John 4 – The Samaritan Woman

In John 4, our Lord ministered to a variety of people because they had faith in Him. For example, the Samaritan woman. Samaria was a place hated by many Jews because they were a mixed race, part Jew and part Gentile which stems back to the Assyrian captivity in 727 B.C. And, since the Jews in just about every way rejected them, the Samaritans even had their own temple and religious services on Mt. Gerizim.

Well, as Jesus left Judea and started toward Galilee, his journey went through Samaria, where he met this woman at Jacob’s well around noon, which was the usual time for women to come for water. Well, it was not considered proper for any man to speak in public to a strange woman (Jn. 4:27). But, customs aside, Jesus opens the conversation with, “Give me to drink” which became a way to share the truth about “living water.” See, Jesus adapted this situation, as we should, about speaking of the ways of God to others. And so, Jesus offers her eternal life (Jn. 1:26).

As Jesus speaks about spiritual waters, the woman at the well interpreted his words as literal water (vs. 11-15) and she was concerned about how He would obtain the water. Well, Jesus said, “Whosoever continues to drink of this material water (or anything the world has to offer) will thirst again. But whosoever takes one drink of the water I give will never thirst again!” And, how true it is that the things of this world never completely satisfy. Even in torment today, people are crying, “I thirst!” Well, the woman’s immediate response was to ask for this gift, but she did not know what she was saying.

Beginning in vs. 16, Jesus begins prepares the soil of her heart, which begins with conviction, which is why Jesus told her to go get her husband. Jesus aroused her mind and stirred her emotions, but in doing so, he touched her conscience, and that meant dealing with her sin. So she said, “I have no husband” because now she was under conviction and her “mouth was stopped” (Rom. 3:19). But, instead of Jesus bashing her because of her sin, he teaches her about her religion and revealed her spiritual ignorance in that: she did not know who to worship, where to worship, or how to worship! Jesus was showing that not all religions are acceptable before God and that some worshipers act in ignorance and unbelief. Only those who obey the truth can worship God acceptably (Jn. 4;23-24). This ignorance is further exposed by Stephen (Acts 7) and by Jesus (Jn. 3:1-7).

Well, despite her ignorance, in vs. 25-30, there was one truth this woman did know: the Messiah was coming and would reveal the secrets of hearts. This truth was buried in her heart until that very hour, and now here the Lord says, “I that speak to thee, am!” At this point, the woman put her faith in Jesus Christ and immediately wanted to tell others, so she went into the village and told the men she had met the Christ. And, she was in such a hurry to tell others, she left her waterpots behind (vs. 28) with the intentions to come back.

Now, during this time, the disciples had gone to buy food (vs. 8) and upon returning, they were shocked that Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan woman (vs. 31-38). And, after the woman left, they urged Jesus to share the meal with them, because they knew that He was hungry. Instead though, Jesus said, “I have food to eat that ye know not of”. Well they did not understand this in which Jesus explained that doing the Father’s will, in this case, leading the woman to faith in Him, was true nourishment for his soul. So, while the disciples were satisfied with bread, Jesus was satisfied with accomplishing the Father’s work as we should be or as the psalmist said, “I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God; yea, Thy Law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:8).

Next in his conversation with his disciples, Jesus speaks of the harvest and quoted a familiar Jewish proverb about waiting for it as he is pointing to the villagers coming out to the well to meet Him, thanks to the woman. Here it is interesting that the disciples went to the village to buy food. But, the woman went into the village to teach others, like we are to plant the seed of God’s word (Matt. 13; 1 Cor. 3:6-9). Yet, it is interesting that the text indicates that others had labored in Samaria and had prepared the way for this harvest (vs. 38). Now, we don’t know who they were, but the disciples were learning here that they were not alone in the work of the Lord and must never look on any opportunity for teaching as wasted time and energy. It takes faith to plow the soil and plant the seed, but God has promised a harvest (Ps. 126:5-6; Gal. 6:9).

Well as I said, in vs. 39-42, many of the Samaritans believed because of this woman and were so excited about Him, that they begged Him to stay with them; and He stayed for two days. During that short time, His word produced fruit in their lives. These people trusted in what the woman said and soon trusted the Word taught by the Savior and declared him the Saviour of the world (vs. 42). This unnamed Samaritan woman was a fruitful believer: she bore fruit (“many believed”), more fruit (“many more believed”), and today continues to bear “much fruit” to the glory of God (Jn. 15:1-5). Nobody knows how many lost sinners have come to the Saviour because of the teaching of this woman recorded in John 4.

Well, in vs. 43-54, Jesus leaves the country and continues his journey to Galilee and came to Cana where he attended a wedding feast where the first miracle is recorded and came at the request of His mother (John 2:1-5). But then, we see a second miracle at the request of a nobleman to heal his dying son (vs. 47) in which our Lord seems to lament over the spiritual condition of the people in general. But, the nobleman made two mistakes in his thinking: that Jesus had to go to Capernaum to save the lad, and that if the boy died meanwhile, it was too late. So, Jesus simply said, “Go thy way; thy son liveth” (John 4:50) and so, the man believed Jesus and started to return home and as he went, his servants started out to find him so they could share the good news that the boy had been healed at the seventh hour, which, in Roman time, would be 7 o’clock in the evening. When the father and the servants met the next day, their report confirmed his faith. Indeed, the boy had been completely healed! This is one of a few miracles that Jesus performed “at a distance” (Matt. 8:5-13; Matt. 15:21-28)

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God’s Music Command

God did not say, “You shall not use instrumental music.”

Sometimes men make a mistake when they come to the Bible and expect God to expressly prohibit actions which displease Him. The Mormons, who used water in the Lord’s Supper, say, “Where does the Bible say you cannot use water?” This approach to the Bible totally ignores the truth that when God expressly commands actions it disallows all other actions.

Consider the death of Nadab and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron. God had expressly told the priests to burn incense by taking “coals of fire from the altar before the Lord” (Lev. 16:12). These two sons of Aaron brought fire from another source, and God immediately sent fire from above and killed them. They failed to see that, when God expressly commands actions, the command prohibits all actions other than what He commanded.

Look at the words of Leviticus 10. These sons of Aaron “… each took his censor and put fire in it, and put incense on it and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.” Take special note that the Spirit does not say that they offered fire which He had said not to offer. God had not said, “You shall not use fire from other sources.” Yet, they were not at liberty to do anything which God had not expressly forbidden. They were limited to doing what God had expressly commanded. Explicit commands forbid other actions.

Now, put this event in the context of the book of Leviticus. The tabernacle had been erected, but priests had not been consecrated to serve in it. In the first part of chapter eight, Aaron and his sons are consecrated to serve before God. Read chapters eight and nine, and see the emphasis placed on the commands of God. The text says, “Moses did as the Lord commanded him…what the Lord commanded to be done…as the Lord commanded Moses…as the Lord had commanded Moses…as the Lord had commanded Moses…as the Lord had commanded Moses…as the Lord had commanded Moses…as I commanded…as the Lord has commanded to do…for so I have been commanded…all the things that the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses…what Moses commanded…the thing which the Lord commanded…as the Lord commanded…as the Lord had commanded Moses”  (Lev. 8:4, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36; 9:5, 6, 7, 10). Do you see the emphasis? What a contrast with the actions obeyed expressly as the Lord commanded, and the sin of disobedience, thinking God had to expressly forbid actions.

Take this principle and apply it. God does not have to say, “Do not use water” or “Do not use musical instruments,” when He expressly tells us what to do!

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Money!

What Money Can Buy

Ecclesiastes 5:10-15 “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.”

If you had as much money as Bill Gates, what would all that money buy you? Would it buy you a mansion in Heaven? Would it buy you love, happiness, or even satisfaction?  The answer to all of these questions is no, of course not. These are some things money cannot buy.

Money can get you more material possessions, but it can also get you more problems.  Solomon lists four of those problems in Ecclesiastes 5:11-14. First, freeloaders will follow after your money, verse 11. Second, you will lose sleep worrying about your money, verse 12. Third, money can bring you many temptations that would do you harm, verse 13. Fourth, you might lose it when you need it the most, verse 14.

Finally, Solomon tells us that we cannot take it with us when we die, verse 15. When we die all we will have left will be the treasure we have laid up for ourselves in heaven.

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Understand the Teaching and Engage

“It is a hard teaching…”

“Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can understand it?’ …From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (Jn. 6:60, 66).

There is an old adage in our culture which states, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Perhaps more adequately and appropriately said – at least in light of our above biblical text and many others like it – “When the going gets tough, some will take off running, in order to get away from the righteous requirements of God, just as fast and as far as they possibly can” (i.e., Jonah; see Jon. 1:1-3)!

This is nothing new. For example, Jesus said of those converted by the word, that many, “…when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word” would immediately stumble (See Matt. 13:21; all emph. mine ~ DED), and then went on to also address how “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches [would] choke the word” in others (Verse 22).

This age-old truth is also why the aged apostle Paul warned the younger evangelist Timothy, to “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Tim. 4:2-4). Paul fore addressed, through the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God Himself, that many people, because of “their own desires,” would turn their back on some of the sacred truths of Scripture in order to go live their lives in accordance with their own ungodly desires instead of His holy ones, which of course would eventually, eternally destroy them. AND; that they would not stop there but would then also seek out religious preachers, teachers, and leaders who would tell them exactly what they wanted to hear – both soothing their seared consciences and justifying their self-satiating sins – instead of teaching them the word of God which they so desperately needed to hear – that one word that could ultimately save their souls by identifying, challenging, and changing their destructive pursuit and practice of sin which had so successfully separated them from God in the first place!

And while we can find all the fault we want with God’s Old Testament people, lack of clarity was not their problem. They didn’t “beat around the bush,” “mince words” or make excuses to try and justify their desire to do away with listening to God altogether, but actually came right out and made clear their desires in no uncertain terms – and God knew:

“Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the Lord; Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise this word, And trust in oppression and perversity, And rely on them, Therefore this iniquity shall be to you Like a breach ready to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant” (Isaiah 30:8-13).

As evidenced by the Scriptures, there were several responses the hearers made when confronted with some of the more difficult and life-altering truths of God’s word. People:

  • Persecuted, punished, ran out of town, or even crucified the messengers of God sent to instruct them in these truths from God Himself (as was done to so many of the prophets, apostles, and even to Jesus Himself throughout the divine text and history).
  • Threatened, got furious with, and beat those men up however they could for caring enough to share these life and soul saving truths of God (Acts 4:17-21, 5:33-40).
  • Sought to damage and destroy their reputations through slander and falsehood because they couldn’t refute the tougher scriptural truths they brought (Acts 6:8-13).
  • Hardened their hearts, covered their ears, and sought to eliminate those messengers of God by whatever means possible – and the truths they thereby brought – from their presence forever (Acts 7, 13:50-14:19).
  • Ran to find another religious group of people where ear-tickling teachers awaited to assuage and accept their sin without any real repentance (Pro. 18:1-3; II Tim. 4:3-4).

But here’s the bottom line. The one thing that none of those avenues of action actually accomplishes is this: It doesn’t change the eternal truth they seek to teach us – not one iota (Ps. 119:89)! It doesn’t change the fact that just because we’ve somehow silenced or ceased to listen to God’s message, that it will somehow become null and void just because we either don’t, or won’t, allow ourselves to hear it. The word of God which these faithful messengers brought, is still what will judge us on the last day – whether we like it or not (John 12:48). We will still be without excuse before God, no matter how many we may seek to make now (Acts 17:30-31). And real love is really willing to say so (I Cor. 13:6).

So what must we do? We must understand that making Jesus Lord of our lives means seeking to do whatever He says, no matter how difficult (Lk. 6:46-49); and that if we are not willing to, then we neither belong to Him, nor do we love Him, according to Him (Jn. 10:26-28; 14:15). Let us always be His – a people of perpetual repentance (II Cor. 7:8-11)!

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A Sinner’s Prayer

Does God Hear a Sinner’s Prayer?

In Acts 10, Luke records for us the conversion of Cornelius. As the angel of God tells him to send for the apostle Peter, when the apostle arrives at his house in Caesarea, this unbaptized sinner says,

Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. (Acts 10:30-31, emp. SW)

Does God hear a sinner’s prayer? Well, He did in the case of Cornelius. Yet, there are other passages that seem to lean in the other direction (cf. John 9:31; 1 Pet. 3:12). Therefore, let us notice some things that we need to keep in mind as we study the question, “Does God hear a sinner’s prayer?”

First, many words have more than one connotation. As we examine the beauty of words, we see that the same word can take on different connotations based upon its usage (i.e., bat). For example, consider the biblical word “works.” Does God save sinners by works? No, if we use the word “works” to mean deeds of merit, as Paul used it in Ephesians 2:9. Yes, if we use the word “works” to mean acts of obedience as James used it in James 2:24. Thus, the word “hear” has more than one connotation. It signifies the perception of sound by the ear. In this sense, God hears us even if we curse, lie or blaspheme. In this sense, God hears the prayers of the wicked, or how else could Proverbs 28:9 be true: “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” It also signifies the act of listening attentively. A parent asks a child, “Do you hear what I am saying to you?” Moreover, it signifies the act of listening with favor and consideration: “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness…” (Ps. 4:1).

Not only that, but also the word “sinner” has more than one connotation. While the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language gives only three words in defining the word “sinner” (one who sins), I hardly think that it is adequate, for that would mean that God never hears any prayers. Christians commit sin, but I hesitate to call them sinners. I sometimes drive nails, but that does not make me a carpenter; I may replace a faucet washer or a light fixture, but that does not make me a plumber or an electrician. In other words, I do sin, but that does not make me a sinner in the sense that John 9:31 uses the word. Paul penned, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, emp. SW). This implies clearly that we are no longer sinners. There are God-fearing sinners–ones who are seeking to do the will of God, but who have not had the opportunity to hear the gospel taught in its purity and simplicity. Cornelius was in this category (cf. Acts 10:1-2), as was Saul of Tarsus (cf. Acts 9:6-11; 23:1). A person who is prejudiced and will not listen to the truth, no matter how devoutly religious he might be, does not fit into this category. Cornelius and Saul were seeking the truth, and they obeyed it when they respectfully heard it. On the other hand, there are wicked sinners (cf. Prov. 28:9)—people who turn their ear from the word of God, although they might be devoutly religious people (cf. Matt. 13:15). These are those who are immoral (1 Pet. 3:12). Wicked people often pray when they get into trouble, but their prayer is an abomination to God (Prov. 28:9), which means that their prayers are detestable or loathsome to God. Thus, there are people who once were Christians, having obeyed the gospel of Christ, but who have turned back to the beggarly elements of the world (cf. Gal. 4:9). These are in a worse condition than if they had never known the way of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:20-22). Certainly, the prayer of such a person is abomination, but if such an individual will genuinely repent, confess his sins and pray for forgiveness, then God will pardon him (1 John 1:9). John is not talking about the alienated sinner, but one who became a Christian by obeying the gospel and became unfaithful later.

Second, God never saves alienated sinners directly in answer to prayer. The prayers of Cornelius played a part in his eventual learning the truth and obeying the gospel for salvation, but God did not directly give salvation in answer to his prayer. The prayers of Saul played a part in his eventual learning the truth and obeying the gospel for salvation, but God did not directly give salvation in answer to his prayer.

Third, what are alienated sinners to do in order to receive salvation? They are to do what Cornelius and Saul of Tarsus did. They are to do the very same things that the people on Pentecost did in Acts 2, the Samaritans and the Ethiopian nobleman did in Acts 8, Lydia and the Philippian jailor did in Acts 16, the Corinthians did in Acts 18 and the twelve men at Ephesus did in Acts 19. All of these heard the gospel of Christ, believed it, repented, confessed Christ and were baptized for the remission of their sins.

In conclusion, if we want God to hear our prayers, then we must be willing to obey His will!

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