1. Personal Evangelism for Dummies (Pt. 3)
John 4:20-42

2. “Jesus wants us to see that the neighbor next door or the people sitting next to us on a plane or in a classroom are not interruptions to our schedule. They are there by divine appointment. Jesus wants us to see their needs, their loneliness, their longings, and he wants to give us the courage to reach out to them.”
-- Becky Pippert

3. Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

4. In his book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat, John Ortberg tells a story which illustrates how the Holy Spirit can help us overcome our reluctance and engage in ministry conversations that have an impact.

5. Though not all of us are called to be evangelists, according to Acts 1:8 we’re all called to be witnesses.

6. The message of John’s Gospel seems to be that we’re all called to imitate John the Baptist and point people to Jesus, using our words as well as our works to do so.

7. John 4:1-19
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….

8. … {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….

9. … {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.)
… {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. … {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. … {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?” …

12. … {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." …

13. …{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.” …

14. … {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."
{19} "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet.…

15. How sensitive are we at this time in our lives to any ministry promptings the Holy Spirit might be trying to produce in us?
Honestly, how available are we at this time in our lives to this type of prompting—to being “sent” here or there in order to engage in a divinely appointed ministry conversation?

16. Are we willing to cross various cultural barriers and engage in ministry conversations with all kinds of people regardless of their religion, race, gender, ethnicity, economic status, legal status or lifestyle preferences?

17. Are we willing to take the time necessary to ask people to tell us their stories and to really, really listen as they do so?
Are we also willing to pray, asking the Holy Spirit to help us to, like Jesus, listen with hearts full of compassion rather than judgmentalism?

18. … {19} “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet
… {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….

19. …{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.” …

20. Like the woman in this story, sometimes the people we’re having ministry conversations with will get hung up on differing religious traditions and their respective rituals.

21. Ultimately, Jesus refused to let the conversation he was having with this Samaritan woman become sidetracked into a discussion about different worship rituals.

22. Jesus pushed right past the woman’s diversionary question and brought her face- to-face with the main truth concerning worship: the worship God is looking for is not about specific rituals, it’s about people relating to him in spirit and truth!

23. There’s a huge difference between “ritual religion” and a “real relationship” with God!
Our primary goal when sharing our faith with others shouldn’t be to get them to engage in this or that religious ritual, but to help them enter into a real relationship with the God of the universe!

24. In his book, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality, Donald Miller talks honestly about his evangelistic misgivings before his ritualistic faith deepened into a real relationship.

25. “I could not in good conscience tell a friend about a faith that didn't excite me. I couldn't share something I wasn't experiencing. And I wasn't experiencing Christianity. It didn't do anything for me at all. It felt like math, like a system of rights and wrongs and political beliefs, but it wasn't mysterious; it wasn't God reaching out of heaven to do wonderful things in my life. And if I would have shared Christianity with somebody, it would have felt mostly like I was trying to get somebody to agree with me rather than meet God.”
-- Donald Miller

26. Are we genuinely experiencing a real relationship with God rather than ritual religion?
The truth be told, is our goal in personal evangelism simply to get people to agree with us, or is it to help them meet God through his Son Jesus Christ?

27. Honestly, have we given sufficient thought as to how we might go about explaining to others the crucial difference between ritual religion and the real relationship with God that genuine Christianity is all about?

28. How would we describe for someone the “living water” which Jesus has provided us with?
Is it merely the promise of eternal life in the age to come?
Or is it also the experience of abundant life in the here and now?

29. If the latter—if it’s true that one of the really wonderful things about a real relationship with Jesus is the abundant life he provides here and now—how would you explain or describe that?

30. Though this description will differ somewhat for each of us, my description would revolve around the following themes:
Love
Joy
Peace
Freedom
Purpose
Adventure
Hope
Rest
Community
How would you describe for someone the abundant life a real relationship with Jesus, when you let it, provides you with?

31. “If we are so impoverished that we have nothing to reveal but small talk, then we need to struggle for more richness of soul.”
– Frank Laubach

32. How many of us could use some more “richness of soul”?

33. I’m talking about a “richness of soul” that, among other things, would make us more bold and wise about sharing with others the wonderful difference Jesus has and is making in our lives.

34. Personal Evangelism for Dummies (Pt. 3)
John 4:20-42