Living Water

John 4:1-26

INTRODUCTION

A friend was in Bulgaria on holiday with his family. On a really hot day he and his sons walked out to find the local shops. Hot and thirsty they found a small local supermarket. None of them could read or speak a word of Bulgarian. They picked up some bits and bobs for their lunch including a large bottle of apple juice to quench their thirst. On arriving home my friend cracked open the apple juice and took a massive swig, gulped it down and then rushed to the toilet and immediaely began vomitting! Shouting - there’s something wrong with that apple juice don’t drink it! One of his sons picked up the bottle and inspected it, there was big picture of an apple on the front but upon inspecting the ingredients he discovered the issue - it was apple cider vinegar!

My friend thought he’d found something that would quench his thirst but actually it made him feel worse. There are lots of things in this world like that - that promise to quench our thirst for fulfiment in life; more money, a better car, a new house, a new relationship. But none of these things can actually deliver what they promise - and in fact some of them will make you feel a darn sight worse than you did before!

In this passage, Jesus offers a Samaritan woman a kind of water that is of such a quality that those who drink it will never thirst again. In fact it will become a spring in them overflowing with living water.

Maybe you’ve been like my friend - grabbing the nearest thing that you think will satisfy you. Not really even taking the time to properly think things through, just going on impulse. You’ve had a swig from a lot of different things and none of them have quite dealt with your thirst, in fact some of the things you’ve tried have made you ill. Well today, Jesus is promising you that if you will stop reaching for all that the world has to offer and come to him and drink - He will give you something that will not disappoint and will never run out.

JOURNEY TO SAMARIA

We pick up the story in verse 3. Jesus has been in the country of Judea near the river Jordan. He and His disciples leave there to head back to Galilee. Verse 4 tells us that he had to pass through Samaria. Literally speaking, he didn’t HAVE to. In fact many Jews of his time preferred to cross the Jordan to the east side and travel up to Galilee through Gentile lands rather than go through Samaria, such was their hatred of the Samaritans, but clearly Jesus chose instead to go directly through Samaria. Perhaps it was because He knew who He was going to meet?

There was no such thing as a ‘no-go zone’ to Jesus, no such thing as a ‘no-go’ people to Jesus. In chapter 3 he met with Nicodemus, one of the most respected men in the whole Jewish religion, a scholar, a teacher. Now he comes and meets with a Samaritan woman; lowly and of poor reputatation. As such, for those of us who follow Jesus there is no place that is ‘too hard’ for the gospel, no people that are ‘undeserving’ or ‘out of reach’ of the gospel. That’s why it’s Christian missionaries above any other group who have reached out to the farest flung corners of the globe carrying the hope of the gospel to all - because we follow in the footsteps of our Lord.

They came to a town called Sychar near to Jacob’s well, and we read that it was about noon and likely very hot! Jesus, wearied from his journey sits down beside the well.

In chapter 1, John was reminding us that Jesus is the Word of God, the one who existed with the Father in the beginning and who made all things. Now we read that this same Jesus was tired. Notice two things; 1- That Jesus experienced real weakness according to His human nature. He knows what it’s like being human, he understands our frailty and our weaknesses because He experienced them. 2 - He didn’t try to hide these weaknesses as if they were shameful, he sat down, and he asks the Samaritan woman for a drink. Too much damage is done when Christians attempt to pretend they have no weaknesses, to pretend like they can out do Jesus and burn the candle at both ends and never get tired. They are ashamed to rest, ashamed to ask others for help. Jesus wasn’t ashamed to rest, Jesus wasn’t ashamed to ask for help, so why are we? At the heart of that mindset that says “i don’t need rest, I don’t need help” is pride.

LIVING WATER

Jesus sees this Samaritan woman approaching to draw water and he says rather directly - ‘Give me a drink’. The first thing to note is that this is the middle of the day, not the normal time for women to be drawing water from the well, and also she’s alone, usually women would draw water in groups. These two things might give us certain clues as to the social situation this woman is in.

She responds rather directly also John 4:9 “9 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.)”

This didn’t mean that Jews have literally no dealings with Samaritans but that they would not share eating or drinking utensils with them for fear of becoming ceremonially unclean. This wasn’t something in the OT Law but was taught by some Rabbi’s at the time.

The Samaritans were descendents of Assyrian settlers who had been moved in after the Assyrian conquest of Israel. They had intermarried with the Jews and the Samaritans were their offspring. Their religious practices were understandably a mixture of both Judaism and pagan practice - they kept the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible, but rejected the rest of the OT. They also worshipped on Mount Gerazim and actually built their own temple there. The Jews hated this bastardisation of their faith and broke all ties with the Samaritans because of it.

Though the Jews undoubtedly went too far in their treatment of the Samaritans, the modern church could learn a thing or two from this. They separated themselves from this false form of worship, they didn’t pretend like it was just another way of worshipping Yahweh, they didn’t carry on as though nothing were wrong, they withdrew fellowship. And they weren’t wrong to do so. They were wrong to withdraw their care and love for them as people, but not their fellowship in worship.

2 Corinthians 6:16–17 ESV

16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,

Jesus says to her...John 4:10 “10 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 Samaritan women, rather tongue in cheek responds… John 4:11–12 “11 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? 12 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 says John 4:13–14 “13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.””

And the Samaritan woman, perhaps still thinking he’s talking of natural water says, Sir (Lord) give me this water.

Just like how Nicodemus couldn’t get past the natural imagery of being born again (can a man enter into his mothers womb a second time?), neither could the Samaritan woman at first get past the natural.

Of course Jesus wasn’t speaking about natural water - He was speaking of the Living water that is the gift of God - eternal life through Christ. This isn’t something that you can come by at a natural well, it’s something that comes only from the Living Well of Life -Christ.

And this Living water when it comes in becomes a spring of living water inside you, welling up into eternal life. A spring! Not a tap, not a barrel or a bucket, not some finite receptical or container that could leak or run out, but a spring which never runs out. A spring of fresh living water that nourishes, that cleanses, that gives life. This is what it is to truly be a Christian - you are living a new life, a life in the Holy Spirit, a life of overflow. You can’t switch it off, you can’t run out - that living water is going to overflow!

TRUE WORSHIP

Now Jesus presses the issue home. Up until now, the Samaritan woman has been respectful of him, but she doesn’t know who he is, she hasn’t yet understood that He is the messiah.

There are many who spend their lives at close quarters with Jesus but never truly recognise Him for who He is. They go to church, they are maybe even interested in getting their natural needs met through Him but they haven’t truly recognised who He is - they haven’t come to Him as their saviour.

Jesus asks her to go and fetch her husband, knowing that she doesn’t have one, When she says that she has no husband, Jesus says no it is true, for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. Exposing that she is living in sexual sin and has had quite the history in relationships. Now the Samaritan woman says Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Till men and women are brought to feel their sinfulness and need, no real good is ever done to their souls. Till a sinner sees himself as God sees him, he will continue careless, triding, and unmoved. - JC Ryle

The woman then moves to a question about worship - John 4:20 “20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.””

And Jesus responds.. John 4:21–24 “21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.””

In the story of the Pilgrims progress there are two men called Formalist and Hypocrisy who Christian Pilgrim meets on his journey. They climb over a wall and into the way, they did not enter through the narrow gate as Christian did. Christian asks where the men have come from and they answer that they were born in the land of vain glory and are going ‘for praise’ to mount Zion. When Christian challenges them about their mode of worship they say that they are following a long tradition and custom which had been practised by men of their land for more than a thousand years and that he ought to mind his own business. Eventually Formalist and Hypocrisy attempt to take a short cut on the way to Zion, one takes the road of Danger and the other the road of Destruction and neither is seen again.

The Samaritan woman claims that her worship is valid because of a long tradition going back to the fathers. Formalist and Hypocrisy also claim a long tradition. But tradition must be weighed by truth - tradition is judged by the word of God. We must worship God in truth or not at all.

Moreover we must worship God in Spirit - this word meaning from the heart. A cold formalism is not acceptable to God. Formalist and Hypocrisy went into the way for praise - they were men of vain glory, they worshipped God because they hoped it would win them favour and praise from others. There are many who worship God with half an eye on how others are looking at them! But true worship is from the heart, it’s something that comes from inside out. True worship isn’t cold and performative it’s passionate and authentic.

A time is coming Jesus says when you will not need to go up to Jerusalem to worship God, but you will be able to worship Him wherever you are - because He will pour out His Spirit into the hearts of His people.

At this the woman is obviously starting to cotton on to something - she knows there’s something special about Jesus! She says - I know that when Messiah comes He will tell us all things. And Jesus tells this woman who he is more plainly than he tells any one else in the whole of the gospel - I who speak to you Am He. Or in the Greek Ego Eimi… I Am.

Have you recognised who Jesus is yet? Have you come to Him and received His Living Water? Are you tired of trying to find fulfilment in the things of this world? Then come to Him today! Ask Him for His Living Water that you might thirst no more.