Friday: Further Thought – The Testimony of the Samaritans
Daily Lesson for Friday 1st of November 2024
Read Ellen G. White, “At Jacob’s Well,” pp. 183–195, in The Desire of Ages.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“As soon as she had found the Saviour the Samaritan woman brought others to Him. She proved herself a more effective missionary than His own disciples. The disciples saw nothing in Samaria to indicate that it was an encouraging field. Their thoughts were fixed upon a great work to be done in the future. They did not see that right around them was a harvest to be gathered. But through the woman whom they despised, a whole cityful were brought to hear the Saviour. She carried the light at once to her countrymen.
“This woman represents the working of a practical faith in Christ. Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary. He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 195.
Discussion Questions
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What themes in the Gospel of John that we have studied thus far are found in Jesus’ ministry to the Samaritan woman at the well?
1. Jesus met people on their common ground.
2. Jesus did not condem. Rather He presented a way out of the chains of sin.
3. Jesus set the example for witnessing to His disciples which carries down from generation to generation.
4. In His ministry to people He did not have a stitch of favouritism, prejudice, or racism.
5. He was kind and long suffering.
6. His countenance drew people to Him.
7. He went the extra mile to save people.
We use a lot of words to describe what is meant by worshipping God is spirit and truth. But, sometimes we confuse the issue in our effort to sound authoritative. The Jews thought they had the truth in the Torah and in Jesus' time thought of themselves as the arbiters of truth. On the other hand the Samaritans dismissed the Jewish Torah, claiming it had been contaminated by the philosophies of Babylon. (Why do I get a sense of deja vu when I hear some of the criticisms of Adventism.) Jesus told Nicodemus, he needed a new beginning. He told the Samaritan woman that she needed to rethink worship outside of a physical location. In both cases, irrespective of versions of the Torah, the answer was found there.
The Gospels reemphasize these two great principles.
James says:
Worshiping God in spirit and truth is a mystery but it is not mystical. It is entirely practical - keeping connected to God and to one another.
The Samaritan Woman discovered this and took her new connection with Jesus and shared it with her village folk. Did she understand all the implications? Or, did she find something worth sharing?
What have we got to share with others?
The bible says in 1 Cor 6:19 that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. This is corroborated in 1 Cor 3:17. In Romans 12:1,2, the bible beseeches us to give our bodies as living sacrifices to God, so that the Holy Spirit could transform us from carnal to spiritual in nature. This is true worship. Thank God that the woman at the well was teachable enough to accept this from Jesus instead of arguing with him over the issue of where the physical temple should be located and which book was the correct Torah.
Worship in Spirit is the act of allowing the Holy Spirit access to my heart, so that he can change me from carnal to spiritual in nature. This will only happen if I hunger and thirst for it as Jesus says in Matt 5:6.
The results of true worship is a changed life that the Spirit will use to testify of him. Rom 8:16 confirms this. True worshipers never feel that they are good as they are and that they are in need of nothing. True worshipers get a burning fire from the Spirit that drives them to want to be more and more like Christ. As a result, they spend more time in personal prayer, studying the bible and in meditating on God's word. They are driven to associate with others who are having the same Spirit filled experiences that they are having, and they get a burning desire to share their experiences with others. Each day, the focus of their prayers is that the Holy Spirit will use them as He see chooses. They beg for humility, a spirit of forgiveness, a heart of love, even for their enemies, and they are willing to be purged from sin and washed clean by the Holy Spirit.
Her faith in Jesus was so real that the sudden love it produced proved the reality of the faith. What love? The same people she had been hiding from, and isolating herself against, she now wanted to go share with them and help them. She wasn’t thinking anymore about how they might receive her report and reject her some more, and gossip about her some more. She wasn’t concerned about whether people would take her as a reliable source. She was just exploding with the love of Jesus and had to go share that with everyone, anyone. Jesus hadn’t sent her with a “go into all the world and preach the gospel”. Instead, she was truly awestruck with the truth of Jesus and that empowered and propelled her to go forward. We are encouraged to see that weak, helpless people who trust Jesus, who lay down our clay jars before Him (2 Cor. 4:7 NIV), are immediately able to love others in the most practical ways.
I agree with Ellen G. White’s comment that: “This woman represents the working of a practical faith in Christ.” This week’s lesson has added some very much appreciated insights into the Holy Spirit’s work in the ‘seeker’s’ heart through the believer’s readiness/willingness to engage in loving one's fellow man.
Since we do not know in whom the seed of faith rests dormant, waiting to be awakened by heaven’s Light, we cannot ignore or dismiss anyone. The love of Christ’s fellowship is to be shared equally with all, as the purpose of God’s Light within us is to show God’s Glory!
How we deal with issues in our life and the relationships we engage in is the tell-tale sign of whether we love and trust God's Glory to work in and through us or not. Considering the disciples’ prejudices, it might simply be that they had yet to understand their calling in the work of Jesus Christ.
Yes, they demonstrated 'attentiveness' to physical needs, but not true love and acceptance. Hidden prejudices may show up by being uncomfortable when meeting strangers, or when we are in an unfamiliar setting. These on fear or pride based thoughts or feelings keep us from accepting and including the stranger into our fellowship.
My prayer is for the believer to keep tilling the ground of the fields of the Lord with love for our fellow man - considering him as seeds laying dormant but waiting eagerly to be awakened by God's heavenly Light of Love warming and softening the soil enough for them to break through when they hear His call - John 4:37-38; 1 Cor.3:5-8.
The Good Samaritian restores a true identity of why she noes lves with a 6 men her flirt to respond to men made it easy for her to challenge Jesus asking her for water not knowing He was The messiah.To that moment The lord told her He knows you are with the six husband then also the women want s to condem how then you ask from a Samaritan for water when you ijews men can't take from us Jesus knew her already and said the waterman offer is far more then the offer of water you are drawing from the well that you will never thirst again.To this the Spirit fill animosity embrace the filled pride to realization that this man is not of ordinary on the moment the women offers eager to relive her shameful estate to free her concise of this possible cure from guilt and shame To this moment the lord allow the His presence to inspire conversations that made the atmosphere Spirt filled with peace love joy ND kindness the the lady couldn't stop but went ND brought people crowd of her kind to seek forgiveness ND peace ND mercy Graced by this svioue upon this crowds came and truly belive the Peacemker and loving Jesus the promise messiah truly identified on the moment at sharing who fulfills all Samaritan identications of the True message upon this teaching and waiting also that they met him convinced by the Holu spirtof the Profound Truth all jewand Grntles know about also the Samaria and they Faith was made whole.
The desire of ages actually says that this woman had been prepared by the Holy Spirit tp receivethe word of life that day. Which clearly means that , there are souls out there, who are being softened by God, in preparation to receive the gospel from your and my lips. So in terms of sowing. We ought to reach every one. Ours is not the duty to choose other people , while leaving out others from hearing the gospel. Who honestly knew this woman would give her heart to Jesus?. When she herself doubted her worthy in the eyes of other community members, Jesus saw in her a powerful missionary, who at the end of the day led the whole city to Christ the living water. I have been inspired