John Series Part 17 The Offer Of Living Water Series

John Series Part 17 The Offer of Living Water John 4:1–14

(4:1–42) DIVISION OVERVIEW: Salvation: Jesus offered the Samaritan woman living water, and she showed an intriguing interest. However, there were some matters that she had to straighten out before she could ever have the living water. There was the matter of sin in her life, of worship, of the Messiah, and of laboring for God. Therefore, Jesus began to discuss these subjects with her one by one.

(4:1–14) Introduction: this is one of the most profound revelations of Jesus: He is the Living Water, the water which men can drink and thereby never thirst again.

1. Jesus left Judaea (vv.1–9).

2. Living water is truly alive (v.10).

3. Living water is from a Person much greater than a religious father (vv.11–12).

4. Living water is the only water that will quench thirst (vv.13–14).

1 (4:1–9) Jesus Christ, Mission: Jesus left Judaea. Note two significant facts.

a. Jesus left Judaea out of necessity. He left for John’s sake. The crowds were leaving John and coming to Jesus, and the religionists were using the fact to downgrade John’s ministry (see note—Jn. 3:22–26). Jesus did not want to create a competitive scene that would damage John’s ministry, so He left the area to return to Galilee.

Note the words, “He must needs go through Samaria.” The word must (edei) means necessity, compulsion, destiny. Jesus was driven to go through Samaria for the sake of His mission. Samaria needed the gospel as much as other areas. (The word must is so often used in connection with Jesus’ mission that it makes an excellent word study. See Jn. 3:14; 9:4; 10:16; 12:34; 20:9.)

b. Jesus left Judaea to confront a Samaritan woman. He entered Sychar, a city of Samaria He sat on the wall of a well, for He was both tired and thirsty from His journey. While sitting there, one of the events for which He had come into Samaria happened: He confronted a woman with the claims of the Messiah.

She came to draw water, and He initiated a conversation by asking her for a drink of water. She was shocked, for the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. She asked Jesus why He would ask her, a Samaritan, for a drink. It was this question, this subject of water, that Jesus used …

• to discuss one of the greatest truths of spiritual life, that of living water

• to present the claims of God upon a life

DEEPER STUDY

(4:5) Samaria—Samaritans: Samaria was the central part of Palestine. Palestine was a small country, stretching only 120 miles north to south. The country was divided into three sections:

? Judaea, the southern section

? Galilee, the northern section

? Samaria, the central section, lying right between the two

There was bitter hatred between the Jews and Samaritans. Two things in particular caused this hatred.

1. The Samaritans were mongrel or half-Jews, a mixed breed by birth. Centuries before (about 720 B.C.), the King of Assyria had captured the ten tribes of Israel and deported a large number of the people, scattering them all throughout the Media empire (see 2 K. 17:6–41). He then took people from all over the Assyrian empire and transplanted them into Samaria to repopulate the land. The result was only natural. Intermarriage took place and the people became a mixed breed, a breed including …

• the transplanted people

• the weak of the land who had been left behind

• the outcast and irreligious who had intermarried with the original Samaritans

The fact of a mixed breed, of course, infuriated the strict Jews who held to a pure race.

2. The Samaritans were mongrel or half-Jews, a mixed breed by religion. The transplanted heathen, of course, brought their gods with them. Eventually the God of Israel won out, but the Samaritan religion never became pure Judaism. Three things happened to cause this.

a. When Ezra led the Jews back from exile in Babylon, the first thing the Jews did was to start rebuilding their temple. The Samaritans offered to help them, but the Jews rejected their help, declaring that the Samaritans—through intermarriage and worship of false gods—had lost their purity and forfeited their right to worship the only true God. This severe denunciation embittered the Samaritans against the Jews in Jerusalem.

b. The Samaritans built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim to stand in competition with the Jewish temple at Jerusalem.

c. The Samaritans twisted both the Scripture and history to favor their own people and nation.

? They twisted Scripture in that they accepted only five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. (Just imagine! They missed all the richness and depth of the Psalms and prophets.)

? They twisted history in that they claimed three great events took place on Mt. Gerizim that set it apart as a place of worship. They claimed it was the place where Abraham offered Isaac, where Melchizedek met Abraham, and where Moses built his first altar after leading Israel out from Egyptian bondage.