Living Water for a Thirsty World
That You May Believe • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsJesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar, and teaches her about Living Water
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CT: Jesus breaks down barriers to satisfy the true thirst of our soul
CT: Jesus breaks down barriers to satisfy the true thirst of our soul
Intro / Opening
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Chapter three had the encounter with Nicodemus
Pharisee / Holy man / Leader / man of influence and respect /
Well educated / social standing
Here in chapter four we encounter someone who is quite the opposite in cultural and social background
Not Jewish / Not a person of high position / Not a person of great social standing
John showing these two encounters back to back, and it shows us how far reaching the message of Jesus truly is
From the affluent and well respected (so-called higher society) to the very lowly of us all (Thank God for that)
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Let’s see how Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well unfolds
3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
Jesus making His way back to Galilee after celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem (85-90 miles on foot)
Capernaum was His base of ministry in the Region of Galilee
(Show map of Israel / explain locations and travel)
4 Now he had to go through Samaria.
Why did Jesus Have to go through Samaria?
When travel from North to South (Judea to Galilee) all Jews would make a deliberate effort to go around the Region of Samaria
No Jew would purposely go through Samaria
John telling us that Jesus had to go through Samaria is telling us something very profound
We believe that Jesus has a divine appointment / There’s kingdom work to be done
The Samaritan women has a divine appointment with Jesus that she doesn’t know anything about yet.
# Church, we need to understand that, at some point in time, WE ALL have a divine appointment with Jesus
Jesus’ whole purpose of Going through Samaria is the conversation with this woman - Which we will see later that this encounter / conversation is to have a great impact for the Gospel and for the Kingdom of God
Think about that - because that is so relevant to our lives, especially as followers of Jesus
Appointments / conversations / changing lives and impacting the Kingdom of God (meant to be happening on our journey with Jesus / other people)
Are we making appointments to do the same?
Are we paying attention to these appointments / inviting them
The lessons and the relevance of this encounter is so relatable to our lives today
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Why do the Jews avoid Samaria?
Long standing animosity and conflict between the Jews and Samaritans
Prejudice / Conflict / disagreement of identity
Back story (2nd Kings, Chapter 17)
700 years before Christ - The Assyrians sieged Israel and overtook them
Some Jews deported back to Assyria (Modern Iran) to serve the empire (Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, Abednego)
Also, Assyrians brought to the land of Israel to settle and help patriotize or assimilate the Jews more toward the Assyrian culture and loyalty
The land the Assyrians were settled in / the Region of Samaria
Assyrians intermarried with the remaining Jews in the land / The combining of the two people groups became the people of the Samaritans
These people are neither Jewish, nor are they Assyrian
New ethnicity that emerges from the combining of the two peoples
The Jews never accepted them because they were not fully Jewish
The Assyrians didn’t accept them because they were not fully Assyrian
You have this group of people who are ostracized / Suffering from an identity crisis
# Anywhere you have an identity problem, there is trouble / conflict (Jesus is coming to set that straight)
The Religion of the Samaritans
Because they were mixed, there religion was also mixed
Pentateuch (First five books / Law of Moses) is accepted / do not accept the rest of the Old Testament
Celebrated many of Jewish feast, but not all
Weren’t allowed to worship in Jerusalem (Half breeds) - so they set up a place of worship on Mount Gerizim.
Changed biblical stories to be centered on Mt. Gerizim
Over the centuries they have adjusted / changed scripture to center around there people and land
Similar to Jewish / But false religion
Estimated 1 million people in Jesus’ day - 800-900 still there today.
They have a unique status in Israel today / Samaria is in the West Bank
Day to day they speak mostly Arab / In worship they speak a modified version of Hebrew
Their identity allows them to travel in both Jewish and Palestinian controlled areas (Israel is zoned)
Very unusual status
# Why is it important to talk about this?
Backstory is important
Helps us to understand Scripture and some underlying context of what is going on in the Bible
Helps us to understand that the backstory of people is important
Context of a person’s life and upbringing helps us to better understand what makes them tick - Helps us to have compassion and empathy as we seek to make an impact for the Kingdom of God in this world
Helps us to identify with people we see in the Bible
How many of us can relate to struggling with identity and being accepted and finding fulfillment?
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So when we see that “Jesus had to go” there, we understand that Jesus is purposely creating a situation where he can encounter this woman
So Jesus and His disciples stop to take a rest
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
This would be highly unusual for this lady to be at the well at noon
Not unusual to come and draw water / But unusual for the time
Typically women would come to draw water at the end of the day versus the middle of the day
Not just a necessity to get water / but a somewhat of a social/community opportunity for the women / cultural connection
Why is this lone woman at the well (by herself) in the middle of the day? (Scripture doesn’t say)
Scholars believe the only logical answer would be to avoid contact with the other women / What we learn about learn about her story in just a minute
She has had some struggles in her life
Possibly these struggles have caused her to want to avoid this type of social contact
When people feel like an outcast, they will most times avoid contact with other people
Here is the woman, at the well at a time when there is no one else around - or so she thought
Little does she know that she has an appointment with the Master Counselor at High Noon
Jesus asks the woman for a drink
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
I want to give you a point to remember:
# Jesus breaks down barriers to pursue people
Socially / Spiritually / Culturally
What are the barriers?
He doesn’t care that Jews don’t go through Samaria
He doesn’t care that Samaritans are outcasts / He doesn’t care that this woman is possibly an outcast
(Big One) He doesn’t care that Jewish men are not supposed to be talking to women on their own
# We need to know that Jesus doesn’t care about the barriers that separate us from Him, and we shouldn’t care about that either
When Jesus sits with her and asks for a drink, He is breaking all the rules
She points out that Jesus is not supposed to be associating with her
Even she knows He is breaking the cultural norms
Jesus gets to the heart of the matter in His reply to her:
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
Living Water -
Water that flows bubbles (spring, stream, river)
Moves / Not stagnant
Much more preferred because of freshness and reliability of not being contaminated
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus takes His response even further, and this is the heart of why He is really here:
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
She goes right to the physical solution, doesn’t she?
She seeing an opportunity to not have to go through this daily routine of coming to draw and carry the water back home / avoiding people who come to the well
Just like Nicodemus taking Jesus literally when being told that he needed to be reborn / Nicodemus takes that as a literal rebirth
Jesus is opening the door to the truth of salvation, He is revealing something to her that only He can provide, but she is still fixated on her physical problems
We do the same thing, don’t we?
We convince ourselves that the cure to life’s problems are found in the physical (Money / career / possessions / Relationships...)
Jesus talking about a fulfillment that is not physical
Jesus is about to expose where this woman may have been looking for fulfillment in her life.
In verse 16 Jesus tells her to “go and call your husband back”
Why does Jesus ask this?
Why is this relevant?
Not completely sure, other than to say Jesus is getting ready to show her that she has been looking for fulfillment in the wrong place
This is where it begins to cut to the heart of the woman
After she tells Jesus that she doesn’t have a husband, He responds:
17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
- Be careful with assumptions
I would imagine that this was pretty stunning to the woman
Things that we struggle with
Things that we are ashamed of
Things that we try to keep secret
Jesus knows it all / He doesn’t expose us for shame / He confronts us because He wants something better for us - He wants to be our fulfillment
What we do know is that right now her situation is not good, and in fact she has struggled greatly in the area of relationships
# What I don’t want you to hear this morning: If you have struggled in the area of relationships / Marriage, whatever. Just know that this Scripture and this message is not an indictment on you, But it is an invitation to the Truth and to a Living Water that will satisfy the thirst of your soul.
It is about where are we looking for fulfillment.
Whatever the her situation, she keeps looking time and time again for fulfillment in a relationship
Keeps going back to the well to satisfy a thirst (Love / acceptance / whatever)
Just like us, looking for fulfillment in things that will never satisfy
He is not just there to talk about the struggle / He is not just there to expose her Truth / He is there to Offer the solution:
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
1. Following God is not about a place, it’s about your heart / It is about following the Spirit, no matter where you are
This would have a been a phenomenal breakthrough for these people
Remember, the woman point out to Jesus the conflict of “where” to worship / Jews say Jerusalem and the Samaritans say Mt. Gerizim
Jesus teaches that it’s not about the place, because we are the place - His followers. We are the Temple of God, so the worship of God is where ever we are.
2. True worshipers will worship in Spirit and Truth
Worship in Spirit - Offer Yourself
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Worship to a Christian is about submitting yourself to God
Jesus is saying worship now flows from a heart awakened by the Spirit.
It’s worship that’s alive, not inherited, not coerced, not merely traditional / Not confined to a location.
Worship in Truth - Truth of the Gospel
Not just about sincerity, but it is about commitment to who Jesus truly is (Many false versions in this world)
True worship is relational, Spirit-empowered, Christ-centered response to God.
And we are only able to experience this true Worship in Spirit and Truth when we have experienced the Living Water that Jesus provides
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
This is why He “Had” to go through Samaria / and He offers us all the same opportunity
# Are you in need of the Living Water, today?
# Are you Worshipping in Spirit and Truth?
CT: Jesus breaks down barriers to satisfy the true thirst of our soul
CT: Jesus breaks down barriers to satisfy the true thirst of our soul
