Who Is This Jesus?
4. He is the giver of living water
John 4:1-26, John 7:37-39
October 2/3, 2004
Don Jaques
MAIN IDEA: All people can come to Jesus and have him give them the living water of the Holy Spirit to nourish their souls.
INTRO:
I remember that growing up I was a very competitive young boy. When it came time to play at recess – I played HARD. Basketball, soccer, keep away, football – you name it. I held nothing back. And when I came back in from recess there was usually two things I wanted to do – one was get a paper towel and try to wipe the sweat off my face and forehead and neck. The other was to go to the drinking fountain and DRINK and DRINK and DRINK. I couldn’t get enough water before someone would say something really bright like, “Hey Donald save some for the fish!”
Have you ever been thirsty? Sure we all have our own story and can connect with that feeling of FINALLY getting some cool liquid down our throat.
Imagine for a second that whenever you felt thirsty all you had to do was to push a certain part on your arm, and water started flowing out of your index finger. You had a drinking fountain flowing from within you.
Sound strange? Sound impossible? Well – it’s similar to what Jesus tells a thirsty woman in John chapter 4. At first she didn’t quite know what he meant – but in time she came to understand. And today, some of you might be a bit confused by what Jesus has to say about something called “living water” – but by the end of this message you should have a much better grasp on not only what it is, but how to get it, and what difference it can make in your life.
Let’s turn to John 4.
Background: In John 3 Jesus meets with the Pharisee Nicodemus and tells him that he must be born again. In the last half of the chapter, we learn that the crowds who had been following John the Baptist are starting to leave him and follow after Jesus.
John 4:1-42
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The 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.)
10Jesus 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."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are 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?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
18Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
There is so much in this great story that we could talk about today. How Jesus crosses all sorts of social and racial barriers to reach this woman and her community. How Jesus is the model evangelist, breaking through all of her attempts to sidetrack the conversation.
But I want to zero in on one idea in this passage and then discover what the rest of the Word of God has to say in this area.
10Jesus 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."
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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."
Who is this Jesus? He is the giver of Living Water!
What is the Living Water?
The Holy Spirit – (John 7:37-39)
Now Jesus doesn’t explain it that way to the woman at the well in Samaria, but just a couple of chapters later in John 7:37-39 he uses the same figure of speech – only we find out exactly what he means…
BACKGROUND: Jesus is in Jerusalem, where throngs have come to celebrate the week long Feast of Tabernacles. According to the provision of the law, the feast was held for seven days, followed by an eighth day of spiritual observance, including an offering to God. The feast was established as a memorial to the wandering in the wilderness, where water and food were scarce. When the people emerged from the desert into the land of Canaan, they enjoyed regular rainfall and plentiful crops. The celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles included a daily procession of priests from the temple to the Pool of Siloam, from which they drew water that was poured out as a libation (or offering) at the altar. This was accompanied by the recital of Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
Now we pick up the story…
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.
So here is Jesus, the carpenter’s son from Galilee, standing up in the midst of this throng of people, waiting for the procession of the offering of water to the Lord – and he proclaims loudly “If you’re thirsty, come to ME and drink. If you come to me you’ll get your spiritual thirst taken care of. In fact you’ll get a spring of water coming up from within you!
And what did he mean by that? As John tells us, he meant the Holy Spirit, whom he was later to give to his disciples.
How do I get the Living Water?
Ask Jesus. (John 4:10)
Come to Jesus and believe in Him. (John 7:37-39)
ILLUS:
When Lawrence of Arabia was in Paris after WWI with some of his Arab friends, he showed them the sights of the city, but do you know what impressed them the most – it was the faucet in the hotel bathtub… They spent much of their time turning the faucets off & on… They were amazed that they could get all the water they wanted with just the turn of a knob…
As they were preparing to leave the hotel & return to the East, Lawrence found them in the bathroom with wrenches trying to disconnect the faucets… They thought if they took the faucets home with them, they would have all the water they wanted…
Lawrence had to explain to them that it wasn’t the faucets that provided the water, it was the massive reservoirs to which they were attached…
So it is with the living water of the Holy Spirit which Jesus promised. Unless we’re connected to HIM simply going through some sort of spiritual motions will not get us anywhere!
Repent from the sin of self-sufficiency. (Jer. 2:13)
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.
In ancient Palestine if you wanted to live there was one important thing you needed – WATER. Most of the places that ended up being inhabited by people were places that water was available. If you needed water there were 2 ways to get it – have a spring or a well in which you could get water – or somehow store large amounts of water that fell only occasionally in the arid conditions of the Holy Land. If you wanted to store the water you’d typically dig a cistern, which was a large bell-shaped hole dug out of rock in the ground, which would hold large amounts of water.
Here in Jeremiah we’ve got the prophet speaking for God when he says his people have sinned in that they have forsaken him, as a spring of living water, and have chosen instead to try and fend for themselves and collect what their spirits need in cisterns they have dug for themselves.
What are the cisterns we build in our lives to try and supply our own needs?
• Stuff.
• Large sums of money.
• Drive to succeed in a career.
• Having people think you’re “good”.
Here’s an example from my own life. As a pastor I have the choice to feed my thirsty soul from the living water of the Holy Spirit’s work in me or I can choose to dig my own cistern and fill it with the praise of people. If I start feeling a bit low, I’ll just go to that cistern and pull out the memory of some nice thing someone said to me, or a time when it seemed like I really did something right, or even a time when someone told me that something I did helped them.
The problem is, when I keep going to that cistern to find meaning and power to keep serving Him and living for Him – I find that cistern just doesn’t hold water like it should. And I end up still thirsty for answers and spiritual strength to keep living for Christ.
What I’ve got to learn, and what each of us needs to learn, is that Jesus has promised us a spring of living spiritual water to nourish our souls if we’ll just come to him.
Isaiah puts it so beautifully…
Is. 55:1-2 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
What will happen when I get the Living Water?
A stream of living water will flow from within you. John 7:38 (you’ll start making a difference in the lives of others, and refreshing them.)
Just like the woman at the well. She went and told everyone of her encounter with Jesus, and pretty soon the whole village was placing their faith in Him!
You won’t run out of it! You will have the power to quench your Spiritual thirst. John 4:14but 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."
You might feel spiritually thirsty – but that is just a reminder to go back to the source of living water!
You will need a fresh supply every day. It is a spring. Not a cistern. You don’t get enough nourishment for your spirit to take care of you for a month or even a week.
CONCLUSION: Are you thirsty?
On Thursday morning our prayer group prayed that God would bring people to church today who were spiritually thirsty. People who were spiritually in need. People whose spirits were dry and parched and in need of refreshing.
If this is you, I invite you, just as Jesus initiated the invitation 2000 years ago, to come to Jesus. Cry out to Him and allow him to give you the Living Water of the Holy Spirit to fill up those dry and thirsty places of your heart.
In prayer now I’m going to give us all a chance to repent of trying to find spiritual nourishment throught the broken cisterns we may have built. Then I’ll give you a chance to call on Jesus for the Living Water he promised.
