Know

John 4:15-22 – The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

John 16:2 – They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

2 Kings 17:33,35-36 – They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought…When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: “Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices.

Romans 9:5 – Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Romans 15:8-9 – For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.”

Application:

• ·         Religious people have often persecuted others in the strong conviction that they were doing God’s will.
• ·         “They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods” was a classic statement of a mixed religion.
• ·         The Mosaic covenant demanded exclusive worship of the Lord. This was the “first and greatest commandment”, and it was to distinguish Israel from all other peoples.
• ·         The deliverance from Egypt is cited as the gracious act of the Lord that entitled Him to exclusive claim on Israel’s loyalty.
• ·         “Messiah, who is God” is a statement affirming the deity of Jesus the Messiah.
• ·         God’s greatest and climactic act for Israel’s salvation was the sending of the Messiah to fulfill the promises made to the patriarchs and so to gather in the great harvest of the Gentiles.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Welling Up

John 4:11-14 – “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 6:35 – Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Isaiah 12:3 – With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Isaiah 58:11 – The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Application:

• ·         God’s future saving act is itself the well from which Israel will draw life-giving water.
• ·         Jerusalem was a garden without water.
• ·         The thief’s interest is in himself.
• ·         Christ’s interest is in His sheep, whom He enables to have life to the full.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Water

John 4:1-10 – Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

1 Kings 17:10 – So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”

Isaiah 44:3 – For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Isaiah 55:1 – “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Jeremiah 2:13 – “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Application:

• ·         Elijah’s reliance on the Lord demonstrated the faith in the Lord that Israel should have been living by.
• ·         “Living water” was not stagnant cistern water but fresh, flowing water, as of a spring or mountain stream, that revives and refreshes life.
• ·         “Pour out my Spirit” was associated with the Messianic age.
• ·         “Waters” are figurative for spiritual refreshment.
• ·         Idols, like broken cisterns, will always fail their worshipers; by contrast, God provides life abundant and unfailing.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Has

John 3:16,35-36 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

John 5:24 – “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Application:

• ·         Eternal life is a present possession, not something the believer will only obtain later.
• ·         “Has crossed” means the decisive action has taken place, and the believer belongs no longer to the realm where death reigns supreme but to the realm of life.
• ·         “God so loved the word” is the great truth that motivated God’s plan of salvation.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

No One

John 3:30-34 – He must become greater; I must become less.” The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

Luke 4:18-19 – “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

John 4:34 – “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Application:

• ·         When people accept Christ’s testimony, they accept the truth that Jesus came from heaven and that God was acting in Him for the world’s salvation.
• ·         They thereby testify that God is truthful.
• ·         The Messiah’s ministry of preaching and healing—to meet every human need.
• ·         John often mentions that Jesus depended on the Father and did the work the Father sent Him to do.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Testified

John 3:20-29 – Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

John 1:7 – He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.

Philippians 2:1-2 – Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Application:

• ·         John the Baptist’s singular ministry was to testify about Jesus.
• ·         “Like-minded” is not uniformity in thought but the common disposition to work together and serve one another—the “mindset” of Christ.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Condemned

John 3:18-19 – Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

John 5:24 – “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

John 1:4,18 – In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind…No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Application:

• ·         “Has crossed” means the decisive action has taken place, and the believer belongs no longer to the realm where death reigns supreme but to the realm of life.
• ·         “The one and only Son, who is Himself God” is an explicit declaration of Christ’s deity.
• ·         He is the “light of the world”, who holds out wonderful hope for humanity and for the creation.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV