THE POWER TO GIVE LIFE

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013 

GO (JOHN 4:1-5)

1 When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;     NASB

Verse 1:

·         The Pharisees heard with a hostile mind and with a purpose to do Him hurt.

·         It is evidence of a wicked disposition to have hatred against Christ and His ministry; even just hearing about it.

·         The more that men attempt to suppress the truth and the work of the Gospel, the more that the Lord can make His cause to advance.

·         Jesus' preached and the disciples baptized.

·         He taught His followers to look on baptism administered by His disciples in His name to be as sufficient as if He had done it Himself.

Verse 2-3:

·         This teaches that Christ's followers today should use lawful means for self-preservation as Christ did, for He knew that His hour had not come and therefore withdrew.

·         Although Christ could have prevented or repressed His enemy's fury by His omnipotence, yet He chose rather to let it break forth, and used this mean of withdrawal that He might fight with weapons of His weak followers!

·         This is a very solemn verse, a rebuke of the highest order!

Verse 4:

·         When the nation of Israel was carried off into Babylon into captivity, there were only a handful of Jews left in the area called Samaria.

·         The king of Assyria planted a colony there with people from mixed nations.

·         The religion that resulted was a hodgepodge of all religious practices of that day.

·         The O.T. tells us that the inhabitants feared the Lord but also sinned mightily and worshipped idols.

·         When Israel was released from Babylon, the Samaritans offered to enter into alliance with the Jews; but the Jews refused, and the Samaritans and the Jews became bitter enemies.

·         The Samaritans even actively opposed the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.

·         The Samaritans accepted the five books of Moses but rejected much of the Jewish prophets.

·         This increased the animosity that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans.

·         Even when persecutors have done their worst, neither Christ nor His followers will lack success so long as the Lord pleases.

·         Christ "…had to pass through Samaria.”, because there was one of God's elect there who was to be saved.

Verse 5:

·         This Sychar is the same as the home of Jacob (Gen 33:18-19) which was then called Shechem (Gen 48:22). 

ENGAGE (JOHN 4:6-9)

6 and Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There came a woman of Samaria 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 The Samaritan woman therefore 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.)     NASB 

Verse 6:

·         As the Son of God, He was not subject to being tired, sick, diseased, or was He subject to death.

·         As man, He was subject to all these things and more.

·         Christ took on, not only our nature, but the infirmities of the flesh.

Verse 7: 

Isaiah 65:1

"I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Here am I, here am I,' To a nation which did not call on My name.     NASB 

John 15:16

16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.     NASB 

·         This is another evidence that Christ humbled Himself, and became poor, that through His poverty we might become rich.

·         He began to deal with her by showing her just how helpless she was, by bringing her face to face with it!

·         The question was asked to force her to admit her spiritual poverty and inability to do anything to provide salvation for herself.

·         She had no living waters of her own, either for her own use, or for giving to someone else, and Jesus wanted her to admit it.

Verse 8-9:

·         It is an evidence of malicious heart to insult those they hate, and do much to spite them.

·         It is as if she said, "You do not regard us at other times, but now, when you have a need, you seek me, and therefore I will not answer you."

·         This verse tells us that the woman of Samaria did not perceive the special character of the One that was speaking to her. 

Isaiah 53:2b

He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.     NASB 

·         The woman of Samaria only thought of the prejudice that existed at that time between the Jews and the Samaritans.

·         Contentions about religion are ordinarily very hot even to the breaking the bonds of civil society and conversation. 

CLARIFY (JOHN 4:10-15, 25-26)

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 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 "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?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. "  15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw."     NASB 

25 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." 26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."     NASB 

Verse 10

·         Ignorance of Christ, and what He has and is ready to give, is a great reason that sinners mistreat Him as they do.

·         Christ is to be known as the gift of the Father to lost sinners that the Son of God stooped so low as to take on Himself our sins.

·         This verse has the same force as when Christ said to Nicodemus that he must be "…born again."

·         Here, Christ told the woman that He was talking to her about the gift of God.

·         This verse reveals the special character of the One that is talking with her, and the Living Water; is not the kind you draw out of a well.

·         Further, this bears out the promise - "ask, and you shall receive."

Verse 11:

·         In this we see again that it is the natural tendency of people to interpret spiritual things in a carnal way, and that they are not able to discern grace, "the gift of God" until they have it. 

Ephesians 2:8-9

 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.     NASB 

·         We are naturally addicted to our carnal sense that we will believe nothing revealed by Christ further than we can see a reason or outward appearance.

·         The woman judged it impossible that Christ could have living waters seeing he could not draw it out of that well.

·         The woman's reply in to Christ's statement about living water tells us three things about her:

1. Even though she had come face to face with the Son of the Living God, Christ Jesus, she was still blind to the glory of the One talking to her.

2. She was preoccupied with material things; she knew that the well was deep and she saw that Jesus had no bucket to draw with.

3. She was thinking of the means rather than the end; of DRAWING the water rather than RECEIVING it.

Verse 12:

·         This woman's questions stemmed only from ignorance, so the Lord patiently dealt with her, not tiring from her dullness, not being weary of her quibbling.

·         The woman had made reference to the antiquity of the well.

·         Her water dated back to Jacob, but Christ's water dated back to the beginning of time.

·         The water of which she spoke was the water of the well.

·         The water of which Christ spoke was that of salvation.

Verse 13:

·         This is a hard verse to the unsaved.

·         Unsaved people just can't get enough of this world!

·         More money, fame, honors, the more they get the more they want, because the water of this world will not SATISFY.

·         Nor will it satisfy in the world to come.

·         It is the plan of God for us to be completely dependent on His grace for all things and to be thankful for what we have.

Verse 14:

·         Before I was saved, I viewed life as ONE BIG CRUEL JOKE at that time, as I saw things:

-          By the time that a person learned how to live it was time to die.

-          Nothing was permanent; everything changed every day, most of all the people, getting older and older and nothing to look forward to but the grave.

·         When I was saved, I realized that life had a meaning and a purpose.

·         I realized that to bring glory to God was the highest achievement that a person could aspire to.

·         Life took on a meaning beyond the grave.

·         I'm still a sinner, not anywhere near perfect but this I know, I'm saved, and I'll never thirst for salvation again.

·         The water of life is a free gift to us, as is faith itself.

·         The offer of Christ is to anyone who will accept it, for it is the responsibility of all people to accept the grace of God.

·         Whoever drinks of the grace of God will be so refreshed and satisfied as to quench their thirst for all time.

Verse 15:

·         The woman responded according to her nature and her desire was carnal (she did not want to get thirsty again or have to draw water from the well).

·         It is a great fault of many that all they want from Christ is for their earthly needs to be satisfied.

Verse 25:

·         This woman, a Samaritan, not only knew the Messiah was promised, but was expecting Him as near at hand.

·         It is the will of God that the Scriptures and truths of God should be made plain for all to understand.

·         The will of God concerning religion and the way of salvation was not fully revealed until Christ came to be a Teacher of His church.

·         He has revealed the counsel of God concerning His service and man's salvation.

·         Jesus told the woman that she was ignorant of the things of God.

·         In defending her ignorance, she in effect said it is not her fault!

·         The Messiah has not come, but when He does, He will tell us all that we should know, then I will not be ignorant anymore.

·         Man was responsible for his own fall, and ever since people have been trying to blame the Lord for their fallen spiritual condition.

·         This woman is no different.

Verse 26:

·         The revelation is complete.

·         There is nothing more that Christ can say to this one.

·         He stands before her completely revealed.

·         What a marvelous progression of revelation about Himself that Jesus made in this conversation.

o   He tells her in v.10 that there is something special about Himself.

o   He proves it by telling her things that He could not have known naturally.

·         He asks her to believe, that He knows what He is talking about - "for salvation is of the Jews."

o   Now, He acknowledges that He is the Messiah she had been waiting for.

·         There is now no other argument or means of changing the subject.

·         She stood face-to-face with Christ, she now had to make a decision; to accept Him for who He said He was, or to reject Him on the same basis.

·         This is the same decision that we who are in this room has made or has to make.

·         This is the same decision that all people must make; their eternal fate rests on their answer.