John 4:1-18 Living Water for Thirsty Souls

Scripture Reading

Revelation 7:14-17 They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Intro

Have you ever been dying of thirst?

I mean really thirsty.

The kind when you are just parched after a hard workout or long run and when you finally get that water, there’s nothing that has ever been so sweet

I remember, one summer I was doing archeology in the Middle East.

We’d wake up at 4 am to try and beat the heat of the day and spoiler alert, we did not.

We’d go out and essentially every few days dig a hole the size of your own grave hauling dirt in the desert sun, and then we’d come back to the girls school where we were staying, and I was living on the third floor.

There’s no ac, and you’d sit and rest after a long days work just as the heat baked you with a slowly turning fan that did little good.

And then, you’g get thirsty. And you’d run out of water.

And all the water was down on the first floor. With no elevator.

So every time you got thirsty in the desert you had to climb three flight of stairs just to get a drink.

It was horrible.

I vowed then and there I would never be thirsty again, and that’s why I carry a giant water bottle everywhere I go.

But what do you do when you’re thirsty in your soul?

When it feels like something’s missing?

That joy and life is out there somewhere any you just can’t quite find it?

There are no three flights of stairs you can climb to satisfy that. Where can you go?

Thankfully, Jesus Himself was dying of thirst one day to give us just that answer.

Here’s the Big Idea from John 4:1-18:

Jesus Christ graciously gives the living water of eternal life to everyone who believes in Him.

The woman at the well is one of the most famous and beloved stories in the whole Bible, and I hope after our sermon today it will be one of ours as well.

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. Jesus Came to Seek and Save Thirsty Sinners

John 4:1-6 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.

Last we saw of Jesus, He was in the Judean countryside baptizing, although verse 2 tells us directly that Jesus Himself did not baptize but only His disciples.

And while there, Jesus’ following and influence grew.

You remember back in chapter 3 when John’s disciples came to Him and said, “Look! He is baptizing and all are going out to Him.” (John 3:26).

And evidently, the Pharisees heard about it and after learning this, Jesus decided to leave Judea and go to Galilee.

Possibly to avoid the Pharisees using the opportunity to stir up any kind of public controversy to try and discredit the ministry Jesus and John were both doing.

And on His way He passed through Samaria and came to a town called Sychar.

Its interesting that John says He had to pass through Samaria, because as we will see, Jews avoided interaction with Samaritans.

They despised them so much that when traveling between Judea and Galilee, many Jews would take a longer route where they had to cross the Jordan River twice, rather than step on foot in Samaria.

Samaritans

Well, why did the Jews hate Samaritans?

The history of the Samaritans can be traced back to the divided Kingdom of Israel.

After David and Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel split in two.

The Southern Kingdom was called Judah and had Jerusalem, the Throne of David, and the Temple as their capital city.

The Northern Kingdom was called Israel or sometimes Samaria after they made Samaria their capital city.

The Northern Kingdom basically had bad kings and idolatry all the time and eventually God judged Samaria with the Assyrians around 722 BC.

The Assyrians deported most of the Israelites and resettled the land with foreigners from Pagan nations (2 Ki. 17:23-41).

The remaining Israelites intermarried with these foreigners which was a direct violation of God’s Law (Deut. 7:3), and this group of people became the Samaritans.

Not surprisingly, the Samaritans began adopting pagan worship from these other nations and mixing it with the worship of the One True God, the kind of idolatry that led Israel into exile in the first place (2 Ki. 17:32-33).

Eventually the polytheism of their worship faded away, but their worship of God had become polluted going the way of the world instead of following God’s Law.

So when the Jews came back after the Babylonian exile to resettle the land, they saw these Samaritans not only as political rebels, but racial half-breeds who perverted the worship of God with false worship that if they were not careful would only send them into exile again.

That’s why in Ezra and Nehemiah, when the Samaritans offer to help them rebuild the Temple they said, “You have no share with us” (Neh. 2:20; Ez. 4:1-3) which enraged the Samaritans who then became their bitter enemies (Ezra 4:4ff, Neh 4:1-3, 7ff).

So the animosity between Jews and Samaritans ran deep and it went both ways.

On the Jews part they were religiously unclean, and racially impure, outside of God’s covenant to save.

Now to be clear, there was no law against going through Samaria, but Samaria and Samaritans were culturally taboo.

And this sets the stage to show us God’s amazing grace towards us in Christ.

Because Jesus didn’t follow all those cultural taboos. He came to save sinners.

And that’s why John says He had to pass through Samaria.

Had to. It was necessary. There was no way around it.

Why? Jesus wasn’t in a rush. He didn’t need a short cut. There were other villages along the way around Samaria on the way to Galilee that could have used the gospel.

Why did he have to pass through Samaria?

Because just half a chapter later in John 4:34, Jesus said “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

Jesus had to pass through Samaria because it was the Father’s will.

The Father had set up a divine appointment in Samaria…an appointment with a Samaritan woman at a well to reveal the glory of Christ full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14).

Jesus’ Humanity

John continues in verse 6 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.

The way Jews kept time the sixth hour was noon...the middle of the day.

In that desert climate it was the hottest part of the day.

And that’s why Jesus was weary from journey.

This word is used for hard work or toiling.

In other words, Jesus was exhausted and thirsty.

Now it may not seem like it, but that is such an important verse.

Jesus was truly human.

The Bible says He hungered (Mt. 4:2). Wept (Jn 11:35). Thirsted (Jn. 19:28). Slept (Mt. 8:24).

He was every bit as human as we are yet without sin (Heb. 4:15).

When we talk about the incarnation - the eternal Son of God made flesh (Jn. 1:14) - we are affirming Jesus’ full humanity just as much as we are affirming His full divinity.

Jesus was Truly and Fully God and Truly and fully man.

In the incarnation, Christ was one person with two distinct natures.

Jesus did not mix up His humanity and divinity and blend them together in some new third nature.

Nor was He more God than man or more man than God as if one of Christ’s two natures swallowed the other one up.

Jesus was fully God and fully man all at once in one glorious and amazing person.

All Christians affirm the divinity of Christ, but we need to affirm the humanity of Christ just as forcefully!

Without Christ truly becoming a man in taking on human flesh and not just appearing to be a man in human flesh, none of us would be saved.

Hebrews 2:17 He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation [that is an atoning sacrifice that satisfies God’s wrath and turns it into favor on behalf of the one who offers it] for the sins of the people.

Without Jesus’ full humanity, full identification with Adam’s race, He would have never been able to fulfill the Law on our behalf or die in our place for our sins.

He is the Mediator who stands between us and God and, as the GodMan, makes peace between us by the blood of His cross (1 Tim. 2:5, Job 9:33).

Jesus lived His life as a man empowered by the Holy Spirit.

He emptied Himself, not counting equality with God something to be grasped or held onto, so that as a man, He could fully satisfy the wrath of God on our behalf and save us from our sins (Phil 2:7).

We cannot miss the sweetness of John’s words: wearied as He was from His journey...

Jesus was made weary so that He could say to all to us Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who weary (same word) and...heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Verse 7...

Great Grace

John 4:7-10 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

Now keep in mind, it is the heat of the noon day.

No one else is around. Jesus is the only one at the well because He had sent His disciples into the city to buy some food.

Where in the world is everyone?

Well most women would not come to draw water in the middle of the day.

Normally the women of the village would get together as a group and go gather water early in the morning or after sunset to get the day’s supply of water for eating, drinking, and cleaning.

And yet this woman was coming alone, in the middle of the day, when no one would be around.

And we are told why a little later in verse 16. She is a sexually immoral woman living a sexual immoral lifestyle.

She's had five husbands and the man she is currently living with is not even her husband at all.

She’s coming alone at the middle of the day, because that is the only way to avoid the shame.

The looks.

The whispers.

Even among Samaritans, this woman is an outcast and pariah because of her sin.

She is a Samaritan of Samaritans. A despised person amongst despised persons. A Chief of sinners.

And yet…Jesus looks at this woman, and says Please, give me a drink.

Here’s why this was so shocking.

In those days, men did not speak to women in public. Much less would a Jewish man speak to a Samaritan woman.

And even less than that, you would never see a Rabbi and holy man speaking to a sexually immoral woman (Lk. 7:39).

But Jesus does.

He initiates. He pursues. He crosses all kinds of social barriers and taboos to say give me a drink, because He wants to give her living water and make her a true worshiper of God (John 4:23).

This was unbelievable! Unheard of! And it catches the woman completely off guard.

Verse 9...

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.)

She was totally taken aback. Why was this man talking to her?

Because she had no idea who she was talking to.

Jesus was a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Mt. 11:19).

He came to seek and save the lost, and nothing was going to keep Him from bringing His sheep into the fold (Luke 19:10).

And that is the same grace of Jesus towards us. We are all the Samaritan woman.

Outcasts of outcasts. Lost and without hope in the world.

This Samaritan woman, the lowest of the low, despised by all people shows us there is no one too far gone for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

No one was too unclean or too dirty that the grace of God can’t make hole..

Jesus Himself said Himself It is not the healthy who need a physician but those who are sick (Luke 5:31).

And that is good news for all of us.

Isn’t it good news that God doesn’t just save people who are all cleaned up and have it all together?

That He doesn’t just save the wise, powerful, rich, or great in the world? (1 Cor 1:26-30).

But that He saves lowlifes. outcasts. Pariahs. Chiefs of sinners who offer nothing and have no good within themselves.

That God saves sinners.

And such were some of you…and me (1 Cor. 6:11).

Jesus came full of grace and truth that from His fullness we may receive grace upon grace (Jn. 1:14, 16).

And the Samaritan woman shows us that that grace is for all of us.

For anyone who believes.

And that grace is living water that washes us clean.

Clean Unclean

John tells us one of the reasons the woman was so shocked is because (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

Now that’s not a great translation.

After all, Jesus’ disciples just went into town to buy some food.

The better translation of this verse is Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.

Jesus is asking the Samaritan woman to draw Him some water.

And she knows, according to tradition, if Jesus drank from her vessel, it would make Him ceremonially unclean.

But Jesus is so pure, so holy, so incorruptible, He cannot be made unclean.

Instead He cleanses everyone.

According to the Law, if you touched a corpse or a leper, you would be unclean and need to go through ceremonial cleansing to come back to worship God.

But when Jesus touched corpses they rose from the dead, and lepers walked away healed (Lk. 7:12-15, Mt. 8:2-3).

In fact, do you remember the woman who suffered from a discharge of blood (Luke 8:40-48)?

She had suffered for 12 years and spent all she had on physicians who could not heal her.

Why this was so bad was this made her ceremonially unclean, cutting her off from worship and community (Lv. 15:25).

And when she touched Jesus instead of Jesus being made unclean, power went out from him to heal her discharge of blood and make her clean.

That is a picture of the gospel!

Jesus’ grace can make us clean, no matter how unclean or sinful we might be.

Even if we are as unclean and far off as a Samaritan woman with five husbands and a new boyfriend.

If we come to Jesus, He will heal us, wash us clean and save our souls.

Why?

Because Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

He came to seek and save thirsty sinners just like you and just like me.

And He saves us by giving us the living water of His grace.

Number 2...

II. Living Water Overflows with the Fullness of Salvation to Forever Satisfy our Thirsty Souls

John 4:10 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.”

Notice how Jesus completely turns the tables in this conversation.

Jesus was the one who came to the well tired and thirsty asking this woman for a drink, and now He is telling this woman, you’re the thirsty one.

You’re tired and weary, and I have living water that can satisfy the thirst and wandering of your soul!

Now there is a whole background for what living water is and we are going to get into all of it in just a moment, but right now let me set the table and give you a peek behind the curtain for where we are going.

Its interesting that in context of the clean unclean discussion from verse 9, Jesus mentions living water, that is running water, water that is alive as opposed to a lake or a pool, because living water had religious significance.

Living water was associated with life and cleansing.

That’s why people were baptized in the river Jordan.

The water would symbolically wash away your sin and impurity and the living aspect of it symbolized renewed spiritual life.

Two things promised in the New Covenant.

And Jesus has that in mind here. If you knew who was talking to you, I would give you life and cleansing.

And life and cleansing, this living water, Jesus says a gift.

Remember Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

The living water Jesus offers is salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

It is a free gift graciously given by God himself, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

But the woman still doesn’t understand.

Like Nicodemus who said Can a man be born when he is old? (John 3:4), the woman at the well doesn’t understand the spiritual reality behind what Jesus said.

She still thought He was talking about physical water.

John 4:11-12 “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.”

Remember this is Jacob’s well. That’s going to come up in a minute.

Jacob was one of the Patriarchs of the Old Covenant who both Jews and Samaritans recognized and revered.

And by this point and time Jacob had dug this well nearly 2000 years before Jesus came to get a drink.

So this woman is basically saying, where is your water? Are you greater than Jacob? It can’t be better than this.

This well has been here for 2000 years and there’s no sign of it ever running out.

So Jesus said to her, verse 13...

John 4:13-14 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 again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Living Water

So what is this living water?

This is where we are going to go real deep.

I want to first define living water as it is in the gospel of John, and then I want to go into the Old Testament background behind living water to give us the full richness of it.

Jesus has already told us this living water is the gift of God.

It is salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

That’s the living water.

And in verse 14 He says the water I will give Him - this grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone salvation - will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The welling up might not give you the best picture of what is going on in this verse.

The picture you might have is something filling up and overflowing.

But the Greek is much more forceful than that. The leaping up or springing up.

The picture closer to salvation being a geyser or thundering water fall that explodes within us and never starts.

Its a rushing river that leaps up and overflows to eternal life.

So when Jesus talks about living water, He is talking about the fullness of Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone Salvation overflowing and culminating in eternal life which according to His definition in John 17:3 is knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

In other words, Living water is the fullness of Salvation, cleansing, and forgiveness of sin culminating in knowing God...Communion with God the Father as our Father through Jesus Christ.

Where God is our loving Father and we are His own beloved children.

And in John chapter 7, Jesus brings up this living water again ties it directly to the Holy Spirit John 7:39 which says Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.

So this salvation and eternal life that is an everflowing stream welling up in us and rushing forth is the New Birth.

Being born of Water and the Spirit (John 3:5).

It is being born again in the New Covenant, where through faith in Jesus, the well of our salvation, we are washed, cleansed, given the fullness of grace and forgiveness and adopted as beloved sons and daughters of God.

Again…all the promises of the New Covenant in all their fullness.

And this living water is described in terms of the Holy Spirit because He is the one who applies the grace of the gospel to our dead and stony hearts and, like an everflowing river, communicates the Love God has for us as a father in Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:5 God pours His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

That’s living water.

The fullness of salvation by the power of the Holy Spirit in the New Birth culminating in communion with God as our heavenly Father in and through Jesus Christ.

And this salvation, this waterfall of grace and communion with God, is the thing that once for all satisfies our dry and thirsty souls.

In John 10:10 Jesus calls it the life abundant. The overflowing life.

Psalm 16:11 the fullness of joy.

That’s why Jesus says whoever drinks of this water will never be thirsty again.

And this is where I want to go to the Old Testament background.

OT Background

Because when Jesus says Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, He’s speaking on two levels.

On the one hand He’s talking about water. No matter how much you drink, eventually you are going to be thirsty again.

On the other hand He’s talking about spiritual water - things of the world and our flesh we are looking to to satisfy our barren souls.

Look at Jeremiah 2:13.

Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

In context the broken cisterns are idols and false worship.

And God Himself says He is the fountain of living waters.

He is the source of all joy, life, blessing, and salvation…

And as infinite God He is a a never-ending fountain that never runs try.

Not so with the broken cisterns of our sins and the things of this world.

They are cisterns of our own making. Things we are constantly running to, thinking this, this will finally quench my thirst.

Because that’s what sin and the things of this world, the things we are looking to outside of God to ultimately give us our life and meaning, always promise.

This sin will satisfy.

This job, that house, this money, your spouse, your children, whatever it is will finally give your tired and weary soul rest.

But God says their cracked. They can never satisfy. Not in the long term.

They might have a few drops of water, but its not living water.

It will always leave us thirsty again.

Non Christian

Maybe this is you. Maybe you aren’t a Christian and you know theirs something missing.

You’re looking for it everywhere you think you can.

But everywhere you’re looking is a broken cistern.

The only answer is living water from Christ. He is the only one that can quench of your soul.

Christian

But the sad part is, many Christians live like this as well.

They are lost, aimless, tossed to and fro. Always looking for the next thing.

They have Christ but they still feel thirsty. Maybe that’s you?

One answer might be that the water fall of life has been dammed up by sin treasured in your heart.

Or maybe, you’re seeking life in worldly things.

The answer is to repent and set your mind on things above.

Stop drinking from broken cisterns and worldly troughs. Stagnant water that can only ever leave you thirsty again.

Maybe the way you need to apply this sermon today is to take it home in prayer and ask, “Am I thirsty?”

And I don’t mean thirsty for righteousness or godliness. That’s good thirst.

I’m talking about the empty kind of thirst.

Am I’m thirsty for the wrong things? Am I looking for life and satisfaction in anywhere and anything other than Christ?

What are those and where does God answer those thirsts with living water in Jesus Christ?

Whatever you find, wherever you find it...lay it down put it to death and satisfy your thirst by drinking richly from the well of Christ.

Recommit your life to Christ, stop loving the world and things of the world and follow Him with a relentless godliness in all of your life.

Find your life in Him and never let go and you will see the torrents of living water begin to flow.

Hear how the rest of the Old Testament describes this living water.

Isaiah 12:1-3 You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

And from that well we shall never hunger or thirst (Isaiah 49:10).

Are you thirsty?

Do you want fullness of joy? The fullness of life, satisfaction, rest, blessing and peace?

The answer Christ…and only Christ.

Jesus is the Well

Remember how the woman asked, Are you greater than our father Jacob?

Jesus is.

Jacob was a patriarch of the Old Covenant.

you remember how God would say I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Mt. 22:32, Ex 3:6).

What God was saying was I am the Covenant God.

I’m the one who promised Abraham to bring salvation to the world and bless all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:3).

And I’m the one that kept that promise to Isaac, and Jacob, and I’m still keeping that promise today.

Because Jesus, the true offspring of Abraham is the patriarch and head of the New Covenant.

An eternal salvation that will never run dry.

What’s amazing is that Jacob’s well in Jesus’ day had been running for 2000 years.

And its still running today 4000 years later. They know where it is as best as things like that can be known.

And Jesus used that well that has not run dry for 4000 years to say His living water is better.

It goes beyond 4000 years.

Its an everflowing river that one drink of it will satisfy your soul and give you the fullness of joy and eternal life.

Revelation 22 says it is a river that is bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1).

And that is the water Jesus came to draw for us to drink.

That brings us to the question of how?

And that’s point number 3...

III. Faith and Repentance is the Only Way to Draw Living Water from the Well of Christ

John 4:15-18 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.”

When you first read this you might think Jesus just takes a hard right turn.

They were talking about living water and all of a sudden Jesus is asking about her marriage.

But this is not the hard right turn you might think it is.

Even at this point, the woman is still spiritually blind.

She does not understand Jesus is talking about the living water of salvation.

You can hear it in her question.

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

She wanted water that would save her from the shame.

That would save her from all the whispers and judgmental looks.

She still didn’t know what her real thirst was the kind that could only satisfied through repentance and faith in Christ, and so Jesus goes at her sin to expose what true spiritual thirst actually is.

We don’t know why she had five husbands and a new boyfriend, but her life, whatever the cause, showed a woman that had a thirst water from Jacob’s well could never quench.

She needed Jesus. And the fact that Jesus goes after her sin shows us that the only way to draw living water is through repentance and faith.

Faith and repentance go hand and hand. Jesus came preaching “repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

First, we must turn from our sin, like Jesus was calling the Samaritan woman to do here.

And in turning from our sin, we must put our faith in Jesus Christ.

Remember the conversation...

John 4:10,14 “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....Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The emphasis is on Christ.

We must come to Him in faith.

Believe in Him.

His sinless life, sacrificial death on the cross, and bodily resurrection so that through repentance and faith we can draw out living water through faith in Christ.

You must be born again by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3).

He’s the one who opens our eyes to the grace of the gospel and gives us repentance and faith.

The new birth, living water, is a gift born entirely out of God’s amazing grace.

Trinity

Jacob’s well and the woman of Samaria actually gives us such a beautiful picture of the Trinity’s work in salvation.

The Father dug the Well.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Christ is the Well.

He lived a perfect and sinless life and died a sacrificial death on the cross to become the wellspring of our salvation.

The fountain of living water - the fullness of salvation culminating in Communion with God as our loving Father.

And the Holy Spirit is the river who carries the water of salvation and gushes forth out of the well of Christ to not just give us a drink, but to absolutely drench us and fill our hearts with the fullness salvation and eternal life through faith and repentance in Jesus Christ.

God gives eternal life as a gift by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Conclusion

Jesus Christ graciously gives the living water of eternal life to everyone who believes in Him.

I love the story of the woman at the well because it is such an amazing picture of the Gospel.

Christ comes to Samaria, a lost and broken world, to seek out a down and out woman.

A Samaritan of Samaritan. Chief of sinners.

To give her grace and save her from her sins.

Living water that washes us clean and forgives all of our sins to give us the fullness of salvation and eternal life.

How great is Christ’s grace that He draws us to Himself to might draw for us living water that satisfies our soul and makes us never thirst again.

And that invitation and promise, that well, is open to us today.

Hear Christ from Isaiah 55 where God promises to make an everlasting covenant with all people.

Isaiah 55:1-3, 7 Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! …Come to me…that your soul may live.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Repentance and faith.

Christ freely and graciously offers this living water to everyone who believes in Him.

As Jesus says in the book of Revelation...

It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment (Revelation 21:6).

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price (Revelation 22:17).

Let’s Pray