San Diego, California, United States - First
United Methodist Church’s Daily Devotion for Monday, 17 March 2014 – Sunday, 23
March 2014 - Sermon theme for coming Sunday (Lent) Lift High the Cross -
Grace/Devotion
Text to read: John
4: 5 So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore,
being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth
hour.[a] 7 A woman of 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 therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink
from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered
her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says 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 with, and the well is deep. So where do you
get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us
the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered
her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever
drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water
that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal
life.”
15 The woman said to
him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all
the way here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to
her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman
answered, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her,
“You said well, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands; and he
whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
19 The woman said to
him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to
worship.”
21 Jesus said to
her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in
Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. 22 You worship that which you don’t
know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the
hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. 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 comes, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he
will declare to us all things.”
26 Jesus said to
her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.” 27 At this, his disciples came. They
marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you
looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her water
pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man
who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?”
30 They went out of
the city, and were coming to him.
Footnotes:
a. John 4:6 noon
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John Wesley’s
Notes-Commentary for
John 4:5-30
Verse 5. Sychar -
Formerly called Sichem or Shechem. Jacob gave - On his death bed, Gen. xlviii,
22.
Verse 6. Jesus sat
down - Weary as he was. It was the sixth hour - Noon; the heat of the day.
Verse 7. Give me to
drink - In this one conversation he brought her to that knowledge which the
apostles were so long in attaining.
Verse 8. For his
disciples were gone - Else he needed not have asked her.
Verse 9. How dost
thou - Her open simplicity appears from her very first words. The Jews have no
dealings - None by way of friendship. They would receive no kind of favour from
them.
Verse 10. If thou
hadst known the gift - The living water; and who it is - He who alone is able
to give it: thou wouldst have asked of him - On those words the stress lies.
Water - In like manner he draws the allegory from bread, chap. vi, 27, and from
light, viii, 12; the first, the most simple, necessary, common, and salutary
things in nature. Living water - The Spirit and its fruits. But she might the
more easily mistake his meaning, because living water was a common phrase among
the Jews for spring water.
Verse 12. Our father
Jacob - So they fancied he was; whereas they were, in truth, a mixture of many nations,
placed there by the king of Assyria, in the room of the Israelites whom he had
carried away captive, 2 Kings xvii, 24. Who gave us the well - In Joseph their
supposed forefather: and drank thereof - So even he had no better water than
this.
Verse 14. Will never
thirst - Will never (provided he continue to drink thereof) be miserable,
dissatisfied, without refreshment. If ever that thirst returns, it will be the
fault of the man, not the water. But the water that I shall give him - The
spirit of faith working by love, shall become in him - An inward living
principle, a fountain - Not barely a well, which is soon exhausted, springing
up into everlasting life - Which is a confluence, or rather an ocean of streams
arising from this fountain.
Verse 15. That I
thirst not - She takes him still in a gross sense.
Verse 16. Jesus
saith to her - He now clears the way that he might give her a better kind of
water than she asked for. Go, call thy husband - He strikes directly at her
bosom sin.
Verse 17. Thou hast
well said - We may observe in all our Lord's discourses the utmost weightiness,
and yet the utmost courtesy.
Verse 18. Thou hast
had five husbands - Whether they were all dead or not, her own conscience now
awakened would tell her.
Verse 19. Sir, I
perceive - So soon was her heart touched.
Verse 20. The
instant she perceived this, she proposes what she thought the most important of
all questions. This mountain - Pointing to Mount Gerizim. Sanballat, by the
permission of Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon Mount Gerizim, for
Manasseh, who for marrying Sanballat's daughter had been expelled from the
priesthood and from Jerusalem, Neh. xiii, 28. This was the place where the
Samaritans used to worship in opposition to Jerusalem. And it was so near
Sychar, that a man's voice might be heard from the one to the other. Our
fathers worshipped - This plainly refers to Abraham and Jacob (from whom the
Samaritans pretended to deduce their genealogy) who erected altars in this
place: Gen. xii, 6, 7, and Gen. xxxiii, 18, 20. And possibly to the whole
congregation, who were directed when they came into the land of Canaan to put
the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, Deut. xi, 29. Ye Jews say, In Jerusalem is the
place - Namely, the temple.
Verse 21. Believe me
- Our Lord uses this expression in this manner but once; and that to a
Samaritan. To his own people, the Jews, his usual language is, I say unto you.
The hour cometh when ye - Both Samaritans and Jews, shall worship neither in
this mountain, nor at Jerusalem - As preferable to any other place. True
worship shall be no longer confined to any one place or nation.
Verse 22. Ye worship
ye know not what - Ye Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the place, but of
the very object of worship. Indeed, they feared the Lord after a fashion; but
at the same time served their own gods, 2 Kings xvii, 33. Salvation is from the
Jews - So spake all the prophets, that the saviour should arise out of the
Jewish nation: and that from thence the knowledge of him should spread to all
nations under heaven.
Verse 23. The true
worshippers shall worship the Father - Not here or there only, but at all times
and in all places.
Verse 24. God is a
Spirit - Not only remote from the body, and all the properties of it, but
likewise full of all spiritual perfections, power, wisdom, love, holiness. And
our worship should be suitable to his nature. We should worship him with the
truly spiritual worship of faith, love, and holiness, animating all our
tempers, thoughts, words, and actions.
Verse 25. The woman
saith - With joy for what she had already learned, and desire of fuller
instruction.
Verse 26. Jesus
saith - Hasting to satisfy her desire before his disciples came. l am He - Our
Lord did not speak this so plainly to the Jews who were so full of the
Messiah's temporal kingdom. If he had, many would doubtless have taken up arms
in his favour, and others have accused him to the Roman governor. Yet he did in
effect declare the thing, though he denied the particular title. For in a
multitude of places he represented himself, both as the Son of man, and as the
Son of God: both which expressions were generally understood by the Jews as
peculiarly applicable to the Messiah.
Verse 27. His
disciples marvelled that he talked with a woman - Which the Jewish rabbis
reckoned scandalous for a man of distinction to do. They marvelled likewise at
his talking with a woman of that nation, which was so peculiarly hateful to the
Jews. Yet none said - To the woman, What seekest thou? - Or to Christ, Why
talkest thou with her?
Verse 28. The woman
left her water pot - Forgetting smaller things.
Verse 29. A man who
told me all things that ever I did - Our Lord had told her but a few things.
But his words awakened her conscience, which soon told her all the rest. Is not
this the Christ? - She does not doubt of it herself, but incites them to make
the inquiry.
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Monday – Consider
all of the ways God has "graced" you.
How do you usually
notice it?
Tuesday – How have
you responded to that grace?
What actions have
you taken?
Wednesday – How does
Jesus "speak" to the woman?
Does he talk in
"her world"?
What does that teach
us about God's grace?
Thursday – Why is
the woman confused?
What helps her break
through?
Friday - Read verse
23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.
What do we learn
about worship?
What does it mean?
Saturday – Where
have you seen God's grace this week?
How did you respond
to it?
Sunday – Pray for
all those who have not yet responded to God's grace.
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First United
Methodist Church
2111 Camino del Rio
South
San Diego, CA 92108
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