The Woman at the Well

The Woman at the Well

John 4:1-30

i. The Drama Between Jews and Samaritans

The Assyrian King Esarhaddon grew the empire in part by mixing people groups within cities so they would merge culturally and ethnically, making their convictions weaker and their uprisings less frequent.

The Jews were commanded not to intermarry with other people groups to protect against idol worship, but some of the Jews in Samaria married outside of their Jewish bloodlines.

When the Jews were freed from the Assyrian Captivity, they returned to rebuild the Temple but did not allow Samaritans to participate because they were “compromised”.

Since the Samaritans were rejected by the Jews, they built their own temple on Mount Gerizim and wrote their own copies of the Pentateuch/Torah.

The Jews considered the Samaritans to be ethnically impure and spiritually impure for these reasons, and would actually take a longer route when traveling to avoid even entering one of the towns of the Samaritans.

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Read and Pray

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In this passage, Jesus provides an excellent example of what we sometimes call evangelism. Evangelism is simply telling someone the Good News of the Gospel. Another way to put it is to say that we are telling someone about God’s love for sinners, His plan to send Jesus to take their place, and Jesus’ success as proved by His resurrection.

As I studied the passage this week, there are five observations I made about the way Jesus told this woman about Himself, and I want to share those observations with you. The goal of my sermon today is to better equip you to start Gospel conversations in your everyday life.

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1. Gospel conversations happen when… we are restful.

John 4:6b NASB95

So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Jesus was resting by the well because He was tired. This shows us His true humanity and His willing acceptance of the limitations that it places on Him.

Q: Have you ever considered why God designed Adam to eat and sleep before sin entered the world?

Many of our human limitations are not the result of brokenness, but are intentionally designed to keep us in relationship with God:

When we don’t take care of our physical needs like sleeping and eating, the work we are doing instead (including worrying) testifies that we believe we are better off working in a weakened state than trusting God to make up the difference. How foolish!

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2. Gospel conversations happen when… we find common ground.

John 4:7 NASB95

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

Jesus and the woman had a need for water, so He used their common need to start a conversation about her greater need.

If you pay attention to a person’s words, actions, and appearance you can often find something familiar or in common. That is your entry point to a conversation.

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3. Gospel conversations happen when… we “person” others.

John 4:16–19 NASB95

He 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 correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

Jesus used something in the woman’s personal life to reveal that He knew who she truly was. This captured her attention and deepened her trust in Him.

Remembering a person’s name or situation or noticing a change in their appearance demonstrates that you see them and care enough to think about them. That builds respect and trust, which are really important when you are sharing life-changing truth with someone.

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4. Gospel conversations happen when… we focus on the main thing.

John 4:20–26 NASB95

“Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Jesus doesn’t weigh in much on the debate between the Jews and the Samaritans on which mountain is better to worship on. Instead, He redirects her attention to worshipping God with a right heart, and reveals that He is the Messiah.

When you’re in a Gospel conversation with someone and they get distracted with thoughts about denominations, other religions, or the end times, you should steer the conversation back to the truth of the Bible and emphasis the Gospel.

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5. Gospel conversations happen when… we share our story.

John 4:28–30 NASB95

So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

The woman was so changed by her encounter with Jesus that she was more concerned about bringing others to Him than she was getting the water from the well that she came for!

Q: When is the last time you read something in scripture or saw God at work in your life and you were so amazed that you just HAD to tell someone?

The Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus died for sinners, taking their punishment on Himself, resurrected from the dead to prove that our debt was paid, and offers forgiveness and salvation to anyone who will put their trust in Him alone.

Our testimony to an unbeliever won’t save them, only the Gospel can do that.

Where our story becomes helpful in a Gospel conversation is when we are trying to help someone understand how Jesus changes a person. We aren’t selling anything to them or putting a list of demands on them when we evangelize. We are “beggars telling other beggars where we found some bread.”

Pray