Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1686

May 18, 2025

John 4.1-42          Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“The Savior of the World”

 

• The Living Water – John 4.1-26

 

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

 

We read that Jesus was traveling from Judea to Galilee and this way brought Him through Samaria. On that journey Jesus met this woman at Jacob’s well. This would have been a common meeting; people gathered at wells to get water, but this was not a common meeting because Jews and Samaritans did not speak with one another, and most certainly a Jewish male would not speak with a Samaritan woman. Jesus broke every social barrier that kept people divided.

Jesus was sitting at the well when the woman arrives to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus says. A simple request. Jesus is thirsty. We all get thirsty. Jesus asks for water. But the woman responses with a question: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” “How is it?” Sounds a little like the story of Nicodemus in John 3 when he asked Jesus about being born again: “How can these things be?” But the woman is asking a question about social standing, social relationships, or lack of relationships. Jesus wants some water, but He uses thirst to raise spiritual awareness.

It is amazing how Jesus uses the simple things of life to teach us, to teach this woman, about spiritual things. It is not complicated, just water, just a drink. And Jesus says: “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.” “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.” Jesus has no bucket! She is thinking about the physical world, while Jesus is open to the spiritual world, to the kingdom of God where there is abundance, abundance of new birth, abundance of living water, abundance of nutrition from God alone, plenty of provision, new birth, refreshment.

I mentioned John 3 with Nicodemus and I find it interesting the possible connection between John chapter 3 and this water story in chapter 4. John 3 is about Jesus meeting with Nicodemus. In that conversation Jesus revealed how one may see the kingdom of God. This is the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed had come upon us – God’s kingdom here, now! Nicodemus could not comprehend what Jesus meant when Jesus said you must be born again. Jesus used a common human event, birth, to reveal an uncommon entrance into the kingdom, new birth or birth from above. One is physical, what is flesh is flesh, and the other is spiritual, what is spirit is spirit. Nicodemus can only wonder how this can be. How do we enter into God’s kingdom, a kingdom of the Spirit, a spiritual world? Jesus says we cannot see that kingdom without being born again; it is a spiritual rebirth. There is a certain progression from the scene of John chapter 3 and John 4. Jesus opens the door to the kingdom of God in chapter 3 with Nicodemus. Jesus opens life in the kingdom in John 4 with the Samaritan woman and the disciples. As Jesus used common things in his discussion with Nicodemus (birth and wind), with the woman at the well he uses water, a common need, to reveal spiritual things.

 

 

• The Testimony – John 4.27-30

 

Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman 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?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.

 

The woman, not named in John’s gospel, although there is a name given in various traditions as Photina or Photine. The name means one who shines and the name is attributed only based off her former life of darkness now shines with the light of Christ. She certainly shines the light of Christ’s testimony to everyone in town! That testimony must have had something special behind it, perhaps her demeanor and disposition was so transformed by Jesus that people could see it in her face as soon as she spoke a word. Her countenance may have had a shine to it! The testimony begins with an invitation, “Come”. “Come see this man who knew everything about me. He was amazing. He knew my marriage history. He knew my current situation.”

The last thing she says is formed as a question in the text, Can this be the Christ? This could imply that she is unsure if this fella is who He claims to be. But I suspect there was more to the question, more like a rhetorical nature that the question implying, “This is the Christ, the Messiah we have been waiting for.” I believe that is the case because of the next verse, verse 30, They went out of the town and were coming to him.

I do not think that they would have been coming out to see Him with the possibility that maybe, perhaps, could be, um...based off her testimony in the form of a question – (this is the Christ?), maybe, maybe not. No, there is something more going on here. There is a change in this woman that is evident. There is something in the tone of her testimony that exudes confidence and hope and transformation. There is something more here than just another preacher out in the wilderness claiming to be more than he really is.

 

 

• The Food of God’s Will – John 4.31-38

 

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

 

The disciples had the same problem of understanding spiritual things. They returned from the city with food and urged Jesus to eat. Jesus told them: “I have food to eat that you do not know about…My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” All the disciples think is that someone else must have brought Jesus food. They are stuck in the physical world and unaware that the kingdom of God has come upon them. Nicodemus in John 3, the woman at the well, the disciples, all are viewing life from the perspective of which we are most familiar, the perspective of water, food, birth, material things, a sensory filled world wherein we trust as our reality.

But Jesus saw something more, something deeper, a God-bathed world, a world soaked with God’s gifts, provisions, abundance, and life. Jesus saw that life begins with birth from above, birth into kingdom living where living waters keep us going, where obedience to God’s word feeds our souls. Jesus saw a different world beyond the physical. He lived in the physical, he drank and ate, but he saw more, much more! Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ...But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (6.25, 33)

 

I have little doubt that Jesus perspective was deeply ingrained, not just in who He is, but in the Word that He also is, the Word that became flesh so that Jesus was steeped in passages like Psalm 104 that offers a testimony of God’s kingdom abundance and provision. It speaks of God as the source of everything we need, everything creation needs, and I think, everything we need both physically and by implication, spiritually as well. Psalm 104 is very rich with God’s works among us:

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. (104.1-4)

The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers. (104.16-18)

 

And the Psalmist sings doxology in the middle of the Psalm in verse 24:

 

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

Verses 27-30 continue this view of God’s provision:

These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

 

This is God’s full world, God’s kingdom!! God supplies everything, in this case, everything physical, the wind, the waters, the grass, the plants, the food, yet it is all given because of God’s presence and if that presence is removed, as the Psalmist says it, “When you hide your face…” we are dismayed. But when God sends forth God’s Spirit, everything is renewed!

The passages early in John’s gospel (3-4) open us to the kingdom of God. We enter by new birth from above. We live in the kingdom by partaking of the food and drink of God’s goodness and word and life…living waters, doing God’s will. The kingdom of God is the reality of God in our midst, the reality of that which goes beyond our sensory perceptions. And yet we are taught about this kingdom through everyday “sensed” items. The water and food that comforts our physical existence are used to show us how living water and doing God’s will are part of the kingdom of God. What Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and the disciples could not understand at the time, was the way God sustains our lives in His kingdom, in spiritual ways.

Of course we eat and drink of the physical world; Jesus did as well. His request for drink was a true need. The disciples had gone to the city to buy food and they would all eat. We receive water and food with thanks to God, but our life is truly sustained by God’s spiritual gifts, living water, food from above, birth from above.

The disciples brought food back and asked Jesus to eat. Jesus had food they did not know about. Jesus revealed to them that doing God’s will is another food, a spiritual food. Doing God’s will feeds us! Drinking of God’s Spirit fills us! The challenge for us is believing what Jesus has said. I hear more often than I like that some folks may not attend worship because it is the only day they get to rest and sleep in. What Jesus teaches us is that worship, our spiritual work of worship, is food for us, nourishment, rest, energizing, food that the world does not know we have. This is part of God’s will for us, to be in this place at this time.

We may find it easy to believe that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son and we trust that we are born again, but do we carry that a step further to believe what Jesus says to the Samaritan woman or to the disciples, that our existence is dependent upon God’s gifts. Could it be that spiritual sources can meet our physical need? Do these words mean something for our life, for our physical and spiritual life, even for our perspective on the world? We do not always believe that what we say or what Jesus says means anything. But Jesus means what he says:

“You must be born again.”

“...whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

 

• The Savior of the World – John 4.39-42

 

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 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 word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

 

Here is a prime example of what we are called to do in evangelism. Come and see the man who knows us inside and out. Come see the man who is the Savior of the world. Come read the gospels for yourself. We cannot convert folks, but God can use our invitations and His Holy Word to work His grace in the heart, to regenerate the heart of stone and transform it to a heart of flesh and a heart that desires God. What we see in these last few verses is a people who heard Jesus preach and teach and from that, they believed and confessed that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

That Word, the Words of Jesus and the Bible, are the spiritual food and drink we need even more than we need physical food and drink. Imagine gorging ourselves in the Word like we do with our favorite cake! When we have had the spiritual rebirth and the Word preached that opens our eyes to the kingdom of God and the Savior of the world, then our perspective and awareness opens up to the fullness of God’s gifts and the life only He can give. Only by the work of God’s Spirit can we see and God is inviting us to see, to enter into the kingdom of God by being born again, to live in the kingdom by drinking of God’s living waters and eating the food of doing God’s will. God’s full world is the kingdom of God. Jesus proclaimed this kingdom has come. It is here, everywhere, and the invitation is to come to the living water, come and eat the food of obedience, come to the sustenance of prayer, come to the gifts of worship, come to the fulfillment of discipleship. We must be born again to begin the journey. We can begin to see the kingdom of God, God’s full world before us and we learn to taste living water and spiritual food – kingdom living, yes, kingdom living, God’s world of abundance in the Savior of the world. If you cannot yet see, perhaps born again is not a reality for you. Come to Jesus. Come and see the man who knows everything we have ever done. Come and read His Words of life and hope and salvation. Come. Pray, seek, ask, knock. For Jesus is truly the Christ, the Savior of the world. Come unto Jesus and give Him your life today. Amen.