To All Who Are Thirsty

To All Who Are Thirsty

John 4:1-29; 39-42 

 

Illus. Obey Your Thirst.

 

As we turn to John 4 this morning, Jesus, on His way from Jerusalem to Galilee, stops at a well where He met a Samaritan woman who was there to draw water. When the conversation began, it was centered around the need for a drink of the physical water from that well, but as the conversation continued, Jesus drilled deeper than that physical well and into her spiritual thirst, and her deepest need for living water only He could give personally.

She was thirsty for many things, but Jesus pointed her to her deepest need and His ability to quench the thirst of all who are thirsty. Many live their lives with an “obey your thirst” mentality, but those who do will only find themselves thirsty again. In this text, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman and all who are thirsty, and those who drink of the water He gives, will never be thirsty.

 

Read: John 4:1-26

 

As we study Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman in this story, it is important to know that Jesus’ words not only apply to her, but to all who are thirsty. One’s thirst is associated with what they are lacking, and it was French philosopher Blaise Pascal who said famously, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” As Jesus makes that known to the Samaritan woman at the well, there are four truths God made known not only to her, but to you and me, and I want to look at those this morning.  We will cover much of this chapter, and I have divided it into four things God makes known through Jesus Christ in this chapter: The necessary journey, the soul that is thirsty, the Savior all must see, and the opportunity for all to believe.

 

1. There’s A Necessary Journey to Know About

 

• Chapter 4 begins by giving us insights into the travel itinerary for Jesus and his disciples.

 

• They had been in Jerusalem since the middle of John two after beginning in His ministry in Galilee. Jesus had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

 

• It was there that Jesus cleared the temple, it was there that he met a leader of the Jews name Nicodemus and shared with him his need to be born again.

 

• From verse 3, we know that Jesus is leaving Judea, and headed back to Galilee.

 

Illus. Map.

 

• In verse four we are given the route they would take to get from Judea to Galilee…

 

John 4:4-6, He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from His journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

 

• It is an interesting note that Jesus “needed” to go through Samaria, because physically, he did not “need” to go through Samaria.

 

• In fact, Jews in that day would have had the posture that the needed to avoid Samaria rather than spend time there.

 

• There were different ways to get to Galilee from Judea. Most Jewish people would go out of their way to go around Samaria, even it meant adding extra time to their travel.

 

• The reason is, they did not want to have contact with Samaritans.

 

• The fact that Jesus “needed” to go through Samaria, tells us that there was a reason for Jesus to head there. He had a divine appointment with the woman He would meet there.

 

• Jesus needed to have an encounter with the Samaritan woman He will meet there. It would change her life, and bring light and life to the city of Sychar and the region of Samaria.

 

Illus. The history between Israelites and Samaritans.

 

• Though most would end up avoided Samaria at all costs, Jesus headed straight to Samaria, because He came to seek and save the Lost.

 

• Those famous words come from Luke 19:10, when Jesus met a tax collector name Zaccheus…

 

Luke 19:5-10, when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down, and received Him joyfully. When the people saw this, they all began to complain, saying, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner!” But Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I am giving to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I am giving back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

 

• Tax collectors were hated and despised…But Jesus saw him, and said to him, “I must” stay at your house today.”

 

• As the people heard the words, what might they have said…Jesus “must” stay at his house? Really there is no where else he could stay that day?

 

• Well I suppose there is physically, but Jesus was speaking to the need, and what He must do spiritually.

 

• Speaking of out of the way…Look no further than you and me.

 

Philippians 2:5(b)-7, Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.

 

• It was out of the way for Him, but God knew the only way was and is Him!

 

• For all who are thirst presently, God made the journey to you and me because He knew it was necessary.

 

Illus. Good luck.

 

• After learning specific place Jesus would pass through on His journey, we next learn about a specific person Jesus would speak to as He made His way through Samaria.

 

There was a necessary journey…next…

 

1. There’s Water That Satisfies Thirsty Souls

 

John 4:6-8, So Jesus, tired from His journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away to the city to buy food.

 

• We learn in verse six that Jesus was tired from the journey. It was an 80 to 90 mile journey. The sixth hour was 12 noon, so it is the heat of the day.

 

• Jesus decides to sit by the well in Sychar known as Jabob’s well. His disciples went into the city to buy food, and as he sat there by Himself, a Samaritan woman came to draw water…

 

• As the scene unfolds, it is important to note what we are seeing is uncommon for a number of reasons.

 

• First, while it was not uncommon for a woman to draw water from that well, it was highly unusual for a woman to draw water from there at that time. 12 noon….It was the heat of the day.

 

• What was common was for a woman to draw water in the cool of the day, either early in the morning, or nearer to the time the sun was setting.

 

• Drawing water was an essential duty and one that was done daily, but it was also a heavy load, so, it was best to wait until things cooled down.

 

• Customarily, that was during the cool of the day.

 

• But it is also important to note that drawing water was not just essential, but it was social.

 

• It was a time when women would socialize, share the latest updates in their lives and families, and hear about others.

 

• This woman wasn’t going at the normal time.

 

• The most likely reason for her choosing to go at such an uncommon time is that she wanted to avoid the socializing. Get in, get the water and get out.

 

• She had likely because a social outcast. We learn about her life as Jesus begins speaking with her. She had been married five times, and she was living with a man she was not married to.

 

Look at by society poorly…

 

• She had a reputation in her town, so, she went down to draw water at a time when she could be left alone.

 

• But Jesus loved her too much, to leave her alone.

 

• Seeing her there, Jesus asked her for a drink of water.

 

• This is the second reason the scene was uncommon. It was uncommon for a man to speak to a woman in public that he was not related to. Culturally, it was not only uncommon, but often considered unacceptable.

 

• Thirdly, you have a Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman and that man, Jesus, has already been called by the term Rabbi, or teacher (John 1:38).

 

• The Samaritan woman known all of this and it is revealed in her response…

 

John 4:9-12,  So the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She said to Him, “Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?”

 

• As we read this interaction, we are grateful for the content, and insights into the context, but what we don’t typically know is way it was said. We don’t always know the tone of voice, the inflections, the non verbal implications, we don’t know, so we try our best to read what is given and make an assertion.

 

Its like an email or text sometimes…you don’t always know the way a person meant to say it…

 

• We don’t exactly, but based upon her responses, she is certainly a bit skeptical of what Jesus is saying to her, some commentators say cynical, or if nothing else, short with Him initially.

 

John 4:13-15, Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.”

 

• The Samaritan woman still had physical water in her mind.

 

• That there was some type of water Jesus had, or had access to, some insights on living water physically that Jesus was talking about.

 

• But the reality of the scene was that Jesus was talking about living water for her thirsty soul.

 

• She had tried this and tried that. She had married this man, and that man, five times, but not relationship had ever given her satisfaction.

 

• She was thirsty, but Jesus wanted her to know that the water she was drinking, the well she was going to again, was going to leave her thirsty again.

 

Illus. The Promise of Quenched Thirst.

 

John 4:13, Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again…

 

Jeremiah 2:13, My people have committed two evils: they have abandoned Me, the fountain of living waters, to carve out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water.

 

• In Jeremiah’s day, people would carve out cisterns on the side of hills or large rocks to catch the water that would run off.

 

• While these cisterns would serve as a water reservoir during dry seasons, some would develop cracks and could hold no water.

 

• Ultimately, the cisterns would become a place to bury the dead as they would have no other purpose or use.

 

• Here in Jeremiah, God says the people have forsaken me, the river of living water.

 

• Rather than obeying your thirst, seek the living water that the Lord gives, you won’t thirst again.

 

• The Samaritan woman said, give this water to me so that I will not be thirsty, then I wont have to come over here to draw water anymore.

 

• But Jesus is going to turn the attention to her deepest desire and thirst personally.

 

• So far, it is all about physical water and well, and Jacob, and streams, but Jesus is doing to drill deeper and show her exactly what He means.

 

John 4:16-18, He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.”

 

• Jesus cuts through all the back and forth. He knows she had a deep longing, she seems to have tried again and again, and again, and again, and again, and now she is not even sure if she can go there again.

 

• Jesus points to her deepest longing. Which seems to be a longing to be loved.

 

• Why would he go there? Why would He talk about this with her? Why would He go there about her past and her failures? Answer: because He loves her.

 

• And what she was searching for, what she was longing for, would never be found or offered from any other source than the Jesus Christ, the Savior who was standing before her. 

 

John 4:19, The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet

 

• She could see something powerful in Him now, but it was not that he was simply a prophet, but rather, that He was the Savior.

 

III.  There’s a Savior All Must See

 

John 4:20-24 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.” Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, that a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 

• In her response, some question where she is going with her question.

 

• Some believe that she is deflecting the conversation by turning the attention away from her life, and toward which place to worship was right.

 

• As I mentioned there was a temple built by Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, but the Jewish Temple was in Jerusalem.

 

• She turns the attention to the proper place to turn to God in worship.

 

• While some assert that her statement is a deflection, it seems to me that she very well could have been looking for direction.

 

• Jesus had drilled to her deepest need, and if she were to turn to the Lord in truth, if she were going to leave her life of sin, she would need to know the direction… “Where does one go to get right with God?”

 

• Jesus said the time has now come where true worshippers will not worship on this mountain or that mountain. The times has come where true worshippers will not need to go to Gerizim, or Jerusalem.

 

• True worshippers are worship in spirit and in truth, bring all that they are and have been to Him, and accepting who is and will be to the very end.

 

John 4:25-26, The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.”

 

• Jesus declared all things to her, and in Him, she would never thirst again.

 

John 4:28-29, Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

 

John 4:39-41, Now from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One truly is the Savior of the world.”

 

Psalm 107:8-9, They shall give thanks to the Lord for His mercy, and for His wonders to the sons of mankind! For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and He has filled the hungry soul with what is good.

 

 

Illus. Everyone, from Nicodemus to the Samaritan Woman (John 3:16).

 

 

John 4:1-29; 39-42