Good morning.
We've been going through a series of lessons for last two weeks concerning Jesus, the master evangelist.
We've seen the example of Jesus from John chapter four, from his interactions, from his travel, from his statements throughout this chapter, and we're going to conclude that
study this morning.
By way of a review,
We notice that as an evangelist, Jesus did not let culture close doors to souls.
He did not allow the world to
him to dictate who he could reach with the truth of God's Word.
Then consider as well Jesus overcame fatigue in order to reach the lost.
Jesus did not consider his own personal scenario, his own personal energy level to be a determining factor as to whether or not he would evangelize and reach those with the truth
of God's Word.
Consider as well that Jesus began by engaging in friendly conversation.
He spoke to the woman who was there at the well in Samaria, and he spoke to her as if she was someone worthy of being spoken to, much in contrast to the way many of the Jews would
have approached that situation.
Jesus also chose a time when others were not around.
So many times we find inopportune times and we imagine that's the only moment we'll have so we must take it right then.
Sometimes we should be patient and we should look for the appropriate time to have that interaction then consider as well Jesus was not put off by potentially offensive
statements.
The woman stated things concerning him as a Jew, concerning his understanding and his beliefs, though she didn't know him.
And those statements could have been considered offensive by many and yet,
Jesus didn't let that inhibit him from teaching her the truth.
Jesus offered her something more than she had.
Jesus recognized that he had something that she did not have.
She may have been more well off than Jesus was in physical matters.
We don't know.
But we know this, Jesus had something she didn't have.
And that was the living waters of life.
Jesus had to point her in the right direction.
Just because someone assumes that they know what you mean, that they know what you're talking about, doesn't mean that they do.
Jesus pointed her in the right direction and he pointed her towards the truth of God's Word.
Jesus also did not ignore sins that potentially would close the door.
This woman was a woman who had had four husbands and the man she was with right then was not her husband.
She is living in fornication.
She's had four husbands before this point, and yet Jesus didn't allow that to be a reason not to present the gospel to her.
He also did not allow that to be a situation that just remained untouched and off-limit so that he could reach her with the gospel.
Rather, he dealt with the situation right up front.
But then consider as well that Jesus emphasized sincerity and truth.
If we emphasize as we reach people with the gospel, truth, and yet we're hypocrites.
And we don't hold the gospel in sincerity.
We don't hold the gospel and teach the gospel and obey the gospel in our own lives.
We just expect others to do it.
We will not be a master evangelist like Jesus.
But if we teach people that sincerity and feeling like they're doing what God would have them to do is enough, and we ignore truth,
we will most certainly not be like Jesus.
Jesus made it clear that God was looking for those to worship Him who would worship Him in spirit, in heart and attitude, and in truth in accordance with His Word.
And Jesus would hold his teaching to this woman accountable for both the sincerity and the truth that God required.
Jesus also identified the Savior.
Jesus didn't point her to a list of doctrines.
Jesus didn't point her to a list of laws.
Jesus did not try and marry her to the Jewish culture.
Jesus brought her to a Savior because the thing that the woman needed was salvation.
And through the Savior, she would find the law, and she would find the ordinances, and she would find the commandments, and she would find the church, and she would find the kingdom
through the Savior.
Jesus identified the Savior to her.
Jesus also used one contact to lead to many others.
Once the woman realizes that he is the Messiah, she immediately goes into the city to tell all those who are in the city who will listen to her that she has found the Messiah.
And they need to come out and decide for themselves if he is the one.
So she calls upon them to come and see.
But then consider as well that Jesus took advantage of a spiritual opportunity at the cost of physical loss.
Jesus points out to his disciples that it is more important for them to feast on spiritual things than physical things.
That it is more important to focus on spiritual matters than physical matters.
You cannot be a master evangelist.
You cannot be an evangelist like Jesus.
You cannot be someone who's seeking and saving the lost.
If every single time there's a physical matter that comes up, spiritual matters get set aside to deal with the physical thing.
Jesus will emphasize that to his disciples.
Jesus believed that there are always souls ready for harvest.
Jesus looked at a city that was filled with Samaritans, outcasts from the Jewish society, worse than dogs according to the Jewish teachers, those who were living in sin,
religiously speaking.
Those who were worshiping without being in accordance with the commandments of God, religiously speaking, and Jesus didn't see those individuals as impossible to reach.
Rather, he saw them as a field white under harvest, ready to be reached with the gospel.
Hopefully, if you're a member of this congregation, you have a bookmark in your Bible, and you've been filling it out.
purpose of that bookmark is people who you know who were lost.
You're putting their name on that bookmark.
Now for clarity, you're not turning that bookmark over to anybody else.
You're not handing that bookmark in.
That bookmark's not going to Eddie, it's not going to me, it's not going to Justin, it's not going to anybody.
It's going to you.
That bookmark is for you to look at, dwell upon, pray about.
By name, every single person on that bookmark, you need to be praying, if you know they're lost, you need to be praying that somehow, some way, that the Lord will reach them with
the gospel.
And you need to be doing it every day.
And at some point in time, something will occur in the life of one of those individuals.
death of a family member, the hospitalization of someone, maybe them going into the hospital, an accident, a life-altering event, a child being born.
And when that happens, you're going to get with Eddie or you're going to find one of the contact cards that we've got in the back.
and you're gonna start filling it out.
And their name's gonna come off your bookmark and go into the contact card with name, address, contact information because something has happened in their life that is a reason
for the congregation to reach out to them with compassion cards.
Only at that point when something occurs in their life are they going off your bookmark list and into
something that lets the congregation know about them.
You may say, wait a minute Aaron, is it alright if a husband and a wife both have the same name on their list?
Sure!
Is it okay if I have two lists because I got 20 people?
Sure!
So long as you're gonna pray about them.
So long as you're gonna be thinking about them.
So long as you're gonna be thinking about how they can be reached with the gospel and looking for opportunities
because that's what that list is.
That is a list of opportunities.
And you're not going to be entirely responsible for getting that person all the way through a Bible study and all the way through baptism and all the way through maturity as
a Christian.
Your responsibility is putting their name on the list and praying for them.
looking for an opportunity to sow the seed.
So when that contact card gets filled out, because of whatever event has happened in their life, they're going to go onto the contact list and they're going to be reached out to
through this congregation with cards about whatever the situation is.
A loved one that's been lost.
A reason that they've had to go to the hospital for surgery.
An ailment that they had.
Something.
Because the reality is this, we recognize and Rob emphasized in his training, most people don't care what you know until they know whether or not you care.
And so that's an opportunity for this congregation to express care and love to that individual in whatever they have going on.
But until then, they're on your bookmark and you're not turning that bookmark in.
They're there for you to think about, pray about, and look for the opportunity to reach.
Jesus saw joy in the future of both the sole winner and the sole one.
Turn back, if you will, to John chapter four if you're not already there.
In John chapter four, we're gonna actually begin reading in verse 31.
In the meantime,
his disciples urged him.
So the woman's gone back into the city, she starts to tell the city and all the people there about the fact she's found the Messiah.
As this has occurred, as Jesus has finally finished talking with this woman, the disciples are arriving back from the city, they had gone into the city to buy food.
So they arrive back where Jesus is, they observe him talking to this woman, and in the meantime, they urged him saying, Rabbi,
eat.
for harvest.
Jesus is saying, you know, in the physical world what you do is you wait till the right time of year.
You put the seed in the ground and you sit around and you wait.
I'm sure that most farmers would not appreciate me categorizing it as you sit around and wait, but you wait until you don't go dig up the seed the next day.
But Jesus said, don't tell me we've gotten more time.
Don't tell me we have to wait.
Don't tell me there's no opportunity.
He says the fields are wide unto harvest.
It's time to go reap the field.
But then he says in verse 36, and he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
Jesus makes it clear as he speaks concerning reaching the lost that there is a benefit that comes to the sower.
There is a benefit that comes to the one who reaches the lost soul.
You say, oh, I'm getting paid.
There's a bounty on souls.
How much do I get?
Is it a thousand dollars a soul?
Is it $1500?
Can I get $20,000?
What is a soul worth?
I've been told a soul is worth everything.
How much can I get?
Brethren, we're not in the business of bounty hunting.
But Jesus isn't talking about physical things, is he?
Consider again what he says.
He says, he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life.
Jesus says there is someone taking account of the individuals who are reaching the lost, who are sowing the seed, and who are reaping lost souls and bringing them to salvation,
and it's God.
Paul will write about this over in Corinthians.
He will write concerning those who sow and those who reap, those who plant and those who water.
And Paul will make the point that there's a reward for those who are laboring in the field.
And it's the Lord's field.
So who pays the laborers?
The Lord does.
Paul will emphasize that there is a reward for those who reach lost souls and it's an eternal reward.
Jesus will emphasize to His disciples that there was joy in the future of both the sower and the soul who is one by the one working in the Lord's vineyard.
Jesus emphasizes that they need to look at souls as an opportunity.
You see, the reason why Jesus is emphasizing this is because of the Jewish mindset, at least in my mind, Jewish mindset that says these people aren't worth anything.
Have you ever tried to make a living by gathering things that aren't worth anything?
Now around here, if you set some metal out on the side of the road, and it's anywhere close to trash day, and the sun goes down, and the metal's still there when the sun goes
down, it won't be there when the sun comes up.
Because while you may not consider that object worth something, somebody does.
Somebody knows they can get paid by picking up that metal and taking it to a recycler.
So what are they doing?
Every night before the trash runs, they're out looking for that object.
They see value in what someone else has thrown away.
The Jews had thrown away the Samaritans.
And Jesus is saying to His disciples, you don't throw away souls.
You look at the souls that everyone else considers worthless.
You look at the people that everyone else considers a lost cause.
You look at the individuals who everyone else considers to be unworthy of the gospel, and you go reach them.
So as you look at that list and you think about the people you know.
Don't withhold the drug addict from the list.
Don't withhold the alcoholic from the list.
Don't withhold the person living in adultery from the list.
Don't withhold the person of Indian descent who's uh a Buddhist from the list.
Don't withhold the Hindu or the Muslim from the list.
Don't withhold the Jehovah's Witness from the list.
Don't withhold the Mormon from the list.
Don't withhold the atheist from the list.
We do not determine whether or not someone is ready to hear the gospel based upon our thought on whether they will hear the gospel.
We allow individuals to hear the gospel.
We plant the seed.
We water the seed.
We look for opportunities to cause the seed to grow.
and in good hearts it will.
And sometimes those individuals will be in the most unlikely scenarios.
Jesus
in his ministry, spent an overwhelming amount of his time in two cities, one in Galilee and one in Judah.
One of those cities, Jesus in Matthew chapter 11, will condemn because he said if the deeds that had been done in that city had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, Sodom and
Gomorrah would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
And the other city Jesus wept over and said, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou who killest the prophets and stones those who come to you.
who God desired to bring under his wing as a mother would her chicks and you would not.
Two cities where Jesus spent the vast majority of his time in ministry, Caesarea and Jerusalem.
Two cities that rejected him, one of which killed him.
Yet Jesus comes to this Samaritan city.
and he comes to a woman who's living in adultery and fornication and he comes to her and she goes and tells the whole city and notice how the reaction is from this city.
For in this saying is true, one sows and another reaps.
I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored.
Others have labored and you have entered into their labors." Jesus emphasizes that there is joy for the soul winner and there is joy for the soul that is one, but Jesus also
recognized that some conversions require time and more than one teacher.
Jesus tells his disciples, you are about to observe someone reaping the harvest that someone else sowed.
You say, Aaron, who sowed it?
We're not told.
But we know this woman had familiarity going all the way back to Jacob.
She was familiar with the Israelite history.
She was familiar with the testimony concerning the covenants.
She was familiar with the prophecies of the Messiah.
Who sowed?
The prophets of the Old Testament had sowed that city.
Elijah had sowed that city.
Elisha had sowed that city.
Hosea had sowed that city.
Old Testament prophets of old had sowed that city, and others along the way, prophets of God, had sowed that city.
And as a result, that city was looking and waiting as a whole city for the Messiah to come.
And unlike the Jews, they were actually ready for the Messiah to come.
They hadn't built up a whole lot of ideologies about the Messiah.
They just knew He was coming from God and that they were supposed to hear Him.
So Jesus recognized that some conversions require time.
and more than one teacher, where you will make a little headway with someone, where you will plant the seed with someone, where you will create an opportunity to talk with
someone, you may never get past that.
But you never know where someday down the road someone else will have the opportunity to reap that harvest.
We do not judge the value of sowing based upon one harvest.
We judge the value of sowing based upon the fact that if no one sows, there is no harvest.
then consider as well that Jesus rearranged his schedule when souls were at stake.
You turn to verse 39 and we read, and many of the Samaritans of the city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified.
He told me all that I ever did.
That was her testimony, that's what she said.
When she arrived in the city, she said, I found the Messiah.
He's told me everything I ever did.
And for some of them, that was enough.
They believed that he was the Messiah based on her testimony alone.
But then consider, so when the Samaritans had come to him, they urged him to stay with them.
And he stayed there two days.
And many more believed because of his own word.
As Jesus is headed somewhere.
Jesus was headed to Galilee.
Jesus had need to go through Samaria.
Jesus was on His way somewhere and Jesus stopped.
He stopped at a well to get a drink of water.
He stopped at a well to eat a meal that was bought from a city.
He didn't stop for three days.
That wasn't the intent.
And yet,
when the opportunity arose, when there were souls that were willing to hear, Jesus rearranged His schedule to stay.
Does that mean that there's never going to be a time where the things that you have that are urgent and immediate have to take precedence over a Bible study?
There may be that time.
But wouldn't it be of great value to know that there's someone else who you can hand the Bible study over to so that the soul is not ignored while the immediate thing is taken
care of?
That's part of the reason why this is a congregational activity.
Because you will find that there's gonna be a time where Justin is not available because there is a wife having a baby and he needs to be at the hospital.
And if there's a Bible study that needs to be had while Justin is at the hospital, someone else needs to do it.
There may be a time when I'm not available, a time when Justin's not available, a time when someone else isn't available, and someone else has to step in.
Jesus is teaching the disciples.
Why is He teaching the disciples?
Because there's coming a time when Jesus won't be available.
Someone may say, I'm not equipped.
I'm not ready.
I don't know what to do.
The time to prepare to harvest, the time to prepare to study with someone is before you have to do it.
If you wait to learn how to harvest until the harvest is there, you won't be ready.
m
Jesus had been spending time with His disciples training them so they would be ready.
And yet He still had more work to do.
They still had more learning that they needed because Jesus is having to point out to them that there's even a harvest to be had.
We all have more to learn.
We all will always have more that we can develop and greater skill that we can achieve.
in reaching the lost.
But the person who says, don't know how, so I'm going to stay home, y'all harvest, is the person who will never be ready when the opportunity arises.
We need to be training those, and we need to be training ourselves.
Consider Jesus also knew that one person cannot reach all types of people.
and that a team is more effective.
Verse 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 he is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
The city comes out to hear Jesus and Jesus spends two days teaching the city.
And afterwards, they come to the woman and they say, even those, by the way, who believed on her testimony, the indication is, they say, now we believe.
Not because of what you said, but because we've heard it for ourselves.
And in this, you also see that you, as you study with someone, you are not...
the greatest tool to reach the lost.
Christ is.
And it is your job to introduce that individual to Jesus Christ.
To his authority, to his words, to his commandments, because the greatest evangelist that this world has ever known is the person who you want reaching the lost with you.
And so that is why as we sit down and we have Bible studies with people, we don't tell them what to believe.
We don't tell them what to think.
We don't tell them how to worship God.
We don't tell them what church is the right church and what church is the wrong church.
We just simply open up the Bible and let them read it for themselves.
because our testimony, our statements, our beliefs are not going to judge them in the final day.
Turn to John chapter 12.
Jesus said to the Jews that were around him, beginning in verse 44 of John chapter 12, he who believes in me believes not in him or in me, but in him who sent me.
And he who sees me sees him who sent me.
I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.
And if anyone hears my words and does not believe,
I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
He who rejects me and does not receive my words has one that judges him.
The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day." Jesus said, if you reject me, if you reject my words, it's not going to be me who judges you, it's going to be the words
that I've spoken that judge you.
Jesus has further pointed out that the words that he received, the words that he spoke, didn't originate with him, they originated with the Father.
in the account that Jesus gives of the rich man in Lazarus.
Abraham speaks to the rich man as he is there in torment.
And the rich man insists to Abraham, you will but send Lazarus back, my brothers will hear and they won't come to this place because he had five brothers who were still alive.
And he knew that if they had patterned their lives
after the way they had been living when he was alive, they were headed for the same place he was.
So he wanted Lazarus to go back and to convince his brothers that they had come from back from the dead and that they needed to repent.
And Abraham's answer was, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
And the rich man says, no, but Abraham, if you will send back one from the dead.
And Abraham replies, if they will not hear Moses and the prophets, then they will not hear the one come back from the dead.
You see, the reason why the gospel, Romans chapter one verse 16, is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek is because it is the gospel that converts
men's souls.
It is the gospel that converts men's minds.
It is the gospel that reforms lives and not us.
It is our responsibility to stand firmly on the Gospel and never depart from it.
So that when they see the truth and hear the truth, they have an example to follow in obeying the truth.
From the master evangelists, we learn that personal evangelists are not politically correct.
Far, far from it.
At times, their statements will be confrontational and offensive.
They don't ignore difficult issues, and they never compromise the truth.
If you look at your life and you say, you know what?
I really have a hard time telling anybody they're wrong.
I really struggle.
to tell people the truth even when they ask me for it.
then that's something you're going to have to work on before you start doing personal evangelism.
What I'm not saying is this, you're always ready to tell people the truth whether they want to hear it or not.
but you're always willing to tell them the truth when they ask.
Consider as well that they don't pander to one group of people to the exclusion of another.
in this city and in this area, we have some incredibly rich people.
who are lost and headed to hell.
And it would be amazing for their souls' if they were reached with the gospel.
And in this city, we have some very poor people who are lost and headed to hell.
And it would be amazing for the benefit of their souls and their eternal lives if they were reached with the gospel.
And we better not pick one over the other because of their financial status.
And we better not ignore one or the other.
because of their financial status.
There is no one too rich to hear the gospel, and there is no one too poor to hear the gospel.
They never show partiality for the powerful over the poor, or the socially elite over the socially awkward.
Like Jesus, they are willing to love the lost enough to tell them the truth.
the denominational world.
does not love the lost.
Some people with denominational friends will say, Aaron, that's a really hard statement.
I'm sorry, but you can't love someone who you won't tell the truth to.
That's not love.
But if we allow ourselves to be warped into thinking that we will convert souls without the truth being told to them.
We're lost.
personal evangelists will learn from the master evangelist to be like him.
And we need to as we examine our lives how to be like Christ.
Many times in scripture, Paul, Peter, and others will write to the church and remind them that their conversion was to Christ.
Paul would write to the church and say, you have not so learned
Christ.
If you're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, if you're outside the church for which He died, and you're outside salvation, and the blood of the sacrifice
that can atone for your sins, don't stay there.
Don't live outside of Christ, because there is coming a day where you will stand before God and by His words you will be judged.
rather instead be converted to Christ, be added to Christ, be obedient to Christ, and let the Lord add you to the church where he adds all those who are being saved.
If you're here this morning and you have need of the invitation of Christ to put Christ on in baptism, to repent of your sins, or if you're a member of the body of Christ to correct
your walk with God, why not avail yourself of that opportunity?
as we stand and as we sing.