Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
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Analytical
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Tone of specific sentences
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Why is Jesus leaving Judea?
Pharisees knew That Jesus was growing in popularity above John the Baptist.
His disciples were baptizing more people than John the Baptist.
Where is Jesus going?
John 4:3 Tells us that Jesus is traveling from Judea to Galilee.
What piece of real estate is between these two locations and what can we know about it?
(Samaria)
As Jesus travels north He and the disciples go through Samaria.
Long before they took this trip changes to the population had occurred.
2 Kings 17:24-41 tells us that the king of Assyria resettled this part of Israel with people from other countries who did not serve God.
The text further tells us that God sent lions “which killed some of them.”
The king of Assyria then sent priests from God’s people, at the request of the new residents, to teach them how to worship the true God.
In verse 33 we read that “They feared the LORD, yet served their own gods—according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away.”
This mixture of religions was something that caused the Jewish people in Jesus’ day to view Samaritans with great disdain.
Imagine someone preparing you a salad with the choicest ingredients and washing all those choice ingredients in your toilet bowl… Samaritans were not appreciated.
According to the footnotes in the Andrews Study Bible “The Jews of that time hated the Samaritans and felt they defiled everything they touched, so it was remarkable that Jesus even spoke with the woman in this story.”
So Sychar is where our story takes place.
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.
This is Jacob’s Well at Shechem from the SDA Bible Commentary.
It looks like you need a little bit of rope to get to the water at the bottom of the well.
This stereoscopic picture was taken in 1900.
There is a structure above the well, which I don’t imagine being there when Jesus sat down by the well to refresh Himself.
Jesus sat down by the well and waited for the audience to arrive for His divinely appointed lecture.
He was reviewing His notes when the audience of one arrived in the middle of the day.
Jesus begins the interaction simply enough.
Give me a drink
This is your wonderful message, Jesus?
Give me a drink?!
How about “I am the Messiah that you have been waiting for”?
She is just as incredulous as we are at this moment.
She responds with...
John 4:9
As we will soon find out she has her reasons to distrust this strange man by her sacred time alone at Jacob’s Well.
All she wanted was privacy prying eyes with knowing glances and whispers from those around her.
She has been hurt.
Maybe if she is a little harsh this Stranger will leave her alone.
But He is no ordinary stranger and His response to her question changes the flow of favors in the opposite direction.
Jn 4:10
Jn 4:11-15
Now we have come past all the preliminaries.
Her interest is peaked and she wants what it is that Jesus has to offer, even though she does not fully comprehend what it is.
She thinks He is offering actual water.
In reality what is He offering?
… Himself, the Creator of water.
But we are jumping ahead of the story.
Such a marvelous gift must be given to more than one person at a time, right?
There is no accusation or knowing whispers with side glances.
There are not guilt trips given.
Her struggles to find the right man and true love are laid bare between her and this Stranger by the well.
After He has let her know that He knows about the six men in her life, what would be your question?
Her next question reveals that she has more than a passing interest in things of eternal value.
What are you doing lady?
You are deflecting the previous observation.
He knows you better than you know you and you start a theological debate?!
Jesus does not miss a beat, though.
Let’s read on.
Jesus takes her from the idea that worship is locational to the knowledge that worship is relational.
This woman has been on a long journey.
The city she lives in is uncomfortable for her.
She comes to the well to get away from the whispers and knowing looks.
Her own heart has not given her peace.
She has believed that happiness and peace is attainable, but after being married five times and shacking up with a sixth man she has yet to find a place of peace.
She has just pinned her hopes on a divine promise.
Messiah is coming!
When He comes everything will be different.
My life will be much better.
since most of us have read the story before we know what is coming.
But I ask you to see it from her perspective.
She has tried her best to find love and peace.
She has just met The Seventh Man.
Her life has been a series of pain and sorrow.
She has been presented with part of truth and has been thirsty to know the Messiah.
Not only has she met the Messiah, but He has accepted her.
Through kindness He has demonstrated to her that He loves her.
Her life is immediately transformed.
Her relation to the people in her home town is transformed in an instant.
What happens when she learns that she is speaking to the Messiah?
She becomes an evangelist to her own people.
The disciples had a special role in relation to Jesus.
Just prior to this story we find that they are baptizing and probably teaching people about Jesus.
They left Jesus at Jacob’s well and have gone in to town to get food.
But they did not bring anyone back with them to meet the Messiah.
They had a similar mindset to what the woman felt Jesus should have, being a Jew.
Jesus could see into their hearts.
While she is sharing the good news of the Messiah, Jesus is breaking down the barriers in their hearts so that they would be willing to share the gospel with those that they considered unworthy to hear the Gospel.
The Bible does not tell us who did the sowing.
But Jesus has started harvesting.
The disciples have not felt it worthwhile to harvest souls in this worthless area, but Jesus knows that the people here are receptive to the gospel.
He will not turn away from those that hunger and thirst for salvation and He also works on breaking down the prejudices of His own disciple’s hearts.
The people are headed to Jesus from the town and Jesus points to them so that the disciples understand that He means to save them in His kingdom along with the rest of God’s children.
People are still meeting Jesus today for the first time.
They have heard talk about Him.
Some of them have heard that they are not good enough.
Not too long ago I met with a dear lady who was approaching the end of her life.
She knew of the Messiah and loved Him deeply.
She had gone through a similar experience as the woman at the well, but different to match the issues that our society is facing.
Married
Left him
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