JOHN 4 NOTES/LESSONS

V1 - Jesus learned that the Pharisees knew He was making and baptizing more disciples. (Jesus was becoming greater and John lesser just as John said.) Jesus departed for Galilee (V3) because His popularity might cause the Pharisee to come after Him prematurely. Jesus’ time had not come yet. V2 - (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples) This is a puzzling statement but one possibility is that Jesus did not want people to become prideful or think they were superior because of who baptized them. (Which is very likely.) We see this in John’s disciples who told Him that Jesus was baptizing more people back in chapter 3, to which John responds telling them “he must increase and I must decrease.”

“I was baptized by:” Growing up I remember hear adults talking about who they were baptized by. Sometimes it was just for reference but sometimes if it was by a well known preacher it seemed to be “more significant” when it absolutely does not matter.

Something the Apostle Paul stated to the Corinthians church offers a possible explanation to why Jesus did not baptize. 1 Corinthians 1:14 records Paul saying that He was glad that he did not baptize any of them expect a few so that they could not say they were baptized in His name. We are baptized in the name of Jesus but we do not need to think we are superior but be “in humility, consider other greater than ourselves.” App: BEING LIKE CHRIST MEANS FINDING WAYS TO SERVE OTHERS NOT FINDING REASONS WE ARE SUPERIOR TO THEM. We are tempted by the enemy to find reasons to think of ourselves superior to others. If we do then our pride grows and how much we need to grow shrinks. When we think “I’m doing better than so and so, we do not think like Christ who tells us to “be Holy as your heavenly Father is perfect” which calls us, motivates is to grow!When we see ourselves as superior we find reasons that we are to good to serve others. When we see ourselves as servants we find ways to serve others out of love. The Apostles thought they were superior to one another and and argued over it. JESUS TAUGHT THEM HIS ACTIONS TO SEE THEMSELVES AS SERVANTS TO EACH OTHER NOT BETTER THAN ONE ANOTHER.

INTRO: Greeting - So good to be here with you. Our study of John has been such a blessing hasn’t it? Studying John 4 this week has been incredible! I’m excited about this lesson and I have felt a little overwhelmed because there is so much in this chapter, so much depth. I want to talk about all of it; the woman at the well and the healing of the official’s son. But we would be here for well over an hour. But I got so wrapped up in the incredible interaction between Jesus and the woman at the well that I couldn’t get beyond all the lessons in it. So let’s get right to it. If I were to give this lesson a title it would be: THROUGH THE EYES OF THE SAVIOR! GOOD TO TRY TO SEE THINGS FROM SOMEONE ELSE’s PERSPECTIVE. You can gain a lot of understanding depending on who it is and what their perspective is! We have to be careful whose perspective we let color our understanding. It’s easy to have a skewed or incomplete perspective because of the lens that we see things through. We may put on the wrong lens or we may allow others to put a clouded lens on us. We go through life with people and other influences that potentially put a particular lens or view of the things of life on us. Everything from people, parents, friends, TV, social media.

HAVE YOU HEAR OF SEEING THINGS THROUGH ROSES COLORED GLASSES? In premarital counseling this is often talked about. It is see the relationship and future marriage thru the “rose colored” lens that views everything as being wonderful all the time. So it leads to unrealistic expectations and disappointment. This could be call “Idealistic distortion.” Sometimes this happens

This is tricky because you do not want to get them to take off the rose colored glasses only to put on them dark colored lens that would lead to expecting it to be horrible. What we want in this and everything in life is a clear perspective without any distorted, dirty or skewed lens. We choose to allow lens to be put on us.

HOW CAN WE HAVE A CLEAR VIEW OF LIFE, PEOPLE, SITUATIONS AND THE WORLD? By seeking to see THROUGH THE EYES OF the only One whose perspective was perfect! Jesus’ perspective was crystal clear because He saw everything through the Eyes of His Father. AS WE ARE ABOUT TO SEE JESUS SAW EVERY PERSON, SITUATION, INTENTION WITH A CLARITY THAT CAME FROM NOT ONLY SEEING THE SURFACE OF THE PHYSICAL BUT THE UNDERLYING SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS OF ALL OF IT. WHAT LED UP TO JESUS GOING THROUGH SAMARIA!

John 4:1–3 ESVNow 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.

V1 - Jesus learned that the Pharisees knew He was making and baptizing more disciples. (Jesus was becoming greater and John lesser just as John said.) Jesus departed for Galilee (V3) because His popularity might cause the Pharisee to come after Him prematurely. Jesus’ time had not come yet. V4 JESUS HAD TO PASS THROUGH SAMARIA!

John 4:4 ESVAnd he had to pass through Samaria.

There were two or three possible routes between Jerusalem and Galilee. The shortest route was through Samaria. Jesus had to pass through Samaria not because it was the only route but because, for one reason it was the fastest way and to avoid it would have required that Jesus have the barriers or prejudice and hatred in His heart that many other Jews did that would cause Him to avoid it.More importantly this phrase “Jesus had to pass through Samaria” reveals that it was where the Father was leading Him through the Spirit because God had a mission and meeting for Him in Samaria. IT WAS A MORAL OBLIGATION! This is evidenced by the statement Jesus makes later to His disciples about how His food was to do the will of His Father in heaven. (V34) He came to do God’s will! (The initial reason Jesus was traveling was to stay away from the Pharisees because “it was not yet His time.”) However, their was a greater reason that Jesus had to go through Samaria. (GOD WORKED THROUGH THE SURFACE REASON, FOR A GREATER REASON.)

John 4:5–6 ESVSo he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 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.

ON the surface this looks like a “pit stop” for food and rest. But there is greater reason. There is a reason Jesus is there at this moment and as we will see, there is a reason that He stayed at the well (even though His disciples went to get food).

John 4:7 ESVA woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

The meeting of the Jesus and the woman at the well would look on the surface like a chance meeting but through faith we SEE that it was a planned meeting by God who was bringing together a thirsty soul and the only One who could give living water! We often see our daily routines and lives are just about the routines and things we are doing just living our lives. Jesus saw beyond the surface of just traveling through Samaria to get to Galilee. WHEN WE SEEK TO SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF JESUS WE CAN LOOK BEYOND THE SURFACE OF OUR DAILY LIVES TO SEE GOD’S DO AMAZING THINGS! God had a greater purpose for Jesus go through Samaria and there there was a greater reason for Jesus to stop their than just a “pit stop” to get food and rest. Jesus wasn’t just going to sit at the well to rest as He was tired and thirsty, He was there to meet someone who was spiritually thirsty and exhausted from trying to drink from the wrong wells. DO WE SEE OUR LIVES AND DAILY JOURNEY THROUGH THE SPIRITUAL EYES OF FAITH THAT ALLOW FOR US TO SEE BEYOND THE SURFACE OF THE PHYSICAL AND INTO THE SPIRITUAL WORK AND WILL OF GOD? Do we believe that God still providentially works within the routines and routes we take in our lives and even in our daily activities to match up those who know the giver of the water of life to the thirsty who need more than anything just like this woman to meet Him? If we do, we might be surprised at what God puts in our paths. Imagine how our perspectives would chance if we saw life this way? If WE TOOK OFF THE CLOUDED LENS OF THE URGENT AND WHAT THE WORLD SAYS IS IMPORTANT! If we opened our eyes in faith to the fact that God is working behind the scenes to prepare work for us to do? Are there any barriers in our hearts that are leading us around those who God wants us come in contact with? Do we IN faith to see our interactions as divinely purposed? V6 JESUS WAS TIRED AND THIRSTY

John 4:6 ESVJacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

There is a great significance to Jacob’s well! I’m not sure we will have time to get into it. (There is so much here behind the scenes and statements. Later The Samaritan woman is going to reference Jacob as there father. This hints to who they took pride it. VERSE 6 is a comforting verse isn’t it? Some of you understand what I’m saying. “Jesus, as wearied as He was from His journey, was sitting beside the well” at about noon. It is wonderful to see that Jesus was weary. (Now this is just a fact to point out the surface reason as to why He was at the well, but it illustrates that Jesus grew weary as we get. But it also demonstrates that JESUS’ WEARINESS AND PHYSICAL WEAKNESS DID NOT HINDER GOD’S WORK! in fact God used it in a way to bring about the greater reason Jesus was there.)

Are you weary from your journey? (In your life or the week or the work God has given you to do?) Jesus knows exactly how you feel! He experienced being tired and hungry and thirsty! His example here also shows that the weariness did not hinder God’s plan. God is very good at being strong when we are weak. The weariness He experienced was all worth it to fulfill the mission that God sent Him there for. If Jesus got tired, we will too. And if Jesus needed to rest, we do to! And if God can work despite Jesus’ weariness and even through it, He can do the same in us! BUT...

Sometimes we work so hard and keep going when we need to rest as if God cannot work if we stop. God worked here while Jesus was resting. Jesus did all that He did while regularly resting. Jesus is about to do great things in the middle of resting! Trans: Jesus is about to cross lines and break through barriers, all while sitting still as if they are not there because they weren’t there in His heart. Vv7-9 Jesus sees the Samaritan woman through eyes of a loving savior.

John 4:7–9 ESVA woman from 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.) 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.)

ON THE SURFACE WE MIGHT NOT PICK UP ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE AND ALL THAT IS WRAPPED UP IN HIS QUESTION AND HER STATEMENT! JESUS’ STATEMENT SOUNDS SIMPLE BUT IT IS THE MOST BRILLIANT THING THAT JESUS COULD HAVE SAID: BECAUSE…IT GOT HER ATTENTION, IT SETS UP FOR HIS OFFER BUT ALSO…HE WAS BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEM. JESUS IS BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN HIMSELF AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN. Jesus is doing a bold thing just by asking for a drink of water. It is hard for us to get this but the surprise of the woman shows just how uncommon what Jesus was doing was. At first she is surprised because she sees their interaction through the lens of what the culture said about what their relationship to one another should be! (later Jesus disciples would come back and be surprised because they wore the same lens. Jesus was the only one who wasn’t surprised.)

PEOPLE WILL BE SURPRISED WHEN YOU TREAT PEOPLE as God would have you too rather than what everyone else thinks THEY DESERVE.

Her reply revealed the LENS THAT MANY HAD PUT ON THEM toward one another. THE JEWS AND SAMARITANS WERE NOT BORN WITH THESE VIEWS TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER. THE LENS HAD BEEN PUT ON THEM BY OTHERS.Her reply ALSO reveals two lines that Jesus was crossing. These lines were not drawn recently or for the sake of manners but were built on perceived superiority, prejudice, pride, self-righteousness and even hatred that was centuries old. Notice: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.)” THERE SO MUCH WRAPPED UP IN THIS STATEMENT: The Jews considered themselves superior to Samaritans, hated them and would not even associate with them. “The Samaritans were a mixed race, part Jew and part Gentile, that grew out of the Assyrian captivity of the ten northern tribes in 727 B.C. Rejected by the Jews because they could not prove their genealogy, the Samaritans established their own temple and religious services on Mt. Gerizim” (Wiersbe) (1) He spoke with a SAMARITAN (whom the Jews hated and saw them as dogs.) (breaking the norm of prejudice and hatred of the day based on race)(2) spoke to a woman (breaking the social norm of sexism of that day), (3) and a sinner (whom many Jews did not associate with because of their norm of self-righteousness and favoritism.) Jesus walked across these lines with the complete disregard that they deserved. Just because the lines and barriers were in the minds of others does not mean that they were HIS. Jesus regularly crossed lines that had been drawn between people based on prejudices, social status, economic differences, perceive religious superiority! JESUS DID THIS ALWAYS BECAUSE IT WAS WHO HE WAS! HE TREATED EVERYONE THE WAY THEY SHOULD BE TREATED, NOT ACCORDING TO WHAT OTHERS THOUGHT, SAID OR EXPECTED OR TOLD HIM. (NOT THROUGH THE LENS OTHERS WERE WEARING)Like Zacchaeus who Jesus invited Himself to eat with which made the people grumbled because he was a tax collector and sinner. (People may grumble when you treat others the way God want, not according to what they have done.) Like when the “sinful woman” came and washed Jesus feet with her tears and hair. Those who were there besides Jesus only saw a sinner. Jesus saw a woman (made in God’s image and loved by Him) who was overcome with godly sorrow, repentance and love. He treated people they way God would have us treated people because He did not wear the lens that everyone else was wearing. WE CAN SEE HOW MUCH HE LOVED HER WITH HIS NEXT STATEMENT:

John 4:10 ESVJesus 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.”

While she does not understand this first we know this lead to her coming to believe that Jesus was the Messiah! He offered a women who everyone saw as unworthy the greatest gift because HE SAW HER THROUGH THE LOVING EYES OF THE FATHER. TRANS: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS INTERACTIONS? HOW WE NEED TO SEE AND INTERACT WITH OTHERS? WHEN WE SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF CHRIST WE CAN LOVE OTHERS LIKE CHRISTWE NEED TO ASK THIS BECAUSE WE REALLY NEED TO KNOW RIGHT NOW. IF WE WANT TO KNOW HOW TO OVERCOME DIVISION, HATRED, CULTURAL BARRIERS - LOOK AT THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS! FIRST, WE NEED SEEK TO TAKE OFF THE CLOUDED LENS THAT WE HAVE ALLOWED OTHERS TO EXPECT US TO WEAR! SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF JESUS! What our world, the church and perhaps even some of us needs is to take off the clouded, scratched and dirty lens that we have allowed others (whether culture, history, family, or any other source) to put on us so that we can see others clearly.WHEN WE SEE CLEARLY WE CAN HELP OTHERS SEE CLEARLY! If you are seeing clearly help others take off the lens through pointing to Jesus. Trans: if we seek to see through the eyes of ChristTHEN THE BARRIERS WILL BE REMOVED FROM OUR HEARTS When we view others as God does as people made in His image, worth dying for and precious to Him THEN, THEN HEARTS CAN CHANGE AND EVERYTHING WE DO TOWARDS OTHERS WILL BE CHANGED. (Who we talk to, how we talk about others, how we treat others, serve others and reach out to others.)(Like with everything else Jesus did it was not about just about teaching the right actions but what was in the heart that leads right actions toward God and others.) WHILE WE TALK ABOUT JESUS BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS BUT TO JESUS, IN HIS HEART AND MIND THESE BARRIERS AND LINES DID NOT EXIST! Jesus did not have to break something down something that was not present in His heart. HE SAW ALL PEOPLE AS GOD DOES: WITHOUT FAVORITISM BUT WITH LOVE AND OF PRICELESS WORTH. Not through the lens of their past, background, race, gender, position or what everyone else thought about or said about them!He reached out to the tax-collectors, who everyone hated, prostitutes and sinners that others saw themselves better than. BUT JESUS’ NEXT STATEMENT REVEALED GOD’S HEART TOWARD HER!

John 4:10 ESVJesus 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.”

See how Jesus flips the focus of the conversation. (It’s like her saying “how are you even talking to me?” and Jesus saying, “if you understood who I am you would be asking a different question, a question you need to the answer to much more.” “Can I have living water?” In one statement he turn the conversation from the the things that were supposed to divide them and make them hate one another to the THING THAT WOULD UNIT THEM ABOVE ALL ELSE: the truth that had brought them together; Jesus the giver of living water and her spiritual thirst and need for salvation.

Oh how I pray that the conversation in our culture would flip it’s focus to the only one who can make the greatest difference: Jesus Christ!It can be so easy to miss the point now! From conversations, to TV to all the anger that all the fighting on social media there is so much noise! It’s so loud that the most important true either can’t get through or is treated as irrelevant. But the sound of the conversations about Jesus, the greatest example and answer is more along the lines of a whisper. At times and in many conversations it’s so silent that you could hear a pin drop!

The conversation needs to be flipped to the only one who ever lived who treated everyone the way the should be treated. But even more than that OUR CONVERSATIONS NEED TO POINT PEOPLE TO THE ONLY ONE THAT SAVE THEM! Jesus flips the conversation to point to Himself as the Messiah and offers her the greatest gift ever offered anyone: living water which we know comes with salvation does!THE MESSAGES OF THIS TEXT IS THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH AND HE IS THE ONE WHO CAN GIVE LIVING WATER AND SALVATION! (We can learn from the examples of how Jesus treated others and we need to or we will avoid those whom WE NEED TO POINT TO HIM!)BUT THE POINT IS THAT JESUS IS THE ONLY SAVIOR AND THE FIELDS ARE WHITE TO HARVEST! (IF WE SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF CHRIST WE CAN SEE IT!) WHEN WE SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF CHRIST WE SEE SPIRITUAL OVER THE PHYSICAL

John 4:15 ESVThe woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

V15 - The Samaritan woman did not understand the meaning of what Jesus was offering her. She was mixing up the physical with the spiritual. Would having “Living Water” keep her from coming to the well to draw water? Or quench her physical thirst forever? No! It’s easy to see how she was mistaken from this side of the story. We may not make this mistake but we do mistake a spiritual hunger for the want for the physical. Jesus was not talking about physical thirst He was talking about spiritual thirst. He was touching on what this woman (and each of us) need most but also struggle with. TRYING TO QUENCH our spiritual need with physical wants. Like the Samaritan woman people try to find fulfillment (and the enemy offers it as a better option) in everything the world can offer for filling in the gap in our hearts.

John 4:16–18 ESVJesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 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.”

Perhaps this woman tried to fill her spiritual hunger with fulfillment through relationships. (Sometimes relationships deteriorate because they cannot take the weight of being complete fulfillment for one of the people in it. So the one seeking to be completely fulfilled with a relationship will try relationship after relationship thinking the next one will work.) Why would Jesus bring this up? (1) To show her further that He was from God. But if God’s love for her did not depend on her past mistakes? It is because Christ loved her that He brought it up because her sin was what was standing in the way of Her being saved. Even though there is so much more to their conversation the culmination of it is...

John 4:28–29 ESVSo the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

The woman left her water jar in her excitement in finding Christ! She forgot or either postponed the reason she came to fill her physical need because of the greater reason she left to tell others about!At the beginning of the conversation she could not understand the spiritual offer Jesus was making because she was stuck in a physical mindset. At the end of the conversation she got so wrapped up in the spiritual implications of meeting Jesus that the physical need she came for was either forgotten about or made of little to no importance!When we find the one who can give us living water, we can forget or see as much less important the “water jars” of physical things we have been try to fill to quench our spiritual thirst with. WHAT “WATER JARS” DO WE NEED TO LEAVE BEHIND? What if we got so caught up in what we have found in Christ that we often forget the water jars or the physical things that we to often run after to try to fill us. DO WE NEED TO forget the physical things, the temporary fixes that we have to keep coming back to over and over again like that well because we have found Christ. (The woman would have to come back to the well but she did not have to go back to the sin that she had been living in. We do not have to go back to anything physical that we have been trying to fill our spiritual thirst with!)Jesus gives us the example as well of having His mindset and mission of such a prominent place in His heart and mind that the physical need for food even was unimportant because the spiritual food He was receiving was filling Him. Jesus was so focused on the spiritual mission that He was carrying out that He was not as concerned or temporarily unconcerned with the physical food that the disciples had brought back. He said His food is to do the will of His Father in heaven. He was being filled with the spiritual food of doing Gods will and work.trans: when we see through the eyes of Christ...We could come to realize and experience how filling it is to do Gods work for us individually even, we would not neglect it because we are chasing after the temporary in thinking it is more. The woman wasn’t worried about her water jar. Jesus wasn’t worried about the food they brought. My food is to do the will of Him who sent me! That’s what filled Him spiritually. (Maybe one reason that we don’t feel spiritually filled at times is because we are experiencing God work though us.) Maybe it is because God is not filling us as a vessel for His use because we are not clean on the inside. 2 Tim 2:20-22 says if we cleanse ourselves of what is impure God will use us for honorable things. We might feel empty like a cup that doesn’t get filled to be used for the purpose it was designed for because we need to be cleaned on the inside.Do we see people’s lives through the lens of the world with all its labels and baggage, or with the eyes of God that sees their worth and spiritual state over anything else.Do we see our own lives through the lens of our physical wants as needs first or through the will and work that God has given for us to do?