Title: The Evangelism of Jesus
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Bible: John 4:1~26
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In the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus' prayer to God as high priest is presented in detail in almost one chapter. When Jesus prayed, he prayed exactly four things. The first was a prayer to glorify God, the second was that we want God's people to be holy as God is holy, and the third theme is 17:18. “As the Father sent me, so I send my disciples into the world.” In other words, the third topic was about evangelism, and the fourth was about the unity of the church. One of these four important prayers is evangelism. Today, let's think about this evangelism that Jesus valued.
If we look at the Gospel of Matthew, in Matthew 10, we can see that Jesus raised twelve disciples as he began his public life. That's in verses 1 and 2, and the first thing Jesus did as soon as he established the twelve disciples was to send them out into the world in pairs to preach the gospel. So, when we see these things, why did Jesus make us disciples? What was the purpose of making a disciple? Of course, becoming more like Jesus is one of the important purposes. But one of the main purposes is for us to go out into the world and preach Jesus. That is why Jesus said this before ascending to heaven in Matthew 28. “All authority in heaven and on earth I have received from heaven; go ye and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that they obey what I have taught you.” He said, "I will always be with you, even to the end of the world." With these words, we can see that Matthew 28 is ending. What is the conclusion of the Gospel of Matthew? He said to the disciples, “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus came to this earth to evangelize diligently, but how on earth did Jesus evangelize? We must clearly examine the method of evangelism of Jesus and believe that we should practice evangelism on this earth as Jesus did. So, while we thought that we should select a sample, we would like to see the figure of Jesus who evangelized the woman in Suga in John 4 together.
First of all, in Jesus' evangelism, the first thing that was mobilized in Jesus' heart was a heart of compassion and compassion. Usually Israel is less crowded during the day because the sun shines so strongly at noon. However, in today's Bible, a woman came to draw water at noon at a well called Sychar in Samaria. When Jesus saw the woman, he felt pity for her. There could be many reasons for this, but in any case, when he saw a woman coming to draw water while everyone else was having a break, Jesus had compassion for the woman who had something to do with it. We can see from Jesus that evangelism begins with a heart of compassion and compassion.
The second is patience. You can see the patience of Jesus in the way he treats the woman of Suga. If you look closely, the Suga-sung woman is a very demanding woman. Jesus asks for a bowl of water, and you give it to him, but he answers it. “Why does your Jewish man ask a Samaritan woman for a drink?” There is no need to say this. If you ask for water when you are thirsty, you say, “Oh yes,” and he has a bowl to fill with water, so he can give it to him. There is no need to say this. But starting with this, this woman continues to argue with Jesus. In this conversation, Jesus just listens and endures. Evangelism involves waiting.
The third method Jesus used is wisdom. Jesus did not say to this woman, “Believe in Jesus” blindly. Even though this woman lived with her five husbands, she was not satisfied, and even though she lived with her sixth husband, she is not at all satisfied now. What this woman most needed was something to satisfy her, to fill in the gaps she had built up in her heart. So, Jesus came out with the story of living water, and Jesus talked about satisfaction that if you drink this living water, you can satisfy your thirst. Jesus made us wise when we preached. That is why we, too, must use wisdom when evangelizing.
And Jesus made the fourth sacrifice. If you look at the Bible today, Jesus met the woman at lunchtime, when he was hungry. The disciples went to buy food. When Jesus was evangelizing, he did not say, ‘I will come after lunch and evangelize’. Because there is an object of evangelism, he forgot about hunger and evangelized diligently. Evangelism requires sacrifice.
The evangelism method that Jesus used was the first compassionate heart, the second not giving up easily and the patience and waiting heart, the third was speaking wisely, and the fourth was sacrifice. In 2011, we hold an evangelism feast once a year, and I believe that we must also follow Jesus to evangelize diligently.
2011-11-04 22:17:44