Quenching Our Thirst

This morning, we are turning to John chapter 4. We'll be looking at the woman at the well. If you're using a pew Bible, that'll be on page 888 and 889. There's many new faces, so I want to take the opportunity in the introduction to actually catch up with where we've been in John. If you flip over John 1, 1 through 18, that's really John's introduction. It's his prologue. He introduces that the one we're going to be speaking of, he is very God of very God and that God, the Word of God, he became flesh. He walked among us and he came to be one like us in every way, except for sin, so that we, by believing in him, could see God. We can know his grace. We can know his truth in Christ. We see the testimony of John the Baptist. He shouts out, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He came to die in our place to take away our sin, which keeps us from knowing and seeing God. We saw Jesus. We see Jesus calling the first disciples wedding at Cana, which is the first sign. It's a significant sign because it declares Jesus is the bridegroom. He is the one who loves us. deeply and richly and fully. Jesus cleanses the temple and declares his body is the new temple because it is believing in him and his death that we have forgiveness and new life. And then the famous dialogue with Nicodemus, where he declares, you must be born again. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Just a sweet summary of the gospel. We then have the testimony of John the Baptist. And last week, 31 through 36, I believe John took a moment to pause. I believe that's John, the evangelist, the writer of the gospel. He took a moment to catch us up, to remind us of all the things he said. And now chapter four, we're actually transitioning. The key message of John's gospel, we know this from the end or he gives us his purpose so that you might believe that Jesus is the son of God and in him have eternal life because without him we're dead in our sins. Chapter four introduces a key transition after he summarized he's showing that the gospel is for every kind of person. He spoke to Nicodemus, a Jewish leader in chapter three. In chapter four, he starts speaking to the Samaritans and then he's going to give the gospel to a Gentile. The gospel is for all people. It's a key transition. And I wrestled with kind of the key summary, what is the what is the one sentence that would summarize our passage this morning? I wrestled with not making it overly wordy, something I wrestled with regularly. Well, I want everyone else to speak shortly so I can speak longer. So. As I wrestled with it, I came back to, well, something you've heard many, many times before from me and many of you will be familiar with it. I can't think of a better summary of our passage than the famous words of St. Augustine. Our hearts are restless till we find our rest in Christ. The lady will be hearing about today. She's restless and Christ has come to confront her and her sin, to give her comfort, to give her the gospel that will truly give her the rest she was created for and that she longs for. Our hearts are restless till we find our rest in Christ. Please listen now, as I read John chapter four, the woman at the well. And there's three key words and you'll hear they're connected. There's a main focus that is presented in the grand metaphor of what Jesus is saying regarding salvation. And the three words are drink, water and thirsty. This metaphor of thirst and the water that actually conquers and quenches the thirst, that is a key theme, it's a key metaphor to the passage. So listen for these words, drink, water. and thirsty. They're repeated to draw your attention. John chapter four, beginning in verse one. Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples in John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee and he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sakar. 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. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, 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. 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? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself and as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whatever 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. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, 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. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He was called the Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I. who speak to you, am he." As we walk through this very rich story, this is a rich plot line, a rich story of John. We're going to see, the outline is in five parts, and we're going to walk through the story. First, a good story has a setting. That's verses one through six. And then the outline where we see who Jesus is, first, the second main section. Jesus crosses social barriers. That's verses 7 through 9. First, the setting, verses 1 through 6. Next, Jesus crosses social barriers, verses 7 through 9. Thirdly, Jesus offers eternal life, verses 10 through 15. Fourth, Jesus confronts sin, verses 16 through 18. And finally, verse 5, Jesus is the Messiah. We will be looking more intently at the last section regarding worship next week. We're going to put aside the worship section because that's going to have all kinds of application. We'll work through that next week. But for now, we're going to walk through how Jesus is carrying this woman to realize who he is and what her real need is. And that is himself. First, our setting. are setting, verses 1 through 6. Now, we just finished where John the Baptist's disciples, they were talking to the Pharisees and John the Baptist's disciples, they're concerned. Jesus is getting more famous. He's getting more disciples. And we see this playing out here. Jesus hears that the Pharisees have discovered that He's gaining more popularity and so He wants to get further away from Jerusalem because His hour has not yet come. He's going back up to Galilee, where much of His ministry time was spent. Now, what we appreciate, we should appreciate about John, the evangelist, the author of our gospel, he gives us inspired study notes. You see those little parentheses while they they kind of stop the storyline as we go through. They're really helpful. You know, if you have a study Bible, you always want to look down and you like to see the background. John gives it to you and it's inspired. And so we see here, although Jesus himself did not baptize, only his disciples baptized. His disciples were an instrument of his ministry. He baptized no one, but many were baptized in his name through his disciples, as we continue to do today. He left Judea, departed for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. He came to Samaria. Samaria is a very important place for us to understand because it helps understand one of the key tensions in the story. Israel was at one time divided into two nations. There was the northern Israel, there was a southern Judea, and then the north they were conquered. And when the north was conquered by the Assyrians, the Assyrians had the most amazing strategy to make sure that the locals didn't revolt. The first thing they would do was they would drag half the population or more to Assyria to be slaves. They would take the leaders, the princes, the powerful, the people who could really lead a revolution. They would take them and they would drag them to Assyria. And when I say drag, they would have a rope and they would have a string from the rope with a hook on it and they would put it in their jaw. And that's how they would drag them from their land to the foreign land. So first they would take away the influential, the powerful and most of the population. Then this is really the brilliant strategy to keep a revolution from coming. They would then transplant Assyrians back into Israel. And that's where we have Samaria. Half Assyrians, half Israelites, and then they intermarried and then you have the Samarians. And so these folks are half Israelites, half Samaritans. They have their own religion. They only believe the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. They don't have the rest. They don't recognize the rest. I do want to show something that's interesting here in that God commanded Israel to conquer all of their enemies in the land. Israel got lazy and comfortable and refused to obey God and conquer their enemies. Therefore, their enemies came and conquered them, and they took them out of the land and took away their identity. Israel refused to obey God, and God judged them. It's not just Samaritans. They're half Israelites, half Assyrians. They have their own religion. The Jews did not like them. We see this in our texts. The woman asked, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? And then John gives us the inspired study that for Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. This is why the parable of the Good Samaritan is so powerful. The despised is the one who's actually the good neighbor in that story. It's not that the Good Samaritan is the one who picks him up, it's the fact that the priest and the Pharisee, they didn't do what the law commanded. The Samaritan did what the law commanded. In our story, Jesus is weary, he's thirsty. He shows real human needs. He is a human, the divine who could take on flesh. And he goes and he sits by the well. So we have the Sumerians to find. There's one last little note here we want to look at. It was about the sixth hour. Now, we're telling time according to the Israel, the way the Jews did. This is noon. And it's important that it's at noon. Most women went to the well to gather water, but most of them went in groups and most of the time would be in the cool of the day. So early morning, late in the afternoon. Here we have this woman by herself in the heat of the day. And I think that's important as we actually get to know her better and see more about her. As you heard, she's had five husbands and the man she's living with now is not her husband. Most likely, she's an outcast, not even to the Jews, but even in her own culture, in her own society. Let's look at this. Jesus crosses social barriers. Our next section. Jesus crosses social barriers. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samarian? A woman comes to draw water. Jesus gives a very simple request, give me a drink. The tension begins here. The tension begins here, and this tension is going to change this woman's life. This small little request, give me a drink, is the way Jesus began to change her life forever. Inspired study note in verse 8, we know why Jesus needs her to give him a drink. The disciples, who probably have whatever instruments they would use to gather water from a well, they've gone into the city to buy food. Her question tells us all about the Jew-Samaritan relationship. How is it? How are you asking me? Do you not realize who you are and who I am? There's two problems. A Jew is talking to a Samaritan, a man is talking to a woman, and so it's multiplied. A Jewish man should not be asking a Samaritan woman for anything. Here Jesus is crossing social barriers. We even see a holy God speaking to this woman who is a social outcast because of her lifestyle. We can see here a very powerful application. Jesus crosses social barriers. He is the king that is building a kingdom for all kinds of people, every kind of person, especially the outcast, the hopeless, the unloved. God is a God who cares for those who aren't cared for. God is a God of comfort and the one above who is for the unlovely and the unloved. He is a friend to the friendless. Now, how do you know God's friendship? The first way you know God's friendship, if you are one of the friendless, is first by believing in Jesus Christ, the good friend, the friend who lays down his life for you. The second way you know God's friendship is through his body. God has equipped and built up a church. A church is for every Christian to know the friendship and the love of God. Now I want to challenge us here, Church, and first I want to encourage you. It is exciting to see how this church is unified to be a body that builds up on one another. It's exciting to see how this is a church that's united in evangelism, sharing the gospel with one another. This is a place where I believe sinners are welcome, because I'm looking at a lot of sinners that look like they're all feeling welcome. Being a Christian doesn't mean you're no longer a sinner. It just means you're no longer guilty, counted guilty for your sin. This is a church for sinners, and if you are not a Christian, you are welcome here. We're thankful that you're here to hear God's word and to hear the way he corrects and confronts and cares for sinners and his grace is sufficient for every sin and every sinner. We do not accept your sin. But we want to welcome you that you would hear the God who would bring you in and forgive you for your sins. Church, I also want to challenge you. Are you looking for and longing for friendships and fellowship with those who are not like you? Are you looking for and longing for fellowship with those who are not like you? Are we judging others as unworthy of our time because they're not like us? I heard good advice from a pastor once. We are naturally going to build friendships with those who are like us in the same walk of life, at the same age, the same kind of family. We naturally build friendships with those. And you should have as many friendships with those like you as you possibly can have, but they need to have more. Have as many friendships with those who are like you as you want. But then make sure you have friendships with those who are not like you. Do not let prejudice rob you of the joy of having fellowship with those who are not like you and sharing the gospel with those who are not like you. So our third point. The plot thickens, we first see the social barriers, that's the real tension at first. Jesus answered her, 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 given you living water. 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? 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 woman doesn't really answer Jesus' question. She points out the awkwardness, and Jesus stays on task. He doesn't bother with the social barrier issue. He stays on task to give her the promise of eternal life. He says to her two things, and they're really the same thing. If you knew the gift of God, if you knew who was speaking to you, He is the gift of God. The Father so loved the world that He gave His only Son. He is the gift. And if she would only recognize who he is, she would realize she needs something other than H2O. She would realize that she needs him. If you knew who I am, I would you would ask me and I would give you living water. Living water is a very important phrase, and I believe John here is capturing just like he did with the bridegroom language. A metaphor throughout the Old Testament, we heard it in Isaiah 55 when Brian read it. Come, those who are thirsty, seek God while he is found. God continues to over and over again in Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah to liken himself and his promises to living water. Now, living water is moving water. It's better than a well. It's certainly better than a cistern. Living water, that's why you have cities and towns built along rivers and creeks, because a river is a life source. The most essential element of life is the water. And God is saying he is an abundant blessing like a river. Living water represents the promises of God. I am with you. I will be for you. I will comfort you. I will care for you. I will never forsake you. I will love you. The living water represents the promise of God. I want you to hear another passage regarding living water, Jeremiah 2, you don't return there, you can look later, Jeremiah 2, verses 12 through 13, the judgment. Be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They have forsaken the God who was abundant in blessing and can supply every need, and they've hewed out cisterns. They're trying to work in their own way to satisfy their own needs rather than trusting the God who can truly do it. In John chapter 4, by saying he's the gift who gives living water, Jesus is identifying himself with every promise of God in the Old Covenant. You see, as a living water, Jesus Christ, He washes away our sin. When we are washed in the water of Christ, when we are given that abundant blessing of Christ, He washes us and removes the guilt. It removes the shame. It removes the judgment of God that is upon our sin. When He washes us in His water, we get a new identity. We become sons and daughters of God. We get a new life. We get eternal life. Jesus is saying the great promises of God are found if you believe in me, the fountain, the living water who changes everything about you and truly satisfies and quenches your true and deepest longing. The woman responds, not quite getting it. Where is your bucket? The water Jesus is referring to is not ever captured in a bucket. There is no vessel that carries it other than Jesus Christ himself. He alone is the one who gives it. You can't capture it in a bucket. She's like Nicodemus. She can't stop thinking in an earthly way to recognize the heavenly promises. She asked another question. Are you greater than Jacob? Jacob built this well and he fed everybody through it. He watered himself and his livestock and our country is still blessed by it. Well, the answer to that question is yes. Jesus is greater than that charlatan Jacob. In John chapter 1 verse 17 and 18, Jesus is greater than Moses. In John chapter 8, 58, he's greater than Abraham. Jacob was renamed Israel. He had 12 sons that became the 12 tribes. He was the father of a single nation. Jesus Christ is the king that brings about it brings in every kind of people into his one kingdom. Jacob provided water. Jesus provides forgiveness because he's the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus response continues to press the main point. She's missing it. He continues to press in. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Speaking of the H2O. 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. He has to correct her again. And here we see. The water Jesus is promising, it's the water that washes away sin. The water Jesus is promising, it quenches our deepest longing. We're finally at rest when we are identified with Christ and His love. It's the water that gives us eternal life. What's amazing here in this passage, Jesus is giving us what we've been longing for, but not looking for. Jesus gives this woman here the promise of what she's been longing for, but not looking for. She's promising her eternal life, true life, true love. She's not been looking for the true and eternal life and true and eternal love. She's been looking for things of this world. She responds, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. I wonder if the reason she doesn't want to come there anymore is because every time she goes to the well in the heat of the day by herself, it reminds her of her shame. She doesn't want to have to go back to this well over and over again because the well is a constant reminder of her shame. She's asking for a thirst to be quenched. She's requesting water, but she doesn't quite yet realize what her true thirst is and who is speaking to her conquenching. Verses 6 through 18, Jesus confronts sin. This is an odd turn in the story here. This is a major turn in the story. It changes our tension. In response to her asking for water, still thinking of H2O, Jesus says to her, go call your husband and come here. The tension thickens. Really, it's a second layer of tension. The first layer was the fact that a Jewish man is talking to a Samaritan woman. Here, it's clear that he's confronting her sin. I have no husband. You're right because you have had five husbands and the man you're living with now is not your husband. In the midst of her actually saying, give me the water, Jesus decides to pinpoint and highlight and focus in on her sin. What's amazing here? Jesus knows all about her. He knows exactly who she is. She knows how she's lived. He knows her better than she even knows herself. He knows what she truly needs and what she is truly thirsty for. Now, she's had five husbands. Most likely, this is five divorces. It would be unusual for her to be a widow five times. She's most likely had five divorces. And now she's living, even further, we see she's now living with a man that is not her husband. This reveals a life of unfaithfulness, a life of longing for something and never accomplishing it and sinning further. She's a loose woman, and that's why she is a social outcast in this culture. If I could try to give an armchair diagnosis of her life, she longs for intimacy, Love, she longs to be valued and respected and cared for. And she's looking forward in men who do not seek to care for her, love her or value her. She's looking forward and selfish men who are after their own desires. She's thirsty for significance, meaning and identity. And she's parched. Because she doesn't know where to find it. She keeps looking for it over and over again, and it only makes the thirst worse. It only makes it more painful. And now Jesus has put his finger on that pain, on that thirst. She's not yet really realized how thirsty she is and what she's thirsty for. Now, I think there's some significance here. Jesus was just declared the bridegroom. And now this woman is being confronted with her sin of longing for the husband who will satisfy her desires. And it's Jesus alone who will do that. We all have a hunger and a thirst for meaning, significance and identity. We all long for this. We all pursue it. Our problem is, is we do not look for it in God. We do not look for it in Christ. or idolaters. We seek things in this world that do not satisfy. We expect them to, and so we become disappointed. She's asking for water that quenches her thirst. Jesus responds by highlighting her sin. This is really odd, unless you see the pattern of what Christ does. Remember the rich young ruler He says, how can I inherit the kingdom of God? How can I have eternal life? And they go through a lift. Yes, I've done all these things. Jesus says, go sell everything. That's not a universal command for every Christian. He's pinpointing the specific idolatry of the rich young ruler. He had a greater love for money than he had a love for God. Here we see Jesus pinpointing the specific primary idol of this woman. You've been living, longing for love, and you've been looking for it in the wrong place. A dear friend once asked, while we were walking through what the gospel is, it was a very perceptive question. He asked me this. When you come to Christ, is there typically one thing you have to give up? It was very perceptive. Yes. Because when we're going to Christ, we're moving to believe in Christ. We're giving up that old life. And now, thankfully, Jesus doesn't require us to repent of all our sin. I mean, if you're walking with Christ 50, 60 years, you still don't know all of your sin. We're constantly repenting of all of our idols. But there is a call to repent. You see, I can identify with this woman. I used to live a life. that pursued things of this world, longing for love, longing for meaning, longing for significance. I wasn't a Christian until I was 18. Between the age of 14 and 18, I made my identity the partier. I didn't have real relationships. I didn't have a real identity. I was longing for something, and so I made myself the partier. I pursued alcohol, drugs, and women. I did whatever I could. And the Bible has a word for this. The world calls it cool. The Bible says I was a fool. Now, praise God, sin never satisfies. Because when I was 18, I realized how much I was wasting my life. So I, for some reason, by God's good providence, actually, I got out God's word. And every time I read about the fool, it described me. Every time I heard the words of Jesus, it was illuminating wisdom. And it was at that point I realized, well, I would read the Bible every night. Some nights I got drunk, I didn't enjoy it, but I read it anyway. The nights I was sober, it illuminated everything. It was powerful. I couldn't stop reading it, regardless of how I was living, depending on the night. And I started to realize that I was being called to follow Christ. I was being called to have this new life, this wisdom. But it was obvious I had to stop partying. That was that identity. That was my primary idol. I had to give up that idol that I was trying to cover all my insecurities with. Thankfully, one night I went home. I found a letter from my grandfather written five years earlier. It pointed out then all the decisions I was making, how foolish they were, where they were leading. And I got on my knees and I said, I quit. I didn't know the words to Iser and Rahl, so all I could say is I quit. What I meant by that is I quit resisting you. I quit fighting you. Praise God for his persistent and irresistible grace. I say that I don't like to use myself as an illustration, but I say that because that was that one sin. It was a clear sin that I was keeping as my idol and I had to repent of it to make God my God, to make my identity his child, the forgiven one. In order to believe in Christ, I had to believe that was wrong, it was foolish, that he was right and he was wise. If you're not a Christian this morning, What are you scared to give up? What would frighten you if God said this is your idol because the thing he calls you to repent of is the thing you love the most, the thing you find the most security in. I pray because I cannot convict you. I pray to the Holy Spirit will convict you and I pray you will not resist the call of God. As Brian read, come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters that wash away sin, that give you new life, the life of Jesus that truly satisfies. Christian, challenge us. If we want to grow closer to God, we have to give up more idols. That's what keeps us from worshiping. That's what keeps us from growing our love and understanding. It's our idols. It's loving the sins. And we have so many that go so deep. You never stop. Regarding testimonies, I do want to say this. I praise God for the testimonies of purity. For those testimonies where God calls someone at a young age. He keeps them. He keeps them pure. Those are the testimonies I love to hear. But I also praise God for the radical life change because it reminds me and it reminds us of how far gone we were, how far removed we were, and how far Christ's love comes to us to save us. Finally, our last section, Jesus is the Messiah. As I said, the main portion of this text we'll look at next week. But the woman, she perceives he's a prophet because he's put his finger on her sin. She perceives that he's a prophet and that the Messiah is coming who will let us know all these things. And Jesus declares, I am he. Jesus is always bringing the attention to himself because he alone can save. He must be lifted up so that we may believe in him. God created us for himself, and that is why we will be restless until we find our rest in him. He created us in a way that only his love, only a relation with him will truly satisfy the deepest longings, especially when our our sin so twist and corrupts everything about us. That's why we sing songs like Come Thou Fount. Tune my heart, O God. Our hearts are so out of line, longing for meaning and significance in everything other than God. They must be tuned by God to sing his praise. We must long for that day where sin will no longer taint our love, taint our eyes so that we can worship him once we're finally renewed completely and perfectly in Christ. Friends, we're all thirsty. We're all thirsty. And only Christ truly satisfies our deepest longings. Only Christ can remove our sin. Only Christ can reconcile us to God. Only Christ can give us the peace and the rest we were designed to have. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your gift, Jesus Christ. We thank you that you sent him to reconcile us to yourself. We thank you that he is the one who washes us and gives us a new identity. And we long for his return. Oh, Holy Spirit. Descend into our hearts. Enlighten the dark corners that have been neglected And scatter there your cheerful beams of life that bring us back to a love for Christ and a love for the Father. Show us, Lord, our idols. Give us the grace and the power and the strength to repent of them and to delight more and further in Christ our Savior. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.