Beyond the Surface: Why Jesus Talked to People Others Ignored

Have you ever wondered what's really going on beneath the surface of the people you encounter every day? You know, we still kind of have a habit when we come to church - some are like me, into having the suit coat on, and some are wearing hoodies. That's fine. But we all kind of get ready, we get prepared. We look a certain way on the outside. Here's what I want you to know: what you see on the outside and what you see of people when you come to church isn't all that there is about that person. I'm fond of saying people are like icebergs. There's the part above the surface that you can see, but there's the part below the surface that you don't see.

The Hidden Reality of People's Lives

My dad's a preacher still, and he's like my hero. Growing up in a pastor's home, my dad gave me an incredible gift - he had interactions with people in our church, sometimes people outside of our church. Some of those interactions involved walking with people through really difficult things. Sometimes the difficulty was the struggles they were going through, the trials and tribulations. Sometimes he walked through sin issues in their life, things that they were dealing with, past that they had that they weren't proud of and how God was changing them. I remember going into my first internship working at a church and calling up my dad saying, "Dad, this youth group, this is like Jerry Springer Baptist Church. It's a train wreck. This family's dealing with this, and that family's dealing with that. Dad, it's not like our church was. This church is messed up." My dad began to say, "Son, that's no different than our church. Everybody has stuff that they're dealing with, sin that they're dealing with. The reason that church is here is because Christ is the one that is the answer to all of that."

Jesus: A Master at Seeing Beyond the Surface

In John chapter 4, we discover a powerful story about Jesus caring about an individual - a woman who had much more going on in her life than many people would have seen. This isn't the first time we've seen Jesus care for an individual. In John chapter 1, he has individual interactions with Nathaniel and Philip. In chapter 3, he has this individual conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus cared about the up and in and the down and out. He cared for them both. What I hope you will take away from this message is the heart of Jesus for people. God loves people and he calls us to love people. We ought to notice the people around us and lovingly pursue them the way that Jesus did.

Five Ways Jesus Reached the Unreachable

1. Jesus Went Where Others Would Not Go

In John 4:1-4, we read: "When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John... he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria." Now, Jews didn't like Samaritans. The Samaritans were people that had married outside of Judaism, so they're part Jew and part Gentile. In the mind of a Jew, especially like a Pharisee, these were people who had sinned against God, who didn't keep the law. There was cultural, racial, religious, and theological differences creating a big problem. Jews, when they would go from south to north, the really uppity ones especially, would not go through Samaria. They would go around Samaria. But I love verse 4: "And he must needs go through Samaria." Jesus didn't do things the way everybody does them. It's almost like he had an appointment.

2. Jesus Talked to People Others Would Ignore

John 4:6-7 tells us: "Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink." The sixth hour is about noon - the hottest part of the day. This woman was coming to the well not with the other women, which tells you that maybe she feels like she can't be around those other women. Men didn't talk to women in public generally. Jewish men didn't talk to Samaritan men. So Jewish men definitely didn't talk to women who were Samaritans. If you're gonna make a difference, here's a secret: you have to pay attention to people. They're not a nuisance. People are not a nuisance. And you actually have to talk to them. When you go in public, take out the headphones, because you know what the headphones say? "I'm not available. Don't talk to me." If you know Jesus as Savior, talk to people.

3. He Offered What No One Else Could Offer

In John 4:10, "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Jesus uses the immediate context to address her spiritual need. She's coming for physical water because of her thirst. He uses this circumstance to point her to her spiritual need and how he himself is the answer. In verses 13-14, Jesus explained: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Jacob's water only quenched for the moment. The salvation and life that Jesus gives is eternal.

4. He Addressed What No One Else Would Address

After the woman asked for this living water, Jesus said in verse 16: "Go, call thy husband, and come hither." The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus responded: "Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly" (John 4:17-18). Jesus knows the other side of the iceberg. This woman had a long line of broken and dysfunctional relationships, displaying that she had tried to quench a spiritual, relational, and emotional thirst and was having a difficult time. He didn't avoid the hard subject. He got right to the heart of the issue. Only sinners need saviors. For someone to be saved from their sin, they must acknowledge that they do sin and that it's a problem. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away. Jesus here loves this woman, and in loving this woman, he speaks truth to this woman.

5. Jesus Alone Could Reach Her

When the woman brought up theological controversies about where to worship, Jesus responded with clear, authoritative truth about worship in spirit and truth. Then came the climactic moment in John 4:25-26: "The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he."

The Transformation That Followed

The result was immediate transformation. John 4:28-30 records: "The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him." She goes from isolation - coming at noon by herself for water - to proclamation, telling everyone of her discovery. And verse 39 tells us: "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did."

Putting It Into Practice

So there are two kinds of people reading this: those who need to be saved and those who are saved but need to become better missionaries. If you're here today and you don't know this Jesus, maybe you've thought of him as just a good teacher or a nice guy. He doesn't let you stay there. He's the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Today you can have this water that quenches the thirst. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son to save us. Whoever believes in him will live forever. If you are saved, then you're a missionary with us. If Jesus cares about a Samaritan woman who was morally loose, who messed up, who had a reputation, who had the gall to argue with him on theology when she had really no clue what she was talking about, and yet he loved her, cared about her and spoke to her - if he cares about people like that, we ought to care about people no matter what's under the surface. Here's the issue: none of us deserve Jesus. It's amazing grace because it's unmerited favor. Your sin doesn't smell better than somebody else's. If we have been given this incredible water and we can point people to that water, we should do it. Take out the earbuds, forget about all that distracts us that 100 years from now won't matter, and let's be intentional about going where people don't go, talking to people that other people won't talk to, addressing things other people won't address, and not offering people just us - offering them Jesus. Who is it hard for you to talk to? Don't avoid them. God loves them. Talk to them. You don't have to agree with them, but you ought to love them.