WEBVTT 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:06.019 Welcome to Season 3 of Love & Context. This season, 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:08.640 we're exploring the life of Jesus step -by -step 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:11.140 and uncovering what His story teaches us about 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.919 loving God and others. Here on Love & Context, 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:16.059 we're all about having real conversations about 00:00:16.059 --> 00:00:18.140 how to live out that love in practical, everyday 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:20.199 ways, and understanding the Bible in its full 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:22.839 context. We're so glad you're here. Let's dive 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:28.739 into Season 3 of Love & Context. Welcome to the 00:00:28.739 --> 00:00:32.640 Love and Context Podcast. Podcast! Yeah. We are 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.439 continuing with our series on the life of Jesus. 00:00:35.719 --> 00:00:38.280 Podcast. You're just going to keep saying podcast. 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:40.000 That's the only word Ben's going to say now. 00:00:40.119 --> 00:00:43.299 There was an episode, sorry, I'm just interrupting 00:00:43.299 --> 00:00:45.820 you already, but in season one where we were 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:48.340 like, we're like, podcast, podcast, podcast, 00:00:48.340 --> 00:00:52.420 podcast. So that was it. Yeah. We're going to 00:00:52.420 --> 00:00:54.399 be talking about the woman at the well, John 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:58.200 chapter 4. Life of Jesus. Yep. Yeah, we are going 00:00:58.200 --> 00:00:59.600 to be talking about that. In fact, the first 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:08.980 thing I think we should probably do. That's the 00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:10.980 first thing we should do? Yes. Okay, hold on. 00:01:12.459 --> 00:01:16.799 Yes, we are going to talk about that. This is 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:21.140 one of the stories that is... It's interesting 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:23.620 to see the perspective that some people take 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:27.719 on it initially. We're going to read the text, 00:01:27.819 --> 00:01:29.760 and then I want you to hear it, and I want you 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:31.579 to pretend like you've never heard it before. 00:01:32.219 --> 00:01:34.540 Because I think if you do that, then when we 00:01:34.540 --> 00:01:36.260 actually start having this conversation, you'll 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:38.799 be like, oh, I'm throwing a lot of assumptions 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:41.760 into this text that aren't actually there. It's 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:45.430 fine to think. But people have made very definitive 00:01:45.430 --> 00:01:47.530 statements about what's going on in this text 00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:49.650 on the character of the woman, the character 00:01:49.650 --> 00:01:52.950 of just different things that aren't actually 00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:54.969 explicitly said in the text. Yep. There's a lot 00:01:54.969 --> 00:01:56.310 of things culturally that could be going on. 00:01:56.390 --> 00:01:59.950 And it's always interesting to me how that happens. 00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:02.629 Yeah. I mean, to be fair, this is not the only 00:02:02.629 --> 00:02:05.450 scripture people do that on. Really? Yeah. No, 00:02:05.530 --> 00:02:07.390 this is not. It's the first time I'm hearing 00:02:07.390 --> 00:02:09.229 that. I was reading the book of Second Opinions 00:02:09.229 --> 00:02:12.449 the other day. It's written by a doctor, by the 00:02:12.449 --> 00:02:17.949 way. That's a joke for all my MD friends. It's 00:02:17.949 --> 00:02:21.490 not written by Luke. It's written by Juke. Juke? 00:02:21.509 --> 00:02:24.629 Yeah. Wow, we're on a roll today. I'm killing 00:02:24.629 --> 00:02:27.229 it. This is cool. All right. So if you remember 00:02:27.229 --> 00:02:31.050 last week, we were in the story of Nicodemus 00:02:31.050 --> 00:02:32.370 and Jesus, and they're having this conversation. 00:02:32.770 --> 00:02:35.069 This story is actually going to parallel a lot 00:02:35.069 --> 00:02:36.370 of the things that are happening here. Yeah. 00:02:36.710 --> 00:02:39.210 We'll just read through the story to start out, 00:02:39.330 --> 00:02:41.569 and we're going to go section by section, just 00:02:41.569 --> 00:02:42.990 comment on it, and then I want to go back and 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:45.629 take some big high -level views and talk about 00:02:45.629 --> 00:02:47.770 that. Does that sound good? Yeah. All right. 00:02:47.810 --> 00:02:50.289 I'm going to start in verse 1 here. Chapter 4. 00:02:50.710 --> 00:02:53.759 Now Jesus... Learned that the Pharisees had been, 00:02:53.860 --> 00:02:59.479 sorry, I can read. Now, geez, stop laughing because 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:01.460 it's not going to cut together well. Just get 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:05.539 in front of your microphone. I might leave that 00:03:05.539 --> 00:03:08.819 in just so people know the absurdity that I have. 00:03:08.860 --> 00:03:11.580 Actually, okay, real talk here. We are going 00:03:11.580 --> 00:03:12.860 to get into the story, but I'm going to tell 00:03:12.860 --> 00:03:15.520 you a quick story. I was editing yesterday our 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:19.159 episode that we posted, and I am not allowed 00:03:19.159 --> 00:03:21.639 to have soda. during the episode again because 00:03:21.639 --> 00:03:25.360 i had to have so many belches removed like i 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:27.919 had to go in so many times because i'd be talking 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:31.740 then it's like you know and i was like it wasn't 00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:34.060 like a loud one but it was like very clear and 00:03:34.060 --> 00:03:35.879 i'm like imagining people are listening to this 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:38.259 on their way to to work in the morning and they're 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:42.020 like yeah and then jesus comes in and then you 00:03:42.020 --> 00:03:44.080 know like it's just weird pause in the middle 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:46.400 of it i personally i think it'd be really funny 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:48.240 for me to show up with like 12 different shirts. 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:50.180 And then like every time you're like, okay, let's 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:51.879 try that again. I change a shirt. It would be 00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:55.000 incredibly confusing. Yeah. And then people watching 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.400 on YouTube would be like, wait. What? The downside 00:03:57.400 --> 00:03:59.000 for me is that I'd have to wait for you to change 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:00.919 each shirt just to go back and do it again. Yeah. 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:04.520 All right. Now, for real, John chapter 4, starting 00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:06.900 verse 1. Now, Jesus learned that the Pharisees 00:04:06.900 --> 00:04:09.620 had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more 00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:11.580 disciples than John, which I don't know why they 00:04:11.580 --> 00:04:14.000 care. Although, in fact, it was not Jesus who 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.620 baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:19.930 and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had 00:04:19.930 --> 00:04:23.589 to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in 00:04:23.589 --> 00:04:26.189 Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of the ground 00:04:26.189 --> 00:04:29.269 Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well 00:04:29.269 --> 00:04:31.889 was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the 00:04:31.889 --> 00:04:33.810 journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 00:04:34.269 --> 00:04:36.529 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus 00:04:36.529 --> 00:04:39.089 said to her, Will you give me a drink? His disciples 00:04:39.089 --> 00:04:41.470 had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan 00:04:41.470 --> 00:04:43.529 woman said to him, You are a Jew, and I am a 00:04:43.529 --> 00:04:45.709 Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? 00:04:45.810 --> 00:04:50.550 For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus 00:04:50.550 --> 00:04:52.649 answered her, if you knew the gift of God and 00:04:52.649 --> 00:04:54.629 who it was to ask you for a drink, you would 00:04:54.629 --> 00:04:56.550 have asked him and he would have given you living 00:04:56.550 --> 00:04:58.930 water. Sir, the woman said, you have nothing 00:04:58.930 --> 00:05:01.709 to draw with and the well is deep. Where can 00:05:01.709 --> 00:05:03.730 you get this living water? Are you greater than 00:05:03.730 --> 00:05:05.910 our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank 00:05:05.910 --> 00:05:09.569 from it himself? as did his sons and his livestock. 00:05:10.149 --> 00:05:12.170 Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water 00:05:12.170 --> 00:05:13.910 will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the 00:05:13.910 --> 00:05:15.629 water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, 00:05:15.769 --> 00:05:18.089 the water I give them will become in them a spring 00:05:18.089 --> 00:05:20.750 of water, welling up to eternal life. The woman 00:05:20.750 --> 00:05:23.069 said to him, Sir, give me this water and I won't 00:05:23.069 --> 00:05:25.670 get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw 00:05:25.670 --> 00:05:27.769 water. He told her, Go and call your husband 00:05:27.769 --> 00:05:29.850 and come back. I have no husband, she replied. 00:05:30.689 --> 00:05:46.209 Jesus said to her, Yeah, at that point, right? 00:05:47.649 --> 00:05:49.769 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but 00:05:49.769 --> 00:05:52.170 the Jews claim that the place where we must worship 00:05:52.170 --> 00:05:54.870 is in Jerusalem. Woman, Jesus replied, believe 00:05:54.870 --> 00:05:56.870 me, a time is coming when you will worship the 00:05:56.870 --> 00:05:59.329 Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 00:05:59.550 --> 00:06:01.290 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. 00:06:01.410 --> 00:06:03.889 We worship what we do know, for salvation is 00:06:03.889 --> 00:06:06.069 from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now 00:06:06.069 --> 00:06:07.910 come that true worshipers will worship the Father 00:06:07.910 --> 00:06:10.470 in spirit and truth, for they are worshipers 00:06:10.470 --> 00:06:13.670 the Father seeks. God is spirit, and the worshipers 00:06:13.670 --> 00:06:15.800 must worship him in spirit and truth. The woman 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:18.600 said, I know that Messiah, called Christ, is 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:20.759 coming. When he comes, he will explain everything 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:23.339 to us. Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking 00:06:23.339 --> 00:06:27.560 to you, I am he. Okay, let's pause there. So 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:30.339 what's going on in this story? Lots of things. 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:34.000 Was that helpful? It's so helpful. So helpful. 00:06:34.100 --> 00:06:36.899 You know, this whole thing thrives on dialogue. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.220 And so I love it when you just give me like... 00:06:40.459 --> 00:06:42.720 statement endings, right? It's like a concrete 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:44.399 wall you put up. You're like, I'm like, hey, 00:06:44.459 --> 00:06:49.199 what do you think about this? Things. Oh, you 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:52.060 know I did that on purpose. I do. So they're 00:06:52.060 --> 00:06:54.560 actually the first couple verses where it talks 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.420 about Jesus gaining and baptizing more than John. 00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:01.939 There is a significance there because John was 00:07:01.939 --> 00:07:05.160 a recognized prophet amongst the Pharisees. If 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:07.920 you read the earlier stuff that John's doing, 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.379 which there's not a lot about, they're not going 00:07:10.379 --> 00:07:12.459 after John the same way they're going after Jesus. 00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:14.620 Well, I think they recognize that John is calling 00:07:14.620 --> 00:07:16.779 for something that they agree with, which is 00:07:16.779 --> 00:07:18.259 repent because the kingdom of heaven is here. 00:07:18.339 --> 00:07:20.920 They're like, yeah, and follow Torah and all 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:23.060 those different things, which, by the way, not 00:07:23.060 --> 00:07:26.000 wrong, but also missing the heart. Jesus, on 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.819 the other hand. is kind of ruffling some feathers 00:07:28.819 --> 00:07:30.740 with them because he's like okay yeah we want 00:07:30.740 --> 00:07:33.819 to follow torah and by the way you're not understanding 00:07:33.819 --> 00:07:35.639 what it's actually saying and what it's actually 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:40.319 teaching and so g so they're getting to the point 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:42.319 with jesus at this point where they're like okay 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:45.759 how can we trick this guy like they're not quite 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:47.660 to let's kill him let's arrest him let's kill 00:07:47.660 --> 00:07:50.939 him but let's prove that he's wrong which by 00:07:50.939 --> 00:07:54.100 the way they weren't ever able to do yeah um 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:56.600 so the fact that The fact that it's actually 00:07:56.600 --> 00:07:58.540 saying, hey, they're recognizing that Jesus is 00:07:58.540 --> 00:08:01.120 getting more followers than John is the point 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:03.100 where it's one of those turning points in Scripture 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:05.540 where... It's starting to become worrisome for 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:08.420 the Pharisees. Yeah. Well, and it's more of something 00:08:08.420 --> 00:08:12.060 that is also when you start to have this amalgamation 00:08:12.060 --> 00:08:14.639 of more disciples, you're going to get more attention. 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:17.279 And so one of the things we've pointed out and 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:19.560 we'll point out more towards the end of Jesus's 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:22.300 life is Jesus spends about three years having 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:24.600 conversation with the Pharisees in the triangle 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:26.920 and one week in Jerusalem and they kill him. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:30.459 And so there is a difference between the Jews 00:08:30.459 --> 00:08:32.879 that are in Jerusalem. the ruling council and 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.659 the rulers of the law, to put up air quotes for 00:08:35.659 --> 00:08:38.539 those that are just listening, and the guys that 00:08:38.539 --> 00:08:40.200 he's engaging with on a regular basis. And so 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:43.000 every time he starts to get like a massive following, 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:46.529 Jesus kind of... moves away and then he moves 00:08:46.529 --> 00:08:49.049 away and then he moves on right um he's kind 00:08:49.049 --> 00:08:51.870 of like the the uh if you think about modern 00:08:51.870 --> 00:08:53.690 church plans is like you want to grow bigger 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:55.269 and bigger and bigger he's like the opposite 00:08:55.269 --> 00:08:56.809 he's like we're big and now i'm going to move 00:08:56.809 --> 00:09:00.549 on yeah big and move on growing moving on right 00:09:00.549 --> 00:09:03.210 the other thing to note on that is the fact that 00:09:03.210 --> 00:09:06.009 his disciples were the ones baptizing because 00:09:06.009 --> 00:09:10.049 to be someone who would be administering baptism 00:09:10.049 --> 00:09:14.879 you typically would be a rabbi or someone higher 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:18.580 up in the religious chain. I also wonder if there's 00:09:18.580 --> 00:09:22.639 not some of this with John writing back against 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:27.899 the Gnosticism that crops up, if there's not 00:09:27.899 --> 00:09:29.799 some people in that day who are like, well, I 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.440 was baptized by Jesus himself. And he's like, 00:09:32.539 --> 00:09:34.419 well, Jesus didn't really baptize, the disciples 00:09:34.419 --> 00:09:40.720 did. Yeah. Like, I hear you, but I was there. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:44.980 We were the ones baptized. Yeah. And then you 00:09:44.980 --> 00:09:47.500 get down to verse 4, and I think this is one 00:09:47.500 --> 00:09:50.220 thing where we've made assumptions, but this 00:09:50.220 --> 00:09:54.360 is mostly factual at this point, is they did 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.700 not have to go through Samaria. Correct. Right? 00:09:56.779 --> 00:10:00.399 There was a road around Samaria. Right. So they 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:02.639 could have avoided it altogether. Correct. So 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:05.120 when it says they had to go through Samaria, 00:10:05.179 --> 00:10:07.659 they had to go because Jesus knew he was going 00:10:07.659 --> 00:10:09.960 to have a conversation. Right. That part is the 00:10:09.960 --> 00:10:12.549 assumption. Right? We're assuming Jesus knew 00:10:12.549 --> 00:10:14.669 that this conversation was going to happen. Now, 00:10:14.769 --> 00:10:17.870 based on your theological background, some of 00:10:17.870 --> 00:10:19.429 you might be like, well, no, there's actually 00:10:19.429 --> 00:10:21.529 no proof in the text of that. True, there's no 00:10:21.529 --> 00:10:23.629 proof in the text of that. There's also proof 00:10:23.629 --> 00:10:26.769 in the text of Jesus is the Son of God. He is 00:10:26.769 --> 00:10:32.429 one with the Father. Last week, not last week, 00:10:32.490 --> 00:10:34.029 a couple weeks ago, because that's when I recorded 00:10:34.029 --> 00:10:36.710 it, with Les, we were talking about when Jesus 00:10:36.710 --> 00:10:39.779 is tempted by Satan in the desert. All three 00:10:39.779 --> 00:10:41.899 Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, recorded as 00:10:41.899 --> 00:10:45.440 Jesus is led by the Spirit to the desert. And 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:48.159 once again, we doesn't say specifically led by 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:51.039 the Spirit in the Gospel of John, but where Jesus 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:53.600 is going is where the Spirit is leading. So whether 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:55.899 or not you are of the opinion, depending on where 00:10:55.899 --> 00:10:57.320 your theology falls, you may be like, oh, well, 00:10:57.320 --> 00:10:59.379 God, he just knows what God wants him to do when 00:10:59.379 --> 00:11:01.299 he goes, or he's being led by the Spirit to a 00:11:01.299 --> 00:11:03.600 specific place, and his Spirit says, stop, something's 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:05.059 coming up, and you just recognize what's coming 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:07.470 up. Either one of those, it's clear that God 00:11:07.470 --> 00:11:09.029 is orchestrating something. And it's going to 00:11:09.029 --> 00:11:10.570 be really clear when we come back and do the 00:11:10.570 --> 00:11:12.230 story and I start talking about how it compares 00:11:12.230 --> 00:11:15.649 to this conversation with Nicodemus. Yes. But 00:11:15.649 --> 00:11:19.149 he did not have to go through Samaria. Correct. 00:11:19.370 --> 00:11:23.009 But he did. Yeah. Which is significant because 00:11:23.009 --> 00:11:26.690 Jews do not like Samaritans. I'm trying to think 00:11:26.690 --> 00:11:29.610 of, like, there's not really a really good modern 00:11:29.610 --> 00:11:34.919 equivalent. Maybe Israel and Gaza. Maybe. Maybe. 00:11:35.580 --> 00:11:38.539 I'm trying to think of a modern equivalence of 00:11:38.539 --> 00:11:41.919 people who are closely related but really despise 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:46.639 each other. Yeah, Ukraine and Russia. Yeah, maybe 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:51.779 Ukraine and Russia. Go back to the Old Testament. 00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:54.220 You guys do your own research on this. The relationship 00:11:54.220 --> 00:11:58.629 between the Jews and Samaritans is not a... good 00:11:58.629 --> 00:12:02.629 one. It's one where it's one that's full of violence, 00:12:02.690 --> 00:12:06.549 full of strife, full of hurt and anger. It's 00:12:06.549 --> 00:12:08.529 crazy that a lot of Jews would rather spend time 00:12:08.529 --> 00:12:12.289 with Romans than Samaritans. And yes, the Romans, 00:12:12.429 --> 00:12:16.190 the ones who occupied them and are taxing them 00:12:16.190 --> 00:12:18.929 to oblivion, they would rather spend time with 00:12:18.929 --> 00:12:20.750 them than spend time with Samaritans because 00:12:20.750 --> 00:12:25.070 in the Jewish mindset, Samaritans, they look 00:12:25.070 --> 00:12:28.039 at them as dirty half -breeds. Right. That have 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:30.960 compromised the true way of Israel. Right. And 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:32.820 yet Jesus is like, nope, we're going here because 00:12:32.820 --> 00:12:36.399 it's important that we go here. Yes. And one 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:38.080 of the things that is really important that perhaps 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:41.799 to understand about Samaria is their observance 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:44.320 of Judaism. They only saw the first five books 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:46.519 of the Bible as authoritative, which is going 00:12:46.519 --> 00:12:48.340 to be very in line with like the Sadducees, for 00:12:48.340 --> 00:12:50.960 example. Yeah. They only see the first five books, 00:12:50.980 --> 00:12:52.899 the Torah, as authoritative and everything else 00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:56.600 is just commentary. And so they're going to diverge 00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:59.159 from people in that capacity. And so a lot of 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:03.740 the conversations that Jesus even has with the 00:13:03.740 --> 00:13:07.220 woman are tied back to Torah. Yeah. Right. Which 00:13:07.220 --> 00:13:10.440 totally tracks. Some of the other assumptions 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:12.759 that we make in here is that she's coming at 00:13:12.759 --> 00:13:15.720 noon because she's ashamed to be around other 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:20.399 people. Possible. She could also just be on a 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:23.669 schedule that noon makes sense. Yep. Just because 00:13:23.669 --> 00:13:25.149 everybody comes at a certain time and you go 00:13:25.149 --> 00:13:26.429 at a different time doesn't mean you're going 00:13:26.429 --> 00:13:28.950 there to avoid everybody else. I mean, it's pretty 00:13:28.950 --> 00:13:31.690 well documented that most people would draw water 00:13:31.690 --> 00:13:34.029 in the morning or evening. Yeah. Right? That's 00:13:34.029 --> 00:13:37.090 pretty well documented. But it's not documented 00:13:37.090 --> 00:13:40.659 that everybody... Well, and I think the reason 00:13:40.659 --> 00:13:42.960 I think people jump to that is that it says that 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:44.980 you've married five times, but the person you're 00:13:44.980 --> 00:13:46.620 living with is not now, not your husband. Now, 00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:49.059 immediately people jump on that and they say, 00:13:49.139 --> 00:13:51.779 oh, well, she had five husbands. She's been divorced 00:13:51.779 --> 00:13:54.240 five times. And this person that she's living 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.220 with, she's living in sin. Also not stated in 00:13:57.220 --> 00:13:59.759 the text, she could have been caring for a relative. 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:02.500 She could have been a caretaker for somebody, 00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:04.519 which also might be why she's there at noon. 00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:09.840 And you also have to recognize Torah a little 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:12.600 bit on this, right? Because Torah specifically 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:17.100 states that if you are widowed, that the next 00:14:17.100 --> 00:14:20.259 brother in line of the family would marry. Yeah, 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:22.759 think back to the story of Judah and Tamar, right? 00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:26.220 Tamar marries his first son, and then he's struck 00:14:26.220 --> 00:14:28.919 dead. So the next son marries her, and he's supposed 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:31.460 to provide an heir, and then he's struck dead. 00:14:31.620 --> 00:14:34.519 And then he's like, well, you just go be in widow's 00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:36.820 clothing for a while in my household until my 00:14:36.820 --> 00:14:40.159 other son comes of age. This is a leverite marriage. 00:14:40.299 --> 00:14:43.039 You're supposed to take care of the familiar 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:48.389 obligations. I've said that before and I've had 00:14:48.389 --> 00:14:50.330 people be like, okay, but five brothers? And 00:14:50.330 --> 00:14:52.470 I was like, okay, we're also talking there's 00:14:52.470 --> 00:14:54.970 no birth control. Yeah. And reproducing having 00:14:54.970 --> 00:14:58.110 five, seven, 10, 12 kids. Totally normal. Is 00:14:58.110 --> 00:15:01.470 pretty normal. Yeah. Now, what we're not saying 00:15:01.470 --> 00:15:03.809 is that's for sure what's going on. No. What 00:15:03.809 --> 00:15:06.649 we are saying is we need to curb our assumptions 00:15:06.649 --> 00:15:09.889 when we're coming to the text. That when we assume 00:15:09.889 --> 00:15:13.610 that she is. getting divorced lots of times, 00:15:13.610 --> 00:15:15.210 and she's been getting rid of divorce lots of 00:15:15.210 --> 00:15:17.330 times, and she's living in sin, it's going to 00:15:17.330 --> 00:15:20.690 cause us to read the story a certain way. So 00:15:20.690 --> 00:15:23.429 instead of doing that, why don't we actually 00:15:23.429 --> 00:15:25.870 read what the story says, place it in its context, 00:15:25.950 --> 00:15:27.909 and it's fine to make some assertions and be 00:15:27.909 --> 00:15:33.870 like, I wonder if, right? But it's problematic 00:15:33.870 --> 00:15:37.350 when we put our own biases in there. You should 00:15:37.350 --> 00:15:39.820 not read your own stories into the Bible. Yeah, 00:15:39.980 --> 00:15:44.320 to be fair, we do like the story of the worst 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:48.879 of these coming to know Jesus and changing a 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:52.539 community. Right. But already going from Nicodemus 00:15:52.539 --> 00:15:54.639 being a highly respected biblical teacher to 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:57.860 a Samaritan woman at a well, it's already going 00:15:57.860 --> 00:16:00.889 from the highest to the lowest. Yeah. In fact, 00:16:00.909 --> 00:16:03.389 it's probably the fact that we don't view women 00:16:03.389 --> 00:16:07.730 as subordinate as much in America. The reason 00:16:07.730 --> 00:16:10.809 that we don't realize how dramatic that tension 00:16:10.809 --> 00:16:17.350 is, right? Yeah. Yeah, so. All right, so I want 00:16:17.350 --> 00:16:19.789 to jump in here. Let's jump back into 27. The 00:16:19.789 --> 00:16:22.690 disciples rejoined Jesus. This is one of my favorite 00:16:22.690 --> 00:16:26.370 parts, by the way. Just then, his disciples returned 00:16:26.370 --> 00:16:28.529 and were surprised to find him talking with a 00:16:28.529 --> 00:16:31.070 woman. But no one asked, what do you want or 00:16:31.070 --> 00:16:33.230 why are you talking with her? Probably because 00:16:33.230 --> 00:16:34.970 they've learned their lesson so far that let 00:16:34.970 --> 00:16:38.049 him do his thing. Then leaving her water jar, 00:16:38.149 --> 00:16:39.850 the woman went back to the town and said to the 00:16:39.850 --> 00:16:41.450 people, come see a man who told me everything 00:16:41.450 --> 00:16:44.029 I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? They came 00:16:44.029 --> 00:16:46.970 out of town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile, 00:16:47.090 --> 00:16:48.870 the disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something. 00:16:49.029 --> 00:16:50.950 He said to them, I have food to eat that you 00:16:50.950 --> 00:16:52.889 have known nothing about. Then his disciples 00:16:52.889 --> 00:16:54.429 said to each other, could someone have brought 00:16:54.429 --> 00:16:58.039 him food? My food, said Jesus, is to do the will 00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:00.639 of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don't 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:02.100 you have a saying? It's still four months until 00:17:02.100 --> 00:17:03.899 harvest. I tell you, open your eyes and look 00:17:03.899 --> 00:17:06.299 at the fields. They are ripe for harvest. Even 00:17:06.299 --> 00:17:08.980 now, the one who reaps draws a wage and harvest 00:17:08.980 --> 00:17:12.940 a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and 00:17:12.940 --> 00:17:15.140 the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:17.759 one sows and another reaps, is true. I sent you 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:19.859 to reap what you have not worked for. Others 00:17:19.859 --> 00:17:21.579 have done its hard work, and you have reaped 00:17:21.579 --> 00:17:25.220 the benefits of their labor. Okay, so once again 00:17:25.220 --> 00:17:30.200 here is this lady immediately upon hearing what 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:31.920 Jesus says drops her jar and goes back because 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.539 what she's doing is not as important as what 00:17:33.539 --> 00:17:37.119 he just said. Hey, I am Messiah and I can explain 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:39.839 to you the things you don't understand. Those 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:41.700 things you've been really confused about, I can 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:43.960 tell you about it. Yeah. Like, that's exciting. 00:17:45.059 --> 00:17:48.039 Now, leading further credence to not placing 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:50.720 her as reading our assumptions into the text, 00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:53.079 she goes and tells the city, which if you're 00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:55.359 a person of ill repute, if you just make an announcement 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:57.740 and you say, hey, come and see somebody who told 00:17:57.740 --> 00:17:59.460 me everything, they're a prophet, could this 00:17:59.460 --> 00:18:02.140 be the Messiah, is your first reaction to just 00:18:02.140 --> 00:18:05.440 follow them, the entire city? I don't know. Maybe. 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:07.779 One of the assumptions, though, that's also bred 00:18:07.779 --> 00:18:09.779 into this text is that she's a younger woman. 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:13.279 Right. And that's not explicitly said either. 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:16.440 True. And so it's actually would be a safer assumption. 00:18:16.539 --> 00:18:18.819 And again, assumptions can be dangerous, but 00:18:18.819 --> 00:18:20.619 it'd be a safer assumption to say that she was 00:18:20.619 --> 00:18:23.119 actually an older, more well -respected elder 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:25.599 in the community. Right. Who's had bad luck with 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:28.579 husbands. Well, and there is a certain amount 00:18:28.579 --> 00:18:30.579 of connection because she does seem to have some 00:18:30.579 --> 00:18:32.559 sort of education because the questions she asked 00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:35.319 Jesus are profound. Like they're much more profound 00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:37.859 than they look on their surface. which has led 00:18:37.859 --> 00:18:39.140 so many people, we've talked about it in the 00:18:39.140 --> 00:18:40.720 past on the podcast, about whether or not she 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:42.779 was a religious leader in her town. It's possible. 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:46.079 We're not going to speculate. More, we're recognizing 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:48.940 that people from the highest stratosphere to 00:18:48.940 --> 00:18:51.019 the lowest stratosphere have significant questions 00:18:51.019 --> 00:18:55.539 about God. The point in pointing out that when 00:18:55.539 --> 00:18:57.140 she goes and everybody wants to follow her to 00:18:57.140 --> 00:18:59.339 find out if, hey, this is Messiah, is pointing 00:18:59.339 --> 00:19:01.200 out the fact that we need to not read our assumptions 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:03.140 into it. Because if we're like, well, she's just, 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:05.839 you know, she's been married a bunch of times 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:07.640 and she's been sleeping around and blah, blah, 00:19:07.660 --> 00:19:13.529 blah. So that's why people come out. You have 00:19:13.529 --> 00:19:15.710 to really start to do what I call hermeneutic 00:19:15.710 --> 00:19:18.609 gymnastics. For those of listening who are like, 00:19:18.670 --> 00:19:20.690 what are hermeneutics? It's something about how 00:19:20.690 --> 00:19:23.789 you interpret scripture, right? So I say you 00:19:23.789 --> 00:19:26.230 kind of have to do gymnastics to make your theory 00:19:26.230 --> 00:19:29.109 fit. And we shouldn't have to do that. Yeah. 00:19:29.549 --> 00:19:32.150 And one of the things with this story, too, is 00:19:32.150 --> 00:19:34.700 the details that are left out. aren't important 00:19:34.700 --> 00:19:37.799 correct and so you need to you need to look at 00:19:37.799 --> 00:19:39.799 the details that are in there and say what is 00:19:39.799 --> 00:19:42.240 important and one of the things in this part 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:46.059 is the fact that she encountered jesus and went 00:19:46.059 --> 00:19:48.079 to her town whether she was of ill repute or 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:50.539 not she went to her town and her town listened 00:19:50.539 --> 00:19:53.859 and came out to meet him the disciples are really 00:19:53.859 --> 00:19:57.099 funny here yeah because they're like he's hanging 00:19:57.099 --> 00:19:59.819 out with a woman by a well samaritan woman i'm 00:19:59.819 --> 00:20:01.799 gonna keep my mouth shut but what is going on 00:20:02.119 --> 00:20:05.359 Yeah. Well, and to be fair on the disciples front, 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:08.500 they're probably already very stretched and uncomfortable 00:20:08.500 --> 00:20:11.200 in this situation because earlier in the text, 00:20:11.220 --> 00:20:14.859 it says they went into town to buy food. Now 00:20:14.859 --> 00:20:18.519 all the disciples are not Samaritans. And so, 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:22.019 and the woman talks about how like Jews and Samaritans 00:20:22.019 --> 00:20:24.799 don't associate. So you have a group of Jews 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:27.440 going into a Samaritan town to buy food, right? 00:20:27.539 --> 00:20:31.329 For the disciples. this would be a very uncomfortable 00:20:31.329 --> 00:20:34.190 situation. One, you almost wonder because they 00:20:34.190 --> 00:20:36.910 went into town, left Jesus at the well, like 00:20:36.910 --> 00:20:39.430 with cultural taboos, is their thought maybe 00:20:39.430 --> 00:20:41.589 spare rabbi from having to go into the Samaritan 00:20:41.589 --> 00:20:43.970 town? Yeah. And then the Samaritan is coming 00:20:43.970 --> 00:20:45.730 out and he's actually talking to the Samaritan. 00:20:45.809 --> 00:20:49.410 Yeah. Which these are contextual clues that would 00:20:49.410 --> 00:20:52.730 potentially hold some accuracy. Yeah. But again, 00:20:52.829 --> 00:20:55.470 not explicitly said in the text, but, but then 00:20:55.470 --> 00:20:57.549 to have them come back being like, okay, we, 00:20:58.699 --> 00:21:01.099 associated with the unclean, right? And then 00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:02.859 to come back and be like, Jesus, what are you 00:21:02.859 --> 00:21:06.359 doing? Like, that's kind of what it feels like 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:09.019 to me, at least. All right, so I want to just 00:21:09.019 --> 00:21:11.700 close off this last portion of this. We are going 00:21:11.700 --> 00:21:13.339 to talk about Jesus healing the official son, 00:21:13.420 --> 00:21:18.259 too, but this is verse 39. Many of the Samaritans 00:21:18.259 --> 00:21:20.680 from that town believed in him because of the 00:21:20.680 --> 00:21:24.099 woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever 00:21:24.099 --> 00:21:26.279 did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they 00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:28.240 urged him to stay with them and he stayed with 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:30.059 them two days. And because of his words, many 00:21:30.059 --> 00:21:32.400 more became believers. They said to the woman, 00:21:32.460 --> 00:21:34.420 we no longer believe just because of what you 00:21:34.420 --> 00:21:37.180 said. Now we have heard for ourselves and we 00:21:37.180 --> 00:21:39.779 know that this man really is a savior of the 00:21:39.779 --> 00:21:41.920 world. Okay. Once again, this is playing once 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:45.200 again into this idea of she has to be in some 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:49.220 capacity a member of the community because they 00:21:49.220 --> 00:21:52.819 believe because of her words. Yeah. So this isn't 00:21:52.819 --> 00:21:57.079 somebody that has no credibility. Now, if you 00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:00.160 hold that opinion, it's fine. It's fine. I think 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.220 you still catch the crux of the story. But I 00:22:03.220 --> 00:22:06.000 want to challenge us not to make assumptions 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:09.539 on the text. And especially when you come into 00:22:09.539 --> 00:22:11.240 a story like this. So love and context, we talk 00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:13.500 about having real conversations about the scriptures 00:22:13.500 --> 00:22:18.259 and talking about Jesus. There are... issues 00:22:18.259 --> 00:22:20.900 that i see on social media and we we've talked 00:22:20.900 --> 00:22:22.859 about this type of thing before where two people 00:22:22.859 --> 00:22:24.980 have a difference of opinion on a passage and 00:22:24.980 --> 00:22:27.420 it's a minor thing was she a respected member 00:22:27.420 --> 00:22:31.019 or was she uh an outcast doesn't matter doesn't 00:22:31.019 --> 00:22:34.059 matter and yet we there are there are times where 00:22:34.059 --> 00:22:36.400 we will take these and we will build like entire 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:38.660 walls against each other about why the other 00:22:38.660 --> 00:22:41.019 person doesn't really believe in the true story 00:22:41.019 --> 00:22:45.599 that's problematic yeah right yeah So take a 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:48.180 look at how you've heard this story before. Like 00:22:48.180 --> 00:22:50.279 you've heard it before as like this is a woman 00:22:50.279 --> 00:22:53.700 of ill repute, a woman who potentially a prostitute, 00:22:53.779 --> 00:22:56.519 not respected in the community, coming out during 00:22:56.519 --> 00:22:59.319 the daytime to draw water because nobody likes 00:22:59.319 --> 00:23:02.500 her, right? And then you contrast that with what's 00:23:02.500 --> 00:23:04.380 actually happening in the story and you realize 00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:07.200 that everything I just listed actually isn't 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:09.480 in there. Those are all assumptions we've made. 00:23:09.700 --> 00:23:13.240 Yeah. What we know is she's a Samaritan woman. 00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:16.559 came out midday to draw water, encountered Jesus, 00:23:16.940 --> 00:23:20.619 realizes that there's something more to him. 00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:24.079 She goes and tells her community. Her community 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.759 listens, and this whole town comes to believe 00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:31.400 who Jesus is. Yeah. That's what we know. So there 00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:34.799 is, yeah, and those are the things we know. And 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:36.640 so then when we're trying to fill in the details, 00:23:36.839 --> 00:23:41.619 we're actually driving those points deeper. Right? 00:23:42.140 --> 00:23:44.460 You don't drive the points that aren't explicit 00:23:44.460 --> 00:23:46.839 deeper. You're actually saying, you're asking 00:23:46.839 --> 00:23:48.660 questions about cultural context, linguistics, 00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:50.720 all these different things to try to drive those 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:53.220 points deeper. Now, we said that the story really 00:23:53.220 --> 00:23:55.180 pairs really well with the story of Nicodemus. 00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:57.059 So I want to point out a few things that I think 00:23:57.059 --> 00:23:59.740 is really interesting. So these are direct, literally, 00:23:59.740 --> 00:24:02.160 and thematic contrasts. So the time of the encounter. 00:24:02.779 --> 00:24:05.359 Nicodemus comes when? Middle of the night. She 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:07.180 comes when? Middle of the day. Middle of the 00:24:07.180 --> 00:24:10.380 day. Okay. Nicodemus, social status. He is? High 00:24:10.380 --> 00:24:13.420 -ranking religious official. And male, right? 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:18.660 She is? A Samaritan woman. Right? She is a Samaritan 00:24:18.660 --> 00:24:20.720 woman, marginalized, stigmatized, all those different 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:22.680 things that are happening with those, both women 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:27.299 and Samaritans. In the approach, who seeks out 00:24:27.299 --> 00:24:30.990 Jesus in Nicodemus' story? Nicodemus. Okay. Who 00:24:30.990 --> 00:24:33.730 seeks out Jesus or who gets sought out in the 00:24:33.730 --> 00:24:35.190 story of Jesus and Samaria? The woman as well. 00:24:35.349 --> 00:24:37.369 Okay. So they're different ways. Like one's coming 00:24:37.369 --> 00:24:41.210 to Jesus, one Jesus is going to, right? Both 00:24:41.210 --> 00:24:44.369 of them are given a chance to respond, Nicodemus 00:24:44.369 --> 00:24:46.910 and Jesus. Ultimately, we know Nicodemus does 00:24:46.910 --> 00:24:49.589 respond because he's there at the burial of Jesus 00:24:49.589 --> 00:24:52.130 at the end of the book. But in the moment, does 00:24:52.130 --> 00:24:54.690 Nicodemus have a response? No. No. Does she have 00:24:54.690 --> 00:24:57.569 a response? Yes. Leads to testimony, right? Mm 00:24:57.569 --> 00:25:00.950 -hmm. Here are some more shared themes, some 00:25:00.950 --> 00:25:03.410 things going on. These are going to involve some 00:25:03.410 --> 00:25:06.470 Greek words. So if you are a Greek speaker or 00:25:06.470 --> 00:25:08.710 Greek linguistic from the Bible, I apologize 00:25:08.710 --> 00:25:11.089 because it's going to be wrong. Just forewarning 00:25:11.089 --> 00:25:13.730 you. If you're trying to listen and write these 00:25:13.730 --> 00:25:15.589 out, I'm probably saying them wrong. So just 00:25:15.589 --> 00:25:19.549 go look them up yourself. So Nicodemus, connecting 00:25:19.549 --> 00:25:21.309 these stories again. Greek words to show again. 00:25:22.130 --> 00:25:24.250 Nicodemus misunderstands the words born again, 00:25:24.410 --> 00:25:28.440 which is antheon. right? As a physical rebirth. 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:30.380 Like he says, born again, he's the Antheon should 00:25:30.380 --> 00:25:33.779 be like a physical rebirth. She misunderstood 00:25:33.779 --> 00:25:36.859 stands the word living water, which is also related 00:25:36.859 --> 00:25:42.160 to Antheon, right? Because rebirth actually could 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:45.680 mean coming from above. Yeah. And in both cases, 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:48.700 God redirects them to a deeper truth. Nicodemus 00:25:48.700 --> 00:25:51.039 hears that one must be born of water and spirit 00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:52.819 to enter the kingdom of God. The Samaritan woman 00:25:52.819 --> 00:25:54.920 is offered living water that leads to eternal 00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:58.200 life. Yeah. And you are to worship in spirit 00:25:58.200 --> 00:26:02.299 and truth. Like a lot of these words lining up. 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:04.740 Jesus tells Nicodemus that belief in the Son 00:26:04.740 --> 00:26:08.400 brings eternal life. The Samaritan woman learns 00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:14.440 that living water leads to eternal life. Nicodemus 00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:16.980 is invited to live by truth. She is invited to 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:19.319 that true worship must be in spirit and truth. 00:26:22.430 --> 00:26:25.509 Nicodemus represents a lot of just the religious 00:26:25.509 --> 00:26:31.230 Jewish people. Yeah. Right? And she represents 00:26:31.230 --> 00:26:36.309 the marginalized outsiders. Together, they show 00:26:36.309 --> 00:26:38.690 that Jesus' mission is not just to save a person, 00:26:38.750 --> 00:26:40.589 but it's actually to save the entire world. Yeah. 00:26:40.650 --> 00:26:45.789 Right? Let's see here. There is, this is really 00:26:45.789 --> 00:26:48.829 cool too here. So spirit, the pneuma, John 3, 00:26:48.950 --> 00:26:51.450 5 through 6, he says to Nicodemus, born of water 00:26:51.450 --> 00:26:54.750 and spirit, same word that is being used in worship 00:26:54.750 --> 00:26:57.410 and spirit and truth, central in both stories. 00:26:58.009 --> 00:27:00.069 Nicodemus says eternal life through the sun, 00:27:00.210 --> 00:27:02.809 living water flowing up for eternal life, same 00:27:02.809 --> 00:27:06.769 word that is being used, zoe, truth, alathie, 00:27:06.890 --> 00:27:10.589 theia. I should make. Actually, make somebody 00:27:10.589 --> 00:27:15.130 else read these. Just call Nick on this. Living 00:27:15.130 --> 00:27:17.670 by the truth brings one into the light. True 00:27:17.670 --> 00:27:19.910 worshipers worship in spirit and truth. The world, 00:27:19.970 --> 00:27:23.130 the cosmos, God so loved the world. She declares, 00:27:23.309 --> 00:27:25.990 the Samaritans declare Jesus Savior of the cosmos, 00:27:26.210 --> 00:27:30.410 the world. Testimony, Jesus speaks of testimony 00:27:30.410 --> 00:27:33.230 not received, and her testimony leads to many 00:27:33.230 --> 00:27:37.890 believing. So we have right here again this chiastic 00:27:37.890 --> 00:27:41.880 structure. Nicodemus comes at night. She comes 00:27:41.880 --> 00:27:44.220 in the day. He's respected. She's marginalized. 00:27:44.599 --> 00:27:47.680 He seeks Jesus. Jesus seeks her. They both have 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:49.359 a misunderstanding. One about being born again. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:52.680 One about living water. Yep. The central idea 00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:55.779 is spiritual rebirth versus true worship. It's 00:27:55.779 --> 00:27:57.420 almost like those things might be related. Yeah. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:01.220 Right? He has slow, hesitant faith. She has an 00:28:01.220 --> 00:28:05.599 immediate, robust response. And the outcome is 00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:07.480 he remains cautious and hidden, but the outcome 00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:10.319 of Jesus is that she becomes a bold evangelist. 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:14.839 Yeah. Right? So these stories, and by the way, 00:28:14.859 --> 00:28:17.039 I only just took a little sampling. Yeah. There's 00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:18.660 actually a lot more that connects these two stories. 00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:24.359 Yes. And so what John is doing is all throughout 00:28:24.359 --> 00:28:27.059 his gospel, he's going to have this idea of light 00:28:27.059 --> 00:28:30.200 and darkness, truth and lies. He's going to be 00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:32.160 kind of contrasting these things over and over 00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:39.160 again. So this story should be viewed as informing 00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:43.980 on each other, right? And so, like I said, being 00:28:43.980 --> 00:28:47.559 born again connects to this idea of true worship, 00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:51.039 right? Like being born again actually enables 00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:53.420 you to see the kingdom of God and actually engage 00:28:53.420 --> 00:28:57.500 in true worship with the Father, right? It's 00:28:57.500 --> 00:28:59.240 a profound statement. And as you're starting 00:28:59.240 --> 00:29:00.740 to hear these and you start to connect these 00:29:00.740 --> 00:29:03.730 ideas, you're like, oh, good golly. There's a 00:29:03.730 --> 00:29:05.569 lot more going on here than I thought. Yeah. 00:29:05.829 --> 00:29:08.250 And one of the things that, and the reason you're 00:29:08.250 --> 00:29:10.430 able to connect those two ideas is because Jesus 00:29:10.430 --> 00:29:13.630 is proclaiming the same message in a different 00:29:13.630 --> 00:29:16.130 language for a different audience. Yeah. Right? 00:29:16.529 --> 00:29:19.109 And that's something we could learn, right? Because 00:29:19.109 --> 00:29:22.089 so many times I hear Christians be like, okay, 00:29:22.109 --> 00:29:24.349 well, this is the gospel, and they proclaim a 00:29:24.349 --> 00:29:27.210 good message, right? But the audience they're 00:29:27.210 --> 00:29:29.890 proclaiming it to just leaves them be like, what 00:29:29.890 --> 00:29:32.289 are you talking about? Yeah. And so, but here 00:29:32.289 --> 00:29:33.630 you have Jesus being like, okay, I'm talking 00:29:33.630 --> 00:29:37.789 to a high ranking religious leader who's a man. 00:29:37.990 --> 00:29:40.130 This is what we're going to talk about. And then 00:29:40.130 --> 00:29:42.750 I'm talking to a Samaritan woman at the well 00:29:42.750 --> 00:29:44.730 from a Jewish perspective, which is like the 00:29:44.730 --> 00:29:46.990 worst of the worst, right? You don't hang out 00:29:46.990 --> 00:29:50.440 with Samaritans. I'm not saying women are the 00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:51.839 worst. I'm just saying from a Jewish perspective. 00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:54.500 You heard it here first on the Love and Conduct 00:29:54.500 --> 00:29:58.420 podcast. Spencer McDowell, care of. And I will 00:29:58.420 --> 00:29:59.980 be sleeping on the couch because when my wife 00:29:59.980 --> 00:30:02.599 listens to this, she'll be like, what the? I 00:30:02.599 --> 00:30:04.380 hear you, but what's the likelihood your wife 00:30:04.380 --> 00:30:10.380 is going to listen to this? She's not. I've asked 00:30:10.380 --> 00:30:11.680 her, I was like, hey, have you listened to any 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:13.839 of our episodes? She's like. I hear you and Ben 00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:15.980 talk about them all the time. I don't need to 00:30:15.980 --> 00:30:18.180 go listen to it. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair 00:30:18.180 --> 00:30:23.740 enough. But you have Jesus proclaiming the same 00:30:23.740 --> 00:30:28.119 message in different words, both of which, by 00:30:28.119 --> 00:30:32.319 the way, are relating to not just the audience 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:35.640 he's talking to, but the physical surrounding 00:30:35.640 --> 00:30:39.160 that he's in. Right. So like you take Nicodemus, 00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:42.019 for example, the idea of being born again, bringing 00:30:42.019 --> 00:30:44.059 light into the darkness, he's talking, they're 00:30:44.059 --> 00:30:46.859 talking at night. And so like there's that imagery 00:30:46.859 --> 00:30:49.779 of like light is coming. Right. And then you 00:30:49.779 --> 00:30:52.140 have the imagery of the water at the well. Right. 00:30:52.380 --> 00:30:54.599 Of like, well, I'm thirsty. Let's talk about 00:30:54.599 --> 00:30:57.160 living water. Right. Yeah. He's using what's 00:30:57.160 --> 00:30:59.660 there to bring the gospel message to these people. 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:02.680 And that's something I think we could take note 00:31:02.680 --> 00:31:07.150 of. I also think there is this, we quote John 00:31:07.150 --> 00:31:10.250 3 .16, but I actually find because 3 .16 is quoted 00:31:10.250 --> 00:31:13.549 so often, we curtail it before 17, 18, 19, right? 00:31:14.670 --> 00:31:17.869 Which are significant. And even we do that with 00:31:17.869 --> 00:31:22.089 this story here, right? 17, 18, 19, real quick, 00:31:22.170 --> 00:31:25.599 just to give you guys a reminder. For God did 00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:27.819 not send his Son into the world to condemn the 00:31:27.819 --> 00:31:30.000 world, but to save the world through him. Whoever 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:31.700 believes in him is not condemned, but whoever 00:31:31.700 --> 00:31:33.480 does not believe stands condemned already because 00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:35.099 they have not believed in the name of God's one 00:31:35.099 --> 00:31:37.359 and only Son. This is the verdict. Light has 00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:38.980 come into the world, but people love darkness 00:31:38.980 --> 00:31:40.559 instead of light because their deeds are evil. 00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:42.779 Everyone who does evil hates the light and will 00:31:42.779 --> 00:31:44.619 not come into the light for the fear that their 00:31:44.619 --> 00:31:47.440 deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the 00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:49.220 truth comes into the light so that it may seem 00:31:49.220 --> 00:31:53.339 plainly that they have done That what they have 00:31:53.339 --> 00:31:55.400 done has been done in the sight of God. Now, 00:31:55.420 --> 00:31:59.400 she says, Jesus is Messiah. He told me everything 00:31:59.400 --> 00:32:04.200 I ever knew, I ever done. Right? And people come 00:32:04.200 --> 00:32:07.880 running to see him. This is the verdict. Light 00:32:07.880 --> 00:32:10.640 entered the world. And if you're evil, you're 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:12.400 not going to want to see your stuff exposed. 00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:17.119 But light can expose garbage. And then they come 00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:18.940 there and they said, now we don't believe just 00:32:18.940 --> 00:32:21.240 because of what you said, but because we've actually 00:32:21.240 --> 00:32:23.440 been in the light. We've heard the words of God 00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:26.759 from his very mouth. Yeah. Right? The response 00:32:26.759 --> 00:32:29.940 here is staggering. Right? And I don't want to 00:32:29.940 --> 00:32:31.859 be hard on Nicodemus because he eventually comes 00:32:31.859 --> 00:32:34.819 around. Yeah. I think this is also a pretty good 00:32:34.819 --> 00:32:38.579 conversation about sometimes you just plant a 00:32:38.579 --> 00:32:42.250 seed and are okay just walking away. Yeah. you're 00:32:42.250 --> 00:32:44.990 not in charge of the outcome, right? And I think 00:32:44.990 --> 00:32:48.150 as churches and other people who follow Jesus, 00:32:48.210 --> 00:32:50.069 we often want to be in charge of the outcome, 00:32:50.230 --> 00:32:53.329 right? Especially in the U .S. We live in a control 00:32:53.329 --> 00:32:57.859 -based society. You take control of... Let's 00:32:57.859 --> 00:32:59.880 just take finances, for example. If you're bad 00:32:59.880 --> 00:33:02.160 with money, it's like, no, you have to take control 00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:04.099 of that. Okay, you're not making enough money. 00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:05.920 Well, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Change 00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:07.920 your living situation. You take control of that. 00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:10.839 So on and so forth. And we kind of bleed that 00:33:10.839 --> 00:33:14.079 over into the church. But the reality is redemption 00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:17.720 comes from Jesus, comes through Jesus. Forgiveness 00:33:17.720 --> 00:33:20.539 comes from Jesus, through Jesus. And what are 00:33:20.539 --> 00:33:23.250 we supposed to do? Love the Lord with everything 00:33:23.250 --> 00:33:25.730 we have. Love and love your neighbor as yourself. 00:33:26.170 --> 00:33:29.309 And if you present the gospel to somebody and 00:33:29.309 --> 00:33:31.130 you're in relationship with them and you are 00:33:31.130 --> 00:33:33.349 loving them as the Bible is calling you to love 00:33:33.349 --> 00:33:35.710 them and they want nothing to do with Jesus, 00:33:35.809 --> 00:33:39.970 that's not on you. Right? You can still be there 00:33:39.970 --> 00:33:42.250 for them. You can still pray for them. You can 00:33:42.250 --> 00:33:44.609 still present the gospel to them. But you're 00:33:44.609 --> 00:33:46.430 planting the seed. You're not in charge of the 00:33:46.430 --> 00:33:49.769 outcome. That's on the Lord. He's the one who's 00:33:49.769 --> 00:33:52.369 in charge of that. I was having this conversation 00:33:52.369 --> 00:33:54.410 with somebody and they said, they're like, well, 00:33:54.430 --> 00:33:57.430 if people aren't coming to Christ because of 00:33:57.430 --> 00:34:00.849 X, Y, or Z, right? I was like, should we even 00:34:00.849 --> 00:34:04.049 be doing this? And I was like, is it good work? 00:34:04.609 --> 00:34:07.730 Is it loving people well? Are you still sharing 00:34:07.730 --> 00:34:11.710 Jesus? Be living as a testimony? Like, well, 00:34:11.750 --> 00:34:13.429 yeah. And I said, then yes, you should be doing 00:34:13.429 --> 00:34:14.869 it. You need to stop focusing on the numbers 00:34:14.869 --> 00:34:18.000 and leave that to God. So a pastor friend of 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:19.760 mine years ago shared this story, and it was 00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:23.179 about this guy who was in prison. And someone 00:34:23.179 --> 00:34:25.460 went to him, shared the gospel, and he accepted 00:34:25.460 --> 00:34:28.199 Jesus. And then the guy immediately afterwards 00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:30.739 looked at the guy who presented the gospel to 00:34:30.739 --> 00:34:33.039 him and said, okay, I don't want you to get a 00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:36.300 big head because you're the 19th person to come 00:34:36.300 --> 00:34:40.139 do this. Right. Right? So there were seeds being 00:34:40.139 --> 00:34:42.440 planted all along. And the point of that story 00:34:42.440 --> 00:34:46.349 is sometimes you're the third person. who's sharing 00:34:46.349 --> 00:34:48.909 who's sharing that news with somebody sharing 00:34:48.909 --> 00:34:50.429 the good news with somebody sometimes you're 00:34:50.429 --> 00:34:52.570 the seventh person sometimes you get to be that 00:34:52.570 --> 00:34:55.289 19th person sometimes you're the person who gave 00:34:55.289 --> 00:34:57.190 them a loaf of bread so their stomach stopped 00:34:57.190 --> 00:34:59.570 rumbling long enough for somebody else to share 00:34:59.570 --> 00:35:02.809 yeah like we don't know where we are in those 00:35:02.809 --> 00:35:06.849 and it's it's one of those um man, I'm such a 00:35:06.849 --> 00:35:09.489 rabbit trail. That's okay. Um, it's one of those 00:35:09.489 --> 00:35:11.449 things where I've talked about, uh, people that 00:35:11.449 --> 00:35:13.489 are like, they're like, well, you have to evangelize. 00:35:13.489 --> 00:35:16.010 I was like, or your life could actually be so 00:35:16.010 --> 00:35:18.170 much about Jesus that he just shows up in what 00:35:18.170 --> 00:35:22.710 you do. Yeah. Right. Like there's not some, like 00:35:22.710 --> 00:35:25.130 I, I shouldn't have to change the way that I 00:35:25.130 --> 00:35:29.929 speak to talk about Jesus. I have somebody I 00:35:29.929 --> 00:35:32.809 work with right now who really is frustrated 00:35:32.809 --> 00:35:37.920 with me. I get that. Yeah, I know. But the reason 00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:42.679 they're frustrated with me is because every time 00:35:42.679 --> 00:35:45.079 they say something, I spend a positive on it. 00:35:45.139 --> 00:35:47.400 Yeah. And be like, well, you know, this is happening. 00:35:48.659 --> 00:35:52.239 And they straight up told me, I just want to 00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:55.380 be miserable. And I was like, why? Yeah. I was 00:35:55.380 --> 00:35:58.579 like, why? And they're like, well, I could be 00:35:58.579 --> 00:36:00.260 doing so much more with my life. And I was like, 00:36:00.300 --> 00:36:01.659 hey, we're about the same age, and we're doing 00:36:01.659 --> 00:36:04.429 the same thing right now. I was like, it's not 00:36:04.429 --> 00:36:07.590 about that. And, you know, just get to have some 00:36:07.590 --> 00:36:10.199 of those conversations. But he. It's to the point 00:36:10.199 --> 00:36:11.639 where he's just not really talking to me because 00:36:11.639 --> 00:36:13.880 he's like, Spencer just tries to make everything 00:36:13.880 --> 00:36:17.280 joyful and happy. And I'm like, well, there's 00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:19.619 something in my life. Can I ask a question? It's 00:36:19.619 --> 00:36:21.139 like, where's this Spencer when we're hanging? 00:36:22.360 --> 00:36:25.559 No, no, no. I'm the angry, spiteful Spencer with 00:36:25.559 --> 00:36:28.519 you. You're like, listen, you've got to be there 00:36:28.519 --> 00:36:30.320 sometime when I'm talking to Ben. All the anger 00:36:30.320 --> 00:36:33.500 and spite will come out. No, but to your point 00:36:33.500 --> 00:36:36.340 is that when you have a relationship with God, 00:36:36.440 --> 00:36:38.440 and what we're not saying is that you should. 00:36:38.989 --> 00:36:40.110 always going to be happy about everything happens 00:36:40.110 --> 00:36:42.969 to you of course not um but there is a uh circumstance 00:36:42.969 --> 00:36:45.550 of joy yeah me and carrying an atmosphere with 00:36:45.550 --> 00:36:47.409 you that even when you're angry like you understand 00:36:47.409 --> 00:36:50.010 you have purpose you have hope you have uh you 00:36:50.010 --> 00:36:52.650 know moving forward and stuff like that what's 00:36:52.650 --> 00:36:54.769 really strange to me is like they talk about 00:36:54.769 --> 00:36:57.949 um when we talk about evangelism we talk about 00:36:57.949 --> 00:36:59.969 talking people to jesus they're like listen you 00:36:59.969 --> 00:37:01.369 got to go through walk through the romans road 00:37:01.369 --> 00:37:04.590 i was like i i don't i'm not begrudging the tools 00:37:04.590 --> 00:37:07.960 i think the tools are fine But what's more authentic 00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:11.739 when you're like, hey, why do you follow, why 00:37:11.739 --> 00:37:13.260 do you go to church? And I was like, oh man, 00:37:13.420 --> 00:37:16.099 let me just, I can talk to you about my life, 00:37:16.179 --> 00:37:19.639 what God's done, where I was, the hope I have. 00:37:20.190 --> 00:37:22.570 The security, the things he's done in my life, 00:37:22.630 --> 00:37:24.329 the miraculous things he's done in my life, the 00:37:24.329 --> 00:37:26.449 blessings of my kids. I watched him work through 00:37:26.449 --> 00:37:30.070 my wife and my kids and my friends and my church 00:37:30.070 --> 00:37:33.969 and my family. And I watch people who are consumed 00:37:33.969 --> 00:37:36.090 by anger, and I don't know what that's like anymore 00:37:36.090 --> 00:37:39.269 because I'm not consumed by it. Now, do we get 00:37:39.269 --> 00:37:43.519 angry on occasion? Yes. Yes, like today my daughter 00:37:43.519 --> 00:37:45.559 rolled down the window in our car and it wouldn't 00:37:45.559 --> 00:37:48.880 roll back up. I got angry and my daughter was 00:37:48.880 --> 00:37:50.119 like, why are you mad at me? I was like, I'm 00:37:50.119 --> 00:37:53.440 not mad at you. I'm just tired of stuff breaking. 00:37:53.719 --> 00:37:56.340 He says this and this is after he zip -tied back 00:37:56.340 --> 00:37:58.579 on the rear view mirror because it got ripped 00:37:58.579 --> 00:38:01.860 off too. Yeah, it works. It does work. I'm not 00:38:01.860 --> 00:38:04.199 begrudging you. There are people who are like, 00:38:04.280 --> 00:38:05.920 I've never thought about using a zip -tie. We 00:38:05.920 --> 00:38:09.360 just helped just now. I am not going to say how 00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:11.289 many zip -ties are on that car. Holding it together. 00:38:11.590 --> 00:38:14.929 At least seven. At least. Yeah. At least. But 00:38:14.929 --> 00:38:16.510 anyway, this whole idea of you don't need to 00:38:16.510 --> 00:38:18.550 become somebody else. You don't need to memorize 00:38:18.550 --> 00:38:21.849 a script to talk to people about Jesus. In fact, 00:38:22.030 --> 00:38:24.949 and it's fine if you get these tools to learn 00:38:24.949 --> 00:38:28.269 where scriptures are and contextualize and you 00:38:28.269 --> 00:38:29.989 study and all those things. Absolutely. Because 00:38:29.989 --> 00:38:31.369 that's going to get the scripture inside of you. 00:38:31.429 --> 00:38:33.269 It's going to get the spirit inside of you. Right? 00:38:33.610 --> 00:38:37.880 And so then you just need to go and... B. I was 00:38:37.880 --> 00:38:42.300 working in insurance a few years back, property 00:38:42.300 --> 00:38:44.199 and casualty. And one of the first things that 00:38:44.199 --> 00:38:46.619 you do when you first go into insurance is they 00:38:46.619 --> 00:38:48.199 want you to read from scripts. And scripts are 00:38:48.199 --> 00:38:52.800 incredibly successful at making sales. They're 00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:56.340 incredibly bad at making clients. And some of 00:38:56.340 --> 00:38:57.639 you are like, well, what's the difference? It's 00:38:57.639 --> 00:39:00.780 like making a sale, you do it once, and then 00:39:00.780 --> 00:39:03.099 you might get that person back. When you make 00:39:03.099 --> 00:39:04.920 clients, you make a relationship that lasts a 00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:09.420 long time. And so when I first got started, I 00:39:09.420 --> 00:39:11.159 learned all these scripts so I knew where to 00:39:11.159 --> 00:39:12.820 go and what to talk about and how to get there 00:39:12.820 --> 00:39:14.420 and all those different things. And I was like, 00:39:14.440 --> 00:39:17.219 when I got good at it, I stopped using a script. 00:39:17.949 --> 00:39:19.789 And I started looking at the person and talking 00:39:19.789 --> 00:39:21.750 to the person and understanding the person and 00:39:21.750 --> 00:39:23.909 understanding what they were looking for, what 00:39:23.909 --> 00:39:25.889 was wrong in their life, what I could do to actually 00:39:25.889 --> 00:39:28.090 address something that's going on inside of them. 00:39:28.250 --> 00:39:30.949 Yeah. Give them hope. Yeah. And by the way, I 00:39:30.949 --> 00:39:32.550 don't think this is a big rabbit trail because 00:39:32.550 --> 00:39:35.389 the reality is, is what is Jesus doing in this 00:39:35.389 --> 00:39:37.929 situation? He's just being like, hey, this is 00:39:37.929 --> 00:39:40.769 who I am. Let me tell you about. And also addressing. 00:39:40.769 --> 00:39:42.690 Tell you about that. And addressing them directly. 00:39:42.769 --> 00:39:46.639 So like Nicodemus, he drops him right into. You 00:39:46.639 --> 00:39:47.860 can't see the kingdom of God unless you're born 00:39:47.860 --> 00:39:51.780 again, dude. Why? Nicodemus, high academic guy. 00:39:52.320 --> 00:39:55.639 He immediately jumps to Torah and references 00:39:55.639 --> 00:39:58.679 the Torah. And the Samaritan woman at the well 00:39:58.679 --> 00:40:00.059 is like, all right, let's talk about physical 00:40:00.059 --> 00:40:03.460 needs. And not only that, he speaks to her. A 00:40:03.460 --> 00:40:07.239 Jew spoke to a Samaritan. That's the first place 00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:09.699 he meets her is he speaks to her. That's cool. 00:40:11.670 --> 00:40:13.469 So yeah, like when it comes to this type of stuff, 00:40:13.610 --> 00:40:15.630 like we can take a note out of Jesus's playbook, 00:40:15.670 --> 00:40:17.929 by the way, we should be doing that. Yeah. In 00:40:17.929 --> 00:40:19.750 general, I, in general, I think you should get 00:40:19.750 --> 00:40:21.750 most of your evangelism tips from Jesus. Yes. 00:40:22.110 --> 00:40:24.789 Um, I want to share one, like, this is the, this 00:40:24.789 --> 00:40:28.369 is the last story here because I think, so you've 00:40:28.369 --> 00:40:31.309 seen Jesus having a conversation with a, um, 00:40:31.389 --> 00:40:35.500 Jewish. teacher, Samaritan woman. Now we're going 00:40:35.500 --> 00:40:37.320 to run into an official. Likely we're dealing 00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:40.280 with a Roman official. Let's hear this story 00:40:40.280 --> 00:40:41.960 and see if we can see some similar themes here. 00:40:42.380 --> 00:40:44.960 After two days, he left for Galilee. Now Jesus 00:40:44.960 --> 00:40:47.000 himself had pointed out that a prophet has no 00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:49.119 honor in his home country. That's always a great 00:40:49.119 --> 00:40:51.420 way to start out the visit. When he arrived in 00:40:51.420 --> 00:40:53.500 Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had 00:40:53.500 --> 00:40:56.559 seen all that he had done in Jerusalem over the 00:40:56.559 --> 00:40:58.760 Passover festival, for they had also been there. 00:40:59.369 --> 00:41:01.869 Once more he visited Canaan in Galilee, where 00:41:01.869 --> 00:41:03.929 he had turned the water into wine, and there 00:41:03.929 --> 00:41:06.190 was a certain royal official whose son lay sick 00:41:06.190 --> 00:41:10.289 at Capernaum. When this man heard, that Jesus 00:41:10.289 --> 00:41:12.889 had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to 00:41:12.889 --> 00:41:14.909 him and begged him to come and heal his son, 00:41:14.989 --> 00:41:17.690 who was close to death. Unless you see signs 00:41:17.690 --> 00:41:19.750 and wonders, Jesus told him, you will never believe. 00:41:19.989 --> 00:41:22.449 The royal official said, Sir, come down before 00:41:22.449 --> 00:41:25.150 my child dies. Go, Jesus replied, your son will 00:41:25.150 --> 00:41:27.369 live. The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 00:41:27.570 --> 00:41:29.230 While he was still on his way, his servants met 00:41:29.230 --> 00:41:30.530 him with the news that his boys were living. 00:41:31.239 --> 00:41:33.820 When he inquired as to the time when his son 00:41:33.820 --> 00:41:36.179 got better, they said to him, yesterday at one 00:41:36.179 --> 00:41:38.239 in the afternoon, the fever left him. Then the 00:41:38.239 --> 00:41:40.219 father realized this is the exact time at which 00:41:40.219 --> 00:41:42.639 Jesus had said to him, your son will live. So 00:41:42.639 --> 00:41:46.099 he and his whole household believed. This is 00:41:46.099 --> 00:41:48.139 the second sign Jesus performed at coming to 00:41:48.139 --> 00:41:51.239 Judea to Galilee. Okay. By the way, the story 00:41:51.239 --> 00:41:52.860 coming right after there is not going to be an 00:41:52.860 --> 00:41:54.780 official, but what a poor man sitting by the 00:41:54.780 --> 00:41:56.559 water at the pool of Bethsaida that Jesus is 00:41:56.559 --> 00:42:00.619 going to heal. Once again, we have a stark comparison. 00:42:00.860 --> 00:42:04.460 Yep. Right? So Jesus has just come, and he's 00:42:04.460 --> 00:42:07.039 dealt with, talked to Nicodemus, and then he's 00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:08.360 talked to this woman at the well, and they got 00:42:08.360 --> 00:42:09.980 all these people who are believing just from 00:42:09.980 --> 00:42:12.639 the words that he's saying, understanding Torah 00:42:12.639 --> 00:42:15.460 and engaging the Spirit and understanding streams 00:42:15.460 --> 00:42:18.739 of living water bubbling up inside him. He goes 00:42:18.739 --> 00:42:21.219 back to his hometown where he's like, I know 00:42:21.219 --> 00:42:22.300 that I'm not going to be able to do signs and 00:42:22.300 --> 00:42:23.780 wonders, but everybody's talking about the stuff 00:42:23.780 --> 00:42:25.440 he did in Jerusalem, and immediately someone 00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:26.920 comes up and they're like, hey, my son is sick. 00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:32.909 I need you. And he's like, okay. It seems like 00:42:32.909 --> 00:42:35.949 all y 'all want is the show. Yeah. I just came 00:42:35.949 --> 00:42:39.809 from Samaria, where you guys don't like those 00:42:39.809 --> 00:42:42.630 people. And they responded to the message. Yeah. 00:42:44.210 --> 00:42:46.730 But Jesus, with his compassion, still heals the 00:42:46.730 --> 00:42:49.409 people. He heals the son. And as he's coming 00:42:49.409 --> 00:42:54.449 back, the son is healed. And the guy and his 00:42:54.449 --> 00:42:57.280 entire household now believe. So now Jesus has 00:42:57.280 --> 00:42:58.780 interacted people with three different ways. 00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:02.639 Yeah. Intellectually, emotionally, theologically, 00:43:02.800 --> 00:43:06.860 or, you know, like relationally and signs and 00:43:06.860 --> 00:43:09.219 wonders. Yeah. So the answer is which, which 00:43:09.219 --> 00:43:11.219 of these things should you do to share Jesus? 00:43:11.739 --> 00:43:15.679 Yes. Right. Yeah. All of them are going to meet 00:43:15.679 --> 00:43:18.260 people where they're at because the, the official 00:43:18.260 --> 00:43:20.679 can't see past his sick son, which by the way, 00:43:20.699 --> 00:43:24.519 that's, I get it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. He can't 00:43:24.519 --> 00:43:27.449 see past his sick son. You can't see past the 00:43:27.449 --> 00:43:30.909 sickness to hear Jesus. Yeah. So Jesus heals 00:43:30.909 --> 00:43:33.869 him. And as soon as that barrier is gone, the 00:43:33.869 --> 00:43:39.190 man believes. Right. Crazy. Yeah. Ministry by 00:43:39.190 --> 00:43:42.070 Jesus. Yeah. He does a lot of different things, 00:43:42.090 --> 00:43:44.309 a lot of different ways. And not shockingly, 00:43:44.369 --> 00:43:47.929 the guy who is known for being the word, spoken 00:43:47.929 --> 00:43:50.610 word of God, is really good at communicating 00:43:50.610 --> 00:43:53.829 with people. The one constant through all these 00:43:53.829 --> 00:43:57.449 encounters is Jesus meets them where they're 00:43:57.449 --> 00:44:01.150 at, right? And before you write in and be like, 00:44:01.230 --> 00:44:04.050 well, Nicodemus went to Jesus. Yes, he did. And 00:44:04.050 --> 00:44:07.230 what did Jesus do when Nicodemus was there? Met 00:44:07.230 --> 00:44:11.289 him where he was at. By the way, I think it's 00:44:11.289 --> 00:44:13.309 interesting. I don't remember if it's in one 00:44:13.309 --> 00:44:14.829 of the upcoming episodes. I'm going to try not 00:44:14.829 --> 00:44:16.949 to spoil too much in case we get into it. The 00:44:16.949 --> 00:44:18.949 Pool of Bethsaida. What does he say to the guy 00:44:18.949 --> 00:44:21.329 sitting there? I can't remember off the top of 00:44:21.329 --> 00:44:25.630 my head. Do you want to be well? Yeah. Who did 00:44:25.630 --> 00:44:28.030 you just interact with? A guy who ran up and 00:44:28.030 --> 00:44:29.789 didn't say anything, but just immediately asked 00:44:29.789 --> 00:44:32.590 for healing. Yeah. And Jesus comes to this poor 00:44:32.590 --> 00:44:35.030 guy sitting by the water, like doing the work. 00:44:35.130 --> 00:44:39.349 And he says, do you want to be well? Yeah. Something 00:44:39.349 --> 00:44:42.969 to think about. Yeah. Yeah. So, so take that 00:44:42.969 --> 00:44:45.510 from Jesus, Jesus's playbook and be like, all 00:44:45.510 --> 00:44:47.929 right. How can I be more intentional about meeting 00:44:47.929 --> 00:44:50.530 people where they're at? It's almost like getting 00:44:50.530 --> 00:44:53.170 to know people and speaking into their life with 00:44:53.170 --> 00:44:58.590 intention matters. Right? Yep. That's good. I 00:44:58.590 --> 00:45:00.949 like that. Also, one more thing, then we can 00:45:00.949 --> 00:45:04.489 close on this. No. Close now. Okay. So these 00:45:04.489 --> 00:45:07.070 three encounters, well, four encounters, if you 00:45:07.070 --> 00:45:10.750 include the pool of Bethsaida, none of these 00:45:10.750 --> 00:45:13.329 encounters were proclaiming the gospel to a large 00:45:13.329 --> 00:45:16.519 crowd. Nope. Now does Jesus do that? yes he does 00:45:16.519 --> 00:45:19.320 it actually says he teaches yep large crowds 00:45:19.320 --> 00:45:24.880 which is an interesting contrast but um there's 00:45:24.880 --> 00:45:27.820 the relational component of you got to get out 00:45:27.820 --> 00:45:30.079 of your shell and you just got to get to know 00:45:30.079 --> 00:45:32.940 people yeah do you have i mean you could argue 00:45:32.940 --> 00:45:35.000 the woman at the well but that's that's a reaction 00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.230 to the inner interaction exactly Yeah. Get out 00:45:39.230 --> 00:45:41.550 and actually get to know people. Which, by the 00:45:41.550 --> 00:45:42.670 way, I'm just going to go ahead and plug this. 00:45:42.969 --> 00:45:45.070 Wherever you are, if your church has small groups, 00:45:45.130 --> 00:45:47.730 you should be in one. Life is not meant to be 00:45:47.730 --> 00:45:49.449 done in isolation. It's meant to be done in a 00:45:49.449 --> 00:45:51.590 group. Wrestling with the text, struggling with 00:45:51.590 --> 00:45:54.530 what Jesus calls us to do, balancing, am I going 00:45:54.530 --> 00:45:56.789 too far or not far enough on these things? Yeah. 00:45:57.730 --> 00:45:59.369 There are times where we'll be like, you know, 00:45:59.409 --> 00:46:00.610 I think you could probably push that a little 00:46:00.610 --> 00:46:02.250 further. Yeah. And sometimes we're like, chill, 00:46:02.289 --> 00:46:07.199 dude. Yep. Calm down. Yep. Good stuff. Positive 00:46:07.199 --> 00:46:15.820 spin. All right. Until next time. Welcome to 00:46:15.820 --> 00:46:18.840 Season 3 of Love & Context. This season, we're 00:46:18.840 --> 00:46:21.380 exploring the life of Jesus step -by -step and 00:46:21.380 --> 00:46:23.840 uncovering what His story teaches us about loving 00:46:23.840 --> 00:46:26.519 God and others. Here on Love & Context, we're 00:46:26.519 --> 00:46:28.659 all about having real conversations about how 00:46:28.659 --> 00:46:30.539 to live out that love in practical, everyday 00:46:30.539 --> 00:46:32.599 ways and understanding the Bible in its full 00:46:32.599 --> 00:46:35.219 context. We're so glad you're here. Let's dive 00:46:35.219 --> 00:46:37.380 into Season 3 of Love & Context.