Living Water

Jn 4:5-15

They reached the town at about noon. Walking all morning in the heat of summer was draining. They had no choice about when they reached the well. She did.

Have you ever wondered why the woman at the well was all by herself when Jesus and the disciples came into town? Understanding the setting of this story might help understand the significance of the story.

Usually early morning, or after the heat of the day, the women would head down to the well to get water for their family. It was social hour for them. Catching up on the latest gossip. Engagement announcements, jokes, children’s accomplishments. Everyone came at these times. Well, everyone that was socially acceptable. So for the woman Jesus met at the well in the middle of the heated day is a very strong indication she was not socially acceptable. Jesus, a Jew...haters of Samaritans...talked with a woman, a Samaritian woman, an outcast Samaritan woman. Imagine the shockwaves that went through the disciples when they saw him there with her. Imagine her shock that he would show her any kindness at all, let alone offer her water which would keep her from the daily humiliation of going to the well alone while all the townswomen sniggered behind her back.

Water that will satisfy your thirst forever. Water of everlasting life. Wouldn’t you like some?

PRAYER

I. Lessons from the well

A. You must recognize that you need it

1. Tomorrow, we go see the Dr. about Renee and doing growth hormones. Up until a few months ago, we didn’t even think about growth hormones for her let alone realize that we needed it. Now we realize she needs it if she is going to have any hope of attaining a normal height.

2. Up until Jesus told her about the water of life, this woman saw no need for it either.

3. She was satisfied with a water that could never quench her true thirst.

4. We, like this woman are satisfied with things that can never really fulfill us.

5. And just like her, we need to realize we need something more.

B. For it to be effective you must want it.

1. READ vs 9-15

2. God will always offer us the living water, but he won’t force it down us, we have to want it.

3. The other day I had the munchies. I opened the refrigerator and even though it was full, I couldn’t find anything I wanted. I went through the cupboard and couldn’t find anything I wanted. All that food there, and none of it was what I wanted.

4. To continue my munchie story, later that night I looked in the same cupboards and saw the popcorn that I hadn’t wanted earlier and it seemed really appealing then, so I popped me a bag of popcorn and enjoyed myself.

5. How many times have we had the water of life right in front of us, and pass it by because it wasn’t what we wanted? Then one day, it hits us, “this is exactly what I need.”

C. You also have to find it.

1. When you need something you have to find out where it is.

2. Where is this water? The Samaritan woman asked. Are you greater than Jacob who made this well?

3. Here was the answer to her problems.

a) No more coming to the well

b) No more being ostracized and laughed at.

c) She could enjoy the water that would ease all her problems away.

d) She just had to find it.

4. When we recognize the fact that we need water that will quench our thirst forever we need to seek it out.

5. Luckily, God makes the water of life much easier to get than the physical water people often search for.

D. Once we find it, we need to offer it to others.

1. The end of this story shows Jesus teaching the whole town who turned out to see this water of everlasting life.

2. He told the disciples the fields are white for harvest.

3. In other words, offer them the water of life.

II. What living Water does

A. Satisfies you

1. In college, I played soccer for our school. What was a killer was coming from Alaska and 60-70 degree weather to Tennessee and 80-90 degree weather. I was sweating out of parts of my body I didn’t think I could sweat from! The manager had big coolers of nice cold water and boy, it tasted so good after working out for a while.

2. Have you ever been that thirsty?

3. How about spiritually?

a) The minister of a large church told of a barren period in his ministry when he experienced no blessing. Though he was in great demand as a Bible conference speaker, he said he continually felt "dry and tense." Finally a sharp pain in his chest forced him to see a doctor. The physician diagnosed his problem as tension, and said, "I can prescribe pills that will bring some relief, but what you really need is to find inner peace." What at indictment upon a servant of God! The minister related that he was deeply convicted, and then added, "I knew I had to rediscover Jesus as the fountain of living water. Somehow my soul had lost Him in the multiplicity of my Christian activities."

4. There are times that most all of us hit that spiritual barren wasteland.

a) We’ve tried to hard to do it all ourselves.

b) We have pulled everything we have from ourselves to keep us going. There is nothing more we can do.

c) Usually it takes us getting down that far to begin looking up rather than looking in.

d) To find that inner peace we must go to the well of living water -- Jesus

B. Saves

1. In desert countries, water is more precious than gold.

2. The worst crime you can commit is to pollute a water source. It’s a death penalty offense.

3. Everyone depends on those water holes for survival.

4. In war they would poison water supplies to defeat their enemies.

5. Water is the life saver

6. We need to have that same attitude towards Jesus.

a) Depend on him for survival.

b) He is the only thing that can save us.

c) He is more precious to us than anything we could ever imagine.

C. Sanitizes

1. That’s a strange word to use for Jesus isn’t it?

a) Jesus the sanitizer?

b) Somehow that doesn’t have the ring to it that it should.

2. Yet that is what the living water does.

a) It not only satisfies our thirst.

b) It not only saves us from death.

c) It cleanses us.

3. The blood of Jesus washes away our sins.

4. Part of the symbolism of water has always been cleansing.

5. Maybe that is behind the rite of baptism.

a) Water cleansing us as Jesus blood cleanses us.

b) When my kitchen floor gets dirty, I don’t throw more dirt on it and move it around to clean the floor. I put water on it. Water cleans.

c) The living water cleans the sins from our hearts. Nothing compares to it.

III. Concl

A. We may come to Jesus because of others, but our faith need to b e our own at some point.

1. Your parents can’t save you, neither can your friend, your minister or anyone else.

2. You have to build a faith for yourself.

3. The townspeople realized the same thing in our text READ vs. 39-42

4. Are you ready to see Christ as your savior?