Gospel of John Chapter 4

“The Living Water”

Jesus travels through Samaria and stops at Jacob’s well, where He meets a Samaritan woman in the heat of the day. What begins as a simple request for a drink becomes a life‑changing conversation. Jesus reveals that He can offer “living water”—a spiritual gift that satisfies the deepest thirst of the soul. As He gently uncovers the truth of her life, the woman realises she is speaking with someone extraordinary. She runs back to her town, becoming an unexpected messenger who leads many to believe in Him.

Meanwhile, Jesus teaches His disciples that His true nourishment is doing the will of God. The episode closes with a second encounter: a royal official from Capernaum begs Jesus to heal his dying son. Jesus speaks a word of healing from a distance, and the man’s faith is rewarded when he discovers his son recovered at the very moment Jesus said, “Your son will live.”

This chapter blends personal transformation, cultural boundaries being broken, and the power of faith in Jesus’ word.

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to Dale's podcast, Love Thy Neighbour Ministries. Today we'll be exploring chapter four. Jesus goes to Galilee and he meets a Samaritan woman. And I really feel like this this chapter is such a good chapter. It's one of my favourite. It portrays Jesus not as judgmental at all, but really here to save. In the last episode, we we read For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Amen and hallelujah. So let us read on. Chapter 4 does have 54 54 verses in it. So what we'll do, we'll read to verse 38 in chapter 4. We'll go back and break it down, and then we shall move on verse 39 to 54. So it's quite a long one, but it is a good one. So yeah. All those as well that are listening right now, thank you so much for your support. Thank you so much for tuning in and the wonderful messages that I've received as well. Yeah, it's it's quite overwhelming. We've got currently at the moment 88 88 listeners around the world: America, UK, Cyprus, Macedonia, and New Zealand. So thank you so much. It's uh yeah, it's it's lovely. Thank you. So yeah, let us read. Chapter 4. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but the disciples were, he left Judea and went away again into Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria, so he came to a city of Samaria called Sisha, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. So Jesus being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. Now the sixth hour would be about high noon. The first hour would be six in the morning. Six at six is twelve, so yeah, round about high noon, and remember that we'll come back to that one. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink? Since I am a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. She said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you? Who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw. He said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have an you have correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband, this you have said truly. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshippers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When that one comes he will declare all things to us, Jesus said to her, I who speak to you he At this point the disciples came, and they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said What do you seek or why do you speak with her? So the woman left her water pot and went into the city, and said to the men, Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it? They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi eat, but he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, No one brought him anything to eat, did they? Jesus said to them My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes a harvest? Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true One sows and another and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not laboured, others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour. Wow, so let's go back on this and and let's just unpack everything that we've just read there. So in the first bit, therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, in bracket it says, although Jesus himself was not baptizing but the disciples were, he left Judea and went away again into Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. I'll just stop there. As we learn more and more about Jesus and his teachings, we ourselves, brothers and sisters, want to be more like him. In previous pastures, John the Baptist, not John the writer here, but John the Baptist said it so beautifully, so perfectly, that he must increase and we shall should decrease. We shall decrease and he should increase in our lives. And right there we've got students mimicking the master. And although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were, you know, Jesus' teachings are being are being studied, are being practiced. And one of the things as we go on this walk together, you know, you you first come to Christianity, or you've you've been a Christian for years, but not really acted upon it, you know, we we're called to be doers of the word. And I think there's a yeah, huge fulfilment in life. Yes, we can read the words of God, but do we actively go out and do it? I myself am not perfect when it comes to doing of the word. You know, I am flesh and blood, and though the spirit is willing, sometimes the flesh is weak, and you know, we work and we work and we work very hard in the day. You come home and you're just absolutely tired. You you want to you want to go out and and and do things for God, but sometimes you know you choose resting, but you know, I'm I'm sort of going off topic here, and he had to pass through Samaria now. Jesus came to a Samaritan woman and asked her for a drink, and the the woman, the Samaritan woman says, How is it that you in the jump to verse 9 here? How is it that you being a Jew asked me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Well, we need to have a look into the history of this because there has been a feud between Jews and Samaritans, and it's been rooted for centuries. There's been a political division and ethnic tensions, and also a theologian theological disputes as well. You know, deep-seated animosity stem from hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. You have the the Asar the Assarian exile in 722. I implore you to have a look into that. The temple rebuilding in the 530s, Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. They rejected the Samaritans' offer to help. And obviously, it deeply offended the Samaritans. There's been separate holy sites as Samaritans recognised, only the first five books of Moses as scripture and established her own temple, Mount Gerizim, I think it's Gerizim, G-E-R-I-Z-I-N, which they viewed as the true holy site instead of Jerusalem's Mount Zion. And then obviously there was a violent escalation around about 110 BC. I will use BC and A D because before Christ and Amadomini is a lot better than before Common Era and and after Common Era. So I use BC AD. But yeah, and ultimately the the Jews considered the Samaritans' bloodlines and religious practices tainted by paganism. And this is all the way, you know, by the first century, mutual hostility was so extreme that Judean travellers would cross the Jordan River to deliberately bypass the region of Samaria. And the interesting thing is that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, that just knows everything about everything, decided to send his apostles away to go and get some food and to have a conversation with this woman that's had five husbands. Now, I say, you know, as as Christians, Christians, most of them are lovely people. Nearly every single Christian I know are wonderful, lovely people, especially the the people I go to church with, you know. I've I find every single one of them just so nice, so loving, so lovely. But there are Christians out there, and I've come across them in the years of my Christian walk, that can be so judgmental. And how many, how many would turn their nose up at this woman? Right? The Bible tells us that Jesus got to this well on the sixth hour, so high noon. Let me tell you some culture. Let me tell you a little bit about why going to a well at high noon in the heat of day was wasn't the wisest thing to do. You know, you used to they used to draw water in the morning or at the cool of day in the evening. Okay, and the reason why they did that is because it's too hot. So they used to draw the water in the morning, you got the water for the day, or in the cool of evening, you sort of run out. And they used to be it used to be quite busy at the well, as you can imagine. A bit of status there, people talking, people, you know, discussing things. It used to be quite a lively place to go to the well. But this woman was found alone at midday because no, not really many people would draw at sort of high noon midday, and this is very interesting because maybe this woman, I'll put it to you, maybe this woman was an outcast. Maybe. Maybe the fact that she had five husbands and the man that she was with now isn't her husband, maybe that was a topic of conversation in this town. But see how merciful Jesus is with her in verse nine. It says that the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? Jesus answered her and said, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Now even though there's a rivalry with the Jews and the Samaritans and Samaria, see how the Son of God is choosing love over aggression, over petty rivalry, over two clans, you know, Jesus Christ is offer if if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Now she says next, Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? You are not greater than our Father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and the son and his sons and his cattle. You see, that's where did she truly understand what was going on here at this point? I don't believe she did. She was still thinking in the physical. Jesus has come in the spiritual. He's offering living water. Wow. When you get living water from Jesus Christ, let me tell you, you never thirst again because your cup is overflown. Hallelujah. But this this Samaritan woman, bless her, she doesn't, she just doesn't know at the moment. She doesn't know what's going on. She's thinking, wow, if you give me this water, I'll never have to come here again. I'll never get thirsty, but we'll get there in a sec. And Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. Now, brothers and sisters, do we not have this in ourselves? Do we not have this eternal living water that springs up that oozes out of us? Yeah, okay, some days we're we're not level 10 all the time, some days we're not, but we still have the joy of salvation in our lives. The Bible tells us to rejoice in everything. You know, you're having a bad day, rejoice to God. You're having a great day, rejoice to God. You're having a sad time, rejoice to God, be glad in the things that He has done, for it's momentarily that we are here on this earth, but life eternal is ours. And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw. Jesus didn't explain what he meant by this eternal life and this eternal, you know, this living water. He didn't need to explain that to her. He said that as a statement. This is what this is what would happen if you understood what I was saying. So he goes to the next thing. Go call your husband. He said to her, Go call your husband and come here. Jesus is all knowing. Okay, Jesus is all knowing. He was there in the beginning with God. You know, he is the word of God that made flesh and manifest and dwelt with us. He knows, he knows all things. And with him saying this, the woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. Wow. No judgment there, just truth. Just you have said rightly you have no husband, because you've had five husbands, and the one you with now is not your husband. There's no mocking, there's no gossips, there's no whispers, there's no scouring, there's no scourging. Does it not make us think and look inside us when we pass judgment on those? Wow. Should we not take the message and the teachings of Jesus Christ and put it down properly as he is speaking? This is amazing. And the woman knew exactly what were going on here. She said, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where where men ought to worship. So the woman said to Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet, 'cause obviously a prophet will know the things that God tells him, and Jesus knew that she had five husbands. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And again it comes to this clash of cultures, separate holy sites. Jews considered Samaritans' bloodlines and religious practices tainted by paganism. You know, so she's she's asking the question. She's she's asking our father's worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is a place where men ought to worship. What does Jesus say to this? Does he get involved in religious hype? Does he get in involved in the different culture classes? This is what he says. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers. Now we need to understand a little bit of what Jesus is saying there. Sorry, the Hebrew Bible, all Jewish males who were physically capable were obliged to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem for three major historical festivals. Now the festival were Pesak, which is Passover, Shavot, the Feast of Weeks, which is Pentecost, which happens after Passover, and we'll learn about that actually in these coming series, and Sukot, which is festival of booze. So, but obviously, Jesus knew something that this woman and a lot of people didn't know at the time, they didn't know that the temple were going to be destroyed in 70 AD, nullifying that command of going three times a year. He says, But an hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshippers, and that salvation that we find out later on is offered to the Gentiles, Gentiles being non-Jews. You see, in the Old Testament, the Jews were saved through the promise of the Messiah, and we are now saved through the fulfilment of that promise with the Messiah being Jesus Christ, which is absolutely fantastic. But we'll carry on. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. So with the the Samaritan woman perceiving the things previous as like a physical thing, Jesus has been speaking to her in. In the spirit, spiritual things, this whole time. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us. And I think at this point in the chapter, you know, you're gonna be leaning towards this man could be the Messiah here. He is speaking he is speaking the I just need to hear it from himself. Almost you can you can you can feel it bursting out of her He who is called Christ, when that one comes he will declare all things. Jesus said to her I who speak to you he At this point his disciples came and they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said What do you seek or why do you speak with her? So the woman left her water pot and went into the city, and said to the men, Come and see a man who told me all these all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it? They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, No one brought him anything to eat, did he? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not laboured. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour. Hallelujah. Wow, I mean that's that's just absolutely incredible. Let's just dissect that. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. I I watched this one guy, he's he's an he's an incredible, incredible preacher. And he just he just gives the the the gospel message so beautifully. I th I think he was an ex-gang member. I obviously won't mention any names on this channel. He he hasn't given me permission to to sell his ministry at all, but what he does, he he he goes to a table and he says, Let's have a meal, and he'll sit down and it's like eating the words of God. You see, Jesus is the manor out of heaven, he is living water, and when you do God's work, you spiritually you feel full. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal. You see, when we do God's work, we are storing treasures in heaven, and we will learn about that more as the chapters come along. But it's just absolutely incredible. For in this case, the saying is true: one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not laboured, others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour. There is a saying, planting seed, the seed is a word of God, and that's actually a parable that we're going to visit later on. But you know, one plants, another one waters, and another one watches grow. And when we uh and when we do plant and when we do sow, and when we reap, it's just a wonderful, wonderful thing to experience. But that concludes that part of the chapter. Let us go through the rest of the verses, and I think I may stop, I may not, it it might be self-explanatory, but let us let us go through. From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all the things that I have done. So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believe because of his word, and they were saying to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe. For we have heard for ourselves, and know that this one is indeed the Saviour of the world. After the two days he went forth from there into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own country. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they themselves also went to the feast. Therefore he came again into Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine, and there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. Capernaum I did that in the last one, I said Capernaum, but it's actually pronounced Capernaum, which my beautiful wife uh pointed out. So Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went into him and was imploring him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. The royal officials said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives, and he himself believed and his hold his whole household. This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when he had came out of Judea into Galilee. Now this is just absolutely incredible. There's a healing of the nobleman's son in Capernaum, and this this bloke, what faith he had, you know, he went he was imploring to him to come down to heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus said to him, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. There's a phrase in the Bible where it says, Blessed are those that did not see but yet believed. There is a huge blessing for those that come to Jesus without seeing the the wonders of the miracles that he has performed. There's a huge blessing for those that have come to Jesus without seeing. And Jesus said to him, Go, your son lives. And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off, and he ran out, he ran off. As he was now going down, his slaves met him saying that his son was living. And this was a second sign what Jesus did. You know, Jesus said, Your son lives, Jesus He does heal, and he's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Lord to serve. But that concludes our Bible study for this one. Sorry guys, it was it's been a huge one. Not a huge one, but you know, 50 54 54 verses to get through. I hope it's I hope it's provided some uh some insight into chapter four. I hope as we're going through this series that that your faith is being strengthened by reading and hearing God's word. It's it's an absolute privilege to to share this with you all on this channel. Thank you all for listening. And in like every series, let us end in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for who you are. Thank you that you are Saviour, that you are our Messiah, that you're our counsellor. Father God, you you have shown us so much grace and mercy in our lives, and not judging us. For the time of judgment is not yet here. You have come into the world to save the world, not yet to judge the world. And reading in chapter four how you spoke with this Samaritan woman, knowing full well that the Jews in Samaria were at loggerheads at the best of times, but you've you truly shown us the the mercy and kindness of your nature. We thank you, Lord, that you're such a loving God, that you watch over us and you protect us. Father God, I I lift up all all the all the people that are listening right now, I lift them up in in your name, Lord. That you will protect them, that you will put your right hand upon their shoulders and lead them, Lord, in your ways. Father God, show them the love that you have shown me. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Guys, have a wonderful, wonderful evening, and thank you again so much for tuning in and and listening. But yeah, thank you so much.