Week Commencing June 26th 2022

Reading. John 4: 5-26

5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Hymns

 “Is anyone thirsty- anyone?” MP 867 (Guitar)

Graham Kendrick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvGcTWZP4ic

 

“Spirit of the living God” MP 613 (Piano)

Daniel Iverson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2t3TfhoNE8

Sermon. “The Everlasting God”

Alexander Maclaren wrote that the Everlasting God is the ‘unchanged, unchangeable, inexhaustible Being, who spends and is unspent; Who gives and is none the poorer; Who works and is never wearied; who lives and with no tendency to death in His life; Who flames with no tendency to extinction in the blaze” ‘El Olam’ the ‘Everlasting God’ is mentioned over 400 times in the Old Testament, the first of which is found in our passage.

Abraham had left Gerar (the capital city of the Philistines). Having reached a suitable area for him and his people to live, Abraham dug a well so they would benefit from its water in the years to come.

Shortly after Abraham had settled there, Abimelek came with his commander to make a treaty with Abraham. This is the Philistine king who we met before in Chapter 20 and who had rightly rebuked Abraham for his deceit over Sarah. Abimelek wanted peace between them as neighbours

Abraham was willing to make such a treaty, but he used the opportunity to clear up a recent problem. Abimelek’s servants had wanted the water from his well and seized it. Abimelek declared he knew nothing about that and presumably rectified the situation, because both men were now willing to go ahead with the treaty.

Abraham and his clan lived by the well and their physical thirst was satisfied. The first lesson we can learn from this passage is that we Christians must also

Live by the well.

However precious water is materially, Scripture uses it as a symbol of spiritual refreshment. 

In John Chapter 4 a Samaritan woman draws water from a well and Jesus takes the opportunity to compare that water with the living water that He alone can give. Jesus told her “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

What will meet your spiritual dryness and thirst? Only the living water Christ offers. The Samaritan woman had tried meeting that God- void in her life through a succession of husbands and now she had a live in lover, but these did not meet her spiritual thirst. She also knew a fair bit about religion, she knew of debates between the Jews and Samaritans about places of worship. But Jesus made it clear to her that true religion is not concerned with place; not the Samaritan’s mountain or even the Temple at Jerusalem. It’s not about nature or religious buildings at all. Rather, Jesus says “a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the father in Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks”.

In our secular culture there are many spiritually thirsty people, looking to fill that thirst through material means. They are usually of the mind that science explains everything, when actually all science can do is attend to nature, to what is material and by definition cannot make a judgment about anything supernatural. Neither can science say anything about love, justice, freedom, beauty, goodness, joy or peace. It cannot assess ethical values or moral principles, nor can it distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong. Science cannot tell us why we should have the slightest interest in asking questions about the meaning and purpose of life. Materialists remain spiritually thirsty. Are you one of them?

There are many who do believe in spirituality. Today the New Age Movement contains a number who pick and mix various beliefs to suit themselves. Eclectic religion- something that has characterised every Age and something the Early Church had to fight against. The attempt to marry the spirit of the Age with Christian revelation. But God is not a god we can make into our image or put in our back pocket. Our speculations about God are futile. The true God has revealed himself through the Jewish prophets- Jesus says to the woman “salvation is from the Jews” Content and true knowledge of God are revealed to us through the Jewish Scriptures and revealed in Christ. Truth must characterise true worship- the truth of God’s Word, the Bible.

There are others who are only ever concerned about outer ritual or the externals of religion. They have also bought into the spirit of the Age, but in a different way, they appear to believe “image is everything”. They make a great fuss about smells and bells and robes and special pilgrimages to holy places. That same spirit can also be found in obsession about outer style in worship - whether it be style of music; an insistence that it must be contemporary or it must be traditional, whether prayers are spontaneous or written, even the style of sermon becomes an issue. All these are nothing to do with the worship the Father looks for. He looks into your inner being, something only He can truly do, not at the outward form. Are you one of these people?

Jesus says “God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in Spirit and Truth” God has revealed to us the worship He requires and in His generous love he has made a way by which we can know Him personally. When a person puts their faith in Christ He gives that person His Holy Spirit. The Spirit now lives within us and gives us a love for God who we now know as Father. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship. And by him we cry “Abba Father” (Gal. 8:15).This is how we worship “in Spirit”.

And worship must be “in truth”- saturated with His Word. Not just our worship services together and the preaching you listen to once or twice a week. The Lord wants you to regularly read the Bible for yourself. To sink faith’s bucket into the depths beneath and draw water for yourself. He invites you to prayerfully meditate over a portion of Scripture and so learn about what He is like, what He has brought about for you and how you are to now live in the light of His Word- obedience of life which is your spiritual act of worship.

“Remain in me and my words remain in you” says Jesus. Do you have that intimate relationship with the Lord, a personal knowledge of Him? He invites you in. This is what you were created for. To know God and enjoy Him for ever. Why settle for less? Why settle for stagnant water that cannot satisfy?

Are you thirsty? Drink of the living water Christ offers you and so come to know God as your Father and so worship Him in spirit and truth. Live by the well.

 

Further we are to……

Shelter beneath the covenant

So Abraham and Abimelech make their peace treaty:

The transaction involved three elements- sacrifices, witnesses and promises.

We see their covenant involves sacrifice- the slaying of animals. Both men would have walked between the carcasses of the sacrifice saying in effect: “May God do to us and more if we fail to keep our covenant with each other”

Abraham went a step further. He set aside seven very valuable ewe lambs as living witnesses that he had dug the well and the well belonged to him. They were like receipts guaranteeing that Abraham owned the well. The name of the well means “well of the oath”

Abraham and Abimelech made solemn promises to one another; they swore to uphold the covenant. The covenant ensured peace between them.

You find these same elements in God’s Covenant with us through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 10 we have sacrifice. We read there the description of how Christ’s sacrificial death is the fulfilment of the old sacrificial system. The worshipers in the Old Testament regularly took part in the sacrifice of animals as God’s appointed means by which people could know forgiveness of sins and freedom from guilt. The Author of Hebrews explains that the sacrifice of these animals were only a fore shadow of the reality to come. The reality is Christ’s sacrifice. It’s impossible, he says, for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Rather, Christ’s sacrifice ensures we have been “made holy once for all”. Through Jesus bearing our sins on the cross we are now forgiven once and for all. The guilt of our sin and consequent alienation from God has been overcome. The old sacrificial system is no longer required once the reality has come. So there is sacrifice.

There is also a witness; the witness of the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit testifies to us about this..” says Hebrews 10: 15- When a person responds to the invitation to put their faith in Christ there is the inner witness of the Spirit testifying to the reality of their conversion. Testifying that person is now forgiven in Christ, their sin is cleansed, their guilt taken away. The Spirit lives within us and prompts us to please and obey the Father: “I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds” There is the inner witness to the truth of Christ’s Sacrifice and what it has brought about for us.

There is sacrifice, there is witness and there is the promise. God’s covenant is sealed with a solemn oath: Hebrews 10: 17 says: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more”. Abraham was free of fear because he had sworn an oath with Abimelek to uphold the covenant. They and their peoples could now live in peace for years to come. We believers are at peace with God for all eternity according to His solemn promise.

Some Christians are doubtful of their eternal salvation, they are fearful that they will fall away from grace and be lost. They allow the tempter to isolate and condemn them. When these attacks and doubts come, we need to shelter beneath the covenant.

Dale Ortland in his excellent book ‘Gentle and Lowly’ (‘The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers’) cites Jesus words ‘Whoever comes to me I will never cast out’ (John 6:37). Jesus intended the word ‘never’ – ‘whoever comes to me I will never cast out’- to dispel such doubts. Ortland imagines our cautiously approaching the Lord:

‘No wait-you don’t understand. I’ve really messed up, in all kinds of ways.’

I know, he responds.

‘You know most of it, sure. Certainly more than what others see. But there’s perversity down inside me that is hidden from everyone.’

I know it all.

‘Well- the other thing is, it isn’t just my past. It’s my present too.’

I understand.

‘But I don’t know if I can break free of this any time soon.’

That’s the only kind of person I’m here to help.

‘The burden is heavy- and heavier all the time’

Then let me carry it

‘It’s too much to bear.’

Not for me.

‘You don’t get it. My offences aren’t directed towards others. They’re against you.’

Then I am the one most suited to forgive them.

‘But the more of the ugliness in me you discover, the sooner you’ll get fed up with me’

Whoever comes to me I will never cast out

 

Sometimes you may be over swayed by your emotions- you have been let down by another person; someone perhaps who promised to care for you and support you and they have not kept their promise. The devil throws in the doubt that God is like that too. Shelter again beneath His covenant. Sometimes you lose assurance of God’s total commitment towards you because you are aware of present sins. Again, shelter beneath the covenant.  Christ’s sacrifice covers all your sins “once for all”. Finally we should

Worship the Everlasting God

After the treaty had been made Abimelech and his commander returned to Gerar. Abraham remained at Beersheba and there he called upon the name of the Lord. (verse 33). Throughout his journey Abraham had dug wells and built alters. He was not ashamed to build his alter in the presence of his neighbours and offer his worship to the Lord. Here, Abraham uses a new name for God: “El Olam”, “the Everlasting God”.

It is a great encouragement to know the Everlasting God. Wells disappear, ewe lambs grow and die, treaties perish, but the everlasting God remains. Abraham is struck afresh by this attribute of God’s nature.

The everlasting God had made an everlasting Covenant with Abraham and his descendants. This covenant included the promise of land, of Abraham’s being made into a great nation, of his name being made great and of his knowing God’s blessing (Genesis 12:1-4). Over the years it hadn’t looked like those promises were being fulfilled, but this is why Abraham is commended as such a great example of faith, because more often than not he trusted God’s promises even though his outer circumstances did not yet mirror their fulfilment.

But here, finally, Abraham is seeing God beginning to fulfil his promises. The first evidence is the birth of Isaac; which we thought about last week. Through Isaac will come the promised Nation. Here in our passage, Abraham’s encounter with the Philistine king Abimelek reveal more indications that the promises are taking shape. The fact that Abimelech wanted to make a treaty with him shows how important Abraham had become. God had, in a small way, made Abraham’s name great.

God had also promised that he would give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s seed. Now we find Abraham gaining his first foothold in the promised land. Through his agreement with Abimelek, Beersheba- the place associated with the well- now belonged to Abraham. God is beginning to fulfil his original promises to Abraham, through the birth of Isaac and now his ownership of Beersheba. So Abraham worships God as the “Everlasting God” because He realises God’s unchangeable faithfulness to keep promises. He sees God beginning to bring things together and he realises God has been with him from the first even when circumstances didn’t seem to marry with what had been promise.

An ancient Chinese story:

A farmer had one old horse that he used for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills and when all the farmer’s neighbours heard about it, they sympathised with the old man over his bad luck. ‘Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?’ said the farmer

A week later, the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills and this time the neighbours congratulated the farmer on his good luck. ‘Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?’ said the farmer.

Then when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone agreed that this was very bad luck. Not the farmer, who replied, ‘Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?’

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and forced every able bodied young man to fight in a horrendous war. When they saw that the farmer’s son had a broken leg, they let him stay. Everyone was very happy at the farmer’s good luck. ‘Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?’

Life can be like that. Sometimes it seems like things are going well, and at other times, things seem to be going badly. We end up letting these things dictate our feelings and our outlook on life. When things are going well, we’re happy and we think God is with us. If they are going badly, we get discouraged and think that God must have abandoned us. We end up being tossed around by our circumstances. But Abraham’s example teaches us to worship God whatever our outward circumstance. He worshipped God when things looked bad, He worships Him now when things look promising.  In Philippians 4 Paul says he had learnt to be content within all circumstances. When things looked bad (he was in prison at the time) and when things appeared to be going well.

When we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son was fulfilling God’s purpose in the sufferings of his passion and the cross, just as much as in the glories of his triumphant resurrection. The Everlasting God was at work in both.

Consider too Abraham’s present successes here are small. Abraham only has a foothold in the land; a well and its surrounding area. He does not have possession of the land of Cannaan. And he never will. His descendants will own the land in God’s time. But Abraham, the book of Hebrews tell us, was a stranger and pilgrim on the earth all his life. And so are we. Like him we are looking for a heavenly country where all God’s promises to us will be finally and completely fulfilled. But though the promises are only partially fulfilled Abraham still worships the everlasting God- the God of his past, present and future.

Will you do that too? Whether there is sickness and disability in your family or health- still worship and serve the everlasting God. Whether there is resistance to Christ from children or spouse or they receive Him? Worship the everlasting God. Whether offerings are down or there are extraordinarily generous donations made to the Church- worship the everlasting God. Whether Christians leave the Church or new Christians are added and non-Christians become believers. Worship the everlasting God. Even if the apparent blessings are small, still worship the everlasting God because He has an assured future for you and His Church. He is working His redemptive purposes out through all the circumstances of life; “We know that in all things the Everlasting God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

 

Hymn

 

“Great is Thy Faithfulness” MP 200 (Piano)

 

Thomas O Chisholm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4ox4es1jo8

 

Blessing

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy- to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore”

 

David Barnes 22/6/2022