Thirst No More

Good Morning Church

Bibles out John 4.

Continuing in our “Sunday School” Series…

Noah’s ark…walls of Jericho…Jacob wrestles God

See Jesus in all of these….

Today we are really going to see Him…

Story of the woman at the Well…

5 elements in this story we are going to look at today…

Going to show us “How Jesus interacts with sinners”

READ V1-9

The Well (v1-9)

The ministry of Christ is in full swing…

Baptized by John…gathered His disciples…Miracles (water into wine at Cana Wedding)…Cleansed the temple (table flipping)…interacted with the Pharisees (called them out for their sinfulness)…

He even revealed to a Pharisee named Nicodemus that He is the Lord and He has come to save the world from its sinfulness…

And so after this…

The word began to spread about the miracles and teachings of Jesus…

So Jesus and disciples are traveling north from Judea back to Galilee...(For he was been sought after by the Pharisees)

In order to get from Judea to Galilee…He must go through the land of the Samaritans…

MAP

Jesus goes through Samaria>Sychar>Jacobs Well

He is hot…wearied…thirsty…sends disciples to get meat from the city…

Sits down next to the well…

Is midday (so about noon)…heat of the day…

Here comes a woman to the well to get water

Jesus asks her for a drink…(simple request?)

NOT REALLY???

Jews hated Samaritans…

And this hatred came from centuries back…

When the Assyrian nation conquered 10 tribes of Israel in the north…

And exiled most of the Jews…

After they were conquered, the Assyrian king brought in men from Babylon and all over the world…

Pagan worshippers into the land of the Lords people…

And these NON-JEWS, these Pagan worshippers began to intermingle and marry the Jewish women who had not been exiled…

After the exile was over, the Jews returned to find that the Jews who were left there have married into a Pagan culture and have been worshipping other gods…

And that there was now a mixed race of people that they called Samaritans…

1/2 Jew…1/2 Pagan….

And from that point forward a bitter hatred between Jew and Samaritan began and would continue for many many years…

So, as we read in these first few verses of chapter 4…

A woman comes up to Jesus, who is sitting alone at the well and begins to draw water…

And she is astounded when Jesus begins talking to her…

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

Like what do you mean give me a drink?? I know you don’t want me to touch your water…

Like do you know who you are talking to???!!!

I’m a Samaritan woman…and not only that you are a Jew and you want to drink from my cup?!?!?!

Jews and Samaritans don’t share ANYTHING!

Especially A CUP!!!

These aren't God’s people…

They only acknowledged the Torah (first 5 books) as scripture…

They didn’t worship in the temple…

They also worshipped false god’s…on the mountain near by (Garizin)

They were seen as so unclean by the Jews that they would not use a utensil that had been used by a Samaritan…

If they went to a market where Samaritans were…they would ceremonially wash afterward to cleanse themselves…

Thats how deep this dislike was…

And yet here is Jesus…asking a woman (who Jewish men never would speak to) for a drink from her cup…

“YOU ASK ME FOR A DRINK???…A SAMARITAN?!?!?”

Im unclean to you?!?!?

You wont even use a utensil that I have touched…

BUT YOU WANT ME TO GIVE YOU WATER?!?!?

What does the Well teach us???

That the Lord meets sinners where they are…

He seeks the lost…The sick…the unclean…

The wells location is in the hub of a people who desperately need a savior

But not just the location of the well is significant…Its content is also significant…

What does a well contain???

WATER

Whether your a Samaritan or a Jew…Sinner or sinless…If you are flesh and bone you need water…

The woman has come here to get water…

And we may think that is why Jesus is here…

But as we keep reading…He isn’t here to get water but to give it…

READ v10-14

The Water (v10-14)

So…she has asked Jesus…how is it that you would ask me for a drink?

The woman is like wait a minute… I THOUGHT YOU WERE THE THIRSTY ONE???

You were just asking me for water…Now you’re telling me if I knew who you were I would be asking you for water?!?!?

But He says to her…if you knew “the gift of God” and “who it is that asks you for the drink”…You would have asked of Him a drink…

and He would have given you living water…

You can sense her confusion here…

What gift??? What is living water???

Who are you???

So she begins to inquire…

-You have nothing to draw water with…so where does this living water come from???

How is he going to get it???

Then she asks the most important question…

-Are you greater??? (Our father Jacob)(which gave us this well)

Jesus answers both questions…

-The Gift: thirst no more? a well that springs up to everlasting life

-The Identity: the giver

Jesus is letting this woman know his identity…though we will see she still hasn’t fully grasped who He is yet…

But he has let her know…I AM THE ONE WHO GIVES EVERLASTING LIFE

She is asking…WHERE IS THIS WATER???

HIS RESPONSE…YOUR LOOKING AT IT!!!

I AM THE LIVING WATER!!!

Jeremiah 2:13 GOD SAYS…“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters…”

I AM GREATER!!! I AM THE LORD!!! I AM HERE SO THAT YOU MAY NEVER THIRST AGAIN!!!

Notice his response to her in verse 10…”IF YOU KNEW”

If you knew the gift…you would know the giver…

He is pointing back to a time when He gave water to thirsty people in the OT…

After the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt…He led them into the desert wilderness…

Exodus 17:3–6 “And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried to the Lord, saying, What shall I do to this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take with you of the elders of Israel; and your rod, wherewith thou smote the river, take in your hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb; and you shall smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”

Who is the rock that gets struck???

1 Corinthians 10:1–4 “Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”

Jesus is telling this Samaritan woman…I HAVE COME AS THE ROCK OF SALVATION TO POUR OUT ETERNAL LIFE…

TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING GREATER THAN THE WATER IN THIS WELL!!!

Many come to this well to get the water that they need to survive…

Water for themselves…water for their flock…

The shepherds would bring their sheep to this well and draw out water for them…

Think about this for a second…a sheep cant draw its own water from a well…

The sheep can gather at the well…they can desire the water,…

But unless the shepherd draws it and gives it to them…they will die of thirst at the mouth of the well…

BUT Jesus shows us here…the shepherd has come…to give living water

He will be struck…and from this Rock..

From His veins will pour out the blood needed to give everlasting life!!!

Look how the woman responds…

READ V15-19

The Woman (v15-19)

SIR…GIVE ME THIS WATER!!!

She is intrigued now…

BUT SHE STILL DOESN’T GET IT…

She is still thinking in terms of her flesh…

Give me this water so i don’t have to return here and draw water everyday…

Remember it mid day in the middle east…its hot!!!

And she has to lug these massive jars from the city fill them and carry them back…

What Jesus does next is show this Samaritan woman that not only is she physically thirsty…

She is spiritually parched as well…

So Jesus says, I’m going to show you how much you need my living water…

Go call your husband…

She says I don’t have a husband…

Jesus says I KNOW…You have 5 of them and the dude you’re with now…he aint your husband…

This woman is guilty of adultery…

We know from this text that this woman has been trying to quench this soul aching thirst with relationships…

Jumping from one man to the next and still she is dying of thirst…

Finding no satisfaction in anything of the physical world…

Jesus has just exposed her sin…

The shame that she is carrying…

Notice again, as we read in verse 6, this woman is at the well at the sixth hour…

That’s Noon y’all…

Most women during this time period would come to a well to draw water in the cool of the evening…

But this Samaritan woman is here at the heat of the day…

Either out of shame for the way she was living her life… Or out of rejection from the other women in the city…

Either way…Jesus has just shown her…by exposing her darkest sin struggle…

That what she is worshipping is not sustaining her…

That is evident… that though she has gone from man to man…

Husband to husband… she is still not satisfied…

She still thirsts…

HE IS SHOWING HER HOW SHE IS CRAVING TO BE SUSTAINED…BUT THE THINGS SHE IS DRINKING ARENT SUSTAINING HER…’

NOT THE WATER IN THIS WELL…

NOT THE RELATIONSHIPS…

NOT THE FALSE GODS SHE MAY WORSHIP…

NOTHING THE WORLD HAS TO OFFER IS DOING THE TRICK…

Let me ask you…

Is this you???

Whether you are a Christian or not…is this you right now???

Trying to be sustained from what the world has to offer???

A relationship?

A house?

Social Status?

Money?

Popularity?

Your job?

What thing of the world are you worshipping…

We make all these physical things our gods…and we worship them like they are our god…

Jesus is telling both this woman at the well and us today…

These physical things that you are worshipping…they won’t sustain you…

We have to go back to these wells time and time again…

We have to keep drawing from them…

They may quench your thirst for a minute…

But you have to go back to them over and over again…

They do not quench your thirst fully…

But if you WORSHIP JESUS…YOU WILL NEVER NEED ANYTHING ELSE!!!

WHEN YOU MAKE HIM THE LORD OF YOUR LIFE…AND WORSHIP ONLY HIM…HE WILL SUSTAIN YOU FOREVER!!!

This woman has been going from man to man…seeking something…

She desires to be wanted…

She wants to be loved…

She wants to belong…

And Jesus is sitting at this well, in the heat of the day…

In a place where Jews avoid like the plague…

Telling her…I WANT YOU!

He came all this way for her…

Remember she just asked Jesus if he was greater than Jacob…

She has just discovered that He IS GREATER!!!

And now her whole demeanor has changed…

In verse 19 she says… “I THINK YOU’RE A PROPHET”

This random Jew she just met told her all about her darkest sin struggle…

This must be a prophet of God…

Notice when Jesus told this woman her sin, she did not lie or try and hide it…

She doesn’t try to defend herself…she recognizes that she is dealing with a man of God and that He is calling out a valid sin…

Once it’s out…her desire turns toward getting to a place where she can worship The Lord…

Her desire now is no longer to worship the things that she was worshipping…

She wants to become a true worshipper of God…

Her desire is now to worship…but where??? But how???

Look what she says in V20…READ v20-26

The Worship (v20-26)

Remember…these are 1/2 Jew…1/2 Pagan people

So she questions…

If I want to worship the Lord…you Jews say I must do it in Jerusalem…

BUT our fathers worshipped on this mountain…

Jesus’s answer should run a shiver down her spine...he says “you worship what you do not know”

You don’t know the Lord…For if you did…you would know that He is standing in front of you…

BUT an hour is coming…When true worshippers will worship IN SPIRIT and IN TRUTH…

What is Jesus saying here…

LOOK:

The question the woman is asking is… WHERE DO I WORSHIP…AND WHO DO I WORSHIP…

WHERE:

-OT Temple (where God dwelt with man)

-NOW- God is physically in front of you…He is amongst you…

No more in the temple…no more on the mountain….Here at the well…

And he alludes also to a day that is coming when you will worship in Spirit…

The Holy Spirit is coming!!!

And NOw …today we who placed our faith in Him…have the Holy Spirit…and can worship where ever and when ever!!!

Last question is WHO DO I WORSHIP…

THE TRUTH!!!

You were looking for the Messiah…I AM HE!!!!

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.”

I have told you all the things you have done…your darkest sins…

I have shed the light of truth on your darkness…

Come to me thirsty woman and I will make you thirst no more!!!!

BIG IDEA: When you place your faith in Jesus you thirst no more!

Look at the effect it has on her…

READ 27-29

This Samaritan woman…who was worshipping the desires of her flesh…

Trying to fill a void in her heart with physical desires…

WAS TOLD THE GOOD NEWS BY JESUS HIMSELF…

WALKS AWAY FROM THE WELL AND LEAVES HER JAR…

SHE NO LONGER NEEDS TO COME BACK TO A WELL THAT CANNOT SUSTAIN HER ANYLONGER…

BECAUSE A SPRING OF LIVING WATER NOW IS WELLING UP INSIDE OF HER…

Look at her response to this

READ 39-42

She is bringing people to the WORD…

The Word (v27-42)

She is leading people toward Jesus…

Other Samaritans…

She is leading them...

Like lost sheep in desperate need of water…dieing of thirst…

Telling them the shepherd is at the well…

HE HAS LIVING WATER TO GIVE YOU…

TO SAVE YOU!!!!

1 Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”

If your in the room today and you don’t know Jesus…you are trying to fill yourself with the World and are still empty…JESUS CAN FULFILL YOU!!! HE CAN QUENCH THAT THIRST!!!

PUT YOUR FAITH IN HIM TODAY!!!

IF YOU ARE A CHRIST FOLLOWER…

STOP GOING BACK TO A WELL THAT CANT QUENCH YOU!!!!

How easily we forget that we contain a spring…

The world tells us we are thirsty and we go chase the well…

We have to remind ourselves daily that we dont depend on the well to sustain us

…we placed our faith in the shepherd….

HE GAVE US ALL WE NEED…HIM

PRAY!