Learning By Example (Hix)

John 4:10-15-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.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?

Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,

but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

Jesus starts the conversation off with subject of water, He is going to use something physical to explain something spiritual (He would use this technique many times, sower and the seed, prodigal son, lost sheep, lost coin).

She would understand about being thirsty, about coming to well to draw water, everyday she would have to come and get water from the well.

This explains salvation. A person can drink of the pleasures of this world, and still try to find more ways to satisfy themselves but one trip to the fountain of living water will satisfy the thirsty soul.

He is not given her more information than she can handle

Verse 16-19-Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

He points out her sin because nobody will ever come to Jesus for salvation until they realizes their need for Him. Until a sinner knows they are lost, they will never desire to be found.

He could have dwelt on her being an adulteress but He came to save the world, not to condemn it!

He was going to deal with the cause of her sinful life, not the symptoms.

Jesus pointing out that she has had 5 husbands revealed to her that He was more than a Jew, He was prophet.

He is slowly winning her over, we need to remember that when we are witnessing to someone to go slow, not to rush, to get to know them and their background (We are not Jesus, He knew her past), but knowing about them can help us identity with them and help break down some of those walls that people put up.

Verse 20-Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

She tries to turn the subject away from herself to where people are suppose to worship.

Do not let people discourage you when they try to turn the subject away from their need for Christ, are turn it into a argument about something religious.

Verse 21-26-Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

She like so many other in our world today, say things like, “I don’t have to go to church, I can worship God in nature!”

Jesus is pointing out that the only place that God can truly be worshipped is in the heart!

Verse 27-30-And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,

“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

She came to well to get physical water and goes away from the well finding spiritual water!