Sermon Tone Analysis

If you knew the gift of God

Introduction

9:10 AM

Our theme verse for this message is John 4:10

Jesus had been Baptizing people in the Jordan with John the Baptist in John 3:22

So he had already been baptised by John and received the Holy Spirit.

He had already been tempted in the wilderness.

He had begun his ministry and in John 3:26 Johns disciples said “and all men come to him”

John responds to His disciples saying in John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease”

Then John says two more things in John 3:34

John records and here emphasizes the importance of the Holy Spirit.

Then John says in in John 3:36

John the Baptist is first to describe the the way of salvation - “believe on the son”

What is the gift of God?

It is the grace of salvation, everlasting life as John described it that comes to us through Jesus Christ in Ephesians 2:8-10

Salvation comes by hearing the word, the gospel as it says in Romans 10:13–14

So as Jesus leaves the Jordan with John the Baptist acknowledges that Jesus is the way of salvation and that He is filled with the Holy Spirit (without measure)

Jesus was now on his way to Galilee in John 4:45 but had been to the feast in Jerusalem in John 2:23

and takes this short cut route through Samaria saying in John 4:4

This was the shortest route.

But it also seems that Jesus had a specific prompting by the Holy Spirit to go that way.

4. Describing Jesus’ return to Galilee, the evangelist says, Now he had to go through Samaria.

There were three routes between Jerusalem and Galilee—only one passed through Samaria; the others bypassed it.30

The normal route taken by Jews travelling between Galilee and Jerusalem was through Samaria.

Josephus comments, ‘Samaria was now under Roman rule and, for rapid travel, it was essential to take that route, by which Jerusalem may be reached in three days from Galilee’ (Life 269), and ‘It was the custom at the time of a festival [for Galilean Jews] to pass through the Samaritan territory on their way to the Holy City’ (Antiquities xx.118).

Jesus, then, ‘had to go through Samaria’ because it was the shortest and normal way people travelled between Jerusalem and Galilee.

However, in the light of the narrative that follows (the conversation with the Samaritan woman and the Samaritan townspeople coming to believe in him), Jesus’ need to go through Samaria may have been determined by the divine will as well as geographical factors (34).

And as He came to the well in the city in John 4:6

Jacob’s well is the same well referred to in Genesis 28:22

This is where Jacob met Rachel and watered her flocks.

Sychar is also the site of ancient Shechem, which is located at the entrance to the valley separating the two mountains Gerizim and Ebal in (Deut.

11:26–32; 27:13–28:68).

Jacob bequeathed a piece of land near here to his son Joseph, and it was in this land that Joseph’s bones were laid to rest when the Israelites came up out of Egypt (Gen.

33:19; Josh.

24:32).

While this well is not specifically mentioned in Genesis 26 the Lord appeared to Isaac with this promise

This blessing was fulfilled and in Genesis 26:13–15

Isaac was responsible for the digging of many wells.

So as Jesus sits down by Jacob’s Well in John 4:7

This was not the normal time for women to come and draw water.

This woman was an outcast as we will understand as we read further.

She responds to Jesus request in john 4:9

While there was great history in this place, there was also great division between the Jews and the Samaritans.

And, as this woman says, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans

The Samaritans believed they were the true descendants of Israel and keepers of the Torah.

During the time of the New Testament, their chief religious site was Mount Gerizim.

The Samaritans believed that the Jerusalem temple and priesthood were illegitimate.

After the captivity of Israel, B.C. 721, and in our Lord’s time, the name was applied to a peculiar people whose origin was in this wise: At the final captivity of Israel by Shalmaneser, we may conclude that the cities of Samaria were not merely partially but wholly depopulated of their inhabitants in B.C. 721, and that they remained in this desolated state until, in the words of 2 Kings 17:24, “the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava (Ivah, 2 Kings 18:34), and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.”

Thus the new Samaritans were Assyrians by birth or subjugation.

These strangers, whom we will now assume to have been placed in “the cities of Samaria” by Esar-haddon, were of course idolaters, and worshipped a strange medley of divinities.

God’s displeasure was kindled, and they were annoyed by beasts of prey, which had probably increased to a great extent before their entrance upon the land.

On their explaining their miserable condition to the king of Assyria, he dispatched one of the captive priests to teach them “how they should fear the Lord.”

The priest came accordingly, and henceforth, in the language of the sacred historian they “feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.” 2 Kings 17:41.

This is what it says of them in 2 Kings 17:41

Now our theme verse John 4:10

She is thinking only of the natural water in the well and responds in John 4:11

She is asking “How can you give me water, I can see that you don’t have a bucket to raise water from the well”.

The well of Jacob, is deep, and can still be seen today in the same place though it is not mentioned in the O.T.

It is a cylindrical shaft seven feet in diameter and 106 feet deep driven into the rock and fresh subsoil water at the bottom (like Isaac’s well in Gen. 26:19) ringed by a wall on top.

There are two holes through which a bucket can be lowered (v.

11) and the water lies near the bottom of the shaft.

She then further challenges Jesus in John 4:12

She asks Jesus “Are you greater than Jacob”, certainly Jacob was blessed and this well had been a source of blessing for many generations.

Jesus then shifts the conversation from natural water in John 4:13

and talks to her about everlasting life in John 4:14

This is the message Jesus wanted to deliver to her. and she asks to receive this water in John 4:15

Now, Jesus by a word of knowledge, tells her to call her husband in John 4:16

and she must admit that she isn’t married but is living with a man in John 4:17

Jesus now tells her her life history in John 4:18

and she acknowledges Jesus as a Prophet in John 4:19

Then she says in John 4:20

But Jesus hasn’t said anything about Jerusalem being the place where men ought to worship.

She adds this based on her previous encounters with the Jews.

Jesus now corrects her thinking with truth in John 4:21–24

Sometimes people have misconceptions that they have been taught or because of experiences.

Jesus says “You worship you know not what” and she responds in John 4:25

The Messiah will sort us out when He comes

To which Jesus says in John 4:26

She believes and receives Jesus and then goes to tell everyone in her city, and they also receive Jesus in John 4:42

Through these events, Jesus is showing his disciples what they are to do in john 4:35

The gospel of John goes on to talk about rivers of living water in John 7:38

Rivers of Living Water

Jesus made this proclamation but adds this qualifier in John 7:39

Then after Jesus was raised from the dead, he said in John 20:20-23

Then on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell on them all in Acts 2:4

This fulfills what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4:23-24

After this, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit did not always follow immediately after someone received the gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation.

How is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit Given?

When Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius and his house in Act 11:15

There was no doubt, the Holy Spirit fell on them.

But later, when Philip went to Samaria and preached, the people received the gospel in Acts 8:14–17

Peter and John went there and taught them about the Holy Spirit then laid hands on them to receive and they did.

It was also by the laying on of hands that Paul imparted a gift to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:6

These gifts of the spirit were in full manifestation through Jesus Christ and are described in 1 Corinthians 12:4–12

1 Corinthians 12:4–12 (KJV 1900)

4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.