Jesus's Dialogue

1. Leading dialogue.


The education of disciples that flows throughout the Gospels reveals Jesus as an eternal teacher.
Jesus led disciples with patience to reach confession on their own through trials and errors. In the eyes of the disciples, at first, Jesus appeared as a mighty national savior like Moses. Still, gradually, their eyes opened from teachers to masters, to Messiah to sons of God and God. Keeping pace with the spiritual growth of the early disciples of Jesus Christ, the eternal teacher, led gradually to a confession in their hearts. Sometimes confession is reached at once, sometimes little by little, sharing more experiences, it becomes more solid.
Faith and confession cannot simply be given or forced but arises out of inner-oneself. Jesus didn't hurry up to reveal his identity and try to gain disciples to have enlightenment individually. It took three and a half years of trial and error through personal encounters and conversation. Finally, they found the love of Father through the cross and were able to confess Jesus Christ as Lord fully.

The same goes for conversations. Jesus applies the truth itself, and the transmission of that truth depends on the person's faith. By knowing the person and conveying the Word of God in a way that corresponds to it, Jesus led the listeners to come to confession on their own.
The relatively lengthy dialogues in the Gospel of John have a specific frame. I will name this type of dialogue

"Jesus's four-steps dialogue evangelism." Although straightforward, it contains all the elements necessary for evangelism, such as curiosity, supplementary explanation, rebuke, and application and invitation. It leads the conversation itself. It allows us to approach naturally in real situations, but it can also be a very effective conversational technique. What's more, isn't that the method that the Lord Himself used?

First of all, Jesus' conversational style can be presented naturally in our daily encounters and conversations, leading and making conversation easy to convey the gospel.
Suppose the self-centered dialogue focuses on understanding and persuasion for others. In that case, this Jesus's unique method of evangelism shows God and elevates one's faith to confession. In this respect, it is different from the evangelism method we usually use. The dialogue proceeds through supplementary explanations according to the listener's reaction, rather than one-sided preaching or persuasion. This pattern appears in long conversations, such as Nicodemus, the Samaritan Woman, the conversation with the Jews the next day after the great Miracle of the five loaves and two fishes, and the conversations with Martha, also an opponent of Jewish religious leaders as well.

Jesus's conversational style makes the other person unwittingly drawn. Nicodemus's dialogue also draws attention to this respect, probably because it is presented naturally to him without even knowing it. It includes a person's path to salvation in the dialogue; from born-again and the Holy Spirit, the Son of Man and God's love the resolution of sins and judgment, and the invitation to eternal life. Also, in a conversation with a Samaritan woman, Jesus gradually opens up the woman's perspective. Her eyes are opened from the Jew to the Prophet and finally to the Messiah. His leading dialogue is outstanding.

Jesus's conversation was about showing God to each person. It states that man can only be changed when he meet God. There can be no more real driving force for change than this. It leads to fundamental, entire, and intensive change. The way Jesus led from the first meeting with the six disciples clearly shows this.
The first meeting with the disciples at the beginning of the ministry is very impressive. The encounters and conversations of the young people, Andrew, John, Peter, James, Philip, and Nathanael, could be summarized as meeting God individually and coming to immediate individual confessions.
Andrew and John were the ones who came to Jesus through the introduction of their teacher, John the Baptist. Disciple John remembered precisely when he first met Jesus at around ten o'clock. Considering that the scripture was written in his old age, 60 years later, it is easy to guess how precious and impressive his first meeting with Jesus was personally, which has changed his entire life. He cannot forget his first dialogue with Jesus in his mind. "What do you want?", "Come" and "you will see." These are the first words Jesus spoke to him when he turned and saw them following. The fact that Jesus replied "what do you want" not "who do you want?", "Come" "you will see" was that he already knew their needs and called them with the answer.
The two stayed together that evening at the invitation of Jesus. The next day, Andrew's first thing was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah." They saw the Messiah. How could one come to such a great confession overnight? It is surprising. There is no record of any miracle performed that evening. It will be through conversations. (Although the details of conversations of that day are not recorded, we can assume that the Messiah was confirmed by unraveling what Moses and several prophets recorded, as shown in Philip's expression. Same as the conversation with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus after the resurrection.).
As Nathanael approached through Philip's introduction, Jesus praised him, saying, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." The compliment must have surprised Nathanael. In his question, a big surprise is expressed through rhetorical negation. It is, "How do you know me?" Unexpectedly, he came to Jesus with skepticism over the urging of his friend Philip, but what good can come out of Nazareth? In other words, what can be expected in the countryside of Galilee? Jesus immediately said, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." He must have felt the divinity who knew what he prayed under the fig tree. He immediately confesses, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."