The Book of John - Chapter 4 (Part 1)

Hello everyone!

We have made it to Chpater 4 in The Book of John! The main passage that we find in John 4 revolves around the Samaritan woman at the well. This story and chapter both have a significant amount of depth when it comes to learning about how God draws us to him. But even before that, there are some deep rooted truths that we can take from even the first 4 verses, which is what we will look at today! I think we could all agree that the bible flows naturally from verse to verse, chapter to chapter, and book to book; the transition from John 3 to John 4 is no different. We learn more about how Jesus centered his earthly ministry in relation to some of the topics we have learned about ministry from John the Baptist in chapter 3. Let's first look at how the labored in ministry.

John 4:1-4

As we start in verse 1, we see that Jesus's ministry is growing. Word was getting around to people, even the leaders of the day, about how Jesus was converting people to Christianity, and his followers were growing in number. Now this will not come as a suprise for those of you who read the study on preparing for Temptations, but not everyone will be excited when you are serving God. This case is no different. We will talk in greater detail about Jesus response to the growing hatred against him at this time a little bit later. For now, I want to focus on verse 2 where the disciples are shown to be performing the great commission before it was even given!

John 4:2 reveals to us that the disciples were the people who were actually baptizing the converted followers of Jesus. This is important when we look at the great commission that Jesus would give to his disciples before he ascended in Matthew 28:18-20. Let me quickly explain the great commission for anyone unfamiliar. There are 4 commands in the great commission. Do you know them? Do you practice then more importantly? Now back to explaining the great commission. The 4 commands are go, teach, baptize, and teach again in the KJV Bible. Many people believe that going is the main command of the great commission, but if you translate back to the greek, the main command is actually the first occurance of teach! The greek word is matheteusate meaning to make disciples (while the second occurance of teach is didaskontes meaning to impart wisdom). I am no Greek language expert by any means, but my Google research tells me that the -ate at the end of matheteusate makes it the main verb, while the -es at the end of didaskontes is a supporting verb.

I gave you all of this information to ask you one simple question. If Jesus's disciples were able to make other disciples, then how are we able to make other disciples? First, by being a disciple ourselves and by going, baptizing, and teaching all nations by the power that was given to Christ as you see in Matthew 28:18! The definition of a disciple is a learner, scholar, or someone who receives instruction from another. As we first learn more about the truths of God, we become more equipped to present the gospel to others. In turn, as they are converted, we as disciples of Christ are to baptize them and teach them what we have learned so that the process can continue and grow! You will notice that I made no mention of the command to go, but I believe that verses 3 and 4 help paint us a better picture of how the usage of the command to go should actually be taken.

John 4:3 reveals to us that Jesus departed on the way to Galilee. What is the significance of Galilee to Jesus? Well this is where Jesus grew up! Nazareth is in the southwest region of Galilee. When things get hard, and people are against you, what better place to go than home where you are loved! (There is more symbolism in that statement about how our home is with Jesus that could be taken, but I will leave that with you for the time being.) Relating this back to the great commission, we realize one great truth. For one, when a mission field closes for us, we can always go back to the first place you were called to serve God, home. God specifically gives direction on where we are to live so that he wants us to be able to reach that community!

Lastly, let's discuss Jesus's path back to Galilee in John 4:4. Why did Jesus need to go through Samaria? I believe there are two valid reasons, but 1 is significantly more important than the other. 1) He was seeking to avoid full frontal confrontation with the religious leaders of the day who were not happy with Jesus's message. To the Jewish people, the Samaritans were a lesser then people. The religious leaders of that time had convinced everyone that the Samaritan land was unclean and should be avoided. However, we see here and also later in verse 8, that Jesus had no fear of defilement by the land that he was in. He knew that God's holiness would last with him throughout his journey! However, there is a more important reason. 2) Jesus had a divinely set appointment with the Samaritan woman! We will see later in the chapter that an entire city believed in Jesus because of this interaction. It is important for us to follow the direction physically and spiritually that God is giving us because there is no telling what work we will be used for!

Thank you all so much for reading. Please share this study with others! I will be praying that all hearts will be open to this message!

Thanks

God Bless