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Sermon preached on John 4:1-42 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/02/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
I want to preach on this memorable passage today as a way to tell you about Christianity and the mission of Christ’s church. Here we see Jesus ministering to an outsider, a Samaritan woman. The Samaritans were known for having a corrupt knowledge of the true religion. Because of this, the Jews generally looked upon Samaritans with religious scorn. But Jesus looked upon this Samaritan woman as needing salvation. Jesus knew that it was for people like this woman that he had come into the world. As Jesus said elsewhere, he came to seek and save that which was lost.
As we consider this passage, you might have noticed a theme about knowledge. Six times our passage speaks about things people did or didn’t know. I’ll use this theme of “knowing” to structure my sermon today as I walk us through the text. My first point will work through verses 1-15 and consider how Jesus offered living water to the woman with the words, “If you knew”. My second point will work through verses 16-26 and consider all that “Jesus knows” here. My third point will work through verses 27-42, and consider what the disciples didn’t know about, namely, Jesus’ work to save many Samaritans. As we study this passage, I want you to see how this explains what we try to do here at Trinity. Our ministry is to communicate what we have come to know about Jesus. What we have learned about Christ can make your life eternally better if you too know the truth.
Let us begin with our first point, looking at verses 1-15. Start at verse 10. That is where Jesus tells the woman, “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.” Jesus and his disciples were on their way north from Judea to Galilee, and he has them pass through Samaria. They stop to rest at the famous spot of Jacob’s well. His disciples head off to the city to buy food while Jesus rests at the well. That is when this Samaritan woman comes to draw water and Jesus starts up a conversation with her.
Now when Jesus offers her this living water, she at first misunderstands what he is talking about. She didn’t yet know who he was or what he was truly offering her. In the Greek language, the phrase living water was an idiom meaning fresh flowing water, in contrast to stagnant water, for example, something you had stored in a water jar. For example, in the Greek translation of Genesis 26:19, it says they found a “well of living [spring] water,” that the well’s water came from a spring. So, clearly, that’s what this woman at first thought when Jesus offers her this living water. That is why she expresses confusion in verse 11 when she says that Jesus doesn’t have anything to draw the water with, and the well is deep. Ironically, she even asks Jesus if he’s somehow greater than the patriarch Jacob who gave them that well. Of course, that also shows that she didn’t know Jesus yet, because Jesus is greater than Jacob!
But Jesus wasn’t talking about physical, running water that could quench physical thirst. Rather, he was using “living” water to speak spiritually. He explains this in verses 13-14. Jesus spoke metaphorically to describe what he can spiritually give to her soul. He continues the metaphor by saying that the water he could give her would become a spring of water inside her that would well up to eternal life. This is a fitting metaphor. Water is fundamental to our survival, even more than food. We won’t physically live without it. Jesus uses that as an analogy of how he can give people something that will bring eternal life to their soul. The Bible is very clear, that ever since mankind fell into sin, we came under God’s condemnation. The result will be death and eternal damnation. Yet, Jesus here tells this woman, and he tells us, there is a way to escape that doom. You need to “drink” the living water he can give you.
Let us appreciate how Jesus calls this living water the gift of God in verse 10. Salvation is a gift from God. It is not something you earn. In contrast, consider this physical well. This deep well had to be dug with a great amount of labor. Even after it was dug, you still had to keep coming back and drawing water and carrying it back to where you lived. That too, was hard work. You had to earn this life-sustaining water, so to speak. But Jesus says the living water he offers comes as a gift. As Jesus says in verse 10, if she had known the gift and the one speaking to her, she would have asked him, and he would have given her living water. Asking is not earning; it is coming to Jesus empty-handed, trusting him to give what you cannot provide for yourself.
And yet, she hadn’t known about this free gift of God, so she couldn’t have asked about it. But now, Jesus reveals it to her. And so then in verse 15, she does ask him for it. Now, I believe she is still figuring out what she just asked for, but it was a beginning for her. But what about you? Do you know the gift of God? Have you asked Jesus for this living water? We need this living water to quench our greatest thirst. You have surely thirsted for physical water. But if I can talk more figuratively, you have also surely thirsted for other things in your life too. But have you come to realize that your greatest thirst is to know Jesus and God’s gift of eternal life? Jesus knows what you thirst for, even if you haven’t yet realized it. He speaks to you through this passage today, and by the Holy Spirit and says, do you know the gift of God?
Now when Jesus showed this woman that she didn’t yet know the gift of God, Jesus also showed her that she didn’t know him, yet. That brings us to our second point for today as we turn now to the next section of the text, verses 16-26. Here we see how much Jesus knows, which teaches the woman, and us, about Jesus’ identity. Look first at verse 25. The woman is dialoguing with Jesus and says to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” So, the woman tells us something that she knows, that the Christ will reveal all things. Yet, what she didn’t yet know is that she’s been speaking to the Christ this whole time! Verse 26, Jesus declares to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
And so, the Samaritan woman was correct, that the Christ will make known all things. This is something that John’s gospel especially reveals to us. Jesus is the incarnate Son of God. In the Holy Trinity, the one true God eternally exists as three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father sent the Son into the world. The Son took on human flesh, becoming the God-man. In his divinity, Jesus knows all things. In his ministry as the Messiah, Jesus has come to reveal what man needs to know about God, eternal life, and salvation.
We see Jesus’ revealing such knowledge to the woman. He prompts this in verse 16 by calling for her to bring her husband. She says she doesn’t have a husband. Jesus then acknowledges that he knows this, that she has already had five husbands and that the man she is currently with is not her husband. Jesus’ words surely imply that she is being physically intimate with someone who is not her husband, which is the sin of fornication in the least, and possibly even outright adultery. Though Jesus doesn’t give us all the details on the past five husbands, the situation with the current man certainly makes us wonder about the nature of those previous relationships too. Now, while we don’t know the details of those past husbands, the woman obviously does. When confronted with all this supernatural knowledge Jesus has of her life, she concludes in verse 19 that Jesus is a prophet. Indeed, a common thing that prophets do is reveal the moral failings of people and why they need to turn back to God. Indeed, it is our sin that makes us under divine condemnation and why we need to be saved. Jesus, as the Christ, reveals her moral failings which only reinforces why she needs the living water he offers her. If she would drink of the living water Jesus offers, she would come to know the forgiveness of all her sins.
At that point, she tries to change the conversation, possibly a deflection tactic away from talking about her sinful living. At verse 20, she poses a big religious question of the day. She wants to know who is right, the Jews or the Samaritans, about where people should worship God. The Jews said it was in Jerusalem. The Samaritans said it was on the nearby Mount Gerizim. You could imagine, that maybe Jesus’ review of her life brought out some guilt in her. It would be easier for her to dismiss Jesus if he sided with the Jews against her Samaritan religion. That’s probably what she expected. But Jesus’ answer is surely different than what she expected. Look at verse 22. “You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” Again, the theme of knowledge comes up, and he reveals his knowledge while exposing her lack of knowledge. But then he says that the location of worship is changing. It is not going to be in a single specific earthly spot any longer, like it was before in Jerusalem. Worship will no longer be about a geographical location, but that which is done spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit, worshipping God in the truth that he reveals to us in Jesus and in his Holy Word. So, as the Christ, Jesus reveals that he knows how God would have his saved people worship.
Now, as Jesus shows that he knows all this about her life and about true religion, he is ultimately revealing who he is. We see the woman coming to this conclusion down in verse 29. She tells her town people about Jesus, that he is a man who told her all that she ever did and then asks, “Could this be the Christ?” Remember, Jesus began by telling her, “If you knew who you are talking to, that you would ask me for living water.” Now, she is coming to know who Jesus really is. Jesus’ knowledge of her and the true religion spoke to her need for the gift of God that Jesus freely offered her. The application I want to bring at this second point is that we all need to know Jesus. We all need to come to truly know who Jesus is. He is the Son of God and the Messiah. He died on the cross to pay for the sins of all who believe in him, and he rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death. He now gives eternal life to everyone who turns to him in faith. So, as a church ministry, we are introducing people to Jesus that they would come to know personally and truly.
That leads us to our third point. Let us turn now to the final section of our passage, to verses 27-42. Here we see something the disciples didn’t know about. I pull this language from verse 31. The disciples return from getting food and see Jesus talking with this Samaritan woman. After she leaves, they try to get Jesus to eat, and he says to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” Jesus loved to talk with figurative language as a style of teaching. He goes on to explain that his food is to do the will and work of God the Father. He uses the analogy of a field ripe for harvest, and that this is a harvest for eternal life. Jesus then applies this to the disciples and says that they are to be his harvesters, verse 38. So then, what the disciples didn’t know is that Jesus was doing a mission of evangelism. While they were worried about physical food, his food, metaphorically speaking, was to save this woman and ultimately many from the woman’s town.
Now, Jesus’ words to his disciples here imply that he was doing something they too should also be doing. Since his disciples were Jews, it might have been difficult at first for them to consider Samaritans as people they were supposed to be ministering to. It wasn’t just Jews who needed his ministry. Jesus shows here the importance of reaching out to all the lost, to outsiders of all sorts. This woman was a soul that needed saving, and he brought to her a knowledge of the truth.
Now, while the disciples were slow to recognize they should be involved in such a ministry to harvest lost souls, this woman didn’t miss that truth. We see her in this passage go back to her town and tell them all about Jesus. Something that is especially telling about her spiritual growth in this passage is in verse 28 we see that she leaves her water jar. Now her heart is more interested in the better water Jesus is giving her, and she even wants to share it with others!
Look at the results of her testimony to her town in verse 39. Many believe her testimony and personally go to see Jesus. Realize, these are all outsider Samaritans! This Samaritan town gets Jesus to stay two days with them. They hear Jesus’ teachings themselves. Jesus’ ministry there results in even more Samaritans believing in him. Look at verse 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.’” Notice that the theme of knowing is there again. These Samaritans have come to personally know Jesus and that is why they now believe in him.
Again, I bring this application. This passage shows that we need to know Jesus and the message of salvation and eternal life that he brings. On our own, we would one day die and face the judgment seat of God. But if you believe in Jesus, his Spirit will live inside you. He will forgive you of all your sins, and even though you die, yet you will live. You will enjoy eternal life in glory with Christ Jesus and all God’s people. There, we will enjoy the springs of eternal life where righteousness reigns and there is only joy, gladness, and abundance. You cannot earn this by your works, for even our best works as sinners fall short of God’s glory. But God’s gift to you is that you can be forgiven and have eternal life. Know this in Jesus, believe on him and be saved. Be baptized into his name, and become his disciple, one who follows Jesus and learns from him as a true worshipper of God.
Jesus shared this message of salvation, even to outsiders. This Samaritan woman came to know the truth and then she too started sharing it with others. These disciples of Jesus learned this ministry from Jesus, and by the time we get to the book of Acts, we see Jesus boldly send them out to all the world to bring this message of salvation to the ends of the earth. Now, many generations later, we the church of Jesus Christ continue to bring the knowledge of Jesus and his gospel of salvation to all.
If you are here today but have not yet come to know Jesus, then right now you are outside the salvation that is found in him. But that is why we are glad you are here! Jesus invited this Samaritan woman to ask for living water and live. Here, he extends the same offer to you. Believe in Jesus and even today you can find your soul refresh with this water of eternal life.
And if you are visiting today as someone who already knows Jesus, then let me say that the harvest is ripe for the gathering and we could use your help. May you consider if this is the church the Lord would have you to call home and we would be glad to labor together with you in telling this area about Jesus.
I hope this brief sermon has helped you get to know the heart behind our ministry and mission. I invite you all to stick around for our BBQ after service and bring any questions you may have about why we do what we do here. Let me now close our sermon with prayer, asking God to indeed make himself more fully known to each one of us.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
