John 4:1-6

This year we are covering the four Gospel Accounts together in chronological order.

In the previous post, we covered John 3:31-36. Here was the conclusion:

John the Baptist told his disciples that people didn't believe his witness that Jesus was the Christ.

Today, we begin looking at Jesus the Evangelist. As we cover this story over four posts, notice how His evangelism technique was different than what most "Christians" do today...


John 4
"1 When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
2 (although Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples),
3 he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee."

(Remember, this chapter began with a sentence that stated Jesus had put His disciples to work: they were doing the baptizing. The baptizing that John's and Jesus' disciples did was a ritual cleansing that signified the person dedicated themself to God: they became a believer/converted. The Pharisees asked John if he was the Christ, Elijah, or a prophet since he had been doing this ritual without the approval of the religious leaders. Jesus avoided this confrontation. When Jesus found out the Pharisees heard about Him baptizing, Jesus left for Galilee.)

(Jesus went north to Galilee. Whether it was because Andrew, John, Phillip, Simon, and Nathanael were from Galilee or whether it was "the Harvard of Israel" because of the excellent rabbinical teaching, it was not time for Jesus to have a conflict with the Pharisees, so He went north.)

(Notice also, Jesus made more "disciples" than John the Baptist. We've seen that Jesus had already met Andrew, John, Phillip, Simon, and Nathanael. In this verse, we need to see the word "disciples" as "followers" and not the twelve disciples (which I will denote as Disciples). At this point, Jesus had many followers and had not commissioned/selected twelve Disciples.)

"4 And he must needs pass through Samaria."

(On the way to Galilee, Jesus and the disciples passed through Samaria. The Jews considered the Samaritans their enemy and would not even refer to them by name.)

"5 So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph:
6 and Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour."

(First, the name Sychar was a derogatory name given to the the city of Shechem. It meant "falsehood and drunkenness". Second, Jacob's well was there...which was also mentioned in Genesis 33:19, Genesis 48:22, and Joshua 24:32. Finally, it was noon. Jesus was hot, tired, and possibly thirsty...)


CONCLUSION
Jesus made more disciples than John the Baptist. Once Jesus knew the Pharisees were concerned with Him, He headed north to Galilee. On the way, He stopped by Jacob's well at noon...

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