FRANgelism (Part 1 of 5)

We sometimes think that an evangelist is someone who has a specific calling for a select few, if the Bible calls all of us.

Every believer to share the gospel with people in our world today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begg introduces a practical study of John chapter 4 titled friend journalism. I memorize are vintage to recall when the song sounds of silence. I catapulted Simon and Garfunkel from obscurity and with names that frankly deserved obscurity into the mainstream and into transatlantic success by recalling the description of the great crowd of people.

10,000 people maybe more people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening people writing songs that voices never share with no one there. Disturb the sounds of silence familiar words and that wonderful word picture on the part of Paul Simon. The reason I mention it is because it is very similar picture that is provided for us here in John chapter 4, I thought that if I mentioned talking without speaking and hearing without listening, and it may set our minds along the right kind of line to think about the predicament which face the disciples insofar as they were men who are looking without seeing this by the fact that the disciples of Jesus lived close to him listen to him were part of seeing his miraculous deeds and where if you like this June and is any group might be they were guilty of taking care of practical matters to the detriment of ultimate issues.

Indeed, what Jesus says to them.

Here is that there living with their eyes close now that would be one thing if it were merely an historical description, we can look back on it and say boy, those guys really made a mess that I'm glad we are not like that at all until we read of horses ended begins the scratch where we age begins to cut into our lives and we realize that this is a telling picture not simply of the disciples on that day, but it is to some degree picture of many local churches and actually to a certain measure description of the church as a whole, taking care of what he believes to be priorities. While all the time, failing to see that the issues as good and as important as they may be, are subservient to the timeless and pressing issue of the souls of men and women. So Jesus you will notice in John chapter 4, exhorts his disciples in relationship to this and in the 35th verse he says to them. I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields they are right for harvest. The disciples obviously were not noticing this they hadn't grasped it, nor had they been grasped by it and again it is vitally relevant because I find myself I don't know if you're prepared to acknowledge this, but I find myself like them inclined to be preoccupied with the immediate and the material and that I constantly need to be refocused to the spiritual and to the eternal. Why is it that I can be so consumed with this weather with the assumption that because my neighbors and my friends are relatively okay. They are materially satisfied. They are intellectually stable. They are emotionally not total basket case is that really and quantified. All is well, when in actuality the real issue is again that when we see folks as Jesus saw them as men with souls that will live on in all of eternity. It changes our perspective completely. We look at in indigent people at a crime laden society, criminal elements, poor people, and so on and were often sucked into thinking that if only we would do what people tell us to do mainly to increase the social benefits towards these bulbs that actually all would be well for them. Failing to recognize that no matter what we do in that regard still will not address the ultimate issues of these people's lives and in it all the harvest is obscure now. The picture was Jesus employs here is a wonderful picture. I tell you, he says, open your eyes and look at the fields Jesus made when they obviously weren't standing around without eyes close is highly unlikely that we where we can say that categorically they may well have had their eyes closed. It seems unlikely.

Although many when there listening to lesser mortals speak often have their eyes closed blows asked me if I can see people's eyes, yes, their eyes are open but not always so somebody wrote the little dog world. The color of my pastor's eyes. In truth I cannot well define for when he prays he closes his and when he preaches I close mine. So there is a possibility that they did of their eyes because they certainly have their ears closed, but metaphorically was true of the key to answering this question is backed up to verse 29 the lady with whom Jesus has a conversation which will begin to consider this morning had left Jesus behind left the well left the waterpark gone into the city to the town and said to the people in the town come on and see a man who told me everything I ever did dealing this could possibly be the Christ and then in verse 13 if we're making a movie of this, the camera angle goes, why it pans out. We go on a long lens we shoot down the line and we begin to see the picture of an emerging crowd from the town once we fastened on that the editor cuts it goes in close and tight to the disciples and to Jesus and the disciples and Jesus have this little interchange which ends with Jesus saying I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields at that point we draw the camera angle back again it opens out and we bring into Vista. This amazing site coming out of the town, for it was true that there were yet four months to harvest in relationship to the actual fields of grain through which the people were walking. Jesus wasn't talking about the field through which they were coming. He was talking about a fight with the people who were coming were themselves a field and he says Luke. I tell you, open your eyes and you can see, and it may even be that the headdresses of the people in eastern Middle Eastern God in the distance bobbing in the sunlight could actually take long. From this vantage point, the picture of the waiving of grain ready on right for harvest. Jesus says to these fellas.

I want you to take a look at this and understand that the harvest is ready see the disciples were focused on food that Jesus was actually not ultimately interested in, and they were thinking about the wrong stuff.

I don't feel that I could condemn them very quickly. I know for sure if I've been with them I would been thinking the same way they were thinking and I would've been in need of the same exhortation, and despite the fact that we are now some thousands of miles removed and geographically separated and historically removed from this the word of Jesus is still a relevant word to an individual to a church to a nation of churches this morning, I tell you he says.

Open your eyes and look the feelings the right for harvest now as we think of reaching people.

John chapter 4 is as good a place in the New Testament as any to which we might turn to learn certain principles in relationship to the temptation is to dive immediately into this conversation and so I want to resist that. But I want to set the thing in context this morning. If I might how and where and when did this conversation take place and surely it is significant to address those issues. Let me give you four elements contextually in terms of the context. First of all, understanding it, historically, historically, the immediate history as it relates to the events described for us here is very clear verse one.

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. An interesting way to begin the chapter. Obviously significant it is not padding on the part of John. He is writing everything under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit and every piece of Scripture is there for our edification and so when he writes this. It is in order to instruct us of the fact of the matter is that the immediate Lee preceding factor to this was the imprisonment of John the Baptist. You can read about it in Mark chapter 6 why when the imprisonment of John the Baptist be significant simply because John the Baptist was a pain in the neck to the Pharisees that is he was a good sermon of the Lord by the Pharisees couldn't stand it, didn't like his clothes didn't like his style in a like his way he spoke, he certainly didn't like his message and perhaps more than anything else that he could defy that he was drawing big crowds and they just had their same little deal going on, and so they were pursuing him and they eventually made it possible to have him arrested. So they got rid of a major problem and then were told their joy was short-lived because Jesus of Nazareth.

Now begins the exercise of far greater influence than John the Baptist had ever done before him. That's the immediate history. The ancient history, which relates to this issue that is immediately addressed in verse nine by the Samaritan woman where she points to this problem between the Jews and the Samaritans, this and this long-term historical factor goes way back about 800 years 700+720 BC the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Samaria was at significant very significant what'd they do while they carried away. The majority of the population into exile. All of them. Not all of them.

There were some left behind largely the people that they didn't want and so staying behind in the context they were impoverished in relationship to their ability to provide for the natural common functions of everyday life and in order to address that the Assyrians needed to populate these ghost towns as they come in vanquished the place took all the people away out of the relatively few people living there was going to pick up the garbage and was going to deliver the mill.

Who's going to do the various things.

So what you need to do was bring people in from the outside.

If you wondered where we get all this from you. Return to second Kings and chapter 17 and are at least make note of it because I'm going to quote from there right now.

You can read all this in two Kings 17 where in verse 24.

It says that the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon and then a whole host of places and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites, and the result was that they took over Samaria and you live in its tolerance. That is a very interesting thing a wonderful historical record about what they were doing with liens and then in verse 33 you have a virtual summary of the problem. This amalgamation of people who became known as Samaritan were no longer marked by the purity of worship of a monotheistic Judaism, but were now marked by the syncretism and pluralism represented in the fight at all these other people are common in intermarried with them so we read they worship the Lord, but they also serve their own dogs in accordance with the customs of the nations from which the immune brought in verse 34. To this day they persist in their former practices.

They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and ordinances so that this group of people that a marriage is the Samaritans.

You then turn forward into the books of Ezra. Now my when you get to now my a chapter 4 actually in Ezra 3 and four, comes as well. But you discover there that the Jews, the returning Jews from exile reject the fellows had stayed behind.

So the Samaritans who wanted an interest in the rebuilding project are snubbed and of course when you snub people you usually live with the implications of that and that began to establish a pattern of activities. The Samaritans only dealt with, and only to this day.

The few that are left deal with the Pentateuch that is the first five books of the Bible.

That's all they pay attention to.

There is no other viable for the Samaritans. Therefore the Jews are speaking terms of the prophetic literature and the sounds and so on. They are regarded as completely out of touch with reality in 400 BC. As a result of all of this resistance. Samaritans decided forget it will build our own operation so they go to Gary Zeman to build a temple of their own and they say we will worship on Garrison 120 BC, the Jews come along towards the temple burn the thing to the ground, which of course are not good for public relations, and certainly is not is not helping in terms of the kind of racial divide, and so we now fast-forward about 140 years and the lady says that Jesus here and you I am a Samaritan you want to drink of water. Get real, is aiming for 700 years. We don't talk that is the long term historical context.

Secondly, then let us set it in context geographically, geographically say a word about the site of the well this well as it is pinpointed for us here in John four is just out of sight. A place called psych on which is the ancient equivalent of the modern-day city of Askar. If you take a good map of the region and look at it you'll find Askar if you go to the North and the West. You'll find Gary Zeman and on the foothills of Garrison you'll find a modern city called Nablus.

It's good to do this. It's fun actually to take a Nablus open it up and look and say, at that point at this piece of latitude and Longley Jude Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate son of God had this exact conversation, a reminder to us that when we read our Bibles, we don't read them in some kind of tunnel were not reading our Bibles as if they were of some little promise book that you open up and flip it up and dip your finger in and find a piece you like and turn it into a card to stick on your vanity or something, so gives you a cozy feeling for the rest of the day Nono it demands much more than that, it demands careful study.

It demands honest endeavor. It is not for the fainthearted. It is not for the indolent it is for those who will give themselves like the billions to the Scriptures every day to examine the Scriptures and to see if the things that are taught are actually so and when you study around it. You will find that what I'm telling you is actually true now.

Geographically, we also know that there were several roads from Judea to Galilee. I mention this because in verse four it says that Jesus had to go through Samaria or if you have a King James version it might read that he needs must go through Samaria or something like that or he must go through Samaria interesting statement. Why must he go through Samaria is the kind of thing that incidentally and in home Bible studies. You can get off on about 930 never get back to what you're supposed to be studying because you come up with about 47 explanations that are all totally bogus because nobody if it were ever really told you know it would be helpful, but as it is, is mere conjecture, while his conjecture was organized or guided conjecture. What I think we can make an approximation at answering the question.

First of all we should note that the Samaritans were detested by the Pharisees. And so when the Pharisees were making the journey from Judea to Galilee.

There was no way in the world that were good. They were going through Samaria didn't want to see the people touch the people here from the people by from the people do anything with the people and so they took the long road which went through the area of the Jordan that was one road. Those who weren't so scrupulous about their dealings with them were quite happy to go right slap bang through the middle of Samaria, and indeed anyone who was in a hurry to get from Judea to Galilee would take the short route in the short route would run right through Samaria. So John says Jesus had to go through Samaria. One possibility is that he had to go because he had to go. He was in a hurry. He wanted to get to where he was going quickly. He wasn't going to fool around going on the long journey and he had to go through their is highly unlikely, and I'll address that knows we come to the third aspect of context which is to view the verses, not simply in a in an historical context in a geographical context, but then in a theological context. Let's just stay, then with this idea of the necessity of Jesus going through Samaria.

He had to go through Samaria. I think the answer to that has probably little to do with time and it has everything to do with the nature of the mission of Jesus.

Jesus is seen leaving Judea at a time when apparently he was being very very successful. More and more people were seeing his miracles hearing his words, getting baptized following him and Jesus says to his disciples that said were already here were going to Galilee seem right.

You would assume that since everything was going so well. The urgency would be knowledge. Just capitalize on this.

Let's develop this know Jesus said were going out. You understand only in terms of the five and Jesus was working within the framework of it.

If you like a divine calendar. He did not want any kind of premature crisis in Judea to move forward. The timing of what he knew would be his eventual to my and he resists this all the way through the Gospels whenever people are prepared to come and make him king. For example, he's gone. When people commonly think of going to shut them down.

He's gone. Why, because he knew that he was moving towards a point in time and so what we see here in Jesus. In this event in Samaria is Jesus recognizing the fact that he was there. According to verse 34 to do his will, and to finish his work whose will father's will, whose work the father's work. Jesus, why would leaving Judea because I must do his will and finish his work. Jesus, why are we going to Galilee to do his will and finish his work to get the focus it's an all-consuming passion. There's no question with Jesus and his operation about whether he had a purpose statement.

I'll give you a in a phrase I give you to do phrases do his will to finish his work. How can we expand on that yes we can, but it is the irreducible minimum.

What are you doing Jesus.

This is what I'm doing when you understand this love ones and realized that when he finishes up.

He says listen as the father sent me, so send I you.

It's the same purpose statement.

It's the same commission to do his will to finish his work not implant church scratch one another's backs not become the perfect husband is the most wonderful wives, all those things are means to an end. If I spend my last breath proclaiming Jesus all will be well on the same for each of if our last conversation and leaving the office on a day that we will never know it to be our last day sets forward the work of Christ, then we are within the lying of his great preoccupation and his great passion for pointing us back to our ultimate purpose as believers listing to Alistair Begg this is true for life these messages. The first of a short series called Ranger was Alister's goal in preaching these messages was to help us learn how to incorporate gospel conversations into everyday life with our friends and relatives, associates and neighbors. There's the Fram infringer lose him well today is the last day I'll mention a book that our team recommends written by Alister's longtime friend, Sinclair Ferguson, it's a book titled maturity. Growing up and going on in the Christian life. The goal for each of us as we follow Christ is to grow in our faith and in the process to become mature believers know the pathway to that end is marked by both progress and setbacks to how can we tell if were actually moving forward moving in the right direction.

This book maturity gives us a blueprint we can follow as we aim to become more like Jesus.

Sinclair Ferguson paints a clear picture of what it looks like for someone to trust the Lord more and more each day, and he shows us how to avoid the diversions that can steer us off course again today is the last day of this book is available, so get in touch with us soon will send you a copy of the book maturity is our way of saying thanks when you donate to support this ministry.

Give online at truthforlife.org/donate or if you prefer you can call us her number is 88858878848885887884 Bob Lapine tomorrow. Alister continues her study in John four were learning from the example of the greatest evangelists of all time. Jesus himself true to join us again. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life for the Learning is for Living