Based primarily on verses 1-11 in the 5th chapter of the Book of Romans, the original version of this was presented at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on February 27, 2005 and is included much earlier on this website! THIS version includes some Very Minor updates…

As any who have had occasion to drive any long distance might attest to, it can sometimes get mighty boring out on the highway. And the problem becomes even more intense for those of us who, like I used to, drive professionally 2 – 3,000 miles-per-week! And one of the things that I liked to do was ‘listen’ to a good book once-in-a-while. Many, many books have been transferred to various audio formats, and I have started a small library of them over the years. King Lear, Ten Little Indians, and an assortment of Sherlock Holmes tales are just a few of those that grace my shelves, along with a collection of Star Trek and other sci-fi stories. Most of these are in cassette form, thought the latest were on CDs, trying to keep up-to-date as it were. Some of these are read by well-known personalities, some by the author, and some by the person who actually played one of the characters on TV. Some are read straight, with only the voice of the reader changing to note different people and such, others add musical background and special effects to enhance what is being read, while still others are recordings of full-blown radio productions with name-stars in the lead roles and a supporting cast of ‘hundreds’!

And so it is that, while in a bookstore in one of the big malls down close to St. Louis last weekend, we looked at audiobooks, and bought one titled Pompeii, written by Robert Harris, and read by Michael Cumpsty, and I have sat behind the wheel listening to all six hours of it on more than one occasion! The fictional story… I believe it is what has become termed ‘historical fiction’…  begins two days before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, in what we now call 79 AD, and centers around the engineer of the ‘Aqua Augusta’, the aqueduct commissioned by the Emperor Augustus some three-hundred years earlier to provide water for the naval fleet he wanted to station on the western coast of Rome. Let me read from the book, itself…

“Oh, but she was a mighty piece of work, the Augusta – one of the greatest feats of engineering ever accomplished. It was going to be an honour to command her. Somewhere far out there, on the opposite side of the bay, high in the pine-forested mountains of the Appenninus, the aqueduct captured the springs of the Serinus and bore the water westwards – channelled it along sinuous underground passages, carried it over ravines on top of tiered arcades, forced it across valleys through massive syphons – all the way down to the plains of Campania, then around the far side of Mount Vesuvius, then south to the coast at Neapolis, and finally along the spine of the Misenum peninsula to the dusty naval town, a distance of some sixty miles, with a mean drop along her entire length of just two inches every one hundred yards. She was the longest aqueduct in the world, longer even than the great aqueducts of Rome and far more complex, for whereas her sisters in the north fed one city only, the Augusta’s serpentine conduit – the matrix, as they called it: the motherline – suckled no fewer than nine towns around the Bay of Neapolis: Pompeii first, at the end of a long spur, then Nola, Acerrae, Atella, Neapolis, Puteoli, Cumae, Baiae and finally Misenum.”

And while the story itself might be fictional, the writer has obviously researched the period, and goes in to great detail describing the various cities and how life was conducted back then. It also makes a very strong point that without the aqueduct, life there would be very difficult, if not down right impossible! There were some 10,000 sailors stationed in Misenum, alone, and at least that many more support personnel and families… none of which would be able to survive there without the aqueduct because there were no natural source of water in the area… and as we all know, water is essential to all life!

In our Old Testament verses this morning, we heard how the Israelites had, “camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”

But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

And in spite of their grumbling and complaining, God had Moses strike the rock with his staff and caused water to come out of the rock, “that the people may drink!”

And in the Gospel of John Chapter 4, verses 5-42, we hear the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. You all know the story… how Jesus was sitting alone at the well when a woman came up to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink… how she was shocked that He, a Jew, would even speak to her, a Samaritan, (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans!) How Jesus answered her, “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.” 

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

Water! The ‘stuff’ of life! And Living water!!! The ‘stuff’ of eternal life! Which brings us back to our verses from Romans…

Paul writes… “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

The Life Application Commentary tells us that… “Having demonstrated in the previous chapter that what was real for Abraham can be real for everyone, Paul launches into one of his stirring summary statements. Abraham’s life illustrates the truth that faith may require human action, such as waiting for a promised child, but that the effective part of faith is its connection with God. Faith like Abraham’s never requires blind trust, but trust with eyes wide open. Paul goes on to say that if we have faith, we can experience a different life. It will not be easy, but it will be a life full of peace with God, joyful hope, personal development, growing awareness of God’s love, and continued reconciliation with him.

One of the remarkable consistencies in Paul is how he links faith, hope, and love together. Rarely does he mention one without the other two…This passage from Romans begins by stating that personal faith is necessary for justification. This is followed by the response of rejoicing “in the hope of the glory of God”. But faith and hope do not exist alone, since “God has poured out his love into our hearts”. For Paul, wherever faith is present, there also are hope and love. The greatest, however, is love.”

He makes note of this in verses 6 – 8 when he says… “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Life Application Commentary goes on to say… “Paul introduces some difficult concepts in this chapter. He demonstrates the truth of the gospel in ways that stretch our thinking.” And the truth is, we could not possibly delve into it very deeply in just a fifteen-odd minute sermon! So for now, let me make this one point…

Again quoting from The Life Application Commentary, “Paul states clearly that faith, hope, and love are at the heart of the Christian life. Our relationship with God begins with faith, helping us realize that we are delivered from our past by Christ’s death. Hope grows as we learn all that God has in mind for us; it gives us the promise of the future. And God’s love fills our lives and gives us the ability to reach out to others.

Since faith, hope, and love are essential characteristics of the Christian life, their opposites (doubt, despair, and hatred) can devastate any relationship with God. We must guard against them and help those who struggle with those devastating feelings. We must not avoid or fear those experiences that will cultivate in us a godly character.”

And we find one example of that in the book, Practical Bible Illustrationsfrom Yesterday and Today …

“Jesus plainly stated that he came to save sinners. The man who refuses to be called a sinner puts himself beyond the possibility of salvation.

A wealthy industrialist was traveling in California in search of better health; while spending a few days in an inland town, he learned that in this village there resided a man who owed him a large sum of money. The young man had come here after an unsuccessful career in the East, and was beginning to prosper in a small way.

“The young man seems to have been trying to help himself,’ said the rich man, “and I am going to destroy the note I hold against him.” The note, however, was miles away among his papers, and he realized that he might not live to return. Not knowing the exact amount of the note, he sent his private secretary to the young man, to make inquiry concerning it, and to offer to give the debtor a receipt against it; thus protecting him from proceedings that might in future be entered against him, should the capitalist die before he reached home. To the surprise of the secretary, the young businessman put on an indignant manner and denied the debt.

“When I owe your employer it will be time enough for you to be talking to me about forgiveness,” he said.

The debt remained unforgiven and the heirs of the rich man insisted upon the collection of the note. This was done, to the ruin of the man who remained unforgiven because he was not willing to admit that there was anything to forgive.”

In many ways, Jesus IS forgiveness! The ‘Living Water’ that He offers could well be thought of as that forgiveness… for the water He offers is the water of Eternal Life… but that could not be attained by any of us without a constant source of forgiveness! For all have sinned… and I fear that, as humans, we will continue to do so! But again, Paul says that, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And that is what the Season of Lent is supposed to be about… acknowledging the sacrifice made in our names… understanding and accepting it… and preparing our hearts, our minds, and our lives to be worthy of it!

Living Water! Gushing forth as from an everlasting, eternal fountain! But let us never forget the words of the hymn that say… A fountain filled with blood!