This is a historical day for us. Exactly five years ago on this day, Christy and I gathered together with 4 other adults on a park bench here in Hastings to begin planting The Well. We had no church name, no church building, no discipleship strategy and no money in the bank. We didn’t even have a bank account yet!
But we gathered anyways because we couldn’t shake this sense that God was calling us to plant a church here in Hastings that would be a gospel centered church. A church that would have a strong sense of community or family. And a church that would engage God’s mission to seek and to save the lost in our city.
And so here we are, five years later, still gathering in community on Sunday mornings. Still gathering throughout the week in gospel communities. With a few more people than we had five years ago. Gathering in a rented facility doing setup and tear down every week, a little bit of money in a bank account, a clearly defined discipleship strategy and a church name based upon the text that we’ll be studying for the next three weeks. So lots to celebrate and lots to lean into as we turn to the Word of God to teach us, shape us, convict us and encourage us. So let’s dive into the text and see what the Lord might speak to us today!
John 4:1 – 15…
1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 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.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 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.) 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.” 11 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? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.” 15 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.”
In this portion of our text today, Jesus encounters the woman at the well. Better yet, the woman at the well encounters Jesus and Jesus engages her in a conversation that will absolutely change her life. And that’s really the point that I want to make today. My heart and my desire for us here at The Well is that we would become a Christ encountering people.
Not just a group of people that gather throughout the week because we get jacked up for our new group of friends or because we get to serve or because we found a church family that we really feel comfortable with or because we have a strong sense of belonging, although all these things are good. My prayer is that we would become a people who encounter Christ together and then experience life long change as we continue becoming the people of The Well. That’s what I believe God wants for us.
And as we examine this story of the woman at the well encountering Jesus, I want to ask, what were some of the barriers in her day that would prohibit her from following Jesus faithfully. Every culture, every society and every individual faces barriers that prohibit them from following Jesus faithfully but God’s Word speaks into those barriers and demolishes them by the power of the message of the gospel so that people from every tribe, tongue and nation can become part of the family of God.
So as we examine this portion of our text today we are going to unpack some of the barriers we see in the text and my hope is that the Lord would help us to apply the truth of His Word to any areas of our hearts and lives where we see similar barriers to becoming a people who encounter Christ in every crack and crevice of our lives.
#1: The Place Barrier… (1 – 6)
The place barrier is any place that you believe Jesus won’t or can’t come to so that you can experience salvation and radical change. Or it could be the place you are unwilling to go to so that you can encounter Jesus and the salvation and radical change he offers.
John tells us that Jesus left Judea and was headed to Galilee and while he was on his way he had to go through Samaria. Now when John says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria it’s not like Samaria was on the way from Judea to Galilee. Samaria was actually out of the way. So it’s not like Jesus was headed to Grand Island from Hastings and had to travel through Doniphan. It’s more like, Jesus was headed to Grand Island from Hastings and had to travel through Harvard. So why does John say that Jesus had to travel through Samaria if it was out of the way?
The simple answer is just that Jesus had to travel through Samaria because he had a divine appointment with the woman at the well. The woman at the well didn’t know it yet but Jesus was traveling there because he had to be about his Father’s mission to seek and to save the lost.
Let me unpack it this way. Samaria was a place that the Jews avoided. It was a place where they wouldn’t travel to and in fact they would usually go out of the way to travel around Samaria instead of traveling through Samaria and if they absolutely had to travel through Samaria they would shake the dust off their sandals when they reached the other side. And the reason for this is because Samaria was the home of Samaritans and Samaritans were people that the Jews didn’t like so they had created this barrier that kept them from going to or through Samaria. So the Jews refused to travel into or through Samaria and the Samaritans knew that the Jews would never willingly come to or through Samaria. This is the barrier of place.
Sometimes I’m unwilling to go to the place that God is calling me to go to. Unwilling to have that conversation with that difficult person or unwilling to confess and resist my sin. But the good news is that Jesus was more than willing to cross the barrier of place so that he could reach me. There is no place that Jesus isn’t willing to go to so that he can reach you and I. Jesus demolished the barrier of place so that we can become Christ encountering people. Has Jesus broken through the place barrier for you yet? Are you becoming a Christ encountering person?
#2: The Person Barrier… (7 – 9)
The person barrier is simply that barrier of the kind of person you think you need to be to encounter Jesus. Some of us are so ashamed of ourselves or we feel so unlovable or guilty or fearful that we mistakenly believe that we could never really encounter Jesus in a life changing way. And so we wind up living behind the person barrier, trying in our own strength every day to become the kind of person who could encounter Jesus.
You see, the Jewish people didn’t necessarily avoid Samaria because they didn’t like the kind of food they served up in their restaurants. They avoided Samaria because they didn’t like the Samaritans because the Samaritans for all intense and purposes here were a mixed race of people and the Jews thought they were dirty Gentiles.
But that’s not even the biggest shocker in this story. The biggest shocker in this story is not so much that this woman was a Samaritan woman. It’s also not so much that this woman was a woman to begin with given the truth that no Jewish man would ever talk publicly to a woman for fear of what that might look like. The biggest shocker here is the kind of woman this Samaritan woman at the well was because she was an immoral woman and most likely a prostitute who spent her life jumping from one dude to the next. Can you imagine the kind of barrier this could have created for this woman to actually encounter Jesus in a life giving and transformative way?
She’s coming to the well alone at midday rather than early in the morning when the other women came which indicates that she’s avoiding the uncomfortable company of the women who’s husbands she had possibly slept with. And this would have created a massive barrier for any Jewish man but Jesus demolishes that barrier and begins a conversation with her by asking her for a drink of water and that single question begins a process of radically breaking down barriers in this woman’s heart and life.
I used to believe that I was the barrier to encountering Christ. I used to believe that Jesus would never want to be around a guy like me with all of my issues and problems. I used to think that Jesus looked at me and thought that I was a big waste of time and that I would never get my crap together. But the good news is that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost just like me. He came to save you and I. He came to change you and I. He came to love you and I. Jesus came and crossed the person barrier that we experience when we get stuck in our shame and our guilt so that we can become Christ encountering people. Has Jesus broken through the person barrier for you yet? Are you becoming a Christ encountering person?
#3: The Resource Barrier… (10 – 12)
The resource barrier is basically that big mountain you hide behind when you believe that Jesus doesn’t have the resources necessary to bring you the healing you need or the satisfaction you desire. It’s that place of despair that you go to when you start gutting it out all alone instead of rely on God to be enough for you. Sometimes we do this because God doesn’t give us what we want so we sit in the corner and pout and shake our fist at God and accuse him of not loving or caring for us.
This woman is in utter shock that Jesus would ask her for a drink of water. In my imagination, I believe this woman is just wondering, what else Jesus wants from her. She’s used to being used and abused for other people’s pleasure. She’s used to men taking what they want from her and so she asks: “Why are you talking to me?” Almost as though she’s asking: “What do you want from me? What’s the catch?”
Jesus’ answer is classic. He’s not there to take from her. He’s there to give her a new life. He’s there to help her understand that all of her seeking for meaning and fulfillment at the dead stagnant waters of sexual sin and human relationships will be over if she comes to realize who he really is because only he can give her living water.
Now her response is classic too and it shows where her heart is at. Her words give her away. There’s a resource barrier between her and Jesus. She doesn’t believe he has what it takes to change her life. She doesn’t even understand that he’s offering her eternal life. She’s more concerned about physical water being piped into her home so she doesn’t have to serve up stagnant water anymore or make the trip to the well where she might encounter another mad woman or another little boy in a man’s clothing looking for some pleasure.
Long story short, she doesn’t see a bucket in Jesus’ hand and he doesn’t appear to be a successful businessman or as resourceful as her hero Jacob who had the resources to dig this well. She doesn’t believe that Jesus has the resources to really help her. She thinks that all of her problems are physical issues not spiritual so she hides behind her resource barrier and accuses Jesus of not having enough resources to help her.
Sometimes I still struggle to believe that Jesus really has the resources to satisfy every longing within my soul. Sometimes I believe that he isn’t enough to satisfy my loneliness or dispel my fear or provide for my needs. Sometimes I even wonder if he really has the amount of resources necessary to really forgive me or truly love me every time I sin again. But the good news is that Jesus himself is more than enough to satisfy every deep longing within me. He has endless amounts of resources to spend on me. The resource barrier with God is a façade. When it comes to Jesus, he has endless amounts of resources to spend on every one of us so that we can become Christ encountering people. Has Jesus broken through the resource barrier for you yet? Are you becoming a Christ encountering person?
#4: The Thirst Barrier… (13 – 15)
The thirst barrier is that insatiable thirst or hunger for anything apart from God. It’s that struggle you face where someone or something is more attractive to you than the presence of God. Where you believe that someone or some thing will fulfill all of your wildest dreams and desires and so you live your life in constant pursuit of that person or that habit or that thing. You hunger for it. You think about it. You do everything to get it and not lose it. You thirst for it. Deeply, believing that it will satisfy your thirst.
This woman that encounters Jesus at the well has been thirsting for things that will not satisfy her in eternity. And Jesus explains that he has come to offer her living water that will satisfy her for all of eternity. He’s literally offering himself to her as the drink of water that will refresh her soul in ways that no other human being could ever compete with.
But the problem for this woman is that she still doesn’t believe Jesus. She still can’t get passed her physical thirst barrier to see the bottomless pit that her spiritual thirst has become. This is why she responds to Jesus by saying: “Get me that water so I don’t have to come to this stinking well everyday.” What this woman thirsts for has become a bottomless pit of hopelessness and despair. And Jesus is here ready to demolish her thirst barrier.
Sometimes the barrier that I face in becoming a Christ encountering person is that I thirst for things like comfort, prestige, power, acceptance and success. All of these things are not life giving pursuits. They are dead ends that create barriers to encountering the presence of Christ. The good news is that Jesus has given me the gift of his life giving presence so that I no longer need to thirst for things that will not satisfy me eternally. Jesus has demolished the thirst barrier for us by offering himself to us so that our thirst can be quenched once and for all, as we become Christ encountering people. Has Jesus broken through the thirst barrier for you yet? Are you becoming a Christ encountering person?
Conclusion…
I believe that God wants us to become a Christ encountering people. I believe he wants to break down the barriers that separate us from his loving presence. There is no place Jesus isn’t willing to go to; there is no person that is unreachable; there is no problem that Jesus doesn’t have the resources to overcome and there is nothing in all of creation that will satisfy you and I like the tall drink of water that is found in Christ.
Jesus doesn’t come to take from you or to use you or to abuse you or to entertain you or to smooth over your sin. Jesus comes to offer you a brand new life that begins by encountering him now and continues by encountering him in every crack and crevice of your worn out life.
The only questions left are: “Will you let Jesus break down the barriers? Will you receive Christ’s offer and gift of eternal life? Will you surrender every barrier to Jesus? Will you let Jesus come into every dark and sinful place of your heart? Will you see that you aren’t wasting God’s time? Will you trust that you are the person Jesus died for? Will you trust that Jesus is enough for you? Will you take the drink of eternal water from Jesus? Will you become a Christ encountering person today?” That’s my prayer for us today. My prayer is that we would become a people who encounter Jesus at the well of our hearts and souls and that he would do radical works of salvation and transformation in each of us.