John 4:21-42 21 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Last week we talked about the Lord Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman. We saw God’s great love and mercy, He fully accepted a sinful woman. Today we study the second part. The Lord Jesus told a very important truth to this Samaritan woman: God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. What does this mean? Let’s look at the following verses first:
8 These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules. (Matthew 15:8-9)
Here the Lord Jesus quoted the Old Testament Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Pharisees, that they honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far away from God. They taught people human rules, not the truth of God. Therefore, to worship God in spirit and in truth means to worship God with our spirit, with our heart, according to the truth, according to the truth of the Bible, and according to the truth of God.
When the Samaritan woman mentioned about the Messiah, Christ, the Lord Jesus told her that he was the Christ. In the Bible, the Lord Jesus rarely took the initiative to tell people that he was the Christ. When the disciples came back from buying the food and gave some to the Lord Jesus, he said: My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
The Lord Jesus here is talking about the spiritual food, not the physical food. His spiritual food is to do the will of God the Father and accomplish his work.
Jesus answered, It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4)
Here, the Lord Jesus quoted from the Old Testament saying that man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. We live by the word of God, by obeying the word of God, by doing the will of God. The Lord Jesus also said that the disciples should work with him to reap the harvest, i.e. to preach the gospel. Those who reap will receive wages, i.e. will receive rewards in the future.
The woman went to the city to share her testimony, many Samaritans came to see the Lord Jesus and believed after listening to his words. I hope that more people will believe in the Lord, receive the living water from the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, walk on the path of eternal life, enter heaven after death. From Covid, we see that the life is short. Most people can only live up to eighty or ninety years old. The life is short, a few of my classmates have passed away already. From Bible prophecies and what happened in the world, we know that the seconding coming of the Lord Jesus is near, and we must prepare ourselves. Those who have not yet believed in the Lord should believe the sooner the better. When the Lord Jesus returns, he will take us to the heavenly home.
May God bless you and your family.
