John 4:13–14

0:00 And as I was preparing for tonight, there was a certain song that I couldn't get out of my head. Now, I wish I could say that it was Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. I can't get no satisfaction, and you'll get that a little bit sooner than later, but it wasn't. See, the first time that I was in Louisville, Kentucky, the year was 1997. And I was here for the National Quartet Convention. Now, some of you are giggling because you know what I'm talking about.

0:33 Most of you don't know what a quartet is. So let me explain it to you. It's a room full of people there to usually see four men at four microphones just like this singing four-part harmony. And looking back on my childhood, it's super weird. Now, what's super, super weird about quartets is you got to know these songs, and they would stick like earworms. And as a teenager growing up, it wasn't that cool to have quartet songs in your head while all of your other friends were listening to DC Talk and the Newsboys and so forth.

1:14 But there was this one song that I remember getting to our text tonight that this band called The Gaithers sang. And Bill Gaither wrote a ton of songs and they had this song, There is a River. And I'm just going to, I'm not going to sing it for you. But as I was just reflecting on our passage this morning, this evening, the song just kept coming back. So there is a river and it flows from deep within.

1:45 There is a fountain and frees the soul from sin. So come to this water, there is a vast supply. There is a river that shall never run dry. Now, there was this thirsty woman, and she was drawing from a well. Oh, her life was ruined and wasted, and her soul was bound for hell. Oh, but then she met the master, and he told her about her sins. And he said, if you drink this water, you'll never, never thirst again.

2:16 Now, I did that about as undramatic compared to a quartet, Because I'm telling you, people will stand up, they'll start waving their arms around, and everybody knows just when the plot kind of climaxes. And again, it just stuck with me my entire life, that song, because of just the marvel of what was going on at the well with Jesus and the Samaritan woman. I'm going to read today 1 John 4, 13 and 14. That's our verses for tonight, and then I'm going to zoom out a little bit and read the passage around it.

2:50 So verses 13 and 14, John chapter 4, Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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. Now, what's going on in this passage? Well, Jesus is traveling from Bethany onward, and he's coming through Samaria, starting in verse 1 of chapter 4.

3:27 Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than 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 Sechar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, worried 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.

4:02 The Samaritan's woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews had no dealing with the 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. And 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. And again, our passage tonight, Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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. Water is necessary. The world spends an estimated $14 billion a year on water. 97.5% of the water on the earth is salt water. 2.5% of the water in the world is

5:09 fresh water, and we consume as humanity 10 billion tons of fresh water a day. And so this message that Jesus is giving to the woman hits home for every single human being throughout history. We need water. Before this amazing technology that we have here in Louisville and in North America, and honestly most places around the world in urban cities, rural areas, you need to drill for water and again most of us are reading this used to the modern luxuries and not understanding that many people around the world still to this day walk back and forth back and forth getting water out of a well instead of turning on a faucet they're lowering a basket down a hole scooping up water and bring it back up pouring into jars and lugging it back and forth sometimes miles at a time. In our passage today, Jesus is sitting by a well, and it's not just any well. It's a well that dates all the way back to Jacob, which is why he's referenced in John 4.

6:13 Jesus is traveling from Bethany. It's about 20 miles away from where we are. He probably made that much progress that day, and it's noon when this is happening. It's noon, and he's thirsty, And it's interesting, he sent all of his disciples away to go get food. He didn't need to send all the disciples away. I think reading this passage, Jesus was expecting this encounter with this woman, and he wanted absolute and utter quiet between him and the woman for this encounter.

6:44 Remember, the disciples were the ones who would want to shoo children away when they wanted to go sit on Jesus' knee. And Jesus is ready for this encounter with this Samaritan woman, and she arrives, and Jesus shocks her. He's thirsty. He's thirsty. Our kids learned this summer at VBS the song, Jesus is totally God, totally man. And here we see where Jesus is totally man. He traveled 20 miles. He's thirsty. It's noon. The sun is at its peak. And it's interesting because most people didn't go to wells at noon.

7:18 They went to wells at dusk when it wasn't so warm. And we have a woman coming at noon. why? Well, she wouldn't have been welcomed with the other women that would go and get water at the well. Why wasn't that? Well, a few verses later, we would find out that this woman was an adulteress who had been divorced multiple times, and here she is in her shame going to the well to draw water. And she meets Jesus, and Jesus says, hey, can you pull for me some water? And she's astonished. She's like, why are you even talking to me? She's a Samaritan. She's a woman. Jesus is a Jew. She recognizes him later as a rabbi. He would have been distinguished to her as a teacher.

8:13 She's the opposite of Nicodemus in John 3. See, in John 3, Nicodemus pursues Jesus. He's a Jewish man, a Jewish leader. This woman is the exact opposite, and she's not seeking Jesus. Jesus is seeking her. Not only is she a woman, she's a Samaritan. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom that had been conquered in 722 BC, and the Assyrians had let off most of the people of the northern kingdom as captives, but a few had remained, and then the nations piled into Samaria, and they had intermarried, and they had brought their gods, and they had mixed their religion with the false religions of their surrounding neighbors. And since then, the Jewish people, the pure Jewish people, had looked at the people of the northern kingdom, the Samarians, as outcasts, as dogs who had intermingled and intermarried and abandoned the God of Israel.

9:16 And so for Jesus to be talking to a Samaritan and a woman was astonishing. And he pushes this conversation with her, and he offers her, again, eternal life. Waters that bring eternal life. She was just going to pick up some water for her day. In the cover and shame of the noonday when no one else was going to be covering water, she was going to cover, she was going to go recover some water. And we see in this passage a couple different things.

9:52 We see a woman who has sought constantly for momentary satisfaction. And we see Jesus who offers an everlasting life that is truly, truly satisfying. Those are two points tonight I'm going to go through briefly. We've got a late evening. First, we see in the Samaritan woman an image of the world constantly striving, toiling day after day after day. Here she is struggling literally just to get water for her day. She's full of shame.

10:25 She knew her standing. She was a Samaritan. She was a woman. She was fetching water when no one else was. And she just, to me, just embodies the world, striving time after time after time, toiling, seeking for momentary satisfaction. Perhaps this resonates with you if you're in this room and you don't follow Christ. And you toil day after day, maybe not for water physically, but maybe you toil for success. If only I can achieve the next thing, then I'll be satisfied.

10:58 The promotion, the degree. Maybe it's relationships. If only I can be with this person, if only I can be with this group of friends, then I will be satisfied. Maybe it's entertainment. If only I can get to that Taylor Swift concert and pay $3,000 to do it, then I'll be satisfied. Some of you, it's sports. If only the Louisville Cardinals can win the Final Four, then we'll be satisfied. It's going to take a while. Throughout human history, humans have just pursued thing after thing after thing, Whether it's empire or fame or riches or glory or sexual satisfaction, humans toil for satisfaction.

11:48 And the flip side of that is when the world isn't satisfied and they stretch to get all of these things, there's a feeling of shame that comes with that. So the world has created its own religions time and time and time again, seeking to assuage the guilt and the shame that they feel for pursuing things that do not satisfy. Calum and I, three weeks ago, were in Egypt and we saw these old murals of the weighing of the heart. 3,000 years ago, the Egyptians had concocted this whole system in which Osiris would weigh the heart of a dead person and weigh up their deeds against a feather to see whether they would inherit life or not.

12:31 This isn't something new that we've concocted as humans, this religious idea that we need to earn favor for our wrong deeds and outweigh our bad deeds. It's been going on for thousands and thousands of years for all of humanity. Toil, toil, toil. This woman, Jesus recognizes in her her toiling and her shame. And he says, whoever drinks of the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. There's a phrase in the second part of verse 14.

13:01 The water that I will give him will become in him a spring welling up of eternal life. Whoa. I thought we were just talking about water. There's a few things to notice. And this, I think, is just the second point of this passage. That Jesus offers eternal life that is truly satisfying. First, Jesus offers a gift. See the play? He's like, hey, can you give me some water? Actually, I have a gift for you. I have eternal life. That's not what she was expecting going to the well.

13:35 In verse 10, he says to her, if you knew the gift of God and who was sitting in front of you. It's not just a drink of water. The water supernaturally becomes a spring of water. Notice that in verse 14. When I've thought about this passage, I've always thought, okay, it's the water that will never thirst again. but there's this spring of water that dwells within us, this water that never runs dry. Human dug wells usually run dry after 30 or 40 years.

14:07 Christian, if you've drunk of the water of eternal life through Jesus Christ, that spring will never run dry. There's no more toil, no more shame, no more chasing after the smallest, most temporary hits of satisfaction. all of those things are swept away. Jesus, the promised suffering servant that we have heard preached week in and week out in the mornings through Isaiah, he is here sitting in front of a Samaritan woman at a well and he's offering her eternal life.

14:43 And it's not just eternal life that doesn't cost him anything. He's the suffering servant himself who will die and pay the penalty for her sin if she would only put her trust and faith in him and his life and his death and his resurrection. And so, Christians today, I want to remind you that we have been recipients of this water of eternal life. It is a spring that is welling up with us to eternal life by the Holy Spirit.

15:23 If you're not a Christian today, and as I talked through those toils, whether it was success or entertainment or relationships or sports, and you can resonate with what I'm saying in that they're just never satisfying enough, talk with the person who brought you and ask them about the words of eternal life and where you can drink of this water of eternal life. Christians, I think there's two quick points of application here. Number one, I think there's just a great example in this text of evangelism.

15:57 Jesus met the woman where she was at. He met her at a well in noonday where she would try and scurry and get her water in shame. Look for those times in your friend's life where they're kind of at the end of themselves and they're feeling the shame of sin. and say, hey, are you kind of getting tired and sick after chasing after that? Let me tell you of someone who can take away all of your weariness and your burden. His name's Jesus. Look to Jesus here as your evangelistic example.

16:30 Be countercultural in that too. Jesus crossed cultural boundaries. Don't buy into the lie that you have to be culturally savvy in order to share the gospel. Break cultural boundaries. And do so with confidence. Remember that you have drank from the waters that lead to eternal life. So this is just the second quick point of application. Don't chase after what the world chases after. Sports, entertainment, doing well at our jobs, these are all good things.

17:06 But don't make them the thing. Don't search in them things that they cannot provide. Live a life of joy founded in Jesus Christ, nourished by his spirit. Point to the source of that joy. And then go and be entertained just for entertainment's sake. Friends, I just want to encourage you that we can do this with confidence. We'll close just looking at Isaiah chapter 55, verses 10 and 11. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

17:57 It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Tonight when you go home, read the rest of John chapter 4 and see the effects of Jesus' words, they did not return void. And he saw Samaritans that very day come to put their faith in him because of the words of life that he spoke to the Samaritan woman. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for your work in saving us.

18:31 We thank you for your pursuit of us. We thank you, God, for the gift of the Holy Spirit by which we can attain assurance of our salvation, Lord. And Lord, we pray for even those requests that we prayed tonight for different evangelistic conversations that we would be emboldened to offer just this free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ to our friends and our family and we would meet them where they're at. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.