John 4:1-26: Five Steps for Effective Evangelism

John 4:1-26: Five Steps for Effective Evangelism 

A few weeks ago, I spoke in one of my sermons about the kind of ministry we have the greatest need for here in our church. Now Redeeming Grace is obviously a church that’s still in its infant stages. And as a church that’s just starting out, there are a lot of things we don’t have yet—a lot of things we could really benefit from. Live music, a more extensive children’s program, a youth program…and on and on we could go. There are no shortage of ministries that our church could really use and that we hope to have in the future. But the ministry we have the greatest need for isn’t quite as visible or organized as any of those I’ve just mentioned. And yet, I believe it’s more important than any of them. The greatest ministry need we have is for the people of our church to catch a vision for God’s glory among the unsaved and to then actively reach out to the unsaved in a very intentional way. Basically, to have a passion for the mission of our church, which is making disciples.

The Fisherman’s Fellowship

Not too long ago, I heard about a group called “The Fisherman’s Fellowship.” That’s what they called themselves. “The Fisherman’s Fellowship.” And this group was surrounded by streams and lakes full of hungry fish. They met regularly to discuss the call to fish and the thrill of catching fish, and they got excited about fishing. Pretty early on, someone suggested that the group needed a philosophy of fishing, so they carefully defined and redefined fishing and the purpose of fishing. They developed fishing strategies and tactics. Then they realized that they had been doing it all backwards. They had approached fishing from the point of view of the fisherman and not from the point of view of the fish. So they tried to think the way fish think. How do fish view the world? How does the fisherman appear to the fish? What do fish eat and when do they like to eat it? These are all good things to know. So the group began research studies and attended conferences on fishing. Some even travelled to distant places to study different kinds of fish and the different habits. Some even got PhD’s in fishology. 

But there was a big problem: so far, no one had actually gone fishing. So to address this problem, a committee was formed to send out fishermen. Now, since prospective fishing places outnumbered fishermen, the committee needed to determine priorities. So they came up with a priority list of fishing places and posted it on bulletin boards in all of the fellowship halls. But still, no one was fishing. So they launched a survey to find out why no one was fishing. Unfortunately, hardly anyone answered the survey, but from those that did respond, the committee discovered that some felt called to study fish, a few felt called to furnish fishing equipment, and several felt called to go around encouraging the fisherman. But with all their meetings, conferences, and seminars, no one really had time to actually fish. 

Now, a newcomer came into the Fisherman’s Fellowship whose name was Jake. After one stirring meeting of the Fellowship, Jake went fishing. He tried a few things, got the hang of it, and caught a really nice fish. At the next meeting, Jake told his story and was applauded for his catch, and he was then scheduled to speak at all the Fellowship chapters and tell how he did it. But now, because of all the speaking invitations and his election to the board of directors of the Fisherman’s Fellowship, Jake no longer had time to go fishing. So he soon began to feel restless and empty. He longed to feel the tug on the line once again. So Jake cut the speaking, resigned from the board, and said to a friend, “Let’s go fishing.” They did, just the two of them, and they caught fish. Our Bible passage this morning gives us a wonderful model for evangelism and outreach—a model that’s very practical. But my prayer this morning is that you wouldn’t just listen to learn but that you would listen in order to actually do. 

John 4:1-26

So please turn with me to John 4. If you’re using the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 737. We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the Gospel of John, so wherever the text goes, that’s where we go. And this morning, the text we come to is John 4:1-26. John 4:1-26. Here’s what it says: Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.  7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” 

As I mentioned earlier, I believe this is a very practical passage. In this passage, Jesus models for us five practical steps for effective evangelism—or effective outreach.

Put yourself in places where you will have social contact with unbelievers.

Step number one, as we see it in the text, is to put yourself in places where you’ll have social contact with unbelievers. Put yourself in a place where you’ll have social contact with unbelievers. Where do we see that in the text? Well, verse 3 describes how Jesus was in Judea, which is down here, and he was going to Galilee, which is up here.  And in between Jerusalem and Galilee, there was an area called Samaria.  And if you know anything about the Samaritans, you probably know that they were hated by the Jews as half-breeds and idolaters. They were guilty of all kinds of different compromises with pagan culture that really dishonored God. So, when Jews wanted to go from Judea to Galilee or from Galilee to Judea, they would actually go to the trouble of traveling around Samaria so they could avoid going through it.  And it would be one thing to decide to do something like that when you have a car.  You just drive a couple more hours, spend a little more on gas, and it’s not a huge deal.  But these people didn’t have cars.  They had animals, and they had their feet.  So these Jews must have really despised the Samaritans if they were willing to walk around Samaria, and yet, that’s what they did. But Jesus didn’t do that. Instead of going around Samaria as a Jew normally would, Jesus decided to go through it on his way to Galilee.  He wasn’t afraid to associate with the Samaritans.  Jesus knew that these people needed the gospel, and so he intentionally went through Samaria so he would get to share it with them.

And in a similar way, if you want to have the opportunity to reach out to people who don’t know Jesus, you have to put yourself in a place where you’ll have regular social contact with them. When you think about it, it’s not really rocket science. I mean, think about the 40-year-old guy who wants to be married but doesn’t do anything except eat Cheetos and play video games at home all the time. What advice would you give him about finding a wife? I’m guessing you would probably tell him that if he wants to find a wife, a good place to start would be to spend time in places where he’ll have social contact with women. So if you’re a Christian, think about your life. Could it be that the reason you’re not sharing the gospel more is because you simply don’t have enough social contact with people who aren’t Christians? And if that is the case, what could you start doing that would give you more social contact?  I know for me, I’m really involved in the local library, I’m in a tennis league when the weather’s nice, I’ve already got my four-year-old signed up for T-ball in the Spring. What about you? What could you do to have more opportunities?

Take the initiative to reach out to people around you.

But it’s not enough just to be around non-Christians. You have to actually engage them relationally. So the second step we see is to take the initiative to reach out to people around you. Take the initiative to reach out to people around you. Here in our main text, we see that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well.  He asked her for a drink.  And that might not seem like a big deal at first, but you have to understand how many social barriers Jesus was crossing by doing that.  She was a Samaritan, and he was a Jew.  She was a woman, and he was a man. Both of those differences were a big deal in that culture.  Normally, neither one of those boundaries would be crossed.  We can see this clearly in verse 9: “The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)” But instead of refusing to associate with this Samaritan woman as a typical Jewish man would, Jesus spoke to her.  He didn’t allow any social barrier to get in the way.  He was willing to reach out.  

So take a moment and think about how you can reach out to people around you. If you don’t already have a relationship with them, how can you develop a relationship with them? If you do have a relationship, how can you move that relationship forward and become better friends with them? The better a friend you become, the more of a green light you’ll have to talk about spiritually meaningful things. 

Take advantage of opportunities in regular conversations to turn their attention toward spiritual matters.  

And that leads us to step number three, which is to take advantage of opportunities in regular conversations to turn their attention toward spiritual matters. Be alert for those opportunities to talk about something meaningful. In John 4, this conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman started off about something completely normal. Jesus asks this woman for a drink. But when the woman asks Jesus how he could possibly ignore the social barriers ask her for water, Jesus brings up the subject of “living water” in verse 10. He then goes on to talk about the possibility of being completely satisfied in him and inheriting eternal life.  He tells her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  Then a few verses later he says, “Everyone who drinks of this water [physical water] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  In other words, he’s saying, “I have something that can satisfy you in a deeper way than you ever thought possible and bless you with eternal life in heaven.”  

So Jesus took a natural, everyday conversation about something like drawing out water from a well and linked it to something that was spiritually significant. And you may not think you have the ability to do that—you may not consider yourself a very smooth person or a very clever person—but let me encourage you: you don’t have to be smooth or clever. Because here’s the thing: if the gospel message of Jesus really grips your heart, it’ll naturally come out in your conversations. Think about Steelers fans. Do they have trouble finding opportunities to talk about football? Think about grandparents. Do they have trouble finding opportunities to talk about their grandchildren? Of course not—because we naturally talk about things we find exciting. Jesus says in Luke 6:45 that it’s “out of the abundance of the heart [the] mouth speaks.” So if you want to get to the point where you find it easier and more natural to talk about the gospel, I would recommend that you open up your Bible and get on your knees in prayer and start filling your mind with gospel on a daily basis. Let the gospel so fill your mind and so grip your heart that it naturally comes out in your conversations. 

Bring the person to a realization that they are a sinner before God.

And then, as you start having those conversations, here’s step number four: bring them to a realization that they are a sinner before God. Help them see the reality of their sin—that they have broken God’s law and brought upon themselves God’s condemnation. And this is probably the most difficult step, but it’s so necessary—because until a person understands their sickness, they’ll never appreciate the cure. Look at our text. In verse 16, Jesus seemingly changes the conversation completely and says to this woman rather abruptly, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”  Why do you think he said that?  He was using his omniscience to turn the woman’s attention to the sin in her life.  Then, when she tells him that she doesn’t have a husband, Jesus says, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.  What you have said is true.”  

If you’re building a relationship with an non-Christian you want to witness to and you’re doing your best to turn conversations to spiritual matters, that’s good.  But sooner or later, you have to help them understand that they are a sinner before God.  Of course, you always do that with love, gentleness, and humility, but that’s not something you can leave out. Part of sharing the gospel is helping people to understand why they need the gospel—why they need Jesus. Again: in order to appreciate the cure, they first have to understand the disease. If you tell me that you have a cure for my disease and I’m not aware that I have this disease, I’m not going to care very much about your cure.  And if you tell someone that Jesus offers them salvation, and they don’t know what they need to be saved from, they’re not going to care very much about any salvation Jesus offers.  

Present the full truth about Christ.

And then once you do that, you can move on to step number five, which is to present the full truth about Christ. Present the full truth about Christ. In our text, after the woman is reminded of her sin, she becomes a bit uncomfortable and tries to change the conversation. But Jesus ever so skillfully brings the conversation back around to the gospel and in verse 26, finally reveals his identity as the Messiah from heaven sent to rescue God’s people. He says, “I who speak to you am he.” And that’s the essence of the gospel: Jesus himself and the rescue he offers. 

And the way Jesus is able to offer this rescue is through his death and resurrection. When Jesus died on the cross, he was voluntarily talking upon himself all of the sins you and I have committed and suffering the penalty for those sins in our place. Those sins had to be punished. God’s justice had to be upheld. But Jesus stood in our place and suffered every last bit of God’s wrath so we wouldn’t have to. And he then won a decisive victory over sin and evil three days later when he rose triumphantly from the dead. And so, the way we can have a relationship with God and go to heaven when we die isn’t by merely being a moral person or doing enough good things to outweigh the bad things we’ve done. It’s by looking to Jesus—this crucified and risen Jesus—for rescue. It’s by placing 100% of our confidence in him to save us by virtue of his merit rather than our own. That’s the message people have to understand. That’s the gospel message. And until we’ve shared that message, we haven’t truly evangelized. Merely building a relationship with someone isn’t evangelism. Evangelism, by definition, is about sharing the gospel. Everything else we’ve talked about is just preparatory. 

So here we are in our “Fisherman’s Fellowship.” We’ve dissected Jesus’ fishing techniques in John 4 and carried over those principles to our own situation. In other recent sermons, we’ve talked about the call to fish, the need to fish, the requirements for fishing, the reason we should fish, and some of the different things we should have in our fishing tackle box. We’d talked so much about so many different aspects of our fishing philosophy. But I wonder, will anyone actually go fishing? Will our church be more than just a fishing club that talks about fishing and that goes fishing? Listen to me: whatever we build into the DNA of Redeeming Grace Church during this initial start-up period is probably what the culture of our church will be like for decades into the future. My prayer is that God would raise up an army of people who are so burdened for the lost world around us that they can’t bear the thought of idly sitting by and watching people drift off to a Christless eternity, an army of people who are so captivated by the gospel that they can’t help but talk about it, and an army of people who are so zealous for God’s glory that they gladly devote themselves 100% to God’s mission on this earth.