Greg Robinson - Now We Believe- John’s Guide to Growing Our Faith - Class 3 - In Spirit and Truth

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   This is day four of the 2025 Idyllwild Bible School, our first grade teachers by the Greg Robinson. His general topic is Now We believe, John’s guide to growing our faith. Today’s topic is in Spirit and Truth for the Great. All right. Good morning, everyone. All right, Impressive how quiet everybody got there. At first I thought that was maybe a stunt or something like that.

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   But all right, so we’re going to be looking at the woman at the well this morning. Before we start out with that, just a quick reminder about yesterday’s lesson. A lot of similarities actually that have have been noted by by people between Nicodemus and the woman at the well. So our key lesson from yesterday was unless we’re born of water and the Spirit, we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

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   So today then we’re going to be looking at the woman at the well, and she’s a woman that belonged to a group that had an incredible spiritual heritage. And that’s brought out in John. Just with some of the details that we’re going to look at. It was a heritage full of brethren that had incredible faith. And the woman was very proud.

4. 1:21

   You can tell of that heritage and she subscribed to its rituals. She subscribed to the traditions of her group. You might say that she actually fights for those things, but Jesus shows her in this chapter that her worship wasn’t what God was looking for. It had to be more than rituals and traditions.

5. 1:47

   It had to be life changing. That’s the the key lesson that we’re going to see, I think this morning in looking at the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well. And so our our 4th class is titled in spirit and in truth and it’s found, as you know, in John chapter 4.

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   So let’s let’s open our Bibles up to John chapter 4, the end of at the end of chapter 3. Jesus work in Judea has met with a lot of success. You’ll remember that his work is eclipsing the work of John the Baptist. His disciples are baptizing more and John says he must increase, but I must decrease. And at the beginning of chapter 4, Jesus seems to be getting pressure now.

7. 2:31

   He seems to be getting noticed by the Pharisees significantly. And so he decides he’s going to head back to Galilee. Now John chapter 4 verse 4 says that he had he had to pass through Samaria. The King James Version says he must needs go through Samaria. So this gives us the idea that that somehow Jesus maybe was directed to go through Samaria.

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   Usually the Jews would travel around Samaria they wouldn’t go through. If you look at the map there, you’ll see there’s a a green route that went on the left side going around on the West side of Samaria. In the red, there was a a route that went to the east across the Jordan, but the white route was the one that was the quickest route, and that’s the one through Samaria.

9. 3:20

   If they were going up to Galilee, if they’re going up there, they would never take because it went through Samaria. Now why would they do that? Why would they always go way around Samaria instead of going through Samaria? That’s because the Jews and the Samaritans would have nothing to do with each other. Now, what do we know about the Samaritans? Well, the Samaritans had their own version of the Law of Moses. They used the first five books of the Bible. That’s all they used.

10. 3:55

    That was their Bible, the laws in the Samaritan Bible, the Pentateuch. The first five books were mostly the same as the ones in the Jewish Pentateuch. So it’s interesting, the Samaritans observed the laws of Moses with the same attention to detail as the Jews, but they each had their own traditions and rituals, and they each had surprisingly their own temple. So here’s what Josephus tells us. This is from Easton’s dictionary. It says Josephus relates that sand ballot built a temple for the Samaritans on this mountain.

11. 4:38

    That’s Speaking of of Mount Gerizim, which was where their temple was as as that says, who was Sand Ballot? Yep. Horan Knight. What did he do? What was the what’s the thing he’s famous for? Maybe. Yeah, for certain. Right. When they were, when they were trying to rebuild the wall, when they were trying to do that in Nehemiah’s time, he was always in the way of the work and always trying to stop the work.

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    Well, at the same time, guess what he’s doing. He’s building this temple for the Samaritans, of which he’s a group. So he builds his own and instituted A priesthood as rivals to those of the Jews at Jerusalem. His temple was destroyed after it stood for 200 years, and it was afterwards built by Herod the Great. There is a Samaritan tradition that Mount Gerizim was the scene of the incident recorded in Genesis chapter 22. Do you know what the incident of Genesis 22 is? That’s Abraham going to OfferUp Isaac, right? So they believed that that actually happened on Mount Gerizim, which is where their temple was built. All right, so that’s that’s what he has to say about that. Excuse me.

13. 5:52

    All right, so the Samaritans believed in God, but their belief was filled with man made rituals and traditions. It was like the religion of the Jews. It was a religion of appearance in many ways, and most people in that religion did not end up with a saving belief. So on his way to Galilee, Jesus went the way that no one else would have gone. And he goes right up through Samaria. And verse 5 of of John chapter 4 says so. He came to a town of Samaria called Sicar. Sicar is thought to have been a small village, possibly by Shechem.

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    It’s thought to have been even maybe just another name for Shechem. So we know where this is. He’s at Shechem, and it says that it’s near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Now we have to do a little bit of digging, if you’re like me, to figure out exactly what that story was and what’s involved with that. But it’s important to the story to understand that. So we’re going to go through just a few verses to get a feel for this field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And 1st we’re going to go to Joshua chapter 24. So Joshua chapter 24 is the chapter when all of Israel gathered.

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    It’s at the end of Joshua, all of Israel gathers together and Joshua calls them, you remember the, the words he calls them to choose who they’re going to serve. He says, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, We will serve Yahweh. So I think it’s it’s worth making a note of this in your Bible in John four and maybe maybe back in in Joshua as well. So Joshua chapter 24, verse 22 tells us about the field that Jacob gave to Joseph at Shechem.

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    Joshua 24 verse 32 says, As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem. So not only did Jacob give the land to Joseph, but Joseph in the end ends up being buried there, it says in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for 100 pieces of money. So this is one of those rare times when, when the one of the patriarchs actually owns land in the promised land, it became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph, we’re told. So the field that Jacob bought, he gives as an inheritance specially to Joseph and Israel.

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    The nation takes Joseph’s bones many years later, there to be buried. All right, so that gives us some information. Let’s go over to Genesis 33. So now we’re looking at the context. The context is of Jacob just after he’d met up with Esau, Genesis 33 and 19. And he has come now safely to Shechem, Genesis 3319, it says. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for 100 pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.

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    So he bought the land. And what does he do? It says there he erected an altar and he called it El Elohi Israel. It’s interesting to know that at this place. So Jacob buys it and he buys it so that he can build an altar there. And it’s also the place where Abraham had built an altar back in Genesis chapter 12. He builds an altar there when he first comes into the land. And then we’ll, we’ll, we saw as, as in the reading this morning that there’s a, there’s a well that Jacob digs in that same place.

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    So Jacob gave his son Joseph this field. It’s got a well on it. It’s got an altar on it. And Abraham had also built an altar on the same place. So this is a very, very important place. The this place that is, is so important to Joseph that he asks for his bones to be carried there.

20. 9:37

    So come with me to Genesis chapter 50, Genesis 50. Joseph is is about to to die and he says to his brothers, I’m about to die, but God will visit you. This is verse 24. God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. And then Joseph made his sons, the sons of Israel swear saying, God will surely visit you and you should carry up my bones from here.

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    So Joseph died being 110 years old. They embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. So Joseph is saying, I believe that we are going back to the promised land and I believe that I will be there, that I will be raised to life again. I want that to be where I am raised to life again. Joseph never forgot the hope of the Kingdom and he wanted Israel never to forget the hope, the promises that have been given. So I think this highlights for us the the faith that Joseph had about God’s promises.

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    He’d spent 85% of his life in Egypt, but all he wanted was to end up in the promised land. That’s where his heart was. And so he asks the whole nation then to take him back to this land. In fact, this is is such an indication of his faith that this is what Hebrews 11 picks up as the key moment of his faith. So let’s go to Hebrews 11, verse 22. Hebrews 11/22 says by faith, Joseph when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. So the time of his death, this was the only thing that was important to him, the promised land. And one more verse that we’ll look at just as as we’re researching this is back in Genesis 49. It’s a prophecy made by Jacob and Jacob makes those prophecies about his sons.

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    And here’s what he says about Joseph. So this is Genesis 49, verse 22. It says Joseph is a fruitful bow or a fruitful tree, a fruitful bow by a spring. That’s an allusion to this well that we’re going to read about here in John chapter 4, an allusion to this this spring. And it’s not just a, a, a normal, well, I guess you would say this is a, a spring. So this is a fountain.

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    Well, and his branches will run over the wall. So I want you to keep that in mind as well, because Jacob makes this prophecy about Joseph. So to Joseph, Shechem is not nostalgia. It’s not the tradition of his father’s. It’s not something nice that’s nice because his father gave it to him. To Joseph, it’s a symbol of his resurrection and of the Kingdom of God and it’s the purpose of his life. That’s Shechem to Joseph.

25. 12:42

    So here’s a picture of where Shechem is located. Shechem is is known as the city of choice. It’s between Mount Gerizim. You’ll see that on the left there the the, the mountain of blessing and Mount evil, the mountain of cursing between the the blessings that were were promised for obedience and the cursings for disobedience.

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    It was a very important city in Israel because of some of the things that happened there. So if you were to think about Shechem, you would think about all the different things that happened there. And if you lived there, you would brag about Shechem. This is the place where all these different things have happened.

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    Now, have you ever gone through a city where people bragged about famous events that took place in their city? You ever gone through those? Yeah. So I’m from Brantford, ON Canada. Does anybody know any famous things that happened in Brantford? Yes. OK, that’s one, right. Does it say that on the water tower now the home of Wayne? Probably not.

28. 13:44

    I think Wayne Gretzky lives in Thousand Oaks, actually. But does it what else in for Brantford? Yeah, aha, too great things. Yeah. So as I was growing up in Brantford, I remember the water tower, and it said on the water tower Brantford, the telephone city, is what it said on the water tower as I went by there.

29. 14:02

    So anyway, you get the idea. So what would it say if you were in Shechem? On the sign in Shechem, it would say Shechem, the place where Abraham built an altar. He had to choose between the Canaanites, the cursed people, or the blessings of the promises. It was the place where Jacob bought the land so he could build an altar. It was the place where Joseph is buried. And Joseph was a famous guy.

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    Joseph was known. Does anybody know the Egyptian name? The name the Egyptians gave to Joseph. Yeah. Right. So Zath. Anath Penia. Right. Does anybody know what it means? Savior of the world. OK, excellent. So that would probably be on the side too, if we, if they were talking about it. It was a place where the blessings and the cursings were read, and it’s also the place that Joshua called Israel to choose whom they were going to serve in Joshua chapter 24, where he says now therefore fear Yahweh, serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your father’s have served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. Joshua says, As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. So it’s a it’s a really remarkable place and the Samaritan woman had come from this remarkable, remarkable spiritual heritage.

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    All right, with that in mind, this is this is kind of her frame of reference, her frame of thinking. Here we go to verse 6 of John chapter 4. It says now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. And it was about the 6th hour.

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    So one of the things that we find when we research these wells, because our research so far has already pointed at this, is that John uses two different words for the wells in this story. Well, actually John uses 1 and the woman uses a completely different word for this well. So the one that John uses the well is the Greek word pegay.

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    And the word that John that John uses for Jacob’s well means a fountain. It’s a a, a well that’s that has a spring in it. So it has flowing water, which they would actually call living water in this well. So John calls Jacob’s well a fountain. But the whole story gets more interesting when we realize that what the woman actually calls this well is a Greek word freer.

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    And that means a hole in the ground. You see the difference. So John says, no, this, this is a this is a fountain. And this is what the narrative says. This is what God recognizes it as. And the woman looks at it as a hole in the ground. Let me show you So John four and we’re going to look at verse six.

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    First of all, so it says now Jacob’s well, and that’s the word fountain was there because John, the writer of the Gospel here the narrative is saying, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, set thus on the well on the fountain, and it was about the 6th hour. Then we go down to verse 11, and it says, And the woman said to him, Sir, thou hast nothing to drink with. And the well the hole in the ground is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water we go over to? To verse 12 Then so the woman speaking again, and she says, Art thou greater than our Father Jacob, which gave us the well, which gave us the hole in the ground, and drank thereof himself and his children, and his cattle? And then of course we go down to verse 14, where Jesus expands this idea of this fountain.

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    It says, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, she’ll never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be unto him a well, a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. And that’s the verse that kind of clues you into the difference between the perspectives about this well. So John is telling us that God’s that God’s Word and his promises, which this well represents, are viewed differently by different people.

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    To some people, his promises and his word is a a flowing well of living water. They’re from God. And to other people, the word of God is just water. It’s something that comes from the ground. It’s something that comes in, in this case, from a a pretty special piece of ground, something that our ancestor Jacob has dug. But it’s not something that would change the course of your life.

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    So the woman here, she doesn’t look at God’s word and God’s promises like Joseph did. She sees it as as something to be proud of that heritage, something that makes her group superior to to other groups. And so the woman at the well, to her, it’s just a hole in the ground that they got water from.

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    Now, I think there’s an expectation already in that for us, how do we see the word of God? How do we see the hope of the Kingdom of God? What is our worship like? Do we look at the promises like a fountain of living water? Like Joseph who who wanted to be brought back to that place? Like Joseph who who wanted to be buried because that was his hope, buried there because that was his hope? Or do we see it like the ground with just water in it? How valuable is the water to us?

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    So that brings us back to John 4:00 and 7:00. So Jesus is is sitting on the well and a woman from Samaria came to draw water and Jesus says to her, give me to drink. So here we have a Jew asking a Samaritan to draw water from the well for him. Now if Jesus wanted to instantly open up a can of worms with this woman, that was absolutely the right thing to say. And I think that’s exactly what he wanted to do. Verse 8 tells us that the disciples are not there. It says for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

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    We won’t look at it in any real detail, but later on the disciples have really almost the same problem to deal with as the woman has to deal with in the word their perspective on things. So Jesus asks her for some water and she responds in verse 9 she says, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. She says, are you serious?

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    You guys have nothing to do with us. You guys make a point of going all the way around our country and here you are asking me to draw water for you. Why would I do that for you? And she gets all fired up because Jesus has asked her for some, some water. Now, of course, she has the wrong perspective on things.

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    What, what do you think she could have said to this, this stranger that came up to her on this? Well, well, maybe even from her perspective, she could have, could have said something like, is this your first time in Shechem? Do you know the hope of, of Joseph who’s buried here? Do you know why he wanted his bones to be brought back here? But that’s not, that’s not what she says, right? There’s there’s something else that’s on her mind that’s that’s greater than that.

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    So verse 10, Jesus answers and says to her, if you knew the gift of God, if you had spiritual understanding of God’s plan, like Abraham, like Jacob, like Joseph, like Joshua had, and who it is that says to you, give me to drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

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    If you knew about the Kingdom and if you knew who I am, your answer would have been a lot different. When I asked you to give me a drink of water, you would have been asking me for living water, for the words of eternal life. And so Jesus reframes, reframes the whole conversation to a spiritual level, but her thinking is still on earthly things in in verse 11. And the woman says to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the wells is deep.

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    It’s a it’s a deep hole in the ground. She says, where do you get that living water? You don’t even have a bucket. Where could you get that water from? Well, she says, are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

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    She says Jacob dug this well. Are you greater than Jacob? Do you think that your water is greater than the water that comes from Jacob’s well, from Jacob’s hole in the ground? And Jesus says to her, everyone that drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Your water is just water. You’re going to have to come back for more tomorrow.

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    You’re going to have to come back every day. You’ll be putting all of your energy into drawing water, and you’ll still need to come back again and again to draw water. That’s the water I think that the whole world is drinking, isn’t it? Water from a hole in the ground, drawn daily, day after day after day.

49. 23:44

    Their lives are pointless. There’s nothing they’re accomplishing with their life. And Jesus is trying to introduce her to something far better. He says For who’s? But whosoever drinks of the water that I will give, she’ll never thirst. You’ll never want anything else. Once you learn about the Kingdom and about eternal life, and once you believe in those things like Joseph did, you’ll be fully satisfied and the purpose of your life will completely change. You will not want anything else.

50. 24:21

    You’ll want to get out of Egypt and come to the promised land. So Jesus continues, But the water that I should give him shall be in him, a well of springing water, springing up unto everlasting life. The water that I can give you, this faith that I can give you will be something that you can give to other people and your faith will still be flowing.

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    You yourself will be a fountain. And so the woman says in verse 15, Sir, give me this water. She says, that sounds really good. I want this water. I will get thirsty again and I won’t have to draw water. This is this is perfect. So she’s still in the dark with this conversation with Jesus. She’s not getting it.

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    She doesn’t realize what Jesus is talking about. So Jesus decides to say something to her that that calls her out, that gets her attention, to show her the problem that she had, that her worship had to be more than just rituals and traditions. In a way, what he says to her is giving her some of that living water.

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    So verse 16, Jesus says to her, go call your husband and come here. Now that would have shocked her. Where did that come from? Why do you want me to call my husband? And, and you can hear the tone. You can feel the tone change in her response. The conversation is no longer a Samaritan debating about her group being better. The woman answers and says to him, I have no husband. She’s thinking, you know, maybe I can kind of deflect the question.

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    But Jesus, he’s not going to let her get off that easy, is he? And Jesus says to her, you’re right in saying I have no husband, for you have 5 husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. What you said is true.

55. 26:18

    Wow. A minute ago they were debating about whose water was better, a Jew and a Samaritan, whose worship was better in a way whose ecclesia was better. And Jesus looks right into her heart and he sees her adulterous life and the conversation goes deep, deep into that heart. And he says, if your worship is greater, if your, if your water is greater, then why hasn’t it had an effect on your life?

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    Why aren’t you developing the fruit of the spirit? You know, we, we said earlier that a lot of people compare the story of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. Exactly right. They, they both have the same problem, don’t they? And Jesus has said exactly what was necessary to get her to stop and to actually think about the challenges that she had and to think about the impact her worship was having on her life. Now, how often has that happened in your lives when someone says something to you that wakes you up about yourself, that that freezes you in your tracks and that hopes hopefully makes you question your sincerity and hopefully makes you get back on the right track.

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    I want to tell you a little story about when, when I was a teenager a long time ago and I wasn’t baptized and I wasn’t moving toward baptized and I was walking along with my cousin. My cousin was about 10 years old and my uncle, her dad was a leader of our CYC. Many of you will have will remember Brother Colin Badger. So brother Colin Badger was our CYC leader and I had a lot of respect for for Uncle Colin.

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    Anyway, so my cousin and I are walking along and she says to me, she’s 10 years old. She says to me, you know, my dad says that you’re not interested in the truth.

59. 28:24

    Of course my dad says right. And I thought, that’s not true. I am interested in the truth, but of course I wasn’t interested in the truth as I as I should have been. And when I really thought about it, I realized that my cousin, my 10 year old cousin was right, that my my uncle was right.

60. 28:44

    Now that made me make big changes in my life. That that conversation that I kind of had with my uncle made me make big changes in my life. Now, maybe it’s not the best idea to say things like that to your 10 year old kid, but I think sometimes words can make a big difference.

61. 29:04

    I was talking to some some young brethren recently. We were at a school of the prophets and I asked a group of them what had had the biggest impact on bringing them to belief. And we went over from the room and everybody was describing the thing that had had the biggest impact. And these are, you know, mostly 20s, twenty year old guys, early 20s, mid 20s.

62. 29:29

    About a third of them said that they got to a point where someone had actually asked them, a brother in the ecclesia, a sister in the ecclesia, someone had asked, actually asked them about whether or not they were thinking about being baptized. And they said that when that happened, it made them think, wow, I need to think about that. Maybe I need to be baptized.

63. 29:55

    I was just, I was very surprised at how many people had done that because that’s not something that’s that’s my normal thing to do. And yet how helpful it actually was to to to these young brethren. All right, so back to our story then. So Jesus has asked the woman about her husband’s and then in verse 9, the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you’re a prophet. She could see that Jesus had power from God just like Nicodemus had seen.

64. 30:25

    And so she says you must be a prophet. But she still holds on to the worship of the Samaritans. And she figures who better to ask about whether the Jews have it right or the Samaritans have it right. And so she wants to ask this prophet about that. So that’s verse 20. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, on this mountain. But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

65. 30:49

    She’s thinking Abraham, Jacob, Joseph all worshipped here. Surely this must be the right place to worship. Joseph is even buried here. Surely Gerizim must be the right place and not Jerusalem. That first of all, I think that’s pretty bold that she asks a Jew this question, right? Because Jesus is obviously a Jew.

66. 31:11

    So Jesus says to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will thou worship the Father. Soon you won’t be worshipping in either place. Why not? Why wouldn’t she be worshipping in either place? Why does he say that? What was going to soon happen to both of those places? 8070, right?

67. 31:40

    They would both be destroyed by the Romans and there would be no place for them to go and to worship. So verse 22, he says you worship what you don’t know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. He says the problem is that you worship what you don’t know, you don’t understand. We think of the Samaritans.

68. 32:04

    They believed in, in just the five books of the Bible that were from from God. The Samaritans didn’t have the promises to David. They didn’t have the prophets, they didn’t have the Psalms, they didn’t have a full picture of the Kingdom like the Jews did. Salvation clearly was of the Jews. In fact, the Savior was going to be a Jew.

69. 32:28

    But it’s not Gerizim or Jerusalem that really matters. Jesus is saying, he says the hour’s coming, that now here is when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. True worshippers, real worshippers, those who really honor God, those who do what God says, that’s those are the people that God is looking for.

70. 32:59

    True worshippers, he says, will worship in spirit and in truth. In spirit, not just for other people to see, like the adulterous woman who came to the hole in the ground, who bragged about the well of Jacob, but they will worship genuinely. She needed to be like Abraham, like Jacob, like Joseph, like Joshua, who saw the truth as a fountain of living water.

71. 33:27

    They’ll worship in truth. Think of a ritual or a tradition like like eating animals, clean animals versus unclean animals. That was a ritual, but the ritual was given to teach a lesson, and some people got so caught up in the ritual that they didn’t see the lesson that was behind it. What should have actually changed their behavior?

72. 33:52

    The ritual of of unclean and clean gives was given to illustrate people the need to to watch what they put into their minds. The the Samaritans and the Jews were careful about what they ate, but they were not careful about what they were putting into their minds. The Samaritans of the Jews had traditions that kept them apart, ways of worshipping that were different, but it wasn’t the traditions that God was looking for.

73. 34:19

    God is looking for people who are being changed by his word. It’s a lesson, a really important lesson for us. If we’re worshipping in spirit and in truth, it should be changing our lives. And that point would have rang out in the ears of a woman. In verse 24, Jesus continues, God is spirit, God is holy, He’s genuine, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

74. 34:53

    We’ve got to follow his example. We should reflect his character. And so the woman says in in verse 25, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ when he comes, he’ll tell us all things and she’s still responding back to, to to verse 22. You worship, you know, not what the words of Jesus. She believed that the Messiah would come and teach them and then they would know and she was ready for spiritual understanding.

75. 35:22

    And so Jesus says to her, I who speak to you, I’m he. He says, yes, I’m the Messiah, and she believed him. It was an amazing conversation. But then the story’s interrupted, isn’t it, by the disciples returning? We look at verse 27. Just then his disciples came back and they marvelled that he was talking with a woman.

76. 35:52

    They’ve also got to learn the lesson about worshipping in spirit and truth. How could he be talking to a Samaritan woman? They weren’t supposed to be having any dealings with with the Samaritans, the disciples. The disciples were stuck in their traditions. And that comes out loud and clear to us later on. But no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking to her? I think that’s pretty smart that they didn’t say much at that point, wasn’t it?

77. 36:20

    But look what the woman does next. The woman left or water jar. Wow, wow, wow. She believed. There it is. There’s the moment that we’ve been looking for. She had no use for the water from the well anymore. She left her water jug right there by the well. She was no longer thirsty for that water.

78. 36:51

    Traditions and rituals are nothing compared to true belief. And now she had true belief. She had living water. And so she left her water pot behind. Once you’ve tasted faith, nothing compares to it. Nothing satisfies like it. And she was going now to share that water, that faith with her people. It had become, it was becoming a spring that was flowing from her. And so she went away into the town and said to the people, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?

79. 37:30

    She says, I’ve just been talking to the Messiah. Can you imagine that? And her belief is, is so contagious that the people believe too. Verse 30, they went out of the town and they were coming to him. Let’s let’s skip down from there to verse 35 because in verse 31 to 34, the disciples are going to actually be taught the same lesson as the woman.

80. 37:51

    And it’s interesting to follow that and see the parallels there. But in verse 35, the men of the city are coming out to the well where Jesus is because they also believe because of the belief of the woman. And Jesus is talking to his disciples. And verse 35 he says, say not ye, there are yet four months.

81. 38:11

    And then harvest comes. Jesus says to his disciples, doesn’t it usually take four months for grain to grow? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, look on the fields for their white already with harvest. He says we’ll take a look and coming toward them are a bunch of Samaritans. They’re coming because they’ve they’ve learned from the woman they believe and they want to hear more. Now one commentary I stumbled on trying to make this connection with this, this fields that we’re ready for harvest. And one commentary explains that that these, these people would all have been wearing white and as they walked a, a big group of people walking towards Jesus, towards the well, they would have looked like a, a, a field of grain that was moving. And so Jesus points to them and says, Hey, it’s time for us to get busy.

82. 39:01

    It’s time for us to get work. Verse 36, it says, and he reapeth. He that reapeth receiveth, receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. Jesus says to the disciples, there are already people coming to learn about salvation and we should be rejoicing with the Samaritan woman. Let’s get out there and let’s help her. He says, and herein is that saying true. Verse 37 one soweth and another reapeth. The saying is talking about people working together. Verse 38, he says, I sent you to reap whereon that, Whereon you’ve bestowed no labor, other men labored, and you are entered into their laborers.

83. 39:48

    We’re Jews. She’s a Samaritan. One of us sows, another reaps. But look at the great harvest. So, my disciples, let’s rejoice with her, and let’s get out and work with her. Verse 36 to 38 gives us a powerful example, then, of working in spirit and in truth and worshiping in that in spirit.

84. 40:14

    Our our service to God cannot be motivated by how we look. It has to be genuine, real. It has to be glorifying God. It has to be rejoicing in God’s success, in truth, not following rituals and traditions, but in getting the job done. And look what the result is in verse 39 and many of the Samaritans of that city believed.

85. 40:42

    Get your marking pencil out right. This is a good chapter for this. They believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified. He told me all that I ever did. Many Samaritans of the city believed because of the testimony of the woman. She got the fire started then with them. Verse 40. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his own word, they believed themselves.

86. 41:12

    What a time that must have been for the disciples, for the Samaritans, and for Jesus. And then they said to the woman, verse 42, It’s no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and we know this is indeed the Savior of the world. They believed.

87. 41:40

    And John gives us this little cherry on top of the whole story, doesn’t he? In that last phrase, we know indeed that this is indeed the Savior of the world. They said of Jesus, He is the Savior of the world. What’s that a reference to? What’s he, what’s he calling their attention back to? It’s back to Joseph, isn’t it?

88. 42:04

    The Savior of the world? But now they had a new Joseph. They had a new savior of the world. And that savior was Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. I think it’s an incredibly exciting story to look through as we as we understand the background to it. So what are some of the take away lessons that we could get from from this today? Well, first of all, real belief motivates us to make changes in our life.

89. 42:37

    And that’s a a good way for us to measure that. It’s like thinking about yesterday that the fruit of the spirit belief based on man made rituals and traditions is weak. It’s like a hole in the ground, isn’t it? And it’s hesitant to make changes to us. It’s hesitant to combat sin, but worship based on faith is life changing and it’s filled with passion.

90. 43:04

    The Word of God has the power to show us what we’re really like. It has the power for us to have a conversation with it, just like Jesus had with a woman. And that scripture can actually call us out if we’ll listen to it. And it can help to inspire change in US.

91. 43:24

    I think then we’ve we’ve been through an incredible chapter here and a great lesson for us. And we look forward to tomorrow when we’ll look at at the disciples, the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on the water. Thank you.