You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace.
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Thank you, yes.
Beautiful.
That beautiful song is about the beautiful story that we come to in John 4 today.
Mark so helpfully last week showed us the importance, the centrality of Jesus.
And we've encountered Jesus here in the Gospel of John as he engages with religious leaders like Nicodemus.
And today an encounter Jesus has with someone quite different.
With a Samaritan woman at the well.
Before we read the passage together, let me read you just a little bit of Ruby's story.
Name and details made up by me.
Ruby slipped out the back of class a couple minutes before the bell.
She was hoping to make it to the next class before everyone else and avoid the hateful stares the hallway seemed full of again today.
Just yesterday, the once well-liked senior became hated by what seemed like every girl in the school.
Every phone on campus pinged with evidence of her poor decisions with multiple boys.
Everyone knew.
No one was happy.
The hallway was silent.
Oh, perfect.
Until a door opened on the far end and Reggie hobbled out on crutches.
Also getting a head start on the class change.
He had to be the nicest guy at the school.
Even since he broke his leg in the last football game of the season.
I'll just slip quickly by him, Ruby thought, head down.
Hey, could you help me open this locker?
Oh, sure, she said.
Hey, thanks, said Reggie.
Hey, I know you've had a hard couple of days.
Can I help you with anything?
I don't think I need to get involved with another boy right now.
Everybody already hates me, Ruby said.
Oh, yeah, I get that.
But listen, you know there's someone who will love you no matter what, right?
You know about Jesus?
Yeah, I've heard, Ruby rolled her eyes.
I'm pretty sure he won't love me right now.
Pretty sure he's seen the pictures too.
He might surprise you, Reggie said.
Let me tell you the story of when Jesus met the woman at the well.
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 Sychar,
near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
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.
It's noon.
Jesus, don't you love his full humanity on display here?
He's weary in the heat of a long, dusty walk.
Seems likely that he's hoping for a drink from this well or a nap beside it.
And someone interrupts his rest.
We'll read the rest of the first half of our text where we see his encounter with this woman.
There came a woman of Samaria 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.
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.
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.
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 forever.
The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
And 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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
When he comes,
he will tell us all things.
Jesus said to her,
I who speak to you am he.
Jesus,
may we encounter you today
just like this woman did.
Might we really know you?
Holy Spirit,
would you show us
our Savior
so clearly,
so gloriously,
so needfully for us.
We ask it in his name.
Amen.
We'll read the rest of the story in a few minutes.
But first,
I want you to notice this remarkable interaction
between Jesus and this woman
as Jesus gives thirst quenching water.
The first remarkable thing about it
is that this conversation even happens.
It's really amazing.
To engage this woman,
Jesus crosses all sorts of boundaries.
He asks for her help,
and she knows
that he's breaking lots of rules.
Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
They were considered religious rejects,
not pure blood Jews.
They're social outcasts.
Some said at the time
that even their shadow,
touching your shadow,
would make a Jew unclean.
On top of that,
she is a woman,
minimized in this society,
looked down on by many men,
certainly not to be spoken to
by Jewish men in public.
We'll read later,
even his disciples are astonished
that Jesus is talking with her.
Religious, racial,
gender boundaries.
Plus, and maybe she thinks
he doesn't realize this,
but I'm morally outcast.
So even her fellow Samaritans
won't associate with her,
which likely explains
why she comes for an exhausting task
in the heat of the noonday sun
rather than early or late in the day
with all the other women.
Her relationship with men,
including one presently married
to someone else, it seems,
leave her isolated from friends.
She's alone.
Nonetheless,
across all those boundaries,
this holy teacher,
who by the way,
does know all about her,
wants to engage her in conversation.
Asks for her help,
even for her to touch water
that he will then drink.
It's safe to say that
the woman did not come to the well
looking for Jesus, did she?
In fact, for quite a while here,
she'll avoid his personal inquiries.
Maybe that's you today.
I don't know.
Maybe you're stuck here with family.
Better plans fell through,
if you're honest.
You're just clocking in,
not looking for Jesus.
She is there for one very clear reason,
to get water.
Not looking for Jesus, right?
But Jesus humbly engages her.
He takes her natural need,
this need for water,
and turns it to a spiritual conversation.
Isn't that amazing how he does that?
Does he do that in your life?
Where he meets you where you are,
experiencing something in your life,
and all of a sudden he starts to
starts to kind of work in here,
in your heart,
to show you something
maybe you weren't even aware of.
That's the goodness and grace of Jesus,
y'all, so on display in this interaction.
Listen, at every turn,
no matter what the situation,
he's more overflowing with blessing
than we are with need, isn't he?
He's more eager to hear
than we are to pray.
He's more quick to forgive
than we are to repent.
Amazing how wonderful Jesus is.
We get a taste of it here.
She's there for water,
and Jesus offers her water,
living water.
Later in John chapter seven,
Jesus identifies this living water
as his Holy Spirit.
But it's the same word
when he says living water,
that they also used for running water.
So this woman keeps right on
with her natural focus
on natural water to drink.
Even when Jesus takes it up a notch
and talks about living water
that becomes a spring of water
welling up inside you
to eternal life
so that you never thirst again.
Wow!
Right?
Just hear the words of that song
in your mind.
You'll never thirst again.
There's water that Jesus gives.
Amazing promise.
And even as she asks for this water,
she thinks of it as very natural,
doesn't she?
It's going to be so I won't have to walk
to this well again
in the heat of the day.
That's as deep as she will admit
her thirst at this point.
But Jesus is so good.
He won't stop there.
And maybe where she's stopping for now,
but he won't stop
at addressing our physical needs.
He knows that every one of us
is deeply thirsty.
Dying of thirst, if you will.
Deep inside, we're thirsty.
And with insight that this story
seems to ascribe to a prophetic gift
given to him through the Holy Spirit
inside him,
Jesus exposes where she's looking
to quench her deeper thirst.
Do you see that?
He's not attacking her.
He's not yelling at her.
He's not even changing the subject on her,
but he's not stopping short
of her deepest need either, is he?
Go get your husband and come back.
I don't have one.
True.
The man you're with is someone else's.
And this is not your first challenging,
eventually empty relationship
that has left you thirsty.
She's not the first or the last person
to look to romance or relationships
to quench her thirst, is she?
You know, one of the reasons that's so common
and so many of us experience that
is that relationships resonate deeply
with each of us
because we were made for them.
We were made to be in relationship,
especially we were made to be in relationship
with God himself.
That closest and most important relationship.
And Jesus is telling her,
the water of men will not quench your thirst for long.
She needs his living water.
She needs something more than what she is tasting currently.
Currently.
I ask you to consider this morning,
where is your thirst most evident?
You don't walk to wells very often to get water.
Let's think a little deeper than that.
Are you desperately chasing relationship and romance?
In a marriage?
Outside of your marriage?
If that boy would just show me attention?
If that girl would just like me?
Or it may be
that your ultimate thirst
is exposed in your endless workaholism.
Maybe in your desperate chase
for fulfilling experiences,
for that perfect fall break vacation,
not to meddle.
Your obsession with your kids' success.
I don't know.
Where is it that you're looking to quench your thirst
that you already realize has left you thirsty?
You've tasted it and you're thirsty again.
You've gone back.
Or maybe you know, if you're honest,
that in the blink of an eye,
beyond your control,
it could leave you there thirsty.
That thing that's quenching your thirst today
might not tomorrow.
Well, the woman,
perhaps intrigued by this spiritual conversation,
perhaps, as we're wont to do,
just asking the most common theological question of the day
when she sees this must be a Jewish prophet,
she asks about where people should worship.
See, among other religiously sketchy decisions
that the Samaritans had made,
they had built their own temple
in which to worship Yahweh.
So much angered the Jews
that about a hundred years before this conversation,
the Jews had come and destroyed
this Samaritan temple.
Only the temple in Jerusalem
for the true God, they said.
What do you say?
She asks prophet Jesus.
The hour is coming
when you won't worship here
in Samaria
or in Jerusalem,
specifically, Jesus says.
Yeah, the Samaritans were misguided on the temple,
but the hour is coming
even already kind of here
when true worshipers will worship
in spirit and truth.
This woman is striking out at this point.
Religious failure.
Moral failure.
Social failure.
Nothing to her credit.
Not worthy of knowing Yahweh,
the one true God.
And yet,
here he is
telling her
how to do exactly that.
How to do what she was made to do
to worship God
truly
in spirit
and truth.
And there is so much written
on what that means.
At the heart of it
is that the true focus of worship
is not a building.
It's not a particular place,
an outward style
or formality.
No,
true worship,
real relationship
with the living God
happens in all of life
and in gathered services
like this one
through the Holy Spirit
and the Son
who gives him.
Remember just a few weeks ago
when Jesus cleansed the temple
and then he offered
to rebuild it
in three days.
He was saying,
I am
the temple.
I am
the true way
to know
and to worship God.
True worship
comes to the Father
through Jesus the Son
by his indwelling spirit.
That's what's essential
in worship.
All else is secondary
to that.
Does your worship
on Sundays
help you encounter
and engage
with the real Jesus
full of grace
and truth
as the word of God
reveals him?
Does your worship
Monday through Saturday,
because it's not just
a Sunday thing
if it's the true God
you're worshiping
in relationship,
does your worship
Monday through Saturday
help you walk
with his spirit
moment by moment
aware of his presence
with you?
Aware that he has
a plan for your life
that you're to follow?
Aware that he has
a mission that he has
sent you on
for his glory?
That's what you were
made for,
friends,
living with him,
learning his heart,
seeking his glory,
and it all happens
in Jesus.
Especially it happens
through his death
on the cross.
Remember that's what
his hour
means in John's
gospel.
The hour is coming,
verse 23.
He's ushering in
new worship
that is focused
on Jesus Christ
and him crucified.
The one way to God.
God.
And as he talks
about it
and teaches us
that,
here he is,
here he is
with the most
unworthy people
in the world
to be participating
in this worship.
To be a part
of this
unbelievable relationship.
Here he is
inviting them
into worship,
giving his life
for them,
offering to give
them the living
water of the spirit.
That's a lot.
The woman says,
you know,
the Messiah
will come
and sort
all this out.
Although perhaps
she's wondering
now.
And Jesus says,
pleased to meet you.
That's me
and make no mistake
about it.
No more metaphor.
No more analogy
on the person
of Jesus
as the promised king,
the hope
of every thirsty soul
as simple
and clear
as he can possibly be.
Don't get confused
on how you worship right
or on what the water is
or what all this means.
Come to Jesus
and have him
sort it all out for you.
Whether you've trusted
Jesus before or not,
will you come
to Jesus today?
Will you believe today
that the one
who quenches
the thirst
you really feel
more deeply
than you know,
maybe that you haven't
stopped to feel lately?
The one who quenches
that thirst
is not your husband
or your wife.
It's not your friend
or your financial planner.
It's not any of those.
It is Jesus himself.
He offers you
living water
that will fill you up
even when everyone else
lets you down.
Even when everything else
leaves you empty.
He offers fullness
of life with him
that never ends.
And in fact,
it changes everything now
too.
That's the second piece
of the story.
If he's meeting you
and quenching your thirst,
if maybe even
for the first time
you're thinking,
man,
there is something more
that won't leave me
thirsty and empty.
then know that this
thirst quenching water
Jesus gives
is also overflowing water.
The woman is living this
in this passage
while the disciples
are learning this
from Jesus.
Let's pick up
at verse 27.
Just then,
while this amazing interaction
is going on
between Jesus
and this woman,
just then
his disciples came back.
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 town
and said to the people,
come see a man
who told me
all that I ever did.
Can this be the Christ?
They went out
of the town
and were coming
to him.
See,
they noticed
the boundaries
that Jesus has crossed,
and the woman
adds another
of her own
to those
that the disciples
can already see.
She's going
to the people
that she was avoiding
earlier in the same day
that she didn't want
to be around.
Water jar
left behind.
Isn't that interesting?
The cares of this world
cannot distract her
from the glory
of Jesus.
She needs to go
tell people about him
even though she's
still thirsty.
There is now life
welling up in her
and overflowing.
See,
Jesus gives water
so graciously
that when he quenches
our thirst,
there's always more
still pouring in.
It changes our lives.
It impacts the way
we live that day.
Look how this happens
with the disciples'
perspective.
They're about to be
confused about
natural food
just as the woman
was confused
about natural water.
Verse 31.
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.
So the disciples,
they're a little slow,
be patient with them,
they said to one another,
has anyone brought him
something to eat?
Oh, come on now.
Jesus said to them,
listen,
my food
is to do the will
of him who sent me
and to accomplish
his work.
Nobody slipped me
a sandwich.
No.
Once again,
Jesus is taking
a natural need
into a spiritual
conversation,
isn't he?
He wants the disciples
to know something
so important.
Listen, Jesus says,
there is nothing
as fulfilling
as living
with God,
as going
where he
sends you,
as pointing others
to him.
Jesus came
for the express purpose
of giving living
water
to thirsty people
and not even
the need for a lunch break
can stop him
from doing that.
That fills him up.
See,
when you receive
this living water,
your whole view
of life
is transformed
and alongside
knowing the one
who gives it yourself,
your highest
and most fulfilling
purpose in whatever
you're doing
changes.
It's not money
anymore
or fame
or pleasure.
It's actually
other people
knowing the one
who gives
the living water,
having their
ultimate thirst
quenched.
That's your new
deepest and highest
longing
and calling.
Listen to what
Jesus says.
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 sower
and reaper
may rejoice together.
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.
Look,
Jesus says,
now,
today,
because I am here,
people are coming
into the kingdom
from places
you'd least expect it,
disciples,
across all the boundaries
you might be thinking of.
And this is your calling,
your purpose,
your delight
as my followers
to reap the harvest
that I have sown.
The fields,
friends,
are ripe
for harvest.
harvest.
Is your mouth
eager
to share
the good news?
Is it quick
to be praying
with your neighbors?
Are you always
talking about Jesus
or
is your mouth,
and this is the image
that came to mind
for me,
is your mouth
full of bread
like the disciples?
That's what they're
thinking about,
isn't it?
You can't talk
well when it,
you're just stuffing
your own face.
Are you so
caught up
in the things
of this world
that you can't
be bothered
to see
the glory
of Jesus
yourself,
much less
to share
of it with others?
Or maybe,
maybe have you
left your
water jar,
your
previous
priorities,
the things
that you
so quickly
would have been
trying to gather
to yourself
and spend
your time
and your energy
on?
Have you
left your
water jar
to use
whatever relationship,
whatever occupation,
whatever interaction
Jesus gives you
to let living
water overflow
from you?
Jesus has
come.
Jesus has
died.
Jesus is
risen.
It is
harvest time,
friends.
harvest time
for people
to come
into his
kingdom.
He has
done the
work.
You get
to reap
and see
people come
in to know
him and to
taste living
water.
What a
privilege.
Look what
happens.
Maybe you
think,
he couldn't
use me to
do that.
Look what
happens when
an untrained,
immoral,
theological
novice
encounters
Jesus
and is
filled with
his spirit.
Not just
one Samaritan
converted,
but a
revival
of the
rejects.
Verse 39.
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.
They just
wanted to
be with
Jesus,
didn't they?
And many
more believed
because of
his word.
They said
to the
woman,
it's no
longer
because of
what you
said that
we believe
for we
have heard
ourselves
and we
know that
this is
indeed the
savior of
the world.
She points
people where?
To Jesus.
And she's
delighted
apparently for
him to be
the hero,
the focus,
the center
of attention.
After all,
he is the
savior of
the world,
a mark of
the Messiah,
the Christ
that she's
looking for,
that God's
salvation would
go not just
to the Jews
but really in
a fresh,
never before
experienced
way to
the ends
of the
earth.
Samaritans
en masse
embracing
a Jewish
Messiah.
What is
happening?
Not just
a savior
for those
who look
the part
or measure
up or have
figured out
where they're
supposed to
worship or
how they're
supposed to
relate to
God but
who come
to him
and find
him to
be the
savior of
the whole
world.
all because
a thirsty
woman
encountered
Jesus.
Wow.
Years after
encountering
the real
Jesus for
the first
time in a
high school
hallway,
Ruby lives
for Jesus
in all sorts
of places
including those
hallways.
she loves
getting to
talk with
high school
girls,
especially
those who
feel they've
blown it,
could never
know true
love.
She delights
to tell them
of Jesus'
love,
a love that
never fails
and is more
quick to
forgive than
we are to
repent.
But many of
the conversations
she's having
these days are
with people
in her office,
some whose
spouses have
let them
down,
others who
just feel a
longing for
something more
in life and
they'll talk to
her,
there's living
water that
really satisfies,
she tells
them,
found only in
one place.
Ruby even
gets to
volunteer weekly
at a crisis
pregnancy center
where her
favorite story
to share with
disappointed,
despondent,
even despairing
women is of
a woman like
them.
the woman
at the well
who met
a savior
who understood
her thirst,
knew her
story,
and gave
her life.
Often,
Ruby gets
to explain
that's her
story and
that the
fountain she's
been drinking
from has
never run dry
on her,
keeps overflowing
from her,
and will never
run dry for
them either.
No matter
what you've
done,
she loves
to tell
them,
Jesus really
is the
savior of
the world,
and that's
all that
matters.
There's life
the way you
were made
for in
relationship
with him.
for Jesus
to be the
savior of
the world.
He knew
that it
would take
another day
where he
would be
thirsty,
and where
no one
would offer
him anything
to drink
to quench
his thirst.
A day
when his
hour truly
would have
come,
and he
would hang
on a
cross
thirsty,
so that
we would
stand in
the presence
of the
holy and
living God,
joyful and
satisfied
forever.
And he
was absolutely
committed to
the point of
being fed
and filled
up by it.
he was
absolutely
committed to
accomplishing the
work that his
father had given
him, to
finishing that
task.
And so on a
night when he
was betrayed
by a close
friend,
Jesus took
bread,
and he broke
it, and he
gave it to his
disciples.
As I'm
ministering in
his name,
give this bread
to you.
He said,
take and eat.
This is my
body given
for you.
Do this in
remembrance of
me.
And in the
same way,
after supper,
he took the
cup and said,
this cup is a
new covenant in
my blood, shed
for many for the
forgiveness of
sins.
Drink from it,
all of you.
There's power in
the blood of
Jesus, and if you
know that, if you
are thirsty and
have found in
Jesus living
water, come and
drink and eat.
You may know
him, but you
may be tired and
thirsty and
needing to be
refilled.
Come, he is
here to give
you of his
spirit again
today.
This is not the
table of
Southwood or the
Presbyterian
church.
It's the Lord's
table.
It's the place
where if you
trust him, if
you've made that
public and become
a part of a
church that
preaches that
life is found in
Jesus, then you
come and he
promises to pour
his spirit into
you so that it
wells up to you
to eternal life
and overflows from
you.
You come and
drink of that
water this
morning.
If you don't
look at this
table and see
Jesus, see him
as the one you
long for and
find life in, he
warns you not yet
to come to this
table and take
these elements.
But he invites
you to drink of
the living water.
You've heard it in
his very words.
Water that if you
drink, you will
never thirst again.
He will cross any
boundaries to give
it to you.
You're not too far
away from him.
You are not too
far gone.
He invites you to
come no matter how
thirsty you are and
drink and never
thirst again.
let's pray and
we'll come to this
table together.
Jesus, what an
amazing gift that
you would come not
merely to a woman
in Samaria, but to
people like us who
don't deserve any
more to know you,
to walk with you,
to taste of your
love, and you would
make us worthy.
You would give us
life.
You would give us
water when we're
thirsty.
Might we know that
even as these common
elements of bread,
wine, juice, as we
consume them, would
you fill us?
Would you quench our
thirst and would you
remind us where to
turn for water that
lasts forever?
forever?
We ask it in your
name.
Amen.
For more
information, visit us
online at
southwood.org.
thanks for
you.
Wha...
It's
and
cheers.
Thank you.
散