John 4:27-38
"And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or "Why are You talking with her?"
The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into this city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."
But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."
Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."
"Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest?’ behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!"
"And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."

Message:
During the last number of lessons, we have observed the conversion of a sinner...the woman of Samaria.
She had left her village a sinner...and now, she returns to her village...born again! She had come down the hill a child of Adam’s race, thinking only of the life she had known and of her very mundane need for water. Instead she had met the second Adam, Jesus, who had filled her with a desire for a quality of life that she had never dreamed of and who had revealed himself to her as the One through whom that life is imparted to men and women. As a result of Christ's words the woman believed on him and became his witness. The new follower of Christ gave evidence to the change that had taken place at the well.
The first thing that the doctor or nurses attending upon the birth of a child wants to hear is a cry. The cry of the baby is evidence to the doctors that air has entered the lungs and that the baby has begun to breathe. This is the same spiritually. When a man or woman

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is born again, the first thing that any Christian should desire to hear is the cry of new life, evidence that the breath of God has come into that person.
This is why the Bible speaks in many places about the need for a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10 says: "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Matthew 10:32
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven."
1 John 2:23
"No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also."
1 John 4:15
"If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God."
Mark 8:38
"If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Fathers glory with the holy angels."
Some persons think that they can be secret believers, but the Word of God never considers this a possibility.
There is a second evidence of a dramatic spiritual change in the heart of the Samaritan woman and that was her change in values. John indicates it beautifully when he tells us, "Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people..." From one point of view the story is all about water. The woman had come for literal water. There had been a discussion of wells and water. Christ had offered her living water. Now having found the water that alone satisfies the soul, the woman thinks no more of her water jar!
This is one of the great themes of John's gospel. It is true that John is very much concerned that there is a vigorous verbal witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. But at the same time he is equally aware that the believer’s life must back up the verbal witness. This theme emerges quite strongly in the final discourses of Jesus just before His crucifixion. In those discourses Jesus says that the disciples are to be one among themselves, just as He and the Father are one (John 14:20; 17:11, 21-22). They are to be committed to their task "in truth" (John 17:19). They are to do the truth (John 3:21). They are to love one another (John 15:17). They are to keep his commandments (John 14:15). At every point the reality of the new life is to show itself in the life of the believer.

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The final proof of a genuine change in the woman of Samaria is a new concern on her part for others. Her relationships with others was purely selfish before meeting Jesus...now she has a genuine concern for the spiritual needs...for their salvation.
The Bible sets this pattern for us when it declares, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
Romans 5:5 says: "...the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
Our text says: "The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
At the heart of this scene is the matter of evangelism...the winning of others to Jesus Christ. I want you to think with me concerning the great commission of Christ...to go and make disciples.
The words of Christ in Matthew 28:19-20 communicate vividly Christ's understanding of a disciple.
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen."
Evangelism is a task appointed to all God's people everywhere. It is the task of communicating a message from the Creator to rebel mankind. The message begins with information and ends with an invitation. The information concerns God's work of making His Son a perfect Savior for sinners. The invitation is God's summons to mankind generally to come to the Savior and find life. God commands all men everywhere to repent, and promises forgiveness and restoration to all who do. The Christian is sent into the world as God's herald and Christ's ambassador, to broadcast this message as widely as we can. This is both his duty (because God commands it, and love to our neighbor requires it) and his privilege (because it is a great thing to speak for God, and to take our neighbor the remedy--the only remedy--that can save him from the terrors of spiritual death). Our task, then, is to go to our fellow men and tell them the gospel of Christ, and try by every means to make it clear to them; to remove as best we can any difficulties that they may find in it, to impress them with its seriousness, and to urge them to respond to it. This is our abiding responsibility; it is a basic part of our Christian calling.
So, evangelism is an act of communication with a view to conversion.

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For a complete picture of what the New Testament means by evangelism, we need not look further than the Apostle Paul's account of the nature of his own evangelistic ministry. There are three points to note about it.
1. PAUL EVANGELIZED AS THE COMMISSIONED REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Evangelism was a task that had been specifically entrusted to Him. 1 Corinthians 1:17 says: "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, least the cross of Christ should be made of no effect."
Now, see how he regarded himself in virtue of this commission.
In the first place, he saw himself as CHRIST'S STEWARD. "Let a man so account of us (myself, and my fellow-preacher Apollos, as ministers of Christ, and (in that capacity) stewards of the mysteries of God." (1 Cor. 4:1) "A dispensation of the gospel (i.e., a commission to dispense it; "a steward-ship") is committed unto me."
Paul saw himself as a bondslave raised to a position of high trust, as the steward of a household in New Testament times always was; he had been approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, and the responsibility now rested on him to be faithful to his trust, as a steward must be, guarding the precious truth that had been committed to him (as he later charges Timothy to do), and distribution and dispensing it according to his Master's instructions.
The fact that he had been entrusted with this stewardship meant, as he told the Corinthians, that "necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" The figure of stewardship thus highlights Paul's responsibility to evangelize.
When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we not only receive forgiveness of sin and the promise of life eternal with Him, we also receive a commission, and that commission is in the form of a stewardship...to dispense the eternal truths to others that have changed our lives! Again, Paul saw himself as CHRIST'S HERALD. When he describes himself as ‘appointed a preacher’ of the gospel, the noun he uses is KÉRYX, which means a herald, a person who makes public announcements on another's behalf. When he declares, "we preach Christ crucified," the verb he uses is KÉRYSSÓ, which denotes the herald’s appointed activity of blazing abroad what he has been told to make known. When Paul speaks of ‘my preaching’, and ‘our preaching’, and lays it down that, after the world's wisdom had rendered the world ignorant of God, ‘it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, the noun he uses is KÉRYGMA, meaning, not the activity of announcing, but the thing announced, the proclamation itself, the message declared. Paul, in his own estimation, was not a philosopher,

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not a moralist, not one of the world's wise men, but simply Christ's herald.
His royal Master had given him a message to proclaim; his whole business, therefore, was to deliver that message with exact and studious faithfulness, adding nothing, altering nothing, and omitting nothing. And he was to deliver it, not as another of man's bright ideas, needing to be beautified with the cosmetics and high heels of fashionable learning in order to make people look at it, but as a word from God, spoken in Christ's name, carrying Christ's authority, and to be authenticated in the hearers by the convincing power of Christ's Spirit.
"And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." (1 Cor. 2:1-5)
The figure of the herald thus highlights the AUTHENTICITY of Paul's gospel.
Thirdly, Paul considered himself Christ's AMBASSADOR. What is an ambassador? He is the authorized representative of a sovereign. He speaks, not in his own name, but on behalf of the ruler whose deputy he is, and his whole duty and responsibility is to interpret the ruler’s mind faithfully to those to whom he is sent.
Paul used this figure twice, both times in connection with his evangelistic work. Pray for me, he wrote from prison, "that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds; that herein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." (Ephesians 6:19-20)
God, he wrote again, has "committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We are AMBASSADORS therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God." (2 Cor. 5:19)
Dr. Barclay makes this comment in his great little commentary:
"There is no more responsible position than that of ambassador.
(1) An ambassador of Britain is a Briton in a foreign land. His life is spent among people who usually speak a different language, who have different traditions and follow a different way of life. The Christian is always like that. He lives in the world; he takes part of the life and work of the world; but he is a citizen of heaven. To that extent he is a stranger. The man who is not willing to be different cannot be a Christian at all.

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(2) An ambassador speaks for his own country. When a British ambassador speaks, his voice is the voice of Britain. There are times when the Christian has to speak for Christ. In the decisions and the counsels of the world his must be the voice which brings the message of Christ to the human situation.
Dr. Barclay continues:
(3) The honor of a country is in its ambassador's hands. His country is judged by him. His words are listened to, his deeds are watched and people say, "That is the way such-and-such a country speaks and acts." Lightfoot, the great Bishop of Durham, said in an ordination address: "The ambassador, while acting, acts not only as an agent, but as a representative of his sovereign...The ambassador’s duty is not only to deliver a definite message, to carry out a definite policy; but he is obligated to watch opportunities, to study characters, to cast about for expedients, so that he may place it before his hearers in its most attractive form." It is the great responsibility of the ambassador to commend his country to the men against whom he is set."
Ah!
HERE IS THE CHRISTIAN’S PROUD PRIVILEGE AND ALMOST TERRIFYING RESPONSIBILITY. THE HONOR OF CHRIST AND OF THE CHURCH ARE IN HIS HANDS. By every word and action he can make men think more--or less--of his Church and of his Master!
In his evangelism, then, Paul consciously acted as the slave and steward, the mouthpiece and herald, the spokesman and ambassador, of the Lord Jesus Christ. On one hand, his sustained boldness and unshakable sense of authority in face of ridicule and indifference; hence, on the other hand, his intransigent refusal to modify his message in order to suit circumstances. These two things, of course, were connected, for Paul could regard himself as speaking with Christ's authority only as long as he remained faithful to the terms of his commission and said nothing less nor more than he had been given to say.
But the commission to publish the gospel and make disciples was never confined to the apostles! Nor is it now confined to the Church's ministers. It is a commission that rest upon the whole Church collectively, and therefore upon each Christian individually. All God's people are sent to do as the Philippians did, and ‘shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life.’ Every Christian, therefore, has a God-given obligation to make known the gospel of Christ! And every Christian who declares the gospel message to any fellow-man does so as Christ's ambassador and representative, according to the terms of his God-given commission. Such is the authority, and such the responsibility, of the Church and of the Christian in evangelism.

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Think with me for a moment on this great subject of personal evangelism...the joy of bringing a lost soul to the Savior. The bringing of a soul to Jesus is the highest achievement possible to a human life. When you turn to the Holy Scriptures, they are as clear as light, that God expects every friend he has to go out and see if he cannot win other friends to the same great side and service of Jesus. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me," said Jesus, "both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth."
The early church went out and in one short generation shook the Roman Empire to its very foundation! It was a pagan, selfish, sodden, rotten empire, and yet in one short generation, that early church had affected that Roman empire from center to circumference, and kindled a gospel light in every part of the vast domain.
And they did it by the personal method. The men and women and the children who loved Christ, went out everywhere, and talked for Christ, in the hearing of those who knew Him not, and the hearers became interested, and followed on, and found out for themselves the saving truth that there is in Christ's gospel.
In the earlier part of this gospel, we noted in the first chapter that..."One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah (which is translated, the Christ). AND HE BROUGHT HIM TO JESUS,..." (John 1:39-41).
Andrew had just found Jesus...and immediately he is interested in sharing this wonderful experience with his brother.
The words of Christ in Matthew 28:19-20 communicate vividly Christ's understanding of a disciple.
"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Jesus saw a disciple as one who becomes a follower, who is taught, who is nurtured in the faith, who in turn goes out to make disciples, who are then taught and nurtured in the faith, who then in turn go out!
Being a disciple in the early church meant a first-hand involvement in the mission of Christ--making disciples. The goal was clear and all-encompassing.
An important facet of the early church's disciple-making goal was to continually expand this base of new disciples. In the book, BACK TO BASICS, the authors note that "inherent in being saved was that the

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redeemed share the Good News. Being a Christian meant worshiping God; it meant doing good to all men, especially those of the household of faith. It meant expecting the Lord to return. It meant sins forgiven. But above and beyond these, it meant telling people that the Savior had come--that eternal life was theirs by believing in Him--that believing gave them the right to become the children of God."
A new convert's commitment to Christ included the assumption that he/she reproduced themselves and continue in the disciple-making chain. Inherent in the definition of a "disciple" was one who shared the Good News with others. For the early Christians, making disciples was not seen as a compartmentalized activity, OR the responsibility assigned to a designated few! The early church did not have a department of evangelism...everybody was an evangelist. Evangelism was an integral part of the lifestyle of every believer. In observing the characteristics of the New Testament church, a noted church historian has observed that "every member was mobilized and actively involved...all functioned as responsible members in the body life of the church. First-century Christians told the story of Christ simply and graciously. Each believer's actions and attitudes confirmed the centrality of Christ in life. Although fellowship with members of the Body was a vital part of the believer's life, they did not remain in the "holy huddle." Scripture records that everywhere they journeyed, early Christians witnessed to the claims of Christ.
The early Christians knew the deep concern their Lord had for "lost sheep." The early church mirrored their Master’s compassion.
The woman of Samaria had experienced the compassion of Christ and she wanted others to experience it too!
Can you imagine the excitement that must have filled her heart as she made her way back to the city of Sychar...and note the way she worded her invitation: "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
COME! This is a great word of the Christian gospel. It has brought peace to millions of restless hearts and satisfaction to many that were empty and lonely and lost.
Think of the great verses that contain it. It was God's word to Abraham, "Come into the land which I will show thee" (Acts 7:3).
It was God's call to Moses to be Israel's deliverer, "Come, I will send you to Egypt." (Acts 3:34). David wrote, "Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth" (Psa. 46:8) God spoke through Isaiah, saying, "Come now, let us reason together...though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool" (Isa. 1:18).