First Baptist Church Delray

First Baptist Church Delray

Sermon Application Questions

October 12, 2025

Pastor Jimmy’s Message: “Follow the Leader”

Scripture: John 4:1-26 (ESV)

Review the Exegesis of the Scripture

Read John 4:1-5

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. He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 

had to go through Samaria.” (John 4:1–4)

1. How did Jews feel about the Samaritans who were Jews intermarried with people of other religions?

2. Why would Jesus have intentionally chosen to go through Samaria?

Read John 4:6-9

Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by 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.) 

3. What was strange about Jesus’ request for a drink of water from this woman who was a Samaritan and a known homewrecker?

Read John 4:10-14

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 answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  

4. What term normally referred to water that flowed from a stream rather than standing water from a well?

5. How did Jesus ignore her misunderstanding and continue to explain himself?

6. How did Jesus use a comparison of literal water with spiritual water?

7. How is the Holy Spirit like spiritual water that enables us to never thirst again, to do things far beyond our ability and to be preserve us for eternal life until the coming of Christ?

Read John 4:15-19

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming 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.” 

8. When the woman still didn’t understand, how did Jesus get more direct with her?

9. How did Jesus prove his divinity to her?

Read John 4:20-26

(The woman continued) “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.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

10. What did the woman do to try to change the subject away from her sin?

11. How did Jesus move the conversation back to the original subject of the gospel, that is, who he is and what he offers?

12. How did Jesus lay the groundwork for revealing his identity?

13. Why did Jesus choose a broken lonely woman entrenched in sin to reveal himself to first?

Make Personal Applications of the Lessons

14. Even though you are not Jesus, how does having his Holy Spirit enable you to evangelize like him?

15. How can you use what you have learned about effective evangelism from did Jesus as he evangelized the Samaritan woman?

a. How do you intentionally socialize with people?

b. How do you begin with a simple genuine conversation where people are in workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, gyms, social gatherings, etc.?

c. How are you friendly and approachable and caring first without immediately forcing religion with someone?

d. How do you establish a common interest, such as sports, family, hobbies, music, local events, or shared struggles with someone?

e. How do you build rapport and respect?

f. How do you build a bridge of trust with meaningful dialogue about spiritual subjects such as how we are blessed with our children, our careers, our places of origin, etc.?

g. How do you bring somebody back to the subject of our need for Jesus when they want to deflect and bring up related issues such as politics, science, end times and the book of Revelation, church traditions, Calvinism vs Armenianism, etc.?

h. How do you start by listening to their story such as their earlier experiences with church and beliefs?

i. How can you ask questions that invites somebody to think rather than push your own answers?

j. After a friendly chat about life, have you ever asked someone something like, “Have you ever thought about how faith fits into all this?” and been willing to listen to them?

k. What can you do to remind yourself that Jesus did not dwell on the Samaritan woman being an adulteress and shame her, but first describe his purpose of coming to offer forgiveness and salvation?

l. How do you clearly explain the message of salvation that Jesus died for our sins, rose again, and offers forgiveness and new life?

m. How do you stay loving but bold?

n. How do you address sin, but show compassion and understanding instead of criticizing and condemning their lifestyle and beliefs?

o. How do you keep your goal on the reconciliation and restoration that won you over to Jesus and changed your life?

p. Will you let the Holy Spirit bring them conviction in His time?

q. Will you seek to win a heart rather than win the argument?

r. How do you share your personal testimony as your most effective tool in your arsenal of evangelism: who Jesus is and what he has done in your life backed by powerful evidence?

s. How do you invite somebody to respond to the gospel - to believe, repent, and follow Jesus?