The Living Water

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 14th of July, 2024.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, we’ve been experiencing some very hot weather lately, and its been very dry, but thank our Lord He did release some rain from His storehouse to water His garden and lower the temperature a little.

Water is arguably the second most important element necessary for our survival, with the air we breathe being first.  Water is essential to life.  The earth needs it, all the animals that live in or on or under the earth need it, we need it.  We cannot long survive without it.  And we will do whatever it takes to get it.

We are very blessed, very fortunate, that all we have to do to get water is to turn on the tap.  I remember way back when we were in the throes of a multi-year drought, when lakes and streams were drying up and rivers ran dangerously low.  I quit worrying about my yard, only caring about some bushes my Dad had helped me plant when I first bought and moved into the house, giving them a little drink once a week to keep them alive.  And then one day my well pumped out mud.  You can’t really appreciate water until you can’t get it.

Our scripture reading this morning speaks of a time when a certain person was forced to go to extraordinary measures to get water each day.  Only the Apostle John recorded this incident for us.

As I read this passage, in my mind’s eye I see this being a hot summer day, like we’re in now.  Jesus and His disciples have walked a long way this morning and noon approaches.  He stops, ostensibly to rest, but in reality He has a much higher purpose planned.

Please listen and follow along as I read from the Apostle John’s Gospel account, chapter 4 verses 1 through 30 and 39 through 42, and I’ll be reading this from the New American Standard Bible…

1 So then, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that He was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing; rather, His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again to Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from His journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away to the city to buy food. 9 So the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, that a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.”

27 And at this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?” 30 They left the city and were coming to Him.

39 Now from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One truly is the Savior of the world.” 

--John 4:1-30, 39-42 (NASB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for the rains that nourish the earth, for the water that sustains our life, and for the Living Water that brings us eternal life.  When we come to Your Son, the living water flows and we never thirst again.  Sadly, Father, so many people have not had their thirst quenched, so many have not tasted that cool, clean water.  Please help us reach out to the non-believers of the world, sharing the Good News and showing them Your love.  Help us spread the message that all anyone has to do is to believe in Jesus and accept Him as Lord and they will never thirst again.  And please forgive us when we hesitate to witness for You and our Lord Jesus, even though we often want to.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today.  Thank You for forgiving and forgetting our sin.  Help us share the Good News of everlasting life in our daily walk.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

You might remember from your school days that about 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by water.  Of that, only about 3-1/2% is fresh water that we can drink.  The other 96.5% is in the oceans.  Yet that 3.5% is what we depend on to keep us alive.

Did you know that about 60% of the average adult human body is water?  The brain and heart are composed of around 73% water, while the lungs are 83% water.  (Makes you wonder why we choke when we happen to breathe in a sip of water.)  Our skin contains 64% water and our muscles and kidneys are at 79%.  Even our bones are a bit watery at 31%.

The body needs about three quarts of water a day to operate efficiently. It helps break up and soften food. Our blood, which is 90% water carries nutrients to the cells. As a cooling agent, water regulates our temperature through perspiration. And without its lubricating properties, our joints and muscles would grind and creak like unused parts of some old rusty machinery.  Water is vital to human health.  A person can survive for up to three weeks without food, but they won't last more than three to five days without water.

Of course, water was just as important in Jesus’ day as it is in ours.  It provides for our sustenance, with even the oceans giving us a tremendous source of food.  Remember that Jesus’ first four disciples were fishermen there on the Sea of Galilee.  So it’s no real stretch to understand that Jesus would use water – and especially its life-sustaining properties – in His messages to the people.  Just like He told the fisherman named Simon that he would become a fisher of men.

When Jesus told the Samaritan woman about the living water, it was not the first time He used that expression.  In our invocation I noted what Jesus said on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, when He cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  John goes on to point out that, “this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”  The Holy Spirit gives life, and as the Living Water, gives everlasting life.

So in our reading, Jesus proves to the woman that He is the long awaited Messiah by telling her pretty much all she had done wrong leading up to that point.  He even directly said He was the Christ.  And she went running off to tell everyone in the village all about Him and what He had told her.

The amazing thing is that the people listened and believed this woman that they had been shunning because of her sin.  They believed her enough to go out and see for themselves.  And because of her and her testimony, many Samaritans found salvation.  Although treated as an outcast, she was willing and even excited to witness for Jesus.  Why aren’t we as willing?  Why aren’t we excited?

The Israelites endured exile many times throughout their history, including a time in Babylon.  The prophet Ezekiel lived and spoke for God during that period.  At one point, God showed Ezekiel a vision of the restored Israel, with a man leading the prophet around the city and its lands.  This might also be seen as a picture of the restored earth when Jesus returns, since earlier chapters in Ezekiel’s book include a prophecy of a great battle that will precede the Christ's second coming.

Please listen to one part of this vision as related by Ezekiel in the 47th chapter of his book of prophecy, verses 1 through 12…

1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.

3 And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. 6 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river.

7 When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. 8 Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the Jordan Valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. 9 And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. 10 It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. 11 But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt. 12 Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

--Ezekiel 47:1-12 (NKJV)

How wide, how deep, and how vast flows the river of life, the living water, from the throne of God.  It offers healing to all, even to the waters of the sea.  It provides food for the spirit, nourishment for the soul.  The living water, the eternal water that gives everlasting life.

On a hot summer day, a woman came to the well of Jacob at noontime, to draw water for the day.  She came alone, long after the other women of Sychar had come to draw their water.   She came during the heat of the day since she was not welcome to walk among the other women because of her past and currently chosen situation.  But one day Jesus was there, and He welcomed her and offered her the living water of eternal life.

Cool water refreshes us on a hot day.  Living water will refresh us forever.  Come, and partake of the water Jesus offers.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who gave of Himself to bring us the living water and everlasting life, and who is coming again to judge us all.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us the faith to believe in Your Son, Your Christ, Jesus, who nourishes our soul as Your rains nourish the earth.  By Your mercy and His sacrificial act, we need never thirst again, but enjoy eternal life.  Thank You, Father – You are so very good to us!  Sometimes, though Father, we take Your mercy for granted just as we take the source of our water for granted.  Sometimes we become too comfortable with how easy it is for us to be refilled and refreshed, without thinking of how so many in the world thirst each day.  They thirst not only for life-sustaining water, but also for Your word.  Please forgive us those times, Father, when we get too complacent.  Please help us reach out more into the world, helping those who thirst.  Help us be more forgiving, more merciful in our dealings with others.  Guide us around any pitfalls in this life and strengthen our spirits to do Your will.  And please help us do a better job of sharing Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, when we gave ourselves to You, when we accepted You as our Master, You watered our dry spirits and brought us back to life.  We are Yours, we belong to You. By Your blood You purchased us and gave us new life.  Thank You, Jesus!  Please help us pass this blessing along by being more understanding, more merciful, more giving and forgiving of others, offering Your living water to all we meet.  Not everyone believes in You, so it is our job to help them see the truth and believe. So Lord, please help us reach out to the non-believing world with the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

Lord Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations and all the false teachings.  Help us fend off his attacks.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.