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Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.[a] 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[b] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."
Let us first deal with the inherent biases we have as human beings and followers of Jesus Christ. The Samaritans were reviled by the Jewish people. They were loathed far more than even how Charsimaniacs loathe cessationists today. They were hated more than the NAR dominionists hate people who do not bow down to their political idols or might have the temerity to vote Democratic. More than how some church leaders look down at immigrants today. If you think that is hyperbole, consider Pastor Joel Webbon from Texas who said recently that the more merciful option would be to shoot and kill people approaching our border. There is a reason why Jesus made a Samaritan the hero in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The Jewish people would never consider a Samaritan "good." This despite the Samaritans originating from within the Jewish people. They were believed to be descendants from various tribes within Israel. They had their own version of the Torah and worshiped Yahweh. Their temple however was on Mount Gerizim, where they believed Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac as opposed to Mount Zion, where the Jewish people had their temple and believed was the correct mountain site of this sacrifice. This may sound relatively minor but the animosity between the two was very real and very personal. It was not enough that they believed they served the same God. One thought the other was wrong and vice versa. What is past is prologue. Today we see such passionate distaste for other Christians that we too feel have something very wrong within their belief structure. It is the arrogance of man that insists they have correctly figured everything out regarding an infinite God. Charismaniacs believe the gifts of the spirit are alive today and are antagonistic towards the cessationists who believe that while the gifts are still in operation, they do not reside within individual people. Protestant and Catholic divisions. Lutherans would feel that Episcopalians are too liberal. Episcopalians would feel that Lutherans are too legalistic. The point is that individual doctrinal differences have been the basis for hatred, vitriol and war for millennia. It is a fine line to walk because within the minutia are real fundamental errors that could jeopardize salvation. The people who say Lord Lord on the last day in Matthew Seven are churched people. The bible is abundantly clear of the dangers of false teaching, shipwrecked faith, and the eternal cost of wrong belief. The response from Jesus to those people in Matthew Seven is that He never knew them. I saw a feel-good local pastor post on Facebook today the notion that since God's grace saved you, we no longer had to worry about it. That flies in the face of working out our salvation with fear and trembling. Someone once asked me if I was afraid that God would strike me dead with a lightning bolt and my answer remains today - I am afraid of forgetting that He can.
In the midst of our disagreement however, it seems one of the bigger problems is how disagreeable we can become within our disagreements, myself included. I try to draw the line with wolves versus sheep. It always astonishes me how much compassion the Evangelical machine has for the wolves and seemingly never the sheep. The talk is always about forgiveness without true accountability. It is always a distorted view of restoration, which should be to one's walk, not reclaiming one's job. The bible sets out very clear qualifications for being a minister. No one is suggesting that a fallen leader cannot be restored to their walk with the Lord - we all sin. The issue is they have disqualified themselves from ministry. I think of the recently disgraced Steve Lawson who was shown to be engaged in an extramarital affair. I do not quibble regarding Mr. Lawson being restored to his walk, but if he truly followed the bible, his preaching days are over. The other side of this however are the more egregious stories of scandal that prove out the wolvish nature of the person. Mike Bickle for example sexually abused 17 women over five decades and created an entire false church based upon fabricated prophecies. He created a system at IHOP that saw 16 other leaders also sexually abuse people. Yet after the Firefly reports detailing these truths, the Tikkun panel recommended after that he might be able to return to some form of informal ministry. What? There is nothing for Mike Bickle to be restored to. Where is the concern for the victims? The sheep? It is not just Bickle. We just saw this week Robert Morris turn himself in to face charges for the four-year abuse of Cindy Clemishire, starting when she was 12 years old. One would hope that the specifics of the case would be enough to say no more but the comments on Facebook posts this week were insane. Should we pray for Morris? Absolutely - for him to be truly saved because he is going to need God's mercy. Let us also not lose sight of the inescapable fact that people like Bickle and Morris were never saved to begin with. They are not in the same conversation with someone like Lawson or maybe Tullian Tchividjian who were teaching acceptable doctrine before engaging in sinful activities. Once again, we are all sinners. Morris and Bickle were heretics long before their respective scandals. Morris is responsible for some of the most horrifically abusive tithing teachings that still infect the church today including the nonsense that God will curse your money if you do not fork over the first ten percent before paying for food, medication, or anything. He parlayed these abuses to accumulate over 100 million dollars in personal wealth. IHOP was an absolute doctrinal cesspool. The 24-7 prayer model was demonic and now proven to have been based on false prophecies cooked up by Bickle and two other sexual predators in Bob Jones and Paul Cain. Those that escaped IHOP tell stories of horrific abuses within the prayer room and IHOP in general. The cult teachings inspired the probable murder of Bethany Deaton in 2012. IHOP taught such heresies as the bridal paradigm and Joel's end time army. It was ground zero for the overly sexual "God is my boyfriend" faux-worship music. These are just two examples, and we could list many more. While someone like Carl Lentz also just sinned by sleeping with his babysitter, his theology was never right to begin with at Hillsong. Long before Brian Houston was arrested for being blackout drunk, he was teaching incredibly false theology at Hillsong including word faith and prosperity heresies. People like Ted Haggard preached NAR dominionism before it was cool and before he was exposed for having a twenty-year sexual arrangement with a male prostitute that he liked to be crustal meth with. Oh, and Haggard was back preaching in the same state just a couple of years after and sure enough, ten years later was accused of sexual misconduct with young boys. There are always victims of false teachers.
I say this as the backdrop to this meeting at the well in Samaria. It was highly frowned upon by the religiosity of the times for Jesus to even speak to a Samaritan woman, let alone ask her for water. Even she is amazed that He would ask! How can you, a Jew, ask me a Samaritan woman? God is always far above our religiosity and carnal sense of right and wrong. What is the response from Jesus? The gospel! If you had asked, I would have given you living water that leads to eternal life. Jesus is the living water that leads to eternal life! The gift is free! The woman responds in her carnal understanding asking logical, carnal questions. Where would you get such water? You have nothing to draw water with. Are you greater than Jacob? Even after Jesus explains how spiritually, she would never thirst again, she only asks for it so that she would not have to come and draw water anymore. This exchange highlights that no matter what the perception is, the disagreement is, or even our inherent biases, the answer must always be the gospel. The answer for the victims of IHOP is to present the real gospel to them. Same for victims at Bethel Church. Same for Elevation Church. Same for Hillsong. Same for Lakewood Church. Why? Because according to Romans, we can only be saved through hearing the gospel. No feel-good, sugar coated, six word, "I see that hand" prayer is going to suffice. The gospel is not the politics of this world. It is not God wants you to be rich. It is not speaking things into existence. It is not false signs and lying wonders. It is He has the living water that can well up inside of us to eternal life.
16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." 26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."
Jesus drops a word of knowledge, if you will, to break through her carnal reasoning. There was no natural way for Him to have known about her five previous husbands or that the man she was presently with she was not married to. She finally realizes that something deeper was going on and she concludes that He is a prophet, yet she returns to the core disagreement between her people and His - what is the correct mountain to worship on - Gerizim or Moriah? At the end of the day however, it doesn't matter. True worship of God is not defined merely by location. Worship must be in spirit and truth for that is the worshippers who God is seeking. The same is true today. Which brings us to the lesson we should take regarding worship. It seems today that worship is the part of our faith that is overlooked and not considered as seriously as hearing the word. Yet proper worship should be solely based upon the word and due to the repetitive nature of Christian music, what we say over and over to ourselves becomes infused into our theology. Most people who actively reflect on being friends of God probably had this reinforced through the song. The example I always give is forty years ago we sang how great thou art and today we sing how much He loves us. Those are radically opposed thoughts. One focuses solely on God and who He is and the other focuses solely on ourselves and who we fancy ourselves in relation to the false god we might serve. Elevation church creates music that reflects the narcissistic preaching of their leader Steven Furtick. Bethel and Jesus Culture often writes music supporting the false signs and lying wonders teachings of Bethel and the false "bringing heaven down to earth" heresy. The end result of this however is to create theology within people that is inherently false and leads them away from Jesus. Worshipping in spirit means that the Lord is looking for His people to worship Him. Those who have the indwelt Holy Spirit. Going back to the Matthew Seven verses we see people who did the performative work of false religions. They thought they saw miracles. They thought they cast out demons. Just consider that across this country millions of people go to cult of personality purpose driven churches and they sing four songs that exalt themselves, hear a sermonette about how special they are, pay their ten percent and go home the exact some way they came in. They are not worshipping in spirit because they are being sold the spirit of this world. They are being told their faith is based upon their bank account, their personal authority, or their voting records. That is all the spirit of this world. God is not looking for such to worship Him because as Matthew Seven points out - He does not know them. The second half of that is truth. If worship is not grounded in truth, which means the word of God, then it is not worship at all. I am reminded of a popular worship song that declares God did not want heaven without us, so He came down to earth. That is blasphemous, let alone untrue. The aforementioned Jesus is my boyfriend music includes such gems as "God is a lover looking for a lover, so He fashioned me." Even if some of the major heretical worship outfits occasionally get lyrical content correct, we still should not be playing it and certainly not in church, which will then provide royalties to those organizations who are fundamentally untrue and leading people away from Jesus Christ. It is not worship to tell God how much He loves you. There is little reverence left in modern worship music. I am reminded of when Victoria Osteen said from the pulpit that we do not worship God for Him, but rather for ourselves. Her husband Joel doubled down on her nonsense. That is the definition of not worshipping in truth. If you are not worshipping for God, then you are not worshipping God.
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
I want to focus on the dire nature of our faith. Modern churchianity rarely preaches the true gospel anymore. Sin and repentance are not deemed seeker friendly. When Bill Hybels was going to open his false church at Willow Creek, he canvassed the neighborhood to get opinions held by the unsaved to determine how the church would operate. One of the consistent responses was that depictions of the cross bothered them, so Hybels removed all crosses from the church. Can you imagine? Goats need only one thing and that is the cross because their salvation is found there! The reason the cross bothers us before salvation is that we do not want to accept the work of the cross! Time is running short. The love of most is growing cold. People do not need sermons about carnal politics. That will not save them. They do not need teachings on prosperity, decreeing and declaring, false signs and lying wonders, gemstones, gold dust, angel feathers, glory clouds, or how serving in the Parking Lot Ministry at their local church was ordained before the foundations of the earth. Jesus is saying here look! Lift up your eyes and you will see the fields are white for the harvest! What are we focused on today that our eyes are not fixated on the impending harvest? I do not mean the performative churched version of pseudo-missionary work. I mean that we need to stop feeding ministries that do not consider doing the will of the Father as their food. So much of churchianity today is not about the business of the Father. It is a conglomeration pushing carnal politics and carnal paradigms of faux revival.
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." 43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.
Verse 41 is the key here. Many more believed because of His word. The same would be true today. Unfortunately, the purpose driven church has trained a generation of cult of personality pastors who think they need to figure out how to save people. The reality is they are only trying to church them. They are confused that converting unchurched people into tithers and attendees expands the kingdom when it does nothing of the sort. The number one mission field is in the pews of our churches. Salvation is a supernatural act that is carried out by the spirit, not our worldly logic or thinking. I remember once Rick Warren wrote a pre-easter article for pastors giving them tips on how to ensure more of their Ester visitors actually came back the following week and his number one suggestion was to NOT preach the gospel. I kid you not. His advice was based upon the absurd notion that you essentially had to trick them by preaching something that spoke to their carnal needs. He said start a series on improving marriages or how to become relevant in your community. There would always be time later to hit them over the head with the gospel. What an incredibly stupid piece of advice. What if the only chance you had for some of those visitors to present the gospel was that one week? What if their life was required of them the following week? The sole job of the pastor is to preach the gospel and pray the people are drawn by the spirit. This is what happens when you turn the unsaved into the unchurched. The goals shift from salvation to church attendance. I remember when I was an up-and-coming minister with the Assemblies of God, and I was having lunch with my pastor one day and I suggested in my infinite wisdom that their were two types of sermons. One meant to cast the net for salvation and the other meant more for spiritual growth. His answer stays with me to this day. He said any sermon that cannot be brought back to the cross of Christ is not worth preaching. Amen. They believed because of His word. They do not believe because of your brilliant sermon illustrations. They do not believe because of your Christmas Cantata. They do not believe because you mix secular music into your worship. They do not believe because you regurgitate worldly political talking points. I might add here that they do not believe because you ripped some verse fragments out of context to preach your topical biases. Note what these verses tell us. They originally followed and believed based on personal testimony from the woman but after hearing His word, that became the reason for their faith! Our testimonies and experience are important but what is paramount is always His word. One of the greatest heresies is the Charismaniacal notion that the word is somehow secondary to our "spiritual" experiences. Nonsense! Many of the so-called spiritual experiences we have are emotional experiences "confirmed" by our wickedly deceitful hearts. The word however stays true. The word does not change. The word is why we believe.
46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, "Unless you[c] see signs and wonders you will not believe." 49 The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." 50 Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants[d] met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour[e] the fever left him." 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee
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