2012: The Year of Restoration and Renewal

Wednesday Night Prayer and Bible Study

Prayer begins at 7:15pm, with Bible study starting promptly at 7:30pm.

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Lesson for February 1, 2012

The Practice of Invitation

This month we will focus on the Christian practice of invitation.  Invitation is closely tied to hospitality but it is also tied to evangelism.  For the next few weeks in Sunday worship and during our Bible Study time we will focus on Invitation with a special project to be carried out by the congregation at the end of the month.  It is my hope that you will share our study discussion with you family and friends for their feedback as we embark on this journey together.

Tonight  “Come see a man”  John 4:16-30, 39-42

1.   What happened to the Woman before she extended an Invitation to the City

2.   What barriers did she have to overcome?  

3.   What are your barriers?

4.   What was special about her invitation?  Was it a complicated invitation? 

5.   Considering whom she was, why did the people respond?

6.   How will you extend an invitation to 2 people over the next two weeks?

Scripture Text

John 4:16-30, 39-42

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.”¹⁷The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”¹⁹The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”²⁶Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

²⁷Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?”²⁸Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people,²⁹“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.³⁹Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.⁴¹And many more believed because of his word.⁴²They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved