Talking To An Immoral Outcast, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see, you must worship in the context of what is true about God. You can't say lies about God and then say, I'm worshiping him. Scripture is God's self-disclosure. God discloses himself there.

Let me say it this way, the deeper your understanding of God, the higher your worship. 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. 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 postmodern 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 a thousand 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'll 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 his 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. And it seems now like the woman's coming up with a sort of high degree of incredulity. I just love the way she responds to him now. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw. She's willing to play along.

I'll play this out. Jesus isn't done with her by a mile, though. He's initiated an unexpected connection. He's offered her an unsolicited gift, and he gives her that unparalleled promise. But there's something missing here. He hasn't dealt with her sin.

That's part of the process. And so Jesus brings unhesitating conviction to her. Notice his response to her question. Go and call your husband and come here.

Wow. She's got to be thinking, whoa, he just changed gears. The woman answered and said, I have no husband.

She doesn't want to tell the whole truth. And Jesus said, you have correctly said I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.

And you have said it truly. Now, remember with Nathaniel? He said to Nathaniel, he said, I saw you under the tree. And Nathaniel's like, whoa, how'd you do that?

This is even bigger. This is omniscience. Notice you saw his humanity when he was weak. Now you see his omniscience. And he says, I know what your life's been like. You've had five husbands. And the guy you're living with now, he's not your husband. There's the truth. By the way, sidebar.

There's something here you want to see. Living together does not make you married. I know even young Christians will say, we're living together, and in God's eyes, we're married.

You are not. You are not married. She's living with a man. He could have said, you had six husbands.

He says, a man you're living with is not your husband. I mean, she understands what he's talking about. Even Samaritans with the Old Testament knew that Exodus 20 talks about adultery, and the book of Leviticus talks about fornication. And she knows she's both an adulteress and a fornicator.

Jesus points out the sin. You see, marriage in the Bible is always binding, formal, social, official, public covenant. That's marriage. You're not done that, you're not married. It seems strange to have to say that to God's people, but I've actually had God's people over the years tell me, no, we're married in God's eyes, pastor.

You're not. A very important thing to know. Well, this changes everything for her, by the way. It changes everything for her.

Watch how everything begins to change now. The woman says to him, sir, I perceive you're a prophet. Perceive is the word, we get the word theory from it.

It means to accumulate knowledge. She said, you're not a lunatic. You're not a strange man. You've got to be a prophet. I can perceive that. Who would know? I'll bet people in Sychar didn't even know she had five husbands. And she's living with a man that he knew. And so he really has got her interest now. And she wants more.

That's the great thing. She wants more here. And she kind of makes a little bit of a mistake here. She decides she's going to do something and ask a question. One commentator said this about her. That is that her soul is now beginning to bow slowly to him. She said, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that it's in Jerusalem. That is the place where men ought to worship. Now, sometimes it's been said she just tried to get him on a sidebar.

But I don't think so, because he wouldn't go for sidebars. I think she is bringing up a point that he once brought up. And that is, if you're going to be born again, as he told Nicodemus, into his kingdom, then unacceptable worship has to be abandoned. Because understand, if you're going to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, from that moment on, then unacceptable worship has to be abandoned. And so she makes a mistake. She says, one of the key elements of worship is where?

Isn't that really important? Where do you worship? If you're going to worship God, Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem, where do you worship? Jesus Christ is having none of this.

He says, woman, believe me. An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. It's never where. You see, worship isn't a where thing.

By the way, a lot of us believe that. I'm going to go worship. I'm going to go someplace, because that's the place where you go and worship. Worship isn't where.

And in fact, in this case, the hour does come. In 70 AD, the temple in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Romans, and then they go to Samaria, and they kill thousands of Samarians, and they destroy their house of worship. So both places get destroyed. Jesus then says, look, you worship what you do not know. We, the Jews, worship what we know. Salvation is from the Jews. You don't even know the what of worship, let alone the where of worship. The Jews at least know the what of worship.

You see, Messiah comes through the Jews, the Scriptures have belonged to the Jews, but he doesn't stop there. He says something else. He said, an hour is coming, and now is. When true worshipers will 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 him in spirit and in truth. Wow, what a statement. He said the time is coming now. Worship is always, absolutely always, an inside job. By the way, it always has been.

It's never been a what or a why, but you know what he's saying? There's a time, by the way, there won't be a temple. There won't be ritual. There won't be ceremonies.

It won't be there. You see, there's a time when God is going to say, what I demand of you is you worship in spirit and truth. It's interesting that he says that, a time with no more sacrifices, no more priests.

It was the time, by the way, that happened when the veil was rent from top to bottom, when he said it is finished. It's all over, no more sacrifices, no more priesthood, no one representing you to God, no more ritual, no more ceremonies. Jesus said that all ends.

For religious thinking folk, that's a very hard thing to understand, because we have such an addiction to religion, even when we start out with a relationship with God, we want to become religious. Hold your place there and go with me to Amos 5, near the end of the Old Testament. I could have gone to Isaiah 1, Malachi 1, and other passages, but I want to go to Amos 5 and listen to what God says about external worship. Amos 5 and verse 21. Now, this gets your attention, the first two words that God says are these, I hate. I often love people who say to me, you know, I only believe in a God that's loving nothing else.

Well, this is a God that seems in another word here. I hate. I hate. I reject your festivals. By the way, who told him to have festivals?

God. He said, I hate your festivals. I reject your festivals. Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. You know, when you get together to corporately worship me, I hate that. Well, we show up, Lord.

We do it. We go through the ritual. He said, even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from me, now watch this, the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. Please don't sing to me.

What is he doing? We find out in Isaiah 1 and in Malachi 1 that what they were doing is it just became empty religion. They just simply got together and went through the motions. And they actually believed that if they went through the motions, and their heart and mind wasn't right with the Lord, that they were worshipping. And God is clear. He said, I don't accept that. That's not worship.

Now let's go back to John. He says here that the Father, we worship the Father and that he's seeking worshippers. Not many things that God seeks, but he's seeking worshippers. And basically he is saying, and the standard of worship is real simple, spirit and truth.

Now why does he say that? You have to worship in spirit and truth. Well, let's start with truth. You must worship in the context of the truth about God. You see, you must worship in the context of what is true about God.

You can't say lies about God and then say I'm worshipping him. Scripture is God's self-disclosure. God discloses himself there. Let me say it this way. The deeper your understanding of God, the higher your worship.

You see that? The deeper your understanding, the higher your worship. Because it's based on truth. So many of us have a God of our own image and then we come and we worship that way. And then he says you also have to worship God in spirit. Now clearly as believers in the church age, we have the spirit of God residing in us and we can say we have to be in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and that's certainly true. But that's not, I don't think what Jesus is saying to the woman here at the well. He is saying here when he says spirit, it's not only based on your mind saturated with the truth but that your heart and that your soul is right before God in spirit, in spirit and in truth. That's what he is saying. That's worship.

She thought where's the place? What's the ritual? But it's not. All forms of worship, especially public worship or congregational worship, is simply what that is.

A form. And it may or may not contain worship. You see, you don't get to decide or define what worship is. Only God does. You offered up the God worship. God knows your heart. You see, God knows your heart. Worship in that sense is loving God, honoring God, knowing God, adoring God, obeying God and proclaiming God. And by the way, you know when you do that?

Monday to Saturday. That's when you do it. That's why I've said over all the years, if you didn't bring it, you can't do it. You see, God is not saying, oh boy, I know they haven't cared about me at all for a week, but boy, they'll love it when they get there to worship me.

You can't fool them that way. You see, to him it's sincere. We worship God all the time. Remember, this isn't a presence of God. This is not a temple. But you know who is a temple?

You. That's why Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said we sing and make melody when we're controlled by the Spirit of God where? In our heart.

Why? Inside of me. I'm the temple of God. Worship occurs in here. This is where worship is.

And we're so naive and so shallow that what we end up saying is, no, no, it's an external thing. And if I just go through it all, I've done it. It's not worship. Jesus is really clear about that. Worship is not a time. Worship is not a place. Worship is not a ritual and worship is not a song. Worship is your mind and heart fully committed to God. That's what worship is. By the way, this thing has a great conclusion to it then. It's wonderful how it concludes. The woman said to him, I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. And when that one comes, he would have cleared all things.

This is really neat. The woman is not a member. She didn't even know what he was talking about. Why is a strange Jewish man saying things to me about living water? And now she says, you know what? The word prophet stops and she said there's a Messiah.

I know he's coming. And then one of the great things any one person ever heard. Jesus said to her, the English is bad. I who speak to you am he. There is no he.

What he said was this. The one speaking, Yahweh, I am. The one speaking, Yahweh. Twenty-three times in John, Yahweh, I am who I am.

I am he. You see, what an amazing thing for her. She gets it too. She's converted. How do you know? Look how this plays out. At this point his disciples came and they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman and yet no one said what do you seek or why do you speak with her. They know better.

And so the woman left her water pot and ran back into the city. It's a half mile. Come and see the man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it? He expects a yes answer. I think this is the Messiah. And they went out of the city and they were coming to him and meanwhile the disciples were urging him saying, Rabbi, you must eat. And he said, I have food to eat that you do not know about. And so the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought a man to eat, did he? You see, we make fun of the woman because she doesn't understand living water but they don't even understand spiritual food and they're his disciples.

And Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. He says, do you not say that there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields.

They are white with harvest. Now the idea is that the well is at a lower point. There's almost like a cliff that heads up to Sychar. And there are switchbacks down the hill to come to where the well is. So these people are running down the switchbacks. And Jesus says, there's the harvest.

They're running here. Notice what else then he says. He says, already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case, he says, the saying is true, one sows and another reap. He said, I have sent you to reap that which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. He said, other people did the groundwork here, not just this woman. There were other people who witnessed.

Now these men and these people are ready to convert and you're going to be here for the harvest. He tells his disciples that. And it says from the city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified.

He told me all the things that I have done. She goes back and starts witnessing. By the way, it's kind of interesting to me that it says here that many of the Samaritans believed.

She probably was able to talk to the men easier than talk to the women. But she talked to them and they converted. And it says, so when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him and said to him that he would ask him if he would stay for two more days. And many more believed because of his word. So there's this tremendous revival. Notice from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the even outermost parts, Jesus is already bringing those to a saving knowledge of himself in Samaria. And they were saying to the woman, it is no longer because of what you have said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world.

What a revival. The way Jesus evangelizes. Now we're not omniscient. I understand that. I can't say I know something about someone's past, but I do know this.

I do know that I can experience clearly an unexpected connection with someone. Remember Peter said, be ready to give an account for the hope that's in you. Throughout my life, people have asked. There have been questions. And am I ready when it comes? You see, it happens sometimes in airplanes and buses and playgrounds and schools and places of employment.

Just be ready. It's an unexpected connection. Secondly, we can offer grace, mercy, and forgiveness. We can offer people the grace of God.

One of the things I always want to talk to people about is this. Please don't misunderstand. What I'm talking about here is not religion. I know you know a lot about religion, but I want to talk about a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's not religious. You see, from the point of view of most religious people, no, it's just another religion.

It is not. Religion is what I can do for God. A relationship with Christ is what Jesus has done for me. One is filled with grace and mercy and forgiveness, and the other is filled with empty works. One is a well that springs from the inside and gives me a reason to live, and the other is splashing my face with water and never satisfies. Thirdly, we can also give the unparalleled promise. Once you drink this, you'll never thirst again. What a great promise that is.

And fourthly, we can make sure that we disclose in. You see, if someone says, well, I don't know if I need to be saved, you see, I think I'm good enough on my own. I want to point out that they're not. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no, not one. The wages of sin is death. Those are all the elements of giving the gospel to somebody. And so the church may be declining in America, and that is under the sovereignty of my Lord. But you and I have the capacity to be witnesses for Jesus Christ.

You and I have the capacity to do all four of those elements and then do what? Just step back because it's a divine work anyway. It's the work of God in a human heart. Our responsibility is to be a witness. His responsibility is to save. What a wonderful thing, though, when you're there for the harvest and you see another boy or a girl or another man or woman come into the kingdom of God.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the words of Jesus Christ with this Samaritan woman, how different they are than the words that he used with a religious leader, how patient he was, how insightful. Father, if someone here is struggling with the idea that I'm not good enough to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, my past is too checkered, there's too many sins, may this woman be for them a billboard of advertisement.

Jesus is an immoral woman from an immoral culture, from a culture that did not honor God, and yet Jesus Christ went out of his way to give her the gospel and she believed. Father, the gift is for all of us because you love all of us. Father, I thank you also that even though the Samaritans were enemies with the Jews, Jesus Christ didn't see people as enemies. He saw people as a mission field. I pray that we would see people the same way. There are only two people in this world, Father, those who are saved and those who are not. May we be witnesses to them and their need to have the living water that satisfies.

Empower us, encourage us, and convict us in the days ahead. In Jesus' name, amen. 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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