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Page 2 January 15, 2012

The Greatest Missionary Ever!
1.  Jesus came to save the lost

You probably know the story of this chapter.   If you couldn’t tell the story from memory, then I would suggest that you read this chapter over several times this week.  I think that the best way to do mission work is simply to tell people stories about Jesus.
The story?    Jesus and his disciples were going back to Galilee because the Pharisees were making things a little too hot for comfort in Jerusalem.  They happened to stop at the well in Sychar, a Samaritan village, where Jesus’ disciples went into town to buy some lunch while Jesus rested at the well.  You can argue whether Jesus knew that a woman would come out and draw water, or that this was just one of those happy circumstances.  I’m not always sure when Jesus turned his omniscience on or off.  Either way, Jesus, the greatest missionary ever, either made the opportunity or seized the opportunity when it came.  
He engaged this strange woman in a conversation.  She was an unlikely prospect.  She was a Samaritan, whom Jews normally avoided like the plague.  She was alone and Jesus was alone, which could have put him in a compromising position.  Jesus didn’t know her – although he knew that he has been married and divorced five times and now she was living with someone that wasn’t married.  That’s probably why she was out at the well at the heat of the day.   Normally, women came to the well after supper when it was cool.  They lingered and gossiped a bit.   This woman was the one in town they gossiped about.   She was THAT woman.   It was easier to come to the well when there was no one there, than to come to the well and have everyone treat you as a no one.  
Still Jesus spoke to her.  Why?  To Jesus, every soul is a treasure.  There is never anyone who is so lost, so sinful, so stained with sin, that Jesus does not want that person to know his forgiveness and be with him in heaven!  
A pastor shared a story with me this last week about a similar encounter he had in his life.   He knew a young woman was a nice young woman.  She had a guy friend who was pushing her into a sexual relationship.   She liked the guy but not that way.  And she really wanted to save herself for marriage because she knew that’s what God wanted.  But one night he invited her to the beach and he brought a bottle of wine.  To make a long story short, she had too much to drink and he took advantage of her.  The next day she came to her pastor with tears in her eyes and told him what happened.  “I feel so dirty,” she said.  “I know that I will never feel clean again.”  

Have you ever felt that way in your heart before God?   Have you ever felt so dirty because of your sins that you were afraid that you would never be clean again?   Listen to what Jesus said in our text.  34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”  Remember the words which Jesus spoke from the cross?  “It is finished,” Jesus proclaimed.  Jesus came to wash away every stain of sin, and to wipe away every guilty tear from our eyes.  “It is finished!” Jesus said.