Well, good morning everyone. Grab your Bibles, John chapter 4. Also there's St Paul's app.
You'll see an outline for today's message and the title, Drink Deeply.
Okay, 1977. Some of us weren't born in those days, but a lot of us were.
NASA launched two space probes, Voyager 1 and the other one called Voyager 2.
And it was the purpose of the space probes was to study the outer planets and the interstellar space beyond the sun.
Both space probes are still circulating up there in the Netherlands somewhere.
Apparently Voyager 1 at the moment is approximately 24 billion kilometres from the Earth right now.
24 billion kilometres, give or take a few million, I think, in there somewhere.
But NASA knows where they are.
Now, interesting, both space probes carried a gold-plated audiovisual disk
in the event that either space probe was found by intelligent life forms out there.
And so the disk carried photos of Earth, photos of life forms of Earth, a range of scientific information,
spoken greetings from a whole heap of languages, a personal greeting from the United States President,
Jimmy Carter, also the United Nations General Secretary,
a bunch of sounds from the Earth that included sounds of whales, a baby crying,
waves breaking on a shore, things like that, things that would want to keep you away from the place, really, probably.
Music.
A collection of music from various cultures was also included and played,
and still apparently being boomed out there into the universe somewhere.
And the music was interesting, what they included.
30 years after the launch of the space probes,
one of the members of the project team reflected on the choice of music and said this,
I thought of Beethoven's Cavatina from the string quartet,
this great, beautiful, sad piece of music of which Beethoven had written in the margin
the word sensucht, which is German for longing.
Part of what we wanted to capture in this Voyager project
was the great longing that humans experience.
Longing.
It's a word that captures the restlessness of the human heart.
Even in our society, as formal religion recedes,
thirst for spirituality grows.
In fact, there is more spiritual longing in society now
than there has been in the previous three decades.
This spiritual longing that is there,
restless in the human heart,
is a thirst for purpose,
of satisfaction, of contentment, fulfillment.
So if you've just joined us for the first time right now,
or just tuning in after a little bit of a break,
we are working our way through the early chapters of John's Gospel
and discovering the abundant life that Jesus Christ offers.
Last week, we're in John chapter 3,
as Jesus engages with a bloke called Nicodemus.
Now, Nicodemus was one of the up-and-coming in society.
Today, in John 4, a Samaritan woman,
one of the down and the out in society.
And as the beginning of the chapter sees,
Jesus is tired, he's hot, he's dusty from his journey,
and he confronts this woman at a well and says,
give me a drink, and he never gets it.
Instead, he offers her life-giving water.
He offers deep satisfaction in life,
living water for the thirsty, for the longing soul,
for Nicodemus, and for the Samaritan woman,
for you and for me, for all people.
And to get the living water,
there are four things we need to understand,
and that's the outline in your Sir Paul's app this morning.
Four things.
Firstly, we need to understand the living water
that he offers is a surprise.
Verse 9, the woman is surprised that Jesus is talking to her.
And in verse 27, the disciples are surprised
that he's talking with her.
The surprise here is that Jesus reaches
across social, cultural, religious barriers
to engage with this woman.
That's the surprise.
The Samaritans and Jews were complete enemies.
And at this time, the Jews regarded Samaritans
as racial, inferior, and religious heretics.
They had no association at all.
So at the beginning of the text,
we see that Jesus says he has to go via this way.
He didn't have to go that way.
He chose to go this way.
He chose to be in Samaria.
Jews in his day completely went around that area.
Also, there's a gender issue here.
Women had very low status across all the cultures
of the first century.
And so, and again, verse 28, the disciples were surprised
he's talking with a woman in public.
But the big issue is not that she's just a Samaritan
and that she's a woman,
but that she's a particular Samaritan woman.
Every commentator mentions that what is weird here
is that she is drawing water alone,
which was a social activity
for women in the first century.
This woman is a social outcast.
In verse 6, we are told Jesus,
we are told Jesus arrives at the well at noon.
The women gathered water at the beginning of the day
and the end of the day.
She is deliberately going to the well
in the middle of the day
to avoid all contact,
even with her own people.
She's an outcast.
Not an introvert.
She's an outcast.
And Jesus reaches across every barrier
that would be put up against them.
The moral, the religious, the gender,
the racial barriers,
they mean nothing to him.
This is typical of Jesus.
Why does he keep doing it?
Because the living water that he offers
is not based on merit.
It's based on grace.
Doesn't matter who you are,
what you've done,
what your cultural roots are,
what your worldview is,
anyone at any time can meet him.
That's the first thing.
The second thing we need to understand
is that this living water that he offers
is an offer of ultimate satisfaction.
Living water comes to us by grace
and what we receive
is ultimate satisfaction.
Now, Central Australia,
for those who have ever wandered out there,
would discover that it's a very arid environment,
which is why most of the population in this country,
the vast majority,
live on the coastal fringe,
because at least we get access to water.
Very few people in Australia
have ever experienced desperate thirst.
Desperate thirst.
Life-threatening thirst.
We walk around with these things everywhere.
We, you know,
I go to the tap and I can fill it up.
It flows.
The image of living water
is much more vivid for this woman at the well
and others in our world
than it is for most of us.
But it's an important image.
The human body is about 66% water.
Muscles are 97% water.
Blood is 83% water.
Our lungs are 90% water,
which, you know, drowning.
What's, I don't know what,
I don't understand that.
It's just adding a little bit more.
I mean,
and brains are 95% water,
which is quite self-explanatory, really.
Survival guides speak about the rule of three.
We can survive three minutes without oxygen,
three days without water,
three weeks without food,
and tragically,
probably only three hours without technology.
We have a more immediate need for water
than we do for food.
We die of dehydration before starvation.
Because we are mostly water,
to die from dehydration
means that every part of our body
cries out in searing pain.
torment
every part of the body
until death mercifully comes to us.
And Jesus says to this woman at the well,
I have something that your soul needs
more than your body needs water.
Going to any other source
to quench what your soul needs
will only cause
the thirst to go deeper,
to endure longer.
So verse 13 is his promise.
Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks the water that I give them
will never thirst.
Indeed,
the water that I give them
will become in them
a spring of water
welling up to eternal life.
Jesus here is promising
a purpose,
a love,
a peace,
a hope,
a beauty
that permanently wells up
from within.
You see,
in Jesus we get
a spiritual love
and a peace
and acceptance,
a beauty
that won't get lost,
plugged up,
dry out
when things in life
don't go the way
that we want them to.
Friends,
what Jesus is offering here,
and I think this is crucial
if you're someone
who calls yourself a Christian,
what Jesus is offering here
is so much more
than the forgiveness of sins.
It's not less than
the forgiveness of sins,
but it's so much more
than the forgiveness of sins.
So the third thing
to understand
is for most people
it takes several steps
before we experience
and receive living water.
You might have noticed
as Nick was reading out
this is a long interaction
between Jesus
and this woman.
Bit by bit
Jesus moves her
from spiritual indifference
into spiritual life
and vitality.
She turns up at the well
not looking,
not looking for it,
though eventually
telling everyone about it.
I think most Christians
will testify to a similar
work of God
in their lives.
This woman is alone
at the well
because of the mistakes
and the failures
of her life.
And it is moments
like these
that most people
become open
to the bigger questions
of life.
They start to feel
alone themselves
for a variety of reasons,
feel alone
and open to the questions,
open to a bit of soul searching
and questioning.
And Jesus then starts
to push her intellectually.
Christianity is far more
than simple intellectual questions
about the meaning of life,
but it's not less than that.
You don't have a real encounter
with Jesus
unless you engage your brain,
all 95% water of it.
But in verse 15,
it's as far as she can get.
The woman said to him,
sir, give me this water
so I won't get thirsty
and have to keep coming here
to draw water.
Jesus is talking about
living water
and she wants running water.
She doesn't want to keep
coming to the well.
Jesus is talking about
spiritual thirst,
but she is still,
on the real issue here,
is her physical thirst.
She wants to be
the first person in Samaria
with taps in the bungalow.
She's with Jesus
up to this point,
but still she can't see
her deep, deep spiritual thirst.
And that's when Jesus,
who appears to change the subject,
but doesn't,
go get your husband.
He's helping her to see
you are deeply,
deeply,
spiritually dehydrated.
Verse 17,
Jesus said,
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.
She is deeply thirsty
for acceptance,
for significance,
for security,
for love.
She is deeply,
spiritually thirsty,
but she is drinking
from the well
of relationships
and approval,
security and sex,
and it will never satisfy.
It's like dying
from thirst
and deciding
to drink diesel
to satisfy it.
It never will.
this woman,
like every single human being,
is a person of faith.
The question is,
what is the direction
of your faith?
What are you trusting in
for your security,
for your acceptance,
for your love,
for your hope,
for your beauty,
for your satisfaction,
for your purpose?
You see,
becoming a Christian
is simply transferring
from one thing,
even a good thing
that God has given us,
to the ultimate one.
That's what it is.
It's a transfer of faith.
In the Samaritan woman's case,
it is a transfer from men,
but it could be
a multitude of things for us.
Sex,
career,
appearance,
acceptance by friends,
social networks,
political causes,
romance,
money,
wealth,
control,
comfort,
happy children.
We will never drink deep
from the living water
Jesus offers
until we see
that where we are drinking
from now
has an inability
to truly satisfy.
Jesus is convicting
this woman here.
He's not condemning her.
He's pointing out
the false masters
and the pretend saviors
that will never satisfy.
So I've got to ask you,
friends,
just briefly,
has Jesus been trying
to get you alone
over maybe the last year,
two years,
however long,
even the last number of weeks,
to get you alone
to have a similar conversation
with you?
That the deep dissatisfaction
you have in life,
the miserable experience
you have waking up
day by day
is because you're trusting
in pseudo-saviors.
You're looking to the happiness
of your children
or your career
or bank balance,
whatever it might be,
to find that deep satisfaction
in life,
to get you happy in life.
Maybe Jesus is saying to you,
go and get your children,
go and get your marriage,
go and get your career,
your family,
go and get your bank balance,
your culture,
your morality,
your religion,
your privacy,
go and get them
and bring them back here
and put them beside me.
In its simplest form,
Jesus is saying to this woman
to transfer her faith
from relationships
with multiple men
to relationship with him alone.
He's the only one
that can truly satisfy.
How does he do that?
Well, last point
on your outline there.
Jesus was scorched
that we might receive
living water.
In one final attempt
to get Jesus off her case,
she says to him
in verse 19,
which is an apparent
distraction on her behalf
to stop talking about
her personal life,
she says,
Sir,
I can see that you're a prophet.
Our ancestors worshipped
on the mountain,
but you Jews claim
that the place
where we must worship
is in Jerusalem.
She wants to divert Jesus
to talk about
a great present
theological issue.
Let's talk about
those who have never
heard Jesus
or something like that.
Let's just distract it
from me
and talk about an issue,
an abstract issue.
Where should we worship?
Who has the truth?
Where do we go
to get God?
Do the Jews
have it right?
Do the Samaritans
have it right?
And this is Jesus' reply.
Woman,
believe me,
a time is coming
when you will worship
the Father
neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem.
A time is coming
and has now come
when the true worshippers
will worship the Father
in the Spirit
and in truth.
Jesus says to her
in response,
it's not that temple
and it's not that temple.
But notice
he doesn't say
you don't need a temple.
He says a time,
literally the word means
the hour
is coming
and has now come
when the true worshippers
will worship the Father
in the Spirit
and in truth.
Now John told us
last week
that every time
the word hour
is used
in John's Gospel
it is referring
to Jesus' death
on the cross.
Jesus is saying
to this woman
that you still need
a temple
and you will still
need a sacrifice
for sin
so that the living water
can come to everyone
but that he himself
will be that temple.
His hour will come
and I will be that temple
and I will be
that sacrifice.
I will be
both the gathering point
and the means
of reconciliation
with God.
At the beginning
of this passage
Jesus walks up
to this woman
at the well
and says I'm thirsty
give me a drink.
He doesn't get it.
I mean how rude
he doesn't get it.
In Mark's Gospel
Jesus describes
his mission
for all of humanity
as drinking
from the cup
drinking from the cup
of God's judgment
for our rejection
of God.
He's talking about
his death
by crucifixion.
He must die
that we might live.
He must drink
of that cup
so that we might
be satisfied.
And on the way
to the place
of crucifixion
some well-meaning people
offered Jesus
a drink
a mixture
of wine
and myrrh
and he didn't
drink from it.
Why?
A mixture
of wine
and myrrh
is a sedative.
It's to dull
the pain
and he says
I must experience
it
in all
its fullness.
this pain
will not be
diverted
from me.
And there's
one other place
in John's Gospel
where Jesus
says
I am thirsty.
It's in
John 19
verse 28
when his hour
finally arrived
he's on the cross
and he cries out
I am
thirsty.
the guards
give him
a bitter
drink
of wine
vinegar.
Why?
It was
designed
in Roman
crucifixion
to prolong
your life
so that you
might suffer
more.
Jesus
was meaning
something
much deeper
when he cries
out I thirst.
thirst.
This is the
big thirst
the real thirst
the deep thirst.
Interesting
on the cross
they put it
to his lips
and when he
tasted it
he died.
Declaring
to all
the Roman
world
to everyone
this is
my death
to die.
You're not
in control
of this
process.
The hot
sun
that dehydrates
us
is nothing
compared to
the white
hot wrath
of God
that came
onto Jesus
as he died
as a substitute
for humanity
seeking satisfaction
and meaning
and purpose
in life
in everything
and everywhere
but the God
who made them.
On the cross
Jesus quotes
from Psalm 22
my God
why have you
forsaken me?
Psalm 22
was on his
mind
as he
suffered
for our
sake
on the cross
and later
in Psalm
a little bit
later in Psalm
22
we read this
I am poured
out like water
my heart
has turned
to wax
it has
melted
within me
my mouth
is dried
up like a
pot shirt
and my tongue
sticks to the
roof of my
mouth
you lay me
in the dust
of death.
both physically
and spiritually
Jesus suffered
deep
spiritual thirst
he died
of thirst
so that we
can have
living water
deep
satisfaction
of living
he died
in torment
so that we
can have
the cool
water
of favour
of God
and so
Jesus
is the
gathering
point
for all
people
to find
God
and experience
ultimate
satisfaction
in life
doesn't
matter
your culture
your merits
your sin
your record
your race
and gender
Jesus
offers you
life
and life
forever
and that
is the
hope of
every
Christian
because I
mean
I don't know
if you read
it recently
but the same
John who
wrote this
gospel
wrote
Revelation
and at
the very
end of the
Bible
he gives
us a picture
of what
heaven is
going to
be like
and he
says this
in Revelation
21
to the
thirsty
I will
give water
without
cost
from the
spring
of the
water
of life
chapter 22
describes
heaven
as the
place
where
a river
of the
water
of life
as
clear as
crystal
flowing
from the
throne
of God
and the
Lamb
down the
middle
of the
great
street
of the
city
on each
side
of the
tree
of life
bearing
twelve
crops
of fruit
yielding
its
fruit
every
month
and the
leaves
of the
trees
of the
healing
of the
nations
the
water
of life
that
brings
satisfaction
every
moment
place
of abundance
that's
the hope
that's
the hope
of the
Christian
and so
friends
what does
it look
like
to receive
this
living
water
this
Samaritan
woman
shows us
what it
looks
like
she's
not
commanded
to do
anything
by Jesus
at this
point
she just
responds
to the
free gift
of God
she calls
people to
see Jesus
for themselves
she delights
in repentance
come and see
the person
who has shown
me every
bad thing
I've ever
done
she hides
nothing
she goes
to the
people who
have been
avoiding
her
and that
she's been
avoiding
and she
cries
for them
to come
and see
their
Messiah
it's like
she's got
a totally
new self
image
here
she even
loves the
people who
have rejected
her
and she
leaves her
water pot
behind
symbolic of
saying
Jesus is
more important
than this
water
now maybe
you've been
listening now
and you
still don't
think you
need living
water
just like
this woman
at the
beginning
maybe
that's
the stage
of the
step
you're
up to
what harm
is there
in asking
Jesus for
the living
water
even if
you don't
know what
it is
or are
convinced
that you
don't
need it
what harm
is there
I did
that
about
33
years ago
now
God
if you
are real
and you
are the
answer
make it
clear to
me
make it
clear
I
prayed
that
prayer
in
1991
or
frustratingly
called it
out in
1991
became a
Christian
in 1993
two years
later he
answered it
for the
Christian
here
how many
of us
have tasted
the living
water
but it's
yet to be
a spring
welling up
in our
lives
you don't
sense that
deep
satisfaction
in life
you know
Jesus
should mean
everything
to you
but you're
still trying
to get
love
purpose
identity
satisfaction
in other
things
and it's
one of the
main reasons
if not the
main reasons
why you are
up and down
spiritually
and in your
experiences of
life
you're pursuing
other things
you're drinking
from other
wells
and Jesus
says stop
it
what is your
next step
to treasure
Jesus
and
you're
who
are
who
are
who