What is wrong with
this Picture:
A)Remember
those handouts in elementary school? The teacher would pass out drawings with
the question at the bottom, "What’s wrong with
this picture?"
B)We’d look closely for something
that didn’t fit. A barnyard scene with a piano near the water trough.
1)A
classroom with a pirate seated on the back row.
2)
An astronaut on the moon with a pay phone in
the back-ground.
C)We’d ponder the picture
and point to the piano or pirate or pay phone and say, "This doesn’t fit." Something is out of place.
Something is absurd.
1)
Pianos don’t go in barnyards. Pirates don’t sit in classrooms.
2)
Pay phones aren’t found on the moon.
Well
in John Ch.4 We have a picture that at first glance to the casual observer – We
have a picture that doesn’t fit.
A)Consider the evolving
Picture: Frame 1
B) A Jewish man sitting by a
well during the hottest part of the day.
1) Sixth
Hour – People didn’t go to the well at that time.
C)
Frame 2 Jewish man sitting next to a well in
1) Jews avoided
D) Frame 3 A Jewish Rabbi –
Talking to a woman at that well
1) Jewish men especially
rabbis didn’t talk to women in Public
E) Frame 4 A Jewish Rabbi
talking to a Samaritan at that well at the hottest
part of the day.
1) Jewish Men didn’t talk to
women in public especially a Samaritan woman with a shady Past
But
you see this is no ordinary Jewish man – this is Jesus – the word made flesh –
The God man -
A)The one who announced in
B) The one who doesn’t see
color or race / doesn’t see Gender man or woman
1) Doesn’t see social or
economic status – He simply sees – souls – Lost or found – Saved or redeemed
C)Well what is Jesus doing
in
1) Divine appointment – Lost soul – Lost heart
D)
Samaritan woman with a past – Jesus ministers to her – while the disciples go
into town for food.
1) Jesus reveals her past –
Jesus gives her hope for the Future by revealing that he is the messiah
She
leaves and heads into town – Amazed –at this encounter ! Her life forever
Changed. She goes into the city to tell others
A)Disciples come with food –
Jesus is no longer hungry. I have food that you
don’t know about … My food is to do …. And to finish his work.
B) Jesus was declaring that
when engaged in the work of touching hearts & reaching out to lost souls
1) It sustained him and
satisfied him in a way that Physical food could not.
C) His food is found in
engaging in the harvest – reaching out to lost souls!
The
Whole Chapter is about the Harvest: 4 Scenes / 4 principles for effective
evangelism.
1)Scene one: The
power of personal evangelism: Jesus and the woman at the well.
A)We have noted already that
Jesus went out of his way to go there!
B) He went against the
social norms of the day by talking to a woman.
1) Broke
the ice give me a drink – neutral
C)
He pinpointed her need – she was thirsty spiritually.
1) That is why she had 5
failed marriages –
D) Jesus presented her with
the answer – Come to me – take of the water that I have to give{ Never thirst
again.
Scene
two: The Power of a personal testimony: V.28-30
“The woman then
left her water pot, 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.”
V.39
And many of the
Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who
testified, "He told me all that I ever did."
It
has been said that effective evangelism requires a relationship: Most impacting
when someone’s life is changed shares with a friend / family
A)Barna research group did a
survey of Church congregations a while back to determine how people came to
Christ
B) The results were
interesting:
1% 12 Step program: 1% went
thru a program…
2% Birth of a Child {
Miracle of Child birth – having kids
3% Independently reading the
Bible { Holy Spirit convicted
3% Watching a Christian TV
program.
4% Christian witnessing
tract.
5% An evangelistic event. {
ie Crusade or outreach
6% Healed of a physical
problem.
10% A friend shared the
gospel with them.
14% Brought to Church by a
friend and responded to the sermon.
14% Raised in a Christian
home.
24% Spiritual conversation
with a family member.
C) Note
from that list the highest percentages came from the impact of someone they
knew
1) There was a noticeable
change in this woman –
2) Others where impacted by
the change in her life – V.29 Many believed because
of her testimony.
D) Share
your testimonies: Share what the Lord is doing in your life.
1) Effective evangelism
happens when we just share with people what God has done – what he is doing
E) Treat them in one sense
like they are already believers – This is what God is doing. This is how he is
working –
1) They will sense there is
something happening in that person’s life that is not happening in mine.
Scene
3 The Power of the word shared in the congregational setting: 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.
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 Savior
of the world."
V. 41 Many more believed because of His own word.
A)They came to hear Jesus
themselves and were impacted by the word.
B) You bring someone to
Church and the word impacts them: God’s word does not return void – there is
power in the Word.
1) it impacts / it touches
lives
C) If you can get them here
– God will use his word to reach them.
Scene4
The power of a miracle in evangelism: Look at this closer on Wed. but the
Chapter ends with a miracle that produces faith
A)A certain nobleman who’s
son was sick – v52 tells us when he found out that his son was healed – he and his household believed.
B)
Encouraging Chapter – because it reveals to us the various ways that the Lord
works in reaching the lost.
C) But the thing that is the
common thread in each one of these scenes is the personal contact –
1)
The woman impacted by Jesus
2)
The woman who impacts her town with her testimony
3)
The people who come to hear for themselves
4) The
man who responds to the words of Jesus
D) The common thread in each
scene of harvest is a readiness in the hearts of the people and a personal
encounter with the truth.
This
is the thing that Jesus wants his disciples to realize – the Harvest is ready:The
question is are we?
A)Finish today by briefly
considering 4 principles for effective evangelism
#1 The time
for the harvest is now! – v.35 Jesus said – Don’t
say 4 months then comes the harvest.
A)The time between planting
and harvesting was usually about 6 months
B) This would indicate that
the seed had been planted in those wheat fields 2 months prior to this. –
Leaving 4 months until harvest time
Bb)The
natural tendency of the farmer was to wait and to prepare for the harvest to grow.
C) Jesus is saying to his
disciples – Don’t have that mindset about the spiritual harvest – the harvest
of souls
1)
It is always ready – There are always people around us that need Jesus
D) Your Sphere of influence!
– Ripe Harvest around you.
1) Not a believer today –
Today is the day.
#2 The need
for a Burden: “Behold, I say to you, lift up your
eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
A)Lift your eyes – take
notice –
B) A way to develop a burden
is to Remember
what like before knew Lord
3
characteristics mark people's lives without Christ
A) #1 Emptiness! no matter how much money, success, power -
void!
The
spiritual poverty of the Western world is much greater than the physical
poverty of our people. You in the West have millions of people who suffer such
terrible loneliness and emptiness.
Mother Teresa
B.)
I
think Billy Graham described the emptiness that those living in the
Billy Graham
C)
Billy was so right our society is empty bored !
1)
Even those who accomplish the “American dream feel it.
In
an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Brad Pitt
Pitt: Man, I know all these things are supposed to seem important
to us—the car, the condo, our version of success—but if that's the case, why is
the general feeling out there reflecting more impotence and isolation and
desperation and loneliness? If you ask me, I say toss all this—we got to find
something else. Because all I know is that at this point in time, we are
heading for a dead end, a numbing of the soul, a complete atrophy of the
spiritual being. And I don't want that.
Rolling Stone: So
if we're heading toward this kind of existential dead end in society, what do
you think should happen?
Pitt: Hey, man, I don't have those answers yet. The emphasis
now is on success and personal gain. [smiles] I'm sitting in it, and I'm
telling you, that's not it. I'm the guy who's got everything. I know. But I'm
telling you, once you've got everything, then you're just left with yourself.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: it doesn't help you sleep any
better, and you don't wake up any better because of it.
Football
Star Tom Brady on 60 minutes:
Tom
Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, is not only one of the
NFL's best players, he is also one of the NFL's best stories.
At
the tender age of 28, he has already won three Super Bowls, an accomplishment
that ranks him with some of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game.
But
with all of Brady's fame and career accomplishments, he told 60 Minutes:
"Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still
think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people
would say, 'Hey man, this is what is. I reached my goal, my dream, but I think,
it's got to be more than this. I mean this can't be, what it's all
cracked up to be."
"What's
the answer?" asked interviewer Steve Kroft.
"I
wish I knew," Brady replied. "I wish I knew."
It
doesn’t matter what the accomplishment and the success – Still and Emptiness –
void.
A)The World is hurting
B)
Emptiness / only Christ fill / hurt
-Only Christ can heal!
C.)Perhaps
here - don't know Christ - He wants to fill the emptiness
2nd
thing people who don’t know Jesus live
with a sense of guilt!
A.)
Head
of a mental institution "release
1/2 my patients if I could find a way to
rid them of their guilt"
B.)As
Christians we know guilt is a symptom of a deeper problem called sin.
1)
People feel guilt because they are guilty / missed the mark !
C)
They can’t do anything to get rid of those feelings !
D) Only Jesus can get to the
root of the problem and forgive them their sins
1.)Plagued
by guilt today? Jesus can set free
3rd thing ……
There is a universal fear of death
A.)People fear death -
unknown what happens after they die!
B)Eats at them - Ignore it -
put out of mind and live for moment - daily
confronted in news
B.)
For
the person who knows Jesus - death is not a fearful thing because he knows where he is going /
C) Heaven! - death is the beginning!
1) Here today and you don’t know Jesus death is a thing to be afraid of because
uncertain / what happens to me !
C)
But
you can leave here today certain of where going / and where you will spend
eternity by giving your heart over to Jesus!
But
the important thing I want you who know the Lord to understand is that the
person you work w/ the person you live by
A)
The
person that Christ has put upon your heart to reach out to is dealing w/ one or
all of these 3 things ! Empty / guilty / afraid of death ! ( Its a given)
B) Realizing
that is where people are at helps to increase our sense of burden !
#1 Time for harvest is now.
#2 Burden for the lost.
#3
Remember that Sowing and reaping are equally important: V.36-38
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.
37 For in this the saying is true:'One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have
not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."
A)Sowing and reaping go
together. Some of you are sowers – You share the gospel – often – but don’t see
many results –
B) Listen don’t
be discouraged by that: realize the Word of the Lord doesn’t return void – Someone else might come along and reap
1)
But that will be a part of
your reward
C)
Jesus says I sent you to
reap in fields where you have not labored .
#4
The need to be baptized in the Spirit:
A)Although Jesus was
teaching his disciples here about the need to see the Harvest and Have a burden
for the lost / Urgency of the moment
B) But their effectiveness
in winning the lost didn’t really start until after Rez in
“But you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be
witnesses to Me in
With / In / Upon {
Reoccurring – need to be witnesses!