In anticipation of coming to the table, we're going to turn this morning to John chapter 4. John chapter 4, the well-known account of the woman at the well and such a wonderful text this morning for coming to the table and considering what Jesus is saying to us when He's calling this woman to receive from Him living water. So John chapter 4, we'll read together the first 26 verses. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 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 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 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 pro 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 in jerusalem will you worship the father you worship what you do not know we worship what we know for salvation is from the jews but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him god is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth the woman said to him i know that messiah is coming he who is called christ when he comes he will tell us all things jesus said to her i who speak to you am he may the lord bless the hearing of his word John's gospel is showing us the glory of Christ and it's showing us the great truth that Jesus has come to be the savior of the world as was said in John 3 and as we consider this this morning this is really a beautiful passage a comforting passage as we anticipate coming to this table because he sets before us in this passage a clear reason why we need this, why this is so important for us. We have a contrast, really, that John has purposely set side by side in two figures that Jesus has come into contact with. The first being, we know the account in John chapter 3, Nicodemus. A religious man, a Pharisee. And the other here, as low as a prostitute. That's a radical extreme, if you think about it. The problems are exposed as being the same. And that's what John's Gospel is showing us this morning. The problems were the same. Both of them looked at their problem as something being just physical. Both were blinded spiritually as to what was really going on in their hearts. And this is giving us a powerful message this morning that everyone's problem is the same and that in these passages, John 3 and John 4, Jesus is showing us his power to come and to seek and save that which is lost to those who are fighting against salvation. That's really important this morning. To those who are fighting against being saved. And today, this is shown to us as Christ takes this enslaved woman, he finds her, he has an appointment to see her, he calls her, she wants to avoid the heart of the matter, and by the time Christ is done, he will have nothing else other than a genuine worshiper who is worshiping him in spirit and in truth, who has come to believe by his power that he is the Christ. I love this because this morning this gives hope to the worst of sinners. And it shows us what it looks like that Christ has come to be the Savior of the world. So what does this mean this morning? I ask the question up front, what are we pursuing in life in which we are trying to find satisfaction? Christ today is showing us that he is the only one that fills the longings of our hearts. This is shown in three kind of ways this morning. I want you to notice how first, if you're taking notes, he graciously pursues this woman. And then he graciously offers her life. And then he graciously gives that life to her. And so you see this is all an initiative of sovereign grace as by the time this is done, he saves this woman. Let's look at this this morning. In verse 1, we have an interesting statement that what had happened was Christ was now gaining more disciples than John, baptizing more than John, and the Pharisees are taking notice of this. And so now their aim has been set upon Jesus. They are now ready to go after him. They are ready to take him down. Jesus knows this. And so in the first verses of John chapter 4, what we read is that he leaves. He purposely departs knowing this, the reason being that it was not the time for him to be delivered up yet. He had things to do. He had a divine calendar to keep that God had given him in eternity. So here we are. You read this little beautiful statement in verse 4. Notice how it's worded here in your text. and he had to pass through Samaria. Now, this is initially interesting because the Jews wouldn't travel there. The Jews wouldn't go there. There were many ways to get to Galilee, and Samaria is not the way that one needed to go. But look at what it says. The emphasis being that he needed, he had to pass through Samaria. Christ has somebody on his mind. I don't know if you've stopped to think about the importance of that little verse. Christ has somebody on His mind. She's not even really a Jew. According to the Pharisees, she would be considered to be the worst of sinners, the Samaritans. And Jesus here, the imagery is, He has to go and He has to get her. I find this really comforting at the beginning of John 4. That our Lord has come to a world of sinners. And at this particular moment, at this particular time, in the calendar that the Father had given the Son to keep, He had to go through Samaria and save this woman at the well. He had an appointment. And we should be seeing up front that the whole plan of salvation, every single one of those that the Father had given to the Son. The Son is going to get. And not one of them is being lost. So it's a beautiful, beautiful upfront sort of scene that we have that nothing can frustrate what the Son is doing. The Pharisees cannot take him out early. The religious leaders cannot pin him to a cross until the time given by the Father. And until that time, he is going and collecting and saving his sheep. So here he comes to this highly religious spot. You read in verse 5 that he came to the city of Samaria near this plot of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph. What we have here is Jesus making a grand revelation because he comes and he sits on this very place of the Samaritan water source. A symbol of religious life. well the picture is is unmistakable it's it's beautiful jesus has come to jacob's well so he arrives here at about the sixth hour and in verse seven we read that a woman of samaria has come out to draw water now jesus knows her jesus knows everything about this woman uh he has known her he has known her from before time he has set his love upon her from the foundation of the world and now the appointment is being met he says something she walks out to the well and here jesus has very openly set himself on the well i'll come back to that he's sitting on the well and this woman walks out and and the jesus here initiates the conversation and he says woman give me a drink you can't pass that by you need to to pause for a moment and reflect upon that give me a drink christ is going to offer her living water but he does something that is completely unexpected give me ma'am a drink now she has no idea who is standing in front of her he knows everything about her and the thing that she can only see are earthly boundaries racial boundaries and how great they were i mean if you studied the times and you understood what what exactly was going on at this time. A man did not talk to a woman in those days like we openly do today. Add to this, Jews never spoke to a Samaritan. And add to this, a rabbi never would have addressed an adulteress. Boundaries. She recognizes this. And in verse 9, we read, Then this woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. This is an interesting way of saying it. Really what's on her mind is the Jews do not use the same vessels together with Samaritans. That's the word implies there. the jews uh call us unclean they call us impure they call us defiled how is it that you then stranger ask me unclean as your people think that we are to give you a drink do you know what you're asking won't you be defiled now remember at one point knowing a little bit of the history here that uh in 722 bc the assyrians had carried away uh israel and what became of samaria do you remember what what happened some of the jewish people some of the peasants had remained behind and what assyrians did is move people back on into the region from five babylon kingdoms and what began to happen was they all intermarried so what had happened in judah what began to they at least characterized the samaritans as over time were a bunch of half-breeds rebels who had impure religion defiled religion in fact when the temple was being rebuilt the samaritans wanted to come on over and help help israel rebuild it and and they said no way so they went and built their own rival temple on mount gerizim so you had two temples two temples for worship even the samaritans having their own samaritan pentateuch completely impure and corrupted according to israel so here we are bunch of half-breed defiled rebels viewed as total defecting from the true religion of the lord so two rival groups i want you to think about the scene here for a minute woman give me a drink we have many pastors have made the connection i think it's an interesting connection you know how strong racial boundaries have been in our country i traveled the south as a kid and i remember seeing drinking fountains and i remember seeing still back in the South, one that said black and the other that said white. And there was. What a thing to do, huh? You imagine a leader, a white leader, coming up to a black woman at the fountain and saying, give me a drink in the South in 1950. Yeah. You can kind of get a sense of the tension that took place this is exactly what is going on here racial tensions were terrible and between the jews and the samaritans it was no different this is what she has in her mind this is what she's thinking about and you know that the beauty of the christian gospel is christ has come to tear down all these barriers he rips it all down there's now neither jew nor greek They're slave nor free. We're one in Christ. That's the beauty of the Christian gospel. So here, he's not after these physical separations. Jesus is after, which comes out later, the greatest separation, which is man from God. And that's why he's seeking worshipers. So what does Christ say in verse 10? If you knew the gift of God and who is it that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. And he expands on this in verse 13 when 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 put this together so far. Jesus knows her. He knows her intimately. He knows her whole life. He knows what's going on in her heart. He sees everything that she's done. He sees all the hidden stuff going on there. Everything that's treasured up there. And then there's this big one in the text, isn't there? This woman is a divorcee. This woman is a big divorcee. This woman is a five-time divorcee. And an adulteress, and I'll come back to that. Notice what it says here. She has had five husbands. And the one she now has is not her husband. You get that? That means it's somebody else's husband. So, even further, notice here, she's enslaved. What is she enslaved to? You could say a few things she's enslaved to. Men? Yes. Sexual morality? Yes. She just keeps going on and on. She just keeps jumping on and on and on from man to man to man to man. And the latest incident is the worst. A divorcee. Now I find it extremely amazing that Jesus knew all this about her. Five husbands, divorced over and over, Her life's a mess. And by divine appointment, the Father has given this woman to the Son. From eternity, He was to come at this very moment to this kind of woman. How would we treat her today? What was and what is the stigma attached to divorcees? I can't get away from how wonderful our Lord is. he knew this, he pursued her, he came after her with the goal of giving her life. Woman, if you knew who was speaking to you, asking you for a drink, you would have asked, and he would have given you living water. This water that he gives, if you drink this water, notice this, you will never thirst again in your life. It's going to be like a fountain that just keeps welling up and bursting up to everlasting life. Explain it. There's a well there at the bottom of these wells. Jacob's well was known for this throughout history as being a well that would spring. and so these wells that were 100 feet deep at the very bottom was a spring and at the top you know what happened over time in jacob's wells that the thing went stagnant with uh debris i mean you know uh jews thought life was uh flowing and they they described life as flowing water they understood this you know the imagery from ezekiel but but you've ever seen a swamp many of these wells you know what what a swamp is like it's it's at the top it's nasty it's uh there's moss and it's green it doesn't satisfy you don't want to put your cup in there you don't want to drink that water notice the contrast jesus is making notice what he's what he's saying here if you knew who it was who was speaking to you would ask and he would give you water that bursts, shoots up like a geyser. It doesn't just sit there. This water keeps shooting and shooting. Nothing can stop it, and it springs to everlasting life. If you knew me, you would have asked, and I'll give you that. It's always moving. It's always satisfying. It doesn't stop. Now Jesus is sitting on the well. If you look carefully at the text, it really should be saying He sits upon it. He takes a seat on the well, and the implication is fascinating because if you understand the imagery from the Old Testament, the Old Testament said many things about the Lord, but one of the things that it constantly said about the Lord is that He is the fountain of life. Remember that? O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth because they've forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water. Psalm 36, How precious is Your steadfast love, O Lord, for with You is the fountain of life. In Your light do we see light. The Old Testament would constantly present the Lord Himself as the fountain of living water. It would say this of the Lord. Christ is the fountain. See the scene? Jesus is standing there. He's sitting on Jacob's well and He's saying to this woman, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of His heart will flow rivers of living water. And we know in chapter 7 that He spoke concerning the Holy Spirit. So that when we are given Him, we'll never thirst again. Now when you put this in contrast to this woman standing before Him, what has she tried to do? What has she tried to substitute? What has she tried to fill? Remember what St. Augustine used to say about the human heart? St. Augustine used to say about the human heart, the great problem is our hearts are incredibly restless until we find rest in the Lord. She has tried to satisfy her heart for years with the love that she receives from men. Man to man to man to man to man. You know people like this, right? She's enslaved. And I say you know people like this because this is you. This is you. This is me. All of us by nature are desperately trying to fill our hearts with something other than Christ. And we're good at it. And here's the sign of it. You know this about you. You're constantly craving things. You're constantly going after things. And what do we call those things that we place our satisfaction in? We call that idolatry. They're idols. And they're like little fountains that we run to. They're not living. They don't spring up. They don't satisfy. They're stagnant. They don't fill. But we're constantly thinking that if we get that thing, it will satisfy us and fill us. And what does life look like that way? I'll tell you what it looks like. We're constantly craving, and we're craving, and we're consuming, and we're consuming, and we're jumping, and we're jumping just to get the satisfaction. always wanting always moving always finding the new thing that will be the answer the new start i need this is why january 1 every year everyone has a new year's revolution resolution fill fill fill and the reality is it's a never-ending saga of heartbreak and tragedy i think this is the most beautiful gospel passage by the way because you know what the lord is saying to us today i see your fountain i see them i see what's going on in your hearts i search the heart i know and i try the heart i see what you do i see what you do in secret i see what you hide i see the relentless pursuits to satisfy yourself. He sees all of these things. And what does he say? Well, he's saying to us, you keep drinking from those fountains, I promise you, you will thirst forever. But, do you see what he's doing? I'm the fountain. Come to me. If you asked me, if you knew I was and you asked me, I would give you this water that will never stop bursting so that you can finally rest. You can finally be filled. I've always thought that one thing we don't do as pastors in John 4 is stop and ask. Jesus just said, if you knew me, who I am, you would ask. Do you ask? Have you stopped and asked the Lord to satisfy you? Isaiah 58, the Lord will guide you continually. He will satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones. You will be like a well-watered garden and like a spring of water, waters that do not fail. Isaiah 58, 11. Ask me, says Jesus. Ask me. I'll give it to you. Why don't you ask? Why don't I ask the way that I should? I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why from the text. Notice verse 15. Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst. Stop. That would be amazing if the verse ended there. Because I would have rejoiced and said she got it. Give me your water so that I may not thirst anymore. But what does she say? What does verse 15 end with? Give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here and draw water. what is the problem well this is the same thing in verse 11 when she says sir you don't you don't have anything to draw with you don't have a rope bucket to go get the water you know are you greater than jacob our father where's your rope bucket i don't see it but if you can do that if you can somehow some way get a rope bucket and supply me with water so that i don't have to keep coming out here this is hot you know this is hot in the sun this is extremely hard if you can do that so that i don't have to keep coming out here to get water i want it the sad thing is is that a lot of christianity today this is the extent of what they've offered isn't it they said hey uh this is what christianity is it's it's jesus coming to uh to make your life rich and make your life healthy and wealthy and happy and victorious you see the problem that kind of message indicates something very bad you don't have a rope bucket you don't have a vessel you study john's gospel very carefully one of the things that you would notice repeatedly happening in john's gospel is when jesus made statements like this nicodemus you've got to be born again what was nicodemus's immediate response i can't go get in a womb unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will not live this man's crazy if you drink this water you'll never thirst again where's your where's your rope bucket what's the problem these people are dead that's what john's gospel showing you these people are dead they have no spiritual life they can't see remember the blind man john 9 and who was blind you say of somebody you know why can't these people just see what why you know i've been trying to tell people about Jesus for a long time in my family why can't they just see if Christ has filled us you know how you're going to know you're pretty ashamed of the fountains that you used to go to you're tired of those fountains and you're greatly disturbed that you still run to those fountains you see them and you say I am sick of those fountains why do i keep going back to those fountains they don't satisfy and i want you to notice what jesus is offering this water is living well i i uh i want this water so that i don't have to come here anymore Go call your husband. What? Where did that come from? Go call your husband. Huh? You notice what Christ just did? He exposed her. I don't want to have to come out here anymore. She had come to Christ sitting on a well, and Jesus now lets it out. Go call your husband and bring him here. In other words, you do have a problem. You've got an alternate water source. And all of a sudden, this woman gets really quiet, doesn't she? She gets really quiet. I have no husband. Not have husband. Anger. He just exposed her. Jesus just exposed her life. And the issue of why we don't ask the Lord is because we don't like to be unmasked ourselves. she had no sense of what was going on in her life. And it's not just that. Notice she didn't know two things here. She didn't know Jesus is you. If you knew who I was, she didn't know Him. And she didn't know her own heart. You ever dealt with anyone covering? Everything's great. You can talk about food. You can talk about the ball game. You could talk about, well, if I were up north, you know, the Mariners. Is that up north? You could talk about anything else other than this. If you get into spiritual things, shut down. You all have family members like this. And it grieves you because you would love to talk to them about Christ and the Savior, but they shut it down. They want nothing to do with it. and jesus said this is the problem this is the it's a big problem it's a big problem because in john 3 he said everyone practicing living in evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deed should be exposed christ just exposed it her alternate fountain and it just got brought out right out in the open she wants nothing of it she doesn't want to deal with it so what does she do she covers with the truth interesting isn't it how people work i have no husband jesus says yeah well said you have no husband you have had five husbands and the one you have is not your husband you spoke truly you see the heart when it wants to conceal when we're confronted we do everything we can to hide and at the same time we manipulate with the truth. I don't have a husband. You're correct. You have had five husbands, and the one you have is not now yours. Explain. You've got this long record of divorces, and now you're trying out some other woman's husband. Graphic. And I say, Jesus sees it all. You could substitute anything here this morning, couldn't you? I'll follow you, Jesus. I will drink your water. Give it to me. make my life easy, Jesus says, bring your idol here. Bring it. Bring your secret addiction that you've held on to for a long time. Bring your other life. I don't have a problem. Well, yeah, you've had it for the past 20 years and now you're concealing it with something else and you've convinced yourself that it's okay. See? See what he just did to this woman? The exposure was needed. and as painful as it was the reason jesus is doing it was to give her true satisfaction living waters that spring up i love verse 19 i have no idea where this comes from sir i perceive that you're a prophet yeah just exposed my whole life our fathers worshiped on this mountain and the jews say that in jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship and you say what does that have to do with adultery what does that have to do with your problem sir i perceive that you're a prophet so where should we be worshiping we can learn a lot here this morning it exposes that deep down we are desperately trying to cover and block the void that needs to be filled and Christ is discoursing with her about gospel, about living water, exposing her need and what she really, really needs to see and she shifts. And you look at this and you say, don't shift. But I'm most amazed this morning with the compassion of our Lord. He doesn't in wrathful anger jump all over her for her very awful life. He doesn't say like some people said, go back to your first husband. There's crazy ideas out there. What does he do? He allows the conversation to take its place and yet he still provides the answer to her lost estate. He says in verse 21, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. And he says this, but the hour is coming and now is here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. Did you get what he just did? Your mountain's wrong. Salvation's of the Jews, but it's a glorious day. It's a glorious day because with my arrival on the scene of history, I am creating a worshiping community that's not heading off to the Jerusalem mountain anymore. It's coming in spirit and in truth to worship me. The way you come to the Lord today is in truth, believing His Word, seeing what He has exposed about your life, turning from that sin, turning from that fountain, and coming to the fountain of living waters to receive that which will most satisfy your soul. You see, this woman is us. And only Christ can satisfy the truly restless heart. Jesus is standing before you today in His gospel. And what does He say? If you know who's standing and offering you true bread and true wine, living water, you would ask, and I'll give it to you. Who here has not asked today? Ask. Jesus says all over the Scripture, Ask Me. Come to the fountain. Come, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters. And he who has no money, you don't have to work for this, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread? And why do you labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves with rich food. And that's what he has set before you today. Praise the Lord that he has given us a fountain of life in His Son who has graciously pursued rotten, half-breed, spiritual adulterers and adulteresses, as James says, just like us. Amen.