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Thirsty for God

Air yang memberi hidup sejati dan kekal

Text: John 4:14

Dr Alex Tang

 

Sermon statement

Jesus offers the ‘water of life’. To receive this water, we have to avoid distractions, acknowledge Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and to become a disciple of Christ.

Context

John 4:4-26

  JN 4:4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

    JN 4:7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

    JN 4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. )

    JN 4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

    JN 4:11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

    JN 4:13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

    JN 4:15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

    JN 4:16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

    JN 4:17 "I have no husband," she replied.

    Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

    JN 4:19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

    JN 4:21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

    JN 4:25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

    JN 4:26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

 

Yohanes 4:4-26

4Dalam perjalanan-Nya itu, Isa semestinya melalui Samaria.

5Di Samaria, Isa sampai di bandar Sikhar, berdekatan dengan sebidang tanah yang dahulu diberikan oleh Yakub kepada anaknya Yusuf

6Di situ ada sebuah perigi Yakub. Oleh sebab berasa letih setelah berjalan jauh, Isa duduk berehat di tepi perigi itu. Waktu itu kira-kira jam yang keenam.

7Kemudian datanglah seorang perempuan Samaria untuk menimba air. Lalu Isa berkata kepadanya, ‘Berilah Aku minum.’

8Pengikut-pengikut Isa telah pergi ke bandar untuk membeli makanan.

9Perempuan Samaria itu menjawab, ‘Bagaimana Tuan seorang Yahudi meminta minum daripadaku, seorang perempuan Samaria?’ (Orang Yahudi tidak berurusan dengan orang Samaria.)

10Isa menjawab, ‘Kalaulah kamu mengetahui pemberian Allah, dan siapakah Dia yang berkata kepadamu, “Berilah Aku minum,” tentulah kamu pula akan meminta daripada-Nya dan Dia akan mengurniaimu air hidup.’

11Perempuan itu berkata, ‘Tuan tidak ada timba. Perigi ini sangat dalam. Bagaimana mungkin Tuan mendapatkan air hidup itu?

12Adakah Tuan lebih besar daripada moyang kami, Yakub, yang mewariskan perigi ini kepada kami? Dia, anak-anaknya dan binatang ternakannya minum air dari perigi ini.’

13Isa berkata, ‘Sesiapa yang minum air dari perigi ini akan dahaga semula;

14tetapi sesiapa minum air yang Kuberikan kepadanya nanti tidak akan dahaga lagi selama-lamanya. Air yang akan Kuberikan itu akan menjadi mata air di dalam dirinya dan memberinya hidup yang kekal.’

15Perempuan itu berkata, ‘Tuan, berikanlah air itu kepadaku, supaya aku tidak dahaga lagi dan tidak perlu lagi datang ke perigi ini mengambil air.’

16Isa menjawab, ‘Pergilah dulu, bawa suamimu ke mari.’

17Perempuan itu berkata, ‘Aku tidak ada suami.’

Isa pun berkata, ‘Memang benar engkau tidak ada suami sekarang.

18Kamu telah berkahwin lima kali. Lelaki yang tinggal denganmu sekarang bukan suamimu. Benarlah katamu itu.’

19Perempuan itu berkata, ‘Tahulah aku sekarang, Tuan ini seorang nabi.

20Nenek moyang kami menyembah Allah di gunung ini, tetapi bangsa tuan berkata tempat orang menyembah Allah hanya di Baitulmaqdis.’

21Isa berkata, ‘Hai perempuan, percayalah, akan sampai saatnya kamu menyembah Bapa bukan lagi di gunung ini atau di Baitulmaqdis.

22Kamu menyembah apa yang tidak kamu kenal; sebaliknya, kami menyembah apa yang kami kenal kerana penyelamatan datang daripada orang Yahudi

23Akan sampai saatnya, malah sudahpun sampai, penyembah sejati akan menyembah Bapa dalam roh dan kebenaran; kerana Bapa menghendaki penyembah yang sedemikian.

24Allah itu Roh, maka orang yang menyembah Dia harus menyembah-Nya dalam roh dan kebenaran.’

25Perempuan itu berkata, ‘Aku tahu Mesias yang disebut al-Masih akan datang. Apabila Dia datang, Dia akan memberitahu kami segala-galanya.’

26Isa berkata kepada perempuan itu, ‘Akulah Dia yang sekarang bercakap denganmu.’

(Teks dari Kitab Suci Zabur dan Injil, edisi Bahasa Malaysia, hak cipta terpelihara © 2008 Pengamat Kitab Mulia, Jakarta, Indonesia.)

 

How do we deal with an encounter with Jesus?

In this meeting with the Samaritan woman, Jesus tried to offer her salvation proving to her that he is a prophet (v.16-18). Instead she tried to change the subject by attempting to distract Jesus with a theological question (v.20) and a promise (v. 25) that she will respond when the time comes. Isn’t that typical of many of us? To avoid an encounter with God, and we know that God is calling us, we try to change the subject by distractions.

Ø      We know that God is calling us.

Ø      We feel that there is something wrong with the world.

Ø      We feel the emptiness within.

Yet, we are not willing to let God in.

 

Instead we distract ourselves by

Ø      Entertainment

o       Television

o       Movies

o       Football

o       Computer games

Ø      Drugs and alcohol

Ø      Wasting time

o       Talking politics

o       Gossiping

Ø      Waiting for the right timing

o       When children is grown, retirement, enough money, your company stable, etc

Ø      Activism

o       Workaholism

o       Spiritual activism

The water of life Jesus offers

Ø      Satisfy

o       Earthy hunger is a bottomless pit

Ø      Gives life

o       Survive 3 days without water

Ø      Provides for our needs

o       Irrigation turn a desert into an orchard

Ø      Power

o       Tsunami

o       Grand canyon

 

To receive this wellspring of living water we must

Ø      Receive Jesus as saviour

Ø      Receive Jesus as Lord

Ø      Become disciples of Jesus

o       Word intake

2 Tim. 2:15

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

15 Usahakanlah supaya engkau layak di hadapan Allah sebagai seorang pekerja yang tidak usah malu, yang berterus terang memberitakan perkataan kebenaran itu.

o       Prayer

Matt. 26:41

41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

41 Berjaga-jagalah dan berdoalah, supaya kamu jangan jatuh ke dalam pencobaan: roh memang penurut, tetapi daging lemah."

o       Witnessing

Acts 1: 8

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

 

8 Tetapi kamu akan menerima kuasa, kalau Roh Suci turun ke atas kamu, dan kamu akan menjadi saksi-Ku di Yerusalem dan di seluruh Yudea dan Samaria dan sampai ke ujung bumi."

o       Fellowship

Acts 2:42

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

42. Mereka bertekun dalam pengajaran rasul-rasul dan dalam persekutuan. Dan mereka selalu berkumpul untuk memecahkan roti dan berdoa.

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|posted 10 October 2011|

                                                         

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