Projectionist: Start with “If Jesus Returned Today”
Good questions; important questions. Our mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. We really can’t do that, but what we can do is create irresistible environments where people are encouraged and equipped to pursue intimacy with God, community with insiders and influence with outsiders.
If you’ve been in church for any length of time, or you attended church as a child and are just coming back, you are familiar with the story known as The Woman at the Well from John 4.
If you are not familiar with the story, let me summarize it for you quickly. Jesus had to leave Judea and head back to Galilee because the religious leaders had taken note of his gaining popularity and they weren’t happy. Rather than risk a confrontation at that time, Jesus heads north to His home territory.
The normal route for any good Jew was to cross the Jordan, go up through Decapolis, then cross back over into Galilee. No good Jew wanted to go through Samaria. The Jews and Samaritans hated one another. The Samaritans were half-breed Jews, forced to intermarry with gentiles when Assyria captured the Northern Ten Tribes. During that time they developed and expanded upon the Law of Moses, and they were constantly harassing those in Judea. During the time of the Maccabees, they snuck in and desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem, so there was really bad feelings all the way around. Because of that hate it was unsafe for a Jew to try to travel through the area.
That didn’t stop Jesus. He made a bee-line to the town of Sychar in Samaria. His disciples went into town to get food and Jesus had an encounter with a woman no one--not even her own people--wanted to have anything to do with. To most, she was what we would call persona non grata, an unwelcome person. But to Jesus, she was a woman in need of His love and mercy.
They carry on a conversation, and she’s a little hostile at first. After she tries to distract Him using an argument about religious things, He does something that He didn’t to do in all of Israel—He reveals Himself to her as the long-awaited Messiah.
At this point, the disciples return, and they are upset to see Jesus carrying on a conversation with this woman, but they know better than to say anything. The Message Translation catches the unfolding scene well: “Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.” (John 4:27, The Message).
Jesus’ followers can’t believe their eyes! No one says anything, but they certainly communicate their disapproval! It is amazing sometimes what we Christians can communicate without ever saying a word, isn’t it?
She rushes off and that’s where we want to pick up this morning. If you have your Bible we are in John 4 beginning at verse 28: “The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people,” (John 4:28, The Message). She got it. Without saying a word the disciples communicated their disgust at the scene before them. Her reaction is natural, “she took the hint and left.” Unfortunately, most of the time that would have been the end of the story. Not with her. She was impressed by Jesus and she wasn’t going to let his judgmental followers discourage her. “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” (John 4:29, The Message)
Now when she uttered that first phrase, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did” the people probably thought, “Honey, that’s nothing—everybody knows what you’ve been up to; everybody knows the kind of woman you are! All they have to do is look at you and they know!”
I think it’s the next two phrases that gets their attention, “ . . .who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?”
Meanwhile, back at the well another scene is unfolding. “In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, ‘Rabbi, eat. Aren’t you going to eat?’ He told them, ‘I have food to eat you know nothing about.’ The disciples were puzzled. ‘Who could have brought him food?’” (John 4:31–33, The Message)
“Jesus said, ‘The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!’” (John 4:34–35, The Message).
Let’s pause here to answer the “so what” questions of this passage. Sometimes I fear that Christians think that spiritual food comes only in the form of Bible Study and prayer and church attendance. I am not being critical, but since the Bible School movement which began in the late 1800’s, most Christians have come to equate knowledge with discipleship. “If we only know more we’ll become better Christians.” But it is not enough to know more if it doesn’t impact our lives. “Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started.” (John 4:34, The Message) And James, the brother of Jesus reminds us in James 1:22 if all we do is listen to the word, we are simply deceiving ourselves. The Living Bible puts James’ words well: “And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. So don’t fool yourselves.” (James 1:22, The Living Bible).
What is the first “so what?” Simply this, if you want to be in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, it is not going to happen if you are just taking in—it will only happen in you are giving out as well. To make that memorable, You won’t be a-growin’ if you’re not a-goin’. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22, NIV84).
The second “so what” is, the time to act is now. Not a year from now, not four months from now, not when you think the time is right. Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” (John 4:35, NIV84)
Jesus is recognizing men’s abilities to look at certain signs and seasons and predict what actions need to be taken. We have this amazing ability to see so many things so clearly, but when it comes to the spiritual, often we become myopic. The dictionary defines myopic as, nearsighted; unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.
It is so easy to fall into that trap. The gravitational pull of every church is inward and if we are not intentional, that will be our pull as well.
In the universe there are geometrically defined regions in spacetime whose gravitational pull is so strong that even light cannot escape the inward pull. We call these area’s “Black holes.”
Sometimes in the life of a church, when the gravitational pull becomes inward, the light of the gospel can’t get out. We don’t mean that to happen and we think it is happening, but when the focus of a church becomes inward, effective ministry becomes impossible.
If a church is not intentional in resisting that normal gravitational pull inward, it will not survive long as a church. But the tilling of the soil and the planting of the crops is difficult, and because no immediate results are seen, there is always a tendency to want to give up; to quit. We celebrate our past, but we need to plan for the future; we celebrate past accomplishments, but we dare not lose sight of the present harvest.
In our case, according to the statistics given to me by the Georgia Baptist Association, the harvest field we sit in includes 84% of the population that doesn’t go to church at all! That is a potential 146,049 individuals who are unreached in a 10 mile radius of our doors.
A number of years ago, a shoe company decided to expand their efforts into an impoverished area in South America. They hired a salesman and sent him into the projected market field. The man was there two weeks when he wrote the home office and said, “Task impossible. No one in the area wears shoes! I am coming home effective immediately.”
Unbeknown to him, the company had already dispatched another salesman to the area to assist the first with the task. They crossed paths and when the second salesman got on the field he discovered the same thing the first salesman had discovered.
In the meantime the first salesman reported his findings to the home office who prepared to recall the second salesman they had dispatched to the area. Before they could however, they received this letter: “Please send me as much inventory as you can! The opportunity is great! No one here has any shoes!”
So, do we see the 84% as unreachable or do we see them simply as untapped?
Solomon reminds us: “If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right, you will never sow anything and never harvest anything.” (Ecclesiastes 11:4, GNB).
I have to tell you, in our text, Jesus’ guys didn’t want to be in Samaria. Had the decision been left up to them, they would have taken the normal route, avoiding the area altogether. It wasn’t worth the potential risks involved.
Jesus, however, didn’t do that, and here they were. Then they found Him—their Rabbi, their leader—talking to a Samaritan woman, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it was pretty obvious to them that she wasn’t a very reputable woman either. Their reactions betrayed their thinking and that was enough to send her packing. Instead of getting into it, they tried to convince Jesus to eat something.
So, I have to ask us, are we going to focus on our own needs, or are we going to focus on the needs of others?
While all of this is happening at the well, back in town the woman is telling her story to everyone who will listen.
Here is what happens next. Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: “He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” (John 4:39, The Message)
Jesus’ presence at that well didn’t draw anybody and neither is our presence here going to draw people. A sign won’t draw people, mailings won’t do it, social media helps but it is not what will ultimately bring people to Jesus. It is the witness of God’s people that either draws people to or drives them from Christ. The inhabitants of Sychar went to see Jesus because of the witness of this woman. Some even made their own commitments to Him based on her testimony about Him. There are no short-cuts to outreach. All the letters, post-cards, signs, advertisements in the world are not going to substitute for relationships. If we are not excited about Christ, our community won’t be either. Who are you talking to about Christ these days?
They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!” (John 4:40–42, The Message). And that from people with whom no religious Jew would be caught dead associating!
So, what about us? Where do we stand? Are we like Jesus’ early disciples who are reluctantly going along with Him when we know we should have taken a different route? “Jesus, all our friends are on the Decapolis side of the Jordan, don’t you think we ought to stay there?” Or are we like the Savior who had to go through Samaria because He knew the need was great there? He had to go through Samaria because that was the only way He could do the will of the Father?
How do we encounter the outcasts of this world? Do we reach out to them like Jesus reached out to us, or do we show our shock, and even if we don’t say what we’re thinking, our demeanor shows what we’re thinking?
Knowing that something must have happened in this encounter, do we quickly want to refocus and make sure we don’t miss what we think we need instead of focusing on the real need?
2016. We have new choices to make. Will we stay focused on the vision of a ripe and bountiful harvest field, or will we just make sure we are fed?
Hold the vision. Trust the process. Don’t give up because it’s hard or messy or we’re not seeing the results as fast as we thought we should see them.
The harvest is ripe. Jesus tells us that and He never lies. Satan, who never tells the truth tells us, people aren’t interested. Who do you believe?
So here’s the question: a few years ago we began a process where we stated that what we want to create a church unchurched people love to attend. To do that, we have to step outside our comfort zones—we have to go through Samaria not take the safe route through Decapolis.
We step outside our personal likes/dislikes and encounter people who are nothing like us. We may have to forgo our own desires and put off the temptation to meet our own needs first, if we are going to follow Jesus.
Last week I challenged you that since there was no mission to difficult, no sacrifice too great for Jesus to make for us that we vow this year that there would be no mission to difficult no sacrifice too great for us to make for Him. And you responded beyond my wildest expectations.
It’s one thing to make that commitment as an individual, but it’s another thing for us to make it as a church—as the gathered body of Christ. It means going through, not around our own Samaria. It means sacrificing our own feeding for the good of others. It means having a willingness to stop saying, “I miss this or that” and saying I am for doing whatever it takes to reach those who are outside of Christ; to look at what they want rather than what I want. And if we do that, we might come to the end of the year and have a whole lot of new people saying, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!” (John 4:42, The Message)
Let me pray for us.
