(June 27, 2024) Richard Winter encourages sharing Jesus’s good news…

It’s amazing to be immersed in a new culture. As a young man I was posted with the RAAF to Malaysia – I was surrounded by new sights and smells that at first seemed to be an assault on all my senses… and the people had better suntans than me!

It became obvious I’d better learn the Malay language very quickly! I was to discover one interesting word that was added to everything said in virtually every sentence – Lah. Just a small word, but one of emphasis: a statement and a question in one-word ie…

• ‘Want to drink, lah!’ can also be ‘Want to drink, lah?’
• ‘Want to eat, lah!’ – ‘Want to eat, lah?’
• ‘Can you see that, lah!’ – ‘Can you see that, lah?’

Many of us are operating in a different culture than that we grew up in and we need to know the cultural differences so we can understand and operate in that new culture. I was to spend a lot of time immersed culturally so that I would know what to do, what to expect, how to fit in!

One thing I learned about culture that applies to every country in the world – no matter where you live you soon discover sin. People in every nation are sinners needing Jesus Christ the Saviour.

Everyone Everywhere Needs Jesus!
We can’t escape sin as it travels with all humanity because of what happened in the garden of Eden! The job of every Christian is to share the truth of the good news of God’s love and forgiveness.

John’s gospel gives examples of how Jesus shared truth and good news cross-culturally . Let’s look at some salient scriptures and see if you get it both lah! and lah? – wise.

John 3:16 is the best-known Bible verse about Jesus and God’s salvation message – ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

Note the buildup of Jesus’s ministry to this point –

• John 2:14 highlights the miracle of water being turned into wine at a wedding: ‘… the first of the signs through which He revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.’ 
• Verses 19-22 record Jesus speaking of His sacrifice for humanity on Calvary’s cross, His death and resurrection.
• Verse 24 tells that in moving up to Jerusalem ‘… many people saw the signs He was performing and believed in His name.’

1. The Questioning Leader
Cross-cultural communication is regarded as communication between people who differ in various ways just not nationally, but at various levels by an individual even in the culture of the society one has grown up in. This covers occupation, age, ethnicity, race, work styles, gender, sexual orientation, and so on.

You’ll recall that the Pharisees, Israel’s religious leaders, weren’t too happy about Jesus, His miracles and His message! And Jesus wasn’t happy about how they were shepherding ‘their flock,’ religiously blinding people to great truths regarding God and His love.

Yet John 3:1-15 is an example of Jesus cross-culturally reaching out to a Pharisee searching for answers. He lovingly shared with Nicodemus, a religious leader and ruler who secretly approached Him late one night asking searching questions. Jesus’ statements and answers had him stunned, wondering and asking more questions! (v4,9).

When Jesus talked about being born again by the Holy Spirit, the bewildered Nicodemus had asked, ‘How can this be?’ Jesus’ response was not a downer but a challenge to keep wondering – ‘You are Israel’s teacher … and do you not understand these things?’

And what did Jesus say to Nicodemus that this leader who was not understanding? He had told him that to inherit eternal life he needed to be born again – not a natural birth as adults cannot go back into their mother’s womb and then be born again, but of the Holy Spirit, a spiritual event (V5-7).

Then Jesus used the wind used a natural example of what He was endeavouring to get across – probably along these lines: ‘Hey, Nicodemus… you don’t know where the wind comes from, or where it goes to. But you see what happens when it comes – brings rain, even storms, leaves flutter on trees… such is its evidence. And when God moves on you, Nicodemus, you are to understand the spiritual significance’ (v8,12).

When one accepts Jesus, our life will change because He changes our relationship in respect of our past, our sins and our traditions as well as our culture!

Referring to His upcoming death on Calvary’s cross, Jesus went on to very wisely used an Old Testament incident that this searching, wondering leader would be familiar with: ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him’ (v14-15).

Results of Jesus ‘crosss-cultural chatting’? Although Nicodemus is only mentioned in John’s gospel, historically he is regarded as an early follower of Jesus. John further mentions him twice…

• John 7:50, when during the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus he began to defend Jesus asking, ‘Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?’ only to be mocked: ‘… they cut him off. “Are you also campaigning for the Galilean?”’ (v51Mge). 
• John 19:38-42 tells how after Jesus’ crucifixion he and Joseph of Arimathea (a secret disciple of Jesus due to fear of the Jewish leaders) collected His body and wrapped it in linen strips, embalming it with spices with spices Nicodemus had purchased – myrrh and aloes signifying belief in Jesus’ status as King of the Jews, such spices only being used for the burials of kings. Then they buried it in an unused garden tomb.
• Of interest, an apocryphal gospel, The Gospel of Nicodemus, that appeared sometime in the 4th or 5th century CE is believed to have been written by Nicodemus. Chapter five has a much longer description of Nicodemus’ arguments against the Sanhedrin, to spare Jesus’ life.

Now John didn’t write that when Jesus was concluding His conversation with this individual, added, ‘Can you see that, Nic, lah!’ or ‘Can you see that, Nic, lah?’

But I’m confident that Jesus had given this wondering leader plenty to think about!

So should we when reaching out to those who need to hear the gospel, and realise they are sinners that Jesus died for!

2. The Quizzical Lady
John 4:7-27 is another example of Jesus reaching cross-culturally to care for people… in this case through a Samaritan woman who had tried marriage five times and failed, and was now cohabiting with another man.

Now, you’ll be aware that Jews and Samaritans didn’t click – as verse 9bMessage very pointedly mentions: ‘Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.’ 

The background to this division goes back centuries to Assyria’s captivity of Israel. Some Jews from the region of Samaria intermarried with Assyrians and on return home had imported their religious practices that were certainly not from Moses. They had their own unique system of worshipping God and a copy of the Pentateuch, but neither Samaritans nor Jews would deal with one another.

Jesus was desirous to return Galilee where His ministry was welcomed and this meant travelling the easiest route… via Samaria (John 4:1-4). Despite wanting to reach more Galileans, He also wanted to share good news truth with Samaritans, even as He still wants to reach all peoples today. Arriving at a town called Sychar, He sent His disciples off to purchase some food while He sat down by a well.

John tells how Jesus reached out cross-culturally to these needy Samaritan people in a most unusual way for a Jew – by first ministering to a woman(!), an immoral one at that! (John 4:27Mge says that on their return His disciples were shocked that He was talking alone to a woman, and not just any woman but a Samaritan! The NIV reads ‘surprised’; KJV ‘they marvelled’ – thaumazo ‘to wonder’).

This was not just a case of Jesus being tired, worn out from the journey and thirsty – which He was – but He would be giving the returning disciples an example of cross-cultural evangelising!

When this unnamed lady arrived at the well to get some water for herself, Jesus really surprised her by asking for a drink. Verse 9Message tells that she had been taken aback, and asked, ‘How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?’

Jesus then took this opportunity of talking personally to this lady no matter what His disciples would think. Exercising the Holy Spirit’s gift of knowledge, He mentioned things about herself… information that she knew He couldn’t have known, causing her to realise this stranger had to be a prophet (v19).

He also corrected some of the wrong religious teaching she was used to. He even used the well and its water as an example, telling her: ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life’ (v13-14). And that He was the expected Messiah (v26).

Results of this ‘cross-cultural chatting’? Jesus sharing good news with this lady so blessed and enlightened her that with great joy she hurried off to share with her own people (v28:30) resulting in many accepting Jesus as their Saviour! You could say that she became the first missionary!

John 4:40-42 records that ‘… when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”’

Jesus had deliberately reached out cross-culturally when travelling enroute to Galilee. Reaching everyone for Jesus means even those that we may not like for some reason – the young, the seniors, various groups, those of different nationalities and colours or religious backgrounds, friends, neighbours, strangers!

Note: Jesus was just His normal caring self in this incident. We don’t read of Him adding, ‘Can you see that, Lady, lah!‘ or ‘Can you see that, Lady, lah?‘ Nor saying to His shocked disciples, ‘Can you see that, Guys, lah!’ or ‘Can you see that, Guys, lah?’ She ‘got it’ and slowly the disciples would too!

3. The Questing Labourer
Get the picture painted in these early chapters of John’s gospel? Jesus was fully committed to His quest of labouring to reach sinners from all cultures and backgrounds… high and low… that they might discover the truth about God’s love for us, and come to repentance of sin through His Son and gain eternal life.

What do we learn from the incidents of Nicodemus and the woman at the well, both of whom needed to be born again? What we should know already – no matter how educated and moral one is, or how base, religious, irreligious, moral or immoral, everyone everywhere needs Jesus the Saviour of the world.  

Think about this everyone everywhere challenge in the light of the above scriptures… Jesus had a deep and meaningful conversation with a very religious Jew, a teacher of the Mosaic law. Then, although Jews didn’t mix with unbelievers, He went out of His way to have a simple one-on-one conversation with a Samaritan lady that touched her heart and won her over.

These two incidents simply remind us that everyone out there needs Christ and salvation – the base line for our missionary zeal and missions activity. The early church went everywhere sharing the gospel! Today’s church – each of us – with the Holy Spirit’s help needs to do likewise!

Christian TV services and large corporate meetings may stir the souls of the saints, but Jesus went to everyday locations to meet with people… even to a well to meet an immoral woman. He modelled personal witnessing even if it meant travelling somewhere, or inconvenienced Him!

Back to us today…

• Are we willing to be inconvenienced late at night?
• Where could your well be? Local coffee café? McDonalds? Next door neighbour? Friend? Family member?
• When every Christian shares their faith, hearts can change and people tell others.

Remember we are talking cross-culture ministry… learning as we go, knowing that everyone needs Jesus today. John later wrote ‘We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ’ (1John 1:3Mge).

Get it, dear readers, lah? Get it dear readers, lah!
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Dr Richard Winter pastors The Connection Church, Huntington Beach, California. Link: OnlinerConnect@gmail.com  
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