Come again, Jew?

This is the outline of the lesson I taught on 2013-09-29 on the first part of John 4. The outline is a lot more organized than my delivery, which was a mess, like ”my dog chewed it up and found it distasteful and spit it out and that’s the order it came out in” mess. The pictures are from Wikipedia and under their media license.

The Scripture

• READ

It’s not about water.

• Samaritans: These were leftover Northern Kingdom folks, the poor who had not been carried off by the Assyrians. They intermarried with others brought in by the Assyrians. The Jews, from the Southern Kingdom, considered them to be like that famous song by Cherilyn Sarkisian: “Half-breed”.
• Jacob’s Well: It’s still there today. You can go there and get water from the Greek Orthodox church on the site.
• Here we have a woman from Samaria coming to the well at the “sixth hour.”
  • Either noon (Hebrew time) or 6pm (Roman time).
  • The hottest part of the day either way: Think about the summer weather here: It is really hottest in the summer from early afternoon up to 6–8 oclock.
  • She’s coming to the well when no one else does. (We learn why later.)
• Jesus asks for water.
• “Come again, Jew?”
• Jesus: You should be asking me for “living water.”
  • This was a common phrase meaning spring water or stream water.
  • But Jesus means something else.
• ASK What does she think is going on? (she thinks it’s about the water.)
• Jesus says: Fetch your husband.

Husbands	5
Live-in	Current
Other liasons	Likely

• This is why she came to the well in the hottest part of the day: The half-breeds considered her beneath them.

It’s not about this mountain

• Jesus agrees about the husbands.
• “Hey! You must be a prophet!”

Samaritans say	Worship here.
Jews say	Worship in Jerusalem.

• Weirdness: Samaritan worship is still practiced with animal sacrifice, etc., around Mt Gerizim.
  
  
• What does Jesus say about Jewish worship vs. Samaritan worship? (The Jews have it right so far).

Jesus says

Those who receive the gift of God (v.10) don’t need a location. It’s not about the location, it’s about Spirit and truth.

• ASK Does this mean it doesn’t matter how we worship?

Sowing, reaping, and belief

• Jesus tells them, look at the fields: They’re ready for harvest!
• 22. 36: The sower and the reaper rejoice together.
  • ASK What’s going on here? (Someare sowing, some are reaping all the time).
• The people of the town:
  • Believe on account of what the woman says,
  • and later believe because they’ve heard from Jesus himself.
  • ASK What’s going on here? (Her testimony starts them believing, then the Word strengthens their belief.)
  • “Savior of the world” — not just the Jews.
  • ASK Who is so low as to not be worth it in terms of taking the Gospel to them?

Nick at Nite

This is the outline of the lesson I taught on 2013-09-22 on John 3. Sorry for the cute title. I don’t know what came over me …

Preliminary: Signs

• ASK What are signs for? (to point to something else)
• ASK Is there such a thing as a sign for the sake of a sign?
• In chapter 2, in the water-to-wine miracle, John referred to the miracle as “the first his signs.”
• John tells us in chapter 20 that Jesus did a lot of miracles. John just picked out a few to tell us about.
• John calls the ones he picked out “signs”.
• With water into wine, the point seems to me to be that the new is better than the old.

The scripture

• READ 3:1–4
• READ 3:5–8
• READ 3:9–12
• READ 3:13–15
• SAY TOGETHER 3:16
• READ 3:17–19
• READ 3:20–21

Born

• Nicodemus recognized that the signs Jesus did could only come from God.
• John has only told us about 1 sign so far, so Jesus is doing more.
• “Born again” vs. “born from above”: Original language can mean either. Nicodemus takes it one way, but Jesus apparently meant it the other way.
• ASK What does Nicodemus think he means by “born”?
• ASK What about born? What is Jesus getting at?
• ASK What does the wind have to do with it? What’s with “blows where it wishes”? (“wind” and “spirit” are the same in Greek)

Incredulity

• Obviously, Nicodemus doesn’t get it.
• ASK Why does Jesus seem to expect Nicodemus to get it?
• READ Ezekiel 37:1–10 (This seems to cover both “born” and “wind”)

Why did it have to be snakes?

• ASK What’s with the bit about snakes in v. 14? (Numbers 21)
  • The people grumble.
  • God sends fiery snakes.
  • God commands Moses to make a bronze snake.
  • Everyone who looks to the snake lives.
• That is the context for 3:15–16
  • Jesus will be lifted up on the cross.
  • Everyone who looks to him is saved.
• ASK In v. 17, why didn’t God have to condemn the world? (v. 18: it’s condemned already).
• ASK Why is the world condemned already? (Hasn’t believed.)
• ASK Why hasn’t it believed? (Loves darkness/evil)