H. B. Charles on Jesus’s Longest Conversation

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H. B. Charles: Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we ask again and afresh, that you would open our eyes that we may behold wonderful things about the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would help us to lay aside all malice, deceit, envy, hypocrisy, and slander, so that, as newborn infants we may crave the pure spiritual milk of your word, and grow thereby, having tasted of your goodness.
Grant me physical strength and spiritual energy to speak your word with faithfulness, clarity, authority, passion, wisdom, humility and freedom. May Christ alone be exalted as the word is explained, we pray. Amen.

My assignment is Jesus’s conversation with the woman at the well recorded in John 4. Hear the word of God beginning at John 4:1:”Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples.

“He left Judea and departed again for Galilee. He had to pass through Samaria. He came to the town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there.

“So Jesus, wearied as he went from his journey was sitting beside the well, it was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’…(Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)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. ‘The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep.

“Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life. ‘The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here. ‘The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; but you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband.

“What you have said is true. ‘The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people are to worship.’Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. The hour is coming, and is now here. The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.’

“Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you, am he.’ Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman but no one said, ‘What do you seek?’ or, ‘Why are you talking with her? ‘The woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ‘Come. see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’

“They went out of the town and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying, ‘Rabbi, eat. ‘He said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So, the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat? ‘Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say “There are yet four months, then comes the harvest”? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.’

“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’So, when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this indeed is the Savior of the world.’” Amen.

This conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well stands out for three reasons. First, it is the longest recorded conversation Jesus has with anyone, including his disciples.

The sheer length of the discussion between Jesus and this woman at the well highlights and spotlights its significance in the story of Jesus, as told by John. Secondly, this story is significant because of the placement of this story.

It is recorded immediately after Jesus’s late-night conversation with Nicodemus. And in a real sense we feel as we read through John 3 and John 4 the tension between these two persons with whom Jesus speaks. In John 3 the discussion is with a man, the man is named in the story, Nicodemus.

He is a religious man. He is a moral man. He is an influential man. Note the contrast in John 4. Jesus now has a conversation with a woman, the woman is unnamed. The highlight of her story is her immoral past. The tension between these two stories reminds us as we begin this study of the woman at the well, that Jesus came to reach the up and out and the down and out. There is no one, John 3 teaches us, there is no one beyond the need of grace. John 4 teaches us that there is no one beyond the reach of grace.

In this story, John, that is, presents to us the good news about Jesus Christ. This is the third major significance of the story, not just its length, not just its position in the text, but the message of this story and the message of this story is that Jesus is the Son of God who has come to save sinners.

John 20:30 and 31 we find the purpose of John’s Gospel. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 4 ends with one of these signs, verse 46 through the end of the chapter, that declares that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, one of these identifying miracles. Our text is no such sign and yet it still fulfills the purpose of John’s Gospel.

Here we meet a woman who believes that Jesus is the Christ and who receives eternal life. John begins the chapter by setting the scene. Now, when Jesus, verse 1, learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

These opening verses of John 4 draw us back to the latter portion of John 3. Specifically note John 3:25 and 26, now, a discussion of roles between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification.

They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all are going to him.” John will declare to his disciples that he is not the bridegroom.

He is just a friend of the bridegroom. Specifically, he says in verse 30 of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jesus is indeed increasing as he is baptizing many, though, “he himself did not baptize, but his disciples did.”

The tension of the text is that the Pharisees, note this, this seems to avoid political, religious controversy at this point with the Pharisees. Jesus departs, heads to Galilee. Note verse 4, “And he had to pass through Samaria.”

This passing statement has great significance. He had to pass through Samaria. It was a custom for Jews not to take this direct route through Samaria to Galilee because of the ongoing tensions between Jews and Samaritans in the aftermath of the defeat of the northern country of Israel.

As a result of that captivity, the land of Israel was repopulated and Samaritans, considered half-breeds, populated the land and this ongoing tension continued even until the day of Jesus.

As a result, many of the Jews would take an alternate route through the River Jordan to get to Galilee so that they would not have to pass through Samaria. Jesus takes the direct route, not just for geographic reason, but Jesus is on a mission. There is a woman he is to meet in Samaria.

“So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey was sitting beside the well and it was about the sixth hour.”

Before we get to the conversation itself, consider this reference to the humanity of Jesus. The point of John’s Gospel is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But here, as he sets up the story, John gives us a glimpse of the humanity of Jesus.

As a result of his journey, Jesus was weary as he sat at this well. It is a reminder of what we are told in Hebrews 4:15, We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us in our weakness, but one who has been tempted in every respect, as we are, yet without sin.

Jesus, God in flesh, sits at this well, tired from his journey, and thirsty as a result of the heat of the day. Verses 7 through 26 then records the story of Jesus’ conversation with this woman at the well.

The conversation falls into two major sections. Consider that Jesus gives living water, verses 7 through 15 and then Jesus calls for true worship, verses 16 through 26. The conversation begins with the discussion about water.

“It’s about the sixth hour” says, the end of verse 6, noon, it is the heat of the day. Jesus is tired after his journey. And as he rests there this, verse 7, “woman from Samaria came to draw water.”

It was typically a woman’s task to draw water but that usually came at an earlier hour together. Here she comes at the sixth hour, and she comes alone. She is not expecting to meet anyone at this well, but there Jesus is waiting for her.

What we’re seeing here friends, is this Jesus the Son of God who has come to save sinners, and John shows us in this story that Jesus is willing to cross any barrier necessary, to reach the lost.

Jesus speaks to the woman first and says to her, verse 7, “Give me a drink.” The disciples had gone away into the city to buy food and it’s just Jesus and this woman and he asks her for a drink of water.

We don’t have to guess at the magnitude of this seemingly simple request, it is found in the response of the woman. Verse 9, “The woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? ‘”

This request for water is scandalous on several terms. This is a Jew addressing a Gentile. This is a man addressing a woman. This is a Jewish man asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water.

I repeat, Jesus is willing to cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost. Are we? John tells us that the Jews typically have no dealings with Samaritans, as if her response is not enough to show us how scandalous this request is, but note that Jesus shifts in the rest of this paragraph from asking for water from the woman to offering water to the woman.

Verse 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.’” Here we see what happens often in John, where seemingly simple things take on, do greater, higher, deeper significance.

This starts out as a simple conversation about water. But Jesus has shifted this conversation to something deeper. He calls it, in verse 10, living water. This is more than water that Jacob’s well can provide. We will see that this water Jesus offers, is salvation water, it is eternal life.

Notice how he describes it in verse 10, this living water is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward that you earn by works, it is a gift you receive by God’s grace. Romans 6:23 declares that “the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Salvation is not about what we do for God, it is God’s gift of amazing grace to us.

He says, “Living water can be your gift.” But notice the stipulations, two stipulations he gives her in verse two, they are in the words “knew” and “asked.” To receive this living water, you must know what the gift of God is, that is, you must know Jesus Christ.

John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” You must know the Lord Jesus Christ, and you must ask. Hallelujah. Salvation is free for the asking. Romans 10:13 declares for whoever “calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

This living water, Jesus says, is a gift. You must know this gift he says, and you must ask for this water. This asking is significant because, many do not recognize the true nature of their thirst and go looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places.

Jeremiah 2:12 and 13, “‘Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate,’ declares the Lord, ‘for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.’” Great invitation of the Lord is in Isaiah 55, whoever thirsts can come to the waters and drink, buy bread and wine without money and without price.

Jesus says that the gift of God of living water is free for the asking if you will know him. The woman does not understand the magnitude of what Jesus is saying, she is still thinking of water from this well, not the gift of God, and she says, verse 11, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

Verses 13 through 15, Jesus responds to the woman by declaring the source of this living water and the nature of this living water. Verse 13, the source of living water, Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.”

This is the sense of what we find in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus is talking about heavenly, spiritual things. Her mind is on earthly, worldly things. She is still thinking about Jacob’s well, Jesus is referring to water that is greater, deeper, higher than this well.

And he notes it because whoever, he says, “drinks of this water will be thirsty again.” This is the reality of all that the world offers. It does not last.

“What does it profit a man,” Jesus says, “to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” Or, “What in the world can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Whoever drinks of that which the world offers will be thirsty again.

“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” This is the good news of the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ, the total sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Only Jesus satisfies. Only Jesus satisfies the human need, particularly the deep needs of the soul. Whoever comes to him, whoever knows him, whoever asks of him will never be thirsty again.

“The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus alone offers living water that is internal and eternal. He offers us the gift of God.

He offers us himself. He offers us his wonderful Holy Spirit. John 7:37 through 39, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” This he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for a yet the spirited not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Jesus declares the source of this water himself, then he declares the nature of this water, it is satisfying water, that is eternal life.

The woman says in verse 15, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” She responds to what Jesus says in verse 10.

She asks, but she still doesn’t fully understand what she’s asking for. Jesus makes that plain, in the next section, the next paragraph where, after offering living water Jesus calls for true worship. The woman says, “Give me this water.”

Verse 15, verse 16, Jesus says to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” In the previous paragraph as Jesus offers living water, he now bids this woman to call her husband reminding us that the good news of salvation, if it is to be enjoyed, must be preceded by us embracing the bad news of sin.

For us to recognize what a great Savior Jesus is, we must recognize what great sinners we are. Jesus confronts her right where she lives, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

This may be read, rather simply. Jesus offering water to this woman bids her to call her husband so that he may partake, but of course there is a deeper reality here. She knows what’s the reality, so she answers, “I have no husband.”

Jesus says, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’ for you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’” Here Jesus exposes, confronts, lays his finger on the heart of the problem in this woman’s life.

She has been trying to find satisfaction in broken cisterns. She has had five husbands. She has gone through five marriages either by death or by divorce.

And now, the one she is with is not her husband. Jesus confronts her with the reality of her broken life, her sinful past, her sinful reality. She says to him, verse 19, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.”

This is more than a deflection. This is what the woman will say later, to fellow Samaritans. This is a man who can tell her everything she ever did. The weary Jesus is the omniscient God who knows everything about this woman’s life.

When she says, “you are a prophet,” this is more than a deflection as a Samaritan. This woman, along with the Samaritans, only held to the first five books, the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, and when she is referring to prophet here, she’s not talking about Isaiah or Jeremiah. She is talking about a new prophet like Moses. Deuteronomy 18:18, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”

She is waiting for a new prophet, a greater Moses, she is waiting, the one who is to come. I guess she perceives in this Jesus, that prophet. I guess she shifts the conversation to the place of worship now, verse 20, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

Can’t get around the fact that she is, sure enough smooth, shifting this conversation from husbands to worship sites. Right? She wants to know where’s the place where people are to worship.

Jesus continues to meet this woman right where she is. And he is the hound of heaven that will not let her escape. “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming where neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” Jesus says that, the hour is coming where the place of worship will be obsolete.

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” He says to this woman concerning worship, that ultimately true worship, is not about where you are.

And then he says to this woman, it’s not about what you think. Verse 23, “the hour is coming, and is now here… the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.”

Here, what Jesus declares, Jesus demonstrates in this very conversation with the woman at the well, she was not seeking God, but God was seeking her. And praise his name that he is still seeking sinners.

No one seeks after God, Paul tells us in Romans 3, but God is seeking true worshipers. Notice the tension of what Jesus says here. “the hour is coming” Not only is it coming, it “is now here.”

In John 2, Jesus says to his mother, “My hour has not yet come.” Referring to his crucifixion and his resurrection, yet the hour is here. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the word, made flesh, in the one to whom this woman speaks.

“the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” The father is seeking people like this to worship Him. Verse 24, “God is spirit.”

God is spirit. This is one of the great declarations in the Scripture about the nature of our God. 1 John 1:5 declares “that God is light.” 1 John 4:8 and verse 16 declares that “God is love.”

Hebrews 12:29 declares that “God is a consuming fire.” Here Jesus declares “God is spirit.” He cannot be confined to your places, to your customs, to your rituals, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

True worship is beyond ritual and ceremony and custom. It is in spirit. God is spirit and He demands that those who would truly worship Him, worship Him in spirit and in truth.

In spirit and in truth declares that real worship is rooted in a deep, personal experience with God that goes beyond going through the motions of ritual.

In truth, on the basis of His divine revelation of Himself in His word that is the truth and in His Son who is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is saying to this woman, that worship must be on God’s terms, not ours.

Wise Romans 11:36 tells us, For all things are from Him and through Him and to Him. To Him alone belongs the glory.

Notice how this woman’s eyes are being opened as she talks to Jesus. She says, verse 25, “I know that Messiah is coming, (he who is called Christ).When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Again, she smoothly shifts the conversation, punting, saying “The Messiah is coming and he’ll make sense of all of this for us.”

Jesus declares to her, verse 26, “I who speak to you am he.” This is one of the unique clear declarations Jesus gives in the gospels that he is the long-awaited Messiah king, the Christ of God.

He says that “I am he,” The one you are looking for, you are looking at. The one you are talking about, you are talking to. “I am he.” Jesus is the Great I am.

John 6:35 he declares, “I am the bread of life.”

John 8:12, he declares, “I am the light of the world.” John 10:9 he declares, “I am the door.” Verse 11, “I am the good shepherd.” John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

John 14:6, “I am the way…the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 15:1, “I am the true vine.” Jesus is the Son of God who has come to save sinners.

If those seven references, with the metaphors attached don’t make the point well enough, remember his conversation in John 8:48 through 59, as he is debating with the unbelieving Jews.

Remember they take offense? They can’t understand how this young man can talk like this. So, they said to him, John 8:57, “How are you talking like you know Abraham? He’s been dead for centuries and you’re not yet 50 years old.”

Remember what Jesus says in John 8:58? “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus is the great I am. He is the blending of deity and humanity.

He is the meeting place of time and eternity. He is the intersection between heaven and earth. And when we, like this woman, were in our sin and could not reach up to God, God reached down to us.

He met us where we were. He broke whatever barrier was necessary to claim us, by his amazing grace. Oh, brothers and sisters, as we consider the story of this immoral woman who meets Jesus, may we be reminded of the greatness of God’s grace toward us.

Jesus has met us where we are. He has sought us out. He has provided living water that satisfies the needs of the soul.

The rest of the story, verses 7 through 26, record the conversation with the woman at the well. The rest of the passage verses 27 through 42 is the aftermath of the story.

As Jesus declares himself, to this woman, to be the Messiah. Verse 27 says, the disciples come back and they are shocked that Jesus is talking with this woman.

But they did not dare ask, “What do you seek?” or, “why are you talking to her?” While the clueless disciples show up, the woman departs. So eager is she.
So overjoyed is she. So overwhelmed is she. Now, she left her water jar there, went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

Feel the tension between the clueless disciples and the witnessing woman.

Her faith is not explicitly… No declaration of faith is explicitly recorded but in the spirit of a true disciple, she goes into town to witness about Jesus.

To the same people who knew her story, the same people who knew her mistakes, who knew her past. She went to be a witness. How could she go and witness to them after what she had done?

Oh, friends, this is the heart of the good news. It was not about what she had done. It was about what Jesus had done. She comes to say to them, “Not look at me, but look at Jesus.”

How desperately does the world need us to make much of Jesus? It’s not our job to advertise our church. It’s our job to magnify the Christ.

Come, see a man. Come, see a man. You got to excuse me, I first heard this story as a young child in a black Baptist Church, and the preacher…This was where he was trying to get to.

He says, when he got here, “Hear my daddy say, ‘Let me use my sanctified imagination.’” She went to the baker in town and said, “Come, see a man who is the bread of life.” “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did, can this be the Christ?” and they all went out of town. And were coming to him. Friends, I’ll have to summarize the rest of this story but what I want you to see, what I want you to take note of, is that John does not end the conversation with the woman at the well, with the conversation with the woman at the well.

The conversation proceeds into an explanation to his disciples about what he’s up to. What we see here is the urgency of the heart of Jesus to reach the lost, and how he bids those who would be his disciples to join him on mission to reach the lost.

The good news of who he is. “Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ He said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you don’t know anything about.’ The disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’” Jesus says to his clueless disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.

Do you not say that ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” Hear Jesus speaking to us today friends. “Lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here, the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.”

One, “Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” Note verse 39. The woman has stepped off the stage. She has faded into the background and she goes into Samaria and declares, “Come, see a man.”

Now, verse 39 says “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’” Brothers and sisters, what a joy it is for us to be here together this week, to study the conversations of Jesus in the gospels.

To worship together, to fellowship together. But may this story remind us of the mission to which we have been called. May we be reminded that those of us who are recipients of God’s sovereign grace must declare this good news with others.

Many believed in him because of this woman’s testimony. “He told me all that I ever did.” “Now, the Samaritans asked Jesus to stay with them for two days.

Now she is with him. Many believed because of his word. Verse 42, “They said to the woman” who now appears in the final verse of this narrative, the Samaritans said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe. We have heard for ourselves and we know that this indeed is the Savior of the world.”

Indeed friend, maybe you have been invited to this conference this week by someone who knows and loves and trusts Jesus Christ, but you don’t know him for yourself. Here is a reminder that you cannot get to heaven on someone else’s testimony.

You must believe for yourself. Or, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” You must trust the good news that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

Jew, Greek, Samaritan, he’s the Savior of the world. Rich or poor, black or white, he is the Savior of the world. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God covered them with coats of skin, yes?

Later, at the Passover, as death hit the homes of the Egyptians and slaughtered the firstborn, those who had blood on the doorpost were covered from death.

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would make an offering for the nation of Israel, covering them in atoning blood. You missed it. I think I went through that too fast.

God starts out with one lamb per person, then one lamb in the Passover per household. Then on the day of the Atonement, one lamb for the whole nation. But when John saw Jesus coming, he declared “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world.”

Jesus is the Savior of the world.

Let us pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for its truth, its wisdom and its authority. Thank you for the gift of your Son who is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thank you for your amazing grace that offers eternal life to all who believe in him. Thank you for the incarnation of Christ and ultimately his crucifixion and resurrection, by which you have reached us who were far away, and drawn us to yourself by your sovereign grace.

Thank you that you have called us to join the mission of Christ, to be his agents in the world, to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us. We praise you Father, that the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth is with us to the end of the age. We praise you for it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.