Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus had one divine appointment in Jerusalem with the teacher Nicodemus.

Jesus was about to have an encounter with someone totally different.

Someone on the other range of the scale.

John 4:1–4 (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.

Pressure was mounting.

Jesus knew his mission.

Judea was where the Pharisees were.

Jesus knew the endgame which was the cross.

there was also the timing of the cross.

there was yet a road that must be taken before the day came.

While the Pharisees were trying to figure out what they were going to do, Jesus was in perfect control throughout.

But Jesus would be careful.

He would spend the majority of His ministry working in the Galilean area.

the times he did go to Jerusalem Jesus met hostility from the Pharisees.

Samaria was the central region of Palestine between Judaea and Galilee.

It was not generally the area or route by which Jews would travel between Galilee and Judea.

the route normally taken would be to travel east cross the Jordan and travel south and back over to arrive a Jerusalem.

In Short Samaria was not a friendly territory for the Jews.

but here we find Jesus travelling through.

this would not be the only hostile place that Jesus would visit.

What we will find is that Jesus does operated outside of the cultural setting.

Not only was he Samaria, where Jews do not usually pass through, but speaking to a Samaritan and especially a Samaritan woman was not an accepted practice among the Jews.

Hours were counted from 6am to 6pm.

Water would be normally drawn in the morning or in the evening when it was cool but this woman appears to be wanting to stay to herself visiting the well when no one else was there, it was noon day. the woman would be shocked by this incident.

A Jew would never use anything that was even touched by a Samaritans hand.

He would avoid the woman.

He would go thirsty before accepting anything from her.

But none the less this Rabbi spoke to her.

Side note: How did she know that he was a Rabbi?

A Rabbinic law of A.D. 66 stated that Samaritan women were considered as continually menstruating and thus unclean.

Therefore a Jew who drank from a Samaritan woman’s vessel would become ceremonially unclean.

John 4:10 (NASB95) — 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.”

4:10.

Having captured her attention and stimulated her curiosity, Jesus then spoke an enigmatic saying to cause her to think.

It was as if He had said, “Your shock would be infinitely greater if you really knew who I am.

You—not I—would be asking!”

Three things would have provoked her thinking: (1) Who is He? (2) What is the gift of God? (3) What is living water?

“Living water” in one sense is running water, but in another sense it is the Holy Spirit (Jer.

2:13; Zech.

14:8; John 7:38–39).

If you knew who I was you would be shocked and amaze.

I wonder how many God sightings that we pass by unknowingly and do not realize that the Lord was reaching out to us.

I like this.

Jesus draws in the conversation.

Jesus does not just jump on the gospel.

But he draws the woman into the conversation by provoking her curiosity.

What Jesus says would provoke three questions

Who are you?

What is the Gift of God?

What is the living water?