Living Water

John 4:1-26

I. Introduction

A. Illustration – Brooks in Shawshank Redemption spent 50 years in prison. He was “institutionalized” as Red called it. He knew no other way. When he made parole rather than feeling joy and excitement he felt fear. He wanted to stay. He started to assault a fellow prisoner just so he could stay. When he got out he ended his own life rather than experience freedom. What if we are that way. All we know is a sin-soaked broken world. It is what we know. Therefore, when Jesus offers us abundant life we can see it for the privilege that it is.

II. Living water comes from Jesus (1-10)

A. Explanation

1. Jesus is moving from Jerusalem back to home base in Galilee

a. Most Jews would avoid Samaria because to them, Samaritans were the lowest of the low – Half-breed, ungodly, unclean.

b. But Jesus head right through the middle of it and almost intentionally stops at Jacob’s well to meet this woman

2. About the sixth hour – This is not the normal time for the watering of sheep – This would be about noon. Watering would come in the late afternoon of evening

3. Jesus asks for a drink from the woman – She is surprised

a. She is a woman – Jewish men would not talk to women

b. She is a Samaritan – They certainly did not talk to them. Samaritans would have been socially and spiritually beneath them in their way of thinking

c. He would be relying on drinking after this woman using her ladle and bucket

d. Any other man would have been fearful that he would immediately be unclean

4. Jesus replies

a. The gift of God – the living water, life

b. And who it is saying to you, “Give me a drink” - through Jesus Himself

c. You would have asked, and he would have given you living water – It was hers for the asking

B. Application

1. We often try to provide for our own thirst through the world and sin - 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.

2. Jesus explains it further in John 7:38-39 - Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

3. The living water is eternal and abundant life

4. Its unending source is Jesus Himself

III. Living water satisfies (11-15)

A. Explanation

1. The woman’s response – You have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get living water

a. She is obviously misunderstanding

b. Living water literally means running water, as in a spring

2. The need for water – In an ancient dessert area water is the difference between life and death. We are used to water being always on tap. We feel a disruption if we have a boil order. They would daily return to the well to keep a supply of water in their home.

3. She asks is Jesus is greater than their father Jacob who gave them that well – The answer is yes but she doesn’t realize it

4. Jesus replies

a. The water from the well will leave you to thirst again

b. The water from Jesus will never leave you thirsty again – It satisfies

c. The water Jesus gives will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life

i. It is never ending

ii.It is spiritual leading to eternal life

5. She still misses the spiritual point – give me the water so I will not have to come here to draw water

B. Application

1. What Jesus is offering fully satisfies – It will never leave you thirsty

2. But Jesus is speaking on a spiritual level

3. We spend our lives seeking fulfillment and satisfaction

a. Nothing fully satisfies

i. Money, we just want more

ii.Sex – There is never enough

iii. Alcohol drugs – Always need more and it leads to destruction

iv.On every levels in always takes more to get the thrill, and the thrill is never enough

b. Jesus fully satisfies –

i. Complete love

ii.Complete forgiveness

iii. Complete Joy, hope, life

IV. Living Water leads to true worship

A. Explanation

1. Jesus confronts her sin (a necessary step of faith) – Call you husband

2. She has no husband, but he points out she has had five and now lives with a man she is not married to

3. To avoid the conversation, she begins to ask about the theology of worship

4. On this mountain or in Jerusalem

a. Mount Gerizim was where the Samaritans worshiped

b. Mount Zion was the designated place of Worship in the OT (DT 12:1-5)

5. Jesus looked forward to a time where worship didn’t happen in a place, but in Spirit and in truth – Not just in Jerusalem, not just the Jews, not about the rituals. It was about people who knew the living water of Christ and worship through the Spirit

6. She looked forward to someone who could clarify what Jesus said (The Messiah)

7. Jesus tells he that it is He – An I Am statement of Jesus

B. Application

1. The Living Water that wells up to eternal life is the Holy Spirit

2. When you receive Him, you worship from faith and a love relationship

3. You are no longer tied to places, times, and rituals

V. Conclusion

A. “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

B. Living Water is available to those who seek it in Christ

C. Place your faith in Him

The 2023 Word of the Year is ‘Authentic’

Separating fact from fiction is getting harder. Manipulating images—and creating increasingly convincing deepfakes—is getting easier. As what’s real becomes less clear, authenticity is “something we’re thinking about, writing about, aspiring to and judging more than ever.” This is why Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is “authentic,” the company announced in November of 2023.

Editor Peter Sokolowski said, “Can we trust whether a student wrote this paper? Can we trust whether a politician made this statement? We don’t always trust what we see anymore. We sometimes don’t believe our own eyes or our own ears. We are now recognizing that authenticity is a performance itself.”

According to the announcement from Merriam-Webster, “authentic” is a “high-volume lookup” most years but saw a “substantial increase” in 2023. The dictionary has several definitions for the word, including “not false or imitation,” “true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character” and “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact,” among others.

Sokolowski said, “We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity. What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”

Other words that saw spikes this year include “deepfake,” “dystopian,” “doppelgänger,” and “deadname,” per Merriam-Webster. This year’s theme of searching for truth seems fitting following last year’s focus on manipulation. The 2022 word of the year was “gaslighting,” a term that originated from a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton. In the play, a woman complains that the gas lights in her house are dimming while her husband tries to convince her that it’s all in her head.

Possible Preaching Angle:

As technology’s ability to manipulate reality improves, people are searching for the truth. Only the Word of God contains the absolute truth “your word is truth” (John 17:17), as revealed by Jesus, who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Source: Teresa Nowakowski, “Merriam-Webster’s 2023 Word of the Year Is ‘Authentic,’ Smithsonian Magazine (11-29-23)