Living Water

Review

Last week we covered the cornerstone of the Christian faith. What it means to believe and even the timing of Eternal Life.

Believe is translated to what?

Trust and Follow! (Active)

When does Eternal Life start?

The very second that you believe (trust and follow)

Today we are moving forward a bit to Chapter 4, after spending time with his disciples who were baptising more than John the Baptist, Jesus left Judea and headed toward Galilee. To get there he had to go through Samaria.

The story takes place at a small well.

Read

Jesus was traveling through Samaria and stopped at a well to rest because he was tired from walking (John 4:1–42). A woman came to get water from the well, and Jesus asked her for a drink (John 4:1–42).

The woman was surprised—she pointed out that Jesus was Jewish and she was Samaritan, and Jews and Samaritans didn’t normally talk to each other (John 4:1–42). But Jesus had something special to teach her. He told her about “living water” (John 4:1–42)—not regular water from the well, but something much better. While regular water from the well would make you thirsty again, the water Jesus offered would be different (John 4:1–42).

The woman didn’t understand at first—she wondered how Jesus could give her water without even having a bucket (John 4:1–42). But then Jesus revealed something surprising about her life. He told her she had been married five times and was living with a man who wasn’t her husband (John 4:1–42). This showed the woman that Jesus knew her heart and her struggles.

Realizing Jesus was special, the woman called him a prophet (John 4:1–42). Jesus then explained that a time was coming for which worship would be with spirit and truth and that location would no longer matter.

The woman exclaims, “I know that the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Jesus then told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he”

Today we are going to talk about this “Living Water.”

Pray

Alright, so what is living water and why would Jesus talk like this.

Throughout scripture, Jesus talks in parables or metaphors. Do you know why?

It was a very common practice by Rabbis and I bet your teachers do it in your Learning Centers.

When you hear a story that you don’t quite understand, you go two routes,

Smile and Wave and walk away

Ask questions and engage

While Jesus was always willing to deliver the good news or his wisdom, salvation is not something that is just handed to you.

One has to actively seek it. You have to take the present, shake it a little, and then open it for yourself.

It also served a practical purpose. Jesus was talking about new things that people would have a hard time understanding so he would use what people knew. We have heard it before. Faith like a mustard seed..

So why water?

That was is pretty straightforward. You die if you don’t have water. Everyone knows this. Everyone is bound by that law. There is no one that can live without water.

Here at this well, people would have to draw the water each day for their daily use and each morning would have to return.

Now this well had been good for generations and was likely tied to an underground Spring, which would have made this well exceptional, but the people here were still tied to it. To live, you had to come back to this location each day and physically draw from the deep well and no matter how much you would drink each day, the next you would be thirsty again.

Just like here, each time your water bottle is empty, you have to return to the filtered water site to get clean and cool water.

Jesus was tying his message to something this woman could understand. He was very good at this and using a burden of the world to show that what God had to offer was not of this world and could help you

In this moment, Jesus told her about the living water. This is the holy spirit that lives in all believers. This is something we have discussed before, yet Jesus used another way of saying it to reach this woman and her daily struggles.

The promise of living water that would never run dry and that you would never thirst again. Of course she was excited by this!

Seeing no bucket and no source of this living water, she could take two routes. Nod and smile or ask questions. What does she do?

she ask more questions to understand what Jesus is talking about and Jesus reveals exactly what he is talking about.

Never in scripture does Jesus leave the parable a mystery for those that ask. He wants us to ask and just like the woman at the well, he was happy to tell her.

To this samaritan, who we know did not get along with the Jews at all, he was providing the gift of salvation. To his people’s enemy he was sharing how to get the holy spirit and what that meant.

He shared that a time was coming that there would not need to be a temple or a mountainside to worship, but that those with the living water or holy spirit inside of them, could worship anywhere.

All believers carry God within you.

I will say again, all believers carry God within you and you take it wherever you go.

This is the living water, the “well of water springing up in him for eternal life”

And just as Jesus did, we get to use and we get to share that well, that power, that strength with all those around us.

That is one of the most uplifting part of being a Christian. Jesus wants to share his love with all people. No matter what you look like, sound like, how you dress, what you eat, what grades you get on PACE test.

There is no dividing people into those that Jesus can love and people that Jesus can’t love.

Here in Samaria, Jesus was offering eternal life and salvation to the enemies of his people. He was offering eternal life to someone who was living in sin. He was showing them the path to salvation.

No one, No one is too sinful or too corrupt or too far gone that God’s love can’t save them. There is no limit to his power. We know from this story, that

Jesus stayed in this city for a few days saving those whose believes were so radically different. We see time and time again the wicked repent and God’s mercy and love flows to them.

But, just as Jesus did here, believers have to start that conversation.

“Give me a drink.”

“What is your name?”

“How are you today?”

We carry that living water, that eternal fountain springing water. Who are you going to share that water with today?