THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

John: Believing On The Christ, The Son Of God, For Eternal Life

Part XIV: Believing On Christ Due To His Witness To A Samaritan Woman, John 4:1-42

C. Believing On Christ Due To His Continuing Impact After His Witness To The Samaritan Woman

(John 4:39-42)

I. Introduction

A. Were Jesus to have impressed only the Samaritan woman to believe on Him due to His interaction with her, and were she then to have led others to believe in Him based on that interaction, one might conclude He had by chance used just the right words in just the right circumstances to persuade her and these people to trust in Him, that the whole event was a fortuitous encounter so that He was thus no real Messiah after all.

B. However, as Jesus stayed with the Samaritans for two more days, the impact He initially had with her kept on spreading to them, testifying greatly to the validity of His identity as the Biblical Messiah (as follows):

II. Believing On Christ Due To His Continuing Impact After His Witness To The Samaritan Woman.

A. Jesus had impacted the Samaritan woman, and she in her telling of that impact led others to believe in Him, John 4:39: Jesus' having told her of her extensive marital history without having personally interacted with her before this event had made His claim to be the Messiah very credible, John 4:38 with 4:17-19, 25-26, 28-29.

B. Yet, even greater evidence of His credibility as Messiah arose in His ensuing ministry at Samaria, Jn. 4:40-42:

1. The Samaritans of the city of Sychar, impacted by the Samaritan woman's testimony about Jesus, came out to Jacob's well where He sat to meet Jesus and to ask Him to remain with them for a while, John 4:40a.

2. Jesus accepted their invitation and stayed with them two days, so there would have much opportunity for the rest of the city to visit with Him and to discern for themselves if He was the true Messiah, John 4:40b.

3. Of note, Jesus' initial impact with the Samaritan woman continued to spread and to deepen with the other people of the city due to their own exposure to His words, John 4:41. As many of those who believed told the Samaritan woman they believed "no longer" (ouketi, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 335; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 596-597) due to her word, but due to Jesus' words unto them, convincing them He was "the Savior of the world" (John 4:42), the impact of Christ's own ministry deepened the previous faith of those who had put their faith in Christ due to the woman's testimony.

4. Just what in Christ's ministry so deeply affected these Samaritans is implied in verse 42: the Greek text does not have the word, "Christ" in that verse as does the KJV, only the title, "the Savior of the world," U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966, p. 335. This is revealing in light of Samaritan beliefs (as follows):

a. Nowhere else in the Greek text of the Gospels is Jesus called "the Savior of the world," Moulton & Geden, Conc. to the Grk. Test., 1974, s. v. soter (p. 931); only the Samaritans in Israel thus voiced it, so it must have arisen from the five books of Moses they held alone to be canonical, Z. P. E. B., v. Five, p. 246.

b. Well, in Genesis 49:9-10, ancestor Jacob had predicted Messiah's arrival, and in verse 10 he called Him the "Restgiver" (Shiloh), adding that "when the 'peoples' become aware of these superior achievements of his, they shall willingly tender 'to him obedience.'" (H. C. Leupold, Expos. of Genesis, 1974, v. II, p. 1179)

c. The Hebrew term "peoples" ('ammim) there refers to people groups, not nations (as in goim), and the Samaritans were not a nation, but a people group living in the Roman Procuratorship of Judaea, Ibid., p. 1180; R. B. Girdlestone, Syns. of the O. T., 1973, p. 256-257; The MacMillan Bib. Atlas, 1968, map 229).

d. The Samaritans thus saw Jesus' great grace that was first exhibited to the Samaritan woman when He as a Jewish man asked her for a drink from her vessel (John 4:7), grace that was repeated by His continuing gracious interaction with them: He displayed God's restful, healing grace that so vastly contrasted with the brutal, legalistic rejection they had faced from so many other Hebrews, which display identified Him as the Shiloh "Restgiver" foretold to come by Jacob (John 4:12; Genesis 49:10) for the people groups of the world, including despised Samaritans, thus marking Him as the SAVIOR of the world, John 1:14-16.

Lesson: Jesus' continuing and deepening impact on the Samaritans even after hearing the Samaritan woman's own testimony about Jesus further validated His claim to be the Messiah, "Shiloh" Savior of the world.

Application: (1) May we trust in Jesus as the Son of God, Messiah, and Savior of the world. (2) May we also like Jesus reflect His great "restful" GRACE to a very lost, pagan world full of hateful division and errant legalism that they might find their true "rest" in Him, the world's Only Great, True "Restgiver" and hence Savior.