In evangelism, we are told to use our minds – 2 Cor. 10:3-5; 1 Peter 3:15. Here we have ‘How to evangelise when you don’t know much.’
- Love sinners.
- 4:27. One Rabbinic saying is particularly extreme: ‘A man shall not talk with a woman in the street, not even with his own wife, and especially not with another woman, on account of what men may say.’ 1 Corinthians 15:33 is a divine command but it does not mean we are not to pursue the lost.
- 4:28. She was keen to get to town to tell her people about Jesus.
- Invite sinners to see for themselves.
- 4:28-29. She knows her sins; she is remembering what Jesus said to her back in verses 16-19. Jesus has that effect on sinners – Luke 5:8. George Mueller fell ill in 1829: ‘It was as if every sin of which I had been guilty was brought to my remembrance.’ Telling my whole life with his words, Killing me softly with his song. Many mental health issues are simply the result of sin not being faced. How do you live with sin? It affects us deeply. Bring it to Jesus.
- ‘Come’ is a biblical invitation – Ps. 34:8; Matt. 11:28; Mark 10:14; Rev. 22:17. C. S. Lewis lamented: ‘I must add that my own work has suffered very much from the incurable intellectualism of my approach. The simple, emotional appeal (“Come to Jesus”) is still often successful.’ He then added: ‘But those who, like myself, lack the gift for making it, had better not attempt it.’ See John 1:37-41, 44-45. Origen called her ‘the apostle of the Samaritans’.
- Pose questions to sinners.
- 4:29b. She had not done a course on Francis Schaeffer or Cornelius Van Til. So she simply posed the question: ‘Can this be the Christ?’ It is a biblical thing to do – see Ezek. 18:31-32. She is not George Whitefield, but she was used by God – 4:30.