Living Water

This week we’re starting chapter 4 in the book of John, and over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at Jesus’ conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well. If you remember all the way back to chapter 1, John opens the book with some pretty big claims about Jesus.

He calls him the “Word of God.” He says Jesus is God and was in the beginning with God. It was through him that all things were made, and it’s by receiving him and believing in his name that we’re given the right to become children of God. That’s some heavy theology right out the gate to start the book. But then, in the chapters that follow, we see teaching from Jesus, demonstrations by Jesus, and conversations with Jesus that draw out those truths.

And that’s helpful because we all learn in different ways, and if Jesus is who the Bible says he is and has accomplished for us what it says he has, then the truth of Jesus should connect with the way we think, the way we feel, and the way we act. The good news of Jesus is good news for every part of us.

And that’s what we see in the gospel. We get teaching throughout the gospel of John, helping us think through the claims of Jesus. We get demonstrations of his divine nature and character in both his miracles and the ways he served those who were in the lowliest positions in society. And we also see him connect relationally with specific people where a conversation engages their heart, and they’re changed as a result.

We saw that over the past several weeks with the religious leader named Nicodemus in John chapter 3. He approached Jesus with questions about who he was, and by the end of the gospel of John, he’s become a follower of Jesus helping prepare him for burial before his resurrection.

Now, in John 4, we get another conversation between Jesus and someone who also starts off skeptical. While Nicodemus was a religious elite who was skeptical theologically about what must happen for us to have eternal life, the woman at the well in John 4 was a moral outcast who was skeptical that eternal life would even be available to her in the first place.

In every story—whether it be movies or tv or books or plays—in every story, each of us might have some characters we’re more naturally drawn to than others—characters we can see part of ourselves in, so we find it easier to understand what’s happening in the story through the lens of how they’re processing the story. The more characters you get to know, the more characters you might identify with and the more angles you get see into the main plot.

That’s part of what John is doing in how he’s organizing this historical account of Jesus. Nicodemus and the woman at the well are from different ends of the social spectrum, and they both start off skeptical—they have very different problems believing in Jesus. And yet, Jesus meets them where they’re at to address their skepticism and reveal himself to them. If you’d describe yourself as skeptical or struggling with faith in Jesus in some way, I hope you can see his approach in these passages as an invitation to get to know him in the context of where you’re at and where you might have doubts.

Both these conversations give us insight into what it means to have eternal life. With Nicodemus, Jesus tells us what has to happen in us—we have to be born again by God and place our belief in Jesus rather than ourselves. Now, with the conversation with the woman at the well, we can be given a sense of assurance as Jesus highlights how we can know we have eternal life.

Let’s start looking at the woman at the well this morning by setting the stage in verses 1-6. Chapter 3 ends with John the Baptist praising Jesus and how his ministry is growing as people are leaving to follow him. Here in verses 1-3 of chapter 4, we learn that John the Baptist wasn’t the only one noticing this. The Pharisees mentioned in verse 1 were a group of Jewish religious leaders. They’re ultimately the group that’ll have Jesus arrested and crucified later on, and here at the start of chapter 4 we see that they’ve also watched Jesus’ ministry start to grow.

Jesus knows it’s not the time yet for that kind of escalation with the Pharisees, so in verse 3 he leaves the region of Judea to head north toward Galilee. Only there’s a problem: in order to make the three day journey to Galilee, Jesus had to pass through Samaria, and Jews and Samaritans did not get along.

When the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel way back around 722 BC, they brought the most influential Israelites back to their country in exile and resettled Samaria with foreigners who intermarried with the rest of the Israelites who were still there. Over time, this meant that the Samaritans started to mix their Jewish culture and worship of Yahweh with foreign cultural elements and other forms of religious worship.

By the time the Assyrian exile ended, the Jews looked down on the Samaritans as a type of “half-Jew”, and they eventually established their own temple on Mount Gerazim separate from the one in Jerusalem (which we’ll see the woman at the well refer to more in our passage next week).

Then, near the end of the 2nd century BC, the Jewish High Priest, John  Hyrcanus, destroyed the Samaritan Temple, which only made the animosity between the two groups worse. But simply put: Jews and Samaritans were not friendly.

Now, some people will say the tensions were so great that Jews wouldn’t even travel through Samaria—they’d cross the Jordan River and greatly extend their journey going around them in order to avoid the region. But the early church historian Josephus was pretty clear that Jews begrudgingly still took the shorter route through Samaria like we see Jesus doing here in our passage.

And it’s while he’s in Samaria, close to what would be the modern village of Askar, that Jesus stops at a well that the patriarch Jacob from way back in the book of Genesis had originally dug. Verse 6 says it was about the sixth hour, which means noon. So, it’s been a long journey, it’s the hottest part of the day, and he’s in an area where he’s not welcome—and that’s where we find Jesus when a Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water.

Just like his conversation with Nicodemus gave us one layer, Jesus’ conversation with the woman brings up four questions we can ask ourselves to understand what eternal life with God is and how we can know we have it. And those questions are,

• Do you know Jesus?

• Have you trusted Jesus?

• Are you satisfied in Jesus? and

• Are you being changed by Jesus?

Let’s start off with that first question, Do you know Jesus? Look with me at verses 7-12.

John 4:7–12 ESV

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 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.) ¹⁰ 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.” 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? 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.”

Right away, we see the Jewish-Samaritan tension in verse 9. This woman doesn’t understand why Jesus would talk to her, and she calls him out on it: “Why would you ask me for a drink?” But in verse 10 Jesus answers telling her she’s asking the wrong question. You see, when she first engages Jesus, she knows that they’re different. But that leads her to ask a question that’s focused on her rather than a question that’s focused on him. She asks, “Why would you talk to me?” Not, “Who are you that you would talk to me?”

Like Jesus says, if she knew who he was, if she knew he was the “gift of God”, then she wouldn’t be asking for a reason for their conversation; she’s be asking for him to give her salvation—eternal life—living water. A good sign of whether you truly know Jesus is the questions you ask him.

Have you ever been on a first date that felt more like an interview? It’s hard to have a dialogue with someone you don’t know, and so you just get peppered with question after question after question. And hopefully, you ask some questions in return. Otherwise, that silence gets awkward real fast.

Asking a lot of questions can be good and healthy for any relationship. But only if the questions are helping you get to know and understand the other person. If you were to go on a first date and you got asked questions like, “Could you see yourself moving to California in a couple years?” “Are you comfortable with having a big family with a lot of kids?”

Well, that might be information they’re wanting to learn from you, but the center of those question isn’t you; it’s them. They want to see if you’ll fit into the life they want, not getting to know you and slowly exploring what a life could look like together.

You could be reading the Bible and coming to church, and asking a lot of questions—but what’s at the heart of you trying to get to know Jesus? Are you trying to figure out if he fits into the life you want, or are you trying to figure out if he’s the gift of God and the source of living water? Is your pursuit of him about him or you?

I know there are so many surrounding issues when it comes to believing in Jesus, and you might be concerned about what being a Christian means for this other part of your life or how you think about this issue or that issue—But if Jesus is who he said he is and did what he said he did, then he isn’t just your source for eternal life; he’s your source for understanding all of life.

So, why do you ask the questions you ask about Jesus?  If you’ve been a believer for a while, do you still find yourself asking questions about Jesus today, or maybe do you subconsciously assume you know everything you need to know? We never stop learning and growing closer to him.

But in the ways you’re learning and the kinds of questions you’re asking, how do those things show you where Jesus ranks in your life? After he tells the woman that if she truly knew who he was she’d be asking for his gift of living water, we don’t see her ask for it right away—she doesn’t know who he is yet.

But Jesus’ words have successfully moved her from asking about herself to now asking about him. In verse 12 she says, “Are you greater than our father Jacob?”. She asks a question about rank, and that makes sense. Jacob was kind of a big deal. The Samaritans didn’t accept a lot of what we have today as the Old Testament, but they agreed with the Jews on the first five books of the Bible. And Jacob was one of the Patriarchs in those books who God used to build and bless his chosen people.

This woman valued Jacob as one of the foundations for her faith and her heritage. And until she saw Jesus as greater than Jacob—honestly, as the true and better Jacob for everything he represented—until she saw that, the woman was still not going to be able to truly know Jesus.

Last weekend on the 4th, our family walked out to see the fireworks on the lakefront. And as soon as they started, you could see a bunch of phone backlights pop up as people were trying to record and take pictures. It’s actually really easy to miss the best parts of something so grand like a fireworks display because you’re trying to take a non-blurry photo of it.

But honestly, the best thing to see that night wasn’t even the fireworks; it was our 3 year old boy watching them. Ollie went absolutely crazy he was so excited. Macie and I had to record a little bit of it, but I remember when I put my phone down how I was thinking, “I just want to take it in and enjoy this moment.”

We can spend our lives focusing our enjoyment on lesser things that are just a shadow—like watching something amazing through the camera app on your phone—we can treat shadows like the main substance, but every one of those good things in our lives are able to be a window into seeing more of the beauty of the greatest thing in the universe: our God and maker.

What are the things in your life that are keeping you from knowing Jesus better because they occupy an ultimate place in your heart that should belong to him instead of them? Have you trusted Jesus, or are you trusting in something else? Continue looking with me at our passage in verses 13 and 14.

John 4:13–14 ESV

¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ 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.”

Why do I say these verses are about trust? Well, you gotta trust someone to drink what they’re giving you. The way you act in response to a person demonstrates whether or not you trust them.

My dad worked in the oil field my whole childhood, so his schedule was often two weeks on location and then two weeks back at home. I know those times when he was at work and away from our family were hard for him, so he really leaned into having a fun time with me when he was off the rig and home.

In a lot of ways, it felt like he was more my big brother at times with the pranks we’d play on each other involving electric dog collars and glue traps in hair—those things are probably not making it sound like a lot of fun, but I promise he’s a great, loving dad.

But when my dad would offer me something to drink growing up? I always checked it out first. They’re might be some wadded up paper in the straw or the lid wasn’t on right or salt or something else weird was in the drink. I trusted my dad with a lot of things, but I’d been fooled enough before with my food that, based off how I knew him, I knew not to trust him with that, and that affected my choices.

How is your knowledge of Jesus leading you to trust in Jesus? Because the measure of your trust isn’t seen simply in what you believe; it’s in the actions you take. Like Jesus says in verse 14: it’s drinking the water he’s given. Honestly, as the book of James talks about toward the end of the New Testament, the works of your life can be a confirmation or an indictment of whether or not you truly trust in Christ.

If you were to divide your life into multiple spheres, you might have something like your family life, your work life, your community life, and your personal or private life. As you think about each of those spheres, does it seem like some of them are easier to live out trusting in Jesus more than in others?

Maybe you find it easy to follow Jesus with the decisions you make with your family, but you don’t know how he should shape your career? Maybe you find yourself regularly pursuing Jesus in your life privately, but most people would be surprised to learn you actually love Jesus in your community?

When we find the actions that flow from our trust in Jesus to be uneven in our lives, that’s usually for one of a couple reasons: you either don’t know those parts about him or you’re keeping those parts of your life from him. You might not be trusting Jesus with your actions in the workplace much because you don’t really know how Jesus’ death and resurrection provides you with a foundation for purpose and worship-driven productivity in your particular field.

That’s not something you’ve ever learned about Jesus, so it’s hard to surrender that to him. That’s a discipleship issue, and it’s why we want to be a church that focuses on how our faith integrates with our work in a gospel-centered way and not just a moralistic way.

But it’s also possible that we’re just keeping those parts of our life from him. Especially in our culture here on the Northshore where so many of us grew up with some kind of Christian background—it’s easy for us to compartmentalize our faith—to think our faith is actually it’s own sphere: that we have our family life, our work life, our community life, our private life, and our religious life.

But if the offer of Jesus is eternal life—living water—then drinking of it and trusting him requires us to surrender all our life. Jesus isn’t another sphere we occasionally interact with; he’s the sun that shines on all of them and allows us to truly see and better experience them.

And that’s why the third question we see come out of this passage is, Are you satisfied in Jesus? In verse 12, the woman asked Jesus if he was greater than Jacob because Jacob gave them that well that’s provided for their people for generations. When Jesus responds in verses 13 and 14, he tells her that even a great well still leaves you to become thirsty again. Only in the living water that comes from Jesus will you be fully and forever satisfied. You’ll never be thirsty again.

There’s deep things and shallow things you can learn about anybody, and one my shallow things is that my favorite movie of all time is You’ve Got Mail. Many of you already know that. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it in another sermon before. It’s the perfect rom-com, and there’s just enough other seasons shown over the course of the film besides Christmas that you don’t have to think of it as a Christmas movie, so you can watch it any time of the year and enjoy a little Christmas as well without being judged for it.

I like watching rom-coms, but when I’m given a choice, I’m going to default to watching You’ve Got Mail every time—not because other rom-coms aren’t good, but because I’ve found the one that’s the best. I’m satisfied with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan; I don’t have to go searching for something else.

If you’re coming to Jesus trying to figure out if following him works, then you’ll measure who he is based off your assessment of how you think your life is going. But if you come to Jesus to enjoy Jesus—to worship him and know him and rest in who he is and what he’s done for you—then he will be a source of joy and peace in your life regardless of whatever circumstances you might be facing.

The battle to live a holy life as a Christian isn’t a question of our morals; it’s a question of our desires. Do we desire Jesus more than this other thing? Because when we’re satisfied in him, we’ll see his goodness make the good things in our life even more enjoyable, and we’ll see the temptations for the bad things in our life start to lose their grip on us.

Christians don’t fight sin simply by trying to avoid it; we fight our desire for sin with a greater desire for our Savior. That’s why we continue to get to know him and study him. That why we continue to look for all the ways in our lives where we can increasingly trust him and follow him. Because the invitation of the gospel is to come and be satisfied in him.

So, why don’t we? If Jesus is the greatest thing, why is it so easy for those of us who follow Jesus to so often replace him with lesser things? Why do we get thirsty for sin when we’ve tasted the living water? For one, we’ve been justified in Christ. That means we’ve been declared righteous.

But we don’t deserve that. Jesus deserves that. His righteousness has been given to those of us who have repented of our sin and believed in him, and the justice for our sin against God was placed on him. But we still struggle with our flesh, and we will until the day we’re glorified with Christ and united with him in eternal life.

But more specifically, I personally find three main reasons why I can abandon my satisfaction in Christ to pursue and even idolize lesser things. First, I can get bored with him. It’s like eating a snack late at night, not because you’re that hungry, but kinda just because it’s something to do.

If you find yourself sometimes bored with the gospel, or bored with the church, my encouragement is to dive back into who Jesus is and how what he has accomplished for you applies to every aspect of your life. It’s easy to get bored with our faith when we keep it shallow, but the gospel is as simple as it is complex.

Second, I might leave my satisfaction in Christ to pursue some kind of sin simply because I get selfish. I miss getting my own water rather than enjoying Jesus’ water. If that feels like you sometimes, then my encouragement to you would be to make it a habit to offer the water of Jesus to other people. When you’re regularly sharing your faith and talking about what Jesus can do for others, it makes it hard to make your faith all about you.

And third, I can struggle to stay satisfied in Christ because in the busyness and burdens of life, I can get forgetful. If that’s you, remind yourself of all the ways how the gospel is good news. And don’t just remind yourself of what Jesus did for you; remind yourself of why you needed him to.

And as we do that, we get to our final question Jesus draws out in this passage on knowing we have eternal life: Are you being changed by him? Yes, like verse 14 says, when you drink the water Jesus gives you, you will never be thirsty again. But the Christian life doesn’t make us stagnant when it makes us satisfied. No, he changes us. Look at the end of verse 14:

John 4:14 ESV

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

What Jesus does in us will rise to the surface of us. Look at that language describing our salvation like a spring of water. It can’t stay contained in one place. It’s on the move in our lives, and it’s going to be visible. And the longer you follow Jesus, the more you should see your life looking like Jesus.

Yes, the final result of our salvation is eternal life, but we will see the work of Jesus touch and shape our lives in increasing ways throughout the process. It’s what we call sanctification as we submit our lives to his lordship. But that’s not natural for us. Just look at how the woman responds in verse 15:

John 4:15 ESV

¹⁵ 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.”

She wants this incredible thing that Jesus is offering, but she doesn’t realize that what he’s offering is himself. He is our living water. And we don’t come to him just so we don’t have to be thirsty anymore. We don’t come to him just because he seems convincing and offers a better life like the woman is looking for. No, we come to Jesus for Jesus. And wanting him, knowing him, trusting him, being satisfied in him, and being changed by him is how we know we have eternal life.

Like I said, the woman is clearly not there yet in verse 15. She’s looking to Jesus for all the wrong reasons. But as we get more into their conversation next week, we’ll see how Jesus goes about uncovering those reasons and revealing himself to her. He does that by addressing her heart, and that’s what he can do for each of us this morning as well.

Let’s pray.