Week 3: Water of Life

Intro

I heard a story a while back about two men who were out at sea on a brand new sail boat. They had just enough knowledge and experience to sail it, but they ended up getting caught up in a storm and the lost the ship. They managed to get in a life raft and began to drift at sea, waiting and hoping to be rescued. Unfortunately, they had no food or water with them. They knew they weren’t supposed to drink the salt water but after a while they must have gotten so thirsty, hot, and exhausted that they decided to begin to drink some of the salty sea water. If you don’t know, that is never the right call. This actually sped up their dehydration severely. Sadly, this is a very tragic story and ended with both of the men dying and rescue arriving the next day! Most likely, these two men would’ve survived and been rescued if they didn’t drink the sea water. It’s crazy that exactly what they needed to live - water, was exactly what killed them. They needed clean fresh water to quench their thirst and give life to their bodies. But they settled for saltwater that zapped them of the little life they had left.

There is a big difference between healthy water and unhealthy water.

Water is interesting in this way right? It has the power to bring life and flourishing and growth. And at the same time it can bring destruction and dehydration and death.

When it comes to offering Good Water, one passage should likely come to mind for us in our faith. It’s in John 4. Jesus meets with a Samaritan woman at a well and has a powerful conversation with her which leads to her salvation and the salvation of most of her entire town! Let’s read part of it:

John 4:4–15 (CSB)

He had to travel through Samaria; so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

“How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”

“Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

There is so much in this story that we won’t get into tonight, but there is one overarching point that Jesus teaches this woman.

Only Jesus offers the life that satisfies our souls.

This woman came for literal water to drink for her physical thirst.

Jesus points out her deeper spiritual need.

If you keep reading you find out this woman has had multiple husbands and is living with another man who isn’t her husband.

She has been trying to satisfy her spiritual need to be known and loved by God, through physical means of physical relationships with men. Her story gives us a perfect picture of what happens to ALL of us when we search this world for what only God can give us. We bounce from one thing to the next, one substance to the next, one relationship to the next trying desperately to fill our lives and be satisfied and joyful, and have meaning and significance, but nothing ever satisfies completely. We are left wanting and needing more!

Like trying to quench our thirst with saltwater, we end up even further from a healthy, satisfied life!

Like this Samaritan woman- Jesus invites us to come to him instead and drink from the living water that will satisfy more than our physical cravings, but will satisfy the deepest things our souls long for. To be known, loved, and satisfied by God!

Again, because Only Jesus offers the life that can satisfy our souls.

But, this isn’t a random analogy forJesus to use here, he is pulling from a ton of Biblical imagery of the water of Life.

Last week we talked about the significant imagery of trees in history and especially the Bible. This week, if you couldn’t guess, we’ll be doing the same thing with Water.

Water has always had this symbolism to it.

Most of the ancient stories of pagan gods and creation had water involved but for every ancient religion except Judaism, the waters were only a place of chaos, violence and fear. In the creation story of the Bible, the first verses, we see our God actually created order out of the chaos waters. His Spirit was hovering, moving over the watery depths and out of the water, God brings land organizes the water into seas around the land. On that land he creates all of life, especially us humans and provides everything we need. He offers peace, and life, and flourishing from the waters.

Then we see the main passage that begins this theme of the water of life in Genesis 2.

Genesis 2:9–14 (CSB)

The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. Gold from that land is pure; bdellium and onyx are also there. The name of the second river is Gihon, which flows through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

As we saw last week we have the tree of life here, but also in the Garden was a river that flows through Eden bringing water to everything in the Garden. Our God is a God who controls the waters, orders them, and brings life through them. That is a significant difference between the one True God and the false gods or other religious whose stories are full of threats, danger and uncertainty in the waters.

One other thing about the Genesis passage- we see this river splits and spreads out of Eden, into the surrounding lands. Each of these rivers also was tied to a place and people that it was specifically spreading to. Havilah, Cush, and Assyria, along with Babylonian lands we learn about later. But These rivers were essentially directed towards all of the major places and people groups on the Map of Biblical times.

Remember that these places were all in a desert climate. It was naturally dry and lacked much rain. So reliable water source like a river was essential for survival!

And God was the source of these rivers from Eden.

But we know, humans sin and are removed from the Garden. With humans cast out of Eden, it gives us a picture of their spiritual state. Like a desert is lifeless without water. Now, too, humans were lifeless without the water of life from God. This is the sinful state of humanity before Jesus. This theme continues all throughout the Bible.

Like last week I am going to quickly run through a few of the MANY passages where we see this symbol of water. Again, this isn’t all of them but it gives us a look at some of the big places this theme pops up!

One of the next big moments we see is with Jacob in Genesis 29.

He was a schemer and a liar and ends up having to leave his family and wander in the desert, where we see him find a well of water, where he meets a woman. He ends up getting married and has many kids which leads to the 12 tribes of Israel! In the midst of his wandering and sin, Jacob found this water that led to blessing and life, God creating the family of Israel!

They begin to build this nation of Israel but they still are sinful and are thirsty for more, which constantly leads to conflicts and violence and brokenness. We essentially see a picture of people trying to quench their thirst their own way, like Adam and Eve and leading themselves to ruin.

One of the prophets speaks to this in the midst of their exile in Babylon.

Ezekiel the prophet talked about Israel like a valley of dry bones. Dry, lifeless and deserted. However, he saw a vision of God pouring out His spirit on them and in Ezekiel 47 sees a vision of a new temple with water flowing east out of it, bringing the people to life and spreading through these people to create a new world full of God’s life-giving presence.

It’s that imagery which is all throughout the prophets that eventually points to Jesus.

Time and time again, Jesus talks about this idea of water. after the story of the woman at the well, in John 7 we see Jesus say: John 7:38

John 7:38 CSB

The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”

And in Revelation 22 as we read last week, in New Creation we will have the tree of life with us once again, but that’s not all, what else is there?

Revelation 22:1–3 CSB

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him.

Without this water of life we are constantly dehydrated thirsting for more.

There are many places where the Psalms use this imagery and help us grasp what the point is.

Psalm 1:3 “He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”

Psalm 63:1 “God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.”

Psalm 143:6 “I spread out my hands to you; I am like parched land before you. Selah”

We see this desperation to be refreshed and satisfied by God’s life giving presence!

Last week, we were reminded of our desperate need for the presence of God, truly abiding with Jesus and letting his presence give us life!

This week, we see with living water, that God is eager to POUR out his life on us, refresh us and truly satisfy our souls!

It’s really important we understand this. It puts things into perspective for us. God designed us for life with Him in his presence and invites us to come and be with him through Jesus. The living water shows us God’s ability and willingness to satisfy our needs and desires!

Our world is constantly playing off of our needs and desires to get us to buy things, do things, say things, wear things, post things, everything!

We are constantly bombarded with “opportunities” to satisfies our needs and desires in quick fix ways and relationships. This is the heart of hook-up culture, and social media, and even substance abuse.

The sad reality we must realize is that when we are turning to all of these other people, places and things for what only God can give us. God designed us to come to him and have life. To trust him, rest in him, abide in him, drink from HIM and have an abundant life of blessing, peace, joy, love. And yet we let our thirst drive us to all the wrong places far too often!

We will never enjoy this physical life without the Spiritual Life of God flowing in us!

This is the purpose of the living water- to create and support and spread the abundant life of God. Think about it this way- if we don’t have the water of life flowing through us, how will we ever be a part of the tree of life that bears fruit! No water, no fruit.

So, what do we do with this idea? How does this impact how we live?

Well, again similar to last week,

The living water is a reminder:

1. We will NOT find life apart from God.

We can search and try to do things our own way. We can let our desires lead us all over the world, but we will not satisfy the desires of our soul.

Only Jesus offers the life that satisfies our souls.

And again, similar to last week, it’s not just for us.

2. The life of Jesus is meant to flow through us to the world around us.

Meaning, when we have been satisfied by the waters of life, we are able to also offer that same refreshing water to those around us.

You see it every single day- in school, online, at the store, on your team- people are searching desperately for something to satisfy their souls and they don’t even realize it.

You, if you have been filled and refreshed by the living water, can invite them to a good and satisfying life of Jesus. Tell them they don’t have to keep searching for satisfaction they can find it all in Jesus! And living water can flow through them like it is through you!

The river in all the examples except for Revelation- the river is constantly flowing OUT towards the farthest people from God! That is where we should be flowing too!

Do you guys remember what it was like when you were younger, specifically in Elementary school as a kid and you would have recess outside? Anyone still have recess outside? I just remember playing games really hard- whatever it was basketball, or football or jackpot- anyone ever play jackpot? Crazy!

But, you would be out of breath exhausted and sweating like crazy, and come inside and race to where? The water fountain. I mean each kid would have their head down at water fountain drinking for like at least 10 minutes each it felt like! That was the most satisfying, refreshing water ever!

Here’s the thing, we don’t have to just run to Jesus for water when we get to that point of exhaustion and dehydration! We are invited to plant ourselves by him like a tree next to a river of flowing water.

Jesus is eager to give us the life that will satisfy our souls. He has the living water we need!

As we close, you’ll remember last week the final example we talked about for the tree of life was Jesus himself being a man, carrying his tree up a hill and then dying on it so He could reconnect us to the tree of Life through his resurrection.

Well something similar happens with the water of life. There is a ton of similar language used between the some of the living water passages of the old testament and Jesus on the cross.

As Jesus is hanging on the cross he gives up his spirit and died. Then a roman soldier came and pierced his side and what came out? Blood and water.

Jesus in John 7 said that out of his belly, or out of his innermost being would flow rivers of living water. By Jesus pouring out his blood for you on the cross, he also offers you living water to satisfy your souls. This is the life we have with God- forgiven for our sins, brought back to a personal relationship with God and given abundant life with Him in His Kingdom for eternity.

Only Jesus offers the life that satisfies our souls. Bow your heads with me and let’s respond together in prayer tonight!

Ask God to help you see ways that you have been trying to satisfy your needs and desires apart from Him. CONFESS those things to God.

Ask God to show you how He has everything you need to be refreshed, satisfied and fulfilled in HIM! THANK HIM for that!

Finally, ask God to lead you to people around you who are desperately thirsty for the water of life that is only found in Jesus! And OBEY God this week as he leads you to them.

Let’s pray.