Satisfied

We're back taking a look at the conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman. This will be a companion to last week's sermon. That sermon focused on the problem that the woman had, how her life was broken. This week I'm going to take a closer look at the solution that Jesus offers her. But let's start by reading the text, John 4.7-15.

As Jesus speaks with the woman, he knows, and she knows, that there is something wrong. Her life is not working. She desires something more. She is thirsty. And though she is trying to deal with it, this thirst of hers is not being quenched. So, Jesus offers her something that will quench her thirst. Jesus offers her living water. Last week I told you that the image of water was a common enough image in the OT. What I'd like to do now is spend a little time exploring that.

Listen to a couple of places that use this imagery of water. This is from one of the Psalms of David. '​​​​​​​​O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; ​​​​​​​my soul thirsts for you; ​​​​​​​my flesh faints for you, ​​​​​​​as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.' David wrote this when he was in a desert. And he uses the stark nature of that desert to describe his situation. He is thirsty. But the contents of some well will not touch this thirst. It is a thirst of the soul.

This next quote is from Isaiah. 'Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; ​then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; ​the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.' ​​​Here, God sees his people languishing with anxious hearts and more. So, he makes a promise. He promises that he will come. He promises change. And how does he describe the source of that change? 'For waters break forth in the wilderness...' He is using the same image that David used to make the point that he will fix the lives of his people. Water.

Let me throw in a quick side thought. Here, and throughout the Scriptures, God uses ordinary experiences that can be seen and touched and tasted to reveal aspects of reality that are invisible to those senses. He talks about deserts and water and lots of other very common things. He intends for us to look around at what can be seen so that we can understand things that can't be seen. The thirst that your body feels on a hot day is a picture of your soul's desire for satisfaction. You want a life that works. And the water you drink on that hot day is a picture of God's provision that will satisfy that yearning. This is how God has created all of what we see. It is intended to reveal. You would do well to spend a little time looking around you to see pictures of the invisible.

Now, to our text. Jesus encounters this woman. He understands her situation. She is unsatisfied. Something is missing, and she knows it. And she makes it all worse by trying to fix it on her own. As I mentioned last week, she has placed her hope in relationships with men and is willing to pay for them. But those relationships will not satisfy her soul. And, at some level, she knows that. Remember, five husbands and now a live-in boyfriend. She knows. But, Jesus meets her and offers her what will satisfy. 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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.' Jesus identifies a felt need, a real need, and meets it by the Gospel.

We are surrounded by people who are not satisfied, whose souls are so very thirsty. And the different ways that they try to quench their thirst are not working. While many are becoming aware of this, there are lots others who don't see it, and who won't until it is very late in the game. Jesus offers water for their thirsty souls. He offers what will satisfy. That's what the Gospel is about.

So, Jesus offers living water, something that quenches thirsty souls. But, what exactly is it that Jesus is offering? What is the water? We could say eternal life. That would be true. But since it's not so clear to us what exactly this eternal life is, saying that doesn't really help. It's just another church word for us. We need a clearer answer. What is Jesus offering to the woman? Let's go back to those OT images.

What did David want in the Psalm that I quoted? '​​​​​​​​O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; ​​​​​​​my soul thirsts for you; ​​​​​​​my flesh faints for you.' So, what is it that Jesus is offering to the woman? What is the living water? It is God himself. This is important because a common notion is that Jesus offers some gift from God, some blessing, some thing. Jesus offers no thing. He offers a person. He offers God. There is no thing, no gift or blessing from God that will satisfy the soul. Our souls were made for God himself. Only he will satisfy. And that is what Jesus offers to the woman. It is what he offers to any who meet him. Jesus offers God.

This is what I want you to see. This is the point of the sermon. You have God. You have received living water from Jesus. You have received eternal life from him. That means you have received God. You have many of God's gifts and blessings, and that's all good. But gifts and blessings will not satisfy a soul. Don't be distracted by them. Satan tries hard to do exactly that. And that is one reason why I want to emphasize this point to you. Jesus has given you God himself, and he has done that so that he might satisfy you. What I want to do for the rest of the sermon is to try to drive that home to you.

Understanding eternal life in this way helps you to see more clearly what it means that you are a Christian. Being a Christian isn't about the things you do. It isn't about the things you don't do. It's not even about your final destination. Being a Christian is about the God who is always with you. This is from another of the Psalms. 'Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? ​If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.' Your God is with you wherever you go.

Did you get that last line? '… even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.' He is with you - to do you good. He will lead you and make sure that you don't wander off. He holds you by the hand, and that is so good. But, be careful. As I said before, it is not the blessings of God that satisfy the soul. It is God himself who satisfies. So if you relish the blessings of his care but forget about him, you've missed it.

And that's what David was talking about in his prayer. '​​​​​​​​O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; ​​​​​​​my soul thirsts for you; ​​​​​​​my flesh faints for you.' How many kids have fathers who are great providers and yet are so distant from their children. And the result? Kids who grow up with many good things but without a Dad. It's not the stuff that matters most. It's the relationship. So, you see, being a Christian is about having God, enjoying God. To be sure, that includes the blessings, but the blessings are secondary. It's the relationship with him that satisfies.

So, consider Moses. He has a request of God. 'Please show me your glory.' What is this? Is Moses interested in a neat light show? Is that what the glory is about? No. Moses has seen his God in action. And he has been amazed by what he has seen. But he wants more. He wants more of God. And so, he asks for more; not more blessings, but more of God himself.

Jesus encourages this kind of attitude, this bold asking. Listen to what he told the woman. '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.' Jesus invited the woman to ask for the water that satisfies. Is this asking a one-time event? Clearly not. Remember Moses and David? They wanted more. So, they asked for more. And they got more. They experienced more of the satisfaction that living water gives.

Now, this gets us to a question that if you aren't already asking you will be asking. Let's go through the logic of the sermon. God has made us all with a thirst for him. People feel this thirst, but they try to satisfy it in the wrong ways. (That, by the way, is what sin is actually about.) Jesus has come to offer the only water that will satisfy. Jesus has come to offer God himself. Those who accept his offer are given the water that quenches thirst. They get God. You have received that water. You have God. And now that question. 'If it's true that I have God, then why do I still feel thirsty? Why is it that I don't feel completely satisfied?' It's the right question to ask. There are several possible answers. Let's go through them.

For some of you, the problem is that you don't ask. Now, please note that I did not say that you don't pray. You do. But, what do you pray for? Some of you have been fooled. You don't pray for more of God. You pray for more of his blessings. Now, why is that? There might be several reasons here. One of them might be that you don't realize what you're missing. You think that being a Christian is about doing or not doing. For whatever reason, you have not grasped that being a Christian is first and foremost about this relationship. It's about enjoying God. You have not asked for more of him because you were unaware that there is more to ask for. So, the solution is clear: ask. When you pray, instead of focusing so much on the list of blessings that you want and may even need, simply tell him, 'Lord, I want you. More than the blessings, I want more of you.' Now, you might also tell him that you're not really sure what to expect, but you know it's the right thing to ask for. So, ask him, and see what he does.

Now, that's one possible answer to our question, ‘Why is it that I don't feel completely satisfied?’ Let’s move on to another.

I'm going to guess that some of you are thinking, 'But I do desire more of God. And I have even asked for more. But I still feel this thirst. What’s going on?'

There are two possible answers. Here’s one that comes from something Paul wrote. He expresses his own desire for more. ' … that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.' There are some people who say, 'Knowing Jesus more and more. That sounds good. Knowing the power of his resurrection. That sounds better. Knowing his suffering. Not interested.' But getting to enjoy more of God will involve suffering. Let me say that clearly. It will hurt. And there are some who are not interested in this part of the deal.

Consider someone from this group, someone who asks for more. His requests are heard. The Spirit responds and tells him, 'So, you want more? Good. I want to give you more. So, do this. Take a left at the corner.' And what does this person say to that? 'But doing that doesn't look very safe. It looks a little risky. I might get hurt. I think that I'll just keep going straight.' But he still continues to ask, 'I want more', and wonders why nothing changes. This is what I would say to such a person. 'It's good that you want more. You were made for more. But if you want more of God you'll need to listen to the Spirit. And when he tells you to do this or that, do it. Yes, there is risk. And yes, it will hurt. But it's worth it. If you want more ask for it and then listen for the Spirit and do what he tells you.'

Here's the last answer to our question. This is for a third group of people. These folk know that there is more of God to enjoy. So, they ask for more. They may not use the words, 'I want more of you', but that is the yearning of their hearts. They hear the Spirit respond to their cry. 'Turn left at the corner.' They see that doing that may result in problems. It may hurt. But they trust him, and they turn at the corner. And having turned they feel the difficulties, the sufferings, and they pose our question. 'Why is my soul still not as satisfied as I know it can be? Why this remaining thirst?' That's the right question and here's the answer. It's because they haven't arrived at the oasis yet. There is water over the next hill. When they arrive they will find more water than they could have imagined. They will drink and drink and drink. And they will be changed. They will have more of God. And then the Spirit will give them some more directions, and in this way he will guide them to the next oasis.

You see, for reasons that he thinks best, our God has decided to satisfy our thirst in stages. It's a process, filled with turns right and left as the Spirit directs. Along the way you will encounter one oasis and then the next. And each one will quench your thirst a little more, even as it creates in you a greater yearning for even more of God. And then the day arrives when the journey is over. There are no more turns to make. You've arrived at the place where there is no longer any desert and there is no longer any thirst. This is how John describes that place. 'Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.' In the age to come it will no longer be a matter of trudging on to the next oasis to drink from the little spring there. The living water will be a raging river flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. No one will be thirsty. That's the end of the journey. But in the middle of the journey what you need to do is continue to ask, listen for the directions that the Spirit will give and then follow those directions. Those who do this will grow in their experience of being satisfied. Their thirst is being quenched. More of God is being enjoyed.

Here are three possible answers to the question why a Christian still feels unsatisfied.

1. You’re not enjoying God more because you’re not asking for more.
2. You’re not enjoying God more because you want to play it safe. You don’t want to hurt.
3. You are enjoying God more and all you need to do is continue on to enjoy him even more.

Which one applies to you? That’s the question you take home with you.

Now, one last thought. Why is this important? There are actually quite a number of reasons, but let me mention just one. We live in a world that is filled with unsatisfied people. They are thirsty, deeply thirsty. What they need is to come to Jesus that he might give them living water. They need to come to Jesus that he might give them God. So many of them do not even consider doing such a thing. And that's because so many of them have never seen anyone who seems to be enjoying that living water. It does little good any more simply to tell people that coming to Jesus is a really good idea. They need to be shown that it is. They need to be shown what people who are drinking more and more deeply of that living water look like. For some of you that means: continue what you’ve been doing. Continue to drink of the water and to live like people who are enjoying God more and more. But I suspect that for some of you that means that there are some things that need to be changed. And, of course, that’s what the Spirit loves to do, change people. Bottom line: we need to show them.