From Failure to Salvation
John 4:7-18, 25-26, 39
We all fail at one time or another. It may have been a large, significant failure or a small, insignificant failure. No matter what our failures are, Jesus is able and willing to forgive us when we ask Him.
Jesus and His disciples were traveling from Judea to Galilee and they had to go through Samaria. They arrived at Jacob’s well around noon. The disciples left Jesus at the well to rest while they went into the city to purchase food. As He was sitting there, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus asked her for a drink of water.
This surprised her because Jewish men did not speak to women in public, especially to a despised Samaritan woman. She questioned Jesus about this. His response was, if she knew who He was, she would be asking Him for living water. She didn’t understand and remarked that he didn’t even have a rope or a bucket and the well was deep. Then she wanted to know where He was going to get this living water.
Jesus told her that people who drink from Jacob’s well will thirst again, but those who drink the living water that He gives them will never thirst. The water Jesus gives satisfies spiritually. Of course, she wanted this water so she wouldn’t have to go back to the well. She didn’t comprehend what Jesus was talking about, but He got her attention.
Jesus asked her to go get her husband. She told him that she didn’t have a husband. He shocked her by His response. Jesus said He knew she didn’t have a husband; she had had five husbands, and the man she was living with wasn’t her husband.
Immediately, she tried to change the subject. She perceived he was a prophet, so she asked Him about the proper place to worship – Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. Jesus said the important thing is not the place, but the spirit, of worship.
She said she knew the Messiah was coming and He would declare “all things” to them. Jesus declared that He was the Messiah. She immediately left her water pots and ran back to the city.
She excitedly invited the men of the city to go to the well with her. She had met a man who knew everything she had done and she believed He was the Christ. Her excitement was contagious. The men went with her.
When they encountered Jesus, they believed in Him and requested that He stay with them for a while. He stayed for two days, and many people believed in Him because of His teachings.
Like the Samaritan woman, no matter how great our sins are, when we accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, our sins are forgiven and forgotten by our loving Lord.
Johnston– Lessons in the BSL series for the fall quarter are being written by Virginia Johnston, a member of First Baptist Church, North Charleston, where her husband Dan is pastor.