Beloved, let us turn in our Bibles to Matthew, Chapter 15. The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 15, from 21 through 31. Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, let the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet. And he healed them, insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to walk and the blind to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. Beloved, we have been considering in the last two weeks the subject of reaching out to others. You may recall a couple of weeks ago we looked at this as first and foremost a matter of our heart, really having a heart for other people, valuing the eternal welfare of others. It's a matter of priorities. We also spend some time studying the means that are used in this endeavor of studying the related subjects of evangelism and witnessing, considering how these activities deal with our everyday lives and interact with our everyday lives. And last Lord's Day, we took a bit of a closer look, a bit of a panoramic look through scripture. at real-life examples of both of these activities, concluding as well that these are not rigid categories, but that they often bleed one into the other as gifts and abilities and opportunities and grace that the Spirit leads and provides. We also remember that each one of us has our part to play, that we're not all gifted speakers, we're not all able to evangelize in the strictest sense of the word, Still, we talked about, you know, we kind of imagine together what a community of believers all reflecting the glory of Christ might look like. And what a glorious picture that would be, a little snowflakes we're talking about with the sun reflecting off of. Tonight, we want to go probably to well, undoubtedly to the very best source we can to see exactly how witnessing, evangelizing, reaching out to others ought to be done. And of course, when I say the best source, we are referring to the Word of God for sure. But in the Word of God, we want to look at our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus. How He did this. Who He did it with. What can we learn from His ministry? And what can we draw from His inexhaustible fount of resources? in order to carry out this work. So we turn once more to the Lord in silent prayer. We ask him for wisdom in order that we may look not only at the Savior, but as we gaze on him, as we learn from him, that he would transform us into instruments of grace. Instruments and conduits through which he does his work. by the Spirit of God and the Word of God. I'm going to mention the passage that we read earlier as one of many parts of Scripture we're going to be looking at. Let me just read verse 28 of Matthew 15, where Jesus, in response to the woman's tenacious faith, says, O woman, gray is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. So tonight we conclude the third part of Witnesses Unto Me. We want to first look at the persons. Who did Jesus reach out to? In the second place, we want to see the manner in which Jesus reached out. How did he, we would say, in infinite wisdom, how did he deal with these different groups of people? Is there anything to be learned by that? And then finally, and maybe a little bit surprisingly, what exactly was Jesus' purpose? And by extension, what should our purpose be as we witness to the Lord and as we reach out with the gospel to others? So first of all, we want to consider the persons to whom Jesus reached out. I find it absolutely astonishing, really, Not just this time preparing for this message, but in times past is thinking about this and maybe you've had the same thought Jesus Christ the Son of God was on this earth for 33 years That's a relatively brief amount of time when you consider the span of human history 33 years is very short and his public ministry consisted of about three So we would think to ourselves every moment of Every minute of Jesus' public ministry was of incredible importance, absolutely valuable. Not a moment could be thought of as wasted. And that, of course, is true. And here we have God incarnate walking among us, dealing with people all the time. And all of this helps us, doesn't it? As we trace his dealings with people around him, it helps us understand his dealings with us and how we ought to deal with others. So we want to consider first who God leaves on record in the Gospels as far as those with whom Jesus interacted. And to save a bit of time, because you could imagine if we tried to cover all four Gospels, that would be pretty impossible. So we're going to confine ourselves almost exclusively just to the Gospel of Matthew. And even then, we're going to have to just glean a few examples to cover the kinds of people that Jesus dealt with. Now, maybe it's a surprise to you, it certainly was to me, to realize that Jesus spent as much time or more of his interaction with people with the Jewish leaders. Most of these leaders were his enemies. Most of them would oppose the very gospel he brought. Most of them would call for his death at the end of his life. Why would Jesus spend any time with them? Why would Jesus bother with them at all, reverently speaking? What can we learn from the fact that he did? Well, beloved, first of all, we notice that these are people in authority. And particularly, they are people who are in spiritual authority. So their teaching and their example had a tremendous influence on the people's view of God, their understanding of God, and also their understanding of the will of God. One of the reasons, just as an aside, we in the HRC have constantly been brought back to the realization that one of the privileges we have as a small denomination is education. Because as we are training leaders, precisely because of their influence as preachers, as teachers, governing institutions of Christian learning, that this is an enormous responsibility and privilege. And God keeps returning us to that work, so much so that our mission committee has on record that unless there is some extenuating situation, unforeseen direction, that pretty much we're going to confine our efforts to those sorts of things, because that appears to be what God is calling us to. Now, these people, as influential as they were, molding the understanding of these people of God and of His will, then it's not surprising that Jesus did spend time, a lot of time, interacting with them. But what can we learn from this? That Jesus took so much time to address them, to continue to counter their teaching, that he took a bit of time exposing their hypocrisy. It is true that as a son of God, he spoke to them from a position of authority, such authority that none of us really have. But still, the fact that he and then even his disciples after him tells us there is a place for all of us to address persons in authority about what they're teaching, about what they're preaching, especially, particularly, if they are leading people astray, if they are leading people to wrong understandings of God and of the gospel and of others. Now, today in the church, the elders are called primarily to do this work. They are, may I say it this way, the first line of defense for the people of God. They are charged to be paying attention to what comes off of this pulpit. And if anything is not according to Scripture, it's their responsibility as well as mine to make sure that it stays that way or that it returns to that way. But of course, that's not all. There's only so much these men can do. But it's also a joint responsibility. It's something that you need to keep us accountable to as well. Having said that, there are, of course, pitfalls that we need to be careful. It's a bit of a two edged sword, particularly if suggestions or critiques that are made are plainly not well thought out. I remember a very seasoned minister, not in our denomination, but well known probably to many of you if I had mentioned his name. And I could tell that he had all kinds of suggestions over a period of time about what all should the church be like. And we happened to be in God's providence at the service when he said, well, bring all the suggestions you like and do us a favor and bring the Word of God to back them. Do all the research and present that so that we don't have to do it. Because what was happening? Well, I think this would be a good idea. Well, I think that would be a good idea. We ought to change this. We ought to do that. And nobody or few people brought any scriptural reason for any of it. They just thought it might be a good idea. And of course, then the elders, if they're going to take, as we should, the input of God's people, Then they're given the responsibility, the time-consuming responsibility, to comb through scripture and to see if indeed that suggestion does make scriptural sense. Well, he said, you're going to help us with that. But do help us with that. Don't take anything I just said as kind of a veiled way of saying don't speak up. Jesus addressed the authorities. The elders are charged with addressing the preaching. But so do we all have a place in that. Remember last week? Was it last week? Aquila and Priscilla? We saw them taking that gifted, eloquent speaker, Apollos, aside, teaching him the way of God more perfectly. And God blessed that and used that man even more than before. So there is a role in dealing with authority figures, particularly those who are teaching and preaching the word of God. Another huge group of people that we find Jesus interacting with, dealing with, ministering to, we will call the needy. It seems to me that a lot of us think when I say the needy, we're talking about spiritually needy people. But any honest read of the New Testament will tell us right away that a tremendous amount of time was spent by Jesus dealing with physical needs. Not just ministering to souls, but curing bodies, dealing with people's hurt, Now, you would think, I would think, that just a handful of the most notable miracles, cures of leprosy and the people who are possessed, you would think a few of those would be all that's necessary to prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. But there are so many, many miracles recorded. Why? Are they all just there to remind us, to point us to the spiritual work that Jesus came to do? That is an aspect of them. But you wouldn't need repeated healings of blind people to make that point. You wouldn't need more than one leper to make that point. And yet, what do we find? All kinds of physical needs. outcasts, rejects, downcasts, helpless people, multitudes of them, and sometimes in quick succession, seemingly no end. Years ago, our son, who's involved in medicine, came across a book. I didn't read the whole book, I just skimmed through it. It was called Jesus M.D., and it wasn't irreverent in the least. It was a Christian doctor who did a great deal of work in Africa on the side of his practice. And he said, when I was there, I got just a taste, just a glimpse of what it must have been, just speaking from the physical side of Jesus' ministry. He said you could see people lined up as far as the eye could see. You knew full well you would never get to the people at the end of that line if you spent the entire day and all night ministering to them. And if any of you have ever traveled abroad to a third world setting, you just get that sense. There is just overwhelming need in this world. And isn't it fascinating that in that three years of precious moments. Jesus did not dedicate himself solely or even to a large degree to just spiritual need. And the list is impressive. If you would add up all the passages, if you would add up all the examples, it's absolutely stunning. And what's really beautiful We read more than once they were all healed. You never read of a single example where Jesus said you know it's no more time for you or this is a case that I can't handle or that you know I've had enough of physical healings come back another day. What a lesson. Well what is the lesson in the context of outreach. I think partly because we live in a world of socialized medicine, which gives us access to medicine, modern medical procedures, specialists of every kind, physicians for every need. We tend to think that the physically needy are not a group of people we necessarily need to be ministering to. We have what we call caregivers. But beloved, even though we might have thought that evangelizing, witnessing is exclusively caring for people's souls, we should not be thinking that way. And that doesn't mean we all need to be medical practitioners. Yes, those physical cures of Christ pointed, were symbolic of spiritual sickness, but we must look squarely at Jesus' involvement with such physical needs, and we need to look at it thoughtfully. And you know, this isn't divorced from spirituality. The Lord Jesus came to redeem. What did he come to redeem? Just souls? He came to redeem body and soul. He died on the cross, both physically, and he was separated from God, judicially, spiritually. He came to redeem the whole of us, just like Adam and Eve's fall affected souls, it also affected bodies. In this collective disaster, we call the curse. The fact that we're ill, the fact that there's people who don't have the right use of their mind, and a host of other difficulties that we face physically, that's all part of the fall. And so Jesus came to redeem it all, to roll back the curse in every way. Not to mention, we sometimes forget how interrelated our bodies and souls are. I probably gave you this example before, but if we have ulcers, let's say, That can become a spiritual issue if I become anxious over my ulcers and I begin worrying and getting all worked up and not turning to the Lord but relying on other things exclusively. Or the converse could be true. I could be so worried about so many other things that I give myself ulcers physically. So spiritual issue turning into a physical issue. And so we can see the interrelatedness of the two. And there's no need to make these very compartmentalized distinctions. So getting to the bottom line, if Christ came to redeem bodies and souls, if Jesus ministered to spiritual and physical needs in this world, If Jesus cured multitudes of all kind, took the time and a lot of it from his precious three years to do this, we ought to concern ourselves with physical suffering, recognizing that physical suffering is a next door neighbor to someone's spiritual condition. What am I saying then? Well, first of all, don't just witness, and this may sound a bit silly, but don't just witness to healthy people. Please don't think that the ill first need to be well by means of caregivers before your witness could or should be applied or even will be effectual. The very opposite is true, isn't it? It's especially when people are hurting. It's especially when people are downcast, challenged, and so on, that the words of Christ and the hands of Christ and the love of Christ is not only what's needed in those moments when we are stretched to the limit, but it's welcomed often. People who are suffering, whether you are armed with a pot of soup Or you make a phone call or a visit or a kind word or a word from Scripture. It's because these physical issues are part of the fall. Then those ministry opportunities, if you want to call them that, those are perfect. They touch their lives in just the place. In fact, let me put it this way. Those tangible instances of help in the Lord's name Those take what might be an abstract idea about Christ in those people's minds and make it very tangible and very visible and very practical and very helpful and very comforting. And we do want to keep in our minds and we want to connect in their minds, even if in the simplest way, that what we're doing physically for their comfort, for the assuaging of their grief, is in the Lord's name. But it could be something so simple. Just sitting beside somebody in a hospital saying, you know, I'm praying to Jesus for you. Simple. Connecting their illness, their suffering with prayer, with Christ. Or, It's the least I can do visiting you, the least I can do for my Lord. And I wrote in my notes, connections, connections, connections. Quite honestly, if you ask people who've suffered, they're not looking for a big long dissertation about theology. We were trained back in the day in seminary, a few minutes at best, people are suffering. They can't have a long visit many times if it's a critical situation, but that's not even necessary. Sometimes several smaller sincere connections cumulatively are way more powerful than the big talk. And that's true in family relationships. That's true with your buddies at school, boys and girls. If they're hurting, if they're suffering, maybe something happened in their home, they're feeling really down that day, you can be there and you don't have to know what to say. Just be there. Minister to them with your presence. Just give them a poke. You know, I'm praying for you. Let me know how it turns out. And sometimes if someone's anticipating struggles, let's just say there's an operation. Frequently, if I think of it, I'll say, what time does your operation start? I'd like to be with you in prayer, if possible. And could you imagine what it would be like to know 500 plus people are praying for you the moment they wheel you into that operating room? You don't think that's a powerful spiritual moment that might actually be used of the Lord to humble them, the goodness of the Lord, leading them perhaps to repentance or to renewed and stronger faith? So let me say this. Tracts are nice. They often bring the gospel to people when we maybe can't do it ourselves so well. But the personal touch. I wish I could do more, but I'll pray for you. Or it may be that instead of healing you, God will comfort you. So I'll pray for you, but maybe it's not in his plan to heal you, but look for his strength. Look for him to give you what you need to bear this. So you're actually teaching in simple ways in a place that connects with their actual situation. And maybe you can't even think of things off the top of your head in the moment. But you might be able to do it at home. So you write a little note with that little banana bread that you left with them. Or you give a little card with a text in it. Next time you visit that widow person or that recently fatherless child, you don't have to be quick on your feet, but you do want to bring something of Christ to them. And one more thing about the physically needy. Let's not shy away from those who are perhaps in the less pleasant kinds of distress. You know, Jesus dealt with lepers. We read that. It's like, of course. But in that day, that was totally against protocol. You didn't do that. You didn't touch a leper. You didn't go near a leper. They weren't part of normal society. Jesus literally went out of his way, in the Jewish sense of the word, to minister to people who nobody else would. The only time a leper could return is if he was cured. The only company he had, fellow lepers. What about people with HIV? What about people with Hepatitis C? What about people with other diseases that I won't mention now that are not particularly glorious or the kind we like to talk about in public? He interacted with people who weren't possessed with a full mind. Do we do that? Or do we shy away from people who have mental or emotional disabilities because we're not quite sure what to do? He reached out with compassion to such people. Now, surely he had the power to change them. We don't necessarily have that power, but we do have the power of prayer and we can speak a word in season. And people with emotional and intellectual handicaps need just as much love or more than anybody else. And that means visiting a jail. or a rehab center, or those who have been injured through the very sins they committed, Jesus interacted over and over with the physically needy. And so should we. Another kind of person that Jesus reached out to was what, for lack of a better term, out and out sinners. These were the kind of people that the leaders just wrote off. tax collectors, harlots, possessed with unclean spirits, adulterers. These were the very people that, according to the very law of God, were condemned, which is why the leaders were quick to apply the law to them. This is the way to be done with them. It's very plain what should be done with them. There are all kinds of people who recoil inwardly maybe even visibly, from reaching into lives like that, from reaching out to lives that are quite messy, that aren't like our nice, neat and tidy looking lives. And especially when that big, gigantic mess of a life was caused by sin, blatant sin. We like to minister to repentance sinners. We don't like to minister to hardened sinners, but Jesus did it all the time. And we could learn from that. And I know how we think. I have the same thing. How could I even begin to help straighten out this person's life? But that's not the right question. That's not even our responsibility. None of us. When people with needs come to me, it's not my job to straighten it out. I can't. I can't even straighten out my own life. But that's beside the point. We are not the ones to do it, but we are the ones to witness to the one who does. And that's the point. You don't have to understand what they're going through. You don't have to have lived through it. It helps if you do, but it's not necessary. I'll give you a beautiful example of this. You might have heard of this or read of this before. You probably heard of Richard Wurmbrand, a Protestant pastor, imprisoned in Romania by the communists, first by the Russians, communists, in, I think it was the 60s, into the 70s. Well, one real history concerning him, there came a time when they were in prison and one of the communist leaders himself kind of fell out of favor with the other leaders and landed in the jail with him. Now, you could imagine the standard prisoner, how they would treat somebody like that. What Wurmbrand did, they got the smallest portion of food imaginable to keep somebody alive, he would give part of it to this man. Medicine that this man did not have access to, Wurmbrand would give some of the medicine he depended on to this man. The man was utterly astounded. He said, it's us who put you here. Why do you treat me this way? Wombrand began to talk to him about Jesus. In a bit flustered, the man said, who is this Jesus? What is he like? And remarkably and humbly, Wombrand said to him, Jesus is like me. And that man said, if Jesus is like you, I want to hear all about him. And it gave him an opportunity to witness. Now what started the conversation? A gospel presentation to a hardened communist in prison? No. Kindness. Selfless generosity opened the door in the least likely of place, in the least likely of lions for the gospel. That will be the same today, beloved, with us. If our hearts are in the right place, even the messiest sinner's life, the person who we can hardly even relate to their worldview, ought to elicit compassion on us. Because these people are caught in the clutches of the greatest sins. And they, of all people, had the greatest need for the love of Christ. Finally, Jesus also dealt with what we would call strangers. Now, strangers in the context of the gospel would be non-Jews or Gentiles. We're going to consider it a little bit more in a moment, but let me just say generally about these examples. We have a few of them. that come to mind, the Roman centurion who came to Christ about his Paul seed servant. There was a Levi. He was a Jew, but he was considered a traitor to the Jewish people. He was a tax collector for Rome, probably lined his pockets with some of the money. There was a Syrophoenician woman, the woman we read about, otherwise called the woman of Tyre and Sidon. She came with a possessed daughter. And then you remember probably the most famous example, the woman at the well of Samaria, who had had five husbands. These, according to the thinking of the day, were not part of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. We would call them today the unchurched, or we would call them the world, or we would call them the unsaved. These people were not particularly religious. They did not have the Jewish worldview of one God and all of that. These are people who think in a secular way. And people, quite honestly, at first that we might have a hard time even relating to, because their worldview is so different than our own. But don't such people need Christ, dear friends? Don't they have a soul that's worth saving? Don't they have a life that's worth redeeming? And again, with several of these so-called strangers, Jesus addressed the physical needs, the ill servant, the possessed daughter, and so on. But that was the context that he used to enter into their lives spiritually. It's just amazing that they came with these needs. The one lady at the well didn't come with any need. She was coming for water because thirst was an everyday experience. And God uses these opportunities to challenge them to trust in Him. To challenge them to trust in His Word. To challenge them to trust that He could help. And to challenge them to trust that He would help. Can't we encourage strangers to do the same thing? People who maybe don't have God on their radar screen at all. May we not encourage them? And okay, they might reject us out of hand, because we're kind of strange with our beliefs. Well, Paul was rejected, and he was considered very strange by a lot of people that he ministered to in his travels. What is that to us? Our calling is to simply sow seeds and leave the harvest to God. And here is something practical to think about. Okay, so how do we even begin to deal with somebody whose life, worldview, everything is so removed from ours? Well, it's very simple. You begin to deal with them in those areas of their life with which you are familiar. In other words, to reach out in ways that touch their life right now, not their life that you hope they live 20 years from now after they've received the gospel by faith. So, for example, a bag of groceries. is something they can relate to right now, but a bag of groceries in Christ's name, a ride to the hospital and a little conversation during that ride, an outfit for a newborn baby who was born out of wedlock, can speak volumes, can open enormous opportunities, a little card, a little pocket Bible, even a pair of reading glasses, and as you're giving them, you're encouraging the person with the Word of God. Here's something to read or some other appropriate material. Religious leaders, physically hurting, blatant sinners, the needy of all kinds, strangers, Jesus met them all. Jesus ministered to them all. Jesus healed them all, He took them in, He gave them comfort, and most importantly, He directed them to Himself. And let me add one more thought. He wept. He wept over a city that He knew was about to reject Him. a city that because of their unbelief would be wiped off the map, that knowledge, and it was His decree that it should be so, did not limit Christ's compassion. So that even though many in that city would never be saved, the fact that they would be lost eternally, grieved him. And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. A heart of pity for people he knew would be lost, We never have that unless we're standing next to somebody who is thoroughly ungodly, absolutely unrepentant, and dies right in front of us. But otherwise, how do we know that somebody who seems so far off the chart won't come to repentance either by your ministry or you and ten other people down the line that God uses to open their heart to the gospel, and open the gospel to their heart. And it may be someone is rejecting your kindness, and someone is rejecting your words, and someone's rejecting the pot of soup that you brought, and the gospel itself, and you feel compelled maybe to shake the dust off your feet against them. Well, you may do that, Jesus says, but you may also at the very same time have a heart of compassion and a prayer for repentance. There are, beloved, a trusty band of about a dozen men who Jesus poured nearly every waking moment of his life into during those three years. And that, of course, was his disciples. But we're going to leave them a bit out of this tonight, because really that involves an entirely other subject. And that is the subject of discipleship, which God willing, we'll consider at another time, but would take a bit of a Bypass from where we're considering now. So even though he interact with them, perhaps more than any other group, we will consider it under a different subject another day. God sparing us now concerning the manner, having identified at least a number of the prominent groups numerically with whom Jesus interacted. How did he interact with them? But we start this section of our time together with a question. What, boys and girls, angered the Lord Jesus more than anything else? The answer is a single word. Unbelief. Not believing in Him was something that He was incensed over. For example, in Mark chapter 3, particularly regarding the rulers, Jesus is questioning the rulers saying, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil? And you know the many instances where they were accusing him of breaking the Sabbath, for healing people and all sorts of things, plucking corn on the Lord's days, disciples and such. Is it lawful, he said, to save life or to kill? But they held their peace. And then what we read, He looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. They would not believe. After His resurrection, it wasn't just the Jewish leaders, we read Jesus abraded His disciples with their unbelief and hardness of heart. In other words, how now Could you continue on in your unbelief, seeing all that I have done? At one point when he was ministering in Galilee, we read, he marveled at the unbelief of the people. Marveled. It was so striking. And Matthew goes on to inform us, and he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Now, just stepping back from the subject of outreach, that ought to give us all a moment of pause. I think if we listed the big ticket sins, adultery, murder, all that, unbelief sits right at the top. And yet, that has become in some circles a spiritually acceptable condition. Let the pages of Scripture speak for themselves. This was Jesus' response. He had compassion on some of the most heinous sinners of the other category. But when people who knew better, who saw better, who heard what he had to say, and then hardened their heart, people like us. Are we really desirous to be a good witness for Jesus? Are we? Do we even think about evangelism? Well, before we take a step out of our door, a step in any direction, let's begin in our own heart, asking ourselves whether we are living, as Paul says, by the faith of the Son of God, or whether we're living in unbelief. And the reason I ask it in this context, if we're uncertain concerning following the Savior, how in the world do you expect anybody to follow Him in your direction? Certainly not somebody who knows you very well. We need to bear witness ourselves. But it's not us that we're bearing witness to. We're bearing witness to him. If we have anything to say, it's about him and what he means to us and what he is for sinners and so on. So unbelief, let me put it this way, should be avoided, should be prayed against, should be fought like the plague. It is highly displeasing to the saver. It ought to be highly displeasing to us. And it is absolutely fatal. to attempts to help other people in his name. There is absolutely nothing commendable, nothing commendable about unbelief. In what manner did Jesus reach out to these leaders? To those who in their hypocrisy and self-centeredness led the people astray, Jesus was very direct. He warned them vehemently. In seven verses, sequentially, Matthew 23, Jesus says, Woe unto his scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Why was he so vehement? They devoured widows' houses. They corrupted converts to the Jewish faith. They were concerned only with outward appearance. Jesus said, Blind leaders of the blind, their inward part is full of ravening and wickedness, a generation of vipers. So Jesus confronted them. Jesus warned them. exposed their hypocrisy, but also pointed them, and this is important. He didn't just blast them and leave them, but as He was letting them have it, He was teaching them truth. He wasn't just confronting them with authority, He was confronting them with truth. There's that one amazing passage, and I don't know the citation, I didn't write it down, The power of God was present to heal them, speaking of the leaders. That tells us, what do we learn from this? Are we to go up to ministers of different congregations and start pointing the finger and making a scene? No. But the difference is very important. We need in our own minds as we reach out to other people to make a clear distinction between those who are more or less ignorant of the word and will of God, but those from those who knowingly disobey the will of God. So there are those who they need instruction, they need information. They don't need a rebuke because they don't hardly have a clue. What the right way is. But there's others who are knowing and not obeying. And it is not kind to leave people either in their ignorance or to allow them to go on and not only go lost themselves but to mislead others. So we need to make a distinction. Sometimes that distinction is made in the form of a straightforward warning. But to those who came to him for healing, for direction, burdened by sin, whatever the case, we read that Jesus was moved with compassion. He saw them as sheep that had no shepherd. Let's make that distinction. If you've got a friend, if you've got a co-worker, they know the way and they're not walking in it. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do, get right in their face and say, look, you know better. You know how this ends. I don't have to tell you, you already know. Please, for the good of your own soul, for the good of your family, your children, walk in God's ways. And yes, you can point all the fingers at me. I accept it. I struggle too, but let's struggle together. But don't just walk away and go lost. But if somebody really needs information, if somebody really doesn't know any better, so to speak, that's what we give them. Guidance, instruction, encouragement. And what's really interesting to me This goes back to those who are involved in more specific evangelistic work. Did you ever notice that Jesus never once, not once, even though he could have easily done it, he never says to a multitude, okay, you're all healed, go home. He never does a mass healing. There was one time, a dozen lepers, he healed them, but he singled the one out for a different lesson. But on the whole, he could have healed everybody. was just a thought with one word. He didn't do that. He healed this one and then he healed those two and he healed that one. And you'd say, but that's not efficient. That's totally counter the way we would think. We think they should all been lined up, all taken care of at once, convert thousands at one sermon. Easy. He's the son of God. He could do it. But this is why we need to think, okay, I have nothing against handing out tracks, but do we hand out the same track to everybody as if that track applies to everybody equally? Do we say the same thing to everybody thinking that the words I'm saying actually fit everybody? Do I repeat the same outreach method assuming that's going to attract all people? People were not objects. to the Lord Jesus. They may not become objects to us. So we need to be personal. And that takes time, and that takes work, and it doesn't seem efficient. But that's the way Jesus did it. Each instance uniquely dealt with. And people will appreciate you taking the time to get to know them. To the strangers and the ignorant, Jesus was particularly patient. We pick two examples. The one we read earlier, the Syrophoenician woman, she's referred to, and the woman at the well. But even those two were different situations. Let's briefly look at them. First of all, the woman from Tyre and Sidon, the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus appeared to reject her. Time and again, he seemed to ignore her the first time, said to his disciples, I'm not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When she finally says help one more time, he says, it's not fitting to give the children's bread to dogs. But all the while, what was he doing? He was showcasing the very faith that he had put in her heart. that despite the seeming rejections, despite the seeming ignoring of her, she persevered by faith. And Jesus said, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. So it may seem, you might be sitting here tonight, or you might know somebody who says, but God doesn't answer my prayers. I've tried to repent, and I've tried to break with sin, and I've tried to turn to Him for strength, and it isn't working. It could be that just like certain trees grow deeper roots when ravaged by the wind over a long period of time, God is simply growing you or someone else in a deeper way. It doesn't feel pleasant. It seems like God is a million miles away, but he's never a million miles away. persevere in prayer, persevere in encouraging people to persevere in prayer. God often draws out of us a great faith by seeming rejection. But there's another lesson in the history. This is a lady who's totally non-Jewish. She has no idea, or not much. She knew he was the son of David, which is a whole interesting thought by itself. But how much of God's words she knew, not likely a whole lot. But she had great faith. And did you ever notice, Jesus points out a few of these Gentiles whose faith was remarkable. The centurion, he said, I've not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. The lesson for us, don't be surprised if people who don't know a lot about Scripture respond very quickly and very powerfully to the Word of God. We're not maybe used to that. It happens. I can still remember like it was yesterday, sitting in the living room. I won't go into the whole history, there's no time for that, but this gentleman was brought up in a Reformed church, his whole life struggled, left the church, went into the world. That's where he meets this girl. She comes from a totally different background, never stepped foot in a Reformed church, didn't even know what the word meant. Fast forward. They are married. They have children. She's the means in God's hand to bring Him back to the Lord, back to church. We're sitting there. They want to make confession of faith. We're sitting there for this interview, me and one of these elders. And she hardly even knew what the word Trinity meant. And yet she's saying, I can't understand this husband of mine. Why he doesn't believe? He's got all this knowledge of Scripture in his head and he's struggling with this and he's doubting that. And to me it's like, and then she said something beautiful. She said, Pastor, if God had sent one affliction at a time, I would have bulldozed my way through them all. But he knew my character, he gave me all of it at once, so I couldn't possibly get through it without him. That's how she talked. No polish, no cliches. And she couldn't understand this reformed husband of hers. And she had the most solid faith and she still does today. Don't be surprised when you reach out if God absolutely blesses that word just like that with a deep resilient faith. We have these examples right here to look at. So those who are ignorant of the word compared to those who know the word. Now the women of Samaria, that's a different story. Here's a woman, plainly from the narrative, she lived a very wicked life. She went through five husbands. She was living with someone, not her husband. That's all on the record here. How did Jesus deal with her? Did he start by exposing her sins? I've heard messages, read books on it. That's what people say. She started by exposing her sins. No, she didn't. Jesus started by talking about water. Talking about the very thing she was standing at that well for. And in the context of something that meant something in her life, Talking about something ordinary and everyday, something to quench your thirst, not just once, Jesus said, I have water that will quench your thirst forever. Now, you know, at the first discussion, she didn't understand what he was talking about. She thought she meant some kind of a water, some well someplace. I don't have to keep coming with my water pot. But what was he doing? He spoke into the world that she lived in, into the world that she knew. It wasn't a world of theology. It was the world of scenario and he addressed her need and he transitioned from that need into her need of a savior. How did he do that? That's when he said, well, as a matter of fact. You know yourself. The life you're living. And Jesus was also teaching us to be persistent. She tried in the middle of that conversation to get him off the track. Start talking about, well, our fathers say worship on the mountain. You say Jerusalem, which is right. Jesus went right through the middle of that. Wouldn't get off the track. And finally, when it came down to it, well, we know Messiah when he comes will teach us all things. I'm him. And the beautiful thing about that history That lady at that point knew one thing. Jesus was the Messiah and he knew all about me, even though I never met him. And she goes back to her townsfolk. And what does she tell them? Almost nothing. She told them the little bit that she knew. Come see a man who told me all that ever I did. Isn't he the Messiah? Was that the gospel? Was that preaching? Was that evangelism? It was witnessing. And she didn't have a big, long story to tell. It was very simple. There's two things I want to tell you, people. And they all knew who she was. Did it save them what she said? We don't read that. But it piqued their curiosity enough to go see this man, this Jesus of whom she spake. And that's when you read that things really started happening in Samaria. They met Jesus for themselves. And that made all the difference. That's our role. Invite somebody to church. Invite them to your book study. Invite them to a group of Christian friends. Start in the world in which they live and connect. And be a Christian around them. They'll know. They'll see. And you talk to them as a Christian talks. She didn't have much to say. You might not either. I might not either. But that's not important. What she said brought them to him. Information to those who need information. A rebuke to those who have them. I have too much to do. to be able to finish tonight. Let me just say one more thing about this point, and we'll leave while I can abbreviate the last thought. There's also one more thing to notice. You'll notice that, and this is not just Jesus, but the disciples later, even the information given was tailored both in the kind of information and the quantity of information, depending on who it was. So, for example, Jesus and his disciples would often use scripture when speaking to Jews and Jewish leaders. Why? Because they were already familiar with it. So it's just fine to use Bibles and tracts and quotes and all of that when you're talking to somebody who knows church, knows scripture. But then there were also a class of people that we often don't think about. They were the well-educated but not religious or religious in a wrong way. So you think of Paul on Mars Hill speaking to the philosophers, the Epicureans, the dignitaries of Athens. He gave them information, but he didn't use religious jargon. He didn't quote, as far as I remember, a single scripture passage in his entire talk. But what he did do is gave solid scriptural truths in everyday language. Do you see the food and the sunshine and the rain? God gave that. He created the whole world. He's going to come back and judge. He talked about things that they could relate to, things that were wrong, superstition and all of that. The woman of Samaria. Very simple. I have something you need. Here is your need. And here is the something. And don't worry, a simple little something, blessed by God, can go a long way. Finally, briefly, and I will abbreviate this. What was the purpose? Why Jesus reached out? What's the purpose why we do? And my answer may surprise you. Why did Jesus reach out? To save people? Sometimes. Sometimes. He did say in Matthew 1913 I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. What did he say. I came to call. Sinners to repentance. But he also said many are called. Few are chosen. In fact. In the answer in Matthew 13 that he gives concerning the parables, you remember how he said, the disciples said, why are you teaching in parables? Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. To them it is not given. Therefore, I speak unto them in parables, because seeing they see not, hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. In them, the people, is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which said, By hearing ye shall hear, and not understand. Seeing ye shall see, and not perceive. This people's heart is wax gross, their ears are dull of hearing, their eyes have they closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should be converted and I should heal them. And then he says, blessed are your eyes for they see. Why do I bring this to your attention? There is a tremendous emphasis today in evangelism witnessing about people getting saved. And that's appropriate and it's understandable. We want to see people come to Christ and go to glory, but let us never forget Our duty is not to see people saved. Our duty is to bear witness. And that witness of ours may not always be used to save somebody. It may not always be used to further somebody in the way of holiness. It may, in fact, just like Jesus' parables, be used as a judgment. And we have to wrap up. Now, I'm not saying we wish for that to happen, but we need to be prepared for that reality, because it is reality. In John 12, 48, Jesus said, He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words has one that judges. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him. Don't ever forget when you're reaching out to somebody, especially with the word, you're carrying a loaded weapon. I'm not saying don't reach out with the word, I am saying understand the gravity of what you're doing. That person is going to be held responsible for that word. Jesus says, that word, if they do not repent, will judge them. In John 9, Jesus says, for judgment, I came into this world that they would see might not see and they would see might be made blind. We need to be thoroughly grounded, absolutely steeled in our spine to realize that we are God's servants, not me, only you two as witnesses, and that we are going to be used as instruments. And it's not up to us how he uses us. And we have to be mentally prepared. When the disciples were told to shake the dust off their feet, when a certain town or house rejected them, That was not an indication that they failed. It was an indication that the people to whom they came failed to respond to the gospel as they should. So as we enter this work, as we undertake this work, whether it's with a pot of soup or a gospel track, a sharp rebuke or a kind, comforting word, There may be those who respond affirmatively, and we thank God, and there may be those who reject it out of hand, and I say this with reverence, reverently praise the Lord. Not that we're happy to see people reject the Word of God, but God uses His Word every time. He said it Himself, so shall my Word be. It shall not return unto me void, it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. You know, it's so interesting, the Great Commission. The words immediately prior to the Great Commission are so important. All power is given unto me, Jesus said, in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. So it's his power that accompanies his witnesses. And he said it himself, the gospel is a two-edged sword. And we can't flinch from the reality that God may be bringing us to someone to bring judgment upon them which they have justly earned. We go back to the very beginning, three weeks ago. You shall receive power, he said to them, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, uttermost parts of the earth. As we close this series, let us pray, first of all, for this power. It's not our cleverness, it's not our tracks, it's not our pot of soup, it's not our comforting word, it's his power. If anything substantial is going to happen, So we pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon us and to work through us so that we might be witnesses to him wherever we go. Secondly, let us pray that God would make us examples, examples among Christians, like Paul said to Timothy, an example of the believer in word, conversation, charity, spirit, faith and purity, and not just among our friends in church. but also light and salt in the world. And the rest, we leave in the capable, powerful hands of God. And finally, may God give us love for others, all others, without exception. A desire to show them some aspect of Christ by some means. A prayer that we might be faithful that we might actually ourselves have a hearty trust that God is going to be faithful every time to his word and to his witnesses. And let us pray that God would make us faith-filled and faithful for the glory of his name and the coming of his kingdom. Amen.