Today, we're going to read from the Gospel of John, John chapter 4. You may be familiar with this particular story. This is the woman at the well, and I'm going to pull a Pastor Chris move and say this has got to be one of my favorite verses. Now, let us attend to the Word of God, John chapter 4. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees 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. A woman from Samaria came 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 the 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 again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. 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 worshiped 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 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 now is here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for the father is seeking such a 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 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 in the famous spiritual autobiography the confessions augustine prays to god and begins famously with this line you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you the confessions they turn on the theme of love augustine's journey from depravity and despair to salvation and hope is marked by his journey for love this one desire drives him this desire to love and to be loved he seeks for a complete and perfectly fulfilled love a reciprocal love a love that gives just as much as it receives and so he sought for this love seeking he looked for it in food and in drink he sought for it in sex he had a concubine with whom he had a son he sought for this in wealth and prestige and philosophy, contemplating the good, the true, and the beautiful. And yet, he never found any satisfaction. He never found satisfaction because apart from God, these things, they have a flat taste to them. And instead of quenching our deepest thirsts, they actually just make us more thirsty. In our text, we see a woman who is thirsty, who like Augustine, longs to love and to be loved. and yet she has latched on to all of the wrong loves and so on just an ordinary day just getting up and going out she goes to draw some water from a famous well in the shadow of mount gerizim but she is surprisingly met by a jewish stranger and this mysterious man he does something strange he asks her for some water and what begins with a guarded conversation turns into the most important event in this woman's life though jesus asked her for a drink of water he ends up giving her his own living water and he does so first by addressing her need secondly by addressing her heart and thirdly by addressing her hope her need her heart and her hope and so first he addresses her need on his way to Galilee from Judea we read that Jesus needed to pass through Samaria so he comes to this well while his his disciples go into a local town called Sychar to get food And so since they're getting food, he is hungry. And it is the sixth hour. That means it is high noon. This is the hottest time of the day. So he's hot. And he's been walking for probably six hours since it's the sixth hour of the day. And so he is weary. And that is what the text tells us, that he is weary. And he was thirsty. For we read in verse 11 that he had nothing to draw the well. So Jesus, he was hot, he was hungry, he was thirsty, he was tired. And it's just at this time of his weariness and thirst that he meets this woman. And he does just what any of us would have done. He asks her for some water. And yet her response is venomous. In verse 9, she says, how is it that you a jew ask me for a drink since i am a woman from samaria now what accounts for this sarcastic unhostile response to jesus after all he's just a man looking for some water well john he explains that the jews have no dealings with samaritans that's putting it kind of lightly it's like saying the israelites have no dealings with palestinians the relationship between these two people it was a hostile one and so this woman she responds with hostility because there is a history here there is a history between the jews and the samaritans the samaritans well they used to be jews after assyria captured the northern kingdom of israel they brought in foreign people in order to destroy their religion and culture and so the israelites they mingled with these pagans. And so then they became cultural and ethnic half-breeds. And the religion they formed was a strange kind of hybrid of Judaism and paganism. They only accepted the first five books of the Bible, right? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and that was it. And they set up a temple at Mount Gerizim. Gerizim became the place of worship for them. It was their holy place where Yahweh would meet them. And so the Jews, they despised the Samaritans. They despised them because they were unfaithful. They took something that was good and they twisted it. They polluted it. And there was so much vehemence between the Jews and the Samaritans that instead of traveling from Judea through Samaria and into Galilee, Jews, what they would normally do was that they would go around Samaria. They would cross the Jordan River. They would go up and then cross the Jordan again just to get out or stay out of Samaria. They couldn't stand the place. And according to rabbinic literature at the time, Samaritan women, they were seen as inherently ritually unclean from the time of their birth. And so when this woman at this well comes and Jesus asks her for some water, to share some water from her own cup, she's scandalized. She can't believe that this man wants a drink of water from her when she would just defile him. And yet, unknown to her, Jesus, instead of being defiled, he sanctifies everything that he touches. So in the middle of this scandal, this scandalous request for Jesus to have water from this woman, she is upset and she's angry. Perhaps she thinks that Jesus is mocking her. And so she responds with animosity. And yet in the midst of this cultural animosity, and yet loving her regardless, even in spite of her hostile attitude towards him, and in spite of his own weariness, hunger, and thirst, Jesus relentlessly pursues this woman. He perceives her need, not simply need for water from this well, but her need for living water. And so he begins to offer it to her. Jesus says in verse 10, 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. Jesus, he refers to himself as the gift of God. As we know in John 3, 16, we all know this. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that all who believe in him shouldn't perish but have everlasting life. So Jesus, he is the gift. He is the gift that keeps on giving. And it's Jesus who is going to give this woman living water. Living water. It conjures up the image of running water. A cascade of flowing water that gives constant supply and relief. Well water, the water that is in the well that they are next to. Well, wells, they don't flow. The wells, they draw water from aquifers deep underground. and wells are good only for those who draw from them but flowing water such as a stream or a river it is living water it issues forth and gives life to everything around it you see the area around jacob's well it was arid it was dry it was dusty and lifeless but the land through which a river flows is full of life you can think of the nile river a whole area full of life because there is a river running through it and that's just what a river does it gives life the living water that jesus offers it will satisfy every thirst that this woman has and yet the woman with her characteristic hostility she challenges jesus in verses 11 and 12 she says sir you have nothing to draw the water with and the what and the well is deep where do you get that living water are you greater than our father Jacob he gave us this well and drank from it himself by offering this living water this woman perceives that he is setting himself up to be better than their father Jacob since the water he gives is better even though she sees the comparison though she still fails to see the spiritual reality that lies behind Jesus's words she can only think of this literal physical reality, her own felt needs, her own physical thirst. But what exactly is the spiritual reality of the living water that Jesus is speaking of? Well, he peels back that literal and physical reality to unveil the spiritual. In verses 13 and 14, he says, 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 again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life now the nasb i believe is a little bit more of an accurate translation here of the greek it says the water that i will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life so interestingly jesus he shifts the metaphor from running water to well water but unlike jacob's well at the side of a mountain and where the water is deep deep down this well is in those to whom jesus gives it and this water it does not sit deeply at the bottom of the well but it springs up it bubbles up it leaps up it overflows this well cannot contain this living water water at jacob's well it would only temporarily satisfy this woman's thirst but the water that jesus gives according to herman ritterboss he says this the water jesus gives will forever assuage her thirst. Water she does not over and over have to go and get, but that becomes a spring of living, self-replenishing water within. It is an everlasting, self-renewing spring of refreshment and life. Now the woman, she may start to have some sense of what Jesus is talking about, but it is not likely that she knows precisely what he means by this water. But we as readers of the Gospel of John, we have the advantage of the whole canon and so in genesis in john chapter 7 jesus explains that what he means by this living water is the holy spirit he says this in john 7 verses 37 to 39 if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water now this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive for as yet the spirit had not been given because jesus was not yet glorified and so in that passage we see some recurring themes clearly there's the theme of thirst there jesus also talks about the rivers of living water that those waters could be received through belief and here this there's a new feature that he adds he talks about how it is the spirit who is this living water and yet the spirit had not yet been given since jesus had not yet been glorified and so jesus he offers the holy spirit and through the holy spirit he offers eternal life the water he offers is water that gives eternal life life that never ends he promises that those who drink of this water that quenches all thirst will never die and so now i think she is starting to understand she is but she's still speaking of a literal thirst in verse 15 she says sir give me this water so that i will never be thirsty or have to come here to draw water her tone and her disposition they are starting to change it is no longer marked by cynicism but instead she is becoming curious and there's just a little tiny bit of hope that's starting to come up this crazy Jew he just might know what he's talking about and so Jesus he patiently continues to reveal the spiritual nature of the thirst that he speaks of and so he does this secondly now by addressing her heart our second point he addresses her heart in verse 16 he says go call your husband and come here she tersely responds i have no husband with the mention of her husband her guard it comes immediately back up he has just overstepped some boundaries he has broached on a touchy subject she wants to say none of your business get away from me i don't have a husband her terseness it drops the hint that we're not going to talk about that and yet as d.a carson comments he says her intention was to ward off any further probing of this sensitive area of her life while masking the guilt and hurt. Now this verse, it seems strangely disconnected from what precedes it. Is Jesus offering this water also to her husband? Or is he changing the subject? You see, the woman, the poor woman, she just asked for that living water. What more does she have to do for Jesus to deliver the goods? Instead, Jesus already knows that she has no husband. He has not changed the subject. In fact, he is just now starting to do what she just asked. He is now just starting to give her living water. And he does so just by uncovering the true content of her heart, by revealing her shame and her sin. In verse 17, he says, 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. Jesus, he cuts right through the facade and addresses what truly lies in her heart. She has had five husbands. Even today, that sounds excessive. If we were to hear about somebody having five husbands, we would probably gossip a little bit behind their back and say, how can they have another husband? And yet this woman, she has had five husbands, and he says that the man that you're with now, he's not even your husband. That's six men she's been with. And one of them is not even her husband, and she's with him. She's living with somebody out of wedlock, and that would have been so heinous in those days. Maybe it's not that big of a deal today, right, in this culture of pleasure, right? But back then, things were taken much more seriously. This was an honor society. And so we see then that this woman, she is a woman of the world. This is a jaded woman. She is cynical. We see that here, like Augustine, her heart is restless. Indeed, it is scarred. It is broken. This woman has been crushed by the world. She has been objectified in the fullest sense of the word. She's been used and abused and cast aside and treated like trash. And so verse 18, it recasts everything that has happened so far in a different light. You see, now, this is a woman who alone came during the hottest part of the day. In those days, it was common for women to go in groups. And furthermore, they would never go during the hottest part of the day. They would either go very early in the morning, where it was still cool from the night, or they would go in the evening, just as things started to cool down. And yet, this woman, she came alone. And so I think we can start to sense some desperation in her question in verse 15. Her shame, it follows her, even when she comes alone. The sound of her lonely footsteps in the sand, in the heat of the day, with sweat dripping right off of her face, it reminds her of her shame. She is an outcast. People, they talk about her behind her back. Six men. She is miserable. She is lonely. She is thirsty. And this isn't just thirst of the mouth, but thirst of the heart. Her restless heart that longs for lasting, fulfilling love. Her restless heart has driven her to seek satisfaction in man after man after man after man after man after man after man. And still no satisfaction. She has no satisfaction because the problem isn't with her loneliness. The problem isn't with some thirst that she has. The problem is with her heart. The source of these problems that she has and her life choices, it is the sin that dwells within her heart. And it is this particular aspect, this sin in her heart, not just the shame but the sin that Jesus is getting at with his request for her to call her husband. She needs a new heart. And Jesus, he is the good physician. He's able to perceive clearly what this woman needs. He's able to, with surgical precision, start his surgery. Begin by taking out that heart of stone. What a heart of stone she must have. And put in her a new heart of flesh. Again, in the Confessions, Augustine, he says this. The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and to be loved. And yet, because of Augustine's original sin, this yearning for reciprocal love, it became twisted. He continues, Bubbling impulses befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love's serenity and lust's darkness. Confusion of the two things boiled within me is seized hold of my weakness, sweeping me through precipitous rocks of desire to submerge me in a whirlpool of vice. Augustine, like this woman, he was thirsty. He was thirsty for lasting love. Thirsty to finally have some satisfaction. But when he started to drink deeply of his sin, when he thinks he's satisfying his heart's thirst, he is actually being drowned by his sin. And like Augustine, this woman, she sought satisfaction. she sought it in men but she could never find it her own sinfulness it fooled her into thinking that she could satisfy her desires by living in sin and just as is the case with all sin it promises what it cannot give we all we all try to fill ourselves by our sins but at the end we just become emptier. Continuing our sin and being enticed by our sin. It's like drinking seawater. Just when you think you're thirsty, you're trying to quench that thirst by drinking that seawater and then before you know it, you're on death's door. The sin, it distracts us from what we ultimately need. Reconciliation with God. And this woman too, she needed reconciliation with God. This Samaritan woman who was confused about the nature of God and worship. She too needed reconciliation. And yet, what hope could she have? This is an unclean Samaritan woman. Not just an unclean Samaritan woman, but what we could say is maybe a serial adulterer. Couldn't really say, but six men starts to speak volumes after a while. In verse 19 to 20, she says, 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. She recognizes that he is a prophet because he knows something that he ought not to know as a foreigner. How could he possibly know this about her? Now many people, they think that this is the woman's attempt to distract and redirect the conversation from her sin by introducing a theological conundrum. and i think this is an experience that's common to many of us we evangelize and when the subject starts getting a little uncomfortable they start to change the subject they start asking questions uh often legitimate questions like if god is all good and all powerful then why does evil exist it's the right question at the wrong time they're trying to distance themselves they don't they're they're feeling uncomfortable because we're starting to get at the real problem it's their sin on the contrary this question i believe not so much as trying to distract instead it actually reveals the hope that she barely has she stands on the edge of despair and this prophet who is somehow telling her everything that she has ever done is gently and compellingly drawing her out of her cultural prejudice and hostility toward the fountain of life at the root of the jewish and samaritan hostility was the mountain that loomed over this conversation the mountain she refers to is mount gerizim the holy mountain of the samaritans that stands in direct opposition to zion in jerusalem and so the jewish and samaritan conflict it frames this whole conversation their conversation it began in verse 9 with her saying how is it that you a jew ask for me a drink a woman of Samaria but now she's essentially asking this how can you a Jew talk to me I'm a Samaritan woman and how can you talk to me about the gift of God and of living water as if this mountain were not some enormous stumbling block between us see this is no empty theological inquiry if indeed salvation is from the Jews how can the Samaritan woman have any hope of this living water that springs up to eternal life indeed what hope does any samaritan have what hope does any of us have and so jesus he answers this this hope he addresses the woman's hope this is our third and last point jesus addresses her hope first in verse 22 jesus he acknowledges the fault in the samaritan system he says you worship what you do not know we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. God has revealed from scripture how and where he ought to be worshiped. The temple in Jerusalem is God's dwelling place. But Jesus offers a promise that gives hope to all of us who are not Jews. Even all the way out here in Escondido, he gives this promise. The hour is coming, verse 23, the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father and spirit and truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him you see she was interested in the worship that their fathers offered but jesus he's telling her about the worship that the father is interested in and he says that it's worship that is in spirit and truth now that phrase spirit and truth it is a hotly debated piece of scripture and so i will only offer my opinion on this humbly but I think first what we could say is the conclusion whether people understand spirit and truth however they may take that the conclusion generally can be taken this way that there is coming a time where God will not be worshipped by some particular people using some particular ceremonial system in a particular place but there's coming a time where the gospel opens up to all people no matter what ethnicity no matter where they are it opens up to them the ability to worship god now spirit and truth i believe that what is being referred to here is the holy spirit i say this because in the rest of the gospel of john he starts talking about the spirit of truth and so the hour now is that jesus is talking about the hour now is because the true temple is in her midst god in the flesh he stands before her and is giving her this living water even as they speak he says the hour is coming because as we read earlier in john 7 he says that the spirit had not yet been given since jesus had not yet been glorified but the the temple veil it's been torn the temple veil that was this big curtain that separated the most holy place from the rest of the of god's temple it symbolized that behind this curtain was god's abode nobody could enter there and only once a year a high priest may be able to enter there but that temple veil it was torn and we read that in acts that the holy spirit he was poured out in pentecost and so the faith that no longer is directed toward this temple but it actually proceeds outward and so worship it's no longer bound to a place no longer bound to a certain people no longer bound to a certain ceremonial system and this woman she is now starting to see prophecy before her very eyes In the book that they would both have used, Deuteronomy, Moses, he foretold of a prophet who would come and speak all that God had commanded him. And so the Samaritans, they had a hope for a Messiah, just like the Jews. They had a hope for a great and final prophet who would be able to provide the full and complete revelation of God. The woman, recognizing the truth of Jesus' statements and having hope, she brings up the Messiah. The one prophesied who will tell us all things, he says in verse 25. And so, in an uncharacteristic statement by Jesus, he says, I who speak to you am he. And yet, at this point of the conversation, they are interrupted with the return of Jesus' disciples. But the woman, she has heard enough. She gets up, leaves her water jar, and races out. And she starts to tell everyone in Sychar about this man who just told her everything she has ever done. Now, is that a bit of an overstatement? Did Jesus really tell this woman everything that she had ever done? No, it is not an overstatement. Her whole life has been consumed by the need and longing for love. An unquenchable thirst has plagued her her whole life. And so, how does she respond? She leaves her water jar. Did she leave her water jar because she was so excited about the gospel that she wanted to go share it with the city people? Maybe. But in the context, in this highly symbolic conversation about thirst and water, her thirst is satisfied. Just as Jesus promised. We're going to take a step back. We're going to look at verse 10. If you knew who I was, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water. Verse 15, sir, give me this water. And in verse 28, she leaves the water jar. He offered it, and she asked for it. He gave it, and now she has it. She doesn't need this water jar anymore. Her thirst has finally been satisfied. Now, how exactly can Jesus satisfy her thirst? Well, I said earlier that it's by giving her the Holy Spirit. It's by giving her a new heart. But how does he take out that heart of stone? How does he remove that thirst from her? He does so by taking her own thirst. In John 19, one of the last words that Jesus said, he said, I thirst. Hanging on the cross, bearing the weight of our sin, satisfying the wrath of God, he says, I thirst. now let's not deceive ourselves this text isn't just talking about some Samaritan woman 2,000 years ago this text is talking about you the word of God today it's speaking to you Jesus, he's addressing our own needs he's addressing our own hearts he's addressing our own hopes so what are you trying to quench your thirst with? Where are you trying to find rest in? Your heart, it longs for rest and it tugs you every which way. So often we say, like Augustine, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. And that sounds a lot like the Westminster Catechism. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. That is the purpose for which we were made. What is the purpose of a table if not to have things set upon it? And a table that doesn't have things is only ever a worthless table. And what is the purpose of a chair if not to be sat in? And a chair that isn't being sat in, well, it's only a worthless chair. So what are we if we are not worshiping God? What are we if we are not glorifying God and enjoying Him? And that's what we come here for, isn't it? We come together to worship in spirit and truth. To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. We come here because we are thirsty. But our thirsts, they have been quenched. Where is your restless heart taking you? Even for us who are in Christ and dwelt by the Spirit, we are prone to wander. we often fail to realize that the true satisfaction that we have is in our Lord and the water that He has given to us. And that is sin's deception, right? The corruption of sin, it still clings to us. And so we must continually turn away from those things that we try to find satisfaction in for our restless hearts. And we must turn to God for whom we are made and in whom our hearts finally have rest. Our hearts, they are restless until they find their rest in God. And only in Him do we ever find that truly reciprocal love that we all yearn for. All of our loves in this life, they are deficient. They do not measure up. They do not satisfy. They are not enough. Because our greatest longings and desires can only ever be satisfied by God. We will only ever be restless wanderers until we do that for which God has made us for. To glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever. And so, beloved, glorify God and enjoy Him. How? Because He has given you His Spirit. And so when we are told to obey God and follow His commands, well, that could be burdensome. But for us who are in Christ, it is no burden. It is a joy. Because we have the Spirit who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And so let us seek God, let us enjoy him, and let us glorify him today and throughout the week for the rest of our lives until Christ should return again in glory. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, what a wonderful gift you have given us. You have given us water, water that satisfies. We often are so thirsty. I pray, Lord, that we wouldn't be deceived by sin, thinking that when we are prone to wander and we lose sight of what you've given to us, that we wouldn't be deceived by sin, but instead continually to look to you for everything that we need in this life. You've given us so much. You have quenched our thirst, not only with a real water that we may drink at home or anywhere else but you've quenched our spiritual thirst by taking out our heart of stone by taking our own spiritual thirst in Jesus and giving us water that fully satisfies the Holy Spirit who unites us to our Lord thank you Lord for all of these gifts that you give us and I pray Lord that we wouldn't take them for granted we love you God and we praise you in Jesus name Amen