And Many Believed

And Many Believed

Not I but Christ

³⁹ And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified. “He told me all that I ever did,” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of His own word. ⁴² Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

I have mentioned in the past that this woman as so many are today, was living in open sin. Yet like many today, she was accepted in her community. But then she testified to the people of the city, “Come and see the Man who has told me all things about myself.”

The process of conversion is about changing lives. You cannot possibly develop a relationship with Christ without being changed.

When a man and a woman meet and begin to date, at first, they know very little about each other. As their relationship grows, they begin to know more and more about each other. Over time they fall in love and love eventually evolves into them being married. It is amazing what one learns about the other after the marriage that one did not know before.

In our Christian walk with Christ, the same thing begins to happen. We begin to learn about the other and eventually over time we begin to learn knew things about ourselves. In some cases these are things we have wished to not share with others and now they are brought to light by the Holy Spirit working in our hearts.

As Christ spoke to the woman and told her things about her past, so the Holy Spirit works upon our heart telling us things that we need to change, forgiveness that should be sought. When this happens with our couple, it is to fit them for marriage, and when this happens to the Christians it is to fit them for life with Christ.

For the Samarians, the changed countenance of the woman testified of a change and so their curiosity was aroused. They wanted to know what had changed her life. The testimony of her changed life created with them a desire to learn more.

But then they like her met Christ and they began to see what she was saying, not because of her, but because they too were now developing a relationship with Christ.

This was the first group of converts of Samarians. During the course of their mission the Seventy disciples visited many of the town of Samaria and were given a cordial reception. After Christ’s resurrection when the gospel message first left Jerusalem and Judea, it traveled next to Samaria and there was a huge harvest.

No doubt there were those that were skeptical of what the woman said, as there are many today that are skeptical of what the Pastor or church members that talk about what Christ has done for them and can do for others. Yet once they see the changed lives or the life that is lived by the Christian in contrast to the people of this world their curiosity is aroused. It is then they begin to develop a relationship with Christ or decide to reject the truth or light given to them.

But as the Samaritans pointed out to the woman which still holds true today, it is only by developing a relationship with Christ that lives become changed. We have the responsibility to present the gospel, to spread the seeds of the gospel far and near. Throwing the seeds wherever they may land. But it is the power of Christ working through the Power of the Holy Spirit that lives become changed, hearts are made soft and pliable.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to become born again, that he need a teachable spirit the spirit of a little child. To the Samaritans they saw their need and so the changed life of one of their own created in them a desire to know more. So, they begged Jesus to stay.

Christ’s life and the message constituted convincing evident to the Samaritans that Moses’ prediction had met its fulfillment in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Therefore, they accepted Christ.