The Woman at the Well and Me
A study of John 4:1-42
Introduction:
1. The background is following John the Baptist’s arrest. John’s followers get worked up because Jesus is baptizing more than John, and growing in prominence.
2. John’s response to all this is seen in 3:20, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” God help us to all have this mindset.
3. This division is a deciding factor in Jesus leaving Judea and returning to Galilee. He knew it was not time for confrontation yet.
4. Jews and Samaritans always hated each other since the Assyrians mixed with the Samaritans and made “half-breed” nation of Samaria.
5. John is about shifting focus from physical to spiritual. Look at this:
6. Geographically, Jesus could have bypassed Samaria by crossing the Jordan River, the typical way of going back to Galilee.
7. The text here says that Jesus “had to go through Samaria…”
8. This was not a geographic issue, but a moral one.
9. Jesus had a point to make.
TRANSITION:
Let’s look at some points here from John chapter 4.
I. Jesus meets fatigue.
A. What does verse 6 say about Jesus’ condition? He was “wearied” from his travel.
1. This shows that Jesus had a human side.
2. The meaning of the word here would literally equate to our phrase “worn to a frazzle”. According to Dr. Dowell Flatt
3. He had been walking for probably about 6 hours, what are the walking conditions like in this region? Hilly, rocky, dusty
4. This made him tired.
5. He had the physical symptoms of a man who had been walking all morning in the hot, dry climate in the Middle-East.
B. Now take your mind to Matthew 4:1-11.
1. In chapter 3, Jesus was baptized.
2. In chapter 4, Jesus, the man, immediately went into the wilderness, fasting and praying for 40 days and nights.
a. He’s tired
b. He’s hungry
3. Satan comes up and says, “Just tell those stones to turn to bread.”
4. Jesus, physically tired, stayed physically strong.
C. One of the focuses of John chapter 4 is shifting our focus from spiritual to physical.
D. Jesus is 100% God, but he was also 100% man.
It was this same flesh that was nailed to the cross.
II. Jesus meets a woman.
A. They are neat a town called Sychar.
1. Sychar means tomb.
2. Sychar is the place of Jacob’s burial, or Jacob’s Sychar.
B. Jesus is resting on Jacob’s well, and a Samaritan woman comes up to get some water.
1. Jesus had sent his disciples to get some food.
2. He asks a Samaritan woman for a drink of water.
3. She says in a haughty manner, why are you asking me for water, aren’t you too good for my water as a Jew?
C. Jesus answers, “If you knew who I am you would ask me for living water.”
1. The Samaritan woman says, “Are you better than Jacob who gave us this well?
2. Uh-YES!
D. What was better about Jesus’ well than Jacob’s? If you drink from my water you will never thirst again.
1. How encouraging is this? Our needs will be fulfilled forever.
2. Remember Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (John 6:35)
3. We have an eternal, endless, natural spring flowing endlessly to fulfill our thirst, but we must first thirst. (Matthew 5:6, Blessed...)
4. The woman said, “Give me this water that I may never thirst again.” (This woman is focused on Physical water, Jesus is speaking of spiritual.)
5. I pray the Lord will give us all this thirst that we may reach for His eternal spring. (2 Tim 2:15)
E. Jesus speech led her to know that He was from God.
1. In verse 19, she says, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet…”
2. By his speech and attitude He had her thinking about God, and knowing whose side he was on.
3. –To what does your speech lead others?
a. Does your speech make others think of godly things?
b. Can they tell you are a Christian by the way you talk?
c. -What generally drives a conversation between two people? Their interests, especially if mutual
d. -Are we interested enough in Christ to make him part of our speech?
F. Jesus next response is interesting; Go call your husband…”
1. What can we get from that?
2. We do not have the benefit of divine insight that Jesus has, but we can see the situation that people are in if we care enough to look.
a. Mt 28:19 does not say to throw the bible at people and say “get it or die”.
b. The verse says, “Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
c. Verse 20 says, “Teaching them all the things that I commanded you.”
3. Can we know as much about our neighbors as Jesus knew about this woman?
4. We get to know people’s issues by being friends with them.
a. In Acts 8, we see the story of Phillip and the eunuch.
b. Phillip ran to the powerful Ethiopian, and went to where he was, and preached to him Jesus.
5. Jesus is called a friend to tax collectors, poor, oppressed.
6. The story of Zaccheus illustrates his attitude toward unpopular people.
7. Paul himself was quite a bad man; Aquilla was scared to go talk to him.
8. This woman was on her 6th man, with 5 marriages prior.
a. The Jews and Samaritans had a custom of allowing 3 marriages.
b. In Matthew 19, Jesus restores the law to what was to be from the beginning, one man and one woman.
9. Jesus did not write her off, he showed her what she did wrong in love, and accepted her as a soul worth saving.
10. He did not approve of her actions, but he did wish salvation for her.
11. Jesus’ insight and acceptance had a profound impact on this woman, and eventually on many others.
12. Jesus saw that though his body was tired, the Samaritan woman was the weary traveler, and he had compassion for her.
III. Jesus meets with his disciples.
A. The disciples get back, confused that he is talking to a woman; they are still worried about the physical.
1. On what was the attention of the disciples when they said, “Rabbi, eat.”? Physical Food
a. -What was the temptation in Matthew 4:4?
b. Matthew 4:4 “(You) Just turn those stones to bread…”
2. Jesus answer here, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.”
a. Shift your focus boys.
b. God’s work is more important, even than the food we have to eat.
V. Jesus meets a town.
A. What was the harvest Jesus to which Jesus referred?
B. Verse 35, “Do you not say, ‘there are yet 4 months until the harvest’? Behold I say look unto the fields, for they are white unto the harvest.”
C. Let me tell you what has happened here.
1. The Samaritan woman went back to town.
2. She told the people there about everything Jesus had said to her.
3. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, learned the same lesson in John 3 that she learns here. We have no record of his bringing anyone to Christ.
4. What was the Samaritan woman’s name?
5. This nameless Samaritan woman, a harlot, brings an entire town to Him. (A mistress becomes a missionary)
6. That is the power of the gospel that Paul speaks of in Romans 1:16.
7. Look at verse 41, “Many more believed because of His word.”
a. A “little character” can have an immense impact on the world.
Because of this Samaritan woman, an entire town had an opportunity to know Christ and have salvation.
b. Never underestimate the impact you can have.
D. These people coming to Jesus are the “harvest” to which Jesus refers.
1. We need to open our eyes to see the opportunities in front of us.
a. There are people all around us that are lost.
b. Neighbors, co-workers, friends, family
c. I saw a sign on a church building door one time, it read, “You are now entering the mission field."
d. If we all develop that attitude, we can be an imposing force against Satan.
2. Our small influence can make a huge impact on eternity.
a. I talked to Dr. Dowell Flatt, my adviser at F-HU, about the successes of some of the people that I went to school with at F-HU before.
b. His answer to me was, “in 1,000,000 years, none of their accomplishments will mean a thing. What you are doing will.”
c. If we really believe that, we will have to do more. We will not have a choice.
D. What is the source of true faith? Let’s look at verse 42 now, “They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you say that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.
1. The word of the woman was enough to instill interest, but not true faith.
2. The only way they truly believed was by hearing the message of the Master.
3. There is only one Master, and he left only one message. Ephesians 4:4ff
4. Paul, famous orator, author, and arguably the smartest man of his time, says in I Corinthians 2:1-2 that he did not come of his own wisdom or speech, but that he claimed no knowledge other than “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
5. Paul, an apostle, depended solely on the message of Jesus Christ. He did not put himself in the way of the message.
6. The same message the Samaritans believed.
7. The same message we have today to teach and learn from.
The acid test of your life, "does it lead others to Christ?’
CONCLUSION:
1. We have a message of hope today.
2. That message is from the One who fulfilled it.
3. Jesus set an example for us in John 4.
a. Acceptance of others, not their wrong actions, but their souls.
b. Intimate desire to know the person, and share with them.
c. Mission minded attitude to share the gospel with the lost.
4. We must follow his example.
a. It is a privilege to serve God.
b. It is also our responsibility. Matthew 28:18-19
5. Jesus brought a message of hope, and taught us how to use it.
