Picture this: Your political beliefs put you in the small minority. The majority party, in fact, shuns you. Socially you are considered not really part of the nation because your ancestors were immigrants. Spiritually your stands made you unpopular, and leave you confused. Morally you have made some bad decisions, the same bad decisions over and over and can’t seem to break out of it. Even your gender makes it very hard to survive, let alone thrive. But survive you must. A person in that position avoids everyone and trusts no one. It would be a very lonely and frustrating and hard life.
Enter into that life someone who should for all of the above reasons have nothing to do with you, and yet they seem to not only care but know you in a way that no one does-no one could, and who seems to have answers to questions so deep you had been afraid to ask them.
That’s where we find today’s study in John 4, as Jesus goes to a place no self respecting Jew would go, to talk to a person no one would talk to, in order to bring life into an existence that felt so dead.
1 - 3
Jesus is God, yet He cared so much for John that He left, rather than make John move on. No competition of ministries here. Jesus took the lower place. Amazing. Last time we saw John take the lower place-are they competing for who can be humblest? Of course not. Jesus really is the King of Kings, yet the heart of God is one of such humbleness that he makes way for another human to continue ministry unabated. What lessons for us!
4 - 6
Samaria is located in the northwestern part of Israel. It cut Israel in half and a strict Jew would go east of the Jordan to avoid having to go through Samaria on his way to Galilee. Samaria was settled with mostly non-Jews after the Assyrians deported the Jews of Israel in 724 BC. The Assyrians sent back some priests from the Jeroboam cult after wild animals started attacking the immigrants. They thought they should appease the gods of the land. Those living in Judah treated those in Samaria as non-Jews, though both claimed to worship Yahweh.
Jeroboam had split Israel in two halves after Solomon’s son Rehoboam refused to listen to good counsel. Jeroboam created his own religion because he was afraid that if northern Israel went back to Jerusalem each year they would eventually revert to a united nation. He was not worshipping Yahweh, however, but a calf idol. It was Yahweh worship in name only and it wasn’t true. Even today you can have groups that claim Jesus but are not Christian and if you believe their doctrine it will do you no good when you die. The true gospel is that Jesus, God in the flesh, came to earth and became fully a physical man, died a voluntary death on the cross as a free gift to us and the only way to wash us from sin. He then raised up from the dead as proof and lives forever as man and God.
Needless to say, there was not love lost between these two groups of people. Jesus, however, saw no distinction because all are lost and need a Savior.
Notice also that Jesus was tired. He really was a human. Sometimes as we serve the Lord we get tired too. That’s okay. It’s not bad to attend to our physical needs. Later, Paul will talk about our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, so we should take care of them so as to be able to minister for the Lord (1 Cor 6:19).
Jacob had purchased land near Sychar in Genesis 33. It gave the Samaritans a way to claim Jacob as their ancestor.
7 - 9
This woman had at least two things against her: she was a Samaritan, and she was a woman. A good Jewish man, and especially a devout Rabbi, would never speak to a Samaritan, or an alone unattached woman. The woman could have gone to a closer well and at the usual time for drawing water-she obviously wants to avoid contact with other women, and for good reason. It’s also surprising that Jesus would drink from a Samaritan’s cup.
10 - 15
The woman doesn’t get the fact that Jesus is not talking about physical water. She assumes that he has some hidden water source. Like Nicodemus, the people go straight to the physical, practical. Jesus is trying to get them to understand a different dimension of life: the spiritual.
Jesus says that if you drink of the physical water you will thirst again. That is so true. If we focus entirely on physical satisfaction - that is, satisfaction of the life that we see and experience around us - we will always want more. You will always run out of money, you will always want more power, you will always want more things. But Jesus is offering something that will satisfy forever. Once you have tasted a relationship with Jesus you know that you have found the answer. He is a never-ending stream of life that always satisfies.
So the woman thinks that Jesus has invented a water machine or something. So the Lord needs to shock her a bit-delve into the spiritual part of this woman that has actually driven her life to a place of great thirst, even though she doesn’t know it consciously.
16 - 18
This is the first place where we see Jesus use supernatural knowledge. We will see this over and over: Jesus zeros in on the crucial thing in a person’s life. Either it’s a thing that is stopping them from coming to Him or something that has a hold on them, keeping them prisoner.
This woman is pretty quick. As soon as Jesus switches gears on her, she tries to change the subject-keep it impersonal.
19 - 20
She refuses to deal with her own personal situation and wants to argue theology with Jesus. Do you ever encounter that when talking about spiritual things with people? As soon as they find out you are a Christian they want to talk about the Rapture or the "myths" in the Bible or how Christians are hypocrites-anything to not talk about themselves and where they stand with their relationship with Jesus.
Jesus follows her in this conversation and doesn’t try to steer it back to her lifestyle. She wants him to settle an argument that had been going on for years: the Samaritans had chosen Mt Gerizim to worship after they were not allowed to help rebuild the Temple after returning from Babylon (Ezra 4). They claimed that Deuteronomy 11 and 27 gave them that right. But the Jews claimed that Deuteronomy 12, 2 Chronicles 6, and Psalm 78 set the correct place to worship God as Jerusalem. So she wants to know what a Jewish profit says about it. He has a surprise for her, though as often happens when you really go deeper than surface misconceptions about Jesus.
21 - 24
Jesus points out that it isn’t a geographical location that matters, but the spiritual location of each person’s heart. To introduce this idea that each person could worship the Father from anywhere "in spirit and truth" would have been mind blowing. Jesus says that indeed the Jews were correct theologically: the Temple in Jerusalem was correct under the Old Testament. But now the Temple had come to earth so worshipping through Him could happen anywhere!
The idea of spirit and truth is that we don’t worship with a physical posture as much as an awareness of who God is and our need for Him. We recognize the truth of who Jesus is and what he has done.
25 - 26
This talk of new things probably reminded her of the Messiah, which the Samaritans believed in. Then Jesus makes the astounding statement that He is the Messiah. So right then the disciples arrive back from their shopping trip to town.
27 - 30
The disciples are apparently too timid to question their rabbi as to why he was talking to a Samaritan woman alone. But the woman is not timid at all. She is so moved that she forgets why she came, leaves her water bottle and heads right into town to break the good news.
31 - 38
The disciples too focused on physical things. It wasn’t wrong-they had gone to buy food. But Jesus uses it as a point to say that the real job you have is not to buy groceries but to win souls. And you know, that is our real job too. Yes, we need to have jobs and buy groceries and pay rent, but in reality we are all ambassadors for Christ and we are still here on earth in order to be a witness for our relationship with Jesus to a lost world. And Jesus is about to show them what it means to enter into his harvest of souls:
39 - 42
I think this little paragraph is so incredible. The people respond to the witness of the woman, come to Jesus and inquire of Him and about Him and in the end they believe not because someone else told them to, but because they themselves are convinced. That’s what faith is: trust based on evidence. Don’t just take my word for it, investigate for yourself, read the Bible, ask questions, ask God to reveal His truth to you.
Notice something else. The woman for the first time was honest with who she was ("he told me all I had done"), went directly to the people she had avoided, and shared that she had found the Messiah. This is evidence of a person who has come to faith in Christ. She admitted what she had done, had faith in the Lord, and share of her experience!
43 - 45
Whether Jesus’ home is in Judea or Galilee isn’t important. What is important is that Jesus will go where He is welcomed.
46 - 54
Jesus always answered real needs. This official, probably working in Herod’s court, was really in need. Jesus uses the occasion to discourage people from seeking signs for signs sake. But notice the power of Jesus. He simply speaks a word and the boy is healed 20 miles away.
And notice the response. Not only does this guy believe but also his whole household. Jesus’ first sign was turning water into wine. His second sign is healing a dead child. These signs were not supposed to show Jesus’ power off, but to point to Him as the Messiah!
Lessons
Do you sometimes feel like an outcast?
In many ways perhaps you are like the woman at the well. You feel isolated and pretty alone. You are wary of everyone and trust no one. You’ve done things you know are wrong but can’ help it. You don’t understand God and aren’t really sure you want to, especially with all the junk you hear about from the church.
Or maybe you are already a believer, a disciple of Jesus Christ. And yet you too feel alone because you’ve thought or done some things you know the Lord is not proud of and so you isolate yourself. You stop praying or worshiping and you sort of wall yourself off.
Notice how Jesus comes:
He immediately acknowledges your lack and yet gives promise of filling it in ways you could never have imagined.
He seems to know you better than you know yourself, and yet somehow loves you anyway.
He doesn’t back away from the truth, yet engages in conversation and is patient as we struggle.
He offers companionship where we have had loneliness, truth where we have lies, refreshment where we have thirst, hope where we have despair.
So no matter if you have known Him all your life, or are just being introduced to him. He already knows everything about you yet accepts you, loves you, was even willing to die for you that you could worship Him in Spirit and Truth.
For more Bible studies, visit our website at: www.CalvaryChapelNewberg.org
