1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John
2(though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),
3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
4 But He needed to go through Samaria.
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.
6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
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.
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."
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?
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?"
13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
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."
15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband."
Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,'
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly."
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."
The contrast between Chapter Three and Chapter Four is remarkable and intentional. Do you want any more evidence that God saves sinners in only one way? Salvation is by grace through faith alone in the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You must be born again!
What exactly is that contrast between John 3 & 4?
In John 3 we have the “man” [2:24], a self-righteous Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, the teacher of Israel. Surely if anyone is a child of God through religion and birthright it is this Jewish leader!
Nicodemus is one of the richest and most respected men in all of Judaism. But Jesus told Nicodemus that in spite of all his religion and the esteem of the people that there is yet one necessary thing, Nicodemus, that you do not have. You must be born again!
In John 4 we have the very opposite of Nicodemus. We are presented with a woman who is at the lowest place in society. Here is a poor wretch of a woman who has gone from one man to another and is now living with a man who is not her husband. No one regards her with any respect and no doubt she also despises the life that her choices have produced for her.
But Nicodemus was no closer to God before he came to Jesus than was this wretched Samaritan woman. Do you know why?
You must be born again!
Can you see it?
You too may be a “Nicodemus”. Perhaps you had some religious things done to you when you were a baby. You were sprinkled and prayed over and then you were “confirmed” as a Christian when you were about 12 years old.
Now you almost never miss a church service. “You don’t smoke and you don’t chew and you don’t go with the boys that do.” Does your moral and religious life mean that you are a child of God? No “Nicodemus”, not if you are trusting in your morality and religious rituals. Do you know why?
You must be born again!
Or, you may be as morally bankrupt as the poor wretched Samaritan woman. Perhaps you began a life of rebellion against your parents and now you sneak around and do shameful things when you think no one will find out.
You may be a drug addict or a drunk or an adulterer or a habitual gossip. Is it more difficult for God to save such a morally bankrupt person than to save a “Nicodemus”?
In every instance the answer is always the same. Do you know why?
You must be born again!
All right Jim, you have made your point; You must be born again!
But how can a person know if they are born again?
How can a person know whether or not one really is a child of God?
Well, I dare not give you a formula or a checklist because that would only make a legalist out of you. What I can do is point you to the word of God and plead with you to honestly ask God to either give you assurance of salvation or to save you.
Read First John very slowly and prayerfully and examine yourself by what John calls “these things’ and see if your life is consistent with God’s word.
Above all, be honest before God. A person can fool everyone including himself but God will not be mocked.
1 John 5:10-13
10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Romans 8:14-17
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
The leading and the witness of the Holy Spirit is not to hear voices in the night or to see visions. It is to be constrained by the word of God. Please be honest before God. Does the Bible make any measurable difference in your life and the choices you make?
You must be born again!
Some one asked me how I knew that Nicodemus was born again.
Because Nicodemus is found in Chapter 7 defending Jesus against being condemned before He has had a fair trial. In Chapter 19 we find Nicodemus with Joseph of Arimathea coming to beg for the body of Jesus that they might bury Him.
Nicodemus was born from above by the power of the Holy Spirit and he entered into the kingdom of God and began eternal life in the Son.
In John 4 we have several spiritual lessons. In this series of messages I am laboring to give you the spiritual interpretation of the Gospel of John. By spiritual I do not mean some mysticism made up in some fantasy of fiction.
What I do mean is that we can discover OT Scriptures that are fulfilled by Christ as He moves in sovereign majesty by divine predestination. All His times are fixed in the decrees of God.
Today I want to ask and answer the question:
“WHAT HAPPENED AT SYCHAR?”
What happened?
The Lord finds one of the “lost sheep” of true Israel. The Lord gives one of the “little dogs” a crumb, which fell from the Master’s table.
What is on display in the case of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman is the Doctrine of Election.
Many people are afraid of the doctrine of election.
Some people even get angry when a preacher mentions the doctrine of election. It is my opinion, due to personal experience; in talking to such people, that people are afraid of what they don’t understand.
Many people have been taught lies and misrepresentations of the doctrine of election. Divine election is simply God’s sovereign choice in the matter of who will be saved.
One of the lies about the doctrine of election that are taught is that God elects some people to eternal life and that He elects the others to eternal damnation.
That is to completely misunderstand divine election. That is to deny that all men are condemned already as John 3:18 says. God does not choose to condemn anyone because they are condemned already!
The doctrine of election is positive. If God had not chosen to save a people in Christ before the foundation of the world then no one would be saved.
The election of grace is simply God’s goodness and mercy.
If it were not for God’s mercy, no one would be saved.
And that destroys human pride. If salvation is entirely up to God then man cannot take any credit for being saved.
Exodus 33:18-19 “And he {Moses} said, ‘Please, show me Your glory.’ Then He {God} said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
The goodness of God is that He saves anyone at all.
Paul, in Romans 9, reveals the great lesson of God’s mercy in God’s sovereign choice and calls on what God said to Moses. Romans 9:6-24
6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called."
8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son."10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac
11(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger."
13 As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!
15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion."
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"
20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"
21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
God’s elect are found in strange places: (E.W. Johnson)
Luke 4:16-30
16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."
20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"
23 He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"
24 Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;
26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."
28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.
30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.
God’s elect are found in strange places:
A Gentile woman in Zarephath who was a widow; a Gentile commander of the Syrian army who was a leper; a Jewish Pharisee named Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus by night; a Samaritan woman at a well in Sychar deep in religious superstitious ignorance and sin; one of two thieves hanging on a cross beside the Saviour.
From every kindred and tribe and tongue: Can you see it?
God’s elect are found in strange places!
In John Chapter 3, Jesus encounters a man, a Jew, a Pharisee, self-righteous, extremely religious, and lost. But Nicodemus is one of God’s elect.
In John Chapter 4, Jesus encounters a woman, a Samaritan, immoral, nominally religious, and lost. But she too is one of God’s elect.
Here, Jesus crossed the boundaries of racial prejudice. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Is He the Saviour of the Jews? Yes, and He is the Saviour of the Samaritans; He is the only Saviour!
“WHAT HAPPENED AT SYCHAR?”
Background:
There was religious enmity {hatred} between the Jews and the Samaritans: Who were the Samaritans?
Israel’s last king was Hosea, who was a vassal to Assyria, but then he changed his allegiance to Egypt. Samaria, the capital of Israel (northern kingdom), was put under siege by Shalmaneser and in 722 B.C. and most of the Jews were carried away [2 Kings 17:3-6]. Only the very poor and undesirable Israelites remained in Samaria. Foreigners were brought in from Babylon and other territories and intermarried with the Israelites. They were then called Samaritans, named after the capital city of Samaria. They pleaded with the king to send them a priest to teach them "the law of the God of the land." They developed a cult, which was adulterated Judaism and idolatry.
In 586 B.C., some of the Samaritans came to Zerubbabel and offered to help rebuild the temple. They were rudely turned away and so began the hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews. [Ezra 4:1-3]
One reason that Jesus told the parable of the “Good Samaritan” was to make the point that a neighbor was also a hated and despised Samaritan.
With that as an introduction and background we will do an exposition of John 4:1-26.
Notice Jesus’ uses of a mashal, a Jewish riddle, which is a word that has two meanings and may be understood in a physical sense or a spiritual sense.
Is the “temple” in 2:19 the literal temple in Jerusalem, as the Jewish leaders understood it, or His body?
Is the “water” in 3:5 literal water or the Holy Spirit?
In Chapter Four, Jesus uses “drink”, “living water”, “worship”, “food”, and “harvest”. Each of these words may be understood in a physical sense or a spiritual sense.
Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2(though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),
Therefore? What is it there for? I believe the “therefore” refers back to John 2: 22-36 and all the abuse and misunderstanding that has developed over the centuries about water baptism.
John the Baptist would only baptize those who gave evidence of repentance. John at first refused to baptize Jesus because Jesus the Christ had no sin to repent of. But Jesus who took the place of sinners must be identified with sinners and so John baptized him.
As if to show the place of baptism to those who teach that baptism actually removes sin or that baptism is necessary in order to be saved both Jesus and Paul did not baptize. Yes, Paul baptized a few but said:
1 Corinthians 1:12-17
12 Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Christ."
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15 lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.
16 Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other.
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
Paul clearly separates the Gospel message from water baptism!
Our Lord commands baptism, as a testimony of a vital relationship with Him. As Baptists we do not deny the importance of baptism.
But do not make an idol out of baptism. And above all do not think that your baptism has anything to do with your being justified by God.
3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
Again. Jesus had performed His first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. He had come to Jerusalem for Passover and had cleansed the temple of the “Canaanites” or merchants. Now He goes again to Galilee.
4 But He needed to go through Samaria. NKJV
And he must needs go through Samaria. KJV
There is a divine imperative. Jesus has a predestinated appointment with a sinner. There were other routes from Jerusalem to Galilee and the Jews often avoided going through Samaria because of the mutual hatred. Of course that is not why the Lord “must needs” go through Samaria.
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.
There is no place actually called Sychar. Sychar is Shechem.
By the use of “Sychar” John is giving the significance of this place. The word means “drunken” or “falsehood”. Sychar thus means “the place of lies”. It is the place where false religion is practiced.
It is the place of “Jacob’s Well”, a “holy place”. The Muslims did not invent “holy” cities and “holy shrines”. Here is a well of water that has much religious significance in the OT. But there is nothing “holy” about any physical thing. You can make an idol of anything.
So Jesus has a divine appointment to rescue this wretched woman from her religious superstition and all the accumulated guilt of her disgusting immoral life. She is about to be born again!
Please study to see what part this woman had in her conversion. She was comfortable with her false religion and her immoral life until the Holy Spirit convicted her of sin.
There is no appeal for her to make a “decision”. She is not asked to agree with a proposition. Jesus did not tell her the “Four Spiritual Laws” or take her down the “Roman Road”. She is simply confronted with her sin and with the majesty of the person who stands before her who is the Savior of sinners.
6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Jesus sits by Jacob’s well. Jesus is Zechariah’s “fountain.”
Zechariah 13:1-2
1 "In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
2 "It shall be in that day," says the LORD of hosts, "that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.
There is a play on words in the use of “well”. In verses 6 and 14, when Jesus speaks of water, it is a bubbling spring. In verses 11 and 12 the word the woman uses is just any pool of water. So Jesus is not talking about physical water but the “Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness.”
“There is a Fountain Filled With Blood!”
Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey,
Here is the Son of Man, as truly man as though He were not God. He is affected by everything that is “normal” to man. He gets weary, He gets thirsty, He gets angry, He weeps, and all without sin. Sin is not “normal”.
It was about the sixth hour.
You will not find much agreement as to the time of day as we reckon time. I believe John’s Gospel uses Roman time and so this is about 6 pm since they had traveled and Jesus is weary.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Jesus is alone when this woman comes to the well. He speaks to this woman, which in itself violates the “rules”. A Jewish man would not even speak to a Samaritan woman. But Jesus goes further than that. He asks her for a drink!
Here is a suggestion as to how to start a conversation to witness to someone. Ask them to do you a favor.
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.
The woman knows the mores` of the society she lives in.
She is saying that Jews do not drink from the same vessel with a Samaritan.
It cannot mean absolutely “no dealings” because His disciples had gone into the city to buy food from the Samaritans.
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."
Here are the two most important things that anyone can ever know.
What is the “gift of God” and who is Jesus?
Jesus is the gift of God. Jesus is the living water!
She does not know whom she is talking to but she is about to find out.
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?
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?"
The woman is speaking prophetically but she does not realize the depth of hers words. Jesus is the fountain of living water and does not need a rope and a bucket no matter how deep the well may be because he is not speaking about literal water.
Jesus is indeed greater than Jacob.
The understanding of this woman is about to be opened by God the Holy Spirit, she will be convicted of sin and guilt, and she will see that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of sinners.
13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
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."
15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
She does not yet grasp the kind of “water” that Jesus can give to her. But she is getting closer. Jesus has something that she wants badly.
Her curiosity is drawing her into this discussion about water.
16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
What has Jesus’ command to go call her husband to do with this “water”?
The Holy Spirit is about to convict her of sin!
This conversation is now getting entirely too uncomfortable for her. Why would this Jew tell me to go and get my husband?
17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,'
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly."
There is much more to what Jesus says than the fact that she had been with five men before the one she is now living with who is not her husband. The implication is that the man she is living with is someone else’s husband.
Go back to the background on the origin of Samaria. This woman is the spiritual representation of Samaria. Her five “husbands” are the pagans that were brought into the land from five countries that intermarried with the Jews who remained in the territory and produced the mongrel race of Samarians who had perverted Judaism.
2 Kings 17:24
Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.
The “five husbands” of Samaria is represented by the actual life of this Samaritan woman.
Do you see how predestination works? Not outside of things and events but through them. Everything to this woman is in the normal course of a discussion with a Jewish man.
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."
She is awakened to the fact that Jesus is more than just another Jewish man. Perhaps He is a prophet!
But now she is a “theologian.” She wants to argue about the proper place to worship God. She has come to a “holy” place to get water. She has been raised in superstition and error.
She says 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."
There are no less than a dozen sermons in these verses.
When is the “Hour” that is coming?
The place to worship God will be neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem will soon be gone forever as the place to worship God.
Woman, you are ignorant and do not know what you worship!
Salvation is of the Jews.
Messiah is Jewish but He is the Savior of Jews and Gentiles.
Worship must be in spirit and truth!
Holy Spirit taught worship is always in truth.
God is spirit.
God the Father does the seeking.
The Father seeks those who not only “ought” to worship Him, they “must” worship Him. There is no such animal as a Christian who does not 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."
Oh, woman, you are nearly there. There is the Messiah and He is coming and He will reveal all truth.
26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
Have those who teach that Jesus never claimed to be Messiah or Christ never read the Scripture? They hope that you will not read this verse in its context.
The “I AM” is speaking to you!
What happened at Sychar?
In divine predestination and by God’s sovereign choice in divine election, a sinner got saved!
Have you seen that you are no better than Nicodemus or this Samaritan woman? Do you trust anything that you have done or do not do?
Look to Jesus and confess you sin. Only Jesus!
Amen
