Jesus’ gift to you

This week, we see God at work in one individual’s life, even as John’s narrative sets the stage for future opposition in response to Jesus’ invitation to all.

Read John 4:1-9.

• John clarified Jesus was not baptizing—only his disciples.
• The Pharisees heard Jesus was gaining popularity, which sets the stage for opposition.
• Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee—through Samaria.
• Although this route was inevitable, he traveled also with intention.
• Jesus sat by Jacob’s well and asked a woman for a drink of water.
• She recognized him as a Jew and wondered at his crossing cultural barriers.
• Jews did not accept anything from Samaritans, so the Jews wouldn’t incur obligation.¹
• This set the stage for an open door.

When has Jesus entered your life with intention?

How can we share Jesus with others with intention?

What open door did the woman experience that day at Jacob’s well?

Read John 4:10-14.

• Jesus enlightened her about God’s gift: Living water.
• The best way to define God’s gift is in the Person of Christ. Other related meanings include “knowledge of who Jesus is and His reason for coming to earth,” and the living water Jesus offered. This water is spiritual, everlasting water for the soul.²
• God’s gift is free, unwarranted grace, a spiritual gift from God.³
• Zodhiates described this water as the “enlivening, refreshing, and comforting influence of the Holy Spirit.”⁴
• Jesus, fully God, asked her for water.
• In turn, she could ask him for true living water, which God would give to benefit her.⁵
• Living water can be defined as fresh, running streams.⁶

“He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life’” (Revelation 21:6).

• The woman compared Jesus to Jacob, hinting at common spiritual ancestry.
• Jesus compared water that quenches physical thirst with spiritual water.

“Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. … For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water’” (Revelation 7:16-17).

• The Spirit refreshes us, offering Living water that is eternal life in Jesus.
• The living water Jesus offered is a “life-giving” fountain, teaching that leads to eternal life, if accepted.⁷

How do you define “God’s gift?”

How does God’s gift benefit us?

How have you experienced the living water Jesus offered?

Read John 4:15-26.

• The woman’s statement in verse.15 shows she still thought in earthly, temporal terms.
• Jesus met her where she was, in the moment.
• The woman was honest before Jesus.
• He confirmed her confession in conversation, disclosing his deeper knowledge of her life.
• She wanted to better understand the right and proper method and place to worship, or reverence and adore God.⁸
• Jesus pointed out true worship is not sourced or dependent on a place.
• He clarified the Father God she should worship is truly the Father of Jesus the Son.⁹
• God gave initial knowledge of the Lord to the Jews, that they might be a light to the nations.

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6).

• The Light brought salvation, “deliverance from sin and its spiritual consequences”¹⁰ and eternal life.
• All who worship the Father in spirit and in truth are true worshipers.
• Such people and their worship are genuine, real, not false, with no deceit in them.¹¹ 122
• True worshipers are to come “with a sincere mind, with a true heart, not with mere external rites.”¹²

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

• The woman connected Jesus’ words about spirit to what she’d heard about Messiah.
• She expressed faith Messiah, God’s Anointed One, would certainly come.
• Jesus plainly declared his identify to her, the truth lived out:
• Those who seek God’s Spirit, Living water (Jesus), and Truth will indeed find.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

Jesus offered living water to all who will seek, Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles.

How has Jesus met you in specific moments in your life?

What is our true source, method, and place to worship today?

How can we come before God as a “true worshiper?”

What does it mean to you to hear Jesus say, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he” (John 4:26)?

 

1. Spiros Zodhiates Th.D., The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament (AMG Publishers, 1992), 1322.
2. Spiros Zodhiates Th.D., The Complete Word Study New Testament, King James Version (AMG Publishers, 1991), 310-311.
3. Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament, 490.
4. Zodhiates, 1403.
5. Zodhiates, 452.
6. Zodhiates, 698.
7. Zodhiates, 1156.
8. Zodhiates, 1234.
9. Zodhiates, 1129.
10. Zodhiates, 1360.
11. Zodhiates, 122.
12. Zodhiates, 1181.