I LIVE TO WORSHIP YOU - JOHN 4: 1-10

BIG IDEA: JESUS BRINGS LIFE, AND THAT LIFE IS BEST LIVED WORSHIPPING JESUS!

JESUS’ EARTHLY MINISTRY IS FILLED WITH HIM ENGAGING PEOPLE: MEN, WOMEN, HEALTHY PEOPLE, SICK PEOPLE, RELIGIOUS PEOPLE, NON-RELIGIOUS PEOPLE, LOST PEOPLE...

AND IN ALL OF THOSE ENCOUNTERS, HE GAVE THEM SOMETHING TO CONSIDER: HOW HE COULD GRANT THEM ACCESS TO REALLY LIVE, (ABUNDANTLY - NOW & ETERNALLY WITH HIM - LATER)!

REMEMBER, THIS IS OUR SERIES: LIVE! NOTHING MORE. NOTHING LESS. NOTHING ELSE - JESUS...

ON LAST SUNDAY, WE MET A MAN NAMED NICODEMUS.

TODAY WE MEET WOMAN WHO IS UNNAMED.

NIC CAME AT NIGHT - SEARCHING...

THE WOMAN COMES DURING THE HEAT OF THE DAY - AVOIDING...

NIC WAS RELIGIOUS AND HAD STATUS...

THE WOMAN WAS OF A DESPISED NATION - NO STATUS OR PROTECTION...

NIC WAS A TRAINED THEOLOG...

THE WOMAN WAS UNTRAINED, LIVING BASED UPON WHAT SHE HEARD...

TWO DIFFERENT AND DISTINCT INDIVIDUALS....

AWWWWW, BUT THEY BOTH NEEDED JESUS!

WHERE DO YOU FALL ON THIS MORNING?

HAVE YOU HUNG AROUND JESUS PEEPS, YET NEVER ACTUALLY RECEIVED HIS GIFT OF SALVATION?

ARE YOU LIVING DAILY WITHOUT PURPOSE OR PEACE, BECAUSE YOU STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR? TRYING TO FIND SATISFACTION IN THINGS OR A CAREER OR PEOPLE...

YOU CAN HAVE STATUS - FAME - NOTARIETY AND ACCLAIM, AND YET STILL HAVE A VOID IN YOUR HEART...

AUGUSTINE - THE AFRICAN THEOLOGIAN PUTS IT THIS WAY: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

BELOVED, THERE IS NO REST APART FROM CHRIST - THERE IS NO PURPOSE APART FROM CHRIST…EVEN IF WE GAIN ALL THAT THE WORLD SAYS THAT WE SHOULD AND CAN, OUR SOUL WILL STILL BE RESTLESS…ELSEWHERE, PAUL SAYS, “FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST...”

I LIVE TO WORSHIP YOU...

AWWW, DUE TO THE BREVITY OF TIME AND THE LONGEVITY OF THIS TEXT, I’LL BE TEACHING FROM JOHN 4 THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING…BUT ON TODAY, I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT:

THIS CONVERSATION WITH A WOMAN!

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

4 When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3 he left Judea and went again to Galilee. 4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”

THIS WOMAN TEACHES ALL OF US HOW WE CAN BE LONGING - LOST, BUT COMPLETELY UNAWARE...

CERTAIN DETAILS IN THIS NARRATIVE ARE PARENTHETICAL, YET OTHERS ARE OF GREAT SIGNIFICANCE...

SHE COMES DURING THE DAY TO DRAW:

OTHER PASSAGES (GENESIS 24:11 -

11 At evening, the time when women went out to draw water, he made the camels kneel beside a well outside the town. - TEACH US THAT DRAWING WATER, WHICH SEEMS TO BE A TASK RESERVED FOR WOMEN, WAS DONE IN THE EVENING. WHICH IS PERHAPS WHY NO ONE ELSE IS PRESENT)...

AND YET, SHE COMES DURING THE DAY…TO DRAW…((AVOIDING))!

“GIVE ME A DRINK,” JESUS SAID TO HER, 8) BECAUSE HIS DISCIPLES HAD GONE INTO TOWN TO BUY FOOD. 9) HOW IS IT THAT YOU, A JEW, ASK FOR A DRINK FROM ME, A SAMARITAN WOMAN?” SHE ASKED HIM. FOR JEWS DO NOT ASSOCIATE WITH SAMARITANS.

JUST HEARING WHO SHE IS AND WHERE SHE’S FROM SHOULD RIVET BIBLE READERS TO ACTS 1:8 - 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

THE WOMAN KNOWS WHAT SHE’S HEARD, BUT SHE DOESN’T KNOW JESUS!

The Samaritans were a mixed race, part Jew and part Gentile, that grew out of the Assyrian captivity of the ten northern tribes in 727 b.c. Rejected by the Jews because they could not prove their genealogy, the Samaritans established their own temple and religious services on Mt. Gerizim.

JESUS NEVER FOLLOWS CULTURAL LIMITATIONS - HE NEVER GIVES IN TO PEER PRESSURE…HIS ENCOUNTERS HAVE PURPOSE, BECAUSE HIS TIMING IS PERFECT...

HE DODGES HER SARCASTIC RESPONSE TO HIS REQUEST, AND COUNTER-PUNCHES WITH A STATEMENT TO PEAK HER INTEREST....

10) JESUS ANSWERED, “IF YOU KNEW THE GIFT OF GOD, AND WHO IS SAYING TO YOU, “GIVE ME A DRINK,’ YOU WOULD ASK HIM, AND HE WOULD GIVE YOU LIVING WATER.”

JESUS IS LETTING HER KNOW THAT HE IS THE GIFT - THE ONE - THE ONE WHO CAN GIVE HER HER HEART’S DESIRES....THE ONE WHO CAN GRANT HER DELIVERANCE - FORGIVENESS - ACCEPTANCE - LIFE!

BUT WHEN SHE HEARS “WATER,” SHE THINKS LIQUID. WHEN JESUS SPEAKS WATER, HE MEANS “LIVING.”

DON’T FORGET NIC FROM JOHN 3. JESUS TELLS HIM HE MUST BE BORN FROM ABOVE - BORN AGAIN. TO WHICH NIC RESPONDS, “HOW CAN THESE THINGS BE?”

IN BOTH INSTANCES, CONFUSION LEADS TO A DEEPER CONVERSATION!

SHE’S ON THE LIQUID - LITERAL MEANING OF WATER: WHERE’S YOUR BUCKET? ARE YOU GREATER THAN THE MAN WHO LEFT US THIS WELL? LITERAL!

JESUS COUNTERS HIS COUNTER-PUNCH TO CLARIFY THE CONFUSION:

13) JESUS SAID, “EVERYONE WHO DRINKS FROM THIS WATER WILL GET THIRSTY AGAIN. 14) BUT WHOEVER DRINKS FROM THE WATER THAT I WILL GIVE HIM WILL NEVER GET THIRSTY AGAIN. IN FACT, THE WATER I WILL GIVVE HIM WILL BECOME A WELL OF WATER SPRINGING UP IN HIM FOR ETERNAL LIFE.” 15) SIR, GIVE ME THIS WATER...

The living water that Jesus promised has two meanings. Literally it refers to flowing water in contrast to stagnant water. Metaphorically it refers to the cleansing and refreshing grace that the Holy Spirit brings as a result of proper relationship with God

JESUS WANTS THE WOMAN (AND US) TO KNOW THAT WE HAVE NEEDS BEYOND WHAT WE CAN SEE OR TOUCH. SPIRITUAL NEEDS - ETERNAL NEEDS!

POINT: THE CLOSER WE GET TO THE RETURN OF CHRIST, THE FARTHER THE WORLD IS REMOVED FROM ADDRESSING THEIR DEEPER - SPIRITUAL NEEDS...

WE ARE AWARE OF THE VOID, YET WE TRY TO FILL IT WITH EVERYTHING EXCEPT JESUS CHRIST. OTHERS OF US TRY TO ATTACH - TO AFFIX CHRIST TO OTHER STUFF, NOT REALIZING THAT CHRIST DOESN’T ATTACH - THE ONLY PLACE THAT JESUS FITS IS AT THE CENTER - THE ROCK - THE THRONE!

IN OUR NARRATIVE, THE WOMAN IS NOW READY: “GIVE ME THIS WATER...”

HER DESIRES ARE BEING FULFILLED - HER CURIOSITY IS BEING ADDRESSED...

JESUS’ WORDS & WITNESS HAVE PROVEN EFFECTIVE....

NOW, JESUS DIGS DEEPER…16) GO CALL YOUR HUSBAND…AND COME BACK HERE.

THIS IS WHERE THE BIBLICAL JESUS IS AT ODDS WITH THE WORLDLY JESUS.

THE WORLD SAYS, “JESUS IS ALL LOVE AND NO HATE.” HE ACCEPTS ME AS I AM...

THIS IS PARTIALLY TRUE: HE LOVES YOU AS YOU ARE...

AND BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU, HE WOULD NEVER WANT YOU TO REMAIN AS YOU ARE...

IF JESUS ONLY CAME TO LOVE YOU AND TO LEAVE YOU AS YOU ARE, THEN WHY COME?

THIS WOMAN TODAY HELPS US TO SEE THAT JESUS COMES TO HELP US LIVE ACCORDING TO HIS STANDARD...

JESUS MEETS US WHERE WE ARE!

JESUS KNOWS WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE’VE DONE!

JEUS LOVES US WHERE WE ARE!

JESUS LOVES US TOO MUCH TO LEAVE US AS HE FOUND US!!!