John 2–4 moves fast. At a wedding in Cana, Mary told the servants, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” That’s John 2:5. Jesus had them fill six stone waterpots “up to the brim.” Then He turned the water into wine, His first miracle. Each pot held “two or three firkins.” The Bible Dictionary says a firkin was a little more than a bath, about 8¼ gallons. So the servants drew around 100 to 150 gallons before anything happened. Then at Passover, Jesus drove the sellers and money changers out of the temple. He said, “make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” That’s 2:16. He also spoke of “the temple of his body” that would be raised in three days, in 2:19–21. It was a prophecy of His Resurrection.
In John 3, Nicodemus, a Pharisee and “a ruler of the Jews,” came to Jesus by night. Jesus taught that we must be “born again,” “born of water and of the Spirit.” That’s 3:3–5. It means baptism by immersion and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. The Spirit is like the wind, in 3:8. You can’t see it, but you can see and hear what it does in a changed life. In 3:14, Jesus compared His coming Crucifixion to Moses lifting up the brass serpent. Whoever looked at it would live, as Numbers 21:8–9 tells. Then Jesus taught John 3:16–17. Valiant kids love Nicodemus’s later chapters. He defended Jesus in the council, in John 7:50–51. He brought about a hundred pounds of spices to bury Him, in 19:39. A testimony that began in the dark grew brave.
John 4 is the opposite visit. It was about the sixth hour, around noon. A tired Jesus sat at Jacob’s well and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink. Jews and Samaritans usually had nothing to do with each other. He offered her “living water” that becomes “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” That’s 4:14. He showed He knew her life. Keep that detail simple: He knew things no stranger could know. He told her plainly, “I that speak unto thee am he.” That’s 4:26. She left her waterpot and ran to town. Many Samaritans believed, first because of her words. Then they believed because they heard Him themselves, in 4:39–42.
For nine- to eleven-year-olds, connect three things. Most of them have already been born of water and of the Spirit. The sacrament renews that covenant weekly. And the temple is still “my Father’s house.” Starting in January of the year they turn 12, youth may get a limited-use temple recommend. They can do baptisms for the dead, so some of your eleven-year-olds may already be preparing. Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman show that Jesus meets people right where they are, at night or at noon. And He invites them to grow.
