John 4:27-54 – Bible Study & Exploration
Jesus Gives a Lesson on Evangelism
(Verse 27-34) We can only imagine that after Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah to the Samaritan woman at the well, her heart grows with excitement. We know this because she left her water jar at the well and ran back to town without it. She couldn’t get back to town fast enough to tell everyone that she had found the Messiah.
What was about to happen, Jesus perfectly planned. His disciples return to Him after going into town to purchase food for everyone. At this point, everyone is probably hungry.
The disciples attention is on food, especially getting Jesus fed as He waited for them to return. Jesus has three short years to spread the message of the kingdom of heaven. And also to prepare His disciples for taking over His evangelism work.
He’s clear with them that the only food that concerns Him is doing the will of His Father in heaven. Unknown to the disciples, that work of doing the will of the Father is about to come on them really quickly.
(Verses 35-38) Jesus references a Jewish quote, “It’s still four months until harvest.” This indicates the waiting period from the time of planting up to the harvest. But Jesus says that today there will be no waiting.
By now the Samaritan women has spread the word of meeting the Messiah at the well. The message spreads fast and the people of Samaria start heading toward the well to see for themselves.
As Jesus tells His disciples to look out onto the fields for they are ripe for the harvest, they see crowds coming their way. It’s time for the disciples to get a lesson in evangelism. Souls that need to be saved are approaching them quickly.
What a sight that must’ve been for the disciples. As Jesus commanded them to look, there in the distance were those coming to hear the Messiah. We don’t know for sure how many, but it could’ve been several hundred or even thousands.
Many came to see Jesus because of what the Samaritan woman said. But many came to believe that He is the Savior of the World for the words He spoke to them.
Jesus Heals the Royal Official’s Son
(Verses 43-47) This official from Capernaum was likely a Roman. Capernaum sits on the northwest shore of the sea of Galilee. This city is not mentioned in the Old Testament, but mentioned often in the New Testament.
Jesus chose Capernaum as His home city when He was driven out of Nazareth by the religious officials. It was also the home of Peter and Andrew and where He called them to follow Him. Jesus also found Matthew the tax collector in Capernaum when He called him to follow.
Notice that Jesus is in Cana when He’s asked by the official to heal his son in Capernaum. This ends up being a long distance healing. But we know that God is present everywhere.
Was This Royal Official a Believer?
(Verses 48-53) It’s clear in this passage, this official had little care for who Jesus was. He was more concerned with what he heard Jesus could do. In this case, he just wanted his son to be healed.
We can see by Jesus’ response that He may have been a bit agitated.
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” (John 4:48)
Jesus came into the world to offer spiritual healing. This man was only interested in physical healing for his son. Even though he likely heard about Jesus’ power to heal, he wasn’t going to believe until he witnessed it himself.
Perfectly in line with what Jesus said, the official checks the time of his son’s healing with the time Jesus spoke that he would be healed. Then he realizes it was Jesus that did indeed heal his son.
Take a look at Luke 2:1-10 and the healing of the Centurion’s servant. This also took place in Capernaum, except Jesus was physically in Capernaum when He performed this miracle.
Notice the contrast in these two Roman officials. The one in Luke’s gospel humbles himself through his messengers who came to speak to Jesus. Jesus was amazed at this man’s faith. His servant was healed based on the faith his master had in Jesus.
The Signs of Jesus Christ
(Verse 54) This healing was the second sign Jesus performed since returning to Galilee from Judea. John uses the word “sign” often in his gospel to designate the miracles Jesus performs. The signs point to the main theme of his gospel which is to demonstrate Jesus’ divinity as God.
This is for the express purpose of leading people to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)