Come & See
Download MP3My name is, Ben Sciacca, and I'm the local missions coordinator. And it's my privilege to read our scripture this morning. So if you'd like to follow along, we're gonna be looking at John four. It's also in your worship guide. And we will begin reading in verse three.
Ben Sciacca:Jesus left Judea and departed again for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Ben Sciacca:A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
Ben Sciacca:The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father, Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
Ben Sciacca:The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you are right in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands.
Ben Sciacca:And the one you are you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true. We'll skip down to verse 25. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.
Ben Sciacca:Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Just then, his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, But no one said, what do you seek? Or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.
Ben Sciacca:Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. And now but down to verse 39. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did.
Ben Sciacca:So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. This is the word of the Lord.
Dwight Castle:If you'll pray with me. Jesus, our prayer to you today is simple. We want to see you. We wanna see you for who you are high and exalted on your throne. It's the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
Dwight Castle:So we ask that you will reveal yourself to us with fresh eyes. We'll have fresh eyes today and that we will not leave unchanged. Lord, I ask now that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart will be pleasing, That it will be acceptable Lord in your sight, my rock and my redeemer. Jesus name. Amen.
Dwight Castle:Now today is the last day of our mission summit that we've been enjoying this weekend as a church. I hope you've had an opportunity to come to some of those events. And all weekend, we've been diving into this theme. It's a very simple phrase, come and see. That actually comes from this passage here in John.
Dwight Castle:That's where we came up with this theme for this year. It's a very simple idea that whenever people see Jesus, truly see him for who he is, they are changed. And then their immediate response is to go and tell someone else to say, come and see this Jesus. Now as we look at this passage today, I want us to focus on two very simple but life changing truths. The first is this, God lovingly pursues and rescues sinners.
Dwight Castle:The second is that in God's design, he uses us in his pursuit of sinners. There are many things we can look at in this passage. It's rich. But I pray that these two truths will confront us and encourage us today. So I'll repeat them.
Dwight Castle:First, that God lovingly pursues and rescues hurting and sinful people. And second, that he chooses to use us in his pursuit of sinners. So let's dive in this passage. If you'll look back again at verse three with me, it says that Jesus left Judea, and he departed again for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. Let's pause there.
Dwight Castle:I think this is an interesting detail to include and an interesting way to put it. Jesus had to pass through Samaria. And I think it's interesting because Jesus didn't actually have to pass through Samaria. At this time, there were three common routes between the area of of Judea and of Galilee, And only one of those three routes passed through Samaria. The other two bypassed it.
Dwight Castle:One, a common one went all the way over the Jordan River. People avoided Samaria. Now this is something that we actually do in life as well. If we have a good enough reason, we might add some time or some miles to our journey, maybe to avoid two eighty traffic, say. If it is a big enough burden on us, we're willing to go out of the way.
Dwight Castle:And that's what the Jews did. Now why? Well, this goes way back because of a historical strife and animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans. When the exiled Jews who had been taken from their own country returned to their homeland particularly in the area of Samaria, they were confronted with some Jews who had remained who had intermarried with foreigners. And not only had they adopted some of their cultural and social norms, but they'd adopted a lot of their religious practices, particularly worshiping their gods, abandoning the worship of Yahweh, the one true God.
Dwight Castle:And so the Jews who returned, they hated the Samaritans for this. They saw them as half breeds. If we're in Harry Potter world, we would call them mudbloods. It wouldn't be very kind though. This is why the Jews avoided Samaria at all costs, but not Jesus.
Dwight Castle:Jesus not only chooses to go this way, we're told he has to go this way. Why? It's because Jesus is compelled. He will say later that his purpose is to do his father's will. He's compelled by the father to go this way because he has a divine appointment.
Dwight Castle:He is going to Samaria to meet with this woman. This isn't an accidental interaction. This isn't Jesus just stumbling across her path or making the best of this opportunity when he sees her. I'll put it this way. Jesus has a shared calendar with God and he has a noon appointment that he will not miss.
Dwight Castle:Think about this. Jesus is in Jerusalem in Judea and he sees this woman all the way in Samaria. As we'll see later in the text, he already knows her. He knows everything about her. He knows her story.
Dwight Castle:He knows her sin. He knows her sadness, her brokenness. And Jesus saw her from afar and he had compassion on her. He was coming for her. This is because our God is a God who sees broken and hurting people and he pursues them.
Dwight Castle:He pursues those who are broken by sin and by grief, by pain and loss and loneliness. I don't know if this resonates with you but it does me. I have all of those things in my life and I need Jesus to pursue me. And even from Jerusalem, Jesus's heart is moved for this woman. He has to go to her.
Dwight Castle:He will rescue her. So Jesus and his disciples arrive in Samaria. This is likely two days into their journey about 40 miles so far have transpired. So they're tired. They're hungry.
Dwight Castle:They're thirsty. The disciples go into town to get some food and Jesus is left alone at this well and he has this very interesting interaction with this woman. Now something that should strike us as odd at the start here is that this woman comes to the well alone and in the middle of the day. Now both of these things culturally would be very abnormal because women would typically go get water together as a communal exercise in the morning in the cool of the day. It was a social time for them while they did their chores.
Dwight Castle:But this woman, she's alone and she's coming in the heat of the day in the sixth hour that's noon. Why? Well, we will later find out that this woman is an outcast. She is considered immoral. You don't go through six men in this culture without being ostracized.
Dwight Castle:It's self evident by her isolation. She doesn't want to be around them and they likely do not want to be around her either. But don't miss this. Jesus is intentionally going out of his way to find someone who is intentionally going out of her way to avoid being found. I want to say that again.
Dwight Castle:Jesus is intentionally going out of his way to find someone who is intentionally going out of her way to avoid being found. Jesus is seeking her out. And in verse seven, he initiates the conversation. Look at verse seven. As this woman from Samaria draws comes to draw water, Jesus says to her, give me a drink.
Dwight Castle:Now in doing this, Jesus is doing something shocking here. He is crossing at least three major cultural, social, religious taboos of the time. The first, we've already discussed, he's a Jew. She's a Samaritan. And as she points out, Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Dwight Castle:Second, he is a man. She is a woman. This was highly irregular. Jesus is a rabbi. At this time, a rabbi was not even typically speaking with their wife in public, much less a woman who he didn't know.
Dwight Castle:And third, the Jewish ceremonial law was at play. Jews were not to eat or drink with Samaritans or they would be considered unclean. But Jesus does not care about any of these things. He's on a mission. He's pursuing this woman.
Dwight Castle:Nothing is going to stop him from finding her. So as Jesus initiates this conversation, he asks her for water. Now the irony here is palpable. We know Jesus to be the source of all living water and yet he is asking this unclean enemy for water. This kind of reminds me of when celebrities go undercover.
Dwight Castle:I don't know if you've ever seen this. They put on a disguise. There's videos. I saw one the other day. It was an old one of Adele who goes to an Adele impersonation contest.
Dwight Castle:It's actually pretty humorous. You should look it up. My favorite though is an NBA player that ten or twelve years ago was one of the greatest ball handlers there was despite the fact that he went to Duke University, Kyrie Irving. He made these videos where he dressed up as this character called Uncle Drew, and he'd go into the hood and he'd go play basketball dressed as an old man. He had a wig.
Dwight Castle:He had makeup, and he would kinda hobble in like this, and he'd start smack talking. And he'd challenge people to one on one, competitions. And next thing you know, he's crossing them up and just slam dunking on him and everyone is completely shaken. They're like, who is this guy? Right?
Dwight Castle:Well, that's kinda what's going on here. Maybe but imagine instead of Kyrie Irving, you've got the GOAT, Michael Jordan. Right? He is out playing ball in the streets and no one knows who it is they're dealing with. I mean, that's kind of what this is like.
Dwight Castle:This woman has no idea. Right? So Jesus says to her, if you knew who was talking to you, you would ask me for water. Now, Jesus is using physical language here to describe a spiritual condition. This woman doesn't get it but he is gonna follow this analogy through.
Dwight Castle:But she's confused. She's put off and she says somewhat accusingly to him, who do you think you are? Do you think that you're greater than our forefather Jacob who dug this well? Again, follow that analogy. That's like Michael Jordan playing with these guys and they say, who do you think you are?
Dwight Castle:Are you better than our Alabama state pride Charles Barkley? As awesome as Charles Barkley is, he's no MJ. Right? That would be ridiculous. But Jesus, he he doesn't say what you'd think he'd say there.
Dwight Castle:He doubles down on this water metaphor, and he keeps talking to her about her need. Look at verses thirteen and fourteen. Jesus says to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Dwight Castle:See, what Jesus knows here is that this woman doesn't crave physical water but spiritual water. So he offers her this eternal living water that won't ever run out. We know this to be God's spirit. When God's Spirit opens up our eyes, he quenches all of our thirst. He never leaves.
Dwight Castle:Now she doesn't get this but she's beginning to be interested. She kind of bites. She says, Yeah. That sounds that sounds kind of amazing. Give me this water.
Dwight Castle:But before Jesus can give her this living eternal water, he has to reveal her true thirst. He has to show her just how thirsty she really is. So he says something strange. He says, hey go get your husband. Now we know that this woman has had five husbands and the one she's with now is not her husband.
Dwight Castle:Jesus is drawing out her pain and brokenness. Without her even telling him, he knows her story. He knows the sins that she has committed and he knows the sins that have been committed against her. Now he sees her. He completely uncovers her before him.
Dwight Castle:And this might seem like an unkind, a mean thing for Jesus to do. Right? He is taking her most vulnerable part of herself and exposing it. But this isn't unkind. It's actually a mercy.
Dwight Castle:Maybe for the first time in her life a man is actually showing her compassionate love. And like a doctor who must first tell the truthful diagnosis before he can get to the cure. Jesus must show her just how needy she is. Hear me. Jesus will never sacrifice truth in the application of his grace.
Dwight Castle:They go hand in hand. And this can be hard for us, so we should pay attention. Jesus neither sweeps her sin under the rug nor does he leave her condemned. This woman is laid bare before Jesus. And to follow the analogy of Jesus here of water and thirst, we could say that he has revealed her broken cistern.
Dwight Castle:Now, this phrase comes from the Old Testament in Jeremiah two. God says to his people, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. They've hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. What God is saying to his people is that I am your source of life, of joy.
Dwight Castle:But you've abandoned me and you've gone to look for other sources of life and joy, and they're really terrible fill ins. They can't satisfy you just like a broken cistern won't hold water. Now this isn't unique to them. This is what all of humanity does. This Samaritan woman thought that she could find security in men, in companionship, in pleasure.
Dwight Castle:And Jesus is just simply highlighting how unsuccessful those things have been at truly satisfying her. They've left her emptier each time. We are all guilty of the same thing. We look for true meaning, for fulfillment in all of the things in life. Some good, some not good.
Dwight Castle:Things like marriage, children, success, money, approval, comfort. We will make anything a cistern looking for it to satisfy us, but it can't. In his book, The Screwtape Letters, c s Lewis says he describes it this way. It's an ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure. Now Jesus in his severe mercy to this woman, he uncovers her thirst for his true water.
Dwight Castle:Now she basically kind of defers here and she throws up her hand and she's like, well, you know, maybe someday when the Messiah comes, he'll help all this make sense. And this is when Jesus does the big reveal. It's when the celebrity takes off the costume. He drops the bomb and he says, I am he. I am that messiah.
Dwight Castle:Now there's no doubt here that he is referencing the personal name of God that has been revealed to Moses in Exodus, the great I am. He is connecting himself to that God, Yahweh. He is the Messiah. He is the only one who can offer life. He's the only one that can satisfy her thirst.
Dwight Castle:This is the moment that Joel referenced last week when God's spirit just turns the lights on and he opens up our hearts to see Jesus for the first time. That's what happened to this woman in this moment. And she immediately goes to tell someone what has just happened. She runs to the village. She tells everyone.
Dwight Castle:She says, come and see this Jesus. Now, this is where our second lesson comes into play today. God uses us in his pursuit of sinners in order that he might rescue them. Now, notice she's not told to do this. She just does it.
Dwight Castle:I mean, how could she not? It's the most natural instinctual thing. When we see something amazing, we simply have to share it. Have you ever seen a shooting star? What's the very first thing you say?
Dwight Castle:Did you see that? Right? Or maybe it's an incredible play in sports. Right? Like a touchdown or a slam dunk that's just unbelievable.
Dwight Castle:You pause it. You rewind it. You bring other people to see it. It's because we share these moments in life together. The good moments.
Dwight Castle:It's how God has made us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, this woman has seen Jesus and she has to tell others. Now remember, this is the woman who was just avoiding everyone at all costs. Her shame and her reputation had driven her into isolation. Now she's running through the streets like a crazy person telling everyone.
Dwight Castle:Talk about potential shame and embarrassment. I mean, she's even highlighting the previous source of her shame. She says, this man told me everything I ever did. Now they all know what that would mean. All of the husbands, all of the divorces, all of the adultery.
Dwight Castle:Shame. But now she doesn't care. She has had her shame and guilt exposed, and she's still been loved and even cleansed. This is what Jesus does. He takes our hidden places of guilt and shame.
Dwight Castle:The things that we don't want anyone else to know about and he brings them into the light. He not only forgives them and heals us but he actually uses them for his purposes. They become our testimony as we become witness to his rescue. What's even more shocking than her behavior is their response. I mean, you would think that these townspeople would look at this ostracized outcast and think she's truly lost it.
Dwight Castle:But they don't. They listen to her. They even believe her. They see that there's been a transformation and they want to learn more. So while Jesus is talking to his disciples about what has just happened, the whole village does exactly what the woman says and they come and see Jesus.
Dwight Castle:And we're told that not only do they ask to hear more but they invite Jesus to stay with them for two days and many of them believe. And not just based off what the woman has said now but because they see Jesus for who he is as the savior of the world. Now, what we realize at this point is that Jesus wasn't just seeking out this woman. He wanted the whole village. Now, he could have gone directly into the village himself and done a mass teaching.
Dwight Castle:But instead, he came to her. Then she came to them. Then they came to him. Now, if you're here today believing it's because someone came to you. They invited you to come to Jesus and you saw him.
Dwight Castle:You were transformed. This is God's design. He pursues us. We see him for who he is. We tell others and they see him.
Dwight Castle:And it just keeps going until every tribe, tongue, and nation in the whole world worships Jesus. Now, what if this woman had not played her part? What if she thought that before she could go back to the village, she needed more teaching, more understanding? She needed to study the scriptures. Or what if she thought they won't believe me because of who I am?
Dwight Castle:What if she gave too much credence to her doubts because she does say, could this be the Christ? She's not really sure yet. What if she took her jar of water and she thanked God for her personal salvation and then she went back about her way? The whole town wouldn't have heard through her message, but it was God's plan. Look at verse 34 with me.
Dwight Castle:Verse 34, Jesus says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Jesus told his disciples that his food was to do his father's will. This is why Jesus had to go to Samaria. In other words, his greatest priority, his greatest satisfaction was to be obedient to the father. Now I hear this story and I have got to ask myself, is this my greatest priority?
Dwight Castle:My greatest satisfaction? Or do I tend to look to these broken cisterns for my satisfaction? Now, maybe not for salvation. I know enough to know that I can't save myself. God does.
Dwight Castle:But how do I live my life each day? Is he my priority? Let me ask you. Where do you find your greatest satisfaction? What is your food?
Dwight Castle:The thing that drives you and sustains you. Do you have a shared calendar with God each day? Or do you just go about your life doing what drives and sustains you in other ways? Now the beauty of this story is that not much is actually required of us. We don't have to have much or do much or know much.
Dwight Castle:We don't have to say the right things. But if we have seen Jesus, if we've truly met him and been changed by him, we should invite others to just see him too. I mean, that's what this whole weekend for us, this mission summit has been about. That we invite others to come and see Jesus. We have the opportunity to testify to who he is out of joy.
Dwight Castle:We invite people to meet him. But the power isn't in the messengers. It's not even in the message alone. It's in the one to whom the message is about. It's not about our words or techniques.
Dwight Castle:We just go where God has us and we faithfully testify to who he is. Remember last week, Joel told us God can use a bunch of idiots. In fact, that's his plan. Make no mistake. God is pursuing the lost.
Dwight Castle:He will find them. And for some reason in his sweet mercy, he has chosen to use us. And we can't mess it up because we aren't the rescuers. We can't even rescue ourselves much less anyone else. No.
Dwight Castle:The burden of rescue, the results, that's on the Lord. His spirit has prepared a harvest and he simply calls us to tell others to come and see him. So, Lord, help us do that. Pray with me. Oh, Lord.
Dwight Castle:We we desperately need to see you. I need to see you freshly, anew every day. I need to take my eyes off myself and all the things that distract me, the good things, the bad things. I need to see you. And we ask that we as a people will see you and we will be changed and that we will just out of joy because we can't help it share that news with others around us.
Dwight Castle:Reveal to us, Lord, the ways that we try to find our satisfaction in other places and turn our hearts towards you. Jesus' name. Amen.
