Last week at the church where I serve
we concluded a sermon series entitled Invest. During that series, we discovered
how investing our time in a community group, our talents on a ministry team,
and our treasure in a way that reflects the generosity of Jesus results in us
experiencing a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus as we engage in the
kingdom mission we have been given by Jesus.
That kingdom mission, as stated
in what is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the Great Commission in
Matthew 28:19 is to “go and make disciples.
In other words, as followers of Jesus, we are to strive to make
disciples, or followers of Jesus, as we are living our day to day lives in the areas
of influence that we have been given. And that first step in making disciples,
or followers of Jesus, requires that followers of Jesus are engaging and
inviting those who are not followers of Jesus to explore faith and follow
Jesus.
Now a natural question that could
arise at this point is “Well Dave that sounds great, but how exactly am I
supposed to invite people to explore faith and follow Jesus? How do I tell
others about Jesus? What am I supposed to say? And just as importantly how
should I say what I am supposed to say? How should I engage and invite those
who do not know Jesus to follow Jesus?”
If these questions are running
through your mind, I want to let you know that you are asking great questions.
And in the weeks leading up to Easter, we are going to spend our time together
answering those question in a sermon series entitled “Invite”. During this
series we are going to look at several events from history where Jesus engaged
and invited those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in relationship
with Him.
During this series, we are going
to discover what Jesus said to invite those who were far from Him to follow Him
and live in relationship with Him. During this series, we are going to discover
how Jesus said what He said to invite those who were far from Him to follow Him
and live in relationship with Him. And as we go through this series, our hope
and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads,
hearts, and hands in a way that equips and empowers us to
follow the example of Jesus when it comes to inviting those who are far from
Jesus to follow Jesus and live in relationship with Jesus.
Now you might not buy the whole
Jesus, Bible, church thing. You might not be sure about whether or not there is
a God, let alone whether you should follow Him or live for Him. If I have just
described you here’s the thing: What you will discover during this series is
that there is a reason why followers of Jesus are commanded by Jesus to invite
you to follow Jesus. And there is a way that followers of Jesus are supposed to
invite you to follow Jesus. And my hope for you is that you would see what
Jesus calls His followers to do when it comes to inviting you to follow Jesus
so that you can see how Jesus feels about you and what He calls His followers
to do, and what Jesus calls His followers not to do, when it comes to engaging
you and inviting you to follow Jesus.
Now this week I would like for us
to spend our time together looking at an event from history
that is recorded in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for
us in the Bible called the gospel of John. And it is in a section of the gospel
of John that we see John give us a front row seat to how Jesus engaged and
invited someone who was far from Him to follow Him. So let’s take that front
row seat together, beginning in John 4:1-6:
Therefore when
the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing
more disciples than John (although Jesus
Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away
again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a city of
Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son
Joseph; and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey,
was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
John brings us to our front row
seats for this encounter by providing for us the context in which this
encounter would take place. John explains that once Jesus knew that the
Pharisee’s, who were the self righteous religious people,
became aware that Jesus had become more popular than John the Baptizer, Jesus
left Judea and went to Galilee. You see, Jesus knew that His growing popularity
would be viewed as a threat by the Pharisee’s to their position and power that
they loved. And Jesus knew that the Pharisee’s would attempt to harass and
attack Jesus, just like they had done to John the Baptizer. So, Jesus decided
to leave Judea and the Pharisee’s animosity in order to continue the mission He
had been given in Galilee.
John states that Jesus had to pass through Samaria.
But what is so significant about Samaria that John would mention the fact that
Jesus had to travel through there? To answer this question, we first need to
understand a few things. The first things that we need to understand is where
Samaria was located in relation to Judea and Galilee. You see, Judea was
located in what is now southern Israel. Galilee, is located in what is now
northern Israel. And in between Judea and Galilee was the region that John
referred to as Samaria.
Now this leads
us to the second thing that we need to understand, which is the history of the
people that lived in Samaria. You see, at one time, Samaria was a part of the
northern Kingdom of Israel. Then, in 722 B.C., the Assyrian Empire conquered
the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In order to help control the regions that they
conquered, the Assyrians developed a strategy that involved deporting large numbers of Jewish people and replacing
them with large numbers of people from the nation of Assyria. The Assyrians who
moved to Samaria worshipped false gods and simply added the worship of the One
True God to their worship of their false gods.
Over time, the Jewish people
began to intermarry and adopt the religion and culture of the Assyrians. These
Samaritans rejected all of the Old Testament except the first five books and
refused to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. Instead, the Samaritans built
their own temple on Mt Gerizim in 400 B.C.
Now as you might imagine, the
Jewish people did not respond well to what was happening in Samaria. And over
time a great deal of animosity built between the Jewish people who lived in
southern Israel and the people who lived in Samaria. The closest cultural
comparison would be that the Samaritans were viewed in a similar way to how a
black and white married couple would have been viewed in the southern United
States in the 1950’s. The Jewish people came to view the Samaritans as “half
breeds” and wanted nothing to do with them. The Jewish people would later burn
down the temple in Samaria in 128 B.C.
So, if a Jewish person had to
make a trip from Judea to Galilee, they would often cross the Jordan River in
Judea, travel north until they reached Galilee, and then cross back over the
Jordan River to get into Galilee. Or they would travel west to the edge of the
Mediterranean Sea and walk up a coastal road to the north. That is how much the
Jews hated the Samaritans.
However, Jesus had to pass
through Samaria. John then tells us that Jesus arrived at the city of Sychar,
which is located here on the map. Upon arriving in the city, Jesus, tired from
the long trip, decided to rest at a well. John tells us that it was the sixth
hour, which was noon. So, Jesus, wearied from His trip, is sitting by a well in
the heat of the desert day.
Now a natural question that
arises here is “Why did Jesus have to go there?” You see, Jesus was very
intentional when it came to how He lived His life here on earth. Jesus was very
intentional when it came to how he used His time and where He traveled. Jesus
intentionally went to Samaria because there was an opportunity to invite
someone to come to know and follow Him.
Someone that John will introduce
us to on Wednesday…
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