Jesus Reaching Out To All Series

John Chapter 4 is our passage for today, it begins with the account of “the woman at the well”. This is a powerful message showing Christ willingness to reach across the boundaries of prejudice in order to provide salvation to all people. In our culture, it is difficult to relate to the magnitude of Jesus speaking to this woman. But you need to understand that for the 950 years prior to that day at the well, the Jews had been completely down on the Samaritans and since the foundation of time they had been down on women. When Jesus said, “Will you give me a drink?” The woman responded, “How can you ask me for a drink?” To answer her question, Jesus immediately went to her spiritual need by asking if she wanted living water.

Jesus then goes on to share the gospel of God’s love with this broken and rejected woman, who was living under a generational curse. She becomes a believer and it is a great story. The thing about the Bible is that it is not a collection of stories. It is the written account of God being revealed to humanity. Each book in the Bible holds a theme and the theme for the Gospel of John is to prove conclusively that Jesus is the Son of God. So when we read the book of John, we look for this main theme.

Six times John weaves his main theme into this passage. John is on a mission to prove that Jesus is the Son of God.

I. Jesus knows things about people

II. Jesus is in charge of situational events

III. Jesus had a life changing impact on the woman

IV. Jesus understood God’s mission

V. Jesus exercised God’s authority over the disciples

VI. Jesus made an impression on the entire community

I. Jesus knows things about people

Jn 4:16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

Jn 4:17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.

Jn 4:18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.

This statement convinced the woman that Jesus was a prophet, but not the Son of God. I don’t believe we have the full conversation that took place between Jesus and the woman. I believe there is more to the conversation because when we reach verse 28 she leaves her water pot behind, returns to the city asking herself and others a very serious question,

Jn 4:29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ ?”

Point one: Jesus knows things about people and he knows things about us today.

II. Jesus is in charge of situational events

Jn 4:8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

This may seem unimportant, but if the disciples had still been at the well, one of them would have gotten Him a drink and the conversation between Christ and the woman would have never taken place. I wonder why one of the disciples didn’t get Him a drink before they left. I believe they didn’t because Jesus is in charge of situational events.

There is more evidence that Jesus is in charge of situational events, check out verse 27, “Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman.” Note that it says “Just then,” just at the right moment the disciples walked up. What made it the right moment? Look up at verse 25, Jn 4:25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Jn 4:26 Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he”, that is the moment the disciples walked up. They had to have heard, because it says they, “were surprised to find him talking with a woman.” You know what happens next? The woman leaves. If the disciples would have shown up a minute sooner, they would have interfered in the conversation and they would not have heard Jesus’ proclamation that He was the Christ. This is the first time that Jesus is recorded in the Gospel of John saying that He is the Christ. In fact back in John 2:4 we find Jesus saying it’s not His time yet. So here in Chapter 4 it must be His time and the disciples are there just in time to hear it. Had they been a minute later, they would have missed it. Jesus was in charge of situational events then and He is still in charge today.

III. We know Jesus is the Son of God because He had a life changing impact on the woman.