INTRO
No one was a better master at winning souls for God than Jesus Christ. The son of Man came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). If we want to learn how to talk with people about the gospel, we can find no better teacher than Jesus.
John 4 NIV Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
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 ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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 the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the 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, the one speaking to you—I 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 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 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a 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.”
- CONTACT OTHERS SOCIALLY (4:7- WILL YOU GIVE ME A DRINK?)ICE BREAKER, SOCIAL CONNECTION.Took the social initiative.Prov 18v24 A man with friends is to show himself friendly, “He is not unaware that the way to gain a soul is often to ask a service of it.”
we are social beings, smile be friendly, mix with people, snubs will not make good evangelist, no holier than thou.deeper vs fgbm, DEEPER WOMAN VS RASHEED
2. ESTABLISH A COMMON INTEREST OR LINK (4:7).THE WATER WAS NOT THE MAIN INTEREST-SALES PEOPLE USE THAT
As you read in the gospels of His encounters with lost people, take note of how He did it. He never used the same approach twice. He always tailored it to the individual.
Nicodemus vs woman
3. CROSS CULTURAL BARRIERS, IF NEED BE, TO REACH PEOPLE (4:9, 27, awoman, a samaritans).u r a jew, avoid prejudices, social class, race colour,age,build bridges across these chasm
4. USE A COMMON SITUATION TO INTRODUCE SPIRITUAL MATTERS USE THE NATURAL TO EXPLAIN THE SUPERNATURAL (4:9-15). (4:7-10 WATER, WELL).LAND SURVEYOR, AIRPORT, COMPLAIN ABOUT NEED/CHALLENGE, STATE OF THE WORLD. HELL WILL BE DARKER THAN THIS.VIRUS CORRUPT, KIDNAPPING,
- Bread of Life-feeding 5000
- Door of the sheepfold-good shepherd
- Anyone thirsty-feasts of tabernacles
- Pilate tower fell
5.BUY UP THE OPPORTUNITY (4:10).IF YOU KNEW THE GIFT-ASK FOR THE SALE
Witness in season out of season.Train your eyes to see opportunity and don’t pass it by.Farming, Hunting mentality
6. PUT SPIRITUAL OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD OF YOUR PHYSICAL NEEDS (4:31-34).
He said to them (4:32), “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” As usual, the disciples were focused on the physical, not the spiritual. So they wondered if someone had brought Jesus something to eat (4:33). Jesus replied (4:34), “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
This point relates to the one that we saw in Colossians 4:5 and also last week, about buying up the opportunities for witness. If our minds are consumed with how hungry or tired we are, we will not be focused on buying up opportunities to tell others about Jesus. So we’ll miss them when they come. It’s worth it to postpone or even miss a meal, if need be, to buy up an opportunity to talk with someone about the Lord. In fact, Jesus said, it was His real food to do the Father’s will and accomplish His work. It will feed your soul far more than food feeds your stomach if God uses you to lead one lost soul to the Savior!
