Holy Spirit No.4 I am the Well

It was the last to be written. It differs from the first three Gospels, which are known as the Synoptic Gospels, because the first three have a lot of material in common, whereas John provides us with information that you don't discover elsewhere in the New Testament. And then another feature of the Gospel of John, which makes it very significant and very helpful to us, is that you find contained within it the great declarations of our Lord Jesus.

For instance, he says in the fifth chapter, I am the bread of life. That's John 5.35. And then when you go to the tenth chapter, you discover our Saviour affirming in verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

When you go to the eleventh chapter, you find the Lord Jesus saying to Martha in verse 25, I am the resurrection and the life. And later on, when Thomas asks Jesus a question in chapter 14, the Lord responds in the sixth verse, I am the way and the truth and the life. Several declarations in which Jesus says, I am.

Now I want to suggest to you that there's another declaration that at least is implicit, if not explicit. That means to say it is to be discovered if you study the text in some depth, even though it doesn't say this at the surface level of the verse. And it's this declaration that I want to defend this evening.

Jesus insinuating, Jesus affirming, I am the well. I am the well. Now you say, what gives me justification for arguing that Jesus in effect was making this claim? Well, look at the tenth verse of the chapter that Audrey's just read.

Jesus answered the Samaritan woman, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. And then go to the thirteenth verse, Jesus still responding to this Samaritan woman who is beginning to question and debate with him, verse thirteen, 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.

Now I would suggest for those two reasons, and a third which I will add in a few moments time, it is right for me to suggest to you that our Lord was making implicitly a declaration, not only am I the bread of life, not only am I the good shepherd, not only am I the resurrection, not only am I the way, but I am the well. Now let's get this into context for a moment. I deliberately didn't because I think that you know the general background of this chapter, so I've deliberately not sketched in the scenery too much.

But let me at least take you to the sixth verse. We're told that the incident which takes place outside the village of Syca is more precisely placed by Jacob's well, verse six. Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well, or perhaps more accurately in the authorised version, sat down on the well.

It was about the sixth hour, that means twelve o'clock at noon. The Jewish day began at six o'clock in the morning, six hours on from that takes you to twelve o'clock. So, here is our Lord and he's weary.

The end of his life we're told that he's thirsty, he says, I thirst when he's on the cross. The beginning of his ministry he was hungry in the desert. But here we're told that Jesus was weary because well, he's human as well as divine, he has these desires as we do for food and for drink and also for rest.

Now, very conveniently our Lord has sent his disciples to the village to buy food and he is on his own sitting on this well. And I'm suggesting to you that Jacob's well becomes a sort of visual aid by which this woman from Samaria is to understand his ministry and all of us, if we've got eyes to see what is being portrayed here and minds to grasp Scripture, are to come to a realisation that all that the well of Jacob physically stood for, Jesus spiritually illustrates. Now, in the Old Testament you sometimes get what are known as types, that is, allusion is made to certain things that Jesus fulfilled, that he sort of fleshed out.

For example, the Passover lamb, the lamb that was slain the day when the Israelites were allowed out of Egypt. We know that that is predicting the coming of Jesus who is the lamb of God who will be slain and whose blood will be the atonement, the payment whereby our sins are forgiven. We know in the Old Testament that the priests in their very office were predicting the ministry of Jesus.

He was to become the great high priest. Well, I could give you other examples, but there are two that we'll have to do for this evening. Now, what I am suggesting to you is that all that the well symbolised in the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills in his life, in his ministry.

Now let's just pause a moment and I'll justify my comments by taking you to one or two Scriptures which you might like to look up. Possibly you've never thought this area of teaching through before and I want you to consider it and then make your own judgement as to whether you'll accept it or not. Let's go to the first instance where a well is referred to in the Old Testament and that's in Genesis chapter 16.

Hagar, who was a sort of Egyptian au pair, girl, looking after Sarah and therefore attached to Abraham's camp, ran away from her mistress and she's discovered by the angel of God. Verse 9 will tell you that, Genesis 16 verse 9. The angel reassures her that she's not being rejected by God, even though she feels that she's being rejected by Sarah and in Sarah's bad books. So the angel tells her to return in her pregnant condition to her mistress.

Now isn't it interesting where all that took place? Look at verse 13. She gave, that is Hagar gave, this name to the Lord who spoke to her, you are the God who sees me for she said, I have now seen the one who sees me. That is why the well was called Beer-lahai-roi.

It is still there between Kadesh and Bereth. The place where Hagar was discovered by the angel of God was by a well. There he spied her and there he ministered to her.

Now if that doesn't seem immediately significant and it certainly does to me, perhaps my point becomes even more clear if you go on to the 21st chapter of Genesis where the same lady is in the picture and once again she's left home. The child that she bore, well his name was Ishmael. When Sarah, her mistress, had a child in old age called Isaac, Hagar was evicted from the camp again and this time she's not to return.

She's in the wilderness and she's in desperate straits because, well, she's thirsty and it looks as though the boy is going to die. And in sheer desperation she distances herself from her son and she accepts her fate. And then suddenly verse 17 we read this, God heard the boy crying and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what is the matter Hagar? Do not be afraid.

God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand for I will make him a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. Hagar, if you like a prodigal lady, is discovered by God and her eyes are open so that she knows the place where she can get water which will preserve her life and save that of her boy. Now let's just move on.

These are just random illustrations and you'll see where I'm getting to in a moment. Here is Moses. Let's go to Exodus, shall we? He's had to flee from Egypt because he's killed an Egyptian and he goes into Midian which is a desert land with some scrub that can at least sustain the life of a shepherd.

And that indeed is what Moses becomes. So we read in verse 15 of Exodus 2, when Pharaoh heard of this he tried to kill Moses but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian where he sat down by a well. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came to draw water and filled a trough to water their father's flock and so forth.

Moses flees from the wrath of Pharaoh and finds refuge by a well. Now I'll just give you two more examples before I come to some conclusion. Let's go to Numbers chapter 21.

Here the Israelites are moving through Sinai and were it not for the fact that God delivers them from time to time by providing water then of course they would have died in their wilderness wanderings. We find them in the 21st verse of chapter 21 or rather in the 16th verse of Numbers chapter 21 at a place called Beer. Rather unfortunate name really for the point that I'm trying to sustain.

From there they continued on to Beer, the well where the Lord said to Moses, gather the people together and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, spring up O well, sing about it, about the well that the princes dug, that the nobles of the people sank, the nobles with scepter and staffs. When the Israelites needed water the Lord took them to a well and they praised the water, in effect the God-given gift, they were really praising the donor of the water.

Now as I say my last example, let's go to 2 Samuel chapter 23. Here's David and he's in a predicament, he's been fighting the battles of the Lord, he's in rather a difficult situation and some very, very brave men listen to David's desire to have a drink from the refreshing water of his native town of Bethlehem. Verse 15, 2 Samuel 23, David longed for water and said, oh that someone would get me a drink.

A drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem. So three mighty men broke through the Philistine line, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David but he refused to drink it. Why? Well it was water bought at the possible cost of the lives of these men.

So instead he pours it out before the Lord, far be it from me O Lord to do this, he said, is not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives and David would not drink it. Now isn't that interesting, just a little cameo, just a little selection of texts from the Old Testament and there are many more that I could have given you that speak of the significance of the well, finding refuge and refreshment by a well. Now I said that I would give you two texts and add a third which justify me in saying that all that the well in the Old Testament symbolised, Jesus fulfils.

Two verses we've read because they were contained in John 4. Now let's go to the verse that I spoke to you on the last time I had the privilege of ministering here on a Wednesday night. John chapter 6, here is Jesus on a great feast speaking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and he goes on to tell them, John 7, did I say John 6, John 7, 37, he goes on to say this, if a man is thirsty, verse 37, if a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Again, you can hardly dismiss my notion that Jesus is claiming to be a well or the well, the fount of living water when you place these texts together and you see them within the context of those several references that I gave you from the Old Testament.

Alright, now if you didn't follow all that, plug in again because we're back to the story that's much easier for you to go through with me, of this Samaritan woman coming to the Lord Jesus, he on her own and she deliberately on her own, one hot afternoon in Samaria. Jesus says to her as he's sat on this well, verse 7, will you give me a drink? She's utterly astonished that he makes this request for the reason that John explains in the ninth verse, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? Now I want to suggest this to you very forcefully, that Jesus is not really thirsty.

He's weary but he's not really thirsty. The thirst that really needs to be satisfied in John 4 is not that of the Lord Jesus but rather that of the woman and it's not a physical thirst, it's a spiritual thirst. And so Jesus tries to get her to realise because he knows that she's going to be there, that's the reason why he's pitched up, the reason why he must go through Samaria because he's got an appointment with this woman as in the previous chapter he had an appointment with Nicodemus, two very contrasting figures but they both desperately needed the help of the Lord Jesus.

And so Jesus comes back to her and he said look in verse 10, if you, the if of ignorance, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. And now she really thinks that he's flipped it because the sun is so hot and he's been sitting there by or on this well. Jesus, sir, you'll give me living water? And she notices, as you will in a moment or two, the significance of that term, living water, why she says you haven't even got a bucket, so how can you draw and satisfy me? And by implication, what is this living water that you're referring to? Now remember John has deliberately identified geographically the location of the well, it's not any old well, it's Jacob's well.

And Jacob's well is an interesting well for this reason, it's a hundred feet down and it doesn't have a spring. Now spring water is always the best water, it's fresh, it's bubbling, it's cool. But the well water in this particular watering point just outside the village of Sychar is water that percolates through the soil and gathers together.

It's not living water, it's not bubbling water, it's alright, it's good water, otherwise I wouldn't be here actually, I drank from it about twenty years ago, a monk gave me a bucket, actually I think he pulled the water up for me and gave me a drink. But it's not the best water, and this is really what Jesus is getting at, I would give you living water, and the living water is of such quality, says Jesus in the thirteenth verse, everyone who drinks it, 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. Now are you beginning to get the point? You see this woman is very much like Hagar in the Old Testament, Hagar was so near to a supply of water but she couldn't see it until God opened her eyes, and this Samaritan woman, saturated in her immorality, she has got to recognise that she needs to be cleaned up, she needs to be cleansed, she needs to be washed, she needs to be refreshed, she needs to be remade, and the only one who can do it and indeed stimulate that desire is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so he's speaking to her of that living water which he alone can give. Now the gift of God is only Jesus' to dispense. Go back to verse 10, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water, why must you ask him? Well, because there's nobody else to ask, there's nobody else who is qualified to dispense this life-giving fluid.

Now when Jesus speaks of water in the sixth verse, or rather in the seventh chapter with the same metaphor very much in mind, of what is he referring, to what is he referring? Well the scripture tells us he's referring to the gift of the Holy Spirit, the outpouring of the Spirit which was not yet given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. But when Jesus, just before his death, you remember the scriptures that I took you to, was talking to his disciples, he particularly referred to the coming of the Spirit, because you see, it's his death at Calvary that enables the Lord Jesus, and again I've given you so many scriptures to prove this, to be the one who dispenses the Holy Spirit. And so our Lord offers this lady this most remarkable drink, a drink which will bring her salvation and therefore cleansing, a drink that will bring her fullness and therefore empowering.

Now I have a few minutes left, so let's sustain the thought and work out one or two more very great truths. This is the first time, as far as I know, that Jesus gives any real indication of how he is going to dispense his Spirit. I mean, John has made some reference before, he said, I baptize you with water but one who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

But this is the first time that Jesus really makes reference, wrapped up in metaphor, to giving his Spirit and he does so by using the metaphor of the well, Jacob's well on which he is sitting, prefiguring the well of salvation that Jesus comes to be. And Isaiah tells us, predicting the ministry of Jesus, let us draw water from the wells of salvation and let us draw with joy. However, I nearly lost my point.

The disciples have gone on ahead to the village. It's just this woman and Jesus. It's not a Jew and Jesus, it's a Gentile and Jesus, it's not a man and Jesus, it's a woman and Jesus and the Lord Jesus speaks to this woman about this gift of living water.

Now why is that significant? You know, I've apologized in trying to take this little series that are in some way linked together, each one connected on the doctrine of the Spirit because from time to time I've quoted the experiences of great men of God and I've apologized because I'm always frightened on quoting those experiences that some poor diminutive person will come along and say, ah, but that's not for me, you know, I'm just so insignificant. But you see, no one could be less significant than this woman. I mean, here was Jesus in the previous chapter and he was interviewing a master of theology, a man who was a teacher in Jerusalem.

And he said to this man, Nicodemus, unless you're born again you can't have anything to do with the kingdom. And he virtually says the same thing using different language to express it, but the principle is the same, to this woman. Unless I cleanse you, then you can have nothing to do with me, you can't have the water that you really need that will only slake your thirst.

You see, whether you're a master in Israel or a prostitute from Syca, you need exactly the same treatment at the hands of Jesus, isn't that remarkable? I found a tremendous skill coming through in John's compilation of this gospel when he stacks alongside chapter 3, chapter 4, and he takes us from, you know, someone who's way at the top of the social ladder to someone who's right down at the bottom. And John, and I wonder if he was writing with speed as he penned this because, you know, when you get excited in writing you do increase the speed, don't you? I wonder if he really had a great glow of, that's just like Jesus when he was writing about this woman being the first to be told about how the Lord would pour out his own power on people so that, well, they would become as springs that took their very life from him and knew something of the blessings that he had come to release to this world. Now, all this that I'm sharing with you this evening is quite new to my own thinking, but I submit it to you quite humbly for you to work through yourself.

The thrust of what I'm asking is this, have you been to the well, not just for what C. H. Spurgeon said when I quoted him last time, not just for the sip that satisfies in some degree, but have you come for that mighty draught of God's great refreshing liquid? I speak, of course, poetically. Are you knowing, are you seeking after the power and the presence of God in your life in such a way that you can say, yes, at that time and at that time and at that time I was so satisfied when I came to the waters, when I came to the well and I drank deeply and I knew the empowering of my God as he slaked, as he satisfied my spiritual longings. Jesus, by implication, makes the claim, I am the well.

Now I'd like us to learn a new song. At least it's new to some, not new to those who were involved in our outreach because they were singing it quite a lot in the Bible study sessions and prayer sessions which we had in a morning, and incidentally it wasn't just young people involved in that outreach, they were older friends too, for which we thank the Lord. Come and introduce it and teach it to us, will you please, Margaret? Right, I'll sing the first verse in the chorus and then we'll start again from the beginning and you can all join in.

O Lord our God, how majestic is your name! The earth is filled with your glory. O Lord our God, you are robed in majesty. You've set your glory above the heavens.

We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion. We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion. O Lord our God, how majestic is your name! The earth is filled with your glory.

O Lord our God, you are robed in majesty. You've set your glory above the heavens. We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion.

We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion. O Lord our God, you have established a throne. You reign in righteousness and splendor.

O Lord our God, the skies are ringing with your praise. Soon those on earth will come to worship. We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion.

We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion. O Lord our God, the world was made at your command. In you all things now hold together.

Now to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Be praise and glory and power forever. We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion.

We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion. Let's stand and sing just that first verse and refrain again. You stay here, they don't want my voice.

O Lord our God, how majestic is your name. The earth is filled with your glory. O Lord our God, you are of majesty.

You set your glory above the heavens. We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion. We will magnify, we will magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion.

And Father that's what we want to do, to magnify the Lord enthroned in Zion. Because you've done so many great things for us. Lord once we were like those people criticized by Jeremiah and Isaiah.

Once Lord we hewed out for ourselves cisterns that could hold no water. But you turned us on to the source of great supply. You took us from Isaiah to Jeremiah and to Ezekiel.

And there we read of a river that flows from the very presence of God. And we began to paddle in it and then we got knee high and then waist high. And then we discovered waters in which we could swim.

Father we ask that more and more we might know what it is to live in the very current of your love. And in the very center of your empowering and cleansing. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

Amen. Amen.