John 4

A Tales of Two Cities and One Gospel with the Holy Ghost

John 4:1–6 NASB95

1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 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.

Verses 1-3

Jesus is being very sensitive to the Pharisees because they are evidently watching Him very closely.

Why do you think Jesus isn’t baptizing people?

To avoid any of the Pharisees trying to cause entice conflicts or comparisons with JtB ministry and Jesus’s, Jesus and His disciples moved on north from Jerusalem.

Verses 4-6

Verse 4 says that “He had to pass through Samaria,” but we know the common route would have allowed them no to set foot on Samarian soil.

Why do you think He HAD to go through Samaria?

This was the leading of the Holy Spirit. Jesus followed the Holy Spirit in making the decision to take the route that He likely was urged by disciples not to take. Through this decision Jesus is walking into a potential confrontation because of the hostility between Jews and Samaritans. He sits at the well, probably under a midday sun hot, tired and thirsty for physical water.

John 4:7–30 NASB95

7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 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.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 “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. 24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 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.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” 27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

Verses 7-9

Up comes a woman that is likely an outcast based on the facts that she is alone and getting water at such a hot time of the day. And, later we will be able to glean this could be a result her relationship choices.

Jesus sees her and ask her for a drink of water. This is odd because a man is speaking to a woman and it’s odd because a Jew is speaking to a Samaritan and she calls Him on it. But she does not get Him water she questions behavior.

Do we balk when Jesus asks us to do something?

Verses 10-12

Jesus wasted no time jumping straight to the heart of the issue: He tells her of the living water that He offers. Her confusion is understandable since she had no reason to follow it from physical to spiritual. We hear Jesus refer to Himself at times as the Bread of Life but He never refers to Himself as the Living Water; that is the Holy Spirit.

The woman then begins to show her intelligence and links the well to the digger to emphasize her people’s (the Samaritans) connection to the patriarchs.

Holman New Testament Commentary: John A. Demonstration of Gospel Witness (4:1–26)

Boice provides an interesting comparison between Nicodemus of chapter 3 and the Samaritan woman of chapter 4. Here is an abbreviated look at those similarities:

• Both thought they were spiritually secure.

• Both were crudely literal or materialistic in their reaction to Jesus’ spiritual teaching.

• Both were spiritually empty and sensed the need for God.

• Both were spiritually lost, and that was the root of all their other problems (Boice, I, pp. 335–37).

Verses 13-15

The water Jesus talks about is enticing to the woman because she seems to think she will no longer have to work for her physical water. Jeremiah addresses this in

Jeremiah 2:13 NASB95

13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.

Jeremiah

Do we try to drink out of broken cisterns? How? Why?

Take aways from

If the Holy Spirit is leading you in an uncomfortable direction follow. Jesus did and this allowed Him to bring the to a city that needed it!