Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Well Is Open | The Gospels | John 4:1-26

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

What are you turning to for satisfaction? Why do even good things leave us thirsty again? What if the thirst you're trying to quench is actually pointing you to Jesus? In today's episode, Keith shares how John 4:1-26 shows that lasting fulfillment is found not in what this world offers, but in the living water Jesus freely gives. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: John 4:1-26

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I came across a clip of a high school valedictorian speech. It was given by the valedictorian, a guy named Kyle Martin. And in the speech, he's telling that he dedicated himself to becoming the valedictorian. He knew he was close, and so he really doubled down on his efforts. He really focused. He put the time, energy, and effort in. So when he heard his name, called as the valedictorian, he said he was super pumped, like all of his effort had paid off. This was amazing. He said that feeling lasted for about 15 seconds. And then he said, then came the 16th

second. And he thought, what's next? He thought, is this it? Is it over? Was it worth it? Have you ever come to the 16th second? Like something you really look forward to, that you're really excited about that you thought would make you happy or you thought it would be super satisfying. And for the first 15 seconds, it was, but then came the 16th second. And you started looking for something else. You got bored with whatever it is that you accomplished. You thought, is this it? Everything in this world has a 16th second. It doesn't mean the things are bad. In fact, there's a lot of fantastic things that God has given us in this world. We are meant to enjoy our life in this world. And yet, those things that were given to us as gifts can never ultimately

satisfy. Everything has a sell-by-date. Everything has a 16th second. Today we're in the first half of John chapter 4. John tells us that Jesus left Judea and headed back to Galilee. And in verse 4 it says he had to pass through Samaria. Now, geographically speaking, that's not quite accurate. Most Jews of Jesus a day would do anything to avoid Samaria. They'd cross the Jordan River, they'd walk miles out of their way, all to avoid setting foot on Samaritan soil. And the reason is that they hated the Samaritans. The animosity between Jews and Samaritans went back 700 years. When Assyria, which was the world superpower at the time, conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, the Assyrians deported many of the Jews back to Assyria, and then their armies intermarried with those who remained in Israel.

So the result was a mixed people with a mixed religion. Samaritans were half Jew and half Gentile. They worship Yahweh, but on a different mountain, not one in Jerusalem. And they only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament. To a first century Jew, Samaritans were heretics. They were half-breeds. They were untouchables. So when John says that, Jesus had to pass through Samaria. He's not talking about geography. He's talking about divine necessity. Jesus had to go to Samaria because there was a woman at a well who needed living water.

When Jesus arrives at the well, it's about noon. He's tired and hot and thirsty. He sits down by Jacob's well while the disciples go into town to get food. And that's when the woman shows up. She's a Samaritan woman and she's come to draw water from the well. Now, two things stand out. First, she comes at noon. That's the hottest part of the day.

Women typically drew water in the cool of the morning or evening. They came together to the well in groups because that was a social hub of village life. It was something you did with your friends. This one, though, she comes alone. She comes in the heat of the day because she's avoiding people. She doesn't want to see anyone. her reputation has made her a social outcast. And then second, Jesus speaks to this woman.

He says to her, give me a drink. And that breaks every social convention of his day. See, Jewish men didn't speak to women in public, and they sure didn't speak to Samaritan women in public. Jews didn't speak to Samaritans at all. And they didn't share water containers with Samaritans. They wouldn't drink after each other. And then there's the fact that this woman,

is of questionable reputation, meaning that Jesus had every reason to avoid her. Instead, he spoke to her, and the woman is astonished. She asks him, how is it that you a Jew ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? And Jesus's response to her question leads you to believe that more is going on than this woman realizes at the moment. He says to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Well, now this woman's even more confused. Living water in her mind simply means water that is flowing like in a stream or a creek, as opposed to water that is contained in a cistern. She points out that he doesn't have a bucket and the well is deep. So then she asks him the big

question. She says, are you greater than our father Jacob? See, she's thinking of like water water, H-2-O water, but Jesus is using water as a metaphor to make a bigger point. He says to everyone who drinks of this water, meaning the water that's in the well, will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. So notice what Jesus is saying. He's saying like this water from Jacob's well, it satisfies your thirst for an hour or two, but you have to come back to it, right?

You come back to it day after day. And isn't that kind of the picture of every well we draw from in our world? If you drink from the well of career success, you achieve promotion, and within months you're thirsty for the next one, right, the 16th second comes. Or maybe you drink from the well of romance, and so you find a relationship, but you realize that it can't really satisfy you. The 16th second comes for your romantic relationships. Or is the well of pleasure.

Pleasure can make you forget your problems for a short period of time. It can numb you for a night, but you wake up thirstier than you were before. Or there's the well of acceptance. Like you build your life to please other people, but then you worry that you're going to fail them. The 16th second comes for everything. A few years back, Jim Carrey, the well-known actor, said, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so that they can see that's not the answer.

See, Jim Carrey had drunk deeply from every well the world could offer. He had drunk deeply from the well of career success and of money and of romantic relationships and experiences and pleasure. And what he found is they all leave you thirstier than you were before. So the woman responds in verse 15 and she said, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. So she still thinks he's talking about H2O. But here's what she knows.

She's tired of coming to this well. She's tired of her life. And if he's offering something that means that she doesn't have to come back here day after day, then she wants it, even if she doesn't understand it. So then Jesus says something that kind of comes across a little bit rude, maybe a lot rude. He says, go call your husband and come here. And she says, I have no husband. And he's like, you're right.

You're right in saying, I have no husband, for you've had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. Now, why does Jesus go to this sensitive part of her life? Why does he go to this sensitive part of her life? Well, because you cannot receive the living water until you acknowledge your thirst. You cannot be saved until you see that you need saving. So Jesus isn't trying to shame this woman. He's loving her enough to name what's broken in her life so he can heal it. I mean, think about her story.

She's had five husbands. In that culture, women didn't initiate divorces. mended. So she's been discarded time after time, after time, after time. She's been cast aside. She's been traded in. She's been abandoned. And now she's with a man who's not her husband. He won't even commit to her. So she's been searching for love at the well of romance. She's trying to fill her cup from from that well her whole life. And it hasn't worked out. She's broken. She's hurting. She's thirsty. And Jesus sees her. I mean, like he really sees her, not as a project, not as a scandal, not as something he has to fix, but is a thirsty soul made in the image of God,

and he loves her enough to tell the truth. So what do we do with this story? Well, here are three takeaways. The first is that we need to acknowledge our thirst. Like every one of us is drinking from some well, success, relationships, substances, religious performance. I mean, whatever well you're drinking from, if it's not Jesus, it's going to leave you thirsty, the 16th second is coming for it? The question isn't whether you're thirsty, of course you are. The question is which well do you return to? Which well do you go to to satisfy your thirst? Second, we need to receive the living water. See, Jesus didn't tell this woman to work hard and you might earn this water. He just says, ask, and the living water will be given to you. The gospel is a gift. Christ is done for us

what we could never do for ourselves. He lived the life we couldn't live. He died the death. We deserve to die. He rose again to give us eternal life, and all we have to do is come thirsty. All we have to do is come empty-handed. Drink from the well that he offers us. Third, share that well. If we just look down for a second in verse 28, what we find is that this woman leaves her water jar. She'd come to the well for water. She got water, but now she found a better water. So she left the water to go back and tell the people in her town about the water that quenches your thirst forever. She runs to the town and tell everyone, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? Can this be the Messiah? The very town she was avoiding at noon, because remember she'd come to the well by herself because she was a

social outcast. Now she's going back to those same people and inviting them to find Jesus for themselves. Who in your life is thirsty? Who should you invite to the well of Christ? The most surprising thing about this passage isn't that the woman believed in Christ. The most surprising thing is that Jesus went searching for her. He went looking for this woman. Remember it said he had to pass through Samaria? And we said, no, he didn't because Jews had found a way around Samaria. But he had to go there because he was on a mission from God to seek and save the lost.

He wanted to go to that well because he knew that he would meet a thirsty woman there. And Jesus still does that. He's still going out of his way to find people that the world has written off. He's still offering living water to anyone who will ask. Are you thirsty? The well is open. Come and drink the living water. Father, thank you that you pursue us.

That you searched us out when we were lost and broken. That no barrier could keep you from us. Show us, Father, where we have been drinking. from broken wells and give us the faith to come to Jesus the true and living water. Amen.