Chapter 4

Baptism and Jesus

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John

We need to read what is said about baptism, not what is not said!

2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples),

3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

Baptism is not the principle part of Christianity: it is an ordained symbol. It is subordinate work

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 And he had to pass through Samaria.

The Samaritan take their name from the region of Samaria

• They trace their origins to the time of the Babylonian captivity
• When Nebachnezzer took the southern nation of Jews (Judah) captive in 597 BC, he forced them to leave Judea in chains
• About 120 years earlier, the Assyrians had taken captive the northern Jewish kingdom of Israel
• Left behind in the northern kingdom region were a few ragtag refugees of Jews
• They largely remained separate from their Jewish brethren in the south, since the northern and southern kingdoms remained enemies
• And over time they began to intermarry with Gentiles sent into the region by Assyria
• They settled in a region called Samaria, just north of Judea
• By intermarrying with Gentiles, these Jews polluted their bloodline and forfeited their Jewishness - they became Gentiles
• They were no longer truly Jewish, and over time they abandoned many of the orthodox traditions of Judaism
• Yet they continued to see themselves as Jewish

See Ezra 4:1-3 => beginning of feud.

They symbolize false religions that counterfeit the broad outlines of Christianity

The Samaritan culture held that where the ones with with the truth while Jews were deceived

5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Near mount Gerizim, half way between Galilee and Jerusalem. It was in sight of the Samaritan temple

6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

That it was Joseph’s well was folklore of the Samaritans

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

The normal prejudices of the day prohibited public conversation between men and women, between Jews and Samaritans, and especially between strangers. A Jewish Rabbi would rather go thirsty than violate these proprieties.

• They weren’t true followers of God
• They followed a counterfeit faith

Note the tact and condescension of Christ dealing with a careless sinner; he does not begin with her sin.

8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

Deep religious differences between Jew and Samaritan.

Note a Jew would not drink from a vessel used by a Samaritan.

10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

Note Jesus readiness to give mercies.

Christ readiness to receive sinners. (Matt 7:7, Luke 11:9)

He does not deal with the inter-racial issue, but the root-cause: sin.

Note the excellence of his gift.

Living water – spiritual sense. Jer 2:13.

• Living water is a Jewish euphemism for flowing water, like a spring of river of water
• Flowing water is living

11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

Note the absolute necessity of conviction of sin before a soul can be converted, regenerated to God

She speaks like Nicodemus. Its not her works that will save her.

To this point, she’s simply defending the Samaritan perspective as a matter of pride

• And she’s arrogantly insulting Jesus in the process
• She asks Jesus if He was greater than Jacob?
• It’s an ironic insult, because it’s true

12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock."

Why a well when there were springs of water? Tensions between tribes?

Jacob was one of the most important figures in Samaritan theology

Read

• Romans 3:27,28
• 1 Cor 1:27-31
• 1 Cor 4:7

13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

Note Christ’s willingness to reveal himself to the chief of sinners

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

See also Is 12:3

Its not literal water – the context here says so.

15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

She is at fleshly level cf Christ at spiritual. She is in the dark

Cf John 6:34

So what must happen before a person leaves the Light and steps into darkness?

• The Bible tells us that God must act first
• We must be brought to repentance with an expectation of forgiveness
• She is still looking for an earthly solution

Why? She lacks repentance.

See Mark 1:14, 15

Note: the repentance that leads to salvation is itself a product of God’s work in our hearts.

Rom 2:4, 2 Cor 7:9

• Repentance is a turning away, but not from some specific mistake
• It means a turning away from man-made religion and to obedience to the Gospel
• Repentance means seeing ourselves way God sees us and being just as troubled by what He sees

16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

Jesus wants to deal with her misunderstanding.

17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';

18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

Jesus could not be an ordinary man: he could read her history, although she had not revealed it.

The power of God’s light to reveal.

19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

A prophet as to knowing insight, not Christ, the Saviour.

Deut 18:17-19. The Prophet that would come after Moses. Samaritans rejected all Jewish prophets after Moses.

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

She takes the conversation in a religious direction, asking Jesus to settle an ages-old religious dispute.

But

• Because the Samaritans rejected the word of God delivered by His prophets, they were in the wrong
• But the very question of where someone should worship was growing obsolete

Both Samaritans and Jews were worshipping places and faces rather than the Living God Who sanctified those things

21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

Its not the place, but the how that is important/

22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

• Jesus says an “hour” is coming and is already here when true worship is set free from a prescribed form or location
• The word hour refers to a time or age, and that time is called the last days or the church age
• The time following the Messiah’s appearing until His return

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

The writer of Hebrews says that the existence of the tabernacle signified that the way for personal access to the Father had not yet been revealed

Heb 9:8, 9

25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things."

• The woman confesses her faith in God’s promise of a Messiah from Deut 18:18
• And when that One arrives, she says, He will explain all things, settle all arguments and set straight every dispute
• And by this confession, she is showing faith as a child of God

26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."

The Messiah

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"

28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,

29 "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"

Consider the courage that this required

• The men of the city would have been sitting in the city gate on a normal day of business
• This woman would have had brought her tattered reputation into that public place with probably few if any friends to support her
• • Just entering the city gates would have provoked stares and perhaps mocking comments

30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Jesus and Food

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."

32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."

33 So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"

34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Well, consider that this conversation was coming on the heels of the earlier one with the woman

• In that conversation, Jesus redirected the woman’s thoughts away from satisfying her flesh’s need for water
• And toward her spirit’s need for living water
• Jesus wasn’t denying that the body needs to drink water
• But He did want the woman to put satisfying her spiritual needs ahead of satisfying her physical needs
• It should have been more important for the woman to find a source of eternal life than to spend time keeping her physical body alive

Likewise, Jesus isn’t denying the need to feed His physical body with food

• He’s asking the disciples to think about spiritual priorities ahead of physical priorities
• • They had been so focused on eating that they hadn’t even considered the possibility of reaching this Samaritan woman with the message of the Kingdom

35 Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

37 For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.'

• It was easy for the one harvesting to be motivated by their work, since they were anticipating eating the harvest
• But those who reaped the harvest should share it with those who earlier planted the seeds
• It was harder for the one sowing to be as motivated since the harvest is four months away

38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour."

So it is in serving as a disciple and ambassador in the world

• We might think that since we have secured our salvation, there’s
• no reason to work hard for Christ
• But no Christian is free to take a pass in the work of the Gospel
• Jesus reminds us that we were all brought into faith through the work of another who worked selflessly to ensure a good harvest

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did."

40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

41 And many more believed because of his word.

They believed based on hearing her word – the importance of hearing.

42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world."

Only used by John (1 John 4:14), John 3:17

Jesus leaves for Galilee

43 After the two days he departed for Galilee.

44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in his own hometown.)

Demonstrates the absolute fallen state of mankind.

His hometown (country) is Jerusalem, from a messianic point of view

John 5:43, 12:37

45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

Jerusalem contrasted with Galilee

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.

1. The rich and poor suffer

2. Both old and young can die

3. Afflictions can benefit the soul

4. Christ’s word is as good as his presence

47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

48 So Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe."

Jesus remarks that the people of Galilee are consistently requesting signs and wonders before they can believe in Jesus

49 The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

Jesus is about to show that time and space is not an obstacle to his operations.

50 Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

• Jesus could direct supernatural outcomes through the Spirit of God
• So, belief in Christ’s healing power from a distance became a distinguishing characteristic of true faith
• • Believing that Jesus could heal from anywhere meant acknowledging Him as God

51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.

52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."

53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." And he himself believed, and all his household.

• This is the biblical definition of saving faith throughout the Bible (Heb 11:1)
• Just as when Abraham believed the word of God and was declared righteous, so has this man believed in the word of Jesus
• He truly believes his sons has been healed by the word of Christ
• If he had any doubt at all, he wouldn’t have left Jesus to walk 17 miles back to Capernaum

Saving faith is always a confidence in things hoped for, and a conviction in things unseen

• This man is convinced that what he hopes for has come to pass based solely on Jesus’ word
• Today, we hope for the resurrection that follows our death
• And we are convinced that Jesus is Lord and will return for us one day
• And though we haven’t seen these things come to pass as yet, we still maintain that confidence because he have faith in the word of God
• Just as this royal official did

54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

John is calling it the second, because of the earlier miracle done in Cana

• The first was turning water into wine
• The second is healing the official’s son from a distance
• These are signs that reflect Jesus as Creator and God
• Indisputably, if someone can turn one physical substance into another or heal with just a word, they are demonstrating themselves to be the Creator

Together they show the deity of Jesus

• In fact, the entire narrative between these two miracles highlights the power of God in Jesus
• His creative power is on display in the water and wine
• His authority over the temple and in teaching were evident in Jerusalem and with Nicodemus
• His omniscience was evident with the Samaritan woman
• And His healing power over time and space was evident with the official’s son
• And they sum up Jesus time in Galilee prior to gaining the unhelpful attention of the Pharisees
• Jesus showing mercy on people of all kinds
• Jesus teaching His disciples that they are to seek the lost as well
• And Jesus displaying Himself to be God through miracles that could mean nothing else