Bridge Builder: Breaking The Barriers

Opening illustration: I heard a story about a guy who applied for a job as an usher at a theater in the mall. As a part of the interview process, the manager asked him, "What would you do in case a fire breaks out?"

The young guy answered, "Don’t worry about me. I can get out fine."

That’s exactly how many in today’s world respond to a lost and dying world around them. If you asked them "What would you do if Jesus came back tomorrow?" they would probably respond, "Oh, don’t worry about me. I’d be fine."

But what is all too easy to forget is that you’re an usher! It isn’t enough just to get out yourself. You are responsible for helping others know the way.

Introduction: Evangelism is a generally accepted core value in the Christian church. However, it is more of a stated value than a realized value. The goal of this teaching series is to turn-up the evangelistic temperature of our church to the point that on-going evangelism becomes a realized value.

• Evangelism is a central theme of the New Testament, and of our text in John Chapter 4.

• Evangelism is essential to the salvation of the elect, as Jesus must go through Samaria.

• Evangelism is the life blood of the Lord’s churches.

• Evangelism is essential to a churches spirituality and zeal.

• When a church loses its evangelistic vision, it is at a low ebb spiritually.

• Evangelism is essential to a churches purpose and reason for existence.

• If a church is not evangelistic, they’ve lost sight of their purpose. It is now a club.

• Evangelism is essential for a church’s growth and continued existence.

• The Lord promised perpetuity for His church as an institution, but not to individual churches. Our continuance is dependent on our evangelistic efforts and our community.

• The lack of evangelism will result in the death of a church.

So, where do we begin? (2 Timothy 4:5)

• There are two groups of people who really hate evangelism; non-Christians and Christians.

• Evangelism is an emotionally charged word.

• It often sends shivers of guilt running up and down our spines.

• Everyone agrees that evangelism involves giving away the message of God’s love.

• We mostly agree on the focus of our message, but we diverge greatly when it comes to how.

What BARRIERS you may have to BREAK to build bridges?

1. GENDER barrier (vs. 7-8)

I want you to note that there are in fact four barriers that Jesus has to overcome even to speak to her. First of all, there is the fact that it was improper in that day for a Rabbi to speak in public to a young woman. In fact, typically, even if you were married, you often wouldn’t even speak to your wife in public. You need to understand how radical the gospels are - how liberating they are with regard to women because they are so utterly contrary to the culture of that time. We often fail to see that. Often what we’ll do is take our own ideas and impose them on the gospels but actually the gospels were liberating and radical in their treatment of women. Jesus, as a Rabbi, furthermore, should be more cautious about speaking to a woman, let alone a woman in this condition who was a Samaritan. There was the barrier of sex because the public discourse between a man and a woman, especially an unmarried man, would be prohibited or looked down upon. Jesus was going counter cultural and crossing this barrier.

If we look at the woman at the well, she’s never named. We looked at Jesus’ encounter with the disciples. He’s always using teachable moments. They never did mention about the woman but Jesus talks about the harvest and illustrates what a harvest is like. He talks about what food is like. He talks about what the will of God is like and how that satisfies. He’s always using and leveraging teachable moments. Then the Samaritans arrive. It goes from second-hand knowledge to first-hand knowledge. This is always critical.

Even speaking to the woman, He overcomes a number of barriers, as we’re about to see.

2. RACIAL barrier (vs. 9)

God has divine appointments. He didn’t necessarily leave Judea with any fixed intention of ministering in Samaria, He just planned to pass through, but the Spirit will always blow wherever He wishes. True messengers of God are never subject to fixed programs and to prejudices. We need to keep that in mind for ourselves. You don’t know what you’re called to do. You don’t know what ministry you’re going to have and very often your greatest moment might be something that was not planned- something may appear to be an interruption or something that might not seem very productive.