God's Ultimate Makeover: The Samaritan Woman at the Well

Bible Text: John 4
Theme: When you receive God’s Ultimate Makeover, you will want to tell others about Him.
Memory Verse: Mark 16:15 “…Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”

Hello boys and girls! Welcome to our “God’s Ultimate Makeover Series!” Are you learning about some of the ways that God changes us on the inside? Like Ruth, when you receive God’s Ultimate Makeover, you will want to follow Him… And Like Josiah, when you receive God’s Ultimate Makeover, you will want to read and obey God’s Word!

Today’s story comes from the New Testament part of our Bible, one of the books called the “Gospels.” The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the books of the Bible that tell us about Jesus’s life and ministry on Earth. The word “Gospel” means good news.

Why do you suppose that the books that are especially about Jesus’s life are called “Good News?”

Yes, because of what Jesus came to Earth to do for us… That is, to die on the cross to take the punishment for our sins, and then three days later to rise from the dead to prove He had the Victory! Jesus was the ONLY one who could do this for us because He is the Only Perfect Son of God! He chose to do this for us because of how much He loves us. That is VERY good news!

Lets begin our story. Jesus was traveling from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north. In the middle was a place called Samaria. Most Jewish people went around Samaria when they traveled because they didn’t like the Samaritans. They would rather go miles and miles out of their way to avoid going through Samaria because they didn’t want to have anything to do with the Samaritan people.

But that is sin, isn’t it boys and girls, to hate someone that is different from us. It is a sin called prejudice. Jesus was not prejudiced. He loves everybody! So, he and his disciples traveled straight through Samaria and stopped at a village called Sychar.

Jesus, who was very tired from the long walk, decided to rest for a while. He sat down beside a well on the outskirts of the village. The disciples went into the village to buy some food for them to eat because it was around lunchtime.

Soon, a woman from the village came out to the well to draw water from the well. Jesus spoke to her and said “Please give me a drink.”

The woman was surprised because she could tell that Jesus was a Jew, and she knew how the Jews felt about the Samaritans. She said, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you, and who I am, you would ask me and I would give you Living Water.”

The woman didn’t understand that Jesus was now talking about salvation, and the gift of eternal life that God wants to give everybody. She thought He was talking about the well water, so she questioned Jesus; “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket, and this is a very deep well! Where would you get this living water?”

Jesus answered her “People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes like a constant spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

Jesus was again using living water as a picture for the Joy you get when you know your sins have been forgiven and you have God in your life forever. It’s like the song we sing called “It’s Bubbling:” (If you don’t know the song, you can read it as a poem.)

It’s bubbling, It’s bubbling, It’s bubbling in my soul!
There’s singing, and laughing, since Jesus made me whole!
Some folks don’t understand it, nor can I keep it quiet…
It’s bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling,
Bubbling day and night!

The Samaritan woman still didn’t understand. She still thought Jesus was talking about real water. Maybe she thought it was some kind of “magic” water when she said; “Please, sir, give me some of that water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again and I won’t have to come to this well every day to get water!”

Jesus told her, “Go and get thy husband.”

“I don’t have a husband” the woman said.

“You have spoken the truth,” answered Jesus, “for you have had five husbands, and you are not even married to the man you are living with now.”

Now the woman knew that Jesus was someone special, for He knew all about her. He even knew her sins. But she didn’t yet know that He was God. She thought He was just a prophet, a man who taught about God. The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, “I know that the Messiah will come, the One who is called Christ. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah.”

NOW she really understood! Of course! Who else but the Messiah, or Savior, would know all about her? She knew and accepted immediately that this was the one God had promised to send to take away her sins. The Bible says she left her water pot, and went back into the village and told everyone;

“Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?” She already knew that He was, but by using that question, the woman was capturing their curiosity about Jesus! The people came running out of the village to see Him. The Bible tells us that many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had told them “He told me everything I ever did!”

When they came out to see Him, they begged him to stay at their village. So Jesus stayed for two more days. That was long enough for many of them to hear His message and believe in Him. Then they said to the woman;

“Now we believe because we have heard Him ourselves, not just because of what you told us. He is indeed the Savior of the world!”

Boys and girls, when the Samaritan woman received God’s Ultimate Make-over, she wanted to tell everybody! Joy over accepting Jesus as her Savior was “bubbling over” and she had to tell others! That is called “witnessing.”

Jesus wants us to be a witness for Him, just like the Samaritan woman was to her whole village. But the first thing she had to do was to accept Jesus as her own Savior.

Maybe you need to do that too. You can today!