Buckle up and hold on. At our church we love God, make no mistake about that. At our church we believe in God's radical, unconditional, and unwavering love with us. At our church we believe that Jesus is God.
We also affirm that you may or may not believe that Jesus is God, and we're not asking you to change your belief system before you attend our church. We're simply inviting you on a journey toward Jesus. For years, churches have placed a high priority on Jesus as the get-out of health re-card. At our church, we place the highest priority on Jesus as a live life to the fullest invitation.
At our church, we believe every person has a dream deep inside their hearts, and that God put that dream there, not for our glory, but for His. At our church, we're not concerned with where you've been, but where you're going. At our church, we believe that the Bible is God's word. It is real.
It is living. It is active. We believe that people who don't go to church anywhere are not the enemy. They are real people.
We need the perfect love that only God can give. And we believe that God gives us love through, of all people, us. At our church, we do not, and we will not display a holier-than-now attitude toward anyone. We are all broken people, but He is putting us back together.
And finally, and most importantly, at our church, we believe that Jesus really lived. That He really died on the cross, and that He really rose again on the third day. And we cannot, and we will not, Candy Code, or water down that message ever. Today, you've chosen to sit yourself in the middle of a very safe place to hear a potentially dangerous message.
Welcome to our church. Well, we are starting a new series today, and it's going to be our February series, and we're talking about just this. We're talking about what it means to be people who welcome God into our lives, not just into our lives so that we're okay in the afterlife, but into our lives to really be in control and in charge in what we build all of our values around. And we're talking in this series about what it means to be a church that is welcoming to all people.
And so today, we're going to begin by studying this passage in John chapter 4. It's a great chapter. It's known as the story of the woman at the well. And there's a verse that I want us to begin with, and it's at the end of the story.
And we're going to see how it turns out. And here's what it says in John chapter 4 verse 39. Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, and then they said to the woman, now we believe not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard Him ourselves. Now we know that He is indeed the Savior of the world.
So what we're going to do here this morning is we're going to work our way now through this story. We're going to go back to the beginning, work our way through this story, including what it was that the woman said to her hometown here. Now let's take some context of John chapter 4. So this story of the woman at the well in John chapter 4 is really sandwiched between two episodes where Jesus is misunderstood and rejected.
Now one of those happens in the city of Jerusalem, which is the religious capital of Israel. This is where the religious leaders and elites are housed, and they misunderstand and reject Jesus. They're in chapter 2. And then in chapter 4, the end of chapter 4 and chapter 5, Jesus is misunderstood and rejected in His own home territory of Galilee.
Now that's in the study of literature on what we call the literary technique of Inclusio. And that means that you have kind of a juxtaposition. So we have a rejection story, a rejection story. And in the middle of that is Jesus here in this area called Samaria.
And what this does is it highlights the rejection on these two ends and it highlights the area where Jesus is accepted and believed in a surprising place here in Samaria. So it's a beautiful story and John is making this very important point. Here's the point that John wants to make. The people who think they're in the end crowd in Jerusalem and Galilee.
They missed it all together. And the people who no one would have expected to understand and get Jesus are the ones who are streaming to Him. And there's a lot of lessons that I think we're going to be able to pull out of this story. Now listen, when a thing happens when you read novels or any type of literature is if you ever run across a main character in a story that has no name.
It's usually very important. They are being used as an archetype. In other words, they represent a larger group of people. So what we're going to see here in John chapter four is the woman at the well who is unnamed.
The Bible doesn't give us her name. We have no idea who she was other than that woman that Jesus is about to meet and have a conversation with at a well in Samaria. And I think that John does this for a very real purpose. And that is he wants us to identify with this woman.
And what does she represent? What we're about to see is that she represents all of us who are broken or tired or outcast who are struggling to make it through today, which has been the case for lots and lots of people here in our community during this past week plus. And all of us find ourselves at one time or another in that place where we feel broken and tired and outcast and trying to make it through this day. And in that experience, this woman encounters the Jesus who crashes through barriers.
That's what we want to look at today, the way Jesus crashes through barriers. So let's get started. Here's the first point I want us to see. Jesus breaks through barriers to reach the unreachable.
Jesus breaks through barriers to reach the unreachable. Now there's important little detail as we start to work our way through this chapter. John chapter four, verse one to four. So it says Jesus knew the Pharisees has heard he was baptized and making more disciples than John.
Though Jesus himself didn't baptize him as disciples did. So now this is just describing how he's misunderstood and rejected in Jerusalem. So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. He had to go through Samaria on the way.
Now I want us to focus for a moment on those two little words had to. Now notice it says he had to go through Samaria on the way. So what's translated had to is a little Greek word, day, D-E, pronounced day. And it literally means as it's translated he had to or it was necessary or he must.
Now did he really have to go through Samaria? Well kind of, kind of. But to really understand the concept I want to show you a map here of the first century in Israel. So here's where Jesus was.
He starts out in chapter two. He's down here in Jerusalem. And this is in the southern part of Israel. Now up there at the top is in the yellow.
That is Galilee. So that's where Jesus grew up right there in Nazareth. Bethlehem is up there. And so Jesus is making the trip.
He's about to leave Jerusalem and he's going up to Galilee. Now this blue part right in the middle, that's Samaria. He's about to meet this woman at this place called Saikar at a well right there. Now did he have to go through Samaria to get up to Galilee?
Not really. Why? Because this area of Samaria was filled with a group of people that the Jews really had disdain for. They didn't like them at all.
Now why not? Well because long story short. Hundreds of years before when this little portion of Israel had been captured, the people who live there, the Jewish people, intermarried with this foreign country. They allowed their Jewish faith to become kind of synchronized with this non-Jewish religion.
And they had a whole different way that they did things in Jesus's time. Different place they worshipped. They were considered a mongrel people, ethnically different and looked down upon by good Jewish people. Now there were a lot of Jewish people.
If they were going from Judea up to Galilee, that would go right through Samaria and talk to you as few people as they could get away with. But if you were a really, really dedicated Jew, you wouldn't even walk through Samaria. It would take about three days to go from Jerusalem right here and get up to Galilee. But there were some who would cross the Jordan River, go up here through this other area and cross back over the Jordan River into Galilee just so they didn't have to walk through Samaria.
That's how much they had disdain for the people who lived in Samaria, the Samaritans. Now here's the point. Did Jesus have to go through Samaria? No.
Technically he could have gone around like many Jews did. Why did he have to go through Samaria? He had to because he had a divine appointment. In other words, he intentionally went through Samaria because he wanted to meet that woman that day at that well.
And in doing that, he was breaking barriers. And the first barrier he broke was the ethnic barrier. And he is by going through Samaria to meet that woman saying, I'm not about this foolishness of looking down on certain people. And the kingdom of God is not here for the special people or the certain people.
The kingdom of God that I bring and that I announce is for everybody. No matter what your ethnicity, no matter what your skin color, no matter what town you were born in, this kingdom is for you. So it's just a really interesting little beginning. He had to go through Samaria.
Did he have to? Yes, because it was an important message. He broke an ethnic barrier. No.
2, he broke a gender barrier. Now today we have really gone through a lot of things in order to communicate in our culture that men and women are equal. We're equal in value. We're equal in opportunity.
And some of that is fairly newly found. It in some ways is difficult for us to go back to the first century and realize how different things were. In the first century, in this day, a woman had to walk behind a man if they were walking together in public. A woman could not testify in court because her testimony was considered not trustworthy.
We've got this little story about the woman caught in adultery and in the scripture. She's brought in the middle of this group of men and they're about to stone her to death. Now, here's what's interesting. She was caught in the act of adultery.
Well, she wasn't alone. There was a dude who was involved in that too. Well, where was he? Well, he was embarrassed, but he'd gone on his way because there was a different standard for men and women.
Women could be killed with they were caught in adultery. A man just had a little embarrassment and went on about his business. This was the difference in genders in the first century. And so for Jesus to make this trip to go to the well at Saikar in the middle of Samaria was breaking a gender barrier that was in many ways scandalous.
It was scandalous for a Jewish rabbi. Jesus was to go and have a conversation alone with a woman in the middle of a day. And yet Jesus didn't care about that because he was about breaking those barriers. Not only is he meeting a woman in the middle of the day.
Here's what's shocking. He's meeting a woman at noon who is there at that well at noon for a reason. She's trying to avoid the glare of the other women of town who would have been there early in the morning before the heat of the day. Well, why was she trying to avoid their glare?
Because as we're about to learn she had had five husbands and she is now living with a man that she's not married to. She is an outcast among an outcast people. And Jesus breaks every single rule of good Jewish men to meet her there that day. Why?
Because he says this is foolishness. And I bring in the kingdom of God a different way of seeing the world. And then Jesus is breaking these social barriers. And our application is this.
If Jesus will violate every cultural and religious expectation in order to meet one broken outcast Samaritan woman. Then Jesus reaches down to reach everyone in our world today and breaks any barrier necessary to reach every person. No persons passed is too messy. No persons present is too complicated.
No reputation is too shot for Jesus to reach. In fact, that's why he came to the world. And furthermore, that's why we exist as a church. We exist as a church to be a beacon in this community that is open to every person with welcoming arms.
Because Jesus breaks through barriers to reach the unreachable. Now, here's the second truth I want us to see. Jesus cuts through pretense to find authenticity. Now, why disappointment with this woman?
Why does he go through Samaria for this meeting? Well, yes, she's a woman and he's making a statement in meeting her there. Yes, she's an outcast among outcast. And that's an important part of the statement.
That's true and that's powerful. But there's something else about her that led Jesus to make this trip. And what is it? Well, she was authentic in real.
Now, it took a minute for Jesus to get down to that authentic real woman. But he did. Now, let's talk about this conversation. And I'm just going to kind of walk us through this conversation rather than stopping to read.
So it starts with some real sarcasm. OK, so here's what happens. Jesus gets to the well and she's there and Jesus says, hey, can you get some water for me? And here's her sarcasm.
She says, you don't even have a bucket or a rope. So why are you asking me for something to drink? Now, she's got a real sharp edge about her. Now, what Jesus says is, hey, if you knew who I was, you'd be asking me for water, living water.
And the sarcasm continued. OK, yeah, I'd love to have some of that living water then. I wouldn't have to come back here, wink, wink, and worry about having to deal with the nasty stares of these other women that might show up. Now, the conversation at this point, she's using humor to deflect from the real her.
Why? She's a hardened woman. And so now Jesus gets real personal. And he says to her, well, why don't you go get your husband?
And she says, I don't have a husband. And Jesus says, as he goes in for the jugular now, you're right. You've had five husbands. And the man that you're living with right now is not your husband.
Now, you know she's going to be real shocked right about now. All right, who's this dude? How does he know about me? Never seen this guy before.
But what she does is the kind of move that my eight-year-old grandson does. What does she do? She changed the subject. She didn't like where this was going.
So she said, hey, how is it that you Jews worship in Jerusalem and we worship here on Mount Gerizim? Now, my eight-year-old grandson, he's not used to papal correcting him because as a rule, papal doesn't do that. He lets mom and dad do that. And maybe Bobby, a little bit, not me.
There was a while back when he was getting a little rough with his little sister. And I said, hey, Finn, you got to be careful with your little sister. You could hurt her because she's just a lot smaller than you. And he said, papal, can we go to the store?
Now, that's silly when an eight-year-old does that. But clearly, what's he doing? He doesn't like that he's being critiqued by his papal because papal doesn't do that. And so he changed the subject.
Well, that's what this woman does. She brings up something else because this is getting a little too personal for her and she doesn't like it. Now, what's Jesus' response? Well, here's what he says to her.
And I do want to read this in John chapter 4, verse 21 to 23. He says, woman, the time is coming. Actually, it's already here when it won't matter whether you worship on this mountain or in Jerusalem. The Father is looking for people who worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Now, something dramatic is happening right here. Why does he say this? Because this is a woman who has the capacity to worship Him in spirit and truth. Now, it took a minute.
It took a minute for her to soften up her heart. But when Jesus said that, that's exactly what happened. That hardened heart began to break and the barriers began to fall away. Now, I want us to really stop and think for a second just how hard this woman's heart had to be.
Okay, so here's what she's lived through. Five marriages. Five. This is in the first century in Israel.
Five times. She's stood with friends and made vows. Five times and all of them have failed. She's become the talk of the town and she's done trying.
Now she's just living with a dude, not making any more vows before people. No ceremonies, no vows, no expectations. She's protecting herself and the walls of her heart have become so thick that she does everything she can to avoid the glare of the people in her town, even showing up at the well in the heat of the day, hoping that no one else shows up. And her heart was broken by one conversation with Jesus this day.
No, not in a bad way, in a really good way, in the way that ice breaks when it finally warms up and can slide off of our roofs. Her heart shatters in the way an authentic person's heart breaks when they have a conversation with their Savior. And it was a good thing. That's why Jesus met her that day.
That's why he had to go through Samaria. That's why he had to be there at noon when she was going to be there because this was a true authentic woman who he wanted to reach and change her life. And that's exactly what happens this day. Now here's the truth.
God searches for that kind of authenticity in people. God looks the world over for people with a heart just like this woman, for that kind of authenticity. He looks forward in you, he looks forward in all of us. And this is what we want to focus on here this month, that Jesus welcomes everyone who comes to him with the spirit of genuineness.
And as a church, God calls us to be a church that welcomes everyone, no matter who they are and where they come from. Because this is what it means to be the church. This is who Jesus was. And this is who we represent here in our community.
Now one more thing that I want us to see about Jesus in this story is Jesus transforms the welcomed into welcomeers. Let's watch what happens next year. So Jesus has just spent the afternoon with a person, this woman, the last person that you would have chosen to be your spokesperson in the nearest town. A Samaritan woman living in scandal, hiding from her own neighbors whose reputation is in shambles in her community.
And now she becomes the first evangelist that we see in the Bible. This unnamed woman, what does she do? Well she drops her water jar. She forgets why she went to this well in the first place and she runs into town.
I mean as fast as she can get there. To the same people she's been avoiding. To the same people who whisper whenever she walks by. To the same people who judge her everyday of her life.
And here's what she says. She says, come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could he possibly be the Messiah? Now I want us to notice, first of all, what she does not do.
She does not wait until she cleans up her life before she goes and talks to people in town. She doesn't take a class on evangelism methods and how to tell people about Jesus. She doesn't wait until she's respectable. She just goes into town.
She just goes with her brokenness and her messiness. But now she's welcomed. She's been welcomed by Jesus, changed by Jesus and the welcomed can't help but to welcome others. That's the truth I want us to see.
The welcomed can't help but welcome others. And what's the result? Well here's the results. So people came streaming from the village to see him.
It's a funny picture actually if you want to go back and look at it in John chapter 4. The disciples had just gotten back. They'd gone into town to bring some food to Jesus. And so they get back and they're talking amongst themselves.
What's going on here? They're a little funny and they bring some food and Jesus isn't eating. Now they're whispering and I said, what? Did someone bring him some food?
Why isn't he hungry? How come he's not eating? And Jesus points their attention towards town and he says, I have food that you know not of. And then they turn around and what do they see?
They see a cloud of people who are making their way across that field towards them. They just heard from this woman about this conversation with Jesus. This guy said everything about my life. And they're coming out to hear from him personally.
So this woman became the first evangelist and changed to town. Now remember where we started? We've got this story. The woman at the well.
A revival that happens in Samaria. But it sandwiched between these two rejection stories. First in Jerusalem, he's misunderstood and rejected by the religious insiders. And then in Galilee back at his own hometown, he's not respected.
He's misunderstood and rejected. But the outcast Samaritan woman, she brings her whole community to Jesus. Now here's our challenge, the challenge I'm presenting to Foundry this morning. Who are we in this story?
Are we Jerusalem? That's too sophisticated to be able to see Jesus or appreciate him. Are we Galilee? Are we too familiar with Jesus to be amazed by him?
Or are we Samaria? Samaria that is broken enough to recognize living water when they see it. It's bold enough to invite everyone that we know to come and drink from this living water. Now, the unequivocal statement that I want to make about who we're called to be is this.
A church that says, you are welcome here. You are welcome here. Not the cleaned up version of you. Not the version of you that has it all figured out.
The real you. The noon. At the well. You.
Five marriages and counting you. The avoiding the crowd. You. The I hate the ugly stares.
You. Because in our world when people can experience that kind of welcome, the welcome of the Jesus, of these pages changes things. And when we've really experienced that welcome, we can't help but to share that living water with other people. And run to them and say as this woman did, come and see.
Let's start with this together. Father, I just thank you that so we can know the hope and help that comes from having a Savior who has given us life. I thank you for each and every one of these this morning who have experienced that. And I pray that you would just flood our heart with your love and forgiveness and make it something that we can't keep to ourselves.
We want to be a light here in this community. And I pray that you help us to not only experience that love but to share that love with our community. And I'm going to be a part of the process now as we move to the table to partake in communion. I'd use it to inspire us to be people.
I've been changed and our ambassadors in our community for you. For instance, Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Well, we are going to observe communion this morning.
It's the first Sunday of the month and we do that each month. So I want to invite our servers who are helping this morning if you would come to the front. So Jesus on the night that he was betrayed took bread and the Bible says that after giving thanks, he broke the bread and he said to them, this is my body. I'm broken for you.
Take and eat this in remembrance of me. The Bible says that then he took the cup and filled the wine and he held it up and he said this cup is the new covenant in my blood. I'm given to you for the forgiveness of sins. Take and drink this in remembrance of me.
And he asked his followers then and for all time to observe this as a way of remembering how it is that we come to know Christ through his broken body and shed blood. And as a reminder that this is where we find our communion in this group and are inspired to go out and share with the world. So we open up this to everyone. I'm going to have to be a member of our church.
This is how we welcome people through our church to the kingdom. And all we ask is that in taking communion, you're taking a step towards Christ and his Lordship in your life. So let's pray for these elements. Father, thank you for these elements.
Use this bread in this wine today to remind us of the joy of knowing and walking with you and the joy of sharing that good news in our world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.