THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
John 4:1-42
S: Evangelism
Th: My Life as God’s Light
Pr: GET THE GOOD NEWS OUT!
?: How?
KW: Manners
TS: We will find in John 4:1-42, four manners that describe how we get the good news out.
The _____ manner that describes how we get the good news out is by…
I. GOING, NOT WAITING (1-6)
II. ENGAGING, NOT FORCING (7-26)
III. LOVING, NOT PREJUDGING (27-30, 39-42)
IV. SERVING, NOT SELF-SERVING (31-38)
RMBC 6/3/01 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Notebook: Church (franchise)
A family was in vacation in Montana visiting the grandparents, and when the grandmother drove her car past a church in the small town, she pointed to it, told the children that it was the First Baptist Church. “It must be a franchise,” her eight-year-old grandson said. “We’ve got one of those in our town too.”
Well, there are Baptist churches all around, that is for sure.
But let me ask you this question…
1. Does the world need another Baptist church?
That’s a thought-provoking question being asked by this Baptist pastor, isn’t it?
After all, the Lord has directed me into three churches with the name Baptist in it—two of which were called “First Baptist Church.”
I am fairly committed to being a Baptist.
Let me switch gears for a moment…
Do you remember that poem by Robert Frost called “The Road Less Traveled”?
ILL “The Road Less Traveled” by Robert Frost
Part of it goes like this…
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no foot had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere in ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
Took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
What I want to suggest to you this morning, is that this is the kind of church that is needed in this world…
2. What the world needs is a church that is willing to take the road less traveled (Matthew 7:13-14).
Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew…
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
There is a narrow way, and only a few find it.
It is the road less traveled.
TRANSITION:
But…
1. Does anyone care?
What I mean here is that there are a lot of people that feel lost in today’s world.
They wander about looking for meaning.
ILL Janice Ian
Years ago, Janice Ian wrote a song that expressed this.
She sang…
I learned the truth at 17
That love was made for beauty queens
and high school girls with clear skinned smiles...
And those of us with ravaged faces,
lacking in the social graces,
desperately remained at home
inventing lovers on the phone...
those of us who knew the pain
of valentines that never came,
and those whose names were never called
when choosing sides for basketball…
That is a song of pain.
But there is an answer to, “Does anyone care?”
The answer is “yes.”
God cares…and because God cares…we have the responsibility to…
2. GET THE GOOD NEWS OUT!
We have good news to tell!
You know…there are a lot of churches that believe in the good news, and yet, they don’t act on it.
For interestingly, the church that shares the good news has become the road less traveled.
This is a challenge to us as a church.
Are we going to be a church that actually gets the good news out?
Jesus is a great example to us in this, and in this story of the woman at the well, we learn how to get the good news out.
So…
3. We will find in John 4, four approaches that describe how we get the good news out.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first approach that we must take to get the good news out is to be GOING, NOT WAITING (1-6).
(4) Now he had to go through Samaria.
Jesus took the road less traveled…Samaria.
He did not choose a popular path.
He did not choose the easy path.
But He had to go through Samaria.
The culture and religion of Samaria were distinct from the rest of Israel because the relationship between Jews and Samaritans was definitely strained.
The religious barriers had been erected for 400 years and only worsened through the centuries.
So much so that the Jews would not pass through Samaria on the path between Judea and Galilee.
They would go east, cross the Jordan River, go north or south, bypass Samaria, and then cross the Jordan again when they neared their destination.
That’s how bad it was.
Yet Jesus had to go through Samaria.
He teaches us a lesson here, that is…
1. We should be on the move.
When the Lord told us how to make disciples, He described how it is to be done.
He said literally, “Going, make disciples.”
This means we don’t do it by sitting still.
This means we are going to have to leave our comfort zone and move out.
But you know…
2. Sometimes, we become stagnant when it comes to our testimony.
ILL Notebook: Invitation (come at your own risk)
Mrs. Jones was reading a letter at breakfast. Suddenly she looked up suspiciously at her husband. "Henry," she said, "I’ve just received a letter from mother saying she isn’t accepting our invitation to come and stay, as we do not appear to want her. What does she mean by that? I told you to write and say that she was to come at her own convenience. You did write, didn’t you?" "Er, yes, I did," said the husband. "But I couldn’t spell convenience, so I made it risk."
Sometimes I wonder if we haven’t become like that in the church.
We invite people to come in and be like us.
But we become so protective of the way we want the church to be and the comfort level we feel, what we are really saying is, “Come at your own risk.”
But this is not the instruction to the church.
We are told to go…even to Samaria.
II. The second approach we must take to get the good news out is to be ENGAGING, NOT FORCING (7-26).
(7) When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
Jesus teaches us a wonderful lesson here and it is…
1. We need to guide our conversations toward the truth.
When you look at the whole conversation, notice how Jesus moves from superficial concerns and eventually gets to the heart of the problem.
With each interchange, Jesus brings this woman at the well closer to faith.
He just keeps moving to the deepest level of this woman’s need—her need to be cleansed from sin.
But you know…
2. Sometimes, we lack the patience to go through the process.
I wonder if you and I would have been so patient and so gentle with this woman.
ILL Notebook: Evangelism (when tickets don’t hurt)
In 1992, a Los Angeles county parking control officer came upon a brown Cadillac El Dorado illegally parked next to the curb on street sweeping day. The officer dutifully wrote out a ticket. The officer completely ignored the man seated behind the wheel of the car, as he reached in and placed the thirty-dollar ticket on the dashboard.
The man in the car made no excuses. He didn’t argue or try to stop the officer and for good reason. For you see, unfortunately, the driver was dead. He had been shot in the head ten to twelve hours earlier but was sitting up, stiff as a board, slumped slightly forward with blood on his face.
The officer, preoccupied with ticket writing, said he was unaware of anything out of the ordinary. He got back in his car and drove off to the next illegally parked car.
I have always felt the church is much better in dealing with law than grace.
And what should catch our attention most about people is their need, not their offenses.
What they need most is not our citations or our judgments; what they need most is our Savior.
Folks, we need to find common ground with the people God has put into our path.
This is what Jesus does.
He begins on a common subject—water.
We need to do the same thing.
We engage them in conversation so to lead them to the truth.
We set aside the cultural barriers and start talking to people where they are, in terms they understand.
But we don’t force the issue unduly, or bang them over the head, but instead exercise patience and let the relationship develop.
III. The third approach we must take to get the good news out is to be LOVING, NOT PREJUDGING (27-30, 39-42).
(27) Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman.
I can just imagine this scene.
The disciples had gone to negotiate lunch and they come back and find Jesus breaking all the rules.
And they are so shocked, they just stand there in silence.
For the strictest rabbis of that day forbade other rabbis to greet women in public.
But it was more than that, because it is obvious that she was immoral as well.
The evidence is the time of day that she comes because it is not the normal time that the women came.
She was obviously avoiding contact with others.
Note that there are three strikes against her.
She was a Samaritan.
She was sexually immoral.
And (no offense intended) she was a woman.
For Jesus to even talk to her was a radical gesture.
But here is what we learn from Jesus…it is…
1. We need to see the person as God does.
Sometimes I wonder if this woman was standing by the well as if it were a wishing well, tossing coins in, wishing that it will make it all right.
Her life was full of heartache and she was never fully satisfied.
She was still searching, but never finding what could really meet her need.
ILL Hughes, p. 106
That Samaritan woman illustrates the longing of mankind and our thirst for something more fulfilling in life.
George Sanders was at one time a leading man in Hollywood who had been married to Zsa Zsa Gabor and Benita Hume. He was a graduate of Cambridge University and was a brilliant mathematician. In sum, he was a man of exceptional mental and social abilities, but his suicide note contained an element of Samaritan dissatisfaction and despair.
“I am committing suicide because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I leave you all in your sweet little cesspool and I wish you luck.”
People are needy.
Those that are without Christ, live without meaning.
But God has a passion for people.
ILL Card (Violent Grace)
I like how Michael Card has said it in his recent song, “Violent Grace.”
So ruthless, He loves us,
So reckless His embrace
To show relentless kindness
To a hardened human race.
The joy that was before Him
On the Man of Sorrows’ face
And by His blood
He bought a violent grace.
God is so passionate about us, it is as if He is ruthless, reckless and relentless to see us become His children.
That’s powerful.
That’s real passion.
Do you have that kind of passion?
To be honest…
2. Sometimes, we avoid those that are not like us.
We like living the Pharisee theory of holiness.
They stayed away from those that were sinners so to not get defiled.
We are to give hope to those that are hurting, not judgment.
We need to set aside our prejudices and rearrange our priorities.
We are to remove our bias, myopic vision and indifference.
And when we do, we will begin to see people just like us that desperately need the truth.
IV. The fourth approach we must take to get the good news out is to be SERVING, NOT SELF-SERVING (31-38).
(34) “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
Jesus says this because the disciples were preoccupied with lunch.
They went into town to negotiate lunch, purchase it, and bring it back.
But they find him talking to a woman!
Once they regained theirwits, their solution was rather simple, “Walk away Jesus and let’s have something to eat.”
ILL Notebook: Opportunity (wolves)
Once there was a bounty of $5,000 being offered for each wolf captured alive. It turned Sam and Jed into fortune hunters. Day and night they scoured the mountains and forests looking for their valuable prey. Exhausted one night, they fell asleep dreaming of their potential fortune. Suddenly, Sam awoke to see that they were surrounded by about fifty wolves with flaming eyes and bared teeth. He nudged his friend and said, “Jed, wake up! We’re rich!”
Jesus was rich too.
He had opportunity.
He had a whole town to win to the truth.
In the same way…
1. We need to take advantage of the opportunities God gives us.
We have an urgent task, that is even more urgent than eating (I know that’s not a real Baptist-like thought).
But the point here is that Jesus is so committed to completing His work that He refused to eat a meal when it interfered.
But frankly…
2. Sometimes, we are more interested in meeting our own needs.
We need to set aside self-interest and get our priorities right.
We need to see that just as Jesus came to serve, so are we to serve.
You know, there are people today that believe we should not interfere with the belief systems of other cultures.
We should not try to convert them.
We should respect their beliefs.
But I wonder, if you went into a country where people were dying because they were relying on witch doctors and magical spells, would you be reluctant to bring them a real physician if you could actually cure them?
Would you respect their belief system or try to save them by brining them in contact with the truth?
Jesus calls us to serve by engaging others with the truth.
He came so that lost people would get unlost.
You see, Jesus did not come for the religious or the respectable.
He did not come for Caucasian, middle-class Americans.
He is the Savior of the world.
So why would we hold back the truth?
APPLICATION:
1. Getting the good news out is not a one-time event.
We tend to think that if we just get a person to a service or some other special event, that we have accomplished getting the good news out.
But that is not Jesus’ approach here.
His approach was all about relationships.
That is why after the Samaritan woman believes that he decides to stay in Samaria another two days (I bet the disciples were not really thrilled about that!).
In the same way, God has given us relationships with others.
And I believe that the relationships we have with unbelievers are providential…that is, God has planned them.
I find this happening more and more lately.
I see God giving me more and more opportunities in developing relationships and infusing the Lord into the conversations.
(relate soccer Kuhn, Keating, Walser)
2. Letting our light shine is a lifestyle.
I want you to take out that insert that you tore in half earlier.
As I warned many of you earlier a few weeks ago, I have become convinced that we need to stop nodding to being light, and be committed to it.
This is what I want you to do today.
For a year and a half now, I have been reminding you of the steps of a lighthouse lifestyle—prayer, care and share.
Today, I am asking you to commit to it.
What I am asking you to do is to put down the first names of people that you acknowledge that God has put into your life that do not know Jesus.
After you do that, I want you to sign your full name.
When it is all said and done, you will have one part for yourself, the smaller part to be placed in a basket next to the lighthouse in the narthex as you go out.
Now, let me share these three steps one more time…
2.1 We need to bathe our unsaved friends in prayer.
We need to pray for God’s blessing on their lives.
You can do it by praying outside their house or by their door at the office or by their locker in school.
But pray for them.
And remember this…
If we do not pray for lost souls, it means we do not care about them.
Second…
2.2 We need to demonstrate care as an example of God’s love.
The amazing thing is that as we pray for people, God has a way of providing opportunities to us to show the love of Jesus to them.
It can be a little thing…a phone call…a meal…a cup of coffee…
Or it can be more substantial…
Be creative.
But whatever it is, we take advantage of every opportunity afforded us by the Lord to make a difference in their lives.
Third…
2.3 We need to share the good news—God has made a difference in us…
As we demonstrate God’s love, this becomes a “door-opener” to share the difference God has made in us.
After all, there is an explanation to why we act as we do.
So…
3. Let us be committed to getting the good news out.
I have not spent any time talking about our anniversary this morning…until now…
And what I have to say is rather simple, but I believe profound.
We are right to celebrate our past, but we are wrong to linger there.
Pastor Will always reminds me that sometimes the good old days weren’t always that good.
Only he can get away with saying that around here!
But here is what I want you to remember today…
We honor Randall’s past by reaching people today.
We honor the past by engaging the present.
The light has shone for 175 years, but the light must shine today too…and tomorrow…and the day after…
So we must engage the people God has given us today.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Get the good news out…get going, get on the move; we are not to sit still but be a people that actively tell others about Jesus.
Get the good news out…and love people as God does; for He places people into your life so that you will develop relationships so that they may know the truth.
Get the good news out…bathe unbelievers in prayer—that God will bless them; creatively care for them; and as God opens the door of opportunity—share the good news.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
