Living Water

8EIGHT

August 16, 2015
Amazing Life Church
“Living Water”
Greet people
I want to thank everyone for your prayers for Betty and
I on our recent trip. It was extremely tiring but it was
also a wonderful blessing.
In studying this week I was reminded with some
insistence about the promises of God. Specifically about
their relevance for today. Promises that define and
activate Kingdom Living in individuals as well as the
local church.
I am talking about Jesus again today. I want to begin by
sharing this. “Jesus became the model for all who
would embrace the invitation to invade the impossible
in His Name.”
In the eyes of His earthly followers it appeared that
Jesus was often taking risk. One such occurrence is
found in the Gospel of John chapter 7.
I want to share some thoughts titled, “Living Water”Page 2
At the beginning of John 7 Jesus is in Galilee and it was
the time of the feast of booths. Or the feast of
tabernacles. This Jewish feast was also called the feast
of in gatherings and it was celebrated after the harvest
time.
It was important because the feast was one of the three
Pilgrimage festivals in which the Israelites would make
long journeys to the Temple in Jerusalem.
At first He was not going because the Jews were
looking to kill Him if He showed up. He sent His
followers and then later went Himself but He did so
secretly.
Around verse 14 He couldn’t resist anymore so He went
into the temple and began to teach. As expected it
caused quite a few passionate responses from the people
in attendance. The feast lasted 7 days.
John 7:37-39 NASB
37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood
and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to
Me and drink.
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his
innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed
in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given,
because Jesus was not yet glorified.Page 3
As usual I have some words that need attention. Thirsty,
those who painfully feel their want and long for refreshing,
support, and strength. Drink, to receive into the soul to
refresh and strengthen. Innermost Being or Belly, from the
Greek it is also defined as the place where the fetus is
conceived and nourished until birth.
Preach Preach-New creature
Rivers, means torrent or flood. Living, to be among the
living, blessed endless in the Kingdom of God, to be full
vigor, to be fresh, strong, and efficient. Water, has a figurative
meaning, out of and through which the world was created.
Preach WOW
In John’s Gospel this living water stuff had occurred before
chapter 7 In chapter 4 you will find the story we know as the
woman at the well.
John 4:7-10 NASB
7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus
said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy
food.
9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is
it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a
Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans.)Page 4
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of
God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you
would have asked Him, and He would have given you living
water.”
Just to remind you from the Greek living and water means
this. “Living, to be among the living, blessed endless in the
Kingdom of God, to be full vigor, to be fresh, strong, and
efficient. Water, has a figurative meaning, out of and through
which the world was created.”
Explain skipping
John 4:19-26 NASB
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a
prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say
that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming
when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship
the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we
know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the
Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in
spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He
who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all
things to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”Page 5
There are several things I want to share about this lady
beyond the obvious that is commonly shared.
1 st . This conversation with the woman at the well is the
longest recorded private conversation that Jesus had
with anyone.
3 Things He did that He was not supposed to do.
He spoke to her being a woman. She was a Samaritan.
And He asked for water which would have made Him
ceremonially unclean if He had drank from a vessel she
touched.
This woman had five husbands and was living with a
man not her husband.
Let me share some things from church history. Tradition
relates that the Apostles baptized her with the name
“Photine” meaning “enlightened one. She repented after
a very gentle and wise conversation with Christ and
went and told her townspeople that she had met the
Christ. For this, she is sometimes claimed as the first to
proclaim the Gospel of Christ. She converted her 5
sisters and 2 sons and they all became tireless
Evangelists. They were all Martyred together in 66AD
under the persecution of the Emperor Nero.Page 6
She won so many people to the Lord that she was
referred to as “equal to the Apostles.”
I want to read 2 verses again.
John 4:25-26 NASB
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is
coming (He who is called Christ); when that One
comes, He will declare all things to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
This is a rare time recorded in the Gospels prior to the
death of Christ that He plainly acknowledged He was
the Messiah.
This story has become even more relevant to me than
ever before.
He spent so much time with her, even revealing Himself
to her.
A woman who in the eyes of the world around her had
no value.
It was not value that took her from her tragic life to a
life of greatness in the Kingdom of God.
It Was An Encounter-Preach Preach