Sermon notes from Sunday 1 June 2014
John 4 verses 1 – 19
We meet this lonely figure coming
out to a well. She meets with the
Lord. We could really call it a
memorable occasion for this woman. She
never would forget this day. Remember
how she left her house at midday and made her way to the well. How she gazed on Jesus’ face. Remember how she laid her sins at his feet
never to be remembered again. She seized
that opportunity as it passed by.
Opportunities come and go. There
is a tremendous opportunity tonight. God
has promised to be here and be one of our number. The Lord is here tonight and he beckons you
as a sinner to come to him. It is good
to seize the opportunity. Remember the
women folk on the night of the sinking of the Titanic. The women were ushered into the lifeboats,
they seized the opportunity to get to safety.
Salvation is passing by. An
opportunity for you to seize. You need
to call on the Lord to be saved.
Zacchaeus had a passing opportunity.
He made the most of it, he climbed up into a sycamore tree and there
Jesus stopped. Remember the leper who
lived on the mountainside. He recognised
Jesus as he passed by. “If thou wilt
thou can make me clean.” The Lord
touched him and told him to go and show himself to the priest. These opportunities were passing.
This woman was a foreigner to Christ. She was born of mixed race. When the Northern Kingdom was divided they
turned their back on God, they broke God’s commandments. The Assyrian army came and carried them away
captive. Other people were planted in
the cities they were carried away from.
They were looked down on by the Israelites as impure. People had no dealings with each other. The Jewish people thought of them as
unclean. No respectable Jew would have
bothered with this woman, given her the time of day yet the Lord had time for
her. She would have been ignored but
Jesus on his way had to go through Samaria.
Why? To save this woman. Was it any wonder he was given the definition
of friend of sinners? What is a
friend? The definition of a friend is
one who comes when the whole world has left.
He is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He approached a foreigner. He made contact with her. He spoke to her. When everyone would have forsaken her the
Lord came to save this particular woman.
The apostle Paul said in Ephesians “know ye therefore are no more
strangers and foreigners.” Paul uses the
word – he was a guest of the family but not a member of the family. You could be that as a foreigner. You can be joining in the worship of God,
singing great songs, have great respect for the word of God, faithful to the
denomination you support yet still be outside the family of God. Would you take this opportunity to seize with
both hands the Lord Jesus Christ?
This woman was fearful – verse
6. At the sixth hour means midday in our
day. The sun was at its height. Most people would not have ventured out at
this time. Here was this woman fearful. Can imagine her peering out before she set
out to walk to make sure no-one else was about.
Jesus deals with people in the most unusual of circumstances. Imagine the Lord still found time to speak to
this woman, explain to her the way of salvation, how she might be saved. The Lord has drawn you in that he might meet
with you. It is the most unusual place
but God’s place and God’s timing. God
walked with a man in Philippi, the darkest hour of the night, midnight in a
prison cell. That man set out for work
never thinking for one moment that he would meet with the Lord. God dealt with a man out in the wilderness on
his way home. He was reading the word of
God and couldn’t get it out of his mind.
God brought his servant beside him, showed him, pointed him to Christ. That man was Philip, God’s own servant. Used at the right time by God. God saves people in the most unusual ways and
in the most unusual places. Maybe this
woman was scared of what people would say.
Nicodemus came by night because he didn’t want anyone else to see
him. That fear sometimes keeps up from
God.
This woman was also focused. Now she begins to focus on the Lord. She came with her water pot. She sees Jesus standing at the well. I’m sure it was an unusual thing for her to
see him. Maybe this woman was ashamed at
the sin in her life. She came out at
midday. Imagine her lifting up her head
and seeing Jesus at the well. As she
approaches the well Jesus begins to speak to her. She is astonished at him speaking with
her. He was making a conversation with
her. Her heart was gripped and she began
to focus on the Lord. She wanted someone
to talk to her. Remember Bartimaeus in
his blindness who sat at the way side.
He was begging. There was a noise
all around him and when he asked what it was about someone told him “Jesus of
Nazareth was passing by.” Once he heard
that name something within him told him to cry out more. “There is no other name given among men
whereby we can be saved.” Bartimaeus
could not be silenced that day. He
became focused on the Lord. It is good
to get our eyes focused on Christ.
Sometimes others would distract us.
The disciples would have stopped Bartimaeus from calling out to
Jesus. Sometimes friends, neighbours,
families can distract us from holding on to Jesus. Remember the woman with the issue of blood
for 12 years. She had tried every doctor
and physician. None could help her. One day she heard of this wonderful name
Jesus. Jairus was bringing Jesus down
the street. As Jesus passed by she
reached out and touched the hem of his garment.
She was focused on the Lord. The
woman at the well began to focus. She
saw him as a prophet, then as the Messiah, the Son of God. In Luke 4 he came to his own place of
Nazareth, he went in to the synagogue and started to read from it. He explained what the words meant. After he had finished all eyes were on him. Are you focused on Christ?
A falsehood dispelled. This
woman had all the religion she could ask for.
She began to debate with the Lord about her religion. “Thou hast nothing to draw with.” She is still thinking of the water in the
well. He has nothing to reach in and
draw it out with. The well is deep. The Bible says “he shall grow before you as a
tender plant, as a root out of dry ground, he has no comeliness that we should
desire of him.” In verse 20 we see this
woman has a great argument about her religion.
“Our fathers worshipped here.”
Many would say “I was brought up in that church, my father and mother
before me went to this church, if it was good enough for them it is good enough
for me.” For this woman to be saved a
falsehood had to be dispelled.
The forsaking of a lifestyle.
She came out in the heat of the midday sun with her water pot. When she met with Christ she left that water
pot. She left it all behind her and
began to go out and tell people about Christ.
What an experience. This could be
your opportunity to seize. Christ wants
to take you in to his family not as a guest any longer.
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