Everyone s Thirst Quencher (John 4:1-42)

Everyone s Thirst Quencher (John 4:1-42) Well over the last week or so we ve had some of those hot summer days people told us to expect in Grenfell. One of the things that you find yourself doing on a day like that is drink a little more water. When we re thirsty we drink. But what about when there s no water around? What would happen if you went beyond a hot day in Grenfell, and were in a hotter place like a desert, with nothing to drink? The human body begins to show dehydration when it loses just 2% of its water. This is where thirst kicks in, and things like dry skin and discomfort. By the time you reach mild dehydration, some of the things that might happen are irritability, having no tears when crying, a headache, and dizziness. If you lose even more water, seizures, sleepiness, and fainting can kick in. And with severe dehydration, there s nausea and tingling in the limbs. And if you reach 10-15% dehydration, you become delirious. Water loss of over 15% usually means death. We all know we need water, and the bottled water companies certainly know that. So here s what Evian has to say. Each drop of Evian Natural Spring Water starts off as rain and snow high up in the pristine peaks of the French Alps, travelling through a vast mineral aquifer deep within the mountains before emerging at last in the spring in Evian-les-Bains. This amazing journey is the secret to Evian s purity and takes over 15 years. But then, isn t perfection worth the wait? 1 It sounds good doesn t it? But you know, Evian still isn t perfect water, because it doesn t fix real dehydration. Everyday we re surrounded by people suffering from a lack of water, people in desperate need of a refreshing drink. The problem is, they need spiritual water. People aren t just a bit thirsty, but severely dehydrated, pretty much dead from not drinking. The crazy thing is that the true spring of rejuvenating water is at hand. Many of us in this church have drunk from this water, because we know and love and trust in the Lord Jesus. In our passage, Jesus says that He s the water of eternal life and anyone can drink from Him. So we re going to explore how Jesus is for everyone. Our first point this morning is that there s no more geography God can t be held in just one place. Here we have a story where Jesus and His disciples are on three day walk from Judea in the south to Galilee up north. The most direct way was to go through Samaria, as it says in verse 4. By the time Jesus got there, he was tired from walking. And probably hot and thirsty too. So He sits down at the well. Then a woman comes over to get some water. Jesus starts a conversation with her, and the things that He says are absolutely mind-blowing. So let s follow what they say, starting at verse 9. Read with me please. You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) See, what Jesus is doing here is completely counter cultural. Jews like Him didn t have anything at all to do with Samaritans. They saw them as half-breed idolatrous dogs. All of this goes back hundreds of years. When God s people split into a north and south kingdom, the north set up a new capital called Samaria. And the kings and priests of the time set up idols and shrines there. To make matters worse, Samaria was then defeated by the world superpower Assyria. Assyria deported lots of people and resettled the land with foreigners, who 1 Available: http://www.evian.com/ca/en/indexstaging.php. Cited 9 January 2008. Everyone s Thirst Quencher (John 4:1-42 sermon) Page 1 of 5 Bern Merchant, Grenfell Presbyterian Church 11 Jan 2009 1

intermarried and brought their own religions. And so the Jews to the south saw the Samaritans as tainted people. There was a lot of racist hate in the time of Jesus. But that s not the only counter-cultural thing here. Another thing this woman has against her is that she s a woman. Back in that day, men, especially a teacher like Jesus, wouldn t speak to a woman in a public setting like that. It just wasn t done. Later in verse 27, it says that the disciples returned and were surprised to find Jesus talking to a woman. From our perspective they were a sexist society. So this woman was the last person anyone would expect Jesus to strike up a conversation with. But He asks, Will you give me a drink? She couldn t believe this what are you doing asking me? But Jesus gets right to the point. He wants to share life-changing news with her. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Now the woman just doesn t get it, she thinks he s still talking plain old drinking water. You don t have a bucket, and besides how can you offer any better water than what comes from this well, a gift from our ancestor Jacob. But look at what Jesus says in verse 13: Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. My water quenches the ultimate thirst. My water brings life to the soul. If you drink from me, you will live forever. But she still doesn t get it. She thinks it s a good idea to have special water that s so refreshing that she wouldn t have to make the hard trip to the well all the time. And so Jesus shakes things up. He says something very hard-hitting and personal to get her attention. He confronts her with her dirty secrets. Go and get your husband. I don t have one. I know. You don t have one now, but you ve had five. And right now you re involved with another man that you re not married to. Can you picture the expression on her face? How would you react if a stranger came up to you and started telling you the dark hidden things of your life, the bits you want to hide from everyone? See, this woman had another strike against her. Why do you think she was getting water at the well during the hottest part of the day? The sixth hour was twelve noon. It was because she was an outcast, a known sinner. In her day, it was a scandal to marry so many times, and men and women just didn t live with one another. She didn t got to the well during the cool hours with the other women because they were the ones talking about her, the ones pointing their finger. And yet Jesus pushes this conversation so that she can t help but realise who she s speaking with. The man who was the hope of all the people of that time, He said to her, I want to give you eternal life. I want to quench your ultimate thirst. whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Everyone s Thirst Quencher (John 4:1-42 sermon) Page 2 of 5 Bern Merchant, Grenfell Presbyterian Church 11 Jan 2009 2

Jesus could have come into Samaria and targeted the rich, the powerful, or the religious. But He focused on this unlikely woman, and pushed things until she ran back to the town to tell people she found the Messiah. Jesus is for everyone. The Samaritan woman. The sinner. The talk of the town. The person with the hidden secrets. And He said to her, a time is coming when you won t be concerned about where you worship, whether that s the sacred mountain in Samaria or the temple in Jerusalem. A time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. See, God can t be trapped in a temple. He can t be limited to just some people and not others, based on their location. The time has come through Jesus that anyone, even this Samaritan woman, can be a true worshipper who ll worship in spirit and truth. God is spirit. He s invisible, divine, life-giving, and unknowable to us human beings unless He reveals Himself. But He has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus, who is God s truth. Jesus is saying here that there s a new way to approach God, and anyone can be a part of this. The true worshipper is God-centred, not temple or church or holy place centred. This person can access God anywhere. Through Jesus, anyone can come to the Father. Through Him, anyone can have eternal life. Through Him, anyone can have their souls satisfied. The early church father, Augustine, said it like this, You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Through Jesus, the search is over, the thirst ends. Jesus is for every race. That s why the Rowe family can minister in Africa, and Nathan and Kathy can reach out in Portugal, and Ross and Zovi can worship in India. Jesus is for the unlikely, the sinner, the outcast. Even the unexpected can know God, because Jesus cracks access to God wide open. Forget the temple, it s through spirit and truth. Our second point this morning is that the fields are ripe for harvest. So the disciples come back, surprised to see Jesus talking to this woman. And then she runs off to tell everyone about Him, Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ? And the people start coming. Meanwhile, the disciples are saying to Jesus, We ve been on the road all day, you should eat something. Jesus answers that He already has food that they don t know about. And while they re wondering if someone gave Him a meal, Jesus says, and this is in verse 34: My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, Four months more and then the harvest? I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest! It s no accident that Jesus is saying this to His disciples in a small town in Samaria, while people are streaming to meet Him because He just spoke to a sinful woman in an amazing way. My good news, He s saying, isn t just for men, or Jews, or influential people like Nicodemus, or the people you d normally find at the temple. It s for everyone. It s for these Samaritans that are gathering now, these people that you and your families have hated for generations. Who have I come for? Who do I want in my kingdom? Everyone. You don t have to wait for a harvest. Look around, and everywhere you ll see people dying of thirst. Open your eyes and you ll see people who I want to talk to and offer the gift of eternal life. Everyone s Thirst Quencher (John 4:1-42 sermon) Page 3 of 5 Bern Merchant, Grenfell Presbyterian Church 11 Jan 2009 3

The next time you walk down the main street of Grenfell, look around. Who s the Gospel for? Just people who happen to come to this church? Just the ones who are more adjusted and socially acceptable? Just the ones with some background here, not the blow-ins? Grenfell is ripe for harvest. The people in the queue at IGA are thirsty. The man punching in his pin at the ATM needs Jesus. The woman cleaning her windscreen at the petrol station is hungry for eternal life. The people at the pub are ready to hear the Gospel. The children at our schools have souls that need a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman in this story had deep needs. She needed acceptance. She was probably trying to find fulfilment in relationship after relationship. She needed friends and people to love her. She was probably lonely. She probably longed to be just a normal person without the scars from the past that tainted her life now. But look at her reaction when it finally clicked that the Messiah Himself loves her, that He reached out to her of all people, and offered her the precious gift of eternal life, of newness, a fresh start, a real loving relationship with Him. How will people in Grenfell react when they finally hear the Gospel? When they hear how much Jesus loves them and wants to know them? As a church family, let s open our eyes and look around. We don t have to wait for harvest time, it has begun. The fields are ripe for harvest. So this year we re going to get the Gospel out there. And we ll do it together. We ll create opportunities to bring in the harvest. The Holiday Kids Club comes up in April, and then we ll have an outreach dinner after that. We ll run Christianity Explained. We ll make the best of opportunities like Easter and Christmas. We ll invite people to church. We ll get people here through the Mission Market, the Flower Show, and the Bible Society Dinner. And what should we be praying for when that happens? Please read with me from verse 39 to the end of our passage: Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world. Jesus is for everyone. Our final point is that anyone who truly hears for himself, can know that Jesus is Saviour of the whole world. See, the Samaritans here, in the end they didn t believe in Jesus just because of the woman s testimony. Her words were what attracted the people, so they could listen to Jesus for themselves. And when they came into contact with the truth, they clearly knew who Jesus was and what He was offering. They knew He was the Saviour, the One to save from sin and death and guilt and being an enemy of God. After hearing Christ they wanted to drink from His life-giving water, they wanted to be refreshed by Him. After meeting the Messiah, only He satisfied. And that s what we re aiming for. Getting people to a place or a point where they can clearly hear the good news of Jesus. The ones with ears to hear will recognise the truth, and drink deeply, and be reborn. It s not our words that save, but the Word, Jesus who saves. So we can bring people to Him, by bringing the Gospel to them. We can invite people to church or events. We can keep going into the schools for Scripture classes. We can be visible in the community. We can live as people who ve clearly tasted that life-giving water, so that Jesus is attractive and others will taste Him too. Everyone s Thirst Quencher (John 4:1-42 sermon) Page 4 of 5 Bern Merchant, Grenfell Presbyterian Church 11 Jan 2009 4

Open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest. They re full of people delirious, fainting, and nauseous from lack of water. But whoever drinks the water Jesus gives will never thirst again. Indeed, the water He gives will become in these people a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Let s pray. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss this sermon, please feel free to contact Bern on (02) 6343 2013 or bernm@iinet.net.au. Everyone s Thirst Quencher (John 4:1-42 sermon) Page 5 of 5 Bern Merchant, Grenfell Presbyterian Church 11 Jan 2009 5