An Unexpected People Receive Life Pt 2

Thank you for your singing. Please open your Bibles to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. We'll start in verse 1. John chapter 4 verse 1. 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 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 worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is a 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 worshippers 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. 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, 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? So they went out of the town and were coming to him. Let us pray. Oh, Father, we praise you for your word. We praise you for your truth. We thank you, God, that you have not left us without a witness.

You have not left us in ignorance, but rather you have made your word available to us every day. It is always near. And God, we praise you that you have not left us destitute of your word within our very souls, that you have sent your son to die on the cross to forgive us of our sins and to give us of his spirit so that we would receive your word within our very spirits.

We thank you, God, that you are so kind, you're so good, you take care of your people, you promise to do it, and you are the one who has done it and will do it and continue to. And so, God, let us put our faith firmly in you now. Let us, Lord, see our need for you by our sin, and let us, Lord, see that you are a gracious Savior through Jesus Christ the Lord who truly gives living water from his work on the cross and resurrection.

So we thank you and we praise you. May you be with us now as we look at your word together. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I'm sure many of you guys have been watching the news and heard the reports of Charlie Kirk and what happened this week with the wickedness and the evil that he has experienced. It's a fascinating thing to see really what Charlie Kirk did, how he was a man who simply went to unexpected places, college campuses, and spoke with people that were deep in a totally different worldview, a totally different system of belief, and he simply wanted to have conversation.

He simply wanted to talk and to talk about different ideas, even whenever the two ideas that they were talking about were on totally opposite sides. It's an interesting thing. He simply would go there and invite conversation. And so that's perhaps, and the way he did it, if you ever watched him do it, of course, no one's perfect, but he would do it very well.

He would do it patiently. He would want the other person to express themselves, to talk. He would invite that, and then he would have that conversation with them, in which he did very well debating and arguing his own side. And as I thought about this, I thought it's very fascinating where we're at in John, because essentially Jesus is doing the very same thing in which he is in a very unlikely place with unlikely people with totally different views of things, and he is having conversation.

It a fascinating thing in history that you have this one side that has always that has expressed themselves with the sword and to kill and destroy But you have another side that always says that expresses themselves with words and ideas and proclaiming the truth and relying upon that. And there's those two different sides. And if you look throughout history, you can see that strand running through history.

And it's no wonder that Charlie Kirk was a born-again Christian, was very vocal about that. And I believe he got that principle of simply saying what you believe and utilizing argumentation and talking and not violence. He got that from somewhere. He got that from someone. He got that from our master, Jesus Christ, who is actually doing that very thing here.

And it's fascinating. As you look throughout history, you've always had a people following Christ, saying we will rely upon our words, we'll rely upon the truth. and you've always had antichrists, you've always had wicked people who rely upon the sword to destroy and kill. Whether it's Muhammad, whether it's false religion, whether it's the unbelieving Jews, you've always had people who relied upon killing and violence instead of the truth.

And so, as we looked at Jesus, even continuing this conversation with the Samaritan woman, seeing how he relies upon truth, seeing how he relies upon the word of truth, we do the same thing. Even in light of violence, we do not resort to violence, but we continue to do what Charlie Kirk has done and what Jesus Christ has showed us in the scriptures and what he tells his people to do. We rely upon the word even in the face of violence.

And this is what we see from Jesus. He is in an unlikely place. He is with the Samaritans. And we talked about this last week. the Samaritans were a wicked people for they took the covenant of God and they mixed in false religion with it. And not only was he with a wicked people, but Jesus is with a wicked woman with wicked people. It's one thing to be with wicked people, but he's with a woman who is considered to be wicked in that group of people.

He's with a Samaritan woman and he is trying to show her her need for living water. He is trying to show her her need for him. He's trying to show her that her life is miserable and in sin and she needs to drink of Jesus for forgiveness of sins and to live righteously moving forward. But what we see from the Samaritan woman, if you remember last week, is she just won't get it.

She just won't understand it. She is getting confused with what living water is and she's getting confused with who Jesus is and the Christ the Messiah and the availability it is for her to receive it we see her confused over and over and over again and so finally Jesus brings it home by saying go call your husband and bring him here and we talked about the reason why he did that is because her main public sin that was very obvious is that this lady was an adulterer. She had many partners.

She had many husbands. In fact, the person that she's living with now was not her husband. And I know today we're like, what's the big deal with that? But that is unlawful and that is considered outside the pale of proper activity then and even now. And so that's why Jesus calls on her to get her husband because she has to admit, well, I have no husband.

And he says, yes, I know you've had five and the person you're living with is not your husband. In other words, you are a sinner. Now, why would Jesus do that? Because she needed to know her sin, because she needed to know her thirst, and she needed to know that he can provide me living water, forgiveness of sins, and righteousness. And so this is where we left off last week.

She says, I have no husband, very quickly, because she was embarrassed to talk about her sin. Jesus says, yes, I know you've had many, you're in sin. And what does she say in response to him in verse 19, which is where we'll continue, the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Hey, that's a good direction, right? That's a good direction.

Again, we're trying to get this lady, Jesus is trying to get this lady to living waters, to righteousness by him, trying to see her need for living waters. And now instead of just simply saying, who are you? You're a Jew and you're asking me for a drink. Now she's saying, okay, I perceive that you're a prophet now. because, you know, there's no reason why Jesus should have known anything about that, her life of being in sin.

He does. And she perceives there's something a little bit more about this man. You must be a prophet. And indeed, that's in the right direction. We'll see. She'll continue that thought to Messiah.

But for now, at least she's acknowledging that you have to be a prophet. She says, I perceive that you're a prophet. Good. But then notice where she wants to go in light of this man of God that she recognizes to be a man of God. She says in verse 20, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is a place where people ought to worship.

Now, that's a moment where you should just, oh, like this. Why? Because this is a lady, once again, who is in sin, who needs righteousness. And she sees at least a prophet of God. And historically, prophets of God help people see their sin and see their need for forgiveness found in God. And so if this woman understood what was at stake, if she understood her need, she would say, you're a prophet and I need help because I'm a sinner and I need righteousness.

But since she's still confused, what does she do? She goes into religious controversy between the Samaritans and the Jews. What a missed opportunity that she would have the Messiah, the prophet before her. She has everything she needs for life and godliness before her, and she wants to waste her time with religious controversy. You know what that's like?

That's like you have skin cancer, okay? So you go to a dermatologist, and you also have bunions. And instead of going to the dermatologist and saying, I have skin cancer, can you get this out of me? It's going to kill me. You say can you please take care of my bunions They annoying They bad to look at I don like them Whoa That would be the stupidest thing you could do Why You need the skin cancer taken care of and here this Samaritan woman is a sinner in need of righteousness The man is right before him who can do it for her, and she wastes her time on religious controversy. this is if you are ever experienced evangelizing or trying to talk with people about their need for living water trying to show them their sin trying to show them that Jesus can provide righteousness a good drink of living water you will notice that it is like constantly trying to keep them on the trail to living water because they will constantly want to cut out they'll constantly want to bring up this topic that topic they'll want to go down every rabbit trail they can as long as they don't have to talk about their sin because they hate talking about their sin.

And so it's a constant thing of trying to bring them back to the trail of truth, to Christ, to their sin, and to his living water. And so this is the same thing happening here. And by the way, we do the same thing, don't we? Even if us who are in Christ. This is one of the reasons why our prayer life and our time within scripture can become dull. Because we ought to be going to Jesus who wants to hear our sin, wants to forgive us of our sin and bring us on the path of obedience and instead because we want to hide our sin and not talk about it because we're too embarrassed we try to skirt around it with all these side issues.

Indeed our relationship with Jesus is built on I'm a sinner and you can help me please help me and it's an enriching relationship we have in light of that. But sin is a great enemy and it will constantly try to get you off of that trail. And we see this Samaritan woman, she's been pointed out her sin. It's been cleared to her. Jesus is there available to her.

And instead, she wants to go down a rabbit trail. She wants to go down this religious controversy of where the proper place to worship God is. Now, again, Jesus, like a kind, patient shepherd, is talking with her and leading her to living waters. That's what he's been doing the whole time. And here, what we see from Jesus is masterful. Because he doesn't say, hey, stop that.

We're going back over here. We're talking about your sin. Cut it out, right? He doesn't say, stop trying to go down that rabbit trail. Get back here. We're on this right now.

We're going to talk about your sin. He doesn't do that. In fact, what he does is he says he entertains that conversation of religious controversy, and then he uses it to bring the rabbit trail back on the main trail of the need for living waters. He does it in a masterful way that I'm hoping that I'll be able to teach well this morning. And so what we're going to do is we're going to jump into this religious controversy because Jesus uses this to bring us and to help us understand what living water is.

So what is this religious controversy that she's bringing up that Jesus so masterfully then uses to show her and us the need for living water. Well, this controversy, we'll read it again. She says, I perceive you're a prophet. And then she says in verse 20, our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you say that in Jerusalem is a place where people ought to worship God, the Father, ought to worship, sorry.

And so the controversy here, and at the first and foremost, is that God has given a law, a command, that you are to worship at a particular location on earth in the Old Testament. This is true, that God has commanded. This is where you ought to, there's a place you are to worship God in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 12, we see this, Deuteronomy 12, if you want, or you can just listen to what I say.

God does command a place to worship him. Deuteronomy 12, 1 through 7, there are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given to you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn the ashram with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods, destroy their name out of the place. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. So destroy the places of their worship when you go into the land. But then he tells Israel, but you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. there you shall go and there you shall bring your burnt offerings your sacrifices your tithes your contribution that you present your vow offerings your free will offerings the firstborn of your herd and of your flock and there at that place you shall eat before the lord your god and you shall rejoice you and your households and that you undertake in which the lord your god has blessed you so there we have there is this controversy this religious controversy that she's bringing up as a samaritan has a place found in deuteronomy where god says there is a place that you are to go to worship God.

And what she says with this, in light of this religious controversy, she says, our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where you ought to worship. And what she's meaning here, she's saying our fathers, and she's not saying the Samaritan's fathers, like our fathers have said to worship here. She's saying my father and your father, the patriarchs, worshiped on this mountain right here in Samaria, Mount Gerizim.

And so what she's saying is, I don't understand why you Jews tell us that we can't worship on Mount Gerizim. Our fathers, the patriarchs, worshiped here. And God has commanded to worship at a place we worship where our fathers worshiped. And what she means is, and we don't have time to go through all the verses, but this Mount Gerizim in Samaria was a place where the patriarchs worshiped God.

Abraham first made an altar when he came into the promised land on Mount Gerizim, when he got called out of the north uh in pagan land and came to canaan in the promised land he first made an altar on Mount Gerizim And you can see that in Genesis 12 If you want to you can look at that later Jacob, another patriarch, another father of theirs, bought land there, as we talked about last week, and he built an altar at Mount Gerizim. He bought land there and he built an altar there. Furthermore, on this mountain, the Mosaic Covenant, the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant, it was declared on this mountain.

And we see this in Deuteronomy 27, 12. When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. So we have a history here in Samaria where Mount Gerizim is a place where our fathers worship. And so what she's saying is, okay, you're a prophet. You could tell me this religious controversy.

Why do you Jews tell us not to worship here when our fathers have done that very thing. And the way Jesus responds is interesting. In verse 21, he says to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor Jerusalem will you worship the Father. See, he's saying a very interesting thing there. First off, notice he says, woman, believe me, This means this is going to be controversial.

This is kind of like him saying truly, truly. This is something that you're not going to expect. This is going to be different than what you're used to hearing. He says there's an hour coming when neither on this mountain nor Jerusalem will you worship the Father. And what he's saying is that there's going to come a time when it will not matter the place to worship God.

He says believe me. It's going to be hard for you to believe. it's going to be different from what you're used to because you're used to hearing a command to worship at a particular place but there is a coming hour when it will not matter where you worship god the place will not matter and i think a good question for us to ask about this is why is it that that command to worship at a particular location right why is jesus so willing to say it won't matter. But yet this other issue with God's command of her sexual immorality, notice Jesus doesn't say, hey, there's coming a time where it won't really matter how many husbands you have.

It won't matter that the guy at your house isn't your husband. Why is it that there's one aspect of God's law where he says there'll come a time where it won't matter? But another aspect where he's saying this is making you thirsty for righteousness, believe upon me. You notice how he uses one to show her sin and her thirst. The other one, he says there'll a time where that won't matter.

Why is there a difference? And the answer is found in the fact that Jesus Christ, the Messiah Christ, came down to fulfill the place of worship, to fulfill the temple worship, to fulfill all those things so that he can provide this woman with a drink to be freed from her sin and actually live in righteousness. That's what he's saying along these lines here is that I have come to fulfill all those things, the temple worship, the location, all those things, so that I can enable you to be forgiven of your sins and no longer live in those sins, i.e. get a drink of righteousness.

See, the whole point here is that Jesus fulfilled those laws. He fulfilled them to the point where now there's the forgiveness of sins provided so that she no longer has to be enslaved to those sins that have made her thirsty. In fact, this is what he goes on to say in John 4.22. He says, you worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

There he's saying that the whole promise of Messiah, the whole salvation promise to the world has came through the Jews. It would come forth from the Jews, in which then he would come and fulfill those laws and provide you salvation. psalm 76 1 in judah god is known his name is great in israel or when solomon blesses the people in the temple built in jerusalem in second chronicles 6 5 through 6 he says since the day that i brought my people out of the land of egypt i chose no city out of all the tribes of israel in which to build a house so that my name might be there and i chose no man as prince over my people israel but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people. Notice, salvation came from the Jews.

It came forth from Jerusalem. But then we get in the New Testament what exactly that entails. And that entails because Jesus came forth from Judah, Jesus came forth from the Jews, and he fulfilled all those obligations so that salvation would come to unexpected people. Paul talks about that in Romans 3, 1 through 2. He says, then what advantage has a Jew, or what is the value of circumcision much in every way?

To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. And then in Romans 9, 3 through 5, he says, For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. They are the Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. to them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the christ who is god over all blessed forever amen so now that jesus has come from the jews salvation has came from jerusalem he has fulfilled the place and those those kind of um the place of worship the the carnal things of worship the temple all those things so that something greater could come and that something greater is found in verse 23, what he says in John 4, 23.

He says, but the hour is coming, right? It's coming where it won't matter where you worship. And he says, but the hour is coming and it's now here, now that he's here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit. and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. So instead of worship being found in just the carnal or where you do it, the place you do it, the temple and everything, He's saying that that is vanishing away, and what's happening is a fulfillment where all that matters is that you worship in spirit and truth.

That Jesus would fulfill the things that are vanishing away and provide you the ability to worship truly in spirit and in truth. And this is good for the Samaritan woman to hear, because she is not worshiping in spirit and truth. She is in sin, disobedience, falsehood, and so she is not worshiping from the heart. Sin is in the heart. And what he's saying is, it won't matter about where, for I have come, and I'm fulfilling, and I'm dying, and I rise it again so that you would worship in spirit and truth.

Spirit is like from the heart, right? To worship in the spirit is from the heart. It's from your motivations, your desires. Everything about you is found within and it reveals itself without. And he's saying, I have come to enable you to worship God with everything about you, from the inside revealed in the outside. There's coming a time where it won't matter about the physical temple, the physical place.

What will matter, what does matter, is that you would be able to worship God from the heart, your whole being, and then it reveals itself on the outside. That you would be able to have truth within your very spirit, within your heart, and reveals itself in action. Jesus came and fulfilled the aspects of the law of God. focus on a place and a temple, etc., which enables his people to worship in spirit and truth, which is the type of worshipers he had always been looking for.

This is not something that Jesus is making up out of the blue. God has always looked for this kind of worshipers. That's why you look at the Old Testament and you see this dichotomy. You see in Deuteronomy 6, 4-6, you see like a greater nature of of god searching for people to love him from the heart deuteronomy 6 4 through 6 here oh israel the lord our god the lord is one you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might and these words that i command you today shall be on your heart right now you have that you shall this is what god's looking for is for you to love him with all your heart and yet then you see in places like hosea 6.6, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice.

The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. You see, God is not as concerned with those public things or those places of worship and the sacrifices. He's concerned about true and genuine worship from the heart revealing itself in action. And what he's saying, Jesus is saying, I've come to fulfill the sacrifice to enable you to worship in the way that God has always desired you to worship.

In spirit and truth. Perhaps a good way to look at this. Think of it as like a present that holds a gift. The box and the wrapping paper is necessary to hold the gift, but once the gift has been opened and received, then the box and wrapping paper is no longer needed. It's thrown out. So these Old Testament laws of where to worship, the temple, sacrifice laws, and everything, they were important as it held the structure that Jesus would come to fulfill.

And once he came and fulfilled it, they break away, and what's left is simply the gift of true worship from the heart because of his work, of sacrificial work that he's fulfilled. Does that make sense? Think of a scaffold on a building. The building needs to be built. You've got the scaffold to help that. But how weird would it be to have this majestic and awesome building and have all the scaffolds and things still up after it's completed?

No, you get rid of those things. You don't need those things anymore. You get rid of the public or the temples. You get rid of the places commanded to worship God because Jesus had come, fulfilled it, and now that work is then given to all people, even the unexpecting people of Samaria, so that they would have true worship indeed. And Jesus grounds this true worship of God, this living water worship, this righteous worship from the heart, from truth in the heart revealed in practice.

He grounds it in who God is. Look at John 4, 24. Look at what he goes on to say. God is spirit. So you are to worship in spirit and truth. And he grounds this true nature of what true worship is and who God is.

God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. So God is not a created entity that we place somewhere on earth where everyone goes and offers just simple outside showy worship. And then that's enough. That's not who God is. He's spirit.

He's infinite. He's eternal. He's everywhere. He's outside of his creation. And so therefore, it's not like we just put him somewhere on an outside show and then we just offer him outside worship and we say, all right, our job's done. We can go home God demands more from you Maybe a good way to look at that is think of a king or a dictator okay Think of like a king who wants all power all authority as much as he can get Or think of a dictator, same kind of mentality.

He could command you to go to a particular place to pay homage to him. He could command you to go to a place and do these outside works of homage, bow down. He could tell you pay taxes, give me your goods. You could do all those outward things, but you know what that king cannot do? He cannot tell you to do it from the heart. He cannot demand that you would love me from your heart, that you would do this from your very soul of your being, and it would reveal itself in your paying homage to me.

He can't do that. He's a creature. He's a thing on earth. He cannot do that, but God is spirit, and when he tells you to worship him, he demands all of you from the very depths of your spirit and your motivations and your desires to the very practice of your life he says i own all of it god is spirit so therefore we worship him in spirit we give him everything as he commands and beloved this is the best thing you could do with your life this isn't something like well this stinks he has he owns me all like I can't hide from at all like this is the worst I can't just come to church and give him some kind of outward show and I can't do that this this is terrible no beloved it is your life it is your spiritual drink to say all of me is presented to God as worship my motivations my desires my very innermost thoughts and feelings I give it to God as worship.

This is your life. You were made to do this. This is the purpose of your existence. And this is what Jesus is telling this Samaritan woman. It's not about the place. God is not a thing of his creation, a creature where you go and you offer him some kind of outward show.

No, you give him everything. Everything within you becomes your worship from your very soul. so essentially jesus is saying to this woman who is tied up in the physical and thinks the greatest concern for her life is the place to worship all the outward things the location problem is soon vanishing away jesus tells her and i am here to fulfill it and by my work i can make you be a true worshiper of god by causing you to worship from your heart by truth, by the word of God. Or in other words, I can give you living water.

I can give you forgiveness of sins. I can give you righteousness. I can change you from the inside out. I am that man. So we must understand that God demands everything from us. He demands everything from us.

And because he's kind and merciful, he provides everything for us in Jesus. And that's important for us to hear today too, right? Because one of the greatest temptations that we all have coming in to worship here with the body of Christ is to go through the motions. If you're not battling that each week, then you're probably just giving in to it without even giving a thought to it.

It is so easy for us to go through the motions and say, well, I just got to put on a show outwardly and just kind of stumble through. As long as my neighbor sees that I'm all right, then everything's good. And what Jesus is saying is, no, I've given you eternal life. I've given you living water. I have, I demand everything from you, from your motivations, your desires, everything within you would worship me.

And because Jesus is merciful and gracious, every day he provides himself as forgiver of sins to enable you to do this very thing. Did the Samaritan woman believe? Did she believe? This is what she's told. That God is spirit, so therefore we must worship him in spirit and truth. This is what you need.

Did she believe? Well, I think she did. I think it's clear. And I think we see this moving forward. We'll finish here with these three things that she does that we see that she received living water from Jesus. We see her acknowledge Jesus, we see her serve Jesus, and we see her proclaim Jesus.

Look how she acknowledges Jesus in verse 25. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. And then John writes in commentary, he who is called Christ. So Messiah, Christ, same thing. When he comes, he will tell us all things. That's basically like her saying, you're kind of looking like the Messiah at this point.

That's what this is looking like. And she wants confirmation from him, in which he goes on to say, I who speak to you, I mean. So notice the progression here, right? At the very beginning of this conversation, completely ignorant to living water, and who Christ is and what he's came to do, not to give you physical water. Who needs that when you have spiritual water?

Well we need physical water but you get my drift What does she say then Who are you a Jew talking to me a Samaritan woman And then she moves on to say I perceive that you a prophet And now she finally says, Christ is coming. Who's going to tell us all things? You're not him, are you? In which he says, I am he. I am him. So she acknowledges, I believe here, who Jesus is.

He is Christ. He is Jesus. And notice she goes on to serve this Christ. Look at, we're going to skip 27. Okay, we'll go over it. Okay, so don't gasp too loud.

We will go over 27 in a moment. But notice what she does next. Next, she serves Jesus. So the woman, in verse 28, left her water jar. Now, I used to think, and this might be the case. I have preached this text before. and I used to think that she was so excited about this living water that she's just received.

It clicked finally. True worship from the heart in which I'm a sinner and I can be forgiven and worship truly. She's so excited that she just wants to go and tell the people of Samaria what's going on. And so she just leaves her water jar. Remember, she came to the well to get water. That was her whole purpose and she just forgot about that because she's so excited about the living water she just received from Jesus and she wants to go and tell the Samaritans.

And that might be the case, and it makes for a good story, for sure. That very well might be the case. But the thing is, if you see that word, so the woman left her water, that typically doesn't mean that she forgot her water, although it could mean that, but typically not. So there's another aspect where she could have purposely left it, that she had the water, she filled it up, and she left it there to go and tell the people about Jesus.

And the reason why this might be the case too, why I like this, is because remember how all this whole conversation started. How did it all start? Remember, Jesus wants to show this lady about living water, and he's using a physical picture of him being thirsty and tired from the walk. And so to show her this is what it's like to be spiritually thirsty, to thirst after God, it's how I'm looking right now.

He says, give me a drink. And that was for her benefit. He certainly needed one, but it was for her benefit to know this is what it's like to be spiritually thirsty. And remember what she says, wait, who are you, what? But now what does she do? She leaves the water jar for him to drink and for his disciples to drink.

I think this is her serving Jesus. It's like her saying, okay, here's the thing you asked for, and now I'm going to take the things that you offer to me. I'm taking living water. I think this is a picture of her believing. Here's what you originally asked me for, and I'll take what you originally offered to me as well. But then not only does she, again, acknowledge Jesus, serve Jesus, but she also proclaims Jesus.

Look what she says in verse 28. She went away into the town, left her water jar, and said to the people, Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? it's wonderful because what was she just a moment before she was trying her best to avoid her sin right go call your husband here I have no husband the whole time she talked Jesus's ear off and all of a sudden she said I don't have any husband oh you sure do Jesus says you've had a lot of them and the one you have now is not your husband she did not want to talk about her sin she did not want to talk about her thirst she did not want living water but now all of a sudden what does she say to a people that probably knew this was a very sinful woman come and see the man who's told me everything about myself who's told me all my sins now she's proclaiming her sins on the rooftop why because she has tasted and see that the lord is good that my sins have been revealed no hiding it and i have received the drink of righteousness from christ when we believe upon jesus when we receive water we do not hide our sin but it becomes manifest because it becomes christ's glory that he would take that forgive us of our sins and grant us and give us practicing righteousness i fully believe this woman tasted the living water that came forth that comes forth from jesus For here she is proclaiming Jesus to an unexpecting people.

Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did. Could this be the Christ? And so look at the result of what happens in verse 30. They went out of the town and were coming to him. They were amazed. What this lady was saying caused such an interest in what she was talking about.

They then go out. They are walking out to Jesus to hear more. This is literally the fulfillment of what Jesus is going to say in John 7, 38. Look at it real quick. It's just a few pages over. John 7, 38.

The Samaritan woman is literally fulfilling what he says here. In John 7, 38. whoever whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart, his spirit his very inner being will flow rivers of living water. So this lady has received living water deep within her spirit and now it can help but to gush forward into a very unlikely town of Samaria And this is essentially the way it works when you receive living water You receive it, you rejoice in it, and it's so contagious it's like a bug that people catch.

They say, what does that person have? I want that. And this is what's happening here. She has received the living water and is now bubbling over to her people and they are coming to Jesus to receive the same water. And this is a good segue into what we're going to talk about next week. Is that people are thirsty.

The world is thirsty for righteousness. They don't know it. They're ignorant just like that Samaritan woman. But we are all in desperate need for righteousness, for truth, for what is right. And when we sin, every single one of us, it is misery and it causes us to thirst. And so when the truth is proclaimed, it creates a stir in people to say, what is this water?

I want it. In which Jesus says, now go and proclaim the good news of the gospel. You see, because when the apostles or the disciples came and they saw him talking to a woman in verse 27, let's go back there. When they came back and they saw what Jesus was doing, talking to this woman, They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, what do you seek her?

Why are you talking with her? You know what they should have thought is, hey, Jesus is giving living water to a very, very sinful woman. But instead they think, what is he doing? What is going on here? And what's awesome is that it will be at Pentecost with the coming of the Spirit in which these same disciples would understand it and it would click. The world needs to hear of living water.

We need to go and proclaim living water. And this is the thing that he teaches them here. We need to go and proclaim living water to a thirsty people. This is the teaching he's going to get to next week, in which it will click at Pentecost, in which they will proclaim living water to pagan Roman Empire and beyond. And so again, in conclusion, remember the point of this whole book.

He wrote these things so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life, living water, righteousness in his name. Life is to receive living waters from Jesus Christ, and living water is righteousness from the inside out. To worship not simply on the outside as a show, but in spirit and truth. and as this true worship works its way out of you it is contagious to a world that is desperate for a drink is your worship simply an outside show or is it gospel centered spirit filled truth-driven, contagious to the world outside.

Let us pray. Oh, Father, thank you for Jesus Christ the Lord. We know without him, Lord, none of us would have any hope. We would all fall into countless deceptions. We would go down countless rabbit trails. We would all be fooled by Satan. we'd be fooled by our sin.

But I'm thankful, God, that in your kindness and love for us, you offer living water through Jesus. You cause us, you help us to see our need for him through revealing our sin, and you show us a way to worship you truly from the heart in truth. Oh, God in heaven, I would imagine there's people before me here who has never truly tasted this living water.

There may be people before me here that they are very good at formalities. They're very good at having a place that you are to worship God and going through the motions. But, oh God, you are spirit. And you demand everything from us. and so I pray God that you would reveal to the unbeliever and the believer alike remind us of what you demand and from us worship from the heart and also Lord reveal to us how you've enabled us to do this very thing through Jesus let our hearts and minds settle upon the Lord may he talk with us and lead us through our prayer life, through our times of scripture reading.

May he lead us like he led that Samaritan woman to remind us of our need and remind us of what he has done for us. So that we would, Lord, worship you in truth and spirit. And we would go to a people who desperately need you, that we'd be contagious because we live within the joy of righteousness. Thank you for this purpose. Thank you for this gospel. Thank you for Jesus the Lord. and it's in his name we pray.

Amen.