Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2897
“The woman said unto him, Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?” John 4:11.
THIS was a sensible and very important question. May the Holy Spirit graciously enable us to answer it aright! Our Lord’s great objective in His talk with this woman at the well was not to convince her of His oratorical power, for He spoke to her as simply as one would speak to a child. Many sermons are far too elaborate in their construction—they are evidently intended to display the preacher’s own powers. But if we would imitate the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Prince of Preachers, we would not strain after effect—and we would get a better effect without any straining—by taking the living Truth of God and telling out, as simply as possible, the story of salvation.
Jesus Christ’s sole objective in talking with this woman was to bring her to salvation. That is also my objective with regard to my hearers and readers and, my dear unconverted Friends, if you shall agree with me in that objective and shall breathe the prayer, “Lord, help the preacher to speak to my soul that I may find Christ,” there will be joy among the angels of Heaven over sinners repenting and returning to the Lord!
Our Savior, in seeking to win this woman to Himself, was completely successful. He hit the mark He aimed at. His shot struck the very center of the target. Only one sermon was preached to her—no, it was hardly a sermon—just a brief talk with her and the woman received the Living Word! Alas, there are some of you who have had a great many affectionate talks from godly mothers and fathers, or from earnest ministers, teachers, or other Christian friends—but, so far, they have not been as successful as Jesus of Nazareth was on this occasion! You have heard many sermons—you cannot tell how many you have heard—and some of them have produced some effect upon you, but, up to the present, you have not been slain by the sword of the Spirit, nor quickened by Jesus Christ the Life-Giver. I hope the Lord is about to do what has not been done before! And, with the accumulated responsibility upon you of having heard the Gospel so often in vain, I think you should the more earnestly breathe the prayer to God, “O Lord, let this be the effectual time of speaking to me! Call me as You did the Samaritan woman. While the preacher is speaking and I am listening to Your Word as it shall be proclaimed, graciously grant that Jesus may be revealed to my soul and that He may say to me, ‘I that speak unto you am He.’” If you are brought to pray that prayer from your heart, I believe that it will be answered and so, as I have already said, there will be joy in the Presence of the angels of God over you! Our Lord aimed at this woman’s conversion by simply instructing her and bringing the truth home to her conscience. Let us see whether if we do the same thing, trusting in the same Spirit that anointed our Master, similar results will follow here as followed at the well of Sy-char.
First, then, I am going to expound the teaching which preceded the woman’s question and suggested it Then, secondly, I will answer the question. And thirdly, I will draw some inferences from it
I. First, then, WHAT WAS IT THAT LED THIS WOMAN TO ASK OUR SAVIOR THE QUESTION, “Where then do You get that living water?”
Jesus Christ had told her that had she known Him, she would have asked of Him and He would have given her Living Water. There was Jacob’s well. They were, both of them, close to it and they could look down into it. There was some
water in it, but the well of Sychar was not a well of “living water.” You probably know that the expression which is translated, “living water,” refers to water that springs up from a fountain. But the well of Sychar is not a well of that kind. The water in it is surface water—the gathering of the neighboring hills—land water, not spring water. Jesus Christ seemed to draw His illustration from that fact—“The water in that well runs into it and is drawn out from it. But if you had asked Me, I would have given you water that bubbles up—water that is full of life, very different from this well water—water from the great deep that ‘couches beneath.’” You know the difference between those two sorts of water. I have illustrated it before by the two wells which are in the courtyard of the Doge’s palace at Venice. One of them has its copper or bronze margin worn with holes cut by the string by which little cans are let down to fetch up the water that wells up from the spring. It is so precious because it springs up from a living fountain. The other well, which looks very much like the one I have mentioned, is not worn at all. Very few people care to draw from it—and the reason is because it is simply filled with water brought into the city. It is flat, dead water, not “living water” at all. So Jesus Christ had used this illustration in speaking with the woman—“You have come here to draw this water out of the well—the mere rain water that runs into Jacob’s well. But if you had asked of Me, I would have given you water of a far better sort— water with life in it—water which would be life to you—water which would be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”