Truth For Life

Alistair Begg: Some people go to church to try to fill a void in their lives. But genuine Christian transformation requires more than a desire for the relief of unsatisfied longings.

Today on Truth for Life weekend, Alistair Begg examines an outcast woman's encounter with Jesus to learn what is truly necessary for lasting change to take place in someone's life.

We're now going to look at the encounter Jesus had with a woman who is in every sense at the other end of the spectrum from the religious Jew in chapter three. She is on the social, moral, and religious line of things at the very opposite end from Nicodemus.

It's good actually to keep these two chapters in view when you're thinking about the way in which Jesus deals with individuals. Chapter three, if you like, in the story of the religious man, makes clear that no one can ever be so good that they do not require a savior.

Some people think that God is going to grade on the curve, and they've looked around the rest of the people in the class, and they're prepared to take their shot on the basis of that. They're staggered to discover he is not going to grade on the curve, but he has set a very final standard in the person of his son.

And then it becomes apparent that I could never be good enough. And that's what chapter three makes clear. Chapter four, conversely, makes clear that you can never be so bad as to be beyond the saving bounds of Jesus.

Which is really terrific good news, isn't it? There are some mechanisms for changing your life that demand a certain standard, a certain intellect, a certain capacity. And if you fit that framework, then the possibility of signing up and going on is there.

However, if you don't meet those standards, then it's just nowhere for you at all. Whereas the comprehensive story of the gospel, verse 15 again of chapter three, is that everyone who believes will have eternal life.

Whether you are a religious person, an orthodox and devout, or whether you are an irreligious person, having made a hash of things and beginning to imagine that if there is salvation anywhere, it is a salvation that is presumably good for everybody else except you.

And chapter three and chapter four tackle that.

Samaritan woman meets Jewish man. Jewish man says, "Could I please have a drink?" Very natural beginning, isn't it? Wonderfully straightforward. And also, just an expression of Jesus' need. This is not an opening gambit. This is not Jesus setting out a course in personal evangelism.

"Now, let me see. What should I say here? Well, let me think of a good beginning." No, he's thirsty. In fact, I'd been reading this story again this morning, and I can't find anywhere where it says that Jesus actually got a drink of water in the whole process.

Because it just goes question and answer all the way through. It makes me thirsty even thinking about it.

He appeals to her sympathy. He seeks a favor from her. And in doing so, communication is established. The striking impact of the opening statement by Jesus is made clear in verse nine.

The Samaritan woman, again, the emphasis you see, Samaritan woman, not just the woman, Samaritan is important. The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?"

And then parenthetically an explanation: "For Jews do not associate with Samaritans." Or if you're using an NIV and your eyesight is very good, you can look at the bottom of the page and the alternative rendering of that translation is, "For Jews do not use dishes Samaritans have used."

Because of the complexities of the pharisaical accretions to the Jewish law, there were all kinds of purity factors in the washing of hands and the washing of utensils and so on. And Jesus and his disciples were to fall foul of this on a number of occasions.

But the very fact that Jesus addresses her in this way cuts across all those normal taboos and boundaries and causes her to ask this question.

Jesus does not answer her question, you'll notice that. But instead, he supplies a second question. And in verse 10, he says essentially, "If you find that surprising, that I would ask you for a drink of water, being a Jew and a man and so on. If you find that surprising, then wait till you consider this thought."

And then he says, "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."

He raises the conversation to a different level. She assumes herself to be in the position of providing what he needs. She's about to discover that she is actually the one in need of what the stranger is able to provide.

She thinks she's in the position to provide what Jesus needs, only to discover that she is actually the one who needs what Jesus provides.

Do you ever think when you come to an event like this that you might be doing what Jesus needs? That he needs you to come here? He needs to know that he's liked? He needs to know there are a few people left in Cleveland that actually care about God, or care about the Bible, or care about Jesus. And that's sufficient motivation for you to come?

And then you've come here and you've discovered that what you thought you came to provide for him has got nothing really to do with the subject at all. It's all about what he has come to provide for you.

Now your reaction may be very similar to the reaction of the lady.

He says, "If you'd asked me, if you'd asked this individual, he would have given you living water." And she said, verse 11, "You've got nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where do you get the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well. He drank from it."

And once again, Jesus sidesteps her question. He doesn't answer the question again. Why? Because it's not the issue. It's a red herring. It's not irrelevant. The questions are of interest.

But he doesn't get into the Jewish Samaritan debate, nor does he get into the question of the historicity of Jacob and whether he is a greater person than Jacob. There will be time for that kind of conversation, but for now he wants to address the issue.

We're not going to discuss which well is the best well, or whether Jacob's well has living water or anything else. Jesus answers verse 13, probably pointing to the well, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst."

Now think about that for just a moment. The woman's whole focus to this point is about water. The reason she's at the well is because the well has water. The reason she has a pot is because she's going to fill the pot or the jar with water, and she's going to take it back to use the water. She understands this.

And Jesus says, "Everybody who drinks this water will thirst again, but anyone who drinks the water that I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Now, what Jesus is doing here is simply applying the Bible. Because the Old Testament uses this metaphor frequently. We don't need to go back through it. You can take my word for it and check later. The psalmist often talks about thirsting for God.

The prophet Isaiah speaks about the day that will dawn when with joy, men and women will draw water from the wells of salvation. One of the loveliest invitations that God issues is in Isaiah 55. "Come, you who are thirsty, and come to the waters."

And in Jeremiah chapter two, God speaks to the people through his prophet and he says, "I have two things against you. Number one, you've turned away from me. And number two, you have sought to dig wells of your own making."

"Turned your back on the living God and sought to go about business on your own." Which is exactly a description of the human predicament.

Wasn't it Pascal who said that there is within each of us a God-shaped void? Trying to give expression to the notion of that search for satisfaction which is true for every person in humanity.

And in the same way that the people in Jeremiah's day could be seen, as it were, metaphorically digging out cisterns in the hope of finding satisfaction in the wells that they were digging. So a congregation like this has been marked by this throughout the week that has passed, if we're honest.

Some of us have lived this whole week aware of the fact that our lives are marked by unsatisfied longings. Unsatisfied longings. Longings which we thought when we were younger would be assuaged as a result of our success, but our success has not addressed the longing.

Or that marriage, in this spouse, we would find the answer. And it hasn't been the answer. Or in the acquisition of possessions, or in the experience of whatever gives us a high.

And Jesus, as it were, points to it all, and he says, "Everybody who tries this stuff will be thirsty all over again. But anyone who drinks the water that I give will never thirst again."

Of course, the lady doesn't get it, does she? Oh, she says, "I'd like for some of that water so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

This is a pattern now in John. In chapter two, John records how Jesus had said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again." And the Jews replied, "It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you're going to raise it in three days?"

Jesus is speaking about his body. He's speaking in spiritual terms. They understand it in physical terms. You go into chapter three. Jesus says to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." Nicodemus says, "Born again? How can somebody be born again? Can you, when you're old, enter a second time into your mother's womb?"

Jesus says, "No, I'm not talking about physical birth, I'm talking about spiritual birth." You come to John chapter four. He says, "Whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst again." She says, "Oh, give me some of that water because I'm sick of coming out here in the middle of the day to go to the well."

He taps into her search for satisfaction.

Did any of you see the biographical piece this week on Jessica Lange? And as I watched her and listened to the story of her life, I remembered that in my little book I had a quote from her, and I went and found it. And this is what the quote said. I wasn't surprised to find this quote again after I'd listened to the biographical piece.

"The main thing that I remember from my childhood was this inescapable yearning that I could never satisfy. This inescapable yearning that I could never satisfy."

"Even now," she says at times, "I experience an inescapable loneliness and isolation."

But, and with this, we will move towards a close. Jesus is not content simply to tap into her awareness of her need for satisfaction.

Jesus is now about to address himself to her conscience. To her conscience.

And he does that by issuing an invitation to her to go and call her husband and come back. Verse 16. "Go call your husband and come back." Well, he asked her to do what she couldn't do.

You see, if there's going to be a transformation in this lady's life, it's not enough that she has a sense of wanting satisfaction. She needs to be brought face-to-face with her own sin.

And genuine Christian experience always and everywhere demands this. You see, it's not very difficult to get people to agree that they would like something to fill their lives up.

"Do you have anything that can help me? I've tried booze, I've tried wine, women and song, I've tried stuff, I've tried houses, I've tried vacations. Do you have anything that can fill this emptiness?"

That's why Pascal's statement is helpful, but only up to a point. Because you can get people to sign up for something to fill the gap in their life, but without ever seeing them confronted by the real need in their life, which is not for a hole to be filled, but it is for sin to be cleansed and to be forgiven.

And Jesus in a masterful and in a kind and in a lovely way puts his finger on the area of this lady's life. She must be made to confront her need.

And how carefully he shows her her desperate need for personal forgiveness and for salvation. How does this come across? "I have no husband," she replied.

And then listen. Jesus said to her, "You're right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you've had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

Wow. Wow.

We've met a lot of people on the bus, on the train, on the plane, in the station, in the Starbucks, everything else. We've had all kinds of conversations, but we've never had somebody do this to us, have we?

We've never had somebody sit and look at us and say, "Oh yes, I know everything about you." Because there is no other human being that knows everything about us.

And that's the significance, you see, of the statement that the lady made when she went into the town. She went into the town and she said, "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did."

That might seem a little thin at first, doesn't it? We might want, those of us who've been Christians for a while, we might want her to go into the town and say, "Come and see Jesus, the incarnate son of God, the savior of the world, the one who is the fulfiller of the promises of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, prophet, priest, and king."

Then we go, "There we go, that's the kind of thing we like, that sort of clarity." But she goes in and she says, "Come and see somebody who told me everything I ever did." But it isn't thin, it's fantastic.

What is she saying? Who can tell you everything you ever did? Who knows everything you ever did? Only God.

She realizes that when she clasps eyes with this man who asked her for a drink of water in the unfolding dialogue, she has met the living God. Psalm 139. "O Lord, you search me and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up. You know the words of my mouth before I even speak them."

"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did."

Isn't it fantastic that Jesus does not dismantle her? He doesn't destroy her. He doesn't despise her in any shape or fashion at all. "Why don't you get your husband?"

"I have, I have no husband." Then he doesn't say, "Well, let's just talk about why it is that you don't have a husband." And, "Let's just start from the beginning and let's get it out. Let's go. Begin."

No, he's very gracious. He fills in the blanks for her. It must have cost this woman everything to say, "I have no husband." I don't think for a moment she said, "I have no husband."

If she got it out at all, she said, "I have no husband."

And graciously Jesus says, "That's right, honey. You don't have a husband. You've had five, and you've got one just now, and he's not your husband. That's why I'm telling you about my living water."

See? Her sense of inadequate satisfaction speaks to her real need.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if we had met that lady on that day, not that day, a couple of days before, same well. And we'd had a conversation with her and said, "How are you doing?" "I don't know, I'm not doing so good. My relationships are a mess," and so on.

And you say, "Well, what do you think your problem is?" "Well, you know, I think, I think, I didn't have a very good background, and you know, I didn't make good choices, and the first one was a real jerk. The first husband was a complete fool, and he, he annoyed me and messed me up. The second one, I don't even want to talk," and so on.

And eventually as we listen to her talk, she just describes how all of her problems are all outside of her. All of these things that have happened to her. All of the things that she's got no control of that have messed up her life from the outside in.

And we say to her, "Now how are you planning on fixing this?" She says, "Well, I'm going to look within myself. And I think somewhere inside, you know, I can, I'll be able to fix this. I'll sort it out. I read a great book the other day that told me, you know, if you look within to your power source and you'll plug into the real you," and so on.

Oh, it's got a contemporary ring to it. It's on every afternoon on the TV. The same stuff. "Here we are, we're going to talk to Mrs. So-and-so today. What's your problem?" "Oh, my husband, and my uncle, and my grandmother, and my job, and my circumstances, and my DNA, and my everything."

"Oh, well, don't you worry, honey, because you just, you just look within yourself. I want you to know that you have it all within you. Just you just plug in, find your source, and we will be on our way."

And then cue the applause and the music and off to a commercial break and then back and we'll talk to Mrs. X again.

What the lady discovered was that the absolute reverse was true, right? Which is what you and I need to discover. That the problem is actually all within me, and the answer is all outside me.

"It is not the things that go into a man that defile a man," Jesus said, "it's the things that come out of a man." The problem is within, and the answer is without.

So she brings her empty life to the wonderful supply of living water. She brings her sinful past to the cleansing supply that Jesus provides. She brings her hopes and possibilities for the future.

In light of her messed-up past, to the one who knows everything about her, and who loves her just the same. Enough to spend this time talking at the well so that she might never ever thirst again.

Well, we're through, but let me finish in this way. If you read John's Gospel, and if you haven't read the Bible, John would be a wonderful place to start. If you read John's Gospel, you will be struck almost immediately by the very clear lines of demarcation that John describes for us.

He describes how Jesus is the light, and he has come into the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. He describes Jesus as being the life, and that life is the light of men, but men and women are spiritually dead.

And he describes on the one hand the rejection of Jesus, on the other hand the receiving of Jesus. To as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. In other words, John's Gospel, as good as any other gospel, makes it very clear that each of us needs to come to know Jesus in a personal, saving way.

And until we do, we are under God's wrath and judgment.

It is very solemn, isn't it? God has every legitimate right to abhor sin. That's what makes so amazing his grace. Whereby, given the extent of his wrath, he would provide such a salvation in his son.

So that religious, orthodox leaders in the community might come to trust in Jesus. And so unschooled and despised Samaritan women may come to bow at the very same place.

Bob Lapine: As we heard from Alistair today, each of us needs to know Jesus in a personal, saving way. To help you understand the life-transforming privilege of belonging to Jesus, we are recommending a new book written by Sinclair Ferguson, titled Union With Christ: The Blessings of Being In Him.

That idea, being in Christ, is an essential aspect of the Christian life, and yet it's frequently overlooked or misunderstood. Sinclair Ferguson dives into scripture to get a better understanding of what the Apostle Paul was talking about in the New Testament when he so often identified himself as being a man in Christ.

This book is packed with scripture, includes rich insights, practical applications that will transform the way you live. Sinclair explains that knowing who you are in Christ is the key to understanding your identity and enjoying the blessings of salvation, including the joy and purpose and assurance that the gospel brings.

Find out more about the book Union With Christ, visit our website at truthforlife.org. Now here's Alistair to close with prayer.

Alistair Begg: God our Father, thank you for this wonderful description of your son Jesus and the way in which he deals with individuals. That there's no experience of our lives that we can go through that is unknown to him.

That he does know the worst about us, and yet he loves with an everlasting love. Oh, make me understand it. Help me to take it in. What it meant for the holy one to bear away my sin.

And may the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one who believes, now and forevermore. Amen.

Bob Lapine: I'm Bob Lapine. Before we go today, I want to wish every father and everyone who is celebrating their dad a wonderful Father's Day weekend. Join us next weekend when we'll hear a warning about how easy it is to let physical needs distract us from gospel opportunities.

The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the learning is for living.