Living Water

Once there was a woman who was on her way to get water. This was back in a time when you had to walk a ways to get water out of the well. She wasn’t going at the normal time of day for water… she was going around noon, when it was hotter. But it was still cooler than the disdainful glares and judgemental looks she received when she was around the other women. So, there she was as the heat of the day was beginning to draw her water.

As she approached the well, a man was sitting there. A Jew, clearly. At least this man wouldn’t talk to her. He was Jew, they didn’t have anything to do with Samaritans, of which she was one. Plus, she was a women. This man would probably pay her no mind. As she reached the well and began to fill her bucket, someone suddenly said,

“Please give me a drink.”

“Wait, is that Jewish man talking to me?” She thought.

She turned and looked at him. This was indeed a strange man, that he would be talking to her, both a Samaritan and a Jew. To share a meal was to share a life, and so by asking her for water - from something her hands had touched - would definitely make him considered “unclean.” Yet here he was, asking for this water! Shocked she said:

John 4:9 (ESV)

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

His reply was even more perplexing:

John 4:10 NLT

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

What?? What does He mean by this?? How could he even draw water? He had nothing to draw with! The woman was both confused, and a little on the defensive:

John 4:11–12 NLT

“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”

How could it be that this random guy said he could offer better water than water from the very spring their own ancestors had drank from? But before her thought pattern could go any further, the man spoke again:

John 4:13–14 NLT

Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

“Ok,” thought the woman, “I’d be ok with that! No more hauling water, no more disdainful stares… this sounds great!” So she asked:

John 4:15 NLT

“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”

The man looked at her and said:

John 4:16 NLT

“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.

“Why does he want my husband?” Well, never mind, it’s none of His business anyway. So she curtly replied:

“I have no husband”

Of all the things she expected to hear next, His next words were not one of them:

John 4:17–18 (ESV)

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 was stunned. “How could he know that?? Who had he been talking to? But I’ve never seen Him before, and this is a Samaritan village… Jews went out of their way to avoid this place! Was he a prophet of some kind? If he is, then perhaps I can ask Him a hard question.” So she said:

John 4:19–20 NLT

“Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

If he really did know what he was talking about, this was certainly a good test. The Jew and Samaritans had never seen eye to eye on where the worship spot was. Was it at Mount Gerizim, where Moses had proclaimed in the Law? Or was it in Jerusalem, where God’s temple rested?

The man’s reply was odd - shocking actually:

John 4:21 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

Then he continued:

John 4:22–24 NLT

You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Was this man more than a prophet? There was a Messiah - a new Moses - like the famous leader of old. She had some dim awareness of one who would come, who would restore…

John 4:25 NLT

The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

His next words both confirmed a flicker of suspicion in her heart, and set her heart aflame in a new way, as she too believed:

John 4:26 ESV

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

We find this story in John’s gospel, the fourth book in the New Testament. The whole point of John’s gospel is to introduce Jesus to us, and help us know Him so that we might believe and be saved. This story from John 4 4-26 demonstrates a very important truth. This is the big idea, that:

Jesus Christ is our soul's source of living water.

What we’re going to do this morning is go through this story and understand three important lessons about Jesus being our soul’s source of living water.

The first is…

Jesus: Bringer of Life (7-14)

Jesus is the one through who we receive the life-giving presence of God’s Spirit. What does this mean? Well, to understand this we need to get back to the beginning of our story.

Jesus comes to Samaria and stop by Jacob’s well, at this little village call Sychar. It is very possible this is near the site of Shechem, an ancient city that we read about in Genesis, Joshua, and other books. By Jesus’ time, Shechem was long gone. Although we don’t read about any well in Genesis, the land around it was the same land we read about in both Genesis and Joshua.

Joshua 24:32 (ESV)

As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.

While Jesus could have chosen to take a different route, albeit a bit longer, He chose instead to go through Samaria to get to Galilee. Why? So he could have this very important conversation. The disciples went to go find food, and so Jesus is alone at the well when the woman arrives. It really is a strange thing for Jesus to ask to woman for a drink. John makes it clear for us in verse 9:

John 4:9 ESV

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.)

Literally “no dealings” meant that Jews wouldn’t even touch the cup handled by a Samaritan because they would become unclean. Racial war extended way back in history to the time of the Solomon’s son Rehoboam. When he reigned as king, Israel split and became Israel and Judah. The Israelites had walked away from much of the law of God, and had gone into captivity sooner than those in Judah. the Samaritans - these half-breeds who had intermarried with other nations and watered down heavily the Israelite blood were all that was left of the other 10 out of 12 tribes that Solomon and David had ruled. They were considered half-breeds, not pure, and certainly not following God’s law. Not the same anyway. Jew and Samaritans had little to do with each other, and even less affection for one another.

Yet Jesus talks to the woman, and then responds to her “why are you asking me for a drink?” question.

John 4:10 ESV

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.”

What is this gift? This gift is salvation, and all it entails. Repentance, freedom from sin, the promise of new life, the indwelling of God’s very presence right here, in each of us. Jesus says, “if you knew the gift that was being offered - this living water that can bring this amazing transformation from death to life, you would be asking Me for it.” And get this, Jesus says “and he would give it to you.”

The woman can’t wrap her head around the spiritual side of this. She’s still thinking about the physical water in the well. She questions Jesus again, but His response is our cherished promise:

John 4:13–14 ESV

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.”

Have you ever been thirsty? And I don’t mean “oh I should get water sometime in the next hour or two.” I’m talking really thirsty, like “I’m going to be in trouble if I don’t get something to drink!” Water for a time will quench this thirst, but sooner than later thirst will come back again. All of us are in need of something that can satisfy our souls’ thirst for God and bring new life into every soul that is dead in sin. When Jesus talks about living water, he is talking about a new life lived in the Spirit of God. It is belief in Jesus Christ alone that makes this possible:

John 7:37–38 ESV

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

Jesus says it is a spring welling or bubbling up. Friends of ours in the area were recently showing us their water system. They noted they have an artesian well, which is this well that has water bubbling up to the surface all by itself. They don’t have to pump it out of the ground, it comes by itself!

This is the same for anyone who repents of sin, accepts Christ, believing in their heart and confessing with their mouth that Jesus Christ died and rose again for them. That’s the basic way of salvation, and when someone accepts Jesus He gives to them the Holy Sprit, dwelling inside of them like a river overflowing to sustain them and bring new life. Everyone one of us needs this soul-sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit given only through belief in Jesus Christ. He is the one who pours out the soul-sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit upon us. I read this quote from Christianity.com that I thought was helpful:

But whoever partakes of the Spirit of grace and the comforts of the gospel shall never want that which will abundantly satisfy his soul.

We were created for relationship with God! Those who do not know Jesus Christ are in spiritual crisis, desperately in need of something each one of us crave: God’s Spirit dwelling with us. His presence poured out on us like water on dry and parched ground. If we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, our souls shall never be dead, thirsty ground. Instead, new life, eternal life, will spring up in us because of Jesus’ sacrifice and the presence of God now dwelling in us. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, so that our souls may receive new life and not death, lost in evil and sin. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, who brings life to our once-dead and dry souls.

Jesus: Soul Knower (15-19)

But Jesus is not done. His next words teach the woman and us something very important. The woman responds to Jesus with a totally physical, earthly view:

John 4:15 ESV

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.”

She’s thinking something to the effect of “great! That way I wouldn’t have to haul water in the middle of the day anymore.” She’s missing the point of what Jesus is saying. But He’s not done:

John 4:16 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

This could be taken as a simple enough request. Go get your husband and then I can tell you. Only the woman knows that this is not a possibility. Or perhaps better put, which one? She’s had many. But as far as she’s aware, Jesus doesn’t know that. To her, He just looks like some plain old guy. So she simply says “I don’t have a husband.” What else is there to say to that?

John 4:17–18 (ESV)

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.”

How could Jesus know that? How could he know something so personal? He was a Jew, it’s not like He hung around this little Samaritan village much. So the woman replies:

John 4:19 ESV

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

I want to stop here before going on, because these verses tell us something so very important about Jesus Christ: He knows us. Better than we know ourselves. And what Jesus does here is expose the condition of her heart. The reality was she had been married and divorced 5 times. Now she’s living with a guy but not married to him. Jesus gently and lovingly exposes the moral condition of her heart. He makes it clear that if she wants to receive this living water, she was going to have to repent, which means to turn away from, the sin that characterized her life. Jewish law allowed women three husbands, although we see right at the beginning in creation that God designed marriage to be one man and one woman. This women had gone through 5 husbands, and now had foregone the marriage ceremony altogether. But Jesus points out that if she wants to receive the water Jesus freely gives, she has to repent.

Jesus knowns our hearts. Sometimes we think we can hide from Him, or we can just sweep something under the rug. But the truth is, we cannot hide from God. In the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had sinned, they hid. God came looking for them, and asks “where are you?” He allows them to come to Him, though He knows where they are. Their sin caused a rift, a divide between us and God. Through it entered pain and suffering and death and evil. Jesus came to restore, to save from that. But if we choose to hold onto sin, we block Jesus’ offer for life-giving water. Jesus is our soul-knower. He knows us, from the smallest things we’ve done to the largest. And He makes it clear that if we want to have the living water Jesus gives, we must repent, and allow Jesus to have our lives. Don’t get me wrong, Christians still sin! But Jesus meets us where we’re at, even as He met this Samaritan women, and takes us on a journey where He transforms us more and more - freeing us from the chains of sin. But if we refuse to let go of our sin, we are pushing Jesus out. This second lesson is simple: Jesus knows our souls, and to receive the living water we must give them fully to Him.

Jesus: Soul Saver (20-26)

This third lesson that we uncover as we consider Jesus as our soul’s source of living water is that Jesus is our soul saver.

Let’s get back to the story.

The woman continues. She asks Jesus this hard question that has plagued Jew and Samaritans for many, many years:

John 4:20 ESV

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

The Samaritans, only holding to the very first 5 books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) argued that the only proper place to worship God was not in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Temple was, but on Mount Gerizim, based on Moses’ words in Deut 27.4

Deuteronomy 27:4 ESV

And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster.

In the Samaritan version, this name is changed to Mount Gerizim. Thus, the Samaritans had built a temple there to worship God. Now, we see from the book of 1 Kings that God did indeed chosen to rest His presence in Jerusalem, as we read in 1 Kings 8 10

1 Kings 8:10 ESV

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord,

This cloud is God’s presence. but the Samaritans insisted the proper place was on Mount Gerizim.

We could say more on this, but the point is this: The woman thought to try and steer Jesus away from her and onto this. Jesus’ response is again, not what she is expecting:

John 4:21–23 ESV

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 worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

What could Jesus be talking about? He is talking about a “time” when worship the One True God wasn’t going to be in just one place. Instead, the requirements for worshipping God were in “Spirit and Truth.” Jesus is referring to the massive change that is going to take place as a result of His death and ressurection. Now, worshippers of God have a requirement not for a certain place but a heart posture. They need to be “born of the Spirit” in other words they need to be saved and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. The Spirit is truth, and leads us to worship with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Jesus turns the conversation away from a place of worship to the nature of worship (NAC) and in doing so, helps bridge the gap for this woman and introduce her to the living, personal God. She most likely had only cursory knowledge of God, but Jesus moves her to think about Him. Her next comment shows that she is finally beginning to see that Jesus could be more than a prophet. It is also possible she tries one more time to deflect from Jesus’s probing at her life.

John 4:25 ESV

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.”

She’s going “I know there’s one coming who can explain all things, even like this…could He be something of this kind?” Jesus’ response tells her and us everything we need to know:

John 4:26 ESV

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Jesus in this moment clarifies something that resounds down through the ages like crashing cymbal. Jesus is He, the One who saves. He is the One who “explains all things.” In Him is truth. This is where our third lesson comes from, that Jesus is our soul saver.

There’s a lot of emphasis in John on these I am statements. Here He says: I am He! I am the one who will come and explain all things, and I am the One through whom you are saved. The woman tried to deflect from her sin onto something else. Something that would indeed get the attention of any Rabbi and could easily start an argument. Jesus instead presents her with truth about the Living, personal God. And then, He presents her with the truth that will set her free - the same truth that He has been saying all along: He is the One, He is the Messiah that is to come.

To be a sinner means to break God’s law, even at one small point. We are all sinners, in fact God’s Word says we are dead in sin. We can’t help ourselves. We are enslaved to doing that which is evil, unhealthy, morally wrong. We owe a debt to God because we have broken His law. We are on a path to hell. But then we read this in Romans:

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This woman is a sinner. And she’s not particularly open to Jesus - in fact she tries to deflect when He starts pushing on her lifestyle. But she, and all of us, are in need of the only One who can actually save our souls: Jesus Christ. Jesus says “I am He” not just to her, but each one of us! It’s a call to repent and believe. Jesus is our soul-saver, the question is, what are we going to do about it?

Conclusion

Jesus Christ is our soul's source of living water.

From this passage we gain three lessons about our soul’s source of living water:

Jesus brings life. Through the Spirit - God’s presence - indwelling us, a spring of living water wells up spilling over into eternal life

Jesus is our soul knower. Jesus knows our souls, and to receive the living water we must give them fully to Him.

Jesus is our Soul Saver. Jesus ends His conversation with this woman with a simple statement: “I am He.” I am the Messiah that will explain all things. I am the One who saves you and gives living water. The woman has met the Saviour, the one even who will usher in a new age, where relationship with God will not be limited to temples, but will consist of people worshipping in Spirit and truth.

Do you know what the ending of this story is? The woman runs back, and tells the people in her village:

John 4:29 ESV

“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

She cannot keep silent, but must go and tell others about this “man” who knew not just about worshipping but her very soul. The implication in this story is that this woman did believe. She responded to the invitation to receive living water from the Messiah with willingness. The question now turns to us: will we respond?

Each of us is faced with the question of Jesus. Who is He, what’s He all about? Remember, John’s goal here is to write it all down so that you might believe. Will you? Will you receive Jesus, the knower and saviour of your soul, and allow Him to pour out on you living water - the Holy Spirit? Will you allow Him to bring new life to your dry and dead soul? If you do not know Jesus here today, or maybe you’ll watch this online later, the opportunity is just as much for you as that woman who walked to the well in the heat of the day 2000 + years ago. Jesus says “I am He” - will you ask for living water as well? It’s not hard, simply tell Jesus you’re sorry for your sin, ask for forgiveness and accept Christ’s sacrifice as payment for the things you have done wrong. Commit your life to God - let Him have 100% - and experience what it means to have a well-spring of life welling up inside of you too.

If you do know Jesus here today, now we come to the end of our story: The woman went and told somebody. Have you? Right after this is our Fall Festival. I want to encourage you to focus on getting to know some one new, or on welcoming someone. Get out of your comfort zone. Be a willing place if someone asks more about who this Jesus-person is. and be ready to tell somebody about the hope that is within you. The woman couldn’t keep it in, I pray it is the same for all of us here today too.

Pray.