September 13, 2025 • 44 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Allen Morehouse (00:03):
So uh the first time I met Elder Navarro, our son was holding a um
the evidence series at ASU and he was the pastor at Tempe Church that was hosting it.
And so I got to know him then, but I looked up his bio today and it's some interesting things, so I'll just share something with you real quick.
(00:25):
Ray Andrew Navarro was born in Los Angeles at the White Memorial Hospital.
I won't tell you the year, but you can look it up.
He has two older sisters and and two younger brothers, but he attended Pacific Union College and he also got his master's at Andrews University.
And another thing that I thought was interesting, he was a tour guide at Elmshaven, the last home of Ellen G.
(00:51):
White.
He has been a pastor in both Northern California and also Arizona.
And the latest was Tempe.
7th Adventist Church.
We are so happy to be here.
He is our executive secretary from the Arizona Conference, Elder Ray Navarro.
Thank you very much for being here.
Ray Navarro (01:18):
Good morning everyone.
Happy Sabbath to you.
God bless you.
Would you join me in a word of prayer, please?
Father in heaven, we thank you so much for bringing us here to this house of worship and prayer.
We are so grateful to you, Lord, for your goodness.
your provisions, your protection uh to us throughout this week.
(01:39):
And Lord, we ask for your divine aid this morning to
Set our thoughts aside, those of secular and worldly affairs throughout the week, and help us, may our minds and even our hearts focus this morning on your word.
And Lord, I pray that your spirit will speak to all of us, especially me, Lord.
(02:01):
You know that I need you so much as I share your word.
So speak through me.
May I
Be hidden behind Jesus Christ this morning.
We ask these things in the name of our Savior Jesus.
Amen.
Well in the Bible, thank you for the introduction.
Um I was born in nineteen sixty-two.
(02:22):
There you go.
That was the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Does anybody remember that?
That was the year Marilyn Monroe died.
And it just happened to be the best year in the history of the universe.
So all right.
(02:42):
There's um I want to share with you a very, very off-told account in the Bible.
And uh you just uh heard the scripture reading for this morning.
And I know you've heard this uh story many, many times as I have.
It is one of those encounters of Jesus that Jesus had with someone that is uh quite unique in in the New Testament.
(03:13):
Um
Most of the encounters we read about in the New Testament are Jesus talking to more than one person, whether it's a huge crowd.
Whether it's at the temple, whether it's with his three disciples on the Mount Transfiguration or twelve disciples um healing a person or people.
Uh such as the Book of Mark tells us, people were coming to him late Saturday night and he was exhausted.
(03:39):
Um there's not a lot of
These one-person encounters, Nicodemus is another one.
So there's not a lot of them.
Most of Jesus' encounters again are with crowds.
But this one is very, very unique.
And I like it because of the tenderness that comes out that is revealed in Jesus.
(04:04):
and his tact, his tenderness and his tact that he uses when he's talking to someone who apparently is um
uh i is not uh uh up to par as far as oh yes thank you up to par as far as social life is concerned
(04:24):
And even in church, when we may have a visitor in church or a member, even a longtime member, that we know that has a past.
Those uh sometimes people can be a little bit distant from those individuals.
(04:46):
Or maybe they're socially awkward.
I'm not saying this particular woman was
But she certainly had a history that I'm sure people in town knew about.
And the way Jesus treated her.
Uh the encounter, first of all, and the way Jesus treated her, and I said, his just very acute tact and sensitivity
(05:09):
is really really impressive.
It really is.
So I want to uh share this story with you this morning.
This thing looks like a something from Star Wars.
All right, so the title for this morning's message is Jesus Loves People.
Do you believe that?
Jesus loves people, and I want to attempt this morning to bring out the richness of this encounter.
(05:37):
To show all of us how Jesus sees us, how Jesus sees people.
So that's what I want to do this morning.
I want to share some of the verses in John chapter 4.
I won't share all of them
But I'm going to start with these verses as um our launching verses.
So first of all, um the Bible says just in the previous verse that
(06:00):
Uh Jesus needed to come, verse 4 says, chap uh John chapter 4, verse 4, he needed to go through Samaria.
Now, you can read that in different ways.
He needed to in the sense that where he was going, he had to go through Samaria because it was on his way to where he was going.
Or you can read that as he needed to in the sense that he was he had a purpose to go to Samaria.
(06:25):
And so I I have to go through this, I have to go to this place.
And uh I think it can read both ways.
My imagination is Jesus had to go through Samaria, through this town, Sikar, because of what was about to transpire.
So
It says here that he went to near the field of Jacob, the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
(06:47):
Jacob's well was there.
So Jesus wearied, he was physically exhausted.
Jesus uh wearied uh from his journey, he was sitting beside the well, and it was about the sixth hour.
That's Bible talk for twelve noon.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water.
(07:09):
And you've probably heard this before.
Um it was probably more common for people to draw water in the early morning.
to have their water for the rest of that morning or even the rest of the day.
And but she comes out at noon and some uh scholars and commentators have commented that probably to avoid any encounters at the well because of her past history.
(07:32):
Um, she didn't, you know, sometimes I don't know if this ever happened to you, but people can get tired of the way people look at them.
It doesn't take words.
It really doesn't take words.
Body language and just
a millisecond of a glance, something in the eye, and people will catch that, know that you do not like that person.
(07:56):
And she was probably just tired of that.
She'd seen it all the time.
And so some scholars say that she went at about at twelve noon to get the water and the hottest part during the day.
Um and then Jesus, so she comes and Jesus is sitting there, and Jesus said to her,
Give me a drink.
His disciples had gone into town to buy some food.
(08:19):
And the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew?
Ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria.
For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
It was cultural practice to be careful when you talk to a woman alone.
(08:42):
a man and a woman talking alone that were not related at all, and much less just Jews and Samaritans.
So there is some history here going back
to the BCs, you know, 700 BCs.
The Assyrians um overtook Jerusalem at that time.
We're talking about
(09:02):
I'd probably get my years wrong, but it's it's around 700 years BC.
The Assyrians came and as was common in those ancient times
Conquering nations would try and integrate into the conquered nations their own systems of beliefs and cultures, and even though they would allow them to practice their own beliefs.
(09:23):
What the Assyrians did was they brought Assyrians over to Jerusalem into that area of Samaria.
Samaria was the capital of Israel.
Uh Judah uh Jerusalem was the capital of Judah.
You know those two s uh the north and the south.
And so Samaria was a capital and uh the Assyrians came and brought their people and it was a bunch of m it was a mixture, it became a mixture, a melting pot of
(09:47):
of thinking of different philosophies, of different gods, of different religions, etc.
And so the Jews at that time, the s and the Assyrians and the mixed people started mixing and intermingling in marriage, etc.
And the those that were pure, they just could not stand.
Years later the they were half breeds.
(10:08):
And so by the time you come to Jesus, this poor woman here um was a Samaritan and Jews just don't talk to Samaritans.
You know, it's like oh Adventists don't talk to Jehovah's Witnesses.
Or
you know, or or you, uh somebody with uh a higher income status and make six figures a year, you don't go play bingo at the corner place and you know, you hang out with the higher ups.
(10:37):
You learn how to do the speak and the dress, etc.
And the Jews and the Samaritans just didn't mix.
And so it's not surprising that she was surprised.
That Jesus is talking to her.
He obviously looked like a Jew and he was a man.
And then Jesus answered, If you knew the gift of God,
(10:58):
And who is it that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.
So where do you get that living water?
She's obviously taking this in a literal sense.
(11:19):
Are you greater than our father Jacob?
He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons in his livestock.
And in this conversation, I'm kind of jumping ahead of myself, in this conversation, you see this sort of tension between, well, we Samaritans.
uh you Jews.
There's that there's that tension there, that dividing wall that comes out in this conversation.
(11:43):
And here's one.
She say, well
Y you're a Jew, but are you greater?
I mean, the well is here in our territory, in Samaria.
So you see that sort of uh well you guys are the cowboys, you're the Washington Generals, you're the Eagles, but we're the Cardinals
(12:08):
You know, you see that sort of tension and that division there that's coming out, even in in her wording, in her conversation.
I'm not saying she's being competitive, but it's just
The thought process naturally are coming to surface between a Jew and a Samaritan.
And Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again
(12:36):
Now there is no such thing as a literal water that you just drink it once and you'll never be thirsty again.
So this is obviously uh figurative language.
Um where was I?
And I will give him will never be thirsty again.
The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
(13:01):
Well that catches her attention.
Sir, give me this water so I will not have to be thirsty or have to come to this well again.
And that's those are the only verses I'm going to share with you on the screen for this morning.
So the conversation when she says, Give me this water, then I can we'll never have to be thirsty again.
(13:24):
She's not quite getting that figurative language that Jesus, spiritual language that Jesus is is putting forth in front of her.
And here's the interesting thing where the conversation takes a dramatic twist.
Wow.
Oh uh uh I uh g give me this water.
I I I don't have to come here anymore.
And I don't want to be thirsty again.
(13:45):
Give me this water.
I think she's still thinking of probably physical thirst.
And here's the here's where Jesus is so astute.
Jesus is an expert at controlling a conversation.
(14:06):
Because he has command of his own identity and purpose and intentions towards another person.
So he keeps command.
And then he says this, of course, I'd love to give this water.
But not only, I'm paraphrasing here, but not only you.
Why don't you call your husband?
(14:27):
And I'll tell you more about this water.
And then that's a that's a sensitive spot.
He just boom!
He just struck a sensitive spot in her life.
That's a probably that's the area of her life which is probably the very reason why she's going at high noon to get some water
(14:49):
And then she says, this is where I love the tenderness, as I said earlier, the tenderness intact
And gentleness that comes out in this conversation.
Because you know the story, she says, I have no husband.
And Jesus said something, but then later he said, You're telling the truth.
(15:13):
You don't have a husband.
But think about it.
Think about this.
Do you think Jesus knew her complete history?
Yes or no?
I think so.
She says, I have no husband.
You're telling the truth, you don't.
But she didn't divulge all of the juicy details
(15:39):
That Jesus knew of.
And yet Jesus still told her that she was telling the truth.
You're right.
In fact, you've had five husbands.
And the man that you have now, in street language, people would say you're shacking up with him.
(16:00):
The man that you have now, you're cohabitating with him.
And that was the area in her life.
Those five failed marriages that that brought her this reputation back in town.
(16:26):
That caused people to when she would walk by.
She knew what they were talking about.
You've probably experienced this.
The woman's walking and she's carrying a basket and she just out of the corner of her eye, she can see people are talking all of a sudden.
They're quiet.
And then they just, I mean, she sensed it that people would talk about her.
(16:48):
There she goes.
There she goes.
Hey, isn't that the woman that's living with it?
That's her.
That's her.
She's coming this way.
Shh.
She experienced all of that.
And Jesus just exposed her.
(17:08):
She probably felt nude in public.
And Jesus said that.
You've had five husbands, and the man you have now you're living with.
But then Jesus says.
You told the truth.
(17:28):
This impresses me about our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus could have said, uh-uh, you're not telling the truth, young lady.
You don't have a husband, but you've had five of them.
How come you didn't tell me the whole truth?
Then nothing but your truth so help you, God.
Jesus could have could have said something else.
(17:52):
She didn't, she's not gonna talk to a complete stranger and say, oh yeah, I I have five husbands.
No, no, no, no, no.
That was her shame, perhaps we could say
And Jesus says this, and yet he says, You told the truth.
I'm going to come back to that at the end.
(18:13):
So when Jesus says this, she is impressed.
Are you a prophet?
How did this strange Jewish man that she had never seen before know everything about her
(18:33):
And the woman says in verse 19, I perceive you're a prophet.
Now, here's the interesting thing.
Again, here's where this tension between Jews and Samaritans come out.
Who's gonna get the high score?
Who's gonna score the touchdown?
Who's better?
Because the first thing that comes to her mind
(18:55):
Now that she perceives that this may be a prophet standing before me, the first thing that comes comes to mind is something that the Samaritans and the Jews have had a difference for many, many, many, many years.
And this comes out in her conversation.
She doesn't go, she doesn't talk about her marriages.
She doesn't want to talk about the man that she's living with.
(19:15):
She'd just rather not talk about that.
And her mind immediately goes to something
And she says this after, I I think you're you're a prophet.
And she says, Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.
If you're a prophet, please can you just settle this once and for all?
(19:37):
Where are we really supposed to worship?
Interesting.
And Jesus says something that is very, very important.
He says, woman, the hour is coming, believe me, when you will neither worship on this mountain.
Or you're not going to go worship on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
(20:00):
But the day is coming and is now here, he says.
When God is looking for worshipers who will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is seeking such to worship him.
God is spirit.
This is verse 24.
God is spirit.
(20:21):
And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Oh, I wish the disciples could have heard Jesus' words, but they were at Subway sandwiches buying lunch.
I wish the disciples, although in Jesus' multiple private conversations with the disciples, they should have gotten that message.
(20:43):
But it would have been nice if the disciples were there to hear these words.
It doesn't matter which mountain, it doesn't matter which city, it doesn't matter which country, which region, which province.
Doesn't matter what side you're on, whether this nation and race or this nation and that race, what the Father is looking for, woman.
(21:07):
Is those who are worshiping inside in spirit and truth.
You know, there's the prophet Isaiah said a long time before this.
The prophet Isaiah said, well, God said through the prophet Isaiah, your worship of me is only a rote.
(21:28):
You memorize your verses and you memorize, you go through the movements and just wrote.
And you give me lip service.
You worship me with your lips.
Which is quite easy to do, frankly.
It's very easy to to go through the motions
of our religion, of our faith.
(21:50):
It's very easy to come to church and look nice and to speak the speak that we're supposed to because we're in a particular crowd and it's a particular place.
That's a piece of cake.
That is easy.
But Isaiah said, but their hearts, God said through Isaiah, their hearts are far from me
(22:15):
It's called surface religion.
It's called rituals without the substance.
And this is the point that Jesus is trying to get across to this.
to this lady.
It doesn't matter.
God is working for we're looking for worshipers who worship him on the inside.
(22:38):
Truly.
They internalize it and God is living in there.
And they're trying to live out and worship God the best they can on the inside, not just doing this with the hands and saying this with the lips.
And the woman said to him, Well, I know that the Messiah is coming someday.
(23:00):
Ah, here's a Samaritan that's also looking for the Messiah.
I know my desire is coming someday.
He's going to tell us everything.
And this is, I think, only twice, if I'm not mistaken.
Only two accounts where Jesus literally says, I am the Messiah, and this is one of the two.
And Jesus says, the one that you're looking at, I am He
(23:26):
At this point, his disciples came and they were surprised that Jesus was talking alone with the woman, being a Samaritan.
And so they bring him the tacos.
Did you get the salsa?
Yes.
Okay.
They bring him the tacos.
They bring the lunch.
And then they ask him, why are you talking?
(23:47):
They're wondering, why are they talking?
Uh why are you talking to her?
They were wondering to themselves
And then the woman, at that point, she left her pot and she ran back into town.
And as she was running back to town, the disciples said, Jesus, Jesus, here.
Have something to eat, Lord.
(24:08):
And Jesus said, I've already eaten.
Did you bring some food to Jesus?
What what what do you mean he's Ah Jesus was this ah
And the disciples weren't, did somebody bring him food?
(24:29):
He ate already?
And Jesus says.
I've already eaten, guys.
I've eaten of a food that you have no idea.
I am nice and fool.
And what Jesus was talking about was this, and I want you to see this in the verse.
(24:51):
He says, verse 32, I have food to eat of which you do not know.
Verse thirty four My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work.
Behold, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
(25:12):
And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
And verse 38, I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored.
Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.
(25:32):
When Jesus had a moment to tell truth, he took advantage of it.
He knew the opportune moment, and he was always doing that.
And here's where he is teaching the disciples a very valuable lesson.
About food that they have no idea what he's talking about.
And then he goes into this short discourse of
(25:54):
Harvest and reaping and laboring for souls and gathering and celebrating with joy together.
Jesus is telling his disciples, guys.
There goes my food right over there.
And they turn around.
(26:16):
Her?
That was his food.
The salvation of souls.
To talk to people and individuals.
and lead them to the eternal fountain of life to give them water so they will never thirst again on the inside
(26:36):
in their philosophies, in their vain pursuits of trying to fill that empty cup with worldliness and with other strange practices and ideas.
That never ever ever satisfy the longing soul.
And Jesus is presenting to this woman, he had to go to Samaria.
(26:59):
He knew that he was going to talk about water.
The conversation revolved around water
And he turns that into a spiritual lesson and offering this woman something that she will never ever find at Jacob's well or any other well.
Jesus is offering her eternal life.
(27:22):
Purpose and meaning and satisfaction of the soul.
That's his food.
And he's trying to tell his disciples, anybody involved in this, that's real food.
That's real meat and sustenance for the follower of Jesus Christ.
(27:46):
And then the woman goes into town.
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Uh anybody here?
And she's going into the marketplace to the farmer's market.
People are busy selling their wares.
Excuse me.
You guys have to guys, you have to come, come quick.
There's a man that knows me and told me everything I ever did.
Could this be the Messiah?
(28:07):
Come, come, come.
And she went all over the place and knocking on doors and people that she knew.
You have to come, please.
I think it's the Messiah.
And the people leave their things behind and they follow her.
Come, I'll show you where.
At Jacob's well.
Well, probably people went ahead of her while she kept on trying to coal porter.
(28:29):
And people went out to Jesus.
And the Bible says that they listened to Jesus.
The woman came back finally.
The disciples are there.
Jesus is
Teaching the people and they're curious.
A woman told us to come, sir.
Are you the Messiah?
Sit down.
Sit down, everybody.
Sit down.
(28:50):
Let me say a few things to you.
And Jesus began teaching the people, undoubtedly, about water.
That will satisfy their spiritual thirst forever and ever and ever.
And other important things such as
You don't need to be a Samaritan.
(29:10):
You don't need to be a Jew in order to worship the Father.
The Father is looking for those who worship him from their hearts.
And Jesus told them many things.
And finally they turned to the the lady and they said, you know, we believe, but not because of what you're saying.
We're hearing for ourselves.
(29:31):
Sir, sir, do you think you can stay for a couple of days?
Yes, yes, yes.
It would be a good idea.
There's a lot of people that need to hear the same words that you're saying, sir.
Sure, I can stay a couple of days.
And the Bible says Jesus stayed for a couple of days more in Samaria, where it is a prohibited space and place for Jews to mingle at.
(29:56):
It's a beautiful story.
I want to share with you some major takeaways from this story.
There she goes, running back into town, leaving her pot of water behind.
I want to share with you some major takeaways from this story.
And then I want to actually make an appeal to you this morning.
(30:17):
The first one is that Jesus values people.
Amen.
I didn't say Jesus values Seventh day Adventists.
I didn't say Jesus values Catholics
I didn't say Jesus values shepherd's rod or Presbyterians or Sheikh or Buddhists.
Jesus values what?
(30:38):
People.
If they have red blood in their veins, I think that covers practically everybody.
I think that practic covers everybody.
Jesus values people.
Jesus values people, the entire scope and
(31:00):
Goal of heaven is invested in people.
Jesus values people
Other things that we do as a faith group, as a church are very important.
The programs and the building and outreach, etc.
But we must never ever forget this point.
(31:21):
And this is coming across very powerfully in this one-to-one conversation.
Jesus values people.
To such an extent, he was willing to abandon heaven forever.
Perhaps what his thoughts were were hanging on the cross, I will never see my father.
(31:43):
But if it means people.
Can spend eternity.
I'm willing to do it.
That's how much Jesus values you.
That's how much Jesus values you.
You may have certain thoughts of yourself, perhaps negative, like most of us do, but Jesus values you.
(32:07):
He values people.
The second of four that I want to share is that Jesus offers relief now and gives eternal life.
Um the woman, her the thing that came across her mind right away
(32:29):
Was probably it was her past, her shame.
She was caught up in externals such as which mountain should we worship at?
Those external things that often people of faith, people of religions often occupy themselves too much of
(32:50):
At the expense of becoming the person that God desires us to be.
We get caught up in practices and rituals and we forget
That Isaiah once said, but your hearts are far from me.
Jesus is offering her real substance, real living, and giving her that water.
(33:12):
That will satisfy her thirst.
It's interesting that Jesus is offering this woman eternal life, even though she had five failed marriages.
And even though she was living in sin, she was living with a man.
And yet Jesus offers her.
(33:35):
Eternal life.
Do you know what the Bible says?
You know what the Apostle Paul says in the book of Romans?
He says, even while we were yet God's enemies.
In another sentence in the same chapter, while we were still sinners, Christ did what?
Died for us.
Christ didn't say, oh no, I am not going down there, not until they clean up their act.
(34:00):
No, no, no, no.
We all know.
We all know what they're gonna do to me.
I am not going to sacrifice my blood for an evil race called humans.
Was that Jesus' attitude?
Jesus doesn't offer salvation to those who have their act cleaned up or who are self-righteous and justified
(34:26):
There exists nobody like that, by the way, but there are a lot of people who think they are so just and righteous that they don't need Christ.
Well, you know what?
They're right.
Unfortunately, and they will find out someday.
Jesus offers eternal life to the imperfect.
(34:48):
To the broken, to those with shame, to those with histories, to those with hangups, to those who don't have their act together.
Jesus offers salvation to us.
While we were still enemies of Christ.
The third one, Jesus is real about our faults, but gentle.
I love this part of this encounter with the Samaritan woman.
(35:11):
As I said before, Jesus didn't say, wait a minute, come on, give me the rest of the details.
You say you have no husband, and and that's not Jesus' attitude towards her
(35:31):
And Jesus says you've had five and the one you're now, the man you have now you're living with, but Jesus didn't point the finger and say, uh-uh-uh, you need to move away, get out of that house.
You're sinning.
In other contexts, Jesus would say, go and sin no more.
In this case, Jesus was not condoning it
(35:56):
But he was being gentle and tactful and trying to win her heart.
And you know, here's the interesting thing.
I'm not saying that Jesus condoned her living conditions.
In fact, I am convinced that he didn't.
But here's the mistake that we often, in fact, too often make as Christians.
(36:21):
I don't care if you're Adventist or Baptist or it doesn't matter, it's Christians.
Here's the mistake we often make.
We try to correct people first before connecting with them.
And what we're seeing here, and what we see often in Jesus' encounters, is Jesus wants to connect and connect and connect.
(36:47):
And the correction comes when that connection is made.
That's why Ellen White says in Steps to Christ, Ministry of Healing, page 143, Jesus went about mingling among people.
Desiring their good.
He manifested an interest in their secular affairs.
He would meet their needs.
(37:08):
He would gain their confidence.
He he was connecting them, connecting with people and winning their confidence, winning their confidence.
And their hearts were open.
They became more open.
And their minds and hearts became more open to Jesus.
Because he was healing them.
And he was gentle with them.
He wasn't like the spiritual leaders who tended to be a little bit pompous and rough and dogmatic about things.
(37:31):
That's not what Jesus was.
And so he won their confidence.
And then Jesus would say, come and follow me.
And Jesus would teach them about things.
That's not to say that in a church setting you baptize anybody who says, I believe in Jesus, and you find out that they're living an adulterous life.
(37:58):
No.
But we need to connect with neighbors and friends and connect and serve them
And meet their needs and win their confidence.
Invite them to church.
And they will see the transformation, the real transformation that Jesus made in you
(38:20):
Instead of just lip service, and I follow the Sabbath.
And yet we act indifferent and even mean.
That's not Jesus' method.
Jesus did tell her about her past, but he was gentle about it.
(38:43):
He was real, but he was gentle.
And the last one for this morning.
This is very, very important, so much so that Jesus brought this out
In those days as it is in ours
(39:05):
Sometimes we have a self-righteous attitude because we worship on this mountain.
We have history.
We have proof.
Or we worship on this day, and you've got the wrong one.
We've got proof.
(39:27):
We can back it up.
And people of faith can often get a little bit pompous about it.
And even though we may not say anything, we're not going to admit this outright, but God sees our attitudes, not only senses them.
(39:50):
But if I'm talking to somebody and down deep inside, I'm sort of proud because I'm glad I have the right place or day, etc.
, of worship.
God can see that attitude in you.
He sees it as if your attitude comes out in your person.
(40:12):
And now you're the true person.
I've got the right day.
Yes, and uh yeah, and you know, the seventh day Sabbath, this is a
Yeah, so you better listen to me because you're gonna get the mark of the beast.
Many times people may have a secret attitude that nobody sees, but it's just as God can pull it out.
(40:35):
And make it into another person.
He sees our attitudes.
He sees our thoughts being acted out.
And Jesus is telling this woman.
Yes, there was a there's a Mount Zion over there, and yes, Samaria was the capital of Israel years ago.
But true worshippers, true worship.
(40:58):
is internal.
God is looking for people who don't worship in mouth and ritual, but in their hearts and in their minds.
We love God with all of our hearts.
We want to please Him.
We want to obey the commandments
We are anxious to forgive others because Jesus delights to forgive me.
(41:21):
He enjoys forgiving people.
He actually enjoys it.
But I don't.
When we enjoy forgiving as Jesus does, when we enjoy and find delight in being compassionate and patient and kind and courteous towards other people.
And we enjoy doing good.
(41:43):
I want to do good, and I enjoy doing what is right because I love my father.
That's true worship.
That's the point.
And this is what Jesus is telling this woman.
He understood the differences and the lines drawn between the Jews and the Samaritans.
(42:04):
That line that had been drawn for years, for a few centuries.
But even now is the time.
Where I could care less if you're a Samaritan woman.
If you can worship God in spirit and truth in here, that's the kind of worshipers that God is looking for.
That also struck a chord.
(42:26):
He put aside those external red lines that we draw often.
And Jesus offers to you, to her, and to you and to me true worship.
That's the point that he's getting across.
True worship.
(42:46):
So Jesus values people.
He gives us eternal life and he can give us meaning, true meaning in life in spite of our past.
Jesus is real about our faults.
He's not going to say, oh, no big deal.
No.
Jesus will tell you, no, that's wrong.
That's sin.
But he's not going to
(43:07):
Be critical and slap you and remind you about it time after time again and shame you about it.
He's gentle about it.
He'll tell you the truth
But he's tender and gentle about it.
Probably with tears in his eyes.
That's not right.
You're hurting me.
That's wrong.
That's sinful.
(43:28):
And Jesus offers true worship.
Beautiful story in the Bible.
Amen.
Beautiful story.
So much that we can learn.
And that woman learned so much in just a few moments.
This is Reign of Arrow speaking, not the Bible.
(43:51):
Later on in the New Testament, the book of Acts, after Jesus ascended.
The deacon Philip flees to Samaria because persecution breaks out in Jerusalem.
And he ends up gaining a lot of converts in Samaria.
(44:13):
I think it was because of this woman.
She was the first one to sow those seeds with Jesus in Samaria.
So by the time Philip came, years later.
There was a harvest, the fields were white, and Jesus' followers witnessed that.
(44:35):
God bless you.
So uh the first time I met Elder Navarro, our son was holding a um
the evidence series at ASU and he was the pastor at Tempe Church that was hosting it.
And so I got to know him then, but I looked up his bio today and it's some interesting things, so I'll just share something with you real quick.
(00:25):
Ray Andrew Navarro was born in Los Angeles at the White Memorial Hospital.
I won't tell you the year, but you can look it up.
He has two older sisters and and two younger brothers, but he attended Pacific Union College and he also got his master's at Andrews University.
And another thing that I thought was interesting, he was a tour guide at Elmshaven, the last home of Ellen G.
(00:51):
White.
He has been a pastor in both Northern California and also Arizona.
And the latest was Tempe.
7th Adventist Church.
We are so happy to be here.
He is our executive secretary from the Arizona Conference, Elder Ray Navarro.
Thank you very much for being here.
Ray Navarro (01:18):
Good morning everyone.
Happy Sabbath to you.
God bless you.
Would you join me in a word of prayer, please?
Father in heaven, we thank you so much for bringing us here to this house of worship and prayer.
We are so grateful to you, Lord, for your goodness.
your provisions, your protection uh to us throughout this week.
(01:39):
And Lord, we ask for your divine aid this morning to
Set our thoughts aside, those of secular and worldly affairs throughout the week, and help us, may our minds and even our hearts focus this morning on your word.
And Lord, I pray that your spirit will speak to all of us, especially me, Lord.
(02:01):
You know that I need you so much as I share your word.
So speak through me.
May I
Be hidden behind Jesus Christ this morning.
We ask these things in the name of our Savior Jesus.
Amen.
Well in the Bible, thank you for the introduction.
Um I was born in nineteen sixty-two.
(02:22):
There you go.
That was the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Does anybody remember that?
That was the year Marilyn Monroe died.
And it just happened to be the best year in the history of the universe.
So all right.
(02:42):
There's um I want to share with you a very, very off-told account in the Bible.
And uh you just uh heard the scripture reading for this morning.
And I know you've heard this uh story many, many times as I have.
It is one of those encounters of Jesus that Jesus had with someone that is uh quite unique in in the New Testament.
(03:13):
Um
Most of the encounters we read about in the New Testament are Jesus talking to more than one person, whether it's a huge crowd.
Whether it's at the temple, whether it's with his three disciples on the Mount Transfiguration or twelve disciples um healing a person or people.
Uh such as the Book of Mark tells us, people were coming to him late Saturday night and he was exhausted.
(03:39):
Um there's not a lot of
These one-person encounters, Nicodemus is another one.
So there's not a lot of them.
Most of Jesus' encounters again are with crowds.
But this one is very, very unique.
And I like it because of the tenderness that comes out that is revealed in Jesus.
(04:04):
and his tact, his tenderness and his tact that he uses when he's talking to someone who apparently is um
uh i is not uh uh up to par as far as oh yes thank you up to par as far as social life is concerned
(04:24):
And even in church, when we may have a visitor in church or a member, even a longtime member, that we know that has a past.
Those uh sometimes people can be a little bit distant from those individuals.
(04:46):
Or maybe they're socially awkward.
I'm not saying this particular woman was
But she certainly had a history that I'm sure people in town knew about.
And the way Jesus treated her.
Uh the encounter, first of all, and the way Jesus treated her, and I said, his just very acute tact and sensitivity
(05:09):
is really really impressive.
It really is.
So I want to uh share this story with you this morning.
This thing looks like a something from Star Wars.
All right, so the title for this morning's message is Jesus Loves People.
Do you believe that?
Jesus loves people, and I want to attempt this morning to bring out the richness of this encounter.
(05:37):
To show all of us how Jesus sees us, how Jesus sees people.
So that's what I want to do this morning.
I want to share some of the verses in John chapter 4.
I won't share all of them
But I'm going to start with these verses as um our launching verses.
So first of all, um the Bible says just in the previous verse that
(06:00):
Uh Jesus needed to come, verse 4 says, chap uh John chapter 4, verse 4, he needed to go through Samaria.
Now, you can read that in different ways.
He needed to in the sense that where he was going, he had to go through Samaria because it was on his way to where he was going.
Or you can read that as he needed to in the sense that he was he had a purpose to go to Samaria.
(06:25):
And so I I have to go through this, I have to go to this place.
And uh I think it can read both ways.
My imagination is Jesus had to go through Samaria, through this town, Sikar, because of what was about to transpire.
So
It says here that he went to near the field of Jacob, the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
(06:47):
Jacob's well was there.
So Jesus wearied, he was physically exhausted.
Jesus uh wearied uh from his journey, he was sitting beside the well, and it was about the sixth hour.
That's Bible talk for twelve noon.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water.
(07:09):
And you've probably heard this before.
Um it was probably more common for people to draw water in the early morning.
to have their water for the rest of that morning or even the rest of the day.
And but she comes out at noon and some uh scholars and commentators have commented that probably to avoid any encounters at the well because of her past history.
(07:32):
Um, she didn't, you know, sometimes I don't know if this ever happened to you, but people can get tired of the way people look at them.
It doesn't take words.
It really doesn't take words.
Body language and just
a millisecond of a glance, something in the eye, and people will catch that, know that you do not like that person.
(07:56):
And she was probably just tired of that.
She'd seen it all the time.
And so some scholars say that she went at about at twelve noon to get the water and the hottest part during the day.
Um and then Jesus, so she comes and Jesus is sitting there, and Jesus said to her,
Give me a drink.
His disciples had gone into town to buy some food.
(08:19):
And the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew?
Ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria.
For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
It was cultural practice to be careful when you talk to a woman alone.
(08:42):
a man and a woman talking alone that were not related at all, and much less just Jews and Samaritans.
So there is some history here going back
to the BCs, you know, 700 BCs.
The Assyrians um overtook Jerusalem at that time.
We're talking about
(09:02):
I'd probably get my years wrong, but it's it's around 700 years BC.
The Assyrians came and as was common in those ancient times
Conquering nations would try and integrate into the conquered nations their own systems of beliefs and cultures, and even though they would allow them to practice their own beliefs.
(09:23):
What the Assyrians did was they brought Assyrians over to Jerusalem into that area of Samaria.
Samaria was the capital of Israel.
Uh Judah uh Jerusalem was the capital of Judah.
You know those two s uh the north and the south.
And so Samaria was a capital and uh the Assyrians came and brought their people and it was a bunch of m it was a mixture, it became a mixture, a melting pot of
(09:47):
of thinking of different philosophies, of different gods, of different religions, etc.
And so the Jews at that time, the s and the Assyrians and the mixed people started mixing and intermingling in marriage, etc.
And the those that were pure, they just could not stand.
Years later the they were half breeds.
(10:08):
And so by the time you come to Jesus, this poor woman here um was a Samaritan and Jews just don't talk to Samaritans.
You know, it's like oh Adventists don't talk to Jehovah's Witnesses.
Or
you know, or or you, uh somebody with uh a higher income status and make six figures a year, you don't go play bingo at the corner place and you know, you hang out with the higher ups.
(10:37):
You learn how to do the speak and the dress, etc.
And the Jews and the Samaritans just didn't mix.
And so it's not surprising that she was surprised.
That Jesus is talking to her.
He obviously looked like a Jew and he was a man.
And then Jesus answered, If you knew the gift of God,
(10:58):
And who is it that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.
So where do you get that living water?
She's obviously taking this in a literal sense.
(11:19):
Are you greater than our father Jacob?
He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons in his livestock.
And in this conversation, I'm kind of jumping ahead of myself, in this conversation, you see this sort of tension between, well, we Samaritans.
uh you Jews.
There's that there's that tension there, that dividing wall that comes out in this conversation.
(11:43):
And here's one.
She say, well
Y you're a Jew, but are you greater?
I mean, the well is here in our territory, in Samaria.
So you see that sort of uh well you guys are the cowboys, you're the Washington Generals, you're the Eagles, but we're the Cardinals
(12:08):
You know, you see that sort of tension and that division there that's coming out, even in in her wording, in her conversation.
I'm not saying she's being competitive, but it's just
The thought process naturally are coming to surface between a Jew and a Samaritan.
And Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again
(12:36):
Now there is no such thing as a literal water that you just drink it once and you'll never be thirsty again.
So this is obviously uh figurative language.
Um where was I?
And I will give him will never be thirsty again.
The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
(13:01):
Well that catches her attention.
Sir, give me this water so I will not have to be thirsty or have to come to this well again.
And that's those are the only verses I'm going to share with you on the screen for this morning.
So the conversation when she says, Give me this water, then I can we'll never have to be thirsty again.
(13:24):
She's not quite getting that figurative language that Jesus, spiritual language that Jesus is is putting forth in front of her.
And here's the interesting thing where the conversation takes a dramatic twist.
Wow.
Oh uh uh I uh g give me this water.
I I I don't have to come here anymore.
And I don't want to be thirsty again.
(13:45):
Give me this water.
I think she's still thinking of probably physical thirst.
And here's the here's where Jesus is so astute.
Jesus is an expert at controlling a conversation.
(14:06):
Because he has command of his own identity and purpose and intentions towards another person.
So he keeps command.
And then he says this, of course, I'd love to give this water.
But not only, I'm paraphrasing here, but not only you.
Why don't you call your husband?
(14:27):
And I'll tell you more about this water.
And then that's a that's a sensitive spot.
He just boom!
He just struck a sensitive spot in her life.
That's a probably that's the area of her life which is probably the very reason why she's going at high noon to get some water
(14:49):
And then she says, this is where I love the tenderness, as I said earlier, the tenderness intact
And gentleness that comes out in this conversation.
Because you know the story, she says, I have no husband.
And Jesus said something, but then later he said, You're telling the truth.
(15:13):
You don't have a husband.
But think about it.
Think about this.
Do you think Jesus knew her complete history?
Yes or no?
I think so.
She says, I have no husband.
You're telling the truth, you don't.
But she didn't divulge all of the juicy details
(15:39):
That Jesus knew of.
And yet Jesus still told her that she was telling the truth.
You're right.
In fact, you've had five husbands.
And the man that you have now, in street language, people would say you're shacking up with him.
(16:00):
The man that you have now, you're cohabitating with him.
And that was the area in her life.
Those five failed marriages that that brought her this reputation back in town.
(16:26):
That caused people to when she would walk by.
She knew what they were talking about.
You've probably experienced this.
The woman's walking and she's carrying a basket and she just out of the corner of her eye, she can see people are talking all of a sudden.
They're quiet.
And then they just, I mean, she sensed it that people would talk about her.
(16:48):
There she goes.
There she goes.
Hey, isn't that the woman that's living with it?
That's her.
That's her.
She's coming this way.
Shh.
She experienced all of that.
And Jesus just exposed her.
(17:08):
She probably felt nude in public.
And Jesus said that.
You've had five husbands, and the man you have now you're living with.
But then Jesus says.
You told the truth.
(17:28):
This impresses me about our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus could have said, uh-uh, you're not telling the truth, young lady.
You don't have a husband, but you've had five of them.
How come you didn't tell me the whole truth?
Then nothing but your truth so help you, God.
Jesus could have could have said something else.
(17:52):
She didn't, she's not gonna talk to a complete stranger and say, oh yeah, I I have five husbands.
No, no, no, no, no.
That was her shame, perhaps we could say
And Jesus says this, and yet he says, You told the truth.
I'm going to come back to that at the end.
(18:13):
So when Jesus says this, she is impressed.
Are you a prophet?
How did this strange Jewish man that she had never seen before know everything about her
(18:33):
And the woman says in verse 19, I perceive you're a prophet.
Now, here's the interesting thing.
Again, here's where this tension between Jews and Samaritans come out.
Who's gonna get the high score?
Who's gonna score the touchdown?
Who's better?
Because the first thing that comes to her mind
(18:55):
Now that she perceives that this may be a prophet standing before me, the first thing that comes comes to mind is something that the Samaritans and the Jews have had a difference for many, many, many, many years.
And this comes out in her conversation.
She doesn't go, she doesn't talk about her marriages.
She doesn't want to talk about the man that she's living with.
(19:15):
She'd just rather not talk about that.
And her mind immediately goes to something
And she says this after, I I think you're you're a prophet.
And she says, Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.
If you're a prophet, please can you just settle this once and for all?
(19:37):
Where are we really supposed to worship?
Interesting.
And Jesus says something that is very, very important.
He says, woman, the hour is coming, believe me, when you will neither worship on this mountain.
Or you're not going to go worship on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
(20:00):
But the day is coming and is now here, he says.
When God is looking for worshipers who will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is seeking such to worship him.
God is spirit.
This is verse 24.
God is spirit.
(20:21):
And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Oh, I wish the disciples could have heard Jesus' words, but they were at Subway sandwiches buying lunch.
I wish the disciples, although in Jesus' multiple private conversations with the disciples, they should have gotten that message.
(20:43):
But it would have been nice if the disciples were there to hear these words.
It doesn't matter which mountain, it doesn't matter which city, it doesn't matter which country, which region, which province.
Doesn't matter what side you're on, whether this nation and race or this nation and that race, what the Father is looking for, woman.
(21:07):
Is those who are worshiping inside in spirit and truth.
You know, there's the prophet Isaiah said a long time before this.
The prophet Isaiah said, well, God said through the prophet Isaiah, your worship of me is only a rote.
(21:28):
You memorize your verses and you memorize, you go through the movements and just wrote.
And you give me lip service.
You worship me with your lips.
Which is quite easy to do, frankly.
It's very easy to to go through the motions
of our religion, of our faith.
(21:50):
It's very easy to come to church and look nice and to speak the speak that we're supposed to because we're in a particular crowd and it's a particular place.
That's a piece of cake.
That is easy.
But Isaiah said, but their hearts, God said through Isaiah, their hearts are far from me
(22:15):
It's called surface religion.
It's called rituals without the substance.
And this is the point that Jesus is trying to get across to this.
to this lady.
It doesn't matter.
God is working for we're looking for worshipers who worship him on the inside.
(22:38):
Truly.
They internalize it and God is living in there.
And they're trying to live out and worship God the best they can on the inside, not just doing this with the hands and saying this with the lips.
And the woman said to him, Well, I know that the Messiah is coming someday.
(23:00):
Ah, here's a Samaritan that's also looking for the Messiah.
I know my desire is coming someday.
He's going to tell us everything.
And this is, I think, only twice, if I'm not mistaken.
Only two accounts where Jesus literally says, I am the Messiah, and this is one of the two.
And Jesus says, the one that you're looking at, I am He
(23:26):
At this point, his disciples came and they were surprised that Jesus was talking alone with the woman, being a Samaritan.
And so they bring him the tacos.
Did you get the salsa?
Yes.
Okay.
They bring him the tacos.
They bring the lunch.
And then they ask him, why are you talking?
(23:47):
They're wondering, why are they talking?
Uh why are you talking to her?
They were wondering to themselves
And then the woman, at that point, she left her pot and she ran back into town.
And as she was running back to town, the disciples said, Jesus, Jesus, here.
Have something to eat, Lord.
(24:08):
And Jesus said, I've already eaten.
Did you bring some food to Jesus?
What what what do you mean he's Ah Jesus was this ah
And the disciples weren't, did somebody bring him food?
(24:29):
He ate already?
And Jesus says.
I've already eaten, guys.
I've eaten of a food that you have no idea.
I am nice and fool.
And what Jesus was talking about was this, and I want you to see this in the verse.
(24:51):
He says, verse 32, I have food to eat of which you do not know.
Verse thirty four My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work.
Behold, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
(25:12):
And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
And verse 38, I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored.
Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.
(25:32):
When Jesus had a moment to tell truth, he took advantage of it.
He knew the opportune moment, and he was always doing that.
And here's where he is teaching the disciples a very valuable lesson.
About food that they have no idea what he's talking about.
And then he goes into this short discourse of
(25:54):
Harvest and reaping and laboring for souls and gathering and celebrating with joy together.
Jesus is telling his disciples, guys.
There goes my food right over there.
And they turn around.
(26:16):
Her?
That was his food.
The salvation of souls.
To talk to people and individuals.
and lead them to the eternal fountain of life to give them water so they will never thirst again on the inside
(26:36):
in their philosophies, in their vain pursuits of trying to fill that empty cup with worldliness and with other strange practices and ideas.
That never ever ever satisfy the longing soul.
And Jesus is presenting to this woman, he had to go to Samaria.
(26:59):
He knew that he was going to talk about water.
The conversation revolved around water
And he turns that into a spiritual lesson and offering this woman something that she will never ever find at Jacob's well or any other well.
Jesus is offering her eternal life.
(27:22):
Purpose and meaning and satisfaction of the soul.
That's his food.
And he's trying to tell his disciples, anybody involved in this, that's real food.
That's real meat and sustenance for the follower of Jesus Christ.
(27:46):
And then the woman goes into town.
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Uh anybody here?
And she's going into the marketplace to the farmer's market.
People are busy selling their wares.
Excuse me.
You guys have to guys, you have to come, come quick.
There's a man that knows me and told me everything I ever did.
Could this be the Messiah?
(28:07):
Come, come, come.
And she went all over the place and knocking on doors and people that she knew.
You have to come, please.
I think it's the Messiah.
And the people leave their things behind and they follow her.
Come, I'll show you where.
At Jacob's well.
Well, probably people went ahead of her while she kept on trying to coal porter.
(28:29):
And people went out to Jesus.
And the Bible says that they listened to Jesus.
The woman came back finally.
The disciples are there.
Jesus is
Teaching the people and they're curious.
A woman told us to come, sir.
Are you the Messiah?
Sit down.
Sit down, everybody.
Sit down.
(28:50):
Let me say a few things to you.
And Jesus began teaching the people, undoubtedly, about water.
That will satisfy their spiritual thirst forever and ever and ever.
And other important things such as
You don't need to be a Samaritan.
(29:10):
You don't need to be a Jew in order to worship the Father.
The Father is looking for those who worship him from their hearts.
And Jesus told them many things.
And finally they turned to the the lady and they said, you know, we believe, but not because of what you're saying.
We're hearing for ourselves.
(29:31):
Sir, sir, do you think you can stay for a couple of days?
Yes, yes, yes.
It would be a good idea.
There's a lot of people that need to hear the same words that you're saying, sir.
Sure, I can stay a couple of days.
And the Bible says Jesus stayed for a couple of days more in Samaria, where it is a prohibited space and place for Jews to mingle at.
(29:56):
It's a beautiful story.
I want to share with you some major takeaways from this story.
There she goes, running back into town, leaving her pot of water behind.
I want to share with you some major takeaways from this story.
And then I want to actually make an appeal to you this morning.
(30:17):
The first one is that Jesus values people.
Amen.
I didn't say Jesus values Seventh day Adventists.
I didn't say Jesus values Catholics
I didn't say Jesus values shepherd's rod or Presbyterians or Sheikh or Buddhists.
Jesus values what?
(30:38):
People.
If they have red blood in their veins, I think that covers practically everybody.
I think that practic covers everybody.
Jesus values people.
Jesus values people, the entire scope and
(31:00):
Goal of heaven is invested in people.
Jesus values people
Other things that we do as a faith group, as a church are very important.
The programs and the building and outreach, etc.
But we must never ever forget this point.
(31:21):
And this is coming across very powerfully in this one-to-one conversation.
Jesus values people.
To such an extent, he was willing to abandon heaven forever.
Perhaps what his thoughts were were hanging on the cross, I will never see my father.
(31:43):
But if it means people.
Can spend eternity.
I'm willing to do it.
That's how much Jesus values you.
That's how much Jesus values you.
You may have certain thoughts of yourself, perhaps negative, like most of us do, but Jesus values you.
(32:07):
He values people.
The second of four that I want to share is that Jesus offers relief now and gives eternal life.
Um the woman, her the thing that came across her mind right away
(32:29):
Was probably it was her past, her shame.
She was caught up in externals such as which mountain should we worship at?
Those external things that often people of faith, people of religions often occupy themselves too much of
(32:50):
At the expense of becoming the person that God desires us to be.
We get caught up in practices and rituals and we forget
That Isaiah once said, but your hearts are far from me.
Jesus is offering her real substance, real living, and giving her that water.
(33:12):
That will satisfy her thirst.
It's interesting that Jesus is offering this woman eternal life, even though she had five failed marriages.
And even though she was living in sin, she was living with a man.
And yet Jesus offers her.
(33:35):
Eternal life.
Do you know what the Bible says?
You know what the Apostle Paul says in the book of Romans?
He says, even while we were yet God's enemies.
In another sentence in the same chapter, while we were still sinners, Christ did what?
Died for us.
Christ didn't say, oh no, I am not going down there, not until they clean up their act.
(34:00):
No, no, no, no.
We all know.
We all know what they're gonna do to me.
I am not going to sacrifice my blood for an evil race called humans.
Was that Jesus' attitude?
Jesus doesn't offer salvation to those who have their act cleaned up or who are self-righteous and justified
(34:26):
There exists nobody like that, by the way, but there are a lot of people who think they are so just and righteous that they don't need Christ.
Well, you know what?
They're right.
Unfortunately, and they will find out someday.
Jesus offers eternal life to the imperfect.
(34:48):
To the broken, to those with shame, to those with histories, to those with hangups, to those who don't have their act together.
Jesus offers salvation to us.
While we were still enemies of Christ.
The third one, Jesus is real about our faults, but gentle.
I love this part of this encounter with the Samaritan woman.
(35:11):
As I said before, Jesus didn't say, wait a minute, come on, give me the rest of the details.
You say you have no husband, and and that's not Jesus' attitude towards her
(35:31):
And Jesus says you've had five and the one you're now, the man you have now you're living with, but Jesus didn't point the finger and say, uh-uh-uh, you need to move away, get out of that house.
You're sinning.
In other contexts, Jesus would say, go and sin no more.
In this case, Jesus was not condoning it
(35:56):
But he was being gentle and tactful and trying to win her heart.
And you know, here's the interesting thing.
I'm not saying that Jesus condoned her living conditions.
In fact, I am convinced that he didn't.
But here's the mistake that we often, in fact, too often make as Christians.
(36:21):
I don't care if you're Adventist or Baptist or it doesn't matter, it's Christians.
Here's the mistake we often make.
We try to correct people first before connecting with them.
And what we're seeing here, and what we see often in Jesus' encounters, is Jesus wants to connect and connect and connect.
(36:47):
And the correction comes when that connection is made.
That's why Ellen White says in Steps to Christ, Ministry of Healing, page 143, Jesus went about mingling among people.
Desiring their good.
He manifested an interest in their secular affairs.
He would meet their needs.
(37:08):
He would gain their confidence.
He he was connecting them, connecting with people and winning their confidence, winning their confidence.
And their hearts were open.
They became more open.
And their minds and hearts became more open to Jesus.
Because he was healing them.
And he was gentle with them.
He wasn't like the spiritual leaders who tended to be a little bit pompous and rough and dogmatic about things.
(37:31):
That's not what Jesus was.
And so he won their confidence.
And then Jesus would say, come and follow me.
And Jesus would teach them about things.
That's not to say that in a church setting you baptize anybody who says, I believe in Jesus, and you find out that they're living an adulterous life.
(37:58):
No.
But we need to connect with neighbors and friends and connect and serve them
And meet their needs and win their confidence.
Invite them to church.
And they will see the transformation, the real transformation that Jesus made in you
(38:20):
Instead of just lip service, and I follow the Sabbath.
And yet we act indifferent and even mean.
That's not Jesus' method.
Jesus did tell her about her past, but he was gentle about it.
(38:43):
He was real, but he was gentle.
And the last one for this morning.
This is very, very important, so much so that Jesus brought this out
In those days as it is in ours
(39:05):
Sometimes we have a self-righteous attitude because we worship on this mountain.
We have history.
We have proof.
Or we worship on this day, and you've got the wrong one.
We've got proof.
(39:27):
We can back it up.
And people of faith can often get a little bit pompous about it.
And even though we may not say anything, we're not going to admit this outright, but God sees our attitudes, not only senses them.
(39:50):
But if I'm talking to somebody and down deep inside, I'm sort of proud because I'm glad I have the right place or day, etc.
, of worship.
God can see that attitude in you.
He sees it as if your attitude comes out in your person.
(40:12):
And now you're the true person.
I've got the right day.
Yes, and uh yeah, and you know, the seventh day Sabbath, this is a
Yeah, so you better listen to me because you're gonna get the mark of the beast.
Many times people may have a secret attitude that nobody sees, but it's just as God can pull it out.
(40:35):
And make it into another person.
He sees our attitudes.
He sees our thoughts being acted out.
And Jesus is telling this woman.
Yes, there was a there's a Mount Zion over there, and yes, Samaria was the capital of Israel years ago.
But true worshippers, true worship.
(40:58):
is internal.
God is looking for people who don't worship in mouth and ritual, but in their hearts and in their minds.
We love God with all of our hearts.
We want to please Him.
We want to obey the commandments
We are anxious to forgive others because Jesus delights to forgive me.
(41:21):
He enjoys forgiving people.
He actually enjoys it.
But I don't.
When we enjoy forgiving as Jesus does, when we enjoy and find delight in being compassionate and patient and kind and courteous towards other people.
And we enjoy doing good.
(41:43):
I want to do good, and I enjoy doing what is right because I love my father.
That's true worship.
That's the point.
And this is what Jesus is telling this woman.
He understood the differences and the lines drawn between the Jews and the Samaritans.
(42:04):
That line that had been drawn for years, for a few centuries.
But even now is the time.
Where I could care less if you're a Samaritan woman.
If you can worship God in spirit and truth in here, that's the kind of worshipers that God is looking for.
That also struck a chord.
(42:26):
He put aside those external red lines that we draw often.
And Jesus offers to you, to her, and to you and to me true worship.
That's the point that he's getting across.
True worship.
(42:46):
So Jesus values people.
He gives us eternal life and he can give us meaning, true meaning in life in spite of our past.
Jesus is real about our faults.
He's not going to say, oh, no big deal.
No.
Jesus will tell you, no, that's wrong.
That's sin.
But he's not going to
(43:07):
Be critical and slap you and remind you about it time after time again and shame you about it.
He's gentle about it.
He'll tell you the truth
But he's tender and gentle about it.
Probably with tears in his eyes.
That's not right.
You're hurting me.
That's wrong.
That's sinful.
(43:28):
And Jesus offers true worship.
Beautiful story in the Bible.
Amen.
Beautiful story.
So much that we can learn.
And that woman learned so much in just a few moments.
This is Reign of Arrow speaking, not the Bible.
(43:51):
Later on in the New Testament, the book of Acts, after Jesus ascended.
The deacon Philip flees to Samaria because persecution breaks out in Jerusalem.
And he ends up gaining a lot of converts in Samaria.
(44:13):
I think it was because of this woman.
She was the first one to sow those seeds with Jesus in Samaria.
So by the time Philip came, years later.
There was a harvest, the fields were white, and Jesus' followers witnessed that.
(44:35):
God bless you.
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