You are a natural evangelist. You may not realise it but you naturally evangelise people all the time. ‘No, I’m not’ and ‘No, I don’t’ you say. But actually some of you have been doing it this morning over coffee and you’ll be doing it after the service. Announcing the news. The news of your week at work, the news of your children’s week in school, of England’s one day performance in the cricket and so on.
We’re all passionate news carriers. Especially about things we value or treasure. We engage others, we convey excitement and love for something, we’re full of it’s joys, it’s glories, our voices ring with conviction. And that’s good, that’s right, we’re not meant to be misery guts. When we are excited and enthused by something, when we see it’s worth, it’s glory, we tell others because we want them to share in it too.
Here’s the question though; are we like that when we talk about Jesus? When I described you as a natural evangelist did you think “No, I’m not!’ I get tongue-tied, I hesitate, I keep quiet. Why is it that we find sharing the good news about Jesus so hard when we can readily talk about the latest film, or show, or achievement, or sporting thing? There are a number of reasons why, but this morning I want to suggest that at the very heart of it all is that we need to be captivated again by the glory of Jesus.
As we look at John 4 this morning we’ll see that this Samaritan woman having had her hopeless hope exposed and seen who Jesus is and what he offers is captivated by Jesus glory and just can’t keep quiet. We see the nature and need of mission and the possible responses to our announcing the news about Jesus.
Seeing God’s glory in the face of Jesus
We left the story last week at(26). Jesus has offered the woman living water – life, love, satisfaction, purpose, meaning by revealing who he is having exposed the wrong places she’s been looking for those things. When she asks how she can know God, how she can have living water Jesus has revealed that he’s the Messiah, the one who has come to make us right with God and pour out the Spirit so that we go on living now as what we were made to be.
She’s seen the glory of God in Jesus; that Jesus is God come to save a lost world because of love. What will she do? How will she react? Will she reject Jesus like some have done? Will she go away to think it over like Nicodemus, or will she believe? (27-30)As the disciples arrive back at the well she leaves, in her hurry to get back to town leaving her water jar. Forgetting about what she’d come for because she’s found something so much more important than water. And whatever made her come to the well alone and in isolation is forgotten as she rushes back to town to tell others all about Jesus. To get them to come and see this man who has just astounded her, who knew everything about her, whose glory she has begun to grasp. Could he be the Messiah?
Seeing the glory of God in Jesus leads naturally to sharing Jesus with others. Seeing who Jesus is, what he reveals the problem to be, our lostness, and his promises of freedom, meaning, love, and purpose creates overflowing joy. This woman is full of it, she tells everyone – come and see. When you see God’s glory in Jesus, when you realise that he’s the Son of God and Messiah come to save you, you can’t keep it to yourself.
This isn’t unique. In Ch1 John the Baptist, Andrew and Nathanael see Jesus glory, the glory of the one and only son, and they can’t keep it to themselves either. It enthuses, excites and overflows.
What is it they glimpse? What is Jesus glory? It is God the Son, equal with the Father, sharing in his attributes and power and rule and majesty laying all that aside to become man. God made man to sit at a dusty well and help a woman see her broken hopes and dreams and recognise that her need, her longing is for him. It’s seen as that same man, innocent yet condemned climbs a hill weary and thirsty, dust sticking to the lacerations in his back and the drying blood on his forehead. As he’s nailed to a wooden cross which is then raised into place. Glory seen as he’s mocked yet refuses to call down the angels who’ve worshipped him from eternity to take him off the cross. As he hangs there and bears the wrath of God Father, Son and Spirit against sin. God taking on himself the punishment we deserve, not for a general world, not for faceless masses, but for Nicodemus, for this woman at the well, for me, for you. People, names, faces he knew, loved and called from eternity to know him.
People, names, faces that deserved nothing but judgement. That had nothing about them to make them attractive. Whose hearts had been pursuing every other thing imaginable, taking and twisting God’s creation into an object of ultimate worth rather than a lens through which we see God’s fatherly love and generosity. Jesus glory is seen at the cross, in what he does for the hopeless, helpless and undeserving, for you and me. When we glimpse that how can it not excite and enthuse us?
But what does it mean for us if we’ve lost that excitement, that enthusiasm that naturally wants others to come see Jesus? The problem isn’t a skills or courage gap. The problem is a glory gap. We’ve begun to take Jesus for granted. To lose a sense of wonder at what we were given in place of what we deserve.
How do you plug a glory gap? Look again at Jesus. Set aside some time and read again, study who Jesus is. Read through John’s gospel or if that seems to daunting somewhere like Philippians 2 is a good place to start. Don’t skim read it, live in it, camp out in it, think through the consequences of each sentence. Our hearts are captivated by what we put before them, by the glory we behold. See the contrast between what we were and what Jesus makes us and realise afresh that it was totally undeserved and unmerited and simply the result of loving grace. And as we recapture that sense of God’s glory in Jesus, Jesus glory at the cross our excitement and joy will flow back into our hearts.
See the worlds need and the Father’s will are the same thing(31-38)
Sometimes people don’t see what they need. There are times when as a parent you have to give your child some unpleasant tasting medicine because you know they need it. They’ll tell you they don’t, but they do. You don’t enjoy giving it to them, though the faces they pull can be quite funny, but you know they need it so you give it to them.
We live in a world like that, that doesn’t think it needs God. That’s quite happy going from dry well to dry well in search of meaning. But we need to see that God’s will is to satisfy the worlds need even if it doesn’t recognise it. How? By showing his glory in Jesus, by people realising his love seen in salvation from wrath and reconciliation with God. That’s what Jesus explains to his disciples.
(31-34)In answer to their confusion about whether he’s eaten or not, Jesus reply seems cryptic “My food, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Jesus finds satisfaction in doing his Father’s will, what has he done that’s satisfied that hunger? He’s spoken to the Samaritan woman, helped her see her misplaced search for hope and shown her who he is. That’s God’s will, that people see their lostness and trust in Jesus. That people believe in him as Son of God and Messiah and have eternal life. And God’s will is the world’s greatest need(35-38). As Jesus looks out at the world what does he see? Fields ready to harvest, people who need God and are ready to trust in him. People tired of the search for meaning, purpose and love, who know they were made for more. Who are ready to hear about Jesus. Just like the woman at the well they are hungry for eternal life even if they don’t realise it yet. So Jesus calls them to reap.
Don’t believe the lie that the world is content. That people are happy. They are desperately searching, moving restlessly from one thing to another to another hoping it will fulfil them. The world is searching. That’s what the divorce rate, the drive to innovate, searching spirituality, atheists having a worship service, and a determined drive to postpone death tell us.
The world needs Jesus, God’s will is that Jesus is known and believed in. God’s will is that we help people see the pointlessness of what they are living for and how only in Jesus can they find what they need; purpose, hope, reconnection, rescue, life knowing God. But we can only do that if we see the world as God does, as Jesus does. It’s need, it’s hunger, it’s searching in the wrong places and that the only answer to its thirst is Jesus. Is that how we see the world?
Recognise there will be two reactions(39-54)
The danger is we get that and we go out and tell someone about Jesus all that he offers and get rejected and then feel crushed. And think but the harvest is ripe, I should just be reaping. Either I’m doing it all wrong or Jesus was wrong about the harvest being ripe. What follows this conversation is so helpful, we see two distinct responses to Jesus. Reactions that John has told us we should expect(1:10-13) some will receive, believe and become God’s children. Others will reject Jesus, they’ll refuse to recognise him in all his glory.
(39-42)We see the harvest reaped. The woman’s glimpse of the glory of God in Jesus is contagious. (39)Many believe, Jesus stays for two more days and (41) “many more believed because of his word.” What do they believe? “we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”
(43-45)Sets up the contrast when Jesus heads back to Galilee. (44)Gives us the key to what’s about to happen “Now Jesus himself had pointed out that prophets have no honour in their own country.” Jesus is going back to his own, to Cana in Galilee. Initially (45)looks promising doesn’t it? “the Galilean welcomed him” But why do they welcome him? Because they’ve seen what he’s done in Jerusalem, what had he done? (2:23)“signs”. This is fake faith, weak welcome, miracle mongering. They don’t believe he’s the Saviour of the World they want more miracles.
And as the royal official comes he’s a great example of that. We go from a scene where Jesus is called “Saviour of the world”, to one where it’s just “Sir, come down before my child dies.” This is an approach to Jesus the problem solver, the healer, the fixer. Jesus rebuke (48)set between the two requests exposes the problem “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
But graciously Jesus gives this man more than he asks for. Initially he just wants a miracle(48), but when he realises the extent of Jesus power, when his glory is seen as the boy is healed at a distance at the exact time (53)“He himself believed, and all his household.”
But the contrasts are stark. In Samaria no miracles but revival, as a whole town believes in Jesus because of his word. In Galilee a miracle but only one family find genuine faith. In Samaria a confession of Jesus as Saviour of the World in Cana a failure to see what the signs show about Jesus.
We should expect these two reactions. Sometimes people will struggle to see beyond Jesus as what they want him to be – miracle maker, prophet, historical figure. The challenge is for us to help them to see Jesus is all his glory. Not to shrink him down but to magnify him in all his power and authority and love. How do we do that? Not by craving an external miraculous lightshow or spectacular but by helping them hear and believe his words.
As we look at the world what do we see? Hostility? Yes. Opposition? Yes. But a world desperately searching, a world looking for God without realising it, but looking to the wrong things. A world which needs Jesus. And God calls us to go out into that world and reap his harvest, to help people see their need, their wrong hopes and the rescue that is available in Jesus alone. And we hold out the rescue to everyone.
Which looked the more promising field, Sychar in Samaria – little Bible knowledge, a shadowy picture of the Messiah at best, historical conflict with the Jews, regarded as unclean. Or Cana – place of a miracle, full Old Testament scriptures, and expectation of a coming Messiah? Cana or Sychar? Jew or Samaritan? Royal official or socially excluded serial sinner? The gospel is for all. Our Father’s will is that all hear about Jesus, we are to share the good news of Jesus not try to work out what type of field it is, whether it’s ready for harvest or not.
How do we have and maintain a heart for the lost? We see again the glory of Jesus. God in splendour made man, eternally worshipped made flesh, God the Son in love contracting himself into human form. Living, speaking, crucified, suffering, judged, resurrected, ascended, reigning to reveal God’s love that meets his justice and bears his wrath against our sin. Be amazed and wonder at such love. Drink deep on such grace. As we behold his glory, as it fills our hearts with love and praise it will become our passion, as we behold his glory we won’t be able to contain it, it will spill out and over as we call others to come see Jesus. To come know love, peace, rescue and life to the full.
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