In this lesson, students learn about believers in other churches.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Assumptions can be dangerous. Even though you don’t specifically remember, you assume that your homework is done, only to realize in class Monday morning that you have nothing to hand in. You assume that the car insurance must have been paid, until the police officer asks to see proof of insurance and you discover the policy has lapsed.
What about our Christianity? Are you a child of God? For proof would you point out that you’ve read the entire Bible this year, that you attend church every Sunday, and that you are honest and hard-working? What about those times when we’ve been lazy in our attention to God’s Word and when we have lied or held a grudge toward someone?
Jesus warns about taking salvation for granted and assuming that we are God’s children on the basis of what we might do. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven...Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
However, it is also a dangerous assumption to think that therefore we can never be sure of our place in God’s kingdom. We can be absolutely sure of our salvation by looking to what Jesus has done, not to what we do. He did everything for us. Our lives today will fall far short of God’s holy standards, but Jesus has already fulfilled the law for us. Nothing we do can make up for a single unkind word or a work of love left undone. But Jesus has already suffered the wrath of God for us. “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
Are you a Christian? Martin Luther offers a simple test in a few questions: “Do you believe that you are a sinner?”... “Are you sorry for your sins?”... “Do you also hope to be saved?”…”What has Christ done for you that you trust in Him?” Luther’s answer: “He died for me and shed His blood for me on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins.”
Are you a Christian? By Spirit-created faith in Jesus alone, you can answer with a resounding, “Yes!” There’s no better way to begin another day of grace.
Mark 6:34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.
The greatest reason Jesus was moved with compassion at seeing the crowds was not because they were hungry and tired from chasing Him around Galilee. He was saddened because all these His sheep were lost.
Now, each had strayed in his or her own way, as every sinner does. But they were also being led astray by the very people who were supposed to be shepherding them by teaching them the Word of God. These priests, rabbis, and other religious leaders were tasked with preparing people for the coming of the Messiah, but few could agree on what kind of Messiah He would be. They taught whatever suited their own agendas.
How sad that we see the same today! A medium-sized town may have over a dozen churches of different denominations, none of which agree with each other’s teaching, teaching false things about Christ and salvation. May our Lord continue to look with compassion on these lost sheep and teach them the truth!
How blessed are we when we look to our Good Shepherd and center our worship on Him and His Word. Our true Shepherd laid His life down for His sheep and has taken His life up again to save us. May we never stray from this truth, outside of which there are no other shepherds.
Devotion
John 4:41-42
41 Many more believed because of his message. 42 They told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this really is the Savior of the world.”
The Samaritans had a religion that was a mixture of true religion and other religions. Jesus came to them with the same message He gives us. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. The Samaritans in our story today became believers in the truth that Jesus is the Savior of the world.
The truth is that there are believers in other churches. Jesus said whoever is not against us is for us. He wanted all to know that a church doesn't save, but His work does. A church is where we go to hear the message of our salvation. Everywhere that message is found, there will be believers.
Don't think then that what church we are members of isn't important. It is very important. We want to have a church that teaches us God's word in all its truth. Any pollution in a church's teaching is dangerous for us. Stick to a church that teaches God's truth.
LORD grant while worlds endure we keep your teachings pure throughout all generations.
Devotion
John 4:7, 9 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” …Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
The world tends to despise and belittle small things. Small towns, small stores, small churches are thought to suffer from comparison with larger ones. But in the kingdom of God it is different. God is not impressed with the big things of this world; rather, He works through things that are small and seemingly insignificant, so that we may see that the power and glory are His alone.
In Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well we find Him using a small thing to do something powerful and significant. When she came to the well to draw water Jesus asked her to give Him a drink.
It was a small request, only a drink of water, a request that the woman could easily grant. It was a humble request on Jesus’ part, a favor asked of a lowly person. Yet it was also an important request, for Jesus as true Man required water for His earthly journey, just as we do. By making this simple request, Jesus gave this woman the honor of supplying a cup of cold water, no small thing (Matthew 10:42).
Yet there was more to Jesus’ request for a drink of water than the satisfying of a basic human need. By it He started a conversation that otherwise would not have taken place. The Samaritan woman surely would never have taken it upon herself to approach this Jewish man. Jesus takes the initiative and begins a conversation in which He makes Himself known to her as the Messiah and gives her the Gospel of life.
Jesus has also given this great blessing to us in something small involving water. What could be smaller in appearance than the Sacrament of Holy Baptism? It is the application of a small amount of water and the speaking of a few words: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Yet with this humble ceremony God acts mightily according to His promise. He gives His Spirit, works faith in Jesus Christ, forgives sins, and gives eternal salvation.
John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Many years ago, as I began adult instruction with a young couple, I couldn’t help noticing the wife’s lack of enthusiasm. But it wasn’t long before her attitude changed, and the change was rapid and dramatic. Her former indifference gave way to joy in learning of Jesus and His love for her.
I saw this woman recently when I attended a service at the church where she and her family are members. The Gospel in which she began to rejoice nearly fifty years ago is still working in her and her husband, and in the children that they brought up together in their Christian home.
The source of her enduring faith and fruitful life? It is the living water of which Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. It is the Gospel Word through which the Holy Spirit gives faith in Jesus Christ and in Him eternal life.
How different and how far superior is this water to the water that sustains earthly life! The thirst that we experience day by day is never fully and finally satisfied. It returns after only a short time, throughout the day, every day, as long as we live in this world. But the water that Jesus offers and gives in the Gospel quenches thirst for good.
And the thirst that it quenches is a greater and more significant thirst than that for water. It is the thirst for life. We thirst for life because we are by nature sinful, alienated from God, and subject to death. We need forgiveness for our sins. We need peace with God. We need the unending life that only the Holy Spirit can supply.
Jesus’ teaching here is not that after coming to faith in Jesus we have no more need for hearing the Gospel. Elsewhere He says that His disciples need to abide in Him, which we do by continuing in His Word (John 8:31, 32; 15:5). Here He is saying that the Gospel gives us everything we need for salvation from sin. We have it the moment the Spirit brings us to faith in Jesus. We have no need to go looking for water in the barren deserts of worldly philosophies or false religious ideas. Our thirst has been quenched for good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYP8FzGuNMg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYP8FzGuNMg
4 Jesus[a] found out that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 though it was not Jesus himself who was baptizing but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.
4 He had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Then Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.[b]
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” she said, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his animals.”
13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.”
15 “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.”
17 “I have no husband,” the woman answered.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ 18 In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews insist that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised that he was talking to a woman. Yet no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back into town. She said to the people, 29 “Come, see the man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They left the town and came to him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
33 Then the disciples said to each other, “Did anyone bring him something to eat?”
34 Jesus told them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four more months and the harvest will be here’? Pay attention to what I am telling you. Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are already[c] ripe for harvest. 36 The reaper is getting paid and is gathering grain for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. 37 Indeed in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap a harvest for which you did no hard work. Others have done the hard work, and you have benefitted from their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony: “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of his message. 42 They told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this really is the Savior of the world.”
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name. We tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”
39 But Jesus said, “Do not try to stop him, because no one who does a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil about me. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Amen I tell you: Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, will certainly not lose his reward.
The Water of Life Discourse between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well by Angelika Kauffmann, 17–18th century