The Heart of the Matter
Jesus masterfully teaches us evangelism.
Digging Deeper
As I read through John’s gospel I notice how well he teaches us how to evangelize. Have you noticed this too? First, he teaches us through John the Baptist to call out to others to “Behold the Lamb of God”. Next, he teaches us through the followers of Jesus to tell others to “Come and see for yourself the Messiah.” Then in the study covering John 3:16 he shows us that the bad news (i.e., we are wretches and have no righteousness of our own that can save) must be presented along with the good news (i.e., but while we were still sinners Jesus sacrifices Himself that we may become children of God).
Now we arrive at another masterclass where Jesus demonstrates evangelism in action.
John 4:1–6:
1Therefore when 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),
3He left Judea and went away again into Galilee.
4And He had to pass through Samaria.
5So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;
6and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
John sets for us the scene for the following verses. Have you been noticing how John usually begins with setting the scene for us and then proceeds to present a problem or conflict? This problem or conflict reaches a climax and then is resolved. Typically after the resolution, John presents the main point of that narrative.
Here we see Jesus and his disciples leaving Judea because the Pharisees were hearing that Jesus was becoming more popular than John the Baptist. Now if the Pharisees were indignant that John the Baptist was so popular with the people then just imagine what they thought of Jesus as He was becoming more popular than John the Baptist. Assuredly, the Pharisees were planning on moving against Jesus. But it was not the Father’s time for the Pharisees to attack Jesus. So Jesus, following the Father’s leading, moved on to Galilee.
However, His travels took Him and His disciples through Samaria, specifically through the Samaritan city of Sychar. The Jews did not care at all for the Samaritans. There are many issues between the two groups but suffice to say that the Jews believed the Samaritans were heretics and would not even give them the time of day. One important point to know is that the Samaritans stopped their worship of God in Jerusalem and began to worship God at Mt. Gerizim in Samaria. This information will help when we get to verses 20-22.
Now Jesus was very tired from the trip and was sitting by the well and it was noon. (There is some discrepancy here on whether this time was according to Jewish timekeeping or Roman timekeeping. Noon would be according to Jewish timekeeping and would fit into this story better as we will see.)
John 4:7–8:
7There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
A woman showed up at the well where Jesus was sitting. Jesus asked her for a drink of water since He had no jug with which to collect water from the well for Himself. Also, we see that His disciples had all gone into town to buy food. The Father has seemed to work out this situation so that Jesus could converse with the woman without interruption. We see how the disciples reacted when they returned and Jesus was still talking to the woman in John 4:27:
27At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?”
Not only were the disciples amazed (astonished, marveled, surprised) that Jesus was not only talking to a woman but that He was talking to a Samaritan woman. Jesus’ disciples declined to even recognize the Samaritan woman. Jesus, however, not only recognized her and talked with her but also offered her everlasting life. Had the disciples been there, they might have rushed her off before Jesus had a chance to talk with her or perhaps she would have waited for all the men to leave before she approached the well. We don’t know exactly, but we do know that the Father was working things out for His glory.
John 4:9–10:
9Therefore the Samaritan woman 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.)
10Jesus 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.”
In response to Jesus’ request for a drink of water, the Samaritan woman acts astonished (amazed similar to how the disciples will be in verse 27 later on). However, as with Nicodemus, Jesus doesn’t answer her immediate question but the real question of her heart…that is, how must I be saved.
Notice how this story can compare to the story of Nicodemus that we just studied. Both came to Jesus alone and had uninterrupted time together. Both asked a question that Jesus did not answer. Rather, knowing their hearts He answered the question they most deeply longed to have answered.
However, we need to understand the differences between these two stories too. Nicodemus was a teacher of the law and knew the law (or rather he thought he knew the law). The Samaritan woman, on the other hand, was not a student of the law. But in both cases Jesus answered them directly and in relation to who they were and what they knew. Jesus didn’t try to teach the law to the Samaritan woman. That would not be an ideal strategy. Consider if the two responses that Jesus gave were swapped. Just try inserting the response to Nicodemus here. The Samaritan woman would have been as confused as I would be in reading that.
To put it simply, Jesus met them both as they were. He didn’t talk over their heads with complex ideas. He talked directly to their hearts. And every non-believer has the same question…how must I be saved.
Jesus answers this question (and the woman’s) with the introduction of “living water”. Now in the Greek this phrase is more akin to “flowing water”, which is the opposite of stagnant water. Flowing water was thought of as clean and sustaining life, whereas stagnant water would have poisoned the drinker if not properly sanitized.
John 4:11–12:
11She 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?”
The woman seems a little confused as to the living water that Jesus is talking about here. In her reply she, possibly sarcastically, taunts Jesus by saying, “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You…”. She doesn’t see Jesus for who He is and she doesn’t understand the living water that He wants to give her (the gift in verse 10). But herein also lies the faint glimmer of hope for her. She asks in verse 11, “where then do You get that living water?”
John 4:13–14:
13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Jesus explains the concept of living water to her. Drinking of the water at this well will sustain life but for only a short time. You need to come back to this well often to refill your water jugs in order to quench your thirst again and again. However, the water that Jesus provides will sustain life eternally. It’s interesting to note in verse 13 the verb “drinks” is a present participle indicating continuous action. However, in verse 14 the verb “drinks” is an aorist indicating punctiliar action or a one-time action. This is the one-time gift of living water that will never run dry and never leave anyone parched wanting more. This is the living water that results in eternal life!
Surely the Samaritan woman gets it now, right?
John 4:15:
15The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
Nope, she wants this living water so that she not only won’t be thirsty anymore but, perhaps more importantly to her, so she won’t have to keep coming to this well day after day. Why doesn’t she want to come to this well everyday? Obviously there is the long walk and effort in pulling up the water out of the well, but maybe there’s more to her story…
John 4:16–19:
16He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”
17The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;
18for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”
19The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
Jesus knows what her situation is and asks her to do something (i.e., bring her husband here), which she cannot do. You see, she has had five husbands. Not only that but the one she is living with is not her husband. So let’s consider her situation. She’s a woman…strike one. She’s a Samaritan…strike two. She’s living with a man in sin (strike three). This woman is considered by even other women as the lowest of the low. She doesn’t want to come to this well anymore so that she doesn’t have to run into others that will look down on her.
Did you see what Jesus masterfully did here? He caused her to expose her own sin and her lowly situation. Now she better sees herself as she truly is, a sinner in need of the Savior.
Remember the time of day it was (either 6pm according to Roman time or noon according to Jewish time). It seems that noon might be a better estimate of the time of day since most would come to draw water during the cool of the evening (i.e., 6pm). Noon would be the hottest part of the day when no one would be drawing water from the well. Again, she didn’t want to be around others since she was shunned.
Now (in verse 19) she’s finally getting it. She is starting to see that Jesus is no ordinary man but something more. She calls Him a prophet, which is someone who speaks for God and interprets the will of God. Of course, Jesus is more than just a prophet. He is the Lamb of God…the Son of God, God Himself!
John 4:20–24:
20“Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Here the Samaritan woman is revealing her confusion about worship, something we almost take for granted. She says that her predecessors worshiped on a particular mountain, but the Jews say that the only place to worship is in Jerusalem. Thinking that Jesus is a prophet she asks a question that must have been concerning her and the other Samaritans greatly…”Where shall we worship?”
Jesus replies with an answer that must have thrown everything that she believes on its head. He states that soon no one will need to worship God in a single place or physical temple. A time is coming (which we see fulfilled in Acts) where true believers will worship God in spirit and truth. Spirit and truth are the two essential ingredients to worship that pleases God. Those who worship in spirit do not need a physical place to worship. Having a physical building to worship in, such as our church, is wonderful and good but not an absolute necessity to please God. We can worship God at all times wherever we are. This allows us to let our light shine on the lost as we can be beacons for Jesus in a dark world.
To worship in truth is to worship God knowing fully who He is and He knowing us. The object of our faith, belief, and worship is Jesus Christ our Lord who said in John 14:6:
6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Worship of God requires directing our worship towards Jesus. Jesus is the truth and has given us many examples of how to properly worship God the Father in truth. As Jesus worshiped in truth and is the truth, so we must follow that example of worship.
John 4:25–26:
25The 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.”
26Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Now the Samaritans, like the Jews, believed in the Messiah and His coming. Indeed she states that she is expectantly waiting for Him. Jesus responds with (literally) “I am the one speaking to you.” However, there is more to this in the Greek. The Greek used here for “I am” (ego eimi) is the more intensive form of “I am” than the normal way it was expressed in Greek, that is as just eimi. When the more intensive form of ego eimi is used, it typically refers to Yahweh translated to Greek. We will see this in John 8:58:
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
These and other intensive “I am” statements that Jesus makes later in John (about 23 of them) clearly point to Jesus’ identity as God.
But here, the translators (and many translators agree) that this is not necessarily Jesus pointing to Himself as the great I AM. Rather, the translators add a “He” that is not in the original Greek. I believe that most translators do not translate this phrase as “I AM” due to the immediate context, which is the Samaritan woman speaking of the Messiah. Jesus, in answering her, simply says “I am the Messiah” with a strong emphasis on the fact that He is the Messiah. That is why the original Greek uses the ego eimi phrasing in this verse.
But there is more to speak about this “ego eimi” construct when we get into John 8:58.
John 4:27–30:
27At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?”
28So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men,
29“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”
30They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.
Now we see the disciples return, and we see that they are aghast at Jesus speaking not only to a woman but a Samaritan woman. The disciples did not say anything. They only observed, possibly out of respect for Jesus. This is the sovereignty of God at work. The disciples needed to see that Jesus was offering salvation to a person that was so beneath them and despised by them. This would be an example and a lesson for the disciples (even if they didn’t quite get it right away) that salvation would be for all.
Finally, notice what the Samaritan woman did right after Jesus revealed He was the Messiah. She ran to tell the men of the town what had transpired at the well and that the Messiah had arrived. In fact, she took off so quickly she left her waterpot at the well. She had finally understood that Jesus had the living water and she had accepted that living water. Now there was (metaphorically) no need for a waterpot. Physically she would thirst again, but spiritually she would never thirst again.
The response of the Samaritan woman shows another special effect to believing and accepting the living water that Jesus offers, that of her going and telling others of what she experienced and to implore them to “come and see”, which we heard the disciples saying to others after they began following Jesus.
When you first believe in Jesus you simply want to tell others what happened and lead them to Him. This is the effect of evangelism on our hearts when we first believe. I remember in college when I first became a believer that I had an incredible desire to tell others. I didn’t understand all of the Bible, actually, not much of it at the time. Nevertheless, I desired to tell others of Jesus.