New Life (John 4:1-42)
This sermon was preached by our guest preacher.
Can I tell you about my friend, Jaba? He comes from a broken past. He has both sinned and been sinned against. He comes from a home marked by abuse and alcoholism. His father never told him that he loved him. But many times, especially after disappointing exam results, his father told him that he was worthless.
Jaba also grew up going to church. His family went every week. But rather than being encouraged in the gospel, his church experience left him discouraged by hypocrisy. People talked about God, but nobody lived for God. The Bible was, kind of taught — select verses, here and there. But it was always about what we need to do for God. It never about what has done in Christ.
So with Jaba’s limited and deficient understanding, he tried to follow God. But it always felt like a lot of effort for something he could never live up to.
He knew he had sins, but he didn’t know what to do with them. So he covered them up. But sin is like mold—it grows in darkness. As Jaba’s sins grew, they tarnished his reputation, and they buried him in shame.
Jaba’s life was broken.
Do you have a friend like Jaba? Do you have a friend who could not escape a broken past?
Or is Jaba’s story more like your own? Are you here this morning with a broken life? Maybe you have an outward smile, but does it erode with inward shame?
Friends, there is good news for us in Christ this morning. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. He meets shame with love. He takes broken lives and shameful pasts — and in Christ, He makes them new and whole.
People’s lives may look different — one to another. But all our lives are broken. Everyone, everywhere has sinned. So everyone, everywhere needs salvation.
And the good news for us in Christ is that, anyone, anywhere can be saved — broken lives can be made whole.
This week, I hope to continue our study through the book of John. This week, we have, 42 verses to cover. And if you are doing the math, yes, that is 6 more verses than last week! But fear not!—I do not think this will overwhelm us. Our meal is not as dense.
These 42 verses comprise one single narrative — and for our time together this morning, we can think of it in three scenes.
Almost like a pot of water on a stove, this narrative grows hotter, reaches a boiling point, and then, overflows.
Everyone, everywhere needs salvation.
Those are the three scenes, and they can each be summarized with a truth about salvation. Putting them together, I hope to help us see that everyone, everywhere needs salvation.
So first, salvation is free. This is John 4:1-15.
Salavation is free (John 4:1-15)
Read John 4:1-3. The Pharisees had heard about John’s ministry, and the number of people going to be baptised by him, and they were threatened by it. They did not like the thought of another leader rising up, who was not under their control.
And then, they heard that Jesus was making and baptising even more disciples than John — now this made them feel very threatened.
But Jesus knew His hour had not come. He said it to His mother in John 2, and He will explain more about His hour later on in this chapter. But for now, Jesus steps away from the drama, turns down the temperature, and leaves Judea to go to Galilee.
Jesus was playing chess. And He was going to let the Pharisees play angry checkers.
In John 4:4, we read, “And he had to pass through Samaria.” Samaria was directly in the middle of Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. So if you were traveling from Judea to Galilee, the most direct route would be go through Samaria — it was about 100 kilometers journey, and it would take about 3 days.
But Jews would not go through Samaria. Instead, they would take the long way. They would travel an extra 100 kilometers, and an extra three days — to travel around Samaria and then up to Galilee.
For as we will see in John 4:9, Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. The ethnic hostility was hotter than an extra 100 kilometers under the desert sun. They wouldd take the long route, and avoid the Samaritans. But why? Why did Jews have no dealings with Samaritans?
The Samaritans drew their history from the split of the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Think back to 1 Kings 12, where the one unified kingdom under Solomon became a divided kingdom — with Jeroboam and the kingdom of Israel to the north, and Rehoboam and the kingdom of Judah to the south.
All the kings of the northern kingdom did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so their kingdom fell first. They practiced a syncretised Judaism, mixed with some Jewish practices and some idol worship of the Assyrian gods. And they intermarried with the Assyrians.
These people, to the north, became the Samaritans. Ethnically, they were half-Jewish. Spiritually, they were half-pagan. And in the widespread opinion of first-century Jews, they were altogether despicable.
Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. They would not go through Samaria. But Jesus had to pass through it. He had to go where no one else would go. Jesus knew that salvation was from the Jews, but for everyone, everywhere — even the Samaritans.
Rich-poor, young-old, educated-uneducated, insider-outsider, HDB-private home, migrant-worker–investment-banker, everyone, everywhere needs salvation.
Who might be our “Samaritans” today? Who might we undervalue and overlook? Perhaps even, despise? Who are the people to whom no one else will go? Let us consider our Lord’s example here. Let us make his “had to” our “have to”. And let us keep reading.
Jesus enters Sycar, one of the towns of Samaria — a town that had some significant religious heritage (Jn 4:5-6). And did you catch that phrase in John 4:6? Jesus was wearied? Oh, do not miss the humanity of our Lord here in this passage.
How can He, who is present everywhere, have a journey? How can He grow weary, who has infinite strength? What kind of King leaves a heavenly throne to sit by a Samaritan well?
Oh, brothers and sisters, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with us in our weaknesses. Though He was rich, He became poor. Though He was strong, He became weak. Though the whole earth was His footstool, He needed to rest His feet.
If you are here this morning, and you are weary — perhaps your body feels weak. Oh, be encouraged. Christ understands you, and He can help you. In Hebrews 5:2, we read, “He can deal gently with [us], for He Himself is beset with weakness.”
The omnipotent God became the weary Jesus. So when we come to Him, we don’t need to bring Him our strength. He emptied Himself to make salvation free.
But Jesus had to go through Samaria. He was not just looking for a break. He was looking for a person.
“A woman from Samaria came to draw water” (John 4:7a). Typically, women came in groups to fetch water. But here we read of no group. We read of a woman. Typically, they came earlier or later in the day, when the sun was not so hot— sounds a bit like Singapore, right?
But here, this lonely woman came in the sixth hour (Jn 4:6) in the middle of the day. She was not expecting to see anyone. She knew that no one would want to be seen with her . . . At least, that is what she thought.
She did not know that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. She did not know that Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
And what we will see is that Jesus is willing to cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost — because everyone, everywhere needs salvation.
Jesus speaks to the woman first. “Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.’ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) (Jn 4:7b-8).”
Jesus initiates. He does not wait for her to speak to Him. He starts the conversation. But notice His tact, His gentleness. He does not blast her with condemnation or overwhelm her with intensity. He asks for her help.
He who made oceans and rivers and fountains and rain — sits beside a well, and asks a lonely Samaritan woman for a drink.
We will find out more about this woman — about why she is here alone, but Jesus, already knew her story full and well. He knew all her sins. He knew all her shame.
But rather than starting with sin and shame, He starts the conversation with a request: “Give me a drink.”
Others may have talked down to her, but the gentle, weary Jesus brings Himself down and asks for her help.
Brothers and sisters, here is another way I have been praying for you all as a church. I have been praying that your evangelism would be bold and kind.
I think Jesus is an excellent model of both those traits for us here.
Do you initiate evangelism? Or do you sit back and wait to see if evangelism comes to you? You do not need to start with a rebuke or with a debate. What if you tried starting with a request? “Hey, would you mind if I sat with you? What is the best thing on the menu here? Hey that is incense, right? Could you tell me more about what that means?”
Brothers and sisters, everyone, everywhere needs salvation. So let us go to them — let us put ourselves at their feet—and let us be bold and kind.
We do not have to guess about the shock of this request. We find it in the woman’s response — “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). (Jn 4:9)”
This is scandalous on several terms. He is a Jew; she is a Samaritan. He is a man; she is a woman. He chose to be alone; and she was always alone. Yet this Jewish man asks a Samaritan woman to help Him with a drink!
I hope we notice the contrast between this woman and Nicodemus, from last week. Nicodemus was an educated, upstanding Jewish man. And this woman was an outcast, a Samaritan, a woman of such low status and poor reputation—that we do not even know her name.
These are two different people from two different backgrounds and two different cultures — with one common need.
Jesus is willing to cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost. Are we?
In John 4:10, Jesus moves from a request to an offer — “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.”
We will find out more how the woman responds to such an offer, but please do not miss this: The offer is free! Salvation is free! Living water is for the giving and for the taking!
She just needs two things: she needs to know, and she needs to ask.
“If you knew the gift of God.” She needs to know what the gift of God is. She needs to know that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son — there is the gift— and that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. She needs to know the gift of God of eternal life in the Son.
And she needs to ask! Jesus says, if she would ask, He would give! She had not because she asked not. Romans 10:13 tells us “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
If she knew who asked her for a drink, she would have been asking Him for a far better drink. Not just water. But living water.
Look around, church! Lift up your eyes! Everyone, everywhere is thirsty. Everyone, everywhere is looking for a drink. But most people underestimate the depth of their thirst, so they go looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places. They forsake the source for leaky substitutes — and no matter how they seem, it never leaves them satisfied. We read in Jeremiah 2:13, “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Praise the Lord that salvation is free! That it cannot be earned by good works!
Christ is more ready to hear than we are to pray. He is more ready to give than we are to ask. His mercies are unending, and His love covers shame.
Isaiah said it this way: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat and drink! (Isa 55:1)”You will not need your wallet for salvation. You cannot use PayNow to get this drink!
Living water is free! You just got to know and ask.
But the woman does not understand. Not yet.
Like Nicodemus, she is thinking physically, not spiritually (Jn 4:11-12). And her understanding is based on Samaritan tradition, not biblical truth.
Scripture makes no explicit mention of Jacob giving them this well. But the Samaritans held tightly to their traditions. And Jesus’ claim to give living water, felt to this woman like a power grab, stealing away from her cherished traditions.
It is good to evaluate our traditions with Scripture. Because truth is always better than tradition.
In John 4:13-14, Jesus continues to explain living water, describing both its source and its effect. Jesus points to the well, but his point about her way of life. He says, “If you keep drinking from this, it is just going to leave you thirsty. You will crave more and be satisfied less. You can keep running from your shame by running to your sin, but it is never going to satisfy you.”
Jesus raises her desires and offers her something more. He says, “I’m the source of the living water. I’m the one who gives it.”
… “And if you drink the water I give” — here is the effect —“it will become a spring of water, welling up to eternal life!”
What water have you been drinking? Are you satisfied?
What water have you been drinking? Are you satisfied?
In John 4:10, Jesus tells the woman that living water is free — all she needs to do is know and ask.
And in John 4:15, as the conversation has been building — she cries out, with an ask — “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.’”
Here is the boiling point. She asks, but she does not really understand what she is asking for. Just because living water is free — that does not make it shallow.
Jesus satisfies and sanctifies. Her thirst will not be relieved until her shame is revealed. Not for the purpose of shaming her, but for the purpose of healing her. Jesus wants more than her surface-level happiness.
She is about to find out that not only is salvation free, but salvation is deep.
Salvation is deep (Jn 4:16-26)
“Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come her.’ (Jn 4:16).
If the free gift of salvation is to be received, we must first recognise the deep problem of our sin. There is no conversion without conviction. Christ cannot be our Saviour unless we know ourselves to be sinners. A gospel without sin is no gospel at all.
So Jesus, puts His omniscient finger right on her shame. With gentleness. With clarity. With kindness. With conviction.
The conversation did not start deep, but it got deep. Jesus took His time, and took the conversation to her heart.
The woman answers (Jn 4:17-18). Jesus shines a light on this woman’s shameful past. Her broken life breaks His heart. And He loves her too much to let her hide in shame.
All the figurative speech of living water has dropped away — and we will not see it any more for the rest of this chapter. Jesus speaks with plain, direct speech, exposing her sin, going deep, to the heart.
The woman, feels uncomfortable. She deflects, but it is more than just a deflection. She also recognises that Jesus has a special knowledge — a knowledge that must come from God. So she says, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. (Jn 4:19-20).”
She redirects the conversation away from her sin and onto Jesus’s knowledge. And then she tests His knowledge with a quiz from longstanding debate between the Jews and the Samaritans — which mountain is the true mountain of worship?
It is easier to talk about worship sites than ex-husbands, isn’t it?
Jesus continues to meet this woman right where she is. He is patient with her, and He gently pushes the conversation ahead. Her deflection does not deter His love. Jesus knew which mountain which mountain was part of the Promised Land. Jesus knew which mountain possessed the temple. Jesus knew that, in this debate, the Jews were right and the Samaritans were wrong.
But get this — Jesus does not even get into the debate. He says that stuff is small. Instead, a new era coming — and is here. And in this era, true worship is not about where you are or where you come from — true worship is in spirit and truth.
All debates about worship sites would soon be obsolete (Jn 4:21-23). The hour of Jesus’ death and resurrection would nullify the form of worship and magnify the heart of worship.
Salvation is not shallow. And true worship is not shallow either. It springs deeply, from the heart. True worship is not in form or tradition — it is in spirit and truth.
Salvation is not shallow. And true worship is not shallow either. It springs deeply, from the heart. True worship is not in form or tradition — it is in spirit and truth.
Jesus says that the Samaritans, “worship what they do not know” (Jn 4:22). They attempted to worship the one true God. But with a cherry-picked Bible, of only the first five books, they worshipped Him on their own terms. Thus, God was not known to them.
And then, speaking as a Jew on behalf of the Jews, Jesus says, “We worship what we know.” There were many flaws with Jewish worship, but it could at least be said that the object of their worship — the one, true God of Israel — was known to them. Even though, for many, they were without understanding, they were with revelation. They had the Scriptures. They had the promises of the Messiah, and the promises of salvation.
Oh, but do not miss what Jesus says in John 4:23! He says that nobody is saved by their own seeking. This woman was not seeking God, but God was seeking her. And praise His name is name that He is still seeking and saving sinners—even today.
Romans 3 makes it plain and clear. “No one seeks for God.” No one! And yet, the Father is seeking people for true worship. He transforms shallow lip-service into deep heart-worship.
John 4:24 makes one of the clearest and highest declarations of the nature of God in the entire New Testament — “God is spirit.”.
God cannot be confined to a locality, or packaged in a form, or appeased with outward mechanics. He is everywhere, all at once, all the time, without ceasing.
1 John 1:5 says that “God is light.” 1 John 4:8 says that “God is love.” Hebrews 12:29 says that “God is a consuming fire.”
And because God is and light, and love, and fire, and spirit, He cannot be boxed in! He cannot be confined to places, or customs, or rituals, or routines.
As they said of Aslan, the Great Lion of Narnia, He is safe, but He is not tame.
God is spirit—not some sort of object.
Which is why, Jesus repeats, in John 4:24, “Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Worship must be on God’s terms. Not our own. True worship is based on truth, not tradition. It is deeper than ceremony, and it demands a testimony.
It can only come from someone who has been born again — not of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the Spirit.
In John 4:9, this woman knew Jesus to be a Jewish man. In John 4:9, she perceived Him to be a prophet. And now in John 4:25, she thinks her deep sin and this long debate are going to need more than a prophet to get resolved. If anything is going to change, it is going to require the Messiah.
In John 4:25, her first two words, are “I know”, which is a bit ironic. She did not know that the one she was looking for is the one she was looking at. She thought she was talking about the Messiah, but little did she know she was talking to Him.
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he” (Jn 4:26). This is the fullest declaration the Lord Jesus ever made of His Messiahship — and which any of the Gospel writers ever recorded.
In this series, you all have already touched on Jesus’ “I am” statements John’s Gospel. We will see Him use these metaphors later on. He is the bread of life, the light of the world, the door of the sheep, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and the life, and the true vine.
He says to the Pharisees, “Before Abraham was, I am!” And do you remember what they said to Him? Reaching as low as possible, to hurl their most disgusting insult, they said, “You must be a demon-possessed Samaritan.”
Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Jews would not go through Samaria. And yet, it is to this nameless, Samaritan woman, that Jesus pulls back the curtain and makes Himself known.
Jesus loves sinners. He is willing to cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost. He loves sinners deeply.
Jesus loves sinners. He is willing to cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost. He loves sinners deeply.
Thank God Jesus is not just a Jewish man — or a prophet — or a teacher come from God.
Jesus is the I Am. He gives living water. Jesus is the Messiah.
But how does the woman respond to such a declaration? Does it surprise her? Does it change her? Or
does it become in her a spring of water—that she cannot help but share?
Salvation is free. Salvation is deep. Number 3 – Salvation is contagious.
Salvation is contagious (Jn 4:27-42)
“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 talking you talking with her?’ (Jn 4:27).” They might have understood why Jesus spent time with Nicodemus — even late at night. After all, he was a religious man of high esteem. He would be worth spending time with.
But this woman? A Samaritan? They were too scared to ask their questions — notice how no one said anything — but Jesus knew their questions. He knew what was in them. And if they knew what was in the woman, they could have asked her for a drink. Because she had a spring of water to give (Jn 4:28-30).
Nicodemus was blind. The disciples are clueless. But this woman had a change of heart — and it was contagious. She ran back into town, straight to the people who knew her story. Straight to the people who knew her shame. She didn’t know much. She did not have the knowledge that Nicodemus had.
But she had understanding. She had a personal testimony. And she shared with her heart: “Come, see a man — who’s not like any other man. He knows me. And yet, He loves me. Can this be the Christ?” She was bold, and she was kind.
This is the heart of the good news, brothers and sisters. It was not about what she had done. It is not about what we have done. It is about what God has done, through the saving and satisfying work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
This woman did not need a well anymore. She had found the fountain!
It is a privilege to preach on these verses. It is providential too. As best I can tell, this was the story God used to change my life forever. I was a high school kid, full of shame and sin. It was my first night at this youth camp. And after hearing the way these other kids talked about Christ, I felt like I did not belong.
But then a man stood up, and opened his Bible to John 4. It felt like he was speaking right to me. He pointed out this phrase in John 4:28, that the woman “left her water jar,” and he explained repentance: a turning away from sin, and a turning to Christ in faith.
We do not just take our lives and add some Jesus to it. We let go of our lives, we declare Him as Lord, and Jesus makes our lives new.
We do not just take our lives and add some Jesus to it. We let go of our lives, we declare Him as Lord, and Jesus makes our lives new.
Oh friend, is there something you need to let go of? Are you holding on to a leaky bucket? You cannot hold onto Jesus, and hold onto sin.
I know talking about it might be uncomfortable. I know it would be more comfortable to deflect and redirect.
But would mind if I encouraged you? As someone who has been in your shoes? There is more mercy in Christ than sin in you. Always. He is gentle. He is kind. He gives freely, and He changes deeply. You do not have to thirst, again and again.
If God can save this woman, God can save you too. Come and drink from the fountain.
Repent, and leave your bucket behind.
Jesus gives living water, and He alone satisfies.
In John 4:31-38, John pauses the narrative of the woman, and pulls us into some teaching from Jesus to His disciples. And I hope we notice the contrast between a witnessing woman and the disoriented disciples. They are about to find out that salvation is contagious too.
Read John 4:31-33.
Jesus explained to the woman the nature of true worship. Now, Jesus explains to the disciples the nourishment of true work. After mentioning his secret, unknown food, He explains further — “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.’ (Jn 4:34).” This was Jesus’ food. Is this our food too?
Spurgeon said, on this verse, “All feeding and no working gives us spiritual indigestion.”
So let us crave the kingdom more than comfort. Let us feed on God’s Word and work for God’s glory. May Christ’s ambition be our appetite. Let us long for longer than now.
Then Jesus lifts up their eyes to the work ahead, helping the disciples see that not only is salvation deep, but it is contagious. It sows and it grows and it spreads.
Read John 4:35-38. Jesus quotes a common Jewish saying, four months, then the harvest, and he asserts that the time for a spiritual harvest is now. Others have laboured — meaning the prophets of old, and including even John the Baptist, and the disciples have entered their labor to reap a harvest. The harvest of the New Covenant, is rooted in the seeds of the Old Covenant — so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.
I think about this with Children’s Ministry all the time. With Children’s Ministry, you just have to play the long game. Parents, keep sowing seeds. Volunteers, keep sowing seeds. Church members reading children’s Bibles in the homes of other church members, keep sowing seeds.
If you sow the seeds, but someone else reaps the harvest — rejoice! Gospel seeds growing into gospel fruit is worth rejoicing in — no matter what role we play. Let us not forget: neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow!
In John 4:39, John takes us back to the Samaritan woman. We read in John 4:30, that many Samaritans were coming out of the town and coming to Jesus, and now we read how the story ends — how her story overflows.
Many Samaritans came to Him (Jn 4:30) and they believed (Jn 4:39) and they believed because of the woman’s testimony, again in John 4:39. In John 4:40, they ask Israel’s Messiah to spend two nights with them, in a Samaritan village — and Jesus goes, crossing all barriers necessary to reach the lost.
At first, they believed because of the woman. Now, they believe because of His word (Jn 4:41). As the woman’s testimony was personal, so now these Samaritans would have a personal testimony too.
No miracles here. No signs and wonders. Just a weary, omniscient Jesus, a deep well, and a deeply changed woman.
I think this woman has to be my favourite evangelist in the Bible. She was simple, urgent, bold, and kind. She did not know much, but she shared what she knew. And it led to a gospel pandemic that spread throughout a Samaritan village.
Salvation is free. Salvation is deep. Salvation is contagious.
Before we wrap up, can I tell you a little more about my friend, Jaba? He is a friend I met in India, and we keep in close touch to this day.
One day, over some tea, I could tell that Jaba was feeling unsettled about his relationship with God. His faithfulness to the Lord had some ups and downs, and he felt that it made him on shaky ground with God.
I asked him what it meant to be justified. He said it meant to be super holy, all the time — never any ups and downs.
I asked him how a person could become justified. He said by living up to it.
I asked him if he was justified. He said, No, I could never be.”
Then I asked him if we could open up to Romans 5:1, which reads, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we now have peace with God.”
Jaba had grown up in church all his life. And he could not believe it. He said, “Wait, we can be justified by faith? We don’t have work at it or earn it or live up to it? This is amazing!”
He knew that salvation was a important, but he did not know that it was free.
Justification by faith alone in Christ alone changed him, deeply — and he just started sharing about Christ with anybody he could talk to.
He went from being timid about his broken life to probably the single most encouraging evangelist I know. He sends me WhatsApp messages nearly every day with a prayer request for some guy he just shared the gospel with. He has no formal education. He has no status in society. He just had some living water, and he could not get enough of it. Jesus was right: “Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
So may living water flow—from Samaria to India to Singapore and beyond.
Everyone, everywhere needs salvation.
So let us go to everyone, everywhere and share.
Let’s pray.