With Christ in the School of Evangelism (John 4:27-42 Jeff Kliewer)

Grace as the Foundation of Evangelism

Bane we come to you Lord. We need you in our own lives our own lives that were desperately lost in sin and It's written in the book of Ephesians. Oh de Theo, but God Although desperately lost in sin God loves us.

We need you in our lives. We we recognize our desperate situation. We're grateful for the blood of Christ. We need you Lord and thank you for the Holy Spirit that could continually draw us to you. We we need you Lord in our family.

Do we think of the children that need to hear your word? We need to be speaking your word at home so that our children are founded. We acknowledge Lord that the culture is going to be preaching falsehood to them.

We need you Lord in our families in our ministries here at cornerstone. The various classes that are taught the women's the men's ministry the youth the children. We need you Lord because without you we labor at Bane.

You make the difference in lives Lord. So we need you father within our church within the leadership of our church. We need you Lord for our pastor. For those who are teaching the various classes Lord, we need you.

This morning Lord we even focus on the great blessing opportunity. You've given us with 23 Phillips Lord. We need you Lord in our building plans. We cannot go ahead of you, but we have to be obedient to follow your lead Lord.

We do need you. We thank you Lord for each of our missionaries the ones that were highlighted the katanas this morning and the rest as they spent. Spread your word to a dark world around us be with them.

We pray this morning father as we come together prepare our hearts to hear the truth speak through our pastor. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Psalm 136 particular verses to highlight this morning 1 through 9. I'm gonna I'm gonna say Apart and then you're gonna say. His love endures forever. Let's begin. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

Give thanks to the God of gods. Give thanks to the Lord of Lords. To him alone does great wonders. Who by his understanding made the heavens? Who spread out the earth upon the waters. Who made the great lights?

The Sun to govern the day the moon and stars to govern the night. Give thanks to the God of heaven. He is magnificent and matchless in his love. Let's sing together.

It's day.

God it is our desire This morning to go with Christ into the school of Evangelism. We want to learn how to win souls to Christ. But Lord this morning we recognize that this is not something that can be learned in a classroom.

This is not something that can be done by human wisdom. But Lord there must be a movement of your Holy Spirit that when we proclaim Christ and him crucified. That it would be attendant with your power with deep conviction and with the Holy Spirit and.

So Lord our prayer this morning is that you would empower us by the Spirit of the Living God. That you would fill us with a passion For Christ that spills out like living water flowing from our souls that we couldn't help.

We couldn't contain it. We couldn't do anything but speak the gospel. Lord God, I can't preach in any such way to stir your people up to preach the good news. But you alone can do that in each of our hearts.

So we're asking right now for the move of your spirit. To teach us how to evangelize in Jesus name. Amen one of my favorite days as a Minister and really in the history of my life was Easter Sunday 2018.

Because I got to baptize my own son. It was a glorious day, but on that day also a young man named Tim Robinson had just come to faith and He brought there's Kyle. He's visiting us Kyle. Wait, will you?

Yeah.

Kyle is the younger brother of Tim our youth pastor as soon as Tim got saved He went out and told his younger brother about Christ and he also Got saved and then he told Jack and Jack told Joey and Billy and it was just the string of evangelism.

Evangelism Begins with Grace and a Break from the World

That continues on right as we all continue to share the gospel. Well, Jack one of the ones who got saved about that time has since gone on to Bible College. He's at Reformation Bible College in Orlando along with Jacob Hoke who's also here right.

Is Jacob still here. There he is. He's still here. So the Lord is just doing this great work, but it is all the spirit of the Living God. Well when Jack was back this week, he told me a story that he heard at Chapel and He said there was a missionary who's a long time like missionary scholar Bible teacher like high up there in the Christian world.

Who was in China and he was on a flight from one city to another. And what I like about this guy is when he tells the story, he doesn't just make himself the hero of it. But in fact, it was something that he had done slightly wrong.

When he got on the airplane, he put his earbuds in and he got out his book to signal. He does not want to talk. Anybody guilty of doing that at some point? I think we've all probably been there. He just didn't have the energy to talk to whoever was gonna sit next to him and sure enough a young girl sat down next to him young adult and Before he could open his book to start reading.

She tapped him on the shoulder. Told him to take the earpiece out and she asked him the question sir, do you know Jesus?

Well.

He felt convicted and in fact He debated whether to answer the question because you need to understand something in China. There is an underground church movement. Because the government is seeking to oppress and to hold down the force of Christianity in that land.

So he thought for a second. Wait a minute. Is she a government spy? Why is she asking me this? She wasn't she was a believer in Jesus Christ part of the underground church. And she began to share the gospel with him.

He confessed that he did know the Lord and She talked with him for 10 or 20 minutes but by then she was done because she needed to move on to the guy sitting by the window and She shared the gospel with him for the rest of the flight when they arrived.

They talked some more and she pointed out that her husband was a few rows up sharing the gospel with others. Wouldn't you know that these two believers when they're booking their flight they intentionally pick the middle seat.

Now that is being filled with the Holy Spirit. Intentionally booking a flight in the middle. Just so they'd have an opportunity to witness to two people on the flight. What the Bible scholar had that day in terms of the knowledge that we are able to learn sitting in the sanctuary paled in comparison to what that young girl had in terms of the fire.

The zeal the fervor in her heart to tell somebody about Jesus. She had made a break with the world. She was not worried about her reputation. She was not worried about the Chinese government that was at any moment willing to throw her in jail.

If they could get away with it. She had made such a break with the world that she was telling everybody that she knew about Jesus. She is a picture of the Samaritan woman. Let's turn to John chapter 4 verses 27 to 42.

Interesting here as we've studied through this very long narrative as far as gospel narratives go. This is about as long as they get 42 verses on.

One.

Character. But it really moves in three sections. Chapter 4 verses 1 to 15 are about the living water and Jesus offers the woman at the well living water and then from verses 16 through 26 you have Jesus instructing her on true worship.

Which is worship in spirit and in truth, but in verse 27 we have a transition again in the text and the final third is really a different subject because. The woman at the well leaves the well. When the disciples come back she's out of there and She goes on to tell everybody that she knows about the Messiah.

She learns in verse 26. I who speak to you am he. She has learned that Jesus is Messiah and from 27 on She has changed location to go tell everybody she knows. Let's read it. First of all, then we'll take it verse by verse and the point this morning church is to learn ten principles of evangelism.

I Was blessed this morning to see a young man from Princeton PhD Who I had the chance to share the gospel with on Thursday, and he was here. I Thank God for him it is such a joy to have the opportunity to share the gospel with someone and How many here would like to go with Christ into the school of evangelism?

To learn how to share the gospel that others would come to saving faith. There is no joy like it. We're gonna learn about it. Here are the ten principles. See if you can see some of them as you read and then we'll unpack it together.

Ten principles of evangelism. Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said what do you seek or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people Come see a man who told me all that I ever did.

Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying rabbi eat. But he said to them I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another has anyone brought him something to eat.

Jesus said to them my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months. Then comes the harvest. Look. I tell you lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.

Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life. So that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true one sows and another reaps. I Sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.

Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him They asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and many more believed because of his word.

They said to the woman it is no longer because of what you said that we believe for we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. Amen. Lord bless the reading and now the preaching of your word Ten principles of evangelism.

The first begins in 27 the disciples came back and they marveled that he was talking with a.

Woman.

But no one said what do you seek or why are you talking with her? To understand the significance of what is happening here you have to understand something about the Samaritan culture and The ancient Near Eastern culture a woman was looked down upon and had less standing in society than a man.

Moreover a Samaritan Was an outcast to the Jew. We learned earlier in the passage Jews have no dealings with Samaritans they are considered unclean half breeds with the Assyrians and Therefore they are looked down upon in the culture.

Worse still for this particular woman. She had had five Husbands and she was currently living with a man. That was not her husband. So she was entangled in sexual immorality on all three accounts strike one strike two and strike three.

This is a unlikely candidate for an evangelist. But evangelism starts right here with the first principle and that principle is grace.

Grace.

You see every religion in the world the Samaritans worshipped idols on the hills as we learned last week. And Many religions across the world follow different paths to get to God. All Religions have one thing in common.

All of them are effort to reach God. They are work that people do to please God. They are the ten commandments of Judaism or the eightfold path of Buddhism or the five pillars of Islam or any other system devised by man is a Mechanism to obey.

To build a ladder to climb to heaven. Whatever your view of deity it is always a work to get there with the exception of the one true religion in the world Christianity which preaches grace. Grace is our message and Grace is unmerited favor.

No matter what this woman has done in her checkered past. Here she has met one who came down from heaven to bear her sin in his body on the tree. Conquering death he will rise from the dead and on account of his work not hers.

She can be completely forgiven. Cleansed set free the first principle of evangelism is the heart that's been touched by grace. When you realize your own sin not the sin of somebody else but how wicked and Dark is your own heart the sin that you were born into and the sin that you have subsequently walked in you realize your need.

But the evangelist is the one Who has found grace? The gospel of grace has come to you the offer of forgiveness cleansing and through faith in Jesus Christ. You have been forgiven and now church. You have a message.

The very thing that saved you becomes your message. Your message is grace. The gospel of grace acts 20. You have a message to preach. That God has done in Christ Jesus what you could not do for yourself.

He accomplished a work That you could not do. He carried a cross that you couldn't carry. He died a death that you deserve and He rose for your justification. This is your gospel. And the first principle of the evangelist is to know it.

The death burial and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life through faith in his name. Have that on your lips and you're an evangelist. That's the first you don't start without it.

But if you have it you are an evangelist now. The second though is what I think activates the evangelist because my observation through several decades of being a Christian is That there are many Christians who never break out of the cocoon.

Who though they have the gospel? Rarely, or perhaps never tell somebody about Jesus. The second principle of evangelism is to break up with the world. Let's look at it verse 28. So the woman catch this left her water jar and Went away into the town and said to the people.

I think that John in recording this story put Left her water jar in the text for a reason. What do you think? Probably has some significance earlier in the passage. She was concerned Jesus is saying he has living water and she says well, you don't even have anything to draw with you don't have a water jar.

How can you give me living water? She was fixated on the physical the things of this earth. But in the leaving of the water jar we understand that she has changed her perspective entirely. What used to be her concern is now left behind.

She makes a break with the world. Leaving the jar represents making a break with the world Christian. Here's the principle if you would ever be an evangelist you must die to this world. You must break up with the world.

Augustine struggled in his early days to come to faith because he had a living girlfriend for many years and though he was knowing Now that the gospel was true. He couldn't break up with her. Until that work of grace in her a move of the Spirit where he made that break when he broke up with this pagan girl.

He became the teacher of the church and probably the greatest theologian at that time. He had to break up. Every Christian is in a struggle with the world. We will wrestle with the world the flesh and the devil until Christ comes for the church.

But see that is a real battle. It's Jacob battling and wrestling all night long and for us that battle is our Reputation it's what other people think of us our friends at school or at the workplace or our neighbors.

We have built into us a fear of man. Naturally desiring to be liked. I want everybody here to like me as a preacher. But woe to me if I won't say what needs to be said.

For fear of man and.

All of you want to be liked at your workplace and in your schools, but woe to you if that Desire to be liked keeps you from telling the world what needs to be heard. This is the point from this point on from verse from the following verses after it.

Everything will fall into place. But many Christians never make it past this hurdle. They may never make it to the next-door neighbor's house. To tell them about Christ. For fear of man, this is the principle you must break up with the world.

You must be willing to be a fool for Christ and It will get to the point where like the Apostles you are out preaching Christ and you will suffer for it more and more and the more you suffer being beaten and thrown in jail the more your joy will increase and You will thank God that you were counted worthy to suffer for his name.

But that's the breakup that has to happen. You must break up with the world. Didn't happen to me until I was 21 years old. My first three years at Eckerd College were devoted to basketball and Just the concerns of this life.

But the Lord somehow grabbed my heart in North Carolina in 1999 and the plane flight home Was witnessing and being taught by someone that God sent to teach me. I've told that story before. But since then I've found it just the joy of my life to share the gospel wherever I can.

Had to break up with the world. I had to stop caring what my basketball teammates thought of me and start telling them about Jesus and so we started a fellowship of Christian athletes and they were all coming by the end of that senior.

Year as.

Anna is helping with a fellowship of Christian athletes at Cherokee. Maybe you need to start a Bible study at your workplace. Maybe you need to start a home group for your neighbors as many of you do.

But you must first break up with the world before you would ever do that. So I spent most most of the time there. Because that's where most of us get stuck at the fear of man. But continue on from there the principles become just a delight to the evangelist.

So Jesus's third principle in the school of evangelism verse 29. The woman says come. See a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? The third principle of evangelism is invitation.

You must be willing to simply say come and see. Notice that she doesn't come into Samaria with a heavy hand. She doesn't take her Bible and run around beating people. No, she invites them come see and she even does so with the question look at verse 29.

Concludes with can this be the Christ now question for you? Is she questioning herself as In does she wonder if this is the Christ or do you think she's convinced? You're right Linda Barry, you're right.

She is convinced because the work of Jesus in her heart as He's confessed. She knows this that's why she's going out telling but she asks a question in order to draw them in and. This is what you need to do as well.

Ask questions. When we're at Princeton, we ask questions and draw people into conversation. You're inviting them to come and see because the evidence of the Word of God will bear up under the questioner.

Come and see these prophecies as I shared on Thursday. We went through Isaiah 53 and so many of the prophecies that then become the basis of faith. Our faith is not a blind leap into some unknown Where you just have to take it by faith like just hope that it's true.

No, our faith is taking God at his word. We have all the prophecies of the Messiah Fulfilled in the Son of God Jesus Christ. So you you ask questions and ask them to consider the evidence. What evidence did the Samaritans have.

What was their context. Well, they really only had the first five books of the Old Testament they had the Pentateuch Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy. They didn't have the rest of the Hebrew Bible.

But even in that they had enough to be looking for a Christ. Genesis 315 Genesis 12 Genesis 22 Isaac offered As a sacrifice on the altar all of these things pointed to the Christ. They had enough to recognize him and so she says can this be the Christ.

Come consider the evidence. He's told me everything I've ever done. Invitation is the third principle to go and invite your neighbors to come to church. Come and see come and consider. Come to the apologetics Bible study on Monday night.

To consider if these things are so. The fourth principle in verse 30. Principle of soils very important for every evangelist. They went out of the town and We're coming to him. Simple enough sentence.

That's what happened. But consider that this woman. Who's kind of an outcast? Why do you think she was going to draw water in the heat of the day? Most women would come in the evening or early in the morning.

She was going in the middle of the day because she's living with a man. She's kind of an outcast in society and. So she goes when nobody else would be there and yet when she comes back into town. Talking to everybody.

They don't just write her off as crazy or Just to be ignored. Think about it. These are guys that are working on their lawn. They're working on their trade. They're busy and yet when she comes. They drop everything and they go check out what she has to say.

I Don't know about you, but I wish when I was in Ramblewood Farms Preaching to neighbors that everybody I bring this up to would just drop what they're doing and just come to church with me. Wouldn't it be great?

Consider Jonah. Jonah was a reluctant prophet to Nineveh. God gave him five words to preach in Hebrew. It's five words, but in English 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. He didn't even have his heart in it when he went to Nineveh preaching this message.

He wanted God to destroy Nineveh not for them to repent. So he delivered his message and he went and sat up on a hill and wanted God to send fireballs down on the city. A half-hearted preacher with a five-word sermon and By the power of God the entire city turned to the God of Israel.

This church is the parable of the soils we sow. And another reaps but it is God who gives the growth. If you as an evangelist will understand this. You will know that God will have his own and you will go with the boldness to preach.

Knowing that God will turn the hearts of people. It's not up to you to change their hearts. You can be confident because you know that it's not you who does it. So what does the sower do? He is just flagrantly throwing the seed at everybody.

You would think a farmer would pick what already looks like good soil, but no he's thrown it on the cart path. He's thrown it here there and everywhere. Matthew chapter 10 some of that soil lands on this hard path and the birds of the air come and eat it up.

The person doesn't receive it at all. Other of that seed lands on hard soil and it gets in the ground a little bit. But as soon as it shoots up, it doesn't have the root system. So the Sun burns it it dies.

A third kind of soil does bear a plant but the thorns surround it and those thorns represent the desires of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth and the Pleasures of this world and these things entangle the plant and kill it with the fourth soil.

This is one that God has prepared for the seed. God has been at work and this soil produces a tree. That then itself produces 30 60 90 times what was sown you see God Changes the heart and God will make the heart ready for the gospel.

You don't know in whom he is working. So that's why you're profuse with your evangelism. You're telling anybody and everybody because God will have some that he's been. Working on tilling the soil of their heart opening the heart to believe the gospel.

When you have that theology it actually motivates you to evangelize. That's why it was the William Carey's that went to the ends of the earth and the Charles Spurgeon's that were so Evangelistic and Whitfield and Edwards in the Great Awakening.

These were people with a God-centered worldview. Trusting the God of the harvest to do the real work in the heart. Follow me Parable of the soils when you have it you become stronger as an evangelist number five.

The Work of Evangelism Is Life Itself

The work.

There was a little girl on the way to church and The grandparents who were taking her said to her honey Why do we have to be quiet when we're in church and she turned back to them and said Because all the old people are sleeping how many People fall asleep in church or asleep on the job of evangelism when in fact It is the work it is the time that we spend in the word this morning and Then the time we spend out there in the world telling people about Jesus that is life itself.

So many people are sleepwalking this Christian life because they don't know something. They don't know that life is found in the work. Often we eat. Because we work. You work just because you got to get the job done, right?

Then you get paid and the man who doesn't work doesn't eat so you work because you have to. But the kind of work that Jesus was doing is life itself. Satisfaction comes in the work. Look at this. It says in 31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying rabbi eat.

Well, why would they be saying that. Because he sent them into Samaria to buy food and so they've done their work and they're like, okay. We got the food eat eat. Wives have you ever prepared a meal and you've spent time?

Setting it out nice on the table. You've worked hard and your husband comes in from work and he sits down and you're excited for him to eat and he says I'm not hungry. How would that make you feel? Not great.

Well, look at them when he says eat. They're going on about the physical food. He said to them I have food to eat that you do not know about. Do they get it or do they miss the metaphor? They're concerned about the physical food.

So the disciples said to one another has he anybody brought him something to eat and Jesus answers my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work. You want to feel satisfied in life.

You want to do some work that feels meaningful not like you're just checking boxes every day. You want to be excited to wake up in the morning? Your food is to do the will of him who sent you. Why is Jesus satisfied?

Why does he feel like I don't even need to eat? Because he is seeing the woman that he met at the well.

Evangelizing.

Remember when Jesus was miles away from Nathanael he saw him under the fig tree. Jesus has his eye on the Samaritan woman and he is just satisfied in what he is able to see happening. Remember he's God Omniscient he knows everything his food is the delight of that encounter.

He just had with the woman at the well he changed her life and It brought him joy. That was his work. So next principle six the harvest. Do not say. Do you not say this. Is their expression. There are yet four months then comes the harvest.

Look, I tell you lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. The principle of the harvest. Notice the the well. Jacob's well was in a city called Sychar. Remember, we even saw pictures of it a couple weeks ago in the sermon.

We showed that video. There would have been people all around and Jesus is saying open your eyes. Do you see don't look at the wheat of the harvest? I don't care about this food that you brought me. Are you noticing?

Those little heads. Down there on the street moving around. That's your harvest. Do you see him open your eyes. The time is short. A farmer. I have a cousin in Indiana who's a farmer and He's told me before about what harvest time is like you wake up at sunrise in fact earlier so that you're in the field at sunrise and You work the harvest until sunset and you do it again the next day for weeks until the harvest is in Church, we are in this period of the harvest.

Don't say four more months. It's now. The time is so short. John the Baptist learned this. His ministry was only a few years. Baptizing and then before he knew it it was gone. Do you think young person that you have a long time to get this worked out?

You don't know. Life is a vapor. It's a mist. We have the shortest time to bring in the harvest and Then we have all eternity to enjoy that together. And that harvest is the people That will come. Will shine like stars.

Daniel 12 3 Will shine like stars. Who shines like stars. Those who turn many to righteousness where Paul says in first Thessalonians 2. This is his crown and his joy. You want a crown of joy on your head?

Go work in the harvest field and You'll enjoy that harvest for all eternity. Other things in this life. The bread that we eat and gather. The things that preoccupy us. The woman's pot. These things seem meaningful while we're here.

But they distract us from the main thing. The harvest is white and ready. Go tell someone about Jesus. Why. Because there's reward. Look at verse 36 principle 7 is reward. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages.

Who's the one who reaps? I Think he's seeing the woman at the well. Now down in the city telling everybody She's receiving reward. And what is that reward? Gathering fruit for eternal life. Okay. These are the people that will come so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

Your reward. For evangelism is joy. The happiest people I've ever met have just so happened to be evangelists. The happiest person I've ever met Was Bill Wagner my grandfather. I Don't think I ever saw him have a down day.

He was always laughing. You could tell the corniest joke and he would just laugh uproariously like from the belly. He was just filled with joy. This is a man who? Had a heart attack and they called the ambulance and he was on the way to the hospital where he would die and He witnessed to the people caring for him.

Between treatments and they told us about that when he got to the hospital. Yeah, he was telling us about Jesus the whole ride and He did that his entire life. Everybody he met and There is a connection between that kind of priority and that kind of desire and that kind of joy.

Because my Bible tells me that's your reward. Rejoicing together verse 36 the sower and the reaper may Rejoice together. Principle number eight is partnership. Did you think that you might be failing.

Because maybe you've never had the privilege of leading someone to Christ. Let me tell you something church being here this morning gathering together taking part in the worship. You are part of the evangelism that's happening even right now.

Someone may come to saving faith as they hear about the Lord Jesus right now under the preaching of the word. You're a part of that. Look at the principle. Jesus thought this was important verse 37 for here the saying holds true.

Let this be a principle. It's a saying.

One sows and.

Another reaps I Sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. When I have an opportunity to share the gospel at Princeton on Thursday. When you're telling somebody that you know about Jesus and you see their heart open up.

Guess what? That wasn't you that was God and God had a grandma praying for that young guy for years and years and. You've entered into her labor when you came and told her the good news. God is at work in those whom he will save and we are just little parts in it.

Maybe you get to be the reaper you get to be the last one who comes in and tells them and seals the deal. But every time you come to prayer meeting on Sunday night and call to the God of the harvest to send workers into the Harvest field and you call for those who are unsaved to be saved.

Your prayer is part of what's happening. It's not just a matter of going out knocking on doors. All of us are playing a part. We are partners in the gospel. Second-to-last number nine the principle of multiplication.

Verse 39 many Samaritans from that town believed in him. Okay, we already have many through the woman's testimony. Because he told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days now notice verse 41 and many more believed because of.

His word it's a principle of multiplication.

Here's an encouragement to you to evangelize. When maybe you've never led anyone to Christ. But you lead one guy one kid in Sunday school at Vacation Bible School and That kid grows up. To be the next Billy Graham.

Well, you just led the guy to Christ who would lead thousands maybe millions into the kingdom you see the principle of multiplication. Last year early 2021 we made a sacrifice. We supported and sent people on a church plant our own youth pastor Ben honey Ford Became a senior pastor and we sent him and we sent our own people some of our own people to go.

We sewed into that ministry a couple weeks ago. We baptized a bunch of people down at the shore and we see the church house this morning is full.