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Intro:
A couple weeks ago when we first looked at John chapter 4 where Jesus interacts with the Samaritan woman at the well, we looked primarily at the major obstacle to the gospel that Jesus had to overcome: racism.
We talked about how it’s human nature to seek out those who are most like you and develop close friendships with people like you.
But the gospel requires that we not merely do what comes naturally to us.
Racism is a gospel issue because it’s a barrier to the gospel (if we refuse to take the gospel to those who are different from us) and because it can only be remedied by the gospel.
If we embrace the gospel of Christ, we will start to see lives changed and divisions broken down as the church models to the world what true unity looks like in the body of Christ.
Last week we looked briefly at verses 31-45 where Jesus talks about the need for workers in the harvest.
So, having already dealt with the obstacle to Jesus’ message to the Samaritan woman and the final part of this passage, this morning we’re going to take a look at what Jesus actually said to her, especially in verses 7-26.
Our society is a distracted society.
According to recent studies*, the average American spends over 11 hours per day consuming media of some sort, be it live TV, streaming services, radio, internet browsing, or playing with their smartphone.
Unsurprisingly, younger Americans tend to use their smartphones and other newer technology more than older adults.
But, adults age 50-64 actually spend more time consuming media than the younger generations—a whopping 13 hours per day!
Now some of this time, no doubt, happens simultaneously—browsing or playing on your phone while watching TV, for instance.
But this is still a staggering amount of time to be tethered to the world’s interpretation of life.
There is a constant barrage of images, sounds, and opinions telling us what’s important in life, how to be truly happy, and how we should live.
What this means is that whenever life throws us a curveball, when hard times come, we have a buffet of options for self-medicating our pain.
Instead of dealing with what ails us, we turn to distractions to fill our empty souls.
The problem is, of course, that none of it satisfies.
All that the world has to offer is never enough, because we were created for more than this.
But the good news is that Christ offers us living water—water that truly satisfies, and all we have to do is accept it.
Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to John chapter 4.
Prayer for illumination
We have a tendency to exaggerate our physical needs and understate our spiritual needs.
Physical needs are legitimate and we must tend to them, but we often blow them out of proportion and seek the wrong source to satisfy them.
This Samaritan woman had needs.
She needed water.
She needed love and companionship.
But as we see in this passage, she was “looking for love in all the wrong places.”
She'd had at least five husbands!
(vv.
16-18)
I don’t know what the circumstances were in each of these marriages, but it’s clear that there’s a pattern here of broken promises, unfulfilled expectations, and heartbreak.
How many marriages fall apart because one spouse expects the other spouse to fulfill all of their needs?
Spouses ought to fulfill some of each others’ needs, but we were never created to be all that our spouse needs.Only Christ can satisfy those longings.
We have needs for income, shelter, love, water, food, and so on.
But we don’t need to be rich, have a mansion, have numerous lovers, or eat and drink until we can’t walk!
Addictions come from unmet or exaggerated needs.
The alcoholic and drug addict has a need for a way to cope with the trials of life, so he turns to the bottle or the needle to numb the pain.
The porn addict has a need for intimacy, so he turns to images of women, fake intimacy that never lasts or satisfies.
The neglected wife has a need for love and affection from her husband but doesn’t get what she wants, so she turns to someone who treats her better.
The businessman has a need for affirmation and praise so he climbs the corporate ladder to show everyone how hard he’s worked.
I rode my bike the other day through Greystone and happened upon a mansion of a house with a Corvette and what looked like perhaps a Porsche sitting out front.
Sometimes we misdiagnose our hunger.
The woman thought that her greatest need right now was water.
And we can hardly fault her for that!
We don’t know how far she had to walk, but it was likely a little ways.
Imagine having to walk through the heat carrying enough water for you and your family each day, perhaps multiple times a day.
She had a legitimate physical need.
But Jesus saw through that surface level need to a deeper thirst.
That’s why as soon as she asks for this living water, he asks about her husband.
Jesus knew that she had a deeper need for love that water simply couldn’t fix.
Children have to learn over time to recognize the feelings that accompany their physical needs.
The first one they usually learn to recognize is hunger or thirst.
But, as babies, they often don’t yet connect the pain in their stomach with the need for food.
Later, they have to learn to distinguish that pain from another type of feeling which means they need to go to the bathroom.
Some kids have a hard time learning this at first and will continue to eat more thinking that they’re still hungry when they actually just need to go to the bathroom.
Many times as adults we do the same thing on a spiritual level.
We feel an ache and we assume that ache is related to the absence of some physical need in our lives—entertainment, love, food and drink, shelter, and so on.
But, more often than not, the need is spiritual, not physical.
We tend to downplay our spiritual needs.
We live in a physical world, and that leads us to think of the physical world as being primary and the spiritual world as being secondary.
In reality, the opposite is true.
This physical life is temporary and fleeting.
If that rich man had known that his life would come to an end that night, do you think he would have acted differently?
We go on about our lives as if they’ll last forever.
We think there’s always more time.
But what if your life is required of you today as you drive home?
Is your conscience clean?
Have you repented of your sins and placed your faith in Christ alone?
Are you pursuing his glory?
Using your time, skills, money, and resources to further his Kingdom?
Or are you coming back repeatedly to the well which can never satisfy?
One of the things which I am most thankful for is the legacy which Papaw will soon leave behind.
He doesn’t have much time left.
But he has lived a life which shows what was important—loving God and loving people.
I was always amazed at my grandparents’ generosity, even when they made far less than us, they always asked if they could help us.
They lived simply, without many nice or expensive things and were always ready to help out anyone who needed help.
And while he had many challenging and difficult experiences in the ministry over the years, he never regretted being in the ministry.
He loved serving the Lord and considered it an honor to serve God and people.
That’s the kind of life I want to live.
Christ offers you living water.
When Jesus offers the woman “living water,” he’s probably referring to Isaiah 55 and Jeremiah 2.
The Israelites had forsaken God and were trying to satisfy their needs by pursuing after foreign gods and idols.
How foolish would it be to pass up a freshwater spring and instead take the time to build a broken cistern?!?! Yet that’s what the Israelites had done.
They had forsaken God—”the fountain of living waters”—and instead pursued after false gods which could do nothing for them.
When Jesus says “those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (v.24) he has these passages in mind.
To worship God in spirit and truth means to forsake the physical replacements for him.
The Israelites—who were the ancestors of the Samaritans—had forsaken God, a spirit, for tangible, physical replacements—idols.
To worship God is spirit means to acknowledge that he is spirit and that your deepest needs are not primarily physical, but spiritual; not found in this world, but in God!
To worship God in spirit and truth means to place him as your highest desire in life.
Worshipping God in spirit and in truth doesn’t mean just “putting on a serious face” during worship.
It means redirecting your life so that you eliminate the idols—the physical replacements for God—and seek after him wholeheartedly, or “truly.”
It means to hunger for Christ!
Why would we hunger after Christ?
Because he is the I AM.
The only one who can satisfy us.
(v.
26)
When Jesus says, “I who speak to you am he,” (Jn.
4:26, ESV) he is saying much more than “I am the Messiah.”
A literal, word-by-word translation would be “I AM, the one who is speaking to you.”
This is one of Jesus’ “I AM” statements in John.
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