STUDY THEME: WHAT TO DO WITH THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS. 12-26-04
“ANNOUNCE JESUS, THE SOURCE OF NEW LIFE.” JOHN 4: 7-43.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JOHN 4. JOHN 4: 7-9, 10,13-15, 28-30, 35-36, 42-43.
John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus’ ministry began in Judea. During that time Jesus’ and John the Baptist’s work overlapped. But eventually Jesus’ ministry grew larger than John’s. The Jerusalem authorities had the same concerns about Jesus that they had about John, Did He claim to be the Messiah? What would He do with the following He attracted? Would His teachings spark a revolt against Rome and threaten both the peace of the region and the position of the Sanhedrin?
John’s Gospel never mentions the Sadducees, nor the ruling council of the Jews, the Sanhedrin. It probably does not do so since John wrote his Gospel about 20 years after the Sadducees and Sanhedrin had perished in the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66-70. The Pharisees (who were also part of the Sanhedrin) represent the ruling authorities in Jerusalem in John’s Gospel. They heard that Jesus’ popularity had grown greater than John’s. Jesus knew His popularity would make Him a target for the Jerusalem authorities, so in John 4: 1-3, He decided to leave the territory of Judea and take His ministry north to the region of Galilee.
The most direct route from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north was through Samaria (about 60 miles). Jesus and His disciples most likely would have walked. Along the way they came to a well “near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph”. Jesus rested by “Jacob’s well” and met a woman who lived in the region.
After the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the conquering Assyrians scattered most of the survivors among the nations. In turn they moved other captive people into the area of Israel. There the newcomers intermarried with the few Israelites left in the area. The descendants of these were called Samaritans. They developed a religion that blended worship of Israel’s God with their pagan gods. When the Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity, the leader s of the Samaritans offered false friendship, and they opposed the Jews.
Determined to maintain their distinctive laws, the Jews excluded other groups. The Samaritans developed their own brand of religion. They believed in the God of the first five books of the O.T. They built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, but the Jews destroyed it in 128 B.C. The mutual hatred of the Jews and Samaritans continued in the time of Jesus. Because Samaria was between Judea and Galilee, two areas where Jews were in the majority, many Jews would travel many extra miles to avoid going through Samaria.
Jesus must go through Samaria. That was not the usual road. Geographically it was the straight way, but it was not the usual way.
On the way Jesus and the disciples came to the town of Sychar. Just short of Sychar the road to Samaria forks. At the fork of the road there stands to this day the well known as Jacob’s well.
This was the area which had many Jewish memories attached to it. There was a piece of ground there, which had been bought by Jacob. Jacob, on his deathbed, had bequeathed that ground to Joseph. And, on Joseph’s death in Egypt, his body had been taken back to Palestine and buried there. So around this area there gathered many Jewish memories.
The well itself was more than 100’ deep. It is not a springing well of water; it is a well into which the water percolates and gathers. But clearly it was a well so deep that no one could gain water from it unless he had something with which to draw the water.
When Jesus and his little band came to the fork in the road Jesus sat down to rest, for he was tired with the journey. It was midday. The Jewish day runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the sixth hour is twelve o’clock, midday. So the heat was at its greatest, and Jesus was weary and thirsty from traveling.
His disciples went on ahead to buy some food in the Samaritan town. Something must have been beginning to happen to them. Before they had met Jesus it is entirely unlikely that they would have even thought of buying food in any Samaritan town. Little by little, perhaps even unconsciously, the barriers were going down.
PLEASE READ JOHN 4: 7-9.
As Jesus sat there, there came to the well a Samaritan woman. Why she would come to that well is something of a mystery, for it was more than half-a mile from Sychar where she must have stayed and there was water there. Maybe it was that she was so much of a moral outcast that the women even drove her away from the village well and she had to come here to draw water?
Jesus saw her coming. How do you picture this woman? I picture her as a woman who had been hurt many times. Years earlier she had stood at her wedding filled with joy and hope. But now she seemed to have lost hope. She looked older than she was.
She had seen five husbands leave her either by death or divorce. Each time she began a new marriage her zest for life was less than before. Now she was just going through the motions, including her trips to draw water from the well. As she approached the well on this day, she noticed a man sitting on the well. His clothing or something about Him showed that He was a Jew. She did her best to ignore him.
She was startled when He spoke to her. She was surprised when he said, “Give me to drink.” Jesus opened the conversation with a request on the human level; the level of his own human need.
Her response was curt and sharp. She asked the man why a Jew was asking a Samaritan for a drink of water. If the disciples had been there, they would have wondered the same thing. She knew the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Another possible translation is, “the Jews do not use dishes the Samaritans have used.” The Jews considered the Samaritans to be ceremonially unclean. Therefore, eating from the same dish—or as in this case drinking from the same dipper---would make the Jewish person unclean also. Jews did their best to avoid any contact with Samaritans, but it seems that this was not an absolute rule, for “His disciples had gone into town to buy food.”
Now Jesus thirst was real. He did not request the water just to start a conversation with the woman. Yet His concern for the woman was just as real. We never find out if Jesus received something to drink, for the focus is on the woman and how Jesus met her need.
Jesus crossed three barriers in asking the woman for a drink. One was the ethnic issue between Jews and Samaritans. Another was the rule of strict rabbis not to speak to a woman in public. This was applied even to a wife, a daughter, or a sister. The third barrier was over the kind of woman she was. Any one of these barriers would have caused a typical rabbi not to speak to this woman.
Few stories in the Gospel record show us so much about the character of Jesus. (1) It shows us the reality of his humanity. Jesus was weary with the journey, and He sat by the side of the well exhausted. It is very significant that John who stresses the sheer deity of Jesus Christ more than any other of the gospel writers also stresses His humanity to the full. John does not show us a figure freed from the tiredness and the struggle of our humanity. He shows us one for whom life was an effort as it is for us; he shows us one who also was tired and had to go on.
(2) It shows us the warmth of His sympathy. From an ordinary religious leader, from one of the orthodox church leaders of the day, the Samaritan woman would have fled in embarrassment. She would have avoided such a one. If by any unlikely chance he had spoken to her she would have met him with an ashamed and even a hostile silence. But it seemed the most natural thing in the world to talk to Jesus. She had a last met someone who was not a critic but a friend, one who did not condemn but who understood.
(3) It shows us Jesus as the breaker down of barriers. The quarrel between the Jews and the Samaritans was an old, old story. Away back about 720 B.C. the Assyrians had invaded the northern kingdom of Samaria and had captured and subjugated it. They did what conquerors often did in those days—they transported practically the whole population to Media.
Into the district the Assyrians brought other people—from Babylon, From Cuthah, from Ava, from Hamath and from Sepharvaim. (2 Kings 17:24) Now it is not possible to transport a whole people. Some of the people of the northern kingdom were left. Almost inevitably they began to inter-marry with the incoming foreigners; and thereby they committed what to the Jew was an unforgivable crime. They lost their racial purity. In a strict Jewish household even to this day if a son or a daughter marries a Gentile, his or her funeral service is carried out.
Such a person is dead in the eyes of orthodox Judaism. So then the great majority of the inhabitants of Samaria were carried away to Media. They never came back but were assimilated into the country into which they were taken. They are the lost ten tribes. Those who remained in the country inter-married with the incoming strangers and lost their right to be called Jews at all.
We encounter many people in the course of our daily lives. Often we are so focused on our own needs that we fail to consider the needs of those we meet. In this conversation at the well Jesus modeled for us the importance of making people a priority whenever or wherever we meet them. Jesus had left one field of ministry (Judea) and was on the way to another (Galilee). But during the seemingly incidental stop Jesus took the time to minister to this woman. Do we take advantage of the incidental encounters we have?
To a Jew this was an amazing story. Here was the Son of God, tired and weary and thirsty. Here was the holiest of men, listening with understanding to a sorry story. Here was Jesus breaking through the barriers of nationality and orthodox Jewish custom. Here is the beginning of the universality of the gospel; here is God so loving the world, not in theory, but in action.
PLEASE READ JOHN 4: 10, 13-15.
First, He knew what everyone in town knew about this woman. Sychar was probably a small town where everyone knew much about the notorious members of the community. Jesus, however, didn’t learn about her by listening to gossip. He had divine insight.
Second, Jesus knew something about her that only she knew. He realized that in spite of the brave front she put up, she was sick of her life and yearned for some new life. She was a thirsty soul needing divine water. She knew she was thirsty, but she didn’t know where to find water.
Third, Jesus knew something about her that even she didn’t know. He knew that by God’s grace and power she could begin a new life. Life could begin anew.
Jesus did not respond to the woman’s accusation that He though He was greater than Jacob. Rather, He drew again a contrast between this water from the well and the water He had to offer. A person who drank the water from Jacob’s well would eventually become thirsty again. While Jesus did not dwell on it, His observation highlighted the limited benefit of the task the woman was so focused on. Drawing water was a necessary task, but limiting her concern to that mundane duty was not wise.
Because Jesus believed this, He told her that if she asked, He could and would give her living water. If she had been familiar with the Old Testament, she might have understood that Jesus was using water as a symbol of the life that God gives those who are spiritually hungry. Herschel H. Hobbs wrote, “What a flood of ideas Jesus’ words contained, a flood flowing out of the O.T. Scriptures.”
The woman’s response, in vs. 11-12, shows that her mind was still on water from the well. Jesus contrasted for her two kinds of water. Perhaps pointing to the well, He said, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” Our physical need for water lasts all our lifetime. Without drinking water, we would die. This principle applies to all earthly needs. People often seek to find lasting satisfaction with many things, but none satisfies our deepest needs. By contrast, Jesus said that whoever drinks of the water that He gives shall never thirst. He explained why His water is forever satisfying.
Referring back to whosoever, Jesus said, “but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Notice that this water is the gift of God, not something people earn or deserve. Jesus is the One through whom the gift is given. And the gift is life that is eternal. The good news is that life can begin anew. New life does not mean that we can go back in time, but it does mean that God forgives us of our sins and from that time on God will be with us.
In vs. 10 the gift of God likely refers to Jesus Himself as the long-awaited Messiah. He is God’s great gift to humanity. If the woman had known that God’s gift of redemption through His Son was at hand, she would have asked for living water from Him. Jesus words have a double meaning. At that time the expression living water referred to flowing water as opposed to still water. Water from a spring or a river was considered superior to stagnant water from a well or cistern. Well water was more easily polluted. Flowing water was not only preferred for common uses but was also preferred for ritual purposes.
On the other hand, Jesus was using the expression figuratively to convey a spiritual truth. The only other use of “living water” in John’s Gospel comes at a Jewish festival featuring the ritual use of water. During the event Jesus invited those who were thirsty to come to Him and drink that they might have “streams of living water” within them. John explained in that instance in John 7: 37-39 that Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit whom believers would receive. In the context of John 4: 10 Jesus used living water as a reference to Himself.
Jesus deeper meaning for living water was lost on the woman. She objected that Jesus had no means of drawing water and that the only source of water at hand was “the well” which was “deep.” Surely Jesus did not consider Himself “greater than our father Jacob,” who had dug this well and then “drank from it himself,” at this point the woman had no idea how much greater Jesus was.”
Jesus did not respond to the woman’s accusation that He thought He was greater than Jacob.
Rather, he drew a contrast between this water from the well and the water He had to offer. A person who drank the water from Jacob’s well would eventually become thirsty again. While Jesus did not dwell on it, His observation highlighted the limited benefit of the task the woman was so focused on. Drawing water was a necessary task, but limiting her concern to that mundane duty was not wise.
When Jesus spoke of living water, the woman asked Jesus to give it to her. The woman at first thought only in earthly terms. The reason she wanted the living water was so she would not need to make the daily trips to the well.
Still the woman did not understand. Just as Nicodemus struggled to understand Jesus references to the new birth in John 3: 1-19, so the Samaritan woman could not comprehend Jesus’ meaning about water. She was unable to grasp the depth of His comments, and she clung to the most obvious meaning. She asked for this special water so that she would never again have to come here to draw water. Jesus the woman He could provide eternal life, but she asked for water to make her temporal life easier.
In vs. 16 Jesus changed His approach. The woman could not grasp His message, so He decided to tell it again, but in a different way. He told her to bring her husband back to the well, but she refused by giving Him an evasive answer. Jesus then revealed that He knew the situation better than any ordinary stranger could.
The woman could not deceive Jesus, so she attempted to distract Him. She flattered Jesus by calling Him a prophet and then made a statement guaranteed to send the typical Jewish rabbi into a lengthy rant: Jews worship God in Jerusalem, but Samaritans do so on Mount Gerizim where the Samaritans had built their temple.
Jesus surprised her again by asserting that “an hour is coming, and is now here” for true worshipers to worship---not in a particular place---but “in spirit and truth. The mention of a “coming” time led the woman to say, “I know that messiah is coming.” Jesus responded by telling her “I am He.” The conversation had finally reached its goal, for Jesus had plainly revealed to the woman that He is the Messiah. At this point the disciples returned from their trip to town.
Two important applications emerge from this conversation. First, we too have a tendency to focus on our immediate physical needs. We are not wrong to attend to such needs, but doing so to the neglect of our spiritual needs is foolish. Second, Jesus patiently talked to the woman until she finally understood, and we must be patient as we tell others about Him.
PLEASE MOVE DOWN TO VS. 28.
PLEASE READ JOHN 4: 28-30
Vs. 16-27 tell important parts of the total story. Jesus asked the woman to bring her husband. She said that she had no husband. Jesus revealed that He knew about her marital troubles. She said He must be a prophet, and she expressed confusion about where to worship-—at the Jewish temple or the Samaritan place of worship on Mount Gerizim.
Jesus affirmed the Jews as the ones through whom salvation comes, but He said true worship is in spirit and truth. She said that when the Messiah comes, He will tell all things. Jesus told her He is the Messiah. At this point the disciples returned, but they were wise enough not to ask why Jesus was talking with a woman.
At this point the woman left her water pot and went…into the city to tell what had happened. Why did she leave the water pot? Some Bible students believe she left it so Jesus could drink from it. She fully intended on going back for it. Many other Bible students think she left it because she had received the living water of God’s forgiveness and Spirit. She felt an inner exhilaration because of this and the water from the well seemed unimportant at the time.
At any rate, the woman went her way into the city where she spoke to the men. She said three things. She told of meeting a man who told her all things she had ever done. This was an exaggeration but Jesus told her enough to convince her that He knew everything about her. She told this with an invitation for them to come and see Him for themselves. She ended her testimony with a question is this not this the Christ? The wording in Greek expresses more uncertainty. Hobbs suggested this translation: “Is this, perhaps the Christ?”
Her hesitant way of stating the question was not an expression of doubt. It was a sign of wisdom on her part. Suppose that a woman, especially this woman, had rushed in and boldly announced to the men, “I have found the Messiah.” She probably felt that they would likely reject this as just “woman talk.” Therefore, she dangled the possibility before these men, and left it up to them to find out for themselves. The wisdom of her way of witnessing is evident because the men went out of the city, and came unto Him.
She must have told the people of the town more than the few words John recorded. Surely they would have peppered her with questions before agreeing to walk all the way out to the well. We don’t know the specifics, but John’s Gospel does portray a witness in action. She shared her experience with the people in town and challenged them to come meet Jesus. No witness can do more, and no witness should do less.
If someone had told this woman that she would be the first person to announce the Messiah’s coming in Sychar, she would not have believed it. In fact, no one would have believed it—not the men of the city or the disciples of Jesus. God often uses the most unlikely people to bear His message. Nevertheless, she showed her new faith in telling others of her new life.
PLEASE READ JOHN 4: 35-36.
In vs. 31-34 John’s account shifts back to Jesus and the disciples at this point. They had fulfilled their mission and returned with food, but Jesus no longer seemed interested in eating. Perhaps He had a lesson to teach the disciples parallel to the one He gave the woman. They were so focused on satisfying their physical hunger that they seemed oblivious to the spiritual hunger all around them. Physical hunger is real, but spiritual huger is also. Does concern for the one cause us to neglect the other? Jesus used the situation to teach his disciples an important lesson.
As Jesus was speaking to His disciples, the Samaritans went streaming out of the city toward Jesus. He saw them as ripe harvest. Some Bible students believe Jesus spoke vs. 35a at a time of the year when harvest time was four months away. That is, He was saying that while harvest time was not until four months from then, the time of spiritual harvest was now.
Others think Jesus was quoting a familiar proverb about the need for immediate action. In either case the point Jesus was making was the same: the urgency of gathering the harvest. Jesus, of course, was not speaking of a food harvest but of a harvest of souls for the Lord. The disciples needed to recognize the urgency of gathering the harvest. The woman’s testimony created a window of opportunity that called for immediate action.
Vs. 37-38 shed light on the meaning of vs. 36. Jesus quoted the saying “One sows and another reaps” as He explained to the disciples that those who gather in the harvest are reaping the result of those who have sown the seed. This principle can be applied to all who sow or reap. Those who reap are dependent on those who planted.
Jesus may have thinking how of how He and the disciples were reaping the harvest of seed sown by the prophets in general and John the Baptist in particular. Today we reap the harvest of the work of Jesus, the witness of the apostles, and the testimony of earlier witnesses who first sowed the seed of the gospel in the hearts of those to whom we witness. In this sense the sower and the reaper rejoice together.
PLESE READ JOHN 4: 39-42.
The woman challenged the men to come to Jesus and see for themselves. They did come and meet Jesus, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman. Her testimony encouraged them to go to Jesus and make their own decisions. She played a key role in them coming to believe. She could not know how they might respond to her words. They might have laughed at her or ignored her words. She was not accountable for how they responded, but she was accountable for sharing her testimony. And fortunately they chose to meet Jesus, and this encounter led them to believe on Him.
Not only did many believe on that day, but they also asked Jesus to stay with them. He agreed, and He abode there two days. Jesus turned interruptions into opportunities. He was traveling to Galilee, but He seized this rare opportunity to win some Samaritans. The typical Jewish man would not even have been in Samaria, would never have talked with the woman at the well, and certainly would never have stayed with them. But Jesus looked on these people with compassion and not with prejudice. The fact that the Samaritans invited this Jew to stay shows they saw Him as much more than a Jewish rabbi.
Jesus’ decision to stay gave other Samaritans an opportunity to hear Him and to believe. The first group came because of the woman’s testimony. Then others came who had not heard the woman’s testimony. Of these many more believed because of His own word. This does not mean that no Samaritan told them about Jesus, since the community was astir with what had happened on the first day.
They probably had heard the testimony of some believer, but they primarily heard Jesus directly. Of course, so did the converts on the first day. The believers all believed in Jesus because they heard Him. The only difference was that the first group of believers had first heard the woman’s words. These later converts said, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves.”
But for the woman’s witness, her fellow-townsfolk would never have come to know Jesus: but they could not rely on her witness alone: they must know Him for themselves. Second-hand acquaintance with Christ or hearsay belief in Him cannot be a substitute for personal knowledge and saving faith.
The Samaritan believers called Jesus the Savior of the world. Samaria was not the whole world, but it was the home of a group excluded by the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus showed that His love included the Samaritans. This foreshadowed the time after His death and resurrection when the risen Lord commissioned His followers in Matt. 28: 18–20 to go to the whole world. The new life He offered to the woman of Samaria, He offers to all people. Those who know Him must announce Him as the only source of new life.
Two days later Jesus continued His journey to Galilee. The Galileans who had attended the Passover in Jerusalem had returned home and in John 2: 13-25 told about all that Jesus had done there. Their testimony prepared the way for others to encounter Jesus themselves.
The pattern is clear. New life is offered through Jesus. It is available to all, to the whole world. We who are His disciples need only open our eyes to see the multitudes who need to hear the message. People impacted by the good news should share it.
This lesson focuses on four aspects of announcing that Jesus is the source of new life. First, announce the need for this new life. Second, give your testimony of new life in Christ. Third, announce the urgency for new life. Fourth, announce the results of new life. Both Jesus and the woman announced this new life. God mightily used the testimony of this unlikely witness.
NEXT SUNDAY WE BEGIN A FIVE LESSON STUDY FOCUSED ON FIVE AREAS IN WHICH CHRISTIANS NEED TO PRACTICE INTENTIONAL CHRISTIANITY. WE BEGIN BY PRACTICING INTEGRITY. TITUS 2 & 3. A.V. DAUGHERTY