John 4:1-15 Bible Teaching

John 4.15
October 13th 2013
Welcome welcome

We are beginning John chapter four today and are going to be presented with a wonderful story full of God’s wonder in dealing with human beings – in this case a Samaritan woman.

Before getting into it let’s listen to the Word of God set to human music as a means to facilitate memorization.

Afterward we invite you to sit quietly and to reflect upon your relationship with the Lord, on your walk, on your worries, and on the things you wonder about.

Then we’ll come back and get into John chapter four.

Okay we left off last week with Jesus and his interaction with John the Baptist coming to an end.

And John the Beloved now details for us how the Lord leaves Judea toward Galilees (where He performed His first miracle) and in their travels passed through Samaria.

Now let me preface this part of John’s narrative with a little reminder.

The Bible is first and foremost a record of the Holy Spirit working in and through men to write what He wants written.

The interesting thing about this is the Holy Spirit works through people, and when it comes out through words in ink on paper the words are filtered through the writers make-up, experience, and training.

Isn’t that wild.

In other words, each writer has a stamp or flavor to the way they write, and it is specific to them.

What I am trying to say is the Holy Spirit does NOT overwhelm the writer to the point that their individuality is lost and all scripture comes out identical in tone, syntax, flow, and sytle – but works THROUGH human beings and does not wipe away the touches and flourishes they possess individually.

This is really important because extrapolating this out we know the same is true when God works in and through each of us as individuals.

We are all constructed in very different ways, molded by experiences, suffering, education, and world views that are completely acceptable to God – for you are who he has allowed you to be.

For this reason when we read Paul compared to Peter we have very different deliveries and narratives – but God Himself did not overwhelm and wipe those differences away, but instead uses them.

I personally believe that as a means to completely support and endorse human freedom, and to work in and around the effects of the fall upon Man God is a perfect gentleman and does not mandate conformity of personality or culture – but uses that is present to His good will – so long as what is present is willing to freely be used by Him.

The imagery the Word gives to us is a body, which obviously is composed of a whole bunch of different parts, with completely different functionalities, yet all part of one system that intimately feels the joys and sufferings of other parts.

It is so good, so Godlike, to remember this when we look about and interact with those who are part of the body that are not like us at all.

Human will is to accept, applaud, embrace, and promote those things and people who are just like us.

I personally believe we gather together as a living means to learn – through practice and association – to love and receive all who come in his name.

When the church falls prey to cultural demands and expects conformity it has fallen inline with the ways of Man and not God.

Certainly, it’s convenient to the organization and produces what appears like love. But the love is present only when it is prefaced by conformity.

I am of the opinion that God is best glorified and pleased when the street people are received as much as the corporate leaders, when the givers love the takers, and the socially inept feel as much at home as the socially refined.

The second thing about scripture is it is first a record of the Jews. Even the New Testament must be seen in context. It is the story of them coming to both reject the promised Messiah and then in a much smaller degree, to receive Him as all of the first converts to the Church were Jews.

Additionally, I think it is important to see and read the New Testament FIRST as complete for the age of the Jewish dispensation, and SECOND with application to those who come to Christ thereafter.

Doing this will give us a much more clear understanding of why things were said the way they were said the way they were said.

Frequently people read the New Testament today as though it was written to them FIRST but it was not – it was written to the early church and has primary application to them . . . with the most wonderful SECONDARY application to us thereafter.

This brings me to the final point of our verse by verse study of scripture – this is the living word. This means a few things which we are away and probably many things we miss.

First, it can only be understood when accompanied by the Holy Spirit.

We can real and memorize and study the languages and walk away with nothing more than an intellectual understanding of what it means if we do not have the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit present was we embark upon it.

Secondly, with the Holy Spirit present, the living Word operates on each of us – listen – according to who we are and where we are relative to our upbringing, education, intellect, personality.

In other words, the Holy Spirit may, because the Word we read IS living, work and impress things upon you that are far more advanced than it does upon me. So while we read and study verse by verse you may garner things out of what we read that your neighbor fails to see.

The question is will love abide?

Remember what Paul said in 1st Corinthians 13:

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”

In other words, if we understand everything – have all knowledge – and cannot love those who differ with our knowledge, we are nothing.

That’s pretty radical – and humbling isn’t it. Love prevails.

Finally, one reason I believe the word is called the living word because it is constantly reaching us in new and diverse living ways.

I can read 1st John 3: 5 one day and have it reach and teach me in a certain manner and read it the next and have it touch me in a completely different fashion.

Just as our children are living and one minute impress us in one direction and the next impress us in another so is the living Word of God, but in a much more fascinating manner.

All of these points could be made manifest to us as we read the first story here in John 4 – the story of the woman at the well.

So let’s get into it.
There had been a dispute in chapter three over the fact that Jesus popularity was beginning to best the popularity of John the Baptist.

(verse 1)

John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

Alright, back to verse 1:

“ When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John”

Because at this time the Pharisees (who could have been the actual members of the Sanhedrim or just those appointed by them to oversee control) were over all religious activity (the rites and ritual especially) for the Jews it seems they thought it was their job to regulate stuff that popped up around them.

We recall they approached John the Baptist and wanted to know what he was doing baptizing people (and who he was to be able to take such action) so here, learning that Jesus was getting bigger than John I guess they felt it was time to put some pressure on him.

So John tells us in the face of this Jesus left.
I love this and let me tell you why.

Jesus knew that everything He did was in the name, cause and power of the Father.

I mean, according to this account His ministry was growing numerically, and right when it was really starting to roll, Jesus left.

See, He wasn’t about immediate numerical success – he was about establishing the truth. God would take care of the numbers in the years and centuries and millennia to come.

That’s liberty folks. That’s freedom. To be able to pull up stakes and continue doing what you are called to do – knowing that His message would be heard and take root wherever he went. (Verse two)

2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)

There are a couple of theories about why Jesus Himself didn’t baptize people Himself.

One is His ministry was to baptize with the Holy Spirit and not with water – one was of heaven the other of earth – why mix them up?

Another is so as to not create division. I mean even between the parties of John and Jesus we’ve seen a division crop up so imagine the potential divisions –even between the disciples themselves if Jesus baptized people in water.

This kind of (in a way) reveals the nature (if you will) of water baptism. When a person is baptized by the holy spirit it is from ON HIGH and the glory always flows that way.

Certainly we have gratitude for those who shared the truth with us that opened our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit but once the Holy Spirit acts the glory is all for God.

Likewise, water baptism, if done because a person has been born of the Spirit, is done out of glory for the Lord, and it is irrelevant who does the dipping.

But when water baptism is NOT done because the Holy Spirit has moved in, but because it is a religious ritual, look out – that is when all sorts of trouble can take place.

And because we cannot know who is born-again and who is not when we water baptize them, the practice of it can really cause division.

Seperating water baptism from the Gospel Paul himself said in 1st Corinthians 1:17

“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”

Passages like this and others, while not dismissing the importance of water baptism, remind us that we participate in it as an outward sign (which is seem by others here on earth) of an inward faith (which is seen by God in heaven).

Get it? Got it? Good. Sooooooo, we read in (verse 3)

3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.

Galilee was outside of Jerusalem and far less under control of the Pharisees and so it appears Jesus (led of the Holy Spirit) headed that way.

It was in Cana of Galilee that Jesus performed His first miracle, changing water into wine. (verse 4)

4 And He must needs go through Samaria (or in other words, he had to pass through Samaria on his way to Galilee).

Another route could have been taken which passed through on the east side of the Jordan and it appears as a means to avoid contact with Samaria the Jews would take this course.

The word Samaria means a watch-tower probably because it was built on a hill way back in the day by the Israeli King Omri.

I won’t go into it but it was seiged and besieged time and time again for multiple hundreds of years.

Around the time of Herod the Great Emperor Augustus gave it to him and he rebuilt it, calling it Sebaste (which is the Greek form of Augustus) to honor him.

During Jesus ministry Western Palestine was divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.

Samaria occupied the centre of Palestine (which is why it was necessary to pass through it to get to Galilee) and was not regarded as a part of the Holy Land at all.

The distance between Samaria and Jerusalem, the respective capitals of the two kingdoms, is about 35 miles as the crow flies.

The Samaritans were looked down upon by the Jews for a number of reasons.

First, they were an amalgamated people – part Jew, part Assyrian, and then part almost everything else.

Secondly, when the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity and began to rebuild their temple they would not let the Samaritans help (who wanted to) which caused animus between them.

A third reason is the Samaritans built a rival temple (so to speak) on their own Mount Gerizim (which was in BC 130 by a Jewish king) and so they built another competing temple at Shechem.

Soon the Samaritans were suggesting that their temple was the place designated by Moses where worship should occur and a leader of the Samaritans (named Sanballat) elected his son-in-law (Manasses) high priest. This pseudo religion continued to perpetuate all the way down the time Jesus is having this conversation with the Samaritan woman (and beyond).

A fourth reason is while Nehemiah was engaged in re-building the walls of Jerusalem, the Samaritans used every trick to try and stop them – which incensed the Jews.

Fifth, the Samaritans rejected the writings of the prophets, and all the Jewish traditions, and only accepted the first five books of Moses.

Finally, because of their rebellious nature that was in the face of the Jews of a perfect bloodline living in Jerusalem, Samaria became a place for all the outlaws of Judea.

And they willingly received all the violators of the Jewish laws and those who had been excommunicated. So as the number of these rebels and reprobates toward Jerusalem increase in number so did the hatred between the two groups.

Get the historical picture.

It’s like all the perfect genealogically perfect Mormons up on north temple who accept all the books of Joseph Smith and who outwardly embody righteous living meeting face to face with a crew of rebellious, mongrel, bar-hoppin vagrants and criminals that have been excommunicated and now only accept the Bible – so there was anger and distain flowing in both directions, with the Jews thinking of the Samaritans as the lowest of the low, and the Samaritan mocking the Jerusalem Jews as uppity-religious snobs.

So right here, resting right between Jesus and this Samaritan woman we have all of this historical animus.

As we progress through scripture we’ll see that the gospel was more readily received in Samaria than in either of the other providences. (verse 5)

5 Then cometh He to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

What a passage. God has given us so much upon which to base our faith and here we have a verse that ties Jacob – who lived some 2000 years before this moment – and a well he built to Jesus.

We can note that no critics of the biblical account use this in their assassination – why? Real history with real people in real time.

Now Jesus came to one of the oldest cities of the providence of Samaria and was known as Shechem all the way back in Genesis! Here it is called Sychar.

Isn’t that radical! And it is radical that we can go there today!

In this place Joshua assembled the people before his death and they collectively renewed their covenant with the Lord.
(Joshua 24)

Well back in the day John reports that Jacob (of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob fame) bought one piece of ground for a hundred pieces of silver.

It was here that the bones of Joseph were buried when they were brought up from Egypt (according to Josiah 24:32).

And it appears that the well was “near” to this area.

6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

Verse six is intriguing because the term Jacob’s well is not mentioned in the Old Testament.
We’ve heard of Jacob’s ladder but no well.

It is thought that it is called Jacob’s well either because it was handed down (by tradition) that he dug it or because it was near to the land which he gave to Joseph for burial of his bones.

Here we have Jesus, the living water, coming to this historic area and taking a seat on (or near) this well because he was weary from his journey.

Very symbolic, in my opinion.

John mentions that it was about the “sixth hour,” which would have been around noon, the time when the Jews would eat and so it makes sense the disciples were not present – they had gone to get, as Jethro Bodine, would say, vittles.

The Bible calls any and all types of food meat . . . but in the mountaineers transplanted to Beverly Hills calls them vitels. (verse 7)

7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

Now I realize the text says this woman “was of Samaria” but it was not the city of Samaria (it was about eight miles away – that would be a long way to get water) but I think it means the woman was a Samaritan, in all probability from the city of Sychar.

Now, the King James says that the woman approaches and Jesus out of the blue says, “Give me to drink.”

It really doesn’t sound real nice when read this way.

Of course we could believe the worst and think Jesus was misogynistic and treated women like chattel but this would be incorrect.

The reality is the disciples were not present, Jesus had nothing to get water from the well, and a better reading would be,

“Could you give me some water to drink?”
(verse 8 adds to the understanding saying)

8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy vitles – meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him,

“How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”

“Why are you, a Jew, asking me (a Samaritan) for a drink of water? I didn’t think you all had anything do with Samaritans?”

We see here that Jesus opened a discussion up to this woman. And while He was sent first to the house of Israel we can see from this account He was willing to reach out to any and all as a picture of the Gospel going out into all the world eventually.

The Lord does not address the historical difficulties here when she asks Him what He was doing talking to her. Instead He jumps right in (verse 10)

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

We don’t really know if Jesus was saying to her:

“If you realized who I am as the gift God has sent to save the world” OR if He was saying, “If you realized the opportunity being afforded you to receive salvation.”

I believe Jesus was speaking of Himself but you may differ (as have others).

In any case, there was a gift, an opportunity right in front of her and Jesus tells her that if she realized what it was there she would be asking Him to give to her “living water.”

Now the Jews had some expressions for different types of water.

Living water came from springs, fountains, streams or river and were very different from dead or stagnant water that did not move.

It seems Jesus here was telling her that he was likening the doctrines that He could give her to “living water” which stood in direct opposition to the stagnant, dead doctrines surrounding both the Jews and the Samaritans at that time in history.

11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

It appears – as happened often with Jesus – that the woman was thinking in literal terms; that she thought He was saying, “I could give you fresh living water from down in the well if you asked.

Thinking this was what He meant she points out that he has nothing to draw water with and that the well is deep so where,” she asks, “are you going to draw this living water from?”

We might add an OR here before reading verse 12

OR . . .

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

What this seems to mean is, “Or are you referring to a greater source of water that you know about, which would make you greater (or wiser and better able to find water than Jacob was)?

In other words she comes upon a man who tells her that if she knew the opportunity or the identity of the person talking to her she would have asked HIM to provide her “with living water,” and since he was bearing nothing to draw with the intimation seemed (to her) to be He was saying He could introduce her to a superior water source than what she was drawing from, which would make Him greater (better skilled) than Jacob.

Because they accepted the first five books of the Moses they considered themselves descendants of Jacob and by tradition must have believed that father Jacob had located this well and passed it down to them.

Adding to the value of the water the well provided was the fact that Jacob had actually drank of the water in it himself, and his children and animals.

In other words, she was inferring that this water was really special, and pure, and wholesome – it originated with Jacob for goodness sake!

This comparison is really profound – on a number of accounts.

First, it shows that tradition – traditional thoughts, beliefs, and practices – almost always take precedence in the minds and hearts of men.

It takes people with eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that feel to break the hold tradition can have on them.

This woman could not hear the Lord (initially) because tradition clogged her ears – and Jesus was not speaking in language that was really clear.

The next thing about this is the Old Testament was based in many ways in the material.

Jacob dug a well in an arid dry land and people for thousands of years had benefited from it. But, like all things material, they can only serve or take human beings so far.

Jesus will point this out.

I do not think it is an accident that this event occurred. The Lord was lead to this place and His engagement with this woman is applicable in many ways then – and now.

Notice Jesus is sitting on the well. He is resting on something from Jacob. It is beneath Him and bears literal water.

But He is the living water, and came to give spiritual drink to any and all who would hear.

The symbolism is better understood when Jesus plainly says:

13 . . . Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

Jesus didn’t even comment on her question or say outright that He and what He was offering was superior to Jacob and what he offered.

Neither did He disparage what Jacob had been and done. It served a purpose.

But the physical well – like the all that came with being part of the COI (the Children of Jacob, including the Law, the traditions, the genealogies, the temple – everything – would never suffice.

Drink of “this water,” Jesus says, this water that Jacob provided thousands of years ago, and you will thirst again, “BUT . . . “

(14) But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Physical water, physical applications to higher spiritual life, physical baptisms – whatever . . . and you will thirst again. But . . .

“whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him . . .

Whoever drinks of the truths I deliver, the spiritual rebirth available through me, the answers to life eternal that come from above . . .

. . . shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

The comparative is striking because telling a woman who was at Jacob’s well that she can have water that when taken in she will never thirst again would be like telling a professional truckdriver that if he puts one tank full of your special gasoline in his truck he will never ever have to refuel again!

Of course it was this imagery where Jesus was able to hook the woman with intrigue.
Who, living in the rocky desert of Samarian would not want to drink of living water once . . . and never thirst again.

Now, I realize that the words of Jesus were getting closer to the spiritual message because He does tell her that if she drinks of the water that He is offering it will spring up into “everlasting life.”

But I’m not so sure she really gets it yet.

She could’ve.
But based on her next request it seems her mind was still on literal water as she says:

15 “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

Jesus had transitioned into the fact that drinking His water would fill her with water springing up eternally unto everlasting life but she was still slow to hear.

But the thing was she was hearing. She was engaging. She wanted what He had to offer.

She still thought it was one thing, and not the other, but she was eager to receive.

As we continue next week, we will fully see the magnificence of this story as it is completely revealed.

But so far look at what Jesus has done.

He spoke with her – someone that culturally was forbidden because she was not only a Samaritan, she was a Samaritan woman.

He used His surroundings and the circumstances to attract her – and likened the Good News to water.

She asked questions, He redirected her, and then brought her to the point where she wanted the living water He offered that would spring up forever and ever.

And she asked for it.

Next week we’ll see what He does from here – which proves to her who He is . . . and her need for Him.

Questions/Comments
Prayer

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