The following message on evangelism by Bishop John W. Howe is entitled, Evangelism, the Right Method. 

Let me just recap real quickly. This is the last of this particular series, and we gave them the titles, The Right Motive, The Right Message, The Right Moment, and tonight, The Right Method. And I said that the right motive, as far as I'm concerned, is basically twofold.

Number one, it's gratitude to God. How can we who have received so much of his love and the gift of new life, how can we possibly keep that to ourselves? And secondly, related to it is a compassion for others.

Knowing that folks around us are literally, literally dying, and perhaps dying eternally, how can we keep it to ourselves? That's the motive. It's not a matter of proving ourselves right and somebody else wrong or winning scalps or any other kind of thing like that.

It's gratitude to God, compassion for others. We had a sort of a workshop on our second evening attempting to come up with a statement of the gospel, the right message. And I hope you were as delighted as I was when we got to the end of that to see how closely our statement, the outline that we had worked on, corresponds to the prayer of consecration in our Eucharist, that every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper, among other things, we are rehearsing the gospel.

And so if I could just paraphrase that again, the message of evangelism is that God, who is absolutely holy and therefore cannot abide sin, he created us for fellowship with himself, but when we sought our own way, When we sought to put ourselves in charge of our lives, we broke that fellowship. We destroyed it. So he sent his son Jesus, who was and is perfectly God and man at the same time.

Jesus did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. He took both our sin and its penalty upon himself. He died in our place, and then he rose to new life again.

And he offers that same new life to us. We receive it by putting our trust in him, and that involves commitment, and it involves repenting of our former independent life. The right moment.

Last time we were thinking about when is the right moment, and we took off from that phrase in Scripture that says, in season and out of season. In other words, any time you possibly can. When it seems like the right moment, and when it sometimes doesn't seem like it, We need to exercise sensitivity and tact.

I suggested that it might be most helpful to introduce the subject by raising some questions. Have you ever thought about things Christian, things spiritual, religion? Are you interested in religion?

We can bring it up in a very gentle kind of a way. Find out where the other person is. And then I think it's very important to ask permission to share.

May I share with you something that I've discovered? And if we get the clear message, no, not now, I'm not ready, I'm not interested, then we don't need to be pushy. We'll trust God that either another time will come around for us or he'll use someone else.

We'll simply be a piece in the puzzle that he's putting together. So that's a very quick recap of where we've been. The right motive, the right message, the right moment.

I want to think a little bit tonight about the right method. And I'm just going to look at one interchange with the Lord Jesus himself. I think he is the chief model of the evangelist as well as the message of evangelism.

I just suggest to you that it would be a really good exercise, a good Bible study. It would be a good thing for your own personal devotions or for your family devotions. or if you have a study group, it would be a good thing to take a look at many of the encounters that Jesus has with folks.

And I think you'll see some of the same principles. The one I wanted to look at tonight is in John chapter 4. If you have your Bible with you, you might turn to that familiar story.

Jesus with a Samaritan woman. And I just want to pick up some of the things that are happening in this interchange, But again, say, look and see if some of the same principles aren't at work over and over again as Jesus has seemingly chance encounters with other people as well in the Gospel account. Let's pick up John chapter 4 with the third verse.

I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version. It says, Jesus left Judea and departed again to Galilee. He had to pass through Samaria.

So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour, middle of the day.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water, and Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. Let me engage you just a little bit and ask you, what is unusual about the situation at the very outset?

What strikes you as being an unusual dynamic? He spoke to a woman. It wasn't proper to do that without a formal introduction.

You simply wouldn't do that. What else? A Samaritan woman.

Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. As a matter of fact, did you know that in most cases, if a Jew wanted to go from Galilee to Jerusalem, he'd go outside the country, cross over the Jordan, come down on the other side, cross over the Jordan again to avoid going through Samaria. That's how hostile the relationships were.

I'm fascinated, this is a parenthesis, I'm fascinated at how often Jesus seeks out the Samaritan, engages the Samaritan, makes the Samaritan the good guy in the parable, the good Samaritan. You know, that is total self-contradiction as far as the Jews are concerned. You cannot be a Samaritan and be good, right?

But Jesus holds him up above the priest, above the Levite, as an example of his parable. Do you know why there was such hostility? Does anybody know some of the background?

Good. You have been well instructed. If you're interested in reading a fascinating summary of it, you can look it up, not now, but sometime in 2 Kings 17.

It was a typical policy of the Assyrians when they conquered a people that they would deport virtually everybody from that land, scatter them elsewhere around the Assyrian empire. And then they'd bring in folks from elsewhere, from many different places, so that they could not have any common heritage, common language, common culture. They would be an amalgamated group of people, and therefore very weak.

They didn't have anything that held them together. So there were some Israeli descendants left, but a very small number, they imported all of these other folks. And this fascinating little footnote in 2 Kings 17, it says the Lord was very displeased because all these people came in and they were worshiping all these foreign gods.

And so he sent lions, a plague of lions that devastated the land. And the Assyrian emperor says, we better do something about this. They're not honoring the god of this land.

So he went and found an Israelite priest to come and instruct the people in the worship of Yahweh. And the last verse of that chapter says this, So these nations feared the Lord and also served their graven images, their children likewise and their children's children, as their fathers did so they do to this day. From the point of view of the Jews, that is worse by far than out-and-out paganism.

They feared the Lord and they went through some of the external trappings of the worship of Yahweh. But at the same time, total compromise. And instead of having been kept pure, which was their understanding of their religion, now they're amalgamated genetically, biologically, culturally, spiritually, in every possible way.

So Jews have no dealings with those dirty Samaritans. You got the dynamics. Jesus is going from Galilee to Jerusalem.

He goes right through Samaria. Comes and sits down by the well and engages this woman in conversation. One other thing is unusual about the timing of it.

Did anybody notice that? Yeah, I mentioned that it's the middle of the day, the sixth hour, and when would you typically come to draw water? Either early in the morning or later in the evening, in the cool of the day.

You wouldn't come in the middle of the day. That just tips you off of something that becomes more apparent in just a moment. This is a very shady lady.

And other folks don't want much to do with her, see? And so she is presumably coming at midday because she doesn't want to be shunned. It's not pleasant to come early in the morning when everybody else is there and have everybody snub you.

So she comes when nobody else is there. That's the background in a nutshell. And Jesus speaks to her without introduction and engages her in conversation.

How does he entice her curiosity? Yeah, he starts out asking her to do him a favor. she's shocked she expresses that how is it that you a Jew would speak to me a woman of Samaria and then he throws out the bait if you knew who it was that was talking to you you'd be asking me to give you living water what is she feeling at this point what would you be feeling If you were surprised, wonder, she's confused.

If he had living water to give to me, how come he's asking me to give him water? What's going on here? You know, Jesus said to so many of the apostles who came out of a fishing background, you know, he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

You know, and of course, for the most part, the way they did fishing in those days was with nets. but you know rod and reel I think is a powerful image of the way Jesus dealt with people do you notice this throws out that bait you know and just waits for her to swim up and tantalizes her with it if you knew who it was that was asking you you'd be asking me to give you living water and she is totally astonished by this are you greater than our father Jacob Gave us this well. He had to dig this thing.

Where are you going to get living water? And Jesus just plays her. Just plays with this enticement.

Listen, everyone who drinks of this water is going to be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up, saturating him from the inside.

so assuaging his or her thirst that they'll never thirst again. The woman says to him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor, get it, here's the hook, nor come here again. It's a pain to come day after day, in the middle of the day, in the heat of the day, and haul this water.

It's not only that I'm thirsty, I don't want to make this trip again. He's got her now. Look what he does.

Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, sir, I have no husband. I love this.

I don't know how you read scripture. I mean, sometimes we read scripture with this morbid seriousness, you know. You are right in saying I have no husband for you had five.

I can't imagine Jesus saying these words without a smile on his face. He's not making fun of her, but he sees right through her. And he loves her.

It's clear that he loves her. But he's smiling. He's got to be smiling.

You're right. You don't have a husband. Now, you've had five so far.

And the guy you're living with now, you're living without the benefit of marriage, but you've told me the truth. Look what happens to the woman. I'm so glad that we had that scripture reading about the gifts of the Spirit earlier.

I believe Jesus is exercising one of the gifts of the Spirit right now. He's exercising what is called a word of knowledge. He didn't know this woman.

He didn't go and read up on her background. He is given by the Holy Spirit a supernatural word of knowledge. He is given to know something about her that he couldn't know.

Normally, humanly speaking, he did not know. And it is so astonishing to her, it arrests her. Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

And then notice what happens. She wants to get religious. We're going to have a little theological discussion here.

You're a prophet. I've been wanting to ask a prophet this question for some time. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain.

And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Now there's a whole other piece of background. You see, the Samaritans eventually built their own temple.

Again, to the Jew, that was an abomination. God himself has instructed us to build the temple in Jerusalem. That is the place of worship, and no other is legitimate.

Here they've got an alternative temple. Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Our fathers worship on this mountain.

You Jews say it ought to be in Jerusalem. Which is it? Jesus said to the woman, Believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. For salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming and now is. Right now is the hour. Right this moment is the hour when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will show us all things.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. How would you describe the way that he leads her in this conversation? Yeah, way in back. He gets away from the superficial of the discussion and gets right to the heart of it. He says, I'm not going to deal with this question that you brought up. I'm going to go to the heart of the matter. He could have spent the whole afternoon debating which mountain, which temple was the more legitimate. But he says, ultimately, that's irrelevant. There's something much deeper.

And he goes through that. He will not get sidetracked in issues. He'll get to the heart of the matter.

And the heart of the matter is, I who speak to you am he. But do you notice how he builds to that? And I'm fascinated at the way he does this.

Time and again he throws out a statement that makes her come back at him for more. He doesn't dump the whole load in the first sentence. He's engaging her.

He's enticing her. He's drawing her. This is the master fisherman putting out the bait, jiggling it, waiting until the fish is nibbling, then sinking the hook and drawing her in.

It's a marvelous, marvelous illustration. What do you observe about her, about the way that she responds to his statements? Anything?

She's delightful. She's a smart lady. She's quick to respond.

She believes. She is willing to believe. She's willing to follow this.

Why do you suppose that Jesus asks her to get her husband? See if she's truthful. Yes?

Putting his finger on an area of sin in her life. And anything else? It's interesting that after she deals with that sin, then she gets over to the questions of faith and belief.

Yeah, that's good. He does that and he leads her from that, but I'm interested in the way he does that. That's a very tough thing to put your finger on somebody's point of compromise without devastating the person.

And that's why I think it's so important to picture him as saying that with that quizzical smile on his face. I know exactly what you've been up to, he's saying, and yet I don't condemn you. I mean, isn't that how it feels to you?

I mean, she is loved by this man all the way through. In fact, did you ever stop to think about this, that Jesus so often begins a conversation by saying to somebody, you are a person of worth. You have something to give to me.

Have you noticed that? Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house today. Nobody's gone to Zacchaeus' house for years.

That rotten tax collector. See? And Jesus says, you have something to give to me.

And he says to this woman who is little better, at least in the eyes of everybody else, little better than a prostitute. He's saying, you are a person of worth. It may only be a cup of water, but I need a cup of water, and you are a person of worth, and I will receive from you.

He wants to give something, but he starts by affirming her worth. Don't you feel the love that Jesus has for her all the way through this? Well, let's just look at the footnote to what happens to the story.

Just then, his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, what do you wish, or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar, went away into the city, and said to the people, Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.

He didn't do that. It just felt that way. He told her the most important thing she ever did.

Right? Can this be the Christ? Isn't that fascinating?

Do you realize that she has just become an evangelist? In fact, she is literally the first evangelist to anyone other than the Jews. Jesus has been sending his disciples out to the lost sheep of the tribes of Israel.

Here's the first evangelist to somebody other than the Jews. She is so arrested by this word of knowledge about herself offered in love that she runs and tells other people about it. Come!

And look at what she does. Come, see for yourself. and she witnesses with questions by the way can this be the Christ?

make up your own mind drop down to verse 39 just to get the end of the story many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony he told me all that I ever did so when the Samaritans came to him they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and many more believed because of his word they said to the woman it is no longer because of your words that we believe for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. That's pretty powerful evangelism. Pretty powerful evangelism.

Let me just step back and look. Jesus initiates the conversation. Number one.

He affirms this woman as a person with something to give, a person of worth. He arouses her interest. He doesn't dump the whole Nicene Creed in her lap all at once.

He just drops a little hint. And he begins gently, persistently, lovingly, with good humor, drawing her to himself. He discovers where she is in her spiritual life, and he doesn't condemn, even though she's broken one of the ten biggies.

doesn't condemn. He tantalizes her with bait. He says only enough to keep her nibbling until he can sink the hook.

He sticks to the main issues. He won't be sidetracked. And finally, he confronts her directly with his own claims.

I think that's a model for evangelism, in a nutshell. Right there. He initiated it.

Very important. some of you have been here all four evenings and I wonder what you're going to do with all this I've said lots and lots of times that I'll bet in any given church I'll bet sitting here in this evening in this room this evening right here tonight there are people that God has already gifted in the area of evangelism who have never opened their mouths to initiate a conversation with somebody. And you will not know whether God is giving you that gift and giving you that ministry unless you try.

And you'll probably not land a fish the first time you try. But try. And let God begin to teach you.

It doesn't happen until somebody initiates the conversation. Jesus does, and then he leads her gently to himself. a couple of additional comments and then I'm done for now I want to remind you that faith is primarily an act of the will it's not primarily a matter of the intellect I'm interested that when the Pharisees at one point challenged Jesus prove it, prove these incredible outrageous things that you're saying about yourself he gave them this answer fascinating answer John 7 verse 16 if anyone is really willing to do the will of God he'll know the truth of my teaching if you're willing to follow God where he leads you if you're willing to do God's will if your will is right you're not going to have any problem with me and he refused to try to prove it because their wills weren't right Jesus gave very short shrift To the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the teachers of the law who continually were coming, trying to entangle him in mind games.

He wouldn't play that. Remember, they came and they said, where do you get this authority of yours? They didn't want an answer.

They wanted to trap him, to get him to say something that was technically illegal. And he said, well, okay, I'll answer your question if you'll answer mine. Was John the Baptist's ministry from heaven, or was it just a human enterprise?

And they knew they couldn't answer either way. If they affirmed John's ministry, then implicitly they'd affirm Jesus. If they denied it, the people would be angry, because John was a great popular hero.

They said, we don't know. And Jesus said, well, until you figure that one out, I'm not going to answer your question either. He wouldn't play that game, you see.

And yet, on the other hand, notice how he welcomed honest, searching doubt. Doubting Thomas comes immediately to mind. Lest I see that nail print, put my finger in the nail print, put my hand in his side, I won't believe.

That sounds pretty strident, almost rebellious. But Jesus knew that behind that was the longing to know the truth. And he makes a special trip and says, Here, Thomas, put your finger in the nail print.

Put your hand in my side. And he falls on his knees and says, My Lord and my God. Or John the Baptizer, he's thrown into jail, awaiting probable death, martyrdom, beginning to be haunted by the question, If Jesus really is Messiah, what in the world am I doing here in prison?

I should be at his side and we should be bringing in the kingdom. And so he sends word by some of his disciples, are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? You know, of all the people who should have known that Jesus was the one to come, was John the Baptist.

And yet Jesus doesn't condemn him for that, doesn't upbraid him, say, John, how could you possibly ask such a question? You know I am! He doesn't do that.

He says, fellas, just stick around for a little while and watch what happens. heals people casts out evil spirits delivers folks raises them up and then turns back and says now go tell John the things you've seen and heard fulfillment of the prophecies that he has based his whole ministry on in proclaiming Messiah they're happening right before your eyes I know John has a big question in his mind he answers John in terms that are uniquely suited to him doesn't condemn him for honest doubt. Do you get that balance?

He will not play mind games, but he welcomes honest, searching inquiry. I think it's very important. It's important for us to distinguish between the two.

Because I want to say again, faith is not primarily a matter of the intellect. But we do need sometimes to do our homework to deal with those who have barriers in their minds and need answers. May I encourage you to do your homework.

Not to get sidetracked into intellectual ping pong, but to help remove the barriers for those who are genuinely searching. May I encourage you to do that. You know, there are only about ten questions that come up over and over and over again.

You do know that. How can a good God send people to hell? How can you believe the Bible?

It's got all those contradictions in it. There are about half a dozen to ten major questions. Go find the answers to those questions.

Let me give you a little book list. Paul Little. Know what you believe and know why you believe.

Two companion books. Paul Little. Josh McDowell.

Evidence that Demands a Verdict, and More Evidence that Demands a Verdict. John Warwick Montgomery, Quest for Noah's Ark, and a whole variety of things that he's written since then. Peter Moore has just brought out a marvelous little book that I've shared with the clergy of the diocese called Disarming the Secular Gods.

Do your homework. Do your homework. It's important.

A lot of people are frightened of ever getting started because they know sooner or later somebody's going to ask me of those questions and I don't know the answer. Find out the answer. It's not that hard.

If you don't know the answer, ask Father Dave. But may I say this to you, please, this is even more important than the last word. There are answers.

Don't be frightened of the questions. There are answers. The Bible is far and away the most studied book in the history of mankind.

it is unlikely that your friend is going to come up with a brand new question that nobody ever thought about before. And there are good, substantial answers to those questions. We might have another whole series on questions non-Christians ask sometime.

That would be fun, too. Find out the answers. But don't be frightened if you don't know the answer.

If somebody asks you a tough question and you don't know the answer, you say, that's a tough question and I don't know the answer. But I'll try to find out for you. Could we talk about it again?

But let's leave that question aside for a moment. Could we come to the main issue? Which is, what do you think about Jesus?

Do you follow what I'm saying? Don't try to pretend. If you don't know the answer to the question, admit it.

Say, I'll try to find out. We'll talk about it again. But you know, whether there was a big whale that swallowed Jonah, that's not really the issue.

The issue is, what do you think about Jesus? Do you follow me? I'm not sure what to say about the sincere Buddhist who never heard, but you did hear.

Could we talk about the main issue? What do you think about Jesus? Do you see what I'm saying?

Sometimes, especially with university students, I've observed the phenomenon that they'll ask a question, and I happen to know the answer, so I start to answer the question, and they see that I know the answer, and so they immediately change the subject and ask another question. They don't really want an answer. They just want to win the argument, see.

And so after that's happened about three or four times, I'll say, wait a second. You know, you're a very smart person and you probably have some questions that I can't answer. But let me ask you this.

If I could answer all of your questions, absolutely could answer all of your questions to your satisfaction, would you be prepared to give your life to Jesus? And you know, usually the person who's doing that will answer no. And I say, hey, let's not waste each other's time. I'm not really interested in that kind of a game.

Sometimes I've asked that question and tears have formed and folks would say, yeah. And then I say, wow. Now, this is a person who does have some barriers to belief and this is a person that I do need to spend time with and let's get rid of those barriers.

There are answers. But, having said all that, faith is not primarily a matter of the intellect, it's a matter of the will. Are you willing to follow the truth where it leads?

If anyone is willing to do God's will, he'll have no problem with my teaching, says Jesus. Don't try to dump. Don't try to overwhelm.

Don't try to prove how smart and well-read you are. give enough to let the other person come back at you again. See how Jesus does that over and over again.

And draw them always, always back to Him. What do you think of Jesus? Jesus is either the worst liar, worst blasphemer who ever lived, Or he is one of the looniest crazies that has ever come down the pike.

He thinks he's God. Or he is who he claims to be. What do you think of Jesus?

Draw them to him. And he'll take it from there. God bless you.