1. Pray. Ask the Lord to open your eyes, that you might behold wondrous things out of his Law (Ps. 119:18). 

2. Read Sunday's passage. Feel free to read it more than once, or in another translation.

3. Review the sermon outline. Try to see how the points came out of the text.

4. Answer the questions below. Focus on personal application.

5. Pray. Praise and thank the Lord, then ask him to work in mighty ways. 

Remember, we live not by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God (Dt. 8:3; Mt. 4:4).

4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman from 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 said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 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 is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Intro:  Have you ever been really, really thirsty? What was it like to finally taste that cool, refreshing water? Now, what is it that you thirst for in your soul? And where will you go for something that satisfies the deepest longings of your heart? We turn to the story of the woman at the well in John 4. 

I. Jesus gives the living water of eternal life (v. 4–15). While the woman is searching for physical water to quench physical thirst, Jesus offers the living water of salvation. He meets the deepest needs of our souls. Trust in him, and receive eternal life!

II. Jesus enables people from all backgrounds to truly worship God (v.16–26). Jesus asks the Samaritan woman to call her husband, deliberately bringing up a source of pain and brokenness in her life. He does so to expose her need for a relationship with God. The theme of "the husband" relates to how John presents Jesus as the Bridegroom (see John 3:29), which relates to the Old Testament theme of Yahweh as the husband of Israel. Samaria had departed from covenant faithfulness to Yahweh, and had mixed in other religious practices. In other words, they were "unfaithful" to their true "husband," Yahweh. But as Ezekiel 16 had prophesied, God would once again restore Samaria. In the ministry of Christ, this restoration has come. Now, the Samaritan woman, her people, and even Gentiles who trust in Jesus, can receive the living water of eternal life. They can truly worship the one true God. What about you? Have you come to God through faith in Jesus, or are you seeking a relationship with God on your own terms? Are you mixing in bits and pieces of other religions? Are you neglecting what God's Word has said about worship? True worshippers worship God in Spirit and in Truth, and that Truth is the Word who became flesh, Jesus Christ. 

III. Jesus transforms lives (v. 27–30). After speaking with Jesus, the woman departs from the well having been transformed. She leaves behind her water jar, having found something which quenches the thirst of her soul: a true relationship with the one true God. Trusting in Jesus changes everything. Has He changed you? 

Conclusion:  Jesus, and only Jesus, satisfies the thirst of our souls. As it says in Isaiah 55:1–3, "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters . . . Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live!" Come to Jesus and live! And if you already have, then keep coming back to Jesus, the only one who gives the living water of eternal life. 

1. Living Water. 

- Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well was certainly not expected by others, but the content of the conversation suggests it was deliberate on his part. He pursued her. How has Jesus pursued you? How might he be pursuing you right now? 

- What have you looked to as a subtitute for the living water of salvation? 

- Have you ever been truly satisfied by the pursuits of this world?

- What would it look like to truly trust in Jesus?

2. True Worship. 

- Do some research. What is the background of the division between Jews and Samaritans? What is the competition between Mount Gerazim and Mount Zion? Why does the conversation move from water, to worship?

- Why is it sometimes tempting to blend the practices of different religions?

- Why Christians insist on true worship requiring faith in Jesus?

- What is God inviting you to do today, in the area of worship? 

3. Transformation.

- Notice how the woman left her water jar. She never got the physical water she came for. But she got something better. What is your "water jar?" What do you look to for satisfaction of your heart's desires? Why is Jesus greater, and better? 

- How has the woman been transformed? What is different now?

- How has Jesus transformed you? How is he still transforming you? 

- Who needs to know this about Jesus, and about his work in you? How will you tell them? 

1. Praise God for being the source of living water! He is better than any earthly thing!

2. Thank Jesus for making it possible for us to receive this water by trusting in him. 

3. Confess any "waters" you may have turned to in the past, which could never satisfy your soul. 

4. Thank Jesus for the transforming work he has begun in you.

5. Ask Jesus to continuing working in you, making you a joyful follower of Christ who is deeply satisfied in the Lord.

Thanks for reading the Bible Study Guide! I pray it helps us "continue to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" (Eph. 4:15).

Sincerely, your brother in Christ,

Tom Hansen, Senior Pastor