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(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday. I want to welcome you to Daily
Drive Time Devotions. We're in our study together of the gospel of John, chapter
four this week.

This is our first day of a look at that chapter. We're going to be looking at
verses one through nine. The entire first part of this long fourth chapter of
the book of John is a conversation that Jesus had.

And of all the conversations that Jesus had, of all the times that he talked
with someone and that talk changed their life, I think that maybe this
conversation is the most amazing, most awesome conversation he ever had. It's
right here in the fourth chapter of the book of John. There are incredible
things that I can learn, that you can learn from this talk that Jesus had with a
woman beside a well.

We don't know her name, but we sure know a lot about her from the conversation
that she had with Jesus. And the first four days of this week, we're going to walk
through this conversation together. As we walk through it, let me just say in
advance, as we look forward to the next few days together, we're going to notice
three things in this passage.

We're going to see how Jesus shared life and hope with this woman. We're going to see
this woman and how she began to discover that Jesus Christ could meet her
greatest need. But then we're also going to see off to the side Jesus' disciples
and their reaction to this conversation when they show up into what's going on.

And in all of this, there's one common theme. The theme is communication. Jesus
Christ is communicating to this woman in an amazing way.

If you want to learn how to communicate to people, if you want to learn how to
communicate to someone in your life right now, you're trying to communicate
with, here's a place to learn it. Here's the person to learn it from, Jesus
Christ. If you're trying to communicate the good news of who Jesus is to
someone, here's a place to learn how in John chapter four.

I'm convinced that even in America, most people have not really heard the good
news of Jesus. I know most people know there's such a thing as church and they
know Jesus lived 2000 years ago and yet they've not really heard the good news
that having a relationship with God does not just mean trying to be better than
everybody else, trying to be good enough to get into heaven. You truly can have
an exciting, fulfilling relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ teaches us how to communicate that to people. He also teaches us
how to communicate to others that our needs can be met by God's love for us. And
he shows us in his communication with his disciples that he has a plan that goes
on for every one of our lives.

We're going to discover all of that this week as we walk through John chapter
four. Let me read for you the first four verses of John four. The Pharisees
heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John.

This is John the Baptist. Although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but
his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once
more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So everything in these verses sets up this
meeting and this conversation that's going to happen beginning in verse five. In
chapter four, verse one, the focus shifts.

It shifts from John the Baptist to Jesus. The Pharisees realize all of a sudden
John the Baptist who had been their problem, the one that they were concerned
about, he was baptizing all these people out in the wilderness. They realized,
wait a minute, Jesus is baptizing more people.

Well, not Jesus, it was disciples of Jesus. Now a lot of people ask why. Why
didn't Jesus baptize?

And the Bible never tells us. I have a pretty strong guess. I think Jesus didn't
baptize so people wouldn't become prideful.

If he'd baptized anyone, the rest of their life boasted in the fact that I was
baptized by Jesus Christ, so I'm better than you. So his disciples baptized for
whatever reason. And they discovered that Jesus was doing this and some
attention came his way.

And so Jesus needed to leave. He wanted to go back to the north, to Galilee,
because he realized that the time was not yet right for so much notice to come
to his ministry. And the Bible says in verse four that he had to go through
Samaria.

Now why did he have to go through Samaria? Why was that part of God's appointed
plan for him? And why would the Bible even say it this way?

Why wouldn't he just go through Samaria? If you look at a map of Israel, the
quickest way to get from the south to the north goes through Samaria. Well, in
that day, many Jewish traveling bands would not go through Samaria because the
Samaritans and the Jews did not like each other.

In fact, you could say very well that they hated each other. Let me take just a
moment to tell you the story of this. It's a long historical story.

When Israel, the nation of Israel, the Jewish nation, fell to the Assyrians way
back in 722 BC, most of the people were taken from their country and they were
carried back to Assyria. The very poor were left behind and they intermarried
with foreigners and they moved, who had moved in from Assyria, and they stayed
there. To this mixed population was given the name the Samaritans.

These Samaritans brought in a false priest because the regular priest wasn't
there. He'd been taken off. And this false priest gave them the laws of the land
rather than the laws of God.

And we find this group showing up again and again in the Old Testament. In Ezra,
chapters three and four, they were jealous when the actual temple was being
rebuilt. They built their own temple.

In Nehemiah, chapter four, we see them again when they refused the opportunity
to help in the rebuilding of the house of God. And so they said, well, we're
going to build our own temple. So they go to Mount Gerizim and they build their own
temple.

That temple was destroyed in 128 BC and yet the Samaritans, they continued to
worship on that mountain, on that hill where the temple once stood because they
said, we have a different religion than the Jewish people. Because of this
history, the Jews and the Samaritans had deep racial and religious hatred
towards one another. The Jews hated the Samaritans because they felt that they
had broken the law by intermarrying and that they built a false temple.

And the Samaritans hated the Jews and that they didn't allow them to come back
into the Jewish people when the Jews came back and to help them rebuild the
temple. They didn't welcome them back in. And this had gone on for year after
year for century after century.

This is a family feud that's gone wild. And Jesus had to walk through Samaria.
Normal way from Judea to Galilee would be to walk through Samaria.

That's the quickest distance, a straight line. But most Jewish people didn't do
this unless they were in a great hurry. They would take a curved route that
would take them far to the east around Samaria.

So instead of a two and a half day journey, it might be sometimes a four and a
half to a five day journey. That's a big difference. Why did they do that?

Because they hated the Samaritans. And Jesus had to go through Samaria. Why?

Because he had a message to bring. Listen to what happened in verses five to
nine. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar near the plot of ground
Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there. And Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by
the well. It was about the sixth hour.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me
a drink? " His disciples had gone into town to buy food. The Samaritan woman
said to him, "You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman.

How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. " Now
I've heard this passage taught a lot of times.

As people many times teach it, they say that as Jesus witnessed to this woman,
as he shared his faith, it was sort of like a sales approach. He knew the right
keys to turn, to unlock so that she would listen. I confess that I've taught it
myself that way a few times.

But the truth is Jesus didn't have a canned sales approach. First you get their
attention, then you do this, then point three, then bam, you make the sale. If
you really look at Jesus Christ, he's about the heart.

If you take a deep look at what's happening here, you find that Jesus Christ
understands people. He understood this woman's needs. He understood what was
going on in her life.

He understood what she was like. And because of that, he appeals to her because
he loves her. He appeals to every part of this woman's personality to help her
to understand that he is real, that there is a life in Jesus Christ to be found
there.

He appeals to her heart when he simply says these words, "Can you give me a
drink of water? " I have to admit, I wouldn't even have gotten that far. Jesus,
the Bible tells us that this was about the sixth hour that they were there.

If you're counting Jewish time, that means that it was noon, hot, the middle of
the day. If you're counting Roman time, it would have been six o'clock at night.
Either way, Jesus is hot and he's tired.

And forget Jews and Samaritans. When you're hot and tired and weary and it's the
end of the day or the heat of the day and some opportunity seems to come your
way to talk to someone, what do you want to do? Many times you want to say, "Oh,
I'll pass.

I'll wait till the next one. " But not Jesus. He noticed this woman.

And he said, "Would you give me a drink? " The more I read through the Gospel of
John, the more I read through the Bible again and again, the more amazed I am at
the genuine love that Jesus Christ has for people, the genuine love that he has
for you. It is so genuine, it is so real.

I like the fact here that the Bible tells us that Jesus was tired from the
journey. It tells us that Jesus is human like us. He is 100% God and 100% man.

We shouldn't forget that. He is worn out from this journey, so worn out that he
tells his disciples, "Go into town and buy some food. I'm just going to sit here
a while and rest.

" And then a woman comes by, a thirsty woman, and Jesus has some good news for
her. This well is about a half mile from the village of Sychar. There's most
likely another well in the village.

A village was built around a well. So why didn't you just go to the well in the
village? We're going to find out as we walk through her story this week that she
was a social outcast.

And so she had to make this 10 to 15 minute journey every day outside of the
city to get water. And Jesus saw something in her, and he begins to talk to her
about the good news. He starts a conversation, and of all the conversations he
ever had, I think this may be the most fascinating.

How will Jesus communicate to this woman to help her tear down the barriers so
she can hear clear to her heart that Jesus Christ can meet her need? He asks her
for a drink. Jesus shows his genuine love for people by doing one simple thing.

He asks her for a drink. This is amazing. It amazed this woman.

She says, "You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?
" Jews didn't talk to Samaritans, men didn't talk to women, and he asked her for
a drink.

Jesus is teaching us something here. He's trying to restore communication with
this woman, to build a bridge. And he's teaching us something about how to
restore a communication that's broken down.

He teaches us to ask the other person for help in meeting a genuine, simple need
in your life. Just ask them for help. Be humble enough to ask for help.

See, the principle is this. To reopen channels, someone has to switch channels.
Jesus drew her out.

She came to draw water. Instead, she was drawn out because Jesus switched
channels. He switched it up on her.

He did something different. He said, "Would you give me a drink? " Now, we all
know what this is like in a situation where the barriers are up and someone has
to switch channels to make it work.

And we all know that when we're in that situation, we don't want to be the one
to switch channels. We say, "Well, I know it's true. Someone has to get this
conversation going, but it's not going to be me.

It's their problem. It's their struggle. I'm willing, I'm ready as soon as they
come to me.

" Well, Jesus Christ could have easily thought that way. This woman believes
some things that were wrong. We're going to find out.

She had a moral problem in her life. We're going to find out. But Jesus Christ
was willing to open the conversation with her.

And so he asks her for a drink. He establishes a relationship. So let me ask
you.

We talked to God today. Who do you need to open or reopen channels of
communication with? Who do you need to ask for help?

In a simple prayer today, just say, "God, give me the humility, first of all, to
see who it is that I need to reconnect with. And then the humility to ask them
for help in a simple way, to reconnect. Help me to drop my pride because I have
it.

Help me to see the need and help me to love my friend, my family member, my
fellow believer. Help me to be the one that switches channels so we can reopen
those channels of communication. Give me wisdom, give me strength, and give me
humility.

I ask for it in Jesus' name. Amen. " Well, join us tomorrow.

We're going to be looking together at verses 10 to 18 as we continue our look at
this conversation of Jesus and the woman at the well.