10-29-06-Do the Ordinary
For the past couple of weeks we have been looking at the One More Soul initiative of the Free Methodist Church. We have seen that witnessing or soul-winning has become a burden to many of us because we think that we need a program or script to follow when talking to the missing. We feel like we have to get people to say a prayer or make a commitment, yet we are simply supposed to plant seeds and allow God to bring the harvest in His time and His way. We have also talked about how important it is that we not allow ourselves to have the mindset of “us vs. them” by referring to those Jesus loves as “lost” and us as “found.” Instead we are trying to change the way we think by changing the term we use to describe people that Jesus loves as the “missing.”
Today, I’d like to look at another aspect of this issue of being witnesses for Jesus by examining the way we go about witnessing. I know there are many different programs that we could use (e.g. Evangelism Explosion, Friend Day, etc) to bring people into the kingdom. I am not against any of these programs, however, as I look at the life of Jesus I see that He did not schedule evangelistic crusades or tent meetings in a city, but rather went about His ordinary day and through ordinary events changed the lives of many.
¨ John 4:1-8 (NIV) 1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, 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 the sixth hour. 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.)
In the story we are looking at today, Jesus was going about the business of ordinary living, traveling, and stopping at a well for a drink of water. Why was Jesus traveling to Galilee? A controversy had arisen in Judea about who was baptizing more disciples—Jesus or John the Baptist. So we see that the occasion of this story is not one that Jesus had planned out in advance, but rather the result of opposition that made Him decide to leave where He was and resulted in an ordinary day of travel. As He came to the town of Sychar, He was tired and sat down by the well. He sent His disciples into town to get food and when a woman arrived, He asked her for a drink of water. Is there anything more ordinary than that? Yet, in the ordinary, God can bring extraordinary witnessing and change of lives.
Now if we stopped the story right here is there any indication that something spectacular is going to happen? Were there signs in the heavens and great heralding of Jesus’ arrival by His disciples? No, it was just an ordinary day in the life of Jesus. You may say, well everyday for Jesus was extraordinary because of who He was—the Son of God. However, the scripture tells us that He left His glory and became a man just like you and I.
¨ Phil 2:6-7 (NIV) 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
This in no way means that Jesus was not fully divine, yet while He was here on the earth, He became a human being with all that goes along with being human other than that He did not sin. In fact in our story the humanness of Jesus is easily seen in vs. 6 & 8—He was tired, hungry, and thirsty.
Now I cannot look at this story without commenting on the fact that these Samaritans were outcasts of society. Remember our theme for the One More Soul initiative is “this man welcomes sinners and eats with them” Luke 15:2 (remember the “sinners” and tax collectors from last week?). The Samaritans were Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles, who were brought in by the Assyrians when they conquered the Northern kingdom centuries before, so they were half-breeds and hated by all the Jews—not just the religious leaders. In fact, Jesus very clearly told His disciples that He came for the Jews, not the Gentiles and not to go to Samaria. (It is not until after Pentecost that the church is told to go to the Gentiles.)
¨ Matt 10:5 (NIV) These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
So by all rights, as a Jew, Jesus could have ignored the Samaritan woman and thought nothing about it. However, He was so in tune with the will of the Father, that when the Holy Spirit showed Him an opportunity to witness He did it. Would that we were that in tune with our heavenly Father! (Say AMEN or OH ME!)
Out of the ordinary needs of Jesus for His body (food, water, rest) we see a beautiful story of the outcast of society being touched and changed. Jesus broke the rules by even speaking with the Samaritan woman, but then He witnessed to her through ordinary conversation, conduct, and connection.
¨ 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.) 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 flocks and herds?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him 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.”
1. Conversation—Jesus introduced Himself to her by asking for a drink of water—an ordinary request on an ordinary day. She asked Him why He was speaking to her since she knew she was an outcast. He told her that if she knew who He was, she would have asked for the living water that He had. She noticed that He had no pail to get the water and asked where He was going get this living water from. He told her that the living water would quench her thirst forever. Of course, she responded out of her need to not have to keep coming to the well to draw water by asking how to get this living water. Now Jesus probes into her real need, which is much more than not needing to draw water from the well every day. Obviously, her hopping from man to man indicated a need for acceptance that she had not been able to find. Notice that Jesus visited socially, comfortably and naturally with her. He spoke to her not as an outcast, but rather as one who was in need of true love.
¨ 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, 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 spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in 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 who speak to you am He.” . . . 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 Christ?”
2. Conduct—She saw that He was different (from the other Jews) and called Him a prophet. But because Jesus did not preach at her about being a “sinner” or outcast, she did not feel threatened. In fact, she was so comfortable that she tried to sidetrack the conversation by discussing her views on religion. Yet through that simple conversation Jesus was able to reveal to her that He was the Messiah. Jesus’ life, love and actions backed up His message.
¨ 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.”
3. Connection—He shared the good news with her that He was the Messiah and as a result she went out and told others. Many came and believed in Jesus and even asked Him to stay with them for 2 days! That is truly a divine connection!
Why is it so important that we see the ordinariness of Jesus’ day in this story? Because if we are going to be like Jesus when it comes to our witnessing, we have to learn to see the events of each day as opportunities to be a witness. If we think we have to wait until the next evangelistic crusade or outreach program in our church or community, before we can be witnesses for Christ, then we are missing out on daily opportunities to be witnesses and only God knows how many lives are not being touched or changed.
What if Jesus had this kind of mentality when He sat down at the well? He would have missed an opportunity to not only impact the life of this Samaritan woman, but also this whole community of social outcasts whom God loved. Jesus was often delayed or interrupted on His journeys, yet because He did what the Father wanted Him to do many lives were changed.
Do we see interruptions in our schedules as opportunities that the Father is giving us to witness for Him? Or do we see them as things to prevent us from getting where we are going or doing what we had planned?
I must confess this is a hard truth to practice. For example, the other day I was sitting at the gas station with G.G. waiting my turn. There was an elderly man in front of me who was obviously struggling with trying to get his credit card to work. His wife was trying to help him but nothing seemed to work. After sitting there for many minutes, G.G. suggested that I go help the man. Unfortunately, I did not do so, and finally the wife went and got the lady that worked there and she helped them. I realize that I missed an opportunity to share love and have had to repent for my lack of courage. Only God knows the eternal impact that this missed opportunity will have, but I pray that my failure to be a witness did not keep him or his wife from coming home to God’s kingdom.
Notice how Jesus acted to the outcasts of society--“sinners”: He did not preach, He probed for truth, He did not lecture, He listened, He observed, and then He interacted with them. This is how we should be to the missing around us. We should be listening ears and warm hearts who truly care about the ones we are talking with. Folks, we have the good news—Messiah has come and His name is Jesus Christ! He is the Savior of the world and the one who can give us the living water so we will never thirst again.
Let’s pray, that each day in the ordinariness of our lives, God will use us to give a drink of His life to a thirsty soul and look for opportunities to share His living water with those that He brings to us. That is what the One More Soul initiative is all about—“people experiencing life transformation—entire lives healed and made whole through Christ.”
