Part 1, 2 and 3 HereThe Portrait Gallery of Jesus – Part 4
Pastor Randall Floyd
Clayton A/G – Church for the REST of Us!
(All Scripture quotations are from the NIV, unless otherwise stated.)
The Apostle John Gospel Wing – Portrait 4
John 4:4-43 – Soul Winner
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. 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.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
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.)
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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 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?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.”
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.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They 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.”
After the two days he left for Galilee.
(The following is adapted from Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament, © 1992 by Chariot Victor Publishing, an imprint of Cook Communication Ministries.)
This is the first portrait John gives us that we can begin to emulate – that of Jesus as the “Soul Winner”. Although His number one mission was to be the perfect sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, Jesus considered one lost soul so important that He literally went out of His way to encounter this Samaritan woman.
“The Samaritans were ‘half-breeds’, part Jew and part Gentile. As such, they were considered outcasts and were despised by the Jews. They had their own religious system in Samaria that competed with the claims of the Jews…and [yet they] believed in the coming of the Messiah. Jesus ‘needed to go through Samaria’ because God had planned for this sinful woman to meet Him and find in Him the water of life. In the interview recorded, we see the different stages by which this woman came to believe in Christ.”
Stage 1
A JEWISH MALE speaks to a SAMARITAN WOMAN. Not only speaks to her, but ASKS HER FOR A FAVOR. Jesus was willing to go against all cultural and Jewish religious norms for the sake of the Kingdom of God and one person’s soul. So must we be willing to place Kingdom business ahead of our personal comfort and reputation.
Stage 2
Jesus then approaches the subject of spiritual matters, using the subject of His request and the ensuing conversation as a “jumping off” point. As is often the case, she responds with religious and traditional clichés. This does not deter Jesus. He simply continues on, gently, and with no harsh rebuke.
Stage 3
Jesus then directs this lady, and the conversation, away from religion and tradition to the core truth our message must contain to this dying world – a right relationship with God the Father is only possible by recognizing and accepting the Messiah, the Savior – none other than Jesus Christ, Himself. We must never allow people to make Jesus an option. The Word clearly states that He is the ONLY option for salvation.
Stage 4
This is the one stage that we must be so careful with. While we must confront sinful behavior in people’s lives, we must remember that we are not omniscient like Christ, nor are we called upon to be the source of conviction. Jesus confronts her about the one major area of her life that is a hindrance to her being able to walk in right relationship with the Father. For her, this was her marital history and living with a man outside of marriage. Notice that Jesus was not harsh. He was loving and compassionate. No compromise, but also no unnecessary condemnation. He offered a chance for repentance, not a rebuke that would drive her away.
Stage 5
Because of the love that was evident in His words, this Samaritan lady’s eyes begin to open to the truth of Jesus’ identity – Messiah and Savior. Remember, some people “get it” right away, others don’t. We must be willing to invest time and energy into people’s lives. Some need to walk the path to Christ slower than others. In our “microwave” world, God is looking for some “crock pot” soul winners!
Stage 6
She believes and accepts Jesus as Messiah and Savior, and the newly saved one ENTHUSIASTICALLY runs and shares her new-found freedom with those closest to her. Notice this – she didn’t know all the “right” words to say, all she knew was “once I was blind, but now I see”. May we all be as quick and enthusiastic to share our story with others, telling them what Jesus has done for us!
With this Portrait, John shows us Jesus’ approach to soul winning:
- Engage people where they are.
- Use that as a bridge to spiritual matters.
- At the right moment, introduce them to Christ.
- Walk with them as they make the journey from “sinner to
saint”; no matter how long it takes.
- Once they believe, disciple them – continue walking with them
throughout the journey.
- Turn them loose to share their story with others!
