John 4:16-29 (NKJV) The Woman at the Well, Part 2

16  Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17  The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' 18  for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." 19  The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." 21  Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22  You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23  But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 25  The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." 26  Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." 27  And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?" 28  The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29  "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"

Questions to Consider:

1. Have you ever made the mistake of thinking of the "Church" as a building?  (Not only are you the church--you are the temple of the Lord, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit)
2. What do you think motivated Jesus to reveal Himself as the Messiah to this Samaritan woman?
3. What does it mean to "worship God in spirit and in truth?"  ​

Personal Note: Our heavenly Father desires a people that will worship Him in spirit and in truth.  Sometimes, the danger associated with "worship" is that it has become nothing more than a religious form or tradition.  I describe this thinking as "We do worship this way because we do worship the way."  Try this: Go into your own prayer closet and throw off all the religious trappings (of this is the way we do it), and fully commit your heart to worship as the Holy Spirit leads you.  There is a high probability that you will now experience worship in spirit and in truth. 

Jesus goes supernatural in the conversation with the Samaritan woman.  Let's define "supernatural."  Supernatural refers to an event or a manifestation that happens outside the boundaries of the laws of nature and/or physics.  Jesus, through a supernatural understanding, begins to tell the woman about her own life.  "You have had five husbands and the one you are living with is not your husband."
That had to be shocking to the woman; but it opened her understanding of who she was talking to.  This was not the average Jewish Rabbi.  Firstly, He took the time to talk to her.  Then He took it to the next level and talked about her life with knowledge and information that no ordinary person could have.
The woman perceives that Jesus must be a prophet.  She deflects the conversation away from the territory of her own personal life.  (Which was a wreck and probably not something she wanted to talk about with a "religious" person)  She steers the conversation to a religious controversy that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans.  It dealt with the "right" place to worship God.
Once again, Jesus pushes through the woman's defensiveness, but He does take the time to expand her understanding concerning the right place to worship God.  Should God be worshiped on the sacred mountain, or should God be worshiped in the Temple in Jerusalem?  
Often times in the formation of theology we think the answer to our theological question must be A or B.  Then the Holy Spirit comes along and reveals that the answer is actually "C."  This is exactly what Jesus did in His explanation concerning the "right" place to worship.  Essentially, Jesus told her that "true worship" is not associated with a specific physical location; it is associated with a "spiritual connection" that worshipers have with God.  The "place" of worship is in the heart of those worshiping.  The "connection" for worship is the Spirit of God.
The conversation with the Samaritan woman ends with an earth-shattering revelation.  She begins to talk about the Messiah that is to come and Jesus told her, "I who speak to you am He."  Before the conversation could escalate any further, the disciples returned from their food seeking mission.  The first thing they wanted to know is why Jesus would be talking to a Samaritan.  (The prejudice of the disciples was revealed)
The woman promptly left her waterpot, went into the city, and began to tell everyone about this "Man" who might be the Christ.