3-8-2020 Grace-Tucson Sermon

2nd Sunday in Lent March 8, 2020

Pastor Tim Patoka Drink From Jesus’ Living Water John 4:5-26 1) To Quench Your Thirsty Soul 2) To Worship in Spirit and in Truth

There’s nothing more satisfying than having a big glass of water when you’ve been thirsty for a long time. It tastes so good because you’re finally quenching your thirst. And quenching your thirst is a great feeling. Whether it’s after that intense workout or outdoor activity, or after a long day that just drained you physically and emotionally, there are all sorts of drinks that help you end the day in a favorable light.

If you were thirsty and living in the Samaritan town of Sychar in Jesus’ day, Jacob’s well would be one of your places to go. It was there that Jesus met a certain Samaritan woman who was going to draw physical water to quench her physical thirst. But as Jesus would teach her, she was in greater need of drinking from Jesus’ living water. For it is Jesus’ living water that will quench our soul’s thirst for peace with God and to offer him real worship that is in spirit and in truth.

1) To Quench Your Thirsty Soul Whenever we talk about Jews and Samaritans, it’s always good to remember how much they did not like each other. It was far worse than the Hatfield and McCoy feud or the race riots in the 1960s. It was a conflict that went back hundreds of years. The Samaritans came about when, in the 720s B.C., the king of Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel and swapped out many of its inhabitants with pagan foreigners. Those racial differences were solidified in the 500s B.C. during the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple.

Religiously there was conflict when around 450 B.C. an excommunicated Jewish high priest took off to Samaria and formalized their religion at nearby Mt. Gerizim. Politically there was conflict when around 120 B.C. the Jews and Samaritans backed opposing sides in a regional war. There was also generational conflict with both Jews and Samarians committing hate crimes. As if that weren’t enough was the added taboo of a lone man talking to a lone woman at any time. We can only imagine how surprised the Samaritan woman was when she said to Jesus, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) (John 4:9) Jesus broke these societal taboos so that he could tell this woman about his living water, a water that was better than any other. Rather than wonder what this living water exactly was, I’ll give it away. This living water is God’s own righteousness. It’s better than any physical water because with it comes a soul’s complete peace knowing that it is righteous in God’s sight.

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2nd Sunday in Lent March 8, 2020 Thankfully Jesus broke all sorts of societal taboos at Jacob’s well so that this Samaritan woman could drink from his living water. Because if she didn’t, she would be in trouble.

Pastor Tim Patoka

Like the Samaritan woman, you and I also need to drink from Jesus’ living water so as to have his righteousness bring peace to our souls. For we too are guilty of many of the sins of the Samaritan woman. What’s unique about the Samaritans is that they have a lot of shared history with the Jews. Yet they only believed the first books of the Old Testament – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – to be authoritative. As the Samaritans had a low opinion of other portions of God’s Word, might we too be guilty of the same? As seen with those generational hate crimes between Jews and Samaritans, might we too be guilty of thinking, saying, and doing hurtful things against those we have a shared history with?

We’re told that this particular Samaritan woman had five previous husbands. It’s unlikely she was widowed or the innocent divorcee in every case. More likely she was somewhat guilty of why at least one of those five marriages ended so early. Might we too be guilty of sins in our past because we chose to live in a way that was contrary to God’s Word? As for the man she was currently living with, that was certainly displeasing in God’s sight no matter how she might try to justify it. Might we too be guilty of sins which we chronically commit? When we look at it all, we are no better than this Samaritan woman for we too need to drink from Jesus’ living water to find peace for our souls.

Thankfully Jesus tells the Samaritan woman how to drink from his living water. And it starts with knowing who Jesus is. In addition to being the Messiah, he is also our prophet. When we typically think of a prophet, we think of someone who foretells the future. But in the Bible, a prophet is more than just that. Listen to how one Bible dictionary defines what a prophet is, “a proclaimer or expounder of divine matters or concerns that could not ordinarily be known except by special revelation.” A prophet talks about things that could only come from God. That includes the future, but also about plans from God. Back in the Garden of Eden, we hear God give the promise that he was going to save sinful mankind by crushing Satan’s serpent head. Now, we would expect God to do that in a normal way like with a show of power or some famous battle. Instead, he does it in a surprising way, a way that we would have never guessed or recognized if it wasn’t told to us.

As Jesus our prophet showed with his own words and actions, our rescue plan would happen by having him come down to this world and be our substitute. Born in a lowly manger, Jesus lived as God has demanded from every human being. In addition to doing what we cannot, Jesus also received what we should have: complete rejection by God and his punishment for sin. As we would never expect God to go through so much for us, so we would never expect that because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection from the grave that God’s righteousness would become our own. Yet that is the case. And it’s through faith – our trust and confidence in all this – that we receive all these blessings.

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2nd Sunday in Lent March 8, 2020

Pastor Tim Patoka

This definition of saving faith is how we drink from Jesus’ living water. As did the Samaritan woman, so do we need to drink from Jesus’ living water for we are anything but righteous on our own. Therefore, have faith in what your Savior tells you. Believe in what he has done and know that when he died, he died for your sins. Through that faith in him, you then get to drink from his living water and receive all the blessings he has promised. That you are righteous because you have God’s own righteousness. That your sinful self has been washed clean of all the wrongs you have ever done. That you have peace with the almighty God himself down to your very soul! That’s true not just for today, but every day that you find your Savior in Jesus Christ and so quench your soul’s thirst for peace.

2) To Worship in Spirit and in Truth We turn out attention back to the Samaritan woman who’s feeling a bit guilty for her sinful lifestyle. Likely because she wants to repent, she asks the all-knowing Jesus where the correct place for worship is. It’s here that Jesus then shows us that Jesus’ living water is for all to drink from. He starts off by explaining how worship works in the New Testament era in which we now live, “But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).

First off, there is no one place to worship God. As Jesus said, since God is spirit he isn’t confined to a physical body or a single location. As such, we can worship him anywhere. God’s people would no longer mostly be from the Jewish ethnicity. Instead, they would be comprised of all nations under the sun. But most importantly, real worship would happen whenever worshippers come to him in spirit and in truth.

Let’s break it down what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit means to actively participate so that our spirit, our very self, is taking part in it. Think of this with our liturgy. As we go through our service, we’re not simply going through motions or speaking words so we can be done and get on with our day. This is our order for worship which leads us into God’s Word. We use these familiar words so that we can focus on what’s beyond pronouncing the words: which exact sins we are confessing, what joy we have because of Christ’s forgiveness, what things we are asking and giving thanks for in our prayers, and why specifically we are praising our God. To worship in truth is to know who Jesus truly is and believe in him as such. This is none other than to have saving faith. If we believe Jesus to be something other than who he truly is, then we are worship in off-based. It’s only when we worship in spirit and in truth that we are the real worshippers that the Father seeks.

But you may be asking yourself, “what does real worship have to do with what we were talking about earlier, about drinking from Jesus’ living water?” Well, if we practice real 3

2nd Sunday in Lent March 8, 2020 worship then we will also be drinking from Jesus’ living water. When we worship in spirit, we cannot help but remind ourselves how much in common we have with the Samaritan woman.

Like her, we are guilty of all sorts of sins and need to drink from Jesus’ living water if we want to have any chance of quenching our soul’s thirst for peace. When we worship in truth, we see who Jesus truly is – our prophet who tells us about a rescue plan that we would have never devised or recognized if it wasn’t told to us. A plan where the Messiah goes down to death and then comes back to life so that he can be our Savior. As we strengthen our faith in these eternal truths, we renew ourselves in the blessings we receive through this living water – God’s own righteousness, the forgiveness of all our sins, and peace down to our very soul.

Pastor Tim Patoka

When you’re thirsty or exhausted, nothing quenches your thirst or gives you relief better than your favorite drink. For a particular Samaritan woman in the town of Sychar, she went to Jacob’s well to draw some physical water to quench her physical thirst. But while she was there, she learned about Jesus’ living water which alone quenches our soul’s thirst for peace with God. Like the Samaritan woman, we too need Jesus’ living water, his righteousness, so that our souls can be at peace knowing that all of our sins have been forgiven. And the only way to drink from that living water is to have faith in Jesus as our Savior. And as we drink from Jesus’ living water, we also set ourselves up to carry out real worship. We worship him in a willing and active spirit that is in the truth of what our prophet Jesus tells us about God’s plan for our salvation. As we worship in spirit and in truth, we will also be drinking from Jesus’ living water at the same time for the two go hand-in-hand.

So the next time you reach for that favorite drink to quench your physical thirst knowing that eventually you’ll be doing it again, remember what you have in Christ – his living water of righteousness which will quench your soul’s thirst for peace. For you already have this peace and you get to hear about it all the more whenever you come to worship him in spirit and in truth. Amen.

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