And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him
for the saying of the woman who testified,
He told me all that I ever did. S
o when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they sought Him that He would tarry with them: and He abode there two days. And many more believed because of His own word;
and said unto the woman, Now we believe not because of your saying:
for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is, indeed,
the Christ, the Savior of the world.
John 4:39-42.
"I am going to talk about faith—faith as it came to these Samaritans.
And we shall notice,
first, faith's annunciation—"Now we believe."
Secondly, faith's nativity—where it is born.
Thirdly, faith's upbringing—faith's Nazareth— for, according to the text, it grows and takes higher ground as it develops.
I give these names to my three divisions in order to assist your memories.
I. First, then, I call your attention to FAITH'S ANNUNCIATION. Here we have it, in the 42nd verse—"we believe."
Genuine faith may, through timidity, be hidden for a little while, or, possibly, the love of carnal ease may lead some to conceal their faith in Christ. But it is of the very nature of faith that it should make its appearance known and felt.
Have you tried to bolster up in your mind the idea that you were something very amazing in the form of a skeptical person—all the while, I doubt not, believing a great deal more than you liked to admit—believing and trembling at the same time? But have you played that foolish game out and have you now truly trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Savior? If so, then do not be ashamed to say, "Now I believe." May you now cast your anchor overboard into the depths of Jehovah's love and when you find that it holds, may you cry out, "Now we believe!" There, then, is the annunciation of faith.
II. Now, very briefly, I want you to look, in the second place, on FAITH'S NATIVITY. How does faith come into men's hearts?
According to the plain teaching of Scripture, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." But faith is not always created in the human heart by the same form of instrumentality. It is
She does not appear to have been called a sister of mercy, or to have put on any peculiar garb, but she ran straightway to the people with whom she had lived and, perhaps, to the very men with whom she had sinned! She went to tell the story that Christ had come to her and had given to her that Living Water, of which, if a man shall drink, he shall never thirst again!
If you ask, "What shall my message be?" let your message be your own personal testimony—what you have, yourself, seen, heard, tasted, handled and felt of the good Word of God.
"Come see a Man who told me all things that I ever did—is not this the Christ?" That was her little sermon and as often as she repeated it over and over again, she spoke out and bore her personal testimony—and so she brought the men of Sychar to Christ. "Go home," said Christ to one whom He had healed,...
III. This is our last point, FAITH'S UPBRINGING, or, as I called it, "faith's Nazareth."
It is possible that there were some of the Samaritans who believed and who, when they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your saying, for we have heard Him ourselves," meant that they did, at first, believe because of the woman's saying, but, after a while, they outgrew that first stage of faith and they came to believe in Jesus still more strongly because they had heard Him themselves.
The beginnings of faith are as a spider's web.
They wondered, at first, that He, being a Jew, should care for them. But, by-and-by, it darted into their mind that He had not come to be the Savior of Jews, alone, so they said, "We have heard Him, ourselves, and know that this is, indeed, the Christ, the Savior of the world." Oh, that was grand, broad faith, when they saw that this Christ was not the Jews' Christ alone, but the Christ of the Samaritans—the Christ of the Gentiles, too—the Savior of sinners all over the world!"
Charles Spurgeon
