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1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing
more disciples than John,
2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.
3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once
more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria.
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of
ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey,
sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,
"Will you give me a drink?"
8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am
a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews
do not associate with Samaritans.
John 4:1-9
Explanation: 4:1-3 Already opposition was rising against Jesus,
especially from the Pharisees. They resented Jesus' popularity as
well as his message, which challenged much of their teachings. Because
Jesus was just beginning his ministry, it wasn't yet time to confront
these leaders openly; so he left Jerusalem and traveled north toward
Galilee.
4:4 After the northern kingdom, with its capital
at Samaria, fell to the Assyrians, many Jews were deported to Assyria,
and foreigners were brought in to settle the land and help keep
the peace (2 Kings 17:24). The intermarriage between those foreigners
and the remaining Jews resulted in a mixed race, impure in the opinion
of Jews who lived in the southern kingdom. Thus the pure Jews hated
this mixed race called Samaritans because they felt that their fellow
Jews who had intermarried had betrayed their people and nation.
The Samaritans had set up an alternate center for worship on Mount
Gerizim (4:20) to parallel the temple at Jerusalem, but it had been
destroyed 150 years earlier. The Jews did everything they could
to avoid traveling through Samaria. But Jesus had no reason to live
by such cultural restrictions. The route through Samaria was shorter,
and that was the route he took.
4:5-7 Jacob's well was on the property owned by
Jacob (Genesis 33:18, 19); it was not a spring-fed well, but a well
into which water seeped from rain and dew, collecting at the bottom.
Wells were almost always located outside the city along the main
road. Twice each day, morning and evening, women came to draw water.
This woman came at noon, however, probably to avoid meeting people
who knew her reputation. Jesus gave this woman an extraordinary
message about fresh and pure water that would quench her spiritual
thirst forever.
4:7-9 This woman (1) was a Samaritan, a member
of the hated mixed race, (2) was known to be living in sin, and
(3) was in a public place. No respectable Jewish man would talk
to a woman under such circumstances. But Jesus did. The gospel is
for every person, no matter what his or her race, social position,
or past sins. We must be prepared to share this gospel at any time,
and in any place. Jesus crossed all barriers to share the gospel,
and we who follow him must do no less.
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who
it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he
would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw
with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and
drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be
thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed,
the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling
up to eternal life."
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that
I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17 "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her,
"You are right when you say you have no husband.
18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now
have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are
a prophet.
John 4:10-19
Explanation: 4:10 What did Jesus mean by living water? In the
Old Testament, many verses speak of thirsting after God as one thirsts
for water (Psalm 42:1; Isaiah 55:1; Jeremiah 2:13; Zechariah 13:1).
God is called the fountain of life (Psalm 36:9) and the spring of
living water (Jeremiah 17:13). In saying he would bring living water
that could forever quench a person's thirst for God, Jesus was claiming
to be the Messiah. Only the Messiah could give this gift that satisfies
the soul's desire.
4:13-15 Many spiritual functions parallel physical
functions. As our bodies hunger and thirst, so do our souls. But
our souls need spiritual food and water. The woman confused the
two kinds of water, perhaps because no one had ever talked with
her about her spiritual hunger before. We would not think of depriving
our bodies of food and water when they hunger or thirst. Why then
should we deprive our souls? The living Word, Jesus Christ, and
the written Word, the Bible, can satisfy our hungry and thirsty
souls.
4:15 The woman mistakenly believed that she received
the water Jesus offered, she would not have to return to the well
each day. She was interested in Jesus' message because she thought
it could make life easier. But if that were the case, people would
accept Christ's message for the wrong reasons. Christ did not come
to take away challenges, but to change us on the inside and to empower
us to deal with problems from God's perspective. The woman did not
immediately understand what Jesus was talking about. It takes time
to accept something that changes the very foundations of your life.
Jesus allowed the woman time to ask questions and put pieces together
for herself. Sharing the gospel will not always have immediate results.
When you ask people to let Jesus change their lives, give them time
to weigh the matter.
4:16-19 When this woman discovered that Jesus knew
all about her private life, she quickly changed the subject. Often
people become uncomfortable when the conversation is too close to
home, and they try to talk about something else. As we witness,
we should gently guide the conversation back to Christ. His presence
exposes sin and makes people squirm, but only Christ can forgive
sins and give new life.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that
the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when
you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what
we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind
of worshipers the Father seeks.
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and
in truth."
25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ)
"is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him
talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?"
or "Why are you talking with her?"
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town
and said to the people,
29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could
this be the Christ ?"
30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing
about."
33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have
brought him food?"
34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him
who sent me and to finish his work.
35 Do you not say, `Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell
you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the
crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad
together.
37 Thus the saying `One sows and another reaps' is true.
38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have
done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
John 4:20-38
Explanation: 4:20-24 The woman brought up a popular theological
issue--the correct place to worship. But her question was a smoke
screen to keep Jesus away from her deepest need. Jesus directed
the conversation to a much more important point: the location of
worship is not nearly as important as the attitude of the worshipers.
4:21-24 God is spirit means he is not a physical
being limited to one place. He is present everywhere and he can
be worshiped anywhere at any time. It is not where we worship that
counts, but how we worship. Is your worship genuine and true? Do
you have the Holy Spirit's help? How does the Holy Spirit help us
worship? The Holy Spirit prays for us (Romans 8:26), teaches us
the words of Christ, and tells us we are loved (Romans 5:5).
4:22 When Jesus said, salvation is from the Jews,
he meant that only through the Jewish Messiah would the whole world
find salvation. God had promised that through the Jewish race the
whole earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). The Old Testament prophets
had called the Jews to be a light to the other nations of the world,
bringing them to a knowledge of God; and they had predicted the
Messiah's coming. The woman at the well may have known of these
passages and was expecting the Messiah, but she didn't realize that
she was talking to him!
4:34 The food about which Jesus was speaking was
his spiritual nourishment. It includes more than Bible study, prayer,
and attending church. Spiritual nourishment also comes from doing
God's will and helping to bring his work of salvation to completion.
We are nourished not only by what we take in, but also by what we
give out for God. In 17:4, Jesus refers to completing God's work
on earth.
4:35 Sometimes Christians excuse themselves from
witnessing by saying that their family or friends aren't ready to
believe. Jesus, however, makes it clear that around us a continual
harvest waits to be reaped. Don't let Jesus find you making excuses.
Look around. You will find people ready to hear God's Word.
4:36-38 The wages Jesus offers are the joy of working
for him and seeing the harvest of believers. These wages come to
sower and reaper alike because both find joy in seeing new believers
come into Christ's kingdom. The phrase others have done the hard
work (4:8) may refer to the Old Testament prophets and to John the
Baptist, who paved the way for the gospel.
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because
of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with
them, and he stayed two days.
41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because
of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that
this man really is the Savior of the world."
43 After the two days he left for Galilee.
44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor
in his own country.)
45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They
had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast,
for they also had been there.
46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the
water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son
lay sick at Capernaum.
47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was
close to death.
48 "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,"
Jesus told him, "you will never believe."
49 The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child
dies."
50 Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The
man took Jesus at his word and departed.
51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the
news that his boy was living.
52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they
said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour."
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which
Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and
all his household believed.
54 This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having
come from Judea to Galilee.
John 4:39-54
Explanation: 4:39 The Samaritan woman immediately shared her
experience with others. Despite her reputation, many took her invitation
and came out to meet Jesus. Perhaps there are sins in our past of
which we're ashamed. But Christ changes us. As people see these
changes. they become curious. Use these opportunities to introduce
them to Christ.
4:46-49 This royal official was probably an officer
in Herod's service. He had walked 20 miles to see Jesus and addressed
him as Sir, putting himself under Jesus even though he had legal
authority over Jesus.
4:48 This miracle was more than a favor to one
official; it was a sign to all the people. John's Gospel was written
to all mankind to urge faith in Christ. Here a government official
had faith that Jesus could do what he claimed. The official believed;
then he saw a miraculous sign.
4:50 This government official not only believed
Jesus could heal; he also obeyed Jesus by returning home, thus demonstrating
his faith. It isn't enough for us to say we believe that Jesus can
take care of our problems. We need to act as if he can. When you
pray about a need or problem, live as though you believe Jesus can
do what he says.
4:51 Jesus' miracles were not mere illusions; the
product of wishful thinking. Although the official's son was 20
miles away, he was healed when Jesus spoke the word. Distance was
no problem because Christ has mastery over space. We can never put
so much space between ourselves and Christ that he can no longer
help us.
4:53 Notice how the official's faith grew. First,
he believed enough to ask Jesus to help his son. Second, he believed
Jesus' assurance that his son would live, and he acted on it. Third,
he and his whole house believed in Jesus. Faith is a gift that grows
as we use it.
