John 4:27-42
The Questions No One Asks April 2, 2023
Pastor Lee Eclov — Crosspoint Church — Sermon Notes
How was it that Jesus first began to introduce himself to you?
John 4: I -26 tells the story of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus talked to at Jacob’s well near the town of Sychar (also Shechem) in Samaria. Jews despised Samaritans because, while they had Jewish blood, from some 700 years before, they were like a cult. They only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament. That meant they didn’t obey God’s command to worship him in Jerusalem, nor did they accept most of the Old Testament teaching about the Messiah.
Instead of speaking of the Messiah Samaritans usually spoke of the one coming as Taheb, meaning Restorer. Essentially, the only verse that guided their view of the Messiah was what God told Moses in Deut. 18:1 8, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.” That’s why the woman told Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Despite her limited understanding, Jesus replied, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Today we pick up the story in John 4:27: 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? ‘
Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman and he still talks to people now by his Spirit because…
(vv.3 1-34) Deut. 8:3. Moses said the reason God humbled the Israelites in the wilderness was “to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. ” One writer explained that this way: “The creative will of God, realized in obedience, sustains life.”
So what was God’s word to Jesus?
Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
What does this mean for his disciples like us?
By “sowers and reapers” I think Jesus meant…
Vv.39-42: Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. 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.”
