God’s Heart For Our City
Sermon Notes
Intro
Robert J. Thomas was a missionary to China in the mid-1800s. But he was also deeply burdened for the people of Korea, which at the time was a completely closed country, not allowing any outsiders in. In 1865, he did manage to spend some time in the country, learning the people, culture, and language, but he wasn’t able to stay long. Back in China he learned of an American boat that was headed up the Taedong River in an effort to establish trade relations between the U.S. and Korea. Thomas made arrangements to make the journey with the crew as an interpreter and in exchange he would have the opportunity to share the Gospel. As the ship made it’s way up the river, Robert tossed Gospel tracts onto the river banks, since he knew that many Koreans could read Chinese. Eventually the Korean officials ordered the ship to turn around and leave, but they kept going until eventually the ran aground and were stuck. The Koreans opened fire on the ship and continued to attack it for 2 weeks while the men hunkered down inside. Determined to kill all of the Americans, they set fire to the ship and forced the crew to come out of the ship. They came out fighting with guns and swords, but all of them were killed. The story goes that Robert Thomas also ran out of the ship, but he was carrying Chinese Bibles, trying to give them to his attackers and shouting the name of Jesus as he was beaten to death.
But God worked in the heart of one of these Korean men who killed Thomas. He saw in his face that he was a good man so he kept one of the Bibles (which were supposed to be destroyed) and used it to wallpaper his house. People came from all over the city to read its words. 30 years later Korea opened its borders and another missionary, Sam Moffett, made his way to the country. One of his first converts brought with him a Chinese Bible that his father had taken from the banks of the river.
Because of Robert Thomas’s love and burden for the people of Korea the seed was planted and the Gospel spread. Today, South Korea has one of the largest and fastest growing Christian populations in the world.
God used one man to change a nation by demonstrating his unrequited love for the lost….a people that would have been easy to walk away from for fear of rejection and personal safety. But God’s heart is one of compassion not condemnation, and Robert Thomas chose to put that heart on display. The challenge for us to today is learn to do the same. We don’t have to travel to a foreign country, but we can be just as radical, just as determined right here in our own city.
If you turn in your Bibles to John 4, we will look at a story where Jesus himself shows us how to display his heart of compassion through a simple conversation with a woman in need. This comes right after Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus when he gives his famous statement in John 3:16-17,
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Now we flip over a chapter and see this heart on display.
3 he left Judea and went again to Galilee. 4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph.6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.
9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
I want to point out a few lessons from Jesus in the story as we go, and the first is this:
Jesus was physically tired but spiritually ready.
Jesus was on a road trip from Judea to Galilee. This was most likely a several day journey depending on what route was taken. There was no interstate, no cruise control, and no Wawa. They were walking in this arid climate. And John says that Jesus is worn out! I love how this shows the human nature of Jesus. He got tired, too!
Is anyone tired this morning? Of course. Isn’t that one of our go-to responses? We’re busy and we’re tired….and we haven’t even been walking for two days. I don’t know about you guys, but when I’m tired, I have a much harder time being around people and feeling motivated to do anything for someone other than myself. I become myopic. I also lose some motivation spiritually. My disciplines wain and I’m less likely to read my Bible, pray, serve,…I just want to rest. But there’s a difference in resting from work, and working from a place of rest.
Jesus worked hard, but he worked from a place of rest. We often see him getting up early to spend time with Father, retreating to be alone before he jumps into the next thing. He started with rest. But we wear ourselves out, living for the weekend, and then expect to catch up. When we do that we have nothing to give. We’re exhausted physically and spiritually. But, Jesus shows us that our physical fatigue doesn’t have to…shouldn’t hinder our call to love and serve. This is possible when we start from a place of fulfillment from time spent with the Father. If you’re constantly tired and that affects your ability to live out your faith, then it may be time to re-evaluate how you approach your day, your week, your life. Life is busy, it’s tiring, which means it’s all the more important to go into our days spiritually ready rather than trying to play catch up later.
So, Jesus has stopped to eat and he encounters this Samaritan woman. This is important. The trip from Judea to Galilee was long, but to make the trip shorter, many people chose to go through Samaria because it was a more direct shot. That’s what Jesus did. That seems like the obvious route, but if you were Jewish it wouldn’t have been so straightforward. The Jews and the Samaritans did not get a long, in fact, they didn’t like each other at all. The Samaritans were a mixed-race people that formed hundreds of years before. After King Solomon’s rule in Israel, the kingdom divided into two parts - North and South. The Northern Kingdom was named Samaria and was eventually taken over by the Assyrians who dispersed most of the Hebrew people. When they eventually made their way back to Samaria, the population was now much more diverse so this mixed-race of “half-Jews” formed. They also only believed that the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) was the only actual Word of God, so they didn’t have the full revelation of Scripture at that time. All of this created a strong tension between the Jews and Samaritans. They went out of their way to not associate with one another.
But here we see Jesus intentionally travel through Samaria, and not only that but he stops to rest there, even buy food and eat there, which definitely went against custom. Of course, Jesus is really good at breaking man-made traditions and customs so he continues to push the limits by talking to the woman who comes to the well.
It’s noon. (If John is using Jewish time, the sixth hour would have been about noon.) That’s not when women usually came to draw water. They would typically come in groups either in the morning or evening when it wasn’t as hot. But this woman is coming in the middle of the day by herself, which probably meant she was avoiding interaction with other people, and we find out later why. She doesn’t have a good reputation.
Here’s second lesson from Jesus:
Jesus was drawn to the need instead of being repelled by it.
There were so many reasons to not interact with this woman. She was a woman. Jewish men didn’t talk to other women in public, and especially didn’t ask them to do something for them. She was a Samaritan, he was a Jew. She had a bad reputation, and he was a rabbi…a holy teacher. Culturally, Jesus should have ignored the woman, but he looked past all those surface level barriers and saw the deep need of this woman.
It’s likely that she was very lonely. She clearly has to try and avoid interaction with the other women of the town. She carries the shame and condemnation of her past. Jesus knows that she is hurting, and she may be coming to the well for water but she has a much deeper thirst that needs to be addressed.
The thing is, this falls completely in-line with Jesus’ character. This is his MO. He is drawn to the people that everyone else rejects, whether it’s because of a physical disability or spiritual shortcoming, he loves those who no one else does, he cares for those that no one else knows how to. He hangs out with the people that everyone else criticizes. That’s who he’s drawn to.
Dane Ortland has a book out that I recently read called Gentle and Lowly. It’s all about the heart of Jesus, and it’s one of the best theological books I’ve ready in several years. I highly recommend it. In it he says this,
“The cumulative testimony of the four Gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world all about him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it.”
Jesus is drawn to the need. Maybe that’s not the way you see Jesus. Maybe you think he is repulsed by sin….by your sin. If you’re not a Christian, maybe you think there’s no way Jesus could love you… you’ve done way too many bad things. If you are a Christian maybe you feel like every time you mess up Jesus is disappointed in you. But the truth is, the very heart of Jesus is to move towards us in our sin, not away from us. Where the need is great, his compassion is greater still.
The woman at the well was type most of us would turn away from, but Jesus saw the need of her soul and reached out to her. Look at vs. 10 and see what he says:
10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”
11 “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”
13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”
15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”
16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”
17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered.
“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
The woman is obviously skeptical. Jesus is offering water yet he doesn’t even have a bucket. But he alludes to the fact that he’s not talking about water from the well, he’s offering living water. Water that will quench her thirst forever, which she’s excited about! But then he exposes her. He knows all about her past and current sin, and he’s calling her too repentance. This is the third lesson learn from Jesus:
Jesus offered hope as he exposed the true need.
Jesus is strategic in his approach. First, he befriends the woman. Something she wasn’t expecting, something other people aren’t doing. By simply engaging her in conversation he showed he wasn’t repulsed by her. Secondly he offers her something he knows she longs for. If she had water that would quench her thirst, she would not have to come to the well in the middle of the day anymore. She wouldn’t have to worry about this daily act that reminds her of her shame and condemnation. It’s like a wound that won’t heal. And, Jesus uses this area of hurt in her life to reveal what she truly needs - not water to drink, but water for her soul.
How many of us can identity with this woman? We draw from the well that only offers temporary satisfaction. We get a drink from the career well, from the money well, from the relationship well, from the sex well, from the __________ well….only to find ourselves thirsty again. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “if you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.” We live in a dehydrated world, because every drink from something other than Jesus is like a big glass of salt water……it only makes you thirstier. Jesus is the the living water and he knows that this woman is so thirsty…she has gone from man to man looking for something to satisfy her, but every time it’s left her empty.
So, Jesus gives her hope but in order to do so he had to address her real need. He had to address the sin. It’s so much easier to just tell people what they want to hear. He could have just befriended her and left it at that, but the only truly loving thing for him to do was get to the heart of the problem. I’ve been a part of many conversations over the years where people wanted the hope and love from Jesus and from the Church, but they didn’t want to deal with the sin, so they end up leaving the church. I’ve seen others stay and grow. They walk with fellow Christians to help overcome their struggles. They learn to submit to the Spirit instead of the flesh. As the Church, part of what we want to do is loving expose areas of sin that are leaving you thirsty. This goes against our cancel culture. The world tells we can’t offer a truth that goes against how someone feels, we need to celebrate whatever you feel is “right” for you. But that’s not the message of Jesus. If it was he wouldn’t have brought up the woman’s promiscuity. Jesus didn’t sacrifice his life to give us a license to do whatever we want.
As followers of the way of Jesus, we have to know what the Bible teaches and how to show people the difference between the truth and a lie. Jesus doesn’t come in beating the woman over the head or shaming her. He doesn’t point fingers or act shocked. He loves her and offers her hope for a better way. Our message has to be that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life!
If you are struggling with an addiction, if you are overcome with anxiety, if, like the woman in the story, you are struggling to remain sexually pure before marriage, if you are wrestling with your gender and same sex attraction, if you have an uncontrollable spending habit, or you just can’t get a handle on your temper….then we are here not to condemn you, but to offer you hope in Jesus. We want to help you overcome those sins (that we all struggle with) and learn to drink from the living water.
Jonathan Edwards once wrote that, “God has no pleasure in the destruction or calamity of persons or people.” Many times we get uncomfortable when we talk about sin but it’s because we misunderstand God. He wants to bring healing and restoration, not judgement and condemnation. He is for you, not against you, and as a church we need to show that same compassion to one another and to our city.
Let’s see how the woman responds:
19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
“I see what you did there. You’re smart, but I don’t know that I believe what you’re saying. Whenever the promised Messiah comes, he’ll explain. I’ll wait for him.”
26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They left the town and made their way to him.
Did you see the change in her heart? She was skeptical, maybe a little defensive, but then she sees. “Could this really be the Messiah…this is God in the flesh and he’s befriended me…..me??” I imagine her crying as she’s running to the back to town; broken over her sin, overwhelmed by the love she’s just been shown, hopeful that her life can be different. She came face to face with God and he offered her compassion instead of condemnation.
Think about it, just a few minutes before she was coming to the well in the middle of the day because she was hiding…avoiding people, but now she’s running back to town to the very people who have condemned her. She’s not ashamed anymore, she has been exposed and doesn’t care, because for once someone loved her for who she truly was. She couldn’t wait to share it!
39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of what he said. 42 And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.
The final lesson from Jesus is that:
Jesus loved one which opened the door to love many.
If you read much of the Bible you will see that God works in this way so often, using one unlikely, unqualified person to bring salvation to many people. He does this on purpose because it points all the glory back to him rather to that person, and highlights his power working in the midst of weakness. How many times have we said that God’s not looking for the Green Beret Christians to preach to the masses and perform miracles. He has made it clear that he wants to use ordinary men and women like you and me to do extraordinary things for his Kingdom. You can be the one….you are the one.
You may not see the immediate fruit of salvation and transformation that we see in this story, but you can plant the seeds of the Gospel. Like the woman in the story you can invite people to “come and see.” Invite people to come and see for themselves the hope that you have found in Jesus. In order to do that you have let people into your life. You have to build a bridge with people that allows you to have deeper conversations, to discover their need and show them how Jesus is better. It takes times, it takes sitting with people, it takes sacrifice, and it takes having a burden for their souls like Robert Thomas had for the Koreans, which compelled him to put his life on the line in hopes of planting the seeds of the Gospel that would later be watered and flourish.
City Awakening, God’s heart is one of compassion not condemnation, therefore we (his people) should display that heart to our city. So I want to end with 4 questions in response to these lessons from Jesus and the Samaritan woman:
Are you spiritually ready to display God’s heart to your city?
You may be tired and I’m sure you’re busy. But are you ready? We have a paradigm we use to help us in our faith journey and it’s this: Discover, Deepen, Display.
It’s a cycle that we are constantly growing in. You can use this as a tool for your own life. Are you making new discoveries about the person and work of God? Are you actively going deeper in your walk with him by trusting, repenting, and having people in your life to help you grow? Are you putting that transformation on display by serving other people and showing the fruit of God at work in you?
Don’t be overwhelmed by this message. Being a great evangelist really only requires a first-hand experience with Jesus. The woman at the well at no training or memorized process to share, but she had a story. You don’t need to rush out the doors this morning and start sharing the Gospel because you feel guilty or obligated. What you need is a face to face encounter with Jesus. Only then will you have something to share!
Are you drawn to the needs of people or repelled by their sins?
Do you have a critical spirit and only see reasons to not love people? Are you critical of their failures or of the differences that set you apart? It’s easy to have an attitude of condemnation and isolate ourselves from others, but God has called us to have a heart of compassion especially for those that are hard to love or “don’t deserve it.” Remember, you don’t deserve his love either.
Are you prepared to offer hope and expose the spiritual needs of people in your life?
It’s unloving to only offer hope and not address the sin that causes need for hope. It’s also unloving to only address the sin and not be willing to care for the person and see the hope of the Gospel be fully realized. The best place to learn and practice this is in a small group. In our MCGs we’ve been learning Gospel Fluency. It’s helped us know how to speak the truth into our own lives and the lives of one another and how to get to the root of sin in our lives.
Are you loving a few people well?
Your invitation to come and see may not change the whole city, but you can make a difference in your home, in you workplace, in your classroom, on your team, or whatever “city” you are close to.
This also takes time. Don’t give up or get discouraged. Focus on being a planter, not a harvester. The woman only planted the seed by sharing her story, but it was Jesus that changed their hearts when they had a personal encounter with him.
City Awakening - We believe God wants the city of Orlando (2 million people) to experience his heart of compassion and be awakened to the hope of the Gospel. People are going to all kinds of wells looking for a drink, but they are coming up thirsty. Maybe that’s you. If you don’t know….then come to the water. The invitation is open….
If you know Jesus, you have what they are looking for. Invite them to come and see Jesus in your life. Invite them to come and see Jesus in your church.
