capernaum
of Galilee down to Jerusalem in Judea. The Passover is finished. He's going to return back home
up into Capernaum in Galilee. And then we come to this remarkable
verse, number four. And he must needs go through
Samaria. I told you before, this is a
remarkable verse. And he must needs go through
Samaria. It was necessary for him to do
so. It was incumbent upon him to
do so. He had to go through Samaria. Samaria. What is Samaria? The land of Israel was divided
into three divisions. In the north is Galilee. In the south is Judea. In the middle is Samaria. Jesus is in the lower part Jerusalem
of Judea. Now he's going to go back up
to Capernaum. He needs to go through Samaria. Now, Samaria in Old Testament
times was the northern kingdom of Israel. Israel was usually
divided into two different divisions, Israel and Judah. Under the kingship
of David The monarchy was united, both Judah and Israel, the ten
tribes and the two tribes came together and David ruled them
and then Solomon ruled them. Well, that changed when Solomon died. The people came to Rehoboam,
Solomon's successor. And it said, O King Rehoboam,
we paid heavy taxes during the time of your father. Now your
father lived extravagantly, but it was our expense. Can you give
us a little bit of slack here with all the taxes that we're
paying and all the labor that we are bestowing? Rehoboam was
young, brash, ill-advised, and he said, you ain't seen nothing
yet. You think my father was heavy
on you? You wait until you see what I'm
about to do. Well, in the audience, there's
a man there by the name of Jeroboam, a very important man. And he
just up and said, to your tents, O Israel! Let Rehoboam and Judah alone. We are now independent. And so Jeroboam declared the
independence of Israel from Judah. And the ten tribes to the north
became known as Israel, but it was in the area of Samaria. Now
I've given you some background on this place called Samaria
because it is important to know what was there in Jesus' day.
In the year 721 BC, 721 years before Christ, the situation in Samaria, Israel,
the northern tribes, it had become so obnoxious to God He sent King
Sennacherib from Assyria down to conquer Israel, and they did. Samaria, the ten northern tribes
called Israel, fell to the Assyrians in 721 BC. When Sennacherib, king of Assyria,
not Syria, but Assyria, When he conquered the land, he took
the craftsmen and the tradesmen, and he took them up into Assyria,
left the peasants, and then he brought Gentile peasants from
Assyria down into the land, and they began to mingle. And this
is where the Samaritans came from. Half Jew, half Gentile. The Gentiles do not like them
because they're impure and the Jews do not like them because
they are impure. These are the Samaritans. These
are the people who occupied that land in the time of Jesus. It was a land of mixed Jewish
and Gentile ethnicity. Therefore, look at that phrase,
Jesus must needs go through Samaria. A Pharisee would not. No, no,
no, no, no. There is a direct caravan route
that goes from Jerusalem up to Capernaum. Direct route. But it goes to the whole length
of Samaria. And a good Pharisee says, these
feet are too holy to set foot on the dirty soil of Samaria.
A good strict Pharisee would make the trip from Jerusalem
to Jericho. It's close to 20 miles, but it's
20 miles out of the way. And you're walking. That's a
day's journey. You've got to cross the Jordan
River. Then you have to walk up on the east side of the Jordan
Then you come to the Sea of Galilee and then you have to go across
and travel west to your homeland. It's quite a few miles out of
the way. But if you're a Pharisee, you could go from Jerusalem to
Galilee and say, not a speck of Samaritan dust is on my feet. But Jesus must needs go through
Samaria. It was incumbent upon Him to
do so. Why? Why was it necessary for
Jesus to go through Samaria? Well, He said in verse 34, My
meat, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me. And what
was the will of Him who sent Me? Jesus said, I came to seek
and to save that which was lost. That's His food. That's His meat. That's what He delights to do.
That's what the Father sent Him to do, to seek and to save that
which was lost. And lo and behold, there are
some of them right in the middle of Samaria, And Jesus will not
send his apostles up there to preach to them. No, no, no. I
will go myself. This is why I came. There are
some of God's elect up there. They must hear the gospel. And
I'm the one to preach it to them. And so Jesus must needs go through
Samaria because he has a preaching engagement up there. and some
of God's elect to bring to salvation. Now verse number 5, Then cometh he to a city of Samaria,
which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Why did he go to Sychar? Because that's where the sinners
were that he came to save. He goes to Sychar. There he will
be preaching the gospel and a great harvest will be brought. Now
I should tell you something about Sychar. In Old Testament times
it was known as the city of Shechem. Shechem. It's a rather prominent
city. between two mountains. Well,
not mountains like we who here in the Rockies would speak of
mountains, they're just big hills. But Moses brought the children
of Israel to this place called Shechem. And on these two mountains,
these two big hills, the people of Israel separated themselves,
half on one of the mountains, able Half on the other, Gerizim,
and there is where the blessings and the curses for the children
of Israel were pronounced. And Moses probably stood with
his feet was there in that place called Shechem. And he would
say, blessed you will be if you do this. And on Gerizim they
would say, blessed we will be. And Moses would look in the other
direction and he would say, cursed you will be if you do this. And
the people on Mount Abel said, cursed we will be if we do this.
It was an important place, Shechem, there between the two mountains.
And this is where Jesus had gone, where Moses had pronounced the
curses and the blessings. Now Jesus shows up to preach
the gospel. This was also The place where
the kingdom of David and Solomon was divided by the revolt of
Jeroboam. But more on that later. Shechem. Shechem. Sychar. In the heartland of Samaria. Which lets us know this. Jesus will go to even the worst
place on earth to save one of God's elect. He'll even go to Sychar. He'll
even go to the very middle of the land, the half-breeds as
they were called, the people despised by both Jews and Gentiles
the lowest people that could be imagined. Here goes Jesus. You see, He's not your typical
preacher. He does not do that which is convenient for Him. What He does is always of necessity. And He must need to go through
Samaria. He must be there at a certain
place at a certain time to do a certain mission. He's gone
there. even if it is the worst kind
of place you can imagine. Well, it came one day to me. I was in the worst place you
could imagine, deep in sin, struggling in depravity, I suppose I was in just about
the same place you were. And Jesus came to the worst place
you can imagine to save me and to save you, just like he came
to save this woman of Samaria. Verse number 6, Now Jacob's will
was there Jesus, therefore, being wearied
with this journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the
sixth hour. All right. Earlier I told you
we saw the humility of Jesus. He did not baptize. We saw the
mission of Jesus. He came to preach. Now I want
you to see the humanity of Jesus. He was wearied with this journey. Wearied with this journey. It
was 30 miles from Jerusalem to Sychar. 30 miles. He probably walked about 20 miles
a day. That would be normal. He now,
assumingly, had walked for a day and a half. He had left Jerusalem. walking north, went 20 miles,
found a piece of ground in which he could take a nap or take a
rest and sleep for the night, and then walked half a day more
until he reached Sychar. I want you to note that Jesus
walked everywhere he went. Everywhere he went. Only once
in his life Do we ever read that he rode only once? And that was at the end of his
life when he rode a donkey into Jerusalem. The only time he ever rode, and
he did on that occasion because Jehovah had prophesied, your
king comes unto you Riding on a donkey. The only time he ever
rode, Jesus walked. You can learn something from
that. Jesus is not this effeminate looking
character that you see in pictures and images that are supposedly
made of him. He was, I dare say, a man's man. Rugged. He walked everywhere he went. And now, he has walked from Jerusalem
to Sychar. He has gone there for the purpose
of the salvation of a woman. Then notice next, he sat on a
well. He sat on a well. First we read
he was wearied with his journey. Note his humanity. He was wearied
with his journey and he sat thus on the well. And it was the sixth hour of
the day. High noon. Sixth hour of the day. According
to the Jewish reckoning, beginning at 6 a.m., it is now high noon. At high noon, the sun is at its
zenith. And it drained him just like
it would drain you. Remember, he has walked 30 miles
in a day and a half. He has walked about 10 miles
this morning in all probability, and the sun is up, and he's as
human as the rest of us. He's dragged, physically dragged. Verse 7, No, let me bring something else
to your attention before I go to verse 7. He was weary. He was tired. He was thirsty. He was just like you or I would
have been in the same situation. You know what this means? It
means that Jesus can not only sympathize with
us in our deprivations, hardships, trials and troubles. No, no,
no. He can not only sympathize. He
can empathize. Now, there is a difference in
sympathy and empathy. There's a woman. She's in childbirth. The pains of labor. And here
I come to see her. And I say, I can see the pain
you're going through. I know what you're going through. Oh, no, you don't. No, you don't
know what I'm going through. I can sympathize with her, but
I cannot empathize. No offense, but I do not want
to. But here is Jesus who not only
can sympathize, He can empathize. We do not have a high priest
who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but
was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Have you been sick? Lord, I'm sick. You have no idea
how sick I am. Oh, yes, I do. Oh, yes, I do. I have borne your infirmities. This is our high priest. I have
borne your infirmities. I know pain. I know what pain
feels like. You see the holes in these hands?
The holes in my feet? Do you see where this crown was
crushed into my skull? I know your pain. I've experienced
it. And any pain that you have, I
have already had. And it was greater than yours,
and I can empathize. Lord, I'm at wit's end. I've lost my friends and they want nothing to do with
me. Do you have any idea what it's like to lose your friends?
Oh yes, he says. Oh yes, I know what it is to
lose your friends. My disciples forsook me when
the Sanhedrin sent their police for me. One of my disciples betrayed
me and another one publicly denied me. Oh yeah, you lost your friends? Come talk to me about it. I can
empathize. I have been there before. Lord, I just do not know where my next
meal is going to come from. I'm not sure that I'm going to
have a place to live at the end of the day. Can you sympathize? Do you have
any sympathy for me? Oh, I can empathize with that. Birds have nests. Foxes have
holes. I had nowhere to lay my head. I've been hungry. I've been thirsty,
Jesus says. Have you ever been tempted? I mean, tempted to the place
where you did not want to succumb to the temptation. No temptation has ever taken
you except such as is common to man, but God always makes
a way of escape. And the way of escape is through
Jesus Christ. Lord, I'm so tempted to do this. I want to do this so badly. I
know it would be wrong, but I'm so tempted. Lord, have you ever
known any kind of a temptation like this? Oh, yes. I one time fasted 40 days and
40 nights. And when I was at the weakest
that I could possibly be, here came my arch-adversary. He gave to me the same three
temptations he gave to Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden. They
succumbed, but I did not. I did not. I want you to see
this, that in every situation of your life, deprivation, hardship,
sickness, poverty, temptation. It matters not what you are experiencing. He already has. He already has. And he's touched with the feeling
of your infirmity. Well, there is about to come
to Him a woman, and He's going to show great
empathy toward her as well. He'll do so to you also, if you
believe in Him. He'll be your strength. He'll
be your comfort. He'll be your stay. All you have
to do is trust in Him. And if the worst person in Samaria
could do it, you can. You can. O God, our Father, blessed
we pray your Word to the glory of your Son, to the salvation
of your people, to the edification of your Zion. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen. Let us stand.