JESUS - The Evangelist

Reading a book by Richard D. Phillips Jesus the Evangelist: Learning to Share the Gospel from the books of John

Excellent book and this last week supplemented our Home Fellowship with much info from chapter 9 of the book - with the same title as the book Jesus - the Evangelist.

This post will be a review of that particular chapter PLUS some other inserts from our study on MAKING DISCIPLES by John MacArthur.

In our study on MAKING DISCIPLES we came to our last study entitled The Passion of Jesus for the Lost with an introduction which included these statements.

Everything worthwhile in life is the result of someone's passion. The norm is not to let Christianity disrupt our lifestyle. If you follow that, your spiritual temperature will drop and you'll become apathetic. We all have to ask ourselves,
Where is our burden for evangelism?
Why isn't evangelism the church's central function?
Is the church only a self-indulgent activity center, content with comfort and prosperity?

John MacArthur pointed out the perfect example of One having a passion for lost men and women is Jesus Christ. How do we know He had such a concern? Because………..

(1) His forerunner was an evangelist,
(2) He Himself was an evangelist,
(3) He trained evangelists, and
(4) He commanded His followers to evangelize.

Good Stuff for sure and an excellent study.But now for chapter 9 overview of the book above.

Richard Phillips points to 4 ways that Christ ministered to the Samaritan women in John chapter 4 that we can certainly use today in our evangelist endeavours.

1. Caring for the lost - Evangelism requires a caring motivation. Serving the gospel is always hard work, and so it was for Jesus. Such was His care for others that He wearied Himself bringing the gospel to them.One way to motivate yourself to care for others is to realize how much Jesus sacrificed to care for your own soul.
2. Crossing the boundaries - Why did Jesus cross these barriers? Because He cared for the wom­an's soul.This Samaritan woman never would have come to Jerusalem, where Jesus had been preaching and working miracles; she knew she would not fit in among the Jews. So Jesus crossed the bound­aries and went to her.
3. Connecting with people
Many Christians today wall themselves off from the world the way the Jews of Jesus' time did. Just as the Jews chose to bypass Samaria to avoid defilement, we tend to travel only within our own subculture. Relating to and connecting with people have been called "pre-evangelism" because, as important as these activities are, we have not actually evange­lized until we tell people about the salvation God offers.
4. Communicating good news - The heart of our gospel is good news about God's free gift. God created us with a thirst that only He can quench by the living waters Jesus offers through faith. Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). And by inspiring us to care for the salvation of others, cross the boundaries, and connect with people around us, God wants to communicate this same good news to all kinds of people in this world—people like Nicodemus the Samaritan woman, and every other kind of person. Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" (John 20:21).

He closes the chapter with some questions and comments. I will close with the last one.

Use Jesus' approach to the Samaritan woman as a guide to prayer.

• Ask God to give you a caring heart for the lost.
• Ask Him to make you wise and bold in crossing boundaries, and
• loving in making a personal connection.
• Then ask God to use your offer of the salvation gift to lead someone else to eternal life.

Excellent Book - I recommend you get one and read it. BUT more important than that (for me the most) is NOT JUST READ IT - but apply it to our daily lives for HIS GLORY.