Living Water
Notes
Transcript
Living Water
Living Water
Good morning everyone, so over the years my life has taken me to some very contrasting places. What I mean is I’ve been in some of the worst places you can imagine. Homeless, drug dens, jails some of the lowest lows you could imagine. But I have also by the grace of God been to some beautiful places, mansions, meetings and get together’s of extremely successful people and doing business with very successful people. But no matter the location, circumstance or social status there is always a common denominator, sin. The brokenness, fallen state of mankind does not discriminate.
Today we turn to John 4:1–15, where Jesus meets a woman at a well—a Samaritan woman. This story is not just about water, but about worship, worth, and the wonder of grace. Today we’re also going to contrast this woman with Nicodemus from John 3, see how sin is a universal problem, and discover how Jesus redeems brokenness for our good and His glory. Amen? Amen!
Open up your bibles to John 4:1–15. It will also be up here on the screen.
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 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.) 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.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 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.” 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.”
CONTRAST: NICODEMUS VS. THE WOMAN AT THE WELL
CONTRAST: NICODEMUS VS. THE WOMAN AT THE WELL
The first thing we notice in chapter 4 is that this story is intentionally placed right after the story of Nicodemus in John 3.
The contrast is striking: First we have Nicodemus: A Jewish man, a Pharisee, a respected religious leader.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man was towards the very top of the current social status and religious structure.
Yet now we find ourselves hearing about someone who was the complete opposite of him.
The Samaritan Woman: First off she was a Samaritan (hated by Jews), secondly a woman (culturally lower status), and lastly all stacked up she was a Samaritan woman with a broken moral history. We know that from a little further down in verse 18.
for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
John 3:1-2 shows Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night, likely out of fear or secrecy.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
The woman meets Jesus at noon in the full light of day, symbolizing Jesus exposing and healing her wounds.
Where Nicodemus had status, the woman had shame. Yet both needed the same thing: living water—new birth, eternal life.
Romans 3:23 reminds us: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Education or social status doesn't exempt us from sin.
Sin is the universal problem—Jesus is the universal Savior.
JESUS CROSSES BARRIERS TO MEET HER
JESUS CROSSES BARRIERS TO MEET HER
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
Look at the wording in verse 4“He had to go through Samaria.”
This wasn’t geographically necessary—it was missional. Jews typically avoided Samaria due to centuries of hostility. Yet Jesus goes where others won’t—to the outcasts, the broken, the ashamed.
He arrives tired (v.6)—fully human. He asks for water (v.7)—showing vulnerability with His human nature on full display before he declares His deity.
He initiates conversation—something a Jewish man wouldn’t do with a Samaritan woman.
Jesus goes the extra mile to reach this woman. Literally and figuratively. He breaks cultural, racial, gender, and moral barriers to reach this woman.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
So I have a question for us to consider.
Who are the “Samaritans” in your life?
We all have our own way of putting up barriers to reach people. “They’re too far gone” “I’m not going into that place” “They’ll never change from what they currently believe” “They don’t want to hear what I have to say”
That last one is probably true. This woman probably didn't want to hear what Jesus had to say, but they, just like her desperately need to hear the good news.
Are you willing to cross those barriers to bring the gospel?
THE WOMAN’S THIRST
THE WOMAN’S THIRST
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 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.) 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.”
In verse 10, Jesus pivots from physical thirst to spiritual thirst:
“If you knew the gift of God... you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
This woman is drawing water at noon—alone. Most women came in the cool of the morning. Her isolation shows her social shame—likely due to her past.
She came for water, but Jesus saw a soul thirsting for grace, for forgiveness, for purpose.
It in a way echoes what we here in Psalm 42
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
We all have this thirst. Sin is our attempt to quench it with things that don’t satisfy—relationships, success, religion, pleasure. But only the Living Water that comes through Jesus and Jesus alone will satisfy our souls.
THE GIFT OF LIVING WATER
THE GIFT OF LIVING WATER
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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
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.”
Jesus says this water He offers becomes a “spring of water welling up to eternal life”. Not stagnant religion, but a living, flowing relationship.
This echoes Isaiah 55:1:
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Notice:
He doesn’t start with condemnation.
He offers a gift—salvation.
He awakens her curiosity: “Sir, you have nothing to draw with…” Just like us she is trying to find the things she thinks she needs to get immediate yet temporary relief.
But Jesus speaks of a deeper thirst, and she begins to open up. She says, “Give me this water”. It’s a longing from the soul.
It’s deep longing because God set that longing in our hearts.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
JESUS EXPOSES HER SIN TO HEAL HER
JESUS EXPOSES HER SIN TO HEAL HER
The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” 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.”
Though not our main passage and Pastor Tony will cover these verses next week, it's important for us to note what follows: Jesus lovingly reveals her past—five husbands, and the current man not her husband.
He doesn't avoid her sin; He exposes it not to shame, but to redeem.
John 1:14 says Jesus came “full of grace and truth.” He doesn't pick one over the other. He gives her truth about her sin, and grace for her soul.
Like a doctor who must expose a wound before healing it, Jesus addresses the real issue.(Matt Chandler don’t cut my leg story)
We don’t need to hide our brokenness from Jesus. He already knows. Let Him redeem it.
GOD USES HER STORY FOR HIS GLORY
GOD USES HER STORY FOR HIS GLORY
Later, this woman—previously hiding at noon—runs into town, proclaiming:
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did!”
The townspeople come and believe—a revival starts through her testimony.
The pain of her past becomes the platform of her purpose.
who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Jesus met a religious leader in the dark (Nicodemus) and an outcast woman at noon—and gave both the same offer: eternal life through Him.
No matter our story, our shame, or our social status—we need the living water of Jesus Christ.
We search for it in all these other places, people and things but only Jesus:
Crosses barriers to meet us where we are.
Knows your true thirst and has what it takes to satisfy it.
Yeah He confronts our sin.
But He also offers grace.
And He also redeems us and builds us up in a way that we get to use our story for His glory.
So ask yourself these questions.
Are you still trying to quench your thirst with broken cisterns?
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.
Are you hiding your shame? Let Jesus bring it into the light. Because someone else is dealing with the same things you are, and you can use those things to reach people for their good and for God’s glory!
Lean into the truth of what Jesus said in today’s passages.
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” (John 4:13–14)
Let’s Pray!
