Evangelism According to John Chapter 4
(Two-part sermon)
Introduction:
-Evangelism is a central theme of the New Testament, and of our text in John Chapter 4.
-Evangelism is essential to the salvation of the elect, as Jesus must go through Samaria.
-Evangelism is the life blood of the Lord’s churches.
-Evangelism is essential to a churches spirituality and zeal.
-When a church looses its evangelistic vision, it is at a low ebb spiritually.
-Evangelism is essential to a churches purpose and reason for existence.
-If a church is not evangelistic, they’ve lost site of their purpose.
-Evangelism is essential for a church’s growth and continued existence.
-The Lord promised perpetuity for His church as an institution, but not
to individual churches. Our continuance is dependant on our
evangelistic efforts and our community.
-The lack of evangelism will result in the death of a church.
-One of my great concerns for our church is our evangelistic efforts in our
Jerusalem, and in our Judea, and in our Samaria.
-I am excited about our ministries at Calvary. I believe these are going to
be a great blessing to our church. I hope that our whole church is
excited about our ministries, and will take part in them in any way we can. There is much to be done and the Lord will bless each of us as we labor in His vineyard. Our new paper ministry will need all the help that we can get…so please take a part as you are able. We will discuss at another time ways that we can help in this work.
1. This morning we want to speak primarily on the message of
evangelism:
1. The message of evangelism is not baptism (vs. 1-2;
1 Cor. 1:14,17).
-Neither is the message about the preacher, or the church, or church programs.
2. The message of evangelism is a message of salvation in knowing Jesus (vs. 10).
-If people only knew Who Jesus is, they would ask Him for the well of salvation.
-Therefore, the message of evangelism is one of showing people who Jesus is.
-We know the Lord must open their eyes to see Him, but we are to simply
show people Jesus from the Word of God, and leave it to the Lord
to give them eyes to see Who Jesus really is; that He is the Son of God and their personal Savior.
3. The message of evangelism is a message of eternal salvation (vs. 13-14)
-Salvation is likened here to a fountain that springs up in the soul:
-A fountain of water is perpetual and self-sustaining.
-When you have the fountain in your soul, you don’t have to keep coming
back to receive the water of life again and again, but it ever flows
from within the soul, and it shall flow on into eternity.
-Water, we know, is the most essential ingredient of physical life.
-Without water we would die in just a matter of days.
-It is no wonder that Jesus used this wonderful illustration.
-Spiritually, without Jesus, the water of life, men will die eternally.
-When you partake of Jesus by faith in His person and work
you shall live eternally, and shall never be condemned.
-Therefore, the message of evangelism is eternal salvation in Jesus Christ.
-We need to tell others what Jesus has done for us, and what He is
able to do for them (vs. 29).
4. The message of evangelism is the message of repentance:
-It is a message of moral repentance of the sins of the flesh (vs. 17-18)
-People who say they are Christians and continue to live immoral, ungodly
lives, know nothing of true repentance, or of true salvation.
Genuine salvation always results in a changed life.
-It is also a message of spiritual repentance of false beliefs about God (vs. 19-24)
-In essence the woman was saying- “We worship God our way, and you
worship Him your way, but it really doesn’t matter as long as you
are sincere”. Isn’t that what the ecumenical movement is saying?
-But Jesus replied that, if you are going to worship God, that is, if you
are going to please God with your worship, then you’re going to have to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. So it becomes us to know what this means.
-To worship God in Spirit means that we can’t worship Him in the
deadness of the letter of legalism, or in dead formalism or
vain tradition, but in the Holy Spirit. Legalism is works for salvation by keeping the law or doing good works to be saved. Likewise dead formalism and vain tradition are not acceptable to God. These are not of His Spirit, but of man’s own making.
-God, however, cannot be worshipped in Spirit alone, but also in truth.
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. Jesus is the ”way, the
Truth, and the life”. Therefore to worship God one must worship
Him according to the truth of His Word, especially the truth about
Jesus Christ, Who is the only true way of eternal salvation.
-People who say that it doesn’t matter how you worship, or how you
believe; they worship they know not what. They don’t know the
truth about Jesus and Who He is, or what He has done for sinners
on the cross of Calvary.
-So then the message of evangelism is the message of repentance.
Repentance of wicked ungodly sin, and repentance of false beliefs
about God and His Son. When one comes to Jesus for salvation, he throws out his sins, and all of his false, preconceived notions about God and the way of salvation, and receives Jesus in truth.
5. Finally, the message of evangelism is the message of faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ
for salvation (vs. 25-26; 28-29, 39, 41-42).
-To be saved is to believe in Jesus. No one was baptized or joined a church here.
-There is salvation in no other, but in the name of Jesus. Do you believe in Him?
Conclusion:
We want to close this message this morning by noticing the woman of Samaria’s change of understanding and belief about who Jesus is:
-At first she saw Jesus as just another Jew (vs. 9). She certainly didn’t see anything
special about Jesus.
-She saw Jesus as just a man and nothing more (vs. 11).
-She saw Jesus as being inferior to the patriarchs (vs. 12).
-But then she began to see Jesus as a prophet after He revealed her sin (vs. 19).
-Finally she saw Jesus as the Christ of God, after Jesus revealed Himself to her.
(vs. 28-29).
-How do you see Jesus this morning? As just a man; or do you see Him as the Christ.