Saturday, June 14, 2014

Sermon on Evangelism for 6-15-2014 (John 4)


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When we moved into our house, we inherited a phone number with a history.  All phone numbers have histories, but ours has proved particularly interesting.  For starters, it’s very close to the phone number for the local Papa John’s.  I finally looked up the Papa John’s number so I wouldn’t feel like I was disappointing people when I answered the phone.  Secondly, it used to belong to a man named Joe.  Now, when we first moved in, Verizon called for Joe quite a bit, and no matter how many times I told them I wasn’t Joe, they kept calling.  After a year or so, they finally gave up.  Recently, a medical billing agency started calling again for Joe.  They seem pretty determined—I doubt they’ll give up easily.  I have a hunch that even though they have the wrong phone number, they’ll eventually find Joe.  You know the old saying—if you feel like no one notices you, just miss a few bill payments. 
Now, if we believe that debt collectors are this determined about finding us, how much more should we believe that Jesus Christ will seek us out?  If Verizon and various medical billing companies are going to call and call and call and call and eventually use their limited powers to find Joe, I think God will do even more to seek out his beloved creations, even if they have run far from him.
So when we talk about evangelism, we need to begin with the understanding that God is actively seeking us out.  No matter what we have done, no matter where we have run, no matter how far we may think we are from God, God will seek us out.  God never gives up on us, never writes us off as a lost cause.  God pursues, to the ends of the earth and beyond.
So let us be careful about this idea of taking Jesus to people, of bringing Jesus to another person.  When we stop and think about it, we need to recognize that it is not we who bring Jesus to anyone.  We help them see that Jesus is already there, pursuing them, wildly and passionately in love with them.
That’s how our story today begins.  Jesus has come to Samaria, and he’s plopped down by a well at noon, the hottest part of the day. 
Now, anyone who is anyone would come get their water in the morning, when it was cool outside.  If you have a choice, you’d rather labor outside when the weather is cool than when it is hot.  You wouldn’t plan your chores for the heat of the day.
We can safely assume that this particular Samaritan woman isn’t getting water at noon because she likes being outside when it’s hot out.  She’s an outcast, an outsider, a woman with a history who avoids the crowds and the awkward looks they likely give her.  For a while they may have actively shunned her, but now she’s probably settled into a routine, a way of life that simply avoids the disapproving glances of others.  She’s living with a man outside of wedlock, and she’s isolated from the community.
To this woman, Jesus arrives.  He doesn’t make her seek him out, though, because she might not even go looking if he did that.  Instead, he places himself into the middle of her life and her routines, making himself impossible to miss.  Then, he reveals deep and abiding truths about himself to her.
Now, this woman didn’t show up looking for spiritual truth.  She simply came looking for water.  So when Jesus starts talking about living water, it takes her a while to come around to his side of the story.  But she eventually does, and she recognizes that she has had an authentic interaction with the Messiah.  This changes her.
So when we talk about evangelism, we start with ourselves.  How can you talk about something you’re not experiencing?  How can you encourage others to have a relationship with Christ when you’re not building yours?  How can you invite someone into a house that you’re not living in?  If you want to do evangelism, you need to start with yourself, and you need to ensure that you’re building space in your own life for encounters with the Messiah.  Is there room in your own life for Christ, or are you so busy gathering water and doing chores that you miss his presence in your own life?  If so, you need to correct that before you rush out and point out his presence to others.
The second half of evangelism is when we interact with others.  Now, everyone in this room has a picture in their mind of what evangelism is.  Often, it’s a picture of evangelism done poorly, or a picture of what we don’t want to do.  We all know about this.  But do we have a positive view of it?  Because it’s critical in the lifeblood of the church.  If the church is going to grow, it requires people who believe the Gospel to tell others about the Gospel.  It’s that simple.
Think, for a moment, about your favorite restaurant.  Now, how many of you would call a place your favorite restaurant because someone else told you it was great?  Ok—now how many of you have a favorite restaurant because you went there and the food changed your life?
We get this idea about evangelism that the interaction we have with others has to convert them, that we have to have the right words to say and we have to do the right things or else they won’t come to faith. 
But you’re not trying to give them your relationship.  You’re trying to tell them about the Messiah in the hopes that they will have their own relationship with them.  You’re not bringing them to faith.  You’re trying to help them open their eyes to what God is already doing in their lives.  You don’t have to get Jesus there—he’s already there, I promise.
Listen to the story of this woman, this outcast woman who is probably shunned by many.  She’s not a trained evangelist, and she doesn’t have a long history of bringing people to faith.  What she does have, however, is an authentic story of an interaction with Jesus Christ.  What does she do?  She leaves Jesus in verse 28, goes to the people in the town and invites them to go see Jesus, a man who told her all that she ever did.  Her proclamation is a question—Can this be the Christ?
She isn’t even certain, but she’s experienced enough to invite her to go and see for themselves.  And they are curious, and we learn later that her story was enough for many people to believe.  What is even more effective, though, is that many more believe because they have heard for themselves.  Her simply story and her big question led others to interact with Christ, and they came to believe for themselves.  They recognized Christ, who was already in their village, and heard for themselves.  It was nothing dramatic she did—she simply invited them into their own relationship.
Friends, God sends us out into the world to share the Gospel message.  Our life is to be used building our own relationship with Christ and then inviting others to have their own relationships.  So may we make room for what God is already doing, and may we trust God to be at work in the lives of those around us.  God has done and will do all the heavy lifting—what he needs is people willing to open their lives up to be an invitation to others to come and see for themselves, to come to the well and find the living water, Jesus Christ.

Let us pray

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