Day 72 – Friday, April 11, 2025

One Year Journey Through the New Testament

John 4

Welcome to our journey through the New Testament!

Christ Witnesses to the Woman at the Well

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.”

(John 4:1–26, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• As I said before, much of the material in John is unique to his gospel. He did not just copy another gospel and then add a little to it. John started fresh and wrote the things that he remembered well and that had meaning for him as the Spirit inspired him.
• This beautiful story is one of those unique accounts that the beloved disciple chose to include.
• Jesus finished baptizing just across the Jordan River, and headed toward Galilee, but made sure to go through Samaria first. When he arrived in the city Sychar, He found His way to Jacob’s well.
• At about noon, a woman came to draw water. Jesus asked her for a drink of water. She was surprised, and asked why He was speaking to her. He then gave her the famous rationale, “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.”
• She asked how he could do this, since He did not have a bucket. He told her that the water He would give would become a fountain in the one who received it. He or she would never thirst again.
• Then she wanted the water, but Jesus first asked her to go get her husband and bring him to the well. She confessed that she had no husband. Jesus “read her mail” and revealed that she had been married five times, and was now living with a man!
• She recognized that Jesus was a prophet, and then brought up a disputed idea of where worship should take place. Jesus told her that the time was coming where there would not be just one place, but that worship would be done in all places by those who worship in spirit and truth.
• She acknowledged that the Messiah would come and tell all truth. Jesus then self-identified as the Messiah.

Christ Witnesses to the Disciples

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.” 

(John 4:27–38, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• When the disciples came back from shopping for food, they were amazed that Jesus was speaking to this woman.
• She left without her water pot, and ran back into the city announcing Jesus’ had told her everything she ever did. She speculated to them that He was the Christ (Messiah). Everyone she told came out of the city to see and hear Him.
• The disciples urged Jesus to eat, but He said He had other food to eat. That food was to do the will of the Father.
• He then spoke of sowing and reaping, showing that the process would involve many, some sowing and others reaping. What one sows, the disciples of Christ must go and reap for the kingdom.

Christ Witnesses to the Samaritans

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.” 

(John 4:39–42, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• The Samaritans believed the message of Christ, and urged Him to stay with them. He stayed two days, and many more believed.
• They told the woman, we came because of your testimony, but now we believe because we have heard for ourselves.

Christ is Received by the Galileans

⁴³ Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. ⁴⁴ For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵ So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast. 

(John 4:43–45, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• Once Jesus and His disciples left Sychar in Samaria, they went to Galilee.
• Those who had seen His mighty works in Jerusalem at Passover gladly received Him and believed.

Christ Heals the Nobleman’s Son

⁴⁶ So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”

⁴⁹ The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. ⁵¹ And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”

⁵² Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household.

⁵⁴ This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. 

(John 4:46–54, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• Jesus went to another town in Galilee, Cana, where He made water in wine.
• A nobleman came to Jesus, begging Him to heal his son, who was near death. Jesus at first rebuffed him, then the man pushed harder, and Jesus told him to go his way, that his son would live.
• The man exhibited faith in the words of Christ, and he went his way, and his servants told him that his son was well.
• He asked when the change occurred, and they told him that he got well at the same hour that Jesus said that he would live. He and his entire household believed in Jesus from that time forward.
• This was the second miracle of Christ in Galilee.
• Jesus had a powerful ministry all over Israel. He made a difference everywhere He went. He was a missionary, a preacher, a teacher, a healer, a deliverer. Jesus the Savior was the Christ of God!

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All Scriptures from New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Join us this afternoon at 5:00 pm for a discussion of this chapter live online. Live@5 with Dr. Greg Sloop can be found on Facebook on the Dr. Greg Sloop page or on the Kannapolis Church of God Facebook page or Youtube page. Another blog will be posted each weekday at 6:00 a.m.