“Kingdom of God: Christ’s Invasion Into Man’s Idea of Faith” 

Tonight, I would like to bring out one last point we can glean from this John 4 passage.

Jesus had dealt with the Samaritan woman and had carried that ministry forward to show how the disciples were to be affected by it.

The interesting passage in vs 38-42, which we will look at this evening, is our text that will lead us to this end.  

Up to this point, the disciples were told that, in essence, they would be benefiting from work done by others.

They would be reaping where others have sown.

Just as Jesus reaped the benefit of the work of the various Prophets within the Samaritan woman, so the Samaritan woman, in her ministry to her countrymen, reaped the seed of Jesus’ new covenant outreach.

‘One sows, another reaps’ was the principle Jesus introduced.

It would govern the work of those in His Kingdom.

Both the sower and reaper will rejoice as the ingathering is witnessed together.

This principle gives no room for competitiveness in the Kingdom of God.

Now - then - let us read onward in John 4:38-42, John 4:38-42, and glean something of the effect of the extension of such ministry.

v 39: And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman, which testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’

v 40: So when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they besought Him that He would tarry with them: and He abode there two days.    

v 41: And many more believed because of His own word;

v 42: And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.’

Do you see what took place here?

This hated, lowly Samaritan woman brought her fellow countrymen directly into the presence of Christ Himself.

As you read the passage carefully, you will see that it was not just a lip service by which they were expected to believe, but she told them to ‘come, see...’ for yourselves, back in verse 29.

And, in seeing for themselves, they could say: ‘Yes, this is the Christ, the Savior of the world’, the One Who the prophets said would come.

‘This is indeed the Christ!’, they said.

Remember - these are the despised Samaritans, those with whom the Jews would have no dealings, those who the disciples were hesitant about and marveled that Jesus would even talk to such a one.

As far as they were concerned, these were ‘dogs’ who were outside of God’s care and providence!
 
Why did they think this?

According to 2 Kings 17:24-41, the inhabitants of the northern part of Israel had all been deported by the Assyrians when it fell to Assyria in about 722 B.C.

And, in place of the citizens, the Assyrians imported captives from other areas of conquest.

These various peoples brought their own gods to worship and, at the same time, tried to incorporate something of the worship of Jehovah with their own religions.

As time went on, their worship became a ludicrous mixture of religion, which irritated, to no end, the Jews from the southern kingdom.

They had come back, a couple centuries later, to re-install the worship of Jehovah in that part of the country.

This was when there arose much contention and hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans.

And - you can well imagine the struggle, the conflict, the competition, both religiously and politically, that took place between those two factions.

That division was never healed, and - by the time Jesus came, the strong, powerful, resolute, tenacious rivalry still controlled the hateful attitudes between the Jew and the Samaritan.

Thus, the Jews kept looking upon them as enemies, far beyond the reach of God’s grace.
  
And, of course, the disciples, having been nurtured in this Jewish concept, were holding on to this background.

Now Jesus came along and He invited these so-called ‘dogs’ - with His heart of love and forgiveness - right into His arms that were outstretched toward them!

What a blow to the natural man that was! 

What an eye-opener to the disciples! 

Is that not also a challenge to us today!

Their faith in God was being invaded!

It was being turned upside-down - thrown into a muddled mass of confusion! 

How would they be able to stand such an opposing notion and still keep following Jesus!

He was fraternizing with the enemy - surrounding them, welcoming them, with eternal love!   

You see - God was speaking to them about this part of the   expansion of His kingdom!

He was doing it in Jesus Who was their ‘all in all’.

But - the sacred secret of God, His real, hidden purposes, which He had told to His servants, the Prophets, was being fulfilled before their very eyes! 

Were they aware of it at this precise moment?

Probably not! This was too much of a shock to their religious faith.

But was it not a wonder of wonders! 

God’s love was not for the Jews alone!

Jesus had told Nicodemus that God so loved the world that whosoever, even a Samaritan reprobate, would be received by God in Jesus! 

Like it or not - in Jesus, the Samaritans and the Jews were being bound together by the love of God for all men!

What love! It transcended their opinions, their differences, their pettiness, their smallness of vision!

Yes - both the Jew and the Samaritan held different convictions about the ancient events: neither would let them go!

But each was being called out of his narrow universe and private world and was being turned around to a new creation!

The world was going to be brought out from its sin and disorder by the power of the Son of God Who sent Him exactly for this reason!

So - this was not the time to refuse the strength of Jesus Christ, to reject and decline His alternative power of love.

Anger and hatred needed to be confronted and, eventually overcome.

It needed to be transcended by a truthful encounter about  what now is - of what had happened because of Jesus’ ministry to the Samaritans.

The causes and motivations underlying the situation must now be changed through a brokenness of heart.

The Jews had deceived themselves in thinking that God’s providence could not extend to such a people who had prostituted worship of Him so miserably!

It is sad - yet true - that our tendency is to apply illusions and deceptions to religion and label them as ‘divine’!   

Illusion and deception is on our part only! It is of our own doing, not God’s! 

To be sure, the mantle that covered their sin had to be removed and exposed to the light of God’s countenance! 

So - here - in the face of Jesus Christ, the Jew and the Samaritan were brought together as one in Him!

There would be a decisive and unchanging turning to God and to ‘neighbor’.

Now would be the time to continuously discover new dimensions of loving and serving both God and neighbor!

They would work together as sowers and reapers with one heart in the face of Jesus Christ! 

What a challenge toward true faith this was! And, yes - believe it or not - it is a challenge we all must face!

And notice how beautifully and how naturally it was done in the case of the Samaritans.

The woman hurried back to the city and said to the men, ‘Come - come, see for yourselves!’

And those who believed what she told them came.

They pleaded with Jesus to be their guests, to ‘tarry with them’.

And Jesus accepted their invitation and many more believed on Him because they heard His word themselves.

That convinced them that He, indeed, was ‘...the Christ, the Savior of the world.’
 
Can you just see how beautifully simple and adorning the word of Jesus was to these hated people?

They approached Jesus themselves. He acknowledged them and their request.

He went on to manifest Himself to that part of God’s world.

And, according to other Scriptures, we know of the resurrection power with which He filled all those who believed with Himself.

And He gave them all the grace-gifts He could bestow upon them at that moment. 

Could you call this an invasion into their own-conceived faith?

How would the disciples be affected by this grand testimony of these despicable, despised Samaritans?

The passage itself does not answer this question but, by the letters written later by Peter and others, we know their idea of faith was radically transformed and enlarged.

In this passage, Jesus proved how there is no Samaritan nor Jew but how He is ‘all in all’ to each one as He truly reflected the pure image of God to them.

He showed how these distinctions have no real significance.

In fact, they lose all significance.

The relationship of men to Christ transcends all earthly relationships.

It thoroughly annihilates the barriers which separate man from his fellow man.

A major change takes place within! Christ revolutionizes the separating distinctions and - out from Him - the illuminated power of His Word takes hold.

What does this mean?

It means that - if the wisdom of Christ is fully operating - 
divisiveness and judgmental attitudes do not arise - cannot  happen!

It means that all barriers to spiritually healthy, open fellowship is possible in Christ for it stems from love of one another in Christ!

Differences, to be sure, will be there in the Christian community.

Yes - we hold fast convictions that align with Scriptures! 

But differences in interpreting them should not build barriers to Christian fellowship!

To the extent that Christians make them barriers, to that extent they are acting out from their selfish selves apart from looking into the face of Christ.

Christ is all in all and that tells us that He is the great principle of unity to Whom the Christian is obliged to bow.

Christ is absolutely everything to Whom loyalty must take precedence over all earthly ties. 

In Him, all differences melt to oblivion, all distinctions are done away with!

Yes - I grant you - it goes far beyond our understanding of things! 

We find it difficult to try to fit it all together at times, do we not?

How do we make sense of various viewpoints in our day that are so conflicting?

How can all of these interpretations, disagreements, prostitution of His Word, and of worship to Him that the church currently faces be reconciled in God’s mind?

We know we are not their judges! But it is a dilemma! 

Do you suppose the disciples may have been facing a similar impasse the day Jesus set out to minister in Samaria?

As they faced it, so must we!

How?

They had to look into the face of Jesus, and, as they did, they melted before Him in sheer faith and trust.

He knew the way. He was the Way. He is the Way.
 
As they were affected by Him, so must we also follow suit and rise above ourselves and welcome His challenge to our faith, as well!
 
To summarize, I close with this quote from a fellow Christian brother.

He wrote: ‘To see Christ in a Christian Greek or a Christian Jew, a Christian of one religious tradition or another, a Christian of advanced culture, a Christian of backward culture, a Christian of whatever social and economic status, this is what the ‘new nature’ in Christ makes necessary and possible.

Further than that, to see in one of these, and in all of them - though he be no Christian at all - a brother for whom Christ died, and a potential brother in Christ, this also is enjoined upon Christians, for - the true fulfillment of life for all - is to realize, [that is], to make real, the kingdom of God in which Christ is all in all.’ [Unquote]  

I will leave you with these thoughts for tonight.

May we each ponder these things before the Lord once  again this week.

May we bend to what His Spirit is desiring to change within our own hearts concerning all these matters we have looked at in this John 4 passage.

And may He bless our hearts with His comfort and peace as we do.

Amen.

Let us pray.