Living Water
John 4:1-26

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church! The fourth chapter of John’s gospel tells a dramatic story of an encounter between Jesus and a woman from the area of Samaria. The point of the story is the same as all the stories we have seen thus far in this gospel: to show Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. John records this event for us as another convincing proof for who Jesus is.

The first six verses of this chapter set the scene of how this encounter comes about. John 4:1-6, “1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.”[ESV] Jesus learns that the Pharisees know that His popularity is greatly increasing. The Pharisees’ attention is turning away from John and now they focus against Jesus. Jesus left Judea and went north to Galilee, away from Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish leadership and rule.

Before we move forward with our background of the story, I am compelled to spend a moment noting the parenthetical statement recorded in verse 2. This is a clarification of what was mentioned in John 3:22. It must be assumed that Jesus took up carrying forward God's work already seen in the labors of John the Baptist, and that the baptism administered by Jesus, (through his disciples), was God's baptism exactly like that of John. John was a servant carrying out God's orders; and Jesus was a Son doing the same thing; but in order not to mislead anyone, Jesus refrained from administering God's baptism personally, doing so only through His disciples.

Nothing should be made of the fact that Jesus did not baptize, but His disciples baptized. What one does through his agents he is lawfully said to do; therefore, Jesus baptized. Why did He refrain from doing so personally? We can think of two or three reasons, (1) to avoid any notion that Jesus was one of John's subordinates. Furthermore, although Jesus had submitted to God's baptism as preached by John, and for a time administered by Himself through His disciples, He was nevertheless above John's baptism in the sense that baptism in His name was designed to succeed it. (2) to avoid a rise of jealousies and strife later through some claiming greater privilege in having been baptized personally by the Lord. We saw this sort of thing occur in Corinth. “… one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos…”” (1^st Corinthians 3:4)

I bring this up because some try to use this verse to say baptism is not necessary and they ignore other scriptures. To say baptism is not necessary doesn't make any sense when we read the New Testament, and it becomes clear that Jesus is being wise in using His disciples to baptize.

I. The Scene – That brings us to this scene. Verse 3, “He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.” Jesus then leaves the southern region, Judea, and goes back to the northern region, back to Galilee. An undercurrent of opposition is growing, but it's not Jesus' time yet. I suspect that's why He's moving back to Galilee.

A. We are told in verse 4, He had to pass through Samaria. Samaria was located between Jerusalem and Galilee and was the most direct route. The boundaries of Samaria varied in history; but in the time of Jesus, it was a small province about twenty miles wide and about thirty miles long. The eastern boundary was the Jordan River, and the southern line lay about seven miles south of Shechem.

1. The capital city, also called Samaria, was on an impressive butte some six miles northwest of the area where the events of this chapter happened.
2. I submit to you that Jesus did not have to go through Samaria due to geography and could have taken other routes. However, this was the selected route He took and has led some to speculate He did so for the encounter He is going to have here. We are not told.

B. Next, we read, “… he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.”

1. We have enough experience with John’s gospel by now, that we know John is not just throwing out stuff about Jacob, Jacob's land, and Jacob's well. This is going to be a cog in the story, and that's why it's being laid out here for us.
2. Interesting also in verse 6 is we see a little bit of the humanity of Jesus. The apostles never denied that. In proving Jesus to be God, they never obscured or covered up the fact that He was also human, like us. Here we are told it's the sixth hour, high noon, and Jesus is weary. He is worn out, and He sits beside the well which is going to lead to this discussion with a Samaritan woman.
3. A great reminder to us about Jesus, that He is God in the flesh, experiencing everything that we would experience, going through weakness, going through difficulty, going through trial, going through temptation. He is not impervious to these things. He is worn out from walking in the heat of the sun, and is legitimately asking this woman for water, but is also going to use this as a way to draw her to salvation.

C. Verse 7 begins our story. “A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.””

1. By these words, Jesus placed himself in the position of one requesting a favor, and by such a gesture assumed a social equality with her, which astonished her and led to the conversation that followed.
2. Jesus came from heaven to become a man, to take upon Him the form of a servant, and to die for the sins of the whole world. All this is fully known; but, in this specific instance of it, the humiliation of our Lord becomes epic in its depth and intensity.

II. The Discussion (John 4:9-24) -- The way this discussion unfolds is fascinating. We perceive the patience in this woman, if you consider how the dialogue goes. Jesus says, give me a drink, and she is stunned that He's talking to her. John explains why in verse 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.)”

A. What are you doing talking to me, she asks. Most Jews were very disdainful toward the Samaritans. This is why the parable of the good Samaritan is such a shocking parable.

1. She asks how it is that He would ask her for a drink. Jesus’ responds that she should ask Him for a drink. Think about how this discussion has started. Jesus asks her for a drink. She asks, “You are asking me for a drink?” Jesus responds, “You should ask me for a drink.” His reply to her in verse 10 is, “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.”
2. I want us to feel the puzzlement of the beginning dialogue here. Jesus says, give me a drink. She says, “Why are you talking to me?” He responds, if you knew who I was, you would have asked me for a drink, and I would have given it to you. I can imagine her wondering, “Then why are you asking me for water if you're offering me water? What is going on here?” However she is very cordial toward Jesus.

B. “If you knew the gift of God”. Here Jesus referred to himself, the gift of God to all the world. Amazingly, the supreme gift of God sat at that very moment at Jacob's well. This woman, coming to the well in the heat of the day, had suddenly confronted the Lord of life. Contemplate for a moment this woman standing face to face with God incarnate, and yet unaware of it.

C. “Living water” is a reference to the water of life, the spiritual realities that lead to everlasting life in the presence of God. The metaphor was probably suggested by the thirst which had brought them both to the well. Just as the body requires water, just so the soul. If it is to live, it must drink at the everlasting fountain of God's word.

D. Of course, she's intrigued. Verse 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?” She asks how He is going to provide water considering He does not have anything to draw water and the well is deep.

1. The woman's response shows that she did not understand what was meant by "living water," hence the question of its source, especially since Jesus had nothing with which to draw water. This indicates to me that the woman had already figured out that Jesus was not talking about the water of Jacob's well.
2. “Where do you get that living water?” she asks. Flowing water is called "living water" in many cultures and traditions, especially in a spiritual context. In the Middle East, water is scarce and precious, and very much needed for survival. Only a few months of the year does rain fall in Israel, and the rest of the time the ancient peoples survived on still water from wells or cisterns.
3. Jeremiah, when praying for deliverance in Jeremiah 17:13 says, “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.”

E. The Samaritan woman continues in verse 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.” The well is where they go to get water and tradition says it was provided by Jacob. The well is of great importance, and they appreciate Jacob for it. To obtain “living water” you would need to go beyond Jacob’s well. She is saying, “are you trying to say that you can find better water than what Jacob has given us?” We can see by Jesus’ response that's exactly the point that He wants to make.
F. Verses 13-14. “Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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.””

1. What a great picture that is given here as Jesus explains. Here is what you have. You have a well, and when you drink from that well, you're going to be thirsty again, but when you drink from the water that I will give you; you will never be thirsty again.
2. Just imagine that idea for a moment — you will never thirst again. Then He says, it will become a spring that flows into eternal life.

G. Verse 15 gives the woman’s response, “… “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.””

1. Give me this water so that I don't need to do this hard laborious work in the sun pulling up water out of this well. It's a lot of work to pull water out of a deep well. It is interesting that she is completely missing the prophetic cues that Jesus is dropping.
2. As with Nicodemus He's being subtle. He's playing the metaphor, but the metaphor is not unfounded. This is not like Jesus came up with this idea to blindside her so that she has no idea what He's talking about. The Old Testament prophets spoke significantly this way.
3. Isaiah 12:2f. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.” Jesus is resting on prophetic imagery. When the Messiah comes, guess what's going to happen? You're going to draw water out of the well of salvation.
4. Zechariah 14:5f. “5 …Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. 7 And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. 8 On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. 9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.” Same picture, living waters pouring from Jerusalem, filling the nations and filling the people.
5. In Ezekiel chapter 47 the writer describes water flowing from the temple growing deeper and wider as it goes and he says starting at 47:7, “7 As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 9 And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.”

H. If you knew who you were talking to, you would have the gift of God and receive this living water. She does not understand yet what's going on in His words. I think what's fascinating about this, is this is what happens throughout this gospel.

1. One of the features of what John the Apostle is doing is trying to show how we, the readers, are so spiritually blind and spiritually dense. When you go back to John 2, Jesus says, tear down this temple and I'll raise it up in three days. What do the people say? “They've been building the temple for 46 years.”
2. Spiritually blind. Chapter 3, Nicodemus. What? There must be a new birth? I must be born again? I don't understand.
3. Total lack of comprehension. Chapter 4, Samaritan woman, I'll give you living water. That would be great because then I don't have to carry a bucket anymore and do hard work in the sun.
4. Guess what happens at the end of this chapter? Jesus disciples come back with food and urge Him to eat. He's going to say, “I have food to eat that you do not know about”. They are going to wonder, where did he get food? How did He eat already? Failing to understand.
5. John is painting a picture for the reader. You can be spiritually blind, walking in darkness and failing to see you are walking before God. As we read this story, we are being placed as the Samaritan woman. We are the ones who do not comprehend, but we need eternal life, we need the living water.

I. At this point Jesus attempts to move her heart from being physically minded to spiritually minded. He must open her eyes a little bit and lead her to understand He is not talking about material things.

1. It is important to see what Jesus does in this story, in trying to move her to see what is being offered. He is not offering an easy physical life but an eternal life. Jesus is trying to give us a spiritual life, something far greater than anything we can have or experience in this world.
2. The problem is that we are blinded by the world. Instead of seeing what Jesus has to offer, we look at Jesus and say, He's going to make things easy and comfortable, right? He's going to make it where I don't have to pull a bucket out of a well. He's going to make my life simple.

3. As we read verse 16 don’t be critical of her because Jesus must do that with us also. We get so spiritually lost, so spiritually darkened, so consumed by the things of this world. We get so caught up in all that is going on around us, so consumed by pleasures and convenience and work and joys and family—that we fail to see what the most important thing is. Jesus is offering eternal life.
4. We turn that into; you can have a good marriage and a good family, and you can have all kinds of wealth, and you can have everything that you want in this world. You can make it all comfortable and easy. That's not what we're talking about here. Jesus is trying to give you something better, and we turn it into something about comfort and convenience.

J. That's why Jesus does what He does here in verse 16. “Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”” I wonder how she felt at that second where she's about to sputter out this answer, “I have no husband”.

1. Jesus responds, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Why does Jesus do this? She responds, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” Clearly, you're a man of God to know this. Jesus exposes our sins to wake us up.
2. It is a loving act on God's part, to come into this world and expose our sins. Sometimes it's the only way to wake up. We go along in life like everything's fine. We go to work, come home, watch TV, chill out, relax, and it is all good. Something must happen to startle us out of that, get us out of the darkness, out of our spiritual blindness. Get us to open our eyes and recognize we need something more than what this world has to offer.

K. If God did not love us, He could leave us to our own devices, and say, I hope they figure it out. I hope they recognize one day that they're in total darkness, that they're spiritually blind, and that they need the light to come in. (By the way, this is all chapter one.) I sure hope they figure it all out… God's love is seen in exposing our sin.

1. You see we're just like this woman. We will take everything that God has to say and figure out how it works for me to make me happy, make me comfortable, make me have what I want to have and enjoy the things of this earth. When we are keenly aware of our sin, only then do we then begin to seek Him spiritually. Conversely, when we forget that we are sinners and we think we're good, moral people, then we go about enjoying the things of life without a care for God.
2. We turn “church” into—show up for an hour, pay our dues, then say leave me alone. I'll see you when I feel like being here. What an insult to our Lord who is trying to give us life. We turn around and say, “so what's the bare minimum that I need for that? Give me a list, and not a long one. What can I do to get by so I can get back to my stuff? I mean I’ve got things to do in the here and now.”

L. The woman now perceives Jesus is from God and in verse 20 she asks a question, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” The implied question, where are we supposed to worship God? The Jews say that God must be worshipped in Jerusalem. Her Samaritan ancestors worshipped God on this mountain because Moses had commanded an altar be built here in Deuteronomy 27. Who is right?

1. Jesus' answer is great. Verse 21. “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.” What a phenomenal answer that He gives.
2. God is going to be worshipped, not by location, but through Jesus. Here is the Apostle John bringing chapter 2 right back in. Jesus is speaking of Himself as the temple. You will access God, not through location any longer. You will not find atonement in Jerusalem anymore. The day is coming when you will find it through Me. You will meet God through Jesus. You will find atonement through Jesus. You will find salvation through Jesus.
3. Salvation comes from the Jews meaning that the Messiah would come from the Jewish people, He will be the source of eternal life, and He will be the one who is worshiped. Jerusalem is irrelevant, Jesus is what matters. The time will come when worshippers are not identified by their attachment to a shrine, but by the worship of the Lord.

M. God is looking for people who will worship Him properly. The implication is that the worship in both places is not proper. Since God is spirit, proper worship of God is also a matter of the spirit rather than a physical location, physical posture, or external ritual. God wants worship from the heart because worship from the heart leads to proper worship. If I truly love the Lord and understand His grace toward me, then I will worship Him the way that He wants with the heart that He wants. She responds in verse 25, “… I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” She does not seem to fully accept Jesus answer.

1. Verse 26, “Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”” There is the main point of the story. Jesus is the Messiah. the one speaking to you. I know what I am talking about concerning worship because I am the Christ. I am here and that is why I can offer eternal life.
2. The light bulb clicks on. This is not an academic discussion any longer. Jesus is the Christ. Her mind must be reeling from all the things that Jesus has just said to her. If you knew who I was and the gift of God, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water. Jesus offered to give something to her so that she could experience full, true satisfaction.

CONCLUSION: Think about those words: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (4:14). What you are lacking in your life Jesus is supplying. We think in physical terms, we'll never thirst again. If you want to drink soda or water it will just be because you wanted to, just be for fun. It wouldn't be because you're parched.

We fail to realize that when our life is not right with God then we are thirsty and unsatisfied. This woman has had five husbands and now is on her sixth man. She is thirsting but the water she is drinking is only giving temporary relief. This is exactly the description of this world. We try something… find temporary enjoyment, only to thirst again.

What false well are we running to, only to find disappointment and loss? Jesus offers living water to the condemned, to call them to eternal life. We need to move our hearts from physical concerns to spiritual concerns. The light is shining in the world so that we do not have to be blinded by the darkness any longer. Satan blinds us with the things the world, and we do not see the treasure that is Jesus and the living water He provides. We need to see that what Jesus is offering is more valuable than anything this world has to offer. Jesus is the pearl of great value. Jesus is the treasure. He is worth everything.

The message is yours. We are about to sing our invitation song. If anyone here has the need to be baptized into Christ, or needs the prayers of faithful people, the invitation is there for you to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference Sermon: Brent Kercherville