Pressures Christian's face: distraction or deliberate

Distracted or deliberate

I’ve got a challenge for you. Here’s a vase and some rocks, pebbles and sand. Get things right and everything just fits below the brim of the pot. How would you get them all into the pot? But there’s a twist one of the rocks is so big it won’t fit past the pinch point of the vase.

You have to build everything around the big rock put the other rocks in below, then pebbles fit into the spaces and finally you pour the sand in to fill any remaining gaps.

Life’s like the jar. It’s finite, there’s only so much space to do things. There’s only 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week. But life often feels like that jar doesn’t it, it can feel as if it’s impossible to fit everything in. You start the day with your to do list and sometimes end the day with an even longer one.

Our lives are high pressured because they’re crammed full. Life is busy to bursting point, hectic and harried. There’s work, there’s taking so and so to drums or piano or football practice, there’s cooking, cleaning, DIY. There’s friends you really want to catch up with, there’s Sunday school to prepare, the MOT is due, there are insurance quotes to shop for, there’s family to speak to, exercise to fit in, uniform to buy and sleep to squeeze in somewhere.

And even as we do all those things we’re surrounded by other things which compete for our attention. Adverts shout at us, designed to capture and hold our attention and show us lifestyles to aspire to. Then there’s the R2D2 whistle as a text message arrives, then the ping of a Facebook notification. Did you know that a study has shown that just by doing this – puts phone down on table – our attention starts to wander. We start thinking about other things. We live in a world that’s full, busy but also distracting. A world that’s always giving us new things to pursue, new ways to do, new goals to have, a world with multiple distractions at any given moment.

Where it’s not just the good things that distract us from the best things, but a hundred and one other things. And in the midst of the chatter and clutter of busyness we feel like we’re drowning. Never achieving, never getting nearer the end of the to do list, missing out on the things we should do because of things we have to do.

This morning is an opportunity to stop and think. To stop and hear what Jesus has to say about busyness and distraction. To hear what he says the big rocks are that we should be putting in place in our lives and why it will change everything.

Jesus knew about busyness. Life was simpler in some ways but far harder in others. Imagine your week without any labour saving devices in your home, imagine the pressure of subsistence living. Imagine your week with only your feet as a mode of transportation. Jesus has been at Capernaum and now he’s in Bethany only two miles from Jerusalem, a walk of 83 miles. And Jesus maximises his journey time, ministering as he goes and his days are full. Just look at ch10; Jesus sends the 72 out on mission ahead of him before he visits every town(1-16), then he debriefs them(17-24), then he’s answering the crowds questions(25-37) calling them to love God with all their being and love their neighbour. In ch11 he’s casting out a demon and engaging in repeated clashes with the Pharisees. Life for Jesus and the disciples is full and busy.

It’s against that background, that maelstrom of ministry that Luke records this incident. In the midst of ministry Jesus teaches his disciples about the most important things – listening to him and prayer. Busyness is dangerous, ministry can be harmful because we can lose sight of what really matters.

The danger of distraction

(38)Begins with a seemingly peaceful homely scene. Martha has opened her home to Jesus and the disciples and is preparing a meal for 15, a great example of loving your neighbour. But as we listen we hear the noises of baking bread and chopping vegetables getting louder. Soon things are being banged down. And (40)you can picture Martha can’t you? Slightly dishevelled, flustered, red in the face, exasperation writ large on her features. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me?”

It’s not unreasonable is it? There are 13 extra mouths to feed. We’ve felt like that haven’t we? Her concern is for a good thing – hospitality, loving and providing for others. But Luke clues us into the problem (40)“But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” Martha is distracted, she’s drawn away from the most important thing by something of less importance. Her gaze and attention is deflected from Jesus by the preparations.

Distraction is dangerous for the disciple. Things will crowd or creep in and keep us from Jesus. For Martha it’s her kitchen to do list, what is it for us? What distracts me from spending time listening to Jesus?

It’s dangerous because long-term distraction chokes off fruitfulness. In the parable of the sower 3 soils appear to accept the word of God, but only one produces fruit. The third soil looks promising but its fruit is choked off by the worries, pleasures and riches of life. Other things distract it and gradually draw it away. Or Demas one of Paul’s fellow ministers who deserts the gospel because “he loved this world”, distracted and drawn away.

Distraction from Jesus is dangerous, potentially deadly. And notice here that it’s a good thing that distracts Martha. It’s not Facebook, twitter, a glossy magazine or Candy Crush Saga. It’s serving others. Ministry can be a dangerous distraction if it cuts us off from Jesus. In Acts 6 it’s what the Apostles face, the distraction of the need to wait on tables – a good thing. Distraction is a danger God’s people repeatedly face in the Bible. So we need to ask what distracts me from listening to Jesus? What good things are distracting me from Jesus?

A Disciples Decision

Distraction is a great parenting tool isn’t it? Your young child starts towards the DVD player at a friends house, and you know that unchecked all sorts of things will be inserted in the DVD slot – toffee, drool, plastic coins, Lego. So what do you do? You distract them with something else, a teddy, a toy, your already drooled on phone. You pick them up and move them, or show them something in the garden or the toys over here. But with some children that just doesn’t work. Some children are like a heat seeking missile locked on to that DVD player, ignoring all the chaff and flares you put in their way. They won’t be distracted, they know what they want, they’re deliberate, decided and determined.

Mary is a bit like that here. While Martha hustles and bustles in the kitchen Mary is where? (39)“sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.” It’s as if nothing else matters, everything else can wait this is what is needful. Mary isn’t unaware of the preparations that need doing, she’s not one of these hopelessly impractical people who don’t see a job needs doing unless you point it out to them. She has decided the preparations can wait, this matters more. She has deliberately adopted the posture of a disciple, she’s listening to her Lord. (42b)and Jesus commends her “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Do you see the lesson for the disciples and us here? In the midst of ministry, of serving others, of living life for Jesus, we must set aside time to tune out the distractions of even good things and tune into Jesus. Do you remember the old wireless radio’s which had a knob you turned to find a radio station and you’d go through loads of just background noise as you did so until you tuned into the station, then you had to ever so carefully move it so you were perfectly attuned. And every so often you had to retune it slightly because it had just got slightly out of frequency. Mary is tuning out everything else and tuning into Jesus.

We need to ask ourselves are we doing that? Are we tuning out the distractions and taking time to listen to Jesus words and to pray? Mary doesn’t drift into this she deliberate decides, it’s a choice, she’s chosen this over that. Choosing the vital over the important, the better over the good. Think back to the jar, this is that big rock that everything else has to fit around.

Am I deliberately choosing or am I distracted? Notice that’s the issue. Martha wants to spend time with Jesus but this has to be done first. Are we deliberately choosing to listen to Jesus?

You might be saying but how do you do that? Every time we read the Bible God speaks to us. Read the Bible. Don’t try to read too much. It’s helpful to read the whole bible through but it’s better to take just a few verses and really think them through. Maybe even memorise a verse a week. Why not slowly work through a passage a week. This week I’m going to blog exactly that, take one passage and ask a question of it each day. Maybe it’ll help you to follow.

Maybe you find reading hard. Go to Biblegateway.com and it will read a passage to you. We’re not lone rangers as disciples either, studying the Bible with others is one of the best ways to do it, why not study something together, come to gospel group, or meet for coffee one day during the week.

Whenever we come to passage like this I’m sure you, like me, feel that you’ve got your priorities out of sync again. Again you’ve let other things distract you from what Jesus says matters. Or maybe you haven’t decided to follow Jesus yet and your thinking it’s just another to do, I’m busy enough already, how does that help me? As we finish I want us to see Jesus gracious invitation to new life,

Jesus invites us to know him

Jesus response to Martha’s frustration, anxiety and distraction isn’t a lecture. It’s not ‘I’m not angry I’m just disappointed.’ Jesus doesn’t use guilt, instead he offers a gracious invitation, (41)“Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Do you see Jesus gracious invitation? He shows Martha her distractedness and her real need and invites her to come sit with Mary. Jesus doesn’t belittle her concerns and service he calls her to something better. Martha put down the bread and plates and knives, come sit and know me. It won’t be taken from Mary but you can have it too.

As we think about where we’ve been distracted, by good things, by ministry, by less important things, Jesus extends that same invitation to us. He longs for us to know him and choose his presence. He isn’t aloof and distant, we don’t have to do certain things to earn his presence, he came looking for us, seeking us, so we know him. In Revelation Jesus writes to the church at Laodicea who’ve drifted and become distracted to such an extent that Jesus pictures himself outside the church. But what is he doing there?

Listen “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.”

Do you see Jesus staggering grace? Jesus longs for his people to know him, when we drift or become distracted, in love he calls us back to repent and is waiting, ready and willing to know us and share himself with us.

That’s amazing. But what is more amazing is that as we listen to him, as we get to know him we find that our pressures change as our priorities are reshaped. Spending time with Jesus help us order life rightly. Right priorities in life flow out of time spent with Jesus, listening to his word. As we spend time with Jesus he reminds me that I won’t find satisfaction in my work thereby liberating me from workaholism, yet he also calls me to do whatever I do as serving him therefore giving great value to my work whether that’s being a mum, a bin man, a surgeon or crunching numbers. It reminds me that my day and my experience of it will mirror the brokenness of the world yet also give me glimpses of the glory of God in his creation, and cause me to live in hope as I long for his return. It will reorient me so that I prize people made in his image and am aware of opportunities to love rather than jobs to do. It will remind me that I am loved, forgiven, redeemed, and now am in Christ full of the Spirit seeking to plant my footsteps where he leads. It will lead me to serve others for God’s glory not man’s approval and yet ensure that it doesn’t distract me from listening to Jesus. It will do all that and more.

Do you see the danger? Do you see the choice? More importantly do you see the Saviour lovingly wanting and calling you to a better way? Why would you not want to know the freedom that is ours in him?

(41)“Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few are needed – or indeed only one. Do you hear Jesus invitation to you this morning?

John 4v27-54

Here's this morning's notes:

You are a natural evangelist. You may not realise it but you naturally evangelise people all the time. ‘No, I’m not’ and ‘No, I don’t’ you say. But actually some of you have been doing it this morning over coffee and you’ll be doing it after the service. Announcing the news. The news of your week at work, the news of your children’s week in school, of England’s one day performance in the cricket and so on.

We’re all passionate news carriers. Especially about things we value or treasure. We engage others, we convey excitement and love for something, we’re full of it’s joys, it’s glories, our voices ring with conviction. And that’s good, that’s right, we’re not meant to be misery guts. When we are excited and enthused by something, when we see it’s worth, it’s glory, we tell others because we want them to share in it too.

Here’s the question though; are we like that when we talk about Jesus? When I described you as a natural evangelist did you think “No, I’m not!’ I get tongue-tied, I hesitate, I keep quiet. Why is it that we find sharing the good news about Jesus so hard when we can readily talk about the latest film, or show, or achievement, or sporting thing? There are a number of reasons why, but this morning I want to suggest that at the very heart of it all is that we need to be captivated again by the glory of Jesus.

As we look at John 4 this morning we’ll see that this Samaritan woman having had her hopeless hope exposed and seen who Jesus is and what he offers is captivated by Jesus glory and just can’t keep quiet. We see the nature and need of mission and the possible responses to our announcing the news about Jesus.

Seeing God’s glory in the face of Jesus

We left the story last week at(26). Jesus has offered the woman living water – life, love, satisfaction, purpose, meaning by revealing who he is having exposed the wrong places she’s been looking for those things. When she asks how she can know God, how she can have living water Jesus has revealed that he’s the Messiah, the one who has come to make us right with God and pour out the Spirit so that we go on living now as what we were made to be.

She’s seen the glory of God in Jesus; that Jesus is God come to save a lost world because of love. What will she do? How will she react? Will she reject Jesus like some have done? Will she go away to think it over like Nicodemus, or will she believe? (27-30)As the disciples arrive back at the well she leaves, in her hurry to get back to town leaving her water jar. Forgetting about what she’d come for because she’s found something so much more important than water. And whatever made her come to the well alone and in isolation is forgotten as she rushes back to town to tell others all about Jesus. To get them to come and see this man who has just astounded her, who knew everything about her, whose glory she has begun to grasp. Could he be the Messiah?

Seeing the glory of God in Jesus leads naturally to sharing Jesus with others. Seeing who Jesus is, what he reveals the problem to be, our lostness, and his promises of freedom, meaning, love, and purpose creates overflowing joy. This woman is full of it, she tells everyone – come and see. When you see God’s glory in Jesus, when you realise that he’s the Son of God and Messiah come to save you, you can’t keep it to yourself.

This isn’t unique. In Ch1 John the Baptist, Andrew and Nathanael see Jesus glory, the glory of the one and only son, and they can’t keep it to themselves either. It enthuses, excites and overflows.

What is it they glimpse? What is Jesus glory? It is God the Son, equal with the Father, sharing in his attributes and power and rule and majesty laying all that aside to become man. God made man to sit at a dusty well and help a woman see her broken hopes and dreams and recognise that her need, her longing is for him. It’s seen as that same man, innocent yet condemned climbs a hill weary and thirsty, dust sticking to the lacerations in his back and the drying blood on his forehead. As he’s nailed to a wooden cross which is then raised into place. Glory seen as he’s mocked yet refuses to call down the angels who’ve worshipped him from eternity to take him off the cross. As he hangs there and bears the wrath of God Father, Son and Spirit against sin. God taking on himself the punishment we deserve, not for a general world, not for faceless masses, but for Nicodemus, for this woman at the well, for me, for you. People, names, faces he knew, loved and called from eternity to know him.

People, names, faces that deserved nothing but judgement. That had nothing about them to make them attractive. Whose hearts had been pursuing every other thing imaginable, taking and twisting God’s creation into an object of ultimate worth rather than a lens through which we see God’s fatherly love and generosity. Jesus glory is seen at the cross, in what he does for the hopeless, helpless and undeserving, for you and me. When we glimpse that how can it not excite and enthuse us?

But what does it mean for us if we’ve lost that excitement, that enthusiasm that naturally wants others to come see Jesus? The problem isn’t a skills or courage gap. The problem is a glory gap. We’ve begun to take Jesus for granted. To lose a sense of wonder at what we were given in place of what we deserve.

How do you plug a glory gap? Look again at Jesus. Set aside some time and read again, study who Jesus is. Read through John’s gospel or if that seems to daunting somewhere like Philippians 2 is a good place to start. Don’t skim read it, live in it, camp out in it, think through the consequences of each sentence. Our hearts are captivated by what we put before them, by the glory we behold. See the contrast between what we were and what Jesus makes us and realise afresh that it was totally undeserved and unmerited and simply the result of loving grace. And as we recapture that sense of God’s glory in Jesus, Jesus glory at the cross our excitement and joy will flow back into our hearts.

See the worlds need and the Father’s will are the same thing(31-38)

Sometimes people don’t see what they need. There are times when as a parent you have to give your child some unpleasant tasting medicine because you know they need it. They’ll tell you they don’t, but they do. You don’t enjoy giving it to them, though the faces they pull can be quite funny, but you know they need it so you give it to them.

We live in a world like that, that doesn’t think it needs God. That’s quite happy going from dry well to dry well in search of meaning. But we need to see that God’s will is to satisfy the worlds need even if it doesn’t recognise it. How? By showing his glory in Jesus, by people realising his love seen in salvation from wrath and reconciliation with God. That’s what Jesus explains to his disciples.

(31-34)In answer to their confusion about whether he’s eaten or not, Jesus reply seems cryptic “My food, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Jesus finds satisfaction in doing his Father’s will, what has he done that’s satisfied that hunger? He’s spoken to the Samaritan woman, helped her see her misplaced search for hope and shown her who he is. That’s God’s will, that people see their lostness and trust in Jesus. That people believe in him as Son of God and Messiah and have eternal life. And God’s will is the world’s greatest need(35-38). As Jesus looks out at the world what does he see? Fields ready to harvest, people who need God and are ready to trust in him. People tired of the search for meaning, purpose and love, who know they were made for more. Who are ready to hear about Jesus. Just like the woman at the well they are hungry for eternal life even if they don’t realise it yet. So Jesus calls them to reap.

Don’t believe the lie that the world is content. That people are happy. They are desperately searching, moving restlessly from one thing to another to another hoping it will fulfil them. The world is searching. That’s what the divorce rate, the drive to innovate, searching spirituality, atheists having a worship service, and a determined drive to postpone death tell us.

The world needs Jesus, God’s will is that Jesus is known and believed in. God’s will is that we help people see the pointlessness of what they are living for and how only in Jesus can they find what they need; purpose, hope, reconnection, rescue, life knowing God. But we can only do that if we see the world as God does, as Jesus does. It’s need, it’s hunger, it’s searching in the wrong places and that the only answer to its thirst is Jesus. Is that how we see the world?

Recognise there will be two reactions(39-54)

The danger is we get that and we go out and tell someone about Jesus all that he offers and get rejected and then feel crushed. And think but the harvest is ripe, I should just be reaping. Either I’m doing it all wrong or Jesus was wrong about the harvest being ripe. What follows this conversation is so helpful, we see two distinct responses to Jesus. Reactions that John has told us we should expect(1:10-13) some will receive, believe and become God’s children. Others will reject Jesus, they’ll refuse to recognise him in all his glory.

(39-42)We see the harvest reaped. The woman’s glimpse of the glory of God in Jesus is contagious. (39)Many believe, Jesus stays for two more days and (41) “many more believed because of his word.” What do they believe? “we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”

(43-45)Sets up the contrast when Jesus heads back to Galilee. (44)Gives us the key to what’s about to happen “Now Jesus himself had pointed out that prophets have no honour in their own country.” Jesus is going back to his own, to Cana in Galilee. Initially (45)looks promising doesn’t it? “the Galilean welcomed him” But why do they welcome him? Because they’ve seen what he’s done in Jerusalem, what had he done? (2:23)“signs”. This is fake faith, weak welcome, miracle mongering. They don’t believe he’s the Saviour of the World they want more miracles.

And as the royal official comes he’s a great example of that. We go from a scene where Jesus is called “Saviour of the world”, to one where it’s just “Sir, come down before my child dies.” This is an approach to Jesus the problem solver, the healer, the fixer. Jesus rebuke (48)set between the two requests exposes the problem “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”

But graciously Jesus gives this man more than he asks for. Initially he just wants a miracle(48), but when he realises the extent of Jesus power, when his glory is seen as the boy is healed at a distance at the exact time (53)“He himself believed, and all his household.”

But the contrasts are stark. In Samaria no miracles but revival, as a whole town believes in Jesus because of his word. In Galilee a miracle but only one family find genuine faith. In Samaria a confession of Jesus as Saviour of the World in Cana a failure to see what the signs show about Jesus.

We should expect these two reactions. Sometimes people will struggle to see beyond Jesus as what they want him to be – miracle maker, prophet, historical figure. The challenge is for us to help them to see Jesus is all his glory. Not to shrink him down but to magnify him in all his power and authority and love. How do we do that? Not by craving an external miraculous lightshow or spectacular but by helping them hear and believe his words.

As we look at the world what do we see? Hostility? Yes. Opposition? Yes. But a world desperately searching, a world looking for God without realising it, but looking to the wrong things. A world which needs Jesus. And God calls us to go out into that world and reap his harvest, to help people see their need, their wrong hopes and the rescue that is available in Jesus alone. And we hold out the rescue to everyone.

Which looked the more promising field, Sychar in Samaria – little Bible knowledge, a shadowy picture of the Messiah at best, historical conflict with the Jews, regarded as unclean. Or Cana – place of a miracle, full Old Testament scriptures, and expectation of a coming Messiah? Cana or Sychar? Jew or Samaritan? Royal official or socially excluded serial sinner? The gospel is for all. Our Father’s will is that all hear about Jesus, we are to share the good news of Jesus not try to work out what type of field it is, whether it’s ready for harvest or not.

How do we have and maintain a heart for the lost? We see again the glory of Jesus. God in splendour made man, eternally worshipped made flesh, God the Son in love contracting himself into human form. Living, speaking, crucified, suffering, judged, resurrected, ascended, reigning to reveal God’s love that meets his justice and bears his wrath against our sin. Be amazed and wonder at such love. Drink deep on such grace. As we behold his glory, as it fills our hearts with love and praise it will become our passion, as we behold his glory we won’t be able to contain it, it will spill out and over as we call others to come see Jesus. To come know love, peace, rescue and life to the full.

John 4 - Jesus - the Living water for thirsty souls?

Bear Grylls in ‘The Island’ talks about the rule of 3. You can’t survive more than 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. But we rarely face any of those situations. Think about water, when we want water we go run the tap, or buy a bottle of it. When we’re thirsty we aren’t talking about dehydration or serious thirst because we can always quench it. And like anything readily available we take water for granted. But even today in most of our world water is treasured, it’s precious, people walk hours to get it because life depends on it. It is literally a matter of life and death.

In Jesus day water was like that, it was precious, it was life giving. It required daily effort to fetch. As Jesus leaves Judea and for Galilee and heads through Samaria we see Jesus use the image of water to help a lady see what she is really longing for, thirsting for, made for and reveal who he is and what that means.

As a thirsty Jesus weary from a long walks rests by the well, a woman comes to draw water(5-7). Jesus asks her for a drink, as he does Jesus is crossing boundaries, that’s made clear in her reply isn’t it(9). Jews looked down on Samaritans, Samaritans had intermarried with the nations round about them during the exile, they only had the Pentateuch –the first 5 books of the Old Testament, and they didn’t worship at the temple in Jerusalem. Jews regarded Samaritans as unclean, especially Samaritan women.

But Jesus cross that divide and asks for a drink, he isn’t restricted by social conventions. Jesus isn’t worried about contagious uncleanness because he is contagiously clean. Jesus will talk to and teach a Samarian woman by a well just as he’ll teach a Nicodemus at night or a royal official. Jesus knows that sin isn’t a racial, class or gender problem, it’s a universal condition one no-one escapes. And he knows what each heart needs, what it’s searching for, where rest and forgiveness and cleansing is found.

As we begin we need to ask ourselves do we understand that? Do I understand that sin is universal, it affects everyone, and that Jesus is the answer to every sinners need? And if so how has that truth impacted my attitudes and actions? Would I have sat where Jesus sat, with whom he sat? The gospel doesn’t recognise social conventions or norms just as sin doesn’t, neither does Jesus and neither should we. Having seen that, lets see what Jesus teaches this woman.

Finding what we were all made for(1-18)

(10)Jesus responds to this woman’s question by telling her he’s the one who can offer her “living water”. That phrase has a rich Old Testament background. Turn to Jeremiah 2. There’s a link here to John the Baptists wedding imagery in (2)Israel was God’s bride, but (5f)they were unfaithful, exchanging (11)their “glorious God for worthless idols”. In (13)the picture changes though the theme of forsaking continues:

“They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

God is the spring of living water, the one who satisfies, provides life, sustains, enriches and brings joy, but Israel have forsaken him. But notice that they don’t just give up God they replace him, they make a stupid exchange. Instead of coming to the one who is the spring of living water they build their own cisterns. They look for meaning, love, life, elsewhere, they try to make it themselves rather than finding it in God.

It’s the same for the Samaritan woman, it’s the same for us. We’re made to know, enjoy and glorify God, that is living water; life giving, satisfying, refreshing, sustaining, joy bringing. Yet we look for that elsewhere, we make that same stupid exchange. What has the Samaritan woman exchanged God for? Jesus in love shows her(16-18)“Go, call your husband and come back.” Relationships – she has sought meaning, life, love, worth, purpose, contentment in relationship with a man. Has she found it? No. “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you have had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband.” Relationships have been where she has been looking for what only God can give her. And they cannot take that pressure because they were never designed to bear that load, they will collapse under it, again, and again, and again.

We live in a relationship obsessed culture. Firstly in terms of having one, but then having a better one, or a different one if that one isn’t working for you. What are we doing? Searching for meaning, purpose, love, worth, and contentment in it. But it cannot bear that load. No other person, no husband or wife, no relationship can ever bring you meaning in life. Marriage, relationships are only ever a pointer to God as the satisfaction, the lover, the relationship we need. Marriage is important but we mustn’t make it an idol, it’s a picture of the greater reality of a perfect relationship with God. God the bridegroom, his people the bride.

But it’s not just relationships is it? We do it with anything. Our hearts are little idol making factories, churning out idol after idol. Career, money, education, ministry, reputation, significance, parenthood, success, education, popularity, fame… Good things, precious gifts from God for us to enjoy and through them to see and praise him. But tragically sometimes we stop at the thing and never move on to seeing God through them.

Apparently I need glasses at certain times to be able to see clearly. But I have to use them rightly don’t I. I’m not supposed to take them off and marvel at them as if the glasses were an end in themselves. I’m to look through to see things in greater focus. To stop at the glasses is to miss their purpose.

It’s the same with all the good things we’re tempted to make our source of significance or purpose or love. Good gifts but given to us not so we depend on or marvel at or worship them but so that through them we see, praise and marvel at God. What is God lovingly putting his finger on in your life where you are making that same stupid exchange? What are you pursuing for meaning? What is your life geared up to achieving, because that is your cistern, where you are looking for love, meaning, purpose, life? How do you know? Use the diagnostic tools; look at your diary, your bank account, your goals, your dreams to find out. Or maybe answer this; what if it was taken away would lead you to feel life was no longer worth living?

Jesus says to this Samaritan woman that’s your broken cistern and you know it doesn’t hold water, it cannot satisfy. But he doesn’t just expose her problem he offers her living water. As he does Jesus is revealing himself. In Jeremiah 2 who gives the living water? God. Here Jesus, God the Son made man, reveals himself as he offers her water.

And look at this water. Look at what Jesus gives, what it brings. (13-14)Jesus offers eternal satisfaction, it doesn’t need topping up or refilling, those who drink it never thirst again. “The water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus isn’t offering a cup of water, a temporary experience of God, he’s offering relationship with God, he’s offering to reconnect us with what we were made for. Turn to John 7 where Jesus picks up the water imagery again(37-39), Jesus promises that by believing in him, by faith, God the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, making our relationship with God a daily reality. Enabling us to enjoy eternal life now, made real by the Spirit indwelling us, God in us.

But something has to happen first. In order to receive and believe you have to repent of your searching for meaning, life, satisfaction elsewhere. That’s what Jesus is calling the woman to (16-18)as he unmasks her broken cisterns. In Isaiah 55 God promises water to the thirsty, a life of abundance, joy, and satisfaction in God. But in order to achieve it the wicked must forsake their way and turn to God for mercy and pardon. Searching for life anywhere but in God is sin, and leaves us guilty before God. We need to repent of our sin in searching for meaning, satisfaction, love in anything but God before we will turn to God. You can’t have both you have to forsake one in order to have the other.

Maybe this morning you’ve recognised that just like this woman you’ve been searching for love, life, meaning, satisfaction in something other than God. Only Jesus offers a way for us to know God, only Jesus can give us life that satisfies, no more searching, no more failed promises of satisfaction and love, not a broken cistern but a life sustaining spring. God in us. Will you repent, will you forsake everything else?

For those of us who’ve been following Jesus for a while we need to ask ourselves where might we have begun forsaking God for something else? Our culture is an idol pushing culture, which of those are we in danger of buying into? Where am I believing the lie that anything other than God can satisfy? And we need to repent of it this morning.

Beholding Jesus leads us to worship God

We think of worship as a religious thing. It’s what people do in churches or temples, or on their prayer mat or pilgrimage. It’s praying, reading, singing, liturgy etc. The Bible has a different view of worship. It tells us that we’re all worshippers, and worship happens when we behold the glory of something, when we’re shaped by and pursue what we behold. For example we might worship money when we are captivated by it, when we behold it’s glory by pouring over the stock market or our bank balance or saving goals, or working hour after hour pursuing what others have, when we constantly worry about what we have or might have, or when we spend time contemplating and envying what others have and what it’s done for them. We worship something when we behold its glory and long to experience it.

(19)As the Samaritan woman asks Jesus about worship she isn’t trying to side track him. We had a teacher at school who you could always get side tracked onto her hobby horse so that you didn’t have to do any work. A quick question and 20 minutes later the bell would ring and you’d be free having done no work. But that isn’t what’s going on here. This question about worship is connected to Jesus unveiling her search for fulfilment, life, purpose in relationships. The Samaritans worshipped God on Mount Gerizim but the temple there had been destroyed by the Jews, and if she went to the temple in Jerusalem to make sacrifice for sin she wouldn’t get very far because she was a Samaritan woman she had restricted access. I think she’s raising the question of how she can be made right with God. How can a Samaritan woman repent and obtain forgiveness? You’ve shown me my need, how can I be made right with God?

Jesus answer cuts to the very heart of what worship is. It cuts through religion and rite and worship is changing it’s not about where it’s about who and how. (21)With Jesus coming worship is now not centred on Jerusalem, the Messiah’s coming changes everything. (23-24)God is spirit and his worshippers must worship him in Spirit and truth.

What does Jesus mean? Truth – there is a right way to worship God, a right way to come to him, to know him, to behold him and respond to him. God has revealed himself to the Jews in scripture but now he fully reveals himself in Jesus. We aren’t free to imagine either God or worship however we like, worship is responding to the revelation of God supremely in Jesus.

Spirit – We also worship God in spirit as God is spirit. God is divine and other, you can’t tie him to a place or limit him. Therefore our worship is like that, it involves our whole being without limit. But there’s more to it. In Jesus we see what it means to worship in Spirit and Truth. Jesus reveals God to us in all his glory so that we know God and can share in the life of God, that promise of living water, the Spirit in us, making worship natural as we behold God. God the Spirit causing us to love and live in response to God and in love and awe at what he has done for us and made us in Jesus.

This woman began by wondering what sort of Jew asked a Samaritan woman for a drink, then she wondered if he was the prophet(19), now she wonders if he is the Messiah, and Jesus declares “I, the one speaking to you – I am he.” Do you see what Jesus is saying to her, I am God’s coming anointed king, the rescuer, I am God made man. She doesn’t need to worry about where to worship, how to get right with God, which temple, what sacrifice. God the Son has come to her to make her right with God if she will repent of her sin and believe in him.

It’s that simple. Will you trust Jesus? Will you repent and believe in him? His sacrifice will forgive, atone, and transform worship. Because he will send the spirit to live in his people, so that as they behold God in Jesus they will be transformed, to live seeking God, to live reflecting Jesus glory. ‘Do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ don’t transform our worship, beholding God in Jesus does.

How do we find freedom from our broken cisterns? We look to Jesus and see our idols for what they are. How do we worship God in Spirit and Truth? We behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, and now our idols are transformed so that we look through them not to them and see the glory and love of God, Father, Son and Spirit for us.