LOC 026 Life of Christ:
Jesus
& the Other Samaritans
Last week we looked at the first part of this narrative as Jesus
and the Samaritan woman were alone at Jacob’s Well. Jesus broke with societal
conventions and expectations in order to bring the gospel to this woman.
However, when we examine the story, we find very little that is a
direct and systematic witnessing technique.
And, we don't find any of the usual items people believe should be
incorporated into a presentation of the Gospel.
That was not the way Jesus worked and neither should we. Jesus had
the advantage of knowing men’s hearts. But he addresses the true needs of the
soul that are known to him. He goes for
the point of sin--here, the “gospel” was pointing out to her the sin in which
she had been engaged and her wicked lifestyle and that he was the Messiah.
The Gospel is not good news because men receive it; it is good
news period. The Gospel is good news
whether any particular person follows Christ or not. The fact, that he came to bring men back to
God is good news in itself. Men left to
themselves would never seek or follow Christ.
Review with me the following undisputed points in John’s Gospel:
John 1:12 But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who
believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Premise 1: Any reception of the gospel is based on the will of
God. God gives the right that Christ
might be taken as one’s Lord and savior.
This is good news. The same power
that brought the world into being also gives the birth men need most--born of
the will of God from above.
Salvation is of the Lord, not from among men.
John 3:3ff Jesus answered
and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God."
& 3:5 Jesus answered,
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 "That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 "Do not marvel
that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8 "The wind blows where it
wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and
where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Premise 2: Being born from above means being born by the Spirit
who acts as he desires. And, it should not surprise us.
God has the absolute right to give birth to whom he desires both
physically and spiritually.
When we consider the doctrine of salvation, we must start with
God’s will and ways, not with man’s. Men
can only receive what the father will them to have (John 1). Men receive the new birth the ushers forth in
a life of faith.
Men of themselves cannot generate faith or belief. That too os from God. In a very clear and
explicit statement, the Apostle Paul tells us this important truth.
Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Grace brings salvation through something called faith. Faith is a
form of Pistis in the original. Pistis is the noun and adjectival form of the
verb Pisteuo which is translated believe, I believe, you believe and so on. By charis you have soza through pistis. This faith is an instrument that brings about
the salvation. The next phrase removes
any boasting or action of the individual.
It says and means, and that (whatever faith refers to) not of
yourselves.
The antecedent noun to which that in English can refer can only be
either pistis (faith), soza (salvation), or charis (grace). It doesn’t matter that scholars discuss which
is the proper subject of that. All of
them point away from something in man to something from God by the plain
meaning of the two phrases that follow these three ideas. Whatever the that refers to it is not of
anyone in the category of yourselve, but it does refer to it as the gift of
God. Some try to tie it only to the
notion of grace because in English we have the words grace and gift that are
often synonymous and the two ways to translate the word Charis from Greek. However, the second word is not charis in the
original but a form of duron, gift, present or sacrifice, like we found in John
4:10 when Jesus replied, 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."
Jesus is the gift upon which salvation is based from first to
last. This is the context of the passage
in EPH 2:8-10.
Ephesians 2:4 But
God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we
should walk in them.
—This salvation is of grace unto salvation by faith.
—A Faith that God gives as a present to those who will possess it.
—It is not of ourselves.
—It is from God.
—It is not of works.
This is the good news: that God is free to give grace unto
salvation and faith to men as he pleases. And he may be pleased to give it to
you if you have faith. God, by his Spirit gives some men life, and faith, that
they do not deserve. And, he does this by his grace. It is God’s work from first to last.
If we tell men they can do something of themselves to bring about
grace, salvation or faith. We lie to
them and lies are always bad news.
Grace, salvation and faith are a gift of God.
The reason it has to be this way is also clear in Eph 2:9, if it
were of us, we would boast. Men who
boast in what they have done to earn God’s favor, have not believed the Gospel
of the grace of God. Man is totally and
helplessly unable to earn grace, to save themselves, or to generate faith. It is a gift of God alone.
Men receive Christ by the will of God enabling them to embrace him
and all who are born from above experience is as a work of the Spirit of God
working in the way he desires. If your
hope is in anything you have done.....you are dead wrong and you don't have the
faith that God freely gives. You have
faith in your own faith, that is called credulity. That sort of faith leads to Pharisiaism
rather than to those good sanctifying works.
Men, women boys, and girls need faith in Christ to save them--a faith
God gives freely in accord with his own grand saving purposes. His way is the only way. His news is the good news.
It was the Gospel that Jesus preached to the Samaritan Woman. A gospel that included the bad news of her
sin that became the basis of her profession before her own people.
Let’s go back to John 4:
This was the woman’s first
profession:
John 4:25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is
coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all
things."
With all of the irony found in John’s Gospel, I love this
phrase. A common harlot has more
understanding than the establishment of Israel.
Jesus tells her plainly:
26 Jesus said to her,
'I who speak to you am He."
Men have to rip things out of their contexts for them to be
misunderstood. But you know what? It
happens all the time. Men can’t handle
the truth that asserts that God is God and man nothing but a created being who
owes his life and allegiance to his creator.
Jesus says plainly that he is the messiah of which the woman spoke.
In this century and the last, there was a view held by many
liberal scholars called the doctrine of the messianic secret. They believed that Jesus never explicitly
affirmed that he was the messiah. They
say Jesus’ triumphal entry was a surprise to him and to the crowds in
Jerusalem. Even Jesus didn’t know he was
the Messiah. As in all error, they miss the plain for the sophisticated. They add man’s thought because they will not
submit to what God has said. Jesus
speaks plainly here in this passage. God
speaks plainly in his words. He tells us
what we need to know. It is man and sin
that gets in the way to create damning error. Jesus came to bring light. And part of that light was the dawn of the
messianic age with him as the bright shinning star.
After his assertion of his messianic character to the woman at the
well. We read of the disciples wonder:
27 And at this point
His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one
said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with
her?"
The disciples marvelled that Jesus had broken a social taboo by
talking to a woman alone at the well.
John tells us what the appropriate response to her and Jesus would have
been. They should have asked her, What
are you after? And to Jesus Why were you talking with her?
Even Jesus Disciples did not understand who he was in the fullest
sense. They were questioning his
methods--the methods of the Son of God who knew the hearts of all men.
Should not they have dad great confidence that he would do what
was right and speak the truth regardless of the circumstances and cost to his
person, prestige or reputation? They
too, had a lot to learn. The woman
again, understood who Jesus was and what he represented better than even the
disciples. Look at what she did....
28 The woman then
left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29
"Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the
Christ?"
As Jesus glory could not be contained in the body of a man, so She
could not contain herself enthusiasm at what she saw and heard. She goes to the men, those who likely knew
her and her character and background.
What she professes to them is her sinfulness. It is what surprised her the most. She had said in vs 25, "I know that
Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will
tell us all things."
Jesus met her expectation of what the Messiah would do. From the woman’s perspective, Jesus had told
her in a few words all she had ever done.
He told her all things about herself.
She then asks the question, “Could this be the Christ?”
Her profession of inadequacy brought about action in others. Her zeal, the enthusiasm of a common harlot
talking about one who might be the Christ, had real tangible effects in those
she encountered. .....
30 Then they (The men
and the woman) went out of the city and came to Him.
Then ironically, Jesus has a conversation with the disciples that
is parallel to the one he had with the woman.
The only difference is now they talk about food instead of drink.
31 In the meantime
His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But He said to
them, 'I have food to eat of which you do not know."
How do they reply?
33 Therefore the
disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to
eat?"
They are like the woman, earthly, without understanding of
heavenly realities. Jesus went on to
engage their collective ignorance....
34 Jesus said to
them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
Jesus thrived on doing the will of his Father who sent him in
order to finish His work. It was not
until John 19:30 that Jesus could pronounce this work he had been sent to do to
be done. We looked at that in some detail last Sunday night.
That which sustained Jesus was one obsession--to do his Father’s
will and work while seeing all the Scriptures were fulfilled. This was his food; by implication, it was not
their’s.
Jesus goes on to explain himself by changing the topic. He said:
35 'Do you not say,
'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you,
lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for
harvest! 36 'And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal
life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 'For in
this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.' 38 'I sent you to reap
that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered
into their labors."
The harvest is not in the future...it is right now. Look out at the fields through which we
labor, they are ripe for the picking. He
who reaps gathers fruit for eternal life, that the one who sows the seed and
reaps the harvest might enjoy it all together.
Jesus tells the disciples that they have been sent to reap what they
have not labored for, but others have.
The principle laborer is the Lord Jesus Christ who lived to do his
Father’s work of harvesting souls unto eternal life.
Let me remind you again of the words from the pen of the Apostle
Paul:
Eph 2:4 But God, who
is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when
we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you
have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
When we were dead and could do nothing for ourselves he loved
us. When we were dead and his enemies,
he purposed to act on our behalf. He
made dead sinners alive. He brought those who were deal to life. He raised us up together with him to sit in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And, he
reminds us by grace you have been saved.
It is undeserved. It was nothing is us.
And now the connection back to what Jesus has been teaching:
EPH 2:7 that in the ages
to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus.
The future is the time when the superabounding grace and kindness
of God will be shown to those who possess faith. The present is the time for the harvest of
souls. It is time to work, not to sit
back and watch others do the work.
A harvest of souls is exactly what they were about to see. The fields were white and in they came;
39 And many of the
Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who
testified, "He told me all that I ever did."
Jesus points out the sin in one woman with whom he exposed his
reputation, broke societal conventions.
Her amazement could not be contained.
What should have embarrassed her because it was her sin that was being
broadcast, brought great liberation and a harvest of souls.
What appears at first glance appears to be bad news about sin, was
received as Good because God opened the eyes of another hell-deserving
sinner.
How many people have you talked to without going so far as putting
your reputation on the line or breaking social conventions?
For some, they are more afraid that their reputation might go from
nice moral guy to religious fanatic do to just a few well-chosen words. Others won’t even seize opportunities in a
free and open society to talk with others about the Lord Jesus Christ, The one
who ought to be the single most important person they know. The one who gave his all that they might
enjoy a privileged position with him.
The sinners of this world can relate to someone who understands
sin and sees themselves through the eyes of sinners and sees others and their
needs with the eyes of faith.
If a sinful harlot brought others to Christ in her enthusiasm, and
we don't see others coming to Christ because of our enthusiasm, what should we
think? Should we hide behind the sovereignty of God? Or should we obey Christ
Jesus at his words and go to the harvest that is ever-ready for the
picking. The problem isn’t with the ways
and will of God, it is with us.
One woman brought others who believed because of her
profession. But it did not end
there. John tells us...
40 So when the
Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed
there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His own word.
They were eager to learn at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and
he gave them some of his time and attention.
His own words brought more to belief.
The townspeople went back to the woman to profess...
42 Then they said to
the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves
have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the
world."
They underscore what Jesus said about himself. They corroborate what John the Baptist had
said. With certainty this is the
Messiah, the savior of the world. Salvation
came from the Jews to Samaria, of all unlikely places because Jesus had to do
the work of his father, Jesus would not rest until this work was all
accomplished. He would stay in the
harvest fields, reaping souls for eternal life.
43 Now after the two
days He departed from there and went to Galilee.
There was more to do. And
even after the work of Christ was finished, the Spirit was sent for a harvest
of souls yet again. A harvest that would
follow the pattern of Jesus’s early ministry....
ACT 1:8 "But you
shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be
witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of
the earth."
What a wonderful savior, what a glorious Lord. All men need to
hear of his grace. It is good news, whether they accept it from our lips or
not. Jesus went about proclaiming the
Gospel, so should we. Or, at least we
could bring them here to hear. The Lord
Jesus proclaimed the Gospel to the Woman, she brought others to hear. There is precedent for outreach in both
ways. There is no precedent for silence.
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