prepared by Rev. Daniel Yovan – 8th March 2026
Call to worship: O come, let us worship and bow down,let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!For he is our God,and we are the people of his pasture,and the sheep of his hand (Psalm 95: 6 -7)
STF 85 – Praise the Lord who reigns above
| 1 Praise the LORD who reigns above and keeps His courts below; praise the holy God of love, and all His greatness show. Praise Him for His noble deeds, praise Him for His matchless power; Him from whom all good proceeds let earth and heaven adore. 2 Celebrate the eternal God with harp and psaltery; timbrels soft and cymbals loud in His high praise agree. Praise Him, every tuneful string, all the reach of heavenly art; all the powers of music bring, the music of the heart. | 3 Him, in whom they move and live, let every creature sing, glory to their Maker give, and homage to their King. Hallowed be His name beneath, as in heaven, on earth adored; praise the LORD in every breath, let all things praise the LORD! Charles Wesley (1707 – 1788) |
Prayer:
Almighty God Whose Son Jesus Christ
fasted forty days in the wilderness and was tempted as we are,
yet without sin: Give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Please Read John 4: 5 – 42
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the 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 urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Reflection:
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts
be pleasing in your sight our Rock our Redeemer. Amen.
The Divine Encounter.
This well know story in the Gospel is read and preached several times in our churches. The Samaritan woman’s story in the Bible (John 4:1-42) has given ‘licence’ to preachers to portray the woman as a ‘bad girl’ in the town. This is simply because they have taken the view of other preachers and commentators on this passage without studying the passage carefully themselves. The woman who had ‘five husbands’, suffered abuse in the last 2000 years at the hands of male interpreters. Whose fault was it that she had five husbands? What happened to her five husbands? Did they leave her or die? How did marriage and relationships work in that part of the world at that time? Before answering any of these questions, the preachers point their finger at the woman and say, ‘you are a bad girl’. The Rabbinic law allowed to marry three timesbut the society she lived in may have permitted five times and the man she lives with now might have refused to marry her. She must have experienced the pain of an outcast by society. We are not clear about the reason for her many marriages, and the passage is less concerned about it.
The purpose
The purpose of this story is not about this woman but about Jesus breaking the barrier. Jewish people did not like Samaritans. But Jesus broke the norm of the day and met with this woman in the middle of the day. Even today we are challenged to break down any barriers to present the gospel of Christ to all those who have not experienced the joy of eternal life.
Repentance
There is no mention of repentance in this story. Nevertheless, the woman’s life was laid bare by the encounter of Jesus. She was elated by the conversation with the Jewish male rabbi. The fact that she came to draw water at noon, is because she does not want to be seen by others. But this ‘Prophet Jesus’ took his time to talk to her and revealed her life without making her feel guilty or condemned. What a relief for her to spend some quality time with a ‘godly man’ and yet feel at peace and joyful. I am sure that Jesus made her feel valued. Unlike the preaching we hear from many pulpits today, Jesus did not ask this woman to change her life of ‘sin’.
The fountain of Life.
It seems to me that this woman was already searching and had a curiosity to know about the ways of God. One might wonder whether she was experiencing God’s presence in her life even before she met Jesus. She proclaimed this new-found, uncontainable Joy to all the people in her town. And they all believed when they heard Jesus. The doors of eternal presence opened up for her at this encounter because Jesus crossed the barriers. Like Jesus, we need to cross all the barriers and seek the discernment from God to find a way to present the gospel to bring streams of living waters to all. In this story we find Jesus’ encounter brought freedom to this woman from guilt and condemnation and made her feel valued and cherished. Finally, she made a connection with the ‘fountain of life’, the Messiah. What a wonderful divine encounter. Amen.
Intercession:
| We pray for all those who are marginalised, ill-treated, lonely and suffer injustice….. We bring to mind all those peoples and places where there is no peace….. The leaders of the United States, Middle East and around the world, that they may work for peace……. And we finally bring our own prayer needs to God……We pray for all our churches, that God will empower us to preach the saving grace of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour…… Lord hear us Lord graciously hear us. Amen. | The Lord’s prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy Kingdom come thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. |
| STF 436 What Shall I do my God to love 1 What shall I do my God to love, my loving God to praise? The length, and breadth, and height to prove, and depth of sovereign grace? 2 Thy sovereign grace to all extends, immense and unconfined; from age to age it never ends, it reaches all mankind. 3 Throughout the world its breadth is known, wide as infinity; so wide it never passed by one, or it had passed by me. | 4 My trespass was grown up to heaven; but, far above the skies, in Christ abundantly forgiven, I see thy mercies rise. 5 The depth of all-redeeming love, what angel tongue can tell? O may I to the utmost prove the gift unspeakable! 6 Come quickly, gracious Lord, and take possession of your own; my longing heart vouchsafe to make thy everlasting throne. Charles Wesley (1707 – 1788). |
Blessing:
The God of all grace, who has called you to eternal glory in Christ,
Make you perfect, confirming and strengthening you and to him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
The Almighty and merciful Lord, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Bless us and keep us now and always. Amen.
God in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ. Amen.
