Lay Your Buckets Down: Finding Life with the Woman at the Well

0:00 Before we get into the story here in John 4 and the conversation that you just heard, Jesus with the Samaritan woman, I just wanted you to see something unusual and beautiful here about Jesus. in the last chapter chapter 3 Jesus is ministering to a curious Pharisee a teacher of the law a ruler of the Jews so he calls him untouchable this is a guy from the highest most intellectual most religious stratosphere of society and yet jesus reaches out to him to invite him in to answer his questions to challenge his thinking and to draw him into the kingdom and then here just a few verses later he's stopping to minister to a sexually promiscuous socially alienated Samaritan woman.

1:11 Untouchable. And yet Jesus reaches out to her engages her questions and invites her to drink from his fountain of living water. these two people couldn't be more different he's a jew a leader in society steeped in scripture rigorously observing the law he's a man and he comes at night and we know his name Nicodemus she is a Samaritan and an outcast even in Samaria in and out of relationships with men far less familiar with God's law she's a woman and they meet in broad scorching daylight and we don't even get her name these two people couldn't be more different and I believe that's utterly intentional So what do I take from it?

2:19 What do you take from it? here's what I take from it it doesn't matter who you are this morning it doesn't matter Jesus has something to say to you It doesn't matter if you're a politician or a prostitute, a priest or a thief, a CEO or a stay-at-home mom or a college student, a Jew or a Samaritan or a lifelong Minnesotan.

3:01 Jesus has something to say to you this morning. something convicting and renewing something hard and something really really really good it was true with Nicodemus and it's true here with this woman and it'll be true in this room this morning if we have ears to hear him so let's pray and ask for that Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And he who has no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which does not satisfy?

3:56 listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food incline your ear and come to me here that your soul may live father you've spread a banquet out before us you're inviting us here in these verses to a fountain of living water.

4:26 Forgive us for spending our money on food that does not satisfy. Forgive us for pursuing fountains, wells which do not satisfy. Give us ears to hear you this morning. Give us eyes to see you, to want you, to feast on you, to drink from you and never be thirsty again. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so we read here verses 1 through 3 that Jesus leaves Judea because of pressure from the Pharisees, the rulers there. They were getting jealous and angry and he's feeling the pressure and so he heads for Galilee. And you had to go through Samaria to get to Galilee. but Samaria was a bad word in Jerusalem for Jews Jews hated Samaritans and Samaritans hated Jews but he had to pass through Samaria to get to Galilee and as he did he gets tired from all of that walking and so he finds a well where he can stop and get a drink text tells us about the six hours so it's noon the hottest part of the day no one draws water in samaria at noon they come either earlier in the day or later when it's cooler no one comes at this time and yet while he's there a woman stops at the well. A woman of Samaria, that's what she's called. So this is Mrs. Badward to Jews.

6:13 And as we'll find out in a minute, she's here at the well in the hottest part of the day for a reason. She's likely ashamed to be around the other women because of all the men that she's been with. Despite all that, Jesus says to her, verse 7, give me a drink. you can tell how surprising it was for him to even talk to her, if you can believe that, because of how she responds. Simple request, can I have a drink? She says, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. No dealings. Not even a cup of water on a hot day. No dealings.

7:06 So why did Jews and Samaritans hate one another so much? Well, in the beginning, the nation of Israel had 12 tribes, one each for the 12 sons of Jacob. And the capital of that nation was and is still today Jerusalem. And Israel still had those 12 tribes when Solomon was king. Solomon was David's son. But when Solomon died and his son Rehoboam took over, he ruled badly and he alienated ten of the twelve tribes of Israel. So those ten tribes, they formed a northern kingdom, a separate kingdom, and they made Jeroboam their king. And that made them traitors in Jerusalem. and Samaria was the capital of that traitor nation.

8:01 Foreigners moved into Samaria after that and they intermarried with the Jewish people making the people there less and less Jewish over time and so for the Jews, Samaritan was anonymous with half-breed, impure, not really Jewish. they despised Samaritans. One scholar writes the ethnic and cultural boundary between the Jews and the Samaritans was every bit as rigid and hostile as the current boundary between blacks and whites in the most racist areas of the United States. Imagine being refused a cup of water because of your ethnicity. that's how malicious this rivalry was but Jesus he's not offended he answers verse 10 if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water you think you've got me figured out that I'm like every other Jewish guy that you've heard about, but you have no idea who I am.

9:26 If you knew who I was, you wouldn't have waited for me to ask you for a drink. she's of course confused wouldn't you be so she says sir you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep where do you get that living water are you greater than our father jacob he gave us this well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock what she's saying. She's saying the water's been just fine for me. And for hundreds of years this well has provided water. In fact, I just read this week that this well, we think it's this well, Jacob's well, is still producing water even now, today. So as far as wells go, this is a pretty good one. Why would I need different water? And besides, if you had better water, what would you even put it in, is what she's saying. You don't have a bucket.

10:33 To which he replies, has this water really been enough for you? and if it has, why do you keep coming back here over and over and over again? This is how he says it. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. So what do we learn about this living water? When you drink it, you'll never be thirsty again. It might be hard for us to feel what this would have meant in that day. We have clean water everywhere that we turn coming out of every faucet in our homes, depending on what county you're in. In that day, they had to carry these buckets back and forth, back and forth, back and forth for drinking, for cooking, for bathing.

11:45 Water was a huge part of their lives, their everyday lives. Just acquiring water was a huge part of their lives. And Jesus says, you drink from my well and you'll never be thirsty again. you'll never have to do this walk again but he goes even further than that the water that i will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life he says when you drink this water you'll never thirst and you'll never die you're going to live forever he says Thank you. the woman still doesn't totally get it, as we'll see, but she's heard enough to be sold, so she says, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Give me this eternal water service. The gallon's just showing up at my house every day. I don't want to come out here over and over and over again. I hate coming out here.

12:50 please give me some of this special water that you're telling me about so Jesus says to her go call your husband and come here It seems straightforward enough. If you want what I'm offering, go grab your husband and we'll talk more. It's not straightforward though, not at all. And Jesus knows that.

13:18 The woman answered him, I have no husband. it's a little awkward, but not necessarily a problem. Not yet. But again, Jesus knows more than she thinks he does. Jesus says to her, you are right in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. what you've said is true.

13:51 Ouch. Okay, so we're not really talking about water at all, are we? This isn't about Jacob or Buckets or H2O. No, for this woman, this woman's well was men.

14:14 She'd been trying to quench her thirst for love, for security, for life in the arms of a man. so we realize that Jesus asked her for a drink because he knew how thirsty she was she was dying of thirst inside and she had tried well after well after well Greg and then Ryan and then Jared and then Dave and then Scott and then Tony who knows what their names were and she was still so thirsty.

14:55 In fact, she was more thirsty now than before she met the first guy. Sin is the anti-well, the anti-fountain. And some of you are drinking there every day. Maybe you're like this woman and you've thrown yourself into relationship after relationship after relationship. Maybe your wells are online in the dark places of the internet.

15:34 Maybe you're fostering some bitterness or anger towards someone. maybe it's indulging alcohol or overeating or binge watching the first time you put your bucket in you got enough for a drink and then a little less and a little less and a little less and now you're scraping the dirty bottom of that well for just a thimble, for a drop of water. and yet you're so thirsty that you keep trying. Put your buckets down. whatever it is put it down and walk away don't drink there anymore come to the fountain of life and you will never be thirsty again and all you have to do is ask do you see that verse 10 if you knew the gift of god and who it is that is saying to you give me a drink, you would have asked him, all you have to do is ask. You would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

17:07 why would he give it? it's because she asked all you have to do is ask right here in these verses in front of us this morning is a well it's a spring and it will never fail you you don't even need your bucket anymore because the well's inside of you the water that I will give him will become in him in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life. so which well will you choose what's keeping you from asking what's standing between you and this fountain of living water i want you to see in these verses that jesus overcomes three great hurdles three great barriers in this story the kinds of barriers that might keep you keep me from coming to this fountain.

18:13 There's three great barriers, and you could summarize them like this. Six husbands, two temples, and one wall. Six husbands, two temples, and one wall. So first, six husbands. Well, five husbands and a boyfriend. What's the point? the point of these six men is that six men wasn't too many for jesus it might have gotten her canceled in town she had to go draw water by herself in the heat of the day but six men didn't disqualify her from this well the well of living water no these six husbands tell us that no sin is too great. No sin is too great. You know that, but I want you to know it. some of you know it but you don't believe it you don't you think that your particular sins are too great too bad too many that's what you see this woman's in the bible to tell you that's not true it's not true Thank you.

19:40 we don't find out that she's been with this with so many men until verse 18 but Jesus already knew in verse 1 he knew and he still stopped stopped to talk to her anyway he still offered her a drink he offered her the only drink that she'd ever need the one that would quench and heal all the aching dryness that was inside of her. He wasn't embarrassed to be seen with her, and he wasn't ashamed to take her sins upon himself, bear them, and die for her to make her his own. If she would just ask. so will you ask will you forsake all of your other wells and drink only from this fountain will you believe repent and be forgiven second two temples when Jesus suddenly knows about all of her husbands without her telling anything she realizes that he's a prophet how else would he know all that he knows and so she turns the conversation to how and where to worship so she says verse 19 sir I perceive that you are a prophet it. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. She's bringing up this argument between Jews and Samaritans. When the northern kingdom split off from Judah and Jerusalem, they built their own temple. They had to have somewhere to worship. They built the temple on Mount Gerizim. It's the mountain that she mentions.

21:31 But the Jews in Jerusalem, they obviously didn't think that that temple was legit. And so you can imagine the kind of animosity that creates. This is where we go to worship, but they don't recognize the place where we go to worship. She realizes this conversation is not really about water or even about her husbands. This is a conversation about worship. And worship happens in her mind in either that temple or that temple. Those are the two options. To which Jesus says, Woman, believe me. the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

22:35 So for hundreds and hundreds of years, God's people worshipped in one big temple, a building, 150 feet tall and a million and a half square feet. Massive building. It's a big, massive dot on Google Maps. It's big, but it's one dot. Not anymore, Jesus says. She offers up these two temples? And Jesus says, neither. Up until now, up until me, Jesus says, you had come to a place, a temple, to offer right worship to God. Now you can worship him anywhere.

23:22 You can worship him at 1524 Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, a country that won't even exist for a couple thousand years. what do these two temples tell us in this story? They tell us that no place is too far. No place is too far. The hour has come when true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. True worshipers, they worship in spirit, not just with our hands and our knees and our gifts, but by the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us. This is what Jesus told us about in last chapter, chapter 3, when he said to Nicodemus, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. True worshipers worship by the Spirit, by a supernatural work that God does inside of us by the Spirit. And true worshipers worship in truth. That is, they worship according to how God has actually revealed himself in his word, the Bible, and in the word made flesh, his son, who we find in the Bible.

24:43 These are the essential ingredients for worship. God's supernatural work in you by the Spirit and God's supernatural revelation in the Bible, most fundamentally in Jesus. And now in Jesus, who is the greater temple, now in Jesus, if you worship in spirit and in truth, you can worship God anywhere. You don't have to come to this building to worship Jesus. you should absolutely join a local church and attend there faithfully I hope you have or you will but you can worship Jesus in the temple high on the mountain or down by the well in the heat of day you can worship in in the sanctuary on Sunday morning or alone in your bedroom on your knees because of Jesus we can meet and worship God in any place and one day soon he will be worshiped in every place when his glory covers the earth as the waters cover the sea no place is too far third the wall jesus calmed the raging storm with a word and here he brought down this mile high racial ethnic religious wall between jews and samaritans and he did it with just a drink of water with less than a drink of water because as far as we know he doesn't actually get the drink this raging hostility between Jews and Samaritans this hostility this wall it tells us that no wall is too high for Jesus this Jesus overcomes every conceivable boundary and hostility between us so what walls seem too high to you today

26:53 Are they walls in the Middle East or in Asia? Jesus had to pass through Samaria, and he has to pass through Iraq, Tokyo, Hong Kong. He has to pass through Cameroon and the Philippines and Turkey, where our global partners are serving right now. Those are high, high, high walls. and no walls too high. why does he have to pass through those hard places because this gospel he says this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world matthew 24 14 as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come one day we're going to sing revelation 5 9 worthy are you to take the scroll and to open the seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed past. You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

28:00 do you want to reach an unreached people with the gospel to help bring down walls around the world so that people dying of thirst might finally hear about Jesus you won't find a wall too high

28:22 Jesus can bring down any wall and he can do it with a cup of water how much more might he do through you You won't find a wall too high in the Middle East, and you won't find a wall too high in Minneapolis, in your neighborhood, in your family. these walls are a lot closer and so they might look and feel a lot higher, a lot thicker. In the case of family, a lot more sensitive and painful. How could God ever save him?

29:09 How could God ever save her? there's no sin too great. There's no place too far. There's no wall too high. Do you believe that? Even for them.

29:32 And why is it that no sin is too great, no place is too far, and no wall is too high? Because verse 23, the Father is seeking people like us to worship him. The hour is coming, Jesus says, and is now here when the true worshipers will worship, it's going to happen, the Father in spirit and truth for because the Father is seeking such people to worship him. Despite all the barriers, all the walls, it's going to happen. Why? because the God of heaven is out looking for them. He's meeting them at wells and in temples. He's finding them at big Christian conferences and in random conversations at the gas station. He's using parents and neighbors and little league coaches and roommates and co-workers.

30:33 He's seeking and seeking. He's seeking worshipers. does that sound selfish to you the father is seeking worshipers if one of you talked that way it would be gross right if i said pastor daniel is seeking worshipers who will worship him you'd say he shouldn't be a pastor i think he's lost his mind we don't like people like this so why is it any different for God?

31:18 Why can he do everything he does for his own glory? And he does everything that he does for his own glory. And why can he command us to do everything we do for his glory? Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Why can He do that? it's because he's worthy of all the glory more than we could ever give him more than the sun and moon and stars and mountains could ever say and because his glory is the best news in the world for people like us why do I find so much hope and comfort in him seeking worshipers?

32:16 It's because when this God finds a worshiper, he gives us the spring of living water in him. Worship is our well of living water. And if he wasn't seeking, we would never find him. That's how blinding sin is. This God reveals his glory by satisfying the dry and weary souls of the undeserving of the sinful. That's the kind of God I want. And that's the only God there is. and this father was so relentlessly committed to finding you knowing you saving you that he sent his son into the world to die for you the woman says verse 25 I know that messiah is coming he who is called Christ when he comes he will tell us all things and Jesus says to her maybe you the clearest, most shocking statement that he makes about himself in all the Gospels.

33:27 Here's what he says. I who speak to you, I am he. and in that moment, she hears what we've known since verse 1, that the normal-looking Jewish man standing by this well at the heat of day, asking her for a drink, he's the Savior of the world. He's the Son of God,

33:54 Messiah. and this brings us to the table one of the sneaky startling things about this passage is hiding and it's in verse six probably read right over it says so jesus wearied as he was from his journey was sitting beside the well jesus was wearied Anyway... wearied. He didn't count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself. He got tired like we do, and he needed a drink like we do. He was willing to be wearied for you. And far more than wearied, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross. So this long hot journey from Jerusalem to Galilee passing through terrible hostility, it's a picture of this whole gospel. It's a picture of the whole Bible. Jesus was wearied for you, betrayed for you, pierced for you, crushed for you so that you might worship him in spirit and in truth and never be thirsty again.

35:34 He's still seeking. So will he find worship in you? Let me pray. No sin is too great. No place is too far. No wall is too high.

36:03 I imagine some sins in this room feel pretty great. imagine that some here feel pretty far from you and imagine some walls seem pretty high no sin too great no place too far no wall too high because Father you are seeking worshipers you are seeking them by the well in Samaria and you're seeking them here in this room and we don't want anyone to leave here thirsty today.

36:40 So come and satisfy souls. By the hundreds, satisfy souls with yourself for your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.