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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our Lord and Redeemer. Amen. How's your job satisfaction? Do you enjoy your job or your schoolwork, whatever it might be? It's a big question, isn't it?

Are we satisfied in life? And how much fun do we have? It's definitely a question on many of our lips and certainly something that we seek after, isn't it? And yet we know that that satisfaction that we chase isn't a stable, static thing, is it? Because situations change.

We get older, people move on, other things happen. And so even when we reach that peak, we go a bit further and start going down the other side. Stuff changes. And so when we're being a bit more sort of philosophical and a bit more clever, we maybe follow, like the poster that was in my schoolroom at school that said, life is a journey, not a destination.

This was like the title of Steve Jobs biography. In 1988, there was a biography written, the journey is the reward. Do we tell ourselves that? Maybe. We know we can't reach a place of satisfaction, so just the striving is the thing to enjoy.

But we all sort of want satisfaction, don't we? We want to be in a place where life is where we want and we're happy with it. Well, John chapter four is a chapter that's all really about resting. It's about resting in Christ. We've already said that.

It's a passage for restless souls. An african bishop from the fourth century, Augustine, said this years ago. He said, our hearts are restless until they rest in God. It's what John four is all about, really. Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

And this passage teaches us that we actually need to come to Christ to rest in him. No one else will satisfy. Nothing else can satisfy at the end of the day, but Christ can and does, and he satisfies because he is who we need. We may not know it, but he is the one we need. He satisfies because he knows that we need him.

He's not like a hidden treasure that we can't find. He knows we need him. And finally, he satisfies because he's the one who's willing to give himself and able. We're going to find out all of this in our passage. So do open your bibles with me in John chapter four.

First of all, we find that Jesus is the one we take rest in because he is the one we need.

Now, the situation at the beginning of John chapter four is that Jesus has been hanging out in Judea, that is south. If you have a sort of a map of Israel in your head, it's towards the bottom. Judea is in the south. And the Pharisees, we're told in verses one to three, have become a little bit sort of jealous, a bit suspicious of Jesus because he started to make more disciples than John. He's sort of, like, growing in the ranks.

And they're starting to, hmm, who is this guy? So he decides, okay, I'm heading back up north to Galilee. That's quite a long way away, right at the north. And in between is this country called Samaria. It's sort of like right between.

I was trying to think of a country that english people might not like, that would be between. And all I can think of is a little bit like having France in the middle of. Know that maybe I love France. I'm not dissing any french people. But there's a history, isn't there?

There's a history between Israel and Samaria. He's got to go through Samaria. So he strolls up the top. This is the situation now. The Samaritans and the Jews were really, really tense with each other.

And the reason is that way back in the 700 bc, when Assyria had taken the northern kingdom into exile, they'd shipped in some new people. What they did was they took out the old people and they shipped in some new people. And these new people they shipped in became the Samaritans. So they sort of brought in all their old religion with them. And then they started to do a little bit of sort of new religion, worshipping the Lord a little bit.

But they had a bit of a Mixmash going on. And this really didn't sit really well with the Judeans. They didn't really like that. They wanted them to worship God purely as he'd said. And so there was this tension, which, as we said, that was the 700 bc.

So there's a big old history there between the peoples, but there was lots of tension. And so as Jesus travels up through Samaria, he gets tired and sits down at a well. Just a lot of basic needs there, isn't it? There's a need for thirst. And he sits down at this well, interestingly, and sends his disciples off to get food as well.

So he's hungry as well. And then this samaritan woman, presumably she's thirsty as well, coming to get water for herself anyway. And as she comes, Jesus says, would you get me a drink, please? Will you get me a drink. This was a shock, as we've said, because there's this huge tension, this long history of tension between Judeans and Samaritans.

So she's taken aback. And then Jesus says to her something really surprising in verse ten. He says, 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. This to say, not only should you not have been surprised that I asked you for a drink, you could have asked me, and I would have given you the best drink ever. Living water.

Now, that phrase, living water, strikes our ears as a bit od, doesn't it? Maybe not, but I think if you think about it, what is living water? Well, it's a word with double meaning, really. Living water is just a way of describing at the time, running water. So you would say, if it's running in a stream, it's running water, as opposed to not running water, stagnant water like you have in a well.

And this is how the woman heard it. She just heard it as running water. I'm going to give you running water. And we're in the world without taps. That's pretty good stuff.

Of course, Jesus meant that, but he meant more. He meant it on a spiritual level. But she just takes it as this running water. And so when she says to him, are you greater? This is verse twelve.

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself? This is what she's talking about. Jacob gave us this well. This is pretty good. We're living off this well.

Are you saying that you're going to give us something even better? Running water? Where on earth are you going to get that from in the middle of a desert? Jesus is like, yeah, I'm going to give you that and more. I can give you that and more because actually, I'm the one who is able to quench your deepest needs, your deepest thirsts.

That's me. That's me. And not just with something that's going to. Going to lead to thirst again. I don't know if you're an ice cream fan.

You an ice cream fan? I don't know if they have it anymore. But the problem with ice cream, I always find, is that it finishes. I don't know if anybody else finds this. The issue is the even if you get yourself there, comes that point, doesn't there, in a marriage when you're sharing a Ben and Jerry's because your wife doesn't want a whole pot and really, we need a posse.

Each love, to be honest, get to the bottom. But the bottom still comes really too soon, doesn't it? And what I think really every ice cream lover really wants is some sort of mix between the ice cream factory they used to have in Pizza hut mixed with Ben and Jerry's. Do they still have the ice cream factory in Pizza Hut? I don't know, but it was amazing.

All you can eat ice cream, or as I would call it, eat all you can ice cream in Pizza hut. It was great. That's what every ice cream lover wants. Like one that never runs out. Because when fish food runs out, it's know.

And you still want some know. However good it is, it satisfies. Well, Jesus says, look, even the best water, even the best water leaves you thirsty again, doesn't it? But this is going to be running water, living water. That is for you.

That is for you. And in fact, he goes even further, doesn't he, in verse 14 where he says, not only am I going to give you living water, I'm going to put a spring within you that wells up. I'm going to put an ice cream factory within you. Endless quenching, amazing.

And so if this is the case, if Jesus really is the living water, the one who quenches all thirst, who satisfies all needs, fundamentally and forever, then why on earth would we go elsewhere looking for little cups of water as well? That'd be really silly, wouldn't it? Guzzling water and then being like, oh, get me one of those cups from over there. And yet we do that spiritually, don't we? We turn to Christ and come to him, and yet we still seek sort of mini satisfactions alongside him.

It's a bit of a foolish thing to do, but we do it. And Jesus is really the only one who satisfies. But second, Jesus satisfied because he knows our need, he knows that we need him. And this is where actually, jesus goes beyond the analogy of living water, because he's like water that runs in that it never runs out, but he's unlike it in that living water. Running water doesn't go and find.

The person who's thirsty does know you have to go and find. It'd be amazing, wouldn't it? If you were just thirsty and you thought, I'm really parched. And then a river came running down the stream was like, I hear you're thirsty, that'd be amazing. But this is kind of what Jesus is like.

He knows that you need him and he comes to you like a river that seeks out the thirsty one. That's pretty cool, isn't it?

You see, he has deep knowledge of each one of us. We see this in verses 16 and 17.

Jesus tells her, go call your husband and come back. I have no husband. She replies, see, jesus knows, obviously, all about her situation. He knows everything. She doesn't know that he knows, of course.

So she just says, oh, I'm unmarried. But Jesus knows the whole lot. He says, well, yes, you're right. You have no husband. Verse 17.

The fact is, you've had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What you've just said is quite true. I think that's a really funny way to say it, isn't it? She knows that's true. Of course she knows that's true.

What you've said is right. He knows everything. He knows all of her deepest needs, all of these situations.

He knows those things that she wouldn't tell a stranger. She doesn't say, I won't get my husband. I've had five. She just keeps that to herself. But he knows that.

He knows those things that you don't want to tell to your friends. He knows those things you really don't even want to tell to yourself, if you can help it. Because, you see, Jesus is a prophet. She says, I see you're a prophet. And this is something Jesus accepts of himself.

If you look over the page in verse 44, Jesus makes a comment about himself, says, a prophet is not without honour in his hometown. And he's talking about himself. So he accepts himself as a prophet. And the thing about a prophet is that a prophet is an ambassador. It's somebody who goes to speak for somebody else.

In Exodus chapter seven, this is when Moses is given Aaron to speak for him. Do you remember Moses was going to Egypt to go and speak to Pharaoh? And Moses had sort of complained to God, oh, but I've got a stutter. I'm not that good at speaking. I'd really rather not God, if I can.

And God had said, well, take Aaron. Aaron will be your prophet and you will be God to him. That's what it says in Exodus chapter seven, verse one. Aaron's going to go and speak for him. So in the same way, Jesus being a prophet means the father has sent him to speak for him, to speak those things to us that he wants us to hear.

He knows what God knows. He says what God says. He's the father's mouthpiece.

So Jesus knows all those needs. He knows her needs. He knows our needs. And he's the one that can help us, he's the one that can teach us.

Got Augustine in my head today. But he also said that Jesus is the teacher of teachers. He's the one with his school on earth and his seat in heaven. You see, Jesus has kind of got his feet in both camps. He has all the knowledge of heaven, but he's come to us because he knows our needs better even than we know ourselves.

Five husbands haven't satisfied this woman. She doesn't know what she needs, but Jesus does. You ever watch the programme, house programme with Hugh Laurie being the doctor, the diagnostician? Don't know if anyone knew that a diagnostician was a thing. Is it really a job?

No, it's not really a job that. There goes my desire to be a diagnostician. But anyway, Dr. House is this fake doctor. He's a real doctor in the programme, he's a diagnostician.

And basically people come in and they have a bunch of symptoms. If you've never seen it, they have a bunch of symptoms and they say, got all these problems and no one can find out what's wrong with me.

And he sort of cracks the code and he says, oh, this is what you need. Everyone's tried to give you loads of things. You just need a paracetamol, go home, you're fine. Something like, it's always quite simple. He sort of sorts it all out in the end because he's able to diagnose the symptoms really, really well.

I'm still upset about it not being a real thing, but it is, it's a good programme. It's a good programme. And here's the thing. We're terrible diagnosticians of our own souls. We know our needs, we kind of come to God and we're like, I've got all of these symptoms and I think this is what I need.

But we're terrible at that. We really don't know what we need. We really don't know what we need, but Jesus does. We come with all sorts of ideas. Jesus knows everything that's in us, even those things we try to keep from ourselves.

Well, finally we see that we need to rest in Jesus, not only because he's what we need, not only because he knows he's what we need, but he's able to satisfy us and he's willing and he will do it. He's not a helpless God. It's not as if he says, oh, I'd really love to be able to help you, but I keep being defeated by circumstances that happens sometimes, doesn't it? You might have somebody who has what you need. They know you need it.

They'd love to help you, but they just can't. I had this this afternoon and it was good. In a minute, you'll see why the Lord taught me something in this. I got home from the weekend away, I was all prepped. I was quite pleased.

After the engaged weekend away, I was like, we all got out quite quickly, did the cleaning. Well, got home, I was like, there's time for a nap before church. This is going to be amazing. So I got home. Yeah, Matt dropped me off, went out to my front door.

Looks for my key in this pocket. Looks for my key in this pocket. Couldn't find my key immediately. Knew it must be Emily's fault. It's just how it works, isn't it?

It's really bad, isn't it? That's just a confession here, but I got really annoyed. My nap is now running away from me. So I rung her up and I was like, well, you're know, why is no one here to let me in? Sounds so silly now I say it, but 3 hours ago, I was really annoying.

Why is no one here to let me in? And she was there. Oh, yeah, I've got the key. And she knows what I needed. She'd love to help me, but she couldn't because she wasn't really there.

The circumstances didn't allow her to come and help me. They sort of ruined it. In case you're wondering, the end of the story worked fine. I had three bales of hay in the shed, so I fell asleep on them. It was fine.

But sometimes circumstances just sort of block stuff, don't we? And we feel like maybe that's the case with God. Yeah, God's great. He's powerful. He's got what we need.

He loves us, he wants to give it to us. But poor God, sometimes he tries his best, but stuff just gets in the way. I wish they hadn't, but that's not our God. He's not helpless, he's not defeated by circumstances. And this is really what he's talking about with this worshipping in spirit and truth, because Jesus really has come.

He's actually come for us. See, the samaritan woman raises the question of Samaritans and Judeans again in verse 20. You worship in Jerusalem. We worship in Mount Gerizim. Where is this worship going to take place?

She's like, I want you just to settle this debate. Jesus is saying, actually, no. Now that I've come. All those things that point forwards to me aren't necessary anymore because you're going to worship in spirit and truth. Spirit and truth.

Spirit and truth is just one idea. I don't know if in your Bible, spirit has a capital s. When you translate the Bible, one of the really difficult things is that there are no capital letters in Greek. So when it comes to spirit, you have to decide, does he mean spirit as in holy spirit, or does it mean spirit as in sort of your spirit? I think here it means the Holy Spirit should be a capital s.

If your bible isn't capital s. He's saying, going to worship the Father in the Holy Spirit and truth. Jesus is the truth. He's saying, jesus has come. The spirit we heard about last week in John chapter three, he's come and he's brought new life.

Jesus reveals who God is. So you worship the father now in the spirit, through the Son. This is the real worship. This was the thing that everything was pointing towards. I've come, it's fully satisfied.

Everything has been fulfilled. God has acted in Jesus. He's not a powerless God. He has acted, he's revealed himself, and he's come for us.

All of this worship in the Old Testament was great because it pointed forward to Christ. A few years ago, we were doing a building project, a church in Eastbourne. It was quite a big project and sort of raising lots of money. And to get us all excited, we put the plans, the blueprints in the corner of the church. You go up to it and think, oh, yeah, this is going to be really cool.

I can't wait to play football in that hall or whatever it would be, while the building plans are going, and you're getting excited, looking at the plans, thinking, what's it going to be like? Well, I can see that it's going to be good. Now, when the hall was opened, went in and just played in the hall, we didn't go back to the plans and then be like, oh, no, don't worry about the real thing. I'm just interested by these blueprints. See, Jesus is saying, yeah, all of this worship in the Old Testament pointed forward to me.

I'm the real thing. So actually I've come. You can now come to the Father. You can now have a relationship with me.

God has acted.

And so today it might mean several things for us, because let's just be clear what this doesn't mean. Jesus satisfying our deepest needs doesn't mean that we come with a list of things we think we need him to satisfy and he will satisfy them. That's not how it know sin is never satisfied.

It just grows and grows and grows. So it doesn't mean that everything that we think we need Jesus is the answer, but it means that our very deepest needs, our actual needs, are met in Christ now that we can come to the father in him by the spirit. But it also means for those of us who are christians, who would call ourselves christians, we should also just be challenged not to chase other things, systems cracked and dry that we've already mentioned about other little satisfactions alongside Jesus. And yet we do all of the time, don't we?

The great thinker Frasier Crane said, one of my favourite lines. That's a reference to Frasier, the tv programme, in case you didn't know. Frazier said, if less is more, think how much more more will be. Think about that for a second. If less is more, just think how much more will be.

And often that's our attitude to the christian life, isn't it? Well, if Jesus satisfies fully, well, let's get this other stuff on board. I'm going to be like 150%. That's our sort of temptation. But no, everything is in Christ.

Everything else is distraction, all other satisfactions.

But for others of us, we sometimes probably pause coming to Christ because we feel like we should be something different. We feel like maybe actually we need to be a bit more together. But this is a little bit like saying, okay, before I come for a drink, I just need to quench my thirst a little bit. That's nonsense, isn't it? That's nonsense.

And it's the same thing. We're going to come to the Lord's table in a moment and he gives himself to us. The Lord Jesus Christ gives himself to us to satisfy us, gives us bread and wine. He gives himself for us. This is a sign of feeding us.

Now, you don't come to a table when you're already full, do you? You don't come to a table when you're already satisfied. You come knowing that you have needs, knowing that you need something. So as we come to the Lord's table tonight, don't think that you're coming, bringing anything. The only thing you need to bring is hunger.

The only thing you need to bring is thirst. If you've got those things, you come to the table. Not if you're great, not if you're perfect. So tonight we want to rest in Jesus because he is who we need. He knows we need him and in him he's really, really come and given himself for us.

He's not a powerless God. He's a powerful God. And he's going to offer himself to us in his word. And now in the sacrament in the Lord's table. So come and receive him tonight, all who are thirsty, let's pray.

Father, I do thank you for sending your son Jesus your mouthpiece. The one who brings your word to us, the one who is your word, the one who satisfies our every need. Lord, I pray that we would receive him tonight, that we would know that he is everything for us. Jesus name, amen.