In exploring the theme of holy defiance, we looked at what that means in practical terms. Defiance (bold disobedience or resistance) is often seen as negative, and to defy God is a dangerous thing. However, we do need to have a holy defiance that resists the enemy’s claims and lies. We need to have:

1. a willingness to fight a spiritual battle (Eph 6:10-20, 2 Cor 10:3-6)
2. a casting aside of things which used to control us (Rom 6:11-14)
3. a righteous anger (getting angry enough to win against your enemy) (see 1 Sam 17:45-47)
4. a bravery towards the enemy (see 1 Sam 17:45-47, Dan 3:16-18)
5. a resistance to being conquered (Rom 6:1-23)

So often we follow the line of least resistance, perhaps believing in the Borg’s dictum ‘Resistance is futile.’ Nothing could be further from the truth, however.

Paul tells us, ‘No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’ (Rom 8:37) As J. B. Phillips puts it, we are ‘knocked down but never knocked out’ (2 Cor 4, J. B. Phillips) We need to absorb the truths of these verses and see that ‘the Lord is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.’ (Ps 129:4)

Rend Collective explore this theme in their song ‘More Than Conquerors’:

‘We will not bow to sin or to shame.

We are defiant in Your name.

You are the fire that cannot be tamed.

You are the power in our veins:

Our Lord, our God, our Conqueror.

No surrender, no retreat:

We are free and we’re redeemed.

We will declare over despair,

“You are the hope.”’ (‘More Than Conquerors’, Rend Collective)

In our Bible study we looked at Ps 129-131, and these three psalms again give us a by-now familiar picture of trouble, hope in God and deliverance. Ps 129 has much to say about oppression, and certainly we need to face up to the fact that trouble, oppression and persecution will form part of life – there is simply no escape! (see John 16:33, 2 Tim 3:12, 1 Pet 4:12, 2 Cor 11:24-27). Yet this psalm strikes a note of holy defiance: even though there is oppression, God’s hand in deliverance is seen (Ps 129:2-4). Defiance is often perceived in a negative way as rebellion, but our submission to God will go hand in hand with our resistance to the devil’s wiles and to men’s rules if they conflict with God’s (see James 4:7-8, 1 Pet 5: 8-9, Acts 4:18-20, Acts 5:27-29).

We are not called to be defiant towards God, and Ps 130 and Ps 131 give us a picture of our right response to troubles: to wait for and hope in God. Having the same confidence as a night watchman that morning will come because that is the way God has designed the world, we learn to trust in God through adversities, just as a child that is being weaned ultimately learns contentment in its mother’s arms, despite its reluctance to embrace this new method of feeding! (Ps 131:2) Ps 130 reminds us of many facets of God’s character which we need always to remember: His faithfulness, forgiveness, mercy and unfailing love. When we are anchored in God’s character, we have confidence in His redemption, provision and protection, no matter what the enemy plans for us. (Rom 8:28)

A sense of humour and the ability to laugh (even at yourself) are essential ingredients to getting through life sane and with a sense of joy. Our prospective bridegroom (a.k.a. Super Mario) clearly has this in abundance!

John, in his gospel, shows us Jesus as fully man and fully God. He shows us Jesus weary and thirsty, weeping after a friend dies (John 11:35), troubled in spirit (John 13:21) and so on: very definitely a man, whose death is described in some detail (John 19:16-37). Yet John is also adamant that Jesus is God: the Word who was there at the beginning and who made the world (John 1:1-3), the ‘I Am’ before whom men fall in awe (John 8:58, John 18:6).

In John 4:1-42, we see a very human Jesus. He is tired, hungry and thirsty.

Yet He does not let tiredness, hunger or thirst divert Him from doing the Father’s will. I am so different. When I’m tired or hungry or thirsty, I become irritable, like a ‘bear with a sore head’, unwilling to engage in conversation, unwilling to do anything except look to these needs being met. My conversation with the woman would have gone something like this

Me: Can I have a drink, please?

Woman: How can you ask me for a drink?

Me: Duh! Because I’m a thirsty and you’ve got a bucket! [End of conversation. No evangelism, even if I ended up with a drink.]

Or:

Woman: Are you greater than our father Jacob?

Me (as Jesus): Yes, I’m the Son of God! [End of conversation. No engagement.]

I’m so glad Jesus shows us how to engage in conversation with people and also how He demonstrates His commitment to doing God’s will above His physical needs. What a challenge this is for us all. Evangelism can’t be reserved for those times when we are all ready for it! As we listen to God’s Spirit, He will lead us to people who may not seem likely candidates for evangelism… who will interrupt our preconceived ideas and plans… who will be there at times when we feel weak and inadequate. As Paul later wrote, ‘“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’ (2 Cor 12:9-10) Tiredness, hunger and thirst are no barrier to reaching out to others. If living water is within us, let it flow out to others!

An ordinary man, weary and hungry and thirsty after a 40-mile journey on foot, asked a woman for a drink at a well. Yet ironically, despite asking this, the man went on to offer her a gift of water – water that would quench spiritual thirst, water that would be ‘an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.’ (John 4:12, The Message)

Water symbolises life to us – and Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (Jn 14:6) God, the spring of living water (Jer 17:13), is the only One who can satisfy the deep spiritual longings within us, but so often, we do prefer our own strategies and plans to God’s. If we have access to the Life, to Jesus,however, then we can receive this spring of water welling up to eternal life. It’s not something we earn; it’s not something we deserve. It is the gift of God. In John 7, Jesus talks again about water and John tells us that He is talking about the Holy Spirit who was to come on the church after Jesus had been glorified. (John 7:37-38) If we believe, we receive the Holy Spirit as ‘a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.’ (Eph 1:14)

The gift of eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit are not just something to guarantee us a place in heaven when we die, however. The Holy Spirit in us is the source of life right now as well as for the future. But if we want to be satisfied and quenched, if we want to live life with purpose and joy and hope, we have to let go of our own sources of water. We have to leave our own water jars behind, just like the woman did, so that we can receive God’s gift of living water, so that we can continually be filled with the Spirit. (Eph 5:18)

The only way to have our spiritual thirst quenched is to come to God to be filled. We have to put down our own water jar and come to Jesus. The woman said, ‘Give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’ (John 4:15) We too have to admit our need and come to God so that we do not have to keep relying on the world’s ways to get by. The legends talk about the fountain of youth as the elixir of life; Jesus tells us simply that this living water is found in Him. We don’t have to look any further.

Tonight’s sermon looked at John 4:1-26 and the theme of living water. This encounter between Jesus and an unnamed woman at Jacob’s well in Sychar gives us a fascinating insight into His ability to draw people into conversation and move from the physical to the spiritual. Jesus came to the place tired and thirsty after a long journey, yet His priority was not HIs own needs but those of the woman. As He told His disciples, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.’ (John 4:34) 

In the previous chapter, Jesus encountered Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was eminently respectable and religious and yet still needed to be born again. (John 3:7) Here, his conversation is with a Samaritan woman living with a man after having been married five times – definitely not the kind of person you would expect a rabbi to be talking to! The enmity between Jews and Samaritans went back hundreds of years; the conventions of the day meant a man speaking with a woman in public like this was unheard of. Yet Jesus defied conventions and prejudice to speak with this woman and reminds us that no one is outside God’s reach. We need to understand God’s heart for people and be willing to engage in conversations as we are led by the Spirit because the living water of which Jesus spoke is not for us alone. It’s meant to flow through us to others so that they too may have their spiritual thirst quenched.

Jesus’s conversation with this woman shows us that evangelism can be leisurely and conversational; it can be oblique and cryptic at times. (As Emily Dickinson put it, ‘tell all the truth, but tell it slant.‘)

Jesus engaged the woman’s attention and was not content to let things remain on a argumentative or impersonal level. By revealing her lifestyle to her – something that was revealed by God’s Spirit to Him – Jesus demanded a personal response. She wanted to prevaricate, talking about places of worship, keeping the conversation at a ‘safe’ level. Jesus always takes us beyond this safe level. How we respond is immensely important. This woman was so intrigued she left her water jar behind and went to the villagers to ask them if this man could be the Messiah. Her witness led to many others believing in Christ.

Jesus offers us living water and gives us insights into how to talk with those who don’t believe in Him, showing us how this living water makes a difference to our lives. It is the pathway to eternal life. It has the power to satisfy us and flow through us to reach others. How we all need this thirst-quenching, soul-satisfying water!