Portraits of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Robert P. Lightner
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what God says. They are hearing from heaven! Jesus has received His authority from God. He has the Holy Spirit. He is filled or controlled by the Spirit.
This chapter which gives us the portrait of Jesus as the Savior of sinners concludes with the same emphasis given earlier in verses 16 to 18. In both passages those who believe, who receive Jesus as their Substitute for sin, are given eternal life. Those who do not receive Him will perish” (v. 16) and will experience “the wrath of God” (v. 36). The “eternal life” God gives to believing sinners does not begin at death. It commences the instant the new birth takes place. Those who will experience “the wrath of God” (v. 36) or eternal condemnation will do so because they have not accepted God’s love in Christ.
Personal Application
Personal applications from this portrait of Jesus include our need to be forgiven by God, to be born again. Regardless how good or religious we may be, we need to be born from above just as Nicodemus did. He was a good religious man too. Surely, no one wants to experience God’s wrath. Yet that is what will happen to all who do not accept Jesus the Savior of sinners as their own Savior.
Jesus did not tell Nicodemus to add more good works to things he was already doing. The only way he or anyone else can avoid eternal condemnation is to be born again, born from above.
Study Questions
1. What do you think attracted Nicodemus to Jesus the Savior of sinners?
2. Do you have any idea why Nicodemus chose to come to Jesus at night?
3. How was Jesus able to know what was on Nicodemus’ mind before he even asked?
4. What is the key verse in this chapter? Can you quote it?
5. Can you think of ways you can present the gospel message of this chapter to someone today or tomorrow?
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Meeting People’s Needs
Portrait 5
John 4
Caring, concern, and compassion for others is in short supply these days sometimes even among Christians. When it comes right down to it, many of us are a pretty selfish and self-centered lot. And to behave that way is really an animalistic trait.
Have you ever seen any hungry animal share its food with other animals at the trough? I have not but then maybe there are some rare exceptions. I know animals often eat out of the same dish or trough but I mean do they ever leave any intentionally for others? I do not think so. Do they ever find food and enlist others to share it with them? No!
Recently there have been some happy and welcome exceptions to our normally selfish and self-centered living. For instance, when the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 against the United States occurred, there was a widespread response of help regardless of race, color, or creed. After the Tsunami disaster in 2004 many countries gave millions of dollars for relief efforts. More recently, the Katrina hurricane tragedy in New Orleans and neighboring states in August, 2005 brought rescue efforts of all kinds from all across the United States to help the trapped and needy.
Throughout His life on earth Jesus was constantly seeking out people with needs and then meeting those needs for them. This portrait of Jesus is especially prominent in John 4. Here we see how He met the needs of a sinner, some saints, and a seeker.
But before we meet these people and watch Jesus and see how He met their needs, let’s observe where He and John the Baptist were and how He came upon the first needy soul. In the first four verses of John 4 we are told how Jesus became quite popular after John the Baptist introduced Him as the Lamb of God. People who had been following John left him and began following Jesus (v. 1). His disciples were baptizing more people who had believed than John the Baptist baptized. Jesus and His disciples left Judea and headed north to Galilee (v. 3). When traveling between Galilee and Jerusalem Jews usually avoided going through Samaria. Why? Because the people who lived there, the Samaritans, were usually hated and despised because they were not full-blooded Jews.
Jesus, however, “had to pass through Samaria” (v. 4) enroute to Galilee. He “had to”? Samaria was avoided like the plague by going the long way around it. Why then did Jesus “need” to go through Samaria? Was it because He was in a hurry? Was He fleeing from someone? No, it was because He had an important message for the people of the city. They needed to know of God’s love for them. Jesus did not come to earth to minister only to Jews. He came to seek and save the lost—all of them—regardless of color, race, gender, or creed. Later in the story Jesus reminded His disciples that His food was “to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (v. 34). This is the key verse for this portrait of Jesus.
A Woman of the World, vv. 5–26
While enroute to Samaria, Jesus came to Sychar, a city in Samaria. This small town was close by some land that years before Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Even more important than that, there was a water well there that Jacob had dug. This well was the divinely appointed place for Jesus and His disciples to stop and rest and be refreshed after a long and tiring day of travel.
Jesus was sitting beside the well resting at about 12:00 noon according to Jewish time. This would have been 6:00 p.m. by Roman time. From what follows in the story, Jesus did not have any way of getting water from the well as it was customarily done. He was so divine that He knew the woman of Samaria’s need yet He was so human that He was tired and thirsty and wanted help to get the water from the well.
We do not know how long He was there before the woman came to get water for her own use. We do know the disciples had been sent into the nearby City of Sychar to buy food, which means Jesus was there alone when the woman came. He said to her, “Give Me a drink” (v. 7). He spoke first and asked a favor of the woman, a Samaritan woman. That was most unusual.
Of course, Jesus was not surprised when the woman came. He, as the Son of God, not only knew she would come. He knew also precisely when she would come. And He knew who she was, a woman of the street who was living an immoral life. It was not therefore an accident or a mere coincidence that Jesus was there and she came there at the same time. This woman had a great need in her life, and Jesus began to meet her need immediately.
A rather lively question and answer session followed Jesus’ request of the woman. She responded in shock and amazement. She said, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman?” (v. 9). The woman and Jesus both knew full well that Jews, for the most part, just had no dealings with the Samaritans. It was understandable for her to raise the issue. After all, what Jesus was doing was most unusual. Two things concerned her deeply. First, she was a Samaritan and He was a Jew. Second, she was a woman and was there alone with the man Jesus and that was not at all normative in that culture.
Jesus’ reply to her related to her need for “living water” (v. 10)—salvation. She needed the gift God would give her for the taking. At this point she, of course, did not know that Jesus the Son of God, the Messiah, was the One who asked her for a drink. It is important to note that Jesus did not scold the woman for her sinful lifestyle but instead presented to her the gift of salvation. Changes in her life were needed but would come after she had received the gift, and they would not hinder her from receiving the gift.
Jesus alone was the One who could give the quality of water which would quench her thirst forever (vv. 10, 14). But how and where could He get this water? The woman must have been thinking of some special kind of physical water. Jesus did not have any means of getting it there. Since He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan, He could not use the bucket and rope she brought with her because the “Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans” (v. 9).
Great as he was, Jacob, who dug the well and who along with his sons and all his cattle drank from it, was far greater than Jesus as far as she was concerned (v. 12). When Jesus, unlike Jacob, said He could and would give her drink that would keep her from ever thirsting again, the woman asked for it. “Give me this water” (v. 15), she said, so I will not need to come here again.
So that she would understand her deepest need,