WWUTT 822 If You Knew the Gift of God?

John’s Gospel as a Seamless Flow Into Chapter Four

John 1 12 says that whoever receives him, who believes in his name, Jesus gives the right to become the children of God. And he pours into our hearts living water when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky. In our study of John, we're in chapter four, which we started yesterday, Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well in Samaria, and we'll pick up that conversation again today. Let me read quickly once again, the verses we covered yesterday, verses one through six.

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria.

So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 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.

Now yesterday I mentioned to you as we came to the close of this, I said that there were some aspects of this story that you probably don't recognize or may not remember in much of the retelling of this story.

For example, did you know that this took place in Sychar? So you know that Jesus had a conversation with a woman at the well in Samaria, but you probably thought of Samaria as being a town, and indeed Samaria was a single city, and then that whole region got named after that particular city.

So it's the town of Sychar that Jesus comes to, and that's where he has this exchange with this woman at the well. So see, there's some details that maybe didn't pop out at you the last time that you had considered this particular story, but there's also quite a lead in into this, and I wanted to come back to that a little bit more today.

You know, all these chapters intersect. John wasn't writing John chapter one, John chapter two, John chapter three. We added the chapters and verses later, over a thousand years after the apostles had written what we have in the New Testament.

So these things flow together much neater when you take the chapter markers out of it. I think the chapters and verses are very helpful, but every once in a while I'll recommend to somebody to pick up a reader's Bible.

A reader's Bible takes out the verse markers. There will still be chapter markers, but the verses are gone, because that helps you kind of see the seamlessness of what was originally written. You see the continuous thought rather than things being broken up into different sections.

Judgment, Condemnation, and the Gift of Eternal Life

So in John chapter three, I mentioned this yesterday, there are two theological interludes where John pours out some deep theology about why Christ came. And we have John three verses 16 through 21, and then verses 31 through 36 of the same chapter.

Very last verse in John three, I kind of rushed this last week because I was thinking, hey, we could finish up the chapter this week, and then on Monday I could start chapter four. It kind of ties itself up nice and tight.

But in doing so, I rushed the ending. I didn't dwell as much on those final verses of chapter three. So in verse 36, we read the following, whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

And this is John tying together a point that he made earlier in the chapter. It's John three verses 17 and 18. 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.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. There wasn't a need for Jesus to come and condemn the world because the world was already condemned.

It was self condemned because of our sin, our rebellion against God. And whoever believes in the son has been cleansed of that sin. And we've been changed from rebels to citizens of the kingdom of God, no longer guilty of having committed treason against the high throne of heaven.

That debt has been paid for by Christ. So whoever believes in the son has eternal life. We have eternal life with God. But whoever does not obey the son doesn't demonstrate a following and a belief in Jesus Christ by doing what he said by obeying his commandments.

Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. It remains on those who have sinned against God. And that's everyone. Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And so everyone is deserving of the wrath of God. By default, we are under his wrath because of our sinful heart. And it is only by his grace that we are saved because he showed favor to an otherwise unfavorable people because we were rebels against God.

And this also ties back into something that John said at the start of this particular gospel. John 1, verse 9, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own people and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Christ Comes to the Jews and Then to the Samaritans

And now come to chapter four, where Jesus goes into Samaria. He leaves Judea and he goes to Samaria. Where was Jesus born? He was born in Judea. His mother and father, Joseph, his adopted earthly father, and Mary, his biological mother, they traveled from Galilee down to Bethlehem, which is neighboring to Jerusalem.

And that is where Jesus was born. He was born in Judea. He was born to the Jews, for that is where he was prophesied to be born. In fulfillment of the prophecies that had been made about him hundreds of years before, Isaiah speaking about the virgin who would be with child 700 years before Christ was born.

And then in Malachi, you've got the reference to him actually being born in Bethlehem. In fulfillment of all of these things, that's where Jesus was born, to the Jews in the city of David, the way that God had ordained that it would happen.

Jesus was born to these, the tribe that God had selected for himself through whom he would bring about a savior, his people. But his own people did not know him and they did not receive him. But whoever did receive him, God gave them the right to become the children of God.

Now Jesus is going into Samaria. He's leaving Judea. He's going into Samaria. And who is going to believe on his name? It will be the Samaritans. As we read that yesterday, read through this whole particular saga that goes from verses one through 42.

We see that the entire town will end up following Christ because of what he taught to them. The folks in Judea did not believe him. The Pharisees were trying to put him to death. That's exactly why he left.

When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea. He left the people that he was born to and departed again for Galilee.

That was where he came from. He was raised in Nazareth and in between Galilee and Judea, you had Samaria and the Jews would not pass through Samaria to get to Galilee. They went around it. But Jesus, who does not show prejudice, went through Samaria, but also that he might bring this message to a group of people that would believe on his name.

And they weren't the Jews. It was a group of mutts that the Jews hated, a group of people who had really no national heritage and they had no pure religion either. The Jews hated them. That's who Jesus went to.

And that's who he revealed himself to first before he did the Jews. So let's come back to verse seven here. This conversation that Jesus has with the woman at the well, John four, seven, a woman from Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Now that's a parenthetical reference we have there in verse eight, parenthetical references. We put those parentheses in there.

There were not parentheses in the original Greek. So that statement and also the one back in verse two, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples. We have that reference put in there.

And I explained this last week that Jesus was not the one that baptized. It was only his disciples that baptized because Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, not with water. The Holy Spirit washes with water.

And Jesus pours into our hearts, the Holy Spirit, as talked about in Titus three, five. So that is how we are washed by the living water of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus is going to make mention of here with the woman at the well in John four.

But he himself did not dunk anyone in water, lest anyone say, hey, I've got a better baptism than you have, because I was actually baptized in water by Jesus himself who baptized Jesus disciples. It was likely John, and they had already been baptized by the time that Jesus called them to himself to follow him and become his disciples.

Jesus didn't take him down to the Jordan River and dunk them himself. And so and so anyway, Jesus is not the one doing the dunking. Lest anyone say they have a greater baptism than someone else has. Everyone has the same baptism.

You right now, as a follower of Jesus, have the same baptism that any of his disciples would have had. And that is a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Everyone who follows Jesus has that same baptism. So nobody can say that they have a greater baptism than somebody else.

Now, the Holy Spirit will vary the giftings that are given to us, which Paul talks about in first Corinthians chapter twelve. But it doesn't mean that our baptism is any different. We all have the same baptism.

So going on here, John four, seven, again, Jesus saying to the woman at the well, give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 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 had no dealings with Samaritans?

Another parenthetical reference there again. And that's for our benefit, just in case we don't know that Jews and Samaritans do not get along. Now, to recap the backstory behind the writing of this gospel, John wrote this after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

And I'm pretty firm on that. There are many who will try to argue that this was written prior to the destruction of the temple. It's mostly the preterists. That's definitely a minority view. The majority view is is more that of the of the later date that John wrote later in the first century, not only this gospel, but also first and second and third John and the book of Revelation.

And so this is kind of one of those clues that we have of a later dating of this particular gospel. It would not have been necessary for John to say that Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with one another if this was written prior to the destruction of the temple.

But the whole landscape of everything in the region of Israel has changed. It's not the same as it was once Rome sacked Jerusalem. And this is one of those things John has to remind the reader of that once there was a region of Samaria and there was a definitive region of Judea and where the Jews lived in the Samaritans lived, they were separated and they had no dealings with one another.

They just they were disgusting to one another so much that the Jews would not even set foot in Samaria. But here's Jesus and he's there at the well of Sychar, Jacob's well, and he's talking with a Samaritan woman and the Samaritan woman is even flabbergasted at this.

There's something about Jesus that's easily recognizable as a Jew and she's dressed like a Samaritan. So the two of them were not dressed exactly the same. They wore their garb differently, probably cut their hair differently, spoke differently.

And that's not what you see conveyed in the pictures. You think of the paintings of Jesus talking with the woman at the well. They both look the same, right? They both look like they're dressed the same.

It's generally the same kind of garb for that region of what we typically thought of people wearing in first century Holy Land. But there was obviously something different between the two that the Samaritan woman identified right away.

This man's a Jew. I'm a Samaritan. And furthermore, I'm a Samaritan woman. And yet he's talking with me because women were considered subservient to men. Men did not talk to women the same way that men talk to men.

But Jesus is interacting with this woman, a Jew talking to a Samaritan and a man talking to a woman. And the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

She doesn't just say you, a Jew, ask of me, a Samaritan. She even specifically identifies herself as a woman of Samaria. It's strange enough that a man would talk to a woman the way that you talk to me, let alone the fact that you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan.

For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Again, the reference that we have at the end of verse nine. But Jesus is not prejudiced toward anyone. He's not prejudiced against this woman because of her heritage, of her ethnicity.

And he's not prejudiced against her simply because of the fact that she's a woman. He treated her with the same kind of respect that he would show to any man. Jesus really changed the landscape of the way that women were treated.

And this has affected the entire world over. For all of human history since the time of Christ, he changed the way that women were treated no longer less than men, subservient to men, but they are equal recipients of the kingdom of God together.

Men and women, followers of Jesus, are fellow inheritors of the kingdom of God. And no one is going to receive more of the kingdom of God than the other. But while we inhabit these fleshly bodies, there are responsibilities that are upon us as men and as women.

There are certain things that God has created men to do that women cannot do. And there are certain things that God has created a woman to do that a man cannot do. And yet we complement one another in our strengths and our weaknesses so that the two of us together, even in the context of the body of Christ, we become one functioning unit.

A church that would be full of all men is a dysfunctional church. Likewise, a church that is full of all women. But we are to be men and women together in Christ, working together to advance the kingdom of God and the preaching of his gospel.

And even in that responsibility, there are roles. It has been appointed to a man to fill the role of a pastor, and it has been appointed to a woman not to fill that role, but to rather submit to that role and be a picture of submission for the rest of the church.

The wife in particular submits to her husband. But the husband is supposed to lay down his life for his wife, as Christ did for the church, his bride. So these are ways in which the Bible details for us.

There are specific things that God has created men and women for, but we are all recipients of the eternal treasure that has been promised to us in Jesus Christ. As it says in first Peter three, seven, it says that the woman is the weaker vessel, but they need to be shown honor since they are heirs with men of the grace of life.

So we come back again to Jesus conversation with this particular woman and speaking very respectfully to her. This request that he has made to her, give me a drink. We have all indication that he's he said this very respectfully.

He's not ordering this woman. He's not barking at her or saying something rudely because she is startled by the fact that a Jew is talking to her and that a man is even speaking to a woman the way that he does.

And Jesus answered her in verse ten. 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. Now, remember, once again, Jesus didn't baptize in literal water for he baptized with the Holy Spirit.

I've already kind of mildly referenced Ephesians five once. Let me come back to that again. Ephesians five, twenty five husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

The washing of water with the word who inspired the word, according to second Peter, chapter one, it is the Holy Spirit who led men to write down what God wanted them to write in first Corinthians, chapter six, verses nine through eleven.

We read. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God washed by the spirit of God, cleansed of all unrighteousness.

Titus three, five. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. There's that wash reference again, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

And this is something that we receive by faith. We believe and we have been washed, purified. We are being sanctified by the spirit of God, living water. This reference to living water that Jesus makes.

This is water that is constantly moving. It's not stagnant water. And there's a contrast that's going on here. The Holy Spirit is constantly moving in our hearts. We've been justified. And then we are also being sanctified as the spirit continues to move and grow us by the washing of water through the word that we're sanctified and presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing to the bridegroom.

We read about the bridegroom again and in John chapter three. So Jesus is saying to this woman, you should have asked me and I would give you. Of course, he's speaking of himself in the third person, but he says, I would have given you living water, refreshing water, water that's constantly moving, not like the water that's in this well.

See, that's the contrast that's going on here. The water in the well is stagnant. It's just sitting there. But Jesus is talking about a living water that is constantly refreshing, alive, always moving like a babbling brook.

If you had a pond that was still the water wasn't moving. Well, there's a possibility there's impurities in that water because it becomes kind of a breeding ground for bacteria. But in moving water and flowing water, we know that water is almost always fresh, given that the source hasn't been poisoned.

But that water is always fresh because as it's moving, there's not a place for those harmful microbes to grow since the water is moving. So this is what Jesus is referring to when he says living water.

It's water that, you know, is clean, pure, always refreshing, always cleansing. And that's one of the things that Jesus is going to point out to this woman as we continue this conversation, showing her her sin and the need to be cleansed.

And remember, Jesus has come to a people that he was not born to. He was born to the Jews, but they did not receive him. Whoever does receive him, God gives the right to become the children of God. Praise the Lord.

Amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

Find a good, Gospel-teaching, Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.