Jesus, The living Water (Part 3 of 3)
Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 41:16
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· 4 viewsJesus directly confronts many of our own excuses for not sharing the gospel with nonbelievers. There is an urgency about his challenges to us.
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Key Texts:
REFLECTION: Isaiah 44:3-5
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. 5 This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”
SERMON READING: John 4:27-42
MEMORY: Matthew 5:25-26
25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
BENEDICTION / CLOSING: Romans 15:5-6
5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
As we have been moving through this account of the Samaritan Woman at the well with Jesus; we have explored the first two movements:
The opportunity (what was the background as to why Jesus was where He was. Why was she where she was, when she was?)
The exchange. Jesus used her natural need to point her greatest need. The relationship she didn’t have…that she’d sought in so many other places…she couldn’t find it on her own. The relationship that she was made for, but didn’t have, SHE COULD HAVE, if she would trust that Jesus was all that He claimed to be.
Today, the third movement.
We’ll touch on the significance of Jesus’ use of the term “Living Water”.
We’ll see the fruit of this encounter play out in Scripture
We’ll notice how its possible to be right in the midst of God working in incredible ways; and be focused on something entirely different.
TRANSITION
TRANSITION
Recap (in case you’re joining us just now)
Jesus went through Samaria to get to Jerusalem.
Most Jews would avoid this route so that they wouldn’t mingle with the Samaritans they thought were unclean
Jesus sits by Jacob’s well. Tired from his journey. Asks a lone woman to give him a drink from the well.
The exchange ensues.
She is shocked that a Jew would speak to her.
He begins to reveal to her that He is the Messiah by way of promising her Living Water AND dealing with her sin.
She comes clean about the fact that she doesn’t who God really is, or how to know for sure what to believe.
She does say, that when the Messiah comes, he will set all this right.
Jesus tells her…I am he.
This TROUBLED WOMAN…This THIRSTY WOMAN…has become a TRANSFORMED WOMAN.
John is laying out for us that Jesus Christ is GOD.
He is in control of everything
He has impacted this woman’s life
He is intimate with the Father - He knows exactly what the Father wants
He has insight into men’s souls
His lasting impact on the Samaritans
Somewhere between verses 26 and 27, this woman has trusted Christ - it’s right in front of our faces.
The Disciples Have Questions
The Disciples Have Questions
John 4:27-38
Notice they were processing what they were seeing, but didn’t ask.
They wanted to know what the woman was doing. But didn’t ask.
They wanted to know WHY Jesus was talking to her (not WHAT they had discussed).
WHY are you talking to her?
Why are YOU talking to her?
Why are You talking to HER?
Maybe they still couldn’t shake the common thinking of the day summarized in this little doozy from a rabbi:
A man shall not be alone with a woman in an inn, not even with his sister or his daughter, on account of what men may think.
A man shall not talk with a woman in the street, not even with his own wife, and especially not with another woman, on account of what men may say.
Another gem from that day went like this: :
He that talks much with womankind brings evil upon himself and neglects the study of the Law and at last will inherit Gehenna.
YIKES! They didn’t get that from Scripture! We can all see the beginning of wisdom in the first part of the first one…if it would have said,
“A man shall not be alone with a woman other than his wife in an inn...”
I think we can acknowledge that there may be some circumspect thinking there in an effort to disarm any accusers. But that is NOT what we’re seeing here.
(The woman engages them as she leaves…we’ll circle back around to that in a moment.)
You’ll recall the disciples had gone into Sychar to get some food.
They’re back.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
Remember, when Jesus came to the well, he was tired. It was a long walk from the South. Dealing with the disciples questions, constant crowds…he was tired.
But he didn’t take them up on the offer to eat initially - there was nothing with their request…but there was something else going on!
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
I imagine his eyes are cast toward the village or toward His Father in Heaven when he says this.
33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
Jesus was so wrapped up in what was going on with this woman’s soul…He also KNEW what was coming up the road in just a bit! His focus/priority had shifted to the HEAVENLY not the EARTHLY. He had higher priorities than SELF CARE in this moment.
He’s not saying that when people are REALLY SUPER SPIRITUAL, they go without food.
Nor is he rebuking the disciples for suggesting that he eat.
Remember WE ARE NOT ANGELS. We have to eat and sleep.
I DO THINK Jesus is saying that we should have such a passion for God’s glory, for God’s work that we temporarily forget about our own self and say, “I’m good right now. This is awesome! I’m satisfied right now doing the will of Him who sent me.”
One commentator reminded me of two men that illustrate this well:
John—That You May Believe A Transcending Priority (vv. 31–34)
the great William Wilberforce, the man who did so much to combat the evils of slavery in nineteenth-century England. He was not much in appearance. Barclay says, “When he rose to address the House of Commons the members at first used to smile at this strange little figure.” He was sickly and unimpressive. But when he began to speak, the people soon realized a fire burned within him. Of Wilberforce it was beautifully said, “The little minnow became a whale.” God’s service had become his food.
Historians say that John Knox, the great Scottish preacher, was so feeble as an old man that he had to balance himself on the pulpit. But as he began to preach, his voice, at first very weak, would regain the power of a trumpet call, and he was likely “to ding the pulpit into blads [to knock the pulpit into splinters], and leap out of it!” The message completely filled the man with divine power, and he experienced supernatural sustenance. That is what happened with our Lord.
The disciples were likely ready to get on their way toward Jerusalem.
No doubt that’s where they thought the big dance was...
But Jesus had to go (NOT JUST THROUGH) but to Samaria
Are you tired, right now?
Do you maybe sense that you’ve had to detour to catch your breath from the main plan?
It could be, that God has a divine appointment for SOMEONE ELSE to be encouraged, to be TRANSFORMED by Jesus.
What you thought was a detour, God may have surgically orchestrated to bring many people to know, love, and obey Jesus - to glorify God forever.
He puts the disciples on notice…there is a work to do here.
It’s different. You didn’t have to plant, or water.
I need you to help with the harvest.
God the Lord of the harvest, who
1. Determines the time of the harvest;
2. appoints the laborers for the harvest;
3. guards the success of the harvest;
4. deserves the thank-offering of the harvest.
Johann Peter Lange; J. J. van Oosterzee
In a grander sense, this reminds us that we NEED EACH OTHER. The church works best when the church works together.
Some will sow the Gospel.
Some will water the Gospel with another conversation.
Some will be there for the harvest when the person surrenders to the LORD.
It also works in encouragement...
It’s really hard to encourage one another, love one another, serve one another, pray with one another WITHOUT ONE ANOTHER.
When we were saved, we called INTO the family of God.
The Woman Has Answers
The Woman Has Answers
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
She leaves everything with reckless abandon.
It’s like that old Southern Gospel song,
I’m just a nobody
Telling everybody
About Somebody
Who’ll save ANYBODY!
Her testimony is JESUS! She doesn’t go back into town and tell everyone about her past. THEY KNEW IT!
Testimony is not a synonym for autobiography! When we are truly witnessing, we are not talking about ourselves but about Christ.
John Stott
It’s clear that she didn’t necessarily have all the perfect theological answers. Not every i was dotted and t was crossed.
She didn’t begin in the law and the prophets to expound upon all that pointed to Jesus
She didn’t get too technical.
THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR POOR PREPARATION…BUT
She just ran into the village and told them about the JESUS - That HE KNEW HER; HE LOVED HER; HE REACHED OUT TO HER; HE CHANGED HER; and He could change them, too.
The village responds beautifully later...
Jesus tells his Disciples what’s really going on.
He has prepped them for the next moment.
The Streams Begin
The Streams Begin
John 4:39-42
This exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman reminds each of us that eternal life isn’t just about our life in heaven when we die.
Jesus began this conversation with that living water imagery.
The Christian life IS about eternity with Jesus Christ, the King of Kings - the Lover of our Souls; but it is also about the LIFE OF HEAVEN WELLING UP IN US WHILE WE LIVE HERE ON EARTH!
So, is that a feeling?
Is it a state of mind?
In Jeremiah 2:13 the LORD noted that his thirsty people were wrong to forsake Him.
13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
The Lord says HE IS THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATER.
The Lord says YOUR SELF-MADE CONTAINERS “YOUR WAY” WON’T WORK!
In Zechariah 14:8, God promises that living waters will flow out of Jerusalem...
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.
Literally, the phrase refers to fresh spring water but Jesus will clearly identify this “living water” as the Holy Spirit dwelling within a believer.
If we peak ahead to John 7, we see...
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
This is more than a feeling. This is more than a state of mind. This is God Himself working IN US so HE CAN WORK THROUGH US.
If you saw the Jesus Revolution movie, the tragedy of Lonnie Frisbee is that it would seem he wanted to God to work THROUGH him and FOR him MORE than he needed/desired God to work IN him. And it caught up with him.
And it will catch up with you, too.
If you allow God to simply become a means to an end:
a shot at a better life
a ticket out of hell
a way to avoid suffering
You will MISS the greatest reward of the Christian life - God, Himself.
God is that well of living water. God gives it to us, the church today, by the person of His Holy Spirit.
The Holy SPIRIT IS THE RIVER of Life welling up in us…and gushing out THROUGH US!
Jesus has invited an ethnicity of people who are outcasts to see him as the Messiah, to drink from the water of life, to have the promise of the Holy Spirit - before he even taught about it.
Such grace!
If we zoom back in to our account, what do we see?
Jesus has prepped the disciples for this moment.
The woman has already gone into the city and testified about the power of God in the TRUE MESSIAH!
Many of the Samaritans believed based on her testimony alone!
Now a stream is coming toward Jesus from the town.
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
This is indeed “THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD”!
Wait a minute, who said that?
Samaritans.
It’s the first time this term has been used.
Christ is being confessed by the marginalized of that day, as “THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD”!
(CALL FOR JULIA)
Could it be, as much as like to parse all the hairs with this unnamed Samaritan woman...
…diving deep into the nuances of the exchange
…exploring all the facets here...
None of that is bad in and of itself, unless it causes you to take your eyes off of Jesus, the Savior of the World.
He promised her living water.
He confronted her in her sin.
He revealed Himself as the Promise-Keeping, Sin-Smashing Messiah.
She trusted him.
She ran and told everyone everything she could.
Some trusted Him based on her word alone - right there where they were (in the market, on the street, at their home)
Many came to hear Him for themselves.
The Disciples are seeing the GREAT COMMISSION play out in front of them with a people that wasn’t “top of mind” to them.
Jesus was the hero of her story.
Jesus was the main attraction of her life.
Not her past - everyone knew that.
Is Jesus the hero of our story?
When you’re studying the Scriptures or chasing down some obscure thought line…remember, we have the RIVER OF LIFE flowing THROUGH us because GOD is at work IN US.
The Gospel IS personal. The Gospel IS NOT private…if it was, you would have never come to meet the King who knew all you had ever done, and still brought you to the springs of Living Water.
Let’s PRAY!