Intro:
Podcast:
https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/EKo0gsWdjvb
Do you find yourself feeling unsatisfied with your life? Is your life and presence nourishing to others or are you simply draining others? What is your source of refreshment and renewal? When you face the withering, heat of discontentment and pressures of daily living, how can you find satisfaction and contentment?
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The Woman at the Well–John Chapter 4: God’s Grace Reaches Out
As Jesus is traveling through Samaria, He comes across a woman at a well. Jesus is hot and thirsty and He asks for a drink. This is His merciful way of engaging the woman. The woman is at the well during the hottest time of the day probably to avoid the morning crowd of women. This lady is broken and lost in a life of failed relationships. She has had multiple husbands and currently living with a man who isn’t her husband. How does Jesus engage her?
Notice that Jesus doesn’t start with a lecture about marriage purity or about the evils of divorce. He asks probing questions to draw her into the right understanding of who He really is: Her Gentle Savior and Messiah. First, Jesus simply asks her for a drink. She shoots back “why are you a Jew asking a Samaritan for a drink?” Jesus then tells her that she should be asking Him for His living water. She wants this water so that she won’t have to come back to the well. Jesus replies:
13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
Jesus promises to give her much more than just a magical drink that forever ends physical thirst. Jesus offers water that springs up into eternity. Later the conversation turns to the topic of worship, wherein Jesus reveals Himself as the Messiah.
25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”
26Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”
A Sinner’s testimony: God Transforms!
28Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30So they left the town and made their way toward Jesus.
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days.
41And many more believed because of His message. 42They said to the woman, “We now believe not only because of your words; we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man truly is the Savior of the world.”
The woman left her water jar! Telling others was more important to her than the water she had come to get. When a person truly encounters Christ, there is a desire to share Christ with others! What thing(s) do we need to leave behind in order to tell the Good News? Many will come to believe in Christ through the testimony of an outcast.
Applications
A. We are all broken and in bondage to sin. When Jesus comes to you to offer the Living Water will you accept it? Or will you make excuses and delay accepting the Truth that will set you free to fully love and live for Christ?
B. Jesus is a Gentle Savior who meets us where we are! We are lost in sin, but God demonstrates His love for us in that while were powerless He died for us! You don’t have to get your life right to come to Christ! He meets you in your desperation, lonely moments and offers grace and life. Will you turn to Him or remain lost and astray?
C. Whom do you need to share Christ with? The best witness is honest testimony on how God redeemed you. Every believer has been transformed by grace! If all you talk about is God’s grace than you have said enough!
For more about the river of life
https://www.gotquestions.org/river-of-life.html
Jesus Cries Out John 7:38
37On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’ ” 39He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Jesus is teaching about Himself during the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. The religious leaders and people are arguing about His true identity. Jesus cries out for the people to come to Him. The feast of booths was a remembrance of how God sustained the people during the journey to the Promised Land. For information:
https://www.gotquestions.org/Feast-of-Tabernacles.html
Recall that God provides water for His people in the desert by instructing Moses to strike a rock (Exodus 17). The rock then produces a stream that provides for the people and animals. There is also a connection to a great revival happening in Ezra’s time when they celebrate the Feast of Booths and the people repent then faithfully follow God. Jesus is talking about accepting Him as Messiah and Holy Spirit coming. Just as the water sustains life, Jesus came to give Eternal Life!
Applications:
A. Is Jesus your Messiah and Savior or are you counting on religion or good deeds to save your soul?
B. Where Jesus lives there is Eternal Life! If you’re a child of His then your life will flow forth grace, truth, and the fruits of Holy Spirit. Trees are known by their fruits. What are your fruits? What is flowing forth from your life and witness?
Revelation 22:1-6 God Is A River of Life!
The River of Life
1Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him. 4They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
As John concludes Revelation, he describes a beautiful scene. As the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven to a restored, renewed Earth in Chapter 21, John mentions a “river of life.” The imagery of a river in the city represents more than just a source of water. Imagine life before indoor plumbing and pressurized water. Water is vital to life. Early cities had to be close to abundant source(s) of clean, fresh water for cooking, drinking, and even cleaning.
The river is a symbol of God’s sustaining presence and nourishment in the lives of God’s people.
6Then the angel said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants what must soon take place.”
7“Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy in this book.” and later
12“Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
Not only is God sustaining us with His Holy Spirit, but He is preparing to return to set all things right! Material wealth, careers, relationships, and other “good things” of life can’t truly satisfy the human heart. God made us for Himself to enjoy and find rest in Him! Jesus beckons the weary and brokenhearted to find rest and peace in Him! May these truths encourage and refresh you as you daily walk with Him! For His glory and your encouragement, I write these words.
Encouragement for your faith journey 