John 4:1-14 (Sermon Outline)
Sermon Outline
John 4:1-14
I. Opening Illustration: Are you a Hot Mess?
a. Hot Mess is a phrase that we have all heard before, but I would bet many of us in here do not know the history behind this phrase. It’s quite interesting. It’s been around a lot longer than all of us. It dates all the way back to the 19th Century.
b. Any guesses as to what it referred to in the 19th century? It actually referred to “A MESS HALL”. Now for those of you in here who are under 30, a mess hall is like a modern day cafeteria. It was talking about food.
c. Over time in the 20th century the military had a pretty heavy influence on this phrase and it became known as “A DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENT”. When a group of soldier would get pinned into a hard place, surrounded by the enemy, they may turn to one another and say, “Man, we’ve really found ourselves in a hot mess.”
d. And what’s fascinating is that in the 21st century, where we find ourselves today and the further development of the word “hot” in our culture today, the literal definition of Hot Mess is “AN ATTRACTIVE DISASTER”. Some of you know one or two of these types of individuals don’t you? You know, it’s the person who behind the scenes their life is falling apart, its in disarray, but they’re still somewhat functional. They’re still able to show up to work, but behind the scenes they are just falling apart. In other words, a hot mess is someone who cleans up well.
e. They clean up well and we all do this, don’t we? At some level regardless of what’s going on at home or what’s going on at work, we show up with a smile. And when someone says, “Hey, how are you doing?” And you say, “Good”, even though we’re not. And at church, instead of saying “good”, we say, “I’m blessed.” Even though on the way to church you’re arguing with your spouse, your kids are driving you bonkers, and at home you feel as if your life is falling apart at the seems. At times we are really good at putting on the front that we are “blessed”, when in fact if we are honest with ourselves we are one giant miserable Hot Mess.
f. If that’s you, I have good news for you, because this morning we are going to be looking at an individual whose life epitomizes what it means to be “a hot mess”. And we are going to see how her encounter with Jesus changed everything for her, and how His encounter with her gives us the answers to how God can clean up the hot mess that we’ve become, or can become at various seasons of our life.
g. It is this idea that has inspired the Big Question for this morning’s message, which is, How do we clean up the hot mess in our life?
II. Introduction:
a. As we move from John 3 and the story of Nicodemus to John 4 and Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well, we discover that John introduces us to two people from opposite ends of the world, in opposite situations in life, and yet both of them need Jesus equally. In John 3, Jesus showed Nicodemus – a man who was well respected in life as a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin – that he was in great need for a Savior. In John 4, Jesus will show the Samaritan woman – an individual who acts as if she has it all together, but in reality was just a hot mess – that she to needs a Savior. These are two very different people from two very different backgrounds, and yet with one incredibly common need, a Savior to rescue them.
III. Message: In this morning’s message we are going to be looking at Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman, in order to see how He will change everything for her, if she’s willing to allow Him to get at the heart of the hot mess that is going on in her life. And so if you would please stand in honor of reading God’s Word, we are going to begin looking at John 4 together.
a. How do we clean up the Hot Mess in our life? We must allow Jesus to FILL our lives with Living Water (4:7-14)
i. READ: John 4:1-6
ii. Here we read that Jesus leaves Jerusalem, the center of Jewish worship, as well as the Judean countryside where He was baptizing, and He heads to Samaria, a place for all intense purposes is now considered a foreign land, populated by many Samaritans. Samaritans were half-breed Jews, who intermarried with Gentiles after the Assyrian captivity back in the time when the Northern Tribes of Israel split away from the Southern Tribes of Israel.
iii. After Assyria captured Samaria (722-721 BC), they deported all the Israelites of influence, and re-settled the land with foreigners, who intermarried with the surviving band of Israelites.
iv. After the Assyrian exile, Jews returning to their homeland viewed the Samaritans not only as the children of political rebels, but as half-breeds, whose religion was tainted by various unacceptable elements of compromise. Because of this compromise there was great disdain between the two people groups.
v. It reminds me of a similar situation that was going on 150 years ago in the United States of America, which is clearly captured in the book titled Manhunt, which tells the story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, along with the twelve-day manhunt for his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
vi. This book clearly demonstrates the hatred that was felt between both the North and the South at that time, which was epitomized in the person of John Wilkes Booth.
vii. After killing Lincoln, Booth wrote about it in his diary. He said, “Our country owed all her troubles to him (Lincoln), and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment… and yet for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew I am looked upon as a common cutthroat.”
viii. Many shared Booth’s bigotry and hatred. In fact, there are still to this day some families that hold an annual celebration each year on April 15 to commemorate the assassination of Lincoln to honor Booth.
ix. The same type of contempt marked the relationship between Jews and Samaritans. We will get a taste of their deep-seated animosity in v.9, when the Samaritan woman reminds Jesus that, “Jews do not associate with Samaritans.”
x. However, these opening 6 verses are the setting for the spread of salvation to non-Jews, as well as for breaking down the middle wall of separation for every people group from every culture, reminding us that Christ is the Prince of Peace, and in order to follow Him, we have to love and care for everyone, just as He does.
xi. Jesus leaves the crowds in Judea in order to go rescue a woman who is in great need. Jesus and His disciples are taking a long and taxing trip from Judea to Galilee and decide in the heat of the day to stop and rest. Once reaching the well, Jesus’ disciples go into the city to buy food.
xii. As we move into the next passage we will read about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman.
xiii. READ: John 4:7-14
xiv. Here we read that when Jesus came to Samaria He sat beside a well, Jacob’s well. And while Jesus was resting there, a woman of Samaria came to draw water, so Jesus turns to her and asks for a drink.
xv. This was in that culture a shocking breach of social custom. Men did not speak with women in public – not even their wives. Nor did rabbis associate with immoral women (cf. Luke 7:39). Most significant of all in this situation, is what I have already unpacked for you earlier, and that is that Jews wanted nothing to do with Samaritans. And yet, here we see Jesus shatter all of those barriers.
xvi. And what I want to point out first is that the Bible tells us that it was the 6th hour (v.6), which means it was noon. It’s important to know that the cool of the evening was the time when women customarily performed the chore of getting water (cf. Gen. 24:11), but this woman most likely came at high noon, perhaps because of her desire to avoid public attention. What was also unusual was that this woman came such a long distance to this well when there were other sources of water closer to the village.
xvii. But she, for reasons that will soon become evident, was an outcast, even to her own people, the Samaritans! She would rather walk the extra distance in the hottest time of the day than face the hostility and scorn of the other women at the closer well to her city, later in the day.
xviii. As I was meditating upon this over the past week, I couldn’t help but think that this worship center here at BFC is filled with women who can understand what this woman must have went through feeling like an outcast. And if that’s you, I want to point out that it was this woman that Jesus was drawing close to, in order to minster to her and restore her. Jesus wasn’t hanging out with the snotty little “to good” for you girls who walk around making others feel bad about themselves.
xix. That is not where Jesus hangs out. He hangs out with the broken hearted. Jesus hangs out with the lonely and hurting. Jesus hangs out with those who desire real relationships but can’t find them.
xx. What God was showing me this week is that there are some women who are just plain bullies, always using their popularity or their influence to make other people feel horrible about themselves, so that they can feel better about themselves. And much like this poor Samaritan woman, you have probably had to avoid certain places at work, in the community, or even here at church so that you don’t spend the rest of the day feeling like c-rap.
xxi. This is right where this Samaritan woman is at in life. She’s an outcast, and she’s a mess.
xxii. And yet, in this passage we see that Jesus comes to her, and meets her right where she’s at, in a place of lonely isolation. Jesus knows how thirsty she is inside. That she needs to be refreshed. That she is thirsting for right relationships with God and with people. And so when she approaches Jesus at the well, He gets right to the point with her by explaining to her that she needs to quit trying to fill the voids in her life with unhealthy people and unhealthy relationships.
xxiii. This was her life situation and because of it, she was a hot mess, and so Jesus shares with her how to clean the mess up, and that’s by filling herself up from the right source, Him. And what He tells her is that when she comes to Jesus to be filled up, it will be likened to drinking Living Waters.
xxiv. It’s this idea that has inspired the first answer to this morning’s big question.
b. How do we clean up the Hot Mess in our life? We must allow Jesus to FILL our lives with Living Water (4:7-14)
i. The way we clean up the hot mess in our life, or the empty void in our heart, is by going to the right source for our healing, and that is Jesus. And when we by faith go to Jesus, He will give us Living Waters from God to clean up the mess that our life can become at times, by refreshing us up and straightening our lives out.
ii. This idea of the Living Waters of God is a theme that runs throughout God’s Word in several places. Looking at just 3 places we see:
1. Jeremiah 2:13 – “For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Meaning, Israel turned away from God in order to try and fill themselves with another source, but it was broken, and it did not work, and therefore they were empty for not going to God for the Living Waters.
2. Isaiah 55:1 – “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Meaning whoever thirsts spiritually can come and it won’t cost you anything. The Living Waters God has for you and for me is free! We just have to come to Him by faith and drink.
3. Zechariah 14:8 – “On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem… and it shall continue in summer as in winter.” Meaning it will never dry up, not even during the hot summer dessert months.
iii. In John 4:14, we get a very clear and powerful visual of what Jesus is trying to say to her and to us about life when look at what Jesus is saying to her in the Greek language.
1. When Jesus says in (v.14), “The water that I shall give you will become in you a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life”, the word for “fountain” is a verb and it refers to a “perpetual” well that is always streaming and flowing through you, because you are by faith going to Jesus first to fill you up in life and not other water sources.
2. In addition to this, the Greek word for “springing up” to eternal life also paints a powerful picture for us. This word “springing up” is used of the lame “leaping” after being healed (cf. Acts 3:8). So we see that Jesus is offering something to the woman at the well, and to you and I, that we can’t find from any other source in life, and that is living waters, the kind that not only remains perpetual for us throughout our life, but also springs up within us in such a way that it is always bringing health and healing us.
3. What’s also beautiful about this, is that as believers, even when we try to fill ourselves with other things instead of Jesus and we begin to thirst spiritually and begin to drift spiritually, this perpetual spring of living waters is always available to us, we just have to go to Jesus, He is the source. The way we go to Jesus is by putting Jesus first in our life.
IV. Life Application:
a. I began this mornings message talking about how the woman that we were going to be introduced to today was the poster child for Hot Mess, and how her encounter with Jesus was going to change everything for her, because Jesus was going to show her that everything that she had been doing in life to fill her up, every source she went to was not working, but just leaving her damaged.
b. And today that’s what Jesus wants to remind us of as well. There are plenty of things in this world that would like to be the SOURCE of our happiness. But as God spoke through Jeremiah to the Israelites, those cisterns are broken and empty, and have no way of filling you up with what you need. It is only Jesus that can do that for you.
c. Close with VIDEO: “Hallelujah for the Well”
