Living Stones – Saturday, December 2, 2017
The 411
John 4:39
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”
Jesus had the 411 on the Samaritan woman by the well. We know this by what we ‘heard’ Him tell her and by her own confession, “He told me all that I ever did.”
This declaration, “He told me all that I ever did,” could be an exaggeration, or, as is very likely, we have in John 4: 1-26 a condensed version of the actual conversation. Jesus must have been so penetrating in His revelations of her life that everything lay bare. That revelation of herself that we talked about must have been total. That revelation of herself induced the waterpot abonnement. That revelation made she, who was probably wanting to live in the shadows, come boldly into the city square shouting the good news.
Such a revelation could actually drive someone further into the shadows but, fortunately, the revelation of who she was at the core was accompanied by a revelation of who Jesus is. Jesus was prepared to buck all social, cultural, political, and religious norms to find her, talk with her, show her herself and then provide the healing her broken self required.
The woman who ran back to the village wasn’t the broken and ashamed serial marriage offender we were initially introduced to, but a woman who was healed by the ministry to her spirit by Jesus himself. There are many ways that people’s lives get exposed and that exposure often makes them exit to the shadows. Contemporary sex offenders in the United States were living in the lights and, upon exposure of who they really are, have exited to places undercover. This woman exited to the light.
Anytime we have the 411 on a person we need to ensure that we are prepared to minister healing to them through Jesus before we tell them that truth about themselves. The 411 on a person is often peddled as gossip and ridicule at best, and at worst it is weaponised for their destruction. Jesus, said to this woman, on the issue of the Messiah that she, and her people, and the Jews were expecting, “I who speak to you am He.”
Full of freedom, and brought back to wholeness, she enters the village boldly and heralds that the expected Messiah is here. He’s here and He’s healed me. He’s here and He’s restored my self-worth. He’s here and He’s shown me what I really needed. He’s here and He’s told me that the real thirst that I had could not be met by the methods I’ve tried, and not by the men I have married or lived with.
This woman went back to the village with the 411 on Jesus. She said, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did.” Come see a Man with such prophetic insight that He uncovered who I really am and He did it not to destroy me but to restore me. She added rhetorically of course, “Could this be the Christ?” In other words, my experience by the well just now tells me that centuries of waiting are over and you guys need to come and meet this Man.
The woman’s testimony had to have been powerful. So powerful that people left the village and themselves went out to the well. The well that was a place where they all went every day for the life-sustaining supply were coming now for a life-sustaining supply for which a daily trek would not be required. It was on the word of her testimony about Jesus that all of them came out.
We could write, teach, and preach with excellence but nothing beats a personal testimony. We could listen to expositors, commentators, and apologists and be amazed and impressed by their mastery of the scriptures, theological arguments, and doctrinal truth but nothing beats a personal testimony. Whether that testimony is shared with one person or a village. The real 411 on Jesus is not in a book somewhere, it is in a life right here.
Ultimately though, everyone needs their own experience with God. The village came out on her testimony but urged Jesus to do a remarkable thing, to stay in a Samaritan village. When Jesus comes to stay with us, He agrees that, though we are sinners, we need Him more than we really know. He knows that, just like the villages near the well, we will ultimately “believe because of His own word.”
When Jesus gave them the 411 on their own lives they believed and then made the woman know that her testimony brought them to Christ, but they believe in Him because of His own word. John 4:42, Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” They answered what was a rhetorical question when she asked it earlier.
Think on these things:
- Has your personal life been exposed by the word of God, the real motives of your heart?
- Have you had an area of your life that you kept hidden that was eventually exposed?
- When last have you shared a testimony of your life experience with God?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be bold witnesses for Jesus, prepared to share the 411 on Him based on our personal experience, that others might come to Him and believe.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex