AVBC - Sunday 03/08/26 - Sermon Title: “Jesus Sought the Outcasts” - “The Path to the Empty Tomb” Sermon Series (Part 3 of 7) - John 4:5-42

Sunday 03/08/26 – Adams Village Baptist Church

Sermon Title: “Jesus Sought the Outcasts” - “The Path to the Empty Tomb” Sermon Series (Part 3 of 7) - John 4:5-42

 

(Welcome Picture)

          For the past two weeks, we have been walking through our season of Lent to Easter Sunday sermon series, called “The Path to the Empty Tomb.” During this season of Lent, which turns into Easter or Resurrection Sunday, this year on Sunday April 5^th, we are symbolically walking with Jesus to His Last Supper, to His cross, and then on Easter to His empty tomb.

          The hope of this sermon series is for us all to look at various aspects of who Jesus was and is, and how we can better relate to who Jesus was and is. Further, how we can better connect with the life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus.

          So far in this “The Path to the Empty Tomb” sermon series, Jesus was tried and tested in the wilderness, as many of us have been and continue to be tried and tested in numerous ways in our lives. Last week we talked about how some of Jesus’ followers were very high up in society, and very affluent. Or as the sermon was called, once again, “The Wealthy and Prominent Seek Him.” We talked about how the Jewish leaders Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus followed and believed in Jesus and even buried him in the tomb on Good Friday.

          This morning though, I do not to just talk about regular folks like us that Jesus came for, which He did. What I want to talk about this morning instead, is the people that society has largely tossed aside and or shunned. This morning, title of my message, as part 3 of 7 of this “The Path to the Empty Tomb” Sermon Series is “Jesus Sought the Outcasts”. In every society, there generally is always a faction of people that are on the margins, and that feel cast aside. People that are not accepted by most people are often not included in the mainstream of societal life and are often looked down upon. These are people that are often judged and seen as lower class of people. Therefore, such people are seen as not being the same as us.   

          I am sure that whether we realize it or not, at some point we have all judged someone and or felt superior to someone, and someone maybe has made the same judgement of us. What is amazing about Jesus Christ our Lord though, is that He came to earth, and comes to us still. By “us,” I mean all people. Jesus came for everyone, and this includes the people that society rejected, for “Jesus Sought the Outcasts.”

          We had a long gospel of John reading this morning, and we will likewise have long scripture readings the next two Sundays, as we have some good passages to cover. One of the best passages in the gospels of Jesus seeking and loving “Outcasts,” is the story that is often called, “The Woman at the well,” that we have for this morning. The story of “The Woman at the well,” is only found in the gospel of John, and it is an amazing story of how Jesus went to an outcast woman. Not only this, but it is also a story of complete transformation of this outcast woman. Where we pick up in the gospel of the John this morning, we find ourselves at water well.

(Water Well Picture)

In fact, picking up again John 4:5-8, it says, once again of Jesus:                   

John 4:5-42

⁵ So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. ⁸ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) (Jn. 4:5-8, NRSV).

 

          Jesus walks into Samaria, which was not Jewish, but the Samaritans did believe, generally speaking, in one God. Jesus goes to this woman at the well at about 12:00 PM, which is when it really gets hot. As a result, most people would draw water early in the morning, or maybe when the sun was setting, as it would cooler out. The Samaritan woman draws water and 12:00 PM, because she is an outcast in Samaria. It was also not good for a man and woman to be conversing by themselves, if the woman was not married to or related to the man. Jesus, therefore, was breaking social protocol, and was going to a woman who was an outcast. No doubt if the Pharisees showed up, they would have scolded to Jesus for privately talking with a woman who was not His wife and was not a family member. Yet Jesus did this anyway. Why? Well because as my sermon title for this morning is called, “Jesus Sought the Outcasts.” Jesus being fully God and fully already knew that the woman at the well was an outcast, and yet we wanted to offer her new life and transformation through Him. Jesus’ disciples had gone into the marketplaces in the city to buy food, while all of this was happening.

          Jesus just stands or sits on the edge of the well, and simply says to the Samaritan Woman, “Give me a drink.” This was no doubt shocking and startling to the Samaritan Woman. I mean after all, Jesus was not related her, and Jesus of course was never married. Further, Jesus is a Jew, not a Samaritan, and they have religious and cultural differences.

          In fact, as the gospel picks up starting in John 4:9 we hear once again:

 

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ ¹¹ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ ¹³ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life’

 

(John 4:14 Water/Scripture Picture)

          You see Jesus was not concerned about the literal water, Jesus saw a Samaritan woman, who was outcast, rejected, and He wanted to offer her eternal life. Forgiveness, heaven, restoration, but also transformation right now. Being changed from an outcast, rejected, mocked, and looked down upon, to being transformed spiritually from the inside out. Jesus offers the Samaritan Woman “living water,” or spiritual water.

          The gospel picks up in John 4:15, with the Samaritan Woman saying to Jesus, once again:

¹⁵ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’ ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ ¹⁷ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ (Jn. 4:15-18, NRSV).

 

          So, the Samaritan woman thinks that Jesus is somehow offering her water that will physically quench her thirst on earth forever. Since the woman does not understand Jesus, and because Jesus wants her to change, repent, and be spiritually transformed, Jesus tells the woman to go and get her husband, and then the two of them should return to Him. The Samaritan woman, once again, tells Jesus that she has “no husband.” Jesus, knowing all things, said He knew this, and then said that the woman had five husbands. Further, the man she is living with now is not her husband either. The Samaritan woman does not seem angry however at Jesus saying this, but more excited and intrigued. The Samaritan woman tells Jesus, “What you have said is true!” Further, at this point, the Samaritan woman, realizes that this man, this Jesus, is not a Jew, and not just an ordinary man. In fact, she realizes that Jesus is much more than all of this.

          We know this, because picking up in John 4:19, this is what it says of the Samaritan woman:

¹⁹ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ ²¹ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ ²⁵ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ ²⁶ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you’ (Jn. 4:19-26, NRSV).

 

          Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that He is not just a prophet, but the promised one of God, the Messiah, the savior. Jesus said, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” Right then, the disciples show up, and sure enough are astonished to see their Jewish Messiah talking privately with a Samarian woman. In fact, one disciple interrupts the conversation and wants to know why this conversation is taking place at all. At this point though, the Samaritan woman had already been changed, spiritual born anew, and went from outcast to the in crowd. Went from rejected too highly favored. Went from nothing to a child of the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, redeemed by Jesus Christ.

          So, despite what the disciples said or there grumbling, the scripture says of the Samaritan woman picking up in John 4:28, this:

²⁸ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹ ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ (Jn. 4:28-29, NRSV).

 

(Come and See Picture)

The redeemed and changed Samaritan woman said, once again:

 

²⁹ ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ (Jn. 4:29, NRSV).

 

This is one depiction of the transformed Samaritan woman:

 

(Samaritan Woman Picture)

Now if I were one of the disciples, I probably would have jokingly yelled, “Ma’am you forgot your water!”

          After this, picking up in John 4:30, it says once again:

³⁰ They left the city and were on their way to him. ³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ ³² But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ ³³ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ ³⁴ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor’                           (Jn. 4:30-38, NRSV)

 

          What Jesus is telling His disciples that His need to eat physical food in that moment, is much less important than Him bringing people to salvation in Him. Winning souls is His main mission on earth. Should we care for people physically? Of course, but Jesus is talking about His primary mission of redeeming and saving humanity.

          As the now newly spiritually reborn Samaritan woman at the well goes through the city, many then believe in Jesus. The gospel of John 4:5-42 reading for this morning, concluded with 4:39-42, saying once again of the Samaritan woman:

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world’                            (Jn. 4:39-42, NRSV).

The rejected woman, who was looked down upon, who was despised, who was rejected, is now reborn and an evangelist. God uses her to draw countless people to Christ. For in the morning, she felt lowly, outcast, and rejected, but by the afternoon she was a completely new and changed person. She was, wait for it, the first woman evangelist in the New Testament.

          Dear brothers and sisters, “Jesus Sought the Outcasts.” Do we seek them too because they wants everyone to know Him! As we walk to “The Path to the Empty Tomb” on Easter morning, may we see the outcasts, the rejected, the despised, those whom society seems to have thrown away, and let us offer them living water in Jesus Christ.

          In making this sermon, “Jesus Sought the Outcasts,” be a sermon that can walk of out of the door with you today, and be a sermon that you can share with the world, here are some sermon application points to consider:

The story of the woman at the well (John 4) is significant because it highlights Jesus breaking social, gender, and religious taboos to offer "living water" (salvation) to a marginalized Samaritan sinner. As the first female evangelist in the Bible, she represents the universal reach of the Gospel and the power of personal testimony to convert others.

 

Key Aspects of Significance:

·       Breaking Barriers: Jesus defies Jewish-Samaritan animosity, gender norms, and social status by speaking with an outcast woman, showing that the Gospel is for all people, regardless of their past or status.

·       The First Evangelist: After her encounter, she immediately tells her townspeople about Jesus, leading many to believe, making her a model for missionary work and testimony.

·       Personalized Grace: Jesus reveals his knowledge of her complex, broken life (five previous husbands, currently living with a man) without condemning her, offering her a fresh start and spiritual fulfillment.

·       Theology of "Living Water": Jesus uses the physical, daily need for water to teach about spiritual, life-giving water that offers eternal life, focusing on the heart rather than just religious law.

·       Theological Debate: The passage features one of the longest, most profound theological conversations in the Bible, where Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah to her. 

In some traditions, she is venerated as Saint Photini (the "Luminous One").

          So, my friends, brothers, and sisters in Christ, as we are walking “The Path to the Empty Tomb” that is Easter morning, who are the outcasts around us? Are we willing to offer these outcasts and all people living water? If we do, what our God through Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirt can do! Amen