Main Text – John 4:1-26

Many times we struggle to comprehend grace because we have a hard time picturing Jesus in the grime, grit, blood, and mud. We must understand that God is With Us. We see in the Gospels that Jesus is establishing a new covenant with his people that is driven by Grace.

Supporting Scripture for Intro:

• Luke 5:30-32 (Jesus is showing compassion to Levi, a tax collector)
• Luke 19:10
• John 3:17

-Today we are going to take a front row seat to gaze into that radical grace being poured out in an unexpected place at an unexpected time to an unexpected person.

Reading of John 4:1-26
*V.4 – make a note in your bible that “He had to go through Samaria”

1. He didn’t have to go through Samaria.
There were multitudes of paths around Samaria.
No one was forcing him to go through Samaria.
Jesus had a divine appointment and he was compelled by the Holy Spirit.

2. The next 9 verses are significant.
To give a little background of where we’ve been in John up to this point.
a. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sings of the world, is greater than the lambs that would continually need to be sacrificed throughout one’s life to make atonement for sins.
b. Jesus also brings the new wine of the kingdom over and above the Jewish laws of purification. Jesus is saying I am the greater than, I am the better than.
c. Jesus also shows up and begins to teach that Jesus being God with us is not about a physical temple but about the indwelling of our souls via the Holy Spirit and that the people of God are the temple of God.
d. In Jesus interaction with Nicodemus, we see about the new life that Jesus brings is not born of will power or a family lineage but is a free gift of God’s Grace to all those who would hear.
Now we have Jesus offering Living Water at Jacob’s Well.
Jacob’s Well is a major location in the history of God’s people.
In this area, the following major events happened:
Abram made his 1st sacrifice to God.
God first gives the promise of land to his people.
Abraham’s servants met Rebecca who would be Isaac’s future wife.
Jacob met his future wife Rachel.
Moses met Zamora, his future wife.
So Jesus shows up and says, “Who cares about this water? I’ve got Living Water.”
He’s doing what he has done all along by saying these things would require you to do them over and over and over again. (Jesus) – But what I want to do in you I want to do once and for all. My sacrifice is complete. The purity that I bring and give to you is complete.
In V. 15, she wants the living water. This would have been on the surface a very easy conversion.

3. The next 5 verses – The Wound and The Worry
V.16 – V.18: This interaction quickly turns awkward. We don’t have a lot of information as to why she’s had 5 husbands other than it is irregular.
There is some kind of shame or something in her past that has her coming to the well at noon which is not when you would go to the well. There is something in her past that is causing her to not want to talk to Jesus about it.
We see here that Jesus isn’t willing to accept some easy believeism that doesn’t get into the root of her hurt.
In this broken world, we have ALL experienced hurt and a deep wound. And through life we have all learned to self-protect.

**Example of parents who have children approaching teenage years.

Many times we operate out of that wound in ways that we don’t even know. If we had a rough childhood, we grow up feeling that we have to perform to prove our worth and we go to extremes to do so.

**”To be 99% known is to be Unknown.”**

*The difference between a wound and a scar. A wound still hurts.
Jesus loves this woman too much to allow this wound to fester any longer.

*It is an epic tragedy, that the place where Jesus wants to do his most significant work is the place that you and I spend so much time trying to hide. This is CRUSHING for Christians.

4. Next she tries to avoid the wound be self-defending with theology and doctrine.
V.19 – “I can see that you are a prophet.”

5. Her worry here is still true today.
Is this true or is that true? What is truth?

**Jesus cares about her concern and gives truth to her.

*In V.23 he transitions into the good news of the gospel that a new day is coming and that it is now here.

*In V.26 she makes one last attempt to dodge Jesus and he gives the first “I Am” statement to this woman.