this be the Christ they went out of the town and were coming to him meanwhile the disciples were urging him saying rabbi eat but he said to them I have food to eat and you do not know that you do not know about so the disciples said to one another has anyone brought him something to eat Jesus said my food is to do the will of him who sent me in to accomplish his work do not say there are yet four months then comes harvest look I tell you lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together for here the saying holds true one sows and another reaps I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor others have labored you have entered into their labor many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony he told me everything I ever did so the Samaritans came to him they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and many more believed because of his word they said to the woman it is no longer because of what you have said that we believe we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world let's pray Lord as we come to your gospel we pray that you would open our hearts that you would show us how we should change in Jesus name amen if you haven't already noticed there's a lot of water in the Gospel of John we looked a couple of weeks ago at Jesus in chapter 2 turning the water into wine last week you have to be born of the water in the spirit this week there's a woman at a well and Jesus offers her living water chapter 5 is the pool by the sheep gate where people go to be healed chapter 6 Jesus walks on the water in chapter 7 he says if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink and out of his heart will flow rivers of living water so water is a theme throughout the Gospel of John and in the scriptures as well in Ephesians chapter 5 it says that Jesus washes his bride with the water of the word so in our story Jesus is becoming very popular and he knew that at some point the multitudes were going to try to force him to be king and his time and not yet come so he and his disciples go on a trip and it says they had to go through some area well the question is did they really have to go through some area because Jews usually didn't they usually went around to avoid some area because they didn't care for Samaritans and Samaritans frankly didn't care for them either but that's very similar to us I mean if you've ever traveled and come to a big city often you take the road that goes around it I know in Chicago you can take I 90 or I 94 to go through the center of Chicago but almost nobody does that if you're going from one place to the other you take 294 or 290 and you go around in Detroit it's 275 in Toronto it's 407 you just don't want to deal with going through the city that was even more so for the Jews dealing with Samaritans they did not want to deal with them they were undesirable they were considered half breeds they were half Jew and half Gentile and worse than that they believed that they had polluted the true religion by mixing it with other religions so Jews would normally go around Samaria in order not to come in contact with the Samaritans they were considered enemies at least in a religious and cultural sense but remember Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said you've heard it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who's in heaven for he makes the Sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just in the unjust for if you love only those who love you what reward do you have do not the tax collectors do the same and if you greet only your brothers what more are you doing than others do not even the Gentiles do the same so when the word says that Jesus had to go through Samaria we can only assume that he had a divine appointment and he had something to teach his disciples and I pray this morning there's something that will teach us as well so Jesus is resting by the well and a woman comes up and it's the noon hour the heat of the day why is she coming at noon I mean it doesn't make any sense it's it's hot it's a long trip people had to come to the well to get water for the day why would she come at noon because as the word tells us she had had five husbands and the one she was with now was not her husband we don't know if her first five husbands died or if she got divorced or if she left them or what happened but we do know that the man she's with now is not her husband so she was considered an outcast even among the Samaritans so she's coming to the well and Jesus asked her for a drink he's thirsty but she says you're a Jew I'm a Samaritan woman how do you ask me for a drink for the Jews do not associate with Samaritans you might be asking okay what's the what's the cause of this well it's explained to us basically in the Old Testament in Ezra and Nehemiah and second Kings when the Jews were exiled when Hoshiah the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried off the Jews to exile now not all the Jews were carried off the elderly and the infirm who couldn't go were left behind and some scribes were left there to care for them and the scribes of course they moved into the the best land they intermarried with those who brought them in so the Samaritans were no longer purely Jewish now 70 years later the Jews returned from exile and the Samaritans greeted them and came and wanted to help rebuild Jerusalem but the Jews called them half breeds and sent them home and the Samaritans built their own temple which the Jews considered pagan the feud grew and by the time of Christ the Jews hated the Samaritans so much they crossed the River Jordan rather than travel through Samaria so this woman is not expecting a Jew to speak to her she's shocked as you can imagine what was going through her head as she walked up to the well and saw a Jewish man she might have been thinking this is all I need as if this job wasn't hot enough if it wasn't long enough already if I wasn't dealing with all of the people in the town who despise me and look down on me now I have to deal with this Jew so she's shocked and probably a little indignant that Jesus asks her for a drink and she knows the Jews despise Samaritans she's probably a little offended at his presence at who he is so she says you were a Jew I'm a Samaritan how is it that you asked me for a drink has that ever happened to you someone is indignant toward you because of your race I'll share with you something that happened to me when Tracy and our then four children were living in Jackson Mississippi we were going to reform Theological Seminary and we had university friends who lived in all places eclectic Alabama and eclectic Alabama is about a three-hour drive from Jackson eclectic is near a big town called Montgomery my friend Bo actually we called him Bobo how southern is that he was the mayor of eclectic of eclectic so we're driving and we're about an hour and a half into it and although the kids had had stuff to eat and stuff to drink before we left an hour and a half in they're complaining they want something to drink and unfortunately Tracy joined in with them so I had no choice but to stop in a little town in western Alabama and I went inside and as I went inside I just before I went inside I heard a lively conversation going on everybody in the town I'm guessing and in the store for African-American and they were they were having a lively conversation very animated but as soon as I walked in it shut down nobody said anything I went and got the drinks for the kids and Tracy and myself and set them on the counter the young woman behind the cash register added it all up she didn't say anything to me I had to look at the total to see how much I was supposed to pay I gave her the money she gave me the change I left nobody ever said anything to each other and you think well why did that happen well in that part of the country African-American people are suspicious of white people people who look like me have been very hurtful to them historically so it wasn't without reason the same is true of the Samaritan woman and her feeling toward the Jews the same is true of some non-christians toward Christians as becoming more and more prevalent and more and more acceptable to openly oppose Christianity and Christians but if we let hostile responses deter us that will end the conversation part of what I want us to see here is Jesus is teaching a class if you will on witnessing look at Jesus he continues to pursue her he says if you knew the gift of God and who it is who's asking you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water Jesus is using an analogy here he's equating water which satisfies our physical thirst with himself as the one who satisfies the thirst in our souls and I believe it believe although I can't prove it I think the woman understands that he's speaking metaphorically and so she goes along with it sir you have nothing to draw on the well as deep working you get this living water are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as did also his sons and flocks and hers and Jesus said everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again and so will you if you drink what is in your water pot whatever is in there that you think will satisfy the longing in your soul if you drink from that water you will thirst again because it will not satisfy for very long I'll give you an example all of my life I have wanted my sports teams to do well last year one of my dreams so to speak came true and the University of Michigan won the national championship they were 15 and 0 they beat everybody soundly even it was glorious and you would think I'm getting chills talking about it you would think that I would be satisfied but this year there four and three and I'm very unhappy and me and my friend Tim we text each other during the games that taught you tell you how bad it is now Michigan is always on TV yesterday they weren't they just a Michigan Michigan State has been on every year since I can remember and they weren't yesterday so he was texting me the scores and complaining the whole time they did win but it's not the same see my soul thirst I thought was satisfied when Michigan won the national championship but it didn't last very long it didn't last a whole year I want him to win it again the Tigers were in the playoffs they got beat I want them to win the World Series the Lions were three points from the Super Bowl last year I want them to eat but you see the thing is even if all of those things happen even if they all happen in the same year it wouldn't satisfy for long maybe for a year maybe for two but at some point it would no longer satisfy and that's the same with you whatever is in your metaphorical water pot will not satisfy you whether it's money or business or romance or sex or marriage or children or worry or anxiety or bitterness you think well why would those things satisfy listen there are people who aren't happy unless they have something to worry about my mom was like that she had to have something to worry about if you pointed it out to her she said well these things are real yeah they're real but why are you worrying about them some people have to be angry about something grief resentment all of these things can be metaphorically what's in your water pot what you think is going to satisfy you but none of those will satisfy the longing in your soul it's like eating saltine crackers doesn't matter how many you eat you'll still be thirsty and nothing will satisfy the longing in your soul that you put in that water pot except for Jesus so Jesus presses her he says everyone who drinks this water will thirst again but if you drink the water I give you you will never thirst it'll be like a spring of water welling up to eternal life if you satisfy the longing in your soul by drinking of me Jesus says you will be satisfied now the woman wants what Jesus is offering sir give me this water so that I won't be thirsty and have to come here to draw water then Jesus said does something that's not nice he talks about her sin I think I've shared this illustration with you before but I'm going to again I can remember living in Indianapolis in a new coffee shop open that I like coffee shops this is I think this is before the internet even so I would go to the coffee shop I get my coffee I would sit there with a my Bible and a couple of books and and study I was in this coffee shop and I asked for a cappuccino the lady brought it to me I took a drink I said oh this is really good she said well I'm glad you like it there was a couple in here a few days ago and I made him a cappuccino and he hated it I said why she said I gave it to him he took a drink and he said blah this is nothing this is this is just strong coffee and she said then well sir have you ever had cappuccino before he said of course and she said well where did you get it he said at Walmart out of the coffee machine see a lot of people viewed Jesus like that Jesus they think is Walmart coffee sugary sweet you can get him when you need him but he's not he's strong coffee he has to talk to her about her sin because if the woman is going to be able to drink from the living water of Christ she's going to have to face that she's an immoral woman she's such a pariah in her own community that she has to come out and draw water at noon so he tells her go and call your husband she said I have no husband he says you're right you've had five husbands and the man you're with now is not your husband all of us do this we get her eventually we can't get around it our sin stops us from having our soul thirst satisfied and when you're trying to talk to somebody about this if if you are witnessing and you should be if you're trying to talk to somebody about this quite often they bring up their religion like she did it's a diversion because all kinds of people are religious who don't know Christ they'll tell you I'm methylbaptarian or whatever when confronted with Jesus the real Jesus not the Walmart cappuccino machine Jesus but the real Jesus she tries to hide and talk about a religion she said Jesus says believe me woman the time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem God is spirit and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and truth what Jesus is saying here is the place is not important it's the state of your heart the woman says I know the Messiah called the Christ is coming when he comes he will explain everything to us and then Jesus tells her I who speak to you and he I'm the one I'm the one who created you I'm the one who loves you I'm the one who died your place to remove your sin so that you can be free truly free now the disciples come up just as the point where the woman understands the gospel and that point Jesus is teaching his disciples to understand the gospel as well the disciples returned and they were surprised to find him talking with a woman because you weren't supposed to talk to a woman in public by yourself and a Jew wasn't supposed to talk to a Samaritan especially an immoral one and so this was confusing to the disciples but no one asked him what do you want or why are you talking with her you see here is what she understands she thought there were only two options she knew that she was sinful she knew she was living however she pleased but at least in her mind she wasn't a hypocrite her only other option to live like she did was to be one of the moralists in town who were condemning and judgmental and they were the reason she had to come to water at noon but Jesus had showed her there was another way the gospel you're more sinful than you ever dared think and more love than you ever dared hope all at the same time and you have to believe both if you believe you're more loved because you're so lovable or that you've somehow earned it or that you're better than the next person then you don't understand how sinful you are and the depth of your need for Christ you will be the judgmental one you will be the moralist you will be the Pharisee you will be the one that pushes people away see to you the death of Christ made no sense on the other hand if you only believe that you're sinful and you could never be loved and you'll despair and give up and you'll be like the woman at the well but if you believe both that you're more sinful than you ever dared think and more love than you ever dared hope all at the same time then you can be free former minister who's gone to be with the Lord Jack Miller was famous for saying cheer up you're worse than you think Samaritan woman believed this how do we know says she left her water jar went back to the town and said to the people come see a man who told me everything I ever did could this be the Christ she left her water jar she'd come all the way to the well to drink and she set it down when she understood the gospel she said it set down her water jar she didn't ask to keep her five husbands here and more a lifestyle she set it down and I'm here to ask you to do the same thing whatever is in your water pot whatever it is you believe will satisfy your soul thirst set it down is it money set it down is it romance set it down is it sex set it down is it power set it down is it grief worry resentment set it down whatever it is it won't satisfy your soul thirst you will not be free until you set it down if you set it down and drink from the fountain which is Christ then you will be free look at the woman she sets down her water pot and then something happens something incredible happens she goes back into the town the same town where everybody despises or where everybody looks down on her where where she hated all of them she goes back into that town to the moralist to her enemies when she understands the gospel she set it down and runs to tell people the very people who despised her she runs to tell her enemies the good news is this not the Christ the disciples on the other hand they were patting themselves on the back that they got into Jerusalem or into Samaria got food and came out and never talked to anyone and Jesus is trying to tell them the gospel is for everyone it's not just for you it's for Samaritans it's for Gentiles I mean after all all of us are Gentiles according to the Bible and they came the people in town came even though they just formerly looked down on this woman they believed her testimony and they came and met him for themselves and they said to the woman we no longer believe just because of what you said now we have heard for ourselves how we know that this man really is the Savior of the world do you believe that do you I pray that you do father in heaven as we conclude our time together I pray that you would work into our hearts the truth of the gospel that we would be willing to set down whatever it is that we think is going to satisfy the thirst in our souls and we would drink deeply from the rivers of you and we pray in Jesus name amen please stand