Calvary Road Baptist Church
“COME, SEE A MAN”
John 4.4-29
I bring you a message from God’s Word about the Savior and the Savior’s dealings with a woman. She was not a good woman. She would have said that about herself. She was not well thought of. She was not a particularly accomplished woman. For the most part, she was a woman that other women shunned, and men were far too casual with. Additionally, she was a Samaritan.
Just a few words about Samaritans. Jewish people despised them. Jewish people avoided them whenever possible. When traveling between Galilee to the North and Jerusalem in Judah to the South, Jewish people would invariably pass along the Mediterranean coast or the Jordan Riverbank to avoid all contact with Samaritans.
Following King Solomon’s death, the nation of Israel divided along tribal loyalties, with the southern kingdom of Judah dominated by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and the northern kingdom of Israel consisting of the other ten tribes, with the city of Samaria becoming its capital. That national division took place nine centuries before Christ’s birth. About seven centuries before Christ’s birth, Assyria invaded and carried off the men of Israel, replacing them with Gentile men from other lands they had conquered.
The Gentile men now in that region intermarried with the Jewish women remaining there, resulting in an ethnically mixed and religiously confused people known as Samaritans, or taking the former capital of Israel, Samaria. The Samaritans’ religious views were a conglomeration of Judaism and idolatrous Gentile beliefs, with Samaritans embracing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Pentateuch, but rejecting everything else in the Hebrew Scriptures. Additionally, Samaritans rejected the Jewish priesthood and the system of worship and sacrifices centered in Jerusalem.
Jewish people and Samaritans could tell each other’s identities at a distance by the style of clothing they typically wore and the geographical regions where each was likely to be found. At close range, their word pronunciation distinguished them.
Imagine a Samaritan woman thoroughly confused about spiritual matters. Imagine that Samaritan woman with a decided bias against Jewish people. Imagine her, in turn, being very sensitive to the decided bias of Jewish people against her.
On top of all that, imagine that she was terribly lonely as a result of her life choices. I am convinced that most human beings are social creatures, enjoying and needing the stimulation that comes from interacting with other people. However, I am convinced that women tend to be more gregarious than men and feel loneliness even more than most men when deprived of social intercourse.
Why would this Samaritan woman likely be lonely? She was lonely because she was isolated from other women. She was isolated from other women because they did not trust her to be anywhere near their men. In fact, for whatever reason, she had dealings with many men. Those experiences were not at all satisfying, leaving her with guilt, emptiness, frustration, bitterness, and a great deal of heartache.
Life, in general, was hard in our Lord Jesus’ day. For a woman, life was harder. For a Samaritan woman, life was even more difficult. For this Samaritan woman, life was almost unbearable. Many of her difficulties resulted from the general condition of the human race. However, her lot in life was especially tragic as a direct result of her own choices, tragic choices, foolish choices, terrible choices, and in some cases, choices that were simply wicked.
I imagine her to have had severe difficulties with men, even though the women were the ones who shunned her. I conceived of her having had a worthless and unaffectionate father and antagonistic brothers, unless a single mom raised her.
Early on, I suppose, she began attracting the attention of men, was tragically naive about men, and was taken advantage of by men until she became cynical about all men. How long had she been a discouraged and cynical woman? It had to be years.
Then, one day, she met a man. Turn to John chapter 4, where we begin reading from verse 4. When you find that verse, stand for the reading of God’s Word:
4 And he [the Lord Jesus Christ] must needs go through Samaria.
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 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.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh 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.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
We know from verse 6 and the reference to the sixth hour that this encounter occurred at midday, around noon, the hottest portion of the day. Much of what I have mentioned about the woman’s loneliness is deduced from her appearance at the well at midday, during the heat of the day, by herself, and with no companions.
The women of her town would typically come for water in the cool of the morning and as the heat subsided in the evening. However, this woman came when she knew no other women would be there, when she would be safe from unkind comments and hurtful gestures.
The passage we have read is saturated with food for thought and grist for the mill. Still, for our purposes today, we will confine our considerations to four things the Lord Jesus did that obliterated the woman’s cynicism, healed the woman’s many emotional wounds, and forever altered the woman’s destiny.
First, THE LORD JESUS SOUGHT HER
Not that this Samaritan woman had not been sought by men before. Considering the conversation we have just read, I would not be at all surprised if the woman had been inappropriately sought by her father when she still lived at home, or some other trusted brother, cousin, or man as she grew to adulthood. It is often the case with promiscuous women that some violation or abuse of trust has taken place during their childhood. Sometimes, a promiscuous woman seeks the approval of men after never having received the approval of her father or the nearby guy her single mom foolishly keeps around. At any rate, early on, she likely began receiving attention from men who sought her for the wrong reasons. Whatever the specific details, it cannot be imagined that a woman of that era, who was married five times, and who was living with a man she was not married to, was not sought by men, and for the wrong reasons. The result was a predictable cynicism concerning men and what she considered the motives of all men, at least just about every man she had ever met. Thus, when she approached the well and saw the Lord Jesus sitting there, recognizing Him to be a Jew, and no doubt drawing conclusions about Jewish men based on her previous experiences with men, she was suspicious, to say the least. Perhaps she expected this Man to notice her face or her figure. Maybe she expected Him to pay attention to her sway as she walked. After all, each man she had known focused on some aspect of her appearance, which is why she paid so much attention to her appearance. She knew the effect she had on men, and she encouraged it despite the pain that resulted.
However, she had never been sought by this Man before. We know the Lord Jesus sought this woman because He came to Samaria (verse 4), to Sychar in Samaria, to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph (verse 5), to Jacob’s well, and all this at midday (verse 6). The specific place the Lord Jesus journeyed to, arriving at the necessary time of the day, and after dismissing His disciples to fetch food, was to meet and speak to this woman alone. He knew everything about her alone, her hurts, her bitterness, her suspicions, and above all, her self-inflicted spiritual and emotional wounds. Of all the men she had ever met, He was the only one who wanted nothing from her but sought her out that He might do something for her. Throughout her life, men had repeatedly said flattering things to her, but this Man was different from any man she had ever known, in that He really did love her and would show her His love. In this, the Lord Jesus established the pattern for all Christian men’s love for their women, love being a matter of giving to the object of your love and not taking from the woman you love.
Next, HE TAUGHT HER
The Lord Jesus needed to teach this woman some things, because she was woefully ignorant and confused about many crucial issues. Being a Samaritan and therefore rejecting the entire Old Testament apart from the five books of Moses, there can be no doubt that her views and understanding of most things spiritual were distorted and perverse. Therefore, so that she might receive the gift of faith from Him, the Lord Jesus had to instruct her. For now, let me highlight some of what He taught her about herself and then what He taught her about Himself:
First, what did the Lord Jesus teach her about herself? Undoubtedly, the woman at the well did not have a high opinion of herself. Her opinion of herself was, no doubt, a low one. However, it was not low enough. Being all too human, she had indeed reserved some semblance of self-respect and a measure of commendation of herself by herself. The Lord Jesus would very properly take that away from her.
First, He drove home to her that she was ignorant. She was clueless about God, about the gift of God, about the Lord Jesus Himself, and about what He was able to do for her, verse 10:
“Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”
Next, He drove home to her that she was sinful. In verse 16, He said,
“Go, call thy husband, and come hither.”
You might think she already knew she was sinful, but her answer showed that, like so many people do, she evaded the reality of her sinfulness by equivocating. Notice verses 17-18:
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
Lost people usually, and frequently many Christians as well, think that such confrontation of sinners is somehow cruel. However, failure to drive home a sinner’s sinfulness is far more brutal in the long run, in that sinners are left with a very superficial grasp of the sinfulness of their sins. The Lord Jesus here mercifully showed her that she was not merely sinful but desperately sinful. As the conversation progressed, our Lord brought out her ignorance of God, the nature of God, the ways of God, and the worship of God. The goal, you see, was to bring her to the realization that she was hopelessly lost ... because she was hopelessly lost. To leave any sinner short of comprehending that profound reality is eternally cruel and shortsighted.
Then, the Lord Jesus taught her about God, the Father, and Himself. In verse 10, He brought her to the realization that she had no idea who He was. By verse 12, she questioned whether He was greater than the patriarch, Jacob. By verse 14, He informed her that He could give her the water of life. By verse 19, after confronting her about her many marriages and her current wicked live-in arrangement, she recognized that He was at least a prophet. However, that was not good enough. In verse 21, she learned that God is the Father. That was an astonishing revelation to her, especially in light of her obvious man issues. Fathers are given to families by God to represent Him in the home, though so many fathers can only be described as misrepresenting Him. Few can imagine the spiritual difficulties in the lives of girls that are directly related to incompetent, irresponsible, or otherwise foolish fathers and stepfathers. Or no fathers. Then, in verses 23-24, He asserted that God is a spirit and that worship of Him must be in spirit and in truth. Look at verses 25-26, and see where He brought her to concerning His identity, nature, and relationship with God the Father:
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
This woman had not been taught many things about herself, about God, and the Lord Jesus Christ. But what He taught her was valid and vital. She knew she was a sinner more surely and more deeply than she ever had before. She knew God is a Spirit, that the Man speaking to her is the Christ, the Messiah, and that He spoke for God. So, we see that He taught her. Also, do you notice what was not present in that interaction? There is no evidence that He was in any way angry with her, putting to rest once and for all the ridiculous Roman Catholic lie that the Lord Jesus Christ is angry with sinners as justification for them to seek out the Virgin Mary.
Third, HE BOUGHT HER
Recognize that our text summarizes the conversation our Lord Jesus Christ had with the woman at the well, and that John’s Gospel does not record everything He said to her, and she said to Him. John 21.25 speaks about this matter:
“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”
I bring this up to point out that while our text does not record the Lord Jesus Christ saying anything to her about His approaching crucifixion, the fact that He is the Messiah and has identified Himself to her very strongly suggests that the substitutionary sacrifice of the Messiah for sins would have been vital for her to understand.
Many passages in the Old Testament speak to the Messiah’s sacrificial death for sinners, but none more complete than Isaiah 53 and none more pointed than Zechariah 12. Turn to Isaiah 53. A prophecy about the coming Messiah, notice the verses having to do with the substitutionary sacrifice of the Jewish Messiah:
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Turn to Zechariah 12.10:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
Crucial to a correct understanding of the Jewish Messiah, so typically translated as Christ in the New Testament, is His death on the cross on behalf of sinners. Twice in First Corinthians, the Apostle Paul remarked that Christians are “bought with a price,” about Christ’s blood shed on the Calvary cross.[1] Thus, it is very appropriate for me to say that concerning this Samaritan woman, the Lord Jesus met her at Jacob’s well outside the village of Sychar. He sought her, taught her, and bought her. He shed His precious blood on Calvary’s cross to redeem her from her sins.
Finally, HE GOT HER
Think about this (what appeared to be a) chance meeting with a Jewish stranger. Little did this troubled Samaritan woman realize that the eternal Son of the living God had sought her out, had taken such a personal interest in her spiritual welfare that He traveled to her locale rather than summoning her to Him. There He spoke to her in private, addressed her personal sin issues, instructed her about the very nature of the God she thought she had worshipped (as well as His Son, Jesus Christ, Himself), in what amounts to a stopover on a journey that would ultimately lead Him to the cross, where He would shed His blood for the cleansing away of her sins.
Was there any coercion here? No. Did our Lord force Himself upon her? No. Did He seek in any way to intimidate her? No. Was He in any way argumentative, attempting to confuse and browbeat her into submission to His will? No. Did He not instead treat her with respect while confronting her with the unvarnished truth about her sins and her spiritual needs? Yes.
It would be safe to suggest that every significant decision this woman had ever made was wrong. Who knows what wrong choices she made before each of her troubled marriages? It is certainly safe to conclude that bad decisions were intimately associated with her first marriage, her second marriage, her third marriage, her fourth marriage, her fifth marriage, and her current illicit relationship with a man she was not married to.
Had this woman ever made the right choice, made a sound decision, or arrived at a reasonable and well-thought-out conclusion about anything? It would not seem so from what we know about her life situation. This woman was a walking, talking catastrophe. Yet our Lord still did not seek to impose anything upon her against her will, but rather engaged in wooing her with the truth and His love.
The result? He sought her, He taught her, He bought her, and then He got her. How do we know He got her? There is no record in God’s Word of her conversion experience, of her justification by faith. However, please do not conclude that something unrecorded is the same as something that did not occur, for her actions shout concerning what took place moments before. I read verses 28-29:
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
What is not recorded but evident from her behavior is this woman’s faith in Jesus Christ. Our Lord gave her faith so that He might give her the gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of her sins. Notice three things that are clear from verse 29:
First, a different woman departed from the well than the one who approached it to fetch water some time before. She came alone to avoid an audience with others, but she left seeking out the audience of others. Why? Her burdens were lifted. Her guilt was gone. She had found forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.
However, notice, second, that she would rather admit than deny her sinfulness.
“Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did.”
My friends, this is First John 1.9 enacted decades before the verse was written:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
She admits all. She denies nothing. Yet she is free from the burden of her sins.
Third, she testified of Christ: “is not this the Christ?” What boldness. What openness. What simplicity. What utter lack of concern for the opinions of others she displayed. What life she displayed.
What compassion the Savior had shown. What interest He had displayed in her welfare. What did she have that He wanted? Nothing besides her sins, and those only to forgive and forget. What a wonderful Savior.
Will you consider my Savior? You see, you are no different than that woman. Not really. Your sins may be the same as hers, or yours may be different. Either way, you are just as needy a sinner as she was. You are ignorant, just as she was.
My remarks to you who are lost end with this statement: My Lord Jesus Christ sought her, taught her, bought her, and then got her. Since His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to heaven, He is pleased to use believers to minister to others. The same can be said of you, utilizing this message. The glorified and enthroned Savior sought you, taught you, bought you, and if you are responsive to the Gospel and come to Christ, it will be said that He got you.
My remarks to you who know Christ end with this statement: My Lord Jesus Christ sought you, taught you, bought you, and then got you. Are you now a Christian? What is your response then to be
I suggest that your response should be much the same as the Samaritan woman’s response, since her experience and subsequent reaction were recorded by the inspired apostle for your benefit and to serve as your example. She went to the people she knew and said,
“Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
You can do essentially the same thing by inviting people to Church, where they can sit and hear the Gospel, the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ, preached.
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[1] 1 Corinthians 6.20; 7.23
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