Hopefully we Christians are getting better acquainted with the Great Commission where Jesus commanded us to go out and make disciples.
Something I learned many years ago about Jesus; He was the perfect example of how to present the good news. The account of ‘the woman at the well’ is something I easily relate to.
As some of you have gotten to know me through this church and this class, you know I retired from the sales profession. The reason I bring that up is our Lord used what is known in the sales field as ‘steps to the sale.’
When I came to know the Lord, I read in the Book of Matthew about something called the Great Commission. If there is a commission involved, any salesperson would want to know more about that, and so did I.
So, let’s spend the next few minutes on what Jesus did step by step in the process of presenting the good news.
In John 4 we have the account of the Samaritan woman at the well who, of course, went on to know and believe in Jesus as her Lord and Savior.
Let’s begin in John 4:7. “A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.'”
As we know, the Jews and Samaritans did not like one another at all. But here’s Jesus doing what a professional salesperson would do in the first step in presenting this perfect and everlasting product known as ‘living water.’ Jesus, in step one, acknowledged the Samaritan woman’s presence.
Let’s go to step 2. Jesus actually listened, which is a lost art. In listening to her, the Lord found a need in her life by a question she asked in John 4:9, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”
At this point, the woman is quite comfortable with Jesus as she is getting more personal. A relationship is forming. If you’ve ever been in sales, then you know if the customer does not have a question, he or she is more than likely not interested in you or your product.
In the third step, Jesus is creating an interest for what his perfect and eternal product can do for her by saying in John 4:10, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.'”
Jesus creating a desire and interest in living water; this has been shown by her own words containing a few questions about this ‘living water.’
She says in John 4:11-12, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
Now, this next step has Jesus giving the features and benefits of this living water, which is the next step in the sales process. He will tell her what it is and what it can do. Here’s John 4:13-14:
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
And now Jesus has made the sale, or as we used to say, He closed the deal. The woman says in John 4:15, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
And what happened later on in this account? John 4:39 tells us this:
“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”
Jesus duplicated Himself through this woman. He went out and made a disciple, and she was obedient to the Great Commission. She was more than likely ‘Salesperson of the Year.’
In the sales profession, it’s all about earning a commission on a sale. Most of the times, you have to go through all the steps to finally close that deal; but there are times, too few times, where the customer says that’s what I want, wrap it up before you even get to step one.
That could happen as we witness. Maybe it is a longer process. Maybe it will take longer to build trust or build a solid relationship.
For sure, as the Bible tells us, the road is narrow. But that doesn’t mean we don’t make a presentation of that living water to those the Holy Spirit puts in front of us. If they accept Jesus and desire that living water He has for them, all praise, honor and glory goes to the Father. If they don’t, that’s a business or personal decision they made. They rejected God, not you.
In being active in the Great Commission, there is and will be rejection. However, listen closely as you just may hear the words ‘well done, faithful servant, in your obedience to the Great Commission.’