Your Weakness Made Strong - John 4:39-43

The church’s relationship with sin has gotten progressively more confused.

Do we discuss our sin in order to make us more relatable to the outside world? Or do we only reference sin in order to make Christianity more palatable to non-christians?

How should we talk about sin? And it gets even more confusing when church leaders constantly talk about their sin struggles or gloat over a previous way of life.

Is sin a part of our Christian life so we can simply say, “I struggle with that too!” Or, “I know someone that struggles with that too!”

So rare is it that the church reflects the adversarial posture John Own took toward sin when he famously said, “be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”

It’s important to talk about sin. We talk about sin every week here at Providence during our ‘confession of sin.’ So, I certainly think that we should talk about sin in general and even at times our personal sin struggles, but how we approach the topic matters.

We don’t want to ignore sin, downplay sin, or use sin simply as a relatability tool. We talk about sin and our personal sin struggles in order to point people to Christ!

The Lord not only has the strength to break the power of reigning sin in your life, but he also has the power to redeem your sin struggles. This is reflected in this portion of Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well. The woman openly shares her testimony, which directed people to Christ, where they ultimately became believers.

The woman speaks openly about her sin (vv. 39-40)

In our passage, the woman at the well heads back into town where she speaks openly about her sin, which isn’t unusual, but I think why she speaks openly about her sin is unusual.

John records for us in verse 39, that “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.””

Her point in sharing her testimony wasn’t to practice some sort of weird, sadistic self-humiliation.

The fact that she shared her testimony wasn’t to seem more relatable to those around her, it was to point them to Jesus Christ.

She wasn’t trying to earn anyone’s favor or make anyone feel bad for her. Furthermore, she doesn’t defend her sin as an immutable, unchanging aspect of who she is.

She talked about her past in order to point people to the Savior. That was the whole reason for sharing her testimony! The testimony was never an end in itself.

There’s a real contrast here between the woman at the well’s testimony and the typical evangelical testimony.

Too often testimonies are about the individual sharing it. And they can come across as self-congratulatory because more often than not, testimonies are nothing more than I used to be bad, but now I’m good.

And if we’re not careful it’s nothing more than godless moralism. Every single Christian testimony isn’t about the person, it’s about God and what he has or is doing!

No where in the Samaritan woman’s testimony does she tell everyone, I’m going to do better now. I’ve made some poor decisions and now, I’m not going to do that anymore.

In all likelihood her life probably did change, but it wasn’t because of anything she did! It was the result of her faith in Christ that things likely changed for her.

What’s interesting about her testimony is that her circumstances haven’t changed. The only thing that’s changed in her life is that she’s met Jesus Christ.

And the Lord blessed her testimony with fruit. As a result of pointing people to the man that “told her all that she ever did,” people got saved!

Even the content of her testimony isn’t remarkable. She simply shared that Jesus knew “all that I ever did.” That’s it. Not very inspiring stuff.

You better believe her testimony wasn't cleaned up, articulate, or well-prepared. It was off the cuff. It was raw because she simply had to tell people about Jesus!

She didn’t wait for an opportunity to be heard. She didn’t take any time to get to know people before sharing her testimony. She was talking to anyone who would listen! She seized the opportunity. It really contradicts conventional evangelism wisdom.

There was no planning or formula to share her testimony. She just went for it.

It reminds me of a great story I once heard about a woman who approached the great evangelist D. L. Moody to air a grievance. (Moody was an international evangelist of great renown in the 19th Century.)

The woman said to him, “Mr. Moody, I don’t like the way you do evangelism!” “Well, ma’am, let me ask you, how do you do it?” Moody asked. She replied, “I don’t!” Moody responded, “Well, I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it!”

Far too often, we think that in order for the Lord to use us, we need more training, a formula, the right words, or the perfect gospel presentation. Technically, the Lord didn’t even use a gospel presentation in this passage. She simply shared about her experience with Christ.

You don’t have to have the perfect gospel presentation. Sometimes the most effective form of evangelism is simply sharing your experience with Christ.

The only thing required is a willing spirit. Knowing Christ has to really mean something to you in order for you to share your faith. We all have unbelieving friends and we think, if only I had the right opportunity to say something.

But you’re just waiting for the perfect opportunity you’ll never say anything. You just need to say something. It doesn’t have to be neat and tidy.

If you're faithful and willing, oftentimes, you’ll see God move in spite of your words or presentation. Because it’s not up to you! Isn’t that literally what we read in this passage? It really has nothing to do with the Samaritan woman’s articulation of the gospel. What we’re seeing in this passage is the work of the Spirit!

That God is moving! He is doing something through the witness of an ordinary person!

People flock to Christ (vv. 41-42)

Her simplistic testimony draws a crowd! The testimony of “meet the man who told me all that I’ve done.” No physical healing or anything like that.

And “all that she’d ever done” isn’t necessarily a testimony that most of us would be proud of. Suddenly, she’s hinting at years and years of indiscretion. But here’s the amazing thing: the woman seems to have no shame in relaying this to everyone! The Samaritan woman doesn’t care.

People are intrigued, which is actually the opposite of what you’d expect. Afterall, Jesus revealed her embarrassing backstory. It might be easy to wonder, will he expose mine? Would you be dying to meet the man who might expose all that you have done?

And yet, we know the story. People hear her story and flock to Christ. They want to meet him. They want to hear from him. They want to learn from him.

So much so that they invite him to stay with them for two days.

Someone once told me that what you win folks with is what you win them to. And we were having this conversation: is the gospel of Jesus Christ enough to draw people into the life of the church?

Of course, right? Then why isn’t that belief reflected in so many churches?

If your church is centered around being as much like the world while retaining the Christian label, why are we surprised when the church is full of worldliness?

It’s so easy to teach that your Christian faith and Jesus Christ is here to serve you. Christianity just makes your life a little more convenient, or maybe makes you a little more respectable.

It’s hard to teach that Christianity is a bid to come and die. It’s hard to teach that Christianity is a call to take up your cross and follow Christ.

Are churches gathering people around the gospel of Jesus Christ or something else?

That is the beauty of the Samaritan woman’s testimony! Go meet the man that told me all that I’ve ever done! Go investigate Christ for yourself!

Isn’t it amazing how God used such a simple testimony? Especially in light of the fact that we’re told the gospel needs to be repackaged to make it more marketable and palatable for non-believers.

And so we need to carefully watch how we present the gospel because we don’t want to offend anyone.

But then you read this passage and what does Jesus do? He confronts this woman’s sinful lifestyle directly! And she receives it and then proceeds to go into town to openly share what happened with the townspeople.

There’s an appropriate time and place to hold your ground, but I’m certainly not encouraging anyone to be hostile, confrontational, and angry for no apparent reason. Please don’t hear me say that. My point is simply evangelistic methodology doesn’t guarantee results. To say it even more clearly, what we do, doesn’t guarantee evangelistic fruit.

Why? Because the Lord determines the results and we must lean on him. He’s the Lord of the harvest. And in this passage there is a harvest to reap!

And that’s the point of the passage! The Lord draws people to himself! The Lord redeems! The Lord saves!

You see, God doesn’t need your help or my help to save the lost.

And Christ remains with them (v. 43)

Isn’t this precisely what this passage says in verse 41? “And many more believed because of his word.”

The Lord doesn’t need you and me, but according to his grace and sovereign will he uses feeble human words to draw people to himself.

And the Samaritan people that met Christ even took it one step further in verse 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 indeed the Savior of the world.”’

Once they met Jesus for themselves, they knew that he was the Savior of the world. It’s really important that they referred to Jesus as the “Savior of the world.” Why is that?

Let’s just pause right there and zoom out for a moment in order to reiterate the significance of this passage.

The Samaritans wanted Jesus to remain with them. The Samaritans hated the Jews, and the Jews hated Samaritans, but at this moment, the Samaritans wanted Jesus, an outspoken Jewish man, to stay with them. And he did it. He didn’t let their ethnicity, political beliefs, or false religion run him away because he had compassion for them.

Remember earlier in this passage the Samaritan woman said to Jesus in verse 19: “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” But he’s no longer viewed by them as a mere prophet, or some spiritual guru. They call him the “Savior of the world.”

Because Jesus isn’t just the Savior of the Jews. Or the Savior of one particular people group. He’s not just the American Savior. He is the Savior of the world.

The Samaritans realized that Jesus wasn’t just a Savior, he was their Savior.

They realized that it wasn’t just the woman at the well, with all of her relational baggage, that needed Jesus Christ. They needed him too!

And he was willing to stay and commune with the enemies of his people. The deep abiding love of Christ is on full display!

I recently had a conversation with someone that was making this point: You cannot have love without the truth and vice versa. It’s very similar to what Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the Lord was looking for those that will worship Him in “Spirit and truth.”

You cannot love the Lord if you don’t know him and you can’t really know the Lord if you don’t love him.

What we see in our passage is that Jesus corrects the woman’s lifestyle and theology but he doesn’t leave her there.

He’s loving and patient. And not only did he have compassion for the Samaritan woman, but he had compassion on the crowd too.

But doesn’t the Lord Jesus perfectly embody the Apostle Paul’s words to, “speak the truth in love.” He never shied away from telling the truth, but he always made time for people that were sincerely interested in what he was saying.

He never ran people away that were coming from a genuine place. And we see it here in this passage. Jesus literally stayed with the Samaritan people in the town of Sychar for two whole days.

This wasn’t in the itinerary but he made time for them.

Isn’t that just generally true? Sometimes the best way to show someone that you love them or that you care is by making time for them?

What message do you send if you never have time for other people? That you don’t care about them. Jesus put his journey on a two day hold in order to spend time with Samaritans!

I do think there’s a lesson here for us. If you’re willing to tell someone the truth of the gospel you should try to show them that you care by spending time with them. Prioritize people. Seek out gospel opportunities.

Is there a greater calling or higher honor?

There are so many lost and confused people out there. And Christ doesn’t run from your sin and troubles, rather he sets you free from it! It’s a glorious message!

By Jesus remaining with them for two days we see that he wasn’t afraid of these people despite their ethnic impurity, poor theology, and bad politics.

As I’ve said before, the Samaritans couldn’t get anything right! But here’s the Lord Jesus taking time to set them free from the kingdom of darkness because he loved them. He cared.

This passage is very instructive in terms of sharing your faith. The greatest thing that I want us all to consider as we move forward is how to appropriately discuss your sin struggles when talking about your faith.

We’re all sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God. And yet, at the same time, we don’t celebrate our sin. We don’t incessantly talk about it.

Because if you’re in Christ, your sin no longer defines who you are. Christ does! We should be open and honest about our sin struggles, but the conversation should never end there. Talking about your personal sin should never be the end in itself.

Your personal testimony should never end with, “I’m just a broken sinner.” Rather, you tell people that you’re a broken sinner, and say, “but look at what Christ has done in my life!” This is precisely what the Apostle Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 when he quotes Jesus as saying to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

In a way, the Lord can redeem your sin struggles when you have the opportunity to share openly with someone else your story of forgiveness, grace, and freedom that you’ve experienced through Christ.

The Christian talks about his or her sin in order to testify to the forgiveness, grace, and freedom one can experience in Christ! We testify to the greatness of God.

As weird as it might sound, your personal testimony isn’t really about you! It’s about God and what’s he’s done and doing in you!

Your testimony should simply point people to the Savior of the world. May we faithfully do it. Amen.