Grace in an Unexpected Place

 

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES SUNDAY 3 MAY 2026 – Pastor Henry Caskey

John chapter 4

Grace in an Unexpected Place

“When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples, he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. 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. Now 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. And Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. And then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew ask 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 wouldest have asked of me. asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep, from whence thou hast 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. And the woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.  The woman answered and said, I have no husband. And 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 saidest truly. And the woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

And then the woman, of course, she takes of the water that the Lord was speaking about, the well of salvation.

Verse number 28

The woman left her water pot and went her way into the city, and saith to the man, 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.

 

As I was reading through this account in the past days of the week and picking the hymns for the meeting this morning, I was thinking of grace. We need grace this morning. And I thought as I read through this portion of scripture in the past week, what a tremendous picture of grace that we really do have here. Here was this very immorral woman living in depravity and sin. And she makes her way out to where the Lord Jesus Christ is, not knowing that he was there, but the Lord knew all about it. And there she found grace and there she found mercy and her life was totally transformed, changed from that moment on. This is a great chapter because here we see the most unlikely source of revival. Have we come this morning expecting God to move in a mighty way? Have we come into the house of God this morning expecting God to really speak to us and to show us this morning? Jesus leaves Judea, we are told, because of a confrontation that was happening. The Pharisees of that particular day, they were starting to pick between John and Jesus and what not, and they were claiming the baptisms of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord didn't want that confrontation because it wasn't time for that confrontation. And so he moved on and he was making his way down to Galilee. We read this wonderful verse in verse number four. It says that “Jesus must needs go through Samaria.” He must needs go through Samaria. Now, this was a problem for the Jewish people. This was a problem. If you had asked the likes of Nicodemus, who was one of the leaders in the synagogue, "Is it okay for me to go down through Samaria?" he would have said, "Of course not. You've got to avoid it." They would have to take another route. You see, at the fall of the northern kingdom, when the Assyrian forces carried away Jewish captives, what they did was to replace them in the land. They brought some of their own people and it became a mixed race of people and that to the Jews was something unheard of and that's why we always have this this business of the Jews and the Samaritans having no dealings. But Jesus took this route because of one particular situation. Jesus took this route on this particular day because of an appointment with a woman at Jacob's well.  Do you and I believe an appointment is met this morning?  You see, I want this meeting this morning to be both a challenge and yet I want it to be a comfort this morning in this difficult day that we are living in. Because we are living in days when meetings are small. We're living in days whenever numbers are dwindling away. And that's all you hear about, isn't it? “Oh, not many in, not many coming to the meetings.” And yet we lose out on the one who is here. God speaks to you and me this morning.  I want us to think here about this particular meeting.

First of all – the visit. The visit of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to have that precious visitation, the visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jesus took time to travel a forbidden pathway if you like and to go through Samaria for one lost soul. For one lost soul. Sometimes you know we do get caught up with who's not here and we forget about who is here. Is that how we've come this morning? We've come this morning realizing that God himself has promised to be in this house before we came this morning. He says, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst." Isn't it amazing this morning just to think about that? Jesus travelled to this very spot where he would find this woman. He stopped at Jacob's well. He was tired. He was weary. He sat down at the well and he waited. He was waiting for this woman to open the door and come out. It was midday. It was the hottest part of the day. And this particular woman probably wouldn't come out at any other part of the day. Maybe she was embarrassed. Maybe she didn't want people to see her. Maybe she didn't want people casting remarks to her. And so she came out and the Lord was waiting for her. And you have left the house this morning, got into your car and come to church. And you know the Lord's here. He's just waiting for you this morning. We should never lose sight of that fact  but rather we should set our eyes upon the one who has promised to be with us here in this very meeting. Christ himself ought to visit us. He comes this morning to where you and I are. Can you imagine the joy that must have been in this woman's heart? She come out from that home and came to the well. She met with the Saviour and my she left her pot and went into Samaria. She went in to seek men and women to come and to hear him. Can you imagine the joy that she got just by meeting the Saviour? Remember another day in Israel whenever the enemy had invaded and there was poverty and there was hunger and there was enemy soldiers everywhere. The Lord came to a young man just sitting in his own home, a young man called Gideon. And God had a great plan and a great purpose for this young man Gideon because he was going to raise him up to lead the army against the enemy and to bring them out of captivity. God came right to where he was. And you know, God comes to where you and I are spiritually this morning and he shows to us what we can be. Gideon was threshing a little bit of wheat. Perhaps he went out at the night time when the enemy wouldn't see him and he gathered it in. He's going to hide it. It's going to be there for his family and his loved ones. And then the Lord comes. He says, "Gideon, I have a plan and purpose for your life." He meets with Gideon just right where he is. He meets with you this morning. Are you prepared for that this morning? Am I prepared for that this morning? For God to really redirect and change plans for my life? Am I prepared this morning to say, "Lord, here am I. Take this life of mine.  Consecrate it, Lord, to you. Use it, Lord." Do you remember how Jesus took time to draw alongside those two who were traveling along from Jerusalem to Emmaeus? Two disciples, their heads were down and they were discouraged. They're despondent. They didn't know what to do with themselves. They didn't know what the future held. And the Lord just drew alongside. He didn't even speak to them for a moment or two. He just drew alongside and he walked with them. They didn't even know he was there. It's possible to come into a meeting, to go through all the hymn singing, the prayers, the readings, the preaching of the word and to miss him. Isn't that what Jacob said when he laid his head upon the stone? You remember he was fleeing from his father's house. He stopped out in the in the wilderness. He laid down that night to sleep and he had the dream? He saw the ladder and the angels ascending and descending. He got up the next morning and he said, "Surely God was in this place and I knew it not.”

There was the voice. This meeting was marked with the Savior’s speaking voice. The woman appears out of her own home. She comes along to where the well is. She's got a little water pot in her hand, and she's coming there to draw water. The Savior who is weary from his journey is there. And the Lord speaks to her - verse number 7. "Give me to drink." He spoke to her right away. Now this woman, she knows by the Lord's attire that he is a Jew. She can see that from his very presence. And the first thing that comes to her mind is that old confrontation. She says, "But the Jews and the Samaritans, they have no time for each other. And you're a Jew and you're speaking to me." You see, she didn't expect this man to speak. But the Lord spoke. Have we come this morning expecting the Lord to speak? Have we expected the Lord to speak through his word to us this morning? So often we will respond “Lord, I couldn't do that.” In verse number 11 after Jesus offers her water, the woman said, "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep, from whence then hast thou that living water?"  She thought to herself, "Well, there's nothing here for me." She didn't expect the Lord to speak. And when he did she thought to herself ‘this man cannot give me anything.’ We can come to church like that. Not really expecting the Lord to deal with me or my problems but he is concerned. Peter said "Cast your every care upon the Lord because he cares for you." The Lord is caring for this woman. Maybe you are here this morning and there is something going on in your life. You have got a great big problem, a great big difficulty and somehow you don't know which way to turn or how to get out of that. But the Lord knows all about it and he waits for you this morning just to allow him somehow to come. We need to be so careful this morning that we are listening beyond the preacher's voice and we are going beyond the sacred page and hearing the voice of the Lord this morning. We often sing that little hymn,

“Speak Lord, speak to me.

Speak and I will be quick to answer thee.”

In Genesis chapter 3 whenever Adam and Eve sinned and rebelled against God, breaking God's laws and they hid behind the trees. Scripture says “Adam heard the voice of God walking in the garden.” Do we hear the voice of God? Remember when Moses was away on the back side of the desert. He came out that day with his little flock of sheep and seen a burning bush. It didn't take Moses by surprise because he would see that many a time in the heat of the desert. But this one was different. This little bush had burned and burned and burned and it caught Moses’ curiosity. He stepped across from where he was and he looked into it. Whilst he was looking into it, the Lord spoke to him. Maybe you want to share that this morning. Oh, not with anybody else, not with me, but whatever the situation in your life is this morning, do you want to bring it to the Lord? ‘Lord, why am I going through this? Why am I dealing with this? Why am I having to go this way?’ And as you're curious about it and as you think about it, then the Lord can speak just as he spoke to Moses. Samuel was just a little boy opening up the doors of the temple in the morning and then closing them in the evening, then going to Eli and seeing if he's all right. One night time something happened. God was going to make a change in the priestly offices there in the nation of Israel. And who was he going to use? He was going to use a little boy called Samuel. Samuel didn't even know his voice. He laid down one night and the Lord called him "Samuel". Old Eli said to Samuel, "No, that's the Lord." He told him if he spoke again he was to respond "Speak, Lord”. Will you say that this morning? "Lord, speak to me this morning."

The victory. This meeting was marked with victory over a sinful life. This woman comes out of her home. No doubt she's weary of her past life. No doubt she's mindful of her sinfulness. And she's coming out here in the heat of the day, perhaps afraid of meeting people. Maybe she didn't want the wagging tongues, whatever. And she was carrying her little water pot. She was going out to that well to draw water and take it back into that home again and into that situation. But God changed that. That little water pot that she had was the connection to a sinful life. You'll notice a little bit later on that she leaves the water pot sitting. That water pot was the connection into that sinful home. You know, no matter our past, no matter where we've come from, God is able to break the power of sin in our lives. He's able to break the power.  Maybe this morning there's something in your life and you're saying to yourself, "Well, God could never forgive me. God could never forgive me the things that I have done. Nobody would want to know me if they knew what my life was like.” But dear friends, God loves you so much. He loved you so much that he would take his only begotten son and send him into this world, to come down into this world, to move about, to walk about, to speak with people, and then to die upon the cross of Calvary. That’s what he has done for you. No matter what that sin is, he will forgive you if you are open and honest to him this morning, to trust him and to believe in him and to realize that he has died for you. He wants to come into that heart of yours this morning, to take away your sin, to forgive you of your sin and wash you in the precious blood. Will you claim that this morning? This woman come out of such a sinful past. She had five husbands and was now living with another man, not her husband at all. But the Lord dealt with her and gave her the victory over sin. God breaks that power of sin this morning. The power that holds us to the old life this morning. And Jesus took this woman through the steps of God's salvation and he introduced her to the living water. That day she went away with great victory. Remember the woman with the issue of blood. For 12 long years she had tried every doctor, every physician, but was not any better. She grew worse until one day she heard about the Lord Jesus Christ and she just reached forth through that crowd that was on the street that day. She just touched the hem of his garment. Why? Because she believed. She believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he cared for her and that she would be healed. And the moment that she touched the hem of his garment she was totally delivered. She got the victory over that disease.

The vision. The vision for the lost that this woman left with. She left her water pot. The old life was broken. It was gone. She left the water pot sitting there. The scriptures tells us that she left and she didn't go back into her home again. The Bible tells us that she went down into the city and she began to tell men and women. What was her message? “Come and see a man that has told me all things that ever I did. Is this not the Christ?” She got a vision for the lost. Would we pray for such a vision this morning? To see men and women who are lost and going out into a lost and Christless eternity. Give us a vision for those in our family circle that are lost in their sin.” It says, "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified, he told me all things that ever I did." And then it tells us in verse number 40, "And when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry." And it says in verse 41, "And many more believed because of his own word." You see the work that this woman did. She just went out and she began to tell people, "Come and see this man that I met at the well. He did something for my life that I want you to come and to prove for yourselves.” And some came because they believed her. And others came and when they listened to him, they believed for themselves.

 

This meeting was marked by a precious visitation.

It was marked by the voice of God.

It was marked by a great victory that the Lord gave that day and it was marked by a wonderful vision for the lost.

 

Our meeting this morning has been marked by a glorious visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst." What a promise.