Sermon Tone Analysis

Our theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”

It time to begin again to do the things that we stopped doing.

I’m calling this series “Believe Again”

John calls us back to a living and vital relationship to God first, and then through God to others.

Faith is something that we grow in.

You may have already believed the gospel, but it is time to believe again.

We began with “Believe in Jesus”

Jesus came to be like us, so that we could become like Him.

Last week we talked about believing in spiritual reality.

There is a spiritual realm all around us that sometimes and in some ways intersects with our own lives.

Jesus came to restore our human capacity to relate to God.

We are seated with Christ in heavenly places which means that we live in both realities.

But what did Jesus come to do?

And what difference does He make?

Jesus is the Savior.

He is the one who rescues us from our sin and separation from God.

Without Jesus, this world is destined to perish, just as it did in the flood.

Left to our own way of thinking, humanity will eventually destroy itself.

Or God would have to destroy the world again to save us from ourselves.

- but He promised never to do that.

Instead he came to us, became one of us and died to save us.

It is one thing to ask the question, “Who is Jesus?” - It is another thing to ask, “Who is Jesus to you?”

Yes, He is the Savior of the world, but is He your Savior?

Yes, Jesus is God, but is He your God - or are you still trying to be god?

The declaration of the church is that Jesus is Lord - and if Jesus is Lord, then our lives are not our own and we are following Him.

In the next two chapters of John’s Gospel, we will see Jesus interacting with people.

As these people encounter Jesus the Savior, they make the choice to receive Him, to believe him and to respond to Him.

There is a progression toward action.

Believing must lead to transformation.

It is time to believe again!

Receiving the Savior

Jesus goes out of His way to reach us.

The first thing that we see in this passage is that Jesus and His disciples are taking the road through Samaria to go to Galilee.

In the Greek there is an unexpected adverb edei - which indicates that there was some urgency about this decision.

Jews usually avoided this area either by taking the Mediterranean coastal plain or even crossing the Jordan and back again.

This added 1-3 days to what would otherwise be a four-day journey -but it was considered to be safer to go around Samaria.

Samaria was once the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

They were the first to go into exile in 733 BC having been captured by the Assyrians.

But the land was resettled with people from other conquered nations.

2 Kings 17:24–28 (ESV)

24 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel.

And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. ... 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.”

28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

There are many things we could say about this passage and this encounter, but the one thing that I want to highlight is that Jesus went out of His way to meet this woman.

Why is that so important?

- because it shows God’s heart.

Jesus went out of His way to come to earth.

Jesus goes out of His way to meet each of us.

Sometimes we think that God is “up there somewhere”

Either He doesn’t notice what we are going through or He doesn’t care.

God can’t be bothered with our problems and concerns.

Maybe a prayer wasn’t answered - or if it was - we didn’t make the connection.

Jesus is the connection between our reality and God’s reality.

He goes out of His way to make the connection to us.

Jesus promises “living water”

That’s another metaphor.

Water is necessary for life.

“Living water” is life the comes to us.

That is the first thing that we must know in coming to Christ, is that in reality, it is Christ coming to us.

He takes the initiative, and we respond.

He has already taken the initiative, so what are we waiting for...

We must get over our obstacles to receive Him.

Second observation I would like to make about this passage is that Just as Jesus did not take the most convenient route, he did not choose the most convenient person.

This woman had issues - and Jesus knew it.

But that didn’t stop Jesus from coming to her, but it almost stopped her from coming to Him.

1.

She had a moral dilemma.

Jesus asked to speak to this woman’s husband.

That was a God-thing, because it opened the way for Jesus to give a word of knowledge about her situation.

But it was also just being culturally appropriate.

If Jesus was going to interact with this woman, He should be doing it through her husband.

But that was also her dilemma, she didn’t have a legitimate husband - and her history did not make her very “marriageable”.

Jesus already knew her problem, and yet he chose to speak with her.

Obviously, that obstacle is not insurmountable to Him - next!

2.

She had unanswered questions.

Jesus is in the town of Sychar which is another name for Shechem, a very historically significant place.

It is between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim where the Israelites affirmed the covenant after entering the promised land.

Samaritans had no legitimate place of worship.

During the intertestamental period the Samaritans had built a temple on Mount Gerizim where they worshipped.

It was considered a rival to the temple in Jerusalem and is believed to have been destroyed about a hundred years earlier.

The Samaritans, of course were not really welcome at the temple in Jerusalem because they were considered foreigners because of the mixed races.

Jesus tells her that worship will no longer be limited to a place or a structure.

Worship is spirit - it is connection with the unseen reality.

And it is truth - it is knowing that reality as your own reality.

Jesus is the temple - we are the temple - and she is about to become the temple.

3.

She had given up hope.

This woman new about the promise of Messiah, but the way she speaks about it is dismissive.

“ Oh well, when Jesus comes again - He’ll sort it all out.”

That is true and is should give us hope, except that we are tired of waiting!

Jesus is here!

- His Body is His temple.

Hope is not relegated to the future - God’s Kingdom is happening here and now!

The only thing that prevents God’s Kingdom from operating is when we fail to see it and to be it.

Receiving is simply a matter of not resisting.

We fail to receive the Savior because we don’t recognize what God is doing.

We like things that are rooted in this reality - but when they start to reflect another spiritual reality - people get scared!

The Word of God itself is a powerful spiritual reality - but we like to just keep it about “head knowledge.”

Church is great if its just about relationships - you know- like a social club.

But these relationships are a conduit for supernatural power!

When we worship, pray and read scripture - we expect God to show up!

Receiving what God wants to do among us is simply a matter of expecting God to move and not resisting it.