Keith Miller in his book The Scent Of Love tells of the young
intern who was brilliant and competitive, and wanted to get his
hands on the toughest cases that came into the hospital. One day a
man was brought in very sick. His temperature was high, his blood
count was down, and his fluids were out of balance. He was in bad
shape, and this young doctor said, "I'll take him." He started
working on the sick man and got his temperature down. Then he
got his blood count up, and his fluids in balance. Everything was
going quite well, but suddenly the patient died.
The supervising physician came by just as the intern was covering
the patient, and he noticed he was furious. He watched
unobserved from the hall as the young doctor grabbed the chart at
the front of the bed, took a pen out of his pocket, and scrawled
something across it. Then he stormed angrily out passed the
supervisor, and never said a word. The older physician could not
resist going into to see what he had written. It said, "This patient
was in better condition when he died then when he first came to
me." This is in the same category with the statement, "The
operation was a success, but the patient died." It sounds strange,
but this is the goal of the physician of the soul-to make sure people
are in better condition when they die.
Corrie Ten Boom got the warning that a Jewish orphanage was
to be raided, and all the babies killed. She quickly got some of her
Dutch boys dressed up in Nazi uniforms, and sent them to the
orphanage to demand that the babies be turned over to them. With
tears they were handed over. The people did not realize that they
were really saving the babies. All were given to families to raise.
One of the boys involved in this clever rescue said to Corrie that he
believed the most important work of his life was the saving of those
babies. Corrie said to him that as important as it was, the more
important work is saving people forever by telling them of Jesus.
She put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Pete, every Christian is
called to be a soul winner for Jesus.....and in your life there will
come a times when you will see that as the most important work for
you.
Six months later he was arrested, and given one week to live. The
day before he was executed he wrote this letter to Corrie. "All the
boys in my cell are sentenced to death. I am so glad that I could tell
them about Jesus and they have accepted Him. I know that when
they shoot us tomorrow, we will all go to heaven, because we have
brought our sins to Jesus and He has made us all children of God.
We know that the house of the Father with many mansions is our
very close future. I see now that the most important work for a
Christian is to win souls for eternity. Like the young doctor, this
young physician of the soul could have written their death
certificates with these words: "These boys were in better condition
when they died then when they came to me." Jesus could have
written this concerning the thief on the cross as well.
This is the ultimate need of all mankind. We cannot solve the
problems of the world. It will be a fallen world until Jesus comes
again, and it will be a world of unsolvable problems and crooked
paths we cannot make straight. But we can make sure that the
victims of this fallen world are in better condition when they die,
then ever before. That is the great human need that Jesus
addresses in John 4. He does not offer the woman at the well
marriage counseling, or some advice on self-esteem therapy. After
being rejected by five husbands, she no doubt had a head full of
psychological problems. Jesus did not inquire if there were
children involved, and offer her family guidance, or legal advice on
how she could get out of Samaria and start a new life. This woman
may have had more problems than we could imagine, but all Jesus
offered her was a spring of water that would well up to eternal life.
He was not solving all her problems, but He was offering her the
chance to be in better condition when she died, than she ever was
before she met the Messiah.
The point I am getting at it this: Man's greatest need is for
eternal life. There are a great many studies on man's basic needs.
He needs food, air, water, shelter, clothing, and he needs love and
security, self-esteem, and a host of other things for the ideal and
balanced life. But the bottom line Biblically is, man needs God. He
needs to know he is a child of God, and a part of a family that never
ends. This woman at the well had five families that ended, and we
do not know what state she was in with her present family. Jesus
offers her a chance to be a part of a family where she will be loved
permanently. Her wells kept running dry, but Jesus offers her a
well that will never run dry. He offers her a place where she will
always belong. This meets her basic need for love, acceptance, and
security.
This whole passage is about meeting needs, and it leads us to
focus on another principle truth about evangelism-the purpose of
evangelism. Let's review the key truth that Jesus is teaching us in
John 4. We have looked at-
1. HIS PASSION FOR EVANGELISM.
2. HIS PROCEDURE IN EVANGELISM.
3. HIS PROSPECTS FOR EVANGELISM.
4. HIS PURPOSE IN EVANGELISM.
This last one is our focus now. There are literally thousands of
definitions of what evangelism is. I have written a couple myself.
Here are some of the most famous:
1. The Madras Foreign Missions Council, "Evangelism is so to
present Jesus Christ to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit
that men shall come to put their trust in God through Him, accept
them as their Savior and serve Him as their Lord in the fellowship
of His church."
2. The World Council Of Churches, "Evangelism is so making
Christ known to men that each is confronted with the necessity of a
personal decision, yes or no."
3. Toyohiko Kagawa, "Evangelism means the conversion of people
from worldliness to Christlike godliness."
4. Albert W. Beaven, "Evangelism is simply the contagion of
enthusiasm for Jesus Christ.
The methods which we employ are only channels through which
this enthusiasm flows."
5. Archbishop Temple, "Evangelism is the winning of men to acknowledge Christ as their Savior and King, so that they may give
themselves to His service in the fellowship of His church."
6. Samuel Boon of Siam, "Evangelism means living, doing, and
talking for Christ."
There are many ways to say it, but when you reduce it to its
essence, evangelism is simply meeting mans basic need for salvation,
or the need for eternal life. When this purpose is achieved, there
will be many changes in time, but the ultimate value will be, people
will be in better condition when they die than they were before they
met the Great Physician. As we watch the Master at work in
fulfilling the purpose of evangelism, we see how the entire process is
need oriented.
Jesus deals with each person He encounters according to their
need. Find a need and meet it was His strategy. In John 3 Jesus
said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." This analogy of
coming into the kingdom of God by the process of a new birth has
so dominated the minds of modern Christians that they have
completely ignored the fact that Jesus never once referred to it in
dealing with the woman at the well. His analogy here is tailored to
meet her need, and He uses the analogy of drinking at a fountain
that never runs dry. For Nicodemus, and millions of others, the
concept of being born anew is just what they need to grasp the
Gospel. But for others, the need is to see being saved is like finding
a fountain of water that quenches the thirst for love, meaning, and
acceptance. Still others need to see it as being a lost sheep found by
a loving shepherd, and being returned to the fold.
There are different analogies used in the Bible to describe the
experience of being saved, because the people who need to be saved
have a variety of individual differences. Jesus did not treat people
like pieces of plastic coming along in a assembly line, all alike, and
all needing the same label attached, or the same hole drilled in the
same place. People are all different, and though they all have the
same ultimate need, they have very different temporal needs, and
these need to be addressed in witnessing to them, and leading them
to have their needs met in Christ. We should all have a sort of
canned presentation of the Gospel prepared, but we need to be
aware of the importance of being flexible, and not so locked in to a
specific presentation that we ignore people's differences.
If all you ever say to people is, you must be born again, you are
not being Christ like, for He only used that as one of several
analogies of salvation. So use them all, and vary them with the
circumstances, and the nature of the people you are dealing with.
This woman was at the well in the heat of the day, and she was
obviously in great need of water, so Jesus takes this need and builds
His presentation of the Gospel around that need. Jesus said you
need living water, and this got her attention, for that was her most
relevant need just then. A wise witness will observe and listen so as
to know something of the needs of the person he is witnessing to. If
the Gospel does not speak to a felt need, you can count on it,
it will seem irrelevant to the person you are talking to. If the
purpose of evangelism is to meet a basic need, then you have to be
dealing with a persons need to get anywhere in achieving this goal.
You can never catch fish unless you appeal to a need. They need
food, and so you offer them bait, and a variety of bait for appeal to
different fish. You also have to appeal to a need to be a fisher of
men. That is why Jesus has so many different names and titles in
the Bible. Each one makes Him just what people need at a
particular time in their life.
To the lonely, Jesus is the friend.
To the lost, Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
To the sick, Jesus is the Great Physician.
To the ignorant Jesus is the teacher.
There are many other examples, and the point is, Jesus is what
people need, but He has to be presented according to the specific
needs of the individual, and that is why we need to pay attention to
people's needs, for they are the doors of opportunity to share the
good news of Jesus. All that Jesus is doing in this context revolves
around need. He exposes her record of failed relationships, not to
embarrass or condemn her, but to make it quite clear that she has a
need for love and acceptance, which she just can not quench. She
has been trying to satisfy her thirst for love by one relationship
after another, always hoping the next one will meet her need. We
do not know the details of why five men divorced her, but he
chances are good that it was because she could never be satisfied,
and was always looking for another man. She could have been like
many in our day who expect to find love and life's meaning in sex alone.
We do not want to minimize the value of sex, and its place in
God's plan, and try to pretend it is not a major need. We are just
pointing out that people who become obsessed with sex make it an
idol, and destroy all their relationships by an insatiable quest to
quench their thirst for love at this one well. People need a love that
is more powerful and more permanent than sex. That is what this
woman needed, and that is what all need, and that is the love that
Jesus offered her, and offers to all.
This woman went from man to man expecting her thirst to be
quenched, if she could just find the right man. Jesus did not
question her need, and say it was not legitimate. He did not say she
did not need love and satisfaction. He just said she was drinking
from the wrong well, and seeking to satisfy her need by means of
externals. The only water that can satisfy is living water, and that
comes from a well from within. This is the very essence of what the
Gospel is all about. It is about the inner life. The world system is a
system of externals. The meaning of life is in what you can see, feel,
hear, smell, and taste, and so it makes sense that they drink at the
wells of sensualism and materialism.
The people we contact every day in the world are people who are
thirsty, and who are seeking to quench that thirst by getting all the
pleasure they can if that means drinking at the well of immorality,
then so be it, it is the only well they know. The purpose of
evangelism is to help them see a better well. A well that can meet
their deepest needs, and save them from a futile search that makes
them slaves rather than liberated people. Jesus came to give this
woman life and life abundant. That is, a life set free from the
slavery of being compelled to go from one relationship to another,
always looking for that external setting that would satisfy. When
we find our deepest needs met by water within, we are free from
this external compulsion. Jesus is that well that provides the living
water, and when He is in our lives, we can find satisfaction from
within. We can know we are loved and accepted, and feel secure
without the constant reinforcement of externals.
We thank thee, Lord, for Pilgrim days,
When desert springs were dry,
When first we knew what depths of need
Thy love could satisfy.
The purpose of evangelism is to help people change their focus so
they find their needs met by the kingdom of God which is within
them, when they receive Christ as Savior. The Well Within is the
goal. The well without is the focus of the world, as it was with this
woman. What she needed most, and what all people need most is,
The Well Within-an inner source of the water of life that meets our
deepest needs and quenches our thirst for love. The purpose of
evangelism is to point to Jesus as this Well Within, and make Him
so appealing that people want to open their lives and welcome Him
in. Those who drink of this well will never thirst again Jesus said.
This does not mean people who take Jesus as their Savior never feel
thirsty. Jesus Himself felt thirsty, and asked for a drink. The needs
of life go on, and we all need external water, and we all need
external love, acceptance, and the materialism of the secular life is
still an important part of the Christian life. But the ultimate need is
met in Christ, and we no longer need to live under the delusion that
some external can satisfy the meaning of life. The need for God,
for love, and for eternal life are all met in Christ, and we never need
to thirst again for these needs to be met.
This woman had plenty of needs after she welcomed Christ into
her life as her Messiah. She still needed to come to the well and get
water. She still needed to bring her sex life under the control of
God's law, and make a commitment to the man she was living with.
She had a list of needs she had to meet in the external world. But
she had a well within that satisfied her ultimate need for love and
life in God. Billy Sunday, the great evangelist, once wrote to the
mayor of the city where he was going for a campaign. He asked
him to send him the names of citizens in special need of prayer. The
mayor sent him the city directory. Everybody is in need of prayer,
and everybody always will be, as long as history lasts. Just knowing
this need makes it easier to witness to all people.
The Gospel is not, come to Jesus and you will never need to come
to the well again; you will never need human love again; you will
never need the acceptance of society again; you will never need a
job, food, a place to live, and friends again. Not at all! These needs
go on for all people, as they did for this woman at the well. The
Gospel is, you don't have to look for the meaning of life in all of the
wrong places, for you have found it in your relationship to Christ.
The meaning of life is found in Jesus, who by His death for your sin
has reconciled you to God, and given you eternal life. The good
news is, you will be in better condition when you die than you ever
were before you came to Christ, and began to drink from the well
within.
Jesus did not scold this woman for her futile search for water to
quench her thirst. Nor is it our calling to blast people for their
foolish quest to find the fountain of life in all of the externals of the
world. Our calling is to witness to a source of water that quenches
the thirst for meaning, and sets people free from the slavery to
externals. All people have a deep need for a relationship with God.
Back in the days of the death of God movement someone said,
"Isn't it strange, we've gotten rid of God, and yet something is still
missing." There is a thirst in man that can never be quenched until
he feels right with God. Even atheist feel this. Bertrand Russell
was one of the most famous atheists of this century. Listen to what
he wrote, "Even when one feels nearest to other people, something
in one seems obstinately to belong to God, and to refuse to enter
into any earthy communion-at least that is how I should express it if
I thought there was a God. It is odd isn't it? I care passionately
for this world and many things and people in it, and yet...what is it
all? There must be something more important, one feels, though I
don't believe there is."
He didn't even believe in God, but he admitted he had a thirst
for God, and a need for God to make sense of life, and to make it
complete. Everyone you know and meet has this basic an ultimate
need to know God, and to be reconciled to Him. Every need people
have is a door by which we can enter into their lives, and point out
their greater need. If you want to make the Gospel relevant, make
it need centered. Find a need and meet it. The purpose of
evangelism is to do what Jesus did with this woman at the well.
Appeal to the need for water that satisfy people's thirst, and then
point them to the only water that can meet that need, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who will be to all who receive Him, The Well Within.
