Redemptive Stories: The Samaritan Woman
Sermon Recording
Sermon Outline
Speaker: Rev. Scott Strickman
Sermon Series: Redemptive Stories
John 4:1-42 (ESV)
1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Sermon Outline
Jesus addresses our deep dissatisfaction (v13).
1. Understanding What Truly Satisfies
v18 “for you have had five husbands”
v14 “the water I give him will become in him a spring welling up to eternal life”
v23 “the Father is seeking such people to worship him”
v26 “I who speak to you am he”
2. Receiving What Truly Satisfies
v34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work”
v42 “we know that this is indeed the savior of the world”
v24 “worship in spirit and truth”
Prayer of Confession
Our Father, we know we have not been rightly oriented towards you because we struggle with deep dissatisfaction. We continually try to satisfy our longings with things that are unworthy of our devotion and allegiance. Forgive our idolatry. Forgive our foolishness. Forgive us for ignoring and rejecting you while pursuing what has disappointed. We are hungry and thirsty in deep ways, and this world is not satisfying us. Thank you for offering us the gift of life. We pray that your truth would convict us and that your Spirit would renew us. Satisfy us with living water, and accept our lives as an offering of worship. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
Where are you dissatisfied in life? What isn’t working? What is disappointing? Are you bored?
When you feel dissatisfied, what do you turn to? What do you depend on? Where is your hope?
What do you believe brings real satisfaction in life? What values and priorities do you have? Do you use your time and resources in line with what you value?
What kinds of things does Jesus show and teach that addresses our deepest longings? What does God offer us that is of great value? Why is God alone worthy of our devotion and allegiance?
What worship practices best feed your soul? What restores, helps and strengthens you?
What should you do in periods where you are not satisfied? What can faith look like when you are restless, bored, anxious or otherwise dissatisfied? Is it normal for Christians to experience dissatisfaction?
Is Jesus trustworthy? Why is it wise to believe him even as you long for more in life? What has Jesus said and done that puts him in a unique position to present himself as the only one worth devoting yourself to?
Do you believe you will be satisfied?