19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
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.
22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things."
26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"
28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
31 In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."
32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."
33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?"
34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
35 Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
37 For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.'
38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did."
40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
41 And many more believed because of His own word.
42 Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."
In John Chapter 4 we have the predestined appointment of Jesus with a Samaritan woman, “He must go through Samaria,” we are told!
This is a divine imperative.
A divine imperative is not something imposed upon God from anything outside of His eternal purpose. But it is because of His eternal purpose that all of these things are certain to come to pass. The certainty of an event does not remove the necessity of its occurrence.
In John’s Gospel there are at least seven other “musts” or divine imperatives.
John 3:7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
John 9:4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me
John 10:16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
John 20:9 For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.
These are all divine imperatives.
So out of divinely inspired curiosity a Pharisee comes to Jesus and the Lord in His mercy grants to Nicodemus the new birth.
In Chapter 4 a nomally religious and very superstitious woman comes to Jacob’s Well and the Lord is waiting for her there and in His mercy grants to her the new birth.
We have in Chapter 4 the model for True Evangelism.
Forget all of the aids to easy-believism and learn these two things from vs. 10. What is the gift of God and who is Jesus?
Then get about the business of telling others about sin and why they need the “gift of God” and tell then that the gift of God is Jesus!
Tell them why He had to be who He is!
Tell them why He had to die on the cross!
Tell them why He had to rise again from the dead!
Tell them why He had to how we show our gratitude for being saved!
We have seen how Jesus evangelizes the woman at the well.
A Samaritan woman comes to Jacob’s well, which she reveres as a “holy” place. She has been raised in the superstition of false religion. She argues with the Lord about where one ‘ought” to worship God.
19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
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.
22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
“This mountain” the woman refers to is Mount Gerizim, which is only a little distance from Shechem. John calls the place Sychar, which means the “place of lies.” This is the mountain on which Moses had built an altar and blessings were promised [Deuteronomy 11 and 27; Joshua 8].
The Samaritans built a temple on Mount Gerizim somewhat similar to the one in Jerusalem. This was the greatest point of controversy between the Samaritans and the Jews.
Where to worship God: On this mountain or in Jerusalem?
Where to worship God is a now moot argument and Jesus tells us why that is so. Samaritans then and Muslims and other false religions today have their “holy” places.
Ask yourself why a person would feel more religious in some “holy” place?
But Jerusalem was the correct place at the time of this encounter, right?
Wrong! Centuries ago God had forsaken the temple and the corruption of Judaism and now God has sent John the Baptist to tell them that the Old Covenant is going away and that the New Covenant is being revealed in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
We saw that John the Baptist was sent by God not only to announce the arrival of Messiah but also to declare that the OT sacrificial system was going away never to have any purpose again.
It distresses me that a majority of Baptists today base their eschatology on a future fulfillment of OT prophecies that the NT says have already been fulfilled and they look to a renewed Jewish kingdom with worship in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, a “holy” place!
This wretched woman is one of God’s children that the Father sought and now she is given the knowledge of the “gift of God” and her heart is opened to receive the Messiah!
25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things."
26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
This is also translated, ”I AM is speaking to you!”
John the Baptist has pointed Jesus out as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Lord Jesus Christ here claims to be Messiah.
Jesus declared to Nicodemus, the religious Jew, “You must be born again!”
Jesus declared to the Samaritan that He is indeed the Savior of the world, both Jew and Gentile, the only savior of sinners!
Now let’s continue with the account of the Samaritan woman and the way of true evangelism.
27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"
We saw the hesitation that the Samaritan woman had about a Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman. To underscore the violation of this “rule” we see the amazement of His disciples. Jesus broke not a single law of God but he deliberately violated the traditions of the Jewish leaders that had originated in prejudice and pride.
Learn how predestination works.
“At this point…” At the precise moment the disciples returned. They did not return too soon so as to interrupt His talk with the woman and not too late to miss the Lord’s condescending to a Samaritan woman with all of its missionary implications.
The providence of God unfolds to us in natural events and yet God is absolutely sovereign over the minute-by-minute “natural” events.
Scoffers rail against the sovereignty of God and invent theologies that deny God’s omniscience. The modern heretics call that Openness Theology.
You can choose to believe that God is ignorant and go to hell for your trouble. All you will prove is that you are as responsible as Pharaoh was for your rebellion and God will get the glory for your damnation as a just and holy God!
“They marveled…” The disciples were amazed that their Rabbi talked to a woman. The Jewish rabbis had a saying: “Better to burn the sayings of the law than to teach than to women.”
28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,
The commentaries go in every direction about why the woman “left” her waterpot. Some say that in her excitement she forgot her waterpot. Others say that now that she understood the spiritual nature of true worship that she no longer had scruples about a Jew drinking from her vessel.
It is true that she now understood true worship and it is also true that she was anxious to go tell others that she had found Messiah. Such is the nature of true conversion.
Such is the determined counsel and purpose of God!
What is certain is still necessary!
“All that the Father gives to Me shall come to Me!”
And they MUST come to Christ.
Lay aside all of the questions about infants and imbeciles. That is God’s business and whatever He does is right! And I do not need to know the answer because God does not reveal specifically the answer. I have been accused of preaching that babies go to hell but that is not true at all. I am content to trust the justice and mercy of God.
But you are neither an infant nor an imbecile and the question to you is are you saved? You must be born again. You must come to Christ in faith!
There is no such animal as one of God’s elect that does not respond in faith to the Gospel – that Christ died for sinners – and the must come to Christ.
Last week I pointed out how the doctrine of election is manifested in John 3 and 4 as God the Father seeks a Pharisee and a Samaritan woman to worship Him and God the Holy Spirit moves in sovereignty like the wind as God the Son is revealed as the Savior of sinners!
This is true evangelism at work!
What is certain is still necessary!
29 "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
Remember how Philip approached Nathanael? [1:45]
She wisely asks her question so that the people will have to arrive at their own answer. “Could this be the Christ?”
30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
I am not trained in the Greek to deal with the verb tenses but what I read is that they “went out” [rushed off immediately] and “were coming to Him” [continuous action].
31 In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."
In the interval between her leaving the well and the arrival of the crowd of people His disciples are concerned for His physical needs.
32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."
Here is another play on words. “Meat” KJV is food needed for sustaining life. They are talking about physical food and He is talking about what sustains Him, which is spiritual.
In this woman Jesus sees the accomplishment of all that He came to do: the fruit of His sufferings and the fulfillment of the joy that was ever set before Him. He must complete His purpose and go to the cross and willingly give up His life and take it up again. [Charles Alexander]
Her salvation is now just as sure as if all that He came to do had already been done. She now has the faith of Abraham and she is as much one of God’s children and of the Israel of God as was Nicodemus!
33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?"
The disciples are focused on literal food just as the woman did on literal water in vs. 11. They could not believe that a Samaritan would have given Him something to eat.
34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
Jesus says that the thing that gives Him satisfaction is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish everything that He was sent to do.
Jesus gathers His disciples around Him and teaches them in parables.
35 Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
37 For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.'
38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."
It was yet four months to the literal harvest and the grain was barely above the ground. Another four months must pass before the joyful day of reaping the harvest. But Jesus the Christ already anticipated the Gospel harvest.
Another play on words, a literal harvest or a Gospel harvest of souls?
Jesus is the “sower’ and the disciples are the “reaper”. Usually there is considerable time between sowing and reaping.
For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.'
Here we have another OT prophecy fulfilled by Jesus.
Amos 9:13
"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD,
"When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
The futurists relegate the fulfillment of this prophecy to a restored Israel and Jesus applies it to Himself and His disciples. Who do you believe has the correct interpretation?
There are two more lessons in this passage.
“… others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."
The first additional lesson is, I believe, that the “others” is a reference to the OT prophets, priests, and kings, who wrote and preached and sang about and prepared the way for the King.
The disciples and those who will follow them in proclaiming the Gospel have “entered into their labors.”
The other lesson is the nature of witnessing.
For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored;
I have no problem with urging someone to commit to Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:11
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
But I strongly object to the idea that we must press for a “decision.” That kind of “evangelism” results in setting a mood. Every head bowed while the organ plays softly and the preacher begs the dead sinner to do something that he does not have the power to do: “Won’t you let Jesus save you?” As though a dead sinner had any ability to cause God to have mercy.
We are commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to tell others the Gospel. We are not told that their response to the truth is our responsibility.
The reason the church membership lists have so many people listed as members who have little or no interest in supporting or meeting with the church is because some preacher has assumed the role of the Holy Spirit.
It is this misguided belief that we must get immediate results that has produced false evangelism based on “decisionism”.
So tell everyone that they have sinned against the holy law of God and that they are justly condemned. And tell them that Jesus came to save sinners.
How about you?
Have you been given the grace to know that you need a Savior?
So in true evangelism one sows and another reaps and that is why we cannot take any pride in the fact that God may use us to bring the Gospel to someone. When a person comes to faith in Christ and makes a public profession then give all the glory to God who has blessed the sowing of someone who went before us.
Many of the Samaritans believed the woman. They knew her and what her life had been like. And now she has obviously changed. She is not ashamed to say that I have met the only One who could know every secret of my miserable life and He was gracious to me!
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did."
40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
41 And many more believed because of His own word.
42 Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."
Notice that although many believed the testimony of the woman that many more had a personal encounter with the Lord.
Notice that Jesus taught that the soul of a woman was just as dear to Him as the soul of a man.
Consider the progression of faith. At first Jesus is just another Jewish man. Perhaps he is a prophet. No, He is Messiah! He is the Savior of the world!
No more debates about where to worship God.
Worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Are you a believer or does the wrath of God abide on you for unbelief?
Amen
Sola Scriptura 
