1. "Jesus had to go where no one else would go. Jesus knew that salvation was from the Jews, but for everyone, for everywhere, even for the Samaritans. Rich, poor, young, old, insider, outsider, PhD, GED, Northwest, East of the river, bus driver, investment banker, everyone, everywhere needs salvation."

2. "How can he who is present everywhere have a journey? How can he grow weary who has infinite strength? What kind of king leaves a heavenly throne to sit by a Samaritan well?"

3. "He who made oceans and rivers and fountains and rain sits beside a Samaritan well and asks this lonely woman for a drink."

4. "Living water is free. Free for the giving, free for the taking. You just gotta know and ask."

5. "There is no conversion without conviction. Christ cannot be our Savior until we first know ourselves to be sinners. A gospel without sin is no gospel at all."

6. "Jesus loves her too much to let her hide in shame."

7. "God is everywhere, all at once, all the time, without ceasing. He cannot be boxed in. He cannot be confined to places or customs or rituals or routines."

8. "She didn't know much, she didn't have the knowledge that Nicodemus had, but she had a testimony and she shared it with her heart."

9. "You can't hold on to Jesus and hold on to sin at the same time. You must choose."

10. "The fountain became thirsty so that you wouldn't have to thirst again and again. If Christ can save this woman and Christ can save me, I promise you Christ can save you too."

Observation Questions

1. According to John 4:4, what route did Jesus take when traveling from Judea to Galilee, and how does verse 9 describe the relationship between Jews and Samaritans?

2. In John 4:6-7, what details does the text provide about the time of day, Jesus' physical condition, and the woman's situation when she came to draw water?

3. What does Jesus offer the woman in John 4:10-14, and how does he describe the effect this "living water" will have on the one who drinks it?

4. When Jesus tells the woman to call her husband in John 4:16-18, what does he reveal about her past and present relationships?

5. In John 4:21-24, how does Jesus describe the nature of true worship, and what does he say the Father is seeking?

6. According to John 4:28-30 and 39-42, what did the woman do after her conversation with Jesus, and what was the result among the Samaritans?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Jesus "had to pass through Samaria" (v. 4) when most Jews would travel extra days to avoid that region? What does this reveal about Jesus' mission and the scope of salvation?

2. How does Jesus' conversation progress from asking for physical water to offering spiritual "living water"? What does this teach us about how Jesus addresses both felt needs and deeper spiritual needs?

3. Why did Jesus expose the woman's sin regarding her husbands (vv. 16-18) before she could fully receive the living water he offered? What is the relationship between conviction of sin and genuine conversion?

4. What does Jesus mean when he says that true worshipers must worship "in spirit and truth" (vv. 23-24), and why does he emphasize that "God is spirit"? How does this contrast with the Samaritan and Jewish debates about worship locations?

5. How does the woman's response in verses 28-30 and 39 demonstrate the contagious nature of salvation? What transformed her from someone who avoided people to someone who ran toward them with her testimony?

Application Questions

1. Jesus crossed social, ethnic, and religious barriers to reach the Samaritan woman. Who are the "Samaritans" in your life—people you might undervalue, avoid, or overlook—and what specific step could you take this week to initiate a gospel conversation with them?

2. The sermon emphasized that Jesus was "bold and kind" in his evangelism, starting with a simple request rather than condemnation. How might you begin a spiritual conversation with a neighbor, coworker, or acquaintance by first asking for their help or showing genuine interest in their life?

3. The woman had been drinking from broken cisterns—pursuing satisfaction in relationships that left her empty. What "leaky buckets" are you tempted to hold onto for satisfaction instead of finding your ultimate fulfillment in Christ? What would it look like to "leave your water jar" this week?

4. Jesus said his food was to do the will of the Father and accomplish his work (v. 34). In what practical ways can you prioritize spiritual nourishment—doing God's will and participating in his mission—over physical comfort or convenience this week?

5. The Samaritan woman shared her testimony simply: "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did" (v. 29). How would you summarize your own testimony in one or two sentences, and who is one person you could share it with in the coming days?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Jeremiah 2:9-13 — This passage describes Israel forsaking God, the fountain of living waters, for broken cisterns, directly illustrating the spiritual thirst Jesus addresses with the Samaritan woman.

2. Isaiah 55:1-7 — Here God invites the thirsty to come freely to the waters without money, reinforcing the sermon's emphasis that salvation is free and satisfies deeply.

3. Romans 3:9-26 — This passage establishes that no one seeks God on their own and that justification comes by grace through faith, connecting to Janesh's discovery and the universal need for salvation.

4. John 7:37-39 — Jesus' declaration at the Feast of Tabernacles that rivers of living water will flow from believers expands on the promise he made to the Samaritan woman.

5. 1 Kings 12:25-33 — This passage recounts the division of Israel and the establishment of syncretized worship in the north, providing the historical background for Jewish-Samaritan hostility referenced in the sermon.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Story of Janesh: A Life Marked by Brokenness and Shame

II. Salvation Is Free (John 4:1-15)

III. Salvation Is Deep (John 4:16-26)

IV. Salvation Is Contagious (John 4:27-42)

V. Janesh's Transformation and the Call to Share Living Water

---

Detailed Sermon Outline

Can I tell you about my friend, Janesh?

Janesh comes from a broken past. He has both sinned and been sinned against. He comes from a home marked by abuse and alcohol. His father never told him that he loved him, but many times, especially after poor exam results, JanesH's father told him that he was worthless.

Janesh also grew up going to church. He and his family went every week. But rather than being encouraged in the gospel, Cheba's church experience left him discouraged with all the hypocrisy. People talked about God, but nobody lived for him.

The Bible was kind of taught, select verses here and there, but it was always about what we need to do for God and never about what God has done for us in Christ. So with Janesh's limited and deficient understanding, he tried to walk with God, but it always felt like a whole lot of effort for something he couldn't live up to. JanesH knew he had sins, but he didn't know what to do with them. So he covered them up. And JanesH learned the hard way that sin is like mold.

It grows in darkness. As JanesH's sins grew, they tarnished his reputation and they buried him in shame.

JanesH's life was broken. Do you have a friend like JanesH?

Do you have a friend who can't seem to escape their broken past?

Or perhaps are you here this morning and your story is a whole lot like JanesH's too?

Perhaps you walked in those doors, coming to church with a smile on the outside and on the inside eroding with shame.

Oh friends, there is good news for us in Christ this morning. The Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. God meets shame with love. He takes broken lives and shameful pasts and in Christ, God makes his people whole. Our lives may look different, but all our lives are broken.

Everyone everywhere has sinned. Everyone everywhere needs salvation. And the good news for us is that in Christ, anyone, anywhere can be saved. Broken lives become new lives in Jesus Christ. That's why we're here today.

About a month ago, I had the joy of preaching from John chapter three. This morning I'll get to preach one more time here in John's gospel, and I'll tell you what, Mark has been kind. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm the guy who takes out his trash, but this is another really good passage to preach. If you don't know already, this grizzly bear is a teddy bear on the inside, I promise. So thanks for the honey, brother.

This is good stuff.

This time we won't cover the whole chapter, but I do plan to cover 42 verses.

And before you start to get nervous doing the math, thinking, wait, John chapter three was 36, that's six more. How long is this sermon gonna be? Don't worry, I promise, this meal won't be as dense.

These 42 verses comprise one single narrative and for our time this morning we can think of it in three developing scenes. If you haven't already, go ahead and open up your Bible to John chapter four. If you're using one of the red pew Bibles, it's on page 888. John chapter four, page 888.

This one narrative in three scenes is almost like a pot of water on a stove. The narrative grows hotter, it reaches a boiling point, and then overflows. We'll give those three scenes three headings, each with a truth about salvation. And putting them together, here's the main idea of our time together this morning, here's the whole sermon in one sentence. Everyone, everywhere needs salvation.

Everyone, everywhere needs salvation. As we walk through the passage, I pray we would be more satisfied in Christ as we reflect on three truths about our salvation in him.

First, salvation is free. Verses 1 to 15.

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. The Pharisees heard about John's ministry and the number of people going to be baptized by John and they were threatened by it. They didn't like the thought of another leader rising up, one who wasn't under their control. And then the Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing even more disciples than John and this made them very threatened. But Jesus knew his hour hadn't come.

He said it to his mother in chapter two and we'll get some more teaching about his hour here in this chapter. But for now, Jesus steps away from the drama, turns down the temperature, and leaves Judea to go to Galilee. Jesus was playing chess. He was gonna let these angry Pharisees play checkers. Verse 4, and he had to pass through Samaria.

Samaria was directly in the middle of Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. So if you were traveling from Judea to Galilee, the most direct route would be go through Samaria. It was about 100 kilometers or a three days journey. But Jews wouldn't go through Samaria. Instead they would go around it.

They'd take the long way. They'd take an extra 100 kilometers or an extra three days just to avoid the Samaritans. As it says in verse 9, Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Their ethnic hostility was hotter than an extra three days under the desert sun. But why?

Why did the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? Well, the Samaritans drew their history from the split of the northern and southern kingdoms. Think back to your Old Testament in 1 Kings 12, where the one unified kingdom under Solomon became a divided kingdom with Israel to the north and Judah to the south. Mark preached on this text back in January, if that helps jog your memory. All the kings of the northern kingdom did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and so the northern kingdom fell first.

Israel practiced a syncretized Judaism, mixing Jewish practices with Assyrian idol worship, and they intermarried with the Assyrians. And those people to the north eventually became known as the Samaritans. Ethnically they were half Jewish, spiritually they were half pagan, and in the widespread opinion of first century Jews, these people were altogether despised. Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. They wouldn't go through Samaria.

But Jesus, verse 4, had to pass through. He had to go where no one else would go. Jesus knew that salvation was from the Jews, but for everyone, for everywhere, even for the Samaritans. Rich, poor, young, old, insider, outsider, PhD, GED, Northwest, East of the river, bus driver, investment banker, everyone, everywhere needs salvation. So I have a question.

Who might be our Samaritans today? Who might we undervalue and overlook? Perhaps even despise? Who are the people to whom no one else will go? Let's consider our Lord's example here.

Let's let his have to be our have to.

And let's keep reading, verses 5 and 6.

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. Jesus enters Sychar, one of the towns of Samaria, and a town that for these people had some significant religious heritage. And did you catch that phrase in verse six?

That Jesus was wearied? Oh, don't miss the humanity of our Lord here in this passage. How can he who is present everywhere have a journey? How can he grow weary who has infinite strength? What kind of king leaves a heavenly throne to sit by a Samaritan well?

Oh, brothers and sisters, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses. Though he was rich, he became poor. Though he was strong, he became weak. Though the whole earth was his footstool, he needed to rest his feet. If you are here this morning and perhaps you feel weary, maybe your body feels weak, be encouraged.

Christ understands you. He can help you. He knows what it means to be weary. The omnipotent God became the weary Jesus. So when we come to him, we don't need to bring him our strength.

He came to us and he emptied himself to make salvation free. Jesus had to go through Samaria, not just because he was looking for a break. No, he was looking for a person. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Typically, women came in groups to fetch water, but here we read of no group, just a woman.

Typically, they came earlier or later in the day to avoid the middle of the day sun, but here this woman comes, verse 6, in the sixth hour, which is the middle of the day. She wasn't expecting to see anyone. She knew that no one would want to be seen by her, at least that's what she thought. But she didn't know that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. She didn't know that Jesus came into this world to save sinners.

And she's about to find out that Jesus will cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost because everyone everywhere needs salvation. Jesus speaks to the woman first. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Jesus initiates. He doesn't wait for her to speak to him.

He starts the conversation. But notice his tact, his gentleness. He doesn't blast her with condemnation or overwhelm her with intensity. He sits down and asks for her help. He who made oceans and rivers and fountains and rain sits beside a Samaritan well and asks this lonely woman for a drink.

We're about to find out more about this woman, about why she's here alone, but Jesus already knew her story full and well. He knew all her sins, he knew all her shame, but rather than starting with her sin and her shame, he starts the conversation with a request. Give me a drink. Others may have talked down to the woman, but the gentle, weary Jesus brings himself down and asks for her help. Brothers and sisters, as I've been meditating on this passage and praying for us as a congregation, here's one way I've been praying.

I've been praying that our evangelism would be bold and kind, bold and and kind. I think Jesus is an excellent model of both here in this passage. Do you initiate evangelism or do you just wait for evangelism to come looking for you? You don't need to start with a rebuke or start with a debate. You could try starting with a request.

Hey, would you mind if I sat with you? Is that seat open? Hey, what's the best thing on the menu here? Hey, I saw you guys with those signs outside the Supreme Court. I couldn't help but notice.

Could you tell me more about what brings you here today?

Everyone everywhere needs salvation. So let's go to them, let's put ourselves at their feet, and let's be bold and kind. We don't have to guess about the shock of Jesus' request. We find it in the woman's response, verse 9. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a a woman of Samaria.

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. This is scandalous on several terms. He's a Jew, she's a Samaritan. He's a man, she's a woman. He chose to be alone, she had to be alone.

And yet this Jewish man asked this Samaritan woman to help him with a drink. Do you notice the contrast between this woman and Nicodemus from a few weeks ago, John chapter three? Nicodemus was an educated, upstanding Jewish man, and this woman was an outcast, a Samaritan, a woman of such low status and poor reputation that we don't even know her name. These are two different people from two different cultures, two different backgrounds, and one common need. Jesus is willing to cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost.

Are we?

In verse 10, Jesus moves from a request to an offer. 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. We'll find out more about how this woman responds to such an offer, but please don't miss this. The offer is free. Salvation is free.

Giving water is free for the giving and free for the taking. She just needs two things. She needs to know and she needs to ask. If you knew the gift of God, she needs to know what the gift of God is. She needs to know that God so loved the world that he gave, there's the gift, his only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.

And she needs to ask. Jesus says, if she would ask, he will give. She has not because she asks not. Romans 10:13, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If she knew who asked her for a drink, she would have been asking him for a far better drink.

Not just water, but living water. Look around church, lift up your eyes. Everyone everywhere is thirsty. Everyone everywhere is parched in sin. And because they don't know and they don't ask, they go looking for looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places.

Forsaking the source, they'll grab hold of leaky substitutes, and it never leaves them satisfied. Jeremiah 2:13, For they have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Praise the Lord that salvation is free, amen? That it cannot be earned with good works, that we cannot purchase grace with merit, it's free. No, Christ is more ready to give than we are to ask. He's more ready to hear than we are to pray. He satisfies the thirsty and his love covers shame.

Isaiah said it this way, Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, Come, buy, eat, and drink. When we come for salvation, we leave our wallets at the door. Living water is free. Free for the giving, free for the taking. You just gotta know and ask.

But the woman doesn't understand. Not yet. Verses 11 and 12. 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. Like Nicodemus, she's thinking physically, not spiritually, and her understanding is based on Samaritan tradition, not biblical truth. Scripture makes no explicit reference to Jacob giving them this well, but the Samaritans held tightly to their traditions. And Jesus' claim to give living water fell to this woman like a power grab, stealing away from her cherished traditions.

Are you greater than our father Jacob? Oh, she has no idea.

It is good to evaluate our traditions, with Scripture. Truth is always better than tradition. In verses 13 and 14, Jesus explains what he means by living water, describing both its source and its effect. 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. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Jesus points to the well, but his point is about her way of life. He says, if you keep drinking from this, it's just gonna leave you thirsty. You'll crave more and be satisfied less. You can keep running to your sin and running from your shame, but it's never going to satisfy. Jesus raises her desires and offers her more.

He says, I'm the source of living water. I'm the one who gives it. And if you drink the water I give, here's the effect, it will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

From what well have you been drinking? Are you thirsty? Are you satisfied?

Church members, those would be some great questions to talk about with each other this week as we confess our sins to one another. In verse 10, Jesus tells the woman that living water is free. All she needs to do is know and ask. And in verse 15, she cries out, she makes an ask. 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.

The conversation has been picking up heat, and now we've reached the boiling point. She asks, but she doesn't know what she's asking for. Her thirst won't be relieved until her sin is revealed, not for the purpose of shaming her, but in order that Christ might heal her. Living water is free, but it's not shallow.

Jesus satisfies and sanctifies. He comforts and confronts. Jesus is no surface-level Savior. She's heard that salvation is free. She's about to find out, number two, salvation is deep.

It's verses 16 to 26. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here.

If the free gift of salvation is to be received, we must first recognize the deep problem of our sin. There is no conversion without conviction. Christ cannot be our Savior until we first know ourselves to be sinners. A gospel without sin is no gospel at all. So Jesus puts his omniscient finger right on her sin with gentleness, with clarity, with conviction.

The conversation didn't start deep, but it got deep. Jesus took his time and he took it right to her heart. The woman answers, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you, were right in saying, 'I have no husband,' for your have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.

Jesus shines a light on this woman's shameful past. She had both sinned and been sinned against, and her life was broken. Jesus loves her too much to let her hide in shame. All the figurative speech of living water has dropped away. We won't see any more of it for the rest of the chapter.

Instead, Jesus speaks with plain, direct speech, exposing her heart and going deep. The woman feels uncomfortable. She deflects, but it's more than just a deflection. She also recognizes that Jesus has special knowledge and knowledge that must come from God. So she says verses 19 and 20, Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. She redirects the conversation away from her sin and onto Jesus's knowledge. And then she tests his knowledge with a quiz, a long-standing debate between the Jews and the Samaritans, which mountain is the true mountain of worship? It's easier to talk about places of worship than ex-husbands, isn't it? Do you tend to deflect when your sins are talked about?

Jesus continues to meet this woman right where she is. He's patient with her and he gently pushes the conversation ahead. Her deflection doesn't deter his love. Jesus knew which mountain possessed the temple. Jesus knew that the Lord sits enthroned in Jerusalem on Mount Zion.

And he knew that in this debate the Jews were right and the Samaritans were wrong. But get this, Jesus doesn't even get into the debate. He says, that's just small stuff. Instead, a new era is coming and is now here. And in this era, true worship isn't about where you are or where you come from, true worship is in spirit and truth.

Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. All debates about worship sites would soon be obsolete.

The hour of Jesus' death and resurrection would relocate the center of worship from the temple to the heart. Salvation isn't shallow. True worship isn't shallow either. It springs deeply from the heart. True worship isn't in a form or a place or a tradition.

It's in spirit and in truth. That's why Jesus says that the Samaritans, verse 22, worship what they do not know. They attempted to worship the one true God, but with a cherry-picked Bible only ascribing to the first five books, they worshiped him on their own terms. Thus, God was not known to them. And then speaking as a Jew on behalf of the Jews, Jesus says, We worship what we know.

There were many flaws with first century Jewish worship, but it could at least be said that the object of their worship, the one true God of Israel, was known to them. Even though for many they were without understanding, They had the scriptures, they had revelation, so they had the promises of the Messiah and salvation in him. But don't miss what Jesus says in verse 23. He says that nobody is saved by their own seeking. This woman wasn't seeking God, God was seeking her.

And praise his name that he is still seeking and saving sinners even today. Romans 3:11 makes it plain and clear, no one seeks for God. No one. And John 4:23 says that the Father is seeking such people for worship. It'd be a good pair of verses to have memorized.

Romans 3:11, John 4:23. God transforms shallow lip service into deep heart service. That's exactly what we're going to hear, Lord willing, at the end of this service when we hear some baptism testimonies. Pay attention carefully. Notice the diversity of the stories and the one common thread through all of them: God sought them.

Verse 24 makes one of the clearest and highest declarations of the nature of God in the entire New Testament. God is spirit. God cannot be confined to a locality or packaged in a form or appeased with outward mechanics. God is everywhere, all at once, all the time, without ceasing.

1 John 1:5 says that God is light. 1 John 4:8 says that God is love. Hebrews 12:29 says that God is a consuming fire. And because God is light and love and fire and spirit, he cannot be boxed in. He cannot be confined to places or customs or rituals or routines.

As they said of Aslan, the great king of Narnia, he is not a tame lion.

God is spirit. We must not think we can tame him like some sort of object for us. Which is why Jesus repeats in verse 24, those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Worship must be on God's terms, not our own. True worship is based on truth, not tradition.

It's deeper than a ceremony and it demands a testimony. It can only come from someone who's been born again, not of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the Spirit. In verse 9, this woman knew Jesus to be a Jewish man. In verse 19, she perceives him to be a prophet. And now in verse 25, she thinks that if this long debate is gonna get resolved, it's gonna need more than a prophet.

This is gonna require a Messiah. The woman said to him, I know the Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Her first two words are I know, which is a bit ironic, isn't it? She didn't know that the one she was looking for was the one she was looking at.

She thought she was talking about the Messiah, but really she was talking about to him. And Jesus said to her, verse 26, I who speak to you am he. This is the fullest declaration the Lord Jesus Christ ever made of his messiahship. It's the clearest statement we get in all four gospels. One of the key literary features of John's gospel are the I am statements.

We'll see them later on in the metaphors. And here it's almost like a proto I am statement. I who speak to you Am he? It's kind of like how Jesus invokes the divine name to the Pharisees in John chapter eight, saying, Before Abraham was, I am. And do you remember what they said to him?

Reaching as low as possible to hurl their most disgusting insult at him, they said, He must be a demon-possessed Samaritan. Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. And yet, it's to this nameless Samaritan woman that Jesus pulls the curtain back on his Messiahship and makes himself known. Jesus loves sinners. He loves sinners deeply.

He is willing to cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost. Are we?

Thank God Jesus isn't just a Jewish man or some prophet or a teacher come from God like Nicodemus had thought. Thank God that Jesus is the Messiah. But how does the woman respond to such a declaration? Does she hide it and keep it to herself or does it well up inside of her and she can't help but share? Salvation is free.

Salvation is deep. Number three, salvation is contagious. Verses 27 to 42.

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? They might have understood why Jesus spent time with Nicodemus, Even late at night, after all, he was a religious man of high esteem, he'd be worth spending time with. But this woman, a Samaritan, they were too scared to ask their questions.

Notice how no one said anything. But Jesus knew their hearts. He knew what was in them. And if they knew what was in the woman, they would have asked her for a drink because she had plenty to share. Verses 28 to 30.

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've ever did. Could this be the Christ? They went out of town and were coming to him. Nicodemus was blind. The disciples are clueless, but this woman had a change of heart.

And it was contagious. She ran back into town straight to the people who knew her story. Straight to the people who knew her shame. She didn't know much, she didn't have the knowledge that Nicodemus had, but she had a testimony and she shared it with her heart. Come, see a man.

He's not like the other men I've known. He's not like any other man. He knows me, he loves me. Could this be the Christ? This is the heart of the good news, brothers and sisters.

It's not about what this woman had done, it's not about what we it's about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. He is the one who seeks and saves and satisfies sinners. This woman didn't need the well anymore. She had found the fountain.

You know, it's a privilege to preach from this passage. For my last sermon here at CHBC, it's providential, too.

As best I can tell, this was the story that God used to change my life forever. I was an 18-year-old kid at a youth camp. My life was full of sin and shame. I was looking around the room thinking, what am I doing here? I have no business being in a place like this.

And then a man stood up and he opened up to John chapter 4. I felt like he was speaking right to me. He pointed out this phrase in verse 28, that the woman left her water jar. And he explained repentance. He said it's a turning away from sin and a turning to Christ in faith.

He said that when we come to Jesus, we don't just get to add our lives with some Jesus into it, but we let go of our lives.

We give him our lives and he makes our lives brand new. Oh friend, what do you need to let go of this morning? What leaky bucket have you been holding on to? You can't hold on to Jesus and hold on to sin at the same time. You must choose.

I know talking about it might be uncomfortable, I know it might be easier to deflect and talk about something else, but would you mind if I encouraged you, as someone who's been in your shoes, there is more mercy in Christ than sin in you, always. He's gentle, he's kind, he loves sinners deeply. He became thirsty so that you could drink.

On the cross in his dying breath he cried out, I thirst. The fountain became thirsty so that you wouldn't have to thirst again and again. If Christ can save this woman and Christ can save me, I promise you Christ can save you too. Repent, leave your bucket behind, come and drink from the fountain. In verses 31 to 38, John pauses the narrative of the woman.

He pulls us into some teaching between Jesus and his disciples. With the woman, Jesus used water to talk about living water. Now he's about to use food to talk about true food. And I hope we notice the contrast. We get a witnessing woman and some disoriented disciples.

These disciples are about to find out that salvation is contagious too. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you don't know about.' so the disciples said to one another, 'Has anyone brought him something to eat?' To the woman, Jesus explained the nature of true worship, and now to the disciples he's explaining the nourishment of true food. He says in verse 34, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me. And to accomplish his work. Jesus lifts up their eyes to the work ahead, helping the disciples see that not only is salvation free and deep, but that salvation is contagious.

It sows and it grows and it spreads. Verses 35 to 38. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together.

For here the saying holds true: One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Jesus quotes a common Jewish saying, four months and then the harvest, and then he asserts that the time for spiritual harvest is now. Others have labored, meaning the prophets of old, even John the Baptist, and the disciples have entered into their labor.

The harvest of the new covenant is rooted in the seeds of the old covenant so that the sower and the reaper might rejoice together. You know one way I often think about this? Sowing and reaping, sowing and reaping. It's with children's ministry. And no, Chad didn't give me a 20 to say this.

With children's ministry, you just gotta play the long game. Parents keep sowing seeds. Volunteers keep sowing seeds. Church members in the homes of other church members hanging out with the kids reading books keep sowing seeds. If you sow seeds but someone else reaps the harvest all of us get to rejoice.

Gospel seeds bearing gospel fruit is always worth rejoicing in no matter what part we play. So whether you sow or you reap Christ is saying here to the disciples, I got a whole buffet of satisfaction ready for you to eat. In verse 39, John takes us back to the woman. We read in verse 30 that many Samaritans were coming out of the town and coming to Jesus. And now we read how the story ends, how her story overflows.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. 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.

Many Samaritans came to him, verse 30, They believed, verse 39, and they believed at that point because of the woman's testimony, verse 39. In verse 40, they ask Israel's Messiah to spend two nights with them in a Samaritan village. And Jesus goes because he's willing to cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost. At first they believed because of the woman, but now in verse 41, they believe because of his word. So as the woman's testimony was personal, now these Samaritans have a personal testimony too.

No miracles here, no signs and wonders, just a weary, omniscient Jesus, a deep well, and a deeply changed woman. I think this woman is my favorite evangelist in the Bible. She is awesome. If I had a daughter and we knew her name, I would definitely name my daughter after her. She's urgent, she's simple, she's bold, she's kind, She didn't know much, but she shared what she knew, and it led to a gospel outbreak that spread throughout a Samaritan village.

Salvation is free, salvation is deep, and salvation is contagious. Before we wrap up, can I tell you a little bit more about my friend, Janesh? He's a friend I met in India. We keep in close touch even to this day. One day over some tea, I could tell that Janesh was feeling unsettled about his relationship with God.

He felt like he always had ups and downs with his love for God, so that must mean that God's love for him had ups and downs too. I asked him what it meant to be justified. He said he didn't know that word, so we used the Tamil word instead. Needy ma. He said, oh needy ma.

Well, to be a needyma, that's like being super perfect all the time, no ups and downs, you're basically 100% perfect. I asked him, okay, Janesh, are you needyma? He said, oh me, no, I could never, I couldn't live up to it. I said, let's grab our Bibles. We opened up to Romans 5:1.

Therefore, since we have been needyma, justified, By faith we now have peace with God. Janesha had grown up in church his whole life and he had never heard that. He couldn't believe it. He said, wait, need I mow? By faith for someone like me?

That's too good to be true. He knew that salvation was important. He didn't know that salvation was free. He knew that salvation would change but he had no idea how deep. He knew he had sins and now he finally knew what to do with them.

He repented, he trusted in Christ and by faith alone it changed him deeply. He started telling anybody and everybody all about Jesus any chance he could get. It was amazing. He went from being this guy who was so marked by timidity and shame, really nervous around people, would never share, to being probably the single most encouraging evangelist I've ever known. I still get WhatsApp messages from him nearly every day telling me about some person he just shared the gospel with.

Old friends, family members, people he just met, anybody, Jenessa's telling them all about Jesus. He has no formal education, he has no status in society, he just had some living water and he couldn't get enough of it. Jesus said, Whoever believes in me out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So may living water flow from Samaria to India, to DC to the DMV, to Singapore, to the ends of the earth, because everyone everywhere needs salvation. So let's go to everyone everywhere and share.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for such a great salvation you have given us in your son Jesus Christ. May we live by faith, may we share our faith, Freely and boldly as the gospel has been freely given to us. Oh God, would you sanctify us in the truth. Lord, your word is truth. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.