Jesus Gives Living Water: Part 1

Jesus as the Master Soul Winner in John 4

I'd like to speak to you in a two-part series here on Jesus Gives Living Water. Jesus Gives Living Water, so please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of John, to John's Gospel, as we continue to work our way through this wonderful book, John chapter 4.

Before we read the text, let me give you a little preview here in John chapter 4. We will see within this chapter that our Lord Jesus Christ is ministering to a variety of people. First, He ministers to a sinful Samaritan woman.

We will see also that He's teaching His own disciples many great, important lessons. And then, He also will minister to many Samaritans who come to trust Him. And finally, at the end of this chapter, a nobleman and his household.

Our Lord Jesus has a very important lesson to teach each one of us. Yet, there is something that each one of these people have in common in which we will be looking at, and it's something very, very important for us to learn.

It's that one significant, all-important point that the Scriptures continue to repeat over and over to us. And that is, each one of these people had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They had faith. Faith.

So once again, the Apostle John was here fulfilling the purpose of his Gospel and showing us how various kinds of different classes of people came to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God.

So this is actually the theme we see throughout the Gospel of John. It is faith in Christ. It is faith in the Son of the Living God, which is accompanied by salvation. That's what brings salvation is faith in Christ.

Christ is that salvation, but we must have faith to believe. And this is why Jesus came, is to bring salvation. He brings it to us. It's come down from heaven to us. So from verse 1 to verse 26, we first see how Jesus offered the Samaritan woman living water, which is the gift of God.

That gift of God is Jesus Christ Himself, which is eternal life. This is eternal life, or life eternal. That they may know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. That's what He prayed in John chapter 17.

So there's some very important lessons for us to learn here. And the Samaritan woman shows an intriguing interest. We will see this. However, there were some matters that she had to straighten out before she could ever have living water.

And the Lord comes by divine appointment to her, to Jacob's well. What was those matters that she had to deal with? Well, first of all, she had to deal with the matter of her personal sin. Her personal sin.

A lot of times that's left out. Many preachers seem to overlook that. But here you see that she had to come to repentance. But first she had to see that she was a sinner. God knows this, and Jesus knows this, and the Lord deals with her very graciously.

Very graciously. And such wisdom. Also, there's the matter of worship. We will see today why this matter of worship is brought up. Also, the matter of Him being the Messiah. The Anointed One. The Christ.

And we will also see of her laboring for God. Therefore, Jesus began to discuss these subjects with her on a very one practical level, I should say. One by one. Don't you love how our Lord deals with people?

Just not in the masses, but personal. Very personal. It reaches us, doesn't it? We deal with people on a personal basis. So this speaks much to us today. And our Lord Jesus Christ in His perfect wisdom graciously leads her to the truth.

And eventually in believing in Him. And we will see this. And Jesus has an important lesson to teach us as well. And we will see the Master in this series as the Master Soul Winner. He is the Master Soul Winner.

If anyone teaches us about soul winning, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the greatest example. Now the Apostle Paul was a tremendous soul winner. We will look a little bit today at verses from Corinthians about how he was winsome in winning people to Christ.

But Jesus Christ is the greatest soul winner.

No doubt about it.

Jesus Leaves Judea by Divine Necessity

Now, we also see the Master Soul Winner at his very best. And in chapter 3, as we saw, we saw how Jesus taught a religious Pharisee, Nicodemus, about the new birth. And now here in chapter 4, we see how Jesus teaches the Samaritan woman about living water.

So in saying that, let me read the text in John chapter 4, beginning with verse 1 to 26. Verse 1 to 26. Hear the word of the living God. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, speaking of John the Baptist, though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through Samaria.

And so he came to the city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well.

It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me to drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

And the woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock?

Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. And the woman answered and said, I have no husband.

And Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband, in that you spoke truly. And the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, 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. But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. And for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And the woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things.

Jesus said to her,.

I who speak to you,.

Am He.

Praise God.

May God bless the reading of His Word from our ears to our hearts this morning. Please bow with me in prayer. Our Father and our God, as we look to You this morning,.

We praise You,.

We glorify You, O Lord, and we thank You for Your Word, for Thy Word is truth. Now, Lord, take that Word from our ears to our hearts by Your blessed Holy Spirit. There's so many wonderful lessons that this text contains.

We thank You, Father, for Your great love and Your grace that has come to us through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Your beloved Son. May we hear Him. O Father, only Your Holy Spirit can help us truly perceive and to hear.

We cannot do this within our own power. But Lord, we need Thy power. And we thank You, Father, that there is no one, no one, Lord, that is beyond the reach of Your great love. And we thank You that the salvation that has come to all, knowing that all will not believe, but it is available to all.

And that the ones that You have appointed to eternal life will believe and hear and receive the truth of this glorious Gospel. Father, we thank You for the reason that the Lord has come on a mission to seek and save the lost.

Thank You for the great mercy that You show through Him. Lord, we thank You for Your blessed Holy Spirit that opens up blind eyes, unstops deaf ears, gives new hearts through the new birth. Father, as the wonderful hymn says it, more and more about Jesus, more and more about Jesus.

Let me learn more of His holy will to discern. Spirit of God, my Teacher be, show in the things of Christ to me. We pray this now, Father, for each and every one of us within this hour of worship to the praise of the glory of Your grace and honor.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. This particular section, from verse 1 to verse 26, is no doubt one of the most profound revelations that is given about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's wonderful. It is absolutely wonderful.

He is the living water. He is the living water. The water which men and women can drink, thereby they will never thirst again. Only Jesus can satisfy a parched soul. Think about the millions and millions of people in this world today that are seeking satisfaction in all things.

Whether it be things on this earth that will pass away, or through drugs to give people a high, to make them feel better, or through sexual relations that's outside of God's covenant. So many idols that people have, and so many other things that people seek after to try to satisfy their parched soul.

But yet, there is only one that truly satisfies the soul, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. None other. And we see the story here of this wonderful, wonderful Savior that meets a sinner. The Savior meets the sinner at Jacob's well.

Now, up front here with you, I'd like to say there's much here in this chapter. So we're breaking this up into several parts. This particular section here, I'd like to break it up into two parts if I can, by God's help, get all this packed in because there's so much here.

We're going to basically just today look at the overview of the background that Jesus leaves Judea from verse 1 to verse 9. There's a lot here in nine verses. Second, third, and fourth, these other outlines, I'd like to give it to you anyway.

We'll be looking at it, God willing, later on. Next Lord's Day, we'll have a guest speaker, basically a missionary speaker. But we're going to look at these other points later on. Second point, I'd like to say we'll be seeing the living water that is alive.

Living water is living. In verse 10. Then third, we will see living water is from a person, that is the person of Jesus Christ, that is much greater than any religious system. Verse 11 and 12. And then fourth, we will see living water is the only water that will satisfy and quench our thirst.

That is found in verse 13 and 14. So in that section from those parts, we'll be looking at that in two parts, and then we'll be breaking it up a little bit more. Like I said, there's a lot here. My wife posted something about how the groundhog, if he sees a shadow, will have an early spring.

So she humorously put, well, if the pastor sees his shadow, or does not see his shadow, but sees his shadow, right, will have an extra session of serious observance. And I'm sure that got people's attention on Facebook.

So I thought, yeah, did I see my shadow? I'm not going to say. So anyway, so we'll be seeing a lot of this from the text this morning. Well, let's begin with the background, the background that Jesus leads Judea.

There's a lot here, folks. And let me say this. In this overview, in this introduction, don't think it's just facts and something that is boring in a sense. These facts will help you and I to understand everything that Jesus leads up to is what is said about the Samaritans, about the reason why Jesus, what led Jesus up to Sychar, Sychar, I guess you could say, there providentially.

And that all that is being said today will give us a tremendous amount of discernment in the text, from the text, that understands why it's going in that direction.

Okay?

So go with me with this and let's learn together.

Amen?

Look at verse 1 and 2. The Scripture says, Therefore, therefore. Remember, therefore is always there for a reason, right? When the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, verse 2, though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples.

Now, first of all, let's look at two significant facts here that's very important. First of all, Jesus left Judea out of necessity. Out of necessity. This is very important because he left for John the Baptist's sake, actually.

Let me explain the reasons why. There was crowds, as we saw in chapter 3, that was leaving John, coming to Jesus, they were flocking to Jesus, and the religiousness, the religious crowds, the Pharisees, were using the fact to downgrade John the Baptist's ministry.

Okay?

And this is what they were doing. We see this in the previous chapter, in chapter 3, as we looked at in verse 22 to 26. Go back with me a little bit and let's refresh our memory. I think this is very important because it brings us into chapter 4 and was how it begins.

So in verse 22 to 26,.

It says,.

After these things Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he remained with them and baptized them. Now, John also was baptized in Enon, near Salem, because there was much water there.

And they came and were baptized for John had not yet been thrown into prison. And then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. So, we see that a dispute came about.

Now, Jesus did not want to create, by no means, a competitive sense of demeaning and damaging John's ministry. That's the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is not in it for any competitive sake, even though he is the master, right?

But he humbles himself and he shows great humility. And he's concerned also about John's ministry as well. And he knows that there's something that's stirring up about the jealousy and the dispute that's going on and so forth.

We looked at that in John chapter 3 in the previous messages. So, therefore he left the area here and returned to Galilee.

Therefore.

That's how John chapter 4 begins.

Therefore.

So when the Lord knew, the Lord knew this. He left Judea. Jesus knew that because of his rising prominence, the popularity, there would soon be a confrontation with the religious establishment among whom were the Pharisees.

Yet Jesus knew that the time was not yet right for the confrontation in Jerusalem. That later on comes. But at this time, it was not the right time. Isn't it amazing as you go through the Gospels, everything, every step that our Lord takes is in total perfection, I should say.

And providence to the sovereign plan of God. All the way to the cross. All the way to Calvary. Now perhaps the Pharisees had attempted to use the fact of John the Baptist's popularity as he was declining, his ministry was declining to stir up the jealousy.

We saw that. And contention between the disciples of John and those of the Lord. Now look at in chapter 4, verse 3 and 4. He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. And verse 4 says, but he needed to go through Samaria.

He left Judea. MacArthur says right here in his notes, John the Baptist and Jesus had official scrutiny focused on them because of the distinctive message regarding repentance and the kingdom. And he says this, most likely Jesus wanted to avoid any possible trouble with John's disciples who were troubled with his growing popularity and since the Pharisees were also focusing on his growing influence, Jesus decided to leave Judea and travel north in order to avoid the conflict.

And that's very well right to the text of what is happening here. So that's actually the very first reason for Jesus leaving Judea. It was out of necessity. The second significant fact that we notice is that Jesus left Judea to confront a Samaritan woman.

This is very important because you see out of the divine necessity, it is divine appointment. It wasn't by happenstance. As so many people say, it just happened to go this way or it was by luck. There's no such thing as luck in the Christian life, folks.

That word does not even should exist as a Christian. As James says, we should say the Lord wills or as in other scriptures, as the Lord permits, as God divinely directs us, He appoints, we believe that God is sovereign but especially here with the Lord Jesus Christ because there is the sovereign leading of the Holy Spirit within our Lord's life.

So verse 3 says He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. Verse 4, but He needed to go through Samaria. He needed. It was appointment, a divine appointment. Several roads lead to, I'm sorry, from Judea to Galilee.

Several roads. One near the sea coast is if you would look on the map, if you'd like to look at your map.

Geographically.

And there's another through the region of Perea and one through the heart of Samaria. It's interesting. Now verse 4 says this, but He needed to go through Samaria. Now right here in translations, I like the Old King James because the Old King James says He must needs go through Samaria.

It includes the word must. He must needs go through Samaria. I personally like that translation a little better here in the text because of the fact of the word must. That word must means in the original language, it means by necessity,.

Compulsion,.

Destiny, destiny.

In other words,.

Jesus was driven to go through Samaria out of divine necessity, divine appointment.

Why?

Well, that was His mission. It's for the sake of His mission for the Lord came to seek and save the lost and it was in the divine, sovereign providence of God that this Samaritan woman was in view. The Lord knew it.

I would like to think of it like this and it's exactly what it is. Before the world was created, this Samaritan woman was on the Lord's mind. Just like you and me. You think, how can that be?

Well, He's the Lord.

And He appoints who He chooses to appoint. He has compassion on whom He desires to have compassion on and He does what He pleases. And He had this woman on His mind. So our Lord goes through Samaria. That's the providence of God out of divine necessity.

Don't you love that? Divine necessity. Not so much that He was compelled to do so by a geographical consideration.

No.

But rather by the fact and the truth that there was a needy soul.

One soul.

One sheep that needed the shepherd.

And the shepherd goes after the sheep.

His own. There was a needy soul in Samaria that He could help and lead to the truth. For He Himself is the truth. Now, verse 5 says this. So, He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Leon Morris says here that their route, or route, however you want to say it, from Jerusalem to Galilee through the region beyond the Jordan. This was considerably longer. Isn't that interesting? It was a longer route.

But it avoided contact with the Samaritans. Those who were not so strict went through Samaria. End quote. This is very significant. And I'm going to tell you why. Because Jesus saw it as a divine necessity to go that way.

He went that way because again, as I just mentioned, His mission was to seek and save the lost. That was His mission. That's why He came. We must never ever forget that great truth, beloved. Christ came to seek and to save the lost.

So, He's traveling into Samaria. The Lord Jesus came to this little village called Sychar. And this little town is probably identified with modern village of Askar on the shoulder of Mount Ebal, which is opposite of Mount Gerizmon.

It's a continuous line of tradition that identifies Jacob's Well as lying about half a mile south of Askar. One commentator by the name of Alfred says this,. Some think that Sychar, which means drunken, was originally a contempious name applied to the Jews to Shechem.

End quote. Verse 6 simply says,. Now Jacob's Well was there. This is where Jacob's Well was there. The city of Sychar was ancient Shechem.

Ancient Shechem.

And which is actually the capital city of the Samaritans. Now let's look very quickly who are the Samaritans. Samaritans are a group of people that intermingled from a mixed race through intermarriage.

That we would call them today as mixed breed. They're mixed with Assyrian and Jew. Eventually the tension developed between Jews who returned from captivity to Samaritans. Samaritans, which are again a mix of Assyrians and Jews, withdrew from worship of Yahweh at Jerusalem and established their worship at Mount Gerizmon in Samaria.

Now I read that today. Does that make perfect sense of what verse 20 says? Our fathers worshipped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. That's exactly what she says and what she's referring to is the difference between the mountains of worship, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizmon.

So we see that in that section of the text. And the Lord Jesus Christ sets her straight about that. In verse 21, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.

I love how the Lord just directs her to really the point of worship. It's not necessarily where you worship. It's who you worship. You worship what you do not know. You do not know. We know what we worship for salvation of the Jews because the Lord is Jewish.

But the hour is coming, our Lord says. And now is when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.

I've said this before yet, but isn't it wonderful that Jesus Christ, the Lord Savior, gives that great revelation to a prostitute, to a woman that is a mixed breed, a riffraff, a reject. He gives this great revelation to her and not to someone like Nicodemus.

Now, He gives Nicodemus basically a rebuke. He said, you should know the things which you teach. Why? Because Nicodemus had greater light. He's supposed to have greater light, but he didn't know. But here's a woman that has very little light.

Right?

Well, as to go on, it's also something else as I was studying this, I think this is very interesting as well, and I'll share this with you, because as I learned, I'd like to bring it to you. Interesting to note also that the Samaritans regarded only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, as authoritative.

Only the Pentateuch, that's it. They didn't go any further than the first five books of the Bible as being authoritative, so they really didn't know much about, like what Brother Keith was reading today,.

The book of Judges, Joshua,.

The historical books,.

The poetic books, the prophetic books. They didn't really know that. So, they knew of it, but as authoritative, the Pentateuch was it. That's interesting. So, as a result of much of this, the Jews repudiated the Samaritans.

They disdained them, and they considered them heretical. Completely heretical. Another quote from MacArthur here, he says, intense ethnic and culture tensions raged historically between the two groups so that they both avoided contact as much as possible.

End quote. Look at verse 6a. Now Jacob's whale was there. What's so important about Jacob's whale? There's a lot of great importance. Did you know that in this particular location, that this is where Abram first came when he arrived in the Canaan from Babylon in Genesis 12, 6?

Did you know that this is where God first appeared to Abram in Canaan and renewed the promise of giving the land to him and his descendants in Genesis 12, 7? Did you know that this is where Abram built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord in Genesis 12, 8?

Did you know that this is where Jacob came safely when he returned with his wives and children from his sojourn with Laban in Genesis 33, 18? And again, did you know that this is where Jacob bought a piece of land from the Canaanite named Hamar for a hundred pieces of silver in Genesis 33, 19?

It goes on.

This is where Jacob also built an altar to the Lord and called it El Elam Israel in Genesis 33, 20. And this is that established the connection between Jacob and what has become known as Jacob's well there in Sychar.

And also, according to Genesis 34, this is also the place where Diane, the daughter of Jacob, was actually raped. And the sons of Jacob massacred the men of the city in retaliation.

This was the plot.

Of ground.

That Jacob gave to his son Joseph, the land that Jacob conquered from the Amorites with his sword.

And bow.

In an unrecorded.

Battle. Isn't that.

Interesting? You can read that in Genesis 48, 22.

And also.

Interesting as this is, this is exactly where that the bones of Joseph were eventually buried in this particular area where they carried up his bones from Egypt in Joshua 24, 32. This is also where Joshua made a covenant with Israel renewing their commitment to the God of Israel and proclaiming in Joshua 24, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

And now we come to this section. But he needed to go through Samaria.

And he came to the city.

Of Samaria which is called Sycharne the plot of the ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Yes, all that which I mentioned is exactly the location of all that history that took place here.

And I cannot help but think that the son of the living God by divine necessity and appointment.

Meets this.

Sinful woman that's a prostitute, an outcast and a reject.

In this location.

By divine appointment to reach.

Her soul.

That we would see her in heaven that she is God's own elect by the grace of God. Isn't it wonderful.

How God.

Marks out someone like this? Isn't it wonderful that no one's beyond the grace, the reach of God's grace? Isn't it wonderful we can keep that in mind when we go out there in the highways and byways to compel people to come to Jesus that this may be one of God's elect.

We don't know who God's elect are. That's why the Bible says you preach the gospel to every creature. God doesn't.

Want.

To leave anyone out to hear the gospel.

Jacob's.

Well. It's known as a spring of Jacob. It's beyond no doubt that known today, even today by the Samaritans, the Jews, the Christians alike and even Muslims as the spring and the well.

Of Jacob.

And we will see much more about this living water as the series to come, God willing. But right now we see by divine necessity our Lord Jesus Christ comes to this.

Plotted ground.

That Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there.

Jacob's well was.

There. And then the next section. He comes. Our Lord comes there.

And what.

Do we read? Jesus therefore being wearied from his journey. He's wearied from his journey. He sat thus by the well. He's tired. He's wearied. As the son of man. A lot of times people get the idea and the notion that Jesus is this superman that never got tired.

But he got tired didn't he? He suffered. He had to learn obedience through suffering. Actually that brings to mind of Hebrews chapter 2. If you go with me to Hebrews chapter 2. We see this and it gives us some great revelation about.

Jesus.

As the son of man. Hebrews chapter 2. Notice what it says about the Lord.

Here.

Verse 10 through 14. For as it was fitting for him for whom all things are all all things by whom are all things. And bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one. For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

And then it says.

All the way to verse 14 saying I will declare your name to my brethren and in the midst of assembly I will sing praise to you again. I will put my trust in him and again I am I am I the children here am I and the children whom God has given me and as much as the children have partaken of flesh and blood he himself likewise shared in the same.