20260729-sean-mcdowell-wed-pm

I don't even know what to do with it. So today our families, what's the name of the rock to brick? Buck Rock. Have you been to Buck Rock?

If you haven't yet, find where it's at, go see Buck Rock. It's 8,500 feet up, and you have a 360 degree view. It's just stunning and beautiful. In my mind, that was even more beautiful than what we saw today.

So thank you for singing. That was phenomenal. Loved it. Part of me you want to say, just keep going and enjoy it.

But I guess this is my job up here as well. Well, I recognize most of you from being here. We're journeying through John this week and it's Wednesday. And we're starting chapter four, which means we're one seventh of the way through John.

So tonight and tomorrow we're going to get through John chapter 21. Zero chance that's going to happen. But I've been giving you an assignment for what it's worth to read the gospel as much as you can and just look for some unique observation or connection that jumps out. Anybody have a chance to read John or a part of it today?

And just something stood out to you. You'd be willing to share with the group. Maybe one or two before we get started. Yes, please.

That is true. Now you're stealing my thunder. You had to pick chapter four from today. Kidnistice, he said, the Samaritans and Jews were enemies to some degree.

Now, they certainly had animosity with one another. And would usually walk around. But Jesus goes straight through Samaria. And we're going to talk about that today.

That is a very good and important observation. Maybe one more. Yes. Well said.

He did. And that's part of the theme of Hebrews as well. We have a high priest who sympathizes with us in every way and yet was what? Without sin.

Without sin. Great observation. Love it. All right.

So let's review really quickly what we've covered so far. John 1 starts off with as high of a Christology as possible. John wants to make sure we know that Jesus was with God, the Father, and he was God, and he is God. He's preexistent.

He's the light of the world. He's the source of life. Then it shifts very quickly. John the Baptist is introduced as the one who's not the Messiah, not the prophet, not Elijah.

But with John the Baptist, we get introduced this idea of those who witness and testify to who Jesus is. John the Baptist does that well. He's the first and the second part of John chapter 1. And then we have Jesus gathering his disciples.

You don't have all 12 like in the synoptics. But who do we have really quickly? Andrew, the first evangelist. Yes, brother Peter, Philip, and the fanul, whoever Nathaniel is, maybe Bartholomew.

I think that's probably right. Then we shift into chapter 2, and we have Jesus doing the first miracle. Turns water into wine at a wedding. But we saw in Amos 913, this was a messianic claim.

Because when the Messiah came, the wine would flow. And so Jesus turns, what was it? Six jars of I can remember how many 30 gallons each. The water was flowing into wine.

And this is a messianic claim by Jesus. Clear the temple. And then in John chapter 3, this Pharisee named Nicodemus, a religious leader, comes to him at night. And he says, you have to be born again.

Why? Because Jesus just told us at the end of chapter 2 that he did not trust himself fully to human beings, because he knew what was inside of man. Hence what's inside of us that's not in Jesus, we need to be born again. Well, John 3, at the very end, you have just John the Baptist being held up as about as ideal of a disciple in this gospel as you could have.

He says, Christ must increase, and I must what? Decrease. And all of you went home, you're like, you know what? I'm going to get that as a tattoo on my arm.

So yes, who's in? Honestly. No, you're not through your hand. You are.

All I ever been are 22 is like, I'm in. Let's go. And then we shift to chapter 4. And now we have Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman.

Also, a very interesting and fascinating conversation. So let's pick up John chapter 4. And we will Lord willing make it through this chapter tonight. All right.

Right away it says, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees heard he was making and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself was not baptized, but as a disciples word, he left you today and went again to Galilee. Now what's the third word in that sentence when Jesus what? Learned. Now why is it interesting that the chapter starts with that?

Because I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. But Jesus has supernatural insight into this woman at the well that he meets. But at the same time, he learns. What is going on here?

The idea of Jesus learning strikes us as bizarre, because if you learn something, presumably you didn't know it. If you don't know something, you can't be God. So Jesus, we have this indication that he learned something. But it also has divine insight.

In part, what we are being told in John repeatedly is Jesus is the pre-existent eternal God. And he's what? Human. He's both.

Now we can philosophically talk about how to make sense of this and come up with models that are consistent. But what we're doing is biblical theology here. Jesus is the eternal pre-existent God. And it implies that he learns something, which of course we see in Luke 2.52, Jesus grew in wisdom and he's a statue of favor of God and favor of the man.

And yet he's divine. So keep that in mind very interestingly we see. So the Pharisees had heard he was making more. Jesus learned the Pharisees heard.

He was making more disciples than John. He left you today and went again to Galilee. Now, it doesn't say yet that the Pharisees want to kill him. It's like he's starting to sense the heat a little bit.

It's not until chapter five. Who knows what Jesus does that turns them against them officially and they want to kill them. What is it that Jesus actually does that turns them against them? Just throw it out there.

Go. He heals on the Sabbath. That's, he didn't tell him to pick his mat, which is the same language as Mark 2, which is interesting. But he tells them when he does this on the Sabbath, that's going too far.

So far you have the Pharisees. They're questioning John the Baptist. OK, who are you? What's going on?

They're concerned about the number of people being baptized by Jesus. What's happening here? But they haven't really turned against him. And by the way, Nicodemus comes at night, which suggests they didn't quite want to side with Jesus publicly yet.

But they're still not fully opposed to him at this age. He's still kind of doing a little bit in private so far. And this story also is going to continue in that. So let's keep going here, it says.

He had to travel through Samaria. So he came to town with Samaria called Saikar. You're the property that Jacob had given his son, Joseph. Now, in a sense, he had to travel through Samaria.

It's not like he physically had to. In other words, if you want to go to Dead Essenation, you have so much of deadline to get there, well, that's the route to get there. So you're right. Typically, it was just about a three day trip for him.

They would cross the Jordan, go down, and then cross the Jordan again to avoid Samaria. Why? He just goes because of Samaritans. That's all you kind of need to know.

Where did the animosity with the Samaritans come from? It actually came from when Samaria came in and exiled the Jews, from northern Israel. Samaria exiled many of the inhabitants, and then they brought in many people from the outside into the land, and they started to interbreed, so to speak, and mixed some of their teachings. So to the Jews, they were half-reads, half-bloods, whatever insult you want to say.

They have compromised the temples in the wrong place. They only accept the Pentateuch. They don't have the prophets, and they don't have the Psalms. So they're a compromising, slacking, unfaithful people group that, in a sense, are unclean.

That's how they're viewed. So, of course, in Luke 10, the story Jesus tells of the good Samaritan was, in part so insulting, because, wait a minute, you're going to take somebody like a Samaritan and make them into the hero? This is not what you would do. So that's why they would avoid Samaria.

Now, in part, because they did not want to be defiled by the Samaritans, was Jesus worried about that? The answer is no. It's actually hard to do that you think out of practice. Say yes and go like this.

It actually takes discipline to learn it. But the answer is no. Jesus was not worried about being defiled. So when lepers would come up, what would happen?

You wouldn't touch a leper, you'd be defiled. What did Jesus do? When he touches the leper, he made the leper clean. So you couldn't defile Jesus in that way, because he's God and he is holy.

So he's not worried about getting defiled. That's not his concern. So he chooses to go right through Samaria. So that's a little bit of the backdrop of the story here.

It says, so he came to a town called Sychar. No one as far as I'm aware knows exactly where Sychar is. But it's near the property that Jacob had given his son, Joseph. So we're back to the patriarchs.

Jacob's well was there. And Jesus was worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. Now, how is it that somebody who's pre-existent and who heals people and was with God and is God has to sit down because he's tired?

I mean, honestly, how does that happen? So I have Muslim apologists who raised the time. There's a contradiction here. And I'm like, John invites us to see this tension.

He starts off in John 1 14 saying what? He is the word who was made, took on flesh. He's inviting this paradox. He's inviting this mystery that Jesus God, and he's tired.

And he's thirsty. And he learns something. There's something bizarre and amazing and incredible taking place in this person of Jesus. All right.

Now, a couple other things from this that are important. It says, Jacob's well was there. Now, we actually know exactly where this was. There's only so many roads, so many wells, on this road between where he was headed through Samaria.

We actually know exactly where this took place. Now, we don't have time to do this, but you go through the gospel. John chapter after chapter, we know where the pool of Siloam was. We know where Bethesda was.

We know where this well was. These are real places and real times. And by the way, this well today, I think it's inside like an Orthodox church now, which is interesting. It's about 100 feet deep, which means it was probably deeper back in the day.

It's like, with our technology, we can draw something out from 100 feet. But imagine the technology 2,000 years ago trying to draw water from something that's 100 feet down, obviously would raise a lot of challenges. It's significant and intentional that this takes place at Jacob's well. Very, very important.

OK? All right, let's keep going. It was about noon, we're told. A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Now, is it surprising that a woman would come to draw water? No. Typically, women did most of the drawing of water at this time. And we see this in some of the other stories in the Bible.

That's not in common. But as we read the story, for her to then speak with Jesus, she has three checks against her. One, she's a woman. Second, she's from Samaria.

And third, it seems to imply some sexual unfaithfulness in her life. Three checks against her. And Jesus obviously doesn't hold it against her, and ministers to her. So it's a woman from Samaria just came to draw water.

Now, there's actually other water wells that were closer to where she lived. So why do you think she went to this one? And yes, it's like Ray Tran tells what you think. Why would she come to this one?

By the way, it says she came a woman came. This is not a group today. It would come in groups of women draw water. What do you think?

You got to be loud speaking here yet. You know what? The text doesn't say that. But that's a very reasonable guess, isn't it?

She's coming alone. She's going further than she has to. It might be because what Jesus is about to reveal about her life, she everybody else knew that in a small town. And so maybe she's going alone to do it.

Now, it could be that there's better living water here. And this is Jacob's well. Maybe that's worth the effort. Maybe, but it's hot.

There's no AC. I don't know. I think you're probably right. But the text doesn't directly say that.

But nonetheless, it's interesting that she comes alone. And she goes further to this well. I guess you could argue that God is guiding her in some sovereign supernatural sense for Jesus to meet her there. That's certainly would fit with a biblical understanding.

But the text doesn't say that. So we've got to try to guess and piece together why she came alone further to this well than another well. And I think your guess is as good as mine. Give me a drink, Jesus said, to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

And then she says in verse 9, how is it that you, a Jew? By the way, if there's any debate about the descent of Jesus, what do we have clarity on? He's Jewish. Makes it very, very clear in John chapter 4.

So how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from a Samaritan woman? She asks for Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Now again, this is a little bit of an understatement. That's a nice way of saying they don't associate.

When you're out, it's a rivalry. And there's animosity. And in fact, the Jews in about the 4th century, I'm sorry, that Samaritans 4th century BC had built their temple in Gerism. And about 200 BC, a Jewish, Hasmonean ruler, destroyed it, burnt it down, only increasing the animosity between them.

They were aware of this history. So to say they didn't associate with one another, let's just say, I don't know if I'd say understatement of the year, but that's an understatement. She said, Jesus answered, if you knew the gift of God, and who was saying to you, give me a drink, you would ask. And he would give you living water.

Now, what is this reveal? Number one, she doesn't understand who he is. She's clueless as to his identity so far. And said she would ask him, so instead of him asking her, she's saying if you understood the dynamic of what's happening here, you would be asking me.

So what's taking place here? Remember, Jesus is the creator. He's taken on human flesh. He's walking amongst us, but what happens?

We don't recognize him. She's a stand-in for somebody physically talking to Jesus doesn't know who she's talking to. Now, living water actually has a double meaning. If water was stale and didn't move, they could tell even in those days, they didn't understand like bacteria, but they could tell that is not healthy good water to drink.

So water that flowed was considered living water. So in part, he's appealing to something they would understand pure, clean living water, but also he means what? Back to John chapter three. He's caring for this idea of being born of water and being born of the spirit.

So he's bringing back in this idea of living water. Now, clearly with her, it's Sir said the woman. You don't even have, by the way, do we have her name? Do we have her name?

Why do we have Nicodemus's name, but not her name? I don't know the answer to that. I just want to know why do we have one or not the other. Now, by the way, Nicodemus would have been dead almost for certainly.

He was older in age as a Jewish religious leader when Jesus talks with him around 80, 30. John wrote this book in the 90s. So we don't hear what happened to Nicodemus, but I would bet and strongly think unless he lived faithfully in the Bible, he would not have been included by name because other people would have known him in John chapter three. Why do we not have her name?

I have no idea. I'm not sure. If anybody has a guess, let me know. But we're not told her name specifically.

It's just said, Sir said the woman, you don't even have a bucket and the well is deep. Where do you get this living water? Now, what can somebody tell me? What theme are we seeing here that is just repeated through the rest of John?

What theme are we seeing? Go. What's going right over their heads? So good.

So Jesus is making a vertical spiritual point and they see merely the earthly horizontal point. So you must be born again and what does Nicodemus say? I'm old. How do somebody get back inside their mother's womb?

When Jesus is like, you got to eat my fly, drink my blood. They're like, wait a minute. This is offensive. What are you talking about?

They don't understand it. That's exactly what's happening here. So Jesus is talking about living water, which means eternal life. And she's like, where's your bucket?

How are you going to get this stuff? It's kind of an adventure in missing the point. Now with that said though, we've read John. We know the end of the story.

This is the first time Jesus is revealing himself, especially to somebody who's a Samaritan. So it's easy to think, hello, you know, McFly, knucklehead, how hard is it? But in her position, like this is a pretty radical thing that Jesus is saying. So I think it's important to kind of keep that in mind while we're reading the story as well.

She says, so where do you get this living water? And then she says, you aren't greater than our father, Jacob, are you? Now what do you think she believes at this stage? What do you think she believes?

Is she saying, are you greater than Jacob like, tell me about that? How do you think she asks this question? I think that's probably right. Sarcasm, which by the way, is a spiritual gift.

I consider it the sixth love language. I don't think this is a genuine question like, oh, are you greater than Jacob? I think she's saying, you really think you're greater than Jacob. Are you kidding me?

I mean, think about it. They shared Samaritans and Jews shared the Pentateuch in common, the Torah, first five books of the Bible. And these are the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And some guys she's never heard of her, met comes walk along, asks for water, and says, I will give you living water.

And she's like, what are you talking about? You don't even have a bucket. Of course she doesn't think he's greater than Jacob. That would be a preposterous thing to claim, unless of course he really is the I am, but he hasn't revealed himself yet.

So she's not convinced. She's skeptical. She's not believing. She's like, you really think you're greater than Jacob.

Now before we go any further, one of the themes of John is that Jesus is greater than who. Jesus is greater than everyone except the Father. So this is in John 3, and we see this more so in John 6, Jesus is greater than Moses. John 8, we see, now by the way, we won't get there, but when in John chapter 6 what happens?

They're like, give us a sign. And he talks about how he will be lifted up. And he says, I am the bread of life. Moses gave you bread that was perishable.

I give you bread that is imperishable. Jesus is saying he's the prophet from Deuteronomy chapter 18, who was told he'd be greater than Moses. And they say, before John chapter 8, they start debating about whose father they are. Jesus is like, your father is the devil.

I mean, Jesus doesn't speak boldly and speak truth. He's like, your father is a devil. He's a liar. He speaks from his very nature.

And they're like, you were born in sexual immorality, which by the way might be a hint towards the virgin birth, interestingly enough, because it's not covered to begin with John. And then what is they? They look at him and he's like, Abraham anticipated my day. You're not even 50.

How could he have you anticipated your day? What did he say before Abraham was born? I am. So they're out John.

It's made very clear he is greater than Moses. He's greater than Abraham. He also hints at Isaiah when he quotes Isaiah, says Isaiah anticipated my day. He's basic greater than everybody except that he submits to the father.

This is the first time it's really clear where she's sarcastically saying, you think you're greater than Jacob? And the answer is, yeah, actually I do. And he is. Of course he doesn't speak of that way, but that's the point that he makes.

He says, you aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and livestock. Verse 13. Jesus said, everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again.

But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. Perishable versus imperishable. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of springing a water, springing up in him for eternal life. Now, something fascinating about this is does anybody know who is considered the fountain of living water in the Old Testament?

And I guess somewhat of a tricky question the way I phrased it. Because Jesus says he's the bread of life, but he doesn't say he's like a water of life, the Holy Spirit is the one who's tied more to the flowing of water and the giving of life. But in Jeremiah 2 verses 13, Yahweh is considered the fountain of living water. Jeremiah 2 verse 13.

So when he's claiming to be Yahweh, I will give you eternal water. Now, Yahweh and Jesus will both give it through the Spirit. But when Jesus is how we live in water, if you look at the Old Testament, Jeremiah 2, 13, Yahweh is the one who is the fountain of living water. Do you see how radical of claims that Jesus is making?

Now, that's from Jeremiah. Do Samaritan accept the prophets? No, so she probably wouldn't have picked up on that. But later smart readers did Hume would.

All right, sir, the woman said to me, give me this water so I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water. Like that seems reasonable. I've got eternal water for you. Do you want some of this?

Any smart person? I'd sure give me this eternal water. We still don't know the tone by which he's saying this. And I still don't think she's convinced yet.

She's like, okay, give me this water. Fine. You think you're so smart? I don't know who you are, where you came from.

And then he says, like totally randomly it has nothing to do the conversation. So the woman says, give me this water. So I don't get thirsty and come here to draw water. He says, go call your husband.

He told her and come back here. I don't have a husband. She answered, you have correctly said I don't have a husband. I would give a lot of money to see her face on this one.

Like who's the authority of her life? She is. She knows that she has a husband or not. And she's like, I don't have a husband.

He's like, you have answered correctly that you don't have a husband. At this point you'd be thinking, who is this person who's claiming to be the authority of my life? Are you kidding me? Like what is happening here?

But then what he says next is where her face heading completely shifted. For you've had five husbands. And then you're going to have, it's not your husband. What you have said is true.

Now the whole narrative shifts. Now he's not just saying, go call your husband. I can give living water. Now he knows something that humanly speaking he could not have known.

This is where the narrative shifts. And she says what? Sir the woman replied, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worship.

Now she hasn't quite said you're the son of God like Nathaniel's proclamation. You are the Messiah, the son of God, the king of Israel. She's like, you're a prophet. Okay, something supernatural is happening here.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you do say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem. Now some people think she's trying to like slice up the issue away from her sin. I think if I had a guess, when she realized that he's a prophet, she kind of asked the pressing theological question that just comes to mind she wants to know about.

That's my guess. But let's keep going and see what happens. Jesus told her, believe me woman. Now again, is this like believe me woman?

No, it's like how Jesus talked with his mom and John too. He talked to the mom again in John 19. It's not a rude denigrating way of like woman the way this sometimes a language happens in our culture. That's not the way he's speaking to her.

Believe me woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Now, by the way, where was the hearts of kings were supposed to come from? You were supposed to rule from and you would worship God from his what? Jerusalem.

So in this statement, Jesus just offended everybody. He just offended the Jews by saying the time will come where it will not be about Jerusalem. And he also offended the Samaritans by saying you also got the wrong place. But of course, he's just talking with the woman here.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know. You worship what we do know because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.

God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Now, this is John chapter four. Are we supposed to worship anyone or anything that's not God? John tries to bow down to the angels and revelation is like, nope, stand up.

In Cornelius follows down at the feet of Peter in Acts chapter 10. He's like, nope, stand up. I'm just a man. But fast forward five chapters in John chapter nine.

Jesus heals the blind man and he says you believe in the Son of Man. He says show me the son of man. I believe in him. He says the one you're talking about is speaking to you.

And he says, Lord, and he worships him. So here Jesus is saying we worship God alone in spirit and in truth. Five chapters later, he accepts worship from the blind man who recognizes he's the son of man, a divine claim and calls him Lord also a divine claim. Now, a couple of other quick things about this and then we'll stop and see a question you have.

He says salvation again is from the Jews. But now his company is now here when two worshipers worship father in spirit and in truth. The father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit.

Those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Why is it so important that we worship God in spirit and truth? And by the way, I think this is talking about human spirit with the right attitude, with the right heart we worship God. It's not about the activity.

It's not just about true. It's not just about worshiping God. It's worshiping God with the right spirit and with the right heart. But here's a dividing line, interestingly, with Mormon theology.

Again, it's in the back of my mind. It's more than actually believe that God the father is physical and has a physical body. That is Mormon theology. Jesus took on a physical body.

The father has a physical body. This passage, I think, quite obviously raises some challenges for that theology. God is spirit. So why do we worship him in the right spirit?

Because that's what God is. He's not physical. He doesn't have matter. He doesn't have extension in space.

In fact, the whole reason that Jesus took on flesh is why. Because God is spirit and has to take on flesh to be in a different form. So God is spirit. So we're not worshiping him here or over there.

God in the sense is omnipresent. God is everywhere by the power and presence of his spirit. God is spirit. Then the woman said to him, I know that the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ.

When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Jesus told her, I, the one speaking to you, in He. Now Jesus never speaks the words. He never says, I am the Messiah.

But he functionally just said, I, the one speaking to you in He, which is what? The Messiah. He claims to be, if we take a step back, he claims to be the Son of man, which is divine. He claims to be the Messiah here.

He accepts worship. He needs to get tired. Who is this Jesus guy? He wants attention in the story.

Okay. Just then his disciples arrived and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. No one said, what do you want or why are you talking with her? There's some old, for the most part, Jewish rabbis would not speak to women in a public place like this.

They just wouldn't. Jesus isn't breaking the law. He's just doing something to kind of give people a little bit of pause and be like, wait a minute, what are you doing? But you can see his disciples are starting to develop a little bit of fear and respect for Jesus.

They're starting to keep, he might have a good reason for what he does, even if I don't understand it, no one had the guts to ask him exactly why. Nonetheless, they were surprised. I love this detail. I never noticed this.

Then the woman left her water jar, went into town and told the people, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? They left the town and made the way to him. Now, why are we told that she left her water jug?

Why do we need that detail? Because there's a shift between I came to get the physical water, but now that I have water and I will never thirst again, I don't need this jar. Now, of course, we still need water, but the point, there's a contrast here saying the whole reason she came, she left with a different purpose and just left the water jug behind. I think what this points out is that we see things as God sees things.

What we thought was most important starts to pale in comparison. The more we see as Jesus sees and the less we see as the world sees, the more things that we thought were so important we leave behind as we follow after Jesus. This woman, whatever her name is, is an incredible witness for Christ. She's incredible.

And here's some more things that it says. She went to town and she said, come see. Now who first said come and see? Jesus did.

At the very beginning, to the two disciples of John the Baptist, they want to know where he's staying, he's like, come and see. And then what does Philip say? Then Nathaniel, come and see. There's something about just inviting people into, come and look at the scriptures.

Come to church. Come experience and consider who this person Jesus is. It's like a kind but confident invitation. Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did.

Now did Jesus tell her everything she ever did? So why did she say that? What do you think? Okay, so one piece, she knows that Jesus knows everything now.

Okay, that's good. Why else would she say? Let me tell you about a man who told me everything I ever did. There is some hyperbole, true.

But why hyperbole here? Yes. But why would she say that? He definitely knew her sin.

That's for sure. I think she's just excited. She's like, I'm at this guy. He blew me away.

It's like somebody watches Steph Curry and they're like, he doesn't miss a shot. He makes every shot. Now he misses, but that's not inaccurate because it feels like he makes ridiculous shots. That pills in comparison to Jesus.

I think that's what she's doing. She's caught up in her enthusiasm, caught up in that he knows certain things and she's just like given hyperbole because she can't contain herself. It's bubbling over. I think it's the enthusiasm that we see coming through.

A verse 31, in the meantime the disciples kept urging him, Rabbi, eat something. Again it's like, do you see what's going on here? Like you're missing the point. I have food to eat that you don't know about.

The disciples said to one other, could somebody have brought him something to eat? Like they're just, this is one reason why I think that the Bible is true. Is that if this is written by John, who's an eyewitness and a disciple of Jesus, why invent embarrassing material like this? It's not human nature.

It's all over the gospels, which tells me they care more about truth and telling the story accurately than trying to make themselves look good. That's a hint to me of the veracity of the testimony. Verse 34, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Jesus told him, don't you say there are still four months and then comes harvest?

Listen to what I'm telling you, open your eyes and look at the fields because they are ready for harvest. The reapers are to receive and pay in gathering fruit or eternal life. It all comes back to eternal life. So the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

For in this case, the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I say you'd reap what you didn't labor for, others have labored and you have benefited from their labor. In other words, there's been other workers before who have some we have ministered to and testified to this woman. Jesus shows up and of course he's Jesus, but he's able to speak in a certain way and see the fruit of eternal life right before his eyes.

Rather than going, wow, I'm amazing. Look what I did. We should be amazed that God is the one who brings eternal life and changes lives and realize all the people for years who have been sowing into their lives. That's why success in evangelism is not solely conversion.

If it is, then both Jesus and Paul were failures. Success in evangelism is being filled with the Holy Spirit and lovingly speaking the truth and leaving the results to God. That's success. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, lovingly speaking the truth and leaving the results to God.

That's success. He's clearly the disciples hadn't got that memo yet. But let's keep going. Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified.

What is John telling us? She did exactly right. She went out and she told and others were drawn to from their testimony. He told me everything I ever did.

She said it twice by the way. That's the first time I noticed that. So the Samaritans came to him so they listened to her and they're convinced but now they want to go to Jesus. They asked him to stay with him and he stayed there two days.

So not only did he journey through Samaria, but he stays there two full days. That's a lot of time. In other words, if you had just skipped going through this route, you would have gotten to the destination at the same time, which is interesting. But of course the story he's telling us, he chose wisely.

Many more believe because of what he said. And they told the woman, we no longer believe because of what he said. Since we've heard for ourselves and know this really is the Savior of the world, yet another title for Jesus. King of Israel, Son of Man, pre-existent one, Son of God, Yahweh, the prophet, he is, you know the titles.

All right. Let's be going. After two days he left there for Galilee. Jesus himself had testified that prophet has no honor in his own country.

When they entered Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem during the festival. They had also gone to the festival. Okay. Not a ton of commentary on that one.

All right. Last story here and then we'll take some questions before we wrap up. He went again to Cana of Galilee. Now what did Jesus do first in Cana?

Turn water into wine. That was where his first miracle was. In Cana, not Cana. In Cana.

He went again to Cana of Galilee where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. Now this is not a royal official who was likely a Gentile. There's no evidence for this.

This was likely a Jewish royal official of the court in some fashion or another. This is not like the centurion we learned about in Matthew 8 where Jesus distinctly heals somebody outside of the flock of Israel or the seer of Phoenician women. This is not what's going on here. This is a royal official.

Comes up to Jesus. Now always ask myself when somebody comes to Jesus, how did this royal official hear? How did he know? Answer according to John is what?

People are testifying. People are seeing the miracles of Jesus. They're encountering him and they're doing what John is about. They're going and telling people about Jesus.

Now does he show up because he wants to live in water? No. Does he show up because he wants the bread of life? No.

Why does he show up? Because his son is dying and his son is sick. This is a father who's probably desperate. Here's the story about Jesus has enough hate to go to him.

My suspicion is that he really think Jesus can't do this or not. I don't know. I'm not sure. He's not coming for spiritual reasons.

He's coming because he thinks Jesus can make his son well. Understandable. And then it says, when this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea in the Galilee, he went to him. So people are talking about Jesus coming and going.

He went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son since he was about to die. He pleaded with him. This is a desperate father who seems to love and care for his son. He's pleading with him.

So he certainly had enough faith to make the journey. He certainly has enough faith to plead with him. And he's just hoping maybe he can and will heal his son. Jesus told him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

Sir, the official said to him, come down before my boy dies. Go, Jesus told him, your son will live. The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed. Isn't it interesting that it says he believed after?

He had to have enough belief to come to him in the first place he plead with him. But then after Jesus tells him, he believed what? Not just that Jesus in general could heal, but that Jesus what? He was the son.

There's a big difference between believing that Jesus can forgive sins and confessing and repenting of your own sins and believing that Jesus has forgiven you. One is general, the other is specific. And Jesus commends this man because he believes him. He believes and he personalized it.

Verse 51, while he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. John captured the enthusiasm of how the servants were approaching him. It makes it sound like his arms way down to the servants met him. This is where with all humility on the planet, I want to go John lean into the enthusiasm here.

They know their royal official left days ago. His son who he loves is dying. He's pleading for them. So they probably rushed and they went and the moment it's like when you have a surprise and you just can't wait to tell somebody and see their reaction, can you imagine the whole time they're like, how do you think he's going to respond?

Who gets to tell him? I get to tell him. No, you get to tell him. Like all this stuff is going through their mind.

The man says, yes, them at what time he got better. Yesterday one in the afternoon the fever left him. The father realized this was the very hour in which Jesus had told him your son will live. Here's the thing with the miracle people miss.

A miracle is not just something that's unexpected or it's not somebody who just doesn't have cancer anymore. It's one something that's unexpected like a fever that's going. But second, the timing is what gives us confidence that it's divine. So there are people that have cancer that goes away.

Maybe there's natural causes for it. Maybe it is a miracle. But we know it's a miracle when somebody prays and they're healed of something at that moment instantaneously. That's how we recognize a miracle.

And that's exactly what happened with his father. Not only did his son, we could imagine over a couple of days that fever went away but went to go away exactly at that time. And as a result, what does he do? It says so he himself believed along with his whole household, which again feels pretty obvious.

Right? But they're telling us his whole household believe because they're faithful. But this was the second sign Jesus performed after he came from Judea. Now so far, how many good witnesses do we have to Jesus?

In the first four chapters, who do we have? Andrew is a great witness. First of angels, who else? John the Baptist, unbelievable.

Who else? The Samaritan woman we just read. Who else? Don't forget Philip.

He went and told Nathaniel. Right? Okay, Jesus. But the question was how a witness to Jesus but is Nicodemus yet a good witness?

No, he's not. In the next chapter, we're about to see a miracle of somebody who had been lame and paralyzed 38 years. And Jesus heals him, but he's not a good witness. You see what John is doing, he's giving us different examples of people how they respond to the miracles and the signs of Jesus.

Andrew, incredible. John the Baptist humbling. Nathaniel gets it. A woman of Samaria today, we'd be like, she is on fire for Jesus.

That's the language we would use in evangelicalism today. Man healed after 38 years. In the next story, we're given some contrast of somebody who does not witness in the way they should. Now, we're going to get there tomorrow, but we do have about five minutes.

Questions, clarification, thanks, I miss. Yes, go. That's a great question. We're not told a lot.

Let me see verse 25 here. It says, the woman said, I know that the Messiah is coming who's called the Christ. When he comes to explain everything to us. Now, the idea that the Messiah will explain everything to us is not chapter and verse, but they're expecting a Messiah because you have some of the first messianic prophecies like Genesis 3 15.

You have in Genesis 49, specifically from the tribe of Judah. You have Deuteronomy chapter 18. So they're expecting a Messiah, but one that would have been different from the Jews because again, they don't have the Psalms. So you take out Psalms 22.

You don't have Isaiah. You take out the suffering servant. Take out Jeremiah and the new covenant. So they're expecting a Messiah, but a very, very different Messiah.

So there's some intersection between it and some differences. Yeah, good question. All the way in the back. Great question.

Yeah. Now, I would actually say this conversation is probably a summary of what all the things that they talked about. This happens a lot in the Bible, like the first speech of Peter in Acts chapter 2 is probably a summarized version of the whole talk that he gave. Nonetheless, if Jesus is there alone with the woman, how do I get this information?