Living Water

The Water of Life

Book of John Chapter 4:6-26

This is a story of truth where a woman who had lived a life of sin met the Lord Jesus Christ at a well in Samaria and seized on that opportunity to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus may not have ever passed by that way again and we should understand this today.

A great lesson for today is that the Lord Jesus Christ can save anybody, anywhere, at any time!

No soul is so lost that the Lord Jesus Christ cannot find it!

This woman would go unnoticed today because she would fit in to the things that are happening, where there is no commitment to marriage and couples choose to just live together as being married, free to leave at any time.

Our young people today are just afraid to make a commitment, yet a commitment must be made to the Lord before we can enter into God's New Heaven!

Jesus knows so much about all of us that He knows exactly what to say to us at any given moment and sometimes it only takes a very few words to lead someone to Christ.

Another great lesson we can learn from this passage is that as powerful as is the Lord, He will still accept a small gift, such as this drink of water from any of us!

Jesus and His disciples were traveling back to Galilee and took a short cut through Samaria which could be said to be the enemies of the Jews.

They at least had no respect for one another because the Samaritans were a people of mixed breeds.

Even today the world still frowns of mixed relationships that produce children of a new color. This is one of the greatest proofs of the Book of Genesis.

*****Joh 4:6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

Joh 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

We should understand that there is no one upon the face of this earth that does not need the Gospel!

It was about the 6th hour of the day which means it was high noon and the human side of Jesus was tired and thirsty. "Yes that earthly body of Jesus felt the same things that our bodies feel and we all get tired and thirsty!

Mat 8:17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

The truth is, the Lord will always ask so He can get an opportunity to give!

God is always ready to bless us at any given moment and He offers many opportunities to get a blessing every day!

What is the truth of Jesus our Messiah?

He shared our infirmity, yet He had no sin.

He would accept human supplies to maintain His earthy body.

He would then because of His great love, surpass all human expectations!

This woman had walked about a half mile to get some fresh water from a well that was called Jacob's well because Jacob had dug this well many years before this day. This well was very near to the tomb of Joseph.

The Jews considered themselves a pure race then as most of them still do today.

They considered the Samaritans as mixed breeds because of what had happened when Assyria had over run the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel many years earlier.

Jesus Christ only sees souls in need of salvation. Jesus does not see the color of the skin and no, He is not color blind, He can very well tell what our skin color is, but this is irrelevant to Him!

The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.

*****Joh 4:8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

Joh 4:9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

We should understand that the disciples of Jesus at this time did not understand the "Love of God" and had they not been sent to gather food they would certainly have attempted to interfere with the conversation that Jesus was having with this woman.

Her soul was much too important for her to be turned off by some who despised her.

The Jews would only deal with the Samaritans in business matters such as the markets of fresh foods that met the food laws of the laws of Moses.

The Samaritans had kept only the five books of Moses to live by and none other books of the Old Testament.

This woman took no time in noticing that Jesus was a Jew.

No matter what people say Jesus was born as a Jew, lived as a Jew and died as a Jew according to all the Laws of Moses.

Jesus raised from the dead because those laws of Moses cannot bring life and "New Life" comes by a New Covenant!

It was only when Jesus was raised from the dead that He had a glorified body that was not of this world!

Rom 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

Rom 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

By continuing in conversation with the Lord, this woman opened the door for Jesus to teach her the truth of God's Word.

*****Joh 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

Jesus immediately begins with "Grace" because of His love for each of us.

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Just as each of us, this woman was unworthy to receive the gifts of God, yet there she was side by side with the Messiah and she did not know Him.

James the half-brother of Jesus said it this way.

Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

The truth is, Living Water is alive and that "Living Water" can come only by the Lord Jesus Christ!

What is the truth of our world today? The world does not accept the precious gift of God, His Son, Jesus the Messiah!

In our world today, many want everything given to them and this is exactly what God does, He gives His gifts freely, but God does have one rule that cannot be avoided. God says if you do not work then you will not eat!

Jesus says, if you just knew the gifts of God, you could just ask, and they would be given to you!

Water is one of the two great necessities of life the other one is the air we breathe. Without these two things we would die very quickly, and we know that both these things can describe the work of the Holy Spirit!

This woman could not understand the truth because she was caught up in sin and immorality, which also describes our world of today!

We cannot “Passover” to the side of Jesus Christ until we know the truth of Jesus Christ!

Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Joh 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

We might ask ourselves, why does the world think we need some part of this world in order to understand what the Lord is saying.

This woman said, you are not even equipped to draw any sort of water from this well.

This woman was thinking, that without her bucket, this man was not going to drink any water.

*****Joh 4:11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

Joh 4:12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

To this woman who knew that it was Jacob who had dug this well but even Jacob could not have guessed the number of blessings this well would provide to those near unto it and traveling strangers.

This considered, how could this stranger provide a greater blessing than that of Jacob who was a patriarch of the Jewish people but also of the Samaritans. The Samaritans only recognized the 5 books of Moses and this only loosely.

This woman insinuated that there was no water anywhere else in the world any better than the water of this well provided by the hands of Jacob the patriarch of all Israel.

This woman was already thinking a works religion when the Lord was offering the free "Gift" of "Grace".

Certainly Jesus was greater than Jacob!

Certainly Jesus was greater than Moses.

Certainly Jesus was greater than the Jonas.

Certainly Jesus was greater than Solomon.

Certainly Jesus was greater than Abraham.

Certainly Jesus was greater than the Temple.

And, Jesus is greater than the Church because He is the fountain of "Living Water". The "Grace" of God cannot flow except by the hands of Jesus Christ!

Jesus Christ knew the circumstances of this woman. Sometimes we can have this same feeling when we sense that the Preacher is preaching directly at us.

Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Jesus Christ must be preeminent in our lives before we can dig deep into that well of "Living Water"!

It is only Christ Jesus who can give the gift of "the water of life" which refers to the Holy Spirit.

All those who reject the Lord will drink of the "Lake of Fire"!

Rev 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death

So Jesus answers this woman, whoever drinks of this water that you hold in so high regard will always have to return for another drink.

*****Joh 4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

Joh 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

You see it did not matter how much this woman esteemed the water from Jacob's Well, because in the end it was only water and water that was provided to meet the needs of these people not by Jacob but by the Lord!

To be at peace in this world, we need much more than water from some well, we need that "Living Water" that can come only by the Lord!

The one thing we understand about wells is that wells will eventually dry up.

But there is a fountain: Pro_14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

What will be the difference with the way the Lord treats all people? Remember there are only the believer and the unbeliever.

Isa 65:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

Isa 65:14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.

We all know how to quench our thirst but until you know the Lord your spiritual thirst cannot be quenched!

Today, especially among our young people there is a void in their lives and that void is spiritual thirst!

Suicides are up among all people especially are young because they cannot quench their spiritual thirst with the things of this world, no matter how much they think they should be given.

We must also understand that suicides are the highest among those children who have been coerced to think of themselves of as opposite sex from which they were born.

This world we live in is like salt water, the more you drink the more you want until you die of thirst because they have forsaken the Lord!

Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Once we drink of the fountain of the Lord we will never have a spiritual thirst again!

Do we need a refilling of the Holy Spirit every day, we sure do because we need His guidance and His protection not so much because we are athirst?

Isa 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

The only wells we need to drink from are the waters of salvation!

Isa 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Isa 12:3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

And what did this woman say after Jesus explained the truth to her?

*****Joh 4:15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

This woman had thought life was nothing, but a time of sensual enjoyment and she had become miserable living this life of lies.

There is no complete fulfillment in the things of this world, including sensual pleasure! This is why drugs are so popular.

We know that all of us have an inner thirst that in most cases we do not understand and like Solomon we try everything this world has to offer, and nothing in this world cannot supply things to fulfill that inner thirst!

Christ alone is the answer to all life's questions!

At this point this woman still had no respect for the Lord and we can just imagine as she said "ok smarty pants show me this water" so the Lord starts telling her things that He could not possibly have known if He was just a man.

*****Joh 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

Joh 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

Joh 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

We should know by now that the conviction of sin is by the Holy Spirit.

It should be obvious that this woman knew she was a dirty rotten sinner, but she thought that her past was hidden to the rest of the world!

Even the man she was living with now may not have known that she had been married 5 times, but the Lord knows everything about our lives and about our sin!

Heb 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

If we do not see anything else surely, we can see the love of God for this poor woman.

Sin is like a life-threatening disease such as Cancer and as sinners, the cure seems to always too far from us.

This woman needed to be delivered from her sin, but she had to renounce that sin before this could take place.

This woman attempted to deny her sin by saying she did not have a husband, but the Lord saw straight through this partial truth.

Pro 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

If Christ knows exactly how many hairs are on my balding head at any given moment, then we can be sure, Christ knew everything about this poor woman.

We must understand God keeps a record of everything we do.

Mal 3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

God has already heard every excuse made by the sinner who rejects the truth so, there will be no excuses at the White Throne of Judgment!

When we go before the Lord it makes no sense for us to hold back any detail of our sin because, He already knows, and He just wants us to understand if we know ourselves!

This woman had been married 5 times and this sixth man may have been the reason she was divorced from that 5th husband.

Someone who has been married 5 times will be the subject of many conversations but notice Jesus did not judge her at all and this poor woman responded with the truth, she was not married to the man she was living with at that time.

A certain man once wrote "an age in which divorce was easily allowed cannot be judged by the same rules as one of stricter principles".

Yet this is the age we live in today divorce is fairly easy to obtain but many today also choose to live together so they do not have to go through the pain of divorce.

If this woman was trying to make herself to be someone innocent, then this also failed because Jesus sees us for who we are because He knows all our thoughts!

The woman was astounded that the Lord knew everything about her past.

We should understand that there is not one thing we can hide from the Lord.

We are all sinners.

So, what do we do when we are in a conversation with someone who knows more about our lives than we do?

This is exactly what happens when we are in contact with the Lord.

We are guilty of every disobedience!

We are guilty of every law we break!

We are guilty of sin and condemned!

We must confess our sin!

Had this woman confessed all her sin, then there would have been no sin for Jesus to remember!

This woman recognized Jesus as a prophet but not yet as her Savior!

*****Joh 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

It had been over 400 years since there had been a true prophet of God and the one since that time would have been John the Baptist whom this woman probably had never heard of.

In reality this woman changed the subject of her being a sinner into this man(Jesus) was a prophet.

If Jesus was a Prophet, then He would be sure to know the place of worship of the Samaritans on mount Gerizim.

She also knew that the Jews worshipped in Jerusalem, but she did not see Jerusalem as a better place to worship.

In essence she was saying "which one of us is right"?

We should never take this approach with the Lord!

Mount Gerizim was officially the Mount of Blessing for this was where Joshua blessed the children of Israel.

Many historical events had happened on and near this mountain and Gerizim is still to the Samaritans, what Jerusalem is to the Jews.

On this day of Jesus this one lady would begin to know the truth!

That truth is, true worship shall be no longer confined to any one place or to one nation!

*****Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

We must understand that the place we worship is not important.

1) An hour was coming that would change the whole concept of worship. There would be a "new way" to approach the Living God.

2) On this hour a historical event would take place that would change the worship of Jehovah.

3) The people of God could worship God in any place and at any time!

By following the ways of the Samaritans, this woman had no idea about true worship.

It was not the worship of the Jews that was important, but Jesus Christ was a Jew, and therefore salvation is of the Jews.

In true worship our whole being must be focused on the One True Living God!

Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

Rom 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

The Jews were intended to be our example for the Church and this points out some things about our Lord.

God wants a people who will love Him above all other things and give Him their loyalty.

God wants a people who are unashamed to tell others how wonderful He is.

God wants a people through whom the Messiah will return.

God wants a people who will preserve the truth of the Word of God.

This was indeed what God wanted from the Jews and is now true of the Church!

The Jewish nation failed, and it is the Church in place now and the Church must not fail!

The Jewish nation is still the apple of God's eyes and is still the time piece for all prophecy to be fulfilled!

Jesus was a Jew and God took all the sin of the world and placed all that sin upon His Messiah so that sin could be done away with!

*****Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

So how are the true worshippers described? All those who worship the Father in spirit and truth. All others will fail!

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who determines true worship! (In spirit and truth)

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who determines the place of worship. (In our heart, down deep in our soul).

Spiritual worship is to seek a close and personal fellowship with God. Resting in God's acceptance and God's peace.

True worship is to approach God in the right way and the right way is through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ!

Why? Because God is seeking all those who will worship Him in spirit and truth and they will spend eternity with Him and not any others!

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Pro 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.

Pro 16:3 Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Pro 16:5 Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

To worship in truth means that God has dictated the only method of pleasing Him and that is the worship through His dear Son!

We must present our bodies to God for His use!

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

This is the results of God's Living Water!

Amen

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