John 4:16-30 “Thirsting for Living Water”
The Woman of Samaria in this text is
completely captivated by the conversation she is having with Jesus. Jesus has succeeded in capturing her
undivided attention. He has chosen the
subject of water to teach a spiritual lesson.
She has come to the well because of physical thirst. She knows nothing of spiritual thirst and the
quenching of that thirst is far more important that the quenching of physical
thirst.
There are two things a person needs if
they are going to have their spiritual thirst quenched. The first concerns sin. Sin must be acknowledged and confessed. John the Baptist and Jesus have both been
preaching that people need to repent of sin.
To repent is to turn away from sin.
To turn away from something you must turn to something else. This brings us to the second need. You turn from sin to Jesus Christ for
forgiveness. To have the spiritual
thirst quenched you must trust in and depend upon Jesus Christ as your savior. There
are six basic needs which the unsaved have.
1. They need to believe that God is real.
2. They need to believe that the Bible is God’s Word.
3. They need to know that they are lost in sin.
4. They need to know how to be saved.
5. They need to want to be saved.
6. They need to trust in Jesus now.
This
Samaritan woman believes in God. She
believes the Bible is God’s Word. She
does not know that she is lost, or spiritually thirsting. She knows how to be saved for she knows of
the Messiah and His attributes. She has
expressed a desire to be saved by requesting the Lord’s living water.
John 4:16
Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
It is a reasonable request that
Jesus has made. This woman, if married,
should want her husband to be saved as well.
It is not necessary for the husband to be present for her to be
saved. It is not necessary for the
husband to be saved in order for her to be saved.
Also it would not seem unusual for a
man to want the husband to be present so that there would be no rumors of
impropriety started. The reputation of a
man of God should be guarded at all times.
There have been some whose ministries were devastated by rumors of
improper behavior. If a lady comes by
the church house and I am alone there I immediately call my wife or some other
member of the church to come to the church house right away. I want to avoid any appearance of
impropriety.
Jesus is simply demonstrating that
He knows all about this woman and her back ground. In this verse Jesus gives her all she needs
to be saved.
This request, first of all, will
make her face up to her sin. For one to
have their thirst quench they must recognize their thirst. If one is to be saved he must realize he is
lost. This woman needs to face up to the
fact of her sin. She needs to stop
dodging the issue and reasoning away her sin.
She needs to step forward and admit her guilt and seek forgiveness. She is like Adam hiding from God in the
garden. She speaks honestly with Jesus
these words.
Joh
Joh
She answers I have no husband. This is an admission of guilt. She could have lied and said ok and went to
get the man she was living with but instead confesses that she does not have a
husband. Jesus agrees that she has
spoken the truth and then points out that she has had five husbands and that
the man she is living with now is not her husband. He acknowledges the fact that she has spoken
the truth.
It is
most likely the case that this woman has been divorced five times. This is an unusual number even by today’s
standards. It would seem unreasonable
that all of her past five husbands were dead.
This woman has been jumping into and out of relationships on a
whim. Let it be plainly said here that
God hates divorce. The scriptures say
“He hateth putting away.” He condemns
those who deal treacherously with the wife of “thy youth.” Mal 2:14-16 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the
LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom
thou hast dealt treacherously: yet [is]
she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. (15)
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed.
Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the
wife of his youth. (16) For the LORD,
the God of
He admonishes always that a man and
woman should be reconciled with each other.
Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees that Moses gave no commandment to
divorce. He allowed divorce because of
the hardness of their hearts. Jesus said
that fornication was just cause for divorce but he never commanded or
encouraged divorce for even this reason.
Mat 19:3-9 The Pharisees also came unto him,
tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife
for every cause? 4 And he answered and
said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made [them] at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one
flesh? 6 Wherefore
they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together,
let not man put asunder. 7
They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing
of divorcement, and to put her away? 8 He saith unto them, Moses because of
the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the
beginning it was not so. 9
And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except [it be] for fornication, and shall
marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
The old testament
prophet was commanded by God to marry an unfaithful woman and when she was
unfaithful he pleaded with her to return. The only wedding vows found in the
bible are those of Hosea 3:3 And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me
many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for [another] man: so [will] I also [be] for thee.
These words are plain the wife lives for the
husband and the husband for the wife.
They both are to be faithful to each other. This is to continue many days. That is to say all the days of their
life.
Child of God, if you are
contemplating divorce proceed cautiously. The only scriptural grounds
for divorce is fornication. If
this is not a factor then be reconciled to your spouse. If there is physical abuse involved then
separation is necessary. Seek counseling
and God’s help to overcome your sinful ways.
Then get back together.
Child of God, if you have been
divorced learn from this text that you are no longer
married to the one you have divorced. There
have been questions raised as to the qualifications of deacons and
preachers. They must be the husband of
one wife. Jesus said to the woman the
she has had five husbands. This is past
tense. She no longer has a husband. Jesus said that this was a true
statement. The husband of one wife
refers to polygamy. Divorce ends the
marriage relationship. If you have
divorced and remarried you are the still the husband of one wife. Provided the other qualifications are met you
may hold the office of deacon or pastor if you have been divorced. I realize that this is a controversial
subject but as is the case with any controversy a close study of the scriptures
will settle the issue.
John 4:19
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a
prophet.
I mentioned earlier that one of the
needs of the unsaved is to know that there is a God. This woman believes in God. She knows about prophets and knows that they
speak for God. The Prophets of old knew
things about people that they could not have know except God revealed it to
them. Jesus was believed to be one of
the prophets by most of the people of that day.
King Harod heard about Jesus and thought that
John the Baptist had come back from the dead.
What this woman needs is to know that Jesus is the Messiah. The Messiah is the savior of men.
The questions and issues that follow
are prompted by the fact that this man, with whom she is speaking, is no
ordinary Jew. What she needs to realize
is that this is not a “Man of God” this is the “
The two things that you need to be
saved are these:
1. You must repent of your sins. This means that you see your sin and it
bothers you that you have sinned. You
feel the guilt of your sin and you hate sin and want to be forgiven of sin.
2. You
must believe in Jesus Christ as your savior.
You turn from your sin and confess it to Jesus and ask Him to forgive
you and to have mercy on you and save you from the penalty of sin which is the
second death.
Have you ever done these two things. Have you gone
to Jesus in prayer and asked for forgiveness and salvation. If you have you are saved. If you have not then you need to trust in
Jesus now.