Thirsty?

John 4:1-14

Before we get started, I want to acknowledge spicy, beautiful, hard headed, spitfire of a person this morning. Some of you are aware, it is Pastor’s wife appreciation month. I would like to take a moment to thank my beautiful wife. She is not only my wife, she is a mother, the first lady for NEC, she is Mrs. Dani to all her cookies at LCU, she is a principal and teacher at Richard Christian Academy putting in nearly 3900 hrs teaching our girls, she is the social media superstar for NEC putting in nearly 1100 post since its start, she is the Wednesday night bible study teacher putting in nearly 3200 hrs into personal bible study for the 4 years we have been here , she is a prayer warrior putting in nearly 104 hrs of prayer time each year for each and everyone of us, she is one of the worship leaders here putting in over 1000 hrs since she has been here in worship, and she is a small business owner putting in countless hours of free time into that, not counting the countless text and phone calls she takes to help the ladies here and her friends that are not here. She does it all not for the thank yous are the acknowledgement, she does it for the glory of the Lord. Please take a moment out of your time to tell her thank you. I know I do!

As most of you are aware, I normally start each message with an illustration or a story and I would normally give you what points we will be having today. Today will be different. There is a good bit of historical context we must go through, that I wanted to jump right into it and there is so many different points, that I just ask that you pay attention and I will point several things out today. But I promise you, it will all make since in the end. So let’s start by looking at John 4:1-6.

John 4:1–6 CSB

When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), he left Judea and went again to Galilee. 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.

Let’s pray!

To start off these verses today, we see that the Pharisees are trying to cause division between Jesus’ disciples and John the Baptist’s disciples. The Pharisees saw an opportunity to stir up jealousy and contention between the two of them. By leaving Judea and heading to Galilee, Jesus was preventing the Pharisees from being successful in their efforts.

They were doing this cause their status was being challenged. And this brings me to my first point in this historical context, division. The devil will use whatever he can to destroy the church and division is one of them. We need to be aware of this tactic that the devil likes to use.

It wasn’t that the Pharisees were speaking falsehood, they were actually speaking the truth, but it was disguised truth. Yes, John was not doing as many baptisms as Jesus and his disciples, but were they saying it to edify the church or to destroy a movement.

I hear often, I am not lying, I am speaking the truth, but is your truth edifying the church or causing division because you really just want to gossip. If the truth you are about to speak does not glorify God, be like Jesus and walk away.

Now we read often about the conflict between Jews and Samaritans, but we really do not understand why. Let me give you a little background.

When me and Lennie were mere high school kids, football was king. Matter of fact, Church Point was finally a good team. 1988 was the first year that they actually made it to the playoffs. With that being said, our biggest rival was Eunice. It was so bad that we would not dare come to Eunice after dark or even date a girl from Eunice. Eunice was the plague.

I say this to give you just an idea of the distaste that the Jews had for the Samaritans. To really understand the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, we must understand the conflict and scene of where this is taking place.

It takes us back to to where Israel was divided into a northern kingdom (Israel) and a southern kingdom (Judah). Israel was not a good kingdom and God had the Assyrian nation come and exile the northern kingdom. In typical Assyrian fashion, they left some Israelites there, but sent in their people to assimilate the Israelites into the Assyrian culture.

In doing this, the northern kingdom became inundated with pagan religions and instead of stopping it, they embraced it and it became an issue between the devote Jews and the now known Samaritans.

It got so bad that the Jews would not allow the Samaritans to worship at the temple, so at a point in time, the Samaritans made their own temple to worship how they saw fit. They even had their own version of the Hebrew bible. Again we see division.

The hatred was so bad, the Samaritans would fling dead people and pigs into the temple. This would cause the priest to have to go through a seven day ritual to cleanse the temple. The Samaritans would align themselves with other nations to attack the Jews.

Needless to say, the Jews and the Samaritans had no love lose for each other.

So when we read that Jesus went from Judea to Galilee through Samaria, this was not normal for a Jew. The Jews would travel nearly 40 extra miles, just so they would not have to go through Samaria.

Now some versions of the bible says that Jesus needed to go through Samaria, meaning that there was a divine appointment to be had at Jacob’s well. This well held significant meaning to all in the area. This was the well where Jacob meet Rachel, the love of his life, the mother of Joseph. The same person who saved the Israelites from starvation during the famine in the land of Canaan.

Basically, Jesus left the very Jewish nation and went to the very Gentile nation of Samaria. Showing again that the message Jesus had come to bring was for everyone, not just the Jew, but for you and me.

Something to note before we continue on, the bible says that Jesus was worn out from his journey. We know that Christ needed to be at Jacob’s well for a divine appointment which shows his divinity, but him being in a state of exhaustion shows his humanity. Another example that Christ was not only 100% God, but 100% human.

Now that we got a good chunk of historical context, which we will have more here in a moment, let’s continue to look at our verses for today.

John 4:7–10 CSB

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.”

In our previous verses, it said that it was about noon. This was the heat of the day. As we all know, you do not try to do anything in the midday sun.

But we see here a lady, a Samaritan woman, coming to get water. Women would come early in the day to get water, one because the jugs were very heavy to carry once they were filled and two, this was the biblical version of the water cooler. They would spend the morning catching up and spreading gossip.

So why this woman was coming at this time of day. Well, we find out later that she is a woman that has been around the block several times. 5 times in fact and she was on her 6th go around.

Just know, she was ashamed of her current situation, so much so she would suffer in the mid day heat just to not be scorned by the local ladies. She was the gossip that the ladies were doing.

Now, during this time, a man would not normally associate with a woman, especially a Jew to a Samaritan woman. The scandal!!! But again we know that this is a divine appointment so Jesus is not shying away from an opportunity.

And as we read, it goes something like this...are you thirsty?

All the history that these two people have between them, all the hostility, all the animosity. It boils down to a simple question...thirsty?

We spend our whole lives searching to quench a thirst in our lives. In our very soul. We search in all the places.

Some search by spending money. We can not wait for that next purchase. We do things knowing that it will cause us to buy more stuff. It temporarily cures a thirst that we have. A need we have.

Some search to cure their thirst by gossip and slander. We thirst for conflict. Chaos is their temporarily cure.

Some it is drugs and alcohol.

Some are like this woman that search for it in the arms of another.

This thirst is nothing new.

This has been going on for ages. King Solomon wrote about this in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

Ecclesiastes 2:10–11 CSB

All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles. When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

King Solomon the richest man in the world, had 300 wives and 70 concubines. Had the best place in the world to live. Was king of the strongest nation in the world. His words...I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Now here comes Jesus. And this is what He says.

John 4:13–14 CSB

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.”

The Samaritan woman is thinking he is talking about the water in the well, but Jesus is looking at what she is really thirsty for, the water that gives eternal life.

Jesus cuts through to the heart of this woman’s search for happiness.

Searching for true happiness in the context of a godless life is like looking for a needle in a haystack that doesn’t have any.

W. T. Purkiser

The picture Jesus paints here is very clear, we are all in a desperate life and death situation.

We need help!

And our only hope is in the living water, Jesus Christ.

We try over and over again, we turn to this person, that activity, this good work, or that religious system, in hopes to find the living water.

And all these things give a temporary solution to an over arching issue, our need for a Savior to satisfy our thirst.

We search so desperately for something, anything to dull the thirst, but all we are doing is drink the salt water that is not the fresh living water that is Jesus Christ.

The true root of sin is searching for happiness in something other than Jesus. It is a sin that produces an ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure.

Let’s look closely at Christ’s promise to this woman. It is a promise that was true 2000 years ago, it is true today. Jesus tells her that her thirst will be satisfied by just taking a sip, and not only that but that sip will cause a spring to rise up.

I told you earlier, that Christ needed to be there, it was a divine appointment.

He pursued this woman to a point of exhaustion.

He is doing that for you today. Today is a divine appointment. He is calling out to you to drink from the living water he is providing.

You never need to be desperate again.

The devil does not want this. He has been trying to stop it from the very beginning. He will use every tactic he can. Just look at the history between the Jews and the Samaritans, they were once a mighty nation, and the evil of this world made them enemies.

Can you imagine the strength of the church, if we put away the desires of this world, come together in the power of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ? If we were satisfied in Him and thirst for him?

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, and we are most satisfied in him in worship.

John Piper

We worship him when we reject the things of this world and embrace him with our all consuming desire.

Once we turn to Jesus, we discover in him the fulfilling source of spiritual nourishment that never runs dry.

He is pursuing you today, are you willing to stop and drink. Thirsty?