23rd February 2026

23rd February 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 4:1-15 focus v1-6)


Message (Alan Burke) 


Our lives have been filled with chance encounters, from the interactions in the supermarket when someone is taking up the most of the aisle and we politely wait for them to notice and they say “sorry” and then we move on with our lives to the people we meet and have a conversation with, finding some common interest and then that’s it. Of course, things have changed a little with the advent of social media, as if you get a name, the next thing you can be friends on Facebook, which creates the illusion of friendship and connection, but it often leads to superficial interactions rather than meaningful relationships. This week we focus on the first part of the interaction that Jesus has with this Samaritan woman, and it is one that leaves not the illusion of friendship and connection but that leads to her coming to know him as her saviour. 


Today we are focusing on the circumstances that lead to this encounter. It all starts because Jesus has attracted the attention of the Pharisees. They have heard about his growing popularity, and when Jesus hears about this, he goes to a place that he knew he wouldn’t be followed and went through the region of Samaria. There is something though that, although it’s not the focus of the passage that we are confronted with once more. Back at the beginning of John’s gospel, in the prologue, we are told of the wonder of the incarnation, how he who was God and was with God and how he became flesh and dwelt amongst us (Jn 1:1,14). He became flesh, the creator, who was with God and was God, whom all things were made through, became flesh (Jn 1:2).


It wasn’t an illusion, some CGI that is Computer-generated imagery, it wasn’t a hologram or a ghost, but he became flesh and here we confronted with some of the wonder of what the incarnation means. We’re told it was the sixth hour, so about noon, he stops at a well where he is tired. He goes on and asks for a drink (v7). John here wants us to see the humanity of Jesus; he wants us to know and understand that the Lord Jesus through the incarnation was not the appearance of man, not Superman, but was in reality a man. Mary was but an instrument of the Holy Spirit to bring God in the flesh. 


The incarnation conveys one of the greatest truths and mysteries the world has ever known. It enables him to be the sinless sin bearer, for only a man could have atoned for man’s sin. Jesus Christ in taking on flesh and through his sinless life as true Man could act as our substitute, dying in our place. It was necessary that he be true God for only God could bear the weight of sin and the wrath that was due to us. Remember the next time you are thirsty and tired how the infinite God took on the finite; he is our great high priest who can truly emphasise with our weakness for in the incarnation the two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q105 What do we pray for in the fifth petition?
A. In the fifth petition, which is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” we pray, that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.
​