Jesus Who Came to the Well

(John 4:1~14)
2016.12. 18 Sungrak Church Lord’s Day Sermon
By Senior Overseer Ki Dong Kim

Admit that Jesus is God

God is the self-existing God. Before creating heaven, from eternity, He was with the Word, and through the Word, He created all things. The only way for mankind to know the invisible God is through the Word. The Word has been revealed to mankind through the creation and through the prophets. In the fullness of time, God sent the Word into the world. In other words, God revealed Himself to the world through His son who proceeded from His Bosom.

Jesus of Nazareth, who was in the bosom of God the Father is Himself, God. However, there was no one who realized He was God. Even His relatives considered Him crazy because He called God His father, and even in Jerusalem, where there were a lot of spiritual people, there was no one who recognized Him. He was despised, beaten, suffered many things, and eventually died on the cross. It was treatment so shocking that we can scarcely imagine that God allowed Him to experience it.

Christians believe that Jesus, who was despised and mistreated, is the Son of God who was born by the Holy Spirit, and that He is the One and Only God who was in the bosom of the Father. People in the world recognize Jesus as a good person, a philanthropist, or a great thinker. However, no matter how much anyone respects Jesus, he who does not believe that He is God cannot be saved.

God’s only-begotten Son does not remain on earth. But God allowed believers to possess Jesus’ name through the Holy Spirit. We have drunk Jesus’ blood and eaten His flesh, and possessed His name by the Holy Spirit, thereby receiving the power to become the sons of God. As the children of God, we also are recipients of the inheritance that comes from God. Those who have the name of Jesus are heirs of heaven with Jesus. Unfortunately, many Christians wander in the same way as those who do not know God, even though God is in their hearts.

Reality appears in those who acknowledge 

A poor street vendor bought a lottery ticket and won the jackpot. People around him knew it and celebrated his winning, but he himself did not believe his good fortune. However, the moment he admitted that he had won the lottery he was so shocked that he fainted. There was no change for him until he accepted it, but when he did, the fact brought a great shock to him.

A few days after a woman came home from visiting her mother, she received a telegram. The message read ‘Your mother died’. However, she could not read the telegram because she was illiterate, so she did not consider it important and went out to work in her field. That evening when her husband came home, she asked him to read the telegram to her. Her husband was shocked and said, “Your mother died!” But she could not believe it because she had just met her mother a few days before. So she said, “stop joking around.” But her husband said, “I am not kidding! it says your mother died”The telegram was just another piece of paper when she did not believe it, but when she accepted the message, she was deeply shocked.

It is because people do not recognize they are saved that they are not touched. If you do not acknowledge that you are an heir to the kingdom of heaven, you will not be inspired. Just as Esau considered his birthright insignificant, so too do many people treat their salvation as insignificant. Even if you read the Bible and pray diligently, if you do not believe God’s word, you will be thrown into the lake of fire like the chaff which is burned with unquenchable fire.

No one can see God. That is why God sent the image of His being into the world in order to reveal Himself to mankind. Jesus is the image of God. In Jesus, the attributes, character, glory and power of God are revealed. However, if a person does not acknowledge that He is God, it does nothing for him, even if he were to see Jesus with his own eyes. Likewise, if you do not accept that you are the children of God, even though you may attend the church every Sunday, you are not the children of God. God’s word works only for those who accept it. The same is true of blessings. No matter how richly God promised to bless, those who will not receive it can never be blessed.

Approve him as God who asks for water

Jesus Came upon a well in Samaria. He asked a woman who was there drawing water to give him some water to drink. The woman was surprised and said, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How is it that you ask me for a drink?” At the time, the Jews treated Samaritans as heathens. But Jesus started a conversation with the Samaritan woman. To the surprised Samaritan woman Jesus said, “If you knew Him who asked you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:5~10)

Even now, the Lord asks people for a drink. What He asks us are not eternal things but temporal material things that He needs and uses. What we possess is never eternal. Our flesh and all our riches can only be used while we remain in the world. However, for the Lord who is thirsty, each of us is like the well. Just as the Lord came to the Samaritan well, He now comes to us. The Lord is asking us for a drink.

Today, many people ignore the voice of the Lord, who is saying “Give me a drink!” The Lord who has entrusted people with duties and offices is saying, “perform your duties, faithfully execute your office, quench my thirst.” Yet, even though He urges, “Be faithful in your duty and satisfy my thirst!”, people pretend to not hear Him. That is because they do not know who He is and they do not realize how great a gift He can give in return. He was always finding the people who could give Him a drink for His thirst, and even when He was about to die on the cross, He said. “I thirst.” “Eat my flesh, and drink my blood! Possess my name!” This is the cry of the thirsty Lord. Will you not hear the Lord’s earnest cry? Will you ignore the appeal of the One who is asking for a drink of water?

The Lord wants us to accept Him. Neither His relatives, nor neighbors, nor the people of Jerusalem who claimed to know God well – none of them accepted Him. Today, we know by the Holy Spirit that He is God. Then, we must be willing to give Him a drink of water. It is said that many are called but few are chosen. Who can be chosen? It is those who respond to the thirsty voice of the Lord. Only by the Holy Spirit can we listen and obey the Lord’s voice. Let us be filled with the Spirit and respond to the voice of the Lord who is asking for a drink.

Looking back upon my life at the age of eighty, I feel I have lived quite an arduous life. I was born when the Korean peninsula was governed by Japan and the Japanese government severely oppressed Korea. Not only was it difficult to make ends meet at that time, but the Japanese government even confiscated anything made of steel including pots, spoons, and even door handles. A Consequently I had to use clay bowls whose odor was so strong that I could not eat well because it got into the food. I was born into a very poor family, and my parents were not educated. I could not have eaten even a snack or an ice cream at all because we could not afford such a luxury. You could say I was born with a “clay spoon” in my mouth ( as opposed to one born with a “golden spoon” in his mouth.)

Some might ask me how I can remember things that happened several decades ago, but all the pains of that time have been imprinted into my very bones and I cannot forget them. I existed at the lowest level of the social and economic class. I was a farmhand in my childhood, a boot boy, I sold razors and flint, I was a Korean popcorn vendor, and a day laborer during the time of the autumn harvest, and on and on I struggled with my life groveling among all kinds of the lowest positions. In my eyes, when the day came and I saw the sky, I felt as if it was only the clouds that guided my dream. I did not have any possessions or any place to go, so I struggled to the point of death in order to get anything from anywhere.

When Korea became independent, the average national income per person was twenty dollars. A few years later, the Korean war broke out, and it is hard to describe the damages inflicted by the war (for three years and a month). When the military coup happened, the national income per person was eighty dollars. People today might complain about their difficulty in making ends meet even with the national income at thirty thousand dollars, but if they could compare their situations with those of the past that I mentioned above, they would realize how tough it was to live, even to survive at that time. Is there anything you cannot do in order to survive? Pride itself becomes a luxury.

Most people today feel that their lives are filled with hardship but in fact, they are like a foolish person dying while waiting under a tree for a fruit to fall down while they do nothing. In my opinion, every one of those born in this age is abandoning their happiness even though they have gold or silver spoons in their mouths.

When we come to know Jesus, then we will understand how we ought to endure: not lazy; unashamed; not lying or deceiving others. Then we will have hope to live in this world. I hope that you all can endure regardless of whether your job makes you rich or poor.

Throughout my whole life, I have never concealed my early years, but rather I have tried to remain mindful of and to remember those days. I believe God has given me many second chances, and so I try not to miss any opportunity that God has given me to be faithful in every circumstance. Lying to and deceiving others is like cursing oneself, so you must be careful.

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Outline translated by Sarah Lee
Letter translated by Sung-In Hong
Interpretations by Sarah Lee

Chief Editor: Helen Nam
Korean Summary by Ki-Taek Lee