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1 When Jesus knew that the Pharisees heard He was making and baptizing more disciples than John (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 six in the evening.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
“Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 for 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.”
11 “Sir,” said the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep.
So where do You get this ‘living water’?
12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are You?
He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”
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—ever!
In fact, the water I will give him will become a well pof water springing up within him for eternal life.”
15 “Sir,” the woman said to Him, “give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”
16 “Go call your husband,” He told her, “and come back here.”
17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered.
“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said.
18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
Introduction:
When we lived in North Georgia we were within a short drive of some beautiful mountains.
I have had the opportunity to hike in those mountains as well as in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.
One of my favorite places to hike is Mt.
Leconte in the Smoky Mountains.
I have hiked up that mountain several times and also on many of the trails surrounding it.
Hiking in those mountains is not an easy stroll.
It is hard, but well worth the effort along the way and especially when you reach the top.
On top of Mt.
Leconte are rustic one room cabins that you can reserve and stay in.
There is also a water pump there with clear, cool and fresh mountain water.
After climbing that mountain, whether it was cold or hot, my body was longing for that fresh water since by the time we had arrived I had depleted my water sources.
I didn’t want a coke or a Pepsi or even the heavenly liquid known as Mountain Dew.
I wanted water.
I longed for water.
Artificially flavored drinks could not satisfy, only water.
You see, spiritually, we are thirsty people surrounded by other thirsty people.
We each have a deep longing for something that will satisfy the dry parched feelings we have in our hearts.
In our text this morning, I want us to see the master evangelist Jesus direct this Samaritan to the living water that will satisfy her thirsty heart.
Central Truth: The deepest needs of the human heart are met only by God and not by anything this world has to offer.
I.
The Futility of Natural Waters
The human condition since the fall has consisted of a deep longing for fulfillment.
For thousands of years, the search for this fulfillment has been in futile locations.
This woman had come to the well for physical water, which is temporary.
People today search for fulfillment in temporary things and temporary people.
Isaiah’s question rings loudly today in a world of thirst and hunger:
Isaiah 55:2, “Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy?”
Our time is no different than the time of the Samaritan woman.
The futile search continues.
How are people seeking fulfillment in their lives?
A. The Trap of Materialism
The samaritan woman confuses the physical with the spiritual.
Human beings, although spiritual beings, have always sought fulfillment with material things.
Ec 5:10, “The one who loves money is never satisfied with money, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income.
This too is futile.”
The story is told of a prosperous, young investment banker who was driving a new BMW sedan on a mountain road during a snowstorm.
As he veered around one sharp turn, he lost control and began sliding off the road toward a deep precipice.
At the last moment he unbuckled his seat belt, flung open his door, and leaped from the car, which then tumbled down the ravine and burst into a ball of flames.
Though he had escaped with his life, the man suffered a ghastly injury.
Somehow his arm had been caught near the hinge of the door as he jumped and had been torn off at the shoulder.
A trucker saw the accident in his rearview mirror.
He pulled his rig to a halt and ran to see if he could help.
He found the banker standing at the roadside, looking down at the BMW burning in the ravine below.
“My BMW! My new BMW!!” the banker moaned, oblivious to his injury.
The trucker pointed at the banker’s shoulder and said, “You’ve got bigger problems than that car.
We’ve got to find your arm.
Maybe the surgeons can sew it back on!”
The banker looked where his arm had been, paused a moment, and groaned, “Oh no! My Rolex!
My new Rolex!!”
God gives us material possessions so we will enjoy them, not so we will worship them.
(Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers.
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002.
340.)
It is futile to think if you simply had more money or nicer things you would be satisfied.
It is never ending search.
B. Human Achievement Cannot Fully Satisfy
The woman at the well references Jacob in verse 12.
She was ignorant of who Jesus was and questions his status.
Was he greater than Jacob, the one who had provided the well for them.
I mean he had even drunk from it himself, along with his very sons and livestock.
This was a special place no doubt.
“The Johannine message is that Jesus replaces or is superior to most of the cultic or historic symbols in Israel’s faith.
The patriarch Jacob was not only an ancestor revered by the Jews but also by the Samaritans.”
(Gerald L. Borchert, John 1–11, vol.
25A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 204.
It is futile to seek to quench the thirst of the human heart thru religious rituals, traditions or achievements apart from Christ.
It is futile to seek to quench the thirst of the human heart thru worldly achievements or notoriety.
C. Companionship is Not the Answer
The woman at the well had been through five husbands and her current companion was not her husband.
She was trapped in a cycle of sexual sin.
This is the trap many find themselves in today.
They are seeking in futility to satisfy the deepest needs of the human heart in fleeting and purely physical human relationships.
Twisting a God-given desire into a selfish pursuit that leaves a trail of emotional wreckage and damage along the way.
Apart from God and the new life he provides we will never be satisfied.
The human heart desires to be known and loved, and only God can perfectly know us and love us.
The “when’ syndrome.
When we are young we think that “when” we get older we will be happy because of the freedom we will have.
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