Latest / Finding Jesus Again / Episode 6; Give me a Drink
Transcript
- John Smithson: Hey everybody, welcome back to Finding Jesus Again. Just a quick recap of last week. I just wanted to go over a couple of things because to reiterate what Jesus is telling us and what these the Bible is telling us about Jesus. Number one, to those who believe on him and accept him will be called children of God. Believe and accept, and you'll be a child of God. Number two, through Moses we get the law, through God we get grace. Number three, through Jesus we see and understand God. Number four, God chooses ordinary people. Number five, quit making God's house a place of business. Number six, we must be born again, repentance and forgiveness. Number seven, it is the light, Jesus, that exposes the darkness in us. And number eight, ministry is for his glory. I just wanted to start off today by kind of bringing out those points and and kind of reiterating what we have learned so far about Jesus and who Jesus has called us to be and what he is telling us in his word. Today we're going begin in John chapter four, verse one. Let's begin. So then when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself was not baptizing, rather his disciples were, he left Judea and went away again to Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sikar, near the parcel of land that Jacob gave his son Joseph, and Jacob's well was was there. So Jesus turned. Tired from his journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about the sixth hour. Interestingly enough, the the trip to Galilee went through the land of Samaria, but a lot of ⁓ Jewish people would go around Samaria because there was such bad blood between the Samaritans and the Jewish people. They both kinda come from the same area. They weren't both Jewish, but they both worshiped Yahweh or Jehovah. But they had distinct differences in how they worshipped. The Samaritans also followed the Torah, but there was just differences in the way that they worshiped. I guess the best way for me to describe it would be kind of like Catholics and evangelicals. It would be like if the ev evangelicals hated the Catholics so much just because there was differences in how they worshiped and then differences in how they interpreted certain scriptures. That was kind of the rift that was between the Samaritans and the Jewish people. And it was more than just religious, it was also very political. And so they would completely stay away from the Samaritans. They Jewish people didn't think very highly of the Samaritans, and so they would even avoid their land at all costs. Also, it's important for me to reference the fact that there was two separate places of worship. The Jewish people had their temple, which was on their holy site. They believed was the place where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac. But then also the Samaritans had their holy site where they worshiped. So let's go ahead and read on now that you know the context. Verse 7. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away to buy to the city to buy food. So the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, though you are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. There's that backstory I was telling you about. They thought they were better than the Samaritans. Verse ten. Jesus replied to her, If you knew the gift of God, And who it is who is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. So Jesus is saying, If you knew who were talking to, you would have asked me for what I've got. She said to him, Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep, and when do you get this living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us a well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life. So a couple of things here. Number one is I love the fact that Jesus went out of his way to meet this woman. You know, there's different places in in the scripture where we find that people are searching for Jesus and Jesus meets them there. And then we find places like this where Jesus goes to people who aren't really even searching for him to reveal himself to him, to reveal h his love and his grace, and to tell her, Look, everything that you've been going through, everything you've been doing, it's not gonna fulfill you. And we find out in other gospels that she was on her fourth or fifth marriage and there was just a lot of things. She was kind of an outcast in her community. And ⁓ she was really searching for life and love, but could never find it. And that's so true for us. I mean, we can search in so many different places for love and so many different places for fulfillment and we get obsessed with with hobbies or or, you know, vacations or whatever because we're trying to fill a void inside of us, but the only thing that's going to fill that void inside of us is living water. And that's what Jesus has has for us. So one of the important things that that God is saying to us today, I believe, is that all the things around you that you're trying to find joy and peace in and love in. You're never going to find it in those things, you're only going to find it in Jesus. He has come to give us living water so that we may never thirst again. So let's read on. He 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 correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This which you have said is true. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that in Jerusalem, the place where one must worship. Jesus said to her, Believe me, woman, that a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews, but a time is coming and even now has arrived when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth and For such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit and truth, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When the one comes he will declare all things to us. Jesus said to her, I am he, the one speaking to you. So Jesus said to her, It doesn't matter where you worship. You think that the right place to worship is over here in Samaria. The Jewish people think the right place to worship is in Jerusalem. But I'm telling you that there's coming a time when you will worship in spirit and in truth. Spirit and in truth. So what exactly does that mean? What exactly is Jesus telling us? He's telling us that where you worship isn't important. Maybe not even how you worship, as far as, you know, the type of music or the type of liturgy or the type of church that you go to. But what's important is worshiping in spirit and worshiping in truth. And I believe what that means is it it's not to do with traditions and it's not to do with with ⁓ rituals, it's not to do with with places and whether it be on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night or a Saturday night, where you that whether you open up with three songs and take up an offering or however you worship, it that isn't the point. Jesus said there's coming a time, and I've and this is after his death and resurrection, is that time on, when true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth. And that's what God is calling us to do, to worship in spirit and truth. So no matter how you worship, no matter where you go to church at, no matter how you approach God, how you pray, you you're not you can't do it wrong if you do it in spirit and in truth. So that would be our our key takeaway today is to worship in spirit and truth. So here in these passages, we get an explanation of the kind of worship that Jesus is really looking for. It's not a particular style or or a particular place, but it's all about what is in the heart. Worship is not supposed to be focused on traditions and rituals and things like that. You know, there's a lot of popular churches out there. There's a lot of popular ways to worship, but it's all about spirit and truth. And I believe that in this day and age that we must get back to worshiping God in spirit and in truth. Away from the religious stuff, away from what's popular, away from from even the things that make us feel a certain way. Getting back to spirit and truth worship. Worshiping God because we know that He is the living water that is going to to heal everything that is in us and and and give us that peace that we need. Thanks for tuning in today to Finding Jesus again. We will see you tomorrow as we pick up the rest of John chapter four. Thank you.