The Claims of Jesus Christ
1 - The Living Water
So who exactly was Jesus? What do Christians believe about Him? What does the Bible say concerning Him? We need to be clear that Jesus made some very great claims for Himself. There are some people who say that He was not God, but only a man whom God especially anointed and used. His claims, though, go far beyond mere manhood. He claimed that He and God, his Father, were one (John 10:30). Again, in John 8:58, He says, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
To his listeners at that time this could mean nothing other than that He existed before time began. It was because the Jewish religious leaders understood His claims in this way and realised that He was making Himself equal to God, that they were so angry and opposed Him so fiercely. It was unthinkable that someone in human flesh should claim to be God. But if He did not really mean what he said, then He was not even honest. As someone has said, “If He was not God, He was either mad or bad.” In other words, He was either deranged or a deceiver. But the whole pattern of his life and teaching is against that. He must therefore be God in human flesh. This is how Christians think of Him and worship Him, and it is with this in mind that we are going to think of some of His claims over the next several studies. Most of them are found in John’s Gospel.
The first incident we are going to look at is in chapter four of John’s Gospel. It is a claim that Jesus made to give a special gift to a very needy woman. We are told that Jesus was making His way through Samaria and came to a well to drink water. A Samaritan woman also came to the well to draw. Jesus started a conversation by asking her to give Him some water to quench His thirst. This was a strange thing for Him to do because normally a good Jew did not speak to women outside of their own household. Besides this, Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with each other - they despised each other. So she was very surprised at Jesus’ request and asked Him why He, a Jew, was asking her, a Samaritan, for a drink. To her surprise, Jesus turned the whole conversation round to speak of something quite different from the natural water found in the well.
He began to speak about something He called “living water”. He said, had she asked He would have given her this “living water”. “If you had this water”, He said, “you would never thirst again.” She probably didn’t really understand what Jesus was getting at, but she was interested and puzzled and so she asked for the water of which He had spoken.
Jesus, who knew her real need, went further and began to probe more deeply into her life. He asked her to fetch her husband. At that point she became defensive and tried to avoid further questioning by saying, “I don’t have one”. But Jesus knew the truth and spoke straight to her. He said, “You have had five husbands and the man your are living with now is not your real husband.” This made the woman realise that she was dealing with no ordinary man. Jesus’ challenge brought her a deep sense of her sinfulness and all that was wrong in her life. She recognised that here was a man of God, and a prophet.
Jesus picked this up and reminded her that because God was spirit those who worshipped Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. In other words, true worship must be from the heart and sincere, and not just an outward display. The woman already knew from the Samaritan Scriptures that Messiah who was to come would be a prophet and would reveal all things. Then Jesus told her clearly that He was that promised Messiah.
The end of this story is amazing. She went back to her own city, told her fellow citizens that she had met a man who told her everything she had ever done. “Surely this is the Messiah,” she said. They went back with her and invited Jesus to come to their city. He went and stayed there for two days. While He was there, many of the people believed in Him.
May we, who are Christians, be as enthusiastic as this Samaritan woman was in telling others about the Saviour of the world. That is what the people of that place called Him, and that is what He is.
But now let us look back again over this story. Jesus had not offered the woman ordinary, natural water, but what He called “living” water. It was “water” that would satisfy the deep longings within her. If she had this water, her life would be made whole and she would be fully satisfied by spiritual springs of refreshment within her.
God has so made us that we cannot be truly satisfied with merely material things. We are more than just bodies, more even than bodies and minds.
There is a deep inner part within us, which was made for fellowship with God Himself. We can only be truly satisfied when we know God in this inner, spiritual part of us and have fellowship with Him there. It is this truth that Jesus was trying to make this woman see. He wanted her to know that He could satisfy the deepest part of her nature.
Jesus knew, though, that she could not possibly drink of this spiritual, living water unless she was honest with herself and confessed the sinfulness of her life. Sin blocked the way. It is the same with each one of us if we do not know Christ as our Saviour. We need this living water. We need to be made spiritually alive again, but if sin is there, held on to and unconfessed, we cannot experience this. You see, until sin is confessed, repented of, forgiven and cleansed away, you can never know the living water that Jesus gives, and that brings spiritual life, cleansing, refreshment and satisfaction.
You may not have sinned in the same way as this woman. That is not the point. It makes no difference what the sin is, it must be confessed and put away if you are going to receive the living water that Jesus freely gives. The closing part of the story makes it clear that the living water not only comes from Jesus, but that He is that living water. He told the woman that He was the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed One of God who had been promised from centuries earlier by the prophets. He was a prophet, yes, but more than that. He is the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us on the cross of Calvary so that our sins can be forgiven. The neighbours from her city recognised that He was the Savour of the world.
When we receive Jesus as our Saviour, we receive His Spirit, who is the living water. He is a “spring of water within us”, to satisfy and refresh us, to give us joy and peace through life. He is Christ in us giving us spiritual new life and the power to live godly lives. This is the claim that the Lord Jesus Christ made concerning Himself.
So we have seen that this was all so real to this woman that she could not help telling her neighbours and talking about it. “Surely this man is the Christ, the promised redeemer”, and they responded, “Yes, and the Saviour of the world!” Does Jesus mean all this to you? Christian believer, are you telling others about Him?