Jesus Seeks The Lost

John 4:1-19

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Last week we closed off John Chapter 3. And today, we enter Chapter 4.In this Chapter John the Apostle introduces us to a conversation Jesus had with a woman. This is not your regular woman–this is not a classy, prim and proper woman. This is a woman who has had five failed marriages and was on her 6th (vv.16-18). There were real problems in her life. Perhaps she has been in abusive relationships. Perhaps men use her and dump her. Obviously she doesn’t seem to hold down a relationship. This is a super adulterous woman.

This woman will definitely be hurting and may have become the scorn of society. In the text it is evident she is avoiding people as much as she can. John gives us the time for this conversation. The last part of verse 6: It was about the sixth hour. The sixth hour is noted by commentators to be around the afternoon. And for those of you who know anything about fetching water, nobody fetches water in the afternoon. It’s normally in the morning. And in the morning, you will meet other people who have come to fetch water. But this woman will come in the afternoon to avoid people. And to avoid the scorn of society. It is because of this woman that Jesus had to pass through Samaria in his journey. He had to: It is a Must. It is A Need. It is a Necessity! That journey has to happen. Why? Because there is a lost soul that needs salvation.

That brings me to the title for this morning. Jesus Seeks The Lost. Firstly, I will briefly attempt to explain Who The Lost Is. Then I will spend the rest of the sermon to address how Jesus Seeks The Lost. We would look at (i) Jesus Breaks Racial and Gender Barriers (ii) Jesus Takes The First Step To Save The Lost (iii) Jesus Brings Light To The Spiritually Blind (iv) Jesus Offers Eternal LIfe (v). Jesus Reveals Our Sin.

Meeting with Jesus at the well was no coincidence. Jesus being God knew her before the foundation of the world. And that day was her day of salvation. I pray that today will be somebody’s day of salvation. Amen.

Some of you may have things in your life where you may be hurting and are seeking for answers. Perhaps you have committed a sin or are presently in a sin that brings you shame: fornication, lying, cheating others, wrong business deals, Yours may not be as this woman who has lived with six husbands. But nonetheless you may have your own life issues. It brings shame to you anytime you remember it. And I am not talking to only women—men also included here. So we all come to the Saviour this morning who is seeking for the lost to find rest for our souls. Whatever your sin is. Whatever your pain. Whatever you are dealing with in life, we are all coming to the feet of the Saviour Jesus Christ and I hope that you will find rest for your soul: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). Will you believe in Jesus, will you trust him?

Who Are The Lost?

The Bible uses two categories to always describe human beings: The Saved and Unsaved; the Natural and Spiritual, Believer and Unbeliever, Righteous and Wicked. All these makes a distinction between those who are children of God and those who are not. The Bible condemns all human beings under sin (Romans 3:23). But of this condemned human beings, some believe in Jesus and they are saved. Those who haven’t believed yet are the lost. They are lost because they are separated from God. They are lost because they are heading to hell. And these are the ones Jesus came to save: the lost (Luke 19:10).

We will now discuss how Jesus Saves

You will see in the opening words of the Chapter that Jesus undertook a journey from Judea to Galilee because of the competition that was arising between his ministry and John the Baptist. And John the apostle loves giving clarifications, so he gave us another one. He tells us Jesus was not baptising. It was only his disciples (v.2). And this is very important. Because if Jesus was baptising, then it makes the testimony of John the Baptist, a false testimony. John says he Baptises with water, but Jesus will Baptise with the Holy Spirit. This is important so we don’t think the Bible contradicts itself or John the Baptist lied about Jesus (John 1:32-34). So Jesus moves away to avoid the competition and maybe to help John the Baptist not to feel uncomfortable in ministry. You know there are people who know they are gifted. They flaunt their gifts. They are competitive. But not Jesus. Perhaps he moved away to give John a room to operate. Whatever your gifts are, whatever you have, please don’t use it to despise others.

Jesus Breaks Racial and Gender Barriers

But the most important thing here is the route Jesus took (v.4). For any Jew moving from Judea to Galilee, they would have taken a longer route to avoid any contact with the Samaritans. But not Jesus. He Breaks Racial and Gender Barriers to reach the lost. John has already told us for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. This is a historical problem. Jews and Samaritans are supposed to be the same people. But at a point in the history of Israel, there was the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. The northern Kingdom was colonised by Assyria and intermarriages took place between them. So the Samaritans are descendants of that intermarriage and the Jews see them as a corrupted people. So basically, the Jews considered themselves as better people. And there was racial discrimination amongst them.

See, the whole chapter is full of racial and gender biases (vv. 9, 20;27). Everything was against this woman in the culture she lived. She was a Samaritan. She was a woman. And this is the real world. It is a world full of class categorisation and discrimination. We discriminate among ourselves by race, social status, political affiliation, wealth, school attended etc.. In our country, one of the common problems we deal with though subtly, is tribalism. Where certain tribes and clan see themselves as superior to others. So for example Parents, even Christian will vow not to allow their children to marry from particular tribes. And this is real. Two people fall in love and their parents say never, based on some social or tribal status.

Dear friends, Jesus doesn’t know any of such discrimination. You may come from a poor family. You may not be well educated. You may be struggling through life. Maybe you don’t count yourself as worth anything. But know that Jesus knows no such distinctions. Jesus saves and he saves the lost. He saves against the expectations of human beings. Maybe you have been written off as someone who will amount to nothing. Jesus doesn’t know that. He only sees a sinner that needs salvation. And he

Takes The First Step To Save The Lost

In this interaction between Jesus and the woman; you will notice that it is Jesus who initiated the conversation (v.7). “Jesus said to her Give me a drink”. Let’s not gloss over that. This is Jesus initiating a conversation. Jesus Takes The First Step To Save Sinners. See, if Jesus had not spoken, this woman would have fetched her water and gone away without speaking to him. Her response to Jesus’ request plainly shows us this (v.9). You see, you and I are not a people who naturally seeks God. We will have nothing to do with God unless he has first revealed himself to us. And this is a consistent biblical teaching. Speaking about our sin, the Scripture says

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God (Romans 3:11).

This is beautiful!! No one! Absolutely no one, seeks for God. But God seeks for sinners. This is the consistent working of God through Scriptures. When Adam and Eve sinned, it was God who sought them out. It was God who called Abraham out of a pagan family. The Bible is clear on this: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1John 4:10). Brethren, if God leaves us alone, no one will be saved. If the choice is left in our hands to seek after God, we won’t come to God.

And thank God he has not left us alone. Jesus came to die to save sinners so that anyone who believes in him will be saved. Wherever you are, what ever you have done, Jesus is seeking you out. If you have been hiding from God, if you have been avoiding believing in Jesus, if you have been living without seeking Jesus, then this may be a wake-up call to you. Jesus is looking for you. Like this woman, Jesus calls you to himself. The question is whether you will respond to that call. For us Christians, this is an excellent example for us. We must seek ways to initiate gospel conversations. When you sit in a public transport, a taxi, uber…anytime we find ourselves in a situation you can have a gospel conversation with someone, create the opportunity. Break the ice, ask a question, start a gospel conversion. Like Jesus, we must all seek to take the first step towards initiating a conversation.

He Brings Light To The Spiritually Blind

Now the clearest reason sinners will not come to God is simply because of Spiritual blindness. We don’t know God (v.10). And we see Jesus addressing her spiritual blindness. Jesus Brings Light To The Spiritually Blind. Many have not come to Christ because they don’t know him. They have not tasted the Salvation of God. They are spiritually blind. If you look at this, it is almost like the conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus speaks of spiritual things, the woman speaks of natural things. The spiritually dead respond to spiritual truth with natural thoughts (vv. 11-12).

This means that it will take the Spirit of God to change our hearts, open our eyes and ears before we can believe. The Holy Spirit would have to bring understanding into our sinful situation. If you don’t take spiritual things serious. If you don’t care when you are told about your sin, hell and the need to repent from your sins, then you are spiritually dead and will have to cry out to God for mercy to save you. Open thou my eyes that I will behold wondrous things from your law (Psalm 119:18).

You will notice also that, not only was she spiritually blind. But she is religious. She talks religious things (vv.12;20). She is a religious woman. She identifies Jacob as her Father. And she speaks about worship. But yet she is spiritually blind. And this is the picture of many people. They are born in Christian homes. So they assume they are Christians. They have attended church all their lives and therefore consider themselves as Christians.

But brethren, nobody is born a Christian. You don’t become a Christian because your parents are Christians or grew up in a Christian family. And the children here. Listen to me attentively. As your Parents, we are raising you in the Lord, hoping that when you come to understand these things, you will believe in Jesus. Don’t take anything you hear here for granted. Don’t assume you are a Christian because your parents are. No, you have to come to personal faith in Jesus. And until you have come to faith in Jesus, you don’t belong to God. And this woman clearly displays this. She has religion. She knows Jacob. She knows biblical history but was not saved.

Jesus Offers Eternal Life To Sinners

And it is amazing how a conversation over water, eventually turned into an offer of Salvation (vv.10; 13-14). This is an offer of salvation and eternal life. The summary of all of these “The Gift of God, Living Water, Springs of Water welling up to eternal life” is Jesus talking about salvation. Water symbolises life. And Jesus is clearly offering this women eternal life. Water also symbolises the Holy Spirit. So without any doubts, Jesus is offering this woman salvation: deliverance from sin. Forgiveness of Sin. Justification before God. It’s a gift. And how do we receive this gift? Simply by believing (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8). How do you believe? “Ask God to save you”: “You would have asked him, and he would have given you” There are many people who think if they do a lot of good, it will cancel their sins. But brethren, the only thing required of us is to believe in Jesus.

Jesus Reveals Our Sin

Our final point is that Jesus Reveals Our Sin to us. Notice how Jesus contrasts what he will give with the temporal water (v.13). This water is temporal…it temporarily quench thirst. But what Jesus offers is a complete pardon from sin. And what will truly make us believe in Jesus for eternal life is when we have a true appreciation of our sins. Then we will see our true need for a Saviour. It appears this woman was beginning to understand what Jesus was talking about (v.15). But Jesus’ response was like wait, not too fast, we’re not done yet. What Jesus does now is to reveal her sin to her. Her real problem. Jesus’ touched where it hurts most for her: “Go call your husband and come.” (v.16) “Bring your sin maybe” “Bring your problem let’s deal with it” But she quickly covered her sin: “I have no husband” (v.17). But Jesus exposed her sin (17-18). Rather than owning up, she diverted the topic. Rather than owning up to her sin, she wants to impress Jesus with religious talk (v.19).

Like this woman, you may have done well covering your sin, your desires and hurts from people. But all of us seated here, Jesus knows us all. Our struggles. Our sins. Jesus knows them all. You cannot hide any part of your life from him. You may be struggling to find satisfaction in life. Your soul is restless. Maybe you wonder what life is all about. Maybe you lack fulfilment and are turning to the wrong places to find that fulfilment and satisfaction. Like this woman, who is seeking for satisfaction in relationships, maybe yours is in other things.Dear friends, don’t struggle in your sins alone. Don’t cover up. I don’t need to know of what sins you are struggling with. But bring them all to Jesus. Bring your sin to Christ and he will save you:

Come now, let us reason[a] together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

 

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