1/21/07 Worlds In Collision Pt. 3

JOH 4:13-20 Jesus... said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. " The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw." He said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly. " The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

We are in the middle of a study

of an event in the life of Christ

that is recorded for us in the 4^th chapter of the Gospel of John.

It begins with a conversation between Jesus

and an unnamed Samaritan woman.

As we’ve seen already in this study,

the Samaritans were a group of people

who were especially distasteful to the Jews.

They were the descendants of Jews

who had intermarried with the pagan inhabitants of the region.

Their religious beliefs were a mixture of both their Jewish and pagan roots,

and they were viewed by the Jewish community

as traitors to all that the Jews valued most.

For the Jew

any contact with the Samaritans

was viewed as a corrupting and defiling experience,

and something to be avoided at all costs.

And yet...

and yet in this account in the 4^th chapter of John

we find Jesus sitting by Himself

next to a well in Samaria,

and a Samaritan woman comes to the well for water.

And the conversation that results from that meeting

has provided us with some of the most powerful,

revealing,

and treasured dialogue ever recorded.

This is just and interesting observation,

but did you ever wonder where John got the information he needed

in order to write this section of his Gospel?

None of the disciples were there when this conversation took place.

It was just Jesus and the woman.

So how did John get his information?

Well, I think the very fact that this conversation exists here in this Gospel

gives us a little glimpse into this woman’s future.

Obviously the only way John could have learned of this conversation

was from the woman herself.

And it’s most likely that

at some point after Jesus’ departure, following the resurrection,

and very possibly many years after the resurrection,

John found this woman and asked her for an account

of what took place between her and her Lord that day.

She was most certainly a part of the early church

and what John knew of this conversation

had to come directly from her.

Now, last week we stopped our study of this conversation

right at the point where it began to get very interesting.

It began with Jesus asking the woman for a drink,

and then His telling her that,

if she knew who was asking for that drink,

she would have asked Him and He would have given her

living water that would become a well springing up in her to eternal life.

What an offer!

She didn’t understand it, of course,

just like we don’t understand it,

but she loved the sound of it, just like we do.

She asked for what He was offering,

and Jesus responded by saying, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

And as we were ending our time together last week

we saw that this request must have sent a shock of terror through her

because in those seven words

Jesus suddenly ripped open the great gaping empty hole in her life.

We all have our ways of trying to fill that void

that exists within us because of the absence of our Creator.

What we attempt to use to fill that void

depends on what resources we have at hand.

If we happen to have been gifted with special talents,

or a higher IQ than most,

we may try to fill the emptiness through gaining control over others or affirmation from them.

We may try to quiet the monster within

by telling ourselves that we really are better than the rest.

Or we may try to fill the emptiness with things,

more and more things that make us feel secure, significant, important.

We may try to find our reasons for getting out of bed in the morning

through things that make our physical bodies feel good, or not feel at all -

sex, drugs, alcohol, adrenalin highs.

Our friend at the well

chose one of the most common God-substitutes of all -

human love relationships.

The story of her life could be written in a single sentence.

If she could just find the right man she’d be happy

and the aching emptiness within would go away.

And as we soon find out in this account,

her failure certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.

But when Jesus asked her to go get her husband,

He put His hand directly on the most terrifying aspect of her existence.

And we all have those, of course -

the God-substitutes in our lives.

And we are all just as fearful of facing them

and just as skillful at avoiding honesty facing them as was this woman.

JOH 4:17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband."

I love the skill with which God helps us

to move into the honesty we must have before we can be free.

At least, I love seeing His skill in the lives of others.

When it comes to my own God-substitutes

I’m a little less enthusiastic.

Do you remember that incident in Matthew 19

when Jesus confronted another God-substitute in a person?

MAT 19:16-20 And behold, one came to Him and said, "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?" And He said to him, "...if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." He said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself. " The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?"

I just love that!

Did you see what He did?

When Jesus listed the commandments

He left one out.

EXO 20:17 "You shall not covet ...”

He did that

because He knew this man’s God-substitute

was his possessions.

They were what gave him status,

what gave him a sense of security and purpose in life.

And He knew, too,

that just having the commandment included in the list

would never have had the power

to confront him with the lie in a way that would free him from his bondage.

And that’s why He does it, you know.

That’s the only reason why God ever seeks to bring any changes into our lives.

He does it because His love for us

makes Him long for us to break free

from the lies that rob us of the freedom He wants us to know.

And so with this young man

Jesus avoided simply listing the commandment

and then He applied the truth directly to the man’s life

in a way that made it impossible for him not to understand.

MAT 19:21-22 Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.

Why did Jesus ask him to do that?

Was it because salvation is for sale?

If you went and sold all of your possessions and gave the proceeds to the poor

would you be guaranteed salvation?

Of course not.

It was not the possessions that were evil,

it was the role those possessions played in this man’s life.

They were his God-substitute,

and Jesus knew they could never do for him

what he was asking them to do.

They could never fill the emptiness,

the void inside.

They could never give him peace with himself,

or a true security.

It wasn’t that the stuff was evil,

but rather that it had become his god

and it was a god who simply could not deliver.

Do I dare make it personal?

What is it in your life

that gives you hope for tomorrow?

What gives you a sense of security?

What gives you a reason to get out of bed

and the assurance that you can and will make it through?

There’s only one thing that can adequately fill that role in our lives -

the assurance that our God holds us in the palm of His hand,

and He will never let us go.

Well, with our woman at the well,

when Jesus said, “Go call your husband...”,

He put His hand on this woman’s God-substitute.

It was what she was clinging to for security,

and hope,

and purpose in life.

For her it was the men in her life.

But having someone mess with the foundations of our lives

is a terrifying business.

And as we saw last week,

at first she did what we all do,

she tried very hard to wriggle out from under His hand.

“I have no husband...”.

To which He then responded,

"You have well said, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly. "

And there it was,

all of the sudden,

her pathetic, helpless, wimpy little God-substitute

dragged right out into the light for everyone to see.

And her response to Jesus’ words is classic to the extreme.

The first thing she says is,

JOH 4:19 "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”

Now there is a brilliant discovery!

This fellow she’s never met before

suddenly reveals to her

the worst tragedies and failures of her entire life

and she realizes there’s a lot more to this guy than meets the eye.

But it’s what she does next that I really love.

She does what we so often do

when faced with some painful issue in our lives -

she tries to hide behind religion.

She says,

JOH 4:20 "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

Let’s get a doctrinal debate going here.

Let’s talk about which is the right church,

or the right doctrinal system,

or the best form of worship.

I know! Let’s argue about the gift of tongues and the baptism of the Holy Spirit!

Anything so long as it keeps us away

from the real life-centered,

pain-filled issues of my life.

And there is no better place in all the world

to hide from the real issues of life

than in religion.

And I certainly don’t fault this woman.

I’m a preacher!

If anyone understands about hiding behind religion it’s me.

Skillfully hiding from the real issues of life

behind religious systems and routines

is what religion does best.

I can still remember how powerfully Paul’s words to Timothy affected me

when I first saw what he was really saying.

1TI 1:5-7 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.

He told Timothy that the goal,

the purpose of everything our God shares with us

is to help us move toward three life-centered goals -

to help us to become more skilled in building practical love relationships with one another,

to help us to grow in moral purity resulting in a good conscience within us,

and to grow in our ability to have practical trust in our God.

But then he goes on to say that

there will be those within the religious world

who refuse to accept those life goals for themselves.

They will not face the real issues in their own lives,

and look where they go to hide from those battles...

...some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law...

They hide behind their little religious systems,

and especially behind tidy lists of do’s and don’t’s.

Well, our friend at the well got scared,

and she, too, tried to hid behind religion from the real issues in her life.

"Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

And Jesus’ response to her is masterful.

He takes the religious debate she offered

and in just a few sentences

brings it right back on target,

back to the only issue that ever really matters,

the Person of Jesus Christ

and our relationship with Him.

JOH 4:21-26 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."

OK, there is a whole lot happening in this exchange.

We find out a few verses later,

in the passage we’ll get into next week,

that when Jesus identified Himself to her as the Messiah

she believed what He said

and it was at that point that a huge healing took place within her.

And how could it be otherwise?

Do you remember where we were earlier in our study of this passage?

That huge emptiness within us

that drives us to reach out to all of our God-substitutes

exists within us because our spirits desperately hunger for

the one thing we believe we can never really know - the love and absolute acceptance of our Creator.

As we’ve seen,

it was this God vacuum within this woman

that drove her from man to man to man.

And yet, when she met this Jesus,

the first amazing thing she discovered about Him

was that He knew about the worst failures in her life

and yet He obviously, whole-heartedly accepted her, valued her,

and offered her a future unlike anything she’d ever dreamed of.

And when she made that comment to Him about the coming Messiah,

I think she said those words

because the wild, amazing hope had already sprung up within her spirit,

the hope that maybe this Man,

this Prophet of God

just might be that Messiah.

And then, when He identified Himself as the Christ,

the healing power of what He was saying hit home.

The God I have been hiding from my whole life,

the God I’ve been so afraid of,

the God who has every right to judge me and condemn me for everything I’ve done wrong,

that God loves me.

Now, I don’t think at this point this woman understood

that this was literally God in human form standing before her.

But I am certain she recognized that this man

really was God’s direct communication of Himself,

that this Jesus spoke the mind and heart of God.

And there is nothing in all of human experience

that has greater power to heal the human spirit

than the personal discovery that our God love us.

Not that He loves humanity,

or that He loves the human race,

but that He loves us personally,

that He knows our name,

and He knows our past,

and He knows those deep, hurting places within us,

and He knows how to heal us.

It is what each of us longs for, you know.

And with each of us

just as with our friend at the well,

there are so many reasons why what we long for simply could not be.

We may not have five failed marriages behind us

and someone else we’re now living with

just because it’s convenient and helps fill the void,

but we have our own personal catalog of life failures.

So many reasons why we do not qualify for His love.

And yet what if...

what if He is really telling us the truth

when He tells us that there is “...nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ...”.

What if, rather than looking at our huge debt of offensives and failures in life

and then turning away from us in disgust,

what if He reached out His almighty hands to us

and then lifted the whole mess from off of our backs,

and then said to us, “...LUK 7:47 ...(your) sins, which are many, have been forgiven...

What if our God loves us

and values us

and reaches out to us

the same way Jesus loved, and valued, and reached out to this woman at the well?

And wonder of wonders,

He does.

And to the degree that we can hear

and then believe His love for us,

to that degree we are able to find the healing we so desperately long for.

Well, there’s still more to come in this passage,

and we’ll get there next week.