Sunday, October 4 · Church of the Redeemer
Your Story Is Needed
The Samaritan woman met Jesus at a well and her encounter with him overflowed into testimony, and the same Spirit who met her gives every believer a story to speak. Sharing what God has done is part of life with the Holy Spirit, and it is how faith reaches the people around us.
The passages
Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?” Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.” Just then, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?” So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
John 4:6–30
From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
John 4:39–42
He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.” But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified.
John 7:38–39
Go deeper
Do I actually have a story worth telling anyone?
The woman at the well had one thing: what happened to her at noon in the heat. It was not impressive, and it was not tidy, but it was hers, and no one else could tell it for her.
So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
John 4:28–30
As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. He didn’t allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.” He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.
Mark 5:18–20
Come and hear, all you who fear God. I will declare what he has done for my soul.
Psalms 66:16
What if the people who know me best are the last ones who would listen?
She walked back into a town she had been avoiding all morning, to faces that had already written her off. Jesus sent the man from the tombs straight back to his own household, the hardest room to walk into.
So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
John 4:28–30
He didn’t allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.” He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.
Mark 5:19–20
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,…
2 Timothy 1:7–8
Why does something in me stop me from saying anything?
The fear and second guessing that arrive right before you speak are worth naming out loud. The woman did not wait for the fear to pass; she ran with it.
For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,…
2 Timothy 1:7–8
They called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves, for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”
Acts 4:18–20
If I say that I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can’t.
Jeremiah 20:9
Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:32–33
What actually happens when I tell someone what God has done for me?
One woman's account brought a whole town out to the well to hear for themselves. Her words did not have to carry the weight of convincing anyone; they just had to point to Jesus.
From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
John 4:39–42
They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.
Revelation 12:11
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
Romans 10:14–15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear, having a good conscience. Thus, while you are spoken against as evildoers, they may be disappointed who curse your good way of life in Christ.
1 Peter 3:15–16
Does the way I live count as saying something?
Words and life are not two separate testimonies. Paul could point at his own conduct and tell the church to watch how he walked, and the woman's story only travelled as far as her life made it believable.
Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.
Philippians 3:17
Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
James 2:18
Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:16
In all things show yourself an example of good works. In your teaching, show integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility, and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned, that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us.
Titus 2:7–8