Talking To An Immoral Outcast, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus is saying to her, you don't have to become more moral to have a relationship with God. You don't have to go through ceremonies to have a relationship with God.

You don't have to go through ritual to have a relationship with God. Here's what you need to do. You just need to ask me for it. It's a gift. You want it?

You ask, I'll give it. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. John Dickerson in the intro to his book, The Great Evangelical Recession, writes these troubling words. He says the American church is on the precipice of a great evangelical recession. And while we focus on a few large churches and dynamic national church leaders, the church's overall numbers are shrinking.

That truth is kind of hard to take. Especially in light of what you think evangelicals have tried over the last 40 years. There was evangelism explosion. James Kennedy. Saturation evangelism. George Peters. Lifestyle evangelism. Joe Aldrich.

Common Ground. Miles Lorenzen. Apologetic evangelism with men like Norm Geisler. Four spiritual laws.

Bill Bright. Tracks and billboards. And yet, he says, the church's overall numbers are shrinking. Now, I'm sure that most, if not all, of those that I mentioned are biblically sound. But this morning, I'd like to add another approach. And the reason I want to is it's the approach I have supreme confidence in. Because it's the approach of Jesus Christ himself.

Could there be a better role model? When how do we evangelize than God's son and our savior? If you remember, I'm doing a series on conversations that Jesus has had. And last time he was talking to a man, a Jewish man. His name was Nicodemus and he was a religious insider. But now he's going to have another conversation.

This time with a woman. And she is an immoral outsider. Open your Bibles to John chapter 4.

Think of the contrast of these two conversations. Nicodemus is moral, religious. He's an upstanding Jew.

He's learned. He's a theologian. He's a society elite. He's a prominent leader.

And he is respected by everybody. This woman that I'll introduce this morning is immoral. She's religiously indifferent. She's a Samaritan. She's uneducated.

She's socially an outcast. She's completely ignorant about Jesus. And yet Nicodemus seeks out Jesus. But Jesus seeks out the woman.

Now his reason, why would he seek out this woman? We really got that last time in chapter 3. Remember what he said to Nicodemus. He said to Nicodemus in verse 15. He said so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. And then he also said in verse 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

He wants to back up that claim. You mean God so loved the world? Yes. The world? Yes. Samaritans?

Yes. You see that's what Jesus is doing here. He is showing that whoever believes will have eternal life.

And it doesn't matter if you're Jewish or not. And so in verse 4 of chapter 4 it said and he had to pass through Samaria. Now he didn't have to pass through Samaria because it was on the way to where he was going.

Even though it was on the way to where he was going. Judah's in the south, then Samaria, then Galilee. But Jews when they traveled north and south from Galilee to Judah or from Judah to Galilee always did the same thing. They crossed the Jordan River. They went over to the east bank. Then they went up to Galilee and back in. They never went through Samaria. But here it says in the text that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. Not because of the geography but because of the point that he wants to make.

God so loved the world. And then it says, and so he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar near a parcel of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. He comes to a well. Sychar is a small hamlet.

The well's about a half a mile south of the city. And it's in Samaria. You've heard me speak on this before but the Samaritans are sort of like half breeds. At one time if you remember there was just Israel. And you had twelve tribes and David was king. And then Solomon his son became king. But after Solomon it split. Ten tribes to the north were called Israel. The two tribes to the south were called Judah.

The tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. Every king in the north was evil. Every single king. And so there was a king named Omri. He was an evil king in the north. And he renamed, he made a new capital in the north in Samaria. And it was called Israel at the time but he named that city Samaria.

And so that's why the whole area got that way. And so in 722 when the Assyrians took the ten tribes captive. What ended up happening to those ten tribes was that some people stayed in the land. And then the Assyrians came in. And they sort of became a blended religion.

A religion of a lot of pagan beliefs and a religion of a lot of Jewish beliefs. They only recognized the Pentateuch. They only recognized the books of Moses. No other book in the Old Testament do they recognize. They hated the Jews.

The Jews hated them. And that's a very important thing to understand because that's the context here. And it says that in verse 6, after he came to Jacob's well, Jesus being wearied from his journey. There's his humanity. He's tired. You see the humanity of Jesus Christ.

He's tired. It says, thus by the well, and it was the sixth hour, noon. Unusual time. Sitting by a well at noon.

But it is a divine appointment. The woman's going to come. By the way, women do not go to wells at noon. They go to wells early in the morning right around sunrise or they go right around sunset in the evening. But they don't go at noon.

This woman goes at noon because she's the kind of woman that other women don't want to be around. And so she comes at noon. And so the very first point that you're going to see here with the idea of Jesus evangelizing is this. Jesus initiates an unexpected connection. Jesus initiates an unexpected connection. And it's a very strange thing to them but not so strange to us.

It says, there came a woman of Samaria to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink. See, from our point of view, what's so big deal about that? Well, there's a lot of big deals about that. First of all, Jewish men don't speak to strangers who are women even in Judah. If you're a Jewish woman and you're a stranger to a Jewish man in public, he will not speak to you. You see, that was the culture. Also, we find out that Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans.

But there's a third thing here. If this woman gives Jesus a drink, he would be ceremonially unclean because he has taken water that was given to him by a Samaritan. Jesus ignores all that and just says to her, he says, give me a drink.

His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. He had already convinced them you could buy food from Samaritans and you wouldn't be unclean. You see, this whole idea is the Jews are so distinctly different from the Samaritans. But there's a difference with Jesus Christ. Jesus sanctifies anything he touches. If he touches something unclean, it becomes clean. Think in Matthew 8, a leper comes to him and asks for mercy and Jesus touches the leper.

You're not allowed to do that, except he made the leper clean. Jesus isn't worried about whether or not he's clean. Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, and she's right on top of this, how is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, John writes. So Jesus initiates an unexpected connection. Was she expecting to be evangelized that day? Not at all.

By the way, most people aren't. You see, one of the things that's difficult about a lot of program evangelism is, you know, you say things like we're all going to get together on Thursday night and then we're going to go out and evangelize. You know, the best evangelism takes place when you just walk into a person.

I call that a divine appointment. You see, it can happen. It can happen on a bus or an airplane. It can happen at a ball game. It can happen at work.

It just happens that way. In this case, Jesus initiates an unexpected, from her point of view, connection. The second thing he does is he offers an unsolicited gift. Jesus answered and he said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him.

He would have given you living water. I think our head's just spinning now. I think she's worried there's something wrong with this guy. Please understand it from her point of view. She's alone.

She's a half mile from the city. There's one Jewish man there and he's talking like this. What is he talking about? If you knew the gift of God and the one who is talking to you, he says, if you just knew, he says you would have asked him. He'd give you living water.

What a contrast. Think of the gift of God here. The word is doria. It's not charas, the word we get for grace. Also, it's translated as a gift in the New Testament. This is the word doria. Doria means something that is given to you without cost. He says, if you would have known the deal I have for you, what's he offering her? Well, in the context, we'll see the grace, the mercy, and the forgiveness of God. It's a gift.

She's not asking for anything yet. He says, I'll offer it to you. Then he makes a statement that must have been befelling to her and he said, if you did that, he would have given you living water. Living water. What would that be? Moving.

What does it mean, living water? He has a context for this. He just didn't make this up. I want you to hold your place and go back to Jeremiah chapter 2 with me. You see, what Jesus is doing is an absolute contrast to all religion, and I mean all religion.

All the religions of the world basically are going to be exactly the same. The religions of the world are simply going to be this, and that is you need to do something, and if you do it well enough, you might get right with God. You need to be morally better than you are. You need to go through some ceremonies. You need to go through a ritual.

Whatever it is, all the religions of the world are the same. There's something you need to do, and then maybe if you do it well enough, you'll get right with God. That's the curse of religion.

By the way, even God's people slide into that religious habit. That's what I want you to see in Jeremiah 2, verse 13. The prophet speaking. He says, Here's God.

For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me. And then he says, Let me describe who I am. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. He goes, that's who I am. I am the fountain of living waters. He says, And they have done so to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

What does he mean? My people have become religious. That's what they've done. They've gone through ritual and ceremony, and they believe that the ritual and the ceremony will appease me. You see, if you're going to use the analogy when he talks about this living water, he is saying, Here, what my people are doing is they're just taking water, and instead of having it come from the inside out, they're splashing it on their face.

And they're saying there, Doesn't that work? And he says, But your cisterns don't hold water. Now back to John. You see what Jesus is saying to her. You don't have to become more moral to have a relationship with God. You don't have to go through ceremonies to have a relationship with God.

You don't have to go through ritual to have a relationship with God. Here's what you need to do. You just need to ask me for it. It's a gift. You want it?

You ask, I'll give it. It's the grace. It's the mercy.

It's the gift of God. That's what he is saying to her. He is saying to her, I've got something for you that is as basic and necessary to your spiritual life as water is to your physical life. By the way, she has no idea what he's talking about.

She said to him, Sir, let me point this out, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then are you going to get the living water? By the way, the well is about 100 feet deep.

You need a lot of rope and a bucket. She said, where's the living water coming from? By now, I think she's thinking, I wonder what is going on with this guy. Jesus, he understands, but notice what she says. She's annoyed with him. She says, you are not greater than our father, Jacob.

Are you? Who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle. This is a very important place to her. This is where Jacob gave the well. This is where Joseph, by the way, after he died in Egypt, the bones of Joseph were taken back and buried here. This is a very special place to her and she's saying basically to Jesus, you're no Jacob.

Well, how right was she, huh? He's no Jacob. He's the son of God. Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks this water will thirst again. Now watch, after he initiated an unexpected connection and after he offered her this unsolicited gift, he gives her an unparalleled promise. He says, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.

Notice what he is saying. Once you drink of the water I offer, you'll never be thirsty again. By the way, it's a great verse for the eternal security of a believer. Jesus says you'll never be thirsty again. Once you drink of my water, you'll never be thirsty again.

You see, and it goes from the inside out. See, Jesus stays right on message. She tries to get him to talk about Jacob and Jesus wants none of it. He just dismisses her remarks. He dismisses her gender. He dismisses her nationality.

He just dismisses it. He stays on track and he gives her this promise of eternal life. And it comes from the inside. Timothy Keller says this about what Jesus is doing. Jesus is not just telling us that he has to offer a life-saving water to us. He is also revealing that it satisfies from the inside. He is saying my water, if you get it, will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life. He's talking about deep soul satisfaction, about incredible satisfaction and contentment that does not depend on what's happening to us to the outside. You see, religious duty, religious services, you splash yourself. Jesus said when you go into a relationship with me, it comes from the inside and comes out.

It's internal. Well, the question is, based on Keller's remarks, what is it that gives you a satisfying life? What is it that gives you a satisfying life? If someone said to you, if you want a life that is satisfying, what do you want? Almost always, if you're honest, do you know what your answer will be? It will be something from the outside. That's what you'll say.

What I want is something from the outside. I mean, some people set their hope on romantic love. You might be thinking, ladies, you know, when Mr. Right comes into my life, he's likely to become Mr. Wrong.

You see, it's not that. Some people set their hope on an exciting career. Boy, when I get that job, when I get that promotion, when I get that, I'm going to be satisfied with my life. That's going to be satisfying to me. Some people get satisfied because if they want to back the right social cause, if I just back the right social cause, my life will be satisfying. Some of us are more simple than that. If I just have enough money, I'll be satisfied.

You see, it can be travel, but it's always something like that. You think in this way. If you're thinking you're going to be most satisfied when you have that or when you get there, you're doing exactly what Jesus said. You see, you're thinking you can satisfy your life from the outside in, and all you're doing is splashing water on your face.

Jesus said, I can give you an absolute unfathomable satisfaction in the core of your being that will last forever. That's what he is offering. But if you think about it, is that the way the world works? Is that what people are really looking for? No.

No. We're always believing. It's one of those great lies that we believe that I'll be satisfied when and if, and it's a lie. I remember a few weeks ago I read an article about Boris Becker, the German tennis star, and it was interesting what he said in this article. He wrote, he said, I had won Wimbledon twice.

Once as the youngest male player to ever win. I was rich beyond my wildest imagination. I had all the material possessions I could have ever needed. But my life became like that old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything and yet they're so unhappy. You see, I had everything you could imagine in life, but I had no inner peace and nothing satisfied me. Yet we believe it will work. Well, I'd be different than him.

If I had what he had, I'd be satisfied. And what happens then is we end up making an idol out of what it is that we think will most satisfy us. And we end up worshipping it. That's what we think about. That's what we're driven to succeed in.

Because we think that's when satisfaction is going to come. It's not only the view of the church, it's the view of anybody who is really astute. A man named David Foster Wallace, and you can look him up at some time, he was at the top of his profession. He's an author, an award-winning best-selling post-modern novelist. He's known for pushing all the envelopes. Agnostic at best, atheistic likely.

No friend of Jesus or the church. He once wrote a sentence, by the way, that fascinated me over 1,000 words long. That takes some doing.

But he is famous now for this commencement speech that he gave at Kenyon College. And this is what he said, interestingly enough. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe we should choose a sort of god to worship is that if you choose anything else but a god to worship, it will eat you alive. He says if you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough.

You will never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly.

And when a time and age begin to start showing on you, you will die a million more deaths before your loved ones finally plant you. Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you of your own fear. Worship your intellect.

Being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they are evil or sinful. That's just perspective.

It is that they are our default settings as human beings. We always want to worship something that will never satisfy. By the way, a couple of years after this speech, he committed suicide.

Jesus says unless you receive living water, you will live your life with a thirst that you cannot satisfy. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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