Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Oh Norbert. I loved it When you said at the very beginning that in the service today, we were submerged in his love. Oh, that was just a beautiful picture.
Brian: That was great. Well, talking about being submerged, I want to talk today about one of my favorite stories. It's found in John chapter 4 and it's the woman at the well. there are so many things in this particular—you took my scriptures
Jacque: Because you didn't put my scriptures on.
Brian: Yeah, I did.
Jacque: Well, thank you. Oh, they went with the—
Brian: Stand up. You are not sitting on them again.
Jacque: Oh, what is the deal with these scriptures? Are you okay?
Brian: I'm okay. I tell you what I will do.
Jacque: I'll turn it this way.
Brian: I got my Bible right here and I got it right here.
Jacque: It went out with the Music.
Brian: I'm always prepared when you are with me. Anyways, John chapter 4 has just this wonderful, wonderful story.
Jacque: One Week, I am going to be able to go through church without being embarrassed.
Brian: You think so?
Jacque: One of these Weeks.
Brian: Do you think a leopard can change its spot? I don't know. Anyways, I think instead of Dan being embarrassed today, you are the one.
Jacque: I'll take it for you.
Brian: We are not going to read the whole portion of scripture. It's found in verse 1 through 42 in John chapter 4. This is a story where Jesus and his disciples are traveling through an area called Samaria. Samaria was this area that separated Northern Israel from Southern Israel. The Samaritans were half Jewish and half some other culture, intermarriages and so forth. If you were a pious Jew, you would usually travel around Samaria. You would not travel through Samaria. And of course, the reason that you would travel around Samaria is because if you went into Samaria, you would become defiled. That is what the oral teaching was with the Jewish community. But Jesus taught that defilement comes from our own internal issues, our internal bigotries, our internal selfishness, our internal hatred, and not from contact with external things that are prohibited by religion. These things that religion prohibits are not the things that defile us.
I'll tell you my Samaritan or Samaria growing up experience because having been raised in a Pentecostal church as a young child, as a young person, there were certain things that would defile you. One of those things for me was going to the movies. If you went into a movie theater, that was our Samaria. It sounds strange to say it that way. There were other things that would defile us too, of course, but in this particular context, in this story, Jesus is actually going into an area. Our attitude was in our church. And in our denomination that you would never be caught dead in that place, because it would defile you. Jesus decides to go into his theater or Samaria, his place of defilement, and decides to take rest at a well that was there. This well was called Jacob's Well. It was dug by Jacob hundreds of years earlier, and handed down to his son, Joseph. This became a place where people from the town of Sicar would go to gather and get water.
And so Jesus and his disciples go into some area. They sit down by this well, or at least Jesus does, and he sends his disciples into the local town to get food for supper, which I find to be very strange because they are going into a Samaritan town and where in a Samaritan town are you going to find kosher food? On the surface, this looks like really bad planning. Wouldn't you say? Because there is no kosher food in this Samaritan village. But maybe instead of bad planning, it was intended to be by Jesus, a new way of living.
We know the story. A woman comes at high noon, not the time of the day when women came to gather water, neither was it the manner in which women came to gather water because they would never travel by themselves. They would go in a group. They would come either early in the morning or later in the day when the temperatures outside weren't so hot. But it's basically high noon. Jesus, seeing what I would call the signs. Did anybody ever wonder why this woman was getting water at the hottest time of the day? Was it maybe because she was already being ostracized by her own community because of how she was living, even within the framework of her own community?
Jesus sees the signs and befriends her. I wonder how many times we don't see the signs of somebody who needs befriending. He defends her from a position of weakness instead of power, which is always, I believe, the Jesus way. And he says something to this effect, "I'm very tired and I'm very thirsty. Would you please give me something to drink?" He basically comes from a position of weakness, doesn't he? With that simple interaction, there were multiple boundaries that were breached that day. I just don't want to spend a lot of time on this aspect. But in my opinion, we, as Christians have way too many boundaries today. I ask myself the question, what boundaries did Jesus have when he was a sheep being led to slaughter?
It's so easy as Christians to buy into the culture that we live in. Our culture today is saying, you need to put a boundary around yourself. You need to do this. You need to stop people from doing that. I just don't see anywhere where the life of Jesus was a boundary. He was tired. He was weary. People would come to him and he wouldn't say, "Well, I'm not in my office right now. These are not my office hours." I just want to admonish us to be that as followers of Jesus. I'm not saying we shouldn't expose abuse. I'm not saying that we shouldn't do that. I'm not saying that we should submit to those kinds of things without saying anything. But what I am saying is that we've taken the boundary discussion at times way too far. We have to remember that our model was someone who called himself a sheep that was being led to slaughter. Those kinds of invitations don't get a lot of followers, do they? They don't. The first boundary that Jesus breached, I'll use that term here today, we find in chapter 4:7, where Jesus says this.
Jacque: Soon, a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, please give me a drink.
Brian: Please give me a drink. Jesus is striking up a conversation with someone who was a known sinner in her community. She was a sexually broken woman with a bad reputation, but rather than shunning her Jesus embraces her. Instead of denouncing her or calling for her to be stoned— because isn't that what the Torah called for, for her to be stoned? Instead of following the teachings of the Torah, he redeems her rather than rejects her. This is a struggle that many people have, but to Jesus, the Torah was no longer going to be the primary ethical guidance system for Jesus. It wasn't going to be that anymore.
There was a greater guidance system for Jesus, and that was this: I do what my father tells me to do. I do what my father in heaven tells me to do. That was the guidance system for Jesus. We, at times, have used the Torah in the same way that the Pharisees have used it. And we have stoned the sinners. The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament, the law. Jesus breached the Torah by not stoning this woman. It's really interesting the conversation he has with her. Go get your husband. Well, I don't have a husband. Yeah. You spoke correctly. You've had five husbands and the man you are living with isn't your husband. And she says this amazing thing. I perceived that you are a prophet. Wow. Her discernment was working that day.
She tries to switch the subject and we'll look at that in a moment. But Jesus knows exactly who she is and if I dare say, what she is, which is how often we define people: by what they've done, what they are rather than who they are. Jesus breaches the Torah and he doesn't stone her, but he approaches her from a perspective of redemption, which is a very reason our father in heaven sent Jesus in the first place. The second thing that Jesus breached that date was tradition. Let’s read it in verse nine.
Jacque: The woman was surprised, for Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, you are a Jew. And I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?
Brian: Jesus was now trampling on another boundary marker by spending one-on-one time in conversation with a woman no less. That's not meant to be derogatory to any woman listening to this. But one-on-one time with a woman was, uh, forbidden. Religious leaders taught that a man should actually never talk to a woman in public. Some religious leaders even said, including your own wives. So wives, you walk behind me and don't talk to me in public.
Jacque: Jesus brought up our standing.
Brian: He sure did. He elevated women to a whole new plane, which was again a breaching of tradition. There is a writing called the Mishnah, which we know it to be, the oral traditions that were then later written down on parchment. I want to read you something from the Mishnah
Jacque: That was like all the laws that the Pharisees created.
Brian: And we would call it, maybe, their interpretation of the Torah.
Jacque: But everybody had to obey them.
Brian: Yes. The Mishnah says this: He that talks with a woman or with talks with womankind brings evil upon himself and neglects the study of the law. And at last we'll inherit Gehenna. In other words, if you talk to a woman you are going to hell; that's what the mission was saying. How would you like to be a woman in that culture? We do actually have some cultures today that are trying to recreate that. We do. What a scandal, this theater entering, or dare I say, border crossing person that Jesus became. What a scandal Jesus was beginning here when he entered Samaria, he sat down with this sinful woman. And instead of stoning her, he began to have a conversation with her. I should also point out that Jesus, actually, not only was willing to have a conversation with this woman, but he actually welcomed women disciples.
Jacque: The women traveled with him and the women supported his ministry.
Brian: Can you imagine?
Jacque: Like, financially supported him.
Brian: Yes, they did. Some of the women were married to influential people in, shall we say, the government. Their husbands weren't in the government or they worked in the palace of Herod and things of that nature. I just believe that the women that began to know Jesus had to love Jesus for the way he loved them.
Jacque: Yes. When you think of the woman who washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair and the other woman that anointed his feet with oil. Yes.
The boundaries that were being breached by Jesus all through his ministry, the one thing I believe that Jesus did with women was he certainly loved them, but there was no manipulation of women. Women can sometimes be simply used, simply used. We find that in our culture all the time. Jesus had no condescension to women or trivialization of women. He valued them. He invested himself in women. Don't you find it interesting that the people who came to the tomb first were women?
I think Jesus found a repository of his love and mercy and grace in the hearts of these women. Because maybe for the very first time in their lives, they were esteemed and given a place of value. We find that happens as well in our culture today. You don't have to be just a woman, but somebody who hasn't been valued and hasn't been esteemed, who has been marginalized. When they begin to hear the wonderful news of how much Jesus loves them and how he believes in them and receives them for just who they are, they don't have to become something different for him to love them, how that begins to change their view of themselves.
Jacque: And we do the same thing. We love them.
Brian: And we try to do the very same thing. I don't think Jesus just tolerated women. He valued women. You did a great job of that in your last couple of messages on Mother's Day. But it really was in many respects to women and to children and to the marginalized that Jesus paid, the closest attention. Let's look at verse 27 of this same chapter.
Jacque: Just then the disciples came back and they were shocked to find him, Jesus, talking to a woman.
Brian: They were shocked to see Jesus talking to a woman,
Jacque: But none of them had the nerve to ask, what do you want with her? Or why are you talking to her?
Brian: Yeah, none of them had the courage to ask Jesus that question, but their traditions were clouding their comprehension of what their father in heaven was really like. A third thing that was breached this day, it's a little bit lesser known in a sense, but we see it in verse 10. It's tribalism. If you only knew the gift that God has for you— and she goes on to talk about this, not having a rope long enough and it won't reach the water and what have you. But Jesus is befriending and drinking with a Samaritan, an ethnic violation of the Jewish people, an ethnic and religious enemy of first century Jews. He is overturning tribalism of his day. He was, in a sense, in a little bit of an indirect way coming against ethnic cleansing. That's one of the things he was coming against.
There is another thing that was breached that day in this conversation. And we see this in verses 19 and 20 of the same chapter, and its territory. Why don't you read that?
Jacque: Sir, the woman said, you must be a prophet, so tell me why it is that you, Jews, insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship while we, Samaritans, claim it is here on Mount Gerizim where our ancestors worshiped.
Brian: So this was her attempt to change the subject after Jesus exposes how she is and who she was. Jesus allows it because there is something deeper he wants to get at. The message of Jesus transcends what I'd call geographic territory. Jesus was offering to this woman, an inclusive kingdom message that is for everybody. It's not just for certain groups of ethnic people. The territory and citizenship of his kingdom— When his kingdom comes, it brings healing, geographically, politically, and ethnically. If the message we bring creates greater divides, I really question if it's truly, truly the message of Jesus. I know you can quote the verse that says, I've come to set father against son and mother against daughter and those kind of things, but that's a different context of what Jesus is really talking about there. The true message of Jesus' kingdom, when his kingdom comes, it heals, divides. It doesn't create divides.
And then the fourth thing that Jesus breached in his conversation with this woman was the temple. Because the temple was the revered place of all the Jews. Let's read that in 21 to 23,
Jesus replied, believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
Brian: So Jesus said, there is a time coming when it won't matter where you worship God, whether it's here, whether it's in Jerusalem and he could have named all sorts of places around the world,
Jacque: You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship while we Jews know all about him for salvation comes through the Jews, but the time is coming. Indeed, it's here now.
Brian: Now, why do you think he said that the time is coming? And then there is a pause and then he says, it's actually here now. You know why I think he said that? Because he was reading her face. her face is beginning to light up with believing what he was saying. The time is coming. He's talking about where we are going to worship and that these Samaritans aren't going to be second class people, mixed race, whatever term people were using to marginalize them.
And as he was talking to her about, there is going to come a time where it doesn't matter if you are in Jerusalem, it doesn't matter if you are on this mountain here in some area, it really doesn't matter where you are at. We are all going to be able to worship Jesus from our inside out. And she begins to see. She has this aha moment. And that's why I believe Jesus said, and it's not only coming. It's here now it's here now. Let's finish it.
Jacque: It, indeed, is here now when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. The father is looking for those who will worship him that way.
Brian: And she left her bucket, ran back to her town, and told everybody what had happened. This wonderful encounter and the whole town began to believe. Tradition says she became one of the greatest evangelists in the whole region of not only Samaria, but her children, her sons became even greater evangelists and purveyors of the gospel to the point where they were executed later by Rome. They tried to get her to recant of her faith in Jesus by torturing her sons. And she said, "No, my faith is real. I know what I've experienced." That's why a person with an experience with Christ is never at the mercy of a person with an argument who wants to argue that there is no God.
This woman comes into this incredible transformation right there on the spot. Jesus transforms our understanding of temple worship through this simple conversation. He breaches this whole idea of worshiping at the temple and he says it is to this unlikely sinful Samaritan woman that Jesus actually unveils God's plan for humanity. And that plan is this: Jesus was inaugurating a new way of communing directly with our father in heaven, not having to go through a priest, not having to go through a system, not having to go to a location, not having to do anything religious to somehow make a connection to God, but simply respond in our hearts by faith, to the living son of God. That's what Jesus is inaugurating. He's saying all of this. It's a new way of communing directly with God and bypassing all religious institutions. We don't need religious institutions any longer in order for us to somehow make a connection to God. The religious institutions are no longer going to be this conduit between man and God. We see that in this portion of scripture: verses 21 to 23. Let's read it one more time.
Jacque: Jesus replied, believe me, dear woman. The time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews, but the time is coming. Indeed, it's here now when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. The father is looking for those who will worship him that way.
Brian: The time is right now for all of us to worship him that way. The time is right now; we don't have to wait. Jesus was answering this question of this woman of which holy mountain should God be worshiped on. In many ways, I think Jesus was addressing that my religion is better than your religion issue. That's what Jesus was addressing: My denomination's better than your denomination. He's really addressing that issue that so many people on our planet fall into and actually embrace. Basically, what Jesus was saying here is that the holy city of Jerusalem and the holy temple at its center will no longer be more sacred than any other place on the face of the earth. It's not that it doesn't have a special place or it's or that it doesn't matter. It's not to denigrate any special place. He wasn't denigrating anything. What he was rather doing is upgrading every other space is what he was doing. He wasn't denigrating this space, but he was upgrading every other space. And that's what Jesus does.
When Jesus comes into our lives and when Jesus comes on the scene, he upgrades us. He upgrades every part of us. He upgrades the area we are in. That's why Jesus is the answer for the world today. Thank God for Andre Crouch and 50 years ago writing that song. We need to keep singing it because the only answer for the world today, the only real answer for the war in Ukraine, the only real answer for the massive suicides that are happening in our country, the mass depression that's happening in our country. 33%, the last statistic I read, people are suffering from depression. Jesus is the only real answer for that. He's the only real answer. There is fear running rampant. You don't believe it; look at the stock market. We are so concerned and fearful in America today. And the only answer by friends is Jesus. It's Jesus. What Jesus is now offering to us is that everyday in our walking and in our talking and in our sitting and in our sleeping and are gathering together together or in our solitude, he will be with us. He will be with us. All we have to do is call upon his name.
Why do you think this woman ran and found her friends? Because she discovered another religion, another form of rules and regulations to submit to? No, it was because they were all taken out of the way. There was nothing left between her and God. It was all removed. She could just have a relationship with her creator. And the intimacy that she longed for, which was evident in all the relationships she had gone through was now something that was tangible and she could have it. That's why Jesus said to her "and it is here now." And it's here now. That is the new covenant reality that he brings to all of us. The faith that Jesus invites us into is not dependent upon a place. It's not dependent upon another person. It's not dependent upon a procedure or this rule to follow or that rule to follow. But it's an inside out procedure relationship with God, because God is beyond any one temple. He's beyond any one race or ethnic group or people group. Those who will worship him in the acceptable way that he wants will embrace this reality. That's what he's looking for. This is what it says. For God is looking for these kinds of worshipers. Those who won't need another prop up to help them feel somehow holy, because it's only his righteousness that comes to make us holy.
It is so easy at times to lose sight of the fact that every person in the face of the world that we come in contact with is an infinitely precious image bearer of God. It's so easy to lose sight of that. The disciples, when they saw this woman, didn't see her as an image bearer of God. What are you doing? This is what they thought. What is he doing talking to that woman? The emphasis is on that, that kind of person, that kind of place that will somehow defile you. But Jesus saw this woman as an image bearer of God and saw the value in her. And at the end of the day, God is not just the ruler of the universe. Oh, it's nice to talk in those kinds of terms, but that's so impersonal. Jesus didn't come to paint a picture of the moral governor of the universe. He didn't come so that we would realize who's actually in charge here. He came so that we could see and experience the love of our creator, our father in heaven. God is the father of a family. That's what he is.
Yes, he's the creator of the universe. Yes, we can call him the ruler of all king of kings and Lord of lords. I love singing that song, but at the end of the day, you know what touches my heart the most? He's my father. He's a good father. He's a good, good father. He's a father of a family and we are all siblings. We are all siblings. The problem that we have at times is that many of us have not had good fathers. And so we don't relate to God very well as a good father. And then on another level, sometimes we fight like cats and dogs with our brothers and sisters and we just soon dismiss them, then be with them. You know what we've done? We've carried that attitude into the church and into our faith communities. And we'll walk away from each other at the drop of a hat. Sometimes, there is less loyalty in the body of Christ than there is in the bars out there. It's a tragedy how we have painted the picture of what it's to be like to be "We are family."
God's desire for us is that we would have a parent child relationship of love. I'm so thankful for my father. I remember sitting around the dinner table with your family, Jacque, and Ted would pray. Ted didn't have a dad. His dad had left home very similar to my dad. My dad's father left home and he was five. I've never had a grandpa in my life. Ted's father left when he was very young, raised by more or less his grandmother. He would sit around the table praying for a meal and he couldn't stop from crying. And he would say, "Father, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful I can call you my father." This is what God wants from us. This is what God wants from us. That we will call him our father. He wants a parent-child relationship with us. I know it's a challenge for us at times because our experiences in this life with fathers and brothers and sisters have not been, at times good. But let's breach our walls and our borders of all of our religious practices. Let's enter into a spiritual family of faith that he's offering for us today. I want to read verse 10 of this wonderful chapter.
Jacque: Jesus replied, if you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water.
Brian: If you only knew. And I think the Lord is saying to us the same thing today. If you only knew how much I love you, if you only knew the gift that God has for you today. If you were to be willing to ask for that, I would give you rivers of living water that you would never ever thirst again. Isn't that such a better message than telling somebody who's struggling sexually in their lives cuz of their brokenness that they are going to hell if they don't change their behavior. Isn't that such a better message? I'm not saying that violating the principles of relationship, whether it be sexually or telling the truth or being honest or these kind of things don't matter. Of course, they matter in our relationship with each other, but God isn't interested in trying to just get us to change our behavior. He wants our hearts to love him so that the only recourse we have is to just become like him. We spend so much time with Jesus, we spend so much time in his presence, we spend so much time loving him that we say, I want to be just like you. I want to be just like you. If you only knew.
Let's ask God today to show us more clearly this gift. Let's ask God to show us more deeply in our hearts this gift. If you only knew the gift God has for you. Let's ask him, what gift do you have for me today, God? What gift do you have for me? Because I want every gift that you have for me.
Jacque: I want him.
Brian: I want him. Let's pray. Pastor Robert, come. Jesus, show us what gift you have for us today. Show us what gift we have
Roberts. For many of our lives, the picture of father has been tainted. That's because us human beings, we are messed up. We messed things up. But when we learn what a true father looks like, that's modeled, that's shown to us by God, the father, then we don't have to struggle with the acceptance of a father's love. I was sharing my story with my son yesterday, and in the midst of that, I told him I've made many mistakes in my life. But in making those mistakes, I've learned to trust the father for redemption. Many times, we try to please our fathers because of the fear of reprimand, but even when you make a mistake, our heavenly father is not looking to reprimand you. He's waiting for you to come to him and say, you've made a mistake so that he can restore you. God wants to restore his children. He wants to redeem his children. He wants to love his children. That's why he's the greatest father ever. Because he wants you to come to him. He already knows it. A good father knows what's going on with his family.
He may not always say it, but a good father knows what's going on in his family, and he's just waiting. You know, moms, sometimes, they like to push the issue. Moms are always nudging you, pushing you. Fathers just wait. And your heavenly father is waiting to come to say, I need you. I need you to come to me. I know you can't do it on your own, but I'm here to help you and to help guide the way. Father, help us to know you more when that's in spirit and in truth. Father help us seek you more. That's spirit and truth. Father help us love you more. That's spirit and truth. Father help us run to you faster in spirit and in truth Father, we long to be embraced by your loving arms. As we draw closer to you, we become more like you, because your purpose and your creation and design is for us to be molded into the image of your son, so that we too, as others see us and our witness will be that of Jesus. As Jesus said, he who has seen me, has seen the father also. We pray, Lord, that our testimony that we will be so close to you, that others will see the father through us and the love of God through us, not the condemnation, not the fist pounding, not this image of an angry God, but a loving father that wants to restore.
Father, remove everything. All the impurities in our heart that gets in the way of us truly receiving the father's love and sharing the father's love. Father, I pray that you will give us your heart so that we would be a better witness in our community, in our families throughout the world. And that what grieves you grieves us, what concerns you concerns us and that we can be in tune with you so that we truly can be one in spirit, one in truth, one in love and one in hope. Thank you, father, for your love. Thank you for showing us a new way. Thank you for your relationship. Thank you that you can call us sons and daughters through Christ, Jesus. Amen.
Brian: Amen. The apostle Peter had a very interesting vision. It was a vision where he was to eat all this different food that wasn't kosher. In this vision, he said, "I can't do this because it will defile me." And what God said to him was this: "Don't call unclean those things that I've cleansed." Jesus has offered cleansing to all of us. It doesn't matter your history or origins. He has offered cleansing to every single one of us. I would just say the only one that would be saying that you are not clean or that you are defiled is the enemy of your souls. And so let's not listen to him. Let's listen to what the spirit of God has to say and know that he has cleansed us from the inside out and what he has called clean, let's call it clean and let's walk in that.
This wonderful gift that God has for us, that he was talking to the woman at the well about if you only knew the gift that God has for you. I say to you, who are watching online today, the same thing. If you only knew the gift that God has for you. Just receive it in Jesus today. Just receive it in Jesus today. So we receive this gift of our father in heaven, this wonderful gift of Jesus, this wonderful gift of an older brother who will take us by the hand and help us become part of the family of God and that we can be reconciled to our father in heaven. In spite of the fact that we may have left him and gone into a distant country, he welcomes us and he runs to us and he looks for us from a far way off. This is the love of our father today. I can't think of a better way to spend father's day than to be completely reconciled and healed with our father in heaven.
Let's raise our hands together. And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you and may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace, and may you know the love of your father in heaven for he is a good, good father. This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful father's day, celebrating with your family or especially your father in heaven. God bless you. We will be serving communion here, Pastor Robert, and Tequaris. Pastor Robert will be serving communion and Tequaris will be praying for people. So if you want communion, we have it over here. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 6-19-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.