Is He Seeking Us or Are We Seeking Him? | Dr. David Jeremiah | John 4:1-30

Message Description:

• The Living Water leads to questions
• Dr. Jeremiah’s message – “Is He Seeking Us or Are We Seeking Him?”
• Next Time on Turning Point

We can learn so much from observing how Jesus related to people.
He wasn’t looking for a decision as we often do when speaking with a non Christian.
He was patient, and he sought to draw that person into the conversation, allowing her to see her own need Jesus didn’t ever extend an invitation.
He waited for the people to invite themselves, and he did it masterfully.
In John 4 9 through 14, we have the first part of their back and forth conversation.
Here’s how it goes. She ends up asking Jesus all the right questions.
Why are you willing to ask me for a drink? Where do you get living water?
Are you greater than Jacob who drank from this well? He didn’t have living water, did he?
It would be ideal if everyone we talked to who didn’t know the lord was so intrigued with our life, that they began asking all the right questions to us.
Jesus is in questioning this woman.
He’s drawn her into the conversation in such a way that she’s questioning him. She’s asking him the right questions.
She was completely taken by this stranger from Judea who told her about living water.
Today, we’re going to examine a story that is well known in the Bible.
It’s about Jesus crossing all kinds of barriers going above and beyond to seek and to save someone.
It’s a story about our lord’s encounter with a woman.
It is usually referred to as the woman at the well or the story of the Samaritan woman, and it is found recorded for us in the first thirty verses of John chapter 4.
And we’re going to learn something today about the nature of our wonderful lord.
The message is really divided into 3 sections, First, we’re going to see how the lord seeks us.
Then we’re gonna learn how he saves us. And then we’re gonna learn how he sends us.
So first of all, how the lord seeks us. The 1st 9 verses of John chapter 4.
I remember back in the early nineties, we went through this phase in the church.
How many of you know, the church goes through phases of method How many of you remember the bus movement where everybody went to church on a bus?
I know all kinds of stories about that.
Well, we went through this space, and it was called the seeker movement.
And it was the idea that everybody out there is seeking after god.
And if we can just connect with them, we can draw them into the gospel.
So we ended up with seeker churches.
Now, what happened was it just went to seed and young aggressive pastors were doing everything you could imagine that wasn’t anything to do with what we normally knew as church.
To track people to come to their services.
I remember, uh, one church where the pastor rode down the center aisle on a motorcycle in the service.
Can you see me doing that?
And I remember, as I traveled around from place to place during those days, people would ask me, is Shadow Mountain a seeker sensitive church, or is it a seeker driven church?
What kind of church is Shadow Mountain?
And one day I was reading the scripture, and I read these words in Romans 311, there is no one who seeks after god.
Everybody go. The Bible talks about sinners seeking God.
Let’s true, let’s truly understand that. And it also talks about god seeking sinners.
But when you put the 2 of those together, it’s pretty clear that the only way we can ever see Kim is if he seeks us first, it’s kinda like the love quotient.
We love him because he first loved us. Luke 1910 tells us exactly how this works.
For here is our lord’s statement as he came to this earth, Luke 1910, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
So now when people ask me if we’re a seeker friendly church, I say, oh, yes.
Are seekers Jesus, and we’re pretty friendly with him. Uh, so that’s how you answer that question.
Jesus has no boundaries to his determination to come and bring us to himself.
We set up walls between us we set up boundaries around our lives.
We say I’ll go witness to those people, but I’m not witnessing to those people.
I’ll love this group, but I can’t love that.
Jesus had no boundaries whatsoever, as you shall see as we go through this passage of scripture together.
First of all, he seeks us past racial divides.
In the first six verses of John chapter 4, we read, therefore, when the lord knew that the fair has heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples Jesus left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through samaria.
So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Saicar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.
Now, Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, therefore, being worried from his journey sat by the well and it was about the 6th hour.
Now, John tells us that Jesus is making a journey from Judea to Galilee.
If you had a map, you would notice that to go from Judea to Galilee, the direct route is right through the center of Samaria.
But many of you may know that the Jews hated the Samaritans, and no self respecting Jews would ever go through Samaria.
For any reason. They would take a journey way up around the tip of Samaria and then come back into Galile so that they wouldn’t have to walk anywhere on Samaritan ground.
The Jews hated the Samaritans, and the feeling was mutual.
When Jesus made his journey to Galilee, the shortest route was through Samaria, And the Bible says that Jesus didn’t take the detour.
He didn’t go around the top of the land. And come back into Galilee.
He went right through the center of Samaria.
Jesus was a Jew, and the woman he was going to meet the woman he was seeking was a Samaritan.
But Jesus looked past the racial divide, and when he saw this woman at the well of Saicar, he didn’t see a Jew, He didn’t see a Samaritan.
He saw a person for whom Christ died who needed to hear the gospel.
Would that we could get that in our hearts today, that god cares little about the color of our skin or the tongue that we speak or our racial differences.
He died for the whole world, and he sees the whole world just like he sees any one person.
And we ought to have that view as well.
We ought not to say, well, I couldn’t go minister to those people.
Jesus went across the racial barrier to touch the life of a needy woman.
He not only seeks past our racial barriers, he seeks past our social divide.
Versus 7 and 8 tell us that a woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
When Jesus sat down at the well that day and talked with this Samaritan woman, he not only went past a racial divide, he went past a social divide.
And that culture in which Jesus was living.
In that day, a Jewish man never spoke to a woman in public.
Believe it or not, they couldn’t even talk to their wives or their sisters.
The only woman that a Jewish man could speak to in public was his daughter.
So when Jesus went across Samaria to the well at Saicar and sat down that day with the woman, He’s now violated 2 boundaries, which controlled his day.
Number 3, he seeks us past the cultural divide.
Verse 9 says, the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you being a Jew?
Ask a drink for me a Samaritan woman for Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
There you have it. In the right way, Jesus was a rule breaker. He was a cultural revolutionary.
He shattered the norms of his day.
And while his fellow Jews were taking alternative route to avoid going through Samaria, he cut through the middle of this hostile territory.
Jesus had come to seek those left behind by everyone else.
From the aids ward to the homeless shelter, no human being is an untouchable in the eyes of god.
He did not come to pamper and puff up the found he came to seek and to save the lost.
And for Jesus, That’s all that mattered. They were a human being who needed salvation.
Should that not be our method as well?
Should we not look at this world of men and women who are who are lost and need Christ and realize nothing really matters, just sipped one thing.
Show them Jesus, tell them about Jesus, help them to know how to go to heaven.
That’s what Jesus did. Then finally, this may be the most profound of all He seeks us past racial divides, past the social divide, past the cultural divide, and finally, past the moral divide.
Now Jesus did not come to save those who were holy.
Jesus came to save those who were sinners The Bible says it this way, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Now let me just pause for a moment and tell you that this thing about Jesus that you may not know is the unique thing about the Christian religion.
It is at this point that Christianity is different from every other religion.
Even in Judaism, if a sinner came back to god, god would accept the sinner But Judaism never taught that god went out into the wilderness like a shepherd to seek and to save the lost.
Neither does any other religion, only Christianity, god in Christ, god through the Holy Spirit reaching out to the people who are in need.
That Jesus, you may not know, gladly broke all kinds of barriers to make new friends.
He crossed racial, social, cultural, and moral divides so that he could seek and save the lost how Jesus seeks us.
If we’re gonna seek the loss like Jesus, we have to overcome the barriers and take the gospel to Jerusalem, judea, and Samaria, and the ends of the earth, and we must do so compelled by the radical love of the lord Jesus Christ.
Notice secondly how Jesus saves us and the story in John 4 continues.
First of all, he identifies with our humanity.
First thing Jesus did upon meeting the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well was to ask her for a drink of water.
Verse 6 says he sat down by the well, be he was weary from walking such a long way, he had sent the disciples into sidecar to buy food.
So Jesus was hungry and thirsty and weary and the humanity of Jesus could not have been more plain to see.
For that reason, the samaritan woman identified with him, not as god but as a fellow human being who needed some water and some rest.
How many of you know that when god almighty wanted to send love to us, from heaven.
He didn’t send it in a book. He didn’t send it in the Holy Spirit.
He sent his love to us in a human being, someone, just like we are.
He lived and walked on this earth.
And as we learned earlier, he will be forever in his humanity in heaven.
That is the reason God did that.
He sent someone to share with us his love, and he sent the gift in such a way that we would identify with it.
We identify with Jesus. We see him as we see ourselves, yet he was apart from sin.
Secondly, he invites our curiosity.
Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of god, and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
The woman said to him, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
Where then do you get that living water?
Are you greater than our father, Jay people gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock.
Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.
But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
They were having this conversation by a well, and Jesus told her about water that would allow her never to thirst again.
And he had her right in the palm of his hand.
He was a master at using his surroundings to preach the gospel she was there at noon because the other women in the community wouldn’t associate with her because of her past.
And Jesus is telling her about water that would quench her thirst forever.
She’s thinking about physical water.
And obviously, if I get this water, I won’t have to come back to this well again.
But Jesus is patiently bringing her along using physical illustrations to illustrate spiritual truth.
And then thirdly, he insists on our honesty.
You say, how do you get people to acknowledge that they need Christ? Watch Jesus?
The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.
I don’t want to come back here again if I don’t have to.
And Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. Uh-oh.
The woman answered Ed said, I have no husband, and Jesus said to her, you have well said, I have no husband.
For you have had 5 husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.
In that you have spoken truly, and here’s the most wonderful sentence in the gospel of John.
And the woman said to him, sir, I perceive you are a prophet. No kidding.
I mean, this this man just told her everything about her life, and her comment was, you know, I’ve just had a moment of perception.
I perceive you’re a prophet.
Jesus has to get this woman to be honest about who she is, so she can be honest about her spiritual need.
If living water was going to mean anything at all to this woman, she needed to be honest about her moral failures and her sin.
If she was going to be able to appreciate god’s forgiveness, she had to be honest about her life.
Let me tell you something men and women, anyone who wants to become a Christian, must be willing to confess his or her sins before god.
A person who won’t confess his sin is in effect saying, I don’t have any sins.
And a person who doesn’t have any sins doesn’t need any savior.
That’s why it’s important when you come to Christ that you recognize that you’re a sinner.
And the Bible gives us this very important statement for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god.
You say, pastor Jeremiah, what does it mean to sin?
It means to come short of the glory of god to miss the absolute standard.
It means that if we’re going to go to heaven, there’s only 2 ways that would be possible.
1 is to live a perfect life and never ever do one sin.
And then you could stand before god in heaven and say, I have never once sinned in my whole life either in omission or co mission in any possible anyone here want to try that way?
I don’t think you’re gonna make it. Cause I don’t care how good you are.
There’s no one who is like that. So what’s the other option?
To acknowledge that way number 1 doesn’t work because you’re a flawed human being and you’re a sinner.
And to say, lord, god, I can’t come to heaven by myself because I have sinned.
I repent of my sin and receive you as my savior.
What Jesus was doing that day with this woman was in a kind, in yet very powerful way, helping her to understand that she was lost and that she needed to be saved and she needed someone to do that in her behalf.
So he insists on our honesty, and then he invalidates our religiosity.
Unfortunately, when Jesus brought this woman’s past up, she wasn’t immediately eager to talk about it.
Now, we can all understand why. So she did what we sometimes do. She changed the subject.
Jesus is talking to her about her sin and she wants to have a little discussion about worship.
But Jesus corrected her and he brought her right back to where she jumped off the trail.
Now, notice what happens next. He initiates our responsibility.
In verse 25, the woman says to Jesus after he confronts her.
The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming who is called the Christ, She says, I know that he’s coming, Messiah’s coming, who’s called the Christ.
And when he comes, he will tell us all things.
In other words, I’m not gonna get into this argument.
I’m gonna wait for the Messiah to come, and when the Messiah comes, he’ll intervene in this discussion we’re having, and we’ll know whose right and who’s wrong.
And Jesus looked right at her and said to her, I, who speak to you, am he.
You talk about a moment in the Bible.
The Samaritan woman was about to discover her responsibility it was personal and spiritual, not traditional and religious.
And when Jesus challenged her understanding of worship, she thought it had to be done by going to a certain place.
She talked about the Messiah, and then Jesus dropped this bombshell.
He says to her lady, you don’t have to wait for the Messiah. He’s here.
I, who speak to you, am he?
Let me say this to you, men and women, there is no middle ground when it comes to Jesus.
There isn’t. You’re either for him or you’re against him. You say, well, I’m not against Jesus.
Well, if you’re not for him, you’re against him.
You say, well, I’m just gonna be kind of in the middle I’m not I’m just gonna no.
There’s no middle ground. Jesus himself said, if you’re not for me, you’re against me.
You either become a Christian or you’re non Christian. You either are forgiven or you’re not forgiven.
You either have your guilt or you’ve given up your guilt to Jesus.
Jesus brought this woman to a position where the only situation she had in front of her was, here is Jesus saying he’s the Messiah She either has to accept it or she has to reject it.
Now, by reading the rest of the story, we find out what she did.
For now, we see how Jesus sends us. In verses 27 to 30.
At this point, his disciples came back.
Jesus at this well, talking to this woman, And because they know the cultural norms, they marvel that he talked with a woman.
Yet nobody said, what do you seek, or why are you talking to her?
The woman then left her water pot, and she went into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all things that I ever did.
Could this be to Christ and they went out of the city and came to him?
You think that woman accepted the Messiah she absolutely did? You know how I know?
First thing a person does when they get saved is they want to go tell somebody.
The first thing she did when she realized she had met the Messiah is to go back home and go back and tell these people who she had met many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified.
He told me all things that I ever did So when the Samaritan said, come to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed there 2 days.
And many more believe because of his own word, And then they said to the woman, now we believe, not because of what you said, for we, ourselves, have heard him, and we know that this is indeed the Christ the savior of the phrase, the savior of the world is used in the Bible, it comes from the lips of the despised Samaritans.
Here’s an opportunity for us to look back over our shoulder and retrace the steps of Jesus seeking you so that you are where you are today.
And if you don’t know Jesus Christ, let me tell you something I know about you Jesus is seeking you.
He got you here today. You could be any place.
You could be on the golf course.
You could be watching a little league game You could be anywhere else, but you’re here for this message about the gospel.
If you want to know the joy of salvation, listen to your heart, and open your heart and receive Jesus Christ as your savior.
He loves you. He sent his son to seek and save you. He will not force himself upon you.
He will not break down the door of your heart.
You have to open it from the inside and say, or Jesus, come into my heart.
I acknowledge I’m a sinner. I need to be saved. I want you to be my savior.
If you have never taken the step to believe in Jesus Christ as your lord and savior.
You can do that today. If you will allow us, Doctor Jeremiah would like to send you 2 resources that will help you.
The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you as you begin your relationship with Christ, and the our monthly devotional magazine turning points to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
These resources are yours completely free when you contact turning point today.
Next time, on Turning Point.
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to a prayer place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
Now, listen to this, that where I am, you may be also. Jesus wants us to be with him.
Thank you for being with us today.
Join doctor Jeremiah next time for his message is he praying for us. Or are we praying to him?
Here on Turning Point.