DRINK UP!
INTRODUCTION: Normally this phrase is not associated with anything spiritual. But today, we will see that it's of ultra importance to drink up when it comes to the water Jesus offers.
1) Living water.
In John 4 we read about Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well. Jesus and his disciples were traveling from Judea to Galilee. The easiest way to do so was to go through Samaria. But the Jews didn't like Samaritans so they would go far out of their way just to avoid going through Samaria. But Jesus had a mission to accomplish; he wanted to purposely minister to the Samaritans.
And this would start with him having a one-on-one encounter with a woman-which was considered taboo for a Rabbi to do. But Jesus was all about tearing down walls-whatever stood in the way of the gospel he wanted to demolish.
After traveling for a while Jesus stops to rest and he sends the disciples into town to buy some food. While they were gone he has the encounter with the woman at the well.
John 4:7-14, "When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
She obviously didn't know who she was talking with. Jesus told her if you knew the gift of God you would have asked him for living water. Jesus isn't implying that she should have known, he's just stating the reality. Jesus is the gift of God because Jesus is the Messiah.
Rom. 6:23 says that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. Before we can receive living water we first have to believe that it comes through Jesus, the gift of God. We try to fill up on so many others things; things we think will satisfy but they won't. Our belief system is flawed; our tanks are broken.
Jer. 2:13, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." We forsake God and turn to do things our own way. We try to fill our lives up with what we think will bring us happiness and fulfillment. But these things, these belief systems, these relationships are broken; they cannot hold water.
The only thing that can satisfy is to fill up from the spring of living water. We need to be washed clean and only living water can do that. Only Jesus can bring us the gift of eternal life. If we know this then we can come and draw from that wellspring.
"Will never thirst". This woman would need to continuously go to the well to get more water, just like the priests needed to sacrifice for the people year after year. But Jesus offers living water, where you only need to go to the well once and after that you will never thirst again because his sacrifice is for all time.
Heb. 7:27, "Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." We don't need to become saved over and over. We don't need to be forgiven of our sins over and over. We may need to repent over and over again but our forgiveness was once because Jesus' sacrifice was once.
We have received the living water and we will never have to come to the well again. We will hopefully always be thirsty for Jesus and seek to be filled and overflowing with that living water but as long as we're sincere and we understand what we're doing and why, we only need to come to the waters of baptism once.
And the idea from then on is that as we find true fulfillment in the living water, we will not thirst for anything else because we've come to see that Jesus is the thirst-quencher. Everything else we go to in the world actually does the opposite, making things worse; like how drinking soda or alcohol actually dehydrates you. So we come to Jesus to receive the living water of salvation.
As the story continues, the woman got pretty excited when Jesus started talking about this special water. However, she didn't realize he wasn't talking about literal water. She asks him to give it to her so she didn't have to keep coming to the well. Then Jesus makes an interesting request-he tells her to go get her husband. She told him she wasn't married. Then Jesus reveals her history-that she's been married five times and that she wasn't married to the guy she was with now.
With that special insight she sees Jesus as a prophet. Then they get into a discussion about the proper place to worship God and she, either not liking or not understanding Jesus' response, ends the discussion by saying that when the Messiah shows up he will explain everything. Then he tells her that he is the Messiah.
This is when the disciples return. They are surprised to see Jesus speaking with a woman in public but none of them dared asked him about it. The woman, impressed by Jesus, runs to tell the townspeople about her encounter. They were intrigued so they made their way out to see this impressive fellow. Meanwhile, on the heels of having a discussion about spiritual water, Jesus has a conversation with his disciples about spiritual food.
2) Special food.
John 4:31-35, "Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest."
Jesus wants his disciples to look at his words from a spiritual perspective. When Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread Jesus told him that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus needed literal food to physically sustain him but his spiritual sustenance came from doing the Father's work.
Jesus wanted his disciples to see that the field of souls were ready for harvest. The will and work of the Lord was harvesting souls. That's why he went to Samaria. That's why he asked the woman for a literal drink; so that he could tell her about the spiritual drink. And that would lead to the rest of the townspeople hearing about it.
John 4:39-42, "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
The harvest was ripe and souls were reaped. The disciples needed to witness this. They needed to get over their prejudices against the Samaritans and focus on what was most important. Jesus said in Matt. 9 that the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few. The workers were the disciples and the last thing that Jesus wanted was for anything to get in the way of this work getting done.
We need to understand that too. There are a lot of thirsty souls out there. They're looking for living water but are settling for dead water. They're drinking stagnant, contaminated water. They need clean, fresh, living water but they don't know where to find it. We do. We know how satisfying living water is. We know it quenches; we know it nourishes.
We look out among the fields and we see all the thirsty people. We see their dryness; we hear their raspy voices. They are weak; deprived and depraved. Then they see us. They see how fresh and alive we look. They see we are invigorated and glowing. "You look so healthy. What's your secret?" "I have found the fountain of life. I have drank from the invaluable spring." "Where is this spring; where is this fountain? I need to go there; I'm dying of thirst." "Come, I will take you there."
There is much to do and we need our energy to do the Lord's work. What are we feeding on? What well are we drinking from? What hinders us from being more passionate for spiritual food? What kind of people do we avoid bringing the gospel to? We've come to the living water to receive salvation and we need to want everyone else to find living water.
3) Let it flow.
John 7:37-39, "On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."
The living water in chapter four represents salvation. Here in chapter seven Jesus is referring to the work of the Holy Spirit who fills us and overflows from us. If we have the living water of salvation, the living water of the Spirit will flow out of us as we continue doing God's will.
Streams of living water poured out from Jesus and it caused others to put their faith in him. If we have the living water in us it will pour out into the lives of others. Living water cannot be contained; it must be released. The idea of living water is flowing water-like a spring or a fountain.
We all know the problems that can arise from standing water. It becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other bacteria. But water that moves is fresh and pure. So it is with us. When our water is stagnant it becomes contaminated. The water of life is meant to flow out from us so that it can nourish the lives of those around us.
Jesus is the continual source of life and sustenance. When we're getting thirsty, when we're running low, we draw from the well so we can be replenished. The wellspring of life is a continual flow of blessing. It's like when Elijah blessed the widow with the continuous supply of oil to meet her needs. With Jesus we have a continual source of living water available to us. The well will never dry up; the spring will never cease to flow.
But we have to bring our jars and fill them up. If you're not getting filled it's because you're not going to the well. And trying to run on empty just doesn't work. We can prevent this by not allowing ourselves to get too low before we fill up again. Just like the warning light that indicates you're low on gas, we need to heed the warnings that we're getting low on our spiritual food and water.
When we start to become more irritable it's time to fill up. When we're feeling lazy or apathetic we need to fill up the tank. When we're starting to entertain temptation on an increasing basis-it's time to fill up. You can try to run on fumes if you want but you may find yourself on the side of the road, walking with the gas can, wishing you had stopped at the gas station a few miles back. But you told yourself you could make it; you were willing to take the chance. And now you've made your life more difficult.
We don't have to put ourselves in this position. Keep the tank filled so you can stay out of the danger zone. Maintain a consistent prayer life. Keep up on your bible study time. Make more frequent stops by filling up with spiritual music, books and movies. Make more frequent stops by filling up with phone calls and visits. Keep the tank full by maintaining your church and bible study attendance.
It's not good to run from one Sunday to the next without anything in between. When you start missing these things you feel the impact. We can't neglect the wellspring of life. "There was once a well here," he said. "Really? I never knew that." "Yup. Good water used to come from it; but it's been filled in for a long time." "What happened?" "Neglect. Trash got into it and then some surrounding soil. And since it didn't get cleaned out it just kept filling in until it got to where you see it now. you know, I wonder if there's still any water in the bottom?"
Those words caused me to considered how this old well might be like some of us. Have we let trash and dirt fill our wells? Could others look at us and wonder if there is still any water in our well? We need water to survive. It's understood that the average person can survive only five days without water. Once the body is deprived of fluids the cells and organs begin to deteriorate. It's not wise to go more than a few days without spiritual water either. We will start to deteriorate.
When we're thirsty it's the cool drink of water that satisfies. When we're spiritually thirsty it's the quenching water of the Spirit that saves us, fills us and refreshes us. Like a cool splash of water on your face in the morning helps wake you up, the living water is invigorating and revitalizing, causing us to shake off the drowsiness and become alert, ready to face the day.
Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." Nothing but living water can quench the soul. The invitation to the wellspring of life is there-we just have to drink up.
