John 4 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: John 4:1-15: The woman at the well

A. Find Out:    

1. Why did Jesus stop at the well? v.6
   • Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
2. What did Jesus ask of the woman? v.7
   • When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’
3. Where were his disciples? v.8
   •  (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
4. Why was the woman surprised at Jesus’ request? v.9
   • The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
5. What did Jesus say he could give her? v.10
   • Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’
6. What effect did he say that would have? v.14
   • but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’
7. What was her response? v.15
   •  The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’

B. Think:

1. How is Jesus’ humanity seen here?
2. What do we learn about Jesus’ attitudes towards people here?
3. What is it that Jesus is really offering this woman?

C. Comment:

First we note that Jesus didn’t at this stage of his ministry want to get in conflict with the religious Pharisees, and so leaves to go north to Galilee.

Second, we see that he was human, like we are, and suffered tiredness just like we do, but nevertheless was willing to take any opportunity that came along even though he was tired. Are we?

Third, we see that his attitudes are prejudice free. It was unusual in that culture for a man to speak to a woman in this way and especially a Samaritan woman. Jesus ignores all social barriers. Do we?

Fourth, we see Jesus offering this woman a new source of life, water that lives, completely satisfies and creates a spring within that will continue to be a source of ongoing life. Although he doesn’t explain it here, in John 7:39 Jesus shows he means the Holy Spirit when he speaks of living water.

Fifth, note the woman’s responses to Jesus. At first she is surprised at being approached by a Jew, and then thinks literally about special spring water. Although she seems slow to understand and continues to think materialistically Jesus perseveres with her. Jesus will persevere with us, even when we are slow.

D. Application?

• 1. Jesus was always available. Are we?
• 2. Jesus was free from prejudice. Are we?
• 3. Jesus persevered with the obtuse. Do we?

Passage: John 4:16-26: They discuss water

A. Find Out:

1. How did Jesus show insight? v.16-18
   • He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’ 17 ‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’
2. As what did she recognise Jesus? v.19
   • ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet
3. To what subject does she turn? v.20
   •  Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’
4. Why needn’t she worry about this? v.21-23
   • ‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
5. What sort of worship does God require? v.24
   • God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’
6. As whom does Jesus reveal himself? v.25,26
   • The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ 26 Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you – I am he.’

B. Think:

1. Why do you think Jesus asked about her husband?
2. What impact did Jesus’ revelation have upon her?
3. Why do you think she started talking about where you can meet with God?

C. Comment:

We see in this passage today the amazing way Jesus gives opportunity for people to open up to Him.

First, Jesus shows his knowledge about people by gently asking about the woman’s husband. He clearly knows things are not right with her and gives her the opportunity to confess her state. When she only partly does this he shows he knows all about her.

We then see her response to this clear word of knowledge: you must be a prophet. But it didn’t stop there, there was a stirring within her that said, “Well, I know my state, but how can I get right with God? You Jews say Jerusalem is the place to meet with God but as you hate us Samaritans I can’t come there.

Look, says Jesus, Samaritans worship without a clear background while Jews worship with all their knowledge of their past experience of God, but the truth is that it doesn’t matter what your knowledge or history is, you can worship God anywhere you like as long as it comes from your spirit and is real.

With a flash of insight, the woman senses who this is. She has heard of a coming Messiah who will act and speak like this so is this him? Jesus gently confirms that she has found her Messiah.

D. Application?

1. Jesus knows us through and through and wants us to acknowledge the sort of people we are.
2. It’s not where you worship but how you worship that counts.

Passage: John 4:27-34: The disciples express concern

A. Find Out:

1. How did the disciples feel as they saw the woman with Jesus? v.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?’
2. What did the woman do? v.28
   • Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
3. What did she testify? v.29
   • ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’
4. What was Jesus’ response to his disciples’ about eating? v.31,32
   • Meanwhile his disciples urged him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ 32 But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’
5. What was their response to this? v.33
   • Then his disciples said to each other, ‘Could someone have brought him food?’
6. What did he say was his food? v.34
   • ‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

B. Think:

1. What prejudicial attitude is seen in the disciples?
2. What good response is seen in the woman?
3. What lesson do we learn from Jesus?

C. Comment:

A rabbinical rule said, “Let no one talk to a woman in the street” but when the disciples returned their “rabbi” was freely talking with a woman. They had yet to learn that Jesus would cross any social boundary to reach a person in need. Will we? The woman (possibly put off by the disciples’ disapproving looks) has good news to share and so she hastily departs and goes and tells everyone she knows about what has happened. The best witness is the one who can tell what Jesus has done for them.

We then we see the disciples’ apparent concern for Jesus’ material well-being as they urge him to eat, but they find in his response that there is a spiritual nourishment which is equally sustaining. We are not to say from this that we don’t need to eat but we are to learn that doing God’s will and serving Him daily, also provides a nourishment that creates well-being. Many a servant of the Lord has come to a “serving situation” weary and tired, served as the Lord directed, and then found they were feeling completely refreshed afterwards. Such is the blessing of being a servant of the Lord!

D. Application?

1. God calls us to respect people as people, regardless of whether they are male or female.
2. Sharing the Lord’s life means that life flows through us and refreshes us.

Passage: John 4:35-42: On reaping

A. Find Out:

1. Why did Jesus say to look at the fields? v.35
   • Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
2. What sort of crop was being reaped? v.36
   • Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
3. Who are the two workers involved? v.37,38
   • Thus the saying “One sows and another reaps” is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.’
4. Why did many Samaritans first believe? v.39
   • Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I’ve ever done.’
5. So what did they do? v.40
   • So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
6. With what result? v.41,42
   • And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’

B. Think:

1. What two activities are involved in bringing someone to the Lord?
2. Which one had the woman been involved in?
3. Which one was Jesus then involved in?

C. Comment:

As Jesus continues talking to his disciples, he explains that in the spiritual world there are needed sowers and reapers, just like the physical world. Sowers sow the word into people’s lives by sharing testimony, telling of Jesus etc. Reapers bring the final word that brings others through into full faith. Look, says Jesus, the harvest is ready. Presumably they would have been able to see the people coming towards them from the woman’s testimony. The woman had been a sower and had shared her testimony, the word had gone in and been believed and many now wanted to come and see Jesus.

This Samaritan town was more open than many Jewish towns and so when the people came to Jesus, they found in him what they were looking for and they urged him to stay with them, so he did! It’s easy to miss this but Jesus stayed on with these Samaritans for two days, presumably teaching them and ministering to them. Jesus reaped and brought them through to full faith where they were able to say, “This man really is the Saviour of the world”. If this isn’t salvation what is? How tremendous was the response of this people, all because Jesus took time to share when he was tired, and a woman shared with her people.

D. Application?

1. Sowers share their testimony to their friends
2. Reapers capitalize on the belief created.

Passage: John 4:43-54: The official in need

A. Find Out:

1. Why did the Galileans welcome Jesus? v.45
   • When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
2. How ill was the official’s son? v.46,47
   • And there was a certain royal official whose son lay ill at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
3. What did Jesus say they would need? v.48
   • ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe.’
4. Why did the man leave? v.49,50
   • The royal official said, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’ 50 ‘Go,’ Jesus replied, ‘your son will live.’ The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
5. When was his son healed? v.51-53
   • While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he enquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, ‘Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.’ 53 Then the father realised that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he and his whole household believed.
6. How was this described? v.54
   • This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

B. Think:

1. Why did the Galileans believe?
2. Why did the official believe at first?
3. Why else did he come to further believe?

C. Comment:

This is a passage all about belief.

First, we are told (v.44) that Jesus knew that in the area where he came from, it would be difficult for there to be belief. When he gets there, we are surprised to find that many of them welcomed him for the thing he had done in the temple in Jerusalem (2:13-25). They appear to “believe” in him, but believe what?

So Jesus visits Cana where he had performed the changing water into wine (2:1-11) and there he is met by a royal official whose son is critically ill. This man appears to have partial belief, he apparently believes that if Jesus will travel with him to his son in Capernaum some 15-20 miles away and touch his son, his son will be healed. Jesus chides him saying these people will only believe AFTER they have SEEN a powerful miracle.

There is yet a further level of belief to be observed! Jesus speaks a word of healing authority and then tells the man to go. The man GOES BELIEVING. This is believing WITHOUT SEEING. That he was right in believing is subsequently shown, for the son was healed at the moment Jesus spoke. Want proof that Jesus is the Son of God with authority? This is it! (v.54)

D. Application?

1. Faith comes in different levels. We can believe WHEN we SEE the     miraculous, or we can believe BEFORE we SEE when we simply HEAR.
2. Pray for faith to be one who can believe the moment you hear .