Một Cuộc Hẹn Từ Đức Chúa Trời
Jesus said that He came to “set the captives free;” He is the Great Physician and came to those who knew they were sick; he came to the poor, widowed, orphaned and stranger; He came to those who were lost and without hope in the world.
Two things that I believe are connected in this passage of the Samaritan Woman:
There is a divine appointment with a divine purpose.
A divine appointment is a meeting with another person that has been specifically and unmistakably ordered by God.
Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest:
“God is the Great Engineer, creating circumstances to bring about moments in our lives of divine importance, leading us to divine appointments.”
The Divine Purpose is found in John’s gospel – John 20:30-31 “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
I am saddened at how our society has become so rebellious and openly aggressive in their hate for one another. Many openly and pridefully promote their sinful choices, their disdain for righteousness, their lack of moral values and anger against what is right, Christlike and good.
We have lost respect in our country for one another and seem to be willing to attack others with no regard for them or their families. He dark heart of man has risen to the surface and is spreading like a cancer. What once was unacceptable has become not only acceptable but expected and heralded as normal.
The result is a society of hurting people, people wounded by their sinful choices, wounded by their unrealistic expectations, wounded by the sins of others. We have a society that is truly seeking something they cannot find and don’t believe they need. The peace that passes understanding, the joy that cannot be taken away by individuals or circumstances and the hope that sustains them for eternity through Jesus Christ.
The divine purpose – Jesus was always on mission. Everything He did had purpose and intent. In this case He went to reach an outcast woman and an entire city.
The Samaritan woman had no knowledge of Jesus like many people today. They may know of Him but have not heard the good news He came to bring.
Jesus, friend of the wounded heart –
She is wounded by her heritage and race
She is wounded by her religion
She is wounded by her circumstance
She is wounded by her hopelessness
She is wounded by her loneliness
Bottom line… she was wounded by sin.
We don’t know why her other marriages didn’t last. We don’t know why she didn’t marry the guy she was with though, probably because of so many past failures why take another chance. (Like our society today)
John’s primary purpose is to reveal Jesus Christ and to bring a sinner to salvation.
This is the whole purpose of John’s gospel: John 20:31 “But these are written that you may believe tat Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have eternal life in His name.”
The Apostle Paul had embraced the mission of Jesus and encouraged the church at Colossae to pray for him: Colossians 4:2-6 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
I. There are Divine Appointments in our Lives: (1-6)
Every divine appointment has a Kingdom focus. It’s always about glorifying God, lifting up the name of Jesus and proclaiming the truth of who He is and what He wants to do in someone’s life.
The KJV translates v4 “He needs must go through Samaria.” There is a divine appointment scheduled with someone who is not a true Jew, a woman, a woman with a sinful background and one who is even isolated from her community.
Most of Jesus’ divine appointments were with people like this Samaritan woman. He came to the poor, the sinners, the outcast. He came to those the religious people didn’t want to go to. He came to the hopeless, insecure and hurting.
In Luke 5:29-32 when Jesus called Levi (Matthews name before conversion) to follow Him - “Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus arrived at Jacob’s Well just outside Sychar around noon. Jesus was tired, and His disciples were hungry, so the disciples went into Sychar to get something to eat.
That is when the Samaritan woman came to the well to get water. Normally a woman would come with other women for safety but here we find her by herself. She was an outcast even in her own community.
Who is reaching out to the outcast in your community?
II. Divine Appointments Have a Specific Purpose: (7-15)
Jesus asks the woman “Will you give me a drink? This would have shocked the woman for both cultural and religious reasons. She was a woman, she was a Samaritan, she was a woman living in sin and she was by herself.
Notice that Jesus initiated the conversation. In v9 she confronted Him about asking her for water.
Jesus (v10) responds to her “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
Jesus used the woman’s need for physical water as an object lesson for her to realize her need for living water.
Like Nicodemus in John 3, she didn’t understand what He was telling her. Her eyes are on earthly things when they need to be on heavenly things.
This is the challenge with people today as well.
The dialogue continued with her recognizing the He had nothing to draw the water with. “Where can you get this living water?” she asked. Then mentions Jacob and asked if He was greater than Jacob.
Jesus answered her with a wonderful truth… “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
In John 7:37-38 “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
The woman asks for the living water and then the conversation changes…
III. Divine Appointments Focus on Wounded Hearts: (16-24)
There is a deeper issue with this woman that needs to be dealt with.
Jesus tells her to call her husband… which she doesn’t have, and she acknowledges. Then Jesus reveals the truth. He sees beyond her words and moves to the heart of the issue. She is a sinner who has been married five times and now is living with a man.
Even her own community had rejected this lifestyle.
She then spoke about her heritage from Jacob and her understanding of worship and where they worship. She mentioned the animosity between the Samaritans and the Jews.
Jesus didn’t falter and points out another truth about worship in 21-24. There will come a time when neither the Samaritans or the Jews will worship in a place. True worship will be in spirit and in truth.
IV. Divine Appointments Reveal Jesus Christ: (25-26)
The woman made a passing statement concerning the coming of the Messiah who will come and explain everything to them. Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am He.” Literally it reads “I who speak to you am.” (“I am” passages in John 8)
“I who speak to you AM.” There’s no “He” in the original; it’s an I AM statement, the name of God. “I who speak to you AM.” The One speaking to you is the I AM. The incarnate Christ is revealed--the unveiling of Christ. She is ready for the truth, and He is there to give it to her. I who speak to you, I AM.
Twenty-three times in the gospel of John we read “I AM.” Seven times He says “I AM” something: The Bread of Life, the Branch, the Way, the Truth, the Life--all references to His eternal Godhood. He reveals Himself to her.
Jesus didn’t identify Himself as the Messiah until now. to a Samaritan woman who was living in sin and was by herself.
V. Divine Appointments Have Eternal Consequences: (27-42)
The disciples returned from Sychar were shocked that Jesus is talking with this woman. She took off and went to town to tell them … “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
What do I do in response to this message?
1. Be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and look for those divine appointments.
2. Keep the main thing the main thing.
3. Heart issues require speaking the truth in love
5. Today is a divine appointment for you