Sermon: The Spring of Living Water
Bible Passage: John 4:4-15
I. Jesus came to Samaria—(verse 4:4a “had”)
1. Defied political, religious, cultural limitations (4:9)
2. Develops conversation with the woman to reveal who He is
II. About the Woman of Samaria
1. Lonely and isolated (verse 4:7)
a. Life style
b. Public shame
2. Empty (“empty pot” Johannine symbolism) (verse 4:7, 28)
3. Six husbands—morally lost, (verse 4:8)
4, External religion (spiritually lost—Jerusalem and Gerizim) (verse 4:20)
III. Jesus is “the Gift of God” (vv. 10-15)
1. The woman did not recognize Jesus’ identity; therefore, she didn’t ask Jesus what He can give her
2. Jesus introduces Himself to the woman as the “Gift of God” who gives living water to her if she asked Him (verse 10)
YHWH is the “spring of living water” that people need for their sustenance
a. Jer 2:13: My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water
b. Jer 17:13 they [the people of Judah] have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water
c. Isa 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters
d. Psalm 36:8-9 They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light
e. The living water Jesus gives is the life communicated through the Holy Spirit
f. Jesus is the dispenser of the life communicated through the Holy Spirit
3. Jesus knew that the woman’s need was not necessarily water, but a life from her deadness
4. The woman cannot/does not merit it, but it has to be a gift freely given
5. Only Jesus can give her freely through the Holy Spirit’s regeneration of her dead-heart
6. Jesus tells her that man will never be quenched with what the world gives (verse 13)
7. On the other hand, Jesus is the One who quenches man’s thirst forever (verse 14)
8. The gift “Jesus” in a believer becomes a fountain of life, eternal life (verse 14)
IV. The Samaritan woman responds to the Gift of God, the “Spring of Water” (verse 15)
1. She recognizes the need for Jesus and makes a confession: “I can see that you are the prophet”— (verse19)
2. She requests Jesus “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water” (verse 15)
3. She left her water jar (verse 28), in order to enjoy the new and living water—renunciation of the old, spiritual and moral, in favor of worship in spirit and truth
4. She is willing to bear witness to very people she avoided before she met with Jesus
V. Jesus is God’s gift to those who are empty, morally, spiritually, and socially corrupt
Take Away:
Ask Jesus to give you the living water