John 4:1-29, 40-45

PDF Manuscript: Face to Face - The Woman at the Well

Occasionally, you have a conversation that changes your life. You can’t plan these things. It’s not as if you wake up one morning and say, “Today, I’m going to have a conversation, and it’s going to change my life forever.” They seem to come out of the blue when you least expect it.

Today we get to eavesdrop on such a conversation. It happened on a hot afternoon in Samaria. One participant was a woman. The other was a man. We don’t know the woman’s name. The man was Jesus. Interestingly, this is the longest one-on-one conversation with Jesus recorded in the Bible. Their conversation changed her life, and it’s a conversation that has the power to change your life.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking closely at conversations, or life-changing encounters, in the Bible. Each week we meet someone who met Jesus face to face, and each one reveals something about the power of the gospel for our lives. Although it’s been more than 2,000 years since Jesus walked on the earth, his words remain incredibly relevant. No matter how many years we are removed from the stories of the Bible, the human heart remains the same. We still struggle with the same problems. We wrestle with what to do with our foolish choices, our misplaced priorities, and our guilt. The encounter we have before us in John 4 demonstrates how the gospel can change all of that.

Everyone needs Jesus. If for a moment we think that only certain people need Jesus, we’re wrong. Everyone needs Jesus. The encounter we just read illustrates that very well, especially when we think of it in light of chapter 3. Last week, Pastor Beaux walked us through the story of Nicodemus. He’s quite the opposite of this woman. He’s given a name; she isn’t. He’s well to do and well thought of by others. She, on the other hand, is a nobody and has no social standing. He appears to “have it together.” She has a string of broken relationships. He talks to Jesus as if he’s interviewing him. When it comes to her, Jesus is the one pushing towards the issues of the heart. But even though these characters are strikingly opposite, what they both have in common is that they need Jesus—regardless of the degree to which they realize it. Everyone needs Jesus. You need Jesus.