The Water of Life

John 4:1

1. The Pharisees had inquired about John’s authority, and this was sure to arouse their concern.
2. Jesus avoided the Jews prior to the time for His crucifixion in prudent discretion (John 7:1).

John 4:4

1. By consulting most any map of Palestine around the time of Christ, you will find Samaria lying directly north of Judah and Jerusalem, and Galilee was directly north of Samaria.

John 4:9

1. The Jews and Samaritans had long resented each other for their different origins and religion.
2. The Assyrians’ integration created half-breeds worshipping Jehovah and idols (II Kgs 17:1-John 41).
3. History tells the Samaritans built and used a temple in Mt. Gerizim to compete with Jerusalem.
4. They were very antagonistic to each other (Luke 10:33; John 8:John 48).

John 4:10

1. The great gift of God is Jesus Christ and the eternal life by Him (Rom 6:23; 8:32).

John 4:11

1. If the Lord does not open our eyes to His spiritual truth, we would be as blind as she was.
2. She sounds no different from Nicodemus and the seekers of John 6 at this point.

John 4:12

1. As the Jews appealed to Abraham and Moses, this woman appealed to her father Jacob.
2. When God blesses a family, they are very prone to put the grace in their blood, which it is not.

John 4:13

1. Jesus told her that Jacob’s water was inferior by the necessity of constant use. It did not satisfy.

John 4:14

1. The water here is the doctrine and gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the news of our salvation.
2. After studying eating and drinking Christ last week, we see Him using a similar figure here.
3. We lay hold on eternal life by drinking His figurative water and eating His figurative bread.
4. The apostle John, the holy penman here, closes out Revelation with the same water (22:17).

John 4:15

1. She still does not grasp His figurative speech, which does not indicate anything yet about her, for even the disciples were often lost with His frequent use of such language (John 4:33).
2. But she is not murmuring at Him yet. Remember John 6:John 41,52,61?

John 4:16

1. Our omniscient Lord asked her to call her husband to come hear His message as well.

John 4:17

1. The woman, with a degree of discretion, declared truly that she did not have a husband.
2. Jesus acknowledged her truthful and discreet answer.

John 4:18

1. He then explained to her the lascivious and adulterous life she had and was living.

John 4:19

1. Some sweet words! The woman perceived that Jesus was a prophet. Remember John 6:1John 4?
2. It is too bad the Pharisees and Jews could not have perceived the same.
3. But without election and regeneration, we would not perceive anything either.
4. She had recognized Him now as a Jew (John 4:9) and a prophet (John 4:19), so she defended her religion.

John 4:20

1. Abraham and Jacob had worshipped in these parts (Genesis 12:6-7; 33:20; John John 4:5-6).
2. The tribe of Joseph had proclaimed God’s blessings from Mt. Gerizim (Deut 11:29; 27:12).
3. She raised the longstanding doctrinal differences between the Jews and the Samaritans.
4. She made the matter a prejudicial choice, because she did not have Scripture on her side.

John 4:21

1. Jesus introduced her to the time of reformation and the New Testament era of the gospel.
2. The worship of God would take place throughout the earth in the churches of Jesus Christ.
3. Though men were repenting and being baptized in the gospel, temple worship also continued.
4. For forty years, from approximately 30AD to 70AD, the two religious systems ran side-by-side.
5. He kindly informed her that the longstanding difference between them was going totally away!

John 4:22

1. Jesus showed He had not bought into the “seeker sensitive” movement by degrading her religion.
2. He said this because they did not worship according to the word of God, but tradition (Is 8:20).
3. He admitted the Jews at least were correct in their worship, for they had the oracles of God.
4. The truth of the Scriptures and all they contain to know God and His worship were in Israel.
5. Salvation was wrapped up from a national perspective in God’s covenant dealings with the Jews.

John 4:23

1. Jesus again returned to the future situation that location would not play a role in worship.
2. God the Father was seeking an improvement of worship to be based on spirit and truth.
3. The Old Testament of the Jews was based on physical senses and only figurative symbols.
4. The gospel is based on a regenerated heart and worshipping in the truth of Jesus Christ.
5. The hour coming and now is indicates the transformation taking place in God’s worship.
6. This verse is simply describing the change from the Old to New Testament form of worship.

John 4:24

1. The Old Testament was a beggarly form of worship as Paul clearly teaches in Hebrews.
2. God, being a Spirit, was not truly worshipped in a temple made with hands.
3. But He is worshipped in our hearts by our spirit laying hold on His truth revealed to us.
4. Jesus is introducing a revolutionary, earthshaking introduction of His kingdom (Heb 12:28-29).
5. God was never properly worshipped with animal blood, temples of stone, and carnal ordinances.

John 4:25

1. This simple and sinful woman had a good elementary understanding of the prophecies of Christ.
2. She did not refer to her fathers about the Messiah, but she said, “I know that Messias cometh.”
3. The Samaritans, even though they had only the five books of Moses, knew of Him (Gen 3:15; 22:15-18; John 49:10; Deut 18:15).
4. This woman was no pagan of the Assyrian captives totally ignorant of the Jews’ religion.

John 4:26

1. Jesus saith unto her, “I that speak unto thee am he.”
2. He speaks to each of you hearing me or reading this outline.
3. We are reading this inspired account of the event.
4. Do you believe on Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah, Christ, and Saviour of His people?

John 4:27

1. They did not ask about His strange conduct out of reverence for His righteous character.
2. Though we may not understand everything in the Word of God, we can certainly trust God.

John 4:28

1. The woman, who had come to the well for water, left her waterpot.
2. She went into the city of Sychar to get the men of the city to hear Jesus.
3. Where were the “seekers” from John 6 about this time? Murmuring? Striving?

John 4:29

1. She knew that His precise knowledge of her legal and intimate life was only by God’s grace.
2. She put 2+2 together and got John 4. She knew He was a Jew and a prophet. She recognized His ability, and she believed His word! Glory!

John 4:32

1. Jesus, using another figure that confused His disciples, explained that teaching souls unto conversion was more important than eating.
2. Do you know this great compassionate and desire for souls? Seek it!

John 4:34

1. The meat of Jesus Christ was to do the will of God and secure the salvation of sinners.

John 4:35

1. Jesus questioned their timing of the harvest, for He saw the crowd of Samaritans coming to Him!
2. Harvest is long after life has germinated and is simply waiting to be reaped for the final product.
3. There was coming a crowd of regenerate elect from among the Samaritans to be converted.

John 4:36

1. The text teaches how Jesus encouraged His disciples to the work before them.
2. He had called them to be fishers of men earlier, and this event is in the early part of His ministry
3. Jesus encouraged His disciples with the wages to be given to His ministers (II Tim John 4:7-8).
4. Daniel prophesied of some turning many to righteousness and shining as the stars forever (12:3).
5. The issue at stake was not a mere seasonal crop, but rather the conversion of God’s elect.
6. Some sow and others reap; but both receive the joy and wages of seeing the harvest complete.
7. Paul sowed, Apollos watered, and God gave increase; but neither was jealous of the other.
8. There is a reward in seeing God’s elect believe and obey the gospel (Rom 1:13; I Thess 2:19).

John 4:37

1. Some ministers see little fruit, but eventually sowing the seed bears fruit under another’s reaping.

John 4:38

1. The prophets, John the Baptist, and Jesus had done the preliminary work, now it was their turn.

John 4:39

1. Many Samaritans, looking for the Messiah, believed this “miracle” of Jesus knowing the woman.

John 4:40

1. These believers wanted Jesus to stay with them, and He did so; they were different from John 6.

John 4:41

1. Many more believed because of His own word. They heard Him preach, and they believed Him.

John 4:42

1. Far beyond what you told us, we have now heard Him ourselves. This is truly the Christ.
2. Oh, do you see the difference from these ignorant Samaritans and the Jews of John 6 and 8?
3. They did not mean Jesus would save the whole world of every inhabitant; they meant that Jesus would save His elect from every nation, just as Jacob had prophesied to Judah (Gen John 49:10).
4. And the word “world” meant a lot to them, as it should to us, for they were of the Gentile “world,” not being Jews. Consider this use of “world” in Romans 11:12.

John 4:43

1. Jesus stayed with the Samaritans two days, unheard of for that time; then He went on to Galilee.

John 4:44

1. Jesus did not go to his hometown of Nazareth, for He was not well received there.

John 4:45

1. But the Galilean countryside received Him gladly, for they had seen His miracles in Jerusalem.

John 4:46

1. Rather than Nazareth, His hometown, Jesus went to Cana, where He had done His first miracle.
2. A certain nobleman was there to meet Jesus for the healing of his son in Capernaum (15 miles).

John 4:47

1. They came down in altitude from the mountains of Cana to the Jordan valley of Capernaum.
2. The son was on his deathbed, and the man wanted healing before it would be too late!

John 4:48

Again, Jesus tested the faith of this “seeker” by accusing him of wanting a gratuitous miracle!

John 4:49

1. The father simply begged for mercy toward his son, with full confidence of our Lord’s power!

John 4:50

1. Jesus said, You go see him in Capernaum; he is fine!
2. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke!
3. No questioning! No accusations of Bee

John 4:51

1. His servants met him on the road and told him that his son had recovered.

John 4:52

1. He checked the time of his recovery, for he had taken note of the time of our Lord’s word.

John 4:53

1. The whole house believed Jesus was the promised Christ by this personal miracle and true word.

John 4:54

1. This was the second miracle in his home country of Galilee. It was not his second miracle (2:23; 3:2; 4:45).

 

Do you believe?

Jesus Christ came to gather together His sheep from Jews and Gentiles into one fold, one kingdom. You are blessed greatly! Do you believe on Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God, worthy of your best esteem?