Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

Spirit & Truth - John 4:1-26

Bryan Schneider · November 10, 2018

John 4:1-26

sharonrpc.org/sermons/spirit-truth-john-4-1-26

Summary

Jesus deliberately travels through Samaria and speaks with a woman across entrenched ethnic, religious, and social barriers.
He offers living water that becomes a spring to everlasting life, directing the woman's deepest need to the gift found in him.
Jesus knows the woman's life truthfully and addresses her sin without allowing a theological diversion to obscure her need for reconciliation with God.
The dispute over Mount Gerizim and Jerusalem gives way to the arrival of the hour when true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth.
True worship is neither empty external form nor self-generated emotion; it responds to the Messiah in truth through the Spirit's work in the heart.
The sermon calls believers to cross barriers with the gospel, expect resistance, and seek satisfaction and worship in Christ rather than in human approval or religious formalism.

What does Jesus' decision to speak with this Samaritan woman reveal about the reach of his saving mission?
Where am I seeking satisfaction that only Christ's gift of living water can provide?
How do I respond when Scripture exposes my sin: with repentance, or by changing the subject?
What does Jesus affirm and correct when the woman raises the dispute between Mount Gerizim and Jerusalem?
How can worship be both ordered by revealed truth and genuinely engaged from the heart?
Which social or cultural barrier makes me reluctant to speak graciously about Christ?
How can I share the gospel truthfully without treating resistance as permission to be harsh or coercive?

Living water: Jesus' image for the divine gift of everlasting life that satisfies spiritual thirst and becomes an abiding spring within the recipient.
Samaritans: A people with shared Israelite roots but a rival worship center and longstanding hostility with the Jews in Jesus' day.
Spirit and truth: Worship awakened and sustained by God's Spirit and governed by the truth God reveals, centered on the Messiah rather than merely a sacred location.
Messiah: God's promised Anointed One, whom Jesus openly identifies as himself in John 4:26.
Formalism: Participation in outward religious actions while the heart remains distant from God; the sermon distinguishes this from faithful use of God's appointed ordinances.