Gospel Project Unit 21 Session 3 Samaritan Woman

Big Picture Question

Who did Jesus say He is? Jesus said He is the Messiah.

Tonight we are going to hear a story about Jesus and a woman who was an outsider. She was a Samaritan. She was part of a group of people who the Jews did not like. And Jesus was a Jew.

So, as Jesus meets this woman how will he treat her? Will he treat her bad because she is a Samaritan?

In our video we will learn what the Bible says about how Jesus treated this woman and what he said to her.

The story is called Jesus Met a Samaritan Woman, or The Woman at the Well. It is found in the Bible in John 4:1-42

Play Video

Lesson - Jesus Met a Samaritan Woman

As we just saw in our video, Jesus was traveling and was tired and thirsty. His disciples had gone into the town to buy food, but Jesus stayed outside of the town by the well.

A woman came to get water while Jesus was there. She was a Samaritan woman. The Jews and the Samaritans did not like each other.

Ask:

So how did Jesus treat this woman?

Jesus asked her for a drink.

Ask:

Why didn’t he just get a drink himself?

The water was in a well, you had to drop a bucket down into the well and bring it up - it was difficult to get water…you had to have a rope and a bucket, Jesus did not have either.

Ask:

How did she respond?

She was confused - why was He, a Jew, asking her, a Samaritan for water?

She only saw Jesus as just another Jew. Just another Jew who hated her because she was a Samaritan. But as we saw in the video, Jesus did not hate her.

Jesus told her that if she knew who he was, knew him for who he really was not just a Jew, that she would have asked him for a drink, a drink of living water!

She wanted what Jesus offered so that she would never be thirsty and never have to come and do the hard work of drawing water.

She did not understand what Jesus was offering her and was only thinking of actual water. She did not yet understand who Jesus was.

So Jesus exposed her sin - five husbands. He knew things about her that he should not have known.

She thought Jesus was a prophet. She still did not undersand who Jesus was, but she was getting closer.

Thinking he was a prophet, and wanting to turn the conversation away from her sin, she asked Jesus where the right place to worship was, because of the conflict between Jews and Samaritans, she wanted to know who was right, the Jews, or her people, the Samaritans.

Jesus told her that the day is coming when true worshipers will Worship in Spirit and truth

She responded that she knew that the Messiah will come…Other prophets had prophesied that the Messiah would come.

She saw Jesus as a Prophet and thought he was simply prophesying that the Messiah would come. She still did not understand who Jesus was.

Ask:

Does anyone remember how Jesus responded to her at this point? What did Jesus tell her, who did he say that he was?

John 4:26 ESV

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Jesus said - I am he...

Ask:

What did Jesus mean? Who did Jesus say he was?

Jesus was saying that He was the Messiah. He was the one that the Prophets said would come. He was the one who would bring in the time when true worshipers would worship in Spirit and Truth.

Jesus had not been offering the woman physical water, but living water, water that would give her eternal life.

Water is necessary for life. We need water or we will die. Jesus was showing this woman that she needed a Savior. Just like we need water to live physically, we need Jesus to live spiritually and eternally.

The woman at the well did not realize that she needed a savior. She was religious and even asked Jesus where the right place to worship was. The reality was that she was a sinner and needed a savior.

Jesus was that savior and rather than hating her because she was a Samaritan woman, he offered her “living water” so that she would never thirst again. He offered her salvation and a true knowledge of God through Himself.

So, are you like the woman at the well? You come to church and learn about God through his Scriptures. You also are sinners? You do not always do what is right.

Have you received the “living water” that Jesus offers? Do you understand what that “living water” really is? Do you truly know Jesus. Do you know Jesus as the Messiah?

If you do, then do like the Samaritan woman did, go and tell others about Jesus.

If you don’t really know who Jesus is, He is the Messiah, the saviour that you need because of your sin. If you don’t know Jesus, then pray that God would make Jesus known to you, repent of your sins, turning to Jesus and he will give you Living Water!

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.