A Divine Appointment
John 4:1-26
Introduction: On Monday of this week one of my devotional readings included Psalm 63 which begins, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 42 opens with similar imagery, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…” “Thirsting for water” is used by Jesus as an illustration of spiritual thirst in this scene in John 4.
The story of the encounter of Jesus with a woman from Samaria stands as a contrast with the encounter between Jesus and a religious leader in John three. In the dark of night Nicodemus, a highly respected teacher of Israel, a member of the ruling council, came to Jesus investigating who this worker of miracles was. Jesus initiated a discussion with him about spiritual birth and all indications are that Nick remained in darkness. Here in John 4 Jesus intentionally passes through Samaria and stops at Jacob’s well, weary from his journey. There, at high noon, he meets a sinner from Samaria, a woman who had been married five times who was now living with a man out of wedlock. Without seeing any signs other than the extraordinary knowledge that Jesus clearly had, she responds to him in faith, believing his word, and later testifies to others about him. The Messiah is not only the “King of the Jews.” The Samaritans in this story come to understand that he is “the Savior of the world” (v.42). We’re going to look at this story in two parts, today focusing on the Samaritan woman and next time on the reactions of the disciples and the other Samaritans, the neighbors, the woman brought to Jesus.
Since we’ll return to this passage, I am not going to try and draw lessons from it about personal evangelism today (we can talk more about that Thursday night!). Our focus today will be on what it shows us about Jesus and His mission in the world.
The Big Idea: Jesus knows our hearts and only He can satisfy the deepest thirst of our soul. We’ll see that in three parts, 1) A Divinely planned encounter (1-8); 2) A Dialog that exposes a need (9-15); and 3) A Display of divine knowledge (16-26).
I. A Divinely Planned Encounter (4:1-8). God knows us, He is present and working, molding our story as a part of His story. Nothing happens by chance. I think it was RC Sproul who said that God is so great, so awesome, so sovereign, that not even a single molecule is outside of his control. If it was, then we would live in a chance universe, and we could know nothing for certain. He is somehow, in his power, working all things together for our good and for His glory. Let’s consider this “chance” encounter.
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 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. 7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
“…He had to pass through Samaria…” The word used has appeared a few times already in John, and as elsewhere in the NT it usually speaks of divine necessity, something related to the predetermined purpose and foreknowledge of God. It’s the same word John the Baptist used at the end of the preceding chapter when he said, “He must increase, I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30). Geographically it was not necessary – Jews regularly managed to avoid Samaria when they traveled north toward Galilee (see map), crossing the Jordan and traveling up the valley on the east, and further north crossing back. His disciples might have even cringed at the idea of going through Samaria, but it was necessary from the perspective of the sovereignty of God. God had a plan. There was a divine appointment that needed to be kept. We see such moments frequently in the Bible, and in life (see Philip in Acts 8!). Jesus needed to go through Samaria—he had a divine appointment to keep, and he would be there at the right time. He’s never in a hurry and He’s never late!
We might read this and wonder what v.1 has to do with v.3. Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard about His growing ministry, and so Jesus left Judea, and headed toward Galilee. Why? Jesus knew where the opposition to his ministry would lead, ultimately to Calvary. But His time had not yet come, and there was more ministry, more teaching, more signs that had to happen among the people, more training and preparation of his disciples, before it would be time for that final Passover encounter in Jerusalem. John will show Jesus traveling to Jerusalem, and then back to Galilee, for a period of about three years (more or less). His plan would be accomplished in His time.
He was “…wearied from his journey…” On a physical level Jesus was tired and thirsty. John makes so much of the divinity of Christ, yet he does remind us from time to time of his humanity. Jesus didn’t merely “seem” human – he took upon himself a human nature. Jesus got tired and thirsty and hungry just like every other human. After extended periods of intense ministry, after walking many miles every day, he too needed rest and refreshment. It may have been why he was left at the well by his disciples, while they went into the city to buy food. We have a Savior who can sympathize with us, a High Priest who understands, He knows our weaknesses and struggles. He was even tempted and tested in all points like as we are, yet without sin!
It was the sixth hour, noon. The hot middle eastern sun overhead. Normally women came to draw water from the well early in the morning or at dusk when it was cooler (cf. Gen 24:11). This woman was there at the hottest time of the day. We can only speculate as to why – was it to avoid the judgmental sneers of others? Perhaps. And she arrived at the well and found Jesus sitting there, and He asks, “Woman, give me a drink.” God guided circumstances so that she would be there to meet the only One who could quench her deepest thirst. The Big Idea is that *Jesus knows our hearts and only He can satisfy our deepest thirst.
II. A dialog that exposes a need (4:9-15). This is grace. Jesus doesn’t tell this woman to change her life and then come to him. He offers her life-giving water right where she is, right as she is. Don’t miss the surprise of the woman, who initially is speaking about physical water, and how Jesus guides the conversation to spiritual things…
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.) 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."
Jesus did not despise her because of her ethnic background, nor did he look down upon her because of her lifestyle and deep spiritual need, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Remember why he came: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). The whole world is God’s world. We’ll see in this context a contrast between the Samaritans, who take Him at His word, and the Jews, who look for signs, and still struggle to believe.
“How is it that you, a Jew ask of me…” She was surprised enough to see a Jew there, but shocked that he would talk to her. It was likely that to avoid contact with others that she came to the well at noon, rather than in the early morning or at dusk. And then for this Jew to be sitting by the well, and to initiate a conversation with her, was shocking. But Jesus was not just any Jewish man. And He didn’t just happen to be there by the well when she arrived. This was a part of the reason “He needed to go through Samaria.” Grace! Jesus said that he came to save sinners, to show them the way to forgiveness and life. Yes, He came first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But remember from the first chapter, “He came unto His own, but His own people did not receive Him. But as many as received, to those who believed on His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Here Jesus is offering life, through faith in Him…
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."
Jesus is speaking of water that can quench her deepest thirst, the longing of her soul. He’ll come back to this idea in John 7:38,39,
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive…”
There he talks of the Holy Spirit, using the imagery of the water of life welling up from within. We are a just a few weeks from Good Friday, which reminds me that one of the last words of Christ from the Cross was, “I thirst.” We could have a sermon just on that verse, but remember that was why He came, to be our substitute. The sinless Son of God, who from eternity past was in communion with the Father and the Spirit, on the Cross, He thirsted, for water yes, but also forsaken, as He bore our sins in His body on the Cross. He thirsted, so that we need not thirst. Here, He directs the conversation to expose the spiritual need of this woman…
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? 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." 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 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."
Like Nicodemus in John 3, she is still talking about the material, physical. It is a deep well (still there, 100 feet deep, dug by hand, and still giving good water!). By stating the connection to Jacob, we are invited to see the context in Israel’s history as well. The father of the 12 tribes, Israel. So, we think of God bringing the Jews out of Egypt and into the land. In Deuteronomy 27 (see map), in that very site, the descendants of Jacob were instructed to make a copy of the curses and blessings of the Covenant, and tribes divided between Ebal and Gerizim, to read them out loud. Now, between those two mountains, sat the One who would establish a New Covenant, who would be made a curse for us, so we could be blessed of God. Jesus was at the well. The Big Idea is: *Jesus knows our hearts and only He can satisfy our deepest thirst.
III. A display of Divine knowledge (16-26). John Calvin famously opens his Institutes of the Christian Religion expounding the idea that knowledge of self is inextricably connected to knowledge of God. In order to know ourselves rightly we need to know God. In order to know Him we need to have right knowledge of ourselves: “…the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find Him.” Jesus knows our heart. In confronting the Samaritan woman with her sin Jesus was leading her, by grace, to see her deepest need, and to know Him.
16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 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." 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Before we can be saved, we need to confront the truth about ourselves. Admitting our need is necessary before we can understand and respond to the grace of God. Jesus knows what is in man (16-19; cf. 2:24-25). He knows the truth about us, and in those moments of conviction, we know the truth as well. As He reveals knowledge about her that he could not possibly have from a merely human level, the woman takes a significant step, she recognizes that only by the revelation of God could He have such knowledge, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” True, but so much more!
Next, she turns the discussion away from herself, and from who Jesus is, and it seems like she wants to debate some practical and theological differences that Samaritans had with the Jews. Jesus point to what is necessary to have a heart for true worship (20-24)…
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." 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. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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."
Jesus does not argue, but first states something coming: Soon it will not be about a building or a place, perhaps anticipating the post-resurrection church, and also the coming destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. He says, “salvation is from the Jews.” Indeed they are the ones who were the recipients of God’s revelation, and through them would come the Redeemer, the One to rescue people from every nation from sin. So, worship is not about a specific location, it is about meeting with God, on His terms, praising Him for who He is, and for His amazing grace. God is Spirit, we are spiritual beings, created in His image. Worship in “Spirit and truth” seems to imply honest, transparent communion with God, empowered by the Spirit. Sinners, saved by grace, opening our hearts to our Great God and Savior, the Object of true worship (25-26).
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." 26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."
“I know the Messiah (called Christ) is coming…” Only twice in the NT is the transliterated Hebrew term “Messiah” used. We saw it first in John 1:41, the second is here in John 4. I was surprised to be reminded in my study that the Samaritans didn’t use the word “messiah” for the Coming One. It seems, she uses it here as a concession to this Jewish Prophet at the well. It is interesting that at this time most Jews were looking for a Messiah who would be a military leader, a King who would usher in the promised Kingdom. The Samaritans saw the coming One especially as a teacher of the truth, and this woman reflects that hope, “When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
Jesus’ response is remarkable: “I AM [He]” (v.26). This is the first example of Jesus explicitly telling someone that He is the Messiah. And He says it not to a Jew, not to one of his inner circle, not to Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, but to this Samaritan woman, this sinner, by a well in a place no pious Jew would choose to go. “I AM He,” the One you’ve been looking for, the One who can answer the deepest longing of your heart. The phrase Jesus uses here, “I AM”, is saying more than “it’s me!” It’s the phrase that God used to reveal himself to Moses (Ex 3:6,14). In John, Jesus uses that phrase multiple times of himself, revealing his glory as God the Son: 4:26; 6:20: 8:28; 8:58; 18:5-6.
What is God saying to me in this passage? Jesus is the Son of God, God the Son. He knows our hearts and only He can satisfy our deepest thirst, the longing of our soul!
What would God have me to do in response to this passage?
1) Are you thirsty this morning? Water is allowed in the sanctuary! Most importantly, you can drink from the fountain that never runs dry, and feast on the Bread of Life.
2) Do you understand that God is providentially guiding your story as well? We need to recognize His presence, and be sensitive to His plan: Walk in the Spirit!
3) Consider the “divine appointments” in your daily walk… the people you meet, the situations you face. What is God saying to me? What would He have me to do? AMEN.
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