Well, turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter four. John chapter four.

We are back in the center of this encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well. Last week, we did pause to consider what Jesus said to this woman about worship, although that was not the main point of this conversation. But we saw that Jesus told the woman that the place of worship would soon be irrelevant. That was her focus, but he shifted her focus away from the place of worship to the object of worship. We also saw that he told her that worship must be in spirit and in truth, and that true worshipers would worship the Father from a sincere heart and according to the word of God. And all of that discussion, again, comes in the midst of Jesus’ evangelistic conversation with this woman.

In the previous weeks, we’ve seen Jesus told this woman that He is the source of living water, and that anyone who drinks from His living water would never thirst again. And Jesus showed this woman how she could have this living water. He shared the gospel, the good news with her. But before he could share the good news, he had to address the bad news. And he showed this woman her sin. Jesus asked the woman to go and get her husband. And she replied that she had no husband. Jesus said, I know, you’ve had five husbands. And the man that you are now living with is not your husband. Jesus revealed to this woman not only that she was sinful, but that He already knew. He already knew about her sin. And we saw that this woman admitted her sinfulness to Him by acknowledging that He was right. She said, you must be a prophet. And Jesus then showed this woman her Savior. He didn’t leave her in her sin, He led her to the Savior.

Because as the woman says in verse 25 of chapter 4, I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ. When He comes, He will declare all things to us. She knew that Messiah was coming, and that meant something. That meant that people would be delivered from their sins. And you can see and hear in her voice that she wonders if this man is the one that she’d been waiting for. Was this the one who was promised? The one that God would send to deliver the people? The one who would be the final Passover lamb? Who would finally take away sins? So Jesus answered and said to her, I who speak to you am he. Jesus is I am. He’s the great I am. He is the deliverer that she had been waiting for. Today we will resume this conversation and we will see how this woman responds to her Savior. Because that’s where we left off before we went back last week to look at the subject of worship. But today we will resume this conversation and we will see in these verses the impact that Jesus had.

We know that throughout the Gospels we are shown that Jesus had an impact on many people and in many different ways. For some, his impact was healing of their physical ailments. They no longer suffered from what they previously did after meeting Jesus. For others, Jesus’ impact was offense. and enraging, but as we will see for others, Jesus’ impact was life-changing. People went away from Jesus different than they were before. In this passage, we will see three aspects of Jesus’ impact following this one encounter with the woman at the well. First, we see Jesus’ impact on the circumstances. Secondly, we’ll see Jesus’ impact on this woman. And then lastly, we’ll see Jesus’ impact on the people.

So those will be our focus this morning as we cover verses 27 through 30 of John chapter four. Allow me to read this section once again. This is the word of the Lord. And at this point, his disciples came. and they were marveling that he was speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, what do you seek? Or why are you speaking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went into the city and said to the men, come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done. Is this not the Christ? They went out of the city and were coming to him.

Initially, I was going to highlight Jesus’ impact on the disciples, because that is a focus here, how Jesus’ conversation with this woman impacted the disciples, but I wanted to broaden it out a little bit to focus on how Jesus impacted all of the circumstances surrounding this encounter. That’s what our first focus is, our first aspect of Jesus’ impact, is Jesus’ impact on the circumstances here. Throughout the story, Jesus has been influencing this situation and the circumstances that bring about this conversation. Originally, we read about these circumstances as John opens this chapter. But picking up in verse four of chapter four, it says that he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to the city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and Jacob’s well was there.

So Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well, and it was about the sixth hour. It’s a lot of detail that we have about this context, about where and when this all happens. A lot of very specific details about the area, the time, the weather conditions even. It was hot. It was the middle of the day. He’s worn out. But what we shouldn’t miss in all of this is the divine providence over these circumstances. Jesus comes to Samaria, to Sychar, to Jacob’s field, to Jacob’s well at the sixth hour. And this well is about a half a mile outside of the city of Sychar. When you consider all these specific details and you realize it wouldn’t take very long for someone to leave the city and get their water and come back. So the chances that Jesus would meet this exact woman at this exact well, at this exact time, are slim. It would be hard to plan an encounter like this. But again, in verse four, it says he had to pass through Samaria. Jesus had a divine appointment. This was no chance meeting. He was here to do his Father’s will. he was here to call his sheep, and he was on a mission.

So we see even up until now, and at this point, this was not a chance meeting between the Lord and this woman. And not only was Jesus’ impact seen in that part of the circumstances, but the very moment that he reveals himself to this Samaritan woman, He reveals who He is. In verse 26, He said to her, I who speak to you am He. As I mentioned when we covered this passage, He says, I am. He reveals Himself as the I am. And in verse 27, and at this point, His disciples came. At this point. At this very point. John is being intentionally specific. You could translate it, at this very moment, as Jesus is speaking these words, his disciples walk up. John is capturing the mastery of Jesus over this whole situation.

They come back from buying food in Sychar at the very moment that Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah. If they had returned earlier, they would have interrupted the conversation, and Jesus wouldn’t have gotten to the point He was, not in the way that He did at least. If they had returned later, they wouldn’t have heard Jesus’ declaration to this woman. But divine providence was at work, because at this very moment, the disciples came back. If you realize how specific the timing has to be for this encounter to even happen. That they were in Samaria at Jacob’s well at the very moment that this woman walks up to get water. And the disciples had just left. And then at the very moment that Jesus reveals who he is, they come back. And they are marveling at what they’re seeing. They are marveling, but it doesn’t say they are marveling that he said, I am the one who is speaking to you. I am the Messiah, the Christ whom you just mentioned.

They are marveling that he’s speaking with a woman. They are focused on the wrong things. They marvel that he’s speaking with a woman, not that Jesus is revealing himself as the Christ. to someone who needs to see it. They’re focused on the fact that he’s speaking with a woman. As we mentioned before, this is a shocking situation. It’s a violation of the social rules of the day. This didn’t happen.

In fact, the Jewish writings of that time, really the Pharisees’ rules that they made, a couple of them read like this. “A man shall not be alone with a woman in an inn, not even his sister or his daughter, on account of what men may think.” And another one says, a man shall not talk with a woman in the street, not even his own wife, and especially not with another woman, on account of what men may say. That’s the rules they lived by. And so for the disciples to see this, it is understandable why they were marveling at the fact that Jesus was talking alone with a woman at the well.

The Jews believed that, especially for a rabbi to be speaking to a woman, was at best a waste of their time. At worst, it was a distraction from what they should have been doing, which was studying the Torah. Not only that, but again, the fact that she was a Samaritan, this made Jesus’ actions even more astonishing. If they had known the woman’s immoral background like Jesus did, you can imagine what their reaction would have been. And you can imagine how these disciples are thinking. How could our master, this one we’ve been following now, the one we’re giving our life to, how could he be talking with this woman? Of all people, why did we even have to come through Samaria in the first place? I don’t want to be here. What’s he talking to her for?”

They were marveling at this, but as John points out, they were smart enough to keep their mouth shut. They had learned that much by now. I’m sure they probably had flashbacks in the back of their mind of Jesus in the temple, driving out the money changers with whips and flipping tables over, so they didn’t want to confront him about this situation. They just kept it to themselves. John says, verse 27, yet no one said, what do you seek or why are you speaking with her? They figured it was better to keep quiet, to say nothing at all.

But again, you can imagine what was going through their minds. Why are we even in Samaria? Let’s get out of here. Jesus had told this woman that salvation comes from the Jews, so why don’t we go focus on the Jews? Why are we here? Why are you talking with this Samaritan? What are we doing? But there’s an important lesson that the disciples need to learn as they’re following their Lord around, their master. Yes, the gospel would first be preached in Israel, but it wouldn’t be preached only to Israel. The gospel would cross these cultural barriers that they had. Salvation is from the Jews, but it’s not only for the Jews. This would be a concept that many Jews had difficulty accepting.

You can remember stories from the Old Testament, like Jonah. Jonah, the prophet who was told by God to go and preach to Nineveh and tell him to repent. But he ran away because Jonah didn’t like Ninevites too much. He didn’t want to see them repent and be saved. And in Jonah chapter four, as Jonah’s praying to God, Jonah chapter four verse two, he prayed to Yahweh and said, ah, oh Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore, I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning evil. One of my favorite verses of Jonah. After God saves the people, they repent, and Jonah says, I knew it! This is why I fled, I didn’t want this to happen. I knew you would be gracious. I knew you would be God.”

And the key verse in Jonah is in chapter two where it says, salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation doesn’t belong to Jonah. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And that is exactly the lesson that Jesus has for his disciples here. And he has perfectly orchestrated this situation to bring about this encounter and to reveal himself not to a Jew but to a Samaritan as his disciples are coming back on the scene so that his disciples could see. So that they could see salvation belongs to the Lord and to whom he chooses to reveal himself.

This says something to us about the sovereignty of God in salvation. The sovereignty of Jesus Christ, our Lord, as he saves this woman. He reveals himself to this woman as the Christ, the Messiah, the one she was waiting for. He is revealing to them, explaining to them, That salvation belongs to the Lord. He is the Christ. He is the Son of God. And by believing, you will have life in his name. So first we see here that, number one, Jesus has an impact on these circumstances. On everything that’s happening here, Jesus is sovereign over them. Second thing we see, number two, is Jesus’ impact on this woman. Jesus’ impact on this woman. You see a lot of things in this back and forth conversation, but it all ultimately leads to, as Jesus says in verse 26, I am, I’m the one who’s speaking to you, I am He.

Verse 28, we see the woman’s response. So, the woman left her water jar and went into the city. The woman left her water jar and went into the city. This woman is so amazed at this confession from Jesus, this declaration that he is the I am, the Christ, that she’s got to go tell somebody. She’s got to go tell somebody what just happened. As it says, she left her water pot, her water jar. There are many scholars who read a lot into that. that the significance of leaving her water jar. Some say that she symbolically left it behind to show that she’d left her former water for this new living water. Or that she intentionally left the water jar for Jesus because he didn’t have one. Or she just didn’t want to carry the full water jar back into town because she wanted to get there quickly. Honestly, I don’t know why she left her water jar. It just says that she did.

But it does give us an aspect of realism to this story. There’s an element of detail here that shows us that this story is, in fact, a real story. The details that John includes wouldn’t be something that would come from a story that somebody was making up. If someone was making up a lie, they wouldn’t include details like this, but this is a true and real story. Jesus really did come to this well because he was tired and thirsty. He really did have a conversation with this real woman. He really did share the gospel with her and tell her that he was the Christ. And it really did change her life. In fact, she was so impacted by this man that she jumps up and runs into the city. To tell everyone. And this is what we ought to expect from this woman. This shouldn’t be surprising that she jumped up and ran to tell someone. The gospel has a profound impact on the life of a believer. And Jesus told her this.

He said in verse 14, whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst ever. This will be life changing. If you drink of this living water, it will change your life. The water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. There will be a difference. And that is what we see. She has this living water now. And it’s not the water in her jug. She has the living water that wells up and overflows to eternal life. And now that this water is welling up in her, she has to go spill over to everyone she can. This is the impact that Jesus had on this woman. He became a well of water, welling up to eternal life.

How is that living water affecting you? Do you have it? Do you believe in him? Do you bring this living water to everyone you know? Is your reaction to the fact that Jesus is the Christ in any way similar to this woman? This is the result of salvation in this woman’s life. That’s number two, the impact that Jesus has on this woman. Thirdly, we see Jesus’ impact on these people. Jesus’ impact on the people of Samaria.

Again, verse 28. through verse 30. So the woman left her water jar and went into the city. And she said to the men, come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done. Is this not the Christ? They went out of the city and were coming to him. She just has to tell them. She has to tell them about this man, this stranger she met. And a stranger who knew all about her past could not be an ordinary man. There’s more to this guy. And his impact on her was so significant that she didn’t hesitate to share the good news, even with those who knew who she was. Think about that. even with those who knew who she was. Because she didn’t have to explain to them her past.

They knew what she was talking about when she said, he told me everything. She goes back into the city that knows her, that knows who she is, that knows her sinful past. And she didn’t get hung up on her sin. She didn’t try to hide it or was ashamed of it. Jesus had read her heart and caused her to face who she really was. And as we saw before, she’d already recognized her need for salvation. And she recognized that her sin was what Jesus said it was. And then she confessed her need for the Messiah, the Christ, and she met him. She finally saw that he was the source of this living water, this eternal life, and now she has to tell somebody.

Because that is what we do whenever something great happens to us. We have to tell somebody. And she’s showing us in this reaction that this is a genuine conversion. This changed this woman. And look how she does it. She said to the men, come and see a man who told me all the things that I have done. Is this not the Christ? It says she went to the men of the city. She went to those who would have the most influence. She went and she told them What happened? She told them what he did for her. Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done. She simply tells them what he did.

She didn’t go in there and say, listen to me, I’m the authority here. Believe what I say. And if you understand the culture then, it was a very male dominated culture. The women weren’t the ones to go in and tell spiritual truth to the town. The men were the leaders. The men were the teachers. The men are the ones who spoke the truth. And she goes to them and doesn’t step over them as an authority.

She simply says, listen to what happened. He told me everything that I had done. And then she says, Is this not the Christ? She tells them what happened and says, now you tell me who he is. He told me everything that I have done. He told me things that he could not know. Who is it that could do that? Tell me. Who is it that could know my past? and never met me. You tell me, is this not the Christ?” And what happened? They went out of the city and were coming to him. They responded.

And later on in verse 39, we see that from that city, Sychar, many of the Samaritans believed in him. because of the word of the woman who bore witness. He told me all the things that I have done.” That’s what she said. He told me all the things that I have done. Now you tell me, is this the Christ or not? This couldn’t be the Christ, could it? She didn’t overcomplicate it. She didn’t give a lecture or a sermon She didn’t present five proofs of the Messiah. She shared what Jesus did for her. She shared what happened to her. Can you do that?

We get so nervous about sharing the gospel. We psych ourselves out. We convince ourselves that I’m not gonna get it all. Did she get it all? Did she leave anything out? She told them what happened to her and said, come and see for yourself. I’ll tell you, when we do interviews for church membership here, one of the questions that we ask is, tell me what the gospel is. And you guys get so nervous. And I get it, because we do, we psych ourselves out. We immediately think, oh, what’s the right answer? What is the gospel? Oh, what am I not supposed to say? What if I forget something? And trust me, I understand. I get it. Because we do get nervous and we don’t wanna say the wrong thing and we wanna get it exactly right.

So then typically I ask another question to help simplify it. And I say, if you died today, and God said, why should I let you into heaven? What would you say? If you died today, you meet God at heaven’s gates, and he says, why should I let you in? What would you say? And almost every time, immediately the answer is because Jesus died for my sins. Exactly. Exactly. That is the gospel. If only you’d said that the first time. Just kidding, I get it. We get so nervous about what the right answer is.

But if you think about it, what is the gospel? Jesus died for my sins. Why am I going to heaven? Because Jesus died for my sins. And we intimidate ourselves into thinking that we’re not going to get it all. We’re going to mess it up. And so we overcomplicate what the gospel really is. And so then we don’t share the gospel because we’re afraid that we’re not going to share the whole gospel. But what does this woman do that leads to a town coming to Jesus? She tells them what he did for her and invites them to meet him themselves. It’s that simple. It is that simple.

The gospel is that Jesus died for my sins. I was born a sinner and I had no help, no hope of saving myself. But Jesus came. Jesus came and he lived and he died for me. And he said that if I believe that he is my savior, and that he took my punishment for my sins on the cross, that he will save me of my sins. And I do believe. And He did save me. And now I live my life for Him. And I look forward to the day that He comes back for me.

And then we worry about things like, well, what if somebody asks me questions? What if somebody asks me to prove it? Like they’re gonna say, well, I’d believe you if you could prove it to me. No, I don’t have to prove it to you. Because sharing the gospel is not proving anything to anybody. Sharing the gospel is telling the truth. Telling the truth about who Jesus is and what He has done. Sharing the gospel is, I’m going to tell you the truth. You prove to me that it’s not true. We don’t have to have every answer.

Now there is a place for apologetics and giving a defense for the hope that is in us. And we should be able to defend our faith. But that is not evangelism. Evangelism is telling the truth about what Jesus has done for me. It is telling the truth about who Jesus is. We don’t have to have every answer. We only have to have the most important answer. And that is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died for my sins. We can read the famous gospel passages in the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 15, three and four. You probably have it memorized. For I delivered to you as of first importance, meaning this is the gospel. What I received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Jesus died for my sins.

Romans 10, 9 and 10. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation. Jesus died for my sins.

Or Acts 4.12. There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

What name? Jesus died for my sins. That is all you need. All I have is Christ. All I need is Christ. We shouldn’t overcomplicate the gospel. Think about what this woman did. She went and told the people what Jesus did for her and invited them to come see for themselves. She told the truth and invited them to come and believe. It’s really that simple.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this morning. Our God, we thank you for what your word shows to us, how your word makes it so clear to us, how it is that we are saved through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, your only son. God, we thank you for sending your son. We thank you for sacrificing your son and for raising your son from the dead. and then revealing all of that to us so that we can believe and be saved. Lord, I thank you for the gospel. I pray that you’ll help us to know the gospel, to understand the gospel, to believe the gospel, and to share the gospel. Lord, we praise you. We glorify you. We know that you are more than we could ever understand, but we praise you for coming to be near us, to be with us, to save us. God, we thank you and we pray all of this in Christ’s precious name. Amen.