John 4:30

Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. THEN THEY WENT OUT OF THE CITY AND CAME UNTO HIM How different in this from the Jews! and richly was THEN THEY WENT OUT OF THE CITY, AND CAME UNTO HIM. How different, in this, from the Jews! and richly was this their openness to conviction rewarded. But first the Evangelist relates what passed between Jesus and the disciples after the woman's departure....

27-42 The disciples wondered that Christ talked thus with a Samaritan. Yet they knew it was for some good reason, and for some good end. Thus when particular difficulties occur in the word and providence of God, it is good to satisfy ourselves that all is well that Jesus Christ says and does. Two things affected the woman. The extent of his knowledge. Christ knows all the thoughts, words, and actions, of all the children of men. And the power of his word. He told her secret sins with power. She fastened upon that part of Christ's discourse, many would think she would have been most shy of repeating; but the knowledge of Christ, into which we are led by conviction of sin, is most likely to be sound and saving. They came to him: those who would know Christ, must meet him where he records his name. Our Master has left us an example, that we may learn to do the will of God as he did; with d...

Verse 30. _THEY WENT OUT OF THE CITY_] Such effect had the simple testimony of the woman on their minds. _AND CAME UNTO HIM._] Or, _Were coming to him_; for they did not reach him immediately; all that discourse between him and his disciples, mentioned John 4:31, inclusive, having taken place before the people of Sychar got to the well. See John 4:40....

THEY WENT OUT OF THE CITY - The men of the city left it and went to Jesus, to hear and examine for themselves....

EXPOSITION JOHN 4:1 7. _The ministry and revelation of the Lord to those beyond the strict compass of the theocracy. _This passage describes an incident of consummate interest, and records a specimen of our Lord's intercourse with individuals, and the reaction of that instruction upon the disciples. The event is a solitary chink through which the light of historical fact falls upon an otherwise darkened and unknown period of the Saviour's life. When we skirt a forest we see at intervals, where by some accident of growth the light falls upon a narrow space, a miniature world of life and loveliness of every kind, suggesting what might happen if every square yard of the forest could receive a similar illumination. Every day of that wondrous life of Christ may have been equally full of meaning to some souls. "These things are written, that

THEN THEY WENT OUT OF THE CITY,.... "The men", as the Syriac version expresses it; the inhabitants of Sychar left their business, and came out of the city: AND CAME UNTO HIM; to Christ, to see him, and converse with him, that they might know who he was: for though the woman had been a woman of ill fame, yet such was the account that she gave of Christ, and such power went along with her words, that what with the strangeness of the relation, and the curiosity with which they were led, and chiefly through the efficacy of divine grace, at least in many of them, they were moved to regard what she said, and to follow her directions and solicitations....

John 4:1. _When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples), He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria._ When he was wanted in so many places, he did not care to stay among the Pharisees where he was not wanted. They would not receive his message, so he quitted the lordly professors, and went to look after a fallen woman. Christ's estimates of usefulness are not always the same as ours. We think it a grand thing to be the means of converting a great man; Christ thinks it a worthy work to convert a great sinner. John 4:5. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Jos

CHAPTER 4 _ 1. He Must Needs Pass Through Samaria. (John 4:1 .)_ 2. At Sychar's Well; Jesus and the Samaritan Woman. (John 4:6 .) 3. The Woman's Witness and the Believing Samaritans. (John 4:27 .) 4. His Return to Galilee. (John 4:43 .) 5. The Second Miracle, the Healing of the Nobleman's Son. (John 4:46 .) In the Gospel of Matthew the Lord told His disciples not to go into the way of the Gentiles and not to enter into any city of the Samaritans. (Matthew 10:5

THE RETURN OF THE DISCIPLES. The disciples return with the food they have bought. They are surprised that Jesus is talking with a woman (_cf. Pirke Aboth,_ i. 5, Prolong not discourse with a woman). The woman returns to the city, and her report leads the men to come and see. Meanwhile the disciples offer the food to Jesus. But His experiences have banished physical hunger. He explains that His true life is supported by doing His Father's work. Signs of accomplishment are not wanting. In common parlance four months separate seed-time from harvest (unless John 4:35_ a_ is to be taken as a note of time, in which case the event must have happened in December or January). In the spiritual harvest, which is independent of time, the grain is already ripe, as they will see if they look at the men coming from the city to Him. When fruit is gathered in to eternal life, sower and reaper share a com...

AND THEN WENT THEY OUT OF THE CITY. Her success was immediate. Their curiosity was aroused and they were eager to hear. It is evident, by the effect of her words, that they were not. skeptical people, but were waiting for the Christ....