🦅 John Chapters 4 and 5

🙏 Heavenly Father – We are so thankful for Your Word, this fellowship of believers, and Your presence among us as we read and meditate on Your Word, which brings us life.

We are thankful for Your teachings, Your promises, and Your faithfulness revealed in the Old Testament. And we are thankful for the revelation of Jesus that we share today in John’s Gospel.  Draw near to us as we draw near to You, in the mighty name of Jesus! Amen.

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

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.)

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.”

Points to Ponder: All twelve tribes of Israel were united at the time of Jacob digging any well; the civil war changed this and the northern territory of Israel had its capital at Samaria, the southern territory of Judah had its capital at Jerusalem.  This is the original cause of the division between Jews and Samaritans.  Note, she is dismissive at first, but Jesus’ words intrigue her.

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.”

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.”

¹⁶ 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.”

Points to Ponder: Jesus begins by addressing her physical need of thirst and having to go to the well, repeatedly, by herself.  She begins to change when she calls Him, ‘Sir’. When she asks for what He’s offering, He shocks her by providing details of her life that He should not know.

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ 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.”

Points to Ponder: She grants Him a little more authority by calling Him, ‘Prophet’. Religion has a history of providing just enough knowledge to confuse people… Am I doing this right… Others do it differently. Without adherence to Scripture, both Old and New Testament, we are easily led astray by deceptive teaching and smooth talkers. There must be definitive truth for us to have peace.  Think of our current climate of post-truth added to the dictionary in 2016… the popular “your-truth, my-truth” ideologies. This is the 1^st of 7 ‘I am —’ claims of Jesus’ identity.

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

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?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 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. 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. ³⁷ 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 labor.”

Points to Ponder: Revealing Himself as the messiah, to a Samaritan woman – how scandalous! How hopeful!  No racial division, no sexism, no elitism – this story shows how this woman reaches others… Come and See!  She left her water jar – what was important has changed; there is a new priority for this woman.  The disciples’ reaction, like the woman’s, is to think ‘physical’. Jesus’ claim that His food is to do the will of the Father.  This section makes me think about hunger/thirst to nourish our physical life, but what about our ‘born-again’ lives?

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ 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 Savior of the world.”

Points to Ponder: Salvation isan individual matter. A believer may have started their journey because of someone else’s influence, but each believer has a point in their life when they ‘know’ they made the decision to call Jesus their Lord. The woman’s progression of faith leads to inviting others to what she ‘knows’, leading them to ‘know’ for themselves.

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴³ After the two days he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 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.

⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick 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.

⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

⁴⁹ 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. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵² When he inquired 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 realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

⁵⁴ This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Points to Ponder: As Jesus arrives in Galilee, we see another instance of a man’s growing faith. The man heard, he went, he begged, then he obeyed. At Jesus’ Word, a boy is healed.  Far more details are provided for the believers in Samaria where Jesus did not perform any signs.  Jesus’ identity was received better in Samaria by the woman and others through her testimony, than back in Galilee.  Here, this miraculous healing led to the belief of the man and his household. (This is the 2^nd of seven signs in John…  At His Word… no physical presence of Jesus was required for this healing.)

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The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ⁵ One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

Points to Ponder: The 3^rd of seven signs in John. Don’t be surprised when Jesus reaches someone that wasn’t even looking!  No previous sign/wonder, no teaching… Jesus reached out to this man, not the other way around.  Like the woman at the well, this man was looking for an answer in the wrong place… for a long time.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Points to Ponder: Some people demand a sign, but this sign led to rejection by the religious leaders because their interpretation of Scripture was adherence to strict Jewish law. (V14 is on my list.) The man didn’t know who Jesus was… then he did, and he told the Jewish leaders… and now, it’s on!

The Authority of the Son

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸ “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰ By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

Points to Ponder: John doesn’t give us the Jewish leaders’ questions, just Jesus’ answer. And He unloads on them His identity.  Father/Son, eternal life, judgment, resurrection, authority.

Testimonies About Jesus

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³² There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

³³ “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. ³⁵ John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

³⁶ “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, ³⁸ nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. ³⁹ You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

⁴¹ “I do not accept glory from human beings, ⁴² but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵ “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. ⁴⁶ If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Points to Ponder: He also unloads on them testimony.  Jewish law requires testimony and witness to determine truth.  Not only does Jesus KNOW what is in them, but how they are responding and rejecting Him.

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🙏 Lord, thank You for Your ongoing revelation of who You are.  We thank you for showing us truth while we still live in a deceptive world. Strengthen and encourage us to walk in Your light, bringing You all the glory, for Great is Your Faithfulness!

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Summary Chapters 4 and 5 – Jesus meeting a Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s well, in the daytime, and revealing Himself as the Messiah, without performing any miracles.  Her growing faith leads her to lead others to believe.  The disciples are taught to look beyond physical to spiritual and to grasp the concept of sowing and reaping. A royal official’s growing faith is also discussed… only his is based on previous signs and his motivation is just the possibility of another sign.  Note Jesus approaches the woman, while the official is seeking out Jesus for personal benefit.

The healing at the pool is another incident where Jesus initiates the encounter to an unbeliever.  He does this on a Sabbath and causes the religious leaders to persecute Him.  Jesus provides a comprehensive discussion of His divine identity and reminds them of their hypocrisy by listing the various testimonies and witnesses to the truth of who He is.

These sections highlight that no one is elite or religious enough to deserve or warrant automatic salvation and eternal life.  Neither is anyone’s past actions too sinful for God’s grace.  (5 husbands, a 6^th man she lives with… but, ‘Come, See a man’, this 7^th man begins a whole new life for her.)    NICE!

4 Key Individual Interactions with Jesus

1. Nicodemus, a religious ruler, approaches Jesus (Status meets Jesus… No resulting faith)
2. Jesus Approaches the Samaritan Woman (Jesus meets outcast… Results in faith)
3. A royal official approaches Jesus (Status meets Jesus… Results in faith)
4. Jesus Approaches the man at the pool (Jesus meets outcast… No resulting faith)