Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said with all your heart, Amen. So today, as we do kind of usher in beginning, begin to go into summer, we are starting a new sermon series. We're calling it, It Had to be Said, as we're looking at all summer long. This is going to be a great series where we just get to be reminded of the great and beautiful and profound things that Jesus Christ said. I know that this is a year that brings a lot of anxiety for people.

I know there's a lot of trust being lost right now with what's going on in the world. This is what I'm saying to you. Come to church and be reminded of the gospel truth. Be reminded of the eternal things that cannot be taken away no matter what happens out there. So we're going to be looking at the words of Jesus throughout the summer. Why? Because you can't get enough Jesus.

He's the risen Savior. He's the Word of God made flesh. He's the way and the truth and the life. And all the church said, Amen. So I have three weeks with you before I go on sabbatical. If you listen to our congregational address, I told you that I will be going on sabbatical for a big part of the summer. So with this summer long sermon series, what I want to do with the three weeks I have with you is I want to do a little mini series to start this entire series. What I want to do is I want to walk through John chapter four with us for the next three weeks. So go ahead and turn in your Bible to John chapter 4 is a very famous passage in.

In in in the Bible many Christians know this a lot of Bible studies done on this This is the story of the famous and maybe infamous Interaction that Jesus has with the woman at the well Now as you're turning to John chapter 4, that's again That's where we will be for three weeks and John chapter 4

One thing you need to know is happening is that Jesus' ministry is starting to not just take shape, it's starting to get a lot of notoriety. It's starting to turn a lot of heads. People are taking notice of what's going on with Christ, especially the religious leaders, the Pharisees. They're taking note of what Jesus is doing and saying, and they're not exactly on board. So what you see there is that tensions are beginning to rise, and so what Jesus and company do is for a time they decide just to get out of Dodge and they decide to go up to Galilee now in order to get from where they were they were in Judea Judea is where Bethlehem in Jerusalem were in order to get from Judea to Galilee you actually had a pass through this this land known as Samaria now yes understand as you can see in our scripture the Jews and the Samaritans they did not get along Samaria was a place that the Jews didn't go to. In fact, they would take the long way around if they had to go through there. So take note, Jesus and company, they're leaving a place with religious tension and they're going to pass through a place where they have cultural tension, which is a great reminder for Christians that we are exiles in this world.

So before we get to our main passage, we'll be looking primarily at verses 7 to 14 today, but when you look at verses 5 and 6, they say they kind of give they set the context for us. Verses 5 and 6 tell us that so so he meaning Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sikar near the field that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there and then it says Jesus, wearied from his journey, was sitting beside the well and it was about the 6 hour. That doesn't mean 6 p.m. that doesn't mean 6 a.m. The Jews started keeping time at sunup so six hours in is roughly noon. It's about noon, it's the middle of the day. That is a key piece of information when we read this passage. It's the middle of the day and all the while we're gonna find out that there is this woman who's making her way to this well that Jesus is sitting behind. And she's going to go on to have one of the most famous interactions with Jesus in all of history. And so let's read about what happens.

And so with that, would you hear the word of the Lord? John chapter 4, we're going to look at verses 7 to 14 as we learn about living water today Hear God's word.

John 4:7-14

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[a] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Amen. This is God's word. Let's pray and we will continue. Let's pray. Oh Lord God in heaven, as we look at your truth today from your word, we thank you for these words of our Savior, words that had to be said and we're so thankful that they were.

Lord God, by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit, would you be with us here and now that we might not just hear the truth of Christ but we would receive it and be transformed by it into the image of our Savior and it's in his name the name of Jesus that we pray and everyone said amen amen.

Alright church one thing here for you this morning one thing for you to chew on it is simply this age-old beautiful truth Jesus reveals that he gives eternal life.

Jesus Reveals... He Gives Eternal Life.

So as we start this little mini series today Let me give you an idea of what this morning will be structured like as we walk through our passage together With the gift of eternal life we see Jesus First give us number one an invitation verses 7 to 10 will show us this, and then he gives us a revelation, which will close out our passage looking at. All right, my friends and family, let's jump into this.

1. With the gift of eternal ife, we see that Jesus first gives us an invitation (vv.7-10)

With the gift of eternal life, we see that Jesus first gives us an invitation. Now I'm willing to bet many of you are very familiar with this passage. If you've been a Christian long enough, you most certainly have done a Bible study on this. You learned about this in Sunday school. I probably I know that many of you are probably very familiar with this passage and that's in some ways there's a

danger there. You may think, yeah, I know this. Yeah, I know this. What I'm saying to you is step back and maybe let the Spirit show you some new things. So as we go through this, here's what's happening. This woman comes to the well with her water jar. Now, remember, it's noon. You have to understand the context of this story to really understand its power. She's coming to this to this well with her water jar and it's noon. There's something culturally going on that it's easy for us Americans, if you are an American, to miss.

Back then, you did not go to the well in the middle of the day. A group would go in the morning when it was cool to get the water that you needed for the day. This woman is coming alone by herself at noon. And as we already see here, if we're part of that context, here's what you immediately would recognize that I think sometimes we miss. To say that this woman was coming by herself at noon shows us this woman was already ostracized by her community and by her people. She was already rejected. She was a rejected person.

She was not popular. She was unloved. She went at noon to be by herself because she wasn't allowed to go with everyone else in the morning. Look at verse 7. A woman from Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink for the disciples have gone away into the city to buy food so Jesus is alone with this woman that already a level awkwardness is beginning to show the awkwardness of this moment is thick and it's thickening but Jesus listen here Jesus breaks the silence by asking her for some water and let me just say this to an aside real quick you're a Christian in the house, and you've got someone in your life and you want to have that Jesus conversation with, you want to talk about the gospel, but you're just, you're kind of waiting for that door to open, and you're just, you're not sure, you're just, you're kind of waiting, here's what I want to say to you, follow the model of Jesus and just break the silence and have the conversation. Just do it. The time is now.

Jesus broke the silence. Now, what you need to understand here, there's another cultural thing going on that we often miss, is that men generally didn't talk to women, let alone women from different cultures, which is why we see this woman's somewhat shock of a response. Verse nine, the Samaritan woman said to him, oh, how is it that you, a Jew, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria. Then the Bible adds this commentary, for the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.

So with that, we already have a really potent and powerful setup. The situation is really intense right now. This is a woman rejected by her society, comes to a situation where she expects nothing but further rejection. I'm sure as this woman was journeying up to this well, she saw this man sitting there, and I'm sure there's parts of her probably thinking, oh great, I wanted to be alone. How's this going to go? But then Jesus does what Jesus does. He takes the control of the situation and he brings it to a really beautiful spot. So the setup is happening, this woman comes, she's rejected, she's expecting further rejection, but as soon as you add Jesus to any equation, what you need to understand is that Jesus doesn't play by our rules, Jesus doesn't play by the cultural standards. Not during our time, not during His. See, what happens is that we have a culture right now that's emerging that's wanting to bend Jesus to our culture. That's not how it works with Christ. He bends us to his culture of righteousness. Jesus is stepping all over sort of cultural lines right here and right now.

Because when you add Jesus to the equation, he doesn't play by our rules. Why? Because Jesus is always in charge. And that's what you see here. Jesus takes charge of this conversation. This woman basically says, I can't believe you're talking to me. And look what he says in response verse 10 Jesus answered her 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 So even here Jesus takes his requests for a drink of water and he turns it into an invitation To her because that's what he's doing here. He's not just dangling the hope of living water in front of her. He's letting her know that something greater is happening. And it's available to her and he's inviting her into it. Because here's something you need to know about the Christ, Jesus, the Son of God. One of the things that we can have in Christ. Because here's what's happening here.

He's asking for water, she's not understanding the situation, and Jesus is going to bring it deeper. And we're going to see that every good thing is a shadow of something greater that can be had in Christ. Yes, you can have happiness here on earth for a moment, but it waxes and wanes. But we get everlasting joy in Christ. Yes, medicine can make you better for a time, but guess what? You're still going to die. And yet Christ gives us healing unto eternal life. Any water that you drink will just end up dry, but Christ gives us living water that never runs dry. Every good thing is a shadow of a greater thing that can be had in Christ. How many of you have ever heard the phrase a gift with strings attached? Let me see. I heard some groans, so you probably know what it is. So we're not talking about how this gift is packaged or decorated. A gift with strings attached means that someone wants to give you something, but there's an obligation obligation or an expectation comes with it and that obligation or expectation totally nullifies the joy of the gift itself.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Okay, so as a pastor, I often, maybe often is too much, I regularly get blessings from the church in some form or fashion, either a kind word or maybe a gift card to take my wife out to eat or something to that effect. The church loves to bless, but I'll be honest with you, like in my sinful, cynical nature, whenever someone wants to give me something, there's always part of me that kind of recoils and it's like, what's the string attached? Like what, what do I have to do? Now, thankfully, over time, I've learned that this is not that type of church. This is a church that's just selfless and blesses without expecting anything in return, which is amazing. But I'm going to flip this on its head. Did you know that when Christ offers something, there's always a string attached? But the difference is, is that the strings that are attached to the gifts that Jesus gives, they make the gift even better. Because you want to know what the gift, you want to know what the string is to every gift that Christ gives? It's Himself. And Jesus makes it better. Anything we get from Jesus is always, it's always better when we get to experience it with Jesus. The gift that Christ is giving is living water. Water that she wouldn't have to go and get alone anymore. Water from a well that wouldn't dry out. Water from a well that wouldn't embody rejection from people, but acceptance from God. It was living water that Jesus was inviting to her, and the string attached is Christ himself. For whatever we get from Jesus is better when we get to experience it with Jesus. This woman was rejected and alone. The ladies of the town weren't inviting her to girls' night. She wasn't included on any wine-tasting weekends. You will find no group photos on social media that included her.

And yet, Christ was inviting her into something that was only going to get better. And remember what we said. Remember what we said about this passage, you have to understand the context. So much of the power of this passage comes from the context. So remember what's happening here.

This woman is in the middle of the day going to the well by herself. Do you know what's happening? Do you know what this well is for this woman? This well is a physical, daily, constant reminder of her rejection.

Every single day that she went to that well to get water was just another reminder that no one likes her, that she's all alone, and the people have rejected her. That journey to that well had to be one of the lowliest, hardest moments for that woman every single day, and yet it was in that very space where Christ meets her. In her lowest moment, that's where her Savior was waiting for her. Friends, I don't know what you're going through. I don't know where you find yourself. Some of us need to hear that in our lowest moments, in our loneliest moments, that's where Jesus is waiting for you. So turn your eyes upon Him. This wasn't just an invitation to experience something. Jesus was offering something. That's what we're gonna look at next.

2. With the gift of eternal ife, we see that Jesus first gives us an offer (vv. 11-14a)

Keep your Bibles open here. So like most people in the world, she wasn't immediately getting the deeper meaning of what Jesus was saying.

Because here's what was happening, she was only filtering Christ's words through her experience. Dangerous, dangerous. I know that's a thing we like to champion in our culture, that we only look through our own experience, but we have to understand there's a world outside of our experience where truth can lie. So she's only filtering what Jesus is saying through her daily normal experience. She's not thinking outside of herself. Because look what happens. In her experience, to get water, you must have a jar and a well.

Well, Christ has neither a jar nor a well. Look what she says in verse 11. The woman said to him, Sir, you got nothing to draw water with and the well here is pretty deep. Where do you get this living water? Now whether curious or sarcastic, she begins to probe deeper. She's like, wait a minute.

Verse 12, she's like, are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons in livestock." So to clarify for those of you who missed Sunday school, she's pointing back to the Old Testament, to a tradition that said that this was the well of Jacob. Yes, Jacob himself, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that Jacob.

She's probably thinking this well has lasted for generations and she's probably wondering living water, huh? Better than this water here that's lasted for centuries? But listen to Christ's response, verse 13. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I give him will never be thirsty again.

My friends, what you have here is classic Jesus. This is a classic interaction with Jesus. Here's what happens that you see time and time again in the New Testament, and it's a beautiful picture of it happening here. See, what happens is Christ will say something amazing or he'll do something amazing, and you know what? The cynics and the skeptics will question what Jesus is doing, but you know what you see every time you read the Bible? Jesus never backs down. In fact, he'll use those times of challenge to double down on what he's doing. This is why I love this guy. He doesn't back down he double down he goes on to say verse he goes on to say whoever drinks whoever drinks of this water that i will give him will be never will never be thirsty again whoever that means anyone who drinks this water will never be thirsty again Who gets to offer something like that? Do you get to offer something like that and not be able to deliver on it and still be considered a good person? We'll get to that in a second. Jesus says everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but it's available to everyone and let me remind you.

Again, so much powers in the context remember the cultural and societal differences and tension that is between Jesus and this woman could not be more pronounced Could not be thicker and yet Jesus breaks those barriers to invite her into something beautiful. And He's saying it's available to everyone. The invitation is made.

The offer is available to all. So if you have not yet placed your faith in Christ, my friend, what are you waiting for? There's no one like Him. He's the only one who can deliver on His promises. He's the only one I will put my faith in. But I get that most of us in this room are probably Christians.

Church gathers, I would hope so to an extent. But the question is, Christians in the house, now if you are a Christian, I want you to listen up. Christians in the house, are you making this invitation known? Are you sharing this offer with people in your life who don't know Jesus? If you're not, what are you doing? Every message in this, every sermon for this entire summer is going to be a teaching from the mouth of Jesus himself. I am asking you, I'm telling you, don't let the summer go by without inviting someone to church who needs to hurt needs to hear the words of Jesus I guarantee every Sunday in this Series for this summer. You're gonna hear an amazing teaching from the words of Jesus Don't miss this opportunity to bring someone who needs to hear these words Because there's a truth here that we all need to know, which leads to our last point.

3. With the gift of eternal ife, we see that Jesus first gives us a revelation (v.14b)

With the gift of eternal life, we see Jesus first give us a revelation. Go to the second half of verse 14. Jesus says, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Okay, here's where Jesus takes this conversation to a whole new level. And I wonder, have you had that experience with Jesus? Have you had that experience with Jesus where you've listened to his words? You've read his words and it's brought your life to a whole new level

Where his words just stop you dead in your tracks the moment where you realize that no mortal man Can say the things that Jesus is saying? If you've heard me preach long enough, you know that for me that happened when I was 18 My senior year of high school, that was the revelation that stopped me in my tracks. This notion that you can't say the things that Jesus said and they not be true and you still be considered a good person.

You say the things that Jesus says and they're not true. Listen to me. Not only should you be rejected, you should be hated. You don't get to say the things that Christ said unless they're true. He offered that He Himself had living water that would produce in other people a well of eternal life. My friends, you don't get to say that unless it's true.

You either accept Him or reject Him. There's no middle ground with the words of Christ. It says, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. You don't get to offer that unless it's true. This is not just an encounter with a good teacher, my friends, this is a revelation from the giver of life. Have you had that experience? Where the words of Christ just stop you dead in your tracks and bring you to a whole new level. And before we move on, I want to make sure that we are on the same page here. So let's clarify.

Christ is saying, you drink physical water and you will be thirsty again. But listen, the living water that Christ is offering is not a replacement for physical water, but it does stand in contrast. What he is offering is spiritual to be inside of us the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water Welling up to eternal life. So let's make this clear that through Jesus the spiritual nourishment that he gives us Becomes an everlasting Well that we need no other religious teacher that he is the only one he is the final one The water in the well that they're standing beside will one day dry up, but the water that Christ Christ puts in us From him this spiritual water. Not only does it never dry up, but it's a well that continues to produce fresh spiritual nourishment spiritual refreshment spiritual renewal forever It's not like we take one sip and we're forever satisfied Okay, this is not just a one-time cup.

This is free refills my friend You Dutch people love your free refills It's not that we take one sip and forever satisfied It's that we drink from this well and will never thirst again not because just of eternal satisfaction but because of eternal access The reason that will never thirst again because that water is always available. But for many of us, we've stopped going back to the well.

We took our sip one time, we accepted this free ticket to heaven, and we've just gone on our merry way, rather than having that relationship with Jesus that gives us this constant access to spiritual nourishment. I'm willing to bet some of you cried out to Jesus once, but you're wondering why your spiritual life feels so hollow, why your emotional state feels so dry. And I'm willing to bet it's because you've forgotten. You've forgotten that it's not just a one sip and forever satisfied. We'll never be spiritually thirsty again, not because of satisfaction, but because of access. Too many of us have stopped going back again and again to the well of Christ. You thought faith was a cup that you drank from once. My friend, it's a well that we continually drink from. Some of you need that revelation.

Some of you need that revelation that Jesus is not a one-time decision. He is a daily decision with every breath we make, with every thought that we have, we take it and make it captive to Christ. Repentance is a daily thing that we're ever turning towards Jesus because He's always there.

My friends, summer is here, and I don't know about you, but I'm going to be drinking a lot of pop, I'm going to be drinking a lot of sweet tea, yes, a lot of water, but we need to be drinking from the well of Christ, meaning we stopped praying, meaning we stopped connecting with other Christians, meaning we've stopped worshipping, meaning we've stopped seeking the Spirit, we've stopped using the gifts of the Spirit.

Did you know that in our day, to be considered a regular churchgoer, That means you go once a month Once a month is now what is standard for a regular church grower goer Let me just tell you right now. I completely reject that Like this is something that we get to do for an hour or two once a week my friends We need to orient and structure our lives so that this is a priority No, I get some of us have to work and I get some of us have certain limitations But far too many of us use flimsy excuses. You're spiritually dry because you don't come back to the well, and yes, coming and hearing the word preached and worshipping with other Christians, that's part of that well of eternal life that we get to drink from. So don't. Don't take it for granted.

Don't fall into the pattern of this world, but adopt a new one where you follow Jesus every day. Now in a moment we're going to sing a song that I looked up. This song is over 250 years old. And actually, just for those of you who are curious, the song we're about to sing, we're about to close with, last month turned 266 years old.

And the song that we're going to sing, I think, even after nearly three centuries, has incredibly relatable lyrics. Listen to some of these lyrics from the song Prone to wander Lord. I feel it prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart. Oh take and seal it seal it for thy courts above Come thou fount.

Our hearts are prone to wander mine is and so is yours. So if it has, return. Return to the well of everlasting life. Return to Christ. Return to the fount of every blessing. Jesus can offer this because of what he's done for you on the cross and what he's done by triumphing over Satan, sin, and death, by rising again on the third day. You wanna know how you can trust the promises of Christ? You wanna know how these are true guarantees because he truly rose from the dead and That's why we orient our lives around him.

Because he is the one who saved us from our sins and he is the one he's the only one who offers eternal life Jesus reveals that he gives eternal life that Christ is producing. So if you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus, my friends, this is the moment that God's given to you. Embrace it as you embrace Him. I'll be here after the service and I want to pray with you.

But I look at the sea of faces and I know many of you are walking with Christ. You walk alongside me with Christ. And so this is the time now when we get to respond in worship and declare the truth that we get to hold so dear. So let's do that now. You guys want to sing come thou fount? Amen.