This entry is part 3 of 17 in the series John

We continue with our study of the gospel of John, and here we will learn about John Chapter 4. This chapter continues talking about Jesus’ Public Ministry.

Gospel according to John, Chapter 4:  Read &/or listen from the Bible.

1/ Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (4:1-26)
2/ Doing the Father’s Will (4:27-42)
3/ Healing of the Nobleman’s Son (4:43-54)

1/ Jesus and the Samaritan Woman –  Living Water. 

On book of John 7:37-39 it refers to the Holy Spirit as Living Water. Also in the Old Testament in Jer. 17:13 God refers to Himself as the “Fountain of Living Water.” Let’s watch a good sermon teaching John chapter 4:1-26 taught by Pastor Paul LeBoutillier of Calvary Chapel Ontario, Oregon.

Jacob’s well mentioned in this passage where Jesus and the Samaritan Woman met, is one of the few sites in Palestine about which there is no dispute. The Jews, Muslims, and Christians all agree that this is the original well.

2/ Doing the Father’s Will (4:27-42)

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (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.”

The Samaritan woman was very excited, we know that because she left he water pot (vs.28), she forgot about her need of well water to tell others about Jesus the fountain of Living Water, the awaited Messiah. She went to the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the city and came to Him”. So the men came to see Jesus because of the woman’s testimony.

31 Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”. . . Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen! I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. 36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit that leads to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this is the saying true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap a crop for which you did not labor. And you have benefited from their labor.”

39 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.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to remain with them. And He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His word.

42 They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this Man is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.

What was the will of the Father or to finish His work? to evangelize & reap a spiritual harvest, save souls. The reason Jesus passed through Samaria was to do the will of the Father, reaching this woman, who later testified of Him & more people came to Him, that also got saved.

3/ Healing of the Nobleman’s Son (4:43-54)

43 After the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. 44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 Then, when He came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him, having seen all the things He did at Jerusalem at the feast. For they had also gone to the feast.

46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick in Capernaum. Jn.4:43-46

Jesus went first to Cana of Galilee, where we remember he made His first miracle when turned water into wine (Jn 2:11). There in Cana he had at least one place to stay, the home of one of his disciples, Nathanael (Jn 21: 2).

This noble man is believed to be an officer of king Herod, who had his son sick in Capernaum which was about 25 kilometers from Cana.

“47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him, pleading that He would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

49 The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.”

And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 While he was going down, his servants met him and told him, “Your son lives!” 52 When he inquired of them the hour when he began to heal, they answered, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”

53 Then the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” So he and his whole household believed.

54 This was the second sign that Jesus did when He had come from Judea to Galilee.

The “miracles” that Jesus did were also signs that indicated a spiritual truth about His person, who He was. In this sense, they served to awaken the faith of the people who saw or received them. But if people were only amazed by the extraordinary miracles, then they would be losing their true purpose, which was to show “that Jesus is the Christ”, the Son of God, and by believing that, they could have eternal life in His name. Which is a greater miracle than the physical healing.

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