John 4

Chapter 5: http://www.esvbible.org/John+4/

Jesus stops at a well because He is tired and the disciples go to get some food. When Jesus sees the woman at the well, He asks her for a drink. She is very confused because Jews did not associate with Samaritans, especially Jewish men and Samaritan women. She knows something out of the ordinary is about to occur. He tells her that if she knew who He was, she would ask Him for the living water. In the same way, if we really know who Jesus is, we would ask Him to come into our hearts and fix it in ways that only He can. He proves that anyone can come to salvation through Him because He goes to the "wrong side of town" and sits with the "wrong type of person;" one who has had five husbands and lives with another man, who she is not married to. Even though He already knew all of those things, He proves what is said in John 3:14 about how He did not come to condemn the world but to save it. Even though Jesus knows about all of the awful things that the woman at the well has done, He doesn't judge her, and He even offers her His salvation. She, like Andrew and Phillip in John 1, immediately begins to tell others about Jesus, and the town comes to hear Him. In the end, they profess that they're faith is now based on seeing Jesus for themselves and not just on what the woman said. We can only tell people of Jesus' great power, but it is up to Him to give them proof enough to place their faith in Him. In addition, it says MANY of the people who geard Him believed in Him, but not ALL. Jesus couldn't even sway the opinions of everyone in the crowd; therefore, if we tell others of what Jesus did as we are supposed to, and they reject us, it shouldn't leave us discouraged.

Jesus returns to the same place where He had turned the water into wine, and when He arrives, a Roman official beseeches Him to come save the official's dyeing son. Jesus says that people need to see miracles and amazing things in order to believe. Then Jesus tells the man to go home, and his son will live. The man believes, and upon his return, his servants tell him his son is alive, and that he recovered at the exact time Jesus told the man that the boy would live. At that moment the official and his whole families became believers. Do we have enough faith in Jesus that when He tells us that He's going to fix something, that it will be done? Do we have that same kind of faith as the official?