Daily Bible Reading (Tuesday, April 10th)

9

John 4 (ESV)

 

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

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.[a]

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.) 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.) 10 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.[b] 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. 22 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.” 25 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.”

27 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. 35 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.”

43 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.

Jesus Heals an Official's Son

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[c] 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[d] 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[e] 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.

Footnotes:

  1. John 4:6 That is, about noon
  2. John 4:14 Greek forever
  3. John 4:48 The Greek for you is plural; twice in this verse
  4. John 4:51 Or bondservants
  5. John 4:52 That is, at 1 p.m.

9 Comments

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ....
The Samaritan woman, like unbelievers today are blinded by false teachers. They have established credibility in the world's eye. It is a big challenge, to get people to know Him and we need God's help and we need to work together.

“I who speak to you am he”. He still speaks to us in his word, and he is still “I Am”.

A samaritan woman, outcast, adulteress, pariah. Thankful that the Lord has chosen to save the despised things of this world to humble the proud. Thankful and desirous that our proclamations of Christ would be received as the woman's were.

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.”

Vs 19-23 stand out to me today. The Father is seeking true worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth, not at a mountain or temple made with human hands, but at the true temple that the Jews would destroy and which God would raise up in three days. The hour was coming, and was there, when the Son of God dwelt among his people in the tabernacle of his body. The hour has come, and is now here, when true worshipers worship in the temple of his body, the church. Oh that Jews and Gentiles,men and women, young and old, slave and free from all nations would stream into the church and find rivers of living water.

Jesus gives living water! In Him our souls will never thirst again! As a believer who knows that this is true I need to be reminded because I can be tempted by the empty wells of this world. The more I keep my eyes on the Savior and the more I am inviting others to the living water the more satisfied my soul will be.

Amen Colin

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work." What an example of what our obedience is to look like! Our obedience is to be complete and done with a joyful, submissive heart. Oh Lord, make me more like yourself in my obedience to you! Help me to find joy in obeying you even when the task is hard.

Jesus is so clearly focused on honoring God and doing his kingdom work. In v 34 we read, “Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” This is convicting because so often my personal desires drive me in decision making, or my focus is so narrow minded I miss the needs of those around me. God, forgive me for living selfishly, enable me to be a true worshiper (v. 23) in spirit and truth. Help me see the harvest around me as sustaining food and give me the courage to share the gospel message. Amen!

In 3:22, John clearly states that Jesus was baptizing His disciples, but in 4:2, John qualifies his statement to show Jesus wasn’t baptizing. I’m reading this to mean that Jesus baptized the 12 and then the 12 we’re baptizing others. Isn’t it interesting to think that Jesus likely baptized an unbeliever, Judas, and then Judas likely baptized believers? Our salvation depends on nothing but God. v26: Throughout all four Gospels, Jesus seems to more freely reveal Himself to Gentiles than to Jews. This will not be the case for long.

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