John 4

Part of Signs and Discourses📖 John introduction

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¹Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John ✦ ²(though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), ✦ ³He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. ✦ ⁴But He needed to go through Samaria. ✦ ⁵So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ✦ ⁶Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. ✦ ⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ✦ ⁸For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. ✦ ⁹Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. ✦ ¹⁰Jesus answered and said to 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.” ✦ ¹¹The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ✦ ¹²Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” ✦ ¹³Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ✦ ¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” ✦ ¹⁵The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” ✦ ¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ✦ ¹⁷The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” ✦ ¹⁹The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ✦ ²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” ✦ ²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ✦ ²²You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ✦ ²³But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. ✦ ²⁴God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” ✦ ²⁵The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” ✦ ²⁶Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He. ” ✦ ²⁷And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” ✦ ²⁸The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ✦ ²⁹“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” ✦ ³⁰Then they went out of the city and came to Him. ✦ ³¹In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ✦ ³²But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” ✦ ³³Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” ✦ ³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. ✦ ³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! ✦ ³⁶And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ✦ ³⁷For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ✦ ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” ✦ ³⁹And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” ✦ ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. ✦ ⁴¹And many more believed because of His own word. ✦ ⁴²Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” ✦ ⁴³Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. ✦ ⁴⁴For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ✦ ⁴⁵So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast. ✦ ⁴⁶So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. ✦ ⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ✦ ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.” ✦ ⁴⁹The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” ✦ ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. ✦ ⁵¹And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!” ✦ ⁵²Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household. ✦ ⁵⁴This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

In this chapter

Theme Living Water

Where this chapter connects

John 4 ·34 John 6 ·14 John 1 ·13 John 3 ·8 John 11 ·8 Luke 9 ·7 John 2 ·7 Luke 2 ·6

Christ at the center

John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.

How John 4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryFollowing the MessiahAppian Media · Free · evangelical
A free, beautifully shot 10-part series walking the lands of Jesus' life — Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, and more.
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
DocumentaryHolyLandSiteHolyLandSite · Free · evangelical
Free on-location videos tying biblical events to the actual sites in Israel — the Temple Mount, Galilee, Capernaum, and more.
ApologeticsCold-Case Christianity (J. Warner Wallace)J. Warner Wallace · Free · evangelical
A cold-case homicide detective examines the Gospels' reliability — forensic faith for skeptics and seekers.

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Seminary

★ Start hereApologeticsGary Habermas — the resurrectionGary Habermas · Free · evangelical
130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)
★ Start hereCommentaryThe Gospel According to John (Pillar NT Commentary)D. A. Carson · ~720 pp · Paid · reformed
The go-to mid-level exegetical commentary on John — rigorous and readable.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on John 4YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — John 4David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — John 4Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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