An Expository Study of John’s Gospel
CHAPTER 4
Scripture Reading: John 4 (KJV)
THE REVELATION OF THE SON OF GOD TO ISRAEL
4:1-3 … “When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.” Jesus did not want to be in competition with John. John was preparing people to receive the Lord and had done a great job. He was still doing that work. While John was preparing the people, Jesus was, on His own, touring the country side preparing people to enter the Kingdom and He practiced the same baptism John was using. The only valid baptism before the Kingdom began. It was baptism of repentance unto the remission of sins. Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. These people were under covenant to God. They may have rejected and violated it, but when a man was circumcised at eight days old he became a son of the covenant, whether he knew it or not; whether he accepted it or not. When he was older and realized that he had violated the covenant, he could, by repentance, return to God. John the Baptizer came and washed the people, with God’s assigned baptism of repentance, so these errant Jews might be restored to fellowship with God; ready to receive God’s Son as Savior.
In many ways the fourth chapter of John is a remarkable chapter. The Lord is engaged in the concluding days of the Period of Consideration and He presents Himself for the people to see, evaluate and understand. In this chapter, He has the second of three interviews within this period. He has already had the interview with Nicodemus and in this chapter He has one with the woman of Samaria. Later He will have one with the Nobleman near Capernaum. From our study of the first four verses it appears that the Lord’s popularity has created some jealousy on the part of John’s disciples and the Lord does not want that to continue. The Pharisees heard about this and they become upset about the Lord’s growing popularity. Jesus does not want His ministry to be violently opposed too early, so He plans on leaving Judea – going into the area of Galilee.
4:4 … “And he must needs go through Samaria.” It is not clear what is meant by the words “he must needs go through Samaria.” Geographically that was not necessary. There were other ways to go from Judea to Galilee. It may have been a compulsion. He had said in the Gospel according to Matthew that He had been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But, at the time He made that statement, Jesus was dealing with the Syrophenician woman, a Greek (Mark 7:26). So, He has already had one contact outside the lost sheep of the house of Israel and He is about to have another. His need to pass through Samaria may have been because of His own sense of destiny. Or, it could also be that the jealousy of John’s disciples and the enmity of the Pharisees was such that He needed the quickest way out, to keep problems from arising. We do not know what the Scripture means, when it says, “he must needs go through Samaria.” Thank God He did because Jesus had a tremendous visit.
4:5-7 … “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. Now Jacob's well was there.” This city was near a fork in the road. One branch of the road went toward Nazareth, the other toward Capernaum. It was an important city and was the location of Jacob’s well, which to the Jews made it all the more important. It was about ½ mile from the well to the city, meaning it was a little more than 2,000 feet from where Jesus was standing to where, later, the woman of Samaria will take the fork in the road and go into the city. Jesus was weary when He approached Jacob’s well and He sat on the rim of the well. It was about the sixth hour, or noon. He traveled during the morning hours, so by noon He would need rest, food and water. “Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.” This woman is going to be the counterpart of Nicodemus; between the two there was a sharp contrast. Nicodemus was a Jew, she a Samaritan. One was a man, one a woman; one a scholar of the Word, one worldly. Nicodemus was aware of the presence of Jesus in the area and came with an earnest desire to speak with the Lord; she seems to have met the Lord by chance, having no idea, and perhaps no desire, to encounter Him. The woman was materialist, concerned about the things of this life. Nicodemus was concerned about spiritual things and the life to come. It seems clear they were totally different, and this suggests something remarkable about the Lord. He knows how to deal with every type of human being. He knows what is in man and throughout His time on earth, did not need anyone to tell Him what was in man. He knew exactly how to deal with Nicodemus; on the level of his mind and needs; and He knows how to deal on the level and needs of this lowly and worldly Samaritan woman. Throughout His earthly life, Jesus met everyone with the idea of helping to meet their needs. Many people have only one basic idea in mind – a good social interchange. We need to see people, even when we meet them for the first time, as possible opportunities to serve Jesus. We should always have a smile on our face and a greeting on our lips. Christians should be outgoing for the Lord. If an opportunity develops, and if we have prepared, we will have a holy and good advantage. Almost everybody needs a spark of light and cheer and Christians need to be that spark. Jesus said we are the light of the world. Even if we are small candles, we need to be on fire. Always keep in mind the motto, “A smile is a light in the window of your face telling the world your heart is at home.” People need to know we have a heart and are ready to greet them. That is the way Jesus was.
4:7-9 … “Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, beinga Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” She was aware of the strangeness of there meeting. She knew Jews did not usually speak to Samaritans, and certainly not to a Samaritan woman. In that day, women were second class citizens. Here a Jew is asking her to render Him a service. Asking her to handle water and let Him drink. Normally, the Jews were not willing to handle knives, spoons or forks touched by a Samaritan. She was amazed that a gracious and kind Jew wanted her, a Samaritan woman, to give Him a drink of water. She knew that “the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”
4:10 … “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.” The Lord wants to provoke her curiosity and arouse her thinking. He tells her that if she knew who it was asking her for a drink of water, she would have asked Him for a drink and He would have given her living water. What did He mean, “living water?” Nearly always in God’s Word it means running water, but Jesus here refers to spiritual water.
4:11 … “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?” The well of Jacob is truly a deep well, but the bottom of the well contains a continuous living spring of flowing water, an underground spring. So, when the woman refers to the well as being deep, she was thinking of the running water, deep in the well. Living in a cultural conflict she saw a problem the Lord did not see.
4:12 … “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?” Jacob was a foreparent common to both the Jews and Samaritans. They gladly accepted it as Jacob’s well. She thought it was great that Jacob had dug the well, leaving it as a heritage. Jesus is offering her water, which she thinks is going to come out of Jacob’s well, without the benefit of a rope or a bucket, making Him greater than Jacob. At this point, she does not think He is greater than Jacob, but seems to challenge Him with that comparison.
4:13, 14 … “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 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.” This catches the woman’s attention because now she knows He is not talking about the water in Jacob’s well. He is talking about another kind of water. She is, however, materialistic and still thinks in terms of meeting her physical thirst.
4:15 … “The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” She is not thinking about spiritual water, but a perpetual supply of water which would keep her from having to draw water at the well. In dealing with this woman, the Lord deals with someone who is ignorant about spiritual things. She has some spiritual connections, but it is evident she is not deeply spiritual. In fact, she is not moral. From all appearances she is not a good prospect. But the Lord thought she was.
4:16 … “Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” Jesus tries to call something out of her personal life. He understood what she said (v.15) and knows exactly where she is coming from and wants to share more spiritual information with her. Jesus exercises her in a quest for more knowledge and says, go and call your husband. Jesus knew she did not have a husband. He raises the question so she will mentally step up to a different level. The Lord knew she was immoral and that the only way He could convert her, or lead her to a higher spiritual level, was to confront her life as it was. The Lord knew that conviction comes before conversion. When He asked her to call her husband, she answered,
4:17 … “. . . I have no husband.” Her hair might have risen on the back of her neck, because the Lord is now deep into her personal business. He has started talking about her private and personal life and she may have thought He had no business doing that. She says to Him, perhaps in a rather curt voice, “I don’t have a husband.” She may have thought that would turn Him off, but, “Jesus said unto her, thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.” She told Him the truth and He told her more truth than she wanted to hear. She knows now that Jesus is aware of much more than at first she thought. He is probing too deeply into her heart and private life for her comfort, so she tries to change the subject. When our position is in jeopardy, we usually want to change the subject. It is not uncommon, during a private Bible study, when the truth is hitting home, for the question to be asked, “Who was Cain’s wife?” What has that to do with learning how to become a Christian and living as He wants us to live? It is often simply a question asked for the purpose of changing the subject.
4:19, 20 … “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” She is trying to ask Him a troubling question to change the subject. “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” She probably felt this question would keep the Lord busy for a while, trying to explain which of the two is better and why.
4:21, 22 … “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” We live in a strange time. There are some people who put Jesus down because He was a Jew. But, it is clear they have never thought about the fact that when the Savior came into this world He had to come through some race. He could not come from some distant planet and be unlike anything on earth. He had to come as a Jew or one of the forms of Gentiles. He had to come as a man and have an origin. He came as a Jew, because God made a promise to Abraham that his seed would be the means of blessing the world. The seed God was going to use was the same seed He talked to Eve about in the garden when He said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Her seed was going to bruise the heel of God’s Sent One and He will bruise the serpents head. God told Abraham, “and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;” (Gen. 22:18). Later, Abraham’s seed came to be known as Jews from the word Judah. Jesus came from Judah. He was a Jew in every sense of the word. Here He freely announces that salvation is from the Jews. This is a bold and true fact.
4:23 … “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” It will have no relationship to place or time. Anybody can worship; anytime, anywhere, when God rules the heart. God is Spirit. He is not just “a” Spirit, but “the” Spirit. And He is to be worshipped.
4:24 … “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” In Romans there are some lines that few Christians have sufficiently put into their hearts and minds, thus they do not fully know what life is. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Rom. 8:7-9)
When Jesus says we need to worship Him in spirit and truth, He is not talking about just worshipping Him in the flesh. Remember, Jesus knows all truth and is planting an idea in the mind of this woman that will survive for ages to come. When He said, “in spirit and in truth,” He was not referring only to worshipping with a good and holy attitude. We do need a holy attitude, but Jesus goes much deeper. He says we must worship Him as a spirit ourselves, having been regenerated by His Spirit. A Christian is not a body with a spirit living inside, but a spirit living in a temporary body. One day the eternal Spirit will lay aside the mortal, temporal body, receiving an eternal body. So, when we talk about the Spirit, we are talking about the inner man. Everyone who worships the Father must worship Him in spirit and according to truth.
4:25, 26 … “The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” Apparently she had some hope and expectation about the Messiah. Though a Samaritan, she felt He would come to Samaritans as well as Jews. That is exactly what is now happening. Here the Messiah is living momentarily among the Samaritans, for the purpose of planting a seed that will bear fruit for many years to come. “Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” Jesus made a confession to this worldly minded, immoral Samaritan woman. A confession He did not make to Nicodemus, a devote teacher of the Jews, much concerned about the things of God. It is amazing that Jesus would make such a confession to this woman. In fact, this is one of the few confessions He made.
4:27 … “And upon this came his disciples . . .” This is not by chance, but providential. Here is an opportunity for the conversation to be interrupted temporally and she now has the opportunity of reacting to what Jesus has said. However, at this point she has changed. In verse 9, Jesus is a Jew; in verse 12, He is a comparison person with Jacob, who gave them the well; in verse 19, He is a prophet; and now, she is thinking of Him as the Messiah. The disciples come at this moment and interrupt the conversation, “. . . and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?” Nobody said anything to her about why she was there or to Jesus for talking to her.
4:28-30 … “The woman left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” We easily get the impression that she is sure this is Messiah. In fact, they sense her strong belief that He is Messiah, because, “Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.” Keep in mind, they have left the city in their white Samaritan robes and are heading to the well where Jesus waits.
4:31-34 … “In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” This is a lengthy conversation. The woman had to travel a half mile, and then make her circuit through Sychar, spreading the news about a man at the well who is the most remarkable person she ever met. He revealed everything she ever did, and she thinks He is the Messiah. Then they all gather around and she leads them out to Jesus. She certainly does not appear to be a poor prospect. It sounds like one of the greatest stories of missionary work ever done. The Lord needs many more prospects like the Samaritan woman. There are some in the church of our Lord1, members for years, who have never brought anyone to Christ. This woman was a believer for probably no more than an hour and assembled a crowd for Jesus. Jesus now speaks to the disciples, when He sees the group coming.
4:35 … “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” This group of people was “white already to harvest” because they were coming out of Sychar in their white, flowing robes. The harvest was about to be gathered on the same day the seed was sown. What a remarkable season of planting and reaping.
4:36 … “And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.” This is an opportunity for the sower and the reaper to rejoice within the same hour.
4:37-39 … “And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.” Jesus is saying, I sent you to reap where you have not labored. “I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.” So we now know she was effective reaching souls for Jesus.
4:40-42 … “So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; and they said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” This is a perfect ending for an encounter with Jesus. A Christian does not have to be a great teacher, but only needs to bring the prospect to an encounter with Jesus and He will convince them by His own Word and plant faith in their hearts by His own power. They still believed because of the woman. Probably they would have said, “Now we believe, not only because of thy saying.” Her word brought them to Jesus, but once they came and heard Him, they believed because of what He said.
Acts 8
In this chapter of Acts, Philip went down to Samaria and was present at the stoning of Stephen and the scattering of the church. In verse 5 Philip says he “preached Christ unto them.” A short time later that same Philip was notified by an angel to, “go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.” (Acts 8:26)
“He arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jeruslem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” (Acts 8:27)
Philip did as he was told, and as he ran along side the chariot, heard him reading Isaiah 53. Then Philip said, “Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?” And he invited Philip to come up and “sit with him” in the chariot and began at that same Scripture and “preached unto him Jesus.” What is the difference in teaching Jesus and teaching Christ? Of course, the end result is the same, but the beginning is very different. When the woman met Jesus at the well, He was simply Jesus, and before He left the well and city, He was the Christ. When Philip came into the area of Samaria he encountered people who had already met Jesus and, therefore, he could start talking to them about the Christ. The eunuch had no understanding of Jesus at all, so Philip went back and explained to him Jesus, bringing him up to date. Starting before Jesus in his instructional plan became the Christ. We may go out and plant the Word, starting someone along the way. Another may come later, building on that same foundation, perhaps starting at a higher level because of what we taught earlier, even though the early teaching we did was not enough to bring about a conversion. We never know when we may be a reaper, instead of a sower. We may also be a second, third or fourth level sower and someone else, coming later will reap the harvest. Many, who have reaped, did not do the primary sowing. Likewise, many who have done wonderful sowing have not always been reapers. When we work for the Lord, we do not need to be concerned about whether we are a sower or reaper, or a sower and reaper. We should not become so impetuous as to think every time we go out to teach someone about Jesus, that before going to bed, we must baptize them. That has been the problem with some personal evangelism – craving a reaping before the sowing has time to bear fruit.
John’s Gospel remarkable
The study of the Gospel of John is remarkable. It helps us gain insights not attainable from any other source. There is something unique about every book in the Bible, and John certainly has his measure of uniqueness. We often speak of different measures of faith; different levels and qualities of faith. John helps us more than any other writer to understand the differences in the level at which people accept Jesus. As we conclude chapter 4 we see two qualities of faith within the same individual (the Nobleman from Capernaum), within a twenty-four hour period. Sometimes one’s faith can make a quantum leap; if it has the motivation and foundation to do so. The last verses of chapter 4 present us with one such case. The Lord spent two days in Samaria. And, by the testimony of the woman at the well, many people came out to hear the Lord and many were converted. Now, Jesus again goes to Galilee.
4:46 … “So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine.” Making water into wine was the first miracle recorded by John and we now consider the second. Jesus performed miracles while in Jerusalem, but John does not explain them. He does inform us that after Jesus had performed several miracles in Jerusalem, in connection with the feast, many believed on Him, but He did not believe them. As we have already learned, their faith was only in His performance of miracles, not in Him. Jesus wanted to be accepted as Messiah, not as miracle worker only. He delayed accepting their faith, until it matured. He now comes back to Cana of Galilee, where He turned water to wine and John the Baptizer’s disciples believed on Him (perhaps implying no one else believed). We will see the disciples’ faith grow through various stages as John’s Gospel unfolds. “And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.” This man was, in some way, a king’s servant, with a seriously ill son.
4:47 … “When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.” Doubtless, the nobleman had sought help from physicians, but to no avail. He had heard about the miracle performed by Jesus in Cana and, evidently, had reports from Jerusalem regarding the things done by Jesus. Now that Jesus has returned to the area around Capernaum, the nobleman seeks to inform the Lord of his son, because the Lord may be the answer to his desperate need.
4:48 … “Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” One can sense in these words that perhaps the Lord was impatient with people who looked at Him only for relief of their immediate problems. He did not desire to be evaluated further on those terms only. So, He makes this statement perhaps to gain the nobleman’s attention. Perhaps He wants the nobleman to re-evaluate his motive. “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe,” and yet He is about to call on the nobleman to believe without the benefit of visible signs.
4:49 … “The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.” The nobleman wants to drive only one point home, his son is about to die and he wants the Lord to come. His present personal view of Jesus is not revealed to us, but, the Lord knew. This may have caused Jesus to test the man more before committing Himself as Savior of the world and Healer of diseases.
4:50 … “Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth.” Jesus gave only His Word that the “son liveth.” “Liveth” means that he is continuing to live. Evidently Jesus means that the probability of the son immediately dying has now been set aside. The nobleman now has to make a decision. Will he accept the Word of Jesus and act upon it or will he stay and attempt to convince Jesus to go with him. Probably, the statement Jesus gave to the nobleman at the beginning, warned him not to press Jesus or he might incur His disfavor. In effect, Jesus says “Your son is OK. If you believe in Me, go. If you wait to see a sign upfront, you wait in vain.” “And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.” This was not resolved as quickly as it may appear. Knowing his son was in serious condition, surely the nobleman did not take lightly the Words of Jesus. Surely, he did not say to himself, “OK. If you say it’s so, it’s so.” No, he probably felt considerable inter-struggle, wondering about his options. Do I stay and run the risk of aggravating Jesus? Do I take Him at His word and go? He took the only option available to him. He went away believing that Jesus not only meant what He said, but He could follow up and make it happen. This is an example of one level of faith, though not an effective level. This level is a “wait and see” belief. If, when he arrives home, the boy is better, his faith will revert to the moment Jesus told him, “thy son liveth.” His faith will then take on a new level. But, if when he arrives home, the boy is not better, he might say, “I expected this. I could not get Jesus to come home with me. He had little interest in my case. I guess He thought it wasn’t worth the trip.” If he had arrived home and found his son no better he could have said a dozen negative things. But it does not turn out that way.
4:51-54 … “And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.” His faith is now at a new level. Jesus has kept His word. His son’s fever has broken. He is mending. He is living and doing much better. Now the nobleman is ready to commit his life to the Lord. Now the Lord is not only a miracle worker and healer, but He is the Messiah. And his whole house believes with him. “This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.”
