Jesus and the Woman at the Well (part 1)
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John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Jesus is now on his way back Galilee
On his way back Galilee
First, he encounters a woman at a well in Samaria ()
Second, he preaches and teaches to an entire village ().
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria.
John 4:1-
Verse 1
Verse 1
The Pharisees - they learned that Jesus was making more disciples than John the Baptist, and Jesus learned about it - He knew what they knew.
There is mention that Jesus didn’t perform the baptisms, but His disciples performed them.
The point seems to be that Jesus’ main emphasis of ministry was not baptism, his ministry was different than John the Baptist’s ministry.
We don’t know how Jesus learned this about the Pharisees, but from the way this is worded it seems like someone probably simply told Him about it.
This is the only time that it is mentioned that Jesus’ ministry performed water baptism.
Maybe this was the only time it was practiced in Jesus’ ministry.
Or, maybe it was part of his ministry later, but it just wasn’t mentioned.
Verse 2
Verse 2
There are three times that it is stated that Jesus “was baptizing”
john 3:22
After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.
And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”
John 4:1
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
But here, it is stated that Jesus himself did not perform the baptisms, but his disciples performed the baptisms.
The baptisms were performed under Jesus’ authority and as a part of his ministry.
The baptisms were performed under Jesus’ authority and as a part of his ministry.
The point is that baptism was not the core of Jesus’ ministry, like it was for John the Baptist.
Verse 3
Verse 3
The entire time spent in Samaria is two days, although it might seem like it was longer.
So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.
Joh
After the two days he departed for Galilee.
And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Verse 4
Verse 4
And he had to pass through Samaria.
Why was it necessary?
Why was it necessary?
Was it because God, the Father, directed Jesus to pass through Samaria to bring these people the Gospel?
Or, was it simply because it was the quickest route, and saved time?
Was it because God, the Father, directed Jesus to pass through Samaria to bring these people the Gospel?
Or, was it simply because it was the quickest route, and saved time?
It might have even been something that people said about the route they took — A Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote: “Samaria was now under Roman rule, and for rabid travel it was essential to take that route, by which Jerusalem may be reached in three days from Galilee.”
It might have even been something that people said about the route they took — A Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote: “Samaria was now under Roman rule, and for rabid travel it was essential to take that route, by which Jerusalem may be reached in three days from Galilee.”
Verse 5
Verse 5
The first people to read this probably didn’t know much about Samaria, or this city.
The city of Sychar is near Sychar, the capital city of Samaria.
We learn that the field Jacob had given to his son, Joseph, is here.
Verse 6&7
Verse 6&7
Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
Verse 6
John 4:7
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
Unlike Nicodemus, just before this story in chapter 3, this woman didn’t come looking for Jesus. She was looking for water.
Unlike Nicodemus, just before this story in chapter 3, this woman didn’t come looking for Jesus. She was looking for water.
Was Jesus abrupt?
Jesus, without any introduction says, “Give me a drink.”
He doesn’t even say, “Please.”
Yet, some similar words in the Old Testament, when Abraham’s servant met Rebekah, would later marry Jacob.
Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water to drink from your jar.”
Well, at least the servant did say, “Please.” But, he didn’t introduce himself, or explain what he was doing, which is probably what we would have done. He just asks, politely, for a drink of water.
This is Jacob’s well.
Like the servant in the story, Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water.
Is history repeating itself?
Jesus was introduced as a bridegroom in chapter 3.
The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.
This may be Jacob’s well, and Jesus’ words may be similar to the words of the servant who sought a bride for Jacob, but this woman is no Rebekah: she is neither a bride nor a virgin.
Verse 8
Verse 8
(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
They were completely alone.
The culture frowned on men who had a long conversation with a woman.
Using a vessel that had been handled by a Samaritan would make it impure to a Jewish person.
Drinking from a jar that had been handled by the woman, who it turns out was quite impure, would have been a problem of ritual purity.
Verse 9
Verse 9
The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Usually Jesus is said to be opposed to the Jews, or the Jews are opposed to Jesus, but here, the Samaritan woman identifies Jesus as a Jew. That’s because he is a Jew.
Ironically, a few chapters later, the Jewish leaders call Jesus a Samaritan.
The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
Both times Jesus is seen as the outsider.
Verse 10
Verse 10
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
Jesus seems almost playful here - “Oh, so, I am a Jew, am I? You think you know who I really am?”
“If you knew” … If you only knew.
Actually, Jesus points out two things the woman doesn’t know:
First, there was a gift that she could receive from him, and he was ready to give it to her.
Second, she doesn’t really know his true identity.
As those who are reading the Gospel of John, however, we know these things.
The gift is Jesus - “For God so love the world that He gave his one and only Son”
We know Jesus is the one and only Son of God.
The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
Verse 11
Verse 11
The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
Verse 11
Verse 11
The woman is thinking literally - she’s thinking of physical water. She mentions the fact that Jesus has nothing to hold water from the well.
Jesus is thinking of a very different kind of water.
Jesus is thinking of a very different kind of water.
Verse 12
Verse 12
Verse 12
Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
The woman does not realize who Jesus is.
The reader should recognize that Jesus is greater than Jacob, and even greater than Abraham.
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Verse 13
Verse 13
joh 13-14
Jesus explains that the “living water” (vs 10) is not from Jacob’s well.
The water from Jacob’s well will satisfy thirst only temporarily.
The “living water” (vs. 10) will quench thirst permanently.
“The living water” is:
“a spring of water” within the believer “welling up to eternal life”.
The “spring of water” is not “eternal life” but is a “gift of God” (vs. 10), the Holy Spirit.
Why say this gift is the Holy Spirit?
Joh 7:4
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John the Baptist had promised that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit
John the Baptist had promised that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit
I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
joh
John the Baptist had promised that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit
I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, Jesus had spoken of being born of the “water and Spirit”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Put this all together
Here in Jesus spoke of how the water he gives, the “living water” (4:10) will “a spring of water welling up to eternal life”.
In Jesus spoke of how when a person believes in Him, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
In , John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with water and the Holy Spirit.
In , Jesus told Nicodemus that “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”
The living water is the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Assurance is given to the woman that is not given to Nicodemus: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again” (4:13)
Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews.
The woman wasn’t even a Jew.
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Without even understanding what Jesus is saying, the woman says she wants whatever it is that Jesus is offering to her.
She’s probably still thinking that Jesus is talking about physical water.
Her desire seems to be that she won’t have to come to the well again to get water.
She doesn’t understand that Jesus is talking about a different kind of water.
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
Joh 4:16
Jesus acts like a missionary here.
He wants salvation to come to households, not just individuals.
In the next few verses we will learn that the woman has no husband, and that Jesus knew this all allong.
Jesus desire, then, seems to be to bring not just this woman’s household to salvation, but the entire community. The whole town.
The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
There, Jesus knew it all along.
for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
The woman is amazed.
She doesn’t seem to feel convicted of her sin.
She is amazed that Jesus knows this.
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
Verse 19
The woman is correct in recognizing Jesus as a prophet, but, of course, He is far more.
The woman is not quite sure if Samaritans should accept Jesus as a prophet, so she presents Jesus with a question to see if Jesus is only for the Jews or also for the Samaritans.
The mountain she speaks about had a temple on it before this time, but it was destroyed (Josephus, Antiquities 11:321-24).
A ruler named John Hyrcanus around 128 BC.
At this time there was no temple on Mount Gerizim.
Jerusalem had a mountain with an actual temple on it at this time.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
These first words of Jesus, in answer to the woman, seem like He’s not taking sides, whether the Jews or the Samaritans are better.
Two things to notice here:
Jesus promises that Samaritans will worship the true God in true worship. She is a non-Jew.
This is the first time in John’s Gospel that Jesus refers to God as “the Father.”
Samaritans will worship the Father.
Readers understand, but the woman doesn’t understand all this.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Verse 22
Verse 22
Jesus does take a stand that the Jewish people are the ones in the right.
Samaritans worship a God they don’t know.
Salvation is “from the Jews”
Ironically, there are times when Jesus says that the Jews don’t know God either: , , ; ; .
To clarify what Jesus is saying, consider that salvation is from the Jews.
The woman had said Jesus was a Jew ().
Jesus is a Jew.
But, salvation is for the whole world.
Jesus nowhere says that to receive eternal life a person must become a Jew.
Verse 23
Verse 23
“the hour is coming and now is”
A time is coming when the dividing of Jew and Samaritan will no longer matter.
worship will be “in spirit and truth”
“grace and truth” () came into being through Jesus
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Verse 23
Verse 23
“Spirit and truth” doesn’t refer to a specific style of worship but to worship that is appropriate to the nature and character of God.
It’s not what the people are doing, but the God they worship, that determines whether it is this kind of worship.
Jesus alone knows the true character of God the Father
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Jesus later says that God is spirit.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Verse 24
Verse 24
This new kind of worship “must” occur.
Just as surely as Jews must worship God in Jerusalem, the time is coming when all who worship God must worship Him in “spirit and truth.”
Who are the true worshippers?
They are the kind God is searching to find.
Born of the spirit.
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
If the Father is seeking them, then so is the Son.
And here he is in Samaria telling this sinful woman all about it.
He is seeking sheep not of the fold.
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Joh
Christians are a new race, neither Jew or Samaritan, who worship God in a new way.
We are Gentiles, at least most of us here are Gentiles.
Even if you a Jewish, this message applies to everyone, Jew or Gentile.
Will you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.
He is seeking you out.
Will you hear His call?
(We will pick up here next week.)