The Cooling Stream

John 4:1-14

The ministry of Jesus was having a great impact in Judea.

The reason He left for Galilee may have been to avoid further conflict with the Pharisees. This was to come later, according to God's timetable.

The Lord Jesus needed to go through Samaria.

The most direct route to Galilee from Judea was through Samaria.

But the Lord Jesus had another reason for going through Samaria. There were people in that city to bring to faith in Himself.

Most Jews despised Samaritans who were a mixed race of Jew and Gentile. Their religion was mixed too, though they acknowledged the first five books of the Bible and they also looked for the Messiah.

We tend to complain that people are very unresponsive to the gospel. They are completely indifferent to our good news. We soon become discouraged and remain silent. We excused ourselves that personal witnessing is not our ministry.

Let us never lose sight of the fact that the Lord often works in wonderful and surprising ways. Who would have imagined that this immoral Samaritan woman would respond to the gospel?

We often struggle to open up a conversation so that we can share the gospel with sinners, but Jesus was so natural. Resting from His journey, the Lord asked the woman for a drink of water. This surprised the woman, for no Jew would drink from a container used by Gentiles. Jesus then aroused her curiosity by speaking about the gift of God and of living water (which the woman took to mean fresh spring water). She wondered how He could obtain such living water from such a deep well. Could this stranger be greater than Jacob?

Jesus told the woman that the water from the well could only satisfy for a time. But whoever drinks of the water that He shall give him will never thirst.

There can be no lasting satisfaction in this restless world apart from that given by Christ. And with it, He gives everlasting life!