The Samaritan Woman At The Well

John 4:1-6 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. ⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. (Genesis 48:22)⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

The city of Sychar was the capital city of the Samaritans. It’s ancient Shechem.  This is where Abram was when God promised this land to his descendants,   Abram built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord. (Genesis 12)

This is where Jacob bought a piece of land from a Canaanite named Hamor, for 100 pieces of sliver, where Jacob built an altar to the Lord. (Genesis 33)

Sychar (Shechem) was where Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was raped — and the sons of Jacob massacred the men of the city in retaliation. (Genesis 34)

This is where the bones of Joseph were carried from Egypt were buried (Joshua 24), where Joshua and Israel renewed their covenant and commitment to the God of Israel and proclaimed, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

(6) JESUS TIRED

John 4:7-9 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

John 4:10-14 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  (What is this gift of God-Jesus would give-living water)

John 7:37-39 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

The gift of God that Jesus speaks of here is the Holy Spirit that wells up to eternal life that can only be received by believing in Jesus.

Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Jeremiah 17:13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

So what Jesus was offering her was an intimate personal relationship with God, which can only happen with the receiving of the Holy Spirit, which can only happen by believing and receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior.

 John 4:15-18 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”*** He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”   (Vs29 everything I ever did)

Jesus brought up HER SIN because her sinful life had to be confronted. (we must understand our sinfulness-to see our need for savior)

John 4:19-24 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ****²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (is coming-has come)

When I worship in Spirit and Truth It’s an active pursuit, a conscious choice, to engage with God on His terms, not mine. It’s about setting aside my agenda, my preferences and making room for the Spirit to move, to speak, to guide.

When I worship in Spirit and Truth, I’m acknowledging God’s sovereignty, bowing before His majesty, surrendering/submitting to His authority.

When I worship in Spirit and Truth, I draw near to God, and I’m inviting God to draw near to me.

 John 4:25-26  The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”  

 John 4:27-38 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ****

³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him. ³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” ³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.       

³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Jesus uses the analogy of food and harvest to communicate spiritual ideas. The idea of harvest meant that there were many people ready to be received into the Kingdom of God, and that the disciples should see themselves as workers — reapers — in that harvest.

“As he was speaking, the Samaritans were leaving the town and coming across the fields toward him.

John 4:39-42 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers. ⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”    

Living water      Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

Jesus identifying Himself as Messiah-God

Jesus Defining Spiritual food as doing Gods will

He had to-divine appointment

It was just Jesus and her

Jesus confronts her sin

Jesus identifies himself-she is given a choice

Only by her actions to we truly see her choice

She leaves her water pot

Goes back into town and testifies about Jesus

And through her testimony the come to believe on their own