6th March 2026

6th March 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 4:16-42 focus v31-41)


Message (Alan Burke)


World means different things depending on how they are used. For example, we could say that someone has travelled all over the world. I’d say that my sister has travelled all over the world. She even has one of those maps with countries that you get to colour in when you’ve been there. My travelling is much more limited than hers. I hate flying; I’m almost as bad as BA from the A-Team. If only I could get tranquillised before I was put on a plane and wake up at my destination. In a sense, though, my sister has been all over the world. While she has been to Russia, she has never been to its neighbour Mongolia. While she has been to Egypt, she has never been to its neighbour Israel. While she has been in Australia, she has never been to Papua New Guinea, but she has travelled all over the world. 

Here we are told how Jesus is the saviour of the world. It is not that Jesus is the saviour of the entire world, that he has atoned for the sin of every person who has ever lived. Then the salvation is universal, salvation is without exclusion, everyone who has ever lived has been saved, they are with God right now. Rather, the world, for example, when we are told “ for God so loved the world” (John 3:13&), means not every single person who has ever lived without exclusion. Instead, it means that there isn’t a nation where God’s love does not extend. It is universal in its scope as in worldwide, but not in the sense of universal as in each and every person being saved.


It is not the reaction of the disciples to Jesus and what he says that I’ll focus on today, but what happened in response to the conversion of this Samaritan woman. She could not help but take the good news to others; she did not care about their response to her, such was the impact that Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, had upon her, and as a result of her testimony, there were many who came out of the town to meet Jesus that day. He stayed for two days and as a result, there were many more who came, believers, believers not who believed in miraculous signs like those in Jerusalem who had seen the signs of Jesus, but because they came to know the truth of who Jesus was and is for themselves. Hearing things second-hand is no substitute for a personal encounter with Jesus. While many had believed on account of the woman’s testimony, many more believed because of the words that Jesus spoke, acknowledging that this Jesus is the saviour of the world. 


The saviour of the world, the emphasis is on the universal offer of the gospel to all people, of every tribe, people, and language, salvation is offered to all, the scope of Jesus’ saving mission is to see a Revelation 7 fulfilled, where a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, will stand before the throne and before the Lamb, crying out “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev 7:9-10). I long for that day, but until then, Jesus is calling sinners to himself through the preaching of the gospel, for all who will like the woman and many others who believed in him there in Sychar, he is their saviour, for they have drank of the water, the living water that welled up to eternal life and are enabled to worship the Father in spirit and truth. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q8 How doth God execute his decrees?
A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.
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