The Woman at the Well - Jesus Sees your Deepest Need

in
Speaker: 
Andrew Fountain
Date: 
Sun, 2019-11-03
  • There’s a lot more to this story than meets the eye, from why she misunderstood Jesus, to connections with several other well-encounters in the Bible, and finally all the talk about food at the end being a clue to what really satisfies us.
  • If you have trouble viewing this video, you can try watching it directly on Vimeo
  • Play Audio

Sermon Outline - The Woman at the Well - Jesus Sees your Deepest Need

Video cover image from Harold Copping (Public Domain)

Goal:

  • To be really, truly, satisfied

Overview

  1. Very brief recap of the story so far
  2. What’s going on in John 4
  3. Man meets woman at a well. Hmm
  4. True satisfaction

The story so far…

1. What’s going on in John 4

Differences

Nicodemus Samaritan
man woman
night noon-day
Jew Samarian
highly respected despised
ruler powerless
teacher untrained

Different responses

  • Ambiguous challenge that is misunderstood:
    • “born from above” born again?
    • “living water” running water?
    • Jesus is talking about something “from above”, but the hearer is focused on this world
  • Response
    • does not get it (for now)
    • believes and receives, immediately bringing a great harvest

Overview

  1. Very brief recap of the story so far
  2. What’s going on in John 4
  3. Man meets woman at a well. Hmm
  4. True satisfaction

2. Man meets woman at well

  • a man on a journey, comes to a well, meets a woman, there is an issue with water, he goes back to her place
  • Three accounts in the Old Testament where a man meets a woman at the well. ??
    • In each of the accounts, the woman is not an Israelite, but the man is
    • The provision of water is the key event
    • It ends with marriage and a feast
  1. Gen 24 – Abraham’s servant is sent off to find a bride for Isaac.
    • He meets Rebekah, who is both beautiful and kind
    • He makes the proposal and there is a meal to celebrate
  2. Jacob gives water to Rachel

Gen 29: Jacob meets Rachel

  1. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
  2. Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.
  3. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.
  4. …So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.
  5. …Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
  1. Ex 2 – Moses has to run away from Egypt
    • Meets a group of sheperdesses at a well
    • Rescues them from intimidation by male shepherds
    • He is invited home for a feast and he marries one of the girls

3. How the passage speaks to us

Jeremiah 2

  1. Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
    Be shocked and utterly dumbfounded, says the LORD.
  2. Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:
    they have rejected me,
      the fountain of life-giving water,
    and they have dug cisterns for themselves,
      cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.

Wedding imagery in the Bible

  • Ephesians 5
  1. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
  2. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
  • Revelation 19
  1. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
  • His bride is not just this individual woman at the well, but all the people in Samaria were part as well
    • The bride is made up of every Christian who has ever lived, and Jesus has joy in every single one, including this poor woman.
  • This is Jesus’s desire for you. He wants to give you living water, to last forever
  • What is the thirst he is talking about?
    • We don’t know why the woman had 5 husbands, but the context does suggest that there was some kind of thirst there.
  • What is your deepest thirst?
    • Is it about relationship needs, or being valued, or being safe and secure?
    • Being eternally joined to the most powerful person in the universe, who loves us with such a passion, really must solve all of these
  • Jesus pursued that woman—it was planned, not an accident
    • He is pursuing you today, whether you follow him or not
    • He wants your everything!
  • What about the feast?
    • That’s what the whole second discussion is about

John 4:
Jesus has already eaten

  1. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying,
    “Rabbi, eat.”
  2. But he said to them,
    “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
  3. So the disciples said to one another,
    “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”
  4. Jesus said to them,
    “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”
  • This is about how to drink this living water now
    • By doing the will of the father

The Message of John 4

  1. Jesus is pursuing you with love. He wants you!
  2. Don’t try to satisfy yourself with earthly things
  3. Doing the will of the father will fill you up with satisfaction

Updated on 2019-10-20 by Andrew Fountain