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Sermon by Rev. Tommy Allen
“Living Water” John 4:7-15 7 There *came a woman of
Samaria to draw water. Jesus *said to
her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city
to buy food. 9 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?” (For Jews
have no dealings with Samaritans.) 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.” 11
She *said to Him, “Sir, You have
nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living
water? 12 “You are not greater than
our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it
himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said
to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14
but whoever drinks of the water that I will
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water
springing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman *said to Him, “Sir, give me
this water, so I will
not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” So far, in John’s gospel, we have seen an interesting
trajectory. If you remember, in chapter
2, Jesus changes water into wine at the wedding of Cana and then clears the
moneychangers out of the temple and, does “many other signs.” It says that many believed in Him but He
didn’t turn Himself over to them, “for He knew all men,” and “He knew what was
in man.” At the core, they are all
sinful and separated from God. Then, in
chapter 3, John says, “For example…Nicodemus…”
He was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, and a teacher…and he came at
night because he was afraid of tarnishing his reputation. After the encounter with Nicodemus, we see another encounter, “the
woman at the well,” and on the surface it seems that she is on the opposite end
of the continuum from Nicodemus. He is a man—with a name. She is a woman—unnamed. He is a ruler among God’s chosen people. She is an outcast from
a despised people. See, he comes at night to guard his reputation. She comes at noon
because of her reputation. He is known for his “goodness.” She is known for her
“badness.” On the surface, the contrasts are glaring. However, if you look closer, what is more
interesting is what they have in common: they are both thirsting for a
relationship with God and seeking to quench their thirst with religion and
externals. Three things: I. Jesus Initiates (vv. 7-9) II. Jesus
Elaborates (vv. 10-12) III. Jesus
Fascinates—or Frustrates (vv. 13-15) I. Jesus Initiates (vv. 7-9) A. The Encounter (vv. 4-6) 1. Jesus and disciples pass through Samaria
and, because He is weary and tired, Jesus stops at a well near a town called
Sychar. He sends the disciples for
food. It is noon. This is an important point. B. The Woman 1. A Samaritan woman came to draw water… a) Even if Jesus weren’t God, He would’ve
known that she was an outcast. i. If
she wasn’t, she would have come to the well in the early morning or in the late
evening when all the other women were there.
The only reason she would have avoided those times was in order to avoid
people. ii. She
can avoid people, but she can’t avoid Jesus—He’s sitting there! C. The Conversation 1. Jesus does the unthinkable: He says, “Give
me a drink.” a) We realize that she might be a
Samaritan, but she’s not the “good Samaritan” because she doesn’t do it. i. Instead,
she questions His religion. 2. How is it that you, a Jew, ask me for a
drink since I am a Samaritan woman (Jews have no dealings with Samaritans)? a) Jews had “no dealings” with Samaritans because
of a centuries-old rivalry. i. The
Assyrians had taken over Samaria and instituted the worship of false gods and
idols. ii. Eventually,
however, the Samaritan people re-instituted the worship of Yahweh, but the only
part of the Bible they recognized was the Pentateuch. In other words, they bastardized the Jewish faith, and the Jews
weren’t happy about it. iii. If
it was bad, generally, to be a Samaritan, it was twice as bad to be a Samaritan
woman. One passage from the Hebrew
Mishna says, “Samaritan women are menstruants from the cradle.” In other words, they viewed Samaritan women
as being in a constant state of defilement or unclean. If she was unclean, then anything she
touched would be unclean. b) The woman apparently knows all this
and basically says to Jesus, “Are you so thirsty that you are willing be made
unclean?” i. Jesus
basically answers her by saying, “I’m not willing to become unclean because of
my thirst but because of yours.” ii. (Exodus
17, water from the rock.) iii. On
the cross, Jesus screams, “I thirst” so that we can drink. II. Jesus Elaborates (vv. 10-12) A. If you knew the “gift of God” [the Torah, your
Bible] and the one who says “Give me a drink…” 1. You would have asked Him 2. And he would have given “living
water.” B. There are two possible ways to take
Jesus here, literally or biblically. 1. Literally, living water was that
water which came from a spring, stream, or a river—preferable to well water. 2. Biblically, living water is a
metaphor for salvation and healing and satisfaction in God. (Isaiah 55, come
all you thirsty; Psalm 46, there is a river…) C. Her response is similar to that of
Nicodemus when Jesus said, “You must be born again…” 1. You have nothing to draw with and the well
is deep… a) Where
then do you get this “living water?” 2. Again she questions His religion—are
You greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us this well? Who do you think you are? God? a) Jesus’
response: Well…as a matter of fact… III. Jesus Fascinates (13-15) A. I am greater than Jacob—whoever drinks of this
water will thirst again 1. But…whoever drinks of the water that I give
will never thirst again. 2. Even more…it will become in him a
well of water springing up to eternal life. B. Jacob’s well is intended to deal with life as
it is. My water offers life as it
should be. 1. You and I were created with a longing and
a thirst in our souls that nothing on this earth can satisfy. a) Lewis said, “If I find in myself a
desire, which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable
explanation is that I was made for another world.” b) Jesus is saying, “I am the living
water. I am the one and only who can
satisfy all your longings.” c) If this is true, why are so many
people who call themselves Christians miserable? i. We
make the same mistake that Israel made… 2. Jeremiah 2:13 For
My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living
waters, To hew for themselves
cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water. a) They have forsaken me in order to
dig their own wells, broken wells that cannot hold water. i. You
have to ask yourself, “Am I looking to anything but Jesus to fulfill me and
make me feel whole and satisfied?” If
so, that could be the source of your misery. ii. The
other problem, if you are a Christian, is that you can’t fill a spring. If you try, the only thing that you will end
up with is muddy water. In other words,
if you have really trusted Jesus and His Spirit has come to dwell within you,
the only thing you do by seeking satisfaction from things, relationships, etc.,
is muddy up the water of your life. C. The woman’s response is an attempt at a “third
way.” Instead of receiving Jesus as the
source of her life and satisfaction or rejecting Him as crazy, she wants to use
Him to get what she thinks will satisfy. 1. Sir, give me this water, so I won’t be
thirsty or have to come all the way here to draw. a) The problem,
which we’ll look at next week, is that Jesus can’t be used. |