After listening to a prominent evangelist on the radio, eight‑year-old Debbie asked her six‑year‑old brother David, “Do you know about Jesus?”
Expecting a new slant on the old story, David replied, “No.”
Sister said, “Sit still because this is really scary.” After explaining the gospel as only an eight‑year‑old could, she popped the question.
“Now, David, when you die, do you want to go to heaven to be with Jesus, God, your Mommy and Daddy, and big sister, or do you want to go to the lake of fire to be with the Devil and bank robbers?”
David thought a moment, then replied, “I want to stay right here.” (1)
Sounds like a smart little fellow. Maybe little Debbie was not the ideal evangelist. But her heart was in the right place. It’s a wonderful thing to help people find Jesus.
The highly esteemed theologian Karl Barth had a painting of the crucifixion on the wall of his study that was painted by the artist Matthias Grunewald. In the painting there is an image of John the Baptist. The artist portrayed John the Baptist pointing his finger to the cross of Jesus in the center of the painting. It’s said that when Barth would talk with a visitor about his work, he would direct them to John the Baptist in the painting, and he would say, “I want to be that finger.” Barth wanted to point people to Christ. (2)
Pointing people to Christ is our most important task as his people. This is properly referred to as evangelism, sharing with others the love of Jesus Christ.
German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke says this about sharing the gospel: “I actually believe with all of my heart that the ministry of evangelism is the most important [ministry] of all because [God] is out to rescue the perishing and to save the drowning. This is the heart of God. Salvation cost Him everything‑‑His only begotten Son.
“When God created the world, He didn’t sweat‑‑not one drop of perspiration. But God was sweating blood at the cross. That’s what it cost Him to save us. That’s not a small thing. So proclaiming the cross is not a side thought, an afterthought. It’s not on the back burner; it must be the front burner . . .”
Rev. Bonnke is right. Christ calls his followers to be evangelists. Today’s message is about one of the most effective evangelists who ever lived. But this evangelist had a shady past.
Now, when I say “a shady past,” some of you who are over 40 may have a picture in your mind of Sinclair Lewis’ Elmer Gantry, or of Jimmy Swaggart or Jim Bakker or some other well-known modern evangelist with a blemished past. Modern TV evangelism is more like show business than it is about church. As such it often draws personalities with enormous egos who may start out with good intentions, but sometimes falter along the way.
And it is not always sex that is their weakness as some of you might think. Some of our best known religious figures have been snared by another deadly temptress greed materialism mammon. “God has blessed them really good,” in their own eyes. And God wants their followers to keep supporting them in the manner to which they have grown accustomed. If they do, say these slick performers God will give them every good thing. They conveniently forget Jesus’ words, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”
But nobody’s ever thrown out of a pulpit for greed, unless outright fraud can be proved. But sex is an issue that gets people’s attention. So sexual sin can stain a religious figure forever. It may be unfair, but it is true.
And thus we come to today’s evangelist with the shady past. Her sin was sexual. She was a woman of questionable reputation. But rather than detracting from her role as an evangelist, it actually enhanced it. Because people who knew her could see the change that Jesus had made in her life. They knew that her testimony rang true. She is best known to us, of course, as the woman at the well.
Our story takes place in a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob gave 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.
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus asked her, “Will you give me a drink?”
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. And righteous Jewish men did not speak to women they did not know.
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.”
The woman was surprised. “Sir,” she 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?” And, of course, Jesus was greater than Jacob. She simply could not realize how much greater he was.
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 didn’t have a clue what Jesus was talking about but she was tired of carrying a heavy water jug back from the well each day. This Jew was promising her a source of water that would never cease flowing and that sounded good.
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.”
Then Jesus surprised her again. He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
Whoa, he hit a nerve. “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.”
Do you understand that biblical people are really not any different than people today? You and I know couples who are cohabitating without the benefit of wedlock. Does it surprise you that they did so in Jesus’ time as well?
The woman was impressed. “Sir,” she 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 Jesus talking with a woman. But no one asked why he was doing this.
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?” The people of the town made their way toward Jesus. And many of these Samaritans believed in him, says John, because of the woman’s testimony. 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.” What a wonderful story of redemption. Jesus reached out to this Samaritan woman; then she reached out to the people in her village.
One reason Jesus may have had such an effect on this woman was the respect he showed her. Arnold Prater in his book The Presence makes an interesting point. He says that in verse 21 when Jesus called this woman with a checkered past, “woman,” the Greek word gune, which he used, is not a term used for scolding or contempt but is used lovingly as a term of great endearment. He says that it should be better translated as “special lady.”
Think of it: this woman is a village outcast. She cannot associate with the other women. She has been divorced several times, and is now living with a man who is not her husband. Yet Jesus, seeing the possibilities in her, calls her “special lady.” He used the same word for this woman that he used for his mother at the wedding in Cana and on the cross. (3)
Perhaps that is what struck this woman the most. He treated her with dignity and respect, the way we all should treat others. That is where effective evangelism begins. He treated her as a person who really mattered, and she could not wait to tell her friends.
Here is something we need to see. The most effective messengers of the Gospel are real people who have had their lives transformed.
Now, obviously, people who are phony in their witness to Christ are not going to be effective. None of us will tolerate for long someone who is an outright phony.
There was an interesting item in Harper’s Magazine sometime back. It was about a popular book that was out at the time the magazine was printed. The book was titled Staying Married and Loving It. It was written by a Dr. Patricia Allen and Sandra Harmon. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Staying Married and Loving It. Maybe so, but consider this fact: the co-authors of this book have been married a total of five different times. (4) That happens, even with nice people, but it’s not a very good testimony to the joys of matrimony.
Reader’s Digest told a story a few years ago about a company that glued a tiny seed to a brochure that was advertising their product. The brochure said, “If you have the faith as a mustard seed in our product, it will produce profound results for you.” Several months later, a customer wrote back saying, “You will be very interested to know that I planted your mustard seed and now I have a beautiful plant covered with tomatoes!” Obviously, it was a tomato seed, not a mustard seed. (5) Bad witness!
It’s true, outright phonies will not gain a hearing for long. But I believe this truth has more general application.
Many people today are growing disenchanted with what might be termed “celebrity evangelism.” Certainly, TV evangelists are no longer enjoying the following that they once did.
Some of you will remember when evangelist and faith healer Oral Roberts headed a vast TV empire. He became so famous that he became the target of comedians.
According to one joke Simon Peter knocks on the door to God’s office in heaven and says, “You’ll never guess who just arrived. It’s the Oral Roberts.”
“Show him in,” God says.
As Roberts enters the office, God asks, “Are you the Oral Roberts?”
“Yes,” he admits.
“Well,” God says, “I’ve got this aching shoulder. . . .” (6)
Pastor Roberts undoubtedly has made his contribution to the faith, but it is telling that when one newspaper carried a news item recently about a stay that Roberts had in a hospital after undergoing tests for chest pains, the item appeared in the newspaper’s column called, “Show Biz Shorts.” (7)
Well, TV evangelism is show biz. That’s also true when we treasure the witness of famous athletes or Hollywood stars or singers above the witness of the ordinary believer. The most effective messengers of the Gospel are real people who have had their lives transformed.
This applies not only to celebrity Christians but also what we might call super saints. Some of you may think that your witness for Christ might not be very effective because at sometime in your life you messed up. Actually, the exact opposite may be true. Most people today are turned off by what we may call super saints. Most people want to hear from somebody whose faith has been tested . . . who knows what it is to experience grace.
Pastor Jay Kesler once told about a boy who had been arrested for armed robbery. The boy’s parents, who were professing Christians and very active in their church, were so ashamed that they didn’t leave their home for several days. They didn’t know if they could face people again, particularly those in their church.
The parents finally went to church, and their shame and fear made them stick together like burrs. But something wonderful happened. A stream of people came to them. And the chief reason they came to them was not so much to console them as to ask for help for their own spiritual problems.
The father said later, “It seems to me that when people take a super-spiritual pose in church, pretending to have no problems, the other church people are afraid to be honest about their own problems for fear that they will look like failures. It’s strange that when we tried our best and, at least on the surface, succeeded in our Christian lives, we didn’t touch other lives. Now that we are having problems with our son, other people ask for our help they want to know how God is working out our problems.” (8)
If, like the Pharisees, we parade our superior righteousness or spirituality, we will do more to turn people off than we will do to attract them to Christ. The only man who has ever lived who was without sin was Jesus of Nazareth, and yet, many of the religious people could not accept him as the Messiah, because he associated with sinners and did not appear very saintly. In fact, aside from his love and his miracles, he seemed very much like a real person.
And that is who Jesus wants to share their faith: real people who have had their lives transformed by his power.
Are you among that number? Have you had a deep failure at some time in your life and found that God’s promises are real? If so, share your story with others. And if you are going through a time of failure and pain right now, don’t shrink back from Christ. He is saying to you, “Special lady, special gentleman, my grace is sufficient for you. I died that you might live. Accept my gift of love this day.”
The evangelist had a shady past, but her friends knew that her testimony was real. Christ had brought her from darkness into the light.
1. Jim Abrahamson in Edward K. Rowell, 1001 Quotes, Illustrations, and Humorous Stories (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2008), p. 322.
2. Jeremy Troxler, http://faithandleadership.com/sermons/coming-soon
3. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993).
4. “Harper’s Index,” August 1998, p.13.
5. http://www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com/.
6. “Positive Paternalism” by Dr. Robert R. Kopp, Jan. 23, 2000, p. 3.
7. Ernest W. Ranly, “Shaky reforms,” Christian Century, March 3, 1993.
8. Billy Graham, “The Healer of Our Broken Hearts,” Decision, Feb. 2003, pg. 5.