John 4:1-42 “Living Water”

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Thank you, yes.

Beautiful.

That beautiful song is about the beautiful story that we come to in John 4 today.

Mark so helpfully last week showed us the importance, the centrality of Jesus.

And we've encountered Jesus here in the Gospel of John as he engages with religious leaders like Nicodemus.

And today an encounter Jesus has with someone quite different.

With a Samaritan woman at the well.

Before we read the passage together, let me read you just a little bit of Ruby's story.

Name and details made up by me.

Ruby slipped out the back of class a couple minutes before the bell.

She was hoping to make it to the next class before everyone else and avoid the hateful stares the hallway seemed full of again today.

Just yesterday, the once well-liked senior became hated by what seemed like every girl in the school.

Every phone on campus pinged with evidence of her poor decisions with multiple boys.

Everyone knew.

No one was happy.

The hallway was silent.

Oh, perfect.

Until a door opened on the far end and Reggie hobbled out on crutches.

Also getting a head start on the class change.

He had to be the nicest guy at the school.

Even since he broke his leg in the last football game of the season.

I'll just slip quickly by him, Ruby thought, head down.

Hey, could you help me open this locker?

Oh, sure, she said.

Hey, thanks, said Reggie.

Hey, I know you've had a hard couple of days.

Can I help you with anything?

I don't think I need to get involved with another boy right now.

Everybody already hates me, Ruby said.

Oh, yeah, I get that.

But listen, you know there's someone who will love you no matter what, right?

You know about Jesus?

Yeah, I've heard, Ruby rolled her eyes.

I'm pretty sure he won't love me right now.

Pretty sure he's seen the pictures too.

He might surprise you, Reggie said.

Let me tell you the story of when Jesus met the woman at the well.

Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John,

although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples,

he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

And he had to pass through Samaria.

So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,

near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, so Jesus,

wearied as he was from his journey,

was sitting beside the well.

It was about the sixth hour.

It's noon.

Jesus, don't you love his full humanity on display here?

He's weary in the heat of a long, dusty walk.

Seems likely that he's hoping for a drink from this well or a nap beside it.

And someone interrupts his rest.

We'll read the rest of the first half of our text where we see his encounter with this woman.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.

Jesus said to her,

Give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him,

How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus answered her,

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying 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 water with and the well is deep.

Where do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob?

He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock.

Jesus said to her,

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever.

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

And the woman said to him,

Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

Jesus said to her,

Go call your husband and come here.

The woman answered him,

I have no husband.

Jesus said to her,

You are right in saying I have no husband for you have had five husbands

and the one you now have is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

The woman said to him,

Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain,

but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

Jesus said to her,

Woman, believe me,

the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know.

We worship what we know,

for salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming and is now here

when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth,

for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit,

and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

The woman said to him,

I know that Messiah is coming,

he who is called Christ.

When he comes,

he will tell us all things.

Jesus said to her,

I who speak to you am he.

Jesus,

may we encounter you today

just like this woman did.

Might we really know you?

Holy Spirit,

would you show us

our Savior

so clearly,

so gloriously,

so needfully for us.

We ask it in his name.

Amen.

We'll read the rest of the story in a few minutes.

But first,

I want you to notice this remarkable interaction

between Jesus and this woman

as Jesus gives thirst quenching water.

The first remarkable thing about it

is that this conversation even happens.

It's really amazing.

To engage this woman,

Jesus crosses all sorts of boundaries.

He asks for her help,

and she knows

that he's breaking lots of rules.

Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

They were considered religious rejects,

not pure blood Jews.

They're social outcasts.

Some said at the time

that even their shadow,

touching your shadow,

would make a Jew unclean.

On top of that,

she is a woman,

minimized in this society,

looked down on by many men,

certainly not to be spoken to

by Jewish men in public.

We'll read later,

even his disciples are astonished

that Jesus is talking with her.

Religious, racial,

gender boundaries.

Plus, and maybe she thinks

he doesn't realize this,

but I'm morally outcast.

So even her fellow Samaritans

won't associate with her,

which likely explains

why she comes for an exhausting task

in the heat of the noonday sun

rather than early or late in the day

with all the other women.

Her relationship with men,

including one presently married

to someone else, it seems,

leave her isolated from friends.

She's alone.

Nonetheless,

across all those boundaries,

this holy teacher,

who by the way,

does know all about her,

wants to engage her in conversation.

Asks for her help,

even for her to touch water

that he will then drink.

It's safe to say that

the woman did not come to the well

looking for Jesus, did she?

In fact, for quite a while here,

she'll avoid his personal inquiries.

Maybe that's you today.

I don't know.

Maybe you're stuck here with family.

Better plans fell through,

if you're honest.

You're just clocking in,

not looking for Jesus.

She is there for one very clear reason,

to get water.

Not looking for Jesus, right?

But Jesus humbly engages her.

He takes her natural need,

this need for water,

and turns it to a spiritual conversation.

Isn't that amazing how he does that?

Does he do that in your life?

Where he meets you where you are,

experiencing something in your life,

and all of a sudden he starts to

starts to kind of work in here,

in your heart,

to show you something

maybe you weren't even aware of.

That's the goodness and grace of Jesus,

y'all, so on display in this interaction.

Listen, at every turn,

no matter what the situation,

he's more overflowing with blessing

than we are with need, isn't he?

He's more eager to hear

than we are to pray.

He's more quick to forgive

than we are to repent.

Amazing how wonderful Jesus is.

We get a taste of it here.

She's there for water,

and Jesus offers her water,

living water.

Later in John chapter seven,

Jesus identifies this living water

as his Holy Spirit.

But it's the same word

when he says living water,

that they also used for running water.

So this woman keeps right on

with her natural focus

on natural water to drink.

Even when Jesus takes it up a notch

and talks about living water

that becomes a spring of water

welling up inside you

to eternal life

so that you never thirst again.

Wow!

Right?

Just hear the words of that song

in your mind.

You'll never thirst again.

There's water that Jesus gives.

Amazing promise.

And even as she asks for this water,

she thinks of it as very natural,

doesn't she?

It's going to be so I won't have to walk

to this well again

in the heat of the day.

That's as deep as she will admit

her thirst at this point.

But Jesus is so good.

He won't stop there.

And maybe where she's stopping for now,

but he won't stop

at addressing our physical needs.

He knows that every one of us

is deeply thirsty.

Dying of thirst, if you will.

Deep inside, we're thirsty.

And with insight that this story

seems to ascribe to a prophetic gift

given to him through the Holy Spirit

inside him,

Jesus exposes where she's looking

to quench her deeper thirst.

Do you see that?

He's not attacking her.

He's not yelling at her.

He's not even changing the subject on her,

but he's not stopping short

of her deepest need either, is he?

Go get your husband and come back.

I don't have one.

True.

The man you're with is someone else's.

And this is not your first challenging,

eventually empty relationship

that has left you thirsty.

She's not the first or the last person

to look to romance or relationships

to quench her thirst, is she?

You know, one of the reasons that's so common

and so many of us experience that

is that relationships resonate deeply

with each of us

because we were made for them.

We were made to be in relationship,

especially we were made to be in relationship

with God himself.

That closest and most important relationship.

And Jesus is telling her,

the water of men will not quench your thirst for long.

She needs his living water.

She needs something more than what she is tasting currently.

Currently.

I ask you to consider this morning,

where is your thirst most evident?

You don't walk to wells very often to get water.

Let's think a little deeper than that.

Are you desperately chasing relationship and romance?

In a marriage?

Outside of your marriage?

If that boy would just show me attention?

If that girl would just like me?

Or it may be

that your ultimate thirst

is exposed in your endless workaholism.

Maybe in your desperate chase

for fulfilling experiences,

for that perfect fall break vacation,

not to meddle.

Your obsession with your kids' success.

I don't know.

Where is it that you're looking to quench your thirst

that you already realize has left you thirsty?

You've tasted it and you're thirsty again.

You've gone back.

Or maybe you know, if you're honest,

that in the blink of an eye,

beyond your control,

it could leave you there thirsty.

That thing that's quenching your thirst today

might not tomorrow.

Well, the woman,

perhaps intrigued by this spiritual conversation,

perhaps, as we're wont to do,

just asking the most common theological question of the day

when she sees this must be a Jewish prophet,

she asks about where people should worship.

See, among other religiously sketchy decisions

that the Samaritans had made,

they had built their own temple

in which to worship Yahweh.

So much angered the Jews

that about a hundred years before this conversation,

the Jews had come and destroyed

this Samaritan temple.

Only the temple in Jerusalem

for the true God, they said.

What do you say?

She asks prophet Jesus.

The hour is coming

when you won't worship here

in Samaria

or in Jerusalem,

specifically, Jesus says.

Yeah, the Samaritans were misguided on the temple,

but the hour is coming

even already kind of here

when true worshipers will worship

in spirit and truth.

This woman is striking out at this point.

Religious failure.

Moral failure.

Social failure.

Nothing to her credit.

Not worthy of knowing Yahweh,

the one true God.

And yet,

here he is

telling her

how to do exactly that.

How to do what she was made to do

to worship God

truly

in spirit

and truth.

And there is so much written

on what that means.

At the heart of it

is that the true focus of worship

is not a building.

It's not a particular place,

an outward style

or formality.

No,

true worship,

real relationship

with the living God

happens in all of life

and in gathered services

like this one

through the Holy Spirit

and the Son

who gives him.

Remember just a few weeks ago

when Jesus cleansed the temple

and then he offered

to rebuild it

in three days.

He was saying,

I am

the temple.

I am

the true way

to know

and to worship God.

True worship

comes to the Father

through Jesus the Son

by his indwelling spirit.

That's what's essential

in worship.

All else is secondary

to that.

Does your worship

on Sundays

help you encounter

and engage

with the real Jesus

full of grace

and truth

as the word of God

reveals him?

Does your worship

Monday through Saturday,

because it's not just

a Sunday thing

if it's the true God

you're worshiping

in relationship,

does your worship

Monday through Saturday

help you walk

with his spirit

moment by moment

aware of his presence

with you?

Aware that he has

a plan for your life

that you're to follow?

Aware that he has

a mission that he has

sent you on

for his glory?

That's what you were

made for,

friends,

living with him,

learning his heart,

seeking his glory,

and it all happens

in Jesus.

Especially it happens

through his death

on the cross.

Remember that's what

his hour

means in John's

gospel.

The hour is coming,

verse 23.

He's ushering in

new worship

that is focused

on Jesus Christ

and him crucified.

The one way to God.

God.

And as he talks

about it

and teaches us

that,

here he is,

here he is

with the most

unworthy people

in the world

to be participating

in this worship.

To be a part

of this

unbelievable relationship.

Here he is

inviting them

into worship,

giving his life

for them,

offering to give

them the living

water of the spirit.

That's a lot.

The woman says,

you know,

the Messiah

will come

and sort

all this out.

Although perhaps

she's wondering

now.

And Jesus says,

pleased to meet you.

That's me

and make no mistake

about it.

No more metaphor.

No more analogy

on the person

of Jesus

as the promised king,

the hope

of every thirsty soul

as simple

and clear

as he can possibly be.

Don't get confused

on how you worship right

or on what the water is

or what all this means.

Come to Jesus

and have him

sort it all out for you.

Whether you've trusted

Jesus before or not,

will you come

to Jesus today?

Will you believe today

that the one

who quenches

the thirst

you really feel

more deeply

than you know,

maybe that you haven't

stopped to feel lately?

The one who quenches

that thirst

is not your husband

or your wife.

It's not your friend

or your financial planner.

It's not any of those.

It is Jesus himself.

He offers you

living water

that will fill you up

even when everyone else

lets you down.

Even when everything else

leaves you empty.

He offers fullness

of life with him

that never ends.

And in fact,

it changes everything now

too.

That's the second piece

of the story.

If he's meeting you

and quenching your thirst,

if maybe even

for the first time

you're thinking,

man,

there is something more

that won't leave me

thirsty and empty.

then know that this

thirst quenching water

Jesus gives

is also overflowing water.

The woman is living this

in this passage

while the disciples

are learning this

from Jesus.

Let's pick up

at verse 27.

Just then,

while this amazing interaction

is going on

between Jesus

and this woman,

just then

his disciples came back.

They marveled

that he was talking

with a woman

but no one said,

what do you seek

or why are you

talking with her?

So the woman

left her water jar

and went away

into town

and said to the people,

come see a man

who told me

all that I ever did.

Can this be the Christ?

They went out

of the town

and were coming

to him.

See,

they noticed

the boundaries

that Jesus has crossed,

and the woman

adds another

of her own

to those

that the disciples

can already see.

She's going

to the people

that she was avoiding

earlier in the same day

that she didn't want

to be around.

Water jar

left behind.

Isn't that interesting?

The cares of this world

cannot distract her

from the glory

of Jesus.

She needs to go

tell people about him

even though she's

still thirsty.

There is now life

welling up in her

and overflowing.

See,

Jesus gives water

so graciously

that when he quenches

our thirst,

there's always more

still pouring in.

It changes our lives.

It impacts the way

we live that day.

Look how this happens

with the disciples'

perspective.

They're about to be

confused about

natural food

just as the woman

was confused

about natural water.

Verse 31.

Meanwhile,

the disciples

were urging him

saying, Rabbi, eat!

But he said to them,

I have food to eat

that you do not

know about.

So the disciples,

they're a little slow,

be patient with them,

they said to one another,

has anyone brought him

something to eat?

Oh, come on now.

Jesus said to them,

listen,

my food

is to do the will

of him who sent me

and to accomplish

his work.

Nobody slipped me

a sandwich.

No.

Once again,

Jesus is taking

a natural need

into a spiritual

conversation,

isn't he?

He wants the disciples

to know something

so important.

Listen, Jesus says,

there is nothing

as fulfilling

as living

with God,

as going

where he

sends you,

as pointing others

to him.

Jesus came

for the express purpose

of giving living

water

to thirsty people

and not even

the need for a lunch break

can stop him

from doing that.

That fills him up.

See,

when you receive

this living water,

your whole view

of life

is transformed

and alongside

knowing the one

who gives it yourself,

your highest

and most fulfilling

purpose in whatever

you're doing

changes.

changes.

It's not money

anymore

or fame

or pleasure.

It's actually

other people

knowing the one

who gives

the living water,

having their

ultimate thirst

quenched.

That's your new

deepest and highest

longing

and calling.

Listen to what

Jesus says.

Do you not say

there are yet

four months,

then comes the harvest?

Look,

I tell you,

lift up your eyes

and see that the fields

are white for harvest.

Already the one

who reaps

is receiving wages

and gathering fruit

for eternal life

so that sower

and reaper

may rejoice together.

For here the saying

holds true,

one sows

and another reaps.

I sent you to reap

that for which

you did not labor.

Others have labored

and you have entered

into their labor.

Look,

Jesus says,

now,

today,

because I am here,

people are coming

into the kingdom

from places

you'd least expect it,

disciples,

across all the boundaries

you might be thinking of.

And this is your calling,

your purpose,

your delight

as my followers

to reap the harvest

that I have sown.

The fields,

friends,

are ripe

for harvest.

harvest.

Is your mouth

eager

to share

the good news?

Is it quick

to be praying

with your neighbors?

Are you always

talking about Jesus

or

is your mouth,

and this is the image

that came to mind

for me,

is your mouth

full of bread

like the disciples?

That's what they're

thinking about,

isn't it?

You can't talk

well when it,

you're just stuffing

your own face.

Are you so

caught up

in the things

of this world

that you can't

be bothered

to see

the glory

of Jesus

yourself,

much less

to share

of it with others?

Or maybe,

maybe have you

left your

water jar,

your

previous

priorities,

the things

that you

so quickly

would have been

trying to gather

to yourself

and spend

your time

and your energy

on?

Have you

left your

water jar

to use

whatever relationship,

whatever occupation,

whatever interaction

Jesus gives you

to let living

water overflow

from you?

Jesus has

come.

Jesus has

died.

Jesus is

risen.

It is

harvest time,

friends.

harvest time

for people

to come

into his

kingdom.

He has

done the

work.

You get

to reap

and see

people come

in to know

him and to

taste living

water.

What a

privilege.

Look what

happens.

Maybe you

think,

he couldn't

use me to

do that.

Look what

happens when

an untrained,

immoral,

theological

novice

encounters

Jesus

and is

filled with

his spirit.

Not just

one Samaritan

converted,

but a

revival

of the

rejects.

Verse 39.

Many

Samaritans

from that

town believed

in him

because of

the woman's

testimony.

He told

me all

that I

ever did.

So when

the Samaritans

came to

him,

they asked

him to

stay with

them and

he stayed

there two

days.

They just

wanted to

be with

Jesus,

didn't they?

And many

more believed

because of

his word.

They said

to the

woman,

it's no

longer

because of

what you

said that

we believe

for we

have heard

ourselves

and we

know that

this is

indeed the

savior of

the world.

She points

people where?

To Jesus.

And she's

delighted

apparently for

him to be

the hero,

the focus,

the center

of attention.

After all,

he is the

savior of

the world,

a mark of

the Messiah,

the Christ

that she's

looking for,

that God's

salvation would

go not just

to the Jews

but really in

a fresh,

never before

experienced

way to

the ends

of the

earth.

Samaritans

en masse

embracing

a Jewish

Messiah.

Messiah.

What is

happening?

Not just

a savior

for those

who look

the part

or measure

up or have

figured out

where they're

supposed to

worship or

how they're

supposed to

relate to

God but

who come

to him

and find

him to

be the

savior of

the whole

world.

all because

a thirsty

woman

encountered

Jesus.

Wow.

Years after

encountering

the real

Jesus for

the first

time in a

high school

hallway,

Ruby lives

for Jesus

in all sorts

of places

including those

hallways.

she loves

getting to

talk with

high school

girls,

especially

those who

feel they've

blown it,

could never

know true

love.

She delights

to tell them

of Jesus'

love,

a love that

never fails

and is more

quick to

forgive than

we are to

repent.

But many of

the conversations

she's having

these days are

with people

in her office,

some whose

spouses have

let them

down,

others who

just feel a

longing for

something more

in life and

they'll talk to

her,

there's living

water that

really satisfies,

she tells

them,

found only in

one place.

Ruby even

gets to

volunteer weekly

at a crisis

pregnancy center

where her

favorite story

to share with

disappointed,

despondent,

even despairing

women is of

a woman like

them.

the woman

at the well

who met

a savior

who understood

her thirst,

knew her

story,

and gave

her life.

Often,

Ruby gets

to explain

that's her

story and

that the

fountain she's

been drinking

from has

never run dry

on her,

keeps overflowing

from her,

and will never

run dry for

them either.

No matter

what you've

done,

she loves

to tell

them,

Jesus really

is the

savior of

the world,

and that's

all that

matters.

There's life

the way you

were made

for in

relationship

with him.

for Jesus

to be the

savior of

the world.

He knew

that it

would take

another day

where he

would be

thirsty,

and where

no one

would offer

him anything

to drink

to quench

his thirst.

A day

when his

hour truly

would have

come,

and he

would hang

on a

cross

thirsty,

so that

we would

stand in

the presence

of the

holy and

living God,

joyful and

satisfied

forever.

And he

was absolutely

committed to

the point of

being fed

and filled

up by it.

he was

absolutely

committed to

accomplishing the

work that his

father had given

him, to

finishing that

task.

And so on a

night when he

was betrayed

by a close

friend,

Jesus took

bread,

and he broke

it, and he

gave it to his

disciples.

As I'm

ministering in

his name,

give this bread

to you.

He said,

take and eat.

This is my

body given

for you.

Do this in

remembrance of

me.

And in the

same way,

after supper,

he took the

cup and said,

this cup is a

new covenant in

my blood, shed

for many for the

forgiveness of

sins.

Drink from it,

all of you.

There's power in

the blood of

Jesus, and if you

know that, if you

are thirsty and

have found in

Jesus living

water, come and

drink and eat.

You may know

him, but you

may be tired and

thirsty and

needing to be

refilled.

Come, he is

here to give

you of his

spirit again

today.

This is not the

table of

Southwood or the

Presbyterian

church.

It's the Lord's

table.

It's the place

where if you

trust him, if

you've made that

public and become

a part of a

church that

preaches that

life is found in

Jesus, then you

come and he

promises to pour

his spirit into

you so that it

wells up to you

to eternal life

and overflows from

you.

You come and

drink of that

water this

morning.

If you don't

look at this

table and see

Jesus, see him

as the one you

long for and

find life in, he

warns you not yet

to come to this

table and take

these elements.

But he invites

you to drink of

the living water.

You've heard it in

his very words.

Water that if you

drink, you will

never thirst again.

He will cross any

boundaries to give

it to you.

You're not too far

away from him.

You are not too

far gone.

He invites you to

come no matter how

thirsty you are and

drink and never

thirst again.

let's pray and

we'll come to this

table together.

Jesus, what an

amazing gift that

you would come not

merely to a woman

in Samaria, but to

people like us who

don't deserve any

more to know you,

to walk with you,

to taste of your

love, and you would

make us worthy.

You would give us

life.

You would give us

water when we're

thirsty.

Might we know that

even as these common

elements of bread,

wine, juice, as we

consume them, would

you fill us?

Would you quench our

thirst and would you

remind us where to

turn for water that

lasts forever?

forever?

We ask it in your

name.

Amen.

For more

information, visit us

online at

southwood.org.

thanks for

you.

Wha...

It's

and

cheers.

Thank you.

散