Having become a Christian while a student at a state university, I had few adequate models in the early months of my Christian life. I came to Southwestern desperately in need of seeing what a follower of Jesus should really be like. In my first year I had three courses under Dr. Huber Drumwright. In a way I had never seen before, he showed me by his life the love, gentleness, patience, and kindness which should characterize a follower of Jesus. As a student, and later as a colleague and a friend, without disappointment, I watched as he did this for some twenty years. I will always be richer because of his impact on my life.

Introduction

The man was an aged, battle-scarred Christian warrior. For over fifty years, he had been telling other people about Jesus. In his lifetime he had seen thousands come to new life by putting their trust in the Son of God. In the last years of his life, he was filled with a burning passion to share what he had learned about witnessing for Jesus. No one was more qualified than he to write it down. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, with a desire, not only to lead unbelievers to faith in Christ, but to deepen the faith of those who already believed, he penned what we call the Gospel of John. Near the end of the book, John summed up his purpose for writing it. “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31 NKJV). Gaines Dobbins, in referring to John’s gospel as a manual of evangelism, has said, “Nothing ever written was so amazingly suited to its primary purpose as the gospel of John . . . . The experience of centuries proves that the fourth gospel is the most effective guide to disciple winning ever written.”^[1]Gaines S. Dobbins, Evangelism According to Christ (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1949), 20.

In studying the subject of evangelism in the gospel of John, one of the first things that struck this author was the realization of how many verses in this gospel he had made use of in his own ministry of personal evangelism. Though in sharing the gospel in personal evangelism, the author employs only six or eight verses as a rule, there were nineteen specific verses from John’s gospel which had been used at one time or another.^[2]These are inclusive of John 1:12; 3:3, 5, 7, 15, 16, 18; 3:36; 5:24; 5:40; 6:37; 6:47; 10:9-10; 11:25, 26; 15:6; and 17:3.

Because a major purpose of this gospel has to do with evangelism, one should not be surprised at the sheer quantity of material in the gospel that is related to this vital subject. The author of this article periodically teaches a course which is called “Jesus and Personal Evangelism,” which is a study of Jesus’ ministry of one-on-one evangelism in the gospels. Twelve, or almost half of the incidents studied in this course, come from John’s Gospel.

Jesus, the Evangelist

John presents Jesus as one for whom winning people to a new life was a dominant passion. After Jesus had won the sinful woman at the well in Sychar, the disciples brought him food from the nearby town. He responded to their offer by saying, “I have food to eat that you do not know about. My food is to do the will of the One who sent me and to finish His work.” His heart had been fed and his spirit had been invigorated in the experience of winning a sinful woman to forgiveness. Bakery-baked bread held little appeal to him. He had been tasting a heavenly kind of food in leading the woman to believe in him as the Messiah. In so doing, he was doing the will of the Father and finishing his work. This was the supreme desire of his life.

As to our Lord’s method in evangelism, a number of things stand out. First of all, personal evangelism was preeminent with him. In the first chapter of John alone, there are five instances in which Jesus won individuals to himself in one-on-one evangelism. Andrew and John were won after a long afternoon visit with Jesus.^[3]Though John in unnamed in this instance, it is quite obvious that he is the second of the two people who began to follow Jesus at this point. Andrew brought his brother Peter, and Jesus enlisted him as one of his followers. Jesus then won Philip in one-on-one evangelism with a simple challenge: “Follow me.” Philip, in turn, found Nathanael, and Jesus enlisted him. In the record of chapter 3, Jesus explained the gospel to Nicodemus. In the next chapter, he won a sinful woman at a well. He then helped a nobleman to faith in him. Though there is some question as to whether or not the story is in the original text, in the early verses of the eighth chapter of John, Jesus won to himself a woman taken in the very act of adultery.

In the next chapter, the man who was born blind, after having been healed by Jesus, was led to believe on Jesus as his Savior and his Lord.

The second thing which strikes one about our Lord’s method is variety. Jesus never approached any two people in the same way. With the woman at the well, he took a somewhat circuitous route to get to the point of her spiritual need. His approach was indirect. On the other hand, with Nicodemus, he was direct and forthright in calling to the attention of the great teacher that he must be born from above. He was accommodating to the prejudice of Nathaniel who wondered if any good thing could come out of Nazareth. Jesus responded to him with a compliment, calling him an Israelite in whom there was no guile. To Peter he said, “You are in need of a name change. You are Simon now, but you shall be called Cephas, or Peter.”

Though he never approached two people in the same way, he understood that basic needs of people were the same. He realized that, though all people are different, all have the basic spiritual need of the life that God offers. He may have used different terms to describe how basic needs would be met, but he saw the same need in each person. He talked to the woman at the well about meeting her need with a kind of living water. He showed Nicodemus his need by talking in terms of the new birth. To Jesus, living water and new birth were the same. To the woman caught in the act of adultery, he promised immediate forgiveness. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

Our Lord employed a variety of ways to get truth across to those with whom he dealt. With Nicodemus, he employed illustrations from the Bible. Jesus spoke to him of a brass serpent lifted upon a pole in the camp of the Israelites as an object of faith illustrating the fact that he would be lifted up on a cross to become the object of faith to those who were looking for eternal life. With the woman at the well, who likely knew little about the Old Testament, he simply talked about water, making use of both contrast and analogy between the water of Jacob’s well and the water he could give her. With Nathaniel he talked about a spiritual experience Nathaniel had under a fig tree.

John pictures for us a Jesus who is the sinner’s friend. The contention of Ernest Colwell, New Testament scholar of a few decades past, that Jesus is not revealed as the friend of sinners in the Gospel of John, is extremely superficial. Colwell contends that “sinners are banished from the pages of his gospel.”^[4]Ernest Cadman Colwell, John Defends the Gospel (Chicago: Willett, Clark & Company,   1936), 55. To come to this conclusion, he first eliminates the story of a woman taken in the act of adultery as a spurious part of the original text. He then contends that the Samaritan woman is not really considered to be a sinner at all and proceeds to do away with the words of our Lord to the man healed at the Pool of Bethesda, “Sin no more, lest a worst thing come unto thee.” He also elevates the status of the man born blind to the point that he ceases to be a sinner. It is true that Jesus ministered to people of wealth and influence in the Gospel of John and also true that people of wealth and influence ministered to him. But to contend that Jesus is not pictured as a friend to sinners in John is to so distort this gospel record that little rebuttal to such nonsense is needed. This gospel begins with Jesus portrayed as the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world; and it virtually concludes with his assigning to his disciples a ministry which, if fulfilled, will result in sinful people coming to know forgiveness. Jesus is as much a friend of sinners in John as in any one of the synoptics.

It is true, as in the synoptics, that in this gospel our Lord does not criticize the evil in those who are sinful with the exception of the hardened and blinded Jews who are his perpetual antagonists. Rather than criticizing evil in people who sensed their spiritual need, he commended the good qualities they possessed. When the woman at the well said to Jesus, “I have no husband,” he commended her for her honesty. He said to skeptical Nathaniel, “You are an Israelite in whom   there is no guile.”

As to his method, one cannot help but be impressed with the degree of tact employed by our Lord in dealing with sinful people. He handled sensitive situations with an amazing degree of delicacy. In defense of the woman taken in the act of adultery, he said to her accusers, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” When her accusers were all gone, he said to her, “I do not condemn you, go and sin no more.” He did not accuse the woman, who had been married five times and who was sleeping with a man who was not her husband, of sexual immorality. He helped her to see her need without ever mentioning the nature of her sin. Throughout the Gospel, John gives us a portrait of the peerless witness whose method in personal evangelism has been a perfect model for nineteen centuries.

Jesus, the Teacher of Evangelism

Jesus was not only a model for evangelism in the Fourth Gospel, he taught truths about evangelism in his verbal discourses. With the exception of chapters 18 and 19, chapters which describe his death on the cross, every chapter in the book of John has some instructive word from Jesus which relates   either directly or indirectly to evangelism. Some of the more obvious things Jesus taught about evangelism are as follows:

Evangelism springs from the nature of God.

The good news of new life for sinful man came to us primarily because of who God is and what he is like. For instance, one theme of John’s Gospel is the theme of light. And though it is never explicitly stated in the Gospel as it is in the first letter of John, the teaching of Jesus leaves no doubt about the fact that God is light. It is the nature of light to shine. Light naturally manifests itself. Light reveals. And so it is with God. Being light, it is his nature to reveal himself. Jesus said, “Believe in the light that you may become sons of Light” (John 12:36). Though there are places in John where the use of the word light is strictly ethical, in this passage the meaning is obviously soteriological. Lowrie has said, “Nevertheless for the understanding of Saint John’s use of this term [light], we must hold fast to the fact that its primary significance is that of revelation, manifestation.”^[5]Walter Lowrie, The Doctrine of Saint John (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1899), 53. As light, God desires that his saving truth shine in such a way that all can see it. But God is not only light, he is love. This aspect of his nature compels a kind of giving of himself that men might experience the life he offers. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . .” (John 3:16). “The adverb so means, with so great love, and the verb gave has respect to all the humiliation and suffering which he endured for men, and which culminated on Calvary.”^[6]Alvah Hovey, An American Commentary on the New Testament (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1885), 101. Jesus came as agape love incarnate that people might come to new life through him.

A third aspect of the nature of God suggested in the gospel of John, out of which evangelism springs, is God’s sovereignty. Coming to Jesus is a condition for receiving the life that he offers. But Jesus makes it clear that man cannot come apart from divine initiative. In John 6:44 he said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, . . .” As Israel had been his chosen people under the old covenant, only those chosen by him would be the people of the new life. He declared “You did not choose me, but I chose you . . .” (15:16). He repeats in 15:19, “I chose you out of the world.” In the high priestly intercessory prayer of John 17, Jesus speaks seven times of believers as having been given to him by the Father. There can be no doubt that John’s Gospel teaches that a divine initiative must be taken before people will come to him for life.

The sovereignty of God as pictured in John, however, does not nullify man’s responsibility to respond. Jesus stated it positively in 7:17: “If anyone wants to do his will he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority.” Even a cursory reading of the Gospel reflects the fact that people who do not choose Jesus and the life he offers are responsible for their willful choice.

Evangelism which is beneficent in its objectives.

There can be no doubt that Jesus wanted sinful people to come into a right relationship with God which would last through time and for all eternity. Jesus described this objective through the use of a number of terms.

Eternal life. Life is one of the key words in the Gospel of John. It is used fifty-two times. Seventeen of these are in conjunction with the word “eternal.” This life is essentially the life of God of which a person partakes when one comes to know God personally through Jesus. Quantitatively, it is life that lasts as long as God lives in eternity future. Qualitatively, it is described as life abundant, or life which overflows. The use of the term everlasting life indicates a life that is different in quality from the life which characterizes the present age. “However, the noun with its adjective (zoe aionios) . . . has also a quantitative connotation: It is actually everlasting, never ending life.”^[7]William Hendrikson, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1954), 141.

More than any other writer of the New Testament, John was insistent that this life comes through birth. As a person enters into physical life through physical birth, so a person enters the experience of eternal life through spiritual birth. This was the reason why Jesus insisted that Nicodemus must have another kind of birth before he could see the kingdom of God. There is no life that does not come out of birth.

Salvation. Though the word “save” or “saved” occurs only four times in the gospel of John, the word becomes a very comprehensive word in stating the objective of evangelism in John’s gospel. Jesus made it clear that to save lost people was his primary purpose for coming into the world. He said in 3:17 that he did not come “to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved.”

The salvation promised by Jesus in John is not only salvation to something; it is salvation from something. Four words are employed in the Gospel of John to describe the consequence from which people are saved who accept the life God offers. A major word is the word “condemned,” coming from the Greek word krino, as used in John 3:18 where Jesus said, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” In John 5:24, a similar word is used. It is the familiar word krisis; translated “judgment.” Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say unto you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life.” Four times the word apolloumi or “perish” is used in John. It is the fore­ boding word in John 3:15-16 where Jesus says that those who trust him will not perish. The word is repeated in John 10:28. Jesus said, “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish,. . .” The last of these words suggesting that dire consequences await those who refuse the life in Jesus is the word orge. In John 3:36, the author says, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Evangelism conditioned on faith

One cannot read the Gospel of John and fail to see that the condition by which one receives the life that Jesus offers is the condition of simple faith. The word “believe,” in one form or another, is used over one hundred times in the Gospel of John. The object of this faith is always Jesus himself. When people came to Jesus asking how they might do the works of God, his simple response was, ”And this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (6:29). The reason why Jesus was to be the object of faith is suggested in a number of ways. First of all, he is the Lamb of God who came into the world to take away its sin. He is the one who would be lifted up in man’s behalf as was the serpent in the wilderness. He, as the good Shepherd, gives his life for the sheep. Thus, the sheep believe only in him for eternal life. The significant thing about this faith is that it brings one into a vital relationship with God through Christ. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (17:3).

Evangelism which is restrictive in its requirements.

The book of John leaves no question about restrictions on the way by which man comes to God. Jesus said, “I am the door. If any man enters by Me, he shall be saved,. . .” (10:9). He restated this truth in 14:6 when he declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” “Every sinner . . . has a three-fold need—reconciliation, illumination, regeneration. This three-fold need is perfectly met by the Savior. He is the Way to the Father; He is the Truth incarnate; He is Life to all who believe in Him.”^[8]Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1945), II: 355. There is no hint of universalism in the gospel of John. He makes it patently clear that there is a division among men. It is stated explicitly many times, perhaps most clearly in the third chapter in verses 18 and 36. But this truth is pointedly set forth throughout the entire Gospel. Where it is not explicitly stated, it is inevitably implied. There is a cleavage among men, and the side of the cleavage on which one finds himself is determined by his response to the Son and to the life he offers.

Evangelism which is contingent on unity.

One of the most overlooked aspects of evangelism in John’s Gospel has to do with the imperative of unity among believers. In his intercessory prayer for his followers found in chapter 17, Jesus prayed for believers, that “they all may be one, as You Father are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me . . . I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.” One condition for believers to fulfill before the world would be convinced of the truth of their message was that believers live in unity with each other. The effectiveness of evangelism is dependent upon God’s people living together in harmony. Jesus is saying here that an unbelieving world will continue to be an unbelieving world until the church in its fellowship reflects love, harmony, and unity.

Evangelism which is universal in its scope

Over and over again, John made reference to the universal aspect of the saving work of Jesus. The word “world” is found over sixty times in this gospel. Not only is he in the world as the savior, but he is sent as “the Savior of the world.” He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and Jesus himself stated that he would give his flesh “for the life of the world.” When Jesus said, “For God so loved the world,” we have the most universal expression of God’s love toward his whole creation. “This love of God, not only towards the Son and the children, but towards His whole universe, is after all the necessary deduction from the principle that in His very nature, and independent of object, God is love.”^[9]Lowrie, 72.

Jesus, the Inspirer of Evangelism

One of the exciting aspects of this gospel is to see the response of those who believed in Jesus as their Messiah. There was born in them an inner compulsion to share their discovery with someone else. When Andrew believed, he first found his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus. When Philip committed himself to Jesus, he instinctively sought out Nathanael and shared the discovery with him. The woman of Samaria was so excited about meeting Jesus that she forgot the reason she had come to the well. She left her water jug and went into the city and invited the men of Sychar to come with her to Jesus.

This is in keeping with the plan of Jesus. His intent for believers is that they share the message of life with others. A key word in the Fourth Gospel is the word “send” or “sent.” It is used over sixty times. Before the harvest of people recorded in John 4:38-39, Jesus said to the disciples; “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored.” They were in the harvest field that day because they had been sent by him.

In the context of the above story, Jesus enunciated some of the vital principles of evangelism. Making use of such agricultural metaphors as sowing and reaping, Jesus indicated that there is a legitimate difference in witnessing and soul winning. He refers to witnessing as sowing. Soul winning is reaping. He showed that both are necessary in evangelism. The words of Jesus, “For in this is the saying true: ‘One sows and another reaps,’ ” speak volumes about a vital principle in evangelism. They suggest that when one labors for Jesus in telling the good news to others, there will be times when no visible response is seen. One plants seed and thinks nothing happens. But Jesus says another will reap at a later time because that sowing has taken place. He spoke of the necessity of sowing and reaping.

He spoke further of the equality of sowing and reaping. We have had a tendency to exalt the reaper, to spotlight the soul winner. Jesus put the sower and the reaper on the same level when he said, “He who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.” Every effort in evangelism, whether sowing, watering, cultivating, or reaping, will be rewarded by God.

After his resurrection, when our Lord had entered through the barred doors behind which the frightened disciples were hiding, he formally commissioned them as his witnesses. After he had calmed their troubled spirits, he said to them, ”As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (20:21). Though these words represent the simplest form of the Great Commission it was likely never stated more profoundly or with a larger challenge.

In this commission, Jesus gives a pattern for evangelism. Essentially, he says that the mission of the church in the world is to be like his mission in the world. Our mission must involve identification as well as proclamation. We cannot effectively proclaim our message from a distance. We must do more than shout advice to drowning people from the shore. We must go out and rescue them. The Great Physician had to make house calls. He could not televise salvation to us over some heavenly antenna. It was necessary for him to beam down to earth and rub shoulders with those whom he came to save. We must do it also. ”As my Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

These words were spoken to his disciples when the church was behind closed doors in hiding. Perhaps hearing them today will open the doors of twentieth century churches and bring the church out of hiding once again.