Today we are at the bottom of John 4 and Jesus has finished His work with the people of Sychar. We left off last week with the scripture telling us “Many more believed because of His word” (John 4:41). It is telling that with our Savior doing the work of the Father, many but not all believed, because of His word. Darkness lives in the hearts of men. We see it every day in our society. It is the same now as it was back then. And we have the unparalleled luxury of having a complete Bible that we can read and know what God wants of us.

For most of our history man could not read, or if he could, the Bible was available only to the Church. The Church at the time was Catholic and they didn’t want you to read the bible. In fact they would quite often burn you at the stake for preaching what the Bible actually said and did so with great regularity. This started in the early 11th century when 1022 people who were considered heretics, were burned at the stake. This continued until the late 1700’s when they switched over to hanging people. The Catholic church is still not a fan of you actually reading the bible.

My point in this is, we have it so easy to know what God wants of us. Most everybody can read and has a Bible in their possession. Nobody is burning you at the stake for your Faith. We live in a golden age of wealth, comparatively, and knowledge and up until the last 2 months, mostly free of persecution for that faith. 

The people of Sychar had none of those things. They came with the knowledge of their ancestors, which turned out to be mostly wrong, but came to the well to hear a man who turned out to be God, and many of them listened and believed. Not all, but many. God wants none to be lost but knows the darkness that lives in men’s hearts. Jesus, when He was here, said the path is narrow and few find it. (Matthew 7:1) Therefore work out your salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12) Don’t be content with sitting in your pew and letting salvation slip away from you. Many people have spent their whole adult lives going to church, most of the time, happy to let the preacher say what they say, but never doing anything about it themselves. Faith without works of the Spirit is a dead Faith. (James 2:26)

After 2 days, Jesus leaves the people of Sychar and heads to Galilee. (John 4:43) The Galileans receive him, not for what He has said, but because they have seen what He did, for they were at the Jerusalem Passover Feast. (John 4:43)

 From Matthew Poole’s Commentary, we get this insight: 

When he came not to Nazareth, but to some parts of Galilee, the Galilaeans entertained him hospitably; and this they did because of those miracles they had seen wrought by him at the passover feast, where Christ was, John 2:1-25. For these Galilaeans, though they lived at a great distance from Jerusalem, yet were observant of the law which commanded all the males of the Jews to be present at that solemnity. The Samaritans saw no miracle, but believed Christ upon his word. The Galilaeans also received Christ, but their seeing of his miracles at the feast is given as the cause of their receiving him; their faith was not so noble as that of the Samaritans. Blessed (saith our Saviour) are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.

The people of Sychar never saw what the Galileans did, but believed. These Galileans politely accepted this Rabbi into their midst, but mostly out of respect for His entertainment value. Everybody loves to see a miracle happen before them. It will give them something to talk about for days. These Jews had head knowledge of what Jesus had done, but their cultural arrogance of them being descendants of Abraham, kept that knowledge from getting to their heart. Pride of self and arrogance of who you belonged to. Look at the news and see the same thing.

Jesus testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. (John 4:45) The Samaritans had accepted Him as Lord. His own people, the Jews, tolerated Him as an entertainment venue. 

Jesus travels on to Cana of Galilee, where His first miracle occurred. We know it as the wedding where the water got changed into wine. Here we find a royal official had heard that Jesus was in the area and went to seek him out. This royal official had a son who was sick in Capernaum. (John 4:46)

The map gives you a pretty good reference as to where Samaria, Cana and Capernaum are in relation to each other. Lots of walking but not that far apart. 

Here we find God working out His Providence in a Jew, who if everything had been going fine, would not have bothered much to seek out Jesus. Most of us would think of somebody who we know and has a sick kid, we feel sorry for him, but are kinda glad it is him not us. His bad luck to have to have a sick kid. And if we are the incurious type, that’s as far as it goes. Some of us would ponder what did this guy do to have this kind of bad luck? A sort of karma type thing. This is how the secular world works. We don’t acknowledge God working in our lives and some of us might have entertained thoughts of not being real happy at a God that would let bad things happen in this world. I’ve got news for you, God is not real happy with you and your disbelief. 

The way things work is this: God, through Providence, Grace and Mercy will test us. James says this, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

A very good example of testing comes from Genesis. After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:1-24)

Another example of something that just happened to a friend of ours back in Kansas. This friend had a lovely wife who was a believer. She went to sleep one night and never woke up again. She was in her late 30’s and left a family and friends in shock with the sudden realization that none of us knows the span of our days. Why God chose this woman and this time, we do not know. But we do know that God works out all things for His Glory and our good. She was called home and we are left with a hard lesson of where God is in our lives and how we would use this hard lesson to further our faith, convict us of where we have strayed, and strengthen us in our Love of the Lord. Live each day like it could very well be your last and then ponder on how that would change how you live.

This royal official had a son that was sick. Because of the love for his son, he sought out the only person that would have the effect he was looking for. (John 4:47) Love conquers all, including this Jew’s reluctance to consider Jesus as the Messiah. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Jesus gives the royal official a firm lesson, for He knows the hearts of men. “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” (John 4:48) Another test and at this point the royal official is ready to take his head knowledge and apply it to his heart. He tells Jesus to come before my son dies. (John 4:49). As Jesus sees into men’s hearts and sees the change that occurred and knows that this guy’s heart is now involved, He does what only Jesus could do, He heals his son. “Go; your son is alive.”

And the man believed and left to go back home and see his son. As he was going home, he met slaves that told him his son lives. (John 4:51) He inquires at what time did my son recover? They told him “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” (John 4:52) His heart knew that when Jesus said “Your Son Lives” it did indeed happen at that moment and he believed as did his entire household. (John 4:53)

This was the second sign that Jesus performed when He had come from Judea into Galilee. (John 4:54)

So, what did we learn from this lesson? God will test you, to see if you are wheat or weed. Sometimes this test comes at a cost to you, would you learn the lesson needed any other way? If it takes a test, and it did with me, I pray that you will be tested mightily, so that you would truly believe. Remember what was said in Revelation 3:16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

I do not want you to be spit out of God’s mouth. I want you to get off the dime and truly enjoy the Grace and Mercy of God’s Love and not let your salvation slip past you by inaction and not totally accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. The Joy of Salvation is worth the cost. You’ll have to trust me on that. Now go out and serve your King!

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

This week, we are still dealing with the after effects of the Woman at the well’s encounter with Jesus. She and all her people had been walking in darkness and this was not a recent problem, it was one of the reasons that her people had been carried off by the Assyrians in 732 BC. You can read about it in 2 Kings 17.

Notice verses 9 to 12 of the chapter mentioned above, “The Israelis practiced secret things that were not right, offending the Lord their God. In addition, they built high places for use by all their towns, watchtowers, and fortified cities. They set up pillars and Asherim on every high hill and in the shade of every green tree, where they made offerings on all the high places, as did the nations whom the Lord had expelled before them. They also practiced other wickedness, provoking the Lord to become angry, and they served idols, a practice that the Lord had warned them, ‘You are not to do this.’”

The Lord had told them quite explicitly “You are not to do this”, and while they had ears, they were no longer listening. Sure they had prophets giving them the lowdown on how they strayed from the path. Amos (Amos 1:1) was a sheep herdsman, and prophet that foretold the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. He was known as a prophet of doom, mostly because he was given a hard message from God to deliver. But who wants to listen to some sheep herder coming in from the hinterlands and giving you the bad news? Amos 5:4 “For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me so that you may live.” For a people told this and rejecting it, well, there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

In fact they had not been listening for a long time. We could go back to Joshua, (Joshua 1:1-9) who had been chosen by God to lead the people after Moses had been given unto Heaven. One of his first tasks was to deal with Jericho, which was a favorite story of mine from Sunday School. Just before the walls of Jericho came down, we find in Joshua 7:1 that “The sons of Israel acted unfaithfully regarding the things designated for destruction”. The tribe of Judah kept some things that God had said to destroy. While not one of the specific tribes of Israel that were eventually carried off to Assyria, bad friends make bad company. You learn from those you surround yourself with. The whole chapter of Joshua 7 is fascinating, I encourage you to pursue it.

The entire Jewish people had been prone to hard headedness and rebellion from the very word go. We see we are not all that different today as way back then. America’s spirit of Individualism can be seen biblically as rebellion. Does that make us Jews in spirit? Does it even make you wonder?

I bring up the Joshua story here to illustrate the rebellion of people and also because we have another very important person in the Jericho story. Another harlot, Rahab. No, I don’t have a thing for harlots, God uses the downtrodden, the hopeless, the weak. Jesus said in Mark 2:7 “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” 

She did the very opposite of the woman at the well, she turned from her idolatrous people, to faith in the Lord. Such a faith that she saved her family while risking her life for these Jews and also became a mother in the line of David. Boaz was her son, and Boaz married Ruth (Ruth 2) and that’s where I enter into this story. Ruth was my very first Bible Study about a year and a half ago. Interesting to me, but a big yawn from you who are wondering where I am going with this. 

These Samaritans that had turned out for Jesus on the words of a harlot, were Gentiles that had been put in this land when the 10 tribes of Israel were carried off. They are known as the lost tribes of Israel because they were never granted a right of return from God. Judah was also carried off to Babylon but Daniel had read the scripture that stated 70 years of exile were almost up. He prayed diligently to God and was answered by an angel. (Daniel 9:20-22) We know from Ezra and Nehemiah how that went. 

We’ve had a nice trip through the Old Testament and now we come back to these people called the Samaritans. Certain people from the nation of Israel stayed behind when the rest were carried off into Assyria in 732 BC. These people intermarried with the Assyrians, Gentiles introduced to the land to replace those that were carried off, producing the Samaritans. The Samaritans had their own temple, their own copy of the Torah – the first five books of the Old Testament – and their own religious system. There was an issue among the Jews and Samaritans as to where the proper place of worship was. The following exchange took place between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. (John 4:19-23) And now we are just about back where we started. The Bible states that many from the city believed in Him because of the word of the woman. (John 4:39) They asked Jesus to stay with them and He did for 2 days. (John 4:40) Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One truly is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:41-42)

They came because the woman at the well had told them something of herself and the man she had talked to. They more than likely knew that she was a harlot, but she posed the question that these men of the city felt they had to judge for themselves. And when they came, they stepped out of that haze of darkness that had hung on them for generations and entered into the light. And many believed; not all, but many. We find this in 2 Peter 3:3-9 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as they were from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed by being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people. 

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

God wants none to be lost, but He knows the darkness of men’s hearts. Jesus knew those that came to him at the well came with willing hearts. It is likely that some, hearing back from those that had been to the well and the good news they had heard there, some did not believe. Considering it foolish talk or not willing to betray their long held beliefs of their countrymen. It is not said why but the Bible tells us why. Jesus said it in Matthew 7:13-14: Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Are you on that wide path? Taking life as it comes, looking out for number 1? None of us knows the span of our days. Jesus told us to be disciples and to make disciples. Specifically “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) Yes, he was talking to His disciples, but were his disciples to do all the work? They have been gone for some 2000 years and yet raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are still white for harvest. (John 4:35) It is our job, as this book was written for us to read and obey. Listen to Christ Jesus and find someone to come alongside and encourage. Hospitality and fellowship is a good start. Surely this is something that even the aged and infirm can do. 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Let the Holy Spirit lead you as to what you can do. And have Faith that God is above and loves you. Go forth and serve your King.