The Gospel of John
Chapter 4
Verses 1-31
Chapter 4 Verses 1 – 31
Jesus heard that the Pharisees (Jewish leaders) were talking about all the people that Jesus had baptized and that these people were now following Jesus. (Jesus, himself, did not baptize anyone. His disciples were baptizing them.) More people were following Jesus now than were following John.
Remember, John had said that Jesus must increase (become bigger, more important) but I must decrease (get smaller or less important).
Jesus left Judea, and went to Galilee. In the King James Version of the Bible—verse 4 says “And he must needs go through Samaria.”
On his way to Galilee, Jesus wanted to go through Samaria. He knew there was a need for him to go there. In his spirit, Jesus knew he needed to go through Samaria.
The Jewish people usually did not want to go through Samaria.
Long ago in Old Testament times the city of Samaria was taken over by the king of Assyria. Then the king brought in some of the Assyrian people to live in Samaria. The Assyrian people worshipped idols. This was against the way the Jewish people believed.
As the years went by, Jewish people began to marry with the people of Samaria (Assyrian born —people of idols). So the people were part Assyrian and part Jewish).
Jews true to God’s laws knew it was wrong to marry a person who believed in idols. The Samaritans’ religion was mixed—part like the Assyrian idol worship and part like the Jewish worship,)
God did not want the Jewish people to marry people who did not believe in the true God of heaven. When children grow up in a home that have two ways of believing —–they do not know what to believe. Do I believe Mother or do I believe Father?
As more time went by, true Jews, full-blood Jews, would not have anything to do with the Samaritan people.
Jews would not travel through that area. Going through Samaria was the shortest way to get to Galilee, but they would go all around it.
Jesus felt in his spirit that he should go through Samaria. So he and his disciples went into Samaria. I wonder what his disciples were thinking about going through Samaria?
In the history of Israel—-years before the Assyrian king took over—– Jacob had this land and he gave part of it to Joseph.
There was a well there. They called it Jacob’s well.
Jesus decided to stay by the well. It was about noon. The disciples went on into the city to try to find some food to buy. Jesus waited by the well. Long ago a well was an open hole in the ground down to where water was under ground.
Maybe you have seen pictures of a “wishing well”. It was made of stone in a round circle around the hole. A bucket was tied on the rope. The bucket was let down into the well to get the water.
In Bible days, women would get the water and they used a clay jar with handles to get the water.
A woman came to the well. Jesus ask her to get him a drink. There was nothing there to get water with. There may have been a rope there hanging down into the well, and maybe not. Jesus did not have anything to put water in. Women brought their own jars.
The woman was surprised that Jesus asked her for a drink. The Jews did not have anything to do with Samaritans. They were almost never in their town.
A woman usually did not talk with a man she did not know.
She told Jesus she was surprised that he would ask her for a drink since he was a Jew and she was a Samaritan.
Jesus said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who I am, you would ask me for living water.”
The woman did not know what to think about that. Who was he? What was living water?
The woman said, “You do not have anything to get water with. Where will you get this living water?”
Then she asked Jesus, “Are you greater than Jacob who gave us this well?” (The people had great respect and honor for Jacob.)
Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of this well will be thirsty again. He who drinks from the living water I will give him will never be thirsty again.”
Jesus said, “This living water will be like a well in you springing up and will give everlasting life.”
The woman had never heard such talk. What was Jesus talking about? Living water? What did he mean?
The woman said, “Give me this living water then I will not have to come here to get water.”
The woman still not understand that Jesus is talking about spiritual things and she is talking about water.
Then Jesus said something to her that got her attention: “Go get your husband.”
The woman said, “I do not have a husband.”
Jesus said, “You say the truth. The man you are living with is not your husband. You have been married 5 times, and now you are living with this man.”
The woman is thinking, How can this man know these things about me? She said to Jesus, “You must be a prophet of God to be able to know those things about me.”
Then the woman said, “We worship here in these hills and mountains, but you Jews say we should worship in Jerusalem.” Many, many years before Jacob had made an altar there. She is trying to understand this man and what he is saying to her.
Jesus said, “The time is coming when people worship the Father they will not worship in these mountains or in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said, “You people do not know what you worship, we Jews know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”
Jesus is talking about their idol worship. The Samaritans mixed part idol worship and part worship of God.
Jesus is telling her that the Jews have the true law and prophets who told the people the truth. They told the people a Messiah would come to save them.
Jesus said, “The day is coming when it will not matter where you worship because everyone who worships the Father will worship in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit. If you worship Him, you worship him in your spirit and it does not matter where you are.”
In Old Testament times, the Jews were to go to Jerusalem to give their lamb offerings. The Jewish people had the law and the rules about making offerings.
The Samaritans—- because of the people being mixed in marriage with people who worshipped idols and the true God—-had a mixed up kind of religion. They believed some things about God. They did not go to Jerusalem to worship. But they knew about the Messiah who was to come.
Jesus knew that after he died and rose again and went to heaven, no more lamb offerings would be needed. The Jewish people—all people—would worship in a different way. They would come through Jesus as the “Lamb” offered. They would worship Jesus. They would talk to Jesus. They would do this by praying and talking to God in their minds and spirits.
The Holy Spirit would come after Jesus went back into heaven. (Acts chp. 1 and 2) Worship to Jesus and the Father would be by our spirits. So it will not matter where we are—-we can always pray to God.
We do not have to go to Jerusalem with a lamb.
In the Old Testament, people could pray to God wherever they were.
God heard them. But Jesus is trying to say that things will be different after his death and after the Holy Spirit comes to live in people.
In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came on a person for a short time to do a special thing, but the Spirit of God did not come and live in them all the time.
John the Baptist was the first person in whom the Holy Spirit came to live in him. And he was special because the Holy Spirit came into him from the time he was a baby.
After Jesus went back to heaven, the Holy Spirit was sent to come live in those who believed in Jesus. (Acts chp. 1 and 2)
Vs. 25 The woman at the well said, “We know about the Messiah, the Christ. When he comes he will tell us all things, and we will understand.”
Jesus said, “I am the Messiah.”
Vs. 27 Then the disciples came back from town. They were surprised that he was talking with this woman, but they did not say anything about it.
The woman seeing the other men come, went back into the city and when she saw some men that she knew she told them what Jesus had said to her. She said, “He told me things that I had done. This must be the Christ or Messiah.”
So the men went to see this man at the well.