
Good News for a Dry Throat
John 4:1-15
Jesus came on a mission to save undeserving sinful people. (4:1-6)
• To fulfill his mission, Jesus had to travel through Samaria. (4:1-4)
John 4:1-4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria.
• The Samaritans represent the people you despise. (4:5)
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
o Bitter animosity between the two races (they had no dealings) 4:9
o Sychar meaning - “drunken-town” or “lying-town”
o Degenerate people, Degenerate town, about to meet the outcast of the town
• Jesus experienced the same human limitations that we experience. (4:7)
6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
• Here Jesus sat, heat of the day – hot, tired, thirsty
• Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.
• Our current national situation is one of bitter hostility and division.
o Who are the people you hate, the ones with whom you have no dealings?
The deepest needs of our lives are freely met in Christ. (4:7-15)
• Jesus made a remarkable request to an unlikely person. (4:7-9)
7-9 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.) 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.)
• Noon – not the social hour
o A Samaritan, a woman, an outcast among Samaritan women
o A Jewish Rabbi would not speak publicly to any woman
• The woman’s reply tells us this is true.
o Astonishment that Jesus would ask her for a drink from her water pot
• Jesus made an incredible offer to a person who had nothing to give. (4:10-12)
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.”
• “Living water” she was thinking running water like a spring Observe:
o Christ asks a favor in order to confer a greater one.
o The well and the water suggest the thirst of the soul and the “water of life”.
• “Gift of God?”
o Not water, material prosperity, nor physical health, not even peace of soul.
o Christ himself - God’s “unspeakable gift,”
o “God gave his only begotten Son.” 2 Co 9:15 Jn 3:16
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?
o She was impressed by his manner and his words, but not understanding
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.”
o Even though she is still thinking only of literal water, something is starting to build.
o Question indicates her dawning awareness of the greatness of the stranger.
• Jesus offers the permanent satisfaction of our real need. (4:13-15)
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.”
• Jesus started out asking for water, and is now offering water
• Living water = satisfaction - he offered something that she had been missing
• Her own experience would confirm his words. Nothing earthly satisfies long.
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.”
• one thing seemed plain–if she could have this water she would thirst no more.
• People need to start somewhere
• Our lives should be an open book, read by the people around you
• What does your life suggest to the people that observe you?
• This Samaritan woman is at the stage of a favorable response – “yes, I’m ready to take the next step, please tell me more.”
“There comes a crisis, a moment when every human soul which enters the kingdom of God has to make its choice of that kingdom in preference to everything else that it holds and owns.” Catherine Booth.
• Dissatisfaction with the present in order to seek satisfaction in Christ
o Think of a great experience that was still not enough to satisfy
o Are you thirsty – seeking, grasping, striving – still not satisfied?
• Bible concludes - Last book, last chapter, last verses
Rev 22:16-17 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
• Are you thirsty for the water of life?
• Jesus offers a constant supply from His unfailing fountain
o Have you found this satisfaction?