Class Lesson October 7, 2012

Hey Gang,

This week we begin a 4 week series on the question: How do I find life after failure? When we hear the words success and failure, we usually think of economic and financial issues, but there are also successes and failures in the moral and spiritual realms. Now, none of us want the word failure attached to any aspect of our lives, but the reality is that we all fail at one time or another. Our failure may be in something big, like business, morals, or marriage. Or it may appear as something less obvious to others like an ethics violation or a betrayal. Failure can defeat us so much that we refuse to move forward, or we can dismiss its importance. Our series wants us to try a redemptive path instead: do the right thing for the right reason. God will show you how, and He will give you the power.

Failures in your past don’t mean your story stops there. Follow Jesus for the path forward.

We’ll spend the next four weeks considering biblical characters who failed God at one point in their lives. Their examples will help us discover how God wants to guide us beyond failure. 

Jim Marshall

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Last week we heard Billy Graham mention a NFL player that ran a fumbled ball 66 yards the wrong way: Jim Marshall.

Minnesota Viking great Jim Marshall infamously returned a fumble 66 yards the wrong way in a 1964 game against the 49ers. Marshall didn’t let that stop him. He went on to a successful football career and became known as “The NFL’s Greatest Iron Man” and “Old Indestructible.” He retired in 1979, holding NFL records for playing 282 consecutive games and 20 consecutive seasons without missing a game.

Jesus passed through Samaria on His way from Judea to Galilee. While His disciples went for food, Jesus rested at Jacob's well. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus surprised her by asking for a drink. Jesus aroused her interest by telling her that He could give her living water. Thinking of physical water, the woman asked for it. Jesus showed her that He knew all about her life. In response to the woman's claim to be waiting for the Messiah, Jesus told her He was the Messiah.

I. RECOGNIZE YOUR NEED – JOHN 4:7-14

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 for His disciples had gone into town to buy food. 9 “How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.” 11 “Sir,” said the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” 13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life.”


Why was it so radical for Jesus to talk to a woman of Samaria?

• She was a Samaritan and the Jews hated the Samaritans.
• She was an immoral woman.
• She was a woman.

 

Why was there so much animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans?

 

• Samaria became the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel when it split from Judah. In 722 BC Assyria deported most of Israel and resettled the region with pagan people who intermarried with the few remaining Hebrews. The result was a mixed race called Samaritans.

 
 




What can we learn from this encounter about how to recognize our own needs?

• There was nothing unusual about this day and setting. On any ordinary, when we’re doing any ordinary task, Jesus can speak into our lives. We need to be willing to converse with Him about that and do what He says.
• Jesus loved this woman. Through Him she could move from failure to salvation. He did not allow her defensiveness to push Him away or to begin arguing about theology. He related to her in a respectful, kind manner that freed her to discuss spiritual matters.
• Jesus did not let fatigue keep Him from witnessing.
• Jesus broke through barriers that separate people.
• Jesus took advantage of contacts with people who needed Him.
• Only Jesus can offer a truly spiritual thirst-quencher-the Holy Spirit living inside a person.

Many people, like the woman Jesus met, are broken and disillusioned. We need to be sensitive to people who are looking for answers and hope. Some of these contacts are one-time; and some are ongoing acquaintances or relations. The contacts may be planned or unplanned. Witnesses need to be alert to opportunities that come their way, and those that are there on a ongoing basis. The unplanned contacts may seem like coincidences to us, but they are often providential. Whether planned or unplanned, seek to find out the person's spiritual condition. Begin with people where they are and go from there. Jesus met the woman at a well, so He used His thirst as an opening to talk about something she knew and which she was interested.



The Bible says, “You must warn them so they may live. If you don’t speak out to warn the wicked to stop their evil ways, they will die in their sin. But I will hold you responsible for their death.” Ezekiel 3:18 (NCV) 

II. CONFRONT YOUR FAILURE – JOHN 4:15-18

15 “Sir,” the woman said to Him, “give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.” 16 “Go call your husband,” He told her, “and come back here.” 17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”


How can you tell Jesus was starting to draw this woman in? Why did Jesus ask her to call her husband? Why would voicing her marital situation help her confront her failure? How?

• Living water sounded good since it would significantly cut down on her daily workload.
• She went to the well when no one else was there. Probably ashamed of her lifestyle among the other woman. Jesus worked to move this woman from failure to salvation.
• Jesus wasn’t rubbing her failure in her face; He helped her see that all her attempts to satisfy her thirst had failed.
• For this woman to receive living water she was going to have to deal with the moral failure of her life because it was a symptom of her deeper failure – she was separated from God.

Jesus has the right to go directly to our sore spots, but how are we to follow His example?

• Jesus continued treating her with respect, commending her for her honesty.
• We should not write off people when we see destructive choices. See thirst. Nor should we assume we know all God knows.

What are wells people drink from in efforts to satisfy their thirst? Why do those efforts fail? Why must we confront our failure if we’re going to move beyond failure to salvation?

• We should seek to communicate the gospel by using terminology and concepts with which the person is familiar.
• We need to draw spiritual truths from everyday life.
• We should be patient with people who are slow to grasp the truths of the gospel.
• People need to acknowledge to God that they are sinners.
• In witnessing, listen to what people say, answer their questions, and deal briefly with their excuses.

In order for the woman to receive the living water, she would have to deal with the tragic nature of her sinful life.

 

• Sinful lifestyles today - how would this apply?
• Jesus knew something that the people of Sychar did not know. He knew that this woman was sick unto death of the mess she had made of her life. She yearned to be clean and to be able to begin anew. She was too proud to admit to others how miserable she was. She put on a brave front, but Jesus knew that she yearned to be something other than the person she had become. Jesus knew the yearning of her heart.

III. ACTUALLY LIVE A NEW LIFE – JOHN 4:25-26, 39

25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” 26 “I am He,” Jesus told her, “the One speaking to you.”

………………………………………………………

39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.”


This woman was surely snubbed and whispered about in town; why did people take her seriously? How does this woman challenge us today, when we have rebelled against God or simply ignored Him?

• Be more interested in winning people to faith in Christ than winning arguments.
• Don’t become involved in long religious arguments. Keep bringing the conversation back to the person’s need for Jesus and His salvation.
• Don’t be surprised by efforts to divert the conversation from Jesus. Witnesses need to be able to distinguish between diversions and genuine questions, and know how to handle both.
• Bring the lost person to recognize the urgency of deciding to receive Christ as Lord and Savior.
• Warn against the dangers of delay.
• As people see the change Christ makes in us, they become curious. We should use these opportunities to introduce them to Christ.

 

 

 

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, help me to be a true believer and an effective witness for You. Amen.

Be in prayer this week as we begin this new series on how we can rise above the failures in our life through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. Failures in our past do not mean we cannot change. We can trust Christ to save us from our sins.

Hope to see you this Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan