Sermon Tone Analysis

Series: John: Life in Christ’s NameText: John 4:1–9

By: Shaun Marksbury Date: January 15, 2023

Venue: Living Water Baptist ChurchOccasion: AM Service

Introduction

Few passages rivet the church and its mission like the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18–20.

We read Jesus say there, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

It’s easy to assume that this commands us to leave wherever we are to share the gospel; after all, verse nineteen starts with the word, “Go.”

In fact, many preachers have stated as much; I remember hearing a missionary preach once that every Christian should leave the comforts of home and be willing to go to a foreign land.

I agree that we should consider this possibility; I just left the comforts of the warm South for a blue state (which I mean in more ways than one)!

However, that missionary, in his zeal, was wrongly binding Christian consciouses, as God calls many Christians to stay where they are and influence their families and communities for Christ.

In fact, his interpretation of the passage was wrong.

The word “go” isn’t a command — it isn’t even a verb in the Greek, it’s a participle, an “ing” word.

We could translate it, “Going therefore,” or “As you go, therefore.”

Why is it often translated “go?”

It seems to be part of Matthew’s style throughout his gospel (cf.

2:8; 9:13; 11:4; 17:27; 28:7), but the main command is to “make disciples.”

Some people will do this where they are, and others will need to leave to accomplish this.

To determine this isn’t clear, as God doesn’t often open the heavens and give us detailed instructions.

Sometimes, we find ourselves going just based on circumstances; we have to move, so we move.

In the case of the early church in Acts, it was persecution that pushed many of them from Jerusalem.

In our text this morning, we see something similar.

Our Lord made disciples as He went along, and that’s what we should endeavor to do, as well.

First, we see the circumstances of going (vv. 1–3).

Second, we see the process of going (vv. 4–6).

Third, we see the reason for going (vv. 7–9).

First, we see the circumstances of going (vv. 1–3).

Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again into Galilee.

For the most part until now, except for the wedding of Cana to the north, we’ve been with Jesus in southern Israel — an area called Judea.

In northern Israel, we’ll be seeing Jesus in a region called Galilee.

In between these areas is a region known as Samaria.

Since this is the focus of this chapter until v. 46, we’ll talk about that area today.

Before we get there, let’s consider the situation we’ve been discussing for the past couple of weeks.

Back in 2:13, we saw that Jesus came south for the Passover, which can fall in March or April.

It was then in Jerusalem that Jesus had that private conversation with Nicodemus.

Jesus then went out to the countryside and was ministering in the same area as John the Baptist was (which John’s disciples saw as competition).

In v. 35 of this chapter, we see that it is now four months to harvest, which would be in October.

With that said, Jesus’s ministry may have overlapped John the Baptist’s for around six months in the Judean countryside.

Again, John’s disciples weren’t the only ones who noticed more and more people coming to Jesus.

In fact, Jesus “knew that the Pharisees had heard that [He] was making and baptizing more disciples than John.”

The dispute that John’s disciples had with that unnamed Jew in John 3:25 have originated with the Pharisees, as they already were confronting John back in chapter one.

They were conspiring, and this may turn into an issue with Jesus’s ministry.

Incidentally, again, people today still have disputes concerning purification and baptism.

It’s interesting that the author here clarifies that Jesus wasn’t personally baptizing.

There’s no doubt Jesus would perfectly baptize a person, but He allows His flawed disciples to do it.

In fact, He still directs people like us to conduct these baptisms.

After all, His main baptism, if you’ll recall, is not of physical water but of the Holy Spirit.

Because Jesus doesn’t personally dunk all those who come, we cannot conclude that water baptism is essential for salvation.

Consider that later, Christ will send His apostle Paul on an evangelistic mission, but Paul will also baptize very few people personally.

In fact, Paul separates the command to preach the gospel from baptizing people (1 Cor.

1:17).

It’s only after a person hears and accepts the gospel that the new disciple receives instruction on his next steps, such as water baptism.

Therefore, the concept that we must be baptized to receive regeneration biblically holds no water!

Back here in John 4, though, we find that the Pharisees did not like people coming in and preaching without their blessing and oversight (a drive that isn’t entirely wrong, had they truly cared for God’s Word and His people).

The only Pharisee we’ve met so far which had a positive attitude toward Jesus was Nicodemus, and there may have been others (for instance, we know also of Joseph of Arimathea in John 19:38–39).

However, the vast majority of them will reject Jesus’s claims, and they may see Jesus at this time as mimicking John’s ministry.

The fact that Jesus is now more popular than John makes Him a new threat.

The Lord knew it wasn’t time to draw the ire of the Pharisees.

Persecution would be a real possibility, and Jesus knows His hour has not yet come.

Indeed, Jesus will later tell His disciples that they don’t have to brave such hostility; in Matthew 10:23, He says, “But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next.”

Many Christians in dangerous parts of the world can rest in this, knowing they aren’t in sin for getting their families to safety when a wave of persecution flares up — they can preach the gospel elsewhere.

Now, I don’t want you to think that the Pharisees just have Jesus on the run.

He moves because He is keeping control of the situation; He’s avoiding unnecessary conflict from occurring too early.

He had been successful in making disciples in the South, it was now necessary to move on and make disciples elsewhere.

We see that evangelism and teaching is the drive of the Lord, and that should be our drive, as well.

We should strive to make disciples as we go.

So, He’s heading to Galilee again.

In v. 46, we will see that He returns to Cana of Galilee.

But, before He gets there, He will pass through Samaria, bringing us to the next point.

Second, we see the process of going (vv. 4–6).

And He had to pass through Samaria.

So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there.

So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well.

It was about the sixth hour.

We read first that “He had to pass through Samaria.”

It was necessary for Him to do that.

Now, there were multiple roads to Galilee, and as we’ve mentioned, the Jews typically avoided Samaria.

So, there could generally be only two reasons why that may be necessary for Him to pass through Samaria: either Jesus was in such great haste that this route was necessary, or it may have been necessary due to the plan of God.

Now, I’ve already said the Pharisees did not have Jesus on the run.

There’s no indication that they were even pursuing Him; even if they had, as John 7:30 says, “So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.”

No, He’s in control of the situation, and it’s not as though He’s afraid!

The best we could say with this first option is that He just wanted to go the shorter route, perhaps because He did not like the tension between the Jews and the Samaritans and thought it a waste of time to go the long way around.

The second option is that it was necessary because God willed it to be so.

Throughout this Gospel, we see Jesus saying that He is following His Father’s will.

He knew when His hour would be, for instance, as He said to His mother in John 2:4.

He knew there would eventually be work in Samaria, as we see in the Book of Acts, and He may have also knew that there was a woman and a town there ready to hear His message.

While the Jews may have despised these people, and vice versa, He is coming and will make all things new.

Of course, the second option doesn’t preclude the first option.

God arranges all circumstances in our lives, and we may find ourselves in unexpected places.

Even so, we may find an opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ wherever we find ourselves, and even if that person rejects the message, we can honestly say it was a divinely appointed moment.

Jesus is making disciples as He goes.

Now with Samaria as a backdrop, there is an added layer of tension with this account.

Antipathy exists between the Jews and the Samaritans, with each despising the other.

As a result, Jews preferred to avoid Samaria on journeys, and the Samaritans preferred it that way.

What may have caused this?

To answer this, we would have to go back several hundred years.

We could go back even further than that to the time of the patriarchs, when Jacob himself walked through this area, but let us first consider the time of the Divided Kingdom.

Remember that, after King Solomon died, the Kingdom of Israel split in half.

The godly Israelites moved or remained in the south, while the ungodly Yankees remained in the north (some things don’t change).

As the northern kingdom continued in spiritual decline, God sent prophets warning of coming judgment.

With those warnings ignored, God allowed the Assyrians to capture the people in 722 bc, and this is all recorded in 2 Kings 17.