Sermon Tone Analysis

One of my favorite hymns about evangelism is called “Hear the Call of the Kingdom” by Kieth Getty and Stuart Townend.

Listen to the third verse and the chorus:

Hear the call of the Kingdom to reach out to the lost;

With the Father’s compassion, in the wonder of the cross.

Bringing peace and forgiveness and a hope yet to come.

Let the nations put their trust in Him.

King of heaven, we will answer the call;

we will follow, bringing hope to the world,

filled with passion, filled with power to proclaim

salvation in Jesus’ name.

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As the church of Jesus Christ, we have been sent on a mission to make disciples of all nations.

And making disciples starts with the proclamation of the gospel, the good news that though all humanity is dead in their sin because of rebellion against God, God the Son took humanity to himself, becoming just as we are except for the sin which kills us.

That Son, Jesus, lived perfectly according to God’s holy law, but suffered the punishment of sin that he did not deserve in our place, so that by trusting in his person and work, we can be forgiven of that sin and reconciled once again to God.

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That is not the entirety of disciple-making — as I’ve said before I lament the fact that we’ve often collapsed the big picture of disciple-making into convert-making, where we preach to them and dunk them and our job is done.

There is much more to disciple-making than just evangelism, but disciple-making cannot start without that foundation of proclaiming the good news of Jesus to a lost world.

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But, as any pastor knows, the easiest way to make a Christian feel like a failure is to ask them a simple question: How well are you being obedient to the mission of evangelism?

Shoulders slump.

Heads sag and eyes hit the floor.

I believe that you know that we are called to the practice of evangelism.

But, if I were to take a straw poll and ask everyone when was the last time you had an intentional conversation with someone else where you clearly laid out the truth of the gospel — That God is a holy Judge and that you have sinned against Him, but Jesus died so that sinners may be forgiven of their sins if they will repent and believe in Him — can you even remember?

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not the be all end of the Christian life.

You have not failed as a Christian if all your conversations don’t end that way.

But we’ve got to ask ourselves…have any of my conversations gone that way?

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to John 4, that’s page 605 of the pew Bible.

As individual believers, we are called to share the gospel of Jesus nonbelievers, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we have created within ourselves a whole host of excuses as to why we cannot or do not.

In our text this morning, I want us to see how Jesus speaks to his disciples and confronts some of those excuses.

Here’s our big idea from our text:

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Jesus refutes our excuses for not sharing the gospel with nonbelievers and challenges us to share the gospel right now.

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Let’s read, starting in verse 27:

John 4:27–38 CSB

Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman.

Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people,

“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.

Could this be the Messiah?”

They left the town and made their way to him.

In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them.

“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’?

Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest.

The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’

I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”

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Let’s pray:

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Jesus refutes our excuses for not sharing the gospel with nonbelievers and challenges us to share the gospel right now.

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I want to talk about 5 excuses that we as Christians are quick to put forth as reasons why we do not share the gospel:

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They Won’t Listen

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First, we may have convinced ourselves that people we tell won’t listen.

In our narrative, the disciples have just returned from their shopping trip in town, and they’re shocked to see Jesus talking with this woman.

They wonder why Jesus would waste time talking with, of all people, this Samaritan woman.

She doesn’t count.

She doesn’t know anything.

She’s not worth it.

Look at the question they wanted to ask Jesus, but didn’t in verse 27: “Why are you talking with her?” (v.

27).

It is not our place to decide whether or not someone will respond to the gospel.

Our call is to share it with everyone.

The gospel doesn’t discriminate.

Neither should we.

But it’s really easy for us to judge ahead of time how we think someone will respond to the good news about Jesus Christ.

“They’re too set in their sin.

They’d never repent.”

“I’ve tried with them before so many times, but nothing’s happened.”

“I don’t think they’d fit in well at our church, so I’m going to leave it to someone they might feel more comfortable with.”

The good news of Jesus is for everyone and we are to sow the seed of the gospel indiscriminately.

Don’t let your own preconceptions determine who you speak to about Jesus.

The gospel is an urgent message—it is life and death— and that demands we share it freely with all people.

The urgency of the gospel forbids us to make the excuse that people won’t listen.

We must tell.

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I Don’t Know Enough

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Another excuse: we often tell ourselves that we don’t know enough or have all the answers to potential questions.

Have you ever considered talking about Jesus with someone then hesitated because you worried about whether they might ask you some question that you didn’t have an answer to?

And you said to yourself…ah, I need to leave that to someone who knows more than me.

I love the contrast between the disciples’ reaction to Jesus’ conversation and the woman’s reaction.

She doesn’t stop to worry about whether or not she knew everything…I mean, we clearly see from the text that she absolutely did NOT know everything.

She barely knew anything!

But when she heard the good news of living water, she ran back into town so quickly that she left her water jar at the well.

Don’t let fear of not knowing enough deter you from telling what you do know — the goodness of Jesus.

It’s OK if you don’t know the answers to all the potential questions.

Preach the gospel — it is the power of God for salvation, not your knowledge.

Preach the gospel.

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I Don’t Have Enough Time

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Third excuse we tell ourselves: I don’t have enough time.

I’m too busy.

The disciples had bought some food in the town, and they offer some to Jesus to eat.

His response is strange, look at verse 32:

John 4:32 CSB

But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

The disciples are confused and try to understand what Jesus means.

So, Jesus clarifies a little bit, verse 34:

John 4:34 CSB

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them.

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Jesus is so absorbed with engaging this Samaritan woman that he doesn’t want to stop and eat.

He doesn’t want to get distracted by anything else.

He is demonstrating the urgency of the gospel.

It’s not something we get to when we feel like it.

It’s not something that takes a backseat even to eating lunch.

What things are distracting you from our mission?

What distracts us from sharing the message of eternal life with those all around us who are spiritually dying?