John 4:1-45 Study Guide: Grace in Unexpected Places

Community Group Study Guide — Grace in Unexpected Places
John 4:1-45

Study Information:
We’re taking a break from Exodus with a guest speaker this week who will be teaching out of John 4 about the Grace of Jesus towards the Woman at the Well. 

In this passage we see the heart of Christ to seek and to save the lost and how he extended the offer of everlasting life to her before addressing her specific sin issues and life hardship. This offer of living water changed the trajectory of her life and led to many in her town to put their faith in Jesus as the Christ. This text also challenges our often hidden assumptions about who is most likely to respond to the offer of forgiveness and reconciliation in Christ.

The Offer of Grace
John 4:1-15
John tells us that Jesus “had to” pass through Samaria on his journey from Judea to Galilee. Samaria was often avoided because the Jews had intense prejudice against the Samaritans who were descendants of Israelites who mixed with other nations and religions hundreds of years before immediately after the Assyrian invasion. This event created a new people with mixed religious practices that the Jews despised. Yet, Jesus was on a mission here and had a particular person and city he sought out. Jesus stopped at Jacob’s well in the middle of the day and after his disciples left to get supplies he struck up a conversation with a woman who went to draw water. 

There are many odd things occurring culturally in John 4 from Jesus being in the “wrong place” as a Jew in Samaria, him talking to a woman which was not normal for a man to do at that time and finally being at the well during the middle of the day was odd since people went to get water in the morning. 

Jesus initiated the conversation with her by asking for a drink. Presumably he did not have a means in which to draw the water and also he desired to use this to speak to her spiritual need. She was taken aback by this request but Jesus pressed in saying “if you knew the gift of God and who it was talking to you you’d ask him for living water.” At first the woman took this literally but Jesus pressed the offer saying that this living water leads to a welling up of eternal life. Jesus addressed her lack of satisfaction, contentment and joy and used that to point her to her need for God’s grace.  Grace was extended to her before he addressed her personal sin and against all culture presuppositions around who would be willing and ready to receive grace from God. 

The Need for Grace
John 4:16-26
What was her personal need? “Go call your husband…” This is probably where her heart skipped a beat… “how’d he know?” This woman had now husband but appeared to have been living with another man. More than that she had had five such relationships before. We do not know if she was promiscuous or if she was the object of some sort of abuse. In the ancient world a woman like this would be unable to work and earn an income on her own and would be somewhat dependent on being connected to a man for her basic needs. It could have been that she was used and rejected by guy after guy, so rather than being the aggressor she was the victim. Either way, this was a really broken situation that Jesus extended grace to. 

We can also sense this woman’s discomfort because of how quickly she changed the subject! She asked Jesus about a controversial spiritual issue of the day about where someone was supposed to pray, either at the temple or on a specific mountain (John 4:19-20). Jesus directed her back to the reality of her need saying that the hour is coming where true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth and the Father is SEEKING such people to worship him (John 4:23). The implication is that she was such a person the Father was seeking. This led her to the realization that he must be the Christ. 

The woman left when the disciples returned and she overcame the shame she had experienced and in courage told the entire town about Jesus. This was an incredible act of bravery from a woman who was almost certainly looked down upon. What was the core message? “Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did.” We see the power of someone who is fully known and fully loved. Fully known with all their brokenness and sin on display and rather than being rejected, they are fully loved despite all they’ve ever done. Often we are afraid to be fully known because of fear of rejection but that leads to shallow relationships. And being fully loved by God requires that our sin is addressed so we can see our need for God’s grace. 

The Result of Grace Received
John 4:31-45
The disciples were instructed about the heart of Jesus’s mission and that they too will be sent out to have similar type interactions with people who need to hear about Jesus and receive the grace that God provides in Christ (John 4:31-38). Rather than being a little group unto themselves, the disciples and us as the church, are formed and shaped with a go and tell message. Lift up your eyes and see the fields are white for the harvest (John 4:35). The result of this one changed life was many in the town believing in Jesus (John 4:39). Do not discount the power of a single changed life to be a catalyst to spread the gospel. Not only did many believe because of the woman’s testimony, but they also asked Jesus to stick around and many more believed because of his word. 

Who has God placed in your life that you can point to his goodness and mercy? What field has God put you in today?

At your community group:

Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.

How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week? 

Discussion Questions:
How did this interaction between Jesus and the Woman at the Well go against cultural norms of the day?

What do you think it means for Jesus to offer “living water?” Why is it important that he offered her “living water” before he addressed her sin?

We all have a desire for a deep soul level happiness. Imagine you have a friend in a similar situation as the Woman at the Well (not necessarily with immoral relationships, could be another idol of wealth, power, approval, success, etc…) and they expressed that they were just not content with how things in their life were going. What kind of counsel would you give?

What was the woman’s message to the town about Jesus? How does this change how you think about evangelism (sharing the gospel)?