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Sunday Worship 19 November 2023 : “A Fountain of Water springing up into everlasting life”

Text: John 4
19 November 2023

INTRODUCTION

1. Many problems appear in life

2. Sometimes, those problems are very personal

3. Many struggle against feelings of despair

THE UNFORTUNATE CONFLICT BETWEEN JEWS AND SAMARITANS

3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.

4 But He needed to go through Samaria.

5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus 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 into the city to buy food.

9 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 Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

John 4:3-9

1. The Lord Jesus had left Judea to go to Galilee

2. Samaria lay between the two regions

3. Normally, most Jews would have chosen a different route to travel from Judea to Galilee (a detour)

4. Jews had no dealings with Samaritans

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE LORD JESUS AND A SAMARITAN WOMAN

9 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 Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

10 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.”

11 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?

12 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?”

13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,

14 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.”

John 4:9-14

1. The Samaritan hesitated

a) Jews do not normally talk to Samaritans
b) She asked why the Lord Jesus would ask her for a drink of water

2. The Lord’s reply

a) He offered her “Living water”
b) He could give water that would become a fountain of water
c) He could give the water of everlasting life

MORAL ISSUES OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’

18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

John 4:15-19

1. The Lord Jesus invited the woman to call her husband

2. She replied that she had no husband

3. The Lord Jesus gently but candidly spoke to her

a) She had five husbands
b) The present man she was living with was not her husband

4. This must have stunned the woman of Samaria

a) How could this Jewish Stranger know so much about her?
b) Who could He be?

GOD’S SEARCH FOR TRUE WORSHIPPERS

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:20-24

1. The woman of Samaria knew that she was speaking to a Prophet

2. Could He explain who was right concerning true worship?

a) Samaritan belief
God is to be worshipped in Mt. Gerizim
b) Jewish belief
God is to be worshipped in Jerusalem

3. The Answer of the Lord Jesus

a) It is not WHERE God is to be worshipped?
b) It is HOW God is to be worshipped!
c) God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth!

FAITH IN THE MESSIAH OF GOD

25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

John 4:25-26

1. The woman of Samaria believed that God would send the Messiah

a) He would be the Anointed One of God
b) He would teach the whole truth

2. The Response of the Lord Jesus

a) He is the Messiah
b) All that He had said were great truths!

AN INVITATION

1. To admit sin in life

a) To appreciate that the Lord would not condemn
b) And that He would still offer everlasting life

2. To come to the Lord Jesus

a) To recognize Him as the Messiah
b) To receive His offer of water that leads to everlasting life

3. To learn to worship God

a) In spirit
b) In truth