Now, We find Jesus
and His disciples traveling from Judea to Galilee, passing though Samaria, why,
because it is the shortest route.
John 4:1 Therefore, when the Lord knew
that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John
Who told the
Pharisees, Jesus baptized more than John, interesting
John 4:2 (though Jesus Himself did not
baptize, but His disciples),
Interesting,
John had to clarify about who did the baptizing
Jesus
baptized more disciples, Jesus’ was more popular than John
Mark
1:5 Then all the land of Judea, and those from
Jerusalem, went out to him {John the Baptist} and were all baptized by him in
the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
Baptism - completely under water, long discussion
last time
Luke
7:30 But the Pharisees and the
experts in the Law rejected God's plan for
themselves by refusing to be baptized by
John.
Why, because the Jews used baptism or
purification in ritual cleansing ceremonies. John the
Baptist took baptism and applied it to the Jews themselves.
Matthew 3:5-6
Then the people of Jerusalem, all Judea, and the entire region along the Jordan
began flocking to him, (6) being baptized by him in the Jordan River while they confessed their sins.
Paul wrote: Acts 19:4 Then Paul said,
"John baptized when they repented, telling the people
to believe in the one who was to come
after him, that is, in Jesus."
John’s
baptism had to do with repentance—it was a symbolic representation of changing
one’s mind and going a new direction.
Being
baptized by John demonstrated a recognition of confessing one’s sin, a desire
for spiritual cleansing, and a commitment to follow God’s law when Jesus
arrives.
Also our baptism today also symbolizes repentance, cleansing,
and commitment, and we do identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
The cleansing is complete for each of us, with the Holy Spirit.
John prepared
the way for Jesus by calling people to acknowledge their sin and their need for
salvation. Johns baptism was a purification ceremony to prepare people to
receive their Creator Savior, Jesus.
Jesus and the disciples had to go through a Mikveh
to visit the Temple. What is a Mikveh.
Mikveh – Jewish is a ritual, immersion pool or bath for Purification
Is this because all people have a
Spirit in Man, then they need to be Spiritually clean to go into the
Temple. We, who has the Holy Spirit, are
the Temple of the Holy Spirit, is why we do not need to go through Mikveh, we
are already Spiritually clean.
Remember, Jesus made wine from all the very large stone jars at
the wedding was for purification purposes.
Very Important item in a Jews life. {They keep themselves clean, avoid disease}
Pool must be large enough for an adult to submerge himself
Water must be spring fed or rainwater (living water)
The person must have a clean body before entering the pool
It is done for spiritual cleansing only, not for bathing
Important: A mikveh must contain enough water to cover the entire body of an average-sized person; based on a mikveh
with the dimensions of 3 cubits deep, 1 cubit wide, and 1 cubit long. The Torah requires full immersion.
Archaeologists find ancient mikvehs all over Israel
Jews used the mikveh at the Synagogue if they could not afford one
Leviticus 11:36 "A spring or a cistern that holds water is clean,
but whoever touches the carcass of an unclean animal will be unclean.
Isaiah 22:11 and built a reservoir between the walls to store water from the
Old Pool. But you did not look at the One who did it, nor did you
see the One who planned it long ago.
Priests had to have a bath
A person
needs to be in a status of ritual purity in order to enter the
Temple area. If the person or an object has been affected by a source of
impurity they, are required to undergo a process of ritual purification before they can again
enter the Temple or be put to use for work related to the Temple.
Jews were required
to “purify” themselves for some of the following items
No
barrier between the person immersing and the
water.
The person should be wearing no clothes,
When
entering the Temple, God requires ritual purification Old Testament
·
Fully
immerse themselves before Jewish Holidays
·
Before
marriage
·
If they
touched a dead body
·
After
monthly period, sexual relations
·
After the
birth of a child
·
By a bride,
before her wedding
·
After
healing of certain diseases
·
New
converts, tradition procedure for conversion to Judaism {John}
·
Immerse
acquired metal, glass utensils used in serving and eating food;
·
By a
bridegroom, on the day of his wedding
·
By a father,
prior to the circumcision of his son,
- to immerse a corpse as part of the
preparation for burial {Jesus death?}
John 4:3 He left
Judea and departed again to {the
province of} Galilee.
Jesus
departed to Galilee, of the Gentiles
Why
did Jesus leave Judea
•
To avoid confrontation with Pharisees {John 4:1}
•
To accomplish His ministry in Samaria {John 4:4}
•
To avoid imprisonment, like John {Matthew 4:12}
•
He was led by the Spirit return to Galilee {Luke
4:14}
John 4:4 But He needed to go through Samaria.
Jesus’
route was deliberate; he was not in a hurry; the trip took two days (vs.40). Samaria. Because it lay right between
Judea and Galilee. The
Jews often avoided Samaria by going around it along the Jordan River.
John 4:5
So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Samaria was a
province allotted to Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the days of
Joshua. After their leaders were carried
away as captives by Assyria, other people moved in and started some strange
form of worship to God as a sort of tribal god. {2 Kings 17:24-41}
Sychar means
purchased {now Neapolis} and close to Chechem, close or north of Jacob’s Well
at the foot of Mount Ebal. Shechem” of the Old
Testament, about thirty-four miles from Jerusalem
This is why the
Jews had nothing to do with the Samaritans.
John
4:6 Jacob's Well was also there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
Jesus was tired,
hungry, weariness and thirsty, this show Jesus is limited as we are to human
limitations.
John 4:7 A woman of Samaria came to
draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."
By tradition, a
rabbi would not speak with a woman in public.
She was surprised at Jesus request.
As a side: The Jews say that
those who wished to get wives went to the wells where young women were
accustomed to come and draw water
John 4:8 For His disciples had gone
away into the city to buy food.
Was there a
Jewish town nearby or did purchase from Samaria?
John 4:9 Then the woman of Samaria said
to Him, "How is it that You, being a
Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Wonder if what
she said was in a scoffing or jeering way or surprise by first kind word from a
Jewish man.
This was
prohibited by the Rabbis and she was very justify, astonished that Jesus asked
this. She
knew Jesus to be a Jew by His dress and by His language.
John 4:10 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."
Notice Jesus
draws the woman into conversation about things of God.
Living water at
Jacob’s well {30-50 feet deep}
A free gift is that which has been given without asking
for
John 4:11 The woman said to Him,
"Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
The Samaritan woman did not comprehend
Jesus’
spiritual message. She was thinking only of physical water and could not
understand how Jesus could provide water without a means of drawing it. Spring water was called Living was because it
bubbled up from the ground.
John 4:12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the
well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"
Samaritans
believed they were descendants of Jacob through Joseph.
John 4:13 Jesus answered and said to
her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst
again,
Jesus did not directly answer her question, or say that
he was greater than Jacob, but he gave her an answer by which she might infer
that he was
John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the
water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him will become in him a fountain of water springing
up into everlasting life."
Meaning, the Spirit and his grace is the
gift.
John 4:15
The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water,
that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
Kind of sounds
like Peter when he said to Jesus, not just my feet but wash my
hands and my head as well. She did not comprehend Jesus meaning. Jesus is preparing her to receive understanding that He was
about to announce.
John 4:16
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband,
and come here."
Did Jesus say
this in Sarcasm, Go, call your husband”: She needed to confront her own sin.
For the first time, the woman began to discuss spiritual issues and expose her
sin. Jesus
makes a demand that will recall her past life and her inner secret life.
John
4:17-18 The woman answered him, "I don't have a husband." Jesus told her,
"You are quite right in saying, 'I don't have a husband,' (18) because you have had five husbands, and the man you have now
is not your husband. What you have said is true."
Jesus just
confirm that she is living in adultery with a man who is not her husband, were
the other dead or divorced.
The easy divorce laws of the age, permitting a
"divorce for any cause," would allow many changes without the death
of either party
John 4:19
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You
are a prophet.
Because of what Jesus told her about
herself, the woman concluded that Jesus Christ was a prophet, a person divinely
inspired with supernatural knowledge
Note the gradual change in her attitude of mind towards
Him.
•
First, off-hand scoffing
or jeering (Joh_4:9); then,
•
respect
to His gravity of manner and serious words (Joh_4:11);
•
Misunderstanding
belief in what He says (Joh_4:15); and
•
Now, reverence for
Him as a ‘man of God.’
but she did not perceive him to be the Messiah.
John 4:20
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,
and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the
place where one ought to worship."
As soon as she
realizes His “inside” information, she jumps right into the current doctrinal
issue between Samaritan and Jews, where to worship.
Samaritans
worship site and temple was on Mount Gerizim.
John 4:21
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour
is coming when you will neither on this mountain,
nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
He just told her
about the Father, which was new and one of the greatest truths to be revealed by Jesus. She had talked
simply of “worship”; our
Lord brings up before her the great object of all acceptable worship - “The
Father.” Did she know about it.
John 4:22
You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
Jacob’s Well was
at the foot of Mt. Gerizim. Samaritans had built a temple which was eventually
destroyed by 129 B.C. The Samaritans
continued to worship on the mountain.
Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the place, but of
the very object of worship. Jesus,
the Messiah, comes from the Jews.
The Samaritans believed in the same God with the Jews;
but, as they rejected all the prophetical writings, they had but an imperfect
knowledge of the Deity: besides, as they incorporated the worship of idols with
his worship, they might be justly said to worship him whom they did not
properly know
John 4:23 Yet
the time is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth. Indeed,
the Father is looking for people like that to worship him.
Jesus reveals to the woman that where a person
worships is unimportant.
Spiritual worship can be offered in any land, at all
times and in all places wherever we can humble ourselves before God.
John 4:24 God
is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
God is spirit, and must be approached in that part of us
which is spirit, in the true temple of God, ‘which temple we are and is everywhere present.
The Father must be worshiped with the heart, in spirit
and in truth and not merely in form.
John 4:25 The
woman told him, "I know that the Anointed One
is coming, who is being called 'Messiah'.
When that person comes, he will explain
everything."
The Samaritans believed that the prophet
would teach all things when he came.
Deuteronomy
18:15 "The LORD your God will raise up a prophet like
me for you from among your relatives. You must
listen to him.
John 4:26 "I am he," Jesus replied, "the one who is speaking to you."
Astonishing! The Creator; the YHWH of the OT; has taken on
flesh to fulfill a destiny on our behalf.
Using the same
words that God used when He revealed Himself to Moses, Jesus clearly stated
that He is the Messiah, the Creator of all things.
Exodus 3:14 God
replied to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM,"
and then said, "Tell the children of Israel: 'I AM sent me
to you.'"
Notice, did the
Father just send Jesus to the children of Israel.
Notice Jesus just
told her, a Samarian, a women. He is the
Messiah. The
admission that Jesus makes, I am he, is the first
recorded.
Isaiah 52:6
Therefore my people will know my name; therefore
in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I."
He spoke seven
times. She, six. The seventh was the evidence of His work...
John 4:27
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" {Jewish City of Shechem for food?}
Disciples were
very astonished that Jesus was speaking to a woman and a Samarian. They did not dare to appear to reprove
him. Why the Rabbis teach: “Let no one
talk with a woman in the street, no, not with his own wife let alone a Samarian.
John
4:28-29 Then the woman left
her water jar and went back to town.
She told people, (29) "Come, see a man who told me everything I've ever done! Could he
possibly be the Messiah?"
In her excitement, the woman exaggerated.
She did not report what Jesus actually told her. She first view Jesus as a Jew,
then a prophet and finally as the Messiah.
John
4:30 The people left
the town and started on their way to him.
The men of the city went to Jesus, to hear and examine
for themselves
John
4:31-32 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him,
"Rabbi, have something to eat."
(32) But he told them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
Disciples knew that Jesus was with hunger and fatigue and
did not understand the switch from physical food to spiritual food.
John 4:33 So the disciples began to say to one another, "No one has brought him anything to eat, have they?"
The disciples
cannot think of spiritual food here, only bodily food.
John 4:34 Jesus told them, "My food is doing the will of the one who sent me and
completing his work.
Jesus declares to do the will of the Father is food
{Spiritual} to Him
John
4:35 You say, don't you, 'In four more months the
harvest will begin?' Look, I tell you, open your eyes and observe that the
fields are ready for harvesting now!
Spiritual harvest of souls is ripe already, the city is
now flocking out to see Jesus. The
disciples can reap a harvest right now even if they did not sow the seeds. Barley harvest begins in 4 months, this was
Nov/Dec time. Jesus sowed the seeds;
disciples could reap the harvest.
John
4:36 The one who
harvests is already receiving his
wages and gathering a crop for eternal life, so that the one who sows and
the one who harvests may rejoice together.
Both roles are
essential: evangelizing; and edifying
John
4:37-38 In this respect the saying is true: 'One person sows, and another person harvests.' (38) I have sent you to harvest
what you have not worked for. Others have worked, and you have adopted their
work as your own."
1
Corinthians 3:6 I {Paul} planted, Apollos watered, but God
kept everything growing.
There are no
exclusive formulas for “evangelizing.” It is Relationship, not religion;
relationship, not “tracts”; God’s Word,
John
4:39 Now many of the Samaritans
of that town believed in Jesus because the woman had
testified, "He told me everything
I've ever done."
God uses the most unlikely sources to
accomplish His work. We do not know
where God is working. Samaritans accept the testimony of the woman and
was amazed that He knew the facts of her life.
John
4:40 So when the Samaritans
came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days.
A strange invitation for a Samaritan village to give to a
Jew. It was also a strange thing for a Jewish teacher to accept the invitation
John
4:41 And many more
believed because of what he said.
They saw Jesus and saw and heard for themselves His
teachings.
John
4:42 They kept telling the woman, "It is no
longer because of what you said that we believe, because now we have heard him ourselves, and we know that
he really is the Savior of the world."
Expected:
Worship in Jerusalem; idolatry in Samaria;
Found:
Idolatry in Jerusalem; worship in Samaria.
By including this incident with the
Samaritans, John demonstrates to the disciples that Jesus is not the Savior for
the Jews only, but of the Samaritans and of the whole Gentile world
John
4:43-44 Two days later, Jesus
left for Galilee from there, (44)
since Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has
no honor in his own country.
Having no honor or reception in Nazareth,
Jesus went elsewhere to went to other towns in Galilee. Judea, Nazareth or Galilee, went elsewhere.
John
4:45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because
they had seen everything that he had done in
Jerusalem during the festival and
because they, too, had gone to the festival.
The Galileans remembered all that Jesus had
done in Jerusalem: turning the tables over in the Temple or performing signs,
wonders and miracles in Jerusalem, etc.
John
4:46 So Jesus returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water
into wine. Meanwhile, in Capernaum there was a government
official whose son was ill.
Cana was at least
four hours from Capernaum. Official
connected somehow with royal household.
John 4:47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him repeatedly to
come down and
heal his son, because he was about to die.
His faith moves him to seek the aid of Jesus; to make
sure of his help he comes in person, instead of sending servants. He
thought Jesus would have to travel to Capernaum to heal, and that Jesus did not
have power over death
John 4:48
Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."
Christ was concerned that the man’s faith was based only on signs and wonders and should not form the foundation of our faith. Do not depend on them for our belief.
John
4:49-50 The official told him, "Sir, please
come down before my little boy dies." (50) Jesus told him, "Go home. Your son will live." The man believed what Jesus told him and started back home.
A plea from a father
for his son. He showed he had faith
twice and believes Jesus can save the child, but he believes Jesus can save him
without being present. 1st – son
would not die, 2nd – he believed
John
4:51-52 While he was on his way, his servants met
him and told him that his child was alive.
(52) So he asked them at what hour he had begun to recover, and they told him,
"The fever left him yesterday at one o'clock in
the afternoon."
John
4:53-54 Then the father realized that this was the
very hour when Jesus had told him, "Your son will live." So he himself believed, along with his whole family.
(54) Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
The healing of the
nobleman’s son is the only example John gives of Jesus’ Galilee ministry. John focuses
mainly on the Judean ministry and their rejection of Jesus.
Signs were performed so that people might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing they might have life
