Thirsty?

John 4:7-18

Main Idea: Only Jesus can quench our spiritual thirst.

1. Jesus Exposes Her Spiritual Thirst (4:7-10).
2. Jesus Offers Her Living Water (4:10-13).
3. Jesus Promises Her Lasting Satisfaction (4:14-18).

I had been in China one summer for just over a week, and I had been thirsty for just over a week, craving something ice cold but constantly getting either lukewarm or hot beverages when we went to a missionary’s home for lunch. We sat down at the table, and my friend brought a two-liter of Pepsi to the table. He had placed it in the freezer that morning. It came to the table perfectly chilled. As I sat there, enjoying that glass of ice-cold Pepsi, I realized how thirsty I had been. For over a week my thirst had been building, and when I finally drank something refreshing, the depth of my thirst became clear.

In John 4 Jesus is engaged in conversation with a woman. The conversation takes place around a well and centers on thirst. Jesus uses an extended metaphor about water and thirst to make a point: all of us are thirsty, and only he can quench our thirst.

Jesus Exposes Her Spiritual Thirst

John 4:7-10

Jesus uses a common, everyday illustration to help her understand a spiritual reality. He asks her for a drink, to which she responds with shock. Now, in verse 10, he transitions this conversation to the spiritual. He tells her he can give her “living water.” She doesn’t understand him; she thinks Jesus is still talking about physical water. She essentially says, “How in the world are you going to get water from a deep well without a bucket? Where is this ‘living water’ you claim to have?”

Jesus focuses on one particular question she buried right in the middle of her comments: “Where do you get this ‘living water’?” This is what she needs to know. However, before he answers her question about where the living water can be found, he first wants her to understand her need for this living water. Jesus points to the well and reminds her that anyone who drinks that water grows thirsty again, but the living water will quench someone’s thirst forever.

Every man and woman is thirsty. We each thirst for something. Jesus offers water that will forever quench our thirst. Some attempt to quench their thirst through buying stuff. They hope accumulating more possessions or the right possessions will satisfy them. Whenever they grow restless, they run to the store, pull out the plastic, and buy something, anything, to distract them for a little while longer. Others attempt to quench their thirst through food or drink. Whenever they begin to long for something more significant in life, they eat. They look for comfort and solace in a fancy dinner or a bag of Oreos. They attempt to silence their spiritual thirst by quenching their physical thirst with another beer, glass of wine, or Diet Coke.

In Ecclesiastes King Solomon writes about his attempt to quench his thirst. In chapter 2 he lists all of the things he did to silence the internal craving for something that would satisfy. He tried laughing, consuming good food and drink, building great houses and gardens, accumulating gold and silver, acquiring slaves, building a harem of concubines to fulfill all of his sexual fantasies, and becoming famous for his knowledge and wisdom—he tried it all, and here is what he found:

All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles. When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun. (Eccl 2:10-11)

In John 4, Jesus cuts to the heart of this woman’s search for happiness. He tells her to go get her husband (v. 16). “I don’t have a husband,” she says. “You’re right,” Jesus replies in essence. “You have had five and a boyfriend.” She was attempting to quench her thirst through relationships. She was moving from one bad relationship to another and from one bed to another. But like a traveler in the desert, her thirst was never quenched. Because of our sin each one of us, like this woman, is thirsting for something—some experience, some person, some position—that will satisfy. Yet everything we turn to leaves us empty and longing for more. It doesn’t make a difference who we are. We could say, “Sure. Of course she was searching for something. Look at her! She’s a wreck.” But in the last chapter we looked at Nicodemus. Why do you think Nicodemus came to Jesus? Was it because he had everything figured out? Was it so he could shed light on some theological issue Jesus misunderstood? No. He came because he was thirsty. For years he had attempted to satisfy his thirst by keeping rules and studying theology and helping people, but it wasn’t enough. It could never be enough. Nothing he did could ever ultimately satisfy.

Jesus Offers Her Living Water

John 4:10-13

The woman asks Jesus, “So where do you get this ‘living water’?” (v. 11). Her question is one each person asks at some point: “Where can I find that which satisfies?” I know you’ve asked it, whether you’ve verbalized it or not. Your life is a pursuit of something to satisfy your thirst. Whether you’re a homemaker or a vice president, a mechanic or an engineer, you make decisions you hope will, over the long term, bring you satisfaction.

We find the living water by coming to Christ and asking him (v. 10). Only through him will we discover the satisfaction we look for so desperately in other things. The only remedy for our parched souls is the living water freely dispensed by Jesus. Later, Jesus repeats this invitation (v. 14). The solution is that simple. We must abandon our attempts to find satisfaction on our own and turn to Jesus for lasting satisfaction. The more I think about it, the more I’m persuaded it’s too simple for many people. We’re convinced we can do it ourselves. We think if we’re ever going to be happy and satisfied, it’ll happen because we’ve climbed the ladder and done the work on our own. Ultimately we think we’ve got to find our satisfaction in our own effort because we know best what we need and we’re the best ones to supply it. A lot of us are like the man who came to Jesus one day, asking, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18). We want to do something for it; we want to earn it. We don’t want to admit or acknowledge that we’re unable by ourselves ever to be fulfilled. We don’t want to concede that we need help. We’d rather go through life filling our jar with water that doesn’t satisfy than turn to Jesus and ask him for the water that actually quenches our thirst.

The promise of living water is written throughout the pages of the Bible, and with it we find the result of rejecting the living water—the barrenness of seeking satisfaction apart from God. We see it when the prophet Jeremiah spoke God’s words to the people of Israel: “For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves—cracked cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer 2:13). The chosen people of God had the fountain of living water open and available to them. Their thirst could be quenched, their souls satisfied by God! Yet tragically they abandoned God. They turned from the all-satisfying source of life and strength and attempted to find satisfaction elsewhere. Instead of drinking freely from the fountain of life God offered, they took out their hammers and chisels and started carving out little bowls and digging wells. Yet every time they poured water into their handcrafted vessels, it leaked out.

They thought, I know what’s best. I know how to be happy. I want to do it my way. They sought satisfaction in something other than God. This is the essence of sin: pursuing satisfaction in something other than God. Sin is not fundamentally a failure to check certain moral boxes. We think sin is primarily about the actions we do and don’t do: “Sin is when I lie, curse, steal, or get angry.” But I sin any time I pursue satisfaction in something other than God. That’s certainly revealed in lying, cursing, and stealing, but it’s also seen in pride, self-reliance, and apathy. Any time we pursue satisfaction in something other than God, we commit idolatry. We’re placing that thing on the altar of our hearts, and giving ourselves to it, hoping it will do for us what only God can do.

God is not opposed to your pursuit of happiness and satisfaction. He made you to pursue genuine happiness, joy, and satisfaction in the one person who can truly offer it. He designed you to find true delight in him. In fact, the imagery of living water is full of promise and reward. Consider this promise from the perspective of a people living in a dry and dusty land, where drought would be devastating, where a lack of water meant a lack of food. Clean, pure, abundant, flowing water was a wonderful picture of promise and security. Jesus makes clear to the Samaritan woman that joy and satisfaction can only be found in him.

Jeremiah had warned the people about their sin. He rebuked them for turning from God and attempting to find satisfaction and joy outside of a relationship with him. Another prophet, Isaiah, told the people about the promised Messiah (Isa 11). The one God was sending to redeem the people from their sin, this Messiah, is Jesus Christ. The following chapter, Isaiah 12, is a song the redeemed will sing. “You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation” (Isa 12:3). Coming to God in salvation is pictured as a free and open source of water. Every need is met. Our deep, spiritual thirst is finally and fully quenched in Christ.

Jesus Promises Her Lasting Satisfaction

John 4:14-18

Here’s the picture Jesus paints: Every man and woman is in a desperate, life-and-death situation. Spiritually we’re like travelers lost in the desert of sin and death. We need help. Our only hope for life is water. We try, over and over, again and again, to find water. We turn to this person, that activity, this good work, or that religious system, hoping to find the solution. Sometimes it seems like we’ve found it. For a while it seems we’ve stumbled on water to quench our thirst and meet our need, but before long we realize what we thought was the solution was not. So we start looking again. We search desperately for something, anything, that will dull the thirst, even if it’s only for a moment. Yet all we can find apart from Christ is saltwater. It seems to help, but we end up more parched than we were before.

C. S. Lewis called this “an ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure” (Screwtape, 44). Have you ever felt that? Everyone who’s looked at pornography has. Each look at the screen produces more cravings and less pleasure. Everyone who has been addicted to a substance has. It takes more to get high, and the high gets shorter. Everyone who’s been in a codependent relationship has. As the relationship gets worse, the feeling of needing the other person gets stronger. Everyone who’s proud has. We need more and more applause, even as it matters less and less. Everyone who’s self-righteous has. We write more and more rules and find less and less joy.

The root of sin is pursuing happiness in something other than God, and sin produces an ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure. Now look closely at Jesus’s promise to this woman. If she will turn to him and take one sip of the living water, her thirst will be quenched. But the promise continues: not only is her thirst quenched, but she will always have access to the living water. The living water will become a spring of water within her. We never need to be desperate again. Once we turn to Jesus and discover in him the fulfilling, satisfying source of spiritual nourishment, we can drink again and again. The spring always flows.

I love John Piper’s well-known quote, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” We demonstrate the surpassing worth of Christ when we reject earthly, empty pleasures and embrace him as our all-consuming desire. A Christian who doesn’t seek satisfaction in money, vacation, leisure, healthy children, or a good job but seeks Jesus instead makes a statement about the value of Jesus. When we find our greatest satisfaction in him, we bring him the most glory. But a Christian who constantly drinks from the pleasures of this world calls Jesus a liar because he comes to that woman standing by the well and contradicts the offer of Jesus. He says, “Don’t listen to him. His water doesn’t really satisfy.”

Only Jesus can quench your thirst. Whatever you crave, whatever you long for, whatever you need, only Jesus can provide. Stop drinking from the wells of sin and come to Jesus. He offers living water. He offers what can truly satisfy.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Why does Jesus first focus on the woman’s need for living water? What can we learn from his example in our own ministry opportunities?
2. What are some ways you try to quench your spiritual thirst? How does the good news of Jesus satisfy those desires?
3. Take a moment to reflect on Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, then thank God for Jesus’s work and the changed heart he has given you.
4. How does one find living water? How does this change the way we fight against desires for lesser things?
5. Do you struggle to believe you will find fulfillment in Jesus? What good news is there for you in this passage?
6. What is living water? What does it mean to be satisfied by it?
7. Describe sin in the context of this passage. How does the definition inform our satisfaction?
8. Reflect on your own story of belief in Jesus. Where were you seeking fulfillment? How has belief in Jesus satisfied and changed your desires?
9. How is a Christian who constantly drinks from the pleasures of this world testifying against Jesus?
10. Why is the woman’s ability to worship in Spirit and truth an issue of belief and not knowledge?