INTRODUCTION
As we continue on our journey with Jesus, we are going to stop with Jesus by a well.
At this well we will find a woman whom once she encounters Jesus, she will never be the same and because of this meeting.
At first glance, this encounter does not look like anything special, it is Jesus asking a woman to get Him a drink from a well.
What is about this encounter with Jesus that made an everlasting change in this woman’s life?
Over the next four weeks, we are going to spend time with Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4 to see what it was that impacted her life.
The encounter that Jesus had with the woman at the well gives us some insight from the master as how to win people to Jesus.
Jesus told us that the reason that He came was to seek and save that which is lost. (Luke 19:10)
Jesus spent much of His time trying to reach people for the kingdom of God.
When Jesus ascended into heaven, one of the last things that HE told us to do is to make disciples of all nations. He told us that we do that by baptizing them and by teaching them all that He taught.
Whenever evangelism is mentioned, many people will start squirming in the pews. I used to do the same thing. Sharing my faith with other people was very intimidating to me and I know that it is for many other people.
According to D. James Kennedy in any congregation if 10% of the people will do evangelism, then the church should grow. If at least 10% of the church will not evangelize, then the church will eventually shrink to 10% in size.
A new preacher moved into town and thought it would be good to visit the homes of his members. So one Saturday he heads out with his list. All was going well until he came to one house where it was obvious someone was home but no one would answer the door. After knocking several times he took out his card and wrote Revelation 3:20 and stuck it in the door. The next day his card was returned in the offering plate with Genesis 3:10 scribbled below his message. Revelation 3:20 Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him and he with me. Genesis 3:10 reads: And he said I heard thy voice, and I was afraid, because I was naked.
Evangelism or telling other people about Jesus does not need to be intimidating.
Sharing your faith with another person can be one of the most fulfilling things that you can do as a Christian.
I want us to look at six tips by the Master as to how we can reach people for Jesus!
SERMON
I. JESUS WAS READY TO SHARE. READ VERSES 1-8
I used to think that I never got any opportunities to share Jesus with other people when I worked in the factory. I would think that no one wanted to hear about Jesus.
I went into work not being ready to talk with people about Jesus because I did not expect the opportunity.
This story illustrates that opportunities to share the gospel are all around us, we just do not see them. One day I decided that I was going to ask God to show me the opportunities that I was not seeing. When I asked God to do that, I started seeing the opportunities that I had been missing.
All around me were people who were looking for answers in life and I did not even notice it.
Notice what is happening here. Jesus was traveling to Galilee from Judea. When He gets to Galilee, he encounters a woman at a well and asks her for a drink.
This is a seemingly simple mundane activity that is a part of life, yet Jesus is going to use this as an opportunity to reach this woman.
We do not have to get a person in the church building to share with them, not do you have to call the preacher in to do it. Many of us miss opportunities because we are not ready and open to the opportunity.
1 PETER 3:15 tells us, “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;”
In the context, Peter is talking about being ready to share your faith with those who are persecuting you.
I know that when we belong to Jesus, part of our response to the love that God has shown to us is that we share our faith with people around us. We do not have to force it down people’s throat, but we can look for the opportunities that present themselves each day and we can be ready to tell people about Jesus and what He has done for us.
II. JESUS TREATED THE WOMAN WITH RESPECT READ 7-9
In Jesus day there was a feud between the Jews and Samaritans that was rooted back to 720 BC with the invasion of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians. To make a long story short, the Samaritans were the ones who were not deported to Assyria. The ones who were left intermarried with the Babylonians and the other foreign people who were imported to the Northern Kingdom. The quarrel then took place in 450 BC when some of the Jews in exile who had remained faith to their heritage refused to let the Samaritans help rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem which had been destroyed.
Jesus by the fact he even spoke to the woman shows that He was willing to break down barriers to share His message. There should be no barrier strong enough to keep the gospel out!
This woman was a person who was despised because of her race. She was also a person who may have been shunned by her community for her immorality. Verses 17-18 bear out that she had moral problems. The well that they were at was over a half-mile from Sychar. She may be going after water so far out of town because she had been shunned.
Jesus broke down barriers by even speaking with the woman. The Jewish religious leaders of the day were always condemning Jesus for eating with sinners, tax collector and prostitutes.
William Barclay in his commentary on John says the following: But there was still another way in which Jesus was taking down the barriers. The Samaritan was a woman. The strict Rabbis forbade a Rabbi to greet a woman in public. A Rabbi might not even speak to his own wife or daughter or sister in public. There were even Pharisees who were called "the bruised and bleeding Pharisees" because they shut their eyes when they saw a woman on the street and so walked into walls and houses! For a Rabbi to be seen speaking to a woman in public was the end of his reputation-and yet Jesus spoke to this woman. Not only was she a woman; she was also a woman of notorious character. No decent man, let alone a Rabbi, would have been seen in her company, or even exchanging a word with her-and yet Jesus spoke to her.
One of the things that we need to do if we are going to reach people for Christ is that we need to treat people with respect. (USE INDUSTRIAL ENGINEER ILLUSTRATION)
Sometimes people will tell you the craziest sounding ideas, but even if we do not agree with them, we need to treat them with respect. Think about it this way. Every person that we do not treat with respect will be a person that we will not reach for Jesus. I have fallen into the trap of not treating people with respect.
Jesus showed this woman that He was not above speaking to her.
The third tip that we glean from Jesus’ encounter with this woman is that:
III. JESUS ACCEPTED HER AS SHE WAS V9, READ 16-18
Who needs the gospel? In Mark 2:16-17 Jesus said, “When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?" And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Jesus was willing to take His message to ANYONE who needed it.
We have to be careful that we do not make a person feel that they need to be perfect before they come to Jesus. I still like that thing we had in the bulletin a few weeks ago that said you catch them and God will clean them.
We have to make sure that we do not get so involved in fixing people that we forget to share the message with them.
When a person becomes a Christian, Jesus will change them into what He wants them to be with the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
I was so fortunate that when I started going to church with my wife when we were dating that the people at the church accepted me as I was. I said some dumb things, yet the Sunday school teachers did not treat me with disrespect (previous point)
The people of the church were very accepting of me and at that point in my life I really needed that. Being accepting of people does not mean that we accept the way they act or ignore things that need to be addressed. Notice that Jesus did address a problem that this woman was having in her life.
Accepting people means that we will not thumb our nose at them or look down on them like they are sub-human. People can tell how we feel about them be the way that we interact with them. Jesus treated this woman with respect by speaking with her and by asking a favor of her.
IV. JESUS INTERACTED WITH HER 11-13, 16-18, 20-24, 25-26
Throughout this encounter with the woman, Jesus asked questions, listened to answers and answered her questions.
Jesus did not enter into this conversation with a “canned” presentation. Jesus interacted with her.
Whenever we want to share the gospel with people, we have to do it in the course of normal conversation. Joe Aldrich wrote a book called “Lifestyle Evangelism” in which he encouraged people to share the gospel out of a natural conversation. He said that we earn that opportunity by living for Jesus every day.
Jesus did not go into some memorized speech; He spoke with her. (JW ILLUSTRATION)
Many times we are not too eager to share Jesus with people because we are afraid that they will ask questions. Do not be afraid of that. One thing you can do is learn some things for yourself and the other is say that you do not know, but ask if you can find out.
Too many of us are afraid to admit we do not know something and that stops us from sharing Jesus with people.
Jesus took this woman from asking for a drink to talking to her about her life and about the kingdom of God. In a couple of the upcoming sermons we will examine some of the interaction between Jesus and this woman.
When people ask us questions, we cannot ignore their questions. Do you realize that about 95% of the questions that you will get spring from 10-12 basic questions. Sometime I will have a sermon series on those questions and how to answer them.
Jesus interacted with this woman. He asked, listened and answered her questions.
V. JESUS WAS CONCERNED FOR HER
What motivated Jesus to speak with this woman? Was it so that He could just get something from her?
Why do we share the gospel with some people and not others?
Jesus spoke with this woman because He cared for her. He cared about her eternity. Who are you concerned for?
Jesus was willing to cross any barrier He needed to share the Kingdom of God with this woman.
We must be concerned for people. Our motivation for sharing the gospel with people needs to be because we are concerned for them, no other reason. Their race, social class, looks nor anything else should play into it.
USE JEROD WALKER ILL
If a person is lost, we need to be concerned for them no matter who they are, what they look like or how much or how little money they have.
The last tip from the Master that we will look at today is:
VI. JESUS SAW HER FOR WHAT SHE COULD BE 15-18
What do you think Jesus saw when He saw this woman? A woman from a hated race who had a bad reputation? A sinner who needed to burn in Hell for eternity? A woman who was not worth giving the time of day to?
Jesus saw what this woman could be.
How many times have we written people off because of what they are?
I was so blessed that when I was at 1st Christian Church in Vandalia Missouri that the preacher Maurice McNeely saw something in me that no one else did. Maurice told me that he saw a preacher. I thought he was crazy, but he kept encouraging me and now here I am!
I have been around too many Christians who are willing to write people off because of what they are because they cannot see what they can be with Jesus. (2nd house ILLUSTRATION)
Do you realize what a person can be with Jesus? This woman had NOTHING going for her. Jesus gave her something that changed her life!
When we deal with people in our everyday lives, make sure you look at them for what they can be with Christ, not what they are now.
CONCLUSION
Evangelism can be an intimidating thing. All of us have heard horror stories about trying to win someone to Jesus only to have everything go wrong.
If we will listen to the Tips from the Master, it will make our work easier to do. If you have had a hard time sharing before, are you going to quit or are you going to try again.
If your best friends house was on fire and you tried to get them out and failed, would you try again or would you just give up and say that since you failed, you will never try to save someone out of a burning building again.
One of the things that we will do if we love Jesus is that we will try to share the gospel with other people.
The next message I will preach in the series will be about the living water that Jesus offered to the woman at the well.
