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The Ambassador Group

Biblical Missionaries

0. Biblical Missionaries: The Great Commission

01. Biblical Missionaries: The Missionary Nature of God

02. Biblical Missionaries: Abraham- the First Missionary

03. Biblical Missionaries: The Unlikely Missionary

04. Biblical Missionaries: The Jonah Saga

05. Biblical Missionaries: Exiles as Missionaries

06. Biblical Missionaries:  Mordecai and Esther

07.Biblical Missionaries: Jesus- The Master of Missions

08.Biblical Missionaries: Cross-Cultural Missions

09. Biblical Missionaries: Peter and the Gentiles

10. Biblical Missionaries: Philip as Missionary

11. Biblical Missionaries: Paul- Background and Call

12. Biblical Missionaries: Paul- Mission and Message

13. Biblical Missionaries: Must the Whole World Hear?

Welcome to another in-depth exploration of Biblical Missionaries Written by Borge Shantz Edited for audio and produced by The Ambassador Group Exploration 8 Cross-Cultural Missions Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my spirit upon him, and he will declare justice to the Gentiles.

Matthew chapter 12 verse 18 the New King James Version.

How interesting that Jesus spent so much of his earlier years in Galilee, known as Galilee of the Gentiles, Matthew 4 15, no doubt named because of the non-Jewish influence in the province.

In this region, in Nazareth, Jesus spent the majority of his years before starting his public ministry.

Thanks to its position, Nazareth was near major routes traveled by Roman army units as well as merchant caravans.

As a result, Jesus must have been in contact with non-Jews his whole early life, not to mention the time in Egypt.

Luke 4, verses 16-31 tells us how Jesus was treated by the people in his hometown.

So he came to Nazareth, that Nazareth where he had been brought up, and he entered the synagogue as was his custom on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.

And there was handed to him the roll of the book of the prophet Isaiah.

He opened, unrolled the book, and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me, the Anointed 1, the Messiah, to preach the good news, the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set forth as delivered those who are oppressed, who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity, to proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord, the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound.

Then he rolled up the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

And the eyes of all in the synagogue were gazing attentively at him.

And he began to speak to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled while you are present and hearing.' And all spoke well of him and marveled at the words of grace that came forth from his mouth, and they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

So he said to them, You will doubtless quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself.

What we have learned by hearsay that you did in Capernaum, do here also in your own town.' Then he said, Solemnly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable and welcome in his own town or country.

But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens were closed up for 3 years and 6 months, so that there came a great famine over all the land.

And yet Elijah was not sent to a single 1 of them, but only to Zarephath in the country of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and yet not 1 of them was cleansed by being healed, but only Naaman the Syrian.

When they heard these things, all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage.

And rising up, they pushed and drove him out of the town, and laying hold of him, they led him to the projecting upper part of the hill on which their town was built, that they might hurl him headlong down over the cliff.

But passing through their midst, he went on his way.

And he descended to Capernaum, a town of Galilee, and there he continued to teach the people on the Sabbath days.

After his rejection in Nazareth, Jesus centered his ministry in the cosmopolitan Galilean city of Capernaum.

Contacts with Gentiles and their world significantly impacted his ministry and teaching.

Even though he focused on Israel, the wider world was his concern.

During the more than 3 years of his ministry between his baptism and ascension, on at least 6 occasions, Jesus had direct contact with persons from Gentile nations.

In this exploration, we will look at The The Samaritan Woman In the time of Jesus, ancient Israel was divided into 3 provinces, Galilee, Samaria, and Judea.

Samaria was situated between Galilee and Judea.

The Samaritans worshipped the God of Israel, but not in the same way the Jews did.

As an initial mission field, Samaria was ideal for the Apostles because it was close to Israel geographically.

Let's listen to John chapter 4 verses 4 to 30.

As you listen, what can you learn from this story about how Jesus witnessed to non-Jews?

In what ways did Jesus step outside the bounds of tradition in order to reach out to this woman?

It was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria, and in doing so, he arrived at a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the tract of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

So Jesus, tired as he was from his journey, sat down to rest by the well.

It was then about the sixth hour, about noon.

Presently, when a woman of Samaria came along to draw water, Jesus said to her, "'Give me a drink.' For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan, and a woman, for a drink?

For the Jews have nothing to do with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, if you had only known and had recognized God's gift and who this is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him instead, and he would have given you living water.

She said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, no drawing bucket, and the well is deep.

Are you greater than and superior to our ancestor Jacob Who gave us this well and who used to drink from it himself and his sons and his cattle also?

Jesus answered her, All who drink of this water will be thirsty again, but Whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never be thirsty anymore.

But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up, flowing, bubbling, continually within him unto, into, for eternal life.

The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I may never get thirsty nor have to come continually all the way here to draw." At this Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come back here.

Jesus said to her, you have spoken truly in saying I have no husband.

For you have had 5 husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband.

The woman said to him, Sir, I see and understand that you are a prophet.

Our forefathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary and proper to worship.

Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither merely in this mountain nor merely in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans do not know what you are worshipping.

We worship what we have knowledge of and understand.

For after all, salvation comes from among the Jews.

A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true, genuine worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, reality.

For the Father is seeking just such people as these, as his worshippers.

God is a Spirit, a spiritual being, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth or in reality.

The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called the Christ, the anointed 1, and when he arrives, he will tell us everything we need to know and make it clear to us.

Jesus said to her, I who now speak with you am he.

Just then his disciples came and they wondered.

They were astonished to find him talking with a woman, a married woman.

However, not 1 of them asked him, What are you inquiring about?

Or why do you speak with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went away to the town.

And she began telling the people, Come, see a man who has told me everything that I ever did.

Must not this be the Messiah, the Anointed One?" So the people left the town and set out to go to him.

The Samaritan woman was alert, was well informed about the history of her people, and she asked intelligent questions.

She led the conversation with her questions.

Jesus, however, responded to her questions and statements with the things that would benefit the woman spiritually.

The only point where Jesus changed the conversation was when he told her to bring her husband, knowing that she wasn't married but had been with several men.

Of course, asking her to do this opened the way for him to reach out to her, however uncomfortable she had become.

Nevertheless, by doing this, he was able to witness to her in a powerful way.

Also, we shouldn't miss what happened in John 4.27.

Again, the verse says, Just then his disciples came, and they wondered, they were surprised, astonished, to find him talking with a woman.

However, Not 1 of them asked him, What are you inquiring about?

The disciples were surprised because Jesus was talking with this foreign woman.

First, asking a Samaritan woman to give him a drink, and second, being alone with her.

In Israel, a man could not be seen alone with a woman unless she was a family member.

Jesus followed Jewish customs when in Israel.

However, in Samaria, he was outside Jewish territory and not bound by Jewish traditions.

Even though, as we have noticed elsewhere, Jesus distinguished between human-made traditions and the commands and precepts of God.

How far out of your own comfort zone are you willing to go in order to minister to others?

How far does Jesus want you to go on his behalf?

The Roman Army Officer Let's listen to 2 tellings of the same incident.

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Biblical Missionaries

08.Biblical Missionaries: Cross-Cultural Missions

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