SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let's pray. Father, as we come now to this point in our service where we pause and reflect on your word, we pray that the words of your gospel will sink deep into our hearts, that it would bear much fruit. In Christ's name. Amen. Andreas Mikkowitz is a Guinness World Record holder for something you've probably never heard of. When he was 18 years old in 1979, he was a passenger in a car crash in a small town in Austria. And for some reason, the police took him in for questioning. There must have been some kind of extenuating circumstance. I couldn't find exactly what it was. But the police forgot that they had put him in a holding cell in the basement of the prison or of the police station. And he was held there for 18 days without food or water. They intended to release him that very afternoon, and in fact, when the ensuing trial took place for negligence and criminal conduct on behalf of those police officers, they were found not guilty because they simply just thought the other person had let him go. He had done nothing wrong, and he was merely in a car that had been in an accident. But it was the Easter weekend holidays, and things were so slow that everybody just went home and forgot about him. No one checked. And so he he had he had well, he hadn't been, he was just forgotten. I'll get to that. He was just forgotten for 18 days. And he survived by licking the condensation off of the walls of that basement. He lost 53 pounds in 18 days. Can you imagine the kind of thirst that he felt? Had to be excruciating. Water is an essential human need. Like food and shelter, we can't survive very long without water. We don't have to be convinced that we should be drinking plenty of water. It's popular all over the internet. There are all these trends about how many ounces of water you should be drinking every day. I heard someone telling about a conversation with their doctor and the doctor's recommendation for their daily water intake. So it's a health trend popular on the internet. It's something your doctor's probably talking to you about. Water is essential for life. And perhaps the fact that water is so essential for life is the reason why it keeps coming up in John's gospel. If you can think back to the first three or four chapters of the book, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River in chapter 1. And in chapter 2, he turns water into wine at that wedding in Cana of Galilee. And Jesus talks to Nicodemus about having to be born of water and the Spirit in order to enter the kingdom of God. And now in there's Genesis again. In John chapter 4, Jesus has this famous conversation with the woman at the well. The living water that Jesus offered to the woman at the well is much more than a way for her to quench her thirst. We all know that. The water that he's offering her has more to do with her soul than it does with her temporal moment-to-moment experience of thirst and needing to go and draw water from a well. He's speaking about a deeper thirst that she has, a deeper need that she has, that has the same level of essential quality that water does for the human body. That if you don't have this new life, then you are, according to Jesus, condemned already. But the water that Jesus offers her, it does more than just quench her spiritual thirst. It helps her transcend her social and cultural transgressions. The living waters of the gospel come not only to photeen, as she's later considered or named after her baptism. The living waters of the gospel don't just come to photeen, they go to her entire village. And the results of this gospel coming to all of them were profound for that entire community. And just like regular water, the living waters of the gospel are essential for our lives. The living water of the gospel brought new life to this Samaritan town. And the living waters that well up, the living waters well up so that a person will never be thirsty again, is the same thing that we read about last week in John 3. We heard about being born again, a new life that would bring us into the kingdom of God. That new life that the Samaritans experienced had an immediate impact on the woman at the well, as we'll see. For now, let's just say that the profound change was not limited to the individuals, but led to a reforming of their entire life together. The glorious truth is that the gospel has not lost any of its transforming power. And the living waters that recreated and reformed the life of that small village in Samaria in the first century recreate and reform us and our world today. And in that reforming and recreating work of the gospel, we become the worshipers and the witnesses of truth that God is seeking in the world. In our passages of Scripture, I don't know if you've noticed in the Old Testament reading and in the Gospel reading, everybody seems to have a thirst problem. Lots of thirsty people in those passages of Scripture. The Israelites are in terrible need of thirst. They're wandering through a wilderness land. The wilderness around Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb, it was not a place flowing with milk and honey as the land of Canaan would be. It wasn't even a place you could count on finding a fresh spring or stream of water. The Israelites, almost two million of them, maybe over two million of them, are thirsty in the wilderness. Jesus, after walking all morning from the Judean area around Jerusalem and the Jordan River up toward Cana, or up toward Galilee, he and his disciples have been walking all morning. It's about noon, and he is tired and thirsty. And of course, the woman of the well comes with her jar to draw water because she's thirsty. She needs it every day to live. Everyone has to make that trek from the village out to the well to draw the water that they need for cooking and cleaning and every other purpose that you use water for in the town. And so she's making her daily trek, maybe her multi, multiple times a day trek, out to get her water. And yet not all thirst is created equal. Israel's thirst, driven from grumbling and complaining, a desire to be somewhere safe, a desire to have the comforts of life. Israel looks at the work of God. The people of Israel are looking at the work of God in the Exodus. They're looking at the manna that has come down that morning from heaven that is covering the ground that they're all going out and gathering up. And Genesis, or Exodus chapter 16. This is a yip, I think, at this point. Exodus chapter 16, the manna is on the ground and they are going out to get it. And in Exodus 17, the people are thirsty and they're wondering why has God taken us out here into the wilderness to kill us? They have every sign and evidence of God's faithfulness that He will provide for them what they need when they need it, and yet they are grumbling and complaining to Moses and telling him, wouldn't it have been better for us to have been slaves in Egypt than to die out here in the wilderness? And the woman's thirst. The woman's thirst is fascinating. She makes a trip alone in a communal society where everyone does everything together and shares the load of everything. She makes the trip in the middle of the day, the hottest part of the day, all by herself. And you have to ask yourself, why would this one woman be walking out to this well all by herself in the worst part of the day for this kind of task? And then in the conversation with Jesus, it becomes clear that she's not someone who's going to fit in well in her community. She's had a tragic and complicated life. Five husbands, and the man that she's living with now is not her husband, as Jesus says, and she doesn't reject or argue with his characterization of that. And maybe the lady has had some unfortunate circumstances where she has been divorced by these other men or they've passed away. But either way, to have that many marriages and that kind of life would be, would leave her thirsty, not only for water in the middle of the day, but for acceptance and love and security. There are a lot of thirsty people. And their needs come from a variety of different places. Whether a grumbling desire to have security and safety back in slavery, or to be accepted and loved for who you are by the people around you. There are a lot of thirsty people. And then there's Jesus' thirst. He was literally thirsty and tired after walking all day. I have no doubt that Jesus really needed a drink of water. And she conveniently leaves the thing unfilled and he doesn't get a sip of water, from what we can tell in the actual text. He's tired and he's thirsty. His disciples leave him at the well and he has no way to get something to drink. But in my mind, Jesus is sitting at that well because he had intended to meet that lady that day. That was a plan for him to do. He sent the disciples to go get the food. He knew he wasn't going to need it because his food was to do the will of the one who sent him. And so he's sitting there waiting on this woman and his thirst, like his thirst on the cross, where he says, I thirst. It's his desire for us. His desire to redeem the lost sheep of the world, to bring into the world those who are being saved. It is the love of God on display that anyone who believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus is demonstrating the truth of John 3.16 in inviting this Samaritan woman into eternal life, into the kingdom of God. There's only one solution for this thirst. It was the same solution for Israel, it's the same solution for the woman at the well. Jesus tells the woman that he has what she needs. The living water that springs up from within for eternal life. Jesus has the water that she needs. Jesus has the life that she's deeply thirsting for. And in the Old Testament, the people of Israel are standing by that rock. And as we read it, it's you probably let your mind slip right past it because we rush to the moment where the rock is struck and the water flows out. That's where our minds go. And yet that's only like one verse of that whole passage. The rest of it is something much more deeply impactful because as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, that the rock that was struck was God. It was Christ. And in Exodus, God is standing on that rock. And Moses lifts up that staff and strikes it. The power of the gospel of Jesus Christ reaches back and it fulfills the need. The only solution that the only solution for our thirst, our deepest and most true thirst, not just for temporal water, but for our spiritual lives to have this spring of eternal life that is flowing up and bubbling up within us, comes from Jesus Christ alone. God stands on that rock. That rock is Christ. And it is struck, and life flows from it. We have a painting over there in the corner where there's a side flowing with water pouring out onto the earth. And that's the same image, the pierced side of Jesus, the water that flows from the pierced side of Jesus, the water that flows from the throne of God in Revelation is the water of life that comes from Jesus Christ into the world. Water flows for eternal life. And as we if we take a moment and compare Nicodemus to the woman at the well, Nicodemus, it says in John chapter 3, was the teacher of Israel. Jesus refers to him as the teacher of Israel two times. And he's flabbergasted that Nicodemus doesn't understand that he has to be born again, that he has to be born of water in the spirit to enter the kingdom of God. He's flummoxed by that. He said, Are you the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things? And yet the woman at the well tells Jesus that she wants the living water when she hears about it. That she's her desire is to receive, give me this water so that I don't have to come back here again. And then she says that we know that when the Christ comes, he will tell us all things. I think that he will tell us all things is coded language. The people of Samaria evidently had this story that they told one another, that when the Messiah comes, he's going to tell us everything we ever did. And they're repeating it to one another. Just like the comment about where they worship and what they're supposed to do in their worship. All that worship language is, again, language to test and to see that this is the Messiah or not. And so when she hears that Jesus has the living water that can bubble up for eternal life, she wants that water. And then when Jesus engages with her about who she is, she doesn't quibble with him and argue about that. She knows who he is from his word. We don't need a new law or more teaching about how to live according to the law. We need a new life that's produced by a death and resurrection. To be brought into new life by the living waters of the gospel, to have our whole being transformed, to have our thirst quenched by Jesus Christ. And every week, I don't know if you've noticed, I'm sure you have. Every week, we're quick to remind you that we need Jesus to redeem us. Literally, everything we want to do as a church is to make much of Jesus and His work on our behalf. Everything that we do. This is the whole motivation, it's penciled, not penciled, it's printed on the back of our bulletins, that this is who we are. This is what we want to do. We want to make sure that we know that Christ is all that we need for life and death. That this is the hope for our neighbors, it's our hope for ourselves, and it's our hope for our neighbors and the world. And so it shouldn't be a surprise to us that the work of Jesus Christ isn't done for us at our moment of salvation. It's not simply about you and your personal faith in Jesus Christ. The gospel does say a lot about your personal faith and what you should believe and what you should do and how you should repent and you should put all of your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone. It is for you personally to put your whole heart and soul and being in the hands of Jesus Christ. You are called by God to do such a thing. And yet his work in doing that in your life is not done at salvation. Instead, Jesus makes us into a new creation. And that new creation plays itself out in, I think, three ways in our text. First, is a new purpose that this new creation gets. Why does the woman at the well leave her jug and go and tell everyone in town? It may be because the disciples are a little rude to her, right? No one, when they come back, they don't say, Who are you? What are you doing here? You know, sometimes you read that and you think, oh, they were being nice to her because they didn't confront her. Like, you know, what are you, what, why are you here? Why are you talking to Jesus? The other way of reading that, of course, is to read those words and think they didn't ask any questions because they didn't even want to engage with her. Whether they were being rude and snubbing her, or whether they were being nice to her and not bringing up the fact that Jesus was talking to this woman and they thought maybe that was a bit strange, and so they were trying to ignore all of the circumstances and they were just trying to pave things, sweet or smooth things over. Either way, this lady leaves Jesus and the disciples and rushes back to town. Now, she was out there in the middle of the day because the town essentially ostracized or treated her like an outcast. She was out there at the middle of the day because she had, and she was by herself because she had no one else who would do this daily task with her. And yet her first thought, having received this message of living water being freely given, is to rush back to these people who essentially have rejected her to tell them the Messiah is right outside our village. We cannot miss this. She rushes back to tell them what has happened to her. The fascinating thing that this lady does is run back and tell the people in her town. And while she's telling people about the people of her town who Jesus is and where he is, Jesus is having a conversation with his disciples about a harvest. Now, when people preach this passage of scripture, we were talking the other day, how they tend to preach, God is looking for worshipers, people who worship God in spirit and truth, or the fields are white into harvest, so get out there and reap some harvest, right? Share the gospel. Think about Jesus talking to his disciples as this lady runs back into town to tell her neighbors. There's almost a theatrical level of timing in this story. As Jesus tells the disciples about the fields white unto the harvest, and that the reapers are already receiving their wages, the Samaritan village is on their way out to see Jesus. And I can almost see that woman who is at the well leading them all out to see Jesus. All headed to see Jesus together. Indeed, the reapers are already receiving their wages. The call that the disciples receive to go into the fields that are ready for harvest is part of the recreating power of the gospel. They are joining in the work that Christ is already doing. This lady, unprompted, unbidden, runs into town, tells them that the Messiah is out here, the guy we've been waiting for is out there, and then they all come. And waiting to receive them are Jesus and his disciples. The disciples join in the work that Christ is doing, and that the power of the gospel, the recreating power of the gospel, this living water that's flowing out of this one woman into the lives of these other people in her town. And this woman who was a social outcast is now leading her town to Jesus. The living water is literally flowing in the lives of these people. And then there's not only a new purpose to life that this water that would flow out, this recreating power of the gospel that would mend all of these relationships, that would begin to build bridges in places where there were no passable means, that forgiveness is now possible and that acceptance is now possible in ways that it never would have been before without the gospel. Not only is there new purpose to life, but there's also new worship. The woman asks all of these coded questions to Jesus about worship, about worshiping on this mountain or worshiping in Jerusalem, and Jesus answers her in ways that maybe we wouldn't expect. Jesus isn't sort of mincing any words. The Jews are the ones that salvation's going to come from. It's not you guys, you're Samaritans. Obviously, you're supposed to worship in Jerusalem, that's where the temple is, this mountain stuff, all you know. Jesus doesn't really go in with uh, you know, opinions about, well, we can worship here, anywhere, out there in the out there in a field, anything's okay. Jesus doesn't do that. And yet Jesus seems to be passing whatever tests the lady has for him because she is convinced at the end of all of this that he that he is the Messiah. And he's she goes into the village and she says, He will tell us all things, and that our she she goes into the village and said, He did tell me everything I'd ever done. Can this be the Messiah? Jesus knows this lady and he knows what the Samaritans have been anticipating, and he tells her all of those things. He meets that need. And the amazing thing about this entire interaction is that the worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth are created at the coming of Jesus. The worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth, that that that burden to bear, are you have you been worshiping Jesus in spirit and in truth? Did you do the things that you were supposed to do to prepare to worship today in spirit and in truth on your way into church? That's not the point. That when we come to Jesus, he Makes us into the worshipers He's calling us and creating us to be. The one who searches out worshipers who will worship in spirit and truth is God. And when the gospel and the living water of Christ comes into our lives, he reforms us, he remakes us, he recreates us so that we worship in spirit and in truth. And over all of this is this idea that there are new loves creeping into the air in this. Not only a new purpose, not only a new worship, but new love. The colic for the week, I think, is an excellent collect. It's one that bears memorizing. Our hearts are restless until they rest in you. It's about reorienting our disordered affections, right? We want properly ordered affections. We want loves that point in the right way. And yet, as I was reading commentaries on this, especially commentaries written by church fathers on this passage, they were fascinated by the parallel between the well, woman at the well and the church. And how the church finds herself tempted by the world, crawling back to old loves like a woman who has five, has had five husbands. And also like the woman at the well, the church's passion is truly and appropriately for the true bridegroom and lover of our souls, our Lord Jesus Christ. And so when she receives Jesus, she's almost as if she's getting that true husband that she had always needed to begin with. And as the church, we are the bride of Christ united to him, longing for him, because he longs for us. Now, in light of a new love and a new worship and a new purpose in life, the easy thing for us to do is begin to create a checklist. All right, now, what can we do to get more love for Jesus, to have our affections for the world and the flesh and the devil rejected and turn our back on those bad things and have our minds set on heavenly things? How are we going to get our worship in the right place? How are we going to get uh how are how are we going to have our purpose to share the gospel with our neighbors and to make a difference in our community? How are we going to get all of these things right? And when we do that, we are crushed by the new creation. This good thing that Christ is doing in the world, the light of the gospel is coming to shed light on those who are dwelling in darkness and in the shadow of death. The water of life is coming to bear us through those waters of judgment into eternal life. And the Holy Spirit is bringing into our hearts and our lives the living waters of the gospel so that we can believe and be remade and recreated. And yet, when we hear about all these things, we can be crushed with the weight and the guilt of not having lived up to it. Lent is a good example of how it can crush us. Right? That's the whole thing, isn't it? Yeah, pretty much. If you let all of this hit you too hard, it will crush you. Because it's not for you to do this new creation, recreating and reforming work. It's not your task. If it were up to us, we would be crushed by it. What the world needs and what we need is a recreation and a resurrection. And that only happens through the power of the gospel. And that's what happens in the life of Phoeteen, to give her a name and not call her woman at the well, woman at the well, woman at the well. Photine receives an identity at that well from Jesus. And we receive in the living waters of Jesus Christ a new life and a new identity as well. That is what we truly need. And the recreating power of the gospel, the remaking of the world flows out from us, from changed lives, from converted souls, from minds that have been properly oriented to love and to serve the Lord. That happens through us as the living water flows out of us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, our hearts are restless. We long for all the desires we have for life to be fulfilled, and we are offered so many ways to fulfill them. Help us, Lord, to see the glorious power of the living waters of the gospel at work in our lives, in the life of this parish, and the life of the world. Stir up in us joy at the coming of your kingdom. And as your dear children who join in the work of bringing the gospel and true worship to the world, remind us that we all receive the gospel as a gift from you. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Let's stand and confess our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.