Jesus continues his ministry by traveling to Galilee. Instead of walking around Samaria to avoid contact with Samaritans, he takes the shorter road  directly through Samaria. Becomimg very tired, he stops at  Jacob's well near Sychar. There he meets a Samaritan woman and, breaking cultural norms, begins an amazing  conversation about living water,  personal details of her life, true worship and His identity. During this encounter our wonderful Savior brings the good news of his gospel and tenderly reveals the condition of her heart and her need of his forgiveness as he openly acknowleges that he is the long awaited Messiah.

John 4:1-30 (ESV)

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John  (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 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.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 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.) 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.” 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? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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.” 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.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”  The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;  for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 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.”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?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Questions (John 4:1-30, John 7:37-39)

1. What similarities do you see between Jesus's encounters with Nicodemus (John 3) and the Samaritan woman at the well? Notice Jesus's use of common physical things to teach spiritual truths. (birth and water) We see this throughout His ministry.
2. What can we learn about getting out of our cultural comfort zones as the Spirit leads us in sharing the gospel. themselves. What is the example Jesus’ uses of salvation coming to God’s people? 
3. What does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth?
4. The Bible teaches us that Jesus is fully God and fully man. How do we see that truth displayed in this passage?
5. How did her encounter with Jesus affect her life? How should our encounter with Jesus affect ours?