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Jeff Fry
  - Joined on 07-30-2006
- Lichfield, UK
- Posts 237
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7 - What would Jesus say today about evangelism?
7 – What would Jesus say today about evangelism?
By Jeff Fry
Darwin Park Community Church, UK
John 4:16 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." 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" {29 Or Messiah} 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." 33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" 34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 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. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
Thesis: We must challenge our neighbour to recognize Jesus is the answer.
I. Intro
A. Review
B. We must challenge our neighbour to recognze that Jesus is the answer
II. We must challenge our neighbour to recognize Jesus is the answer
A. State
1. Background
a) View of women in that day
(1) Rabbis never greeted women of that day let alone greet them in public (could lead to gossip)
b) View of Samaritans of the day (by Jews)
(1) Jews held that all Samaritans were unclean
(2) Western Palestine was divided into 3 provinces – Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. The capitals of Samaria (city of Samaria) and Judea (Jerusalem) were only 35 miles apart.
(3) Jews did not talk to Samaritans because Samaritans were a mixed race (Jew and Assyrian) from the time the Assyrians settled the area in the past – 721 BC when they took over)
(4) Jews certainly did not drink from their vessels
(5) But Samaritans thought they had the true religion, not the Jews.
(6)
2. Jesus’ priority is this woman’s salvation, not adhering to cultural norms
a) Jesus shared with this woman because he was ready to count the cost
(1) Jesus speaks to a woman which went against the norms of his day
(a) Vv. 27 it says that the disciples returned from the town surprised to find him talking with a woman
(b) Norms of the day said that rabbis were not to speak to women on the street not even their wife because of the possibility of resulting gossip.
(c) Norms said that women were not to be given a greeting!
(d) Jesus does not put his reputation first, but puts this woman’s salvation first
(2) Jesus, a Jew, speaks to a Samaritan even though Samaritans and Jews were at odds with each other
(a) Sort of like protestants and catholics back in the beginning of the reformation – they weren’t on speaking terms. Had their differences over the contents of their holy book, where one should worship and other things.
(b) They were supposed to detest each other but Jesus breaks through this stereotype and talks with the woman.
(3) Many traditions today block outreach to people like this woman because religious people are afraid it will lead to sin.
(a) Pharisees would not go near a woman like this because their rules and regulations would not allow it.
(b) But rules and “do’s and don’ts” won’t prevent sin and keep us from sin (Sermon on the mount), but love for Jesus and his gospel mission will when we reach out to people on the margins like this woman.
(i) We can go as far into the culture as Jesus did because Jesus is with us
(a) Matthew 28:20 “Go make disciples … and I am with you even to the end of the age.”
(c) In Jesus we have the freedom to reach out to those on the margins of society, the sinners, the “tax collectors”, the outcasts of society
(d) In Jesus we have the power to reach out to those steeped in sin without sinning ourselves because we have Jesus living inside of us and His Spirit.
(4) Our neighbours and the cost
b) Jesus shared with this woman because he knew he had a mission to go into the culture and preach the gospel
(1) Jesus was sent to declare the gospel
(a) Luke 4:43 says, “But he [Jesus] said, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent”.
(2) Jesus was sent into the culture to sinners
(a) He ate with sinners and tax collectors (Matthew 9:10; Luke 5:30; Mark 2:15; ).
(i) The Pharisees criticized this and didn’t understand it because they thought it compromised God’s holiness
(ii) Religious people will criticize you if you start to reach out to sinners and marginalized people (druggies, prostitutes, gangsters, trouble-makers, neighbourhood bullies, bad-mouthers, etc)
(b) Mark 2;15 says that many sinners and tax collectors followed him
(c) Jesus was called a “friend of sinners and tax collectors” (luke 7:34)
(d) Jesus went to a party at Levi’s house at which were many sinners and tax collectors
(e) Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner even though he knew that the tax-collector Zacchaeus was a known cheat and rip-off artist. He was practically a gangster.
(f) Jesus touched and healed lepers (Matthew 8:3)
(g) Jesus welcomed and forgave sinful women as he did the woman who anointed his feet with perfume in Luke 7;37
(h) Jesus didn’t hermetically seal himself off from sinners but loved sinners and reached out to them
(3) Our mission is the same as that of Jesus’ mission
(a) John 17:18 says, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” [Jesus speaking]
(b) John 20:21 says, “Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
(c) Mark 16:15 says, “He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
(d) Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
(e) You are to be a “little Jesus”(i) 1 Cor. 11:1 says, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ”.
(4) You’ve been given a mission
(a) Are you aware that you’ve been given a mission by Jesus?
(b) Have you accepted your mission? Are you driven by it and is your life focused on it like Jesus’ was, like the apostles’ life was, like Paul’s life was?
(c) Or have we lost the plot and adopted worldly missions of secular society?
(i) Todays missions:
(a) Me – I’m the center of the world, me first
(i) Teaching our kids that they live in a family, in a society, etc. with other people and they are not the centre of that group, but must care and consider others
(b) Entertain me – to be maximally entertained by music, movies, video, etc
(c) “Freedom” – obtain as much freedom as possible (ie. freedom meaning I can do whatever I want regardless of its effects on others)
(d) Money – “I need to make money”. We strive for financial security.
(e) Work – some people throw themselves into their work
(f) Family – some people set their family up as god and worship it. (i.e. your family can keep you from God instead of God enriching your family).
3. Jesus challenges both the woman at the well and Nicodemus in their thinking
a) Jesus was a revolutionary
b) Revolutionaries challenge the status quo
c) The assumption of Jesus is that people are uninformed
(1) The woman at the well
(a) Believed/thought that the time of the Messiah was in the future
(i) Jesus responds that “ a time has now come”
(ii) Reveals to her that the Messiah has already come
(2) Nicodemus
(a) Believed that to be a man of God you must live as a Pharisee, but saw what Jesus did and acknowledged that Jesus was from God and probably was wondering how he too could be a part of that, be a man of God too
(i) Jesus responds/challenges him to be born from above by the Spirit (i.e. believe in Jesus and come into a relationship with God by the Spirit).
(ii) This must have been revolutionary to the ears of a Pharisee – not have anything to do with following rules and regulations of the Law???
(3) Jesus aims his answer at their felt needs (i.e. he talks with them, not at them)
(a) The woman throws up the fact that different “denominations” have different requirements (i.e. Samaritans say worship on Mount Gerizim, Jews say Jerusalem).
(i) Jesus cuts through all that saying that geographic location now doesn’t matter
(ii) People often throw up problems they have with the church but it’s not about the church, it’s about Jesus.
(b) The woman said she was waiting for the Messiah to come and then she will get her answers
(i) Jesus challenges her to consider that the Messiah had come already
(c) Nicodemus wants to know how to be a part of the Kingdom of God
(i) Jesus challenges him to not approach it from a following laws and rules way, but by considering a new birth, a relationship, being born into a new relationship with God.
B. Illustrate
C. Apply
1. Alpha Course today has some good points but Jesus would say ….
a) Good Points
(1) Proclaims Jesus as the only way
(2) Clear message
(3) Biblical
(4) Thorough
b) Negative Points
(1) Is purely informational and therefore lacks personal application to the individual’s situation
(2) Doesn’t require the leading of the Holy Spirit to the extent Jesus’ method in John 4 does
(3) Limited in its applicability – ie. will probably only reach people who like to intellectualize, deal with texts
(4) Is more disconnected from real life and real life situations than Jesus’ method
(5) Is less natural than Jesus’ method which occurs in the normal flow of life
2. Best way
a) Use the natural relationships you are given in life – through neighbours, work, school, family, friends
b) Be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit
(1) Remember the Word of God stirs up the Spirit of God – Be in the Word
c) Watch for the gospel to travel through networks of people like it did with the woman who went and told all her friends who came back to Jesus and were all saved.
3. it’s Summer!
a) It’s the best time of the year to be out meeting people – neighbours, friends, family etc.
b) Next Sunday we have a picnic – invite a friend, family member
III. Conclusion
A. I need a lot of work in this area and my guess is that we all do
1. it’s a lot easier not to say something
2. but we have to step out in faith and be obedient to our mission, our purpose
B. Jesus’ example can help us …
1. Put aside our reputation and ego to get the message of salvation across esp. to the marginalised (If I see Ian coming out of a pub with a drunken bunch of guys …)
2. Remember God has given us this mission and He (Jesus) is with us to help us
3. challenge the present-day thinking about religion and point people to Jesus instead
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