John 4:27-42
The Harvest
Introduction
Jesus has just revealed to the woman that He is the Messiah. At the beginning of her conversation back in verse 9 she saw Him as her enemy – Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Then she saw Him as someone who had something to offer – someone she could get something from. Then, when Jesus told her what He knew about her past, she saw Him as a prophet. There is a progression here. Her view of Jesus and her estimation of Him was elevating the more she talked with Him. But, she still did not know who He truly was and Jesus, finally in verse 26 tells her straight out, “I who speak to you am He” – that is, the Messiah.
In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus said to his disciple’s, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” There is abundance in the harvest. There is a shortage of workers. Workers are needed to be sent out.
For the past two weeks we have been moving through this conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. Today we’re going to watch as the work Jesus did in her life is going to be multiplied and result in the salvation of a whole town. If I were to title the message today it would simply be “The Harvest.”
The Harvest Needs Workers (v 27-30)
In verse 27 we see that the disciples finally come back from buying food in town. They see Jesus talking with the woman and even though they are astonished, they don’t say anything. How do you think they feel? Jesus has taken them into Samaria, they’ve had to conduct business with the Samaritans if they wanted to eat, and now they find their Master interacting with a Samaritan woman. Boy if they knew what kind of woman she was they probably would have passed out.
Jesus is taking them way out of their comfort zone. You see, Jesus isn’t bringing the disciples face-to-face with the Samaritan’s so much as He is bringing the disciple’s face to face with themselves. They are being confronted with their prejudice, their hatred, and their arrogance towards the Samaritans because Jesus has brought them into their land and forcing them to interact with them in the markets.
Has following Jesus ever taken you out of your comfort zone? If you answer no you better examine yourself to see if you are following Him – if you are following His commands and teachings. Because when you are you are going to face the things about yourself you don’t like. He’s going to bring you face to face with yourself. That may mean that you have to do things like give forgiveness to someone whom you have hated. That may mean you have to seek someone’s forgiveness. That may mean that your pride and your selfish attitudes have to be confessed. It may mean that you stop being greedy, demanding of your way, looking with lust at women or men, or lying to people or cheating people, or mocking people and putting people down.
This Samaritan woman was interacting with the Word of God and she was exposed, but, she found grace. The disciples were interacting with the Word of God and they were exposed – again and again. But there was grace to be found. You, by interacting with the Word of God WILL BE exposed, but, just as in the Word is where you will be exposed it is also in the Word that you will find grace. Get in the Word. You cannot possibly in any productive way be following Christ without being in His Word. True worshipers ………………..
So the disciple’s show up and she takes off. But verse 28 says she left her water jar behind. She came to the well that day with her water jar to get water that she needs to survive. Water to drink, to cook, to wash with – she came for physical water but she found the well of living water in the Messiah, Jesus Christ and you know what? She forgot about her earthly needs. Suddenly, the spiritual need that she had quenched made her realize her physical needs were secondary.
Are you placing your temporary, earthly, physical needs above your spiritual needs? Are you going day after day to the well and neglecting the living water? Ask yourself – survey yourself – how much time do you spend doing other things in comparison to studying the Word of God?
Verse 29 says that the woman when she got into the town began to invite the people out to Jesus, “Come, and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Come and see. When you have drank from the water that Jesus gives you WANT others to drink it too. She now knows that this Jesus knows everything about her, and that He is the Christ, the Messiah.
This has been the pattern in John’s gospel starting with John the Baptist. He was told by God who Jesus was and when John saw Jesus he cried out and testified that Jesus was the Son of God. Then Andrew, who was following John the Baptist, left and began to follow Jesus. But he only saw Jesus as a Rabbi (1:38). After spending a day with Jesus he went to find his brother Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah”. Philip then went to find Nathanael and when Nathanael scoffed, Philip said in chapter 1 verse 46, “Come and see.” What did the Samaritan woman say to her whole town after being with Jesus? “Come and see”.
Listen, when you enter into fellowship with Christ, you want others to know that fellowship. If you are here and have not trusted Christ as your Savior and your sins are not forgiven, then you have NO fellowship with the Father. But, one reason I stand up here and plead with you and others here and elsewhere share the Gospel and give you tracts and witness to you is because we want you to have what we have! We want you to have fellowship with God and His Son Jesus and with us! Listen to what John, the author of this gospel, said in his first letter, chapter 1 verse 3, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Believers, that is a strong driving force in your life to share the gospel. That others may have the same wonderful fellowship with the Lord that you have. Maybe if you never do this its because the quality of your fellowship with the Lord is weak. Maybe the walk you have with the Lord is nothing much to talk about and so you don’t talk much about it. That’s your fault - not the Lord’s, not your pastor’s, not your spouses, not your kids, not your job, not your boss, not your circumstances.
Verse 30 says, “They came out of the town and made their way toward him.” Very simple, but I want to point out two things here. First, God can use anybody to spread the Gospel. Here she is - we have read and we know that this woman has an immoral reputation in her town. She is an outcast and not highly respected. Women had a hard enough time but she had it worse because of her sins.
But, we’re going to see that a whole town gets saved because of one person who had 3 things going against her:
1) She was a Samaritan. Notice that the Jewish disciples following Jesus were not used in this passage to save that town.
2) She was a woman. It was considered by Jewish rabbi’s a waste of time to preach the Law to a woman because he could have been doing something more productive like studying. But, here we see that it is by the witness of a woman that a whole town gets saved.
3) She is a sinful woman. She is not going back into that town being held in high esteem, being respected, or with any sliver of credibility to speak on religious or spiritual matters.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many of you were influential; not many of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”
She was nothing by the account of this world. And after Jesus came into her world she went back into the place where she was shunned, a place she was not honored, esteemed, respected – but rejected. What she had she knew they needed.
God is not looking for the people who are most respected, honored, who have the most money, who have been the most successful. I hear Christians sometimes say about an unbeliever, “Boy, if he would just get saved what amazing things he could do for the Lord. Look at what success or influence he has in his unsaved, un-regenerated life.” Somehow because of the business success, or sports success they’ve had, or because of the admiration of the people around them, or because they’ve mastered the principles of the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People Christians look at these unsaved people and think that they are going to be a success for God - if we could just get them saved.
That is absolute nonsense. That is the philosophy that says spiritual ministry is done in the power of the flesh and not in the power of the Spirit. It’s faith in the flesh and not in the Lord. Do you know how much God is impressed with what I do apart from Him? Nothing. What did Jesus say, John 15:5? “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
Is God looking at that man and saying, “Wow, if I could just think of a way to reach him he could do great things for me.”? NO! God is looking at that man and saying “you are doing nothing of any value of any worth of any significance in the life you are living apart from me.” That’s why Paul said in Philippians that everything of his former life was as rubbish. It’s not in the power of man that God’s work is done, it is in the power of God’s Spirit. Your impressive or less-than-impressive resume counts for nothing – God can use you or stick you in a corner somewhere and not use you to achieve glory for His name. Let’s just trash this notion that influential unsaved people are the key to evangelism and growing the church.
Listen, it doesn’t matter what you were; it doesn’t matter whether you are highly respected; it doesn’t matter whether you graduated seminary – God will use the man or woman who is Spirit-led, is surrendered to His will and seeks His Glory. That requires your agenda being set aside so the Lord’s agenda is carried out. John 12, one seed dying so many seeds can be produced
So the first thing in verse 30 is that God can use anybody to reach anybody with the Gospel. He can use you. Second, the fact that these towns people have responded to what they’ve heard is astounding. They heard the gospel from this woman, and they didn’t blow her off. They investigated. They believed according to verses 39 and 42.
Acts 17:11 says that the people of Berea were of more noble character because they searched the Scriptures everyday to see if what they heard about Jesus Christ was true. Noble character – according to God – involves a heart that seeks the truth about Him. God said in Romans 3:11, “There is no one who understands; no one who seeks God.” The people in the town sought Jesus out because of the testimony of the woman. Therefore they were of more noble character in God’s eyes.
The Food of the Harvest(v. 31-34)
Jesus is a master teacher. He is able to take any circumstance, any prop, anything from the immediate surroundings and use it to teach truth with power and precision. In chapter 2 He was standing in the temple area creating chaos when he referred to His body as a temple that will be destroyed and after 3 days rebuilt. In chapter 3 He talks about coming into the light with Nicodemus – who came to him in the cloak of the night. In chapter 4 Jesus is sitting at a well waiting for a drink when He begins to teach our Samaritan lady here about Living Water that only He gives. Now Jesus is going to use food as the metaphor for teaching His disciple’s.
What is He teaching them? Let’s remember that the Samaritan woman first thought Jesus was talking about physical water and she had to learn that Jesus was talking about spiritual water that would satisfy her spiritual thirst. She had to get past her physical need to see her spiritual need. Now the disciples have to get past their physical need – to eat – to see the spiritual need of the harvest. The spiritual work that was before them – don’t miss the spiritual needs of others because of a pre-occupation with your own physical needs.
There are two things about this food Jesus mentions. First it is a food they don’t yet know. They don’t understand what it is. They’re confused, just like the Samaritan woman, and so they start asking each other who gave Him food. Jesus then clarifies for them and gives us our second point – Jesus’ food is doing the will of God and accomplishing His work.
Always Jesus was about His Father’s business. John 5:17 He says, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
The Fields of the Harvest (v 35-38)
The harvest took place in April, and, so it seems that chapter 4 was taking place in December – four months before the harvest. Jesus was using this farming language to teach the disciples that the harvest is not a long time from now, but it is NOW. What did he mean by this? Well in verse 30 it says that the people of the town were making their way out to see Jesus. They – the people – are the fields that are ripe for harvest. They are the one’s that the disciple’s are to open their eyes to see as harvest. The Samaritan’s salvation is at hand.
The disciple’s had to be feeling a little bit like Jonah at this point. Jonah was an OT prophet who God told to go to Nineveh and preach. Nineveh was a terrible nation that terrorized Israel, and, so when God told Jonah to go and preach he went in the complete opposite direction. But he didn’t do it because he was afraid, but, because he hated them. He ended up going and sure enough, that wicked nation repented and God did not bring calamity on them. But do you know what Jonah’s response was? He was angry. He says in chapter 4 to the Lord, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity…” In other words, Jonah knew that the people he hated were going to be saved if they heard the word of God and he could not stand it. He knew his God. He knew that is gracious, compassionate, abounding in love and who relents from sending calamity, but, he didn’t want God to relent. He wanted to see the people of Nineveh suffer for what they had done to Israel.
The Samaritans are not like the people of Ninevah, but, they are hated intensely by the Jews. The disciples, who are Jewish, who hated the Samaritans too, now were hearing that God’s salvation included them too. Eventually they would learn this lesson that Paul would later speak of in Ephesians 2:14-16, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with it’s commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”
Jesus was already teaching them this truth, that He Himself, through the cross is going to be the peace between them and these Samaritans. They will all be a part of a new body – the body of Christ. The barriers of hostility will be destroyed by Christ.
Listen, there is no reason, none whatsoever for division within the body of Christ. The hatred, the bitterness, the hostility, the grudges, the animosity, have all been destroyed at the cross in Christ’s body and you and you and you and I are all now a part of His body. We have been made into one new man, in Christ.
So the harvest is now. If we realize that now is the time for the harvest, there are a couple things that happen. First, there is rejoicing. Verse 36 says, “Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.” There is no joy like seeing someone come to Christ whom you have spent more time kneeling at the feet of God interceding for. The joy is overwhelming.
Another thing, of realizing the harvest is now, is that we reap the reward. The reaper draws his wages even now! Paul said in Romans 1:13, “I do not want you to be unaware brothers that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” Paul’s reward was the harvesting of souls among the Romans.
In Galatians he urges us on in seeking the lost souls for Christ, chapter 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” In God’s proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up. If you do not become weary in doing good. If you do not stop praying for that lost soul that you love so dearly. If you do not cease from the longing to see others enter into the life that you have been so graciously given in Christ then you too will reap the benefits, the harvest, the eternal life, in the lives of others.
The Harvest (v 39-42)
Just two points from these verses: Believing in and being with. When you believe in Jesus you want to be with Him. They urged him to stay with them. That word for urged is the same Greek word in verse 31 when it says that the disciples were urging Jesus to eat something. Have you ever urged someone? My mom has been recovering from surgery and my grandmother has been taking care of her. And when we go to visit she is always urging my mom to eat. You must eat. Please eat. The Samaritan’s were urging Jesus to stay. They were honoring Him – notice in verse 44 Jesus says that a prophet has no honor in his own country. But these Samaritans were honoring Him by their request that He stay with them.
You know why? They believed in Him. What makes a Samaritan good? Jesus said that that only God is good. Romans 3:10 says that there is no one who is righteous, not even one. There is no one who does good (verse 12). What makes a Samaritan good? Faith in Jesus Christ. The only way a person can become good, is by receiving the goodness of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). They heard about Jesus – they sought Him out – they urged Him to stay with them – they believed that He was the Savior of the world (v 42).
What have you done with what you’ve heard about Jesus? Have you sought Him out to know if what I and others are saying is true? That He is the Christ? That He is the Savior of the world? That He died on the cross to pay for your sins? Does your heart desire to be with Him? Does your heart thirst for the living water He offers?
Can you stand with the Samaritans and say, “Now I have heard for myself, and I know that Jesus Christ really is the Savior – MY Savior!”
I urge you DO NOT miss this great salvation. Do not ignore it. Do not turn your heart away. But seek the Lord while He may be found. All those who call on the name of the Lord WILL BE SAVED. If YOU, call on Him, you WILL be saved.
The Harvest
Introduction
Jesus has just revealed to the woman that He is the Messiah. At the beginning of her conversation back in verse 9 she saw Him as her enemy – Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Then she saw Him as someone who had something to offer – someone she could get something from. Then, when Jesus told her what He knew about her past, she saw Him as a prophet. There is a progression here. Her view of Jesus and her estimation of Him was elevating the more she talked with Him. But, she still did not know who He truly was and Jesus, finally in verse 26 tells her straight out, “I who speak to you am He” – that is, the Messiah.
In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus said to his disciple’s, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” There is abundance in the harvest. There is a shortage of workers. Workers are needed to be sent out.
For the past two weeks we have been moving through this conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. Today we’re going to watch as the work Jesus did in her life is going to be multiplied and result in the salvation of a whole town. If I were to title the message today it would simply be “The Harvest.”
The Harvest Needs Workers (v 27-30)
In verse 27 we see that the disciples finally come back from buying food in town. They see Jesus talking with the woman and even though they are astonished, they don’t say anything. How do you think they feel? Jesus has taken them into Samaria, they’ve had to conduct business with the Samaritans if they wanted to eat, and now they find their Master interacting with a Samaritan woman. Boy if they knew what kind of woman she was they probably would have passed out.
Jesus is taking them way out of their comfort zone. You see, Jesus isn’t bringing the disciples face-to-face with the Samaritan’s so much as He is bringing the disciple’s face to face with themselves. They are being confronted with their prejudice, their hatred, and their arrogance towards the Samaritans because Jesus has brought them into their land and forcing them to interact with them in the markets.
Has following Jesus ever taken you out of your comfort zone? If you answer no you better examine yourself to see if you are following Him – if you are following His commands and teachings. Because when you are you are going to face the things about yourself you don’t like. He’s going to bring you face to face with yourself. That may mean that you have to do things like give forgiveness to someone whom you have hated. That may mean you have to seek someone’s forgiveness. That may mean that your pride and your selfish attitudes have to be confessed. It may mean that you stop being greedy, demanding of your way, looking with lust at women or men, or lying to people or cheating people, or mocking people and putting people down.
This Samaritan woman was interacting with the Word of God and she was exposed, but, she found grace. The disciples were interacting with the Word of God and they were exposed – again and again. But there was grace to be found. You, by interacting with the Word of God WILL BE exposed, but, just as in the Word is where you will be exposed it is also in the Word that you will find grace. Get in the Word. You cannot possibly in any productive way be following Christ without being in His Word. True worshipers ………………..
So the disciple’s show up and she takes off. But verse 28 says she left her water jar behind. She came to the well that day with her water jar to get water that she needs to survive. Water to drink, to cook, to wash with – she came for physical water but she found the well of living water in the Messiah, Jesus Christ and you know what? She forgot about her earthly needs. Suddenly, the spiritual need that she had quenched made her realize her physical needs were secondary.
Are you placing your temporary, earthly, physical needs above your spiritual needs? Are you going day after day to the well and neglecting the living water? Ask yourself – survey yourself – how much time do you spend doing other things in comparison to studying the Word of God?
Verse 29 says that the woman when she got into the town began to invite the people out to Jesus, “Come, and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Come and see. When you have drank from the water that Jesus gives you WANT others to drink it too. She now knows that this Jesus knows everything about her, and that He is the Christ, the Messiah.
This has been the pattern in John’s gospel starting with John the Baptist. He was told by God who Jesus was and when John saw Jesus he cried out and testified that Jesus was the Son of God. Then Andrew, who was following John the Baptist, left and began to follow Jesus. But he only saw Jesus as a Rabbi (1:38). After spending a day with Jesus he went to find his brother Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah”. Philip then went to find Nathanael and when Nathanael scoffed, Philip said in chapter 1 verse 46, “Come and see.” What did the Samaritan woman say to her whole town after being with Jesus? “Come and see”.
Listen, when you enter into fellowship with Christ, you want others to know that fellowship. If you are here and have not trusted Christ as your Savior and your sins are not forgiven, then you have NO fellowship with the Father. But, one reason I stand up here and plead with you and others here and elsewhere share the Gospel and give you tracts and witness to you is because we want you to have what we have! We want you to have fellowship with God and His Son Jesus and with us! Listen to what John, the author of this gospel, said in his first letter, chapter 1 verse 3, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Believers, that is a strong driving force in your life to share the gospel. That others may have the same wonderful fellowship with the Lord that you have. Maybe if you never do this its because the quality of your fellowship with the Lord is weak. Maybe the walk you have with the Lord is nothing much to talk about and so you don’t talk much about it. That’s your fault - not the Lord’s, not your pastor’s, not your spouses, not your kids, not your job, not your boss, not your circumstances.
Verse 30 says, “They came out of the town and made their way toward him.” Very simple, but I want to point out two things here. First, God can use anybody to spread the Gospel. Here she is - we have read and we know that this woman has an immoral reputation in her town. She is an outcast and not highly respected. Women had a hard enough time but she had it worse because of her sins.
But, we’re going to see that a whole town gets saved because of one person who had 3 things going against her:
1) She was a Samaritan. Notice that the Jewish disciples following Jesus were not used in this passage to save that town.
2) She was a woman. It was considered by Jewish rabbi’s a waste of time to preach the Law to a woman because he could have been doing something more productive like studying. But, here we see that it is by the witness of a woman that a whole town gets saved.
3) She is a sinful woman. She is not going back into that town being held in high esteem, being respected, or with any sliver of credibility to speak on religious or spiritual matters.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many of you were influential; not many of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”
She was nothing by the account of this world. And after Jesus came into her world she went back into the place where she was shunned, a place she was not honored, esteemed, respected – but rejected. What she had she knew they needed.
God is not looking for the people who are most respected, honored, who have the most money, who have been the most successful. I hear Christians sometimes say about an unbeliever, “Boy, if he would just get saved what amazing things he could do for the Lord. Look at what success or influence he has in his unsaved, un-regenerated life.” Somehow because of the business success, or sports success they’ve had, or because of the admiration of the people around them, or because they’ve mastered the principles of the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People Christians look at these unsaved people and think that they are going to be a success for God - if we could just get them saved.
That is absolute nonsense. That is the philosophy that says spiritual ministry is done in the power of the flesh and not in the power of the Spirit. It’s faith in the flesh and not in the Lord. Do you know how much God is impressed with what I do apart from Him? Nothing. What did Jesus say, John 15:5? “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
Is God looking at that man and saying, “Wow, if I could just think of a way to reach him he could do great things for me.”? NO! God is looking at that man and saying “you are doing nothing of any value of any worth of any significance in the life you are living apart from me.” That’s why Paul said in Philippians that everything of his former life was as rubbish. It’s not in the power of man that God’s work is done, it is in the power of God’s Spirit. Your impressive or less-than-impressive resume counts for nothing – God can use you or stick you in a corner somewhere and not use you to achieve glory for His name. Let’s just trash this notion that influential unsaved people are the key to evangelism and growing the church.
Listen, it doesn’t matter what you were; it doesn’t matter whether you are highly respected; it doesn’t matter whether you graduated seminary – God will use the man or woman who is Spirit-led, is surrendered to His will and seeks His Glory. That requires your agenda being set aside so the Lord’s agenda is carried out. John 12, one seed dying so many seeds can be produced
So the first thing in verse 30 is that God can use anybody to reach anybody with the Gospel. He can use you. Second, the fact that these towns people have responded to what they’ve heard is astounding. They heard the gospel from this woman, and they didn’t blow her off. They investigated. They believed according to verses 39 and 42.
Acts 17:11 says that the people of Berea were of more noble character because they searched the Scriptures everyday to see if what they heard about Jesus Christ was true. Noble character – according to God – involves a heart that seeks the truth about Him. God said in Romans 3:11, “There is no one who understands; no one who seeks God.” The people in the town sought Jesus out because of the testimony of the woman. Therefore they were of more noble character in God’s eyes.
The Food of the Harvest(v. 31-34)
Jesus is a master teacher. He is able to take any circumstance, any prop, anything from the immediate surroundings and use it to teach truth with power and precision. In chapter 2 He was standing in the temple area creating chaos when he referred to His body as a temple that will be destroyed and after 3 days rebuilt. In chapter 3 He talks about coming into the light with Nicodemus – who came to him in the cloak of the night. In chapter 4 Jesus is sitting at a well waiting for a drink when He begins to teach our Samaritan lady here about Living Water that only He gives. Now Jesus is going to use food as the metaphor for teaching His disciple’s.
What is He teaching them? Let’s remember that the Samaritan woman first thought Jesus was talking about physical water and she had to learn that Jesus was talking about spiritual water that would satisfy her spiritual thirst. She had to get past her physical need to see her spiritual need. Now the disciples have to get past their physical need – to eat – to see the spiritual need of the harvest. The spiritual work that was before them – don’t miss the spiritual needs of others because of a pre-occupation with your own physical needs.
There are two things about this food Jesus mentions. First it is a food they don’t yet know. They don’t understand what it is. They’re confused, just like the Samaritan woman, and so they start asking each other who gave Him food. Jesus then clarifies for them and gives us our second point – Jesus’ food is doing the will of God and accomplishing His work.
Always Jesus was about His Father’s business. John 5:17 He says, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
The Fields of the Harvest (v 35-38)
The harvest took place in April, and, so it seems that chapter 4 was taking place in December – four months before the harvest. Jesus was using this farming language to teach the disciples that the harvest is not a long time from now, but it is NOW. What did he mean by this? Well in verse 30 it says that the people of the town were making their way out to see Jesus. They – the people – are the fields that are ripe for harvest. They are the one’s that the disciple’s are to open their eyes to see as harvest. The Samaritan’s salvation is at hand.
The disciple’s had to be feeling a little bit like Jonah at this point. Jonah was an OT prophet who God told to go to Nineveh and preach. Nineveh was a terrible nation that terrorized Israel, and, so when God told Jonah to go and preach he went in the complete opposite direction. But he didn’t do it because he was afraid, but, because he hated them. He ended up going and sure enough, that wicked nation repented and God did not bring calamity on them. But do you know what Jonah’s response was? He was angry. He says in chapter 4 to the Lord, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity…” In other words, Jonah knew that the people he hated were going to be saved if they heard the word of God and he could not stand it. He knew his God. He knew that is gracious, compassionate, abounding in love and who relents from sending calamity, but, he didn’t want God to relent. He wanted to see the people of Nineveh suffer for what they had done to Israel.
The Samaritans are not like the people of Ninevah, but, they are hated intensely by the Jews. The disciples, who are Jewish, who hated the Samaritans too, now were hearing that God’s salvation included them too. Eventually they would learn this lesson that Paul would later speak of in Ephesians 2:14-16, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with it’s commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”
Jesus was already teaching them this truth, that He Himself, through the cross is going to be the peace between them and these Samaritans. They will all be a part of a new body – the body of Christ. The barriers of hostility will be destroyed by Christ.
Listen, there is no reason, none whatsoever for division within the body of Christ. The hatred, the bitterness, the hostility, the grudges, the animosity, have all been destroyed at the cross in Christ’s body and you and you and you and I are all now a part of His body. We have been made into one new man, in Christ.
So the harvest is now. If we realize that now is the time for the harvest, there are a couple things that happen. First, there is rejoicing. Verse 36 says, “Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.” There is no joy like seeing someone come to Christ whom you have spent more time kneeling at the feet of God interceding for. The joy is overwhelming.
Another thing, of realizing the harvest is now, is that we reap the reward. The reaper draws his wages even now! Paul said in Romans 1:13, “I do not want you to be unaware brothers that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” Paul’s reward was the harvesting of souls among the Romans.
In Galatians he urges us on in seeking the lost souls for Christ, chapter 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” In God’s proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up. If you do not become weary in doing good. If you do not stop praying for that lost soul that you love so dearly. If you do not cease from the longing to see others enter into the life that you have been so graciously given in Christ then you too will reap the benefits, the harvest, the eternal life, in the lives of others.
The Harvest (v 39-42)
Just two points from these verses: Believing in and being with. When you believe in Jesus you want to be with Him. They urged him to stay with them. That word for urged is the same Greek word in verse 31 when it says that the disciples were urging Jesus to eat something. Have you ever urged someone? My mom has been recovering from surgery and my grandmother has been taking care of her. And when we go to visit she is always urging my mom to eat. You must eat. Please eat. The Samaritan’s were urging Jesus to stay. They were honoring Him – notice in verse 44 Jesus says that a prophet has no honor in his own country. But these Samaritans were honoring Him by their request that He stay with them.
You know why? They believed in Him. What makes a Samaritan good? Jesus said that that only God is good. Romans 3:10 says that there is no one who is righteous, not even one. There is no one who does good (verse 12). What makes a Samaritan good? Faith in Jesus Christ. The only way a person can become good, is by receiving the goodness of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). They heard about Jesus – they sought Him out – they urged Him to stay with them – they believed that He was the Savior of the world (v 42).
What have you done with what you’ve heard about Jesus? Have you sought Him out to know if what I and others are saying is true? That He is the Christ? That He is the Savior of the world? That He died on the cross to pay for your sins? Does your heart desire to be with Him? Does your heart thirst for the living water He offers?
Can you stand with the Samaritans and say, “Now I have heard for myself, and I know that Jesus Christ really is the Savior – MY Savior!”
I urge you DO NOT miss this great salvation. Do not ignore it. Do not turn your heart away. But seek the Lord while He may be found. All those who call on the name of the Lord WILL BE SAVED. If YOU, call on Him, you WILL be saved.
Comments
Post a Comment