A Different Well

Greeting

We are so glad to have you here with us today! If you are joining us today I want you to know that someone really likes you.

I told our church that I only wanted them to invite people they like to our party today. So here you are, and I hope that I get to meet each and every single one of you before you leave today.

My name is Josh, and my family, together with an incredible group of families, started this church in March 2019. Our desire then, and our desire now, is to build a multi-ethic, multi-cultural, life-giving church for North County San Diego.

I hope that this isn’t your last visit, and that in the months to come you can not only hear our story, but maybe write your story into our story.

But let me get to the task at hand… We are in a series of messages that we have called This Is The Gospel. And today I want to continue in that series...

You may go ahead and take your seats.

Introduction

Are you familiar with the term “a leading question”? That is a question that prompts a desired answer.

Parents, we use this all of the time, don’t we? We can walk into a room, and we’ll know exactly which one of our kids left the milk on the counter for the last 4 hours, and we’ll still ask the question to the kid who did it, “Do you know who left the milk out?”

That is a leading question. We want a confession out of them. We want them to come to Jesus and admit what they’ve done wrong…

Before I was serving this church as a Pastor in a full-time capacity, I led negotiation teams for Government Defense Contracts, and we’d use leading questions as a negotiation tactic. It was very useful, and it helped us to steer the conversation to our intended result.

Transition

And with that in mind, I want to take you to a passage in the Bible, where Jesus used this approach when speaking to a woman.

We’re going to read from John 4 today, and in some cases we’ll read scripture by scripture, and in some cases I’ll just paraphrase the passage.

The first passage is in John 4 verses 4 through 7.

The Gospel For Samaria

'To get there, he (Jesus) had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon. A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?”

There’s the leading question… “Would you give me a drink of water?”

I know that question doesn’t seem like much, so let me walk us through this text together so that we understand what Jesus is doing here.

The title of my message today is A Different Well

Jesus was leaving Judaea and he was on his way to Galilee.

I want to show you what that looks like here on a map.

Notice that the shortest distance to get from Judaea and to Galilee was to go through Samaria.

But what the map doesn’t account for is the differences that existed during this time between Jews and Samaritans.

At this time, Jews would walk all the way around Samaria to avoid being anywhere near a Samaritan. This was becuase in this time of history, the Jews had a disdain for Samaritans because they inter-married with non-Jews. So the pure blooded Jews looked down on that and the mixed race children that this produced.

Racism has been around forever, everybody…

But on this day, Jesus, who was a Jew shocked his disciples because he had to pass through Samaria.

Let me teach you how to read this word, “had to.”

Have you ever had to do something you didn’t want to do?

But yet, you had to…

That’s what is going on here. The only thing is, it’s not Jesus who didn’t want to go through there, it was his disciples who didn’t want to go through there.

Jesus wanted to go through Samaria. Jesus needed to go through Samaria.

It was his disciples that were enduring the journey; not Jesus.

So now, when Jesus finally gets into Samaria he sits on a well.

But not just any well. This is Jacob’s well.

Jacob is a major person in Jewish history. Jacob was the son of Isaac, and the grandson of Abraham. He was born into a bit of a royal family. And Jacob had one encounter with God that not only changed who He was, but God literally changed his name from Jacob to Israel, and there after all of his off spring are called the Israelites. The nation of Israel is named after this person, Jacob, who had his name changed to Israel.

So there is Jesus, and he’s at a very important place, Jacob’s well, and now comes a Samaritan woman.

And now Jesus asks this woman a leading question…

“Will you give me a drink?”

A Conversation with Jesus

What happens next is a dialogue between this woman and Jesus. Here is where I will paraphrase the text…

She can’t believe that Jesus is asking her for a drink. She’s a Samaritan and she’s well aware that Jews, like Jesus, looked down on Samaritans like her.

But there’s a detail in this story that you need to pick up on. The woman comes to draw water at noon.

What does this mean?

This meant that the woman did not want to be seen. All the other women drew water in the morning.

But this woman was living the kind of life that she chose to isolate herself, and in a way conceal herself from her peers.

What was the life she lived?

Well, this woman had been married 5 times, and was now in a relationship with a 6th man.

That’s a bit much right? I mean, in our day and age, in 2024, that’s a bit much.

But do you want to know what it was to a first century woman from Palestine?

It was a scandal.

And yet, here is Jesus speaking to this woman in the middle of the day, and he’s confronting her about this life that she’s living…

As we move forward with the story, we learn that the reason Jesus asked her a leading questions was this:

He wanted her to drink from the water that He was giving.

'Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.” '

Is This About Water?

OK, are we still talking about water here?

Absolutely not.

Jesus is using water as a metaphor to talk about a way of life. He was saying to this woman with 5 exes and a man that she was shacking up with back at home… clearly your way of life isn’t working out for you. If you were proud of this life, you wouldn’t be here at noon. But clearly, you don’t want to be seen.

So what Jesus says to her is why don’t you give me your water, your way of life, and I’ll give you my water, my way of life.

Let’s make an exchange - your way, for my way.

Your way of thinking, for my way of thinking.

Your way of treating others, for my way of treating others.

Your way of living, for my way of living.

And then he hits her with this bar:

'Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.” '

Jesus is telling her that her life has led her to be thirsty, time and time again. But if she’d stop drinking from her water, and start drinking from Jesus’ water, she would never be thirsty again.

Conclusion

And that is the point that I want to make to each of us today. I would like us to pause for one moment and consider, are there parts of our life where we are drinking from the wrong well?

Are we looking for satisfaction in places that will never satisfy us?

If we are being honest, that’s probably all of us in some area. We all have tendency to draw from wells that don’t satisfy.

So what is the remedy?

Well, when we look at this woman, she is living a life that she’s not proud of.

But yet here in this moment she meets Jesus and she meets him in an important place.

The story goes on to say that she sees Jesus for who He really is, her Savior, and then runs back to her village and the whole village is led to Jesus by her.

The woman who hid from her city, is used by God to save her city.

Today, like Jacob’s well, there is an important place that is called The Church. The Church is not a building, although it’s come to take on that meaning. The Church is actually followers of Jesus, gathered together. And when the church gathers in a setting like this, we lift up Jesus and make Him known.

A reason why we do this is so that people who come to this ‘well’ would meet and encounter Jesus, so that they too could have their life changed for the better.

And that’s our hope for you today. That if you don’t know Jesus, but you are aware that you’ve been drawing from the wrong wells, that today you’d make a decision to follow Jesus.

I’ll end with this passage of scripture for us to read together, and then I’ll make the call.

'“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”'