You know what astounds me about the Lord is how compassionate He is with sinners. Have you ever studied the names of Jesus? My favorite was given to Him by His enemies. Pharisees called Him “The Friend of Sinners.” That’s my favorite, because if He were not a friend of sinners, He would not be my friend. I know that for a fact.
Jesus taught in stories. In John 4:5 He comes to Sychar, “near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.” It says that “Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat by the well. It was a six hour.” And of course, their day starts at six in the morning. So it’s 12:00 noon day. This is not the usual time that women came to draw water. It’s hot. They always do it very early. And He’s sitting there and it’s noon time. And “A woman of Samaria came to draw water.” Why in the world would she brave the heat of the day? Jesus said, “Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.” It’s interesting here the woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” “Jesus answers,” in verse ten and said, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman says,”You have nothing to draw with. The well is deep. Where do You get that living water?” Jesus says, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give Him will never thirst. But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” He makes this promise later in the Gospel of John. You’ll remember in John chapter seven, on the last day, the great day of the feast, the people were gathered in their great multitude. The priests are carrying water from the pool of Siloam to the altar, to pour on the altar as a picture of cleansing, as a picture of forgiveness. And Jesus took his stand at a place along the route that that water was being carried. And He yelled with a voice that was loud enough for that multitude of a million and a half or more people to hear. What an amazing story. “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”
Can I ask you a question? Have you drunk of that water? Have you received that water? I want to I ask the follow up are fountains of living water flowing out of your life? Because that is the intention that the Lord has for you. That is the plan that He has for all of us who believe in Christ. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And John tells us in 1st John 2:2, “He is the propitiation for our sins…” How thankful we ought to be for that, “… but not for ours alone, but for the sins of the entire world.”
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