At the End of the Broken Road

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A little later in the program we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's book, Man of God. But first, here's the message at the end of The Broken Road. Take your Bible and turn to John's Gospel, Chapter 4. Jesus often spoke with individuals.

Yes, He spoke to great crowds and had compassion upon many people. But many of the most important and significant things that Jesus said, He said one-on-one, face-to-face, heart-to-heart with people. This story is a conversation between Jesus and a woman by a well outside of a Samaritan village known as Sychor. Let's look at the first eight verses. Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, in other words, there was a Jesus movement going on in Israel and many were following Christ and were being baptized in His name.

Although Jesus, verse 2, did not baptize but only His disciples. He left Judea and departed again for Galilee. Judea is the Jerusalem region so He's leaving Jerusalem and Judea and departing to Galilee which is His hometown and home base for His ministry. So verse 4, and He had to pass through Samaria. So, He came to a town of Samaria called Sychor near the field that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus wearied, amazing isn't it, the Son of God, God the Son is tired and thirsty, wearied from His journey was sitting beside the well and it was about the sixth hour. It was the middle of the day, it was hot, and it was high noon. A woman from Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

Now let me note that this is not a chance meeting of strangers. Jesus is on the way back home from Jerusalem and on His way back there were a couple of routes, three actually, that He could have taken from Jerusalem to the Galilee. He could have taken the long route around because many Jews refused to walk through Samaria, especially pious and religious rabbis and the like. They viewed Samaria as contaminated and here's why. Prejudice.

Prejudice. The Jews and the Samaritans despised one another. The Jews in particular hated the Samaritans because they viewed them as racial half-breeds in that they had intermingled with foreign nations and idolatrous people and therefore it was a mixed race and a mixed breed of people, if you will. And not only did they view them as racial half-breeds but viewed them as religious heretics because the Samaritans had established their own religion separate from the Jewish faith in Jerusalem and to this very day when you go to Samaria, they have their own law which is just the first five books of the Old Testament.

They have their priests, they have their style of worship, it's different, totally different from the Jewish worship. And the Jews saw this as an affront and the idolatry and the mixed bag of religion that was celebrated there, they despised that. So, no good self-respecting religious person would go through Samaria.

You might think of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians today. The tension was in the air and therefore most people who were Jewish would go all the way around, take the long route so that they wouldn't go through Samaria. But if you put it in your Waze app, the shortest route was right through Samaria. So if you wanted to get there faster, you would certainly go through Samaria, not all the way around. So the Scripture says that Jesus had to go through Samaria.

There's more here than meets the eye. It was more than travelogue. The old King James version put it this way, He must needs go through Samaria.

Remember that? He must needs go through Samaria. There was a must, a missionary must in the heart of God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the world not only included Jerusalem and Judea but it included the people in Samaria as well. In fact, when Jesus gave us the great commission, His marching orders to His church, to His people, He said, start in Jerusalem and go through Judea and where?

Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth, the world. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. God so loved the world. And God incarnate in Christ is practicing what He preached. He is living out this mission. He must go on this mission.

And He therefore had a divine appointment. Why did Jesus go through Samaria? Because there was a woman at an old well outside of this Samaritan village who was broken at the end of the road. In fact, as we read more about her later in this passage, we discover that she was a five-time adulteress and was living with a man who was not her husband. She was in many ways a sinful and shamed woman.

She is broken and she comes to this well. Now we don't have to wonder about the mission of Jesus, what it is. And therefore what we're supposed to be doing as followers of Jesus. As Jesus said in Luke 19 and verse 10, that I have come to seek and to save the lost. God in Christ came seeking to save the lost. So on this heat-seeking missile of a mission, Jesus came and He went through Samaria.

He had to do it. It was a must because there was a broken, burned out woman there who needed to know that God loved her, even her. And there was an entire village of people outside of the religious system of the day who desperately needed to know Jesus. Now Jesus was always on a schedule, a timetable, God's timetable. And He was always at the right place at the right time with the right person.

And what was true then is true today. You may think that you're here by accident or chance, but we are not. We are here by divine appointment. And the Lord is looking for you. In this case, Jesus was looking for this woman. This woman wasn't looking for Jesus. She didn't initially know who He was, but He was looking for her.

She came to the well to draw water, but she found Jesus at that well because He was looking for her. Jesus refused to ignore the people of Samaria because He had this divine passion and mission. And He did not allow social barriers, cultural barriers, racial barriers, political barriers, religious barriers to keep Him away from a person who desperately needed Him. And neither should we.

Justice of any kind is based on arrogance, pride, and ignorance. And we must always go and find people, whoever they are, and bring them to Jesus. Even if it means going through Samaria, a hard place, a difficult place with difficult people. This lady was not easy.

She was a difficult, tough cookie, as we'll find out in this conversation. But the gospel of Jesus Christ and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ must always be inclusive of every person and inviting to all who would trust and follow Christ. We must cross those barriers and knock down those biases in our lives, and we must do it until He comes again. You know, Jesus was exhausted, and His humanity is on display here. But not only His humanity, but His deity, His love of God. We must do whatever it takes, people, to reach people where they are, our neighbors and the nations for Christ.

You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message at the end of The Broken Road. Our world desperately needs men of God, strong men who model gentleness, lead with humility, and speak the truth in love. We want to help you identify the traits of a real man of God by sending you Dr. Jack Graham's insightful book, Man of God. Our thanks for your gift today.

In it, Dr. Graham gives you biblical insights to what a true man of God looks like to his spouse, his family, and the world. This is the last week of this offer, so call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org, where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is JackGraham.org. Now let's get back to today's message at the end of The Broken Road. Now the Scripture tells us that this woman came alone at noon. Now that's interesting why this woman would come by herself at high noon, but you could probably imagine why. Being an adulteress, five times married and now shacked up with a man who wasn't her husband, she had quite a reputation and therefore was most likely ostracized and alienated and maybe she was just tired of the stares and the sneers. So here she is, she's an adulteress, she's alone and Jesus begins a conversation with her.

And the conversation begins with a simple question. Jesus said, would you give me a drink? Now this woman knew this well, well. She had been to this well many times and spiritually speaking she'd been to the well many times as well. And spiritually, she was empty because her life was not satisfying. She was no doubt disillusioned with life by now.

I'm sure she never thought she would end up at the end of a broken road like this. She was unsatisfied because she had been living on artificial substitutes, that's why Jesus offered her living water. I want us to look at that again. Verse 10, 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. Jesus is giving a very simple illustration, just like it was simple when He said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, everybody understands about birth, it's a new beginning. And so it was an illustration that everyone could understand.

And now He's giving another illustration right there at that well. He said, if you drink of Me, if you knew who I was, you would ask Me and I would give you living water, a drink that satisfies the thirst of your soul. You have to identify who Jesus is. He said, if you knew who I was, if you knew the one who was asking, then you would ask for this water. Therein lies a big problem, because most people don't have a clue as to who Jesus is.

Or if they do, they've got it all upside down in some way. He said, if you knew who I was, you would ask and I would give you living water. I just say to you, if you knew my Jesus, if you knew Him, if you knew what He was like, if you knew how wonderful He is, you would ask, simply ask for the salvation and the life that He gives, wouldn't you? Jesus said, ask and I'll give you this living water.

It's a simple illustration about salvation. The prophet Isaiah said, everyone who thirsts, let him ask of Me. The last page of the Bible gives an invitation. And the invitation, Revelation 22, whosoever will, let him drink of the water of life freely.

Anyone can drink water. If you want to know Jesus as your Savior, know that your sins are forgiven, regardless of your past or your present. You can be forgiven, you can be saved, satisfied deep within by simply receiving and believing Him. Simply ask Him, you would ask. He said, I would give it to you.

Just ask. There's an old gospel song we used to sing, like the woman at the well I was seeking for things that could not satisfy and then I heard my Savior speaking, draw from the well that never will run dry. Fill my cup, Lord. I lift it up, Lord. Come and quench this thirsting of my soul. Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.

Fill my cup, fill my cup and make me whole. Because I guarantee you at the end of the broken road, this woman's broken road and yours, there is grace, waves of grace. Even for a scarlet woman, there is the scarlet blood of Christ.

God's grace is greater than our sin. Just ask. He said, I will give you living water. She's resistant. So Jesus, He goes for it. He says in verses 16 through 18, well we need to read them, look at it. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. And the woman answered Him, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, you got that right. You're right in saying I have no husband, for you've had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.

What you've said is true. And though He's serious, of course, I can't help but believe that a smile is creasing His face when He says, you're right. You don't have a husband. You've had five husbands. I know you.

And the man you're living with now is not your husband. Now lest you think Jesus is being cruel here, I mean this, you know, if you're a salesperson, you might think, well this is the wrong approach. I mean He had her, you know, right there talking about living water is so good, is so great.

And drink, just ask, just drink, it's there. And then He starts talking to her about her sin, exposing her sin. But He's not being cruel.

I don't want to go to a doctor who lies to me about whether I'm sick or not. He knew what was in this woman's heart. It's what's in all of our hearts. It's an emptiness because of sin and a brokenness because of sin. Jesus said something about sin. It was awkward, for sure. It was tense. But now, she's ready and she's responsive to hear of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, drink it, this pivotal statement. Stop defending your sin. Stop covering it up. Take off the mask.

Own it. And when you own your sin and confess it, He is faithful to forgive every sin. Do you want water? Jesus said, it's a drink that satisfies and drink it.

There is a fountain that flows from deep within. He's getting more now, getting it more. In verse 19, she says, sir, you must be a prophet. He was a prophet. But more than a prophet, He was Messiah. And in verse 26, He confesses that He is the Messiah. If you ever doubt whether Jesus claimed to be God and Messiah or not, here's one example among many. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. Speaking of the Messiah. She said, the Messiah's coming. We've heard the Messiah's coming. Jesus said, you're looking at Him. I am the Messiah. So now she knows who Jesus is and what her sin is all about and how she can simply drink of the wells of salvation because the wells of this world never satisfy.

Whether it's the wells of success, the wells of pleasure, the wells of profit and money and the wells of sex or immorality, the wells of alcohol, the wells of drug, all those wells are dry holes and artificial beverages. Now she does that. She says, I'm taking the living water.

You say, how do we know that? Look at verses 27 and 28, and this is the third chapter. It's what I'm going to call a dramatic acceptance. There was a direct appeal and then came this dramatic acceptance in verses 27 and 28. Just then His disciples came back and they marveled that He was talking with a woman.

But no one said, what do you seek or what are you talking or why are you talking with her? So the woman, look at this, verse 28, left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? Go on to verse 30. And then they went out of the town and were coming to Him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Him saying, Rabbi, eat.

Now this is somewhat comical to me, part of this. Because here are these boys, the disciples, His followers, and they've been in town for a couple of hours. They've been to In-N-Out, they've been to the Dairy Queen, they've got sacks under their arms, they're coming back. Judas, you know, the keeper of the bag, he was especially generous that day, gave them a little extra meal money. They're coming back, they're having a great day, and they see Jesus talking to this woman at the well.

And they're going, whoa, what's this about? Jesus is going, eat something. And in the meantime, this woman leaves her water pot because she had living water.

It's a symbol, of course. She didn't need that water pot anymore, she didn't need that well anymore. She had the well of life in her and she goes back and she says, come meet a man that told me who I was, what I'm about.

Come meet a man. Could this man be the Messiah? Now she doesn't have it all down yet, but she's already a witness. She's already testifying. She's already telling the story.

His story is her story. And think about it, now the city comes out. Everybody in the town it seems is coming out to meet Jesus. Now these disciples, they'd been in town all half the day and they didn't bring one single person out there to meet Jesus. It took a brand new saved woman to go out and bring her friends and bring her family and bring everybody. It must have been hard. He said, who's going to believe me?

Who's going to believe me? She didn't care, she was so in love with Jesus by this time, she went out, she got her friends, said, come meet a man. Could we not do just that?

Anybody can do that, right? Let's not be like those disciples, more interested in what we're going to have for lunch than people coming to Jesus. Who spend all day doing stuff that doesn't really matter, when what really matters is getting as many people to Jesus as fast as we can. We can all say, come and meet a man. I mean she had no theology here, she was not trained in evangelism.

She had no course on how to share her faith. She said, come meet this man. And ultimately, ultimately it says in this passage that many believed because of the testimony of this woman. She found grace, she found Jesus at the end of the broken road.

And so can you. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, At the End of the Broken Road. Today's culture has so distorted the concept of masculinity that some even reject it as toxic. But our world doesn't need less manly men. We need more men of God, men who love Jesus, make loving husbands and fathers and lead as servants. We'd like to help you uncover what God says about true masculinity by sending you Dr. Graham's book, Man of God.

You'll gain biblical insight into how you or the men in your life can live with purpose and passion, putting Christ first and living radically for him. Man of God is our thanks for your gift to help proclaim God's word through PowerPoint. This is the last week of this offer, so call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit jackgram.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email and get a free copy of his book, God's Devotional.

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