The Woman at the Well — Jesus Offers Living Water

Faithful God, you caused all the Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.

Help us to hear them, mark them, learn them, and inwardly digest them, that by patience

and the comfort of your Holy Word, we may embrace and always hold firmly to the blessed

hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Are you thirsty?

It's a bit warm.

Maybe you are thirsty.

This is my drink bottle.

It was a birthday present a number of years ago, and I had engraved on it my name.

So it says, it's Daniel's Yeti.

But I also had the Bible reference John chapter four, verse 13 engraved on it, which was a

little bit of a joke, because the Bible reference, as we just read out, verse 13 says, Jesus

answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.

And that's the problem with my drink bottle.

I have to keep filling it up.

It quenches my thirst for a short time, and then I need more.

And lots of people today, that's how they live their life.

They keep filling up the water bottles of their life with things that won't last, with

things that will mean that they will need to get filled up again.

It's not uncommon for people to be hanging out for their next big purchase, their house,

a car, a computer, to be hanging out for the next episode of the show that they're watching

to drop, to desperately want that moment of serenity and calm in what can often be

a chaotic life, or some people are longing for romantic fulfillment, or to get that next

pay rise in their job, or to see their superannuation balance look more healthy.

To chase after these things, they can fill you up in the moment, but they don't, and

they can't last.

Well, today, as we look at John chapter four, we meet a woman who has become tired of filling

up her bottle with the empty things of this world.

She is a broken woman, an outcast, and she meets Jesus as he travels through Samaria.

And as we read this account, we need to remember the purpose for which John wrote this gospel.

It's recorded for us in chapter 20, verse 31, but these are written that you may believe

that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in

his name.

This account is here so that we would believe in Jesus and have life.

And we're going to focus today particularly on verses one to 26 of our gospel reading.

Now, as we read through the passage, we notice the situation, the conversation, the revelation,

and then we're going to think about what it means for us today as we live for Jesus.

But first the situation, the place.

Jesus in verse three, he's heading back to Galilee, his hometown region from Judea.

It's a modern-day road trip, a three-day hike if you walked all day, every day.

And on the way, Jesus has to pass through Samaria, similar, I guess, to the journey

that our family's just taken.

We came from Kununurra to Rockhampton.

We had to stop at the three-way in Northern Territory because it was on the way.

There was nowhere else to stop.

And like us stopping at the three-way, it wasn't an accident that Jesus was in this

place where he stopped.

It was planned by God.

He came in verse five to a town in Samaria called Sychar near the plot of the ground

of Jacob that he'd given to his son Joseph, and Jacob's well was there.

Now, Jacob's well was on a little parcel of land bought by the patriarch Jacob in the

book of Genesis, and it was a plot of land that held great promise.

We read last week in church God's promises to Abraham, and one of those promises was

that his descendants, like his grandson Jacob, would become a great nation in a land promised

to them by God.

But in Jacob's time, there was only one little parcel of land that was promised and belonged

to them.

He gave this to his son Joseph, and since then it has been passed on to God's people

up to the time of Jesus.

And so this spot had great significance for God's people because it was a reminder to

them that God is trustworthy and that God does indeed come through on his promises.

And as we read, because it's in this place that Jesus stops, we should expect that something

significant is about to occur.

So verse six, Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well, and it

was about noon.

That is the place.

But we also meet the woman.

In verse seven, as Jesus is sitting, a woman from Samaria comes to draw water.

Now culturally drawing water would most likely happen in the morning and in the evening,

yet she's there at noon, in the heat of the day.

And so we get the feeling as we read that she might be a bit of a social down and out,

an outcast.

But actually what John draws our attention to is she is described as a Samaritan woman.

And Jesus asks this Samaritan woman, will you give me a drink?

Now this is a social no-no, and the woman knows it.

And so we read in verse nine, she says to Jesus, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan

woman.

How can you ask me for a drink, for Jews do not associate with Samaritans?

It's a social no-no because the woman is a Samaritan, and Jews and Samaritans were at

enmity with each other.

And it was based on their longstanding argument about where the place to worship God was.

Was it in Jerusalem?

Was it in Samaria?

This is the issue, that is the elephant in the room.

And Jews and Samaritans did not associate or talk with each other because of it.

Today it would be like a bit like if a police officer while off duty went and sat down with

a criminal from a bike gang he just arrested, and then they had a drink together.

It's kind of unimaginable.

And that's what the situation here is with Jesus and the woman at the well.

The other social no-no is that the Samaritan is a woman.

Culturally it wasn't seen as appropriate.

When the disciples come back from buying food in verse 27, they're surprised to see Jesus

speaking with a woman.

And so this is the situation of Jesus's conversation.

We've got a place with great promise and a very unlikely interaction with a Samaritan woman.

And so we come to the conversation.

Jesus is aware of the situation and he uses the awkwardness of the situation to teach

the woman and us about himself.

In verse 10, Jesus answers her,

Living water.

Living water.

Now water is described as fresh, refreshing, stale, stagnant, flowing, icy, warm, clear,

murky, potable or drinkable.

But living water?

What is Jesus talking about?

Jesus is saying he knows the source of a living water.

And he can get this woman a cup.

And the woman is interested.

She wants to know the source of this living water.

In verse 11, she's intrigued, but she's also starting to put two and two together.

And so in verse 12, she asks Jesus,

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself

as he did his sons and his livestock?

Jesus, are you greater than our ancestors?

And Jesus, in response, effectively says yes.

But he does it by telling her how he can provide for her life eternally, unlike Jacob.

See, Jacob provided water that makes you thirst again, like my drink bottle.

And you can imagine Jesus pointing at the water and saying,

You know, if you drink this water, you'll be thirsty again in verse 13.

But then in verse 14, whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

The water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The water given by Jesus will become a spring, a continual source of water that brings life forever.

Life eternally.

Now, after Jesus says this, the woman recognizes that this encounter with Jesus is not a regular encounter.

But she has encountered someone who can change her life.

She wants this water.

She doesn't want to be thirsty.

She wants to live forever.

She wants eternal life.

And so in verse 15, the woman said to him,

So give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.

She wants her water bottle to be full.

Her water bottle of life.

And that's what Jesus is offering.

Jesus is inviting her to ask him for eternal life.

And she is ready.

So we've seen the situation.

We've seen the conversation.

Let's now look at the revelation.

Because Jesus reveals that the way that the woman has been living has not left her full, but thirsty.

In verse 16, Jesus asks the woman to go and get her husband, but she can't.

And Jesus said to her in verse 17,

You're right when you say you have no husband.

The fact is you've had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband.

You get the sense that her life is one of regret, of sadness, of brokenness.

She's coming at noon to get water after all.

And yet rather than expressing shame about her life or getting defensive with Jesus and justifying her actions,

she is amazed at Jesus.

She recognizes that he is from God.

Calls him a prophet in verse 19.

And then she's bold.

She also asks about the elephant in the room.

The place of worship.

Verse 20, our ancestors worshipped on this mountain.

But you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.

But when there is living water involved, the place of worship becomes less important.

What becomes important is how we worship God.

It's not about Jerusalem.

It's not about Samaria.

Do you see what Jesus says in verse 23?

A time is coming when worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

They are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.

Last week we saw with Nicodemus the need to be born again with water and spirit by believing in Jesus.

Well today we see that if we are to worship God, we need spirit and we need truth.

Which Jesus offers us, his living water.

Water that will well up in us like a spring to eternal life when we believe in Jesus.

It's not like a bottle of Gatorade which you buy and drink and last just for a moment.

It's something offered to us free when we believe in Jesus.

And it's not physical water, but it's spiritual water.

Water for eternal life.

At the moment, you may be aware of this, there's a race to get commercial flights into space.

If you've got enough money, you can pay half a million dollars or whatever it's going to cost you

and you can travel into space.

It sounds exciting, doesn't it?

I'd love to be on one of those flights.

I don't have that kind of money though.

If I was going to fly into space on one of those flights, I would need to be offered a ticket.

A ticket would have to be given to me and it would be free because I couldn't afford to pay.

That's what Jesus is offering here.

A free ticket, but for something much better than a flight into space.

Life in eternity through believing in Him.

And when we believe in Him, we get that water.

God gives us His Holy Spirit which comes to dwell in us and produce in us life forever.

Filling us up forever.

And Jesus can offer this in verses 25 and 26 because He is the Messiah.

I am He, He said.

He is the anointed King.

He is the fulfillment of God's promises to Jacob.

He offers better water than the well of Jacob.

And Jesus the Messiah will do something unheard of to give us this eternal life.

He will voluntarily be hung on a cross.

A terrible death reserved for the worst of criminals to die for us.

And His death on the cross was for us.

He died in our place before God to forgive our sin and to bring us into relationship with God.

So the woman could express amazement at Jesus, could accept His gift.

Because Jesus would take away her shame and her sin on the cross.

And give her the Holy Spirit.

Eternal life forever.

And so like the woman at the well, we should drink it up.

And the woman was excited.

She went and told everyone in the town about Jesus, didn't she?

How He was the Messiah.

How He knew her heart.

How He could give her what no one else could.

Eternal life.

And so we need to believe in Jesus.

We need to trust Him.

We need to accept His offer and have eternal life.

Now, as we think about this for living for Jesus today, here's just three brief thoughts that can help us.

The first one is we need to chase after that which will fill us for eternal life.

We're not to chase the things that will not eternally satisfy us.

We want our lives to be full, to be meaningful, to matter.

Well, if we're to do that, we need to chase the things that will actually fill us up.

Relationships, material things, trips, money, entertainment.

Good gifts from God.

But they're not going to fill us up for eternal life.

They might feel good in the moment, but they will leave us thirsty.

At the conference I was at this weekend, the speaker used the quote from C.S. Lewis.

He says, if I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy,

the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

And we were made for another world, by God, for eternal life with Him.

So don't chase the things of this world, knowing that they won't deliver.

But look to Jesus.

The second thought is that the only way that we can worship God today is by looking to Jesus.

He is the only way that we can worship in spirit and in truth.

The spring inside us is the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in us

when we believe in Jesus and accept His offer.

And without that, we cannot worship God.

John 14, verse 6, Jesus says,

John 14:6

I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.

We need to be born again. We need a spiritual rebirth by believing in Jesus.

And only then can we worship in spirit and in truth.

And this means that the location of our worship doesn't matter.

Through the generosity of faithful saints,

we have buildings that we use to worship in.

And they're a great blessing from God.

And I think as God's people, we should be conscious of leaving a similar legacy for the next generation.

But actually, we don't need them to worship God.

In fact, it's possible to walk into a church building and not worship God.

To just be going through the motions and not have a heart

that is drinking from the well of eternal life that Jesus offers us.

It's so important that we believe in Jesus.

The third thought, if others are to hear about Jesus,

we, like the woman, can invite others to come and to listen to Him.

The people of Rockhampton are chasing things that are maybe filling them up for a moment,

but is ultimately leaving them unsatisfied.

And we have the good news of Jesus.

And we can share that.

We can invite people to come and to listen to Him.

Just like the woman. What does she do?

She's a social outcast, but she goes back into town and says,

Come and listen to the man who told me everything I've ever done.

She wants others to know the good news of Jesus and how He brings eternal life.

And that same thing can happen today as we get excited about Jesus and the life He gives.

Jesus is the one who gives us the drink so that we will never thirst again.

So are you thirsty?

Only Jesus can satisfy.

So believe in Him. Have life in His name.

Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give us hearts and minds that thirst after Jesus

and not the empty things of this world.

Thank you that you gave us Jesus and that Jesus gives us eternal life through believing in Him.

The spring that wells up in us.

And thank you that through Jesus we can worship you.

We can bring you praise and honour.

And help us this week to have the excitement that the woman had about Jesus

and sharing the gift of eternal life with others.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.