Springs of Living Water (John 4:5-26) (3/8/26)

As we enter this Lenten season, we're in week

three. We want to continue our thoughts of our

Lord's sufferings and for us ourselves for our

repentance as we get to know him better. So now

let us go before the Lord and ask for his blessing

of the preaching of his word. We give you thanks

and praise, Heavenly Father, that you have given

us your Son to be the revelation of your glory.

and to come and to take a bride for himself.

We ask that you help us look to him for all things

that we need. Help us every day to honor him

as the faithful King and Savior. Hear all our

prayers for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. So just as a note in our gospel reading,

what you saw published in our communications

this week was a little bit longer. for the sake

of people and children paying attention. I've

taken out several portions of that, both in our

reading and today. I'll try to make note of it

as we go through today. Although I am starting

several verses earlier, just two lines to provide

some context. So today we're reading from John

chapter four, beginning in verse three. And the

he here is Jesus. He left Judea and departed

again to Galilee. But he needed to go through

Samaria. So he came to a city in Samaria which

is called Sychar, near a plot of ground that

Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well

was there. Jesus therefore, being weary from

his journey, sat thus by the well, and it was

about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came

to draw water, and Jesus said to her, give me

a drink. For his disciples had gone away into

the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria

said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew,

ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews

have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered

and said to her, If you knew the gift of God

and who it was who says to you, give me a drink,

you would have asked him, and he would have given

you living water. The woman said to him, Sir,

you have nothing to draw with, and the well is

deep. Where then do you get living water? Are

you greater than our father Jacob who gave us

the well and drank from it himself, as well as

his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and

said to her, whoever drinks of this water will

thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water

that I shall give him will never thirst. But

the water that I shall give him will become in

him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting

life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this

water that I might not thirst, nor come here

to draw. Jesus said to her, Go and call your

husband and come here. The woman answered, I

have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have

well said I have no husband, for you have had

five husbands, and the one whom you now have

is not your husband, in that you spoke truly.

And the woman said, Sir, I perceive that you're

a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,

and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place

where one should worship. And Jesus said to her,

Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you

will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem

worship the Father. You worship what you do not

know. We know what we worship, for salvation

is from the Jews. But the hour is coming. It

is now when true worshipers will worship the

Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father

is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit,

and those who worship him must worship him in

spirit and in truth. The woman said to him, I

know that the Messiah is coming who is called

the Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all

things. Jesus said to her, I, who speak to you,

am He. These are the words of Almighty God. Receive

them in your hearts. There's three things that

I want you to look at and understand about this

passage. There's three things. And by the way,

for those of you who might have seen it on the

realm already this morning, I've put these three

points into our communications. As well as all

of the supporting verses that I reference in

the sermon today So these three things are this?

God has purpose to save his bride the church

God has purpose to save his bride the church

Second worship matters worship matters And the

third thing is this Jesus' springs of living

waters is gifted to us that we may be springs

of life to others. That is, Jesus' springs of

living waters is gifted to us that we may be

springs of life to others. As we look at today's

text, there's a few things that must be understood

before we look deeply into it. First, our text

is part of the entire theme of the scriptures.

As one commentator says, boy meets girl. And

I would say boy meets girl by water. Adam meets

Eve in a garden that is watered by a river flowing

out to the four corners of the world. Isaac's

wife was discovered at a well. Jacob met his

wife at a well. Moses met his wife. At a well.

In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, we

see the marriage supper of the lamb. This is

Christ's marriage to his bride, the church. So

from beginning to end, there's this narrative

of a man finding his bride at waters. It is important

for us to understand the connection of living

waters from wells symbolizing marriage covenants

and the fidelity to the covenant. We know that

Jesus is faithful, but Solomon in the book of

Proverbs chapter 5 also emphasizes to men this,

Proverbs 5 · chapter mention

and Solomon teaches his son this, drink water

from your own cistern, your own well, and running

water from your own well. Should your fountains

be dispersed abroad and streams of water in the

streets, let them be only your own and not for

strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed

and rejoice with the wife of your youth." So

here, this cistern, this well of water, right?

It's representative of the covenant and how you

as a man shouldn't share your waters with others

and you shouldn't try to drink from any other

source of water than your own wife. Our passage

this morning, so, oh, excuse me. It is important.

For us to remember this, here's a connection

to us, because this is always the question, what

does this mean to me? Right? Jesus meets his

bride, that's us, the church, and the living

waters of baptism which are overshadowed by the

Spirit. Again, Jesus meets his bride and the

living waters of baptism overshadowed by the

Spirit. So there's an emphasis here as Jesus

comes to this woman at the well, that Jesus finds

a Samaritan woman at the well and she is in need

of a true and faithful husband. I think we can

agree with that. There's also here as a foundation

a serious lesson in Bible study methods that

needs to be understood. We often read our own

prejudices, experiences, and some of our former

tutoring or teachings into our understanding

when we read the Bible. And in this way, we certainly

skew and make our own crooked ideas into the

text as if they're fact, but they're simply not

there. This is real important. It's normative.

We all have a lens of our experience and what

we've heard. Right, but we must guard ourselves

when we look at the scriptures not to see it

as we've always heard But what is in the text

we must use scripture to interpret scripture?

Even if you have your favorite Bible teachers

and preachers even myself included What's in

the text? What is the Bible itself? Tell us about

the text and don't put it in put in your own

ideas These false ideas and mischaracterizations

are taught and sometimes repeated so much that

it just becomes the common but untrue reading

of God's Word. This woman at the well is a great

example of this. It has been common to assume

that this woman is guilty of living her whole

life as sexually immoral. It is understood by

having so many husbands, and now that she's living

with a man that is not her husband. This is simply

not in the text first Jesus who has never been

bashful about pointing out sins that people need

to repent of Only points to the fact in sin that

she is living with a man that is now not her

husband We're not given any explanation for why

she had had five husbands She could certainly

just be what we call in the modern day a black

widow. She gets married and somehow they die.

Now I know a lot of times we look at that with

suspicion. But I want to point out to you, right,

that the Puritan minister John Flavel had four

wives. His first three wives just died by various

things that happened to them. We don't look at

that Puritan great and say, Well, he must have

been poisoned all his wives or why did he have

so many wives? No. We need to treat the Samaritan

woman simply with the facts in the text. It's

also important for us to remember that at that

time divorce was initiated only by the husband.

We don't know the reasons that she was divorced.

It could have been that she was a serial adulterous

woman or It's just as likely, because of the

corruption of the rabbinical teachings, a man

could divorce his wife for any reason, and this

was actually the rabbinical teachings, for burning

his dinner. It sounds like today, that's right,

divorce for any reason. Now it's really important

for us to know, farther down in the text, in

verse 39, we read that many of the Samaritans

of the cities believed in Jesus because of the

testimony of this woman. If she were a woman

scorned and ostracized because of her wickedness,

her testimony would not have likely counted for

much. Now what the text does show is this. It

does show that this woman who has experienced

a lot of hardship in her relationships had found

no long -term help in her five husbands. And

it seems that now she has given up on marriage

and is now definitely living in sin with a man

who is not her husband. As you know, this is

like the people of Samaria and Judea. They look

to other gods and idols and now for many in those

lands They are spiritually living with the man

who is not their husband So as we consider God's

word at any time let us be careful to look to

the scriptures to interpret Itself, let us guard

ourselves not to read into the scriptures what

it's not there With these points as a foundation.

Let us turn to our passage first of all It says

this, that Jesus left Judea and departed Galilee.

But he needed to go through Samaria. And so it

says that he came to a city of Samaria. And we

heard about this city, Sychar. It's kind of sort

of on the lower half of Samaria. So you got Judea

down here. You got Galilee up here. And you have

Samaria kind of situated in the middle. It's

important for us to realize. That Jesus had been

in Jerusalem. He had cleansed the temple. Then

he had a meeting with Nicodemus Right the great

teacher of Israel about the necessity to be born

of the spirit and of water and His disciples

then went out from there and were baptizing disciples

and followers of Jesus and it is in that Characterization

that he comes in it is in that way that he comes

in he says I need to go to Samaria. Now, this

word need is better understood as this, as the

necessity to do what is required to attain some

end. It is the necessity to do what is required

to attain some end. Now, someone could say, well,

his end was I got to get to Galilee, right? But

he says, I need to go to Samaria. Most of the

Jews in those days, they would actually do this.

Again, I kind of made this map for you and here's

the River Jordan kind of on the edge. They would

actually go out of Judea and over on the other

side of the Jordan River and go all the way up

and then back over. They were so eager to come

into no contact with the Samaritans that they

went the long way around. Jesus says, no, I need

to go to Samaria. That's where I'm going. What

is Jesus' end that he is trying to attain? Jesus

came to seek and save that which was lost. What's

lost? Jesus' bride is lost. Like the prophet

Hosea who was commanded by God to marry an adulterous

woman, prostituting herself with many lovers.

Jesus seeks out his bride first from the descendants

of his covenant people, Judah, Israel, and this

would have included many of the Samaritans. So

remember, Jesus' purpose since the foundations

of the world to redeem his bride, the church,

all y 'all who are baptized and living a repentant

life. That's who he has purposed to come see.

Jesus has pursued you as you know that while

you were yet sinners Christ died for you our

passage in Romans 5 told us this for if when

we were enemies we were reconciled to God through

his the death of his son much more having been

reconciled we shall be saved by his life and

Not only that but we also rejoice in God through

our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now

received that reconciliation Jesus purposed to

attain in the end all those whom he has called

and redeemed and reconciled to be his bride.

So this is real important. The Christian life

is framed by joy in that Jesus has purpose to

save his bride. Whatever you're dealing with

in your life right now, you need to understand

this. Your life is framed by the joy that Jesus

has purposed to save his bride, which includes

you. Dearly beloved, rejoice, for we have been

reconciled and saved, because Jesus is the faithful

husband. Jesus sat by the well and encountered

this Samaritan woman, and Jesus said to her,

give me a drink. Now this phrase, if we look

at the grammar, is not a command like give me

a drink, woman. No. This word give in the Greek

can be understood as bestow a gift to me. Jesus,

he's hot. It's the sixth hour. That's noon in

our time. It's hot. The sun is bearing down.

He came in from a journey. He paused and rested

there. He was like, give me this gift of water.

I'm hot. I need to be refreshed. She's astonished

that Jesus a Jew would ask her for a drink for

she's both a Samaritan and a woman Many Jews

as I said before wouldn't travel through Samaria

Because they didn't want to come into contact

to become with Samaritans and become unclean

and at that time women were not elevated and

so a woman was considered even lower than just

a regular Samaritan man and They certainly Here's

the thing, they certainly would not have drank

out of the same container as a Samaritan. And

Jesus answered her and said, if you knew the

gift of God and who it is that says it to you,

give me a drink, you would have asked him and

he would have given you living water. Jesus'

context here is in that he is the gift that gives

living water. Waters that are not dead but are

moving, springing up and flowing out. Much like

Nicodemus that we heard about last week, this

woman sees the practical problems with what Jesus

is saying and so lacks understanding. Jesus must

correct her misunderstandings not just about

getting a drink of water, but much more about

her life and the lives of the whole world. She

questions Jesus, what are you using to draw these

living waters? And now she begins to show that

she's not an ignorant woman, but one with some

thoughtful spiritual ideas and questions. She

says, are you greater than our father Jacob,

who drank here along with his sons and his livestock?

Here, she's making a distinction about the historicity

of her Samaritan religion and all their practices.

Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks

of this water will thirst again But whoever drinks

of the water that I shall give him will never

thirst But the water that I shall give him will

become a fountain of water springing up into

everlasting life The waters of life that spring

and flow up out of him make us never to thirst

again, and it is a gift Just like the water he

turned into wine a few chapters earlier we are

transformed right from dead waters that stink

and do not give life into fountains of waters

springing up to everlasting life not for ourselves

but these gifts are for true life for all those

whom the Lord places in your life right so so

the spirit comes he transforms you he gives you

eternal life he gives you his promises in the

His covenant promises of marriage and baptism.

And then he gives you his spirit at baptism and

he says, I'm giving you life. And these waters

of life that I've given you, you're gonna give

to others. That is the Christian life. Every

person that God puts in our life. And of course,

this woman is excited and declares, sir, give

me this water that I might not thirst or come

here to draw. and listen to Jesus answer, right?

She's still thinking, all right, I've got to

sort out some stuff here. I'm not quite understanding,

so give me this water. And Jesus, knowing her

heart, knowing her life, knowing every one of

us as he does, he starts to say, okay, we got

to deal with the foundational issues. What's

separating you from God? So he says, go and call

your husband. And of course she says she doesn't

have a husband. Jesus knows as the man that knows

her that she's had five husbands and the sixth

one is not her husband that she lives with now.

Jesus is showing her that she needs a faithful

husband, that she must turn from her sin. She

has served five legal husbands and now has a

false husband. And Jesus... the complete, the

mature, the one who is faithful. So too all of

Israel, Judea, and Samaria and the whole Gentile

world must turn from all their unfaithful husbands,

that is all their gods and idols. They must be

reconciled to God through the Son by the power

of the Spirit which flows from the throne out

of heaven to the whole earth. as we see and we've

talked about many times out of Ezekiel 47. And

in Ezekiel 47 where God's sitting on his throne

and the waters, the Spirit is flowing out to

all the world, it reveals that the water heals

wherever it goes. Understanding that Jesus is

actually greater than Jacob is the central issue

from which every other issue in her life and

in our lives flows. And so, led by Jesus, she

asks about worship. She says, you know, our fathers,

they worship on this one. And you Jews, you say

you got to worship in Jerusalem at the temple.

And Jesus points out that the hour is coming.

Well, you'll neither worship in Jerusalem or

on this mountain. And Jesus does of course say

that the, excuse me, he does say that salvation

belongs to the Jews, but that was because they

were given the instructions by God in the Old

Testament. Remember when he set them up as a

people? Almost the entire book of Leviticus is

all about how to worship. He sets that all up,

he gives it to them. They were to be the priests

of the world, but they kept going after all of

the world's idols and gods, and so they corrupted

it. And Jesus says that a time is coming where

we need to worship the Father in spirit and in

truth. And of course, she's beginning to understand.

She says, well, we know the Messiah is coming,

and when he comes, he'll tell us all things.

And then Jesus, listen to this, says to her,

I who speak to you am he. Who does Jesus sound

like? If we were to look at the Greek, it would

say, I am who I am. Jesus sounds just like Yahweh

speaking to Moses. Jesus answers directly that

the Samaritans are not worshiping God correctly.

Their religious practices were formed out of

the sins of their first king, Jeroboam, who was

given the northern kingdom of Israel by God and

immediately desired to retain the kingdom for

himself and for his children. So what did he

do? He was worried that God divided the kingdom,

gave it to him, and then said, okay, you're the

king now. And he looked and said, man, three

times a year it's commanded that all the men

in Israel go to the temple and worship. Man,

if I do that, if I let them keep going to worship

God at the temple, that's gonna be a problem.

He sees that in Christ men are unified. And so

what does he do? He sets up idol worship. He

sets up two golden castes, one in the north and

one in the south of his kingdom. And he said,

this is how we worship. That's really the God

who led us out of Egypt. And so the Samaritans

began to worship in other places and followed

idolatry. which led to them having all kinds

of other idols and idolatries. And there's a

lot of story there, but I want to point out to

you this, that Jeroboam decided that he wanted

to retain his kingdom for himself, his life for

himself, more than he wanted to himself and others

to worship Yahweh. And so what does he do? He

leads the people into idolatry. Dearly beloved,

We cannot worship God as we wish. God defines

what worship is. He is the only one that can

set the parameters about how to approach Him.

Many like Jeroboam place their own desires above

serving God and do not worship God as God defines

worship. And so, in the corruption of worship

comes crooked teachings in how we're to live.

As Paul says to Timothy, in 2 Timothy chapter

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

4, for the time will come when they will not

endure sound doctrine. But according to their

own desires, because they have itching ears,

they will heap up for themselves teachers, and

they will turn their ears away from the truth,

and be turned aside to fables. Remember what

did Satan do? Hath God really said, question

the word of God? And don't you want to be like

God? Those are the two questions. So when you

go around saying, I get to worship God any way

that I want, In any fashion, with whatever whim

you have, that's a serious problem because it

will bring corruption. If your worship is defined

by your whims or what is comfortable for you

instead of the Word of God, then the idols you

serve will consume you to your very destruction.

Now here back in our passage, we see that Jesus

is the great gift giver. But as He gives of Himself,

He makes us gift -givers. In John 19 at the crucifixion,

we see that a soldier, in order to confirm Jesus'

death, pierced Jesus' side, and we are told that

blood and water flowed. Jesus died, and water

flowed, representing the coming flow of the Spirit

as predicted in Jesus' words in John 7. It says

this, Jesus stood up and cried out saying, if

anyone thirsts, this is a different story, if

anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the scripture said,

out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

And of course it says this, but he spoke concerning

the spirit whom those believing in him would

receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given

because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus, the

final and faithful husband, gives the gift of

living waters, the transformative waters that

would spring up and flow out of us to bring life

and light to those who are in our life. The Samaritan

woman at the well becomes, just as Jesus said,

a fountain of life -giving water to the whole

town. She doesn't keep it to herself. Let me

ask you this. Are you a spring of refreshing,

life -giving waters to those in your household?

To your wife? To your husband? To your children?

What about your community? Are you life -giving

waters to them? Your extended family? What about

here at church? Are you a fountain of joy and

life? During this Lenten season, many of you

have taken to fasting, prayer, and repentance.

Remember that all of these, fasting, prayer,

and repentance, are of no value without a change.

First, towards God, and then towards others.

In Isaiah 58, God through the prophet Isaiah

warns this. Is it a fast that I have chosen?

Because they were complaining, God, you're not

seeing our fast. And God responds, is it a fast

that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict

his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bull

rush and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would

you call this fast an acceptable day of Yahweh?

Is this not the fast that I have chosen? to loose

the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,

to let the oppressed go free, and that you break

every yoke. That is the spirit of living waters

proceeding forth. That is what God desires. Jesus

has met you all at the well of baptism. He is

the faithful husband, and through the gift of...

of water and spirit, you are to be gift givers

of the springs of living water. Now here it is.

Do you think you're tapped out? Do you think

that the spring in you is dry or maybe it's just

a trickle? So that you're just sort of making

it? Hear the words of God out of Isaiah 58, just

a few verses down. Yahweh will guide you continually

and remember Yahweh is the covenant name of God

Yahweh will guide you continually and Satisfy

your soul in drought he will satisfy you these

springs will flow forth even when you feel like

you're in a drought and He will strengthen your

bones You shall be like a watered garden like

a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Let

us pray. Heavenly Father, help us give thanks

and rejoice in your provision, for you have given

us the one thing we need, Jesus our Savior. Help

us to follow Jesus and worship you, for you have

given us all things necessary to be springs of

living waters to the world. We ask all this for

the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, who reigns

with you in the Holy Spirit. World without end.