John 4: The Spring Jesus Opened Is Still There

Introduction

“All my springs are in you.” Stéphane Hostettler opens his message at the Église Évangélique Libre d'Onex (EELO) with Psalm 87, where singers and dancers cry out these words, and then with Jesus' promise to the Samaritan woman: “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

The preacher notices a movement in this text: water, then a spring, then a flow that rises all the way to eternal life. His aim is to encourage. If Jesus has ever touched your life, that movement has been set in motion inside you. And no matter what you have been through since, no matter where you are today, there is a spring in you that has been opened.

As the message unfolds, he distinguishes two kinds of wells, recalls how God opened Hagar's eyes in the desert, and then insists on a conviction he wants to see “engraved” in us: the spring is still there.

Outline of the Message

1. The Water Jesus Gives Becomes a Spring

In the parables of Jesus, there is always movement. The smallest of them speaks of a seed placed in the soil that produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
“Everything Jesus puts into our lives is meant to expand.”
When Jesus gave you a glass of water, that water was his life. When he placed his life in you, that glass of water became a spring, meant to keep expanding.
As Pastor Laurent Joly said earlier, everything comes from him: it is Jesus who gives this spring, and it is he who gives this water.

2. A Spring Is Not Easy to Stop

When they first arrived in Geneva, Stéphane Hostettler took his children to the banks of the Allondon, near Dardagny. Together they tried to build dams: one stone, then another, then sand and mud.
You think you are succeeding, and you never do: the water goes around on the right, on the left, or over the top.
“I'm not saying it can't be done,” he clarifies, but it is very hard to block a spring, and above all very hard to block the flow of God in a person's life.

3. Two Kinds of Wells: the Spring and the Reservoir

At Jacob's well, Jesus asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. In John 4, the word “well” comes up several times, but the Greek uses two different words, something you cannot see in English.
In verse 6, Jacob's well is described with a word that means a well fed by a spring: you dig, and the water rises.
The other kind of well is a reservoir, a well that collects water. The preacher gives the example of Les Baux-de-Provence, a magnificent citadel at the top of a hill, but with no spring: cisterns had to be dug in the hope that the rain would fill them. Sometimes there is water, and sometimes the water runs out.
When the Samaritan woman answers Jesus (“Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well”), she uses the word for reservoir. For her, it is a hole with water in it, “nothing more, nothing less.”
In Revelation, this same word describes a place without life, the pit of the abyss.
Jesus, on the other hand, speaks of a spring. The word appears again in Revelation: the Lamb “will guide them to springs of life’s water” (Revelation 7:17), and “I will give freely to the one who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6).
The reservoir where you keep going back to draw sometimes has water and sometimes does not. Sometimes it is fresh, sometimes “downright muddy.” With the water Jesus gives, you no longer need to go back.

4. God Opens Our Eyes to the Well of Living Water

Hagar, driven out of the home where she lived, finds herself in the desert and thinks she will die there with her son Ishmael. The text says that God opens her eyes, and she sees a well (Genesis 21:19). The Septuagint speaks of a well of living water.
This is the preacher's prayer: that God would open our eyes to realize that he has placed a well of life in our hearts. This is the work of Jesus' salvation.
Jesus has the power to bring this spring to its full development. It is not always what we see, but it is his desire: he has a hope of growth for us.
With humor, he adds that telling a believer you haven't seen in ten or fifteen years “You haven't changed” is not necessarily a compliment.
Jesus opened this spring the day you told him: “I am so thirsty, I need you so much in my life.” Everything we do must be connected to this spring.

5. Tired of Always Going Back to the Same Reservoir

The Samaritan woman understood what was at stake: “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”
Reading between the lines, her life kept coming back to the same thing: five husbands, and the man she is with now is not her husband.
The preacher tells of a woman who once asked him to look at her forehead: “Does it say ‘hit me’?” She kept ending up with violent men. It is an extreme case, he admits, but sometimes we feel as if we keep returning to the same place.
To have a breakthrough, we need this spring that takes us further.
“It doesn't matter whether you have a big mouth or a small mouth, it's not the sip that counts, it's the water.” If you have received that water, you have received a spring.

6. The Spring Is Still There

The spring may have lost some of its strength. The circumstances of life, our choices and our struggles can slow its flow. From the outside, it may even look like it is gone.
A speaker from Zurich, heard years ago at Church gatherings, quoted a saying from his spiritual father: “If you want to understand spiritual things, you first have to understand natural things.”
Now, a spring does not move: “I have never seen a spring with legs.” It may be buried under tons of rock, “the Salève may have fallen on top of it,” but it is still there. What God has placed in your life “hasn't run off.”
Maybe you no longer recognize the enthusiasm and passion of the past, and you compare yourself to a tree that bears little fruit. The One who put this spring in you sees it, and he tells you it is still there.
It may look more visible in others. The flow may be weaker, the season may be different. Dead leaves, branches, or rocks and mud that came down from a mountain may have blocked it, sometimes through shocks that did not even come from us. The spring is there.

7. A Time to Pray for the Spring

The preacher first invites those who have never personally met Jesus to tell him: “Lord, I'm sick of going around in circles, of always coming back to the same things, always to this reservoir. I'm thirsty, I need you in my life.” Raising a hand is not a gesture toward the preacher, it is a gesture of faith toward the Lord.
He then speaks to those who have already experienced the new birth, but whose spring needs to be “unblocked” so that they find again a flow, a passion, something that burns inside.
“The Lord doesn't reproach. He doesn't accuse. He simply says: ‘Come to me.’ That's all.”
He concludes by calling everyone to dare to come forward for prayer: “We're family, I'm the first one to come up front.”

Key Takeaways

The water Jesus gives is his life. Once placed in you, it becomes a spring meant to rise and grow.
There is a difference between a reservoir, where the water sometimes runs out, and the spring of living water that Jesus opens in the heart.
It is not the sip that counts, it is the water.
A spring can be slowed, hidden or blocked, but it does not move: what God has put in you is still there.
The Lord does not reproach and does not accuse. He simply says: “Come to me.”

Personal Reflection

Do you remember the day you told Jesus: “I'm thirsty, I need you”? What did he open in you that day?
Which “reservoir” do you still go back to, hoping to find what only Jesus can give?
Do you feel like you keep returning to the same place? In what area do you need a breakthrough?
What dead leaves, branches or rocks are blocking the spring in your life today?
Would you dare to ask someone to pray with you so that the Spirit would blow once again on this spring?

Bible Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Jacob's well and the reservoir the Samaritan woman talks about?

Stéphane Hostettler points out that in Greek, John 4 uses two words for “well.” In verse 6, Jacob's well is a well fed by a spring. When the Samaritan woman speaks, she uses the word for a reservoir, a cistern where the water can run out. Jesus, for his part, speaks of a spring of water that rises to eternal life.

What does “the spring is still there” mean?

If Jesus has touched your life, he has opened a spring in you. Circumstances, choices or trials can slow its flow, to the point that you can no longer see it from the outside. But a spring does not move: it may be buried under rocks, but it is still there.

What should I do if the spring seems blocked in my life?

The preacher compares what blocks the spring to dead leaves, branches or rocks fallen from a mountain. He simply invites you to come to Jesus in prayer, so that the Spirit would blow once again on this spring. He insists: the Lord does not reproach and does not accuse, he simply says “Come to me.”