Join us as we explore one of the most poignant encounters in the Bible, the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Discover how Jesus broke societal norms to reach an outcast and how His message still calls us to provide living water to those in spiritual thirst. This episode is a heart-stirring reminder of the personal touch Jesus had in His ministry and the lessons we can apply in our lives today.
Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message is a true heart uplifter. Jesus cares one on one. The Gospels are chock full of the messages and miracles Jesus ministered to the multitudes who thronged him everywhere he went. But he was never too busy to stop everything to minister to just one hurting heart We’re sick body because Jesus cares one on one. You know, across this nation at the 11 o’clock hour, there are literally multitudes of churches and they’re singing and they have beautiful music and they’re offering it to the Lord. But not in every one of those churches are they worshiping him in spirit and in truth. Amen. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And we’re going to talk about that some today. But let’s turn first in the book of Luke at the 11th chapter. Luke 11, 5 and 6. And Jesus is speaking in verse 5. And he’s giving a parable. And he says unto them, Which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves. Three loaves of bread, of course. For a friend of mine is in his journey, is come to me. And I have nothing to set before him. I have nothing to set before him. Now we see this is taking place at midnight. And midnight is an hour of crises. It’s an hour of decision. We use it as a metaphor. When we talk about the midnight hour, we mean that we’re in a crucial place. Our back is against the wall. We’re facing some kind of trouble. And we’ve got to make a decision. Amen? And so his friend came to him at the midnight hour. Now, normally, when people are going to visit you, they get there before midnight. You probably tell them, look, if you get here after 11 o’clock, I’ll be in bed. So just wait and come tomorrow. Isn’t that right? So if somebody comes knocking at your door at midnight, you know that it’s probably a problem. It’s trouble. There’s a crisis at hand. Amen. Someone is in need and they’ve come to you and they’re knocking on your door. And God forbid that if someone were to come knocking at your door at midnight or my door at midnight, we’re talking in the spirit right now, and they came knocking and we said, sorry, I have nothing to give you. I have nothing to set before you. Someone who is in need of a word of the Lord. Someone who needs a loaf. And we know that bread is symbolic of God’s word. Amen. Men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And when people are in a crisis, when someone is in trouble, you need to give them the word of God. Amen. That’s what they need more than anything. They may have a physical need and maybe they need to see the doctor and they may need medicine and they may need to do this or that or whatever. They may have some practical things that you can help them with. But if they are in a crisis, what they need more than anything is a word of the Lord. They need to hear a word from God. They don’t need some leftover stale bread that’s moldy, that’s not even good enough for the birds, but they need some fresh manna. They need a word from the lips of God. Amen. God forbid that we should come across somebody in their hour of trouble and say, I’m sorry, I’m fresh out. I can’t help you. I have nothing to set before you. My spiritual pantry is empty. I have no bread. Amen. Let’s back up and get the first guy that had someone come visit him and he had no bread. So if he had no bread to offer his friend, then that meant he had no bread for himself. Amen. Because you see, Eastern hospitality, which is what Jesus was accustomed to and what they would have understood. Eastern hospitality says you give your friend the piece of bread, even if it’s your last piece. When people came to their house, they put out the best. They gave everyone the very best. They would go and sleep on the floor and say, you can have my bed. They would open up their cupboards and they would get out whatever they had, the best of what they had. If they had something they were saving special for some special treat or party or something, no out it would come. Eastern hospitality treated. And, you know, they didn’t even have to be your best buddy. Just come knocking at your door and say, I’m in need. I need help. Amen. So if this man did not have any bread to set out for the friend that came to him, then he had no bread to eat himself. And you can’t give something you don’t have. Jesus said, freely you have received, freely give. But you can’t give something that you don’t have. If your spiritual pantry is empty, you cannot give someone what they need when they come to you. So what does he do? He goes and knocks on the next guy’s door. Amen. And asking him to help him. Now, we won’t go on with the story because the point we need to make is God forbid that you or I would have a friend or someone come to us. God forbid that someone would happen to drop in a faith tabernacle and they’re full of the devil. Or they’re full of some sickness. Or they are tormented of the evil one. They are at a crisis in their life. Amen. They need deliverance. They don’t need some sweet little God bless you in Jesus name. Amen. They need somebody that has the anointing to destroy the yoke of bondage. And set the captive free. Like Jesus did. He said the Spirit of God is on me. He anointed me to open the prison door and free and liberate the captives, to heal the sick, to open the eyes of the blind, and to preach liberty to the captives. We’ve got to preach liberty to the captives, but then we’ve got to back it up with the anointing. A lot of pulpits this morning, they will quote these verses and they’ll tell you this. But God forbid if somebody actually showed up full of the devil. And then you have to put it in operation. Then you got to put it in operation. Amen. But if you have your spiritual pantry filled, hallelujah, with fresh matter from heaven, you’re going to have the right word at the right time for the right one. Because sooner or later, somebody is going to come knocking at your door. Amen. Amen. It might be somebody in your family. It may be a neighbor. It might be somebody on your job. It might be someone that you’ve met for the first time. You don’t know when they’re coming. If you knew when they were coming, you’d run down to Giant and you would run to the bakery and you’d get all kinds of stuff. You’d have it all ready if you knew when they were coming. But when they show up. And you weren’t expecting them. And you’re thinking in your mind, okay, what do I got that I can put together real quick? How can I put together something real quick? I got to look in my cupboard and see what I got. Amen? So we don’t know. We don’t know when they’re going to come. We don’t know when the bound and the bruised and the blind and the sick and the lame and the maimed and the demon possessed are going to show up. So we got to have something on hand at all time. Amen. Jesus ministered to the multitudes everywhere he went. They thronged him. We know this. But you know, he loved the opportunity to just minister to one. Just one. He was never too busy to minister to one. He was never too busy to say, Zacchaeus, come on down, brother. I’m going to your house today. I’m inviting myself to your house. Amen. I bet Zacchaeus, he had a full pantry because he was rich. Amen. Now we’re talking in the natural now. Amen. Oh, he was delighted. He had supper. He invited other people. He said, come on. This Jesus of Nazareth is coming to my house for lunch today. Jesus loved to minister to one. Left the multitudes, got on a boat, went over and to the shore of Gadara, where there’s nothing on that shore along there but an old cemetery and tombs. And there was a man legion full of the powers of darkness, demon-possessed, tormented in his mind. He was so tormented he couldn’t even stand to wear clothes. That demons in him were having his skin crawling, he couldn’t stand clothes on. They tried to bind him and hold him down with chains and he broke the chains. Then that is demonic power. That’s not human power. Amen. But Jesus stopped his great campaign and came to see one man. One soul that was so tormented by the devil that people had given up on. Everyone had given up on Legion. But not Jesus. Not Jesus. He will never give up on somebody’s soul. You might look at them and think, oh, they’re incorrigible. We need to move on to somebody else. They’re never going to get free. They’re never going to get right. It’s true, you can’t make somebody get right who doesn’t want to be. But Jesus knew that in his heart, Legion wanted to be free. But he was too possessed by the power of the devil to exercise his will that he wanted to. Jesus knew his heart and spirit. Because for a split second, when Jesus stepped on the shore, Legion fell down and worshipped him. And worshipped him. That was his heart and soul. But the powers of darkness had to come out. Amen? Jesus would stop everything and go to just one person. Let’s turn in the book of John, the fourth chapter. Amen. And I love this encounter that Jesus had here because I don’t care how many times you preach it. You could preach it a month of Sundays and you would never exhaust all of the material and the subjects and the little nuances of this story. You just never could. So I like to revisit it from time to time. And while you’re turning there, I’ll just set you up and say that. Jesus ministers to this woman at the well. We don’t even know her name. John doesn’t tell us her name. So she is any woman, any woman that has a broken heart, a broken life, a sinful past, baggage, emotional baggage, rejection. That’s her, and that means it can fit any one of us. Amen? So now when they arrived here in Samaria, it was lunchtime, and Jesus was hungry. And so he sent the disciples into town to get something to eat because they had stopped at the well of Jacob, which well is still there today. If you go on a Holy Land tour, I don’t know if you can get there now because of all the problems with the Arabs and taking over so much. But we went to the Jacob’s well. It still has water. Still can drink from it. So the well, though, was not right in the middle of the town. It was out of the town a little bit. And so Jesus stopped at the well. He was tired. He was hungry. He was thirsty. And he sent them for something to eat. Let’s look at verse 31. In the meantime, while his disciples prayed, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore, said the disciples one to another, has anyone brought him something to eat? And Jesus said unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. Now I took you towards the end. We’re going to go back to the beginning. But what I wanted you to see here is that Jesus was saying… The thing that satisfied him more than anything was to be able to minister to someone else in need, give them living bread and living water. That’s what Jesus lived to do. And that’s what satisfied him to the point, as we will see, that as hungry as he was, once he gets to ministering to this woman, his natural hunger, that’s beside the point. Amen. He is so satisfied and he’s so blessed because he’s able to give to this woman. And what I want you to understand as we read this story is as we feed, we are fed. As we give out spiritual bread to those that we encounter on our journey, amen, then we turn around and we are blessed and we are fed. Now let’s look at verse 5. Then comes he to the city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. And it was about the sixth hour, which would have been noon. And there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. And Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were going away unto the city to buy meat or buy food. And then said the woman of Samaria unto him, Now how is it that thou, being a Jew, ask drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. So let’s stop for a moment and see what’s going on here. I didn’t read the first four verses, but it tells us that Jesus went to Samaria on purpose. It said he must needs go there. It doesn’t mean geographically he needed to go there. He was going on a mission. Amen? He was going on a soul-saving mission. And so when he gets here, he’s at the well, and the disciples leave him to go. Not even one disciple stayed behind with Jesus. Not even one. Now, do you need 12 guys? How many guys do you need to go to McDonald’s and order some cheeseburgers? Do you really need 12 to go? But he sent all of them. I think there’s a reason for that. Why couldn’t one or two of them just stay there and hung out with Jesus? Amen. But there was a reason why he dispatched them all. Amen. So there he is all alone. And while he’s there, here shows up a woman. And this woman comes to draw water. Amen. And so we see that Jesus asked her for a drink, and she wants to know why he would ask her for a drink. Amen? Now, there are several red flags here. Let me look at some of them. First of all, she’s a woman. Just that’s all we need to know. She’s a woman. Rabbis, which Jesus was, did not converse with women except for their mothers, wives, and sisters. Amen. Especially all alone without a chaperone. And he already sent his 12 chaperones to get lunch. So not only is she a woman, but she’s a woman of ill repute. You say, well, it doesn’t say that there’s no, we’ll find out later. But all we need to know is the fact that she came at noon. It’s the hottest time of the day. The women of the town didn’t come then. Where are the rest of the women of the town coming to get water? She came when she knew the rest of the ladies wouldn’t be there. She didn’t feel comfortable with the reputable women. She didn’t feel comfortable being there with all of the righteous women. Amen. She came when she knew that there would be no one else there because she was a sinful woman. So she’s a woman. She’s a woman of ill repute. And if that’s not enough, she’s got another strike against her. She’s a Samaritan. And we see that she herself was shocked. She was shocked that Jesus asked her. for something to drink because she understood the tension and contention that was between Jews and Gentiles. She’s a woman and a woman with a bad reputation. Why would he do that? Why would he do that? He was coming down on her level. Because he knew she had a need. Amen? You know, when you’re dealing with people that have very sinful lives and very bad past and all, you’ve got to watch out you don’t come off too spiritually uppity and smug. Because you will turn them off right away. They already know they’re a sinner. They already know how bad they are. Amen. But Jesus brought himself down to where she was. So she would let her guard down so he could have a heart to heart talk with her. And here she is a Samaritan and she actually said it. She come out and she said, how is it you’re going to ask me for a drink? A woman of Samaria because the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Now, very quickly, let me just quickly tell you what the back story is here on them. You know that because of Israel’s wickedness, they went into captivity. The king of Babylon came and carried them away to Assyria. And by Israel, I mean the 10 northern tribes, leaving only Judah, which is Judah and Benjamin, left behind. They didn’t go into captivity for another 150 years. Their sins didn’t get as bad as quickly. But Israel, the ten tribes, went into captivity. And so the king of Babylon came and carried them off to Assyria. And so that all of that population that he moved, he turned around and sent his people to fill in. where they had taken the population away. They sent people in there. Well, you know, these people didn’t serve Jehovah. They’re on God’s territory. They’re on Israeli soil. They’re not serving Jehovah. They’re serving their own gods. And God judged them. and God loosed a bunch of lions. I don’t know how many lions, but there was a bunch of lions that were killing people, going through this new population and killing people. And these people began to think about it. They thought, you know, it didn’t happen until we came, and apparently the God of this land does not like us being here, serving our gods, and he’s mad. Yes. And that’s why he sent these lions to devour us. So, king of Syria, you need to send back some Jews. Come back here. And so teach us how to serve this God because he’s mad at us. And he did. And he sent some back. But here’s the problem. This is where the problem came in. When they brought the Jews back, the heathen that were there accepted what the Jews said, but they didn’t let go of what they believed, and they just meshed the two together. They put the two together. Amen? That’s what they had done. And in doing that, they polluted God’s word. They took, if you read about this, and you can read it later on your own time, 2 Kings 17, they took, the Bible says, the basest of the people and said, you’re the priest, you’re the preacher, you’re the pastor. They just picked out anybody, people that were not living right, not living holy, didn’t know the word of God, and put them up as leaders. And what happened? They polluted the scripture. It’s like what’s happening today in America with Krislim. You say, what is chrism? We’ve got Christian churches now letting Muslims come in and pray to Allah in their churches. And they’re praying with them and saying the prayers with them. It’s the same type of thing. And what are they doing? They’re corrupting and polluting the way of true worship. They that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. So this is where the Samaritans came from. They are these group of people. And the reason why the Jews despise them had nothing to do with race. It was not a racial thing. It was because the Jews did not want the word of God to be polluted and corrupted. And they were standing against it and defending God’s pure holy word. And we’ve got to do the same thing. Amen. I don’t care what color you are, what race you are. Do you believe the truth? And if you corrupt the truth, I don’t care what color or race you are. I’m going to tell you, you are wrong. Okay, so let’s get back to our story. So this is why there was this rift between Jews and Samaritans. Amen. So Jesus has discreetly waited till the disciples were gone to talk to this woman because he did not want to shame her. He did not want to embarrass her. He wanted to speak to her in private so that she would open her heart up to him. So let’s look at verse 10. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Oh, whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Amen. Jesus said, lady, if you knew who I am, who’s asking you for a drink, you would be asking me to give you a drink of water. And you know what? I would do it. don’t care if you’re a woman I don’t care if you are a sinful woman and a Samaritan if you ask me I will give you drink I don’t care how far down in sin somebody has fallen I don’t care how bound by Satan they are and the devil will come and sit on their shoulder he especially does that with backsliders and tells them you can’t get back to God you messed up so many times the Lord wouldn’t receive you all you gotta do is ask him Just ask him. He’s waiting for you to ask him. He said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. Whosoever takes in everybody. But you see, that’s the problem with sinners today. They don’t know who Jesus is. They don’t know him. They don’t know the gift of God. They don’t know the gift of God. They don’t know that Jesus said in John 10, 10, the thief Satan has come to steal and kill and destroy. But I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. They don’t know John 14, 6. I am the way and the truth and the life. If any man comes unto the Father, he’s got to come by me. There is no other way unto the Father. There is no other religion. There is no other God. I am the way to the Father and to eternal life. Amen? They don’t know. That Jesus said, I am come to seek and to save the lost. Because they are lost. Amen. And they don’t know that Jesus said in John 7, 38 and 39. He said, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. As the scripture has said, out of his belly, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living waters. But they don’t know the gift of God. So they don’t ask because they don’t know. Amen. So Jesus was saying, if you knew who I am, then you would ask me to drink. And what Jesus was saying in essence was, I know you are thirsty. I know you’re thirsty. And he wasn’t talking about the well water either. He said, I know you were thirsty. You know, true spirit-filled children of God, we can discern when somebody is thirsty. We can discern when somebody is thirsty for living water. Amen? He was able to see her need. And God will open our eyes that we’ll be able to discern when somebody is ripe for harvest. Amen. And even if they’re not ready right then and there to be reaped, that we can give them the living water. Amen. Somebody else has already gone before us and planted a seed. And now we come along and we water it. And oh, sooner or later, somebody else is going to come along and cultivate it. And the time is going to come when that person is ready. Hallelujah. And somebody is going to reap them. Amen. Because Jesus said some plants, some water. But it’s God who gives the increase and the harvest. Amen. So he was saying, you are thirsty, lady. Jesus came specifically to this well at this time for this woman. It was her time. It was her time. Amen? But she’s still rationalizing with human reasoning. And we have to expect that because it’s going to come. The enemy is going to try to get in there and interfere. with what the Holy Spirit is doing in trying to bring a soul to Christ. And so with her natural reasoning, she says, well, you know, the well is quite deep and you don’t have anything to draw with. So are you greater than our, note the O-U-R, our father Jacob? She’s trying to get her Jewish claim in there. She’s trying to show her religious credentials. Yeah, I’m a Samaritan, but Jacob is my forefather too. Amen? She was trying to let him get in that religious thing. Amen? And you know sometimes when you talk to sinners and you’re trying to witness, they’ll say, well, you know I was baptized when I was an infant. Amen? Won’t they? They say things like that. They say, well, you know, I took Holy Communion when I was 12 years old. Where my family’s been a member of the Church of God in Christ and Jesus and the 12 apostles and all the saints. They’ve been charter members. As far back as I can remember. Amen? They want to get that religious claim in there. Because they’re starting to feel conviction. Right? But Jesus didn’t fall for it. He brought her back to the point. The point is, lady, you’re thirsty. Lady, you’ve got a very deep spiritual need. And nothing and no one has satisfied that need up until now. But I’m come today that you can have life. Living water. Living water. Amen. He said, lady, whoever drinks this water is going to get thirsty again. And you’ll be back here tomorrow at 12 o’clock. And the next day and the day after that, you’re going to have to keep coming back for this water. But I’m telling you that whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, it will spring up out of him. It will spring up out of her and living water. Amen. So he’s got to bring her back to the point. Let’s go to verse 15. Then the woman said unto him, sir, give me this water that I thirst not neither come hither to draw. She’s still thinking natural, right? And Jesus said unto her, okay, but first go call thy husband. And the woman answered and said, And Jesus said unto her, And the woman said unto him, Amen. He’s really getting close now. So let’s look at verse 20. Our fathers, our fathers worshipped in this mountain. That would be the mountain in Samaria. And you say, you’re a Jew, and you say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Why would they say that? Because God said, that’s where I’m putting my name in my house in Mount Zion. Amen. And Jesus said unto her, woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship God. The Father. The Father. You worship you know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So let’s stop here for a moment. So Jesus says to her, he’s very tactful. Amen. And he says, I’m going to give you some of this water, but I want you to share this water that I’m about to give you. So I want you to go home and tell your husband to come here so he can drink of this water too. Amen. So now what? Did Jesus make a mistake? Didn’t he know that she wasn’t married? And so he made a mistake when he said, go call your husband. No, we already see that’s not true. Of course not. What he was doing was drawing her in. Amen. He was drawing her in. And instead of just jumping on her and say, you know, I know you’re living with somebody. He said, go get your husband. And because this woman, sinful as she was, quite sinful, married five times and now shacking up with somebody, as sinful as she was, she said, I have no husband. She was honest. And you know when somebody’s heart is honest, when they are ready to acknowledge their sin, no matter how crimson, no matter how scarlet, come sayeth the Lord and let us reason together. Though your sins be as crimson, I’ll wash them white as snow. Though they be as scarlet, I’ll wash them white as wool. But she said out of an honest heart and Jesus commended her. For her honesty. She said, I have no husband. He said, you have spoken well. You have spoken honestly. And one thing God wants is an honest heart. Give him an honest heart. I don’t care how broken down it is. I don’t care how black it is. I don’t care how sinful it is. Just be honest with the Lord. Jesus said there was a publican and there was a Pharisee. They went into the temple of God. And the Pharisee looked down his nose at that publican and said, I thank God I’m not like other men. But Jesus said the publican wouldn’t even raise his head up, but smote his breast and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus said that’s the guy who was justified. That’s the one God heard. That’s the prayer God answered. Amen. So she had an honest heart. Amen. And this is very important because this is how people get deceived. The Bible says sin is a deceiver. They get caught up in the deceitfulness of sin. And one of those things is to come up with rationalities about why what they’re doing is not really a sin. And we really live in a day when sin is not what it used to be. Amen. Amen. I trust you’re being uplifted by Jesus cares one-on-one. The multitudes mobbed him. The disciples sought to keep people away. But Jesus often went out of his way to minister to just one hurting soul, to loose one captive from his or her prison of pain or shame. And never was this so powerfully and poignantly illustrated than when he went to Samaria and encountered a woman at the well. A woman, a Samaritan woman, A sinful Samaritan woman. But Jesus gently pressed his way into her heart, revealing her shameful past. When he had uncovered her sinful secrets, she ran into the city with great joy to tell everyone Jesus was the Messiah. Because Jesus is the only one who can tell you all about your sinful past and make you happy. Because you are safe with Jesus. And there is no greater pulpit than a changed life. Jesus Cares one-on-one can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more to help us pay for radio time. When you order ministry CDs, you build up your own spiritual resources or that of friends you may be led of the Spirit to share with. And you are keeping sound of faith on this station. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request offer SK194 or order online at soundoffaith.org. Remember, for Jesus Cares one-on-one, request SK194. But even if you don’t want to order the CD, we need to hear from you if you enjoy the program. Please tuck in your best love gift to help us pay for our time on this station and mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Otts saying, Maranatha.
