18.01.09 John 4:1-26 (NASB)
Audio Sermon File: John 4:1-26
Going Deeper: Study Guide
The Fountain of Life
In 1508 a man named Ponce sailed the seas with Christopher Columbus, and settled in a place we today know as Puerto Rico. While he was there he heard many stories of a magical water source called ‘The Fountain of Youth.’ Ponce decided that he must find it. After years of research and searching he felt that he knew where it was, the year now was 1513. Off he sailed, with his crew, for the island which he believed contained The Fountain of Youth. He sailed for days but could not see the island named Bi-mini, then he spotted land. What he found was Florida, but no Fountain. Eight years later, he set sail again for Bimini, but once again landed at Florida (still thinking it was an island). In the end Ponce never found the Fountain of Youth. Ironically his search for The Fountain of Youth resulted in his demise, for along the way he was attacked in Florida by native tribesmen. Despite his injuries he set sail and reached Cuba where he entered the hospital, but then met his death. He never found The Fountain Of Life.
Many have sought after the fountain of life, but there are few who have found it. People throughout the ages in nearly all cultures have desired to discover it.
In our journey to discover the fountain of life, we are going to meet a new character. Someone who the Jews classified as a people as being hostile and impure. A people who were despised - a people group called the Samaritans.
I invite you join me in the Bible - John chapter 4:1-26. Allow me to read to you verses 1-4 to set the stage for what is going to happen: Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria.
v.1-3 As we discovered last week, Jesus’ ministry was growing at a quick pace, and John the Baptist’s ministry was shrinking. Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John - yet as I mentioned last week it was not Jesus that doing the baptisms, but it was through His disciples. Because of all the attention that Jesus was getting, the Pharisees took note. The Pharisees were the religious ruling class of the people so they were very keen on investigating this new movement. There was some potentially dangerous results of this popularity, because the authorities could interpret the peoples’ interest as being a political movement - which then would be in direct conflict with the Jews and Romans. Jesus knew about the Pharisees attitude towards Him, therefore He didn’t want an untimely and unwelcomed conflict - so He left the Judean region of Israel. Jesus then heads north back again into Galilee.
v.4 If you have a Bible with some maps in it - it would be helpful to turn to them to get your visual bearings. The quickest way to Galilee would be to go due north right through the Samarian region. But for most Jews, they would take the long route - instead of going through Samaria - the normal Jew would go around Samaria - going east through Perea, then north, and then back west. There were several reasons for this, which are important to understand in order to gain the significance of our passage - these reasons lie in the history between these two peoples going back to the division of the nation of Israel into 2, after Solomon’s rule (931 BC).
The capital city of the northern kingdom was called Samaria - and eventually the entire region became to be known as Samaria.
In 722 BC, God used the Assyrians to capture and exile the Jews to Assyria - which was located in what we know today, as northern Iraq. The Assyrians did leave a large amount of Jews in Samaria, while also transporting many non-Jews into Samaria to occupy the land. A result of mixing these two people groups was intermarriages and syncretistic religion.
When the exiled Jews returned to their own land, tensions developed. As a result the Samaritans withdrew their worship from the temple in Jerusalem and established Mt. Gerazim in Samaria as the new worship center. In addition the Samaritans rejected the OT canon, and only accepted the Pentateuch as authoritative. When the Jerusalem temple was being rebuilt, the Samaritans were barred from participating (Ezra 4:1-3). Later in 128 BC a Jewish leader lead an attack on the Samaritans and as a result the temple at Mt. Gerazim was destroyed. Because of these - and other related factors - the Jews viewed the Samaritans as being unclean, half-breed, apostates. There was intense hatred among the Jews and Samaritans, so it was the norm to avoid contact with each other.
Now back to verse 4 - Jesus as it states in this verse - He had to pass through Samaria. There in this verse is a strong sense of compulsion, by Jesus, to go the more ‘dangerous’ route. There is a necessity for Christ to minister to the 'enemy.'
As we now enter into the core of our passage - it will also reveal to us THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE as we examine:
THE OFFER v.5-15
THE CONFRONTATION v.16-20
THE REVELATION v.21-26
In this passage we will discover that THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE is not a place but a Person, and that Person who is the source of THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE is Jesus Christ.
We continue reading our passage from verse 5 to 26:
5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, `Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 She ^said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw." 16 He said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here." 17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have correctly said, `I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly." 19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you [people] say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am [He]."
1. THE OFFER (v.5-15)
- The offer to the Fountain of Life
v.5-6 - Jesus arrives at a town called Sychar, which is near the OT city of Shechem, about half a mile from Jacob’s well. You may recall that the land that this well was located, was purchased by Jacob from the children from Hamor for 100 pieces of money in Gen. 33:19. Later in Gen. 48:22, Jacob gave his son Joseph, a part of that land. The exact location of the well is undisputed by Jews, Muslims, Samaritans, and Christians. The well today is in a crypt of an Orthodox church. It is still active today and has been long known for its depth - providing refreshing cool water.
The well lies between the foot of Mt. Ebal and that of Mt. Gerazim - Mt. Gerazim, as I mentioned earlier, being the center of Samaritan worship. Jesus arrives at the well wearied by the journey. He sits down - and the Apostle John notes that it was about the sixth hour, according to Jewish time keeping - making it around noon. We should note that in our passage today we see both aspects of Christ’s character - he gets tired - emphasizing His humanity - and later on we will see the revelation of His Deity.
This is where the story begins. Noon time would be an unusual time to be getting water - due to the Mediterranean heat, but for an un-stated reason a woman came - yet of course the meeting was not by mere accident - but on the grand scale - it was by divine appointment. All the events take place in the heat of the day. We have to remember that the well was a half mile walk to the town for this woman. Some people suggest that she intentionally came at this hour because it was outside the normal time that the other women would draw their water. By doing so the woman could avoid perhaps the scorn that she could face because of her characteristic lifestyle, as we will discover in verse 18.
v.7-9 This is the scenario beginning in verse 7, as we witness a series of taboos:
Taboo #1 - A person of a traditionally despised race comes to the well to draw water. If you glance down at the end of verse 9 - John gives us an historical insight - it reads (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans).
Taboo #2 - Not only was she a despised Samaritan, she was also a woman. This is what a Jewish document states (Mishnah - Niddah 4.1) - ‘The daughters of the Samaritans are deemed unclean as menstruants from their cradle.’ So according to the Rabbinic Jews of that day, a person was considered to share in this ritual impurity if he took food or drink from the hand or vessel of a Samaritan woman.
Despite these taboos, Jesus interacted with her, because He was interested in her spiritual needs. Jesus’ opening line to initiate a conversation is - Give Me a drink. This respectful and polite request - opens the door to direct the conversation into the spiritual realm. The reason for his request is given in verse 8 - For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
With Jesus’ request, it invokes some surprise in the woman - she is startled. She probably immediately thinks about the taboos that I mentioned.
v.10 - Yet Jesus continues the conversation. He demonstrate to us that He is not bound by tradition or prejudice. Jesus quickly brings the topic into the spiritual with two assertions. If the woman: knew the gift of God; and recognized who she was speaking to, that had asked for a drink - she would have asked and received living water.
In other words Jesus was indicating that the woman: needed to know salvation - she needed to know eternal life (Jn. 3:16); and secondly - needed to know the Saviour -who was the sole source of that salvation….then she would have living water.
If we stop and think about what water is - we will find that in our day to day life, we use water as a life sustaining agent and we also use it as a cleansing agent - we drink it and we use it to wash things. The term ‘living water’ at this time was commonly used to indicate water that flowed from a spring, as opposed to water from a still source like a cistern. In Jewish thinking and Scripture, the word - water, was used as a metaphor for divine blessing, redemption, and cleansing.
And now, here in verse 10, Jesus uses it to refer to Himself. In other words Jesus is pointing out that in Him, He is the ‘FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. Spiritual refreshment can be found only in Jesus.
v.11- This is the reply of the woman - Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. It is quite apparent that she is still thinking in earthly terms. As a resident and user of the well, she was well aquatinted with the characteristics of the well. She would have known that Jacob’s well was really deep - more than 100 feet deep. So she was probably thinking - first You ask me for a drink - and now You are telling me that You can give me some water ? Strange! And of course she would have observed that Jesus had nothing to draw up the water from the well. So she is really puzzled and comes out and asks - where then do You get that living water? She is still thinking in literal terms - thinking about the water, which was so far down the well hole.
v.12-14 - The woman begins to formulate in her mind that perhaps… this guy standing right in front me….maybe He is someone unique. Let me ask Him this… - verse 12 - You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You. From the words used in the Greek (negative particle - me) we know that she was expecting a negative answer. Jesus doesn’t give her the answer to her question - but He continues to raise the level of her interest. Jesus knew her spiritual needs - for He knows all hearts. But Jesus uses a comparison of the ‘living water’ He offers, to that of the natural waters of Jacob’s well - Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. In other words the water from this well is only good for satisfying your thirst for a short time.
Isn’t it true that people search every where and everything for the opportunity to look a bit younger - live a little bit longer. But, apart from Christ’s Divine working in their life, they never can discover the truth because they never find the sole source for THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE.
Jesus is offering the woman water, living water, that will quench her thirst eternally. Jesus offers that to us too, right now. Wow, what an offer. This offer is more than just a cup or some vessel containing a source of quenching, it is more than some temporal solution to live a bit more or healthier - but instead it is an offer to THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. A perpetual wellspring of spiritual refreshment. Jesus’ offer is eternal….eternal life. Jesus masterfully shifts the conversation from earthly things to an object lesson about heavenly realities. Jesus gives us a model to follow here. When we encounter friends, family, strangers, co-workers we can point people toward Christ by using our conversations about ordinary things as an entry point into spiritual things. When people are open to spiritual things then we can use the ordinary as an object lesson about heavenly realities. We can discuss their spiritual views and then reveal to them the saving grace of the gospel.
v.15 - Up to this point the woman was focusing on everything stated, from an earthly perspective. In her mind as we can discern from verse 15 - the woman is only thinking of personal convenience. She says to Jesus - Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw. In other words she is saying that she wanted the convenience of having access to living water, so that she didn’t have to go to the well every day. I guess she was expecting some kind of super thirst quenching drink - some kind of new invention - a different kind of water than was the norm.
Her conscience was still not up to speed to the spiritual offer Jesus made, and the connection to eternal life. Her mind was blinded by sin. But now comes -
2. THE CONFRONTATION (v.16-20)
- The confrontation of what keeps one from the Fountain of Life.
v.16-17 - In a rather dramatic shift - Jesus raises up the issue of sin in her life and confronts the issue by telling her to - Go, call your husband and come here. In her mind maybe she was thinking - Ouch ! Hey Jesus aren’t you getting a little too personal right now?
One commentator wrote this: "Just as a surgeon must treat an ugly cancer, so the great Physician must deal with sin to bring spiritual healing." - Laney
It is hard in our society to talk about sin. It is an uncomfortable topic, but if we are to bring the gospel to others then the issue of sin cannot be avoided or minimized. Jesus deals with the topic of sin in her life. The woman responds - I have no husband. And Jesus responds to her by saying - You have correctly said, `I have no husband.' Keep in mind that Jesus is a total stranger to this woman. And at this point we should also remind ourselves that the woman is speaking unknowingly, to God the Son, and as such He can know the thoughts of her heart. The word husband in Greek can mean man or husband. So the woman being confronted about her sin, chose her words very carefully. She could say that she had no legal husband, but under the veil of her words she tried to veil the truth - she did have her man - a man that she was in a common-law relationship with - an adulterous relationship.
v.18-19 - Jesus continues on confronting her sin, and brings to light the facts. The reality was that she had been married five times - as the text states - you have had five husbands. The man that she was with right now was not her husband. Feeling the heat - sensing the convicting presence of the Holy Spirit - recognizing that this stranger can reveal her life details - she realizes that this stranger - Jesus - was no ordinary person. She comes to this conclusion - Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
Under the pressure to acknowledge her sins, the woman tries to change the subject. Isn’t that a typical thing to do. When faced with the truth, and when we don’t want to deal with it we try to change the topic, or we just drop the subject. Being faced with God’s presence do you get jittery….do you get uncomfortable because your life doesn’t match up to your profession of faith?
It was obvious from the context of our passage, that the woman had the knowledge of worship which would include access to the Mosaic Law - but her life didn’t match up to God’s Word. She became uncomfortable. What are the details of your life as a professed believer, which have not been given over to Christ? We all have them….maybe it is anger, perhaps self-centeredness opposed to God centeredness, how about impatience, maybe it is addiction to work - your a workaholic, maybe its addiction to money, to food. Take some time today to bring it to the Lord in repentance….so that under the searching presence of the Holy Spirit - you no longer need to change the subject. Sin obscures the truth.
v.20 - The woman doesn’t want to go down the path that Jesus is headed - so she changes the topic - she brings up a historical and religious tension between the Jews and Samaritans - the major issue of where God has ordained worship to take place. As I addressed at the beginning of the sermon the Jews worshipped at Jerusalem and the Samaritans, as stated in verse 20 - in this mountain - ie - at Mt. Gerazim, due to historical factors. Yet Jesus being the Master of circumstances moves toward:
3. THE REVELATION (v.21-26)
- The revelation of the One who is the Fountain of Life
v.21 - Jesus doesn’t jump in on the debate, but rather states that worship of the Father, in the future, will not be exclusively at either of these two places. Worship would not be limited by a place. Jesus was speaking of the change of dispensations from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. We as believers today are under the New Covenant. With the Old Covenant the worshipper and worship was tied together by a location - that being the tabernacle or temple - where God’s presence would dwell. Today we are not bound by worship that is tied to a specific building or place. Instead the New Covenant believer because of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross, is able to worship anywhere.
So do we need a church building? Yes and no. Yes because it helps people identify us and it is a tool for ministry. No - because the New Covenant believer is indwelt with the Holy Spirit and may worship without the building. Another question we could ask is - Do we need to go to church then? Yes - Hebrews 10:24-25 states - And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. God reveals to us through His Word that by meeting together we are able to encourage one another to serve Him. In addition we are instructed to meet together corporately, especially in light of Christ’s near return. What Hebrews is telling us is that you better get your act together - in terms of a deep commitment to worship - because Christ is coming very soon. So it is that for the born again Christian - worship is our supreme and absolute priority.
v.22 - Jesus didn’t debate with the woman, but simply He stated the truth. He clarifies that Samaritan worship was based upon their peoples own ignorance. In contrast the Jews accepted all of God’s revealed Scripture and therefore had the right knowledge and place of worship - though as a whole they did not recognize Christ for who He is. Jesus then affirms that God’s plan of salvation is from the Jew first, and from that point on to the peoples of the world.
v.23-24 - Since the woman had the wrong kind of worship, Jesus now proceeds to give to her the nature of true worship. Jesus says that - an hour is coming, and in fact with His Incarnation - now is - it has now come - follow with me in verse 23 - when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Jesus speaks of true worshippers - He is referring to people who worship God. Literally worship means to bow the knee, to worship - suggesting ascribing reverence, adoration, and honour, to God. These are people whose hearts are solely focused on God and not idols. These are people who will be identified as true worshipers, not by a identifiable location like Mt. Gerazim or Jerusalem - or even this building that we are in. But rather these true worshipers will be identified by their worship of the Father through Jesus Christ His Son.
These are people who worship God in spirit. What does it mean to worship in spirit? To worship in spirit is to worship God in His true nature which is spirit - if we glance down at verse 24 - God is spirit. The nature of God is that He is emphatically invisible, unlike us who are of a physical or material nature. We would never have been able to comprehend the invisible God, but we are only able to do so because God has revealed it to us through the Bible and the Incarnation. Because God is invisible spirit, our worship must be in the spiritual realm. To worship in spirit does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to our own human spirit. Spirit, speaks of a heart attitude - it is not an outward religious conformity - like what Nicodemus back in chapter 3 was involved with. It is not tied to a location. But worshipping God in spirit involves having a regenerated heart through believing in Jesus Christ.
Not only do we worship God in spirit, but we are called to worship Him in truth. The word truth is tied to the fact that God is true and that His fundamental and unchangeable nature is truth. God cannot lie. Therefore true worship needs to take place in the realm of revealed truth found in the Bible. Our worship must be filtered through the pages of Scripture. It needs to be centered upon the Word made flesh (Jn. 1:14) - Jesus Christ. Worship of God without Christ at the heart of the picture, is not true spiritual worship. If Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Saviour you will have no proper worship of God - just like the Samaritan woman. Her sin blocked her worship, so did her lack of knowledge, and therefore Christ in His grace and mercy draws her in and opens her eyes.
The kind of worshipers the Father is actively seeking are those who worship Him in spirit and truth. These are the kind of people that God desires to worship Him - people who acknowledge and repent of their sin, and turn in belief in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour - people who are spiritually born again, and now ascribe to God what He is worthy of.
Christians are a people who worship the true God, sincerely and authentically from the heart. We worship God because we want to exalt Him for who He is, and not for what we can get out of Him. We worship Him if even if we find the world crumbling in upon us - like our global financial crisis. We worship Him even if our music might not be where it could be - we worship Him even if the sermon doesn’t tickle our ears, we worship Him even if our friends are not here, we worship Him because He is worthy to be worshipped - and we do it in spirit and truth.
Often we think these outward things make a worship worship. We tend to think that if we don’t have the things other churches have then ‘I need to find a better worship service.’ Jesus reveals to us what true worship is. Everything apart from worship in spirit and truth, is outward and can be done away with, because they are not the essentials. They are there in order to compliment our spiritual worship.
In verse 24 is our mandate as professing believers - those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. This is the second time the phrase, in spirit and truth is mentioned - so it is something that cannot be overlooked. It is important to worship God in this way. In fact as the verse states it is a - must, not an option. It is an absolute necessity, which is tied directly with THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. Worship is man’s highest calling - worship of God through Christ, is the believers’ supreme and absolute priority.
We are saved unto worship of our Saviour. Jesus Christ makes it clear to the Samaritan woman that she needs to worship, and she knows that she is not doing so because her life is a web of lies. There is something missing in her life - the cleansing power of knowing Jesus Christ. There are areas of her life which need to be swept clean, and she realizes this…and she looks forward to that that time.
v.25-26 We close with these 2 final verses. This is how the woman responds to Jesus - she says - I know that Messiah is coming… when that One comes, He will declare all things to us. The conversation turns again, this time to the coming Messiah. The woman as her religion would have believed, is that the Messiah will come as a teacher and restorer of true worship. Perhaps she sensed this in this unique stranger - named Jesus. After all, He spoke so plainly about her tainted life, and so captivatingly about true worship. He broke the bounds of history and tradition in speaking with her. She was a social outcast even in her own community, but Jesus reached out to her. We have a powerful witness recorded for us to ponder as we close - Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am [He].
In the circumstances of our passage today, Jesus Christ the God-man reaches out and reveals His Deity, not to the elite, and not even to His disciples, but He reveals it to a person of a despised people group - a Samaritan woman - who like us are lowly sinners who have offended a holy God. In this plain, short, yet powerful statement - Jesus declares that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. This declaration should be noted - it literally is translated as - I am, the one speaking to you. And as such it is a self declaration that Jesus is the Great I AM of the Old Testament (Ex. 3:14). The point is made - a Divine revelation is made - no further discussions are necessary. How does one respond to such a mind blowing revelation…except to bow down in humility - to repent of sin and to be saved by the Messiah… and to worship Him in spirit and truth.
Jesus Christ is life, and He is the THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, giving to those who believe in Him - eternal life... a life that is worth living.
(For a full explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - click here - http://www.doihaveeternallife.blogspot.com/)
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