Two Mountains, One Well - Joshua 8 & John 4 // 17 May 2026

Scott Wellard

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Just doing some rearranging here for a minute. Good afternoon. Not evening, not morning, it's afternoon. We're all happy to be here. It's great. I um we started Joshua four weeks ago, so this is the Ape sermon looking at at the first eight chapters of Joshua, and this was the landing spot I was excited about when we started it. Jericho was great, the first week were great, all the weeks were great, but this is the landing spot. This is why we wanted to do these first eight weeks. We've crossed into the Jordan, we've looked at all the early battles, all the early conquests, but this is where we're landing the series. And it's really important and exciting. And so I just want to start just like two scriptures, Joshua 8, 30 to 31. It just says, Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses, a servant of the Lord, had commanded the Israelites. So this morning we we looked at the battle of uh I think David was calling it A, and uh Katie last week called it AI, but wherever it is, we looked at that battle this morning, and wherever that is, is 25 miles from where we are today. Uh so the Israelites went from there 25 miles to the valley of Shechem. So that's where we find ourselves right now. We are standing in the Valley of Shechem. And in the Valley of Shechem, you've got these two big opposing mountains, one to the north, one to the south. The one to the north is Mount Ebal, and the one to the south is Mount Gerasim. Now, Mount Ebal is known to the Israelites because that was the mountain that historically Abraham stood on when God said to him, I will give your people this land. And Abraham built an altar on that mountain. So it was a mountain that was known to them. Those their people historically had been in this place before. And so Moses in Deuteronomy, when he's he's giving his instructions to Joshua and the Israelites about moving into the promised lands, Joshua had uh Moses had very specific instructions for what the Israelites and Joshua were to do when they got to this mountain. And so Joshua in this moment does exactly what Moses had instructed. He builds an altar of uncut stones, untouched by iron tools, and offers burnt and peace offerings. They then make sure that the law is written into the stones and read out loud. But then they do this strange thing, which frames the message we're looking at this morning. They split the 12 tribes in two. They keep six on Mount Ebal and they send another six tribes to Mount Geresim. And then you, as the reader, find yourself as you're reading, you find yourself in the valley of Shechem. That's where it puts us, the reader. It puts us right between the mountains in the Valley of Shechem. And because it is amphitheater, this natural amphitheater, what happens is on Mount Geresim, they read out the blessings. So what happens if we are obedient to the law? But on Mount Ebal, now just for you guys keeping track, the Southern Mountain is the good mountain. The northern mountain is the bad mountain. All right, we're all southerners here, right? I thought you guys would be a bit more happier about that. Isn't there a north-south divide? Like too political? No? Alright, well, anyway, in this story, the southern mountain is the blessed mountain. So on a southern mountain, they read out the blessings. What happens if you're obedient to the law? But then on the northern mountain, Mount Ebel, they read out the curses. What happens if you're disobedient to the law? Now it's not curses in terms of some sort of magical spell. It's literally what happens if you rebel against God and fall out of his favor and miss his protection. And so we're meant to, as the reader, be standing in this valley of Shechem, looking at these mountains, understanding the path of obedience and understanding the path of rebellion, and we're supposed to see them as these two choices, these two paths we can take. Are we going to choose obedience or are we going to choose rebellion? And then that's a hard question to ask because the Israelites that followed historically, it's a story throughout the Old Testament of people trying to live up to God's law, God's standard, and falling short. So us reading it today, we're sitting there going, well, we got this choice of obedience, we've got this choice of rebellion. So naturally, all of us want to choose obedience, want to choose the blessing, but we also know that historically everyone who chose that direction fell short of the standard of God. And so, what are we as the reader meant to do today when we know we got these two choices, but then we have this knowledge that we can't achieve this? And that's why I think it's so beautiful that we're landing here. Because I want to stay in the valley of Shechem to understand this, but I want to jump 1,300 years forward from this moment, not from this moment now, this moment in the Old Testament. We're gonna jump from Joshua to John chapter 4, but we're gonna stay in the valley of Shechem. So this moment we're gonna look at now in John chapter 4 with Jesus and a woman at the well, is in this same valley with these two opposing mountains standing over them. So let's read this moment for a moment and see if it helps us understand what choice we have today. So it said, now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. Although, in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized them, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called Sikar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus tried, as he was, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? Because he was on his own, his disciples had gone off in the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? Traditionally the Jews did not associate with the Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Sir the woman said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and their livestock? Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. Jesus told her, Go and call your husband and come back. She said, I have no husband. Jesus said, You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is quite true. The woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Jesus replied, Believe me, a time is coming where you will worship the Father near the mountain, not near this mountain or in Jerusalem. Your Samaritan worship, what will you do now? Not know, is that we worship, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said, I know there's a Messiah coming. When he comes, he'll explain everything to us. And then Jesus declared, I the one speaking to you, am here. Thank you for being patient with my dyslexia for a minute. I nearly lost my way. Really, you could see it. But I wanted us to hear that as a whole. I didn't want to tell it as a story. I wanted us to hear it as a whole. Because it's it's it's really powerful that this moment happens in that same valley we just found ourselves in in Joshua, where the Israelites had these two choices of obedience and rebellion. And I think it actually speaks to our choice in front of each of us today. But I just want to have a couple of talking points to that passage for a minute, because we just read it out in a big chunk. And the first talking point is what's happening in this moment is social barriers are being broken down. You know what's really interesting if you look at this on a map and Jesus was going from where he was to where he wanted to go, traditionally the Jews would go out of their way to get there. They would cross out across the Jordan and out of the promised land, go down this other territory, and then after they pass Samaria, they would cross back across the Jordan. They would avoid going through Samaria. So the fact that Jesus went the direct route, people say Jesus went out of his way to speak to the outcast and the unworthy. Actually, that's not true. Jesus went the most direct route to speak to the outcasts and the unworthy in this situation. We're breaking social barriers because it's not just a Jew speaking to a Samaritan, which was not done. It's not just Jesus saying we're going to go through some area to get to where we need, we're not going around it. It's also a man speaking to a woman at a time where that wasn't appropriate, let alone a man speaking to a woman that was, you know, had a had a bad reputation. But all of this is important because it says that God meets every one of us where we are. And I think of that map and how the Jews would go out of their way to avoid certain areas, and how Jesus has taken a direct route to speak to someone that is an outcast or considered unworthy. And it makes us it's a little challenge to us. How often do we cross the street to avoid someone? How often do we go out of our way to avoid something coming up that we think is difficult or not someone we want to waste our time with that day for lack of a better word? I think we need to be challenged in this moment that Jesus took the direct route. He went and spoke to the person he shouldn't have been spoken to in the place where he shouldn't have been. And I think sometimes we need to remember that God meets us where we are, and if he meets us where we are, he wants to meet all where they are. And we might be having a bad day, we might be busy, we might not have the patience, but in that moment, we could be the messenger that God is sending to the person we're avoiding. And maybe if if we're coming up to a situation and we feel like we need to avoid that someone, maybe we need to just in the spirit for a second ask, am I meant to avoid right now? Or am or am I the good news that that person needs? And you know what? If we have the courage to be the good news that day, it might not change their situation, but we at least owe it to ourselves to be true to who we are in God, to at least give ourselves an opportunity to be a seed in their journey. So the first thing that was interesting is he's he went the direct route, he broke the social barriers. But what I also love is he knows her and he loves her. He very quickly made her aware that he knew exactly who she was. Because when it comes to God, there's no secrets. We like to fool ourselves and think we can keep secrets from God, but the reality is God knows all of us. He knows all our secrets. And so God makes it clear that he knows who she is, he knows her background, he knows the decisions she's making. And and he loves her. And that love shows that she's worthy when she considered herself not worthy. But his love doesn't validate her life choices, it just validates her worth. She, like everyone else who encountered Jesus, now has to decide am I gonna continue with these life choices or am I gonna follow something new, radical, and life-giving? So that's really important. But then the next bit is important because there's this little like step here, you know. So he came to her, he revealed the truth that he knew about her, but then he challenges her to say that we're gonna worship in spirit and truth, which is something we talked about here just last week. In leading, we said, let's worship in spirit and truth. And what I love is he says that after he tells her who she is. Because basically, what he's saying is, now there's no secrets. Now you know that I know. Bring that to worship. Bring that to worship. Because if you've had five husbands and you're on to potential number six, that's that's a pattern that's difficult to break. That's a lot of life choices that got this woman to this point. And that's not a pattern that's easy to break in the natural. So if there's any hope for her to sincerely decide, you know what, I want to break this pattern in my life. I want to live for Jesus, I want to live for something different, it's not gonna happen in any other place but worship and in the power of the spirit of God. And so when it says we worship in spirit of truth, it means that we bring who we are, what we're going through, what's happening in our life that day, those secrets that we think we can keep from God, we bring it to a place of worship and we worship from that place. Because in that truth, the spirit can transform. We shouldn't condemn ourselves and think that we're not worthy, that we have to hide, and we shouldn't condemn each other. We need to be able to bring that in truth and worship in spirit. And then Jesus reveals his identity to her and he says, I am the Messiah, the one you have waited for. And what I love is this very last moment, she goes from shame to evangelist. It says in the next couple of verses, just then the disciples returned, and boy, were they surprised to see Jesus talking to a woman. But then she left her jar, went back to the town, and said to the people, Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? They came out of the town and made their way towards him. From shame to evangelist. And do you notice what happened there? It didn't say that she had completely turned her life around. She didn't even have the time for that. It didn't even say with full certainty she knew he was the Messiah. All we know is she had a real encounter with Jesus, and as she's trying to process it, as she's trying to figure out what it means to her, she's dragging everyone she can to have that same encounter. And that's really important. But I think what we, what I, what we, what we all truly want is what this Samaritan woman found at the well, which is Jesus. And Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law, which is really important because it means he's then able to offer us that living water which is grace. So we're standing in this valley again, and we're looking at these mountains, and we're looking at a choice of obedience or or disobedience, and we're looking at this law that is the standard by which God is going to judge us. And if we are judged by that standard, then not one of us in this room passes. We all fail. We do all cannot live up to that standard. But then there's this will, this well known as grace. And if we drink from this will, then it changes the choice, it changes the whole situation. Because the act of drinking from this well is an act of faith. It's choosing by faith to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins and our shorts coming, that he beat the power of sin and death when he rose again from the dead. And so faith is believing it, it's taking a drink from that well. But after we've taken a drink from that well and we know that this is real, this is life-giving, this is eternal, then repentance is deciding no more of our way. I'm living according to who he is. I've lived according to whoever I've decided I was up until this moment, but now because of faith and repentance, I'm going to live according to who he is. And so then when it comes to judgment, we're not judged by our name and action. We're judged by his name and actions. And that's what the grace is. And the well in this valley of Shechem represents grace. The old covenant law is not for nothing, it's important because it helps us understand God and his holy standard and his holiness, and it reveals the measure of our sinfulness and need for God, and the law should point us directly towards this well and Jesus. So then, when we look at this picture in the Valley of Shechem with these two unmovable mountains, these concrete consequences of obedience and rebellion, the deep well is what was missing for those Israelites in the Old Testament. The deep will was what was missing for all the other examples in the Old Testament that fell short of the holy standard. The well represents the limitless depth of God's grace. And that's the difference for us. Because we don't have these choices alone anymore. We're not going to be held against the standard of the law according to our name and our actions. We sit under his oak tree of righteousness, under who he is and what he's done. But the thing is, we're not meant to stand by this well being justified. It's all good. We're fine. His name's judged, not ours anymore. We just get to sit and drink now and do nothing. We're meant to actually take that justification and become evangelists. Because from justification, we're commissioned to go to all ends of the earth and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that we have been taught to obey ourselves. So from this place of freedom that is the living water of grace, of justification, we're meant to be evangelists. We're meant to say we've had a real life-changing encounter with Jesus. Come and work it out as we work it out. Come and see it. Come and have it for yourself. And what I loved is that's what something we saw at the men's barbecue on Friday. There was guys there who have said, I've tried to invite my friends to church, but they won't come to church. But I can get them to come to a barbecue. And for three people on Friday night, it was barbecue Friday, church Sunday. Come on, we want it to be that quick sometimes, don't we? But I stood and prayed with a very tall man. I was intimidated. And in all fairness, I had eaten way too much barbecue meat, so I wasn't standing like this. I was standing like this. So I might be his height. I don't know. We'll need to wait until I've got an empty stomach. But he he he said to me, like, I'm here because I've seen something happen in my brother. And his brother said to me, I'm still trying to work out what's happening to me, but I want to be here to work it out, and I want my brother here with me. It's not I've given my life to Jesus and I've been baptized. It's still like the woman at the world. She's still processing the encounter, she's still trying to find that place of faith and repentance, but she knows he's real. She knows something's happening. And so we're meant to go from justified to evangelist, but we're also not meant to stay justified evangelists, we're meant to be sanctified. We're meant to start following Jesus and through his Holy Spirit be transformed according to who he is. But we can't do that in our own effort and strength. And that's where it went wrong in the Old Testament. They looked at these two mountains and they went, we're going to try and be obedient in our own merit and strength. And that's a path to disappointment, that's a path to failure. You see, we're called, I said this last week and I want to say it again. So it's said twice in this series, but we're called to holiness. But it's not to have a perfect heart, and it's not to be holy. We're meant to have a pure heart. If you're ever looking for a scripture to pray, pray this scripture. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit in me. You know, if we're praying for a steadfast spirit, we're praying for strength. But most importantly, we're praying for commitment and consistency. You see, what I'm not saying is perfection is our goal because we'll never be perfect, and we know that from this Old Testament example. And we'll never be holy because God is holy. But we're meant to understand holiness. And holiness isn't perfection, it's intimacy, it's proximity to the one who is holy. David reminded us of this great neat saying this morning from last week. I'll remind you again, our purity comes from the consistency of our intimacy. You see, what's really cool is it doesn't just stop at the well, it doesn't just stop at grace and living water. God gets extremely intimate with us because he says, Here's my Holy Spirit, it's gonna dwell inside of you. I mean, we all have some great relationships in our life, but we can never obtain that level of intimacy with someone else human that we can obtain with God because he says, My spirit is going to dwell within you. And so our proximity to the one who is holy, fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, is what shifts things, is what sanctifies, is what transforms, it's what activates when we worship in spirit and truth. The Israelites had two mountains, two choices, obedience or rebellion. And we we have those same choices as well, but let's remember these scriptures. John 1 17 says, For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Galatians 3 24. The Lord was the law was put in charge to lead us to Jesus that we might be justified by faith. Faith and repentance. Each of us stands in the valley of Shechem with two big mountains, two choices, two directions. But none of us should make a choice of either direction unless we drink from the living well of grace. We move towards obedience in his strength, in his spirit, in his power, according to his name. Amen. That's where we land today. Why don't we worship again in spirit and truth?