Worship
10-13-2024
We have lately been looking at some of the outstanding women of the Bible. So far, we have looked at a number of women from the OT, which involved studies of Eve, Sarah, Rahab, Ruth and Hannah. Then we shifted gears and began to look at some extraordinary women from the NT. That part of our study has only involved Mary and Anna so far. This morning, we continue our look at outstanding women with a look at a woman who isn't even named for us in Scripture.
In John chapter four, we meet an unnamed Samaritan woman. Jesus met her after she came to draw water at a well. At first glance, much about the scene seems ordinary and unimportant. It involves an anonymous woman. She was performing the most mundane of everyday tasks by drawing her daily ration of water for her household. She was all by herself. Because of a rather shady reputation, she came at an hour of the day when she probably expected to find no one else at the well.
But as we look closer, we find that many of the details of this story are actually extremely significant. Where this all took place was significant. We meet the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. That was a significant piece of property. The well was on a field that Jacob purchased so that he could pitch his tent in the land of Canaan. This very field was the first inhabitable piece of real estate recorded in Scripture that any Israelite ever owned in the Promised Land. It was the same parcel of land Jacob gave to his favorite son, Joseph. It later became the very place where Joseph's bones were finally put to rest.
The well on that property is never mentioned in the OT. However, its location was well established in Jesus' day after centuries of Jewish tradition. The well is very deep and is spring fed so the water is always fresh, pure and cold. The existence of such a well on Jacob's property was deemed by the Israelites as a token of God's grace and goodness to their patriarch. Therefore, the location had a very long and meaningful history in Jewish tradition. However, when we reach the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, that plot of ground lay in Samaritan territory. The Samaritans were considered unclean by the Israelites. Any self-respecting Jew would not go through Samaria to get from Jerusalem to Galilee even though it was the shortest route.
The Jews despised the Samaritans because they were a mixed race people. They were descended from pagans who inter-married with the few remaining Israelites left in the area after the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom. By the first century, the Samaritans had a culture built around a blended religion of Judaism and paganism. Their place of worship was Mt. Gerizim instead of Jerusalem. Samaritans regarded only the first five books of the OT as Scripture.
Who was involved in this story is also significant. There are only two main characters: the unnamed Samaritan woman and Jesus. Much of the details of Jesus' involvement with this woman was also remarkable. It is unusual to find Jesus alone, He almost always had someone with Him. Even though we know that He was fully human as well as fully God, it is still amazing to realize that God incarnate could get tired and thirsty. It is startling that He would intentionally seek out and initiate a conversation with a Samaritan woman who had a shady reputation. The woman was astonished that any Jewish man would even speak to her. It was equally shocking for the disciples to find Him speaking to her. It would have been regarded as ceremonially unclean for Him to drink from an unclean vessel belonging to an unclean woman.
When we pick up this morning's story, Jesus is traveling through the region on His way to Jerusalem. He was resting near the well while His disciples were purchasing food from a nearby village. Jesus' interaction with the woman was not the stuff of great drama. This was certainly not a scene that would lead us to expect to find one of the most profound theological lessons in all of the Bible. But that is exactly what we do find. Let's read John 4:7-30.
Of course everything Jesus did had a purpose and a reason and the events that took place in this story were no exception. He didn't just happen to accidentally go through Samaria. John 4:4 tells us that He had to pass through Samaria. He had to pass through Samaria because He had a divine purpose to fulfill. That divine purpose required Him to travel through an area Jews didn't normally travel through; stop at this historic well; talk to a troubled woman that no man or Jew would ever talk to.
Maybe the most unexpected aspect of this divine encounter is that Jesus chose this time and this place and this woman to be part of the setting where He would for the first time ever, formally and explicitly unveil His true identity as the Messiah. All of that combines to make this woman an outstanding woman and worthy of our attention and our study.
This whole encounter begins very simply. Jesus just asks the woman for a drink of water. He probably said it rather casually and in a friendly manner. But even if that was the case, He still expressed it in the form of a command, not a question. There is no indication that she thought it was rude or that she was offended by what He said.
Instead, she immediately expressed surprise that He would even speak to her. Normally, a man of Jesus' status would not even converse with a woman at all, especially if the man knew that the woman had a bad reputation. Worse than that, He certainly would not drink from a water container belonging to her.
Instead of answering her question about why He was even talking to her, Jesus began directing her to the real message that He had to deliver. (V. 10). Even though His comment at that time was a little veiled, she picked up on the fact that He was making an amazing claim. In response to what He said, she asked if He was greater than Jacob, which of course He is. But once again He avoided her question and continued speaking of living water.
The kind of cat and mouse game the two of them were playing continues as the conversation continues. After He spoke of living water and after she expressed interest in having some of that water, Jesus tells her to do something that seems completely off topic. He told her to go bring her husband. In response, the woman didn't lie, but she didn't tell the whole truth, either. (v. 17). She didn't deny her sin; she also wasn't proud of it. But Jesus knew all about her and all that she had done and how she had been living. He didn't rebuke her for not being completely honest. In fact, He actually commended her for telling some of the truth.
At this point, she must have been wondering who this man was and how He knew so much about her. But instead of asking about that, she brought up the topic of worship. (v. 20). If this man was the prophet she thought He was, then it appears that she genuinely thought He could straighten out what seemed to her to be the fundamental debate of the ages. Who is right? The Jews or the Samaritans? Gerazim or Jerusalem? That really wasn't the topic Jesus wanted to discuss with her, but He didn't avoid that question and gets right to the heart of the matter. (vv. 21-24).
Where we worship isn't the issue. True worshipers are defined by whom they worship and how they worship. Jesus made it clear that the religious traditions she had grown up with was totally and utterly false. He also steered her back to the point He was trying to make with her in the first place.
By this point in the conversation she was strongly hinting that she suspected that Jesus Himself might be the Messiah. When Peter confessed his faith that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus told him it was His Father in heaven that revealed that truth to him. The same thing was true of this woman. The Holy Spirit was drawing her to Christ, revealing truth to her that she had never known before. It is apparent that she had the same messianic hope shared by every other godly woman in Scripture.
After the woman expresses her expectation that the Messiah will make everything known, Jesus drops the biggest truth bomb He had ever dropped up to that point in His ministry. (v. 26). This is the single most direct and explicit messianic claim Jesus ever made. Never before in any of the biblical record had He said this so straightforward to anyone. Never again is it recorded that He declared Himself this plainly, until the night of His betrayal.
It is astonishing that the very first time Jesus chose to reveal Himself as the Messiah, it was to a Samaritan woman with a shady past. His self-revelation is a testimony to her faith. The fact that He declared Himself so plainly is proof that her hope of seeing the Messiah was either about to develop into full fledged faith or it already had. Jesus would not have committed Himself to an unbeliever.
It was at the exact moment that Jesus declared Himself to be the Messiah that His disciples returned. Soon after that, the woman left her water pot and ran into town, intending to beg the leading men of the city to come and meet the man at the well she just met. Notice the first thing she tells the men: that Jesus told her everything she ever did. She no longer evaded the facts of her sin. She was now forgiven and there was no shame in that. Her enthusiasm and determination were hard to resist, because the men of the city went back with her to the well where they all met Jesus.
Her response is typical of new believers; it's one of the evidences of authentic faith. The person who has just had the burden of sin and guilt lifted always wants to share the good news with others.
Jesus had indeed found a true worshiper. Scripture doesn't tell us what became of the Samaritan woman. Her heart was clearly changed by her encounter with Christ. It is a certainty her life was changed as well. Within three years of this encounter, the church was founded and spread to Samaria. That meant this woman and the men of her city were able to find fellowship and teaching where all were one in Christ.
This woman, who had begun her new life by bringing many others to Christ, no doubt continued her evangelistic ministry. She even continues to do that today through the record of Scripture. Only heaven will reveal the vast and far-reaching fruit of this outstanding woman's encounter with the Messiah.
The truth that I would like us to take away from this look at the Samaritan woman is the need for us to worship God. Worship can be simply defined as "human response to the perceived presence of the divine, a presence which transcends normal human activity and is holy."
The same truths about worship that applied to the Samaritan woman apply to us as well. Where we worship doesn't matter. In fact, we should be worshiping anywhere and everywhere. When you're at home you can worship. When you are at work you can worship. When you're at school, or driving in your car or laying in your bed, you can be and you should be worshiping Almighty God. Worship is something that should characterize and even dominate our lives.
Our worship can take many forms. At times, it is private and very personal. Our private worship is what we do in our personal devotions, some might call it a quiet time. Even Jesus engaged in this type of worship. Matt. 14:22-23. That type of worship involves prayers, confession, silence and meditating on God and His truth as revealed to us through His Word.
At other times, worship is very public. We are commanded in Scripture not to forsake public worship. Heb. 10:23-25. Public worship is the type of worship that we engage in when we gather in God's house every week. We even call it a worship service. Public outward worship involves singing and reading God's Word, corporate prayer, collecting the offering, baptismal services and taking communion. Anything we do here is public, corporate worship.
We need to be engaging in both types of worship. We need personal, private worship to open our hearts to God and to sit quietly listening to His small, still voice. We also need to come together and sing together and hear the Word proclaimed. Part of our time in church is fellowshipping with one another and being actively involved in each other's lives. Our corporate worship here at church is empowered by the time we individually spend in private worship. Our personal experience of worship needs affirmation and interpretation in and through corporate worship.
The most important aspect of worship is our heart. We cannot truly worship God if our heart isn't right with Him in the first place. Examine your heart. Are you a truly born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you confess and repent of known sin to the best of your ability? Are you right in your relationship with others? Those are some of the first steps that we need to take to make sure we are properly worshipping God.
Make sure that you engage in private and public worship of God because He deserves all of the worship and all of the praise that we can possibly give Him.
As our singer and musician come now, we invite you to worship. If there is some sort of decision or profession you need to make this morning, come and talk to me about it now as we stand and sing.
Prayer.