Audio from Senior Pastor Vaughn Drawdy on Sunday morning February 3rd, 2019.
These sermon notes are made available through the YouVersion free Bible app.
https://www.bible.com/events/559448
Who Is My Mission?
Simply answered- EVERYONE.
God has intentionally and strategically placed you in your family, friendships, neighborhood and workplace to reach out to those you are already doing life with.
You may be asking/thinking:
>I get it that I’m supposed to share how God’s goodness has intersected with my life but do I just walk up to random people and start talking?
>If God has uniquely placed me in some people’s lives to share about Him how do I go about identifying that?
Let's explore this in the Text.
John 2:24-25 NIV
24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
Jesus knew all people and knew what was inside them. As he started his ministry he gives us two polar opposite examples of the kinds of people that God loves to work in. Listen to the very next verse.
John 3:1 NIV
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
Jesus has a conversation with a very religious man named Nicodemus. We’re not going to study that conversation today except to say that the author John very deliberately placed it before the scene we are going to read.
>Jesus has a spiritual conversation with someone you’d expect to have it all figured out (think like a pastor of a church) but ends up correcting some basic beliefs that Nicodemus was holding.
Side Note: Just because someone appears to be a “super Christian” doesn’t mean that they are not still struggling with questions about their faith and their walk with God.
>Then Jesus leaves there and has a conversation with a woman that was on the opposite end of the religious scale than Nicodemus.
I believe Jesus is making a profound point that nobody is off limits when it comes to talking about God.
John 4:1-6 NIV
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 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 noon.
Geography helps us to understand this passage. We read that he left Judea to go to Galilee. Now most Jews would actually
make this trip longer than they would have to by intentionally missing all of Samaria.
>The Jewish people despised the Samaritans because they saw them as sell outs. They were the people that intermarried with the people of the land so that they were only half-Jewish.
>What’s interesting is that Jesus actually went out of his way to go through Samaria.
>The scene we are about to read is the only scene we read during this trip meaning it must be incredibly significant.
The Scene: Jesus sits down at the well by himself. We’ll learn later that his disciples have gone into town to grab some food.
John 4:7-14 NIV
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 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 “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 livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
As we seek to answer “Who’s my mission?” I think it’s interesting how the different people in this scene apparently saw this woman.
1. How the woman saw herself–Samaritan woman
2. How the disciples saw her–wait, where are they in this scene? Passed her by on the way. Never talk to her when they return.
3. How Jesus saw her–
>She was worth it. Worth going out of his way to meet her. Worth crossing social barriers.
>She was persistent. You might say, where do you see her persistent? Check out what happens.
John 4:15-18 NIV
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.” 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.”
I’ve heard many sermons focusing on the woman’s sinfulness and shame. Yes, I’m sure this is a part of her story and she had a lot of things from her past that she was not proud of.
>In the first century Middle Eastern culture it was a man-centered world.
>Women were seen as second class citizens and men had all the power. It was completely acceptable for a man to have several premarital sexual relationships and if a husband wanted to divorce his wife all he had to do was give her a certificate and kick her to the curb. So this isn’t a woman that jumps around from guy to guy—this is probably a woman who has been used and abused over and over by multiple men. She knows what it’s like to feel pain and loss. She probably is carrying some bitterness and anger along with her shame.
Yet, here she is. She’s not given up. She’s still going. She’s still day after day going out to the well to get the water. Maybe everyone else missed something that Jesus saw because he knew what was inside her. This becomes obvious later in the story. Check out the best part.
John 4:39-42 NIV
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. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 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.”
The very next verse says that Jesus left for Galilee after two days. So there is an impromptu spiritual revival among the Samaritans that goes on for two days. How does it happen?
The very woman that people had cast aside comes back into a village of people that had rejected her and convinces them to meet her new friend and Savior Jesus.
I don’t picture her handing out a few flyers. Because of who she was, it couldn’t have been easy.
Think about this, this was the very woman that the disciples passed by without ever saying a word too. This was also the very same people that the disciples had seen when they walked into the village to buy food. It never crossed their minds to share with them yet this woman sees people that desperately needed to meet their Savior.
What barriers do we put up when we judge people with our biases?
You have no idea what is inside people but Jesus knew the potential of God working through this Samaritan woman.
I think Jesus was teaching multiple lessons to multiple audiences here. Jesus primary focus was making disciples so He used every scenario to teach them a lesson in ministry. I believe the big lesson here for them and for us: Who is my Mission?
The answer: Everybody!
Who did the Samaritan woman go to?
Notice that this woman goes back to the town where she was from. It probably was out of her comfort zone but she felt compelled to share with those she did life with.
There is a Greek word that is mentioned throughout the New Testament that helps us answer the question. It’s the word “Oikos.” It was the ancient Greek equivalent of a household, house, or family. An average Oikos is usually made up of about 8-15 people.
OIKOS:
>In Luke 8, (from last weeks sermon) the demon possessed man was told to return to his household (oikos) and describe the great things done for him.
>In Luke 19, Zacchaeus was told salvation had come to his household (oikos).
>In John 4, the centurion’s whole household (oikos) was saved following the healing of his son.
>In Acts 10, Cornelius was a righteous man who feared God with all his household (oikos).
>In Acts 16, the Philippian Jailer has his entire household (oikos) baptized in the middle of the night.
What does that look like for us? God has intentionally and strategically placed you in your family, friendships, neighborhood and workplace to reach out to those you are already doing life with.
One easy way to think about it is to think FRANCE . Who are your
Friends
Relatives
Acquaintances
Neighbors
Co-Workers/Classmates and
keep your Eyes open.
Would you just start praying this prayer on a daily basis, “Lord I don’t ask you for much today, but would you give me your heart for the lost.”
Make a those you know who need Jesus
Friends
Relatives
Acquaintances
Neighbors
Co-Workers/Classmates
Eyes (those you meet along the way)
Remember 1 Cor. 3:6
1 Corinthians 3:6 NIV
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
For His glory, God is working in you so that He may be known through you.