May 26, 2026 • 26 mins
A single sentence changes everything: Jesus, tired and thirsty, asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. That moment at Jacob’s well in John 4 is more than a Bible story we’ve heard before. It’s a collision between ancient hostility, personal shame, and a Savior who refuses to avoid the people everyone else avoids.
We trace the opening movements of the chapter as Jesus leaves Judea for Galilee while Pharisee scrutiny grows, and we talk about why “He had to pass through Samaria” when most Jews went out of their way to bypass it. Along the way, we dig into the significance of Shechem (Sychar), the deep history surrounding Jacob’s well, and what Jesus’ weariness reveals about His full humanity. Then we slow down and listen to the tension in the dialogue: a taboo conversation, a skeptical response, and Jesus offering “living water” as the gift of God that never runs dry.
The heart of the passage turns when Jesus exposes the woman’s broken relationships and redirects a long-running religious argument toward the only worship God accepts: worship in spirit and truth. We also unpack what it means that salvation is from the Jews and why Jesus’ final words here are so striking: “I who speak to you am he.” If you’ve ever tried to satisfy spiritual thirst with temporary fixes, this is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review, what stood out to you most from John 4?
Email: nathan@nathandietsche.com
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SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Today we are in John chapterfour, and we begin at verse one.
Now when Jesus learned that thePharisees had heard that Jesus
was making and baptizing moredisciples than John, although
(00:36):
Jesus himself did not baptize,but only his disciples, he left
Judea and departed again forGalilee.
These first three verses ofchapter four describe for us the
detailed movement of Jesus'ministry from Judea to Galilee.
(00:58):
Jesus had been at the Passoverfeast where he spoke with
Nicodemus during that week, andthen he had moved into the
Judean countryside or the ruralarea outside of Jerusalem.
Now we learn in verse 1 ofchapter 4 how the Pharisees had
(01:19):
heard that Jesus was making andbaptizing more disciples than
John the Baptist.
The religious sect of thePharisees found out that Jesus'
ministry was getting bigger.
It was growing even larger thanJohn the Baptist's.
In the previous podcast where wediscussed John chapter 3, verse
(01:41):
25, we saw a religious Jew whohad come to John the Baptist's
disciples, and they were havingthis discussion over
purification, which became adiscussion over Jesus baptizing.
It is likely this very Jew thatwas sent from the Pharisees to
John's disciples thatcommunicated with the group of
(02:03):
the Pharisees.
And now we see that Jesus isalerted to how the Pharisees are
going to cause trouble.
We also see in verse 2 thatJesus was not the one baptizing,
but his disciples were.
Both Jesus and John theBaptist's ministries baptized
people for the forgiveness ofsin and belief in Jesus as the
(02:25):
Messiah.
But Jesus himself did notbaptize people.
So Jesus is now departing fromthe Judean countryside and on
his way to Galilee.
Picking up in verse 4.
And he had to pass throughSamaria.
So he came to a town of Samariacalled Sikar, near the field
that Jacob had given his sonJoseph.
(02:48):
Jacob's well was there.
So Jesus, wearied as he was fromhis journey, was sitting beside
the well.
It was about the sixth hour.
Now in verses four through six,we're told how Jesus had to pass
through Samaria.
Now to get to Galilee fromJudea, the Jews often avoided
(03:14):
Samaria.
They would take a much longerroute.
They would actually circlearound Samaria to the east, into
the Decabolis east of theJordan.
Why?
Because Jews and Samaritansdespised one another.
The feeling was mutual.
From the Jewish perspective, theSamaritans had mixed their
(03:36):
heritage, their blood with theGentiles.
Samaritans were Israelites thatmarried Gentiles, and now they
had mixed blood.
The Samaritans had built theirown counterfeit temple on Mount
Gerizim.
They had adopted their ownindependent priesthood.
And when war would break out,the Samaritans would ally with
(04:00):
pagans against the Jewishpeople.
The hatred between these twogroups was strong, and it ran
both ways.
Geographically speaking, therewas no reason for someone to
have to go through Samaria toget to Galilee.
Yet that's what we read.
Jesus had to pass through.
(04:23):
Why did Jesus have to passthrough?
Because Jesus had a divinepurpose for a very special
woman.
And Jesus would violate what hadbecome social, cultural, and
religious norms to demonstrateGod's love and truth to an
outcast woman that was ready tohear the message about Christ.
(04:48):
So Jesus comes to this town inSamaria called Sikar.
Now Sikar is actually a Greektransliteration of the Hebrew
name Shekem.
And I'll probably use the town'soriginal name Shekem throughout
this message.
Today we would recognize it tobe just east of Nablus.
(05:13):
This town is very significant inScripture.
It's where Abram originallystopped when he entered Canaan.
It is where Jacob camped when hefirst came into the promised
land after his twenty years withLaban.
It's also where Jacob's daughterDinah was defiled.
(05:34):
It's where Joshua renewed thecovenant with Israel.
We also read that it is whereJacob had purchased a piece of
land to give to Joseph.
This is where Joseph was buried.
And Shechem is also whereJacob's well resides.
The location of Jacob's well hasbeen kept by very strong
(05:57):
tradition throughout history, bythe Jews, by the Samaritans, by
Christians, and even by Muslims.
Jacob's well is a very deep holethat is fed by an underground
spring, and that spring is stillactive today.
And you can go to Jacob's well,which is next to the crypt of an
(06:20):
unfinished Orthodox church inIsrael.
So Jesus is now going to thetown of Shekem in the region of
Samaria, and it is about thesixth hour.
The sixth hour, according to theJewish calendar, is noon, and
Jesus is wearied.
Although Jesus is fully God inhis spirit, he is fully human in
(06:45):
his flesh, and Jesus sufferedfrom the limitations of his
flesh.
He experienced thirst,weariness, pain, and hunger.
We pick up in verse seven.
A woman from Samaria came todraw water.
Jesus said to her, Give me adrink.
For his disciples had gone awayinto the city to buy food.
(07:09):
The Samaritan woman said to him,How is it that you, a Jew, ask
for a drink from me?
A woman of Samaria?
For Jews have no dealings withSamaritans.
In these verses is where thestory starts to get interesting.
A woman from Samaria comes todraw water.
(07:30):
Women in the Near East wouldtypically come in groups to draw
water, and they would do iteither early in the day or later
in the day to avoid the heat ofthe day.
The fact that this woman is herealone in the noon heat shows her
public shame.
It shows how she has becomeisolated even from other
(07:53):
Samaritans.
And as she comes to the wellalone, Jesus is also sitting
there alone because hisdisciples had gone away to buy
food in the city.
And Jesus says to her, Give me adrink.
And when Jesus asks for a drink,the Samaritan woman is taken
(08:16):
back.
For anyone to speak to thiswoman was probably very unusual.
But for a Jewish man to speak toher in public, this was
incredibly taboo.
As I mentioned before, therewere very strong social
prejudices between Jews andSamaritans.
(08:37):
There were also social norms formen not to speak to women,
especially strange women.
A rabbi or religious leaderwould certainly not hold a
conversation with a woman of illrepute.
In fact, there was a rabbiniclaw that had been created as one
(08:58):
of those extra laws by the Jews.
This extra law taught thatSamaritan women were considered
continually menstruating, andthus they were unclean.
At this time in history, for aJewish man to drink from a
Samaritan woman's vessel wouldmean he'd be considered
(09:20):
ceremonially unclean.
And as this Samaritan woman istaken aback and wondering how in
the world could this Jewish manbe talking to me, Jesus answers
her in verse ten, which reads Ifyou knew the gift of God, and
who it is that is saying to you,Give me a drink, you would have
(09:43):
asked him, and he would havegiven you living water.
The woman said to him, Sir, youhave nothing to draw water with,
and the well is deep.
Where do you get that livingwater?
Are you greater than our fatherJacob?
He gave us the well and drankfrom it himself, as did his sons
(10:05):
and his livestock.
Jesus said to her, Everyone whodrinks of this water will be
thirsty again, but whoeverdrinks of the water that I will
give him will never be thirstyagain.
The water that I will give himwill become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternallife.
(10:28):
The woman said to him, Sir, giveme this water so that I may not
be thirsty or have to come hereto draw water.
Here in verses ten throughfifteen, we see Jesus' answer to
the Samaritan woman's shock.
And Jesus begins by saying, Ifyou knew the gift of God, what
(10:52):
Jesus says in these seven words,describe for us the grace of God
given to men.
Jesus Christ is the gift of God.
Jesus Christ is the grace of Godgiven to men.
We are not saved by our works,but we are saved by grace, which
(11:16):
is a gift from God.
And that grace and that gift isJesus Christ.
Jesus continues, you would haveasked him, and he would have
given you living water.
Now this phrase living wateractually comes from the Old
Testament.
Jeremiah two thirteen andseventeen thirteen.
(11:41):
God is the source of livingwater.
He can give and give and neverbe depleted.
God is infinite, he is eternal,he has goodness that never runs
dry.
And here Jesus is pointing tohimself, saying that he has the
(12:01):
living water.
At which point the woman becomesa little bit sarcastic.
She points out how Jesus hasnothing to draw water with, how
the well is deep.
Jacob's well is one of thedeepest wells in all of
Palestine.
Today it is still over a hundredfeet deep, and it was very
(12:22):
likely deeper back then.
And she asks Jesus, Are yougreater than our father Jacob?
And the very structure of thissentence in Greek shows her
skepticism.
She's anticipating a negativeresponse from Jesus.
This woman does not believeJesus.
She does not understand who heis.
(12:46):
But Jesus continues in hisministry to her.
He says, Everybody who drinks ofthis water, pointing to the
well, will be thirsty again.
The water that comes fromJacob's well only quenches the
physical thirst for a shorttime.
And so it is with anything wetry to quench our thirst with.
(13:09):
The human need for love, food,sex, water, financial security,
or even acceptance from otherpeople is never fully met.
And we never find truesatisfaction here on earth.
As long as we try to quench ourthirst with these physical
(13:32):
things, we will be foundwanting.
But then Jesus says, Whoeverdrinks of the water that I will
give him will never be thirstyagain.
Faith in Jesus Christ bringsforgiveness of sin.
It brings eternal life and arelationship with the
(13:53):
everlasting God.
The water that Jesus gives willcontinually provide for our
spiritual needs.
He says that the water that hegives will spring up like a well
unto eternal life.
And that is precisely whathappens with the believer in the
(14:14):
new covenant, as the Holy Spirittabernacles in the believer and
becomes a spring of waterwelling up to eternal life.
After Jesus tells the Samaritanwoman about this spring of
water, the Samaritan woman says,Sir, give me this water, so that
I might not be thirsty or haveto come here to draw water.
(14:39):
This Samaritan woman, much likeNicodemus back in John chapter
3, can't see past the things ofher flesh, and she is incredibly
skeptical.
Drawing water here was a dailytask, and it was hard work.
She sarcastically says, If yougive me this water, Jesus, I'll
(14:59):
never have to come here and drawwater again.
It is at this point that Jesuscuts to the heart of the issue
with this woman.
Jesus knows the heart of thiswoman and what she needs.
And while she has a superficialknowledge of the Messiah, she
needs a moral reform of who theMessiah is.
(15:24):
And picking up in verse sixteen,Jesus says to her, Go call your
husband and come here.
The woman answered him, I haveno husband.
Jesus said to her, You are rightin saying I have no husband, for
you have had five husbands, andthe one you now have is not your
(15:45):
husband.
What you have said is true.
The woman said to him, Sir, Iperceive that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped on thismountain, but you say that in
Jerusalem is the place wherepeople ought to worship.
Jesus said to her, Woman,believe me, the hour is coming
(16:08):
when neither on this mountainnor in Jerusalem will you
worship the Father.
You worship what you do notknow.
We worship what we know, forsalvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming and isnow here, when the true
worshipers will worship theFather in spirit and truth, for
(16:32):
the Father is seeking suchpeople to worship him.
God is spirit, and those whoworship him must worship him in
spirit and truth.
In verses sixteen through twentyfour, Jesus really speaks to the
heart of what this woman needsto hear.
(16:54):
He begins by saying, Go callyour husband.
Because this Samaritan woman hasbeen so skeptical and failed to
recognize the spiritual natureof Jesus and living water, Jesus
quickly changes the conversationfor her need to be cleansed from
sin and her misunderstanding ofwho God and the Messiah are.
(17:20):
Jesus suggests she go get herhusband.
And this shows us Jesus'supernatural ability to know the
very lives and spiritualconditions of the people around
him.
Jesus knew the heart of men.
In just these few words, Jesusreveals this woman's lifestyle
(17:40):
of sin and her need for truesalvation.
She replied, I have no husband.
And Jesus said, You are right insaying I have no husband.
If anyone has any interactionwith people who refuse to get
married or people who shack upand live with one another, you
(18:01):
know that they often claim to bemarried or claim to be
committed.
But this Samaritan woman ishonest with Jesus.
She says she doesn't have ahusband.
And Jesus says, You are right insaying I have no husband.
By saying this, Jesus rejectsany notion that two people
(18:25):
living together constitutescommitted marriage.
According to God's word,marriage is always in the
context of a public, formal,official, and recognized
covenant between one man and onewoman.
Now, after hearing how Jesus hadthis supernatural knowledge of
(18:48):
her life, she thought perhapsshe was talking to a prophet who
had been given information fromGod.
And while the Samaritan womanacknowledges the truth of Jesus'
statements, she doesn't yetrecognize Jesus is the Messiah,
but she's still not completelyconvinced.
So she throws up one moreargument to Jesus.
(19:11):
The argument she brings up is anancient argument over religious
practices and where peopleshould worship.
The Samaritans worshiped atMount Gerizim, but the Jews
worshiped in Jerusalem, at theTemple Mount.
Jesus' answer to this ancientreligious argument is to
(19:35):
redirect the Samaritan woman togenuine worship.
Jesus says to her, Woman,believe me, the hour is coming
when neither on this mountainnor in Jerusalem will you
worship the Father.
Jesus is foreshadowing thecoming Holy Spirit at Pentecost
and how the temple of God willno longer be a building, but the
(19:59):
temple of God will be theindividual believer.
When Jesus tells the Samaritanwoman, You worship what you do
not know, Jesus is pointing outhow she has a misunderstanding
of who God is.
The Samaritans in general didnot accept the full revelation
(20:20):
of God.
They only used the Pentateuch orthe first five books of the
Bible, Genesis throughDeuteronomy.
They did not accept what therest of the Old Testament taught
through the prophets.
Furthermore, the Samaritans hadmixed the biblical God with
other gods.
(20:41):
And so they could not worshipGod in truth.
Jesus says, We worship what wedo know.
Jesus says this because the Jewsin general accepted the full
revelation of God in the OldTestament.
Therefore, they knew thefullness of God and who they
(21:02):
worshiped.
Jesus also says salvation isfrom the Jews.
Why?
Because salvation is through theMessiah.
The message about the Messiah isrevealed throughout the Old
Testament and to the Jewishpeople.
It was through Abraham, Isaac,and Jacob, but also King David
(21:25):
that the Messiah was to be born.
And now the Messiah that waspromised through the Jewish
people is sitting here with thisSamaritan woman.
And Jesus says, the hour iscoming and is now here.
This furthers the idea of whatJesus was saying before.
(21:49):
Jesus is saying something iscoming, foreshadowing the coming
Holy Spirit, but he also says,It is now here.
Why is that?
Because the tabernacle of God,where God's Spirit resides, has
moved from the temple to theperson of Jesus Christ.
(22:09):
And now that time is here.
Sitting before this Samaritan.
Woman, God is tabernacled in theperson of Jesus.
And when Jesus will ascend intoheaven, he will send the Holy
Spirit to tabernacle inbelievers.
So the hour is coming, but it isalso here in Jesus Christ,
(22:32):
sitting before the Samaritanwoman.
And true worshipers can worshipthe Father in spirit and truth,
because the Father seeks suchpeople.
Jesus says, God is spirit, andthose who worship him must
worship in spirit and in truth.
When Jesus says God is spirit,he's referring to the Father.
(22:56):
The Father in his true form isspirit and lives in
unapproachable light.
He's invisible to us.
By faith we believe in him.
And Jesus says that worshiperswill worship the Father in
spirit and in truth.
The word for spirit in thiscontext refers to the human
(23:20):
spirit, the immaterial innerbeing of every person.
After this Samaritan womanbrings up ancient religious
arguments over this temple andthat temple, Jesus tells her
that the only worship God findsacceptable is when a person
worships God inwardly in theirspirit, with a heart attitude
(23:45):
towards glorifying God and histruth.
It means to worship God withgenuineness and purity, centered
around what the Scriptureteaches about God's character
and about his Messiah.
We worship in truth because theone we worship is true.
(24:09):
In our last two verses fortoday, we read starting at
twenty five.
The woman said to him I knowthat the Messiah is coming, he
who is called the Christ.
When he comes, he will tell usall things.
Jesus said to her, I who speakto you am he.
(24:33):
In verse twenty five, theSamaritan woman recognized that
the Messiah was coming.
The Samaritans too expected acoming Messiah.
However, their expectation wasmore based off of what Moses
said about a coming prophetbecause they rejected all of the
rest of Scripture.
(24:53):
After Jesus spoke to the womanabout worshiping in spirit and
truth, she must have found somevalue in what Jesus was
speaking.
And she started to long for aday when the Messiah would
explain everything to her.
And then Jesus says, I who speakto you am he.
(25:16):
This open declaration by Jesusof being the Messiah is very
unusual in his ministry.
Typically, Jesus avoideddeclaring himself Messiah and
would use messianic titles likethe Son of Man when he was among
the Jews and the Jewish leaders,who often thought of the Messiah
(25:38):
as a coming political andmilitary figure.
But here, with the Samaritanwoman, he openly proclaims, I am
he.
Next week we'll pick up at verse27, and I want to thank you for
joining me today for themysteries of God's Word.
(25:59):
God bless you this week.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Today we are in John chapterfour, and we begin at verse one.
Now when Jesus learned that thePharisees had heard that Jesus
was making and baptizing moredisciples than John, although
(00:36):
Jesus himself did not baptize,but only his disciples, he left
Judea and departed again forGalilee.
These first three verses ofchapter four describe for us the
detailed movement of Jesus'ministry from Judea to Galilee.
(00:58):
Jesus had been at the Passoverfeast where he spoke with
Nicodemus during that week, andthen he had moved into the
Judean countryside or the ruralarea outside of Jerusalem.
Now we learn in verse 1 ofchapter 4 how the Pharisees had
(01:19):
heard that Jesus was making andbaptizing more disciples than
John the Baptist.
The religious sect of thePharisees found out that Jesus'
ministry was getting bigger.
It was growing even larger thanJohn the Baptist's.
In the previous podcast where wediscussed John chapter 3, verse
(01:41):
25, we saw a religious Jew whohad come to John the Baptist's
disciples, and they were havingthis discussion over
purification, which became adiscussion over Jesus baptizing.
It is likely this very Jew thatwas sent from the Pharisees to
John's disciples thatcommunicated with the group of
(02:03):
the Pharisees.
And now we see that Jesus isalerted to how the Pharisees are
going to cause trouble.
We also see in verse 2 thatJesus was not the one baptizing,
but his disciples were.
Both Jesus and John theBaptist's ministries baptized
people for the forgiveness ofsin and belief in Jesus as the
(02:25):
Messiah.
But Jesus himself did notbaptize people.
So Jesus is now departing fromthe Judean countryside and on
his way to Galilee.
Picking up in verse 4.
And he had to pass throughSamaria.
So he came to a town of Samariacalled Sikar, near the field
that Jacob had given his sonJoseph.
(02:48):
Jacob's well was there.
So Jesus, wearied as he was fromhis journey, was sitting beside
the well.
It was about the sixth hour.
Now in verses four through six,we're told how Jesus had to pass
through Samaria.
Now to get to Galilee fromJudea, the Jews often avoided
(03:14):
Samaria.
They would take a much longerroute.
They would actually circlearound Samaria to the east, into
the Decabolis east of theJordan.
Why?
Because Jews and Samaritansdespised one another.
The feeling was mutual.
From the Jewish perspective, theSamaritans had mixed their
(03:36):
heritage, their blood with theGentiles.
Samaritans were Israelites thatmarried Gentiles, and now they
had mixed blood.
The Samaritans had built theirown counterfeit temple on Mount
Gerizim.
They had adopted their ownindependent priesthood.
And when war would break out,the Samaritans would ally with
(04:00):
pagans against the Jewishpeople.
The hatred between these twogroups was strong, and it ran
both ways.
Geographically speaking, therewas no reason for someone to
have to go through Samaria toget to Galilee.
Yet that's what we read.
Jesus had to pass through.
(04:23):
Why did Jesus have to passthrough?
Because Jesus had a divinepurpose for a very special
woman.
And Jesus would violate what hadbecome social, cultural, and
religious norms to demonstrateGod's love and truth to an
outcast woman that was ready tohear the message about Christ.
(04:48):
So Jesus comes to this town inSamaria called Sikar.
Now Sikar is actually a Greektransliteration of the Hebrew
name Shekem.
And I'll probably use the town'soriginal name Shekem throughout
this message.
Today we would recognize it tobe just east of Nablus.
(05:13):
This town is very significant inScripture.
It's where Abram originallystopped when he entered Canaan.
It is where Jacob camped when hefirst came into the promised
land after his twenty years withLaban.
It's also where Jacob's daughterDinah was defiled.
(05:34):
It's where Joshua renewed thecovenant with Israel.
We also read that it is whereJacob had purchased a piece of
land to give to Joseph.
This is where Joseph was buried.
And Shechem is also whereJacob's well resides.
The location of Jacob's well hasbeen kept by very strong
(05:57):
tradition throughout history, bythe Jews, by the Samaritans, by
Christians, and even by Muslims.
Jacob's well is a very deep holethat is fed by an underground
spring, and that spring is stillactive today.
And you can go to Jacob's well,which is next to the crypt of an
(06:20):
unfinished Orthodox church inIsrael.
So Jesus is now going to thetown of Shekem in the region of
Samaria, and it is about thesixth hour.
The sixth hour, according to theJewish calendar, is noon, and
Jesus is wearied.
Although Jesus is fully God inhis spirit, he is fully human in
(06:45):
his flesh, and Jesus sufferedfrom the limitations of his
flesh.
He experienced thirst,weariness, pain, and hunger.
We pick up in verse seven.
A woman from Samaria came todraw water.
Jesus said to her, Give me adrink.
For his disciples had gone awayinto the city to buy food.
(07:09):
The Samaritan woman said to him,How is it that you, a Jew, ask
for a drink from me?
A woman of Samaria?
For Jews have no dealings withSamaritans.
In these verses is where thestory starts to get interesting.
A woman from Samaria comes todraw water.
(07:30):
Women in the Near East wouldtypically come in groups to draw
water, and they would do iteither early in the day or later
in the day to avoid the heat ofthe day.
The fact that this woman is herealone in the noon heat shows her
public shame.
It shows how she has becomeisolated even from other
(07:53):
Samaritans.
And as she comes to the wellalone, Jesus is also sitting
there alone because hisdisciples had gone away to buy
food in the city.
And Jesus says to her, Give me adrink.
And when Jesus asks for a drink,the Samaritan woman is taken
(08:16):
back.
For anyone to speak to thiswoman was probably very unusual.
But for a Jewish man to speak toher in public, this was
incredibly taboo.
As I mentioned before, therewere very strong social
prejudices between Jews andSamaritans.
(08:37):
There were also social norms formen not to speak to women,
especially strange women.
A rabbi or religious leaderwould certainly not hold a
conversation with a woman of illrepute.
In fact, there was a rabbiniclaw that had been created as one
(08:58):
of those extra laws by the Jews.
This extra law taught thatSamaritan women were considered
continually menstruating, andthus they were unclean.
At this time in history, for aJewish man to drink from a
Samaritan woman's vessel wouldmean he'd be considered
(09:20):
ceremonially unclean.
And as this Samaritan woman istaken aback and wondering how in
the world could this Jewish manbe talking to me, Jesus answers
her in verse ten, which reads Ifyou knew the gift of God, and
who it is that is saying to you,Give me a drink, you would have
(09:43):
asked him, and he would havegiven you living water.
The woman said to him, Sir, youhave nothing to draw water with,
and the well is deep.
Where do you get that livingwater?
Are you greater than our fatherJacob?
He gave us the well and drankfrom it himself, as did his sons
(10:05):
and his livestock.
Jesus said to her, Everyone whodrinks of this water will be
thirsty again, but whoeverdrinks of the water that I will
give him will never be thirstyagain.
The water that I will give himwill become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternallife.
(10:28):
The woman said to him, Sir, giveme this water so that I may not
be thirsty or have to come hereto draw water.
Here in verses ten throughfifteen, we see Jesus' answer to
the Samaritan woman's shock.
And Jesus begins by saying, Ifyou knew the gift of God, what
(10:52):
Jesus says in these seven words,describe for us the grace of God
given to men.
Jesus Christ is the gift of God.
Jesus Christ is the grace of Godgiven to men.
We are not saved by our works,but we are saved by grace, which
(11:16):
is a gift from God.
And that grace and that gift isJesus Christ.
Jesus continues, you would haveasked him, and he would have
given you living water.
Now this phrase living wateractually comes from the Old
Testament.
Jeremiah two thirteen andseventeen thirteen.
(11:41):
God is the source of livingwater.
He can give and give and neverbe depleted.
God is infinite, he is eternal,he has goodness that never runs
dry.
And here Jesus is pointing tohimself, saying that he has the
(12:01):
living water.
At which point the woman becomesa little bit sarcastic.
She points out how Jesus hasnothing to draw water with, how
the well is deep.
Jacob's well is one of thedeepest wells in all of
Palestine.
Today it is still over a hundredfeet deep, and it was very
(12:22):
likely deeper back then.
And she asks Jesus, Are yougreater than our father Jacob?
And the very structure of thissentence in Greek shows her
skepticism.
She's anticipating a negativeresponse from Jesus.
This woman does not believeJesus.
She does not understand who heis.
(12:46):
But Jesus continues in hisministry to her.
He says, Everybody who drinks ofthis water, pointing to the
well, will be thirsty again.
The water that comes fromJacob's well only quenches the
physical thirst for a shorttime.
And so it is with anything wetry to quench our thirst with.
(13:09):
The human need for love, food,sex, water, financial security,
or even acceptance from otherpeople is never fully met.
And we never find truesatisfaction here on earth.
As long as we try to quench ourthirst with these physical
(13:32):
things, we will be foundwanting.
But then Jesus says, Whoeverdrinks of the water that I will
give him will never be thirstyagain.
Faith in Jesus Christ bringsforgiveness of sin.
It brings eternal life and arelationship with the
(13:53):
everlasting God.
The water that Jesus gives willcontinually provide for our
spiritual needs.
He says that the water that hegives will spring up like a well
unto eternal life.
And that is precisely whathappens with the believer in the
(14:14):
new covenant, as the Holy Spirittabernacles in the believer and
becomes a spring of waterwelling up to eternal life.
After Jesus tells the Samaritanwoman about this spring of
water, the Samaritan woman says,Sir, give me this water, so that
I might not be thirsty or haveto come here to draw water.
(14:39):
This Samaritan woman, much likeNicodemus back in John chapter
3, can't see past the things ofher flesh, and she is incredibly
skeptical.
Drawing water here was a dailytask, and it was hard work.
She sarcastically says, If yougive me this water, Jesus, I'll
(14:59):
never have to come here and drawwater again.
It is at this point that Jesuscuts to the heart of the issue
with this woman.
Jesus knows the heart of thiswoman and what she needs.
And while she has a superficialknowledge of the Messiah, she
needs a moral reform of who theMessiah is.
(15:24):
And picking up in verse sixteen,Jesus says to her, Go call your
husband and come here.
The woman answered him, I haveno husband.
Jesus said to her, You are rightin saying I have no husband, for
you have had five husbands, andthe one you now have is not your
(15:45):
husband.
What you have said is true.
The woman said to him, Sir, Iperceive that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped on thismountain, but you say that in
Jerusalem is the place wherepeople ought to worship.
Jesus said to her, Woman,believe me, the hour is coming
(16:08):
when neither on this mountainnor in Jerusalem will you
worship the Father.
You worship what you do notknow.
We worship what we know, forsalvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming and isnow here, when the true
worshipers will worship theFather in spirit and truth, for
(16:32):
the Father is seeking suchpeople to worship him.
God is spirit, and those whoworship him must worship him in
spirit and truth.
In verses sixteen through twentyfour, Jesus really speaks to the
heart of what this woman needsto hear.
(16:54):
He begins by saying, Go callyour husband.
Because this Samaritan woman hasbeen so skeptical and failed to
recognize the spiritual natureof Jesus and living water, Jesus
quickly changes the conversationfor her need to be cleansed from
sin and her misunderstanding ofwho God and the Messiah are.
(17:20):
Jesus suggests she go get herhusband.
And this shows us Jesus'supernatural ability to know the
very lives and spiritualconditions of the people around
him.
Jesus knew the heart of men.
In just these few words, Jesusreveals this woman's lifestyle
(17:40):
of sin and her need for truesalvation.
She replied, I have no husband.
And Jesus said, You are right insaying I have no husband.
If anyone has any interactionwith people who refuse to get
married or people who shack upand live with one another, you
(18:01):
know that they often claim to bemarried or claim to be
committed.
But this Samaritan woman ishonest with Jesus.
She says she doesn't have ahusband.
And Jesus says, You are right insaying I have no husband.
By saying this, Jesus rejectsany notion that two people
(18:25):
living together constitutescommitted marriage.
According to God's word,marriage is always in the
context of a public, formal,official, and recognized
covenant between one man and onewoman.
Now, after hearing how Jesus hadthis supernatural knowledge of
(18:48):
her life, she thought perhapsshe was talking to a prophet who
had been given information fromGod.
And while the Samaritan womanacknowledges the truth of Jesus'
statements, she doesn't yetrecognize Jesus is the Messiah,
but she's still not completelyconvinced.
So she throws up one moreargument to Jesus.
(19:11):
The argument she brings up is anancient argument over religious
practices and where peopleshould worship.
The Samaritans worshiped atMount Gerizim, but the Jews
worshiped in Jerusalem, at theTemple Mount.
Jesus' answer to this ancientreligious argument is to
(19:35):
redirect the Samaritan woman togenuine worship.
Jesus says to her, Woman,believe me, the hour is coming
when neither on this mountainnor in Jerusalem will you
worship the Father.
Jesus is foreshadowing thecoming Holy Spirit at Pentecost
and how the temple of God willno longer be a building, but the
(19:59):
temple of God will be theindividual believer.
When Jesus tells the Samaritanwoman, You worship what you do
not know, Jesus is pointing outhow she has a misunderstanding
of who God is.
The Samaritans in general didnot accept the full revelation
(20:20):
of God.
They only used the Pentateuch orthe first five books of the
Bible, Genesis throughDeuteronomy.
They did not accept what therest of the Old Testament taught
through the prophets.
Furthermore, the Samaritans hadmixed the biblical God with
other gods.
(20:41):
And so they could not worshipGod in truth.
Jesus says, We worship what wedo know.
Jesus says this because the Jewsin general accepted the full
revelation of God in the OldTestament.
Therefore, they knew thefullness of God and who they
(21:02):
worshiped.
Jesus also says salvation isfrom the Jews.
Why?
Because salvation is through theMessiah.
The message about the Messiah isrevealed throughout the Old
Testament and to the Jewishpeople.
It was through Abraham, Isaac,and Jacob, but also King David
(21:25):
that the Messiah was to be born.
And now the Messiah that waspromised through the Jewish
people is sitting here with thisSamaritan woman.
And Jesus says, the hour iscoming and is now here.
This furthers the idea of whatJesus was saying before.
(21:49):
Jesus is saying something iscoming, foreshadowing the coming
Holy Spirit, but he also says,It is now here.
Why is that?
Because the tabernacle of God,where God's Spirit resides, has
moved from the temple to theperson of Jesus Christ.
(22:09):
And now that time is here.
Sitting before this Samaritan.
Woman, God is tabernacled in theperson of Jesus.
And when Jesus will ascend intoheaven, he will send the Holy
Spirit to tabernacle inbelievers.
So the hour is coming, but it isalso here in Jesus Christ,
(22:32):
sitting before the Samaritanwoman.
And true worshipers can worshipthe Father in spirit and truth,
because the Father seeks suchpeople.
Jesus says, God is spirit, andthose who worship him must
worship in spirit and in truth.
When Jesus says God is spirit,he's referring to the Father.
(22:56):
The Father in his true form isspirit and lives in
unapproachable light.
He's invisible to us.
By faith we believe in him.
And Jesus says that worshiperswill worship the Father in
spirit and in truth.
The word for spirit in thiscontext refers to the human
(23:20):
spirit, the immaterial innerbeing of every person.
After this Samaritan womanbrings up ancient religious
arguments over this temple andthat temple, Jesus tells her
that the only worship God findsacceptable is when a person
worships God inwardly in theirspirit, with a heart attitude
(23:45):
towards glorifying God and histruth.
It means to worship God withgenuineness and purity, centered
around what the Scriptureteaches about God's character
and about his Messiah.
We worship in truth because theone we worship is true.
(24:09):
In our last two verses fortoday, we read starting at
twenty five.
The woman said to him I knowthat the Messiah is coming, he
who is called the Christ.
When he comes, he will tell usall things.
Jesus said to her, I who speakto you am he.
(24:33):
In verse twenty five, theSamaritan woman recognized that
the Messiah was coming.
The Samaritans too expected acoming Messiah.
However, their expectation wasmore based off of what Moses
said about a coming prophetbecause they rejected all of the
rest of Scripture.
(24:53):
After Jesus spoke to the womanabout worshiping in spirit and
truth, she must have found somevalue in what Jesus was
speaking.
And she started to long for aday when the Messiah would
explain everything to her.
And then Jesus says, I who speakto you am he.
(25:16):
This open declaration by Jesusof being the Messiah is very
unusual in his ministry.
Typically, Jesus avoideddeclaring himself Messiah and
would use messianic titles likethe Son of Man when he was among
the Jews and the Jewish leaders,who often thought of the Messiah
(25:38):
as a coming political andmilitary figure.
But here, with the Samaritanwoman, he openly proclaims, I am
he.
Next week we'll pick up at verse27, and I want to thank you for
joining me today for themysteries of God's Word.
(25:59):
God bless you this week.
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