NOONTIME AT SYCHAR - The Samarian Woman
NOONTIME AT SYCHAR – The Samarian Woman
John – Chapter 4
Sunday, December 29, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
As we come to the end of another year, it is a time for reflection and Thanksgiving to God for our many blessings and that we are alive and well. As is our custom, we seek the Lord for the coming year for purpose, destiny and direction not only for ourselves, but for our families, nation and nations of the world.
Once we become a Christian and make Jesus the Lord of our lives, our steps and starts are determined by the Lord. This is conditional on yielding to His will, His Kingdom, and His way. Each year has many twists, turns, successes, and joys. These walks of faith to the place of joy unspeakable and full of Glory are strewn with battles, mountains to climb, rivers to cross and valleys in which we must tread the path of faith and faithfulness.
Once we come to that place on the journey where we have entered the rest of God, we will never lose our peace in the midst of the disappointments, trials and tribulation through which we must pass. In the time space of one year, babies are born, loved ones pass on to Glory, children grow, relationships shift, people come and go, careers change, etc. Once we know the God who is directing, controlling, superintending and guiding all human plans and purposes, then we rest in the fact that all circumstances whether negative or positive are simply part of the Lord’s providential care for us.
There are three courses in life:
- The Lord’s plan and purpose for us.
- Satan’s plan and purpose for us.
- The plans and purpose of our own carnal will.
Whichever course we choose determines our righteousness, peace and joy in the Kingdom of God on earth as well as in Heaven. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”.
There is a beautiful story in John 4 about the woman from Samaria. Nothing was accidental about her going to Sychar that day to the well at noontime. She left her home with no thought but to fill her pitcher from the well-known fountain of Jacob’s well. She never dreamt for a moment that a meeting was about to take shape that would change her entire life, her city and ultimately her nation. Samaria is in present day West Bank. In view of the ongoing conflict in the area and the persecution of Christians, this account encourages us that the Church in Samaria will survive its present tribulation.
John chapter 4 begins with Jesus leaving Judea on his way to Galilee. It is written that “He must needs go through Samaria.:
This was no accidental meeting.
John 4:4: “He must needs go through Samaria. Then he came to a 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. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well; and it was about the sixth hour.”
Earlier Jesus instructed His yet untried disciples, “Do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt. 10:5-6). The Master has the anointing and power to change the vulture into the dove, the lion into the lamb, and bring the outcast of Shechem, like the demoniac of Gadara, to sit submissive at His feet.
From this divinely appointed meeting came the founding and extension of a church which sprang from the woman of Samaria. We must believe this was one of the eternal purposes of the Most High---prearranged and predetermined by Him. Accident! Chance! No! The name of that woman was written in the Book of life. The “needs be” of divine, pre-determined counsel which brought the Redeemer there, brought her there also. The Church in Samaria is a trophy of His grace.
We cannot speak of such occurrences as “accidents” without virtually dethroning Deity, or usurping the sovereignty of His own world from the hands of the Supreme. If we deny God’s hand in the minute events of daily life, we must eliminate His overruling power in the rise and fall of nations. The most trifling minute occurrences have frequently involved the destinies of nations, and the blessing or curses of unborn generations.
Man proposes, but God disposes. He who wheels the planets in their courses, marks the sparrow’s fall. He who by His word spoken through His prophet destroyed Babylon overthrew Pharaoh in the Red Sea; raised up the princely Cyrus to be the deliver of His people; conducted that female’s steps that day, at the noontime hour to Sychar’s well.
He who brought Rebekah, Rachel and Zipporah to other fountains to be wed to the princely fathers of the Hebrew people, is the Christ at Jacob's well, who was weary and did thirst.
As we seek the Lord going forth into the New Year, expect to see this every day truth in our own lives. I know that I know that the Hand of the Lord has been upon my life from the time of my birth until this day. Events which may appear to be trivial and unimportant were the providence and levers of life, altering and revolutionizing my life in Christ.
The relationships of earth, the spheres of our labor, the connections of business, our place of residence, are all part of God’s plan for our lives.
Let us rejoice that all that happens is ordered for us---the vessel in which we sail is not an abandoned ship in the wild waters driven by a storm, but rather we are guided by Omnipotence.
John 4:7: “There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water; Jesus said unto her, “Give me a drink. (For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat). Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, ‘How is it that you being a Jew, asked drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.’ Jesus answered and said unto her, If you knew the gift of God, who it is that speak to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.”
What a meeting and what a conference!! All of Heaven is watching this divine appointment! It is death coming in contact with life---the mortal with the immortal—the finite with the infinite---time with eternity---dust with Deity---the sinner with the Great God. What a contrast between those two who now met for the first time by the well of the patriarch! Two living beings standing face to face: impurity confronting spotless purity; a lost and ruined soul confronting its holy, yet forgiving Redeemer. It is the gospel graphic and pictorial.
Jacob’s shepherds, retainers and slaves drilled the limestone well with their rough tools and gathered their flocks to browse in the rich pastureland. Jacob drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle. The beauty of the area of Shechem is striking. It is the first halting-place of the father of the faithful, Abraham. He pitched his tents under the Terebinths of Shechem. Here altars were erected even to that of Bethel. Here the smoke of the first burnt-offerings ascended to Heaven. The first title-deed to Canaan was bestowed, and the voice of the God of Abraham was heard saying, “To thy seed will I give this land.” This was Holy ground 2000 years before the advent of Jesus who from that place announced that He is the Christ and He is the living water.
Jacob’s act of digging the well was and is a standing material witness of his hereditary claim to this parcel of ground. His well was his charter. Accident! Coincidence! No!
Joshua brought the Israelites to that same spot from their desert wanderings and crossing the Jordan into Canaan.
These acts of faith were in preparation for the day the Lord of Glory “must needs go through Samaria” and sat on that well and declared that He is the Christ. He who gave that well all its glory, still lives and loves. He cannot perish. We drink daily from that living water.
John 4: 1256-25-26; 28-30: “The woman said unto him, I know that Messiah comes, which is called Christ; when he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto you am He…. The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men. Come see a man which told me all things that I ever did. Is not this the Christ. Then they went out of the city, and came unto him….(Vs. 39) Many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified. He told me all that I ever did. The Samaritans came unto him and asked him to tarry with them. He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word; they said unto the woman. Now we believe, not because of your saying; for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
In her meeting with Christ, let us consider the most minutely detailed ewcorded conference of the Bible was with a Woman. In that day, and even in some Middle East and Eastern cultures today, the woman was made despicable, and then despised.
Even the disciples marveled that He talked with the woman (Vs. 27). It was a violation of their culture to speak to her at all; not to mention talking to her about salvation, the soul, the gift of God, and everlasting life.
Jesus not only conversed with her, but sent her forth a herald of salvation to her fellow-townsmen, and making the church of Samaria imperishably identified with her name and labors. Jesus consecrated the female’s mission. The Redeemer removed the bands and chains from the body and soul of the woman and sent her forth as a ministering angel, walking and leaping and praising God.
I want to highlight “the gift of God” and list Divine gifts to Men:
- Christ (Jn. 4:10) Jesus Christ if "the gift of God:.
- Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38)
- Spiritual gifts (Rom. 1:11)
- Salvation (Rom. 5: 15-21)
- Eternal life (Rom. 6:23)
- Divine call (1 Cor. 7:7)
- Good gifts (Jas. 1:17)
- Ministers (Eph. 4: 8-11)
10 Gifts of John’s gospel:
- Grace and truth (1:17)
- Living water (4:10)
- Holy spirit (7:37-39)
- A perfect example (13:15)
- God’s Word (17:8)
- The glory of God (17:22)
- The true bread (6:32)
- Eternal life (6:33)
- Peace (14:27)
- Answers to prayer (15:16)
As we prepare for the New Year, let us go forth with the faith and assurance that the Lord of Glory is involved and orchestrating our lives for His Glory and for His eternal purposes for His Kingdom.
That hour and that divine meeting at Sychar was the first-fruits of a glorious harvest---a prophecy and pledge of the future; not just for ourselves and our nation; but what the power of Christianity will yet do for those down-trodden lands where that new and glorious charter was first written, and where women are still the soul-less drudges, and grinding slaves of unnatural oppression.
It was no accident that the Lord “must needs go to Samaria”. Today the sacred name of Jesus has become a reproach and a scorn in that region. What Christianity has done for us, it will yet do for those sitting under the shadow of death.
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V. I entered into the labors of Noontide at Sychar, or the Story of Jacob’s Well by John Ross MacDuff; and Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the view of those whom I entered into their labors.