Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to the first message in our new series called Just Walk Across the Room. This four-week experience is going to radically change the way you and I view this thing called evangelism.

Evangelism. For some of you, just hearing that word sends a shiver up your spine. You immediately think of some street preacher, standing on a corner yelling at people. “Turn or Burn! Try or Fry! Get Right or Get Left!” That’s not a very effective method of evangelism, and it’s not at all what we’re going to learn in this series.

What we’re going to learn is that evangelism can be as simple as taking a walk across a room. And taking a walk across a room is something we can all do.

Let’s pray as we dive into this new series.

We’re kicking off this new series by talking about the single greatest gift. The single greatest gift Christ-followers can give to the people around them is an introduction to the God who created them, who loves them, who has a purpose for their life, and who wants to be with them for all eternity. There is no other gift that you can give someone that’s as valuable as this one.

And when you boil it all down, this is what evangelism is all about: constantly watching for ways to give this single greatest gift to someone living far from God. Allowing God to use us to present the single greatest gift to someone who desperately needs it.

This is the way that Jesus did evangelism. Jesus walked across rooms. He didn’t wait for people to come to him. He went to them to offer them the single greatest gift.

One of the most dramatic occurrences of Christ taking action in this way is found in John chapter 4. Let’s pick it up in verse 5.

“So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:5-10, NIV)

Jesus and his disciples had been traveling all day and had come to a well. It’s the middle of the day, and these thirteen men are hot, hungry, and unbelievably thirsty. They see a woman standing by the nearby well—we learn later that she had been through five marriages and divorces and that she was now living with someone who was not her spouse. In highly-spiritual terms, that’s what you call having a lot of tread worn off your tires.

All thirteen men—Jesus plus his twelve disciples—come up to the well known as “Jacob’s well.” The disciples probably size up this woman and then say, “Hey, we’re going to hang together and go into town … maybe grab some lunch or something.”

Now, I’m sure they invited Jesus to go with them. But instead of heading off with the guys, he says, “You all go ahead … I’m going to stay here.”

After the disciples head into town, he turns around and sees the woman again. Without hesitation, he walks from one side of the well to the other—a move which catches the woman off guard, to say the least.

When Jesus walked over and asked her for a drink, “The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)” (John 4:9, NIV)

Don’t overlook that parenthetical statement. Jesus was Jewish and this woman was a Samaritan. Because of the customs in that region, she’s not expecting Jesus to have anything to do with her. In their society, Jesus wasn’t just walking across a typical “room”—he was walking across gender, racial, cultural, and even man-made religious restrictions.

First of all, she was a woman. Jewish men didn’t speak to women in public. Jewish husbands didn’t even speak to their own wives in public!

But not only is she a woman, but she is a Samaritan—a sort of Jewish half-breed who wasn’t even allowed to worship in Jerusalem, the place where all Jews worshiped.

Most Jews wouldn’t have even walked through this part of town because they believed they would have become “unclean.”

And finally, because of her lifestyle, this woman would’ve been labeled a “sinner” by the religious establishment. A person to be avoided at all costs.

This was no ordinary walk across the room. But despite all of the cultural protocol violations, Jesus took the walk anyway. He reached out the hand, and he started the conversation with the woman he wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with.

Moreover, he lets the conversation evolve from drawing a cup of water from the well to something much deeper in nature … like “living water,” as he calls it. He is calling this woman back to God.

The Bible then says that she leaves her basin, runs into town, and drags half of her friends and neighbors out, telling them that they just have to come meet this guy who knew all about her sordid past but who accepted her and showed her something called … grace.

And for the next two days all of these wide-eyed folks hang around, just listening to Jesus teach. The Bible tells us that many people from the town crossed the line of faith and joined God’s family during that timeframe.

All because one man took a walk across a room—or a walk around a well—to reach out to someone living far from God.

I want to explore some very practical things we can pull out of this story that we can use as we begin to become people who look for opportunities, who walk across rooms.

The first thing we see in this story is that Jesus left the circle of comfort. The same has to be true for us. We have to be willing to step outside our circle of comfort. The first step for us to become usable for God is to be willing to extricate ourselves from our Circles of Comfort and stretch out a hand to a person who needs the hope we alone can offer.

In our story, Jesus stepped outside the circle of comfort. It would have been a lot easier for him to go to town for some lunch with his disciples. That was his group of friends. He was comfortable there. But instead, after seeing the Samaritan woman, he was willing to step outside his circle of comfort and walk across the room to her.

Put yourself in that scenario. Wells were social gathering places in Jesus’ culture. It was the place people gathered, not only for water, but also for social connection. Today we meet at places like Starbucks. In this culture, people met at wells. It was the center of any community’s social scene.

Imagine yourself in a social setting. You generally remain in your circle of comfort. It’s a natural tendency for all of us. Stay in a circle where it’s easy to relate, where it’s easy to converse, where there is no threat … in other words, nothing “unsafe” can happen.

But then you look across the room and you see someone who is standing alone.

Jesus not only saw the Samaritan woman, but he felt something . The prompting of the Holy Spirit, saying, “Why don’t you go over there?”

Have you been there? You want to stay in your circle of comfort, but God wants you to remove yourself from that circle and walk across the room.

Now remember, Jesus took a risk with this walk. He could have even gotten into legal trouble because of his conversation with this Samaritan woman. When we walk across the room, there is risk involved.

But we take the walk anyway. We pray every step of the way, but once we leave the circle of comfort, there is no turning back.

This walk takes us where God is calling us to go: to the zone of the unknown. The walk is risky. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Inside, you’re nervous but you know God has called to take this walk, to enter the zone of the unknown.

It’s in the Zone of the Unknown where God often does his best work! When Jesus entered the zone of the unknown, he impacted this woman, her family, and many in that town. All because he was willing to take the risk.

The gates of hell shuddered when he took the first step. In that moment, the angels in heaven probably began preparing banners to unfurl with the names of the woman and all the rest of the people who would come to faith.

Here’s the question: what would happen if we were to take a few steps across a room? Is it possible that we could actually impact someone’s eternal destiny—perhaps even that of their family? That we could change the course of an entire family history by simply taking a few steps toward someone who may be heading for a Christless eternity?

Do you think that would be worth the risk of ten steps across the room?

A lot of us are reading Bill Hybels’ book, Just Walk Across the Room, to go along with this series. In the book, Bill wrote these words, words that should stop all of us in our tracks:

“The day Christ-followers like you and me stop taking walks across rooms in this manner, the day we stay glued to our Circles of Comfort, refuse to make the walk, refuse to enter the Zone of the Unknown … the day Christ-followers like you and me stop

doing that sort of stuff, it is lights out for the kingdom of God here on earth. It is the beginning of the end of redemptive history. It’s the slow defeat of the church—the bride of Christ. It’s the end of the dream of Christ that people on earth would come to know him.”

This is not optional for those of us who claim to follow Jesus. We may say, “Well, it’s not my personality to walk across the room.” You know what…it’s not my personality, either. Some of you won’t believe this, but my wife can tell you that it’s true. I’m a pretty shy person. If I’m in a room where I don’t know anybody, I’ll be the one standing in the corner. I’m not the outgoing, life-of-the-party guy. I’m a shy, introverted guy. But I can’t use that as an excuse not to follow God’s promptings to walk across rooms, to open up conversations with people who don’t know Jesus.

Now, let’s go back to our story to see more of how these walks are supposed to shape up.

John 4:7 tells us, “When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (John 4:7, NIV)

At the risk of sounding overly obvious, the woman came to draw water from the well. Jesus opened the conversation, talking about water. In other words, he met her right where she was. He knew what she was doing, getting water, so that’s where he started.

He didn’t start by preaching. He started with the most innocuous topic you could imagine: water. But that conversation led him to a deeper conversation about God.

When we walk across rooms, we can’t go with a sermon prepped and ready. A couple of generations ago, effective evangelism meant grabbing a tract or your Bible, walking door to door, and sharing the gospel. That does not work today! Knocking on doors, making cold calls on the phone, none of that works. People are immediately defensive instead of open when Christians use these tactics.

Instead, effective evangelism is walking across rooms, meeting people where they are, and beginning to develop a relationship. It may be days, months, even years, before you finally have the opportunity to talk significantly about God. God never promised that it would be fast. But it is effective.

When I was in high school, I had a friend who was not a Christian. We’ll call him Kevin. I remember the day when I sat down with my Bible and told Kevin the gospel story. It was so awesome to see him baptized into Christ after that conversation! Wow! It doesn’t get any better than that!

But what you have to understand is that it didn’t start with me, Kevin, and the Bible all sitting together in his living room. It started with our friendship that took a few years to develop. Using the example of Jesus, we talked a lot about water before we got to anything else. It was a lot of hanging out, talking about music, sports, and anything else that came up. It moved on to sharing some deeper stuff about family, relationships, etc. But it was a couple of years before I finally shared my faith with him in such a straightforward way. If I hadn’t been willing to put the time and effort into the relationship, I’m 100% convinced that Kevin would have rejected it. The whole reason he listened to me in the first place was that I had earned the right to be heard. And that takes time. But it’s time worth investing.

That two year investment, that moment when I watched Kevin confess his faith and be immersed into Christ, it all started with a walk across a room. Two years earlier, I didn’t even know Kevin. But I took the initiative, walked across the room, and opened up a conversation.

If you’re wondering where you start, just walk! Open up the conversation. Get the ball rolling. Invest the time that is necessary. We have the single greatest gift to share with the people around us, but to do that, we’ve got to be willing to do the preliminary work. And it starts here… do it! Get up! Go over! Just walk!

Romans 5:8 reminds us why these walks are so important. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NIV)

God demonstrated his love for you and me through Jesus. And how was it, exactly, that Jesus Christ demonstrated the love of the Father? What was the radical move he made to prove to you and to me that he really does feel redemptive, grace-filled, unconditional love for each one of us?

Some of you know where this is going.

He took a walk.

I love the way that The Message paraphrase reads in Philippians 2. “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what.

Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process.

He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death--and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.” (Philippians 2:5-8, The Message)

Look again at verse 7. “When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!” (Philippians 4:7, The Message)

These verses from Philippians point to a specific point in history—actual time and space—when Jesus walked all the way across the cosmos and reached out his redemptive hand to people like you and me. And because of that one walk, humankind was able to be saved. We are able to be in the family of God forever.

Think for a moment about the implications of that walk: this passage tells us that Jesus, under direction from his Father, left the ultimate Circle of Comfort—heaven itself … direct participation in the Trinity … the worship and adoration of the angels.

Jesus Christ left the supreme Circle of Comfort and he took the longest walk a person could ever take.

But why?

He took that walk to stretch out a hand to people just like you and just like me. He did it to reach people, people who were smack dab in the middle of absolutely wrecking their lives.

So Jesus leaves that ultimate Circle of Comfort, walks stride by stride all the way across the cosmos, and reaches out his redemptive hand to people like you and me.

Guess what? It doesn’t end there.

Not only did his walk save us, but his walk now sets the example for us. In addition to taking a walk across the cosmos so that you and I could be redeemed, he also took a walk across the cosmos so that you and I could see how it’s done. And these days—right here in our everyday lives—what he tries to do with us between now and heaven is to say, “What I did, leaving that circle, making that trip and reaching out to you, what I did … is precisely what I want you to do. I want this to be characteristic of my followers, that they would be walk-across-the-room kinds of people. Just following my lead, doing exactly what I did … whenever I give them opportunity to do so.”

Don’t get yourself tied up in knots trying to make sure all of the mechanics and logistics are just right. Don’t give even a hint of mental energy to motivations of guilt or obligation. You can cast all that stuff aside and instead just take the hand of the Holy Spirit and walk. If you will stay open, with an eye focused on people and an ear tuned to his still, small whisper, you will be amazed by what unfolds!

God says to us all today, “I am going to ask you to walk across the street; I am going to ask you to walk across a restaurant; I am going to ask you to walk across an office complex; I am going to ask you to walk across a cafeteria; I am going to ask you to walk across the locker room. I am going to ask you to take that walk, leave whatever circle of comfort you are in and take the walk, enter the unknown—and something really exciting is going to happen. That is what I want you to do.”

In other words, just walk!

Why? Because Jesus “just walked” for you. For me. For us. And for every, single person inhabiting the planet today.

Do you believe that?

As we close today, I want you to think about how you wound up in the kingdom. I want you to think about how some of your friends wound up in the kingdom. Almost every Christ-follower I know can think back on somebody—it might have been a mom or a dad, it might have been a coworker or a teacher, it might have been a friend or a neighbor, it might have been a youth minister or a preacher—most every disciple of Christ had someone who walked across a room for them.

And so if you are a Christian, then someone probably took a risk for you along the way. They walked across a room, they opened a conversation, they started a relationship. They did something that would interest you in the possibility of knowing the love of God and the opportunity to be freed from your sins.

If this is true for you, I imagine you have a pretty high respect level for that person—the person who “took a walk” to rescue you … the person who took the risk to approach you and hand you the single greatest gift you’d ever receive in your entire life.

If someone took a walk for you, how can you not take a walk for someone else?

One more quote from the Just Walk Across the Room book:

“Jesus Christ knew that fulfilling his redemptive mission would be excruciatingly difficult, risky, downright defeating, and seemingly fruitless for us at times. ‘But if you will just persevere,’ he might say, ‘the potential is colossal.’ Think of it! One more treasure—a priceless human being—might be snatched from the clutches of a horrendous, lifeless eternity because of your work. So go! Go right now and bear witness. Sow the seed. Take the walk across the room. Leave what’s comfortable for that which is eternally significant. Risk your life for this, and know that you will never regret your decision.”

The single greatest gift you and I can give to another person is an introduction to the God who declared that his mission was to find every person who was lost … and to bring them home.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Just Walk Across the Room, evangelism, John 4, woman at the well