Last session we saw a great Jewish scholar and teacher mystified about who Jesus was. Tonight we’ll see an uneducated foreign woman with a shameful past come to a more complete understanding of Jesus than Nicodemus. Through her efforts, many foreigners come to believe in Jesus, even as few Jews really came to believe.

Encounter Jesus – John Week 5

A Samaritan Woman & the Savior of the World

John 4: 1-42

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

John Week 5 – A Samaritan Woman Handout

Lesson Notes

 

Can This Be the Christ? (John 4: 1-30)

  • Verses 1-4 – Pharisees hear that Jesus was making more disciples than John
    • Probably would mean opposition before it was time, so Jesus went to Galilee
    • Samaria is physically between Judea and Galilee – but you don’t “have” to go through Samaria
    • Jesus could have gone around to avoid Samaria, as some Jews did
    • Jews hated Samaritans and vice versa, viewing them as permanently unclean
    • Viewed as half-breeds, apostates – the remnant of the rebellious Northern Kingdom mixed with Mesopotamian peoples forcibly resettled into Israel when it fell to the Assyrians in 722BC
    • Viewed as false and idolatrous – worshiping YHWH on Mount Gerizim, based on their version of the Pentateuch (they didn’t accept any other parts of the Old Testament)
    • Centuries of wars, invasions, attacks, and insults back and forth
    • So “had to” was more of a divine necessity – Jesus had an appointment
  • Verses 5-6 – Jesus came to Sychar and stops to rest at Jacob’s Well (close to Old Testament Shechem, and still present today)
    • Good reminder that while fully God, Jesus was also fully human – He got tired
    • It’s noon, the heat of the day as summer is likely approaching
    • Noon is an unusual time for women to draw water, and they would seldom go alone – possibly because she was a social outcast because of her immorality
  • Verses 7-9 – Jesus asks a woman for a drink
    • Culturally men don’t talk to women in public, Jews don’t talk to Samaritans
    • Viewed as making them unclean
    • “Have no dealings” – this same phrase can be translated to mean they don’t share dishes (e.g. a water jar) in common, because of the uncleanness.
  • Verse 10 – You should have asked for living water
    • Living water – moving water, as from a spring, considered far superior than well water, both fresher and better
    • Jeremiah 2: 13 – God is the living water, forsaken by sinful Israel
  • Verse 11 – like with Nicodemus, Jesus and the woman talk past each other – she focuses on the logistics of drawing living water from a well
    • Verse 12 – are you greater than Jacob? (As a matter of fact, yes!)
  • Verses 13-14 – Never be thirsty again – a spring of water welling up to eternal life
    • Not explained here, but refers to the Holy Spirit, God withing us (John 7: 37-39)
  • Verse 15 – Give me this water – she’s still focused on literal water (like Nicodemus on literal birth)
    • Jesus will now move the conversation from the physical to the spiritual
  • Verses 16-19 – Jesus reveals her sinful history and His deep knowledge of her
    • She now elevates Him from a weary traveling Jew to a Prophet
    • Jesus will now take her even deeper into understanding who He is
  • Verse 20 – She asks a spiritual question, possibly to change the subject or just to learn
    • Brings up the dispute of where is right to worship YHWH
    • This is the fault-line between Jew and Samaritan – in Samaria they had built a temple on Mount Gerizim which was destroyed by the Jews about 150 years before this conversation
    • Even today, Samaritans sacrifice animals on Mount Gerizim!
  • Verses 21-24 – Jesus describes true worship
    • Location won’t matter
    • Ethnicity won’t matter
    • True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth
      • God is spirit and we must worship in spirit and truth
      • God is seeking such true worshippers
      • Are we true worshippers, focused on God when we gather on Sundays? Worshipping honestly, fully, and spiritually?
      • Or are we simply there to be educated or entertained?
      • Real worship is never about us and always about God – why we can worship under less than ideal circumstances
  • Verses 25-26 – She is expecting Messiah (Taheb to the Samaritans)
    • Samaritans had a different notion of Messiah than Jews (more prophetic/teaching than military/governing)
    • Jesus announces He’s Messiah -> elevates her understanding of Him again, from prophet to Messiah
  • Verses 27-30 – The disciples return and are shocked Jesus is talking to a woman
    • The woman leaves her water jar to go to the townspeople and bring them to Jesus
    • Very different response than from the Jews who just want a miracle show
    • She invites people to come assess whether Jesus is the Christ
    • They come! Despite her background, her testimony is so compelling, they come

PRAYER – For willingness to simply go and bring people to Jesus based on your personal experience and testimony, regardless of embarrassment, lack of training or education, etc.

 

God’s Will & God’s Harvest (John 4: 31-38)

  • Verses 31-34 – Disciples try to get Jesus to eat
    • Note they call Him Rabbi (teacher), just like Nicodemus, whereas this Samaritan woman already knows He is a prophet and perhaps Messiah!
    • Verse 32 – He has food they don’t know – they think in physical terms, like the woman and Nicodemus (verse 33)
    • Verse 34 – Jesus’ food is doing God’s will -> accomplishing God’s work
    • This is also our lasting nourishment as Christ followers – not rest, but God’s work
    • What is God’s work? Harvesting for God’s Kingdom
      • He had been planting and watering, and preparing to reap a great harvest in Samaria, while the disciples had run to Chik-fil-A!
  • Verse 35 – Lift your eyes – stop looking down at your belly, look around, there are people ready to choose God’s Kingdom. The fields are white for harvest!
  • Verses 36-38 – the partnership of those who sow and those who reap
    • Both are important, they partner to “gather fruit for eternal life” – bringing people to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ
    • Others have labored to sow – Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist
    • Amos 9: 13– the abundance of the Messianic age includes simultaneous sowing and reaping.
    • As Kingdom workers, we will sometimes sow, sometimes reap, seldom both at the same time

Samaritan Revival (John 4: 39-42)

  • Verse 39 – The power of the woman’s testimony convinced many to believe in Jesus
    • We think we’re not that important or skilled enough, but here was a trampy woman, unafraid to tell the story of Jesus and look at how God used her!
    • She’d only known Jesus for a few minutes – no seminary required!
  • Verse 40 – Jesus stayed two more days at their invitation
  • Verse 41 – Many more believed because of His word – no miracles required!
  • Verse 42 – They know He is the Savior of the World – far beyond what the Jews come to know about Jesus!
  • Note the movement in John’s gospel – Nicodemus in Judea, the woman in Samaria, the next story will involve a Gentile. This is the same pattern of movement found in Acts as the church expands
  • Jesus came to save the world!

PRAYER – For faithfulness to go into the fields, for a massive harvest.

Next week: Sign #3 – Healing & the Authority of Jesus (John 5: 1-47)