Good morning. Turn with me, if
you would, to John chapter four. John chapter four. You know, in writing to the believers
in Rome, the Apostle Paul quoted a wonderful gospel proclamation
that God had given to the prophet Isaiah where he says, I was found
by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest to those
who did not ask for me. This is a glorious paradox, isn't
it? It's something which we so often
find with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but how full of
grace it is. I was found by those who did
not seek me. This is always true. And there is no finer illustration
of this than this woman of Samaria. This is a story, I would have
to say, if I was asked who it is that I would most identify
with, In the word of God, I would say
it's this woman. Because this was true of me. I wasn't seeking him and he found
me. And I wasn't asking for him,
but he made himself known to me. And that is grace. That is grace in all its fullness.
Well let's see, let's just hear this story of this woman and
see what the Lord has to teach us, has to say to us, has to
say to you today. Let's begin in verse 5. So he
came, that is Jesus, so he came to a city of Samaria which is
called Zikar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his
son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus,
therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the
well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give
me a drink. For his disciples had gone away
into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said
to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan
woman? For Jews have no dealings. with
Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her,
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. The woman said to him, sir, you
have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where then
do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father
Jacob who gave the well and drank from it himself as well as his
sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her,
whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever
drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But
the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain
of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to him,
sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here
to draw. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well
said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the
one whom you now have is not your husband, and that you truly
spoke. The woman said to him, sir, I
perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this
mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where
one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe
me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you
do not know. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now
is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth. For the Father is seeking such
to worship him. God is spirit, and those who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to
him, I know that the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us
all things. And Jesus said to her, I who
speak to you am he. Now, this woman Went out that
day to draw water without any thought of her sin or any thought
of her need of a savior. Her heart was like a parched
and barren land, having forsaken the fountain of living waters,
living alienated from the life of God. She went out with no
thought to seek God. She went out not knowing that
she would find him there, sitting beside the well. And not only that, that he would
make himself known to her, this sinner of Samaria. And this is how the gospel is
spread. This is how souls have been saved. This is how guilty sinners are
brought to the Lord Jesus Christ and it always will be the way.
In verse five we read, so he came to a city of Samaria which
is called Sychar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to
his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus
therefore being wearied from his journey sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Well here is this man, Jesus of Nazareth. Who is he? We're called to consider this
when we read of how he was wearied from his journey. He was hungry
and he was thirsty. Who is this man? Who is he? He did not begin in
the womb as we know of the Virgin Mary. His being had no beginning and
no end. He was brought forth, we could
say, from the womb of eternity and in the Bible, As we so often
think we're given glimpses of the majesty of this person as
he lays these foundations of the earth. How often that's held
up before us in the prophets and in the Psalms. And we see
this picture of him casting out these innumerable stars. Unbounded by space and time.
All things created by the word of his power. And so wondrous
was this sight. I love this passage. So wondrous
was this sight that the angelic beings couldn't contain themselves. They shouted for joy. They were
so overcome by the transcendent glory, the wisdom, the power,
the dominion of this awesome person. But how much more glorious is
this wonder? Is this wonder? Here is this
person, this same person of no reputation, clothed in human
flesh, sitting beside this well in Samaria. He'd walked for many
hours, the sun beating down upon him, the dust of the Road clean
to his feet. You know, this is something that
in the U.S. very few people experience anymore.
I have many, many times. And it's wearying. It's exhausting,
especially in the sun. And here he is. He sits thus
by the well, we're told. Tired. Disciples have gone away
to find food. He's hungry. He's thirsty. He's
touched. Can anyone deny it? He's touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. Beside the well sits all the
glory and the majesty, the power and the wisdom, the holiness
and the justice, the goodness and the truth, the infiniteness
and eternality of God bound up in this one person. sitting beside
the well. Two distinct natures in one person
forever. Why? Because he has come to give
his life a substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of his people. It
was for them that he subjected himself to the greatest sufferings
and the smallest infirmities. His was a whole life given for
the salvation of sinners. A whole life in the sinfulness of this world. We can't begin to conceive of
what that was for the Lord Jesus Christ. And here he is beside
this well. You know, turn over to 1 Peter
1 for a moment. Keep your place here. 1 Peter
1. There will never be anything
more wondrous or more glorious than the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We read here in 1 Peter that
as it began to be revealed to the Old Testament prophets and
saints in the providence of God, we read that even these mighty angels, you
know, I didn't see this until I was preparing this message. So often turn to this text to
think about the fact that how these Old Testament saints longed
with great expectation as these shadows and types were given
to them. for the things that they were
prophesying about. But look, just read here in 1
Peter chapter 1 and verse 10, is it? Of this salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the
grace of God that would come to you searching what or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating.
when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed, not
to themselves but to us, they were ministering the things which
now have been reported to you through those who have preached
the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Now
listen, things which angels desire to look into. These same angels
who saw the wonder of the creation and couldn't contain themselves
and shouted for joy, they're amazed at this gospel of God's
salvation. And as it began to be revealed,
they too had this compelling desire to understand it. The
wonder, the wonder of the gospel. Even angels, these mighty, powerful
spiritual beings, desired to have a greater understanding
of this thing which was so inconceivable. And it is inconceivable. Well, turn back to John chapter
4. Why is Jesus beside this well? He's left Judea and was traveling
to Galilee when he came to this world. But this, we know, was
not a circumstance of chance, was it? There is nothing, nothing
that occurs in this world that's by chance. I have to remind myself
of that continually. All is ordered according to the
will and purpose of God, especially the salvation of his people.
Jesus is here because he's come to seek and to save this woman.
In verse seven we read, a woman of Samaria came to draw water.
What a wonder. Jesus said to her, give me a
drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy
food. This woman came out to draw water that day. She had
no idea that this day would be the most important day of her
entire life. She had no idea that this man
sitting here, seemingly so unimpressive, would transform her life, not
only now, but for eternity. How does Jesus begin his conversation
with this woman? What profound truth did he say
to her? He said, give me a drink. What a contrast. What a contrast
this is to the powerful and profound statement he begins his conversation
with Nicodemus in the previous chapter. You remember that? What
does he say? Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But here, Jesus simply asked
for a drink of water. And with that, he'll turn the
conversation to the message that this woman needs to hear. He'll
turn the conversation to spiritual things. Now, I've said before,
there's just a world of wisdom in this simplicity. Jesus uses the normal interactions
of life to lead this woman along to the place that she needs to
be. Now there's One message of the
gospel, but there are many different ways of preaching this one message. There is one message of the gospel,
but there are innumerable aspects of this one message of the truth.
How important it is for us to know that and to understand that
we're so prone to embrace methods, templates, You see this everywhere,
especially in mission work. You know, here's the method.
Everybody follows this. And then, of course, there's
got to be success, right? But no, we see it's remarkable
when you look at the ministry of Christ and then the apostles
as well, how There is one gospel message, but how differently
they approach these things and different aspects of the truth
that they brought forth to different people depending upon who they
were speaking to and the circumstances in which they're speaking. Well,
Christ, he knows the heart of man, doesn't he? He knows the
word to give them. Well, how does this woman respond?
Not well. Does she with kindness give him
a drink? No, no. Then the woman, verse
nine of Samaria, said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew,
ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman? And I think John adds
this, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Here is this
stranger, he's traveling through Samaria in the heat of the day,
And he's clearly tired, thirsty. It's obvious from his demeanor,
the word tells us, right? And the woman, remember, in time
and day too, the woman shows him no honor, no respect. She gives him, doesn't offer
him a drink of water. And when he asks, she answers
sharply and with disdain, how is it that you, You, this Jew,
ask of me, this Samaritan, for a drink. You know, the rabbinical writings
of the Jews stated, it is prohibited to eat the bread and to drink
the wine of a Samaritan. He who eats the bread of a Samaritan
is as if he ate swine's flesh. Now for a Jew, there's nothing
worse than that. The swine's flesh was polluted.
But this is how, you know, this is how they viewed the Samaritans.
This is why the woman is responding in that way. But consider now the kindness,
the mercy, the love, and the grace of Christ in his answer. He completely ignored the sharp
response of the woman. The thoughts of Christ toward
this woman are thoughts of good and not of evil, to give her
a future and a hope. This woman won't be converted
and brought to faith by theological arguments and the merits of the
Jews versus the Samaritans. but she will be saved by the
glorious gospel of God's grace. Verse 10, Jesus answered her
and said, 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. Jesus immediately turns her attention
from his temporal need of a drink of water to her spiritual need. of living water and this living
water is not found in this well. It's not found in any well. This
living water is of God. This living water is a gift of
God. But more even than that, this
gift is a person. This person is the very one sitting
there speaking with her, the very one who's asked her for
a drink of water. It's a gift. The gospel doesn't
tell us of something that God offers us. The gospel tells us
of a gift which has been given, his own son. Here we find the
Christ speaking to this woman of Samaria, if you knew the gift
of God you would have asked him. But here is the great tragedy
of the human condition, this woman will never ask for something
that she has no knowledge of. She'll never ask for the gift
of God, she'll never ask for Christ and neither will you and
I apart from God. In Romans 3 we read, there is
none righteous. No, not one. There is none who
understand. Then what? There is none who
seek after God. But if you are one for whom Christ
died, he will seek for you and he'll ask for you. Did you know
that? Isn't that wonderful? I was found by those who did
not seek me. I was made manifest to those
who did not ask for me." But the woman of Samaria doesn't
know the gift of God. If she knew, she would have asked
and he would have given her living water. Rather, she responds with
derision. Look at verse 11. The woman said
to him, Sir. You have nothing to draw with
and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living
water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the
well and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock? It's not possible. There's differences
of opinion on this, but it's not possible that the woman could
have continued to think that Jesus was speaking about literal
things rather than spiritual. She intentionally twists the
words of Christ. Really? Really? Where are you
going to get this water? Where's your water pot? Then
the woman makes what she believes to be a very cutting point. The Jews put great livestock,
great stock in their posterity, right? They were so proud of
their ancestors. They revered their ancestors,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so what does she say? Are
you greater than our father Jacob? Asked the woman. He gave us this
well. He gave us this water. He drank
from it himself. Is this water that you give better
than the water that Jacob gives? Are you greater than our father
Jacob? You know, she thinks she has
Jesus, doesn't she? But how graciously, kindly, patiently
the Lord continues to address this woman. Again, he ignores
her answer. He ignores her question. He ignores
her antipathy toward him. Again, he speaks good words,
precious words, words of truth. It is so hard to do this in this
type of situation. I can't tell you how many times
I've failed in preaching because very often there's Real antipathy
towards you as a preacher of the gospel. This is the responses
you get. But Jesus isn't sidetracked. No, no. Jesus 13, Jesus answered
and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. Now, This is something else we also
need to continually remind ourselves about. The things of life, the
things of this life, will never provide satisfaction. They'll
never quench the thirst of the soul. Amen. Just won't. If you
seek satisfaction in your work, in your house, in your family,
in sports, in recreation, it doesn't matter what it is. It's as if you're trying to quench
your thirst by drinking from the ocean. Whoever drinks of this water
will thirst again. You know, last year I watched
documentary on what many people, climbers, believe is the greatest
solo alpinist of all time. And it was fascinating. It was
fascinating in many different ways. But to see this person
who could ascend these peaks in incredibly adverse circumstances,
on his own, dangerous circumstances, things that no one else could
do, even with teams. And it was fascinating on a different
level, too, because in interviewing him, asking him why he did this,
it was clear he couldn't care less about fame, couldn't care
less about the accomplishment, He did this, he said, because
of the spiritual experience in climbing these mountains alone. But he was never satisfied. And ultimately, it ended where? In his death. in his death. And I thought, what? People search
for satisfaction in so many different ways. It's not just one way,
so many different ways. But as Christ says, he who drinks
of this water will thirst again. Everything will be out of joint,
every part of life until you're made right with God. That's just
the way it is. Because he's created us as his
creation to worship and serve him and to know him and to honor
him and to glorify him. And what a powerful and sobering
picture, too, is revealed to us in the narrative of the rich
man at Lazarus. Here is this rich man. He's in
hell. And he has this roaring and raging
thirst. He can't think of anything else.
And what does he do? He lifts up his eyes to heaven,
cries out, Father Abraham, have mercy upon me and send Lazarus
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, just a drop
of water if he could only have that to cool my tongue for I
am tormented in this flame. The thirst of the rich man will
never be quenched, never be satisfied, not in 10,000 years, not for
an eternity. Verse 14, Jesus says, but whoever
drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but
the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain
of water. springing up into everlasting
life. Can you think of more wonderful
words than this to satisfy the soul? The satisfaction of the soul
is not in anything that you do. It's not in anything that you
do, but it's in the gift of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gives himself, and as he's telling this woman, through his
spirit, he becomes in you a fountain of water, springing up, springing
up for eternal life. And him alone, in Christ alone,
is found full, perfect, and complete satisfaction. Now, you would think, the woman,
she'll be moved. She'll be spoken to. No, no. Verse 15, the woman again twists
these precious truths and says to him, verse 15, sir, give me
this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Now, as
we already noted, Jesus had made it abundantly clear he wasn't
speaking about temporal water, this water here in this well,
but she brings it back to that and mockingly responds, give
me this water that I won't thirst and two, I won't have to come
out like I am today all the time drawing water from the well.
So give me this water. Now the heart of this woman of
Samaria is a natural heart. It's a natural heart, a hard
heart. A heart of darkness, as the word tells us. And this is
the heart of every natural man. The wonderful words of God's
grace in Christ fall upon ears that hear nothing. I'm sure many of you have can
remember back to before I was talking with Zach earlier this
week. He mentioned being under the
sound of the gospel from the time he was a young boy and how
for so long these truths, these precious, precious gospel truths
fell on his ears as nothing. And here's this woman, worse. She twists the very words of
truth and mocks the gospel in her heart and in her mouth. She will not believe. Turn over just a couple pages
to John chapter six and we have an exact parallel here. It is
so fascinating to see this and we can't go over it, but you'll
remember that Christ had performed, been preaching to this great multitude of people.
And then he performed this miracle of feeding the 5,000 with five
barley loaves and two small fish. They had heard the preaching
of who? The greatest preacher the world
will ever know. They heard him say, do not labor
for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures
to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. And
look now at verse 35. Verse 35 of chapter 6. Jesus said to them, I am the
bread of life. You see? I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never
hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I
said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe. Do not believe. See, this woman
isn't unique, is she? No, this is the normal response
to the gospel of God's grace. Natural man will not come to
Christ and believe. Why? Because Men love darkness
rather than light. That's what he told Nicodemus.
Men love darkness rather than light. That's our nature. That's
our nature. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus. Everyone practicing evil hates
the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should
be exposed. Well, if that's true and it is
true, what hope is there? Not in you. Not in me, not in
this woman. She's willful and unwilling. She will not come to Christ.
But read on, look at verse 37. All that the father gives me
will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will by no means
cast out. The woman of Samaria will come
and she'll come willingly. She'll come to the Lord Jesus
in repentance, she'll come in faith, she'll come with mourning,
and she'll come with joy and rejoicing. She'll come with the
words of Israel in Hosea 6, where we read, come, come, let us return
to the Lord, for he has torn and he will heal us. He is stricken,
but he'll bind us up. Why? Because this is the day
of his power for this woman. Turn back to John 4. The Lord
is about to tear her soul. He'll expose her sin and he'll
strike her proud heart. Look at verse 16. Jesus said
to her, Go call your husband and come here. And the woman
answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you
have said well, you have no husband, for you have had five husbands,
and the one whom you now have is not your husband, in that
you spoke truly. The woman said to him, sir, I
perceive that you are a prophet. You know, if there's one thing
that we hate, it's to have someone speak to us about our sin, isn't
it? Isn't it? Well, Christ is unhesitating
in speaking to men and women of their sin, not only here but
throughout the Gospels we find that. Jesus speaks to this woman
about her sin and in doing that he reveals her sin to her. Was
any of her background unknown to her? Of course it wasn't. She knew exactly what she was
doing, but was there any impression of what that meant, what sin
was in the eyes of God? No, none. But Christ brings it
before her in the power of the Spirit and reveals her sin to
her, and what does she do? She begins to look at herself
in a way that she never has before. In doing this, Jesus also reveals
to her that he knows all things. He knows every thought and intent
of the heart. That's a frightening thought,
isn't it? This is the first time that the
Lord clearly reveals to the woman that there's a supernatural element
at work and that he's no ordinary man. And it's clear she's shaken
by the knowledge this man has of her. He's ripped aside, as
it were, her being to the core and what does she find? Sin, the ugliness of her own
sin. And for the first time the woman
begins to think seriously in spiritual terms. She's concerned, she knows that
this man speaking to her is of God and her whole demeanor changes. She knows that only God can know
the things that this man knows and she says, Sir, I perceive
that you are a prophet. In other words, one who speaks
the words received from God. Unless a man sees his sin, unless
a man has his sin revealed to him, he'll never come to Christ.
The Word of God shows us that. But a man must not only see his
sin, he must believe that Christ died for him, that Christ has
put away his sins by the sacrifice of himself. This can only be
received by supernatural revelation. The woman, she's pricked in her
conscience. Now, bear with me. She's pricked
in her conscience. She's shaken at this shocking
sight of her sin. But that's not enough. I can't tell you how many people
I've seen crying tears of sorrow over sin who never came to know
Christ. Here are the first stirrings
of conscience, and what does this woman turn to? She turns
to outward religion. Now look there, verse 20, our
fathers worshipped in the mountain. How did she go from where she
was to this? Well, that's what she's doing.
She's uncomfortable with this talk about her state before God. So, well, what do we need to
do? Let's start talking about religion. Our fathers worshipped
on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the
place where one ought to worship. Outward religion is the great
refuge for natural man when his conscience begins to be awakened.
The woman turns away from the inward spiritual reality and
the corruption of her heart that Christ has revealed to her. She
turns aside from these glorious gospel truths that he's been
speaking to her about and turns towards outward religion. the doctrinal controversies of
religion. Have you noticed how many people
are interested in those things? Without Christ and the regenerating
work of the Holy Spirit, this is all man will ever do and ever
know. But he'll never do the one thing
that he must do, and that is stop doing and believe in Jesus. Isn't that amazing? But it's
not amazing. Well, what does Jesus do? He
does what every preacher should do. With meekness and compassion,
he keeps preaching the gospel. Verse 21, Jesus said to her,
woman, believe me, he's emphasizing this, believe me, the hour is
coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem
worship the Father. you worship what you do not know.
We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews." Now he makes
this very powerful statement, woman believe me. This is the spiritual reality,
not talk about place of worship. This is the spiritual reality,
the time is coming when the place of worship will be of no consequence. But Christ, too, doesn't allow
her to lump together the worship of the Jews with the worship
of the Samaritans as if they're equivalent. No, no. This is a pernicious lie that's
always propagated by false religion. It's all over Papua New Guinea.
They say that it doesn't matter what you believe or what you
practice so long as you're worshiping God. But Jesus soundly condemns the
religion of the Samaritans. They had not only cut themselves
off from the nation of Israel in past history by intermarriage
and with the heathen nations, but they'd also corrupted the
true worship given by God to Israel with all sorts of false
religion and worship of idols. The worship of the Samaritans
had no God-given authority. They worshiped, as Jesus says,
what they did not know. but the Jews worshipped according
to those things clearly instituted by God. They had the scriptures and the
covenants, the law and the service of God in the temple built strictly
in accordance with the divine revelation. The Israelites knew
what they worshipped, they worshipped the true and living God. More
than this, what else did Jesus say? He said, salvation is of
the Jews. The promised Messiah would spring
forth from what nation and what people? He would spring forth
from the Jews. Nevertheless, listen, even Jesus
tells her, even these outward forms of worship instituted by
God were at an end. Verse 23. But the hour is coming,
and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth. For the Father is seeking such
to worship him. God is spirit, and those who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The ceremonies, the
priesthood, the sacrifices, the Sabbaths, all of it would be
ended. True worship was never in these
outward things. These were only copies of the
spiritual, copies of the true, we're told. True worshipers,
Jesus says, true worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth. Now, what's the main reason for
that? Because God is spirit. God is spirit. God is not found
in temples made with hands, in forms of worship, in the outward
works of religion. You know, this is one of the
final points made by Stephen in that message of his just before
he was stoned. He quotes from Isaiah, the prophet,
and he says, however, the most high does not dwell in temples
made with hands. As the prophet says. Heaven is
my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for
me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? This is one of the greatest distinctions
between true and false religion. True religion is not made with
hands. It's of the heart, in the spirit. God is spirit. How must he then
be worshipped? He must be worshipped in spirit
and in truth. He must be worshipped in the
heart and he must be worshipped according to the truth that he's
revealed. Well, what is the truth that
God has revealed? How could we sum it up? Well,
John does a great, great job in 1 John chapter 5. He says,
this is the testimony. This is the testimony of God.
This is God's truth. You know, again, you hear all,
everyone has their own truth. The only truth that matters is
God's truth. And what does he witness of?
And here it is. This is the testimony that God
has given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son. He who has the son has life. And he who does not have the
son of God does not have life. To worship in spirit and truth
is to worship having the spirit of God dwelling in the heart. This fountain of water springing
up into everlasting life. To have the heart and the mind
and the understanding enlightened by the Holy Spirit. To know and
to believe this truth. To believe the truth as it is
in Jesus. And to live a life governed by
this truth in the spiritual worship of God. The Father, Jesus says,
is seeking such to worship him. We would never seek the truth,
would we, on our own? We would never ask after God,
but what consolation and what joy to know that the Father seeks
lost sinners. The father sent his son to do
just that. We know that, don't we? The son
of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And Jesus sits by the well because
he has come seeking this woman. Well, what does he say? Verse
25, the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. I think
John adds again, who is called Christ. When he comes, he will
tell us all things. Now, the woman's thoughts are
running in the right direction, aren't they? She's thinking of
who? She's thinking of the Messiah,
this promised Savior and Redeemer. She's thinking spiritual thoughts,
and she understands that this is who Jesus is speaking to her
about. Amazingly, too. Look at this. Amazingly, she knows that the
Messiah will be the full, complete revelation of God. He will tell
us all things. You can almost see the truth
beginning to dawn in her heart. He will tell us all things. Well,
didn't this man here just tell me all things I ever did? Could this be the Christ? That
was her message to the people of the town as we go further
on, if you remember, wasn't it? Isn't that an interesting message
from this woman? He told me all things which I
had ever done. Well, what had Jesus told her? What are all the things that
she'd ever done? Sin. Sin. He told her of her sin,
but she found this to be something wonderful. Something to tell
others. Why? Why? Well, I think we can
understand when we think of the woman who washed the feet of
Jesus. You know, she, he was in the
house of Simon, you remember, and Jesus was there and this
woman comes and she washes the feet of Jesus with her tears.
She wipes them with the hair, his feet with the hair of her
head. She kissed his feet and anointed them with oil. And this
is what Jesus said to that woman. Therefore, I say to you, her
sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. I think this
is the same reason this woman found it wonderful that Jesus
revealed her sin to her, because she found in him forgiveness. And this was a marvelous thing
to her that he would forgive her sins and she wanted others
to know it. He is torn but he will heal. Jesus said to her, verse 26,
I who speak to you am he. What a glorious revelation. There
is nothing more wonderful. There is nothing more wonderful
in this world than to have Christ reveal himself to your soul. How I pray that if you don't
know him, that today you'll come to know Christ. Remember what she had said to
Jesus. Are you greater than our father,
Jacob? Well, now she has her answer,
doesn't she? And it's glorious. It's glorious. He is greater than Jacob. He's
greater than Abraham. He's greater than Moses. He's
greater than the temple that she's been interested in. He
who speaks to her is the gift of God. He is the water of life. and he'll become in her a fountain
of water springing up into everlasting life. Amen.