John 4
1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
Christ heard what those kenites where trying to do between Him and John.
2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
These kenites are saying Christ has a bigger crowed where He is baptizing, but its His disciples who are doing the baptizing.
3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
Christ needed to go through Samaria. These Samarians were Gentiles.
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Jacob had bought this land from Hamor and left it for his son Joseph. Genesis 33:19 And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money. Genesis 48:21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. It's between Ebal and Gerizim, about 2 miles South-East of Shechem. In 607AD it was said to be 204ft deep. In 1697AD it was said to be 106ft deep. In 1861 it was said to be 75ft deep, so we could probably say it was much deeper than 204ft when it was dug.
6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
It's 12 o'clock and the heat of the day is taking its toll.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
Christ is asking her to get Him something to drink because His disciples had gone into Samaria for food, but more importantly, for a lesson to be learned.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Christ Jesus is our well of salvation. He is living water, our spiritual drink. Isaiah 12:1-4 1 And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. 3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. 4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
She didn't understand what Christ has said because she is not listening spiritually. Christ IS The Living Water.
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Jacob of course isn't of her bloodline. She's talking about the wells location and that her and her family have been using it since Jacob dug it. She is asking Christ if He can do any better.
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
Christ states the fact she will always be thirsty when she drinks from this well Jacob dug. She'll continue to return to it for water.
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
That spiritual drink, that joy we draw out of the well of salvation, will be "springing up" = flowing over. It will spread across your mind, feeding your soul.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
She thinks this is some kind of magical water that she can have and by it she won't have to keep coming to Jacob's well to fetch water from.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
Their custom was a man couldn't talk to any women without there being a male present.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
He knew she has had five husbands and knew she wasn't married, but has a man in her life. She told the truth!
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
She's waking up to the power of Christ. She knew He couldn't have known these things about her without something else going on.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Just as today, people are told they must go into a building in order to worship God. Her people, those Gentiles of Samaria worshiped cattle and their "church" within the mountain and her people were told they can't go to Jerusalem, they said it was for the Jews only.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
The time was fast approaching when she didn't have to go anywhere to worship God. That veil in the Temple was about to be torn open.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Her people worshiped cattle with a combination of four other religions mixed in. The Jews worshiped in Jerusalem and have corrupted The Truth. The Only salvation will be in Jerusalem when Christ is crucified.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
We don't need to go anywhere to worship God. He's everywhere! He hears our thoughts no matter where we are or what we're doing. To worship Him is to know Him. There's only one way to do that and that's in His Word, in His Truth.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
She has been taught about the coming of The Messiah. She knows He comes to say the things Christ has been telling her. She knows One comes, bringing salvation to the world.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
Other than His disciples, Christ lets her be the first to know Who He truly is.
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
She's a believer. She got so excited about The Messiah being there, running to give the good news, she left her pot.
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
She's telling them all to come see this man that she believes is The Messiah because He's able to see things she has done without Him being there.
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
This is spiritual meat. Spiritual meat feeds our souls, gives us strength well beyond earthly foods.
33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
The disciples are wondering which one had possibly given Christ some food already.
34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
Christ had work to do and The Holy Spirit leads Him in it.
35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
Naturally a seed planted in the ground take around four months before you can reap the fruit of that planted. Here, Christ planted a seed in the mind of the women at the well and it's about to be harvested.
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
Work for The Lord in spreading and following those seeds of Truth, reap reward throughout eternity. By planting, we all rejoice in Him.
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
God gave His Words to those who wrote them down and we reap the fruit of
The Truth given. I ask you to learn the parable of Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
The Word is there for our taking. Those who labored to bring it to us have done their job. We get to have what they worked so hard to bring. Open The Word and be blessed.
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
Here comes the people of Samaria.
40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
Christ feeds them The Word for two days.
41 And many more believed because of his own word;
"They believed" it was The Word spoken from The Word that brought these people to believe in Him. They've heard The Word taught before, but not The Way it should have been.
42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
They believed it's The Messiah now also, not because of what she had said, but because of what Christ has said. When you finally hear The Truth and you open your ears and mind to it, The Holy Spirit will see you come to understand it.
43 Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
After two days of teaching the Samaritans, Christ went back to Galilee, the place where He turned water into wine.
44 For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.
45 Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast.
46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.
This royal officer of Herod's court has a son on the verge of death. He had heard of the first miracle Christ had preformed and sought Christ for another.
48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
Christ is telling this nobleman that he must have faith and not a belief with eyes.
49 The nobleman saith unto Him, "Sir, come down ere my child die."
50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
What he knew in faith was told to him before he reached his son. He's alive!
52 Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
He asked because it was at that very moment Christ had told him "thy son liveth" that this nobleman also had faith it would be done.
53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.
The first miracle, the wine; the second, the healing. This would be a sign of things to come. The wine, symbolic of The blood of Christ, He died for our sins and by His sacrifice gave us our healing. Through Him, we are born from above. Our souls renewed †