Sharing Jesus
John 4: 1 – 26.
Introduction.
How are you doing on your New Year’s
Resolutions? It’s only been one
week. Surely you have been faithful for
one week?!
Over the past week, I have seen several articles on
the Internet about how important it is to make realistic New Year’s
Resolutions. Here is a list of realistic
resolutions:
·
Dear God, we will talk more this year.
·
I will think before I eat.
·
I will do some form of exercise or physical activity every week.
·
I will open my Bible every day.
·
I will improve at least one relationship.
·
I will organize one closet (or even one drawer).
·
I will learn one new skill.
·
I will attempt to be a better listener.
·
I will smile more.
·
I will remind myself of one thing I’m thankful for every day.[1]
These resolutions don’t really sound like they could
change the world…Or, could they. Since
these are resolutions we might actually keep, they could make your life
better. Sometimes it takes a small
victory—like organizing a closet or smiling more or spending a little more time
with God—to make us realize that our lives can change for the better.
Individual people are not the only ones who make New
Year’s Resolutions. A church can make a
New Year’s Resolution. In fact, you
might not know it, but our church has made a New Year’s Resolution. We made this decision when we adopted our
2012 annual budget.
The bottom line of our 2012 budget doesn’t look much
different from the bottom line of our 2011 budget. It is roughly the same amount of money. The difference between the two budgets is the
way we have reduced the amount of money we budgeted on ourselves and added
$30,000 for Evangelism and Outreach.
If we want to be the church God is calling us to be,
we have to make Evangelism and Outreach our priorities in 2012. This is not an unrealistic goal. After all, we are not saying that we are
going to win the entire population of Angelina County
Let’s kick off our emphasis on evangelism by looking
at one of the stories about how Jesus shared his faith.
Read
John 4: 1 – 26.
1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John,
2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.
3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria.
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"
8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15 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."
16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17 "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband.
18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
(NIV)
Jesus
Was Alert to Every Opportunity .
The story begins as Jesus and his disciples learn
that the Pharisees are interested in Jesus’ ministry. They are not interested in becoming
disciples, but in running Jesus out of town or killing him…So, Jesus and his
disciples have to travel in a hurry from Judea to Galilee .
The quickest route from Judea (in the South) to
Galilee (in the North) is to travel directly through the central region of Palestine , known as Samaria Samaria
On this particular occasion, Jesus and the disciples
traveled on a straight line directly through Samaria …And
it just so happened that they were passing through Samaria
While the disciples were gone, Jesus waited at the
local well to rest. There at the well…in
the middle of the day…at the hottest point of the day…Jesus had an encounter
with a Samaritan woman.
The way John tells this story, it seems that Jesus
just “happened to be there at the same time” as the Samaritan woman. But Jesus did not think of this encounter as
a chance or a random event. Jesus saw
this as a God-given encounter…And used it for God’s purposes…
This has a theological significance for us today…God
is at work in EVERY circumstance of our lives…God moves us and directs us into
the places he wants us to go…God moves the right people into our lives at just
the right times…
Think of your family members…Friends…Co-Workers…Classmates… God has placed these people in your life for
a specific reason…
Jesus
Was Willing to Cross Boundaries.
After meeting the woman for the very first time at
the well, Jesus began to speak to the woman.
It is important to note that Jesus took the initiative in the
conversation. He asked her for a
drink…If Jesus had not initiated the conversation, they would not have
spoken. Given the circumstances of the
woman’s life…I am almost certain that she would NEVER have spoken to Jesus
first.
Just initiating the conversation was a big step for
Jesus to take. And Jewish men and women
of that day would have seen this as a really big deal. In fact, I usually like to imagine the
disciples as they walked back up and saw Jesus speaking to this Samaritan woman
at the well in the middle of broad daylight, out where everyone could see
him…I’m sure they thought, “What has Jesus gotten us into this time?”
The disciples would have been shocked to see Jesus
speaking to this woman, because none of them would have spoken to her…Jesus
didn’t have to speak to this woman…The disciples would NOT have spoken to
her…And no one would have questioned why the disciples were silent…
When Jesus spoke to the Woman at the Well, he
overcame at least three boundaries.
She was a Samaritan…Jews did not speak with
Samaritans…They were considered an unclean race…You will remember from Old
Testament history that the Northern Kingdom of Israel was completely destroyed
by the Assyrians, but the Southern Kingdom of Judah was taken captive (or
Exiled) by the Babylonians…When the Babylonians invaded Judah, they captured
the strongest, the bravest and the best looking people and took them to Babylon
as slaves…But they left the weak, the ugly and the disabled behind…These people
who were “left behind” intermarried among the foreign peoples who lived in that
region and established their own nation… When the Israelites finally returned
to their land, they found it was already populated by these interracial
people…These were the Samaritans…And the Jews wanted nothing to do the
Samaritans…Even in Jesus’ day
She was a Woman…In Ancient Jewish culture, women were devalued
as nothing more than just property belonging to a man…Daughters were property
of Fathers…And Wives were property of Husbands…A woman had no identity of her
own…Her purpose was to serve the needs of her man—either husband or father—there
was no self-respecting man who would endeavor to have a relationship with a
woman…
She was a Sinful Woman…We read that this woman had a
very bad reputation in her town…She was known as a very promiscuous woman…She
had been married five times and was now living with a man who was not her
husband…Jesus could get a bad reputation just by associating with this woman…
This has theological significance for us today…God’s
redemptive plan is intended for all the world and all people… For God so
loved the WORLD, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in
him will not perish but have everlasting life…It is never for us to decide
who can and who cannot be saved…
Jesus
Was Sensitive to Genuine Human Needs.
Notice that Jesus did not begin the conversation by
forcing the woman to listen to the Four Spiritual Laws or the Roman Road
Jesus listened to her needs, because Jesus came to
meet her needs…He spoke the Gospel Message—the Good News—to her specific needs
and concerns. He did not try to take a
cookie-cutter approach to presenting the Good News, as if every person were
exactly the same person.
Jesus knew this woman was different and took the
time to get to know her and build a relationship with her. Then he was able to touch her life at the
point of her greatest need…By listening, Jesus got to know two things about
this woman…
She was involved in a Sinful Lifestyle…As I mentioned earlier, she
was a promiscuous person…She had been married to five different men and was now
living with a man who was not her husband…I can remember a time when we
referred to this as “Living in Sin”…Now couples may choose this as a way to
save money or to see if they have what it takes to get married…Did you know
that recent research and census data indicate that the divorce rate is actually
significantly higher for couples who marry after first living together?
Jesus was very aware of this woman’s sinful
lifestyle, yet notice how he addressed her…Jesus did not condemn her or make
her feel guilty even though we know that he did not approve…He addressed her
problem as a search for satisfaction… Read vv. 13 – 14…Nothing else in
this world can satisfy the cravings and desires of life like Jesus…Only Jesus
can satisfy…
She was involved in a False Religion…Samaritans and Jews shared
the same history and roots…Therefore, they held similar beliefs…However, the
Samaritans rejected the Jewish understanding of God’s revelation—They had a
different Scripture with different books…The Samaritans rejected the Jewish
worship—They worshipped in a different Temple on a different site…
Again, this is a search for satisfaction in the
wrong direction…Jesus looked beyond these issues and realized that her search
for satisfaction could only be fulfilled in a Right Relationship with God.
This has a theological significance for us
today…God’s redemptive plan meets all human needs. Ultimately, the greatest human need is to be
in a Right Relationship with God. This
relationship is only possible through Jesus Christ as Lord
Conclusion.
More than likely, you have heard me say this
before. There are three ways for a
church to grow. Grow through Birth—more
and more babies being born…Grow through Transfer—people moving to town looking
for a church, or a church split across town…Grow through Conversion—witnessing
to the lost and baptizing new converts into the church…
Only one of those growth strategies appears in the
New Testament. The Bible does not tell
us to grow our church through Birth or Transfer. The Bible tells us to grow our church by
leading people to faith in Christ.
The Woman at the Well was no different from the
people living in Angelina County, Texas.
She was a sinner searching for satisfaction in all the wrong places.
Our community is filled with hundreds and thousands
of men and women just like that—sinners who are searching for something that
will satisfy.
Are you willing to share your faith like Jesus did?
Are you willing to look for God’s hand leading you
to witnessing opportunities? Are you
willing to listen to the aches and pains and hurts of your friends and family
members? Are you willing to tell others
that the only thing that can truly satisfy every longing of the human heart is
a Right Relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord?
Maybe you are here this morning searching…Maybe you
would like to take a sip of the Living Water that will quench your thirst and satisfy
all your needs…
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