How Jesus Did Evangelism
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The following article has been excerpted from Looking for the One by David McIver.
At some point, you’ve been encouraged to share the gospel.
After all, “How can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?” (Romans 10:14) After listening to a missionary, you may have run out the door with a handful of gospel tracts or driven home feeling uncomfortable. You may have felt guilty or pressured.
In Sunday School, I learned that I should share my faith. We sang “This Little Light of Mine” over and over. As a teenager, I went door to door with a youth pastor who got into several heated arguments with strangers. In my twenties, there were a handful of opportunities to share my faith, but most years there were no opportunities and a whole lot of guilt. I was on track to join the majority of Christians who rarely share the gospel in their lifetime.
But all of that changed one day. My friend Tim called, and after lying facedown before the Lord, his plan was simple. His goal each day was to look for the one. It might be a financial need, a cup of cold water, or the gospel, but Tim had surrendered his schedule to Jesus. He believed God was big enough to take care of his business and bring him one person each day. I could hear the excitement in Tim’s voice. It was so simple.
One A Day.
In Luke 15 Jesus makes it simple: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them—what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost until you find it. When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulders and carry it back home. Then you call your friends and neighbors together and say to them, ‘I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:4-7, GNT, italics mine).
I know what you are thinking. Your schedule is crazy, or you’ve tried to witness but it didn’t go well. Someone asked a question, and you didn’t know what to say.
Let’s start with your schedule. My friend Tim is busy. I have sat in his office and watched him navigate a blizzard of phone calls and questions from his team. But when Tim goes looking for the one, time stands still. Tim believes in his heart of hearts that lost and hurting people are more important than his schedule. He believes God’s bottom line is more important than his bottom line.
Several years ago, Tim called, and instead of one opportunity to share Jesus, there were seven “appointments” in one day. Seven! I was never a straight-A student in high school, but on this day, I got it. When Tim stops to help someone, that “delay” is life-changing. The delay is also a timing mechanism for setting up the next appointment. Each act of obedience leads to arriving on time for the next meeting. And when the dust settles, God can open doors and bless our bottom line in ways our selfish efforts cannot. “He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love” (Psalm 147:10-11).
How about the questions you can’t answer? Not having all the answers means that you have to depend on the Holy Spirit. Your dependence is what God desires in looking for the one. Because you don’t have all of the answers, you instinctively see these encounters as relationships instead of talking points. Instead of theological or political debates, all you want to talk about is Jesus.
These short stories are not a system or a program. This is abiding with Jesus and his heart for the lost people in your life. The broken, the forgotten, the abused and the outcasts. It’s about your family members who need to experience Jesus. It’s the adventure of seeing strangers meeting Jesus.
Reading these short stories takes only five minutes a day, but I have a prediction. During the next month, you’ll start to think differently:
The delay at the airport? “Yes! The one is on my flight!”
The angry co-worker? “Jesus, this anger is really an open door to their heart.”
The single mom serving your table? “Lord, may this extravagant tip be an expression of your love.”
The week you have to spend in the hospital? “Someone in that hospital needs to know him!”
The family member who wants nothing to do with Jesus? “Jesus, show me their heart.”
There are times it takes years to develop a relationship, but most of the time looking for the one happens in daily moments of obedience. It might only be a trip to the grocery store, but you walk into this store as a representative of Jesus. “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
Looking for the one is life-changing, but the first life to be changed is yours.
Because as you look for the one, you become like the One.
You become more like Jesus.
How Jesus looked for the one
“Peter and John won the crippled beggar, and his transformed life led to the conversion of two thousand people! Like Jesus, the apostles took time for individuals” (Warren Wiersbe).
Let’s imagine an earlier scene in John, Chapter 4, involving Peter and John: As the torchlight flickers across the walls, you look around the room. James and John are in deep conversation, and Peter is gesturing with his arms as he tries to convince Andrew of something. You smile as you look into each face. These are your friends. These are your brothers.
You are gathered because the Master has decided it is time to leave Judea and return to Galilee. More importantly, he has decided to walk through Samaria. You wonder to yourself if Samaria is just a shortcut to Galilee, or is Samaria somehow part of the master’s strategy? Because of the tensions between the Jews and Samaritans, the stakes are high.
Now you turn and look at Jesus.
Jesus is seated at the head of the table, and he is looking from face to face. As his eyes meet your eyes, time stands still. No more random thoughts. No more questions. His gaze captures your heart. His calm gathers your calm.
The next day is a long walk, and as you pass through Samaria you reach Jacob’s well. Now it is time to go into the village to buy food. But you see the weariness on the face of Jesus. It is time for Jesus to rest at the well. As you enter the village, you are surrounded by Samaritans. As you buy food, you wonder if Jesus is planning to reveal to this village that he is the Messiah.
In returning, you see the well in the distance, and it looks like someone is talking to Jesus. As you come closer, your questions turn to shock. Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman. This is so unthinkable that you join a circle of disciples who are speechless.
Suddenly, this woman leaves her water jar beside the well and begins running to the village. Within minutes, the villagers are streaming out to see Jesus.
Jesus did not hold an organized meeting or connect with the leaders of the city, but he did have a plan:
The plan was to ask a sinful woman for a drink of water.
Jesus spoke to large crowds. But over and over, we see him looking for the one. He takes time for children, lepers, tax collectors, and fishermen. When Jesus healed the sick, sometimes he spoke a word while other times he spit on the ground. When it is time to reach an entire village, he looks for a sinful woman and asks her for a drink of water. He knows all about her sin, but he looks for her. He chooses her.
Jesus could have ridden into the village on a stallion. He could have arranged for his followers to carry him on their shoulders like royalty. But Jesus takes a long dusty walk so a weary woman can see his weariness. He becomes thirsty so her thirst can be quenched. Jesus goes on a journey that is costly to him. “Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime” (John 4:6).
As Jesus comes to set her free, he humbles himself and invites her into a relationship. He gently says, “Please give me a drink” (John 4:7). When she hesitates, we hear the heart of Jesus. “If only you knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water” (John 4:10).
We hesitate to help a stranger or share the gospel because we see ourselves at the story’s center. How will they respond to me? Will the gospel break our relationship? But as we look into the face of one who is lost, it is not about a relationship with us. It is a relationship with Jesus.
We become fearless as we whisper the words of Jesus, “If only you knew.”
The one you are speaking to is trying to quench their thirst with things that can never satisfy their heart. They need to know the difference between water that cannot satisfy and water that is a wellspring of life. Jesus made it clear. “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life” (John 4:13).
The Samaritan woman responds to Jesus with the words you hear when looking for the lost. “Please give me this water!” (John 4:15)
Because of Jesus, someone is set free from sin and shame and understands why their Father is looking for them. “But the time is coming—indeed it is here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).
A.W. Tozer sheds some light on why Jesus came and why he looked for the lost. “Why did Christ come? Why was He conceived? Why was He born? Why was He crucified? Why did He rise again? Why is He now at the right hand of the Father? The answer to all these questions is, ‘In order that he might make worshippers out of rebels’” (Experience God in Worship, as quoted by John S. Miller).
As this sinful Samaritan woman meets the unconditional love of Jesus, she begins to run. She is not running from Jesus but running to share Jesus. “The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?’ So the people came streaming from the village to see him” (John 4:28-30).
How Jesus looked for the one is how we look for the one.
We go on long walks that test and try us.
We become thirsty so we connect with the thirsty.
We ask:
What is your name?
Why are you anxious?
What are you looking for?
Do you believe this?
We watch as eyes open in wonder.
We rejoice as someone begins to run.
If we believe that looking for the one is a life of weariness, Jesus speaks life to us. “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work” (John 4:31-34).
As Jesus sees a sinful woman, he invites his followers to wake up and look around. “You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest” (John 4:35-38).
Henry Blackaby beautifully summarizes the encounter at the well: “We try to teach evangelism to Christians, or how to witness as kingdom citizens. Evangelism is not a program. It is a by-product of a healthy, growing, vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus did not have to teach the woman at the well how to witness. He redeemed her, and she brought the whole city to see the man who changed her life!” (The Man God Uses)
As we walk with Jesus, we dare to believe the words of Jesus:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord's favor has come" (Luke 4:18-19).
As we walk with Jesus, we see the lost, lonely, and broken through his eyes.
Stories of Seeing the Lost, Lonely, and Broken Through the Eyes of Jesus
“I would love to share my faith, but I don’t know what to say. My attempts feel awkward and forced. Sometimes, I push people away. I would never admit this, but I’ve started to avoid conversations about Jesus.”
Looking For The One is short stories about people experiencing Jesus in grocery stores, hospitals, and dugouts. Each story models walking with Jesus as He finds the lost through you.
As you witness the power of the gospel in your everyday life, you discover that the first life to be changed is yours.
Because as you look for the one, you become like the One.You become more like Jesus.
