Whether you’re a guest or a long-time attendee we’re glad you’re here with us. We’re a friendly and caring group of Christians who are here to help people be CONNECTED with Jesus, CHANGED by Jesus, and COMMITTED to the mission of Jesus.

Sermon Series: Today we’re starting a brand new mini series where we’re taking a look at how to love like Jesus and live like a missionary!

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³ he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. ⁴ And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.⁶ Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.^[a]

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.^[b] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷ Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Sharing our faith can oftentimes be intimidating. In this part of God’s Word, we see Jesus talking with a woman that many people had completely rejected. By taking a look at this story we not only see God’s heart for the lost, but we also see an amazing example of what it looks like to share our faith.

1. Talk with people

John 4:7-9, Col. 4:6, 1 Thess. 5:11, Eph. 4:25-29

2. Point people towards God’s goodness

John 4:10-15, Ps. 31:19, 34:8, 145:9

3. With God’s help, go past the surface

John 4:16-18, Ps. 64:6, Prov. 18:4, 20:5

4. Explain what it looks like to follow Jesus, and invite others to follow Him

John 4:19-26, Matt. 11:29-30, 16:24, John 8:12

5. Be encouraged to continue the work

John 4:27-35, Gal. 6:9, 2 Cor. 4:16-18

6. Remember that evangelism is a team sport

John 4:36-38, 1 Cor. 3:5-8, 12:12-27

7. Realize the domino effect of evangelism

John 4:39-42, Acts 2:47, 16:5

Reflecting on God’s Word

Getting Started

• Take some time to read over John 4:1-42 and pray. 
• Have you ever read or heard about this before? What stood out to you as we were talking about it? 
• What surprised you as we talked about it?
• As you reflect on this part of God’s Word, put yourself in the place of the woman of this story. How do you think you have reacted? Why?
• Take some time to pray for those in your life who do not know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. Ask that God would give you opportunities to talk with them. 

 

Diving In 

1. How easy is it for you to talk with people? How can you grow in this area of your life? 

 

2. Take some time to prayerfully think through some attributes of God’s goodness. How can you authentically bring these things up in conversations with people? 

 

3. It can be difficult to go beyond surface level conversations with people. What would it look like for you to more often go beyond surface level conversations with the people in your life? 

 

4. How can you best explain what it looks like to follow Jesus? What would it look like for you to bring that up in a conversation with someone? 

 

5. Read Matthew 7:13-14. Sharing our faith doesn’t always go picture perfect. In fact, it almost never does. Read Gal. 6:9. Spend some time in prayer asking for God’s help to keep sharing your faith. Be sure to jot down anything that you feel the Lord putting on your heart. 

 

6. It’s not all up to one of us. God gave us all different skills, personalities, interests, and giftings to be able to share our faith. Read 1 Corinthians 3:5-8. How does this encourage you to share your faith and partner with other believers? 

 

7. How does thinking about the domino effect encourage you to share your faith more?

 

Applying the Scripture

What are your biggest takeaways from this passage of God’s Word? 

• What practical step(s) do you need to implement in your life to apply what God has taught you in this passage of Scripture? 
• How would applying this affect your life and your relationship with the Lord? 
• Who can you ask to keep you accountable to applying this to your life?

 

 

Small Group Guide: