John 4

CHAPTER 4THEME: Jesus interviews the woman at the well in Sychar (third word); Jesus heals the nobleman’s son in Capernaum (second work)Chapter 4 brings us to the very important incident in the ministry of our Lord as He goes through Samaria.

John 4:1

This, apparently, was immediately after the incident in chapter 3. It was in the month of December and probably near December 27. This was the time that John the Baptist was in prison. When John was imprisoned, Jesus left Judea and went back into Galilee. Why did He retire from Judea? Well, He did not want to precipitate a crisis. You see, the Lord Jesus was moving according to schedule, a heavenly schedule set by the Father. He has made it very clear that He came to do the Father’s will. Speaking of His own life, He said, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

This commandment have I received of my Father” (Joh_10:18). They can’t touch Him until His time has come. When we reach the thirteenth chapter of John, we will see that His time had then come. “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father …” (Joh_13:1)you see, He’s moving on His Father’s schedule, friend; He has come to do the Father’s will. So He departed again into Galilee. He went back up where His headquarters were, which, we believe, were in the city of Capernaum.

John 4:4

JESUS INTERVIEWS THE WOMAN AT THE WELL IN SYCHAR (Third Word)That word must attracts our attention. Why must He go through Samaria? In order to reach a certain woman. Listen to Him in verse Joh_4:34, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” He must go through Samaria because it is the Father’s will for Him to go through Samaria. His destination, apparently, was Cana of Galilee where He had made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick, and He is headed in that direction. But He must go through Samaria. There were three routes He could have taken. He could have gone along the coast. There was a route there, and it is still there today, by the way. He could have gone through Peraea, which is up at the other side of Jordan. Or He could go through Samaria. Josephus tells us that, although the most direct route was through Samaria, the Jews didn’t go that route due to the antipathy between the Jews and the Samaritans. However, our Lord went through Samaria.

John 4:5

Joseph’s tomb is nearby. At the fork of the old Roman road south of Sychar He meets the woman at the well. Mount Gerizim is to the northwest, and the synagogue of the Samaritans is on the slope of Mount Gerizim. I’ve been at that spot and have taken pictures there. This is the place to which our Lord comes.

John 4:6

The sixth hour according to Roman time would be six o’clock in the evening, but we are following Jewish time here and the sixth hour was twelve noon. He was weary with His journey. How perfectly human He was. You see, John presents Him as the Son of God, as God manifest in the flesh. “The Word was made flesh” (Joh_1:14). Friend, although the language is simple, it expresses something that is overwhelming. Think of it! The God of eternity came down to this earth. The Word was made flesh and dwelled among usHe pitched His tent here among us. He went through Samaria and sat down at a well in order that He might reach this woman of Samaria! The Samaritans were a group of poor people in that day.

John 4:7

This woman is obviously a dissolute woman. I think she is probably as common as pig tracks. She’s rude and immoral. We would call her today a hussy or a broad, if you please. What a contrast she is to the man, Nicodemus, we saw in the preceding chapter. And notice how differently our Lord deals with her. With Nicodemus, a man who was religious to his fingertips, our Lord was harsh and blunt, but see how gentle He is with this woman. He asks a favor of her. He appeals to her sympathyHe is thirsty and asks for a drink. What condescension on His part! He is the Water of Life and He asks her for water.

John 4:8

It is noon and His disciples have gone to the city to buy food. The fact that they were buying the Samaritans’ food also reveals Jesus’ total rejection of the Jewish prejudice which considered Samaritan food unclean, even as swine’s flesh.

John 4:9

Twice she refuses His request. She’s rude here, and insolent, impudent, and impertinentshe tosses her pert and saucy head. She makes this racial distinction. It is said that the Samaritans would sell to the Jews, but they wouldn’t drink from the same vessel with them. You see what our Lord is doing here. He is coming to the very lowest place to which He can come. But watch how the Lord deals with her. He is very skillful and sympathetic, but He also talks with her forcefully, faithfully, and factually. He doesn’t give her a lecture on integration or civil rights. He isn’t a candidate for some office. He just appeals to her womanly curiosity. He creates an interest and a thirst.

John 4:10

As He appeals to her curiosity, her attitude immediately changes.

John 4:11

The woman calls Him “Sir” which she had left out before. Then she was impudent and rude, but now there is a difference. The whole point here is that this woman is thinking in terms of the physical; her thinking could get no higher than the water level down in the well. Notice that she identifies herself with Jacob. She does this purposely, as racially the Samaritans were Jacob’s descendants who had intermarried with peoples from the north following the Assyrian Captivity of Israel in 721 B.C.

John 4:13

Jesus makes it clear that He is not talking about water in Jacob’s well. Rather, He is making a contrast, you see. Today the crowds are going to the water holes of this world, seeking satisfaction. They also are constantly looking for the physical, not the spiritual satisfaction. But now Jesus has created a desire in this woman’s heart for the spiritual water.

John 4:15

She’s thirsty for spiritual water, but then her thinking goes right back down into that well again.

John 4:16

This is the master stroke. Although the water is available for all, there is a condition to be metthere must be a thirst, a need. She must, therefore, recognize that she is a sinner. So our Lord says to her, “Go call your husband.” That is a touchy subject. She becomes flippant again.

John 4:17

She was accurate about that. She had had five husbands, but she didn’t have one then. She was living with a man in adultery. Our Lord insists that, when you come to Him, you must deal with sin. All secrets must come out before Him. Here was a sinner. One of the reasons she was not so popular with the women of the town was because she was too popular with the men of the town. The woman was actually shocked into reverence. But then she wanted to change the subject by opening a religious argument.

John 4:19

Now that will make a good religious argument, friend. Where are you going to worship? In this mountain or in Jerusalem? That caused many an argument in that day. There are many people today who want to argue religion, but they don’t want to live it. I’m convinced that most of the superficiality in our churches today is there as a cover-up of sin. Unfortunately our churches are honey-combed with hypocrisy, a compromise with evil, and a refusal to face up to sin. You know, it’s easy to preach about the sin of the Moabites which they committed about 4,000 years ago, but what about our sins today? It was the brother of Henry Ward Beecher who said, “I like a sermon where one man is the preacher and one man is the congregation so that when the preacher says, ‘Thou art the man,’ there’s no mistaking whom he’s talking about.” There are many ministers today who are afraid to preach on the sins of Christians. This was confirmed to me several years ago.

I was speaking in a summer conference on the first eight chapters of Romans. This is not often used as a subject because Paul deals with sin. At first I could actually feel a resentment. By the middle of the week, the Holy Spirit began to break up hard hearts and a fellow who seemed to be the most pompous and pious saint came to me wanting to confess his sins. I told him not to confess them to me, but to go to the great High Priest, the Lord Jesus. He would hear him when he confessed, and He would forgive him.

What a change took place in this man! At that same conference two ministers came to me, personally and privately, asking, “Do you preach like this in your own church?” Well, I did preach like that, but I found out there was a little cell of super-duper saints who liked to criticize the preacher so as to take the attention off themselves. They really wanted to be activein fact, they wanted to run the churchbut they did not want to deal with sin in their lives. Our Lord did not avoid or sidestep the issue of personal sin. I believe that if you really have honest questions or doubts, the Lord will reveal the solution to you. And our Lord dealt with this woman on the question she had raised.

John 4:21

The thing that was important to this woman was whether she should worship God in this mountain where the Samaritans worship Him, or should she worship Him in Jerusalem. Jesus told her the day was coming when He would not be worshiped in either place. Why?

John 4:23

It is irrelevant, therefore, where you worship God. It is not where but how you worship Him that is important. Our Lord answered her very adequately. God is a Spirit. You don’t have to run to this place or that place. True worshipers worship Him in spirit and in truth.

John 4:25

Even the Samaritans were looking for the Messiah to come. That is something that is very interesting. Today the second coming of Christ is believed and loved by those who are His. Those who are not really His, though church members, have a nagging feeling that He might come. Although they say they don’t believe in His second coming, it still disturbs them. An atheist in London several years ago made the statement that the thing that disturbed him was that the Bible might be true and that Jesus might come again. If He did, this man realized he would be in trouble. Believe me, he surely will be in trouble! The woman now is profoundly interested, and there is a wistful longing in her heart. How majestic and sublime this statement is! This woman is brought face to face now with the Savior of the world, the Messiah. Friend, this is my question to you today, whoever you are, wherever you are, and however you are: Have you come face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ as this woman did? I tell you, she found herself in His presence. “I that speak unto thee am he!”

John 4:27

The woman had turned in faith to the Lord Jesus, so now she rushes into the city to tell others. Notice that she doesn’t talk to the women because she’s not on speaking terms with them. Some of those men were involved with her, and they are very much interested in knowing whether He could tell all things that she had done. So here is what happened.

John 4:30

The men came because of her witness. That is very important for us to see. The fact that she witnessed to others is evidence of her faith.

John 4:31

The reason that He went through Samaria was to do the Father’s will by reaching this woman.

John 4:35

Remember that this took place in December, and harvest in that area would be in April. In this age in which we are living today, our business is to sow. I am attempting through the radio media to sow the Word of God. I hope that good churches will reap because I have sown. One pastor told me that because of the radio messages, he had received into his church over one hundred members. We are reaching a great many people who are members of liberal churches, but they want to know where to go to be taught the Word of God. This pastor said that because folk had listened to the broadcast and then realized that they wanted the Word of God, they had come to his church. They will join churches where the Word is taught. One sows and another reaps. I rejoice in that.

John 4:39

A great company was reached in Samaria through this woman with the “shady” past!

John 4:40

What a wonderful thing we see here. They came to the Living Water and they drank. The only condition was for them to thirst. You will never know that you thirst until you know that you are a sinner, friend. Isaiah cried, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters …” (Isa_55:1). Our Lord gave the same invitation: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (Joh_7:37). The Water of Life is for “any man.” But the one condition is thirst. Many of the Samaritans came to Him, and they drank. As many men came to Christ through the witness of the woman at Samaria, today many people are led to know Christ through the influence of another. In fact, it is the effect of one life upon other lives, the impact of one personality upon another, which often leads people to Christ. Some young people have remarkable parents, or one remarkable parent, and because of the influence of the parent they may come to Christ. They live in the light of that parent with no personal contact with Christ Himself. Then later they stumble and fall when the influence of the parent is gone. I’ve seen that happen again and again during my years as a pastor.

It is a wonderful thing to exercise an influence on another for Christ, but don’t let it stand there! See that the individual gets through to Christ in a personal relationship for himself. The Samaritans said, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

John 4:43

JESUS HEALS THE NOBLEMAN’S SON IN CAPERNAUM (Second Work)Notice the geography John gives us here again. Jesus leaves Samaria and goes into Galilee, and many Galileans believe on Him because they had seen Him at the feast and had watched the things He had done. Then He goes specifically to Cana of Galilee because there is a certain nobleman there whose son is way down in Capernaum.

John 4:47

Here is a father who exercised faith in behalf of his son. This illustrates the thing we have just been saying. Make sure your own child has a personal contact with Jesus Christ. The essential thing would have been for the father to have brought the boy to Christ. I think that we have a right to claim our loved ones for Christ. We should exercise our own influence upon the lives of others. I believe that you’ve got to be a witness to your loved ones and that you’ve got to reveal in your own life that you have a living faith in Christ and that it works. A man who was a member of the church I served in Los Angeles came to me one day, asking me to pray for the salvation of his son. Unfortunately, although he was an officer of the church, his life wasn’t very good. The boy had walked out of the house, and I honestly couldn’t blame the boy for it at all. The father wanted me to counsel with the boy and attempt to lead him to Christ. I very candidly told him that I wouldn’t talk with the boy. I said, “You’ve served that boy ‘roast preacher’ for so long that he hasn’t any use for me.

You’ve done nothing but criticize. Now you’ve lost your influence with him, and I will pray that someone else will exert an influence on your boy and bring him to the Lord.” Friend, if you are a parent, remember that your life exerts a powerful influence upon your children, both good and bad. The nobleman came to Jesus asking Him to come down and heal his son who was at the point of death.

John 4:48

This man protested that he was not just looking for signs and wonders; he wanted his boy. That was all-important to him. Jesus responded to this man’s faith and He did heal the boy. That is wonderful. However, it’s too bad he didn’t bring the boy into the presence of Christ. That was of the utmost importance. We hope he did so after the boy was well. The Samaritan woman, even though she had been a bad woman, brought the men face-to-face with the Lord Jesus. You can influence someone that no preacher can reach. In fact, nobody else can reach that individual but you. You have influence over that individual. Be very sure that you bring him face to face with Christ.

John 4:51

It’s difficult to be sure just what time John is using. According to Roman time this would have been about seven in the evening.

John 4:53

The father claimed his whole household for Christ. They would each have to exert faith personally, but this man claimed them and would exert his influence for Christ. The word for miracle here is actually the word sign. This is the second sign that Jesus did.