Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Last week we finished off John 3. We were with John the Baptist, and we heard his testimony about who Jesus is.

This all began when John’s disciples came to him because they were concerned with Jesus’ growing ministry.

They saw that people were flocking to him and he was beginning to flourish beyond what John was.

So they asked John why he wasn’t more upset by this.

John’s response was to point to his calling from God.

He reminded his disciples of the fact that he was given the ministry he was by God and that if God wanted to give a greater ministry to another, that belonged entirely to God in his wisdom.

He then showed a second reason why it was important that Jesus’ ministry flourish, even if it was at the expense of his.

He shows this reason by means of an illustration.

He points their attention to a wedding made up of three characters, the bride, the bridegroom and the bridegroom’s friend.

Jesus is the bridegroom, and his people are the bride.

This has obvious Messianic overtones, and calls our minds back to times in the OT where God is referred to as the bridegroom of Israel his people, and their wedding as the inauguration as the new covenant age that was to come.

John, meanwhile, is the bridegroom’s friend.

He was the one who ran the wedding and planned it and basically just made sure the whole event went off without a hitch.

Therefore, to see the bride and the bridegroom coming together at a successful wedding would mean this man had done his job well.

In the same way, John’s mission in life is to see people come to Christ and know him.

If, therefore, Jesus’ ministry is growing, even at the expense of his, this is no loss for John, but actually a sign that things are going well and he is doing what he’s supposed to.

After this we finished with an explanatory note from John the Evangelist to help us see this exchange in light of the whole gospel’s message.

He contrasts Jesus, the one who’s been to heaven and seen all that happens there, with John, the one who only reports about it as an earthling.

And then we are told two things about Jesus’ mission.

Firstly, it’s sanctioned by God.

We see this in vv33-35.

There we are told that the Son’s ministry is blessed by God, and empowered by his Spirit, and is representative of God to the extent that to hear and believe Jesus is functionally the same as hearing and believing God.

But we also hear that despite this, Jesus’ ministry is such that many people who hear from him actually don’t believe.

But, for those who do believe, there is the great promise of eternal life.

Today we are going to look at John 4. We’re going to work on covering the whole chapter in one go.

And it divides mostly into two sections, but we’re going to break it up a bit more.

It basically goes from 4:1-42, which is Jesus in Samaria, and then we have 4:43-54 in which Jesus heals an official’s son.

When we look at it, we’ll break it down slightly more.

We’ll do

4:1-26: Jesus and the Woman at the Well

4:27-42: Jesus and the Samaritans

4:43-54: The Second Sign

4:1-26: Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

So, in v1, Jesus learns that the Pharisees have learned about his growing popularity.

What does he then do in v3?

He leaves and heads to Galilee away from Judea, which was where Jerusalem and a large majority of the Jewish leaders were.

Where does he go through?

(v4)

He goes through a place called Samaria.

What do you know about the relationship between Samaritans (those who live in Samaria) and Jews?

Jews and Samaritans hated one another.

Samaria was where the Northern kingdom of Israel was, and when they were captured by Assyria, a bunch of foreigners were settled in and they got friendly with the locals.

As a result, they ended up with a mixed Jewish race and a religion that was like Judaism but not fully (they only accepted the first 5 books of the Bible as canonical).

The Jews therefore considered them to be half-breeds, and were basically racist towards them, sometimes violently so.

Naturally, this meant that the Samaritans weren’t the biggest fans of the Jews either.

So Jesus ends up at a well with OT significance, and what state is he in when he gets there?

(v6)

He’s tired from the journey.

Interesting, becuase how have we seen Jesus before now?

Everytime we’ve seen him, the point has been made about how exalted he is.

And this is right and true, but we must also never forget the fact that while Jesus is divine, exalted, and supremely powerful, he is also human, with all the frailties of a normal human existence, including tiredness.

Who comes over to him and what does he ask?

(v7)

A Samaritan woman comes over to get water.

Jesus asks her for a drink.

How does the Samaritan woman respond?

(v9)

She is shocked that Jesus would even ask her for a drink.

This is because she is a Samaritan and a woman to boot.

It would have been far below a Jewish man’s station to say anything to a woman, especially a Samaritan woman.

How does Jesus respond?

(v10)

He says that if she knew what was going on, she wouldn’t be upset about him asking and would instead ask him for living water.

What do you understand by the phrase living water?

Like everything in John, it is a phrase with two meanings.

Living water just refers to flowing water, something that would have been highly valued in the desert.

But, with OT in mind, it takes on a whole lot more importance.

Can somebody please read Zechariah 14:8, and somebody else Ezekiel 36:25-27.

In both of these passages, we have water being used as a symbol for God’s goodness and life, as well as the promise that that goodness and life will come to his people and flow out of them, cleansing them from their sins and moving them to honour him (remember what we spoke about with Nicodemus in 3:5).

So Jesus is referring here to the gift of entry into the New Kingdom, which is his to bestow on people, as the living water that cleanes people and opens the way for them.

How does the woman respond in v11-12?

She is basically incredulous, right?

She doesn’t really believe what Jesus is saying to her here.

She thinks he’s still talking about actual physical water.

And she also can’t see how this man she’s just met can think of himself as greater than the patriarch Jacob.

So she thinks Jesus is something of a swindler.

How does Jesus then respond?

(v13-14)

He tells her that everybody who drinks of the water provided at the well will be thirsty again, but everybody who drinks of the water that he gives will never thirst again.

What do you think this means?

Well, remember how we said earlier that the water is a symbol for God and for his sustaining goodness?

Well, that helps us understand how it will be quenched.

The thirst is for God’s presence.

Therefore, the quenching of that thirst must be the providing of God’s presence.

Therefore, we see that Jesus is promising to her life with God if she wants it, and that life with God will become like a spring of living water welling up within her.

But how does she respond?

She still thinks Jesus is talking on the level of literal water.

So she wants him to give her this water so that she can stop needing to come to the well.

How does Jesus respond to this? (v16)

He tells her to call her husband.

Now why do you think he’d ask her to do that?

I can think of two reasons.

The first is to show that he has some kind of supernatural knowledge.

This in turn gives her reason to see that there is something deeper going on, and makes her look at the idea of living water more closely.

Secondly, it shows her what she needs cleansing from.

As we’re going to see, the husband idea is one that is particularly tricky for her.

It’s a place where she has a lot of sin.

And by bringing it up, Jesus is able to point out this area of sin but also take her to the place she needs to go to have that sin healed.

Don’t fail to notice that Jesus is pointing out her greatest sin, and by extension her need for salvation.