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[0:00] John chapter 4, verses 1 through 42. And as you hear this, believe that this is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.

[0:14] And it's given for you, beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I'm done reading this sermon text for today, I'll say this is the Word of God. And you respond, thanks be to God.

[0:26] 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.

[0:43] And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there.

[0:56] So Jesus, wearied 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.

[1:09] 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 me for a drink, since I'm a Samaritan woman?

[1:24] For Jews have no dealings with 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.

[1:39] 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?

[1:53] He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and all his livestock. 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 thirst again.

[2:09] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. 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.

[2:22] Jesus said to her, go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you are right in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.

[2:40] What you have said is true. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

[2:51] Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know.

[3:03] We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

[3:14] For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ.

[3:27] When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Just then his disciples came back.

[3:37] They marveled that he was talking with a woman. But no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people, Come, see a man who told me all about what I ever did.

[3:52] Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.

[4:07] So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

[4:18] Do you not say there are yet four months, then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper might rejoice together.

[4:38] For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.

[4:51] Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

[5:06] And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.

[5:22] And this is the word of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Let's pray. Our gracious God, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your mouth.

[5:44] Please make us hungry now for your heavenly food, that you may nourish us again today, Lord, in the way of eternal life made possible through Jesus Christ, who is the bread of heaven.

[5:56] Amen. Cause us, Lord, to behold the heavenliness of Jesus Christ, who came to save his bride, the church. Amen.

[6:06] Well, when it comes to the big wedding day, the groom has one mission. You know what that is? It's to get his bride.

[6:17] That's what the groom has to get. And you'd be surprised how many men have messed up the very few requirements on the wedding day. You have to be there at the right time.

[6:31] You have to show up on the right day. And you have to marry the right bride. Well, the Bible says in Genesis 2, Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and hold fast or cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

[6:50] The picture of a wedding is really mysterious. But this is exactly what John the Baptist said Christ is coming to do. So wedding is really given as a sign.

[7:04] It's showing us that there will be a union. Through the flesh of Jesus Christ, God himself who took on flesh, he will be made one with his bride.

[7:14] We saw last time how, in the words of John the Baptizer, Jesus is the groom from heaven. And this heavenly groom, number one, cares about purity.

[7:26] Remember, he was baptizing where there were waters, and he was cleansing those who believed by the Spirit. He cares about purity. Number two, he has an identifiable groomsman. And John the Baptizer is one of those groomsmen who points to Christ, who bears witness and stands for him.

[7:41] Number three, the heavenly groom attracts his bride. They heard the sweet voice of the groom, and all the people were going to Christ. Number four, through the work of Christ, there is an exchanging of seals between the son as the groom and his church, the bride.

[8:01] Jesus sets his seal upon the believer. It's the Holy Spirit put in you the seal of God on your life. And then Jesus commands his believers to set your seal to this, that God is true.

[8:13] Well, today we will see now the mission of this heavenly groom. And he gets it perfectly right. He accomplishes his mission. He shows up on the right day at the right time.

[8:26] And he does get the right bride. However, if we're reading this correctly, we should be shocked at what this reveals to us about his bride. His bride, you could say, is the most unlikely bride in the history of humanity.

[8:42] So let's begin by looking at verses 1, 2, and 3 to set our context for today's wedding picture. Verses 1, 2, and 3, we read that this heavenly groom has a mission.

[8:59] The Pharisees see that he's getting too much attention, more than John the baptizer even, so he's becoming a big threat down in the southern tribes in Judea. And his mission requires now that he leave that area.

[9:12] And the Holy Spirit will guide him to the right place, the right time, to meet the one the Father had prepared for him. And we're going to see, look at verse 6, that this meeting will take place between Jesus and the representative bride at a place of significance.

[9:31] Look at verse 6. We're told that Jacob's well was there. And you'll remember the patriarchs, the promise that to Abraham, to your seed, will come salvation, not just for you, but for all the nations.

[9:44] So Abraham's got his eye on his physical seed, Isaac. Well, Isaac, he gets his bride through God bringing the right bride to the well. And then Jacob, how does he meet his bride for the first time?

[9:57] Jacob meets his wife, his bride, at the well also. So when we're told that Jesus has been traveling, he sits down by this well, we're building anticipation.

[10:08] We should know something good is coming. In the attachment to Jacob, okay, this is where brides meet their groom. Could it be that the promised seed of Abraham would meet his representative bride at this well?

[10:25] And if so, what type of bride could possibly deserve such a heavenly groom? The world knows this. The world knows that if you're Prince Ali, glory is he.

[10:39] He's going to come in on the parade and there better be a princess worthy of such a prince, right? That's what the world thinks. But Jesus shows, look, this heavenly prince, the king of glory himself, takes on flesh.

[10:53] Here's a portrait of his bride. So when we walk through two observations on this biblical portrait we have of the most unlikely bride.

[11:03] Number one, the bride was from a corrupted line. Her bloodline was corrupted. If his was heavenly and he's the promised seed from Abraham, promised seed all the way from Eve that Satan's been trying to destroy at every opportunity, hers could not be more twisted and broken and corrupted.

[11:23] Look at verse 7. This woman was from Samaria. Samaria. See, Samaria, that's the land of the ten northern tribes.

[11:35] And you remember how all of Israel, the twelve tribes, got taken into exile. But Israel, the first ten tribes, the northern tribes, they fell much sooner. They barely had a shot. When Joshua brought them into the land, they were already intermarrying and taking on the idols of the people that lived there.

[11:50] They never were devoted to the Lord. And so when the Lord banished them from the land, the Assyrians then took other people groups from other regions that they had conquered. And it was a brilliant military tactic.

[12:02] It was to intermingle them. They can't get organized. They can't have any sense of identity. And so they sent these other people groups, forced them to move and live in this region that's now called Samaria. So now, even after the exile from Assyria, when the people come back into the northern tribes, they are intermarrying and the idolatry never stopped.

[12:22] Not for one moment. And the people of the south had tried to help them even build their own temple further north because they didn't like the power struggle of having to travel all the way down to Jerusalem.

[12:32] They were so proud and hostile that they refused that help. Civil war broke out at different points between Samaritans and the rest of the nation of Israel, the Jews, especially in the south closer to Jerusalem.

[12:44] And Israelites would not even share a vessel. You would never sit down for a meal. You'd never break bread or use the same utensils or plate that a Samaritan has used.

[12:56] They were considered defiled, impure. And don't you dare intermingle because you'll be going down that slippery slope. That was the caution and the warning in 2 Chronicles 20, 13.

[13:08] They had enticed God's people and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom. Look at verse 9.

[13:20] This is so shocking that that's the reaction we get from the Samaritan woman. She said to Jesus, How is it that you, a Jew, ask me for a drink, a woman of Samaria?

[13:32] For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. So the portrait of the most unlikely bride is that her bloodline is corrupted. Number two, this bride was further corrupted by her own sin.

[13:45] So you picture the most defiled region in all of the promised land. That's Samaria, hands down. Easy decision there. And you picture the most corrupted person within Samaria.

[13:57] And it's this woman who shows up to the well. Look at verse 6. How do we know so much about her? Verse 6 says, What time of day was it? It was about the sixth hour.

[14:12] And the way of counting time is you start counting the first hour is the first hour after the sun comes up. So the sixth hour puts you right at high noon. It's the hottest time of day.

[14:22] And it was custom in that time to never go to get water to the well alone. So you read these accounts with Jacob, with Isaac. I mean, that's where you could easily have robbers and bullies, you know, take stuff.

[14:34] So you'd never send anyone alone to the well. You'd go as a group and much less a woman to go alone. And because it's so hot, it's a long trip carrying the heavy weight of the water. You would want to be going as a group in the cool of the day, beginning of the day or at the end of the day.

[14:50] And here, high noon, hot sun, so hot that Jesus is weary and his disciples are fatigued and hungry. And here comes a woman all alone. She's isolated.

[15:03] No one wants to be seen with her, associated with her. Now look at verse 15. When he first hints that he has something to offer, even a woman like her, look at verse 15.

[15:14] Her reaction is, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty. Or, look at the next few words, or have to come here to draw water.

[15:26] It would be enough of a reason to spare me the social shame, having to walk past everyone in the village. Everyone kind of skirts away, pretends like they don't see me, and then they gossip behind my back.

[15:38] I can't stand the social shame anymore. She was sick of it. Now Jesus, he does not lower the standard for holiness. He communicates the law of the holy God.

[15:52] Look at verse 18. He's saying, you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. He's not saying that to hurt her feelings.

[16:07] He can handle the truth, and he wants her to know that. I mean, your temptation, if you're feeling such social shame, is going to be to put some makeup on, try to present your prettiest version of yourself, to tell your story in such a way that he might be willing to be kind to you.

[16:24] And Jesus says, disclose it all. I know. And the guy you've got now, I mean, it sounds like a friend. You know, someone's got a really bad boyfriend or girlfriend, and their true friends are like, you need to stop this, you know.

[16:38] This guy's probably the biggest loser of them all. The man you have now is not your husband. And he just gets right to the heart. You know, I know. See, I think this is so significant, because this Samaritan fornicator, she represents unfaithful Israel.

[17:02] And Israel is a picture of the people of God. It's a picture of the church. And until you see yourself as that woman, you won't see the heavenliness of the groom.

[17:17] The unlikeliness of the bride, it reveals and confirms the heavenliness of the groom. This is otherworldly.

[17:31] What a gift we have with this story. See, Israel had been unfaithful to their God. Their God took them as slaves in Egypt. He purchased their freedom with mighty acts.

[17:44] He made a covenant with them. We read it every Lord's Day. I will be your God. You will be my people. Here's my law. Here's what pleases me. And he gives them the Ten Commandments.

[17:56] But in Jeremiah, a few generations later, Jeremiah 3, 1 through 3. Now remember, Jeremiah is preaching to Jerusalem now. It's gone horribly wrong in the northern tribes.

[18:07] It's now bad in Jerusalem. Jeremiah was the prophet at the time when Daniel was carried away to Babylon. So it's all going down in the south as well. And here's the word that the Holy Spirit gave Jeremiah.

[18:21] And it's a warning to Israel and Judea. If a man's wife goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? In other words, the bride turns her back on the husband who's loving her, and she wants to have an affair and cheat.

[18:37] You would never expect that husband to have grace and compassion. I mean, that would be unexpected. But now look what God says. He says that land would be greatly polluted if that's how families conducted themselves.

[18:51] You, Israel. You, Jerusalem. You have played the whore with many lovers. And would you now return to me, declares the Lord? See, the bride had corrupted herself even further.

[19:07] Her bloodline was corrupted. Her life was corrupted. And that's exactly the picture of Israel. Why do we have here this portrait of the most unlikely bride?

[19:20] Well, remember, Jesus got out of Judea because of the Pharisees. If they were getting so much attention, they were going to kill him right there. And he had to fulfill the law.

[19:31] He had to show us who he's coming to save. The church is not made up of self-righteous Pharisees. The true church is made up of people who view their soul, their standing before God, like the Samaritan woman.

[19:46] And really, if we keep reading Isaiah 65 1, this is exactly how Jesus fulfills this promise. So Isaiah 65 says, I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me.

[20:01] I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. Jesus finds his bride. He goes out and seeks her. And if you have encountered Christ in such a way, you know when he gave you a new heart.

[20:15] You know how he comes after you still today. When you turn to other idols and your heart starts wondering, he comes after his bride over and over again because he is the heavenly groom.

[20:29] And see, the church also is saved out of Adam's corrupt line. At our past Friday Bible study, we were looking in Romans chapter 5 and verse 18 through 21.

[20:40] We read how the trespass of Adam, the one man, the representative head. Everyone comes from the bloodline of Adam. His trespass led to condemnation for all men.

[20:53] And because we are all now under the curse of Adam, because of that one man's disobedience, all were made sinners. So the church is saved out of Adam's corrupted bloodline. Number two, every true Christian is brought under conviction of how their own sins have corrupted them even further, even more than the corruption that they inherited from Adam.

[21:15] Romans 5.20 says, the law came in to increase the trespasses. So we all are born under Adam's sin and we have the law of God, you know, our conscience, and in the scripture, it exposes our sin even further.

[21:29] It multiplies our trespasses before God. But here's the promise. As sin reigned in death, grace also can now reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

[21:48] And here's what Paul says in Romans 5, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. That's what this story tells us.

[22:01] If sin, if your view of sin is low, then your view of your need for grace is going to be in proportion to that. But where the law comes and your sin abounds, you're expanding your view of your own sin, you realize how much grace you need from the Lord.

[22:18] And the more grace you realize you need from the Lord, the more glory He gets in your salvation. The more unlikely the bride, the more glorious and heavenly is the groom.

[22:32] That's the promise we have in Christ. And that's why we can sing the song, Come, O sinner, come rejoice. Mercy fills this place of scorn.

[22:46] That well and that trip through the village at high noon was a trip of scorn for the woman. But Christ died to save His enemies, that all, all, all from Samaria, all those who have committed the worst sins in the most public way, that all may draw near to Christ and know His peace.

[23:11] So that's our portrait of the most unlikely bride. And I feel like I could just stop right now. But I also want to show you how in this same story, we have the groom's mission.

[23:23] I mean, this is the mission, but it's also a foreshadowing of His greater mission. Just like I believe this woman of Samaria is a representative of the church. What is the greater mission of Christ and how is it foreshadowed in this beautiful encounter?

[23:37] So I want to show you, I know you're supposed to only have three main points, but I got five because that's how many are in the passage. I couldn't cut it down. So five, five ways in which the mission of the groom is foreshadowed in the same passage.

[23:49] Let's read through it one more time with that lens now. Number one, Christ left His Father's throne to get His bride. Look at verse four.

[24:00] We read in verse four that Jesus underlined those, those words. He had. He had to pass through Samaria. The person of Jesus Christ in the flesh, filled with the Holy Spirit.

[24:16] He was under divine compulsion to go exactly where the Lord, His Father was sending Him to accomplish the will and the mission of the Lord. And that's where God would reveal to him a type or a picture of His bride.

[24:31] See, in Genesis 29, 10, Jacob, we're told Jacob left his father's land and traveled to meet his bride at a well. And now the greater Jacob, the greater Israel, the greater Son of God, left his father's heavenly kingdom and traveled to earth and to the promised land and to Samaria and to that well to meet his representative bride.

[24:58] Look at verse seven. A woman from Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. Women could not bear witness in a court.

[25:13] They were considered almost subhuman, and especially a woman with her reputation. And knowing that Jews would not share a meal or let the same utensil that one had used be used even after it had been washed, He wants to talk to her.

[25:27] He's seated. He wants to greet her and show her kindness. And He wants to drink and let that vessel touch His lips that she drinks from as well.

[25:38] Her uncleanness can't contaminate Him. And you can just picture His eyes and His smile. He came to reveal the kindness and the love of the Father.

[25:52] He would never treat her as a dirty reject. And the Samaritan woman, understandably, can't even believe what's going on. She says, How is this?

[26:04] But in her loneliness, when no one else would walk with her or even be seen with her, Jesus showed her love. Number two, our Lord Jesus Christ causes this unlikely bride to desire what only He can give her.

[26:22] He causes her to desire that thing. So she cannot know the truth of God unless the Messiah reveals it.

[26:33] And she knows that. Look at verse 10. Jesus says, If you knew the gift of God, in other words, you don't know and you can't know the gift of God unless God reveals this to you.

[26:45] But if you knew, and what is the gift that He's referring to? He is the gift. He who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink. If you knew who I am, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water.

[27:02] Okay, so living water is significant as well. The geography of Israel, according to what I've studied and learned, I would love for us to maybe go there someday all together in person.

[27:14] Wouldn't that be amazing? But it's really similar to Colorado. And so there are parts where you'll see, you know, trees growing up around the water, but there are other parts that are desert and it's arid. So you have like a cluster of trees and shade and nice air and abundance and springs and, you know, and then you go to other places and you're just in the wilderness.

[27:31] That's how Israel is. And so the fact that they're having to travel quite a ways to come to a well, to take the water, carry it back, this shows we're in a more arid place. Now, May has been to Israel three times and she said that in Jerusalem, old Jerusalem, they've excavated and discovered a well that is living water.

[27:56] And what that means is that deep down in old Jerusalem, King David, you know, when he took over this Jebusite fort, this fortified walled city, down below is a spring.

[28:08] So if it got surrounded on the outside in a siege, they would never run out of water. And they said she got to see it and down below it's gushing forth. So you come out of these desert areas but in Jerusalem from where the Messiah and the priest, from where that will rule, comes these gushing living waters.

[28:27] Remember, Jesus just traveled up from Judea and it's like he's bringing that imagery that's in his mind. Remember, on his way he was baptizing where there was an abundance of waters and the spirits working and Jesus wasn't even the one doing it, it was the disciples baptizing.

[28:43] Because the power of God is flowing through Jesus and he's calling people to repentance and that power of the Holy Spirit is working and that's the image of living waters. It's fulfilled in Jerusalem, you know, the picture of the throne of God where the office of priest and king is joined together in one person, the seed of David and now Jesus is bringing these living waters to the dry area in Samaria.

[29:08] You only have three options for water. One is a well and that's like pulling water up from the dirt but it's stagnant water, it's sitting there. The other is even worse. We have no hope of water, you're going to basically try to collect water.

[29:21] Anywhere that it rains, you're going to collect it onto a little pool but it gets stale quick. It's way worse quality than a well. So he's telling her, don't worry, it's not going to get worse, it's going to be living waters for you.

[29:35] Now you picture, you hear these words, it's moving, it's living, it's energizing, it's life-giving. That's the image of living waters springing up.

[29:47] I couldn't help but think of how the Word of God has those same descriptions. The Word of God is living, it's active and it brings life. It does not return void. It flows over the desert and new life springs up and there's a great abundance and harvest.

[30:03] Now look at verse 14. Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again. The water that I will give him will soon become in him spring of water welling up to eternal life.

[30:19] Do you remember when Jesus first used the phrase eternal life? And it translated from the Greek it really means you're going to have now the life that belongs to the age to come. It's the life of the age to come now put inside of you.

[30:33] That's how he's describing the work of the Holy Spirit. But remember Christ had to cause this unlikely bride to desire that which only he could give. He said if you only knew.

[30:45] She couldn't know. She was thirsty in her soul but she had been trying to fill that thirst of her soul with all kinds of different things with man after man and none of those men could satisfy.

[31:01] And that's the prayer we pray. You have loved ones that don't know the Lord you need to pray that God will give them a desire for the thing that only he can give which is the spirit inside of them.

[31:12] Cambridge Declaration on the Doctrines of Grace states what the Bible teaches this way. Human beings are born spiritually dead. That's the curse of Adam.

[31:23] And they are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace. It's Ephesians chapter 2. You are dead until the spirit breathes life in you.

[31:35] That's what Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again. You must be regenerated. And Christ had to make her realize that there was a deeper thirst in her soul. A thirst for God.

[31:46] And that's exactly what she has in mind. She responds by saying well should we worship on this mountain that you guys didn't help us build or should we go all the way to Jerusalem? She's bringing up their political their religious their cultural stuff.

[31:57] And Jesus knows okay her heart her heart is thirsty for God. Because worship is really about communion. And her own people have rejected her. And I'm going to promise her now that she can have communion.

[32:11] She can have acceptance with God himself. Through Christ her soul's true longing that he awakened in her would be satisfied. And if you remember the end of chapter 3 John the baptizer I think he's setting the stage for this encounter.

[32:28] And he said that Jesus will give the spirit without measure. It's like how do you even quantify how much water is available from a spring? It never stops. It never stops bubbling up.

[32:39] It's the spirit is the same way. It's without measure. It's in abundance. And God will well up in your soul a spring of living water of the life of the age to come once he has caused you to desire it which only he can do.

[32:55] And ask him for that. Number three Christ makes the impossible wedding come true. I don't know that this woman of Samaria would have ever dreamed that she could be part of the church of the Messiah.

[33:11] She could be the bride. She could belong to this kingdom. But if she was in middle school and had a crush I mean it would be like the most impossible wedding she could have dreamed of.

[33:22] look at verse 21 Jesus tells her you yes you Samaritan woman the most unlikely of them all you will worship the father.

[33:35] He's hinting and he's foreshadowing how because of his life and work for her look at verse 22 through him salvation it is from the Jews he will fulfill the law given to the Jews but it won't stop with the Jews it will be fulfilled in him the promised son of David the king of Judah who will unite all Israel all 12 tribes once again and he will call into that number all the Gentiles all the nations of the world like he promised to do to Abraham and all the way back with Eve.

[34:08] Verse 23 the hour is now here it's here it's not something you need to only long for you can experience this now it's here for you true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him verse 24 God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth all of the Samaritan woman all of her reactions up to this point have been maybe sarcastic you know pushing it off changing the subject she's tough she does not know about all this and what he just said here that God is spirit and true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth this is beyond comprehension I think she'll be speechless by this point and what he's about to tell her next is really the climax of this whole passage verse 25 she says the Messiah who is called

[35:09] Christ she knows he's the one the only one who could unveil these mysteries that you're talking about and who is the promised Messiah who is the Christ look at verse 26 here's the peak the whole peak of this discourse Jesus said I who speak to you am he in the Greek the order of these words is like this Jesus said I am who is speaking to you in verse 27 right then the disciples show up you see how it brings you to that climate and she's it's above comprehension it's the spirit working in a way in her soul and it's the hunger and the thirst of her soul there's no more words for it number four because of his sacrifice Jesus Christ the heavenly groom gets his bride see how it's the sacrifice of the groom that gets him his bride and how is that foreshadowed here well in this story it's at his weakest point according to his human nature in his weakness he is powerfully working spiritually so when

[36:20] Jesus Christ one person according to his divine nature is working powerfully he's regenerating he's causing her eyes to be open he's meeting the longing of her soul spiritually according to his divine nature he's saving this woman now according to his physical nature he's weak fully God fully human I want to show you how Christ's sacrificial weakness is foreshadowed here in his human nature look at verse 27 I am who speaks to you just then his disciples came back and they marveled that he was talking with a woman this is so unlikely but no one said anything so maybe they read the moment as well something powerful just happened spiritually Christ revealed who he is to her they don't say anything verse 6 we told way back in verse 6 we're told that Jesus wearied as he was from his journey was sitting beside the well and it was about the sixth hour so he's been traveling it's very hot he is thirsty the disciples are hungry and thirsty we never read here that she gave him water in fact it says she just left her jar and ran back to her village and the disciples says look at verse 8 they had gone into the city to buy food and now look at verse 31 the disciples were urging him urging him come on rabbi teacher eat look at verse 32 they said he said to them

[37:58] I have food to eat that you do not know about see how physically he's not getting water even though he's thirsty he's not taking food even though physically he's hungry when Christ was most weak physically he was working most mightily spiritually reminds me of the hymn see from his head his hands his feet sorrow and love flow mingled down did air such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown but Christ was satisfied spiritually he was fed in his soul he was filled he was strengthened enlivened pumped up he's the groom who's getting his bride and he looks up to

[39:08] Samaria and he says there's more that's what's feeding his soul verse 34 Jesus says my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish that work this is so important Christ did not die on the cross to hypothetically save anyone he came to accomplish the mission the father gave him look that's what it says right there verse 36 35 34 that's exactly what he's saying I came to accomplish the will of my father and this feeds me this is my food Christ was full from obeying his father's mission to save the least likely and there are more verse 35 I tell you lift up your eyes see that the fields are white for harvest and where is Christ looking and where is he pointing the eyes of his disciples to the

[40:12] Samaritans it's to these unclean people that's where the fields are ripe now see the Samaritans are being prepared by God to repent of sin to believe in Christ as the promised Savior to just like we're doing in Judea where you're baptizing many as God brought them that's what is my food is to see the kingdom of heaven coming through my work now look at verse 36 he's giving us a glimpse into the inner relationship between Father Son and Holy Spirit look at verse 36 already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life see Christ is looking forward to the age to come also this is a soul that will be united with him for eternity this unlikely Samaritan believer was Christ's reward for the age to come and Jesus says so now sower and reaper may rejoice together the

[41:16] Samaritan woman having her eyes open to behold that Jesus is the Messiah he is God come to save her this is the reward of Christ reaping what the Holy Spirit had sown and prepared this fills him this is his joy the joy of God the Father Son and Spirit is to see the lost coming to him through Christ and he says you get to be part of this too disciples and you get to be part of this church I send you to reap he says as the Father sent the Son so I send you you go out and reap that for which you did not labor that's why living on mission within Christ's kingdom it's a joy it's not labor he does all the heavy lifting it's his spirit who's working and we get to see him draw more and more to the banquet feast it's the spirit's labor through his people so here Christ has blessed this most unclean and undeserving sinner he shows us that the more grace that she received the more he is glorified the more unlikely is this bride the more heavenly we see the groom to be

[42:26] I can't skip over number five which is Christ is undeniable by those who thirst to see him remember he's the one who puts the desire for that water in you he puts the desire of your soul for Christ himself and when he gives you that desire he's undeniable we we can't persuade anyone to open their spiritual eyes but when God puts the desire for Christ in the soul regenerates they can't help but acknowledge him yes this is Christ my Lord and my God look at verse 29 when the Lord opened her eyes what did the Samaritan woman do she ran back to her village and she only says two words what are they come see that reminds you of John chapter 1 that's exactly what the disciples said come see we found him it's Christ it's the promised Messiah now look at verse 40 the Samaritans came to him and asked him to stay with them that's what the disciples did remember where are you staying can we be with you and he stayed there two days not only will he drink water from their well and share a vessel he'll live with them he'll dwell with these

[43:36] Samaritans he's not afraid of them polluting him verse 41 and many more believed because of his word not all many more verse 42 we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world see Christ only has one bride and it's all those who know they are undeserving who know they have been adulterous in heart but who have heard his joy evoking voice that's how John the Baptist described him I hear his voice and it brings me joy they get to be with the one when they see his heaven in this they see he's the one who makes the way for me to have communion with God when you long for him to increase more and more in your life take over more and more of your heart and that you decrease in his glory that's the true bride it's those who are satisfied by

[44:41] Christ alone and who are being cleansed by the Holy Spirit they've been regenerated in those living waters of the Holy Spirit that's the promise of sanctification they will not stop flowing they will abound until your final breath so we affirm with the Cambridge Declaration again on the doctrine of grace that God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary it is the sole efficient cause of salvation what that means is that if you believe in God it's by his grace alone you are the most unlikely the least deserving but it's all of his grace and it's his grace that saves you his grace poured out by his blood on the cross it is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit this is the Cambridge Declaration it's that supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin under Adam multiplied by our own sins and raising us up from spiritual death to spiritual life and it's our unlikeliness dear church beloved bride of our

[45:55] Lord Jesus Christ our unlikeliness that confirms his kindness and his heavenliness and his glory and he gives us the church in you and with us corporately his Holy Spirit which will be like a spring of living water welling up to eternal life in you and in healthy churches it should never become stagnant the Holy Spirit working our life should overflow it should abound and that's what it looks like when we become involved with what God's doing in other parts of the world as well so we can pray like the hymn let every kindred every tribe on this terrestrial ball to him all majesty ascribe and crown him Lord of all you need to know how this was fulfilled historically Jesus said in Acts 1 8 you now wait for the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit is poured out on you disciples you go now and the power of the

[46:58] Spirit the living waters will go with you and you go remember the pattern you go to Jerusalem that's where the well is going to the Spirit will pour out you spill over into Judea all the southern tribes you don't skip Samaria you go to Samaria and I'm preparing them they'll be part of the great harvest and then from Samaria you go to the ends of the world and as Jesus said that he ascended to his father's side now how this played out is Acts 8 1 as Stephen is martyred the blood of the martyrs the seat of the church and Philip once again Philip from the beginning of John he goes to Samaria and proclaims the gospel and the Lord regenerates and then Peter and John go up and pray for the church that the Holy Spirit will fill that church and the church is living in Samaria and that same promise is for us let's pray and thank our Lord from Ephesians 5 oh God put your love in our hearts cause us to marvel at how much

[48:04]  Christ loves his church that he gave himself up for us that you might now sanctify us and cleanse us by the washing of water with the word so that you might present the church to yourself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that we like this unlikely bride of our heavenly groom will be holy and without blemish we ask for your glory amen holy and fucking uh Mensch god God all oh