Randy Newman is an evangelist, author, seminary professor. He also works with the C.S. Lewis Institute, and in this episode, we talk about Dr. Newman’s latest book “Mere Evangelism” which pulls evangelistic insights from the writings of C.S. Lewis, the greatest Christian apologist of the 20th century and a man who is as popular today (nearly 60 years after his death) than he was during his own lifetime.
At the beginning of John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well. The Samaritans were a minority ethnic group who were half-Jewish. In the first century, there was a lot of animosity between the Samaritans and the Jewish people. Samaritans had some theological differences and given their ethnic differences, these fueled the division between the two groups.
The Samaritan woman meets Jesus at a well and they start to talk.
The woman has had five husbands and was living with a man who was not her husband. So she’s already part of a group who’s looked down upon, and she’s also had her sins exposed. Jesus tells her of the living water that he provides. He tells her of true worship of God.
As the preceding section winds down, John records Jesus speaking to the woman.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
An incredible conversation.
Verse 27 suddenly changes the direction.
Just then.
Just then his disciples came back.
Earlier in the story, we learned that the disciples had left Jesus to go and find food. It’s the reason why Jesus had been alone when he met the Samaritan woman.
They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”
The disciples want to question Jesus for talking to this woman. Out of respect for Jesus, they keep their mouths shut but they’re wondering “why are you talking with her?”
The disciples are not perfect. We see this time and again in the gospels.
We see examples of their pride, at times we see them lack faith, and we see here that they are not above prejudice. And they see Jesus talking with this woman. They don’t question it, but they’re thinking about it.
Probably giving her strange looks.
It was the culture at the time. There was a lot of prejudice against women.
There are rabbinic sayings which go back to the first century and talk of interactions between men and women. Some of these sayings are extremely misogynistic towards women.
There’s a rabinnic teaching against a man even talking to a woman in public, even his own wife.
There were rabinnic teachings which discouraged teaching women to read.
I’m not saying that those views were universal to every Jewish person in the first century. But they were within the social consciousness. Every generation has its own areas of sin, and misogyny was a common area of sin in the first century and sadly at many other times.
But the Samaritan woman, like everyone else, needs Jesus. She needs to know his love, needs to know his grace.
So the disciples didn’t publicly question Jesus, but not because they didn’t want to.
The text says that they marveled that Jesus was talking to a woman. Let alone a Samaritan woman.
John 4:28:
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,
John notes that the woman leaves her jar. It’s interesting that this detail is mentioned.
Throughout our study of John’s gospel, we’ve seen this theme of newness, new creation, Jesus as replacing the Old Covenant with the New Covenant.
I believe that the detail of her leaving the water jar is mentioned because it’s symbolic of the fact that this woman is leaving behind the cares and concerns of her own nourishment to serve the purposes of Christ in the world.
She had come to the well for water, but she’s leaving it having learned about the living water which Jesus provides.
So we have this Samaritan woman, who’s had five husbands and who’s living with a man who’s not her husband, someone looked down upon in society, she goes into the town and starts telling people about Jesus.
Verse 29:
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
Jesus has revealed himself to be a prophetic figure who has a knowledge of her life that’s supernatural. He’s claimed to be the Christ, and so she rhetorically asks the people “can this be the Christ?”
It’s very powerful to consider that this woman from this marginalized Samaritan group is the first recorded person in this gospel to tell people about Jesus in northern Israel.
This story should be encouraging to all of us from the standpoint that God also uses broken and sinful people to serve him, to share his gospel and to tell the world about Jesus.
No one is ever too broken to know the love of Christ.
And no one is ever too sinful, as this woman was. No one is ever too lowly to share Jesus and be used by God to serve God.
Serving the mission of God is not just for the spiritual varsity team, but God has ways for all of his people to serve him.
And God desires for all of his people to serve him. To be light, to share the gospel, to serve others. To serve God’s mission of the world of being disciples who make disciples.
God uses broken people to do his work, and he can use you. No matter where you’re from, no matter what you’ve done. If you’ve wasted time, if you’ve spent years not serving God, it’s not too late.
God can use you. Not because of who we are, but because of who God is. And to his glory, he uses broken people to serve his purposes.
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An astounding 16 million soldiers, sailors and Marines served America in the Second World War.
And while most of our focus on World War II is on the military and combat, within the United States, there was an effort to support the war unlike anything our nation had seen or has seen since.
With millions going overseas, Americans at home took up new jobs.
Coming out of the Great Depression, unemployment dried up, reaching an all time low in 1944.
The war effort affected virtually every facet of American life. Companies shifted their manufacturing efforts to supporting the war and supplying the military. Maytag went from making washing machines to making parts for airplanes. Firestone Tires made artillery shells and aluminum containers for food transport.
Products like sugar, butter, bacon, and cheese were rationed. As were penicillin and other medicines, along with rubber and certain types of metals. Materials for clothing such as silk and nylon were needed for uniforms. Everything went to supporting a cause that was so much bigger than any one person.
And everyone’s contributions mattered.
To help pay for the war, the government sold war bonds. Over 85 million Americans purchased war bonds to help fund the effort. To put that in perspective, that was more than half of the entire United States population at the time.
An incredible effort.
The church has a mission
As Christians, we too are called to be part of a cause that is far bigger than any of us, but where everyone has a role, where everyone has a job to do, where everyone has a way to serve.
The mission of God on earth.
And that mission is to spread the gospel. To make disciples. To build up the church. To love one another.
It’s not a passive request in scripture, nor is it a good suggestion, but something which God commands from all of his people.
If you’re a person who has placed faith in Jesus, this applies to you.
As the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You belong to Jesus when you place your faith in him.
And part of the purpose of the Christian life is one that is lived in service of God for the mission of God in the world.
You were made to have an impact
Do you ever feel like you were made for something great?
Do you ever feel like you were meant to have an impact?
You are made for more, you are made to do great things, you are born to have an impact in the world.
An impact for Jesus.
We can try to build our own kingdoms, we can try to collect our own toys, we can try to control and manipulate the circumstances in our lives to make us feel secure.
We can do those things.
But we were made to serve the mission of Christ in the world.
And that includes sharing the gospel, making disciples, making Jesus known, growing together as His Church, and serving God.
As a church, every person in the church is called to use the ways God has gifted and equipped them for the purpose of serving God and building up the church.
That’s why we’re here.
Writing to the Church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul said:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Maybe you’ve never really thought about that.
But all Christians are given Spiritual gifts.
Doesn’t matter how well you know the Bible.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a Christian. There’s no probationary period before you can God.
It doesn’t matter how smart you are, or how outgoing you are, or how many people you know.
It doesn’t matter how talented you think you are.
If you’re a Christian, God has given you gifts to serve him and build up his church.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have nothing to offer.
I think that’s the reason why some people don’t serve.
It’s nonsense.
Because everyone here has much to offer. Much to contribute.
It can be easy to see a really talented pastor, a really gifted musician, someone who’s really outgoing, and to feel insecure about what you have to offer.
But the unsung heroes are the backbone of congregations, people faithfully and humbly serving. Books get written about generals, but the real work is done by soldiers.
Originally posted May 13, 2019
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Paul was the greatest missionary who ever lived. When writing to the Philippians, he was in jail. That’s the last place he needs to be! Why would God allow this to happen? Wouldn’t it be better for Paul to be out in the mission field sharing Jesus?
Regardless of what is happening in the world, God is still at work.
In Acts 16, Paul was also imprisoned, yet in that passage, it was because God did not spare Paul from prison that he was able to witness to his jailer.And so it goes throughout the history of the church. Where God has been working in ways that people might not have expected. Powerful empires have tried to crush Christianity.
It’s often been true that the church has faced oppression. The blood of the martyrs waters the seeds of the church. And in places where it’s easy, where it’s common to be a Christian, there can be complacency. It’s easy to just assume everyone around us is a Christian. Whereas in other parts of the world, you actually have to take risks to acknowledge Jesus.
None of this is to say that we should want bad things to happen! But to be mindful that in the face of sin and injustice, noting stops God. The gospel is unstoppable.
Sometimes it’s because God does not spare people from the difficulties that people are in positions to evangelize and share the gospel. Sometimes through the wickedness and evil of men, because of God’s immeasurable goodness, he graciously puts them in position to hear the gospel that they don’t even deserve.
A modern example
During the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian citizens were facing persecution from the government for transporting Bible across borders, sharing their faith, and even worshipping privately in their own homes.
Virginia Prodan was a Romanian lawyer who defended Christians of these basic human rights. Prodan was a Christian. She had suffered much for her faith. She had been beaten and torutnred. She had been placed under house arrest. One day, when returning to her office, one of her assistants told her a man wanted to speak with her.
The man was a giant, 6’10” which dwarfed the 5 foot tall Prodan.
He pulled out a gun and told her he had come to kill her.
WRITING IN CHRISTIANITY TODAY, SHE SAID:
I CONSIDERED THE MAN BEFORE ME. BEHIND THOSE HATE-FILLED EYES WAS A CREATION OF GOD. HE HAD AN IMMORTAL SOUL, AND HE NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THE LOVE GOD HAS SHOWN IN JESUS CHRIST. AT ONCE EMBOLDENED, I MET MY KILLER’S EYES. “HAVE YOU EVER ASKED YOURSELF: ‘WHY DO I EXIST?’ OR ‘WHY AM I HERE?’ OR ‘WHAT IS THE MEANING OF MY LIFE?’ I ONCE ASKED MYSELF THOSE QUESTIONS.” MY VOICE STAYED CALM AND DID NOT WAVER.HE SLID HIS GUN BACK INTO THE HOLSTER. I LEANED FORWARD. “YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE GOD PUT YOU HERE, AND HE HAS PUT YOU TO A TEST. WILL YOU ABIDE IN GOD OR IN THE WILL OF A MAN—YOUR BOSS, PRESIDENT CEAUSESCU, WHO REQUIRES YOU TO WORSHIP HIM? GOD HAS GIVEN YOU FREE WILL TO CHOOSE.”
The assassin didn’t kill her that day. He acknowledged that he had needed Jesus in his life. The power of the gospel had penetrated his heart.
But it was because God had not spared Prodan from that persecution that she had been enabled to witness to that man.
And there are other stories we can find in modern times from almost every empire that has cracked down on Christianity, that has persecuted Christians, of the gospel working through the cracks of the walls that empires have built up. The gospel is unstoppable. Because God is unstoppable at achieving his purposes. Even in oppressive regimes that try to totally crush Christianity, the gospel still takes root. The truth finds a way.
In our world, persecution and challenges shouldn’t be a surprise when the gospel is that Jesus came into a fallen world to redeem people to himself. It’s a message that’s offensive because it confronts people with the reality of sin. It points to the narrow way.
In America, we’re often times too comfortable.
If we think that we always need ideal conditions to share the gospel; if we think that the gospel always needs receptive environments to thrive: it doesn’t. Because the spread of the gospel, is not about our abilities and talents and planning. Not suggest this things are irrelevant. God does equip and gift people in different ways.
But even when it seems to be against all odds, it is the power of God through which the gospel reaches people. The gospel is unstoppable.
What does that mean to you?
It makes sense people would be hostile to the gospel. When Jesus came to redeem a world that was dead in sin. A world that was so sinful the it killed its savior.
And it’s not a shortcoming of God that he doesn’t do more to make the way to share the gospel easy. It’s his grace that he came to earth and made the gospel possible to be proclaimed at all. It displays his power and glory that the gospel still goes forth when people try to thwart his work.
People have tried to stop the gospel’s advance. And those people are dead and gone, but the gospel message continues because Jesus lives on.
Originally published February 6, 2018
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In 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul gives an insight into how he approached ministry. After discussing how he related to Jews, gentiles, and those whom society had looked down upon, Paul sums up how he related to each of these groups by saying that he became “all things to all people.”
For the Jewish people, they had the Law. In the early church, there was still some uncertainty over which (if any) aspects of the Law people were required to follow.
Paul was respectful of Jewish customs. He had been born and raised Jewish. And for the sake of building relationships, in certain circles, he would still participate in accordance with various Jewish customs. In Acts 16, Timothy is a young minster who begins doing ministry with Paul. Knowing they would be traveling in heavily Jewish areas, Paul actually has Timothy get circumcised.
All things to all people. (more…)
