Knowing Jesus

John 4

​Knowing about Jesus is no substitute for knowing Jesus!
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Yes, Jesus was fully God, but because He was truly human, He experienced weariness, hunger, and thirst, but His deepest desire was for the salvation of the sinful woman known in John 4 as the Samaritan Woman.

In this one instance, He forgot His physical needs, the hatred of the Samaritans from those in the religious world and He concentrated on her spiritual needs. Patiently He revealed Himself to her: “a Jew,” “greater than Jacob,” “a prophet,” and “Messiah.”

In this moving scene, she admitted her sin, she believed in Him, she trusted Him, and her life was so changed that she immediately and evangelistically shared the good news with others.

“A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 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.) John 4:7-9 (ESV)

Typically, those living in this region wouldn’t draw water during the heat of the day, around high noon. So, why would she arrive at a time when no one would be around? She was a woman of questionable character. Importantly, Jesus’s willingness to engage her socially by drinking water from her cup opened the door for him to reach her spiritually. We too should seek to connect with different people as we share with them the good news of the gospel.

“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.” 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 again. 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.” 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. 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. John 4:10–21 (ESV)

In John’s Gospel, Jesus’s hour is usually associated with His crucifixion and resurrection. So, through His death on the Cross, triumph over the grave, and ascension to the right-hand of the Father in Heaven, Jesus would transform worship for God’s people for all time—from the physical to the spiritual.

“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.” John 4:22–24 (ESV)

To worship the Father in Spirit is to have a heart that is in pursuit of an intimate spiritual relationship with the God who is spirit. To worship God in truth is to worship him in a biblically accurate way—through the One who is the truth, Jesus is the “Way the Truth, and the Life.” God is on the hunt for those who will worship Him spiritually through Jesus Christ based on the truth of his Word. Do you worship Him in Spirit and in Truth?

“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.” John 4:25–26 (ESV)

Warren Wiersbe outlines John 4 in sections of Thirsting, Hungering, and Health. He sees verses 27 to 42 as a hunger by stating, “The will of God should be food that nourishes us, not medicine that upsets us. The disciples were satisfied with material food, but Jesus wanted the satisfying spiritual food from God. The will of God gives us the strength we need to do our job in the great harvest all around us.”

“Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. John 4:27–34 (ESV)

Dr. Tony Evans writes, “Jesus’s greatest satisfaction and fulfillment was not in filling his belly but in obeying God. For us too, the spiritual must take precedence over the physical.”

How often do we postpone sharing the gospel? How often do we put God’s kingdom second, when Jesus commands us to seek it first? If we pay close attention, we will see God at work all around us and discover ministry opportunities right before us. Like Jesus throughout His ministry, we must be “moved with compassion and look for those who need to experience His salvation.

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” 39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” John 4:35–42 (ESV)

Dr. Tony Evans continues in his Study Bible, “It may take several encounters with the gospel delivered through more than one messenger before a person believes it. One Christian explains the gospel to an unbeliever, and later another Christian eventually leads that unbeliever to Christ. John indicated earlier that “Jews [did] not associate with Samaritans.” Nevertheless, the Samaritans … asked [Jewish Jesus] to stay with them. So he and his disciples hung out with them for two days. So, is racial reconciliation possible? If you’re operating spiritually and united in Jesus, the answer is a resounding, yes! And it doesn’t take long when people are right with Jesus.”

“After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. 46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.” John 4:43-54 (ESV)

Salvation is to the inner person what health is to the body. The boy would have died had Jesus not intervened and given him health. The father heard, believed, and knew, which is a normal Christian experience.

In this longer passage, Jesus won the woman; the woman won many Samaritans; and the father won his whole household. Are you busy in the harvest? Are you compelled as a believer to share the Gospel message of Jesus with all those in your circle of influence? Are you moved by the Holy Spirit to see everyone you know, know the only One who can forever fulfill the thirst, hunger and health of humanity? Will you pray, care, and share with everyone you meet?

Today, know that God invites you into His great Kingdom Work of evangelism and discipleship.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

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