Proclaiming Living Water

Well, hey everybody. My name is Luke Parker. I just want to say welcome. We're really glad that y 'all are here. I'm a pastor and this is a church that I get to call home. And I gotta tell you, it's a really unique community of people.

If you're here for the first time, we really hope you come back. This is easily one of the greatest churches I've gotten to encounter in my travels. So let me pray for us. Lord and Father, thank you so much. Thank you that we don't initiate anything. That long before we ever loved you, you loved us.

Lord, I pray wherever we're at today, whether we just barely managed to get here or that we've been looking forward to maybe seeing or hearing your voice this week, or if we're curious or skeptical, if we're hurting and broken, Lord God, I pray that your spirit would move and that we would find ourselves a little closer to the kingdom of God. Amen. Amen. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Last year, I had to go to Brazil for work. And I've never been to Brazil before, so I thought I'd show up a day early and explore. I know what you're thinking. Luke speaks Portuguese? That's amazing. Well, I do not. And it was an issue.

So I googled a restaurant because I thought it'd be kind of fun to go and like to have like a nice meal in Sao Paulo. And I put that into Uber, which is great because you don't have to give directions. And I step out of this cab and I find myself at a mall, which is not usually where I would expect to find a nice meal.

And I walk into the mall and two things are really obvious. First, it is lavishly decorated for Christmas. It's October. And just really, they've gone all out. And it is five times the size of an American mall. Just huge, monstrous building.

And I start walking around past the twinkly lights. And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. And through like a maze of garlands. And I realized pretty quickly, I am not going to find this without help.

So I walk up to a security guard and I say, boa noite. Good evening. Onde? Restaurante Manioca. Where? Restaurant Manioca. I don't know the word is. And he says, ah, Manioca. Obrigado. Thank you. And I just start walking the first direction he pointed. Because I have no idea what that man just said.

And I walked for a while. And I made some left and some right turns at random. And found myself at another security guard. And I said, boa noite. Restaurante Manioca. And he said, ah, si. Brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr. Obrigado.

And I went up an escalator because I thought that might be this thing. And so now I'm on another floor of the mall. I don't know if I'm closer or further away from my goal. And I'm walking through a maze of fake pine trees, talking to security guard after security guard, each time wishing them a good evening, each time getting directions, each time saying, obrigado, and each time having no more clarity on where I'm supposed to go.

And so now I'm on another floor of the mall. And I happen to walk into another security guard. And this one says, N -A -K. And this is brand new information that no one has shared with me before. I still have no idea what it means. And she starts on her hand, N -A -K. N -A -K. And I begin to believe that she is spelling the letters N -K. Obrigado.

And I'm not going to lie to you guys. I definitely started walking in straight and then eventually diagonal lines. Or straight and diagonal lines as though this woman had given me some kind of treasure map. And if I could just form those letters correctly with my body, a restaurant would appear.

And that could have continued forever with me spelling things like an insane person in a mall in Brazil, except for the fact that another security guard walked up to me and she had an earpiece in her ear, which had clearly told her there is an American man. He is very polite. He has talked to all of the security guards and has no idea where he's going or where he is.

And so she walked up to me and said, Buonanwiche. And I said, Buonanwiche. She said, Restaurante Manioca. And I said, Si. She said, Obrigado. And I began following this woman as she led me down several escalators. I was not close, just in case anybody was wondering.

Quite a distance, actually, through many twists and turns of the mall, until we came to a department store. Over the lintel of the door, in black, the letters N -K. N -A -K, I said. Si, N -A -K. which I replied. And she smiled and led me into the department store, which was very surprising because there were perfume counters and handbags.

And we went deeper in, and about the point we got to floral print dresses. And we went deeper in, and about the point we got to floral print dresses. And we went deeper in, and about the point we got to floral print dresses. And bikinis. I grew concerned that the word restaurant had been letting me down the whole time. But she took me to a secret door. And through the secret door, a secret patio with a very nice restaurant.

Now, the important thing about this story, I was hopelessly lost. Even if I had spoken Portuguese, I still wouldn't have thought to look here. And if I had, I still probably wouldn't have found it. I desperately needed someone to find me, to lead me where I really wanted to go. That's what our story is about today.

If you want to turn with me, we're going to be in the Gospel of John. Like Daniel was saying, we're going to be at chapter 428. And we're going to skip some verses because we talked about those last week. So if you'd like, you can go back and listen to some of these. But we're going to skip a little bit.

So John 428. Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, People come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done. He can't be the Messiah, can he? They left the city and were on their way to him.

Skipping to verse 39. Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I have ever done. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word.

They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe. We have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world. It's the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. We have heard for ourselves. We know that this is truly the Savior of the world.

Why does she go back? Why does she go back? To remind you of the story, Jesus is in the middle of nowhere. He's sitting at a well that's famous because it's in the Old Testament. His disciples have left to get supplies. Jesus has nothing to get water out of the well. It's noon, and he's kind of tired.

When all of a sudden, a lady shows up with a bucket. Just the kind of thing that happens to Jesus. And they get into a conversation. And at first, they're kind of talking about nothing. And then pretty quickly, they're talking about her past. And Jesus seems to know a lot about that.

And then they're talking about her deeply held religious questions. And Jesus seems to know a lot about that. And the more the conversation goes on, the more you get suspicious that this, this is not a chance encounter. This is not accidental. This is intentional. Jesus has been looking for this woman. He seems to think that she's lost.

At first, she thinks that he needs her. And as time goes on, it's clear he thinks she really needs him. Why? Well, as the conversation goes on, we find out that she's from a town called Sychar. So some maps, because it makes life easier to know. Jesus, a little bit ago, was in Jerusalem, which is down south. And he's headed up to Sychar.

So the next one. And so this woman is from a town called Sychar, which is about half a mile away from the well. It's not the same place. Now, you might be thinking, sure, they don't have indoor plumbing. You've got to walk and get water. That's true. But in the desert, usually people don't build their houses far away from water. There's usually a well in town.

So odds are this woman has left her town, walked half a mile to get water, with a... heavy clay water jar. And it's going to get even heavier. It's going to be about 40 pounds when it's full of water. Then she's going to walk back. You want to show some pictures of the people who were carrying the jars? So this is probably what it looks like, the jar. And there are people in the world who still do this to get it. There you go.

Now, how many of you would go on a mile -long walk where you're going to carry a heavy object, if you didn't have to? If you had to, what time of day would you go? Morning. We live in Phoenix. Other people need to read books to understand the Bible. We have lived it. Right? We know. You do not go out at noon. That's insane. Only a crazy person would choose to do this if they didn't have to.

And the woman in the story, we know, she's alone. In that picture we're looking at, women travel as a gang, right? Often in life, but particularly with something like this. This woman is alone showing up to this well. And that really is the problem. You can get rid of that.

At some level, the reason this woman is here is because Jesus says she has five husbands, and she's currently with a guy who is not her husband. And so he says really clearly, you're not here because you're thirsty for water. That's not why you're here all by yourself. You're here for a very different reason. You're looking for something else. Something that only I can give you. Life.

And she says, well, I mean, you, I mean, the Messiah could maybe do it. He goes, no, that's me. I'm the God of the universe. And I'm here to meet you. And I'm here to offer you something. She's had five husbands. She's with some guy. Not a husband.

In the 21st century in America, your most progressive coworker would have an opinion on this lady. And I hear she's with some other guy right now. We would immediately have thoughts on a woman who's been married five times and has some other guy in her life that she's not married to. This woman is a mess. Men would whisper and nudge each other. Women would say things under their breath about that lady and keep their husbands away from her and keep their children away from her. You would not want her in your house.

She lives in first century Palestine in a small town where people are very religious. It would be worse. This woman is absolutely a pariah in her town. She's desperate. And in this conversation with Jesus, something changes. Something dramatic. She finds that there is someone, it says, who knows everything I have ever done and still loves me.

Can God really be that good? That God would know you? Everything. Not the stuff we show other people. I mean everything. The highlight reel that goes through your head of all of the regrets and all the mistakes and all the things we wish we could take back and we never can. He would know that and he would still love me?

God can't be that good. Can he? That's the message this woman has. That's the thing that absolutely fundamentally changes her. She comes looking for water and she finds a well of life. And then she goes back. Why would she go back to those people who have all those opinions who whisper about her all the time?

You and I have trouble talking to friends who like us. We have trouble talking about Jesus to people we have relationships with and who have some respect for us. We have trouble overcoming awkwardness. That's like our biggest barrier to sharing the gospel. It's a little weird. This woman has to overcome so much. Why would she go back?

In the 1950s there was a girl named Elizabeth who fell in love with a guy named James. Cute little Christian people. And they get married to each other and they're just athletic and good looking and they move down to Ecuador because they feel called and they start learning Spanish and they start learning the language of this tribe that lives deep in the jungle called the Huarani.

And little by little they're getting a better sense of this language but they're having trouble making contact. Meanwhile their life is great. They have tropical birds flying by. They have a baby named Valerie, an infant little girl. It's amazing. And eventually they manage to make contact with these people which they've been praying for time and time again.

And Jim manages to get on a plane and go and visit these people and have a real conversation and give them gifts. And when he comes back he is violently murdered. He and four of his friends. This makes the front page of Time Magazine and Life Magazine in the United States. Elizabeth and her infant daughter fly back to the States for funerals and to be with family. They're heartbroken and grief -stricken. But almost immediately she starts planning to go back.

She wants to go back. And the people in her life, there are plenty of them who say that, what are you doing? These are people who do not want to hear what you have to say. They are dangerous and violent. They might kill you or your daughter. And you have every reason to hate these people. A little bit about what Gail Parker was talking about last week. The gospel in their minds is about having a nice little middle -class life. And a nice little middle -class family. And a nice little middle -class job and retirement. Why would you go back?

She gets on the plane and she manages to make contact with Lorani and she lives there for two years with her infant daughter. Dealing with her own anger and sorrow and talking about Jesus. And little by little people come to know Jesus. She actually manages to use herself as an analogy and her husband as an analogy for how Jesus comes to a group of people who are not willing to listen. Who love before they ever loved.

And somewhere in the midst of that she actually understands the gospel better than she did before. It does a profound thing in her and not just in the lives of these people who come to know Jesus, many of whom get baptized and she starts to realize, I should not stay here. I need to go back to the United States. They do not understand the gospel. They do not understand what God can do. They do not understand that Jesus has been with me in my darkest time that so many people were telling me not to go back.

So she came to the States. She wrote a book called Through the Gates of Splendor. She told stories about her husband. She told stories about her time there. Time and time again helping people to understand in the United States that Jesus Christ is about so much more than they could ask for or imagine. Why does she go back? Because something about Jesus really does change our lives.

Why do the people believe her? I think that is a better question. In verse 28 it says she leaves her water jar so she is going to come back to Jesus. She is going to not carry that heavy thing all the way back to town. She goes back to town and this woman who is a mess starts telling a bunch of people that I think I met the Messiah out there in the desert. For some reason they are willing to make this mile long walk.

Why do they believe her? For one thing, I think it is her. A woman who formerly is wrapped in shame with some people in the eye saying I think I met God and by the way he told me everything I have ever done. They go there is somebody who knows everything you have ever done and you want us to meet him? That sounds pretty interesting. All of a sudden these folks come because there is nothing quite so interesting as a terrible sinner whose life has been suddenly changed. There is nothing quite so amazing as a notorious person who has had this radical turnaround in their life.

There is nothing quite so remarkable as a broken person who suddenly finds wholeness. There are many moments in our lives when we think I am not qualified to talk about Jesus. I am just grateful he likes me. I do not know even if I could say something what I would say. I am not like a pastor. I do not know Greek and Hebrew. I could not preach a sermon. I do not know what the deal is.

This woman's message is very simple. Come and see this guy who knows me, knows everything about me and tell me whether you think he is God. That is a very simple message. Tell your own story and ask people to come and see Jesus for themselves. To make up their minds. There are a lot of people who think they know everything there is to know about Jesus but have not actually gotten close enough to him to listen.

These folks get close enough to him to listen and they are transfixed which again I think surprises us. When it comes to maybe

talking about what it is we believe about Jesus. Our assumption if we can get over the first thing no one would listen to me is that people do not need Jesus. Deep down most of the time we think they are good. The people in my life I have got a thing it is true for me it may or may not be true for them we will leave them to their own thing they are doing fine. We see people around us and every hair is in place on that woman.

They eat organic you can tell with those kids. They are clean all the time. I do not know how her kids are clean my kids are never clean. She is volunteering all the time and her husband is so fit and they go on all these vacations they must be happy.

I work with this guy and he is there before everybody and he is there after everybody leaves and he is so driven and he has always got an answer and he is so successful.

They have always got a joke and they have always got a drink in their hand and they are always ready to tell a story and they are always ready for a good time they are there to last call all the time. They must be happy.

When we know better

we know that you scratch the surface on somebody's life and most of the time they are anxious and desperate and just trying to make it through the day. My wife is on the PTA at our school we regularly interact with families who are not Christians we regularly interact with folks I am amazed by my non -Christian neighbors

I am amazed by my non -Christian neighbors I am amazed by would be hopeless at the very beginning the book of Romans says there are rumors out there about God people have rumors and hearsay and they are guessing most of the time they are just trying to figure it out but they are about as likely to find God as a man in a mall in Brazil spelling things with his body These people are not going to find God without someone to show them

years ago there was a great missionary and theologian his name was harold kurtz and he told the story of being at a pan -african conference with a whole bunch of missionary leaders from all over the continent and everybody's talking and at one point one of the leaders from the congo stands up and he's already kind of gotten a name at the conference they call him the son of thunder because he tends to be really blunt and kind of abrasive and he stands up he says i want to criticize the missionaries and harold kurtz who is one of the few white guys in the place like this is going to be i'm gonna we deserve it but oh man this is going to suck and the guy stands up and in a thick african accent says my brothers and sisters i want to criticize the missionaries not because they made mistakes everyone makes mistakes without them we would not know the savior their graves are all up and down the coast i want to criticize the missionaries because they did not believe that god had prepared africa to hear the gospel you they prayed and they prayed and they prayed but they did not believe that god was at work before they ever got there he told the story about how when his dad was a little boy a missionary come down the river in the congo people are working by the river they're fishing they're finishing up the day and the man who has learned the language the missionary asked very politely if he can share his beliefs with them and they say well we need to finish our work for the day but yes come and and wait and they kind of give him a snack and he's sitting there waiting and people are finishing up the day and the elders gather and the chief is there and he begins to talk about a God who loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son that whoever would believe in him would not die but would have everlasting life. God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. Anybody who gets to know Jesus can become a child of God in this remarkable, incredible way. You can repent, you can believe, you can be baptized. God will give you a brand new life. He will erase your sins and your shame. He will turn you into a new person.

And the people on the beach, they listened and the elders conferred with each other and the chief looked at the missionary and he said, we wish to be baptized. Us and our children, we wish to follow Jesus.

And the missionary was concerned because he's just learned the language and it was really fast and really open and he says, I think maybe I'm going to be baptized. I have not explained this well. Can I come back tomorrow? Can we talk about this more? Could I come back tomorrow? Could I talk about this again? And the elders talk to each other and they say, yes. So the next day, around the same time, the missionary comes again down the river on the boat, gets off the boat, asks politely if he can share his beliefs. They say yes, we have to finish our work. They finish their work, same thing. And again, he stands up, he says, the God of the universe, the great God who is before all things has come to be one of us. In Jesus Christ. Truly God and truly human. That God has done this in Christ. The very image of the invisible God. Through him, all things were created and God has reconciled. Through him, he's come to bring peace through the blood of his cross. Anyone who comes to know Jesus can find that they will be baptized, that their sins will be washed away, that in his death on the cross, he has fixed a great gulf between us and the God of the universe. In his resurrection, he's led us into a brand new, kind of life. That God will give his spirit to dwell in anyone who comes to him. That the abiding presence of God will be with them.

And the elders gather together, talk to one another, the chief comes to the man, he says, yes, you told us this yesterday, we would like to be baptized, us and our children, we would like to follow Jesus.

And the missionary was still confused, and so he said, can I come back again tomorrow? And they said, yes, you can come back tomorrow. And he didn't come back. And they don't know why. He may have died, it's tough to say, it was a long time ago. But he didn't come back.

And the man who's telling the story said, my father and a whole generation were cheated out of the joys of baptism and following Jesus. It was not until I was born and a young man that missionaries came back.

That man believed the gospel. He did not believe the gospel works.

He believed the gospel, he just doesn't believe the gospel, he just doesn't believe the gospel works. We think, ah, it's true for me, but it doesn't change people's lives ever. It changes people's lives. These people who show up in the story, the Samaritans, these outcasts who don't quite belong, they come because of this woman's testimony, and very quickly they say, it's not because of you. You're not that clever. We've met Jesus. This is amazing. We can tell you he is, in fact, the savior of the world. We've seen it for ourselves. We believe.

Nowhere else in the gospels is Jesus called the savior. Only in the Gospel of Luke where we hear that the name Jesus means savior. Only here is he called the savior of the world. Only in the context of this woman who's a mess, who becomes an incredible evangelist in a town of Samaritans who really don't belong and shouldn't really recognize the Messiah. That's where it's most obvious, apparently, that Jesus is the savior of the world. Not just of any one person. He doesn't just change my story. He's here for the world.

I remember when I first learned a little bit about Jesus, a little bit about evangelism. Years ago, I grew up in a great church. They loved me. They talked to me about Jesus. And I thought the gospel was for me. And the gospel is amazing. And it's wonderful that God would come and die for me. What an incredible message. But I found myself meeting some friends who were in this ministry and they were talking about Jesus with all sorts of folks. And I found myself learning to talk about Jesus. I was surprised that there were people who had not heard about Jesus. Because I had grown up and these were old stories for me. And there was one guy in particular. He came away with us for a weekend and we had a speaker and the speaker was talking a lot about sin. And this is a friend of mine and the speaker's talking about sin and I'm growing more and more uncomfortable. I'm like, my friend is going to get so offended. My immediate reaction is this is going to go badly for me and for my relationship.

And we go outside. It's late at night. My friend is sitting out under the stars. I'm sitting next to him. It's just quiet. And I'm waiting to apologize. And he's looking up at the stars and my friend says, there's just one thing I don't understand. His name's Kev. What's that, Kev? He goes, God loves us. Yeah. And we want to be with him. Yeah.

But because of sin, we can't. Yeah.

And Jesus died for sin. Yeah.

That sucks.

Yeah, Kev, that sucks. He'd never heard it before. The next day, he was surprised to find that Jesus rose from the dead. This kid is 18 years old. It was brand new information. Easter is a thing. Greeting card companies know about it. He does not know. No one had ever told him. I know for a fact that guy had Christian friends. No one had told him. I was uncomfortable telling him. It's possible that if he had not come, he would never have heard. Never have heard the basic idea of Christianity. And I was so uncomfortable in the moment, it didn't even occur to me it would be new information and that the good news would be that good. Kev became a Christian. Praise God. It changed the way I looked at all sorts of things. For one thing, it helped me to understand the gospel better because he saw that I was a Christian. He saw that Jesus is the Savior of the world. And it reminded me, oh yeah, I believe that too. And it's helped me on a regular basis to talk to friends and neighbors and go, I don't know what they know. I don't know how close they are to Jesus. I don't know what God is about to do in their story. But I am not going to be careful and afraid and assume that God has not gone before me and that God has not prepared them for this. I'm going to wait and try to be faithful in this moment because I believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

And so do you.

If we don't tell the truth, if we don't tell people, they really might not know. Would you pray with me?