Never Thirst Again

INTRODUCTION:

I wanted to share this morning from a story in the Gospels located in John 4.

It will be a familiar passage to many of you but the Lord ministered to me through this passage on my trip to Ecuador and I wanted to share it with you this morning.

For those who don’t know, the past few weeks myself and a recent member of our church (Garry Wester) spent time time in Santo Domingo, Ecuador to engage in ministry with the Tsa’chila people.

The Tsa’chila (native people) are a well established people group in the outer regions of Santo Domingo, Ecuador.

The men have a distinguishing red paste that they put into their hair and it’s makes them impossible to miss.

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Beginning in the 19-20th century, Protestant missionaries groups like the IMB established initiatives, our own Garry and Sharlotte Wester among them.

They spent multiple decades in Ecuador but the latter years of their missionary service were spent in evangelizing the Tsa’chila and planting churches in as many villages as they could.

One of the ways that they gained a positive reputation in the community is by improving the lives of everyone who lived in the village by drilling water wells and providing water to each household.

In addition to water wells they would provide medical brigades and perform VBS and like outreaches.

Many politicians and NGO’s had promised benevolance projects like this in the past but they would never follow through.

The Tsa’chila had gotten used to empty words and unkept promises.

But through the sacrificial efforts of Gary, Sharlotte and their US church partners - one by one then villages were supplied with a viable water source.

Today - all but one of the seven Tsa’chia villages have a water source.

The village we stayed in was called Poste and Gary will be taking a team back in October to finish the water project (and there’s actually an opportunity for some of our men if any of you are interested.)

Experiencing the Tsa’chila

It was really interesting living among the Tsa’chila. They are essentially a farming community with trees and vegetation as far as the eyes can see.

They were very gracious, accommodating and hungry to hear what we had to say.

While some have a basic idea of the tenants of Christianity, there is so much syncretism between their tribal religions and Catholicism that much of the work is taking people back to what the Bible actually says.

The village we were working in had a decent number of believers and the Lord is beginning to grow the number so that a budding Christian community is beginning to form.

One of the ways we shared the Gospel among the Tsa’chila people is through telling Bible stories. The Bible is full of so many great stories and the medium of storytelling works so well within the Tsa’chila culture.

One of the stories I told while there was about Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4. It’s one of my favorite stories of Jesus.

The occasion I was invited to speak for was the ceremonial launch of the new water well project at La Susanita that had just been installed.

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As you can see from this video they went ALL OUT with the festivities. There was a fashion show, beauty contest, dancing and singing and a big meal as well.

It was one of the most interesting experiences I had ever had.

My mind was drawn to the story in John 4 because the name another village had given to the water well was “The Blessing/Gift of God.”

That’s the same language Jesus used in our story between him and a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.

Jesus used her thirst for physical water to teach a spiritual truth. Namely, that an infinite longing must be satisfied by an eternal source.

Set the Table

So let’s take our Bibles and turn to John 4 as we examine this passage.

To give you a little bit of the context Jesus had been gaining in popularity.

Miracles of turning water into wine at Cana,

his teaching and preaching that had garnered a reputation and

various other miracles he had done up to that point.

John 4 opens with a comment that the Pharisees had heard Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist.

Because of that growing popularity Jesus left where he was in Judea and went back towards his hometown in Galilee.

The traditional route from point A to point B would’ve required Jesus and his disciples to travel though Samaria and our conversation takes place in a particular Samaritan village called Sychar.

IMAGE: John 4:1-5

John 4:1–5 CSB

When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3 he left Judea and went again to Galilee. 4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph.

One of the things you need to know about this stop is that traditional Jewish rabbis (or other religious leaders) would intentionally take the long way around in order to not go through Samaria.

There was a widespread belief that the Samaritans were ceremonially unclean and not to be interacted with by people seriously committed to their Jewish faith.

But Jesus never let the traditions of man keep him from following the will of God. Neither does Jesus ever do anything on accident or without a purpose.

There was a divine appointment between him and a Samaritan woman just like there might be a divine appointment between you and Jesus here today.

Breaking Tradition

Let’s pick it in verse six of John 4.

John 4:6–9 CSB

6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. 9 “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 is breaking ALL of the rules by not only going through Samaria and stopping in a village but actually engaging a Samaritan woman directly at a WELL with nobody else present as a witness.

One of the things we know from our study in the book of Genesis is that boys who meet girls at wells often do so in order to get married.

For pious Jews (especially a rabbi like Jesus) it would’ve been considered inappropriate to engage a woman in conversation alone with nobody else present.

Especially THIS kind of woman.

Did you notice what time it was? 12:00 noon. (Most women drew water early in the morning or late at night while sun was lower)

Did you notice the girl was alone? Why is that?

We’re going to get some more information later on but these examples alone indicate this woman is carrying a level of shame and regret and was hiding herself from polite company.

This is not the kind of person a religious Jew would’ve been caught hanging around.

But Jesus isn’t just a religious Jew. Jesus is the Savior of the Wold.

And he never let human tradition get in the way of God’s redemptive plan.

Jesus Christ can meet our needs when no one else can or will.

Jesus is going to invite this woman in on that fact through this conversation at the well.

FAULTY ASSUMPTIONS

But first she was going to have to work through some faulty assumptions.

The faulty assumptions made by this Samaritan woman are assumptions that many of us make today as well.

The first faulty assumption is exposed in verses 10-12.

John 4:10–12 CSB

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.”

If you’re not familiar with your Old Testament some of this language will be lost on you.

Throughout the OT living water was used to describe springs of water that never ran dry. It was the best kind and most coveted fresh water source. (Gen 26:19)

But the idea of living water also came to symbolize the living giving nature of God’s grace and salvation and the promise of a coming age where they would drink from living waters that would never run dry. (Isa 12:3; Jer 2:13)

Mainly Material

Jesus seems to be using this language in that latter sense whereas this woman is more focused on the former.

Which is the first faulty assumption we make when we live our life outside of a relationship we Jesus.

We assume our greatest needs are mainly material.

The woman’s reply to Jesus shows us that exactly where her head is at.

Jesus’ response points her to something deeper.

John 4:13–15 CSB

13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 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.” 15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

We don’t know if the woman is being serious about her response or if she’s replying in more of a mocking tone but her emphasis seems to be stuck in the material physical realm.

Jesus is indicating a kind of living water that leads to eternal life but what she’s mostly concerned with is never having to come to this well to draw water again.

Why is it that she wanted a water source so that she never had to draw water?

Why was she drawing water alone?

Why was she drawing water at 12pm instead of early morning or late evening?

Ultimately Unforgivable

Jesus exposes that truth along with her second faulty assumption in the verses that follow.

John 4:16–19 CSB

16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” 17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet.

What’s going on here?

Jesus is peeling back the curtain on what’s really going on in this woman’s life.

The CSB translates the Greek word “aner” as husband and that’s a legitimate way to translate it.

But like the Greek word for “wife/woman” it can also simply mean man.

Some suggest Jesus is using a little play on words to expose the fact that this woman is a serial adulterer.

“Go call your husband…”

“I don’t have one…”

You’re right to say “I don’t have a husband…. You’ve had five different men and the man you’re living with right now is NOT your husband.”

What you have said is true.

Jesus is reading this girls mail. It’s likely the reason she walked to the well alone is because she had ruined the marriages of many of the other women in her town.

She was the town whore. The object of sexual sin for not one, not two, not three or four but SIX different men.

That’s why she wants a water source so that she’ll never have to come to this well again and be reminded of her sin and shame.

Her faulty assumption is that her greatest shame was ultimately unforgivable.

We don’t know the details or the level of involvement each man had in the affair but it always takes two to tango and Jesus is exposing her shame.

Personally Unknowable

As most of us do when our deepest regrets are brought to the surface, this woman finds a way to change the topic.

In this case, she changes the topic to a debate that had been raging between Jews and Samaritans for hundreds of years.

Namely, what was the proper geographical location for the worship of Yahweh?

John 4:20 CSB

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

Notice again the play on words.

The woman is appealing to the religious tradition of “the fathers” or “ancestors” of the Samaritan people.

Her focus was purely on geography and genetics.

The debate was that the Samaritans were the true descendants of Joseph and that Jacob gave Shechem to Jospeh as a gift and that the true worship of God was to be done on Mount Gerazim.

Jesus’ response appeals not to earthly fathers or religious traditions but to the Heavenly Father himself who is less concerned about traditions and geography than He is the heart of man.

John 4:21–23 CSB

21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.

Notice Jesus’ sides with the Jewish side of the argument in saying that “salvation is from the Jews.”

The Samaritans only accepted the “Torah” as authoritative (the first five books of the OT).

That removes many of the prophetic books that talk about the nature and role of the Messiah and therefore their understanding of salvation was incomplete.

They had a partial vision of God and how to be rightly related to God but it was incomplete.

Jesus’ description of their theology is that “they worship what they did not know.”

As a result, their worship had devolve into traditions and ritual and a partial view of the coming of Messiah.

The days of ritual and tradition were coming to an end, however,

The Father was seeking a different kind of worshiper who would worship in Spirit and in Truth.

So the third faulty assumption of the Samaritan woman that the truth about God was personally unknowable.

She hints to as much in reply to Jesus’ answer when she says, “There’s a day coming when the Messiah will settle such debates.

Jesus The Christ

After explaining the nature of genuine worship Jesus explains why he is able to speak as an authority on the matter.

John 4:24–26 CSB

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

Three faulty assumptions about the nature of this world.

The first assumption was about her greatest need.

The second assumption was about her greatest problem.

The third assumption was about her life’s purpose.

With each of these needs her replies to Jesus indicate they’re all unmet.

She had a thirst she couldn’t stop. (DESIRE)

She had regrets she couldn’t redeem. (SHAME)

She had a purpose she couldn’t fulfill. (CALLING)

In each of these needs Jesus is inviting her to receive from him “streams of water” that will lead to eternal life.

But in order to receive it she had to change her orientation away from the temporal to the eternal.

Away from the material/physical to the spiritual/theological.

As C.S. Lewis so eloquently put it, “If I find within myself a desire that nothing else in this world can satisfy then it might indicate I’m made for a different world.

For Jesus to satisfy your deepest longings you must worship God in spirit and in truth.

TRUE SATISFACTION:

Jesus has confronted this Samaritan woman with that reality and now the ball is in her court for what to do next.

Right as the conversation gets interesting Jesus’ disciples show back up.

He’s going to convey to them a similar truth through a different method.

John 4:27–30 CSB

27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They left the town and made their way to him.

Notice that the woman leaves without even taking her water jug back with her.

This indicates that she was truly taken aback by her experience with Jesus.

You can’t encounter Jesus and leave the way you came.

She leaves with a testimony on her lips about Jesus being the Messiah. She’s not completely sure but she’s sharing what she knows with anybody who will listen. And evidentially many people did.

John 4:31–38 CSB

31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 33 The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them. 35 “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”

Jesus conveys to the disciples a similar truth as the Samaritan woman.

The greatest nourishment doesn’t come from mere food and water.

The greatest nourishment we can have is to do the will of our Father and join him in his Work.

What is the will of the Father? What is the mission that he sent Jesus into the world to complete?

To gather a people for himself from every tribe, tongue and nation. Jews, Samaritans and peoples from the uttermost parts of the earth.

And Jesus essentially says to his disciples, “just as the Father has sent ME into the world so also am I sending you.”

You’re going to benefit from the labor of another.

Which leads to the second big takeaway from this passage.

You can’t encounter Jesus and not join him in God’s mission.

He’s on a mission to save the world and meet the needs of people that no one else can.

THREE TAKE AWAYS:

That’s exactly what happens with many of the Samaritans who came to listen to Jesus’ word with their very own ears.

John 4:39–42 CSB

Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of what he said. And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

What did Jesus tell them that caused them to believe?

I wonder if it wasn’t a summary of the same things he said to the woman and the disciples.

Our greatest needs will never be met by people or things in this world. An infinite need requires an eternal source in order to be satisfied.

Ultimate Thirst

For the sake of application I’m going to list them under three main headings.

Our ultimate thirst, only Jesus can satisfy. So stop drinking from empty cisterns.

Stop looking to this world and the things of this world to satisfy a thirst only Jesus can quench.

Some people look for this in money. Some people look for it in sex or status.

Those things will only leave you more thirsty and worse off than when you first began.

Ultimate Problem

Which leads to the second key principle from our passage today.

Our ultimate problem, only Jesus can solve.

Our ultimate problem is a sin problem. It’s a problem of shame.

People try and cover their soul shame in the same way they try and quench their soul thirst.

They run from God instead of towards him. They hide. They change the topic. They divert attention away from the source of shame.

Jesus can only redeem your shame if you bring it into his light.

Spirit AND truth. You’ve got to come to Jesus with the truth about your sin.

You’ve got to believe the TRUTH that Jesus has paid the penalty for your sin and forgive your sin.

Stop running. Stop hiding. Repent and believe!

Ultimate Purpose

Finally, the last key principle from this passage deals with our ultimate purpose in life.

Our ultimate purpose only Jesus enable.

Our ultimate purpose in this world is to know and worship God.

God is looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

To worship God in spirit means we shift away from the material, traditional and ritual to something more heart felt and sincere.

To worship God in spirit also means to worship him through the enablement of the Holy Spirit which we only receive in Jesus.

Which leads us to the truth portion of worship. Worship God in Spirit and in TRUTH.

The truth isn’t just the truth about God. But it’s the truth about rightly relating TO the Father THROUGH the Son.

Our ultimate purpose is to glorify the Father through the exaltation of the Son.

Which means we don’t only worship Jesus through songs of praise and adoration.

We also share Jesus by joining him in his mission to save souls for the glory of God.

As John Piper eloquently put it, “MIssions exists because worship doesn’t.”

There are millions of people all around the world who have yet to come to worship God in spirit and in truth.

And the only thing you need in order to be qualified to share is to have encountered God through Christ yourself.

It doesn’t matter your baggage or background or reputation good or bad.

God can use weakened vessel to accomplish wonderful things. He just needs your testimony and Jesus can do the rest.