In Jason Dohm's sermon, 'A Fountain of Living Water for the Asking', he explores the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, as detailed in John 4:1-14. Jesus, weary from his journey, asks the Samaritan woman for a drink, initiating a conversation that breaks significant social and cultural norms. The sermon emphasizes the metaphor of 'living water' that Jesus offers, symbolizing eternal life and spiritual satisfaction available to all for the asking. Dohm contrasts the physical need for water with the spiritual need for salvation, illustrating that Jesus offers a spring of eternal life that quenches the deepest spiritual thirst. Despite cultural and personal differences, both the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus, studied in the previous chapter, share a universal need for Jesus, highlighting the impartiality of the Gospel's offer. Dohm urges listeners to learn from Jesus' approach to evangelism, emphasizing the importance of meeting people where they are and offering the Gospel's profound truths in a relatable manner. The sermon concludes with a call to embrace the living waters freely offered by Jesus, challenging listeners to transcend cultural prejudices and pursue spiritual satisfaction in Christ.

Our text this morning is John 4, 1 through 14, but for the added context I will read through verse 26. Please join me. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's well was there.

Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

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. 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. 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?

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?" Jesus answered and said to her, "'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. 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 to everlasting life." The woman said to him, "'Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.' Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have said well, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband.

In that you spoke truly." The woman said to him, "'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, �I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things.� Jesus said to her, �I who speak to you am He.� He is a man, which in Jewish society at that time was something. She is a woman, which at least the Jewish leaders consider to be not much.

He is a Jew, part of the special people of God, the apple of God's eye. She is a despised Samaritan and as such in some ways is worse than a Gentile. He is a Pharisee, a devoted student of the Old Testament, and a strict law keeper. She is a heretic holding to a kind of folk religion, which ruins Judaism by mixing in all sorts of other doctrines and practices. And she is known for all of the different men who have been in and out of her life.

He is a leader of the Jews. She is just one of the many women who come to the well to draw their own water. He seeks out Jesus, calls Jesus Rabbi, knows about and acknowledges the signs Jesus has been doing. She stumbles upon Jesus seemingly by chance and expresses disapproval and doubt at every turn. Jesus takes time with him, speaks stunning truth to him, offers to be his Savior.

Jesus takes time with her, speaks stunning truth to her, offers to be her Savior. He desperately needs Jesus. His eternity hangs simply and exclusively on whether or not he believes in Jesus. She desperately needs Jesus. Her eternity hangs simply and exclusively on whether or not she believes in Jesus.

Up until this point in their respective descriptions they seem so different they seem to be polar opposites. But in the one point that means everything, the one point that renders everything else irrelevant, they are exactly the same. He is Nicodemus, who we encountered and studied in chapter 3. She is the Samaritan woman at the well, who we're encountering and studying in chapter 4. Striking the differences between the two that John the Gospel writer puts back to back in our encounters of them.

They couldn't be more different in so many ways, but in the most fundamental way they are exactly the same. They're both desperately in need of Jesus. Their eternity hangs on whether or not they place their trust in Him as Savior, even though they're different in all these other ways. The title of the sermon this morning is, A Fountain of Living Water for the Asking. This is what is set before us in our text.

Jesus claims to be the giver of a fountain of living water. Not a cup or a bucket or a pool, but a fountain of living water. And it's yours for the asking. This is amazing. This is astounding.

This is the Gospel. So as we come to our text this morning, let's come to the text in prayer. Jesus, we thank You that You take notice of the lowly. Not just the leaders, not just the learned and the strict law keepers, but the people that have such a past, who have such wrong thinking, who are so little and insignificant in the eyes of the world, you care so deeply. Oh, let us see this text and love you, Lord.

Let us love you from the heart. Pray that you would use these precious words in our lives to give us an increased love and gratitude for our Lord, But also an increased love for all of those who are around us who Like everyone else who's ever been born is in desperate need to be saved Change us Lord through your word we pray in Jesus name amen I'd like to begin by looking at verses 1-6 together. So I'll read it again. Follow along as I read verses 1-6. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples.

He left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore being weary from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Here in this section of Scripture, Jesus leaves Judea for Galilee and travels through Samaria. The Pharisees have heard that Jesus is making disciples and baptizing disciples and more than John. We know from the Gospels that the multitudes were flocking to John while now they are flocking to Jesus. And even more so than they had come to John the Baptist, they are now coming to Jesus. They are becoming his disciples and they are being baptized.

And Jesus knows that the Pharisees have heard this. Now, remember the sequence that we've been in in the Gospel of John. In chapter 1, the leaders in Jerusalem, the Pharisees being part of that, sent to John the Baptist to say, who are you that the multitudes are coming to repent and to be baptized? John said a couple of things. Repeatedly he says, I am not the Christ, but I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

In other words, I am the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 40 verse 3. There is this prophecy that before the Messiah a prophet will be sent to make the people ready for him to make the paths straight for him. John the Baptist says, I'm not that. I'm not the Christ. I'm the prophesied forerunner of the Christ.

And in chapter 2, after John the Baptist has pointed to Jesus specifically and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In chapter 2, Jesus shows up during Passover week and he cleanses the temple. He makes quite a scene in the temple. This is really his introduction to the Pharisees and to the leaders in Jerusalem. John the Baptist said again and again, one greater than me is coming and now he is pointed to Jesus and now Jesus has come at Passover feast and announced himself by cleansing the temple, driving people out, turning over tables, and whipping either the livestock or the people or both to get them out of the temple.

And now this, now the multitudes are coming to Jesus, they are becoming His disciples and they are being baptized. Now why does He depart Judea? Well, the text doesn't say. But suffice it to say that it didn't serve his purposes to stay. I can think of a number of reasons that could be.

He didn't want to be in conflict with John the Baptist or his disciples, but the text doesn't say that. Or He didn't want to be persecuted before its time, but the text doesn't say that. Or the main part of his ministry was to be in Galilee and not Judea, and that his preaching ministry really was going to be focused on Galilee anyway, but the text doesn't say that. Whatever reason for him leaving in Judea, it was to serve his purposes. We get an important clarification in verse 2, and that's that Jesus didn't actually baptize himself.

It was his disciples who did the baptizing. Now what is the significance of that? I think it's primarily two things. Why didn't Jesus baptize? Why did he give that work to be done by his disciples?

I'll give you two reasons why I think he didn't. First, Jesus does the reality and he delegates the picture. So does baptism save you? No, no, no. The work of the Holy Spirit converting you saves you, not baptism, not this outward thing with physical water.

The baptism is just the picture. The reality is being immersed and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is in charge of that baptism. And He delegates the other baptism. So when I baptize, or when James baptizes, or when any father in good standing baptizes their own children here, we are delegated to do the picture.

But the reality is inward conversion, the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, that is Jesus' work. That is the baptism that is reserved to Jesus. Secondly, listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 17. 1 Corinthians 1, 17, Paul writes, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. Baptism is important, but baptism is secondary.

So Paul said, I didn't baptize anyone, no wait a minute, I think I baptized you and you, I don't remember who else I baptized. Paul says that in 1 Corinthians. That's a paraphrase, but not by much. To Paul, baptism as important as it is in the New Testament, as essential as it is in the church, it is secondary to the preaching of the gospel. It is an after effect of the Gospel being embraced.

So it was not central to Jesus' ministry, nor Paul's ministry, nor should it be central to my ministry, not to demean baptism. But the preaching of the gospel is central. We see Jesus preaching all the time. We see Him praying all the time. We see Him presiding over the Lord's Supper once, but we never see Him baptizing one single person in the New Testament.

That means something. The preaching of the Gospel is central. In verse 4, The text says that he needed to go through Samaria. Not that he went through Samaria, he did go through Samaria, but what the text says is he needed to go through Samaria. Now this could be practical or it could be theological.

Here's what I mean by that. Josephus says that the normal route in going to the feast from Galilee, going to Jerusalem, was through Samaria. It was the normal route. Most Jews went right through Samaria. You have Jerusalem in the south, and you have Galilee where Jesus grew up, in the north, and right between them is Samaria.

It's the as the crow flies route. So this could just be a statement of practical considerations. This is a three-day journey if you go the quickest way and that is through Samaria. But it could also be a theological statement. When you look at this word in the Gospel of John, in every other instance, and I saw a commentator making this claim, so I looked at every other instance.

In every other instance in John, when it says that Jesus needed to do something, it is clear in the other usages that it is divine necessity. It is directly linked to the doing of the will of his Father. Jesus needed to do the will of his Father like you and I need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was His will to do the will of His Father. It was His food to do the will of His Father.

It could be divine necessity. Here's a phrase that we don't use much anymore. We used to use it all the time when I was first born again in the mid to late 80s. Divine appointment. What do we mean by that phrase?

We meant a coming upon and interaction with someone that after the fact you look back and say, God led me into that. It was not a chance meeting where you could say, God connected me with that person at that time for a very specific purpose. It was a divine appointment. I didn't make the appointment. God made that appointment for me and there I was just the right moment to say a word in season to this person.

This certainly is a divine appointment between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. It could be practical or theological. I think it's both. I don't think we should limit it to one or the other. Whatever or however, some Jews would go all the way around.

They wouldn't take the as the crow flies route. Because in their strictness, they were afraid that they would be defiled by interacting with that dust, let alone the people. Meaning it was such a defiled place, land, location, and its inhabitants were so far off on what they believed and how they lived, that even a walk across that dust and talk to those people would defile them, so they would cross over the Jordan. They would leave Jerusalem, they would cross over the Jordan, they would go all the way following the Jordan, and then they would cross over when they were past Samaria to get to Galilee and make the trip a lot longer just so they didn't have to have Samaritan dust on their feet. You've heard the shaking off of the dust in the gospels.

Jews would do that when they left Samaria. If you went through, you might shake off the dust of your feet, just as in like I don't want to be defiled by that place to be around those people. I don't even want the dust on my shoes. There were Jews that would do that. Jesus is having none of that.

Jesus travels through Samaria now. He travels through Samaria multiple times in the Gospels. He interacts with Samaritans. They buy food in Samaria in this text. When Jesus is having this interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, his disciples are off buying food from Samaritans.

So Jesus does not participate in the cultural prejudices that exist against Samaritans. Jesus has no part of that. This should teach us something too about our cultural prejudices. Jesus had no part in that. He was not afraid to walk through their turf, he didn't shake the dust off of his feet, he interacted with the people, he bought food from them.

We should too. Why would Jews feel that way? Was there no basis for the cultural prejudices? Well, I didn't say that. There was certainly no legitimate basis for hatred in the heart for despising the Samaritans, but there were some good reasons why you would be concerned about potentially being defiled by fellowship with Samaritans.

What were those reasons? It began with a split in the kingdom in 930 BC, right around 930 BC. The kingdom split in two. Now this is an oversimplification, but under Saul the first king and his son David and his son Solomon, these first three kings presided over one kingdom. Now there is an exception during the time of David where the kingdom fractured for a period of time and then was reunified.

But for the sake of simplicity, Saul, David, Solomon were kings over a single unified kingdom. When Solomon died, Rehoboam, his son, became king and almost immediately the kingdom split. You can read about this in 1 Kings chapter 12. And Solomon's son, Rehoboam, was king over two tribes And that kingdom was called Judah. So you have a line of kings, the kings of Judah.

And it was the southern kingdom. And then there was a northern Kingdom then, which is either called Israel or Ephraim or sometimes even called Samaria. And this was under a new king, Jeroboam. So there's two lines of kings. This is what you find in 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles is a line of kings in Judah, a line of kings in Israel because the kingdom has split.

Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, or the first king of Ephraim, because he was afraid the people kept going, his people, the people he was king over, kept going to Jerusalem to worship, that their hearts would be turned towards the king of Judah and he would lose his kingdom. So what did he do? He set up two golden calves and he set up a rival system of worship so that the people wouldn't go to Jerusalem and their hearts wouldn't be won over by the King of Judah and he wouldn't lose his kingdom. He set up a golden calf in Bethel, he set up a golden calf in Dan, he set up a rival priesthood and serving the living God, worshipping the living God became perverted from there and the idolatry in Israel, the northern kingdom just gets worse and worse and worse and worse through the centuries. In about 722 BC, so the kingdom splits around 930 BC, and around 722 BC, because of their idolatry and their rebellion against God, God sends the Assyrians against the northern kingdom, against Israel or against Ephraim.

And the Assyrians take them captive, evacuate most of the people out of the northern kingdom, and bring in captives from other places into the kingdom who then intermarry with the few Jews who are remaining. They intermarry and the blood lines are all mixed up with Gentiles. These captives who are brought in by the Assyrians from other places to repopulate Israel, or Ephraim, or Samaria, it's called all three of those things in different places in the Old Testament, they bring their other gods with them. And they are happy to add the God of Israel in with the other gods on the shelf. And so they worship the God of Israel and they worship all their old gods too.

They mix them all up in doctrine and in practice. This is why the Jews have such a hatred of these people. The bloodlines are corrupted, the religion is corrupted, the practices are corrupted, the corruption goes from bad to worse. We have two indications of this. By the way, if you want to read about this second element, the Assyrians taking them captive and then bringing in other captives, you can read about that in 2 Kings 17.

It's so clear about what happens in the northern kingdom. There are two indicators from the Gospels that tell us how Jews think about Samaritans and Samaria. The first is John 8 verse 48. Listen to John 8 verse 48. This is what the Jews say about Jesus.

Jesus, do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? This tells you what they think about Samaritans. It's synonymous with having a demon. Jesus, aren't we right when we say about you that you are a Samaritan and you have a demon? You say it all in the same breath.

You don't even put a comma between them. You are a Samaritan and you have a demon. It might as well be the same thing. This is how Jews viewed it. Secondly, in Luke chapter 10 we have the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The parable of the Good Samaritan means nothing if there is not built in generations old, heartfelt animosity and tension between Jews and Samaritans. This parable of the Good Samaritan tells us how Jews normally felt about Samaritans. That's in the backdrop of our text. Jesus comes to Sychar, It's a city in Samaria. By the way, Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom, but then the region becomes called that, and even the whole nation at certain points becomes called that.

So now It's not the designation of a city, now it's a region. It's a whole region. And this is where Jesus is, and this is where the city of Sychar is. It's near the plot that Jacob gave to Joseph. You can read about this in Genesis chapter 48.

Jacob, when he's blessing his sons, gives this plot of ground to his son Joseph. He did that around the mid-1800s BC. So this city goes back 1800 years at the time where Jacob gave this to Joseph. Outside of Jerusalem, this is the most historic ground in Israel. Outside of Jerusalem, Shechem, Sychar would be either on the site of ancient Shechem or near that, right at the foot of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, where The tribes when they cross over the Jordan, they are taking possession of the land and God commands them, you put half the tribes on this mount and they pronounce the blessings and half the tribes on this mount and they pronounce the curses and the Levites stand right between them in Shechem, this is the ground where that happened.

Joseph's bones, he gave instructions when he died. I know that God is going to lead us out of Egypt, and when he leads us out of Egypt, don't you leave my bones here, you take my bones with you." And they did, and they buried his bones here in Shechem. This is that plot of ground. Outside of Jerusalem, This is the most historic ground. Everywhere you looked would have history.

You have these two great mountains of Gerizim and Ebal. Jacob's well was there. This well is not mentioned in the Old Testament. The digging of wells periodically is mentioned in the Old Testament, never this one. But there is a site in this area today where they say, this is Jacob's well.

This is the John 4 well. And people have been saying that for well over a thousand years. So this is not like they stumbled upon something and said, hey, maybe this is Jacob's well. You can trace back. They've been saying, hey, this well here is Jacob's well for over a thousand years.

It's probably Jacob's well. It's an ancient well still over a hundred feet deep today. So it's in the right location. And It's an ancient well, still a deep well, just like what's described in our text today. It's probably that well.

It doesn't really matter whether that's the exact well or not. You can probably go visit this GPS coordinate today and say Jesus sat here and talked to this woman here. Here's a point that I wouldn't have thought of but it's so important. J.C. Ryle makes this comment, Let it be carefully noted that St.

John here speaks of Jacob and Joseph and the events of their lives as if the history contained in Genesis was all simple matter of fact. It is always so in the New Testament. What is he saying? This is really important. He is saying, look at how John the Gospel writer treats Jacob and Joseph and Genesis history.

John the Gospel writer, by the way he treats this, you can tell this is just simple matter of fact, really happened history right out of Genesis to him. This is no mythology used to teach spiritual truths. This is history that you can bet your life on. And Ryle is saying that anywhere you see Genesis handled by A Gospel writer or the Apostle Paul or Jesus, this is how it is handled. Genesis is always treated as this is matter of fact.

We should too. We should too. Jesus is weary from the journey. He sits by the well. The text says it's about the sixth hour.

Now this is either a Jewish rendering of time, which makes it noon, or it's a Roman rendering of time, which makes it 6 p.m. There are all sorts of arguments. The best arguments, in my view, are on the side of noon. And the one that is definitive to me is all that happens in the rest of this day after this conversation. So there's a lot that happens.

And it's still not night. It can't be 6pm. 6pm would actually be relatively near sunset. There is not enough time for it to happen. I think the best way to understand this is that it is the Jewish rendering of time that Jesus is arriving here around noon.

Now remember how the Gospel of John started. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus is God, and then he just goes on and soars into the stratosphere about the glories of Jesus Christ as God. But, but, but, he does not de-emphasize, John the Gospel writer does not de-emphasize the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to protect His divinity. You see that here.

Here a weary, thirsty Jesus is at the well at midday. In the Gospels we see Jesus hungry, we see him thirsty, we see him exhausted, sleeping in the keel of a boat sometimes. And so it was. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Why does this matter?

Well, the writers of Hebrews 4, the writer of Hebrews, in chapter 4, thinks it matters a lot. Because he says this means that we now have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. We have a high priest representing us to a holy omnipotent God who has been hungry, has been thirsty, has been exhausted, has wept. It matters a lot that Jesus did take on flesh and He had all of our infirmities. He was tempted in every way and yet without sin.

Moving on to the next section. Let's now look at verses 7 through 10. Please follow along as I read. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." 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. In this section, Jesus asks for a drink and speaks of living water. So if you are taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it is a drink. Jesus asks for a drink and speaks of living water. Now Jesus encounters a woman.

He comes to this well outside Sychar. His disciples go into town to buy food. He's there at the well at noon. And he encounters this woman. She comes to Jacob's 1800 year old well to draw water.

And Jesus asks her for a drink, and she can't believe it. And she says so, I can't believe you're asking me for a drink. How can that be so? Since you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan, and we both know our histories. Now I'm embellishing, But that's essentially the sense of what is here.

We know the histories between Jews and Samaritans. How could you possibly ask me for a drink? Look what she says in the second part of verse 9. How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman, and then John the Gospel writer finishes it out saying for Jews, have no dealings with Samaritans? There's nothing wrong with the rendering, Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, but that's really the secondary meaning.

If you look in a lexicon at the Greek words that are rendered, have no dealings with, the secondary meaning is to associate with or to have dealings with. So it's a good enough translation. Jews don't do this. They don't associate with Samaritans. They don't have dealings with Samaritans.

Fair enough. But the primary meaning of this word really shed some light on the circumstances as well. The primary meaning is to use with anyone, to use jointly. In other words, you're coming to this well, you want water, you don't have anything to draw with. So now I'm going to let down my vessel and I'm going to bring it up and you're going to drink out of a Samaritan vessel.

I'd like to see that. It's also saying this, the primary meaning of the word, Jews don't do this. Jews don't use vessels jointly with Samaritans. A couple of things we should notice, which seem to be insignificant, but they are very significant. First, Jesus initiates with the Samaritan woman.

She doesn't talk to him first, he talks to her first. And this is walking all over the social norms. Jesus in our text is trampling on the social norms, not the Bible norms, the social norms. Jesus cares more about this woman than he cares about honoring extra biblical social norms. Are you tracking with me?

Are we all together here? Jesus cares a lot about this woman and very little or not at at all about these extra-biblical social norms. Now, if anyone takes what I just said as a basis to go develop private personal friendships with members of the opposite sex, They didn't do that with my approval. That's not what I said. That's not what we have here.

Jesus developing a private personal friendship with a member of the opposite sex. But there is nothing unlawful with what Jesus does here and there is nothing unwise about what Jesus does here. Any one of us should feel free to do what Jesus does here. It is not unlawful, it is not unwise in the middle of town where not only is there no expectation of privacy, there is no possibility of privacy to speak truth in a tender hearted way to someone that you find there, even the member of an opposite sex, whether they are a believer or not. Secondly, Jesus initiates with something completely ordinary.

Can I have some water? Now, the Samaritans are a mess. There are a lot of things that need to be said to all Samaritans about their doctrine and their practice. And this particular Samaritan is particularly a mess. Above and beyond their wrong views and above and beyond their wrong practices, this woman has long-standing pattern of sin in her life that everybody in town knows about.

There's a lot to talk about. Jesus doesn't open with any of that. Jesus knows, we're getting ready to find out, Jesus already knew about all the history. Jesus can't learn anything about this woman, He is God. So he knows it all.

What's his opening line? Can I have some water? Now why do I point out these things? Why do I point out that Jesus is the one who initiates and he walks all over these social norms and by the way when he does it there's nothing unlawful or unwise in the way he does it or that he does it. And secondly, that he initiates with something completely ordinary.

Why do I point these things out? Because we are being eye witnesses to the greatest evangelist who has ever walked planet Earth. It is not Charles Spurgeon, it is not George Whitefield, it is not John Wesley, it is not even the Apostle Paul, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the best evangelist who has ever lived. We should study this with intense interest and with an intention and a purpose to do in our own lives and our own interactions the things that we see him doing because he is doing it with perfect wisdom. Thinking about how he engages this Samaritan woman at the well here makes me look back on some of my previous evangelistic interactions and blush.

So unwise in many ways. I'm learning from this. We should all learn from this. Now, how does Jesus answer her unbelief that He would even engage her? In other words, she's incredulous.

You're a Jew, how could you even ask me for water? How does Jesus answer her disbelief? Look again at verse 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." You can make an argument that the gift of God, when he says, if you knew the gift of God, you can make an argument that the gift of God is the Holy Spirit, or that the gift of God is salvation, or that the gift of God is salvation, or that the gift of God is Jesus himself, but I want to argue that it doesn't matter at all, that at heart it's the same thing which is God giving what no one deserves and no one can buy. That's the whole point. If you knew who I am, you would have asked me for what no one deserves and no one can buy.

That includes the Holy Spirit and salvation and Jesus Himself. All the things wrapped up, grace, that's what grace literally means, gift. If you knew the gift of God, if you knew the grace of God, you can say that interchangeably and you're right to do it. All the things that we don't deserve and can't buy, Jesus is pushing out on the table and offering and saying, they're here for the asking. They're here for the asking.

Jesus begins to reveal His identity to her. If you knew who I am, if you knew my identity and the implications of that for her. If we skip ahead to verse 42, we see that the Samaritans, the people that she shares a city with, are going to say, we know that this is the Christ, the Savior of the world. This is where Jesus is taking this to an understanding that He is the Christ, the Anointed of God, the one God promised to send to save the world from sin. What are the implications for her?

Well the implication for her is that she is eye to eye with the one being in the universe who can give her living water and all she has to do is ask for it. Fast forward to next week. Spoiler alert. He knows all about her. He knows about the five failed marriages.

He knows about the man she's living with now, and they're not even married. He knows all about that. He reveals that in next week's text. And he still says, Yours for the asking. Living water, yours for the asking.

No wonder the Gospel is so scandalous. Maybe we would allow that for Nicodemus. Maybe we would allow that for Nicodemus. You better be ready to allow it for this woman who has five filled marriages and is living with the man out of wedlock because Jesus says living water is yours for the asking to the extent that you want to hold it back from this woman, you are out of step with the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't know your God.

That's why the title of the sermon is, A Fountain of Living Water for the Asking. Jesus stands ready to give living water for the asking. The temptation at this point is to start drilling in with the Calvinistic caveats. To whittle away what's being said that, No, no, no. I'd like to point out that Jesus doesn't, and in so many places Paul doesn't.

He just leaves that out there, yours for the asking. No whittling away that it is a real offer. He stands ready to those who come, he does not turn them away. Last section, verses 11-14. 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? 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?" Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. 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." In this section, Jesus begins to explain living water. By the way, we're not done with the explanation.

She doesn't get the explanation, but he begins to explain it. He starts building, and he's going to have to keep building in and through next week's text with her. But he begins to explain living water. So that's the blank if you're filling in blanks. Explain.

This woman lives on the physical plane. She's thinking about physical things, food and drink and men and sleep and housing and wells for water and clothing and on and on. She has no category for living water because she is thinking about physical things and she is not thinking about her spiritual needs. So she objects. You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.

Where are you going to get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob?" Now, on this side of the Gospel, knowing who Jesus is and being sort of an eye witness to this conversation, you just have to chuckle. Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well 1800 years ago? For 1800 years it's been supplying water to my forefathers. Are you greater than this man?

It was a well enough for his sons and his cattle. It's an abundant well. You greater than this man. You've got a greater source of water than this source of water. To her, Jesus looks like nothing but a weary traveler.

And you know what? She is in good company. Over and over again, the disciples, Jesus says something and there is a spiritual reality, a profound spiritual reality behind it and they are thinking about something physical. So she is in the company with his disciples. Last week Jesus is talking to the one who is supposed to be the teacher of Israel, Nicodemus, and he says, You must be born again.

And he says, Can you enter the womb of your mother a second time and be born again? How can that be? She's in the company with Nicodemus and Jesus' disciples. With her saying, our father Jacob, listen to what Martin Buser, Martin Buser is a great reformer, he says this, true piety would be devotion. We are talking about authentic religion.

True piety does not consist in having Jacob's well and Jacob's land, but Jacob's spirit. Not in keeping the bones of the saints, but in imitating their lives. Here's this woman, she doesn't know that Jesus knows about all that's in her past, and so she trots out Jacob. She hooks her wagon to Jacob. He's our father.

You greater than him? Martin Booser says, yeah, unbelievers are always wanting to do that. They're always wanting to say, yeah, I'm on this train. But true piety doesn't consist in having Jacob's well and Jacob's land, but Jacob's spirit. Jacob's faith is what makes you a believer, not having his land and his will.

We don't keep the bones of the saints, we're to imitate their faith. When a Jew heard the words, Our Father Jacob, any Jew would have hit the roof at this point. Our Father Jacob, oh yeah, prove it. I can go up ten generations and prove that Jacob is my father. How about you Samaritan?

You mutt, You half-breed. Jesus doesn't do that. There are many rebuke worthy things that are coming from her side of the dialogue, meaning Jesus would have been right on the money to put her on notice that she's out of line. Here's one of them. What's this Our Father Jacob stuff?

You're not hardly His in bloodline, and you're certainly not His in doctrine, and you're certainly not His in practice. Jacob doesn't belong to you. Jesus overlooks that. And He teaches her this. The living water isn't a physical reality that you need things to get.

Like I don't need to drop anything down into a well to bring up this living water. It's not a physical reality you need things to get. It is a spiritual reality you must go to Jesus and only Jesus for. This is the living water. Not something I need a vessel to go get, but something you need to come to me and only me for." Listen again to how Jesus answers her objections.

I'll read again verses 13 and 14. Jesus answered and said to her, "'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 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." Jesus says two things. One, he contrasts the physical water she is preoccupied with, with the living water that he is offering. He knows she has got something on her mind, water, that's what she's there for.

She comes to the well at least once a day in perpetuity, forever. And water's on her mind so he uses water, because it's an entry point to a spiritual reality. And so he contrasts the physical water that she's preoccupied with with the living water that he's offering. And the point is that the physical water, you have to come again, and come again, and come again, and come again endlessly, but the living water you can come and you can partake of it and you'll never thirst again, you never have to come again. Now does this mean that if you're really a Christian you'll never be spiritually thirsty again?

I think Matthew Henry hits the nail on the head. Listen to what Matthew Henry said. He's dead on about this. Matthew Henry says, he's speaking of the Christian, a desiring thirst he has. Nothing more than God, still more and more of God, but not a despairing thirst.

You see what he's saying there? There's a despairing thirst that one who's never partaken of the living waters has. They are grasping and they are searching and they are coming again and again and again and they are never satisfied. The next day they are as empty as when they started. It is a despairing thirst.

Matthew Henry says Christians don't have that anymore. Their search is ended for the thing that will satisfy you through eternity. But a desiring thirst, They've tasted and seen that the Lord is good and they've not had enough. They want more of the Lord because of the sweetness of their encounter with the Lord. They have a desiring thirst that says more and more of God.

Yes, Christians have that. Jesus isn't teaching anything different, but He is saying that for the Christian the despairing thirst that is never satisfied, that is always coming back, that is always changing sources of satisfaction and never being satisfied, that is over. The larger point is that every earthly satisfaction is momentary. That is the larger point of this text. Every earthly satisfaction.

This is about so much more than water. Don't let us fall into the same trap she's fallen into. Oh yeah, water you have to have again the next day. No, no, no, water represents a category. Water represents a category of earthly things that you would seek for satisfaction.

And every earthly satisfaction is momentary. You finally lay hold of it. You finally got the satisfaction you were looking for from the earthly thing. And then it's like a wisp of vapor. It's gone.

And it's harder to get the next time. And the satisfaction lasts less time the next time and on and on. So you have to keep shifting. No, no, no. You have to change.

You have to fix your gaze on a new target because you found out that this one doesn't satisfy. This earthly thing, the satisfaction from it is only momentary so you have to change to another earthly thing and another and another and there is no end to it. It is a despairing thirst. And you end up weeks or months or years or decades later saying, is there nothing more than these things that I've been chasing? And Jesus says, yes, there's something more.

There's something that will satisfy your heart in time and in eternity, and I have it, and It is yours for the asking. This is the first thing that he says. He contrasts the physical water that she's chasing, endlessly chasing with the living water that is spiritual. You can't see it. You don't send a physical vessel down into a well to get it.

You have to go to Jesus for it. Number two, Jesus teaches her the nature of this living water. It's not a cup or a bucket or even a pool. It's a fountain. It's a fountain ever replenishing itself.

It just keeps flowing and keeps flowing, you draw, but it's not diminished. It's a fountain. This well, actually this well that you can visit today that is probably Jacob's well, at least people for over a thousand years have pointed to it and said That's Jacob's well. This particular one is not just a well that you dig down and you hit the ground water at some point. They dug down, Jacob probably, dug down and hit this spring.

It's a well that's lasted 1800 years and never dried up. Because it's not only a dug out well, it digs down to a spring. It's a spring fed well, so for 1800 years. And you could go draw out of it today and you wouldn't diminish it because it's a fountain. It's a spring.

Jesus says that this living water isn't a cup or a bucket or even a pool. It is a fountain. It's not outside of you that you have to keep drawing on it. It's inside of you. No more trips to the well.

The word rendered, springing up, is used two other times in the New Testament. It's only used three times. Here and in Acts 4 and in Acts 13, in the two instances in Acts, a lame person is being healed and they spring up and rejoice. They haven't had the use of their members but now they do because they are healed in the name of Jesus Christ and they spring up to rejoice. This is the word.

These living waters spring up to eternal life. The Expositors Bible commentary says, the water that Jesus gives is no stagnant pool. It is a gushing spring that refreshes all who partake of it. Amen to that. Everything that you need to sustain and satisfy you in this life, all the way to and through the finish line, is found in what Jesus gives to his people.

You'll be partaking, if you're a Christian, if you're a believer, if you're really in Christ, you'll be partaking of this living water into, through eternity. It won't end for you, even at death in this life. You'll just keep partaking of the living waters. It'll keep imparting life to you, sustaining you, satisfying you through eternity. There's much more to say, but I have another week to say it.

So, we'll save it till next week. We'll close with a few applications. Application number one, to unbelievers. Unbelievers. Jesus stands ready to give you living waters for the asking.

Those who on the day of judgment, where we all stand to give an account before an all-knowing, almighty God, who are damned, will simply have not, because they ask not. And I can't help but think this will be such a great part of the misery of hell. It was so close, required so little. He stands ready to give freely for the asking. As we've been studying, men love darkness.

That's why they won't just reach out and have what's offered. They really just love their sin. They hate Christ because they love their sin. They won't even have what is offered freely. And it will be such a misery to live with that thought through eternity.

If you're not born again, I just want you to know what is in our text. Everlasting life, what will sustain you, what will impart life to you, and then sustain you, and then satisfy you throughout eternity, is yours for the asking. You don't deserve it, you can't buy it, you can't work for it, it is offered to you freely. Today is the day of salvation. It is a fool who waits another day.

It is a fool who waits another minute. Number two, Are you living on the physical plane? This isn't just for unbelievers. You know believers can live on the physical plane Spiritual truths are before you all the time, and you're thinking about lunch you living on the physical plane Are you chasing these satisfactions that are momentary? Think that's just for unbelievers.

Only unbelievers chase momentary satisfactions When what will sustain and satisfy throughout all eternity is a well of living water inside of you. It's a fool's errand. Chasing those things is a fool's errand. They always disappoint and then you have to shift your gaze to the next thing. Be done with it.

Believers, believing brethren, be done with it. Let's be done with it. Let's be satisfied in Christ. Stop chasing and grasping. Number three, believer.

Have you created a hermetically sealed Christian life that unwittingly creates a big Samaria? Have you created a life, a hermetically sealed life? What is that? Something hermetically sealed is airtight. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.

And you haven't intended to do this, but you've created a life that is so Christian in its touch points from start to finish that you never walk through Samaria. I have a life that if I don't want to, I never have to do anything other than exchange a few surface pleasantries with an unbeliever. I don't even work with them anymore. Break the hermetic seal. Build interactions with people who are a lot less like me and a lot more like the woman at the well.

A lot less like your Christian friends and more like the woman at the well. Build some touch points in with them. Do it with wisdom like Jesus did it. There are pitfalls to be avoided here, and I'm not minimizing those. But if we walk in Jesus' footsteps, as we see them here in John chapter 4, we'll be okay.

We need that. The Great Commission demands that. Be careful of being so worried about becoming defiled that you'll cross over the Jordan and go all the way around so you don't have to set foot on Samaritan soil. That's a dangerous place to go. Lastly, are you prepared to learn from the Master Evangelist?

Friends, brethren, go to school on Jesus Christ, the greatest evangelist who ever lived. I want to read two Ryle quotes for this fourth and final application. Here's what J.C. Ryle says of Jesus. He does not wait for her to speak to him.

He approaches the woman's mind by the subject of water, which was naturally uppermost in her thoughts. Simple as this request may seem, it opened the door to spiritual conversation. It threw a bridge across the gulf which lay between her and him." Do you see what Ryle was saying? There's a big gulf between Jews and Samaritans, so he throws a bridge across the gulf. Can I have some water?

It is vain to expect that such persons will voluntarily come to us and begin to seek knowledge. Amen. We must begin with them and go down to them in the spirit of courteous and friendly aggression. That's a phrase that needs to be burned on our minds. We go to them in the spirit of courteous and friendly aggression.

There is a handle to every mind and our chief aim must be to get a hold of it. Above all, we must be kind in manner and beware of showing that we feel conscious of our own superiority. If we let ignorant people fancy that we think we are doing them a great favor in talking to them about a religion, there is little hope of doing good to their souls. Yes, study the master evangelist. Finally, J.C.

Ryle says this about Jesus again, he begins by exciting her curiosity and raising her expectations by speaking of something within her reach which he calls living water. A systematic statement of doctrinal truth would have been thrown away at this stage on the woman's feeling. The general and figurative language which our Lord employed was exactly calculated to arouse her imagination and to lead her on to further inquiry. He's got the bait out there, is what Ryle is saying. Not bait and switch, bait and catch.

We're fishing. We're fishing. If you know all the theological propositions and you immediately start trotting them out there, you're not doing what Jesus did here. He put the bait out there. He put something that she would desire and was attractive out there to catch a fish.

Not to trade it, but to make the Gospel enticing. He's not trying to entrap her, he's trying to win her with the glories of the goodness of what there is offered. Have you ever found yourself, you think, wow, if I was just listening to what I'm saying, it's like I'm trying to chase them away with all the negative. But the Gospel is glorious and good and desirable and it is enticing the gospel is enticing you might have been saved through fear of hell but few are most get a glimpse of Most get a glimpse of Jesus as He is and they say that's lovely. Let me close with this.

Revelation, two verses from Revelation. That's the last two chapters of the Bible. So I'm going to quote a verse from Revelation 21 and a verse from Revelation 22. Revelation 21 verse 6. And he, Jesus said to me, said to John, our Gospel writer, writing again in Revelation, and Jesus said to John, it is done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of water of life freely to him who thirsts. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts." Now Revelation 22 verse 17, this is within five verses of the end of the whole Bible, Revelation 22, 17, And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him who hears say, Come. And let him who thirsts, Come.

Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. God, I thank you for this scandalous offer of the gospel that whoever comes is welcome. Whoever would have the water of life, let them come and take it freely. I pray that this would be heard with spiritual ears today, by some who have never heard it with spiritual ears.

The offer to come and to partake freely of living waters that well up, that spring up to eternal life. Oh, may we know of it. May we be sustained by it. May we be satisfied by it. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.