The Witnessing Power of Our Testimony

Revelation 12:11 KJV - 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.    

            What is interesting to me about this verse is that the apostle John mentions two elements that contributed to the saints overcoming Satan. First, he said that they overcame him, “…by the blood of the Lamb.” The second element that contributed to their victory was “…the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12:11). Neither of the elements cancel each other, but they work together. The blood of the Lamb is always paramount, in that, there is no ultimate victory for humanity that is absent of the blood of the Lamb. On the other hand, humanity would not know that it needs the blood of the Lamb if it were never told. Furthermore, there are those who would have never known whether there be a Lamb had they not received the testimony that it was so.    

This is the power that lies in the word of our testimony.  We saw this power at work from the likeliest of people. For example, one would expect apostles like Peter and John to have powerful testimonies, because they walked with Jesus and talked with him face to face. In Acts chapter 2, Peter preached the first Pentecostal message when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples, and John left with us the Gospel of John which details his eyewitness account of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Then, there are prophets like Elijah who are the likeliest of people to give testimonies about God, in that he called fire down from heaven (see 1Kings 18: 30-39). However, powerful testimonies can also come from the unlikeliest of people, like the slave girl who told Naaman the Syrian about the prophet Elisha who could heal him from leprosy (see 2 Kings 5: 2). Then, there is the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well of Sychar, a city in the state of Samaria.   

Examining the Samaritan Woman's Testimony   

      The testimony of the Samaritan woman is found in John 4: 28-39. And it reads:   

28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, hath any man brought him out to eat? 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that I ever did. (KJV)   

      John 4:39 concludes that many of the Samaritans believed on Jesus, because of the saying of the woman, "...He told me all that ever I did." What made this woman's testimony so effective? She was not a trained evangelist. The text does not give an account of her repenting before she gave her testimony to the men. In fact, she was pretty much a serial adulteress at this point. Christ gracefully shined his light on her secret that she has had five husbands in her lifetime, and the man she was currently living with was not her husband (Jn. 4: 15-19). She was not ordained in the ministry, but she was effective in telling her testimony. Let us examine this experience with the Samaritan woman.   

An Urgent Message 

The first thing she did was drop her waterpot. This lets us know that she had a since of urgency and excitement that she had encountered the Messiah. The fact that she dropped her waterpot also suggests to us that spreading the news about the Messiah was more important to her than collecting the water and taking it home. She could have very well taken the waterpot and carried on with the task of taking the water to its destination. However, when she encountered Jesus, she was compelled to undertake another task of telling the men in the city of Sychar that the Messiah had come.    

In these modern times, it is necessary that we see sharing our testimony as a priority. We ought not mind our day being interrupted by the opportunity share our testimony with someone. It is more blessed if we live each day with an expectancy that God would allow us to cross paths with someone whose soul is ready to receive our testimony about the goodness of God in Christ Jesus. I would go so far as to say that the message of the Samaritan woman was an urgent message, because she dropped her water pot. When we look at the human condition, we understand how important water is to our survival. Studies from the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company suggests that the average male is made up of sixty percent water, and the woman’s body is made up of fifty-five percent water. For children, their bodies are made up of seventy percent to eighty percent water. Scientific studies also suggest that the human body can only survive three days without water. So, water is important.     

However, what caused the woman to drop her water pot was the news that Jesus Christ could provide her with the living water that would quench the loneliness and the thirst of her spirit.

Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan is amazing because it sheds light on the sovereignty of God. It is not a coincidence that Jesus meets this lady at Jacob’s drinking well. He meets the Samaritan woman at the place where dwellers and travelers go for natural nourishment, but he utilizes this moment to tell her about how she can be spiritually nourished. When we observe the spiritual predicament of this woman, we can see that she is spiritually malnourished. She is spiritually lonely and thirsty. The context of this story lets us know that the woman has had five husbands, and she was working on her sixth relationship with a man she was not married to (Jn. 4:17-18). Obviously, the woman was thirsty for something. Perhaps, she was using her relationships to quench her spiritual thirst, but she was dealing with a spiritual loneliness that her relationships were not able to heal. When Jesus saw the woman drawing water from the drinking well, he had to enlighten her that when she is done drinking the water from the drinking well, she will still be thirsty. The same is true for all humanity. That is why Jesus said, “Whosoever, drinks this water shall thirst again” (Jn. 4:13). In other words, whoever tries to satisfy the longing of their souls with natural means, will continue to be famished with spiritual thirst. Sometimes we go through all sorts of means to satisfy our spiritual thirst. Some of us jump from job to job; from relationship to relationship; from house to house; from preacher to preacher; from church to church; from denomination to denomination; from religion to religion, all to find out that we are still thirsty. We go from marriage to marriage; sexual orientation to sexual orientation; from sexual preference to sexual preference; from habit to habit, and we don’t realize that what we are really in need of is nourishment for our souls.    

I’m so glad that Jesus stopped by the drinking well to have this conversation with the Samaritan woman to let her know about the living water that springs up into everlasting life (see Jn. 4:14). He stopped by to let her know that he is the only one who can satisfy the longing in her soul like only the Messiah can. When she heard this news, she had to tell someone. Sometimes it is the people who know thirst who are more capable of telling other thirsty people that there is a such thing as living water. In John 4: 28-29, the apostle John wrote saying, “The woman left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: Is not this the Christ?” You see, the Samaritan woman was a product of her environment. She moved from relationship to relationship because adultery was common in Samaria at that time. Just like the Samaritan woman moved from relationship to relationship, the men of Samaria also moved from relationship to relationship. How can this woman with Hebrew blood running through her veins have five husbands and a boyfriend and not be stoned to death by her community when the law of Moses condemns the lifestyle of adultery? You see, her community could not stone her for having a lifestyle of adultery, because they were adulterers themselves. And the Samaritan woman knew that the men of Samaria needed the living water of the Messiah just as bad as she did. This was an urgent matter to the Samaritan woman; and she knew that it was an urgent matter for those in her community, because they were just as broken as she was. Not only was this news about the Messiah an urgent matter for the Samaritan woman, but it was also an urgent matter to Jesus. Notice that after the Samaritan woman dropped her waterpot, Jesus’s next action provides evidence as to how urgent this matter was to him. In John 4:31-34, the apostle John wrote:   

In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. (KJV)  

      At first, we saw that the Samaritan woman made spreading the news of the Messiah a priority over the necessity of water (see Jn. 4: 28-29). Next, we see Jesus taking his mission as priority over food (see Jn. 4: 31-34). Both water and food are necessities of human life, but, here, we can see that the Samaritan woman and Jesus prioritized the mission of witnessing over natural things. This is not to say that the necessities of food and water have no place, but it does allude to the fact that the nourishment of the human soul does take precedence over meats. This is why Jesus says to his disciples that his "...meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work" (Jn. 4:34). This is also why his beloved disciple, the apostle John, encouraged the Early Church saying, "Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your souls prospers" (3 Jn. 1:2). When the Early Church had only just begun, Christ admonished his disciples, saying, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields: for they are white and ready to harvest" (Jn. 4:35). I say unto you, that if the fields of God's first fruits were already white and ready to harvest in the days of Jesus, some two thousand twenty-three years ago, how much more are the fields of God's first fruits ripe and ready to be harvested today? Everything in the actions and words of Jesus in this portion of the text lets us know that spreading the gospel of the Messiah is serious business that must be undertaken with urgency. 

Not a Solo Act 

            After Jesus describes the urgency of his message to his disciples, he thought it necessary that they understood that this work was not a solo act. In John 4: 36:38, Jesus said, “…He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. The first thing Jesus explained to his disciples in these verses is that the work of witnessing the gospel is a work of unity and teamwork. The witnesses of Jesus are categorized in two categories: planters and harvesters. One should not see himself as more highly than the other. The planters must not think of themselves more highly than they ought to, because they are not always allowed to see the seed grow. Planters are also not always allowed to harvest the seeds that they have sown. On the other hand, harvester should not view themselves as more highly than the planters, because they are gathering wheat from seeds that they hadn’t sown. Sometimes the roles are interchangeable. However, if we witness through planting seed, often we are not allowed to see the seed grow or the harvest. If we witness through harvesting, often we are gathering a harvest that was planted by someone else.  

Whether we are planters or harvesters, or both, we should rejoice knowing that the work we are doing ultimately gathers fruit unto eternal life (see Jn. 4: 36). By faith, we take joy that some soul that we have witnessed to has received eternal life through Jesus Christ. Not only do we take joy, but heaven rejoices with us when one has received eternal life in Jesus Christ (Lk. 15:7). This was true for the apostles as well because Jesus informed them that they too were reaping a harvest upon which they did not labor. Jesus told his disciples, “I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.” The “other men” that Jesus was talking about in this verse were the prophets of the Old Testament and John the Baptist. All the prophets of the Old Testament and John the Baptist, told of the coming of the Messiah (Lk. 24: 44). The prophets planted seeds of prophecy that they were not able to see in their lifetime, but the apostles reaped the harvest of those seeds in their lifetime. 

Freedom of Honesty 

            The witness of the Samaritan woman was simple yet remarkable. Her witness was not remarkable because of her heightened intellect or her own purity or virtue. However, the witness of the Samaritan woman was remarkable because of its urgency and its honesty. In John 4:39, the apostle John wrote that “…many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him (Jesus) for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that I ever did.” So, the effectiveness of her witness was not because of her intelligence or her own purity, but her honesty wrought about fruits of intelligence and purity in her life and her witness. In the Samaritan woman’s witness, there is evidence of truth and confession. In 1John 1:8-9, the apostle John wrote that, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Samaritan woman’s sins were seen by God in Christ Jesus. When she knew that her sins were known by Jesus, she did not try to hide or deny it. Instead, she perceived that Jesus was a prophet, only to find out that he was much more than a prophet; he was the Messiah.  

Upon her realization that she had encountered the Messiah who knew her personally, she was compelled to testify from a place of honesty and confession. Because she did not deny, but confessed her sins before the Lord, she was cleansed (1Jn. 1:8-9). Not only was she cleansed, but “…many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.” You see, in the verses prior, Jesus told the woman about true worship saying, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4: 23-24). When she witnessed to the men of Samaria, she did so from a place of true worship saying, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that I ever did: is not this the Christ?” (Jn. 4:29). Not only was the woman cleansed through her confession, but she was also set free from her bondage, because she worshipped the Messiah, the giver of living water. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Through the worshipful witness of the Samaritan woman, she was given knowledge about true worship. She was cleansed, and she was set free from spiritual thirst. Not only was the woman blessed, but many people in her city were also blessed with the freedom of knowing Christ, because she witnessed from a place of honesty and confession. 

Let us pray,           

Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us through the witness of the Samaritan woman. Thank you for your grace, mercy, and love. Thank you for loving people like the Samaritan woman, because it lets us know that we too can receive your love. Thank you for choosing people like the Samaritan woman to worship you and witness for you, because it lets us know that you desire the same for us. Thank you for allowing your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place so that all who believe in him can be forgiven. Thank you for raising Jesus from the dead with all power in his hands, even the power to make us the children of God. Father, help us to worship you and serve you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus Christ’s might name we pray, Amen.