Rev. David Holwick J
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 12, 1995
John 4:4-29
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I. Are you satisfied?
A. Discontentment is rampant nowadays.
B. Especially true of women - they want to do new things, but have
to keep up with all the old ones, too.
1) (Complaint by Russian woman: we have careers, then come
home to take care of house, kids, meals, while no-good
husband loafs on the couch.)
2) A common response is to escape, to flee to a new situation
and leave all the old baggage behind.
a) (Woman in Ohio who did this literally, to Nashville.)
b) You usually end up in the same situation all over again.
C. John 4 is about a woman who was seeking deeper things, but in
all the wrong places.
II. A meeting of opposites.
A. Jews avoided Samaria.
1) Unfortunately, the detour added several days to the
journey.
2) The antagonism went back to the destruction of the Jews
by Babylon.
a) Jews were deported, other people imported.
b) The newcomers intermarried with some locals, adapted
the religion (imperfectly) and became Samaritans.
c) Half-breeds with half a Bible.
B. Jesus takes initiative and asks for water.
1) Not only talking to a Samaritan, but a woman, too.
2) She addresses him as a Jewish man. 4:9
III. Jesus drops the "hook."
A. He baits her with promise of "living water." 4:10
1) Fresh in-door water unheard of at that time.
2) (In Rwanda, some spend all day getting water.)
3) (Russian troops stole faucets in pillage of Berlin
in WWII. They also took light bulbs.)
B. Woman responds that the well is deep (100 ft) and he has no rope.
1) Is Jesus slicker than a patriarch?
2) Her scope is very limited.
3) Jesus says his well is inside us. 4:14
C. Woman is interested - give me some! 4:15
1) She is looking for a literal, quick fix to drudgery.
2) Most of us want the same thing from God.
David McCasland tells about a woman whose car was stalled
at an intersection.
The hood was up, and she flagged McCasland down to help.
"I can't get it started," she said.
"But if you jiggle the wire on the battery, I think it
will work."
McCasland grabbed the positive battery cable and it came
off in his hand.
Definitely the cable was too loose.
"The terminal needs to be tightened up," he told her.
"I can fix it if you have some tools."
"My HUSBAND says to just jiggle the wire," she replied.
"It always works. Why don't you just try that?"
McCasland paused for a moment, wondering why her husband
didn't ride around town with her so he would be available
when the wire needed jiggling.
Finally he said, "Ma'am, if I jiggle the wire, you're going
to need someone else to do it every time you shut the
engine off.
If you'll give me two minutes and a wrench, we can solve
the problem and you can forget about it."
Reluctantly, she fumbled under the front seat and then
extended a crescent wrench through the window of the
old car.
As he tightened the battery terminal, it occurred to
McCasland how many times he had tried, in his own life,
to get a "quick fix" from God.
"I have this problem, Lord, and if You'll just jiggle the
wire, things will be OK.
I'm in a hurry, so let's just get me going again the
quickest way possible."
God doesn't want to jiggle our wires, but to reconnect us.
If you haven't made a conscious decision to follow God, you
don't know him.
You don't start with it and lose it - you have to gain it
first.
The answer to our inner thirst is a complete surrender to God.
#2782
IV. Getting a husband.
A. Jesus' simple request brings out her condition. 4:16
1) "I have no husband," is a subtle evasion.
2) Jesus gently reveals her real story - five husbands, and
living in sin. 4:18
a) Drastic, even by 1990's standards.
1> (Elizabeth Taylor and husband #7?)
b) Why does woman go out to well, which is outside of town
that has plenty of springs - avoiding other women?
c) She is thirsty for happiness, but going about it the
wrong way.
B. Sex as the new religion.
1) Philip Yancey moved to a sex-obsessed big city. All are.
Sex is evident everywhere, prime gimmick to sell stuff.
Church's reaction is usually to redirect the thirst,
to substitute spiritual energy for the sexual.
Between the third and tenth centuries, church authorities
issued edicts forbidding intimate relations in marriage.
It was forbidden on Saturdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,
also during the forty days before Easter and Christmas.
All of this was for religious reasons.
They kept adding feast days and saint days until you
had to fast from sex 321 days a year.
Human nature being what it is, people ignored the laws.
2) This energy or thirst cannot just be "re-directed."
Adam was lonely even in Eden.
C. Our desire for sexuality is really a desire for spiritual
meaning in our lives.
1) "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit models are often called
"goddesses."
2) Sex is not a rival to spirituality, but a pointer to it.
3) The problem is not that people are getting naked, but
they aren't getting naked enough:
We stop at the skin instead of going deeper, into
the soul.
Sex excess is a modern form of idolatry, a commitment
of spirit to something that cannot bear its weight.
#3103
V. When cornered, use religion.
A. Woman is cut to soul, perceives Jesus as prophet. 4:19
1) This is too uncomfortable, so she goes on tangent again.
B. Where is right place to worship? 4:20
1) (Astronomy article by Philip Stahl - belief systems cancel
out one another.
But logical to see only one as being right.)
2) Jesus elevates discussion - both Samaritans and Jews are
off base.
a) How we worship is more important than where we worship.
b) Jews have one advantage, a fuller revelation - whole
Old Testament and not just first 5 books. 4:22
3) Worship in "spirit and truth" is ultimate religion.
a) Means worship must come from a genuine heart, not a
hypocrite.
b) Truth shows what we believe is important, not just
feelings.
C. Further deflection by woman - the Messiah will explain all this.
1) She doesn't want to face the real needs of her soul.
2) Jesus reveals himself - I am the Messiah.
VI. Only Jesus can satisfy.
A. All of us have made bad choices.
1) Good News of Jesus is that we are never too far gone.
B. Our thirst for intimate relationships, money, and power are
really a thirst for ultimate meaning that only Jesus can give.
1) When her deepest thirst was satisfied, all other things
took their rightful place in her life.
C. Surest sign he satisfies you - you go and tell others.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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