Thirsty Souls
Audio Recording
Sermon Outline
Speaker: Rev. Scott Strickman
Sermon Series: John 1-12: Come, See, Live!
John 4:1-42 (ESV)
1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
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. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Sermon Outline
Jesus graciously gives what solely satisfies our thirsty souls.
1. Our Drinking Problem
vv5-6 “…near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there.”
vv17-18 “you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”
2. Deep Thirst Quenched
v10 “if you knew the gift of God, and who it is…”
v14 “… whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty again… a spring of water welling up to enteral life.”
vv23-25 “the Father is seeking such people to worship him… must worship in spirit and truth”
v42 “we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world”
Prayer of Confession
Our Father, our souls thirst. We confess our spiritual dryness. We confess we have sought satisfaction in things you warn us about. We confess that we have not worshipped you in spirit or in truth. Our actions betray a failure to walk in the Spirit. Forgive us our sins. Cleanse us with your Spirit and satisfy us with your presence. We thank you for the gift of eternal life that comes to us through Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
What does your soul thirst for? What do you desire? What do you keep seeking (in your mind or with your actions)? Are you satisfied?
What are some differences between spiritual dryness and spiritual thirst? How are they connected?
How is “worship” an appropriate description of ways we are devoted to certain things, even if those things are objects, people, or experiences/ideals?
Jesus says he can give water so that a person will never be thirsty again. What is he talking about?
What can be inferred by Jesus saying that God seeks worshippers (rather than worshippers seeking God)?
What does it mean to worship in spirit and truth?
How does the eternal life we receive as a gift change how we relate to people who are different from us? How does a spiritual bond make a truly diverse church possible?
What are the key practices and habits of a spiritual life that deepens and matures instead of drying out? How do we stay connected to the source of life? Think of examples of what takes you off course and think through what you need to stay on course.