Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, who sacrificed his life so that we can enter the kingdom of God. Lord, thank you that Jesus gives us living water. Father, help us to meet Jesus personally as our Messiah and worship him from our hearts today. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Key verse: 26:"Then Jesus declared, 'I who speak to you am he.'"

In this passage, Jesus helps a Samaritan woman drink the living water and reveals himself to her as her Messiah. This woman thought that she would be happy forever if she found the right man. But after seeking love from many men, she was not happy. It is because the right man is Jesus. May God help us to meet Jesus as our Messiah so that God's kingdom may come into our hearts.

Part I. Jesus, the Living Water
Look at verse 1a. The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. To avoid confrontation with them, Jesus left Judea and returned once more to Galilee. Verse 4 says, "Now he had to go through Samaria." Jewish people never passed through Samaria because they despised the Samaritans. But Jesus had to pass through Samaria. Why? Because he had to meet the Samaritan woman.

Look at verses 5, 6. "So Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph." Because Jesus was tired from the journey, he sat down by Jacob's well. It was about the 6th hour, which is 12 noon. The disciples had gone into town to buy food. They were always looking for food. So Jesus was all alone by the well. Because it was in the heat of the day, he must have been hot and hungry and thirsty. He was not in any condition to talk with anyone.

Look at verse 7. Just then, a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. We learn from verse 18 that she was a terrible sinner. She had five husbands and now was working on number 6. In that time, women would draw water together in groups, but this woman was all by herself. She was an outcast because she was immoral. She was a lonely and thirsty woman. No one in the world really cared for her. But, Jesus came to Samaria to help her. Jesus humbled himself and began to talk to her first. Look at verse 7b. Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" When Jesus asked her for a drink, he was inviting this lonely sinful woman to a have a holy relationship with him. How could Jesus even talk with this despicable woman? It was because Jesus loved her soul.

What was her response? Look at verse 9. She retorted, "You're a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How dare you ask me for a drink?" She bitter because of her sinful life. She had all those bad memories, which made her cry day and night. No one could even talk to her without getting a mean response. Once, one servant of God asked a shepherdess, "How are you? How's it going?" In response, she yelled at him, 'Why do you always want to know everything about everybody" and then she stormed off. (This might be me, and the shepherd might be Dr. Ben). The Samaritan woman spoke badly to Jesus. And she didn't give Jesus a drink of water. Poor Jesus. He should have abandoned her on the spot. But see! Jesus was humble and full of grace. Jesus offered her a gift. You know, women really like to get gifts. Remember that, men. Jesus knew this. Look at verse 10. Jesus said to her, "'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.'" In the past, many men had offered this woman nice gifts, but they all had strings attached. But Jesus offered her the free gift of God. What is this gift? Romans 6:23b says, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The gift of God is living water, Jesus himself, who gives us eternal life. Jesus offered her the best gift. But she didn't want it just yet.

Look at verse 11. She said, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?" She thought Jesus was talking about physical water from the well. She was thinking, "Dude, you don't even have a bucket." But Jesus was humble and continued to speak to her about living water. Look at verses 13,14, "Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" Physical water quenches your thirst temporarily, but one gets thirsty again and again. Physical water represents things like love from a person, gourmet food, shopping, sports, video games, movies (like Spiderman II) or even exciting things on the Internet. These things will never satisfy a person. Why? Because we are created in God's image. Our souls need living water, Jesus, the Creator God and the source of everything we truly need. Without Jesus we are always looking for something to fill the empty spot in our restless souls. Husbands and wives sometimes fight with each other because they want love from each other. (They say, "Please, just love me the way I want! C'mon") They demand perfect love from a person who cannot give such love because they are only human. But Jesus can give us such love because he gives living water, which becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Only the living water Jesus can quench our spiritual thirst and satisfy our souls.

Part II. Jesus, the Messiah
After hearing the words of life from Jesus, the Samaritan woman opened her heart wide. She said to Jesus in verse 15, "Sir, give me this water so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." She admitted that she was thirsty and weary with her life. She asked Jesus for the living water.

But look at verse 16. "He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." What? Why would Jesus bring up her past husbands? Jesus touched a sore spot. How did she respond? Look at verse 17. She said, "I have no husband". She did not want to talk about them. Then Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." In his deep love for her soul, Jesus spoke the truth about her husbands to set her free from sin. Sin had poisoned her. Sin tormented her and controlled her day and night. Her sin was that she had a cursed desire for men. She married and divorced 5 times. Now if she married number 6, would that satisfy her desire for love? One sixteen year-old girl I know wrote the name of a guy on a piece of paper 1000 times and carried it around wherever she went. She couldn't stop thinking about this guy and longed for him to notice her. He never ever noticed her. Finally she threw the paper away with a broken heart. Jesus understood that no husband could satisfy the Samaritan woman's soul. Her new boyfriend Jack couldn't satisfy her either. They only took her love and wounded her. Only when she drank the living water, Jesus, could her soul be satisfied.

How did she react to Jesus' tough spiritual love? She accepted it. Then she began to change and talked about something spiritual. Look at verse 19. She said, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet." Then she asked Jesus about where she should worship. Jesus told her that the place of worship was not important, but that God had been seeking her so she could worship him from her heart. Is it surprising that God would seek an undeserving woman like this? No! God is seeking true worshipers among wayward women and wayward men, too. This is God's grace.

Jesus then teaches her how to worship God. Look at verse 24. "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth." God is not flesh. God is Spirit, eternal and infinite. We were made to enjoy eternal life with God in the kingdom of God. No matter how much the Samaritan woman had indulged in sin, she was created in the image of God and was still able to come to God and worship him if she repented of her sins. All those years, she had given her purity, love, devotion, and woman's faithfulness---all she had--- to men. But, no person can be one's object of worship. We must worship only God in spirit and in truth. When I was 19 years old, I tried to quench my thirst for love through a boyfriend. I worshiped him even though he was an unemployed artist and never shaved. Then, right after I started Bible study, he suddenly left me for another girl. I cried day and night for him, even though he was a jerk. Later, I found out that my shepherd had prayed for him to leave me. Through Bible study, I could repent of my sin of worshiping men and drink the living water, Jesus. Jesus became my true love. When Jesus quenched my thirsty soul, I was so happy. Then I could give my marriage to God and marry a man of God by faith. After marriage, I could give my husband to God, not demanding love from him, but helping him grow as a great man of God.
Look at verse 25. The woman said, "I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes he will explain everything to us." She doesn't seem like the kind of woman who would be waiting for the Messiah. But, in her heart she had been eagerly waiting for someone to explain everything to her, to give her all the love she needed and to be everything to her. Who in the world could be everything to her?!? Look at verse 26. Then, Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." Jesus was saying personally to her, "I am the one you have been looking for all of these years. I am the one who can give you all the love you need to quench your thirsty soul. I am your true husband." Jesus is our Messiah. Jesus is the living water who quenches the thirst deep within our souls. Things like money, a career, a great ministry, your sweetheart, even your computer, cannot be your "Messiah". Who or what are you looking for to quench your thirst and make you happy? Jesus says, "I who speak to you am he." Only Jesus can be our Messiah because he gives us the living water welling up to eternal life.

When Jesus said, "I who speak to you am he", the Samaritan woman's heart was moved. She accepted Jesus as her Messiah. She found her true husband, Jesus. Then she was no longer thirsty for love. She cast away her water jar and ran to her hometown to tell everyone about her Messiah, Jesus. She received the kingdom of God in her heart.

Let's read verse 26 again: "Then Jesus declared, 'I who speak to you am he.'" May God help each of us accept Jesus as the Messiah and have the kingdom of God in our hearts.