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Texts -- John 4:39-54 (NET)

Context
The Samaritans Respond
4:39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the report of the woman who testified , “He told me everything I ever did .” 4:40 So when the Samaritans came to him , they began asking him to stay with them . He stayed there two days , 4:41 and because of his word many more believed . 4:42 They said to the woman , “No longer do we believe because of your words , for we have heard for ourselves , and we know that this one really is the Savior of the world .”
Onward to Galilee
4:43 After the two days he departed from there to Galilee . 4:44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country .) 4:45 So when he came to Galilee , the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem at the feast (for they themselves had gone to the feast ).
Healing the Royal Official’s Son
4:46 Now he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine . In Capernaum there was a certain royal official whose son was sick . 4:47 When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee , he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son , who was about to die . 4:48 So Jesus said to him , “Unless you people see signs and wonders you will never believe !” 4:49 “Sir ,” the official said to him , “come down before my child dies .” 4:50 Jesus told him , “Go home ; your son will live .” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him , and set off for home . 4:51 While he was on his way down , his slaves met him and told him that his son was going to live . 4:52 So he asked them the time when his condition began to improve , and they told him , “Yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon the fever left him .” 4:53 Then the father realized that it was the very time Jesus had said to him , “Your son will live ,” and he himself believed along with his entire household . 4:54 Jesus did this as his second miraculous sign when he returned from Judea to Galilee .

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What Is Your Style of Evangelism?; How Jesus Interacted With People; Who Is Jesus Christ?; Salvation Is the Deliverance from Sin

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • 34:11-12 The Lord further promised to search for His wandering sheep Himself, to care for them, and to deliver them from the places where they had scattered in the gloomy days of their national distress (cf. Jer. 30:4-7; Luke...
  • Comparison of John's Gospel and Matthew's shows that Jesus ministered for about a year before John the Baptist's arrest. John had criticized Herod Antipas for having an adulterous relationship with his brother Philip's wife (...
  • 8:5 Centurions were Roman military officers each of whom controlled 100 men, therefore the name "centurion."They were the military backbone of the Roman Empire. Interestingly every reference to a centurion in the New Testamen...
  • Peter and his family were evidently living in Capernaum when Jesus performed this miracle (4:13). People considered fever a disease in Jesus' day rather than a symptom of a disease (cf. John 4:52; Acts 28:8). Jesus healed Pet...
  • Mark omitted Jesus' year of early Judean ministry (John 1:15-4:42), as did the other Synoptic evangelists. He began his account of Jesus' ministry of service in Galilee, northern Israel (1:14-6:6a). Because of increasing oppo...
  • This incident shows Jesus extending grace to a Gentile. It would have helped Luke's original Gentile readers to appreciate that Jesus' mission included them as well as the Jews. It is another case in which Jesus commended the...
  • John's presentation of Jesus in his Gospel has been a problem to many modern students of the New Testament. Some regard it as the greatest problem in current New Testament studies.15Compared to the Synoptics that present Jesu...
  • In one sense the Gospel of John is more profound than the Synoptics. It is the most difficult Gospel for most expositors to preach and to teach for reasons that will become evident as we study it. In another sense, however, t...
  • I. Prologue 1:1-18A. The preincarnate Word 1:1-5B. The witness of John the Baptist 1:6-8C. The appearance of the Light 1:9-13D. The incarnation of the Word 1:14-18II. Jesus' public ministry 1:19-12:50A. The prelude to Jesus' ...
  • John the Apostle introduced John the Baptist because John the Baptist bore witness to the light, namely Jesus. John the Baptist was both a model evangelist pointing those in darkness to the light and a model witness providing...
  • The first part of the body of John's Gospel records Jesus' public ministry to the multitudes in Palestine who were primarily Jewish. Some writers have called this section of the Gospel "the book of signs"because it features s...
  • The writer now turned his attention from John the Baptist's witness to Jesus to record the reactions of some men to Jesus' witness. Two of John the Baptist's disciples left him to follow Jesus when they heard John's testimony...
  • John included another summary of Jesus' activities (cf. v. 12). It enables the reader to gain a more balanced picture of popular reaction to Jesus than the preceding incident might suggest.2:23 Jesus did many signs (significa...
  • John now presented evidence that Jesus knew people as no others did and that many believed in His name (2:23). This constitutes further witness that He is the Son of God. John summarized several conversations that Jesus had w...
  • The writer next noted the parallel ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus in Judea. John the Baptist readily confessed Jesus' superiority to him even though they were both doing the same things. This was further testimony t...
  • The response of the Samaritans to Jesus was considerably more positive than the response of the Jews had been (1:11; 2:23-25). This would prove true as Jesus' ministry continued to progress.4:39 Harvesting followed the arriva...
  • John again bridged the gap between important events in his narrative with a transitional explanation of how Jesus moved from one site to another (cf. 2:12; 4:1-3). John typically focused on clusters of events in Jesus' minist...
  • This incident completes a cycle in John's Gospel. Jesus performed His first sign in Cana (2:1), and now He returned and did another miracle there (v. 46). There is even a second reference to Capernaum (2:12; 4:46). John's acc...
  • "In chapters 1-4 the subject is described from the standpoint of a spectator, ab extra, and we are thus enabled to see something of the impression created on others by our Lord as He deals with individuals in Jerusalem, Samar...
  • 7:25-26 Though many of the Jewish pilgrims in the temple courtyard did not realize how antagonistic the religious leaders were to Jesus (v. 20), some of the locals did. They marvelled that Jesus was speaking out publicly and ...
  • 10:40 John presented Jesus' departure from Jerusalem as the result of official rejection of Him. The event had symbolic significance that the evangelist probably intended. Jesus withdrew the opportunity for salvation from the...
  • The raising of Lazarus convinced Israel's leaders that they had to take more drastic action against Jesus. John recorded this decision as the high point of Israel's official rejection of God's Son so far. This decision led di...
  • In contrast to the hatred that the religious leaders manifested stands the love that Mary demonstrated toward the One she had come to believe in. Her act of sacrificial devotion is a model for all true disciples. This is the ...
  • Jesus realized that the Eleven did not fully understand what He had just revealed. He therefore encouraged them with a promise that they would understand His words later.14:25-26 Jesus had made these revelations to His discip...
  • Jesus next turned the disciples' attention from the Spirit's future ministries to His own reappearance.16:16 As the following verses show, Jesus was referring here to His imminent departure in death and His return to the disc...
  • John reported much more about Jesus' trial before Pilate than did any of the other Gospel writers. He omitted referring to Jesus' appearance before Herod Antipas, which only Luke recorded (Luke 23:6-12). He stressed Jesus' au...
  • John did not mention when this conversation happened. It could have taken place anytime between Easter evening and the following Sunday. None of the evangelists recorded post-resurrection appearances between these two Sundays...
  • John followed the climactic proof that Jesus is God's Son with an explanation of his purpose for writing this narrative of Jesus' ministry. This explanation constitutes a preliminary conclusion to the book.20:30 "Therefore"ti...
  • Allen, Ronald B. "Affirming Right-of-Way on Ancient Paths."Bibliotheca Sacra153:609 (January-March 1996):3-11.Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James D...
  • Luke introduced the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry with His baptism with the Spirit (Luke 3:21-22). He paralleled this with the beginning of Jesus' heavenly ministry with the Spirit baptism of His disciples (Acts 2:1-4)...
  • Luke had just referred to the apostles' teaching, to the awe that many of the Jews felt, to the apostles doing signs and wonders, and to the Christians meeting in the temple (2:43-44, 46). Now he narrated a specific incident ...
  • 8:4 Whereas persecution resulted in the death of some believers it also dispersed the disciples over a wider area. Luke described what they did as scattered believers as "preaching the word"(Gr. euaggelizomenoi ton logon, lit...
  • This pericope furnishes the plot for the drama that unfolds in the rest of the chapter.12:1 John saw a "sign,"something that signified or represented something else (cf. v. 3; 13:13-14; 15:1; 16:14; 19:29). Usually John used ...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when He was come out of Judaea into Galilee.'--John 4:54.THE Evangelist evidently intends us to connect together the two miracles in Cana. His object may, possibly, be mainly c...
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