Bible ReadingJohn 4:1–42Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 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.
[38:03]A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 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.)
[34:12]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.” 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? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
[50:06]Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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.” 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.”
[51:28]Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
[52:42]The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”
[56:20]“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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
[57:08]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.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
[57:49]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?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.
[58:30]Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”
[58:49]“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. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
[59:09]Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. 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 Savior of the world.”
[01:00:17]Jeremiah 2:13“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
[52:02]2 Kings 17:24–41And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.” So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
[41:16]But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
[41:29]To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”
[41:16]However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner. So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
[41:29]Observation questions- What details in John 4 show why the woman is surprised that Jesus asks her for a drink?
- What repeated contrast does Jesus make between water from Jacob’s well and the water he gives? [51:10]
- When Jesus speaks about the woman’s husbands, what words does he use to affirm that she has spoken truthfully?
- What happens after the woman goes back into town, and how do the Samaritans’ words at the end of the passage show that their faith has grown? [01:00:17]
Interpretation questions- Why does Jesus begin this important conversation with a simple request—“Give me a drink”—rather than beginning with a correction or a lecture? How might that request give the woman dignity? [49:24]
- Jeremiah describes God as “the fountain of living waters,” while people choose broken cisterns instead. What kinds of things can look like they will satisfy a person’s soul but eventually leave that person thirsty again? [52:12]
- John does not explain why the Samaritan woman had five husbands, and Jesus does not turn her history into public shame. What does this careful lack of detail teach about speaking truthfully about another person’s life without making cruel assumptions? [53:18]
- Jesus says true worshipers worship the Father “in spirit and truth.” How does this move the question beyond the right mountain, building, tradition, or outward form of worship? [56:47]
Application questions- Who or what group feels like “Samaria” in your life—the person or people you are tempted to avoid, dismiss, or keep at a distance? What boundary might Christ be calling you to cross with wisdom, kindness, and truth? [48:57]
- Jesus asked the woman for a drink and allowed her to offer something. When have you been so focused on helping someone that you failed to see the dignity of allowing that person to contribute, serve, or be heard? [49:44]
- What “bucket” have you been drawing again and again to satisfy your soul—success, approval, comfort, control, relationships, money, or something else? Where has that effort left you thirsty?
- Jesus knows the whole truth about people and still meets them with dignity. Is there someone whose story you have reduced to one painful fact, rumor, failure, or label? What would it look like to see that person more carefully and compassionately? [54:33]
- Worship in spirit and truth involves more than being in the right place or following the right routine. What part of your worship life needs to become more honest before God this week?
- The Samaritan woman simply told others what Jesus had done in her life, and then they came to hear Jesus for themselves. What is one simple, honest part of your own story that you could share with someone who needs hope? [58:40]
- Jesus calls his disciples to lift up their eyes and see fields ready for harvest. Where might God already be at work among people you did not expect to be open to Christ? [59:09]
