John 4:1-30
Jesus & The Woman At The Well • 11.24.09 •Jesus Christ: The Man Of God, Session #9
Intro
- John chapter 3 is the backdrop for John chapter 4. It contains some of the most directed material about Jesus and the nature of God's salvation in the entirety of the New Testament.
- It contains an interview that Nicodemus the Pharisee had with Jesus about eternal life. It contains the gospel in one verse in verse 16.
- At the end of the chapter, John the Baptist sails off into a great teaching about his view on Jesus. He ends with a statement that parallels what Jesus had said earlier to Nicodemus.
• John 3:36 : "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.'"
- There are no clearer verses on salvation than what can be found there. But what is interesting about that is how it sets up the next chapter.
- The assertion is that belief, trust in Christ, is the basis for anyone to have eternal life. It's the most broad offer, crossing all boundaries and touching all people for all time.
- He leaves that in our hands today. Angels could do it better and be more impressive, but He chooses that we partner with Him in this enterprise.
- Within our teaching today, we'll look at Christ's example and hopefully understand the concept of full surrender in a more complete way. This chapter breaks up into 4 parts.
Text
• John 4:1-6 : “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.” : The Lord’s ministry was thriving, eclipsing the ministry of John the Baptist, letting us know that this was early in His public ministry.
- Jesus is in Judea and was going back into the Galilean region. He's heading north.
- Between the Judean and Galilee lies Samaria. Jews in that time would have normally opted for a more circuitous route, avoiding Samaria all together.
- Verse 4 notes, that Jesus needed to go through Samaria. He needed to go through Samaria because it was His Father’s will.
- Often in the gospels, we see this perfect obedience to God’s desire and timing. Here we see Jesus obeying in what must have tested the rest of the disciple’s patience and trust.
- We think about Jesus being driven by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted. We think about Jesus noting to His mother that His time had not yet come at the wedding in Cana.
- As men of God, you and I have to learn to be sensitive to what we truly need to do and where we truly need to be.
- We pack our lives so densely that we spend little time asking the Lord what He might want to accomplish in His day! Jesus exemplifies the need to submit ourselves to what God wants.
- However, there was more than just needing to be sensitive to God's schedule. He needed to obey above national prejudice.
- The disciples, being normal Jewish men, shared a common hatred of the Samaritans. To understand why, we need to look back into time.
- The Assyrians took the best and brightest of of their conquered into Assyria. The best from Israel, as well as other nations, came into Assyria.
- Those that did not fit this description however, were mixed with other conquered nations and dropped off. Guess where? That’s right! Samaria, where there lived an amalgamation both of people and religious beliefs, mixed in with the worship of the “native” God, Yahweh.
- Turn with me to II Kings 17. You should read the entire story later, but suffice it to say, there is a long history of idolatry in Samaria. Their epithet is seen in verse 41.
• II Kings 17:41 : “So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day.”
- This religious duality made the Samaritans a hated people. Jews would only utter the word “Samaritan” if they wanted to curse!
- Jesus ended His journey, due to exhaustion in a city called Sychar, sitting by a well.
- There is an argument regarding the time. One commentator puts this at noon, the other at 6PM, depending on whether John is following Jewish or Roman time.
- The point here is that the Holy Spirit through John marks the time for us. This is a divine appointment if there ever was one.
- Jesus sits down in the middle of His own exhaustion and is about to expend further energy as He engages in God's mission.
• John 4:7-14 : “A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’” : Jesus is alone, tired and thirsty.
- The woman approachs and Jesus talks to her. In the NKJV, it sounds like He is demanding, but the original is much more genteel.
- A Jewish man would never ask anything of a Samaritan woman. She is amazed that a Jew would even talk to her, much less politely ask for something.
- Her respons to Jesus reflects the hurt that she had experienced because of prejudice and self-righteous judgment. "You Jewish man, need something from me! There's an irony!"
- Let's take just a quick moment here and run something down. For every great encounter that a non-Christian has with a Christian, they have had at least 2 or 3 others that we not so great!
- I have had to apologize to unbelievers for the actions and unkindness of believers on many different occasions. Like the woman, sarcasm and biting vitriol are the first line of defense.
- Jesus said to her, “If you only knew who I was! I have living water!"
- This brings me to another principle for us to gather. We are to be sensitive to God's schedule, willing to work despite prejudice, ready to engage even when exhausted and here, ready to be clear when the moment arrives!
- He tells her that He would offer her more than she could give Him, for He is the source of a water that is living.
- Water provides the illustration. Picture this woman. Alone, friendless, during the heat of the day, coming to a well.
- It’s the grind, the visual reminder that this is how life will always be: I’m thirsty, I must return to this well, day after day, if I am to be satisfied!
- “Sounds like my life,” she thinks. No satisfaction. “I’m burned out, bummed out, and burdened.” There is no end in sight. That is until she meets Jesus, who unexpectedly interrupts her.
- Jesus is offering to satisfy her spiritual thirst. He is sharing a wonderful picture with her.
- The well is the picture of life. It requires you to return, again and again, to regain your fill of water. Eventually though, the water you have collected is gone, and it’s time to refill again.
- Jesus is telling this world weary soul that those who keep coming back to the well of life, looking to be satisfied, will continue to do so. Every physical need on earth requires repetition.
- What Jesus offers to this woman is a spring of everlasting, satisfied life, which comes from a right relationship with the Giver, who is the Lord Jesus. He can give her this satisfaction.
- I love that Jesus is offering this to a Samaritan woman. Any other Rabbi, bound by their own traditions, would simply have cast this Samaritan woman aside to her fate. Jesus offers her life.
- Turn with me to Revelation 22. He still offers this to the world today.
• Revelation 22:16,17 : “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”
- Sinners were comfortable around Jesus. They sat and asked Him questions and enjoyed His presence. Jesus always showed a graciousness to such people.
• John 4:15-24 : “The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, 'I have no husband’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’" : Here we have come to the moment of truth. This woman wants what Jesus is offering to her.
- “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” This is the true cry of every desperate, weary soul in the world. “I want relief! I want to be satisfied!”
- Don’t we all? Isn’t that our hearts desire? Nobody wants to continue to go to the well of worldly satisfaction, day after day!
- It’s difficult to understand how it is that people can refuse what Jesus freely offers them. Life, forgiveness, joy, eternal life! Who wouldn’t want that? Yet, there are many who will refuse.
- Turn back a page to John 3:18.
• John 3:18-20 : “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
- Jesus shows us and her that satisfaction in life cannot be attained while we live in unrighteousness.
- Jesus puts His finger on the issue that would keep her from being satisfied. It was her relationship with a man that was not her husband.
- This woman is caught in her sin and the Lord bids her to give up her sin, in order to get the living water. Will she?
- Jesus’ knowledge of her true situation inspires the most obvious comment in scripture! Of course, He is a prophet!
- Then the woman at the well confesses. I know that I am a sinner, but where do I go? The question is not where, but to WHOM! Worship is not about locality. It’s about reality.
- You are the temple. Are you His, wholly, and completely? Is your mind, fully and totally focused upon pleasing and honoring God?
- The Father is seeking such to worship, who will worship in Spirit and in truth. He wants people whose life will be consistent with the truth, who will be all His.
• John 4:25-30 : “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’ And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, ‘What do You seek?’ or, ‘Why are You talking with her?’ The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ‘Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ Then they went out of the city and came to Him.” : This woman senses that God is in this conversation. She resigns hopefully, saying, “I know that the Messiah will come and He will carry the answers.
- She is looking to a time that she figures can’t possibly be now. Just like the person in the world today, who figures, someday, God will sort it all out.
- The desperate, thirsty soul of this world believes this. Someday! Someday it will all be right, everything will align, and I’ll be satisfied. But it’s not now! No, it can’t be!
- Jesus plainly speaks and tells her that He is the one she has been waiting for!
- Notice that Jesus says very clearly that He is the Messiah. In case anyone, ever tells you that He never referred to Himself as the Messiah, please refer them to this verse!
- What a moment! Imagine if you will the look of Jesus, as the eyes of eternity met hers. She saw truth, kindness, love and forgiveness and knew it was true. How do I know? Because she went and told others.
- She went to whomever would listen and imperatively implored them to come to this man. Could this be the Christ? Her testimony was so shocking that they came!
- Let’s look down to verse 39 and see what happened as a result of this woman’s testimony.
• John 4:39-42 : “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.’”
Conclusion
- As always, this day belongs to Jesus. You belong to Jesus. You are His vehicle through which His will is performed.
- Are you tuned to what He wants to accomplish through you? Are you ready for Him to ordain appointments? Is His will more important than your needs?
- Jesus shows us that that is the bar. How many women or men at the well will you be meeting today? How many will respond and bring others to follow the Lord you represent?
Jesus & The Woman At The Well • 11.24.09 •Jesus Christ: The Man Of God, Session #9
Intro
- John chapter 3 is the backdrop for John chapter 4. It contains some of the most directed material about Jesus and the nature of God's salvation in the entirety of the New Testament.
- It contains an interview that Nicodemus the Pharisee had with Jesus about eternal life. It contains the gospel in one verse in verse 16.
- At the end of the chapter, John the Baptist sails off into a great teaching about his view on Jesus. He ends with a statement that parallels what Jesus had said earlier to Nicodemus.
• John 3:36 : "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.'"
- There are no clearer verses on salvation than what can be found there. But what is interesting about that is how it sets up the next chapter.
- The assertion is that belief, trust in Christ, is the basis for anyone to have eternal life. It's the most broad offer, crossing all boundaries and touching all people for all time.
- He leaves that in our hands today. Angels could do it better and be more impressive, but He chooses that we partner with Him in this enterprise.
- Within our teaching today, we'll look at Christ's example and hopefully understand the concept of full surrender in a more complete way. This chapter breaks up into 4 parts.
I. The Context (v.1-6)
II. The Conversation (v.7-14)
III. The Confrontation (v.15-24)
IV. The Conversion (v.25-30)
II. The Conversation (v.7-14)
III. The Confrontation (v.15-24)
IV. The Conversion (v.25-30)
Text
I. The Context (v.1-6)
• John 4:1-6 : “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.” : The Lord’s ministry was thriving, eclipsing the ministry of John the Baptist, letting us know that this was early in His public ministry.
- Jesus is in Judea and was going back into the Galilean region. He's heading north.
- Between the Judean and Galilee lies Samaria. Jews in that time would have normally opted for a more circuitous route, avoiding Samaria all together.
- Verse 4 notes, that Jesus needed to go through Samaria. He needed to go through Samaria because it was His Father’s will.
- Often in the gospels, we see this perfect obedience to God’s desire and timing. Here we see Jesus obeying in what must have tested the rest of the disciple’s patience and trust.
- We think about Jesus being driven by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted. We think about Jesus noting to His mother that His time had not yet come at the wedding in Cana.
- As men of God, you and I have to learn to be sensitive to what we truly need to do and where we truly need to be.
- We pack our lives so densely that we spend little time asking the Lord what He might want to accomplish in His day! Jesus exemplifies the need to submit ourselves to what God wants.
- However, there was more than just needing to be sensitive to God's schedule. He needed to obey above national prejudice.
- The disciples, being normal Jewish men, shared a common hatred of the Samaritans. To understand why, we need to look back into time.
- The Assyrians took the best and brightest of of their conquered into Assyria. The best from Israel, as well as other nations, came into Assyria.
- Those that did not fit this description however, were mixed with other conquered nations and dropped off. Guess where? That’s right! Samaria, where there lived an amalgamation both of people and religious beliefs, mixed in with the worship of the “native” God, Yahweh.
- Turn with me to II Kings 17. You should read the entire story later, but suffice it to say, there is a long history of idolatry in Samaria. Their epithet is seen in verse 41.
• II Kings 17:41 : “So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day.”
- This religious duality made the Samaritans a hated people. Jews would only utter the word “Samaritan” if they wanted to curse!
- Jesus ended His journey, due to exhaustion in a city called Sychar, sitting by a well.
- There is an argument regarding the time. One commentator puts this at noon, the other at 6PM, depending on whether John is following Jewish or Roman time.
- The point here is that the Holy Spirit through John marks the time for us. This is a divine appointment if there ever was one.
- Jesus sits down in the middle of His own exhaustion and is about to expend further energy as He engages in God's mission.
II. The Conversation (v.7-14)
• John 4:7-14 : “A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’” : Jesus is alone, tired and thirsty.
- The woman approachs and Jesus talks to her. In the NKJV, it sounds like He is demanding, but the original is much more genteel.
- A Jewish man would never ask anything of a Samaritan woman. She is amazed that a Jew would even talk to her, much less politely ask for something.
- Her respons to Jesus reflects the hurt that she had experienced because of prejudice and self-righteous judgment. "You Jewish man, need something from me! There's an irony!"
- Let's take just a quick moment here and run something down. For every great encounter that a non-Christian has with a Christian, they have had at least 2 or 3 others that we not so great!
- I have had to apologize to unbelievers for the actions and unkindness of believers on many different occasions. Like the woman, sarcasm and biting vitriol are the first line of defense.
- Jesus said to her, “If you only knew who I was! I have living water!"
- This brings me to another principle for us to gather. We are to be sensitive to God's schedule, willing to work despite prejudice, ready to engage even when exhausted and here, ready to be clear when the moment arrives!
- He tells her that He would offer her more than she could give Him, for He is the source of a water that is living.
- Water provides the illustration. Picture this woman. Alone, friendless, during the heat of the day, coming to a well.
- It’s the grind, the visual reminder that this is how life will always be: I’m thirsty, I must return to this well, day after day, if I am to be satisfied!
- “Sounds like my life,” she thinks. No satisfaction. “I’m burned out, bummed out, and burdened.” There is no end in sight. That is until she meets Jesus, who unexpectedly interrupts her.
- Jesus is offering to satisfy her spiritual thirst. He is sharing a wonderful picture with her.
- The well is the picture of life. It requires you to return, again and again, to regain your fill of water. Eventually though, the water you have collected is gone, and it’s time to refill again.
- Jesus is telling this world weary soul that those who keep coming back to the well of life, looking to be satisfied, will continue to do so. Every physical need on earth requires repetition.
- What Jesus offers to this woman is a spring of everlasting, satisfied life, which comes from a right relationship with the Giver, who is the Lord Jesus. He can give her this satisfaction.
- I love that Jesus is offering this to a Samaritan woman. Any other Rabbi, bound by their own traditions, would simply have cast this Samaritan woman aside to her fate. Jesus offers her life.
- Turn with me to Revelation 22. He still offers this to the world today.
• Revelation 22:16,17 : “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”
- Sinners were comfortable around Jesus. They sat and asked Him questions and enjoyed His presence. Jesus always showed a graciousness to such people.
III. The Confrontation (v.15-24)
• John 4:15-24 : “The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, 'I have no husband’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’" : Here we have come to the moment of truth. This woman wants what Jesus is offering to her.
- “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” This is the true cry of every desperate, weary soul in the world. “I want relief! I want to be satisfied!”
- Don’t we all? Isn’t that our hearts desire? Nobody wants to continue to go to the well of worldly satisfaction, day after day!
- It’s difficult to understand how it is that people can refuse what Jesus freely offers them. Life, forgiveness, joy, eternal life! Who wouldn’t want that? Yet, there are many who will refuse.
- Turn back a page to John 3:18.
• John 3:18-20 : “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
- Jesus shows us and her that satisfaction in life cannot be attained while we live in unrighteousness.
- Jesus puts His finger on the issue that would keep her from being satisfied. It was her relationship with a man that was not her husband.
- This woman is caught in her sin and the Lord bids her to give up her sin, in order to get the living water. Will she?
- Jesus’ knowledge of her true situation inspires the most obvious comment in scripture! Of course, He is a prophet!
- Then the woman at the well confesses. I know that I am a sinner, but where do I go? The question is not where, but to WHOM! Worship is not about locality. It’s about reality.
- You are the temple. Are you His, wholly, and completely? Is your mind, fully and totally focused upon pleasing and honoring God?
- The Father is seeking such to worship, who will worship in Spirit and in truth. He wants people whose life will be consistent with the truth, who will be all His.
IV. The Conversion (v.25-30)
• John 4:25-30 : “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’ And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, ‘What do You seek?’ or, ‘Why are You talking with her?’ The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ‘Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ Then they went out of the city and came to Him.” : This woman senses that God is in this conversation. She resigns hopefully, saying, “I know that the Messiah will come and He will carry the answers.
- She is looking to a time that she figures can’t possibly be now. Just like the person in the world today, who figures, someday, God will sort it all out.
- The desperate, thirsty soul of this world believes this. Someday! Someday it will all be right, everything will align, and I’ll be satisfied. But it’s not now! No, it can’t be!
- Jesus plainly speaks and tells her that He is the one she has been waiting for!
- Notice that Jesus says very clearly that He is the Messiah. In case anyone, ever tells you that He never referred to Himself as the Messiah, please refer them to this verse!
- What a moment! Imagine if you will the look of Jesus, as the eyes of eternity met hers. She saw truth, kindness, love and forgiveness and knew it was true. How do I know? Because she went and told others.
- She went to whomever would listen and imperatively implored them to come to this man. Could this be the Christ? Her testimony was so shocking that they came!
- Let’s look down to verse 39 and see what happened as a result of this woman’s testimony.
• John 4:39-42 : “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.’”
Conclusion
- As always, this day belongs to Jesus. You belong to Jesus. You are His vehicle through which His will is performed.
- Are you tuned to what He wants to accomplish through you? Are you ready for Him to ordain appointments? Is His will more important than your needs?
- Jesus shows us that that is the bar. How many women or men at the well will you be meeting today? How many will respond and bring others to follow the Lord you represent?
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