First Evangelist
John 4:4-7
First Evangelist
Brokenness
John 4:4-7, But He needed to go through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” Jesus stopped at a well in Samaria. (722 BC the Assyrians mixed with the Jews in the Northern tribes) Most Jews viewed the Samaritans as political rebels and half breeds who had forsaken YHWH and turned their back on their own people. Many Jews would not eat with Samaritans for fear of defilement and some evidence suggests that the strictest Jews would not walk through Samaria to Galilee but would travel the extra distance to go around it.
The fact that Jesus asked to use her cup would have shocked the original audience.
She was a woman In the first century, women were 2nd class citizens and Jewish men never dreamed of talking with Samaritan women. She was sexually broken. We read in verses 15-19 that this woman had been married five times. And the man she is living with now is not her husband. She discarded husbands like people discard Kleenex.
Or maybe, she was the one being used. This woman was a sexual and relational mess.
Who needed transformation? A broken woman!
Who provides transformation? Jesus!
John 4:9-15, Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living
water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Jesus promises to transform this woman with living water. This woman was drinking from the wrong well. She is looking for satisfaction and joy in the well of sex, relationships, and marriage. These things will never ultimately satisfy.
Like so many in our culture she is dying of spiritual dehydration, and she does not even know it. Illustration: She was like the sailor a drift a sea, who ran out of water. Afraid, he starts drinking the saltwater thinking that it will slake his thirst. Instead, it kills him.
Jesus promises to satisfy us with himself. He is the living water. He is the relationship that satisfies our souls. He says to everyone,
Matthew 11:28-30, Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” She needs to know who she is!
John 4:16-19, Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
Application
What well are you drinking from?
Is it satisfying you? Our idols satisfy us for a season, but they never provide ultimate satisfaction. We all know this, but we keep pursing the idols. We all know that the high you feel from that new car, new boat, new house, new promotion, new relationship, or sexual encounter only lasts so long.
To experience living water, we need to repent of drinking from the wrong cistern and turn to Jesus. This Samaritan woman needed transformation. Apparently, Jesus transformed her.
How do we know? She went and told the whole village about Jesus.
Gospel motivation
The Samaritan women was motivated by her encounter with Jesus to do several things! Jesus reveals to her!
John 4:25-26, The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” A divine encounter!
What was she motivated to do? Tell her friends what she knew.
John 4:28-30, The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
The Samaritan women did not know much, but she knew enough. She knew that Christ was a prophet and she probably started to wonder if he was the long-awaited Messiah. But her encounter with Jesus transformed her, so much so, that she instantly went and told her friends about Jesus.
When it comes to telling people about Jesus, simply your friends what you know. If someone asks you a hard question, it is ok to say, “I don’t know the answer to that question, but I know that Jesus is transforming me.” Evangelism is not for the experts it is for anyone who has been transformed by Jesus. The Samaritan woman’s evangelism strategy was simple. She told her friends about her experiences with Jesus.
She did not pull out an evangelistic tract. She did not start talking about evidence for the existence of God. She did not take a 10-week evangelism seminar. She simply told her friends what she knew.
Why? She had been transformed by her encounter with Jesus.
Application
When it comes to evangelism, you don’t have to know much!!! Evangelism does not have to be complicated; it is as simple as telling people what you know about Jesus. There is tremendous power in the simple message of the gospel.
This power does not depend on your intelligence, winsome personality, or persuasive speaking skills. The power is in the simple message itself.
What is that message???
John 4:29, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
The Samaritan woman invited her friends to come with her to meet Jesus. We too can invite our friends to come with us to meet Jesus. Wait a minute. Jesus is no longer on the earth. I know, but we can see his presence in the church.
In the Church Jesus Christ is seen in the love that Christians have for each other.
His voice is heard in the preaching of the word. His work is seen in the sacraments. His power is seen in transformed lives. Why did the Samaritan woman tell her friends about Jesus? She was transformed by Jesus. This is the key to being an effective evangelist.
The reason that most of us don’t tell our friends about Jesus is because we are not that excited about the gospel. The gospel has become far too familiar to us. We expect grace! We need to daily rediscover the gospel. When we are daily amazed by Jesus, we want to tell our friends about him.
Most of us don’t need more evangelistic training, although this can help, most of us need more gospel astonishment.
How do we grow in gospel astonishment? The ordinary means of grace. Others of us love Jesus, our hearts have been transformed, but we are still afraid to tell our friends about Jesus.
Why?
We fear rejection! Responsibility ends with taking the people to Christ.
John 4:40-42, So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His own word. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”