JESUS GIVES A PATTERN FOR WITNESSING

WEEK 36
JESUS GIVES A PATTERN FOR WITNESSING

KEY VERSE: When a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her. “Will you give me a drink?” JOHN 4:7

SCRIPTURE LESSON: JOHN 4:4-26, 39-49.
JOHN 4:4 Now he had to go through Samaria.
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus tired as he was from the journey sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When 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.)
9The 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.(a)
10Jesus 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?
12Are 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?”
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14but 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.”
15The 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.”
16He 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.
18The 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.”
91 “Sir. “the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23Yet a time is coming and has now com when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know the Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Then 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 (b)?”
30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

JOHN 4:39 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.
41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They 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.”

INTRODUCTION
Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well is a pattern of evangelism described as relational. This is because it involves a personal interaction with the individual sought to be won. Consequently it is also called Personal Evangelism. Many examples of Personal Evangelism are recorded in Scripture (eg. 2Ki 1:1-5,14-17; Jn. 1:25-42; Ac.8:26-38) and Jesus used that same pattern in his call of his disciples. Today’s lesson presents a classic example.

EXPOSITION
Jesus used the following steps in relational evangelism to carry the Good News to the Samaritan woman.

Establish a Common Interest.
The interaction began with a normal conversation between two people who had met for the first time. The woman had come to fetch water and Jesus requested for water from her. So there was established between them a subject of common interest – water.

Don’t be deterred by an initial opposition.
The Jews were prejudiced against the Samaritans and did not treat them with respect. Therefore the woman was surprised that a Jew would ask her for a drink. She was diverting the conversation to an argument about Jewish-Samaritan relationships. Jesus refused to be drawn into that argument, not because he thought it was unimportant, but that it was not the woman’s most important need. Tribal, cultural, social, religious and denominational barriers may be raised against our witnessing, but we must not be deterred.

Stay on Track
While Jesus continued to talk about the subject of common interest – water – he directed the conversation to spiritual issues. The woman did not understand the spiritual issues that Jesus was bringing into the conversation and spoke proudly about the Samaritan cultural heritage. She wondered if Jesus had anything superior to what they had. With the rise in nationalism in Africa, one is likely to hear an argument that Christianity is the whiteman’s religion and that Africans have their own religion. Others may raise issues about the missionary church in Africa and the slave trade. Jesus was not necessarily ignoring the woman’s questions, but knowing what the woman really needed, he kept talking about the living water which he could offer the woman. Jesus was able to get the woman sufficiently interested in what he had to offer. She asked him to give her of this special water.

The challenge
Many people become “still born” into the kingdom of God because in our evangelism, we sometimes fail to challenge them to take the first step of repentance. In order to lead the woman to repentance, Jesus challenged her about her marital life. Jesus told her; “Go and call your husband and come back”. The women tried to fight back. These days, the woman would have accused Jesus of intrusion into her private life. But Jesus did not budge and continued to press home to her that she had sinned against God and needed God’s forgiveness.

Press for a decision from the convicted person
The woman could not run away from the true picture of her life that had been laid bare before her. However, she wanted an escape route and resorted to religion.
The woman was saying: “I admit that I am a sinner but we have our won religion. We have always been instructed that it is on this mountain that we can worship God. Are you trying to offer me something new? Is what we already have not good enough?”
Jesus then took time to explain to her that Christianity is not a religion. It is a personal relationship with God. Being restored to a personal relationship with God is neither the religion of the Samaritans nor that of the Jews, neither is it traditional African religion nor adhering to the tenets of a denomination.

At this point, the woman wanted to postpone her division to the future. She said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us”. Jesus declared “I who speak to you am he (the Messiah)” The woman had no more defences, she surrendered her life to Jesus.

Do not allow a convicted sinner to go away with his or her load of sin clinging to them. Pray with him or her and trust the Holy Spirit to give birth to such a person into the Kingdom of God. The person will experience the new birth and it would seem as if a heavy burden has been lifted off him or her. You can see a new joy and peace envelope the. Then thank God for the salvation he has brought into the person’s life.

Public Confession of Faith
The Samaritan woman could not keep her joy to herself. She left her water pot behind and went back to her own people shouting in the streets her new joy. This woman witnessed of her new found faith to her own people.
When the people of Sychar listened to the woman’s testimony and saw the change that had taken place in her, and her joy, many of them also put their faith in Jesus. They invited him to stay with them for two days, after which they all confessed faith in him.

The relational evangelism embarked on by Jesus had led to the conversion of a whole townsfolk.
(culled from: Who is Jesus – An analysis of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ based on John 1-12; by Rev. Prof. O. Safo-Kantanka, 1997)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. a. What were the objections raised by the Samaritan woman in Jesus interaction with her?
b. How did Jesus overcome those objections?
2. a. What obstacles, prejudices and objections can we face in our relational/personal
Evangelism?
b. How can we overcome these obstacles, prejudices and objections?
3. What are some of the issues of common interest that can be used for personal
evangelism? Explain your answers
4. Is relational/personal evangelism still effective today? Why?
5. Give examples of how personal evangelism was used to convert people for Christ.

BIBLE LESSON APPLICATION
This week make an effort at personal evangelism and report the outcome to your group.

DAILY BIBLE READINGS
Monday Luke 9: 51-55 Samaritan Opposition.
Tuesday Luke 6:1-3 Jesus Sets Evangelism Example.
Wednesday Luke 9: 1-6 The twelve follow Jesus’ Example.
Thursday Luke10:1-12 The Seventy-Two follow the Example.
Friday Luke10:25-37 Overcoming Racial Prejudices.
Saturday Acts 10:1-23 The Peter Experience in Racial Prejudices.
Sunday Acts 10:24-48 Peter led to overcome Racial Prejudices.