Living Water for a Thirsty Soul (John 4:1–14)
SERMON TRANSCRIPT:
So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, in fact, let me see, how many hard copy Bibles do we have out there with people, okay? How many digital Bibles do we have out there? Hold them up, okay? Let me see, let me see. Hold them up for a second. All right, that's good. Now turn those Bibles to John chapter 4. It's the beginning of a new chapter.
While you're doing that, one of the things we celebrate is that we're part of the universal church of Christ. There are people around the world in different nations who are praising the Lord together in different languages and things like that, but there is a side of us that appreciate things in our country, right? Like winning the gold cup with a men's hockey team. Isn't that great? I love to be an American and beat the other nations. There's something about it, but it feels good. And I don't even like hockey, but if we win, we win. Even on that, what's that icing game they got? That's curling. That's totally fascinating to me how they do that stuff. That that's even a game, but it is. And if we win in that, we win. I can tell some of you really don't care about the sports world. Someone told me earlier that they've discovered my idol and it's sports. And I said, well, you may be right. So I'm working on it.
Anyway, Jesus said something very, very famous as he was facing the hard temptations after 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, being tempted by the devil and were given the three temptations. And one of his responses was, he was quoting Deuteronomy 8, man shall not live by bread alone but by... every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
So that's why we open our Bibles, because it's not my word, it's not what the world is saying is true, it's what God says is true about life. And we've been learning a lot about the Lord Jesus Christ. At least 33 to 35, up to this chapter, descriptions of Jesus Christ and who he is, just early on in the chapters of this great gospel. And we're commanded to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so we're going to be hearing similarities all the way through, and we're going to be going through the gospel in different ways like we're going to be going today when he talks about living water.
But I want to begin the message this way. Now think about this with me. there is not really too many people that maybe you know of or I know of in our society who would be willing to do whatever it takes to give you what you need the most in your life. Isn't that true?
Now there's a lot of people out there who will give you what their perception is or maybe their research concludes that you need or want. There are others out there who will give you what their cost-benefit analysis allows them to give you And then most, though, are not thinking about the ultimate need, nor are they willing to do whatever it takes to give you the answer to your ultimate need, except for one person, and that's Jesus Christ.
And so what we're learning through the Gospel of John is that Jesus is always showing up, interacting with multitudes or interacting one-on-one with like Nicodemus, a religious leader. And now we're going to find out he's interacting with somebody on the other side of life who's a woman, who's a Samaritan woman, and she's an immoral Samaritan woman. And yet Jesus is calling her to come and receive the gift of God.
It's amazing what the good news is all about. It's amazing that our good news will meet the basic need of every single person no matter if they're rich or they're poor or they're educated or they're uneducated or they're influential or they're not influential or they're known or they're not known.
And with your Bibles open, devices on, let's begin reading in verse chapter one here of chapter four, because we're going through a transition of Jesus interacting with Nicodemus, and now he's gonna be interacting and moving to another location to interact with a woman.
Notice, therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were. he left Judea in the south and went away again into Galilee, which is up north, and he had to pass through Samaria. That's interesting.
So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of the ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well, and it was about the sixth hour or noon.
There came a woman of Samaria to draw water, and Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman? Why? For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.
Verse 10, Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. And she said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is very deep. Where then do you get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob and you who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle. Wow.
And this is just the beginning of Jesus interacting with a woman. He's going to get a little deeper with her about that living water and about her life and about how it transforms her life. And she goes into the city and invites everybody to come and to see this man who knew everything about her.
You see, John 3 records the encounter with Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, so he was at the top of his religious game, so he thought. He knew the Old Testament, he was a highly moral man, and he was clearly stunned by Jesus Christ when he says, listen, unless you're born again, you're not gonna see the kingdom of heaven. Because he needed the new birth. And he came to Jesus because he noticed something about Jesus.
Then we come to chapter four, like we just read, and we see this encounter with the immoral Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. where Jesus skillfully shows her that she needed the living water that only he can give. She wasn't even looking for Jesus. She wasn't even thinking about a Messiah.
Notice the stark difference between these two people that John shares these stories and only these stories here. about Nicodemus and about this Samaritan woman. They couldn't be as different as anybody, which reminds us that no matter who you are and what your background is, Jesus has an interest in our lives as his image bearers who've been really destroyed by sin.
Notice the difference. Nicodemus was a Jewish man. She was the Samaritan woman. He was educated. She was unschooled. He was orthodox in faith and she had no faith in that way. He was a high-level leader and she was a low-living party girl. He was an up-and-outer and she was the down-and-outer as an outcast. He was morally upright and she was immoral. He was respected and she was despised.
He came to Jesus Christ at night and she comes and finds Jesus Christ coming to her at noon. He clearly sought out Jesus because he recognized his own merits but learned otherwise. She had no idea who the stranger at the well was who sought her out. He responded very slowly and rationally, and she responded very quickly and emotionally.
Notice how different they were. But notice, Jesus loved them both. Why? Because the Bible says he's a friend of sinners. And it doesn't matter if you're a notorious sinner or maybe you're a self-righteous sinner. It doesn't matter to him. He comes with his compassion and he comes with his love because he's a savior to all who are willing to believe in him. And he's more than willing and committed to give us what we need the most.
So we come to this great encounter that Jesus has with this woman in a city that most of us probably never heard of except reading here at John of Sychar. What's amazing about this encounter is that Jesus really defied all the cultural protocols to pursue this woman.
It wasn't just any woman. She had a reputation. It wasn't just any location. It was Samaria, a land of half-breeds. It wasn't just any person. It was the Lord Jesus Christ who was seeking her out and to be able to meet any need, no matter what the circumstance or barrier or belief.
So I want to take us from verse 4 to verse 14 and look at three abilities Jesus demonstrates to us about how he can help us know and follow and love him even more as we interact with unbelievers around us.
But before we get there, I wanna look at verses one to three to talk about this transition because there's a transition from Nicodemus now to this woman. There's a transition from the southern part of Judea. Now he's going up to Samaria and through Galilee, and headed to Galilee, his Galilean ministry, and goes through Samaria.
You see, Jesus was never one to avoid conflict, but it clearly says in verse 1, he knows the Pharisees were watching him. They were watching his very move, John the Baptist and Jesus. And so he knew that it was going to get worse and worse, and they wanted to take him out, which eventually is what happened. They stirred up the crowds, crucify him, crucify him, and he died. But it was on God's timetable.
So Jesus wanted to avoid a premature confrontation with the Pharisees. He had much ministry yet to do before it was his time, so he left Judea and went to Galilee through Samaria. Notice verse 2, he clarifies that Jesus was not actually baptizing people, but his disciples were. And the baptism, again, was based on a repentance of sin and for their forgiveness of sin that was practiced as well by John the Baptist.
And Jesus' ministry was growing, being more notorious and noticed. Now, what's interesting to me about verse 2 is Paul, remember Paul, when he was writing the first Corinthians, his first letter, he says, listen, some say I'm of Paul, and some say I'm of Paulus, and some say I'm of so-and-so, and And Paul was reminding them, listen, it's not about who baptized you. He goes, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you.
And it's almost like maybe Jesus didn't literally do the baptizing, which he could do very well because he didn't want it to go to anybody's hell. He was walking around, hey, I was baptized by the man, Jesus Christ. So the baptisms were done by his disciples. They were doing all the actual immersions.
So let's look at these three abilities that really jump out to me in these verses four to 14 that really help us understand how the Lord Jesus Christ interacts with people and he opens the door and he steers the conversations.
Three abilities that we see here. Number one ability is this, is Jesus is able to recognize divine appointments. He knows he's on God's calendar. He knows that his hour has not yet come. Notice verse 4. This is interesting, I think. And he had to pass through Samaria.
Now, why? There were three different routes. Even though it was a normal route, it was the shortest route, it was the most direct route, it was the common route, not by the Jews. They would go all the way around because they did not like the Samaritans, and the Samaritans didn't like him or them. But he chose that direct route. He had to.
What is it about that word had that reminds us that something purposeful is happening, something compelling is happening, something essential is happening about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ? He's following the divine appointments of his heavenly father.
He could have stayed in Judea longer because his ministry was thriving and the baptisms were up, but he knew he was on the Pharisees' watch list You see, Jesus had a quality that we lack and need and that we can't really have in the same way. He was driven by God's calendar and timing.
In fact, back in chapter 2 when we were talking about the miracle at the wedding feast, here's what it says in chapter 2 verse 4. He told his mother, quote, my hour has not yet come. And you're going to see that all throughout the gospel of John. He talks about that hour is not yet here.
In chapter 7, verse 30, when Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Feast of the Booths, where there's one week of celebration, he teaches in the temple, and then he stirs up the crowds, and some, quote, were seeking to seize him, and no man laid a hand on Jesus. Isn't that incredible? He just walked right out. But notice this, because his hour had not yet come.
Jesus had a divine appointment in Samaria, and John's calling attention to the hour, and even using the word must, he must go, because he reminds us that he's working by the mission of his heavenly Father who sent him.
In fact, if you'll notice in John chapter four, look over at verse 34. This gives you an idea of how Jesus is thinking. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. So I'm following his will. And if he wants me to go through Samaria, I'm going through Samaria. If he wants me to go to Jacob's well, I'm going to Jacob's well. If he wants me to go to Sychar, I'm going. If he wants me to talk to this woman, I'm going to do it.
And it's interesting because he's God, but he's also a man. So he has this divine appointment with a woman named who would shake up the village of Sychar with what happens to her as a result of this encounter.
By the way, it's about 30 miles north of Jerusalem. It's kind of like us driving down a shoreline. That's about how far they walked. Halfway between Jerusalem and Nazareth in the north, at the base of the mountain Gerizim, which is going to come into play here a little bit later on, which he represents the Samaritans. That's their holy mountain. That's where Jacob's well was at.
But notice Jesus in verse 5 and 6, he heads straight to Jacob's well, about a half mile outside the village. And guess what? There were other wells available, but he went to Jacob's well. There's an appointment there.
His disciples had gone into the city, what, to buy food, it says, and the distance from where Jesus had been baptizing into Sychar was about 40 miles by road, and Jesus comes into town, and he finds this well, and he finds this woman all alone, nobody else but him and the woman, and he says, give me a drink. Why? Because he's weary. He's weary. He's tired. He's tired.
Now there's two things we're gonna learn about Jesus almost in every chapter, and we've been talking about it every week, is this, is that he is God and he is man. 100% God, 100% man. Can you figure that out? No, I can't either. It's an impossibility. That's why he's unique in his incarnation.
And so we're gonna see his humanity here when he gets thirsty and needs to drink. But then next week, we're going to see that he knows every single thing about this woman, and he tells her, hey, listen, you've had five husbands, and you're living with somebody right now. And she's like, what? How would you know this? We don't even know each other. They're stunned by it.
But he meets her about the sixth hour, which is noon, which is very interesting because the women generally went to get water every single day in the morning before the heat came. And in the later evening, when the heat was gone, they never went at noon.
So why would she go at noon? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that she was living a shame-filled life because of her five marriages and the adultery she was living in at that moment. And she just wanted to go alone. By the way, the women went in groups to get the water, and she went by herself.
So watch this, Jesus uses, listen to this, a particular human need that he had of thirst to visit a particular spring well that was well known, Jacob's well, so he could meet a particular woman who was a Samaritan and immoral in that at a particular time at noon when nobody's usually there to draw water and provide her for her particular need which was living water. It's amazing.
We have a God who is providential over all of our life, and he is a God who sets up divine appointments. We'll talk about that a little bit later on. But Jesus is operating according to this divine game plan, and he understands our need and is drawn to our need, and this is the essence of really a purpose-driven, guided ministry that Jesus has.
His mission is to equip his people to what? The ministry of reconciliation, Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians 5. When God chases down us, we are his enemies. And he, through his son Jesus Christ, put him on the cross so he could reconcile our lives to himself. So no longer are we enemies, now we're friends. Now we're family.
And here's what Paul says, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. That's just another version of the Great Commission.
So whether you live in Sychar like this woman or you live in South Puget Sound, Jesus will go out of his way to locate us and to rescue us.
The second thing that we see about his ability in the text is this, is that Jesus is able to remove difficult barriers that are in the way. And there was a lot of barriers here. This unnamed woman is hoping to go unnoticed in her daily trip to draw water, but she runs into this very strange and unique man who she was hoping she would never see, but she knew men very well, but he made her nervous.
Verse 8 says that Jesus was alone, and his disciples had gone into the city to buy food, and So Jesus knows in order to reach this woman, he needs to break through some social and cultural barriers that would be up and prejudices which he's more than willing to do.
So what does he do? He initiates the conversation. He makes a request that he knows will engage her ultimately at her point of need and he just says this, give me a drink and the ice begins to break and they begin to talk about life and then he goes even deeper which we're gonna see next week when he says he knows these things about her life and her life is flashing before her eyes with the hope of maybe some change and real fulfillment and satisfaction in her life.
What are the four barriers we see here? Well, number one barrier is this. He broke through a gender barrier because it wasn't socially acceptable for a Jewish man to talk to a woman in public. That's the way it was in the first century.
In fact, the disciples, when they get back from out of town, or get in town to get food, in verse 27, notice what it says. The disciples marveled that he'd been speaking to a woman publicly. It's almost like, what are you doing, Jesus? Jesus?
So he broke through the gender barrier. Secondly, he broke through the religious barrier. It was not proper for a rabbi like Jesus to be speaking to a woman because it was believed back in that day that Jewish women should not be taught the Scriptures. Can you believe that?
There was a rabbinical rule that said this, and I quote, publicly. Wow. Wow.
And the Samaritans, since they were half-breeds, they only believed in the first five books of the Old Testament, and they worshiped at a different mountain. And there was great animosity between the Jewish people and the half-breeds, the Samaritans.
Which brings me to the third barrier they broke, and it was this, it was the racial barrier. You see, the Jews hated the Samaritans' neighbors because they were a mixed breed that couldn't really prove their genealogy. This was really the woman's shock.
Didn't we see that in verse 9? Look again in verse 9 when she says, How is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I'm a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. She's stunned. She's shocked.
Well, the hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans went back centuries. To give you a little history, after the Assyrians conquered the ten northern tribes in 722 B.C., then they were deported. Some of them were left in the area, and they began to intermarry with other nations that worshipped other gods, and they corrupted what God had called them to do to marry other Jewish peoples. Their religion was a mixture of their foreign gods with Judaism.
And when the exiles from the southern kingdom of Judah returned, when they were the two southern tribes, so you had the 12 tribes, 10 in the north, 2 in the south. When they returned from Babylon, the Samaritans offered to help them rebuild the temple, and the Jews viewed them as foreign enemies. No, you're not going to help us. They refused the offer.
The same thing happened later when Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of and they offered to help. In fact, they threatened them to try to stop it with Nehemiah, and they were the Samaritans who came after Nehemiah in animosity.
Then in about 400 B.C., the Samaritans built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim, and a Jewish leader at that time burned down that temple in 128 B.C., which didn't improve relationships between the two groups.
So the Jews viewed the Samaritans as a biological and religious half-breed. And all of these events and all of these factors had led to the intense hostility that they had. And here's Jesus just breaking through all these barriers.
By the way, I was just checking this week. We live here in Federal Way. And I decided, hey, what's our demographic? And what are the percentages of the different groups that we have in our cities? Listen to this.
38% of Federal Way is white Caucasian. 20% of Federal Way is Hispanic or Latino across all races. 15% is Asian, including all Asian backgrounds. 14% is black or African American. Two or more races makes up 7% of our city, and 5% are Native American. So we have quite a mix here. Quite an opportunity that God gives us in our outreach that God has given us with the gospel of Christ.
But the fourth barrier that he broke through was he broke through the moral barrier She was notoriously this party girl, like I mentioned earlier, with serial marriages, five of them, and an immoral reputation in town.
And why would Jesus do all of this? Why would he go to Jacob's well? Why would he want to be alone with this woman? Because he's a friend of sinners, like we said, and it's her time. And so he's got a sinful, shameful, soiled person to find and to rescue for the Lord Jesus Christ.
The application for us who know Christ, I think, is pretty clear. If you want to be like your Savior, we should be maybe seeking out unlikely candidates that we don't normally interact with and to see how the Lord might want to use us to break the ice, to open the door, to drop some gospel seeds, to begin some spiritual conversations.
I know from time to time, sometimes I'll size people up that I maybe want to try to share with, and I wrongly think in my mind they probably wouldn't be interested in spiritual things. I don't know why I think that, because all of my life I've noticed the ones I think that are going to be easy to talk to are always the hardest, and the ones I think that are going to beat me up and kill me, they become the easiest. It's crazy.
But maybe I'm speaking to someone here online today who has a notorious sinful past and maybe right now you're still living in your sin and the application for you is to know that Jesus goes after anyone no matter the depth or the complexity of their sin to be one of his followers.
Jesus said that he came to seek and to save those who were lost remember he saved the thief on the cross at the last minute He saved the chief of sinners, who was Paul, who later wrote 13 of the New Testament letters. He saved this immoral Samaritan woman, and he can save you as well.
So Jesus is able to recognize divine appointments. He's able to remove the difficult barriers. But thirdly, we see here that Jesus is able to resolve this definitive thirstiness that people have in their life.
Something is missing, and yes, I can drink the water, and I can drink the drinks that I think's gonna keep me healthy, but I'm gonna keep drinking those drinks, but there's something that just keeps gnawing away that I'm not fully satisfied, I'm not fully fulfilled. What's life really all about? And Jesus knew she was going through that.
Look it, she's on the relationship Five marriages and now living with somebody who wasn't her mate. Thomas Watson, who was the 17th century English Puritan preacher, said this, and I quote, Isn't that true? Isn't that true?
It's a little like the North African theologian Augustine of Hippo in the late 300s who famously wrote in his book, The Confessions, You see, Jesus is the ultimate thirst quencher is what he's trying to say.
Yet it wasn't this woman, yet this woman said, sir, you look like a Jewish rabbi, and I'm hungry to know your God. She wasn't saying that. She wasn't even looking for him. She was like, oh no, here's a man, and Jacob said, I tried to come at noon. I mean, nobody else is going to come. She was just going about her daily duty, minding her own business, and then
She encounters Jesus who steers the conversation from physical water to spiritual water. And she wasn't even seeking to know God. And her guilt over her current live-in boyfriend and her five marriages, which had probably ended because of her adulteries, caused her to keep a distance from God, maybe shamefully. Maybe.
And the only explanation of this story is that Jesus was seeking a sinner who wasn't ever seeking him. And he just said, he broke the ice, give me a drink. And he found some common ground that could lead toward a purposeful discussion.
I mean, think of the irony, really, of that statement. Here is one who created the Puget Sound. He created the Pacific Ocean and all the streams and all the rivers and all the lakes. And he's saying this, give me a drink.
He is the water of life. He is the thirsty one who comes after traveling 30, 40 miles right into the heart of the real need, and he plays off the physical thirstiness to talk about a spiritual thirstiness that can be quenched in an amazing way.
Notice in verse 10, Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Living water.
Let's not forget that the living water that Jesus gives is a gift. Isn't it? We talk about that all the time. In fact, doesn't it seem like that's been coming up almost every week or every other week as we go through the Gospel of John?
And you might have been here from the beginning on the series and going, hey, I'm hearing the same things every week. Are you going to preach on something different? But I think the reason why we're told these things so often in Scripture is because it's hard for sinners who are blind and deaf to the gospel to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think and say, I can do something about this. I can try harder. I can be a morally upright person. I can really understand. I can figure this whole thing out. And we can't.
So what comes to mind when you think of a gift? It's Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. It's a gift.
And Jesus reminds her of that to say, listen, this is a gift. If you would have known this gift is living water, you would have asked me.
You see, the gospel's not good news if it requires that you must do penance or reform your life or keep a bunch of rules or have your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds or maybe hope that God grades on a curve so you just slide in by the nick of your teeth. No.
It is amazing good news when God reminds us that it is a gift, and that's the only way we enjoy forgiveness of sins and eternal life. It says in verse 10, he would have given you that eternal life. He would have given you that.
You know, I think she's thinking, okay, he's using different language here, and I'm going to give him a drink, but what's happening here? Living water? I mean...
Yeah, I mean, it's important, right? Water is good for your health, right? I mean, have you guys been out there to our Lost and Found table for three weeks now? There are so many water bottles out there that people carry around, and I see people carrying water bottles all the time because, you know, you're in a meeting, all of a sudden the bottle tips over and it makes that noise, you know?
And, I mean, people walk around with water all the time, right? Now, you know, I know water is good for you, I'm not a water drinker per se, but I want you to know when I met with my doctor before I did my knee replacement and they told me I had to drink all this water, I said, can I drink iced tea? And he said, that's okay. And I'm like, praise the Lord, baby. I can sweeten up that water, right?
But you know what happens? You can go out and mow the lawn, you can go out and do a lot of housework, you can go out and do a lot of projects, and you can use your body with a lot of energy. You're thirsty, and so you go and get a drink, and guess what? The next day you're thirsty again, or the next hour you're thirsty again.
We like to drink and drink and drink and drink. Why? Because we get weary, and our body cries out over and over again. And Jesus is trying to say, listen, you've got living water, and you only have to drink it once. And you'll never thirst again. What a message that is.
Turn your Bibles just a few pages over to John chapter 7. Here's where we're going to be coming into. John chapter 7, beginning of verse 37. Look at this.
Verse 37, now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and wouldn't you love to hear this? He cried out. Was that loud voice or what? Saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
And he who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But
SERMON SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
Hebrews 4:14-16 - Read at the beginning of the service
Psalm 22:27, 18 - Referenced in song introduction
John 4:1-14 - Main sermon text (read and expounded)
John 4:27 - Referenced regarding disciples marveling
John 4:34 - Jesus' food is to do the Father's will
John 2:4 - "My hour has not yet come"
John 7:30 - His hour had not yet come
John 7:37-39 - Living water and the Spirit
Matthew 4:4 / Deuteronomy 8:3 - Man shall not live by bread alone
2 Corinthians 5 - Ministry of reconciliation
Romans 8:1 - No condemnation for those in Christ
Ephesians 2:8-9 - Saved by grace through faith, not works
Jeremiah 2:13 - Fountain of living waters
Isaiah 55:1 - Come to the water of life
Revelation 22 - Water of life without cost
Psalm 42 - Panting after God like a deer
Psalm 63 - Soul thirsts for God
Romans 10:13 - Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
Philippians 2:6-11 - Christ's humiliation and exaltation (read before final song)
1 John - We are God's children (alluded to)