Evangelism in Light of Eternity Part 2

Introduction:

The Title of the sermon to is Evangelism in light of eternity. Evangelism is a difficult topic to talk about. For most believers evangelism is hard, and scary. I want to be up front with you all from the start, I do not come to you today as a master in the area of evangelism. I find evangelism to be just as hard and scary as most do and I need this sermon this morning. While we will talk about some hard truths today I hope you will find a lot of grace as you strive to grow in this very important and needed aspect of the Christian life. As we begin lets open with a word of prayer.

Interrogative: What is Intentional Evangelism and what does it have to do with eternity?

Big Idea: Believers are to have intentional relationships for the purpose of eternal impact.

Sermon Division 3: Carefully point people to their need of The Savior. (John 4:16-26)

Jesus starts to point to the woman's need. (16-19)

If you remember back to the beginning of this chapter we see Jesus’ human nature. Here we see he is fully God by the fact that he is all knowing.

Verse 16: Jesus then turns the conversation a second time. He ask her to call her husband, knowing that she will not know how to answer.

Verse 17: The woman answers by saying she does not have a husband. Again remember this woman does not know who this Jesus is yet. She is thinking about that as she asked the rhetorical question “are you greater than our father Jacob?”

Verse 17b-18: Jesus’ response points her to her own sin. She answered correctly, she does not have a husband because she has had 5 and the one she is with now is not her husband. Again we see here that Jesus is fully God and all knowing. This is not something a mere human would be able to do when they meet someone for the first time. When you carefully point people to their spiritual need, I would not suggest doing it like this. Let’s leave that for our all knowing God!

Verse 19: The woman gains a little more perspective into who this man is with his response of knowing who she is even though they just met. The woman response with “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet”. She is starting to understand that his person might be greater than their father Jacob.

The woman turns the conversation: (20-24)

Verse 20: With the woman’s new idea of who this man is, she makes a statement that would be hard to respond to. It is a spiritual questions about worship. Her people worship in one location and the Jews worship in Jerusalem. She wants to see if there is a right or a wrong place for worship. It seems like she wants to trap Jesus with this statement.

Verse 21-24: Jesus answers her in a way she did not expect I am sure. Again Jesus is pointing to something greater. Jesus is breaking the norms of worship by saying there is a time when it wont be on this mountain or in Jerusalem where you will worship.

Verse 22: Jesus is pointing to the fact that salvation was going to come from the Jewish line and lineage.

Verse 23: Jesus breaks the current culture by saying Salvation is not about nationality. The father is not looking for a nation but rather those who are true worshipers. This would be a vastly different message from what the typical Jew would give. The time is now here, Jesus says.

Verse 24: Jesus explains what a true worshiper is. God is Spirit. A true worshiper is one who worships in spirit and truth.

The Woman understands: (25-26)

Verse 25: The woman shifts the conversation again. This time we see her heart softening as she talks about the Messiah and who he will be. He will tell us all things. Jesus has done that.

He told her about her past and sin

He has broke the social norms of the time

He has broken the normal message about worship to share a different perspective of things to come

He has offered a gift only God can provide.

I want you to see this progression of the woman's understanding of who Jesus is.

In verse 12 she asks “ are you greater than our father Jacob

In verse 19 she perceives he is a prophet

In verse 25 she makes a statement about the Messiah

In verse 29 She asks the leading question “can this be the Christ?”

Verse 26: This is the climax of this section and a verse that always gives me goose bumps when I read it in the context. The woman just talked about the Messiah and Jesus responds with “I who speak to you am he”. Jesus points the woman to himself: The savior, and the one she needs.

Application:

In this section we see Jesus point out this woman’s sin nature and her need for a savior. He ultimately points her to him as her savior. This is different for us. We do not want to point people to us but rather Christ in us.

Conclusion:

Interrogative:

So lets look back to where we started. We started with a question: What is intentional evangelism and what does it have to do with eternity?

Intentional evangelism is intentionally placing yourself in places where unbelievers will be, purposefully looking for opportunities to share about God’s gift of eternal life, and carefully pointing people to their need of a savior. This has everything to do with eternity because humans are eternal: meaning all humans will spend eternity somewhere.

Big Idea:

For this reason, believers are to have intentional relationship for the purpose of eternal impact. That is why we must obey God by confidently evangelizing. And do forget to stand in awe as you behold the power of God at work through intentional evangelism.

Pray