[PRINT HERE] John 4 (5-17-17) Lecture Notes
St. Joseph Missionary Baptist Church
Wed Night Bible Study
JOHN 4:1-26
Dr. E.C. Gregory, PhD – Bible Facilitator 5-17-17 Dr. H.T. Rhim, Pastor
“THE WOMAN AT THE WELL”
(God’s WORD; Our Testimony)
The story of the nameless Samaritan woman at the well, recorded only in the Gospel of John, is a revealing one, full of many truths and powerful lessons for us today. The story of the woman at the well follows on the heels of the account of Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and prominent member of the Jewish Sanhedrin (John 3:1-21). In John 4:4-42) we read about Jesus’ conversation with a lone Samaritan woman who had come to get water from a well (known as Jacob’s well) located about a half mile from the city of Sychar in Samaria.
This was not just an ordinary woman. She was a Samaritan, a race of people that the Jews utterly despised as having no claim on their God, and she was an outcast and looked down upon by her own people. This is evidenced by the fact that she came alone to draw water from the community well when, during biblical times, drawing water and chatting at the well was the social highpoint of a woman’s day. However, this woman was hated and marked as immoral, an unmarried woman (living in sin) living openly with the sixth man in a series of men.
The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves us in spite of our total sinful lives. (Rom 5:8) God values us enough to actively seek us (John 6:44), to welcome us to a relationship with Himself, and to rejoice in our worship (JOY in worship). As a result of Jesus’ conversation, only a person like the Samaritan woman, an outcast from her own people, could understand what this means. To be wanted, to be cared for when no one, not even herself, could see anything of value in her—this is grace indeed.
But there are many other valuable truths we learn from this story:
1) Jesus offers eternal life. Only through Jesus can we obtain and receive eternal life: “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (John 4:13-14); cf. John 14:6).
2) Jesus seeks the outcasts. Jesus’ ministering to those outcasts of the Jewish society (the Samaritans) reveals that all people are valuable to God and that Jesus desires that we demonstrate love to everyone . . . including even our enemies(John 4:7-9); Matthew 5:44).
3) Jesus is the Messiah (John 4:25-26; 1-41; Matthew 27:22; Luke 2:11).
4) Jesus must be worshipped in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24; Psalm 145:18).
5) Jesus prepares us as witnesses. Our testimony about Jesus is a powerful tool in leading others to believe in Him: “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. 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”’ (John 4:39-42).
We learned from Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well three absolute truths about salvation:
1) Salvation comes to those who recognize their need for spiritual life they do not have. Living water can be obtained only by those who recognize that they are spiritually thirsty.
2) Salvation comes to those who confess and repent of their sin and desire forgiveness. Before this immoral woman could embrace the Savior, she had to concede the full burden of her sins.
3) Salvation comes to those who believes & receives Jesus as their Messiah. For the absolute truth is that salvation is found in no one else (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
