The Record of Our Lord’s Conversation with a Samaritan Woman
John 4:1-23

Lesson 16

background notes

doctrinal / teaching point
God does not sell bottled water.

 

practical application
Let’s practice relationship evangelism.

 

questions
1. At the time of Christ, how was the land of Israel divided?

2. By whom was the land of Samaria populated? Why wouldn’t the Jews have dealings with the Samaritans?

3. What was the Samaritan religion?

4. Where is Mount Gerizem located?

5. Why did the Lord leave Judea? Where was He going? Why did He travel through Samaria?

6. Give a brief history of Jacob’s well.

answers
1. Into three main regions – Galilee, Judea and Samaria

2. By a group of people who were not fully Jewish. The Jews considered the Samaritans as half-breeds, unclean and outside of Judaism. The Samaritans began their existence when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, and the capital of Samaria fell in about 722 B.C. The Assyrians deported a number of these Israelis, but then repopulated the land with captives from other nations. These captives brought with them their foreign gods (see 2 Kings 17). As a result of the intermarriages, the Samaritan race was born, and the Samaritan religion was started.

3. It was a mixture of Old Testament and certain elements from these foreign religions. They set up their own priesthood and their own place of worship on Mt. Gerizem.

4. Close to Jacob’s well, referred to by the woman in John 4:20.

5. He left to avoid friction with The Pharisees, and He traveled to Galilee. Normally, Jews would not travel through Samaria, but in John 4:4, we see that the Lord Jesus needed to go through Samaria. He knew that He had a pre-planned meeting with the Samaritan woman.

6. Jacob had purchased this well where Jesus and the Samaritan woman met, and he had given it to Joseph, his son, years before this time. Jacob’s well still exists today. In John 4:11, the woman speaks of it as a deep well. When archaeologists excavated this well in 1935, it was found to be 138' deep.

 

discuss / consider
1. Review the dos and don’ts of relationship evangelism.

2. Are you practicing relationship evangelism?

 

challenge
What does it mean, “God does not sell bottled water”? Are you drinking from the living water?

memorize

• “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”  John 4:14

  “True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  John 4:23-24