John 4
Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.
A Samaritan Woman Meets Her Messiah
John 4:1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John
John 4:2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),
John 4:3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
- Note: He left the Jews to talk to a Samaritan woman which is considered Gentile. Not only would the Jews not speak to Samaritans but a man would not address a woman. Something is about to change.
John 4:4 But (the flipside is…) He needed to go through Samaria.
John 4:5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
- Sychar was near Shechem.
- The meaning of the name “Sychar” is “Wages” and “Drunk”.
John 4:6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
The sixth hour is noon. Related Verses:
Luke 23:44 Jesus Dies on the Cross – Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
Acts 10:9 Peter’s Vision The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour.
John 4:7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
John 4:8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
- The Jewish disciples are gone.
- Jesus is dealing with a Gentile woman.
John 4:9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you Living Water.”
John 4:11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
John 4:12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
John 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
► Related Verses
Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.
► Historical Side Notes about water:
60% of the adult body is made of water.
Andreas Mihavecz, an 18-year-old Austrian man, may have survived the longest without drinking water: Police accidentally left him in a holding cell for 18 days in 1979. It’s a fuzzy record, though, since he allegedly licked condensation off the walls of the prison.
John 4:15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
John 4:16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
John 4:17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
- Jesus is the groom to his bride; in scripture believers are called “The Bride of Christ”. This woman has no husband, no “groom”. She is spiritually lost. Jesus knows her need and He wants to bring her into Him to lead her into salvation.
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’
John 4:18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
This woman has had six men. She became a believer which makes her part of the Bride of Christ. Jesus, then, would be her seventh husband, a spiritual husband.
The seventh man in her life is the last one she will ever need. Seven is the number of completion and perfection.
John 4:19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
John 4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
John 4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
John 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
- At this time, it was the duty of the Jewish nation to win the Gentiles to salvation. However; they failed.
John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
- The Gentile Woman is God’s example of the Gentile nations who will worship in spirit and truth after Jesus’ resurrection.
John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
John 4:26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
- Hold your breath. Become Awestruck. “I who speak to you am He.” What is SHE going to do with this incredible information.
The Whitened Harvest
John 4:27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
John 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,
John 4:29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
- The seed of the gospel has been planted in Samaria. The Bride of Christ is mainly Gentile with Jewish exception since the Jews have been blinded in part.
- Prior to this time, God dealt only with the Jewish People with Gentile exceptions.
John 4:30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
John 4:31 In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
John 4:32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
John 4:33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
The “harvest” is the fruit of Jesus’ death. He is the seed who falls into the soil and dies so that His death creates much fruit. Human souls who believe on Him are His fruit.
“White for harvest” means the time is close for a resurrection. The first stage of the first resurrection is about to take place: First fruits and the wave offering. Jesus was raised from the dead on the Jewish Feast of First Fruits, immediately after the tombs were opened and certain saints rose from the dead.
The second stage of the first resurrection is the Jewish Feast of Trumpets; the resurrections of the faithful dead and the rapture of the living believers which is the main harvest. (Yet to take place in the future).
The third and final stage of the first resurrection is the Jewish Feast of the Day of Atonement, the resurrection of the tribulation martyrs, the gleanings.
These are those of the first resurrection: These are the saints whose names are written in the book of life.
Those of the second resurrection are those who have turned their backs on the ways of God. Their names are not written in the book of life. They are raised for the Great White Throne Judgment.
►Note: Daniel was told to wait for his “turn” in Daniel 12:13 KJV.
Daniel 12:13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
John 4:36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
- Review: the meaning of the city Sychar: “Wages” and “Drink”.
John 4:37 For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’
John 4:38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
The Savior of the World
John 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”
John 4:40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
- To God, one day is as a thousand years.
- There is nothing more said about the Jewish disciples.
- Jesus is with the Gentiles for two days.
- History testifies that the Jews ceased being a nation for 2,000 years.
- Then, in 1948, they once again become a nation. God’s focus is returning to the Jews after 2 days (2,000 years).
- According to prophecy, the time of the Gentiles are coming to an end.
John 4:41 And many more believed because of His own word.
John 4:42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
- Not just the Savior of the Jews, but the Savior of the WORLD.
Welcome at Galilee
John 4:43 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.
- Prophetically, after two days, the Age of Grace will end and God will once again give all His attention to the Jews at the beginning of the seven year tribulation.
John 4:44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
John 4:45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.
- Which feast?
A Nobleman’s Son Healed
John 4:46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman (royal official) whose son was sick at Capernaum.
John 4:47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
- Sin brings death.
John 4:48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”
- The nobleman took Jesus at His Word and believed.
John 4:49 The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”
John 4:50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.
John 4:51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”
John 4:52 Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”
- The fever is symbolic of “sin”.
- Review: The number seven means completion and perfection.
- The seventh hour is 1:00 PM in the afternoon.
Quantum Study Bible 