Ordering Chaos – Pt 5

If God’s people would take their
Bibles once again and turn to John chapter 4. John chapter
4. We have been in this section
for a number of weeks as we are considering Jesus’ interaction
with the woman at the well. I have referred to this message
as ordering chaos, and we saw that so much of what Christ encountered
was the chaos of the Gentile world. There was social chaos. There was gender chaos. There was economic chaos. There
was spiritual chaos. even chaos that touched the very
worship of God himself. And Jesus is in the midst of
restoring that. Jesus is in the midst of speaking
to those issues and beginning the process of restoring it.
And I say process because that will become very evident in the
interaction today, in the passage at hand. In order to take this
kind of at a running start, our passage today is verse 27 through
38, but I wanna go all the way back to verse five, set the context,
we’ll glide right into those verses that we’ll consider this
morning. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near
the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Joseph’s
well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from
his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the
sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus
said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away
into the city to buy food. Therefore, the Samaritan woman
said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink
since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her,
if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give
me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you
living water. She said to him, sir, you have
nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you
get that living water? You are not greater than our
father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself
and his sons and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to him,
everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever
drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give
him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal
life. The woman said to him, sir, give
me this water so that I will not be thirsty nor come all the
way here to draw. He said to her, go call your
husband and come here. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly
said, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands,
and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you
have said truly. The woman said to him, sir, I
perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is a place
where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe
me. An hour is coming when neither
in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for
salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now
is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth. For such people the Father seeks
to be His worshipers. God is spirit. and those who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to
him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When
that one comes, he will declare all things to us. Jesus said
to her, I who speak to you am he. At this point, his disciples
came. And they were amazed that he
had been speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, what do you
seek? Or why do you speak with her?
So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said
to the men, come, see a man who told me all the things that I
have done. This is not the Christ, is it?
They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile,
the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said
to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the
disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything
to eat, did he? Jesus said to them, my food is
to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet
four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you,
lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white
for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving
wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal so that he who
sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this saying,
in this case, the saying is true. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for that for
which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have
entered into their labor. Jesus had dealt with gender chaos. Jesus had dealt with the social
chaos so prevalent in his day. Jesus dealt with the spiritual
chaos, reminding the woman, informing the woman really there in verses
11 through 15 that there was more to life than just a drink
of water. There was more to life than just
the physical elements of life itself. Jesus has already dealt
with the chaos of sin and the effects of sin in dealing particularly
with her specific sin. Jesus restored a right view of
sin that the woman had no choice but to interact with her own
sin and sinfulness. And Jesus, lastly, as we’ve already
seen, dealt with the chaos of worship. Which mountain? Where
should I go to church, essentially? And now we come into the second
great section of Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan people. He
is still in the process of restoring chaos. He is still seeking to
restore what God would have in the world. And He does it here
specifically as this passage unfolds. Go back, if you would,
to verse 27. It’s a transition. And it’s an abrupt transition.
I hope that you picked up on that just a little bit when in
verse 27 it says, at this point, it literally says, and on this,
referring to the moment, on at this very moment, right then,
at that very point, Jesus returned. At what point? at the very point that he had
just announced himself as the Messiah to this woman who he’s
having a gospel opportunity with. And we would say, we would probably
back away and say, Lord, just a minute, let Jesus finish with
this woman. God has his own design. He’s
not gonna miss the opportunity. We’re almost disappointed, aren’t
we, with the intrusion. We wanna see how it ends. return of Jesus’ disciples seems
to us to be somewhat abrupt. After all, there’s a divine appointment
in process. Jesus has just taken this woman
right up to the very verge, the edge of saving faith. And all of a sudden, His disciples
show up. You kind of picture this kind of bumbling group of
guys that just kind of come barging in to the midst of the conversation. They don’t even know it’s taking
place. They could sense or see perhaps that he had been speaking
with her, but there certainly is no sensitivity to the moment.
And he has just uttered the most significant declaration ever
to her about the fact that he was the Messiah. And by God’s
design, the scene is interrupted, and we are left to wonder, aren’t
we, about the woman’s spiritual state. What happens? What would
happen? The passage didn’t continue.
This would be one of the great scriptural cliffhangers. It’s an appointment, though.
It’s a dialogue that is continuing. It’s an opportunity about which
the disciples are utterly clueless, but God knows. And in God’s providence,
there is this interruption, a divine interruption, in a sense. Because
Jesus is not just concerned about saving the woman, saving the
people from Samaria. Jesus is also intent on instructing
his own disciples. And what a teachable moment this
proves to be. In direct contrast with the man-made
rules of the rabbis, that a man could not speak to a woman, The
disciples come back and are somewhat astounded that Jesus was doing
that very thing. The rules of the rabbi, one of
them said this, let no man talk with a woman in the street. And
you would think of that as just the casual conversations that
sometimes we enter into in our day and age. And you would think
that pulling back from that would be enough. But the rabbis made
it very clear it went well beyond that kind of interaction. Let
no man talk with a woman in the street. No, not with his own
wife. They didn’t want this kind of
male-female interaction taking place in a public place. The
rabbi goes on to say, let no man talk with a woman in the
street. No, not with his own wife. Rather, burn the words
of the law than teach them to a woman. That was the spirit
of the day. You would be better to take your Bible and burn it
than to sit down and have even a Bible study with a woman. So you have to really put this
in context. as the disciples return and they
see Jesus who they call and who they esteem at least as a rabbi
a great teacher the Messiah himself but also a great teacher sitting talking evidently more
than just a casual brief conversation but deeply talking and interacting
with this woman they knew they were amazed that he had been
speaking with a woman. This wasn’t just a quick dialogue. This was a lengthy discourse.
And not only a woman, but a Samaritan woman. We’ve been all through
it. The whole thing just didn’t fit. And the disciples come walking
back into the midst of that scene. They didn’t know anything about
the woman’s character. It wasn’t anything to do with
that particularly. But frankly, they didn’t need
to know about her character. It was enough that she was a
Samaritan woman. As for the questions, the questions
that they didn’t ask, what do you seek or why do you speak
with her? The Apostle John here wouldn’t
even have mentioned those questions if the disciples weren’t thinking
those things or even muttering them under his breath. What is
he thinking? Why is he talking to her? They were certainly interested
in the answers to those questions. They had the questions. They
were just too timid to ask them. Why on earth, Jesus, are you
speaking to her? And then we have another abrupt
transition. Look at verse 28. It just says,
so the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said
to the men, come see a man who told me all the things that I
have done. This is not the Christ, is it? Then they went out of the city
and were coming to him. She left her water pot. The Apostle John
makes a point of inserting that little detail. We didn’t need
to know about it. But he makes a point of letting us know that,
that her thoughts perhaps are so fully consumed with her interaction
with Christ, so much so that she sets aside the original purpose
of her trip, fetching water, and leaves it behind. Perhaps that she was in such
a hurry. Perhaps this whole conversation,
the very nature of it, that she was in such a hurry to run into
the city and tell those that she had met, this individual,
this potential messiah, at least a prophet, Perhaps that she even left the water pot there
intentionally for her thirsty new friend. That’s certainly
a possibility. Perhaps it was just that she
wouldn’t have been able to move as quickly as she wanted to with
the heavy burden of the water pot. We don’t know. But John
inserts this data, this little information, the woman left her
water pot. And I take it to be kind of a
blend of all of them. She had just encountered and
interacted with the very Messiah himself, essentially calling
her to salvation, pointing out her sin, leading her right up
to the moment of faith. His disciples come bumbling back
in, interrupting the conversation, and she can’t wait to get to
Sychar to tell her friends. She does so. She went into the
city, it says, at the end of verse 28, and said to the men,
come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done.
We’ve already looked at that. There’s a little bit of hyperbole
there. And even when it says that she
said it to the men, she probably didn’t go and seek out every
individual man in the city. But anyone and everyone she met,
she was eager to tell Tell them that he had already
identified all the things that she had done. Essentially what
she knew is that if he knew about her marriage life, if he knew
about her private life, then he certainly knew all things.
Potentially so, she sensed and she articulated as much that
Jesus Christ did have divine knowledge. Even if she believes
though, even if she believes Jesus to be the Messiah, she
defensively questions it. She wants to essentially leave
room to be incorrect. And she asks the question here
expecting the negative. The news is simply too good to
be true, or is it? This is not the Christ, is it? And she wants help. She wants
help from the men. She wants somebody more knowledgeable
than she to come to her aid, to hear Jesus, and to interact
with him, and to essentially affirm or deny her conclusions. This is not the Christ, is it? Another one said it this way,
the question is put so tentatively with just a shade of hope that
the answer may turn out to be in the affirmative. And again,
we don’t know her mind. We have simply the bare words
that were recorded. We don’t know whether she was
really truly hopeful or whether she was actually dubious. of
the fact that Christ was the Messiah. But look what it does. Look at the response of the men. You could almost say, almost
characterize her as one of those carnival barkers. Come and see. And so out of curiosity, okay,
got nothing else to do. We’re at the end of our work
day. It’s hot. I’m ready for a break. We’ll
come and I think it’s much more than that. I think the whole
world lies languishing, waiting. We know that the whole world
is hopeless outside of Christ. We know that in a very real degree
they already know that there’s a holy God. They know that there
is a God that has designed this whole order. And I think they
long. You did. You longed to know Him. You longed to have hope. You
longed to have peace in your heart. And I think the mere suggestion
at the possibility that this might be the Christ, beyond any
theatrics on her part, they rise to their feet quickly. It says in verse 30, they went
out of the city. I mean, it was almost instantaneous. They gathered
and they went. and they were coming to Him.
It was a process. It wasn’t a sprint, but it was
a hastened walk, you can be assured. They were coming to Him. They
were making a direct path to the Lord Jesus. We have another
transition beginning in verse 31. and back into the scene where
Christ is there now interacting with his disciples. They’ve come,
they’ve bumbled into the scene. John takes us to Sychar and now
immediately transports us right back to the scene at the well.
Look at verse 31. Meanwhile, the disciples were
urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food
to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying
to one another, no one has brought him anything to eat, did he?
Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent
me and to accomplish his work. Remember the disciples’ whole
purpose? Their whole purpose in going
into Sychar was to get lunch, to go get food. That’s why they
went, and so they came back, and the natural transition here,
first order, is rabbi, here’s lunch, take something to eat.
And Jesus uses this moment to point to them to instruct his
own disciples. He’s not done with them. His
whole purpose is not just the salvation of the woman at the
well or the people of Sychar. But his whole purpose is discipleship,
taking those and taking them a step further in the course
of their own calling before God. Look at verse 32. But he said
to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. And in
the same exact way, the same essential method that he used
with Nicodemus, you must be born again, the same very effective
way that he had used with the woman, give me a drink, he now
enters in by way of this suggestion of food. into a dialogue, just
as he’d done with a woman with a request for water, the lengthy
conversation that ensued. So, exactly when his disciples
need their own measure of instruction, Jesus baits them into thinking
and wondering about food. Look at verse 33, they took the
bait. So the disciples were saying
to one another, no one brought him anything to eat, did he? Especially not the Samaritans.
Remember the rule? As all kinds of Jewish rules
would have been transgressed, had Jesus eaten the food that
the Samaritans gave, all of the rabbis held that that was absolutely
a no-no. And so the disciples want to
know, did she give him something to eat? Did somebody else bring
him? Did you sneak him something out
of your knapsack? Jesus wants to clarify immediately. Look at verse 34. Jesus said
to them, my so-called, and you could almost put this in quotes,
my food is to do the will of him who sent me. And just as
He had done with the water, that far beyond a cool drink of water,
there is spiritual water that waits to quench spiritual thirst,
here Jesus says there is such a thing as spiritual food. And
my spiritual food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to
accomplish His work. Christ’s whole aim, Christ’s
goal, Christ’s mission, if you will, was to do His Father’s
will. That was His food, in a very
real way. That was better than the best
lunch that they could have brought. More nourishing to His own soul,
to His own heart, in seeing this woman engage with Him. more so
than any meal could have provided. Jesus said to the devil himself,
man shall not live on bread alone. Jesus’ whole purpose was his
father’s will. Jesus’ whole purpose was his
father’s mission and calling in his life. Words recorded in the book of
Job, essentially say the same thing. I have not departed from
the command of His lips. I have treasured the words of
His mouth more than my necessary food. And that’s what Jesus was
saying. That there is a spiritual element to our life. There is
a spiritual call that is more important even than our food. And for Jesus Christ, taking
the opportunity The God-given opportunity to proclaim the truth
of the Gospel to this one woman, lost in her sin, overwhelmed
and consumed by her sin, yearning for hope. The opportunity for
Jesus Christ to proclaim hope to her through faith in Christ
was more than a meal could ever provide. As one said, to do the
divine will, a sense of mission and devotion, or with a sense
of mission and devotion. The work that Jesus did was no
mere human work. It was that of the one sent by
God. This was satisfying to Christ. And so Jesus goes about to fulfill
his purpose. He no doubt had been tired. He
sat down by the well. We already know that he was thirsty.
We know that in a very real way he could have and should have
been hungry on a human level. But he says in an instant that
his desires for food had been set aside because a greater desire
had been satisfied. Not long ago we studied the book
of Acts, verse chapter 20. And Paul uttered essentially
the same thing. Paul said, I do not consider
my life of any account as dear to myself so that I might finish
my course and the ministry which I had received from the Lord
Jesus Christ to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of
God. It’s more important to me than anything to preach the gospel. Paul said it similarly in the
book of Philippians. For to me, to live is Christ
and to die is gain. Christ was purposing and pursuing
a complete conformity to Almighty God. And in the book of John, especially,
those are captured and repeated time and time again. Jesus was
only about the Father’s work. Just listen to a few. chapter
5 verse 30. I can do nothing on my own initiative.
As I hear, I judge. My judgment is just because I
do not seek my own will but the will of Him who sent me. John 6 verse 38, I have come
down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him
who sent me. John 11 verse 4, when Jesus heard
this. He said, This sickness is not
into death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God
may be glorified by it. His whole purpose and will was
the Father’s plan. John chapter 12. I did not speak
on my own initiative, But the Father Himself who sent me has
given me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.
I know that His commandment is eternal life. Therefore the things
I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.” Even His
message, John 14. But so the world may know that
I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded me. John
15, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just
as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. John 17,
I glorified you in the earth, having accomplished the work
which you have given me to do. Jesus was about and only about
the Father’s will. Jesus wanted one thing, and for
Him it was better even than a physical meal. It was the work. And note how
he says it. My food is to do the will of
Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. I want you to focus
just on that word, accomplish, for one second. Because that word is used over
and over again in the Gospel of John. In John chapter 5, It
says, but the testimony which I give is greater than the testimony
of John, for the works which the Father has given me to accomplish. God has given me marching orders,
and my whole goal in life is to fulfill them perfectly. John 17, which verse we just
read. 17.4, I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished
the work which you have given me to do. Now the greatest of
those is yet to be accomplished. Jesus is looking into the future
and He sees that He will fulfill God’s purposes perfectly. And He does it in John chapter
19. In John chapter 19. And there He is pictured on the
cross. And in John chapter 19 after
this, Jesus knowing that all things had already been accomplished
to fulfill scripture said, I am thirsty. A jar of sour wine was
standing there. They put a sponge full of sour
wine on the branch of hyssop and brought it to his mouth.
Therefore, when Jesus received the sour wine, he said, it is
finished. It is accomplished. Jesus’ whole
purpose was wrapped up in that end point, in perfectly accomplishing
the will that his father laid out for him to do. And because it’s the Lord Jesus,
because He is perfect, completely sinless, there is a very real
sense that at every stage, at every moment of His ministry,
from the very start to the very end, it was always done perfectly. It was always done flawlessly. But there’s a very real sense
that even though the trajectory is headed that way, there’s a
very real sense that the work was incomplete, not yet accomplished
until that moment on the cross. Doing God’s will was the supreme
obligation of Christ. That’s what he purposed to do. And he wants to give the disciples
a lesson. In the agricultural world, they
refer to different kinds of crops. There are crops that you can
grow for your own cattle to eat. We had friends in Wyoming who
for years did that. They grew what they call feed
corn, silage, other things. There are things, whether it’s
alfalfa that you keep for yourself, Store it up in your barns and
use it all year long for horses and cattle. And then there is a thing called
a cash crop. A cash crop is what you grow to sell. Jesus wants to teach his own
disciples about a cash crop of infinite value. This isn’t just
ordinary crops. This isn’t just any kind of material growing in the field.
Jesus wants to present and really perfect the idea of a spiritual
harvest. Let me take you in your mind’s
eye, and what I’d like you to do is jot some of these down
if you would. I want to take you to the idea
that he presents here in verse 35. Do not say, there are yet
four months, then comes the harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up
your eyes and look on the fields, they are white for harvest. Jesus essentially is going to
reinvigorate and perfect. He’s going to explain what scripture
had pointed to for centuries, the idea of a spiritual harvest.
Jot this one down, Proverbs chapter 22, verse eight. He who sows
iniquity will reap vanity. What a powerful lesson that proverb
is. Imagine going and finding and
pulling out some vanity seeds and planting them only to grow
what is utterly worthless. It’s an absurd thought, and yet
it happens every day. He who sows iniquity, if you
traffic in sin, you will eventually travail and reap vanity. It is worthless. Ecclesiastes,
jot this one down, 11.4. All I’m pointing out is that
this whole idea of a spiritual harvest had already been introduced.
It had been used for years. Jesus’ disciples knew these verses. Ecclesiastes 11, four. He who
watches the wind will not sow. And he who looks at the clouds
will not reap. Now you could take that passage
literally and apply it to the process of farming. But that
passage in that context means much more than that. You want
to just stand around whittling your thumb, suggesting that I’m
not going to do anything because there’s a lion in the square. You’ll never have a harvest. Jeremiah used it the same way.
Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 13, jot that one down. Speaking of
the nation of Israel, they have sown wheat and have reaped thorns. They have strained themselves
to no profit, but be ashamed of your harvest because of the
fierce anger of the Lord. He’s talking about a spiritual
harvest, and he’s talking about foolishly living in such a way
that at the end of the day, what you reap is thorns. What a graphic image. We’re not
done yet. Hosea, chapter 8, verse 7. They sow the wind and they reap
the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads. It yields no grain. Should it
yield, strangers would swallow it up. The image here is graphic
as well. Imagine planting seed and having
it grow up and waiting all summer and then looking out on the field
and there is not a single ear on any of the stalks. Here, the image of wheat, not
one head of wheat on any of the stalks. The image is picked up in chapter
10 of Hosea chapter 10 verse 12. So with a view to righteousness
reap in accordance with kindness break up your fallow ground for
it is time to seek the Lord until he comes to reign righteousness
on you. Here again, this rich image of
a spiritual harvest, sowing righteousness, reaping what God would have us
to reap. And then finally, Micah 6.15,
which verse we’ll return to in a moment. Micah 6.15, you will
sow, but you will not reap. You will tread the olive, but
will not anoint yourself with oil, and the grapes, but you
will not drink wine. It is judgment that Micah is
proclaiming there. And Jesus wants His disciples
to know that there is not only a harvest, but there’s a spiritual
harvest. They’re probably standing either
in or near or adjacent to a field that was, by all accounts, a
very fertile growing region. And He says in verse 35, do you
not say, There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest. If
it’s not a well-known proverb, and if it was a well-known proverb,
we don’t have any record of it at all, but it’s almost like
a proverbial saying. They could have been looking
four months down the road, and even as they were walking through
the fields on the way to Sychar to and from, they may have even
been thinking, oh, the crops are doing all right. Knee high
by the 4th of July, right? That whole mentality. Disciples could have been just
randomly thinking about life. Oh, these farmers are going to
have a good crop. Rains have been good this year. Crops are
doing well. No spots on those leaves, just the right amount
of moisture. That’s kind of where they were thinking. And all the while, Jesus wants
them operating in a completely different plane, doesn’t he?
He’d already told some of these very men, I’m gonna make you
fishers of men. Not one of them signed up and
said, Jesus, where’s the boat? They knew what he meant. And
here he’s trying to drive home the same point, that they should
have been perceptive, they should have been sensitive to the fact
that there is a spiritual harvest about to take place, that the
spiritual harvest is now, not four months from now, That the
rules of the world, the rules of natural agriculture don’t
count when it comes to harvesting souls. One pastor said, procrastination
is a fault of the church as well as the world. We have bought
into this thing. I can remember first hearing
about it in the 80s. Friendship evangelism, right?
Where you gotta befriend them. And befriend them. and befriend
them, and befriend them, and befriend them, to the point where you never
get around to talking about the gospel. I’m not against friendship
evangelism. I’m not against cultivating relationships
with people, but when do we open our mouth? And he says procrastination
is a fault of the church as well as the world, that just like
these Proverbs were so poignant because they had so much validity
to them, To the farmers, reaping and sowing. So also in the world,
we wanna shuffle our feet, drag our feet, make excuses. There’s not gonna be much of
a harvest, is there? We’re supposed to be constantly
waiting for opportunities. Today is the day of harvest.
You don’t know that God hasn’t prepared your next door neighbor
or your friend or your family member or someone, someone even
in the church, you don’t know that God hasn’t fully prepared
them and has them standing literally at the point of salvation. And
along comes little old you. All you gotta do is put your
rake in, right? Jesus Christ, has already come. He’s already in heaven. Everything
has been accomplished. The Holy Spirit is already at
work. The field, in a very real sense, is always ripe and white
for harvest. Jesus says, just like Paul, a
hard-working farmer ought to be his first to receive the crops. We ought to always be ready to
reap a harvest. We ought to always be ready to
harvest souls, and that’s what Jesus says. Look at the verse.
Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields
that they are white for harvest. Now what a lot of people said,
and it’s absolutely possible, but a lot of people said that
at that very moment, the Samaritans were cresting the field. They
could see them, you know, in their clothing, coming down the
pathway through the field on the way to the well. It’s, well,
I have this nagging problem. Whenever I come to the Bible,
I just go with what it says and it doesn’t say that. Even this
idea of lift up your eyes and look to the fields. Well that
is, that’s just biblical language. He’s not necessarily saying look
up and here comes all these people dressed in white. I don’t see
that. That’s conjecture. What he’s saying is that there
is a harvest coming. There’s going to be a harvest
even this very day and that we ought to always be ready for
that harvest. They may well have been thinking
out loud about some kind of a spiritual reform movement. They might have
been thinking that this whole thing, I like Jesus, I really,
I admire Him, I know that He’s the Messiah, I put my faith and
trust in Him, I have purpose to follow Him and obey Him. But in reality, this whole thing
is going to take years to put in place. They weren’t thinking about that
very afternoon. And so first he points out to them the reality
of a spiritual harvest. There in verse 35. But then he
immediately points out the blessings of a spiritual harvest in verses
36 and following. Watch this. Already he who reaps
is receiving wages, and is gathering fruit for life eternal, so that
he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in
this case the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. Already, he says, even at this
very moment, he who reaps is receiving wages. There are those
going about, even now, that are harvesting souls. There is that principle in Scripture,
a well-known principle. We’re not going to go to the
several places where it’s mentioned, but one particular place is enough,
Luke 10, 7. The laborer is worthy of his
wages. And that’s the image that Jesus
says. He says that, you know, those
out sharing the gospel, preaching the gospel ought to expect a
harvest. That’s not wrong thinking. That’s
not looking to put a notch in your belt. That’s looking to
serve the Lord Jesus by reaping a harvest. And he says that it’s
already taking place. As one said, hear the reaper
in the spiritual fields and his reward is that he gathers fruit
for life eternal. It’s souls that he’s talking
about. The reaping itself is the reward
because of the joy which brings, which it brings. The fruit which
is gathered is that of the spiritual harvest, the outlook being not
only of the present life, but of that which is to come. In
other words, he says, look, you, not only to his disciples, but
all Christians have this incredible privilege to be part of the harvest. Not only part of the planting,
which we also do, but part of the harvest. It’s an amazing thing. that these
eternal souls are regarded as crops to be harvested into a
barn that is eternal in nature. And he says that we have the
privilege of participating in that. And he talks about wages here. He’s not talking in some strange
earthly terms about some kind of monetary remuneration. The
wages of those who reap, who participate in the harvest isn’t
in some kind of a salary. It’s not in some kind of fame
or position. It’s in the privilege of serving
Christ. And in knowing that you have participated with Him in
drawing souls to eternity. There’s not only this privilege
of joy and the wages that we received in participating, but
the reward of our own eternal life. Won’t it be amazing? I hope. Won’t it be amazing to
be in heaven and to be next to and near and around those in
whom we had some kind of spiritual impact. Maybe it wasn’t pointing them
to the gospel. Maybe we were the ones that at
the last moment said, you know, have you prayed to receive Christ? Maybe we were the one that first
gave them that book or first invited them to church. I remember back in the 70s or
80s, a long time ago, and I don’t normally like a lot of these
songs, but this one was effective. Thank you for giving to the Lord. Remember that song? Simple song. And it talked about essentially
going to heaven and having all those people begin to approach,
people that we never even really remembered through life, but
that God in his grace used us to touch in some way. some seemingly
insignificant way He allowed us to touch their lives. Already, Jesus said, he who reaps
is receiving wages and gathering fruit for life eternal so that
he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. You see, there was a sadness
in that thought in the Old Testament that to reap where you hadn’t
sown was kind of a somber occasion. It meant the farmer that had
planted the crop had now died or perhaps lost his farm and
now somebody else was stepping in and reaping what they had
not sown. Jesus was accused of that, remember? Psalm 126 says it this way, those
who sow in tears shall reap. There’s a promise there. Sowing
and reaping. Those who sow in tears shall
reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro, weeping,
carrying his bag of seed shall indeed come again with a shout
of joy, bringing in his sheaves with him. There was that promise.
And to not have that promise of reaping your own crops There
was a sad thought to that. But here Jesus essentially separates
the two. He says it’s not always going
to be the case. He who sows is in one camp. He who reaps is
in a completely different camp. But in the end they rejoice together. And essentially what Jesus does
is takes us right up to point three. For in this case, the
saying is true, one sows and another reaps. It’s how God has
designed the gospel. In the agricultural realm, the
farmer who sowed the seed was the one who was expected to reap
the harvest. But in the spiritual realm, it isn’t that way. Many people never see a harvest.
Many pastors, many of those who share the gospel with friends. I know people that modeled and
proclaimed Christ to me that I’ve never seen again. And probably
you do too. Many people stand for the truth,
stand on a principle, proclaim some spiritual truth, hand someone
a book, and then they never get to see
what happens with it. That’s a biblical principle. That’s a biblical principle about
the spiritual harvest, is that there’s a two-fold work going
on, sowing and reaping, and it goes on all the time, and sometimes
you’re gonna do one, and sometimes you’re gonna do the other. Sometimes
you’re very good at one and not so great at the other, and that’s
okay. Jesus says, in preparation for
point three, He is perfecting this idea of the spiritual harvest.
He talks about the reality of the spiritual harvest in verse
35, the blessings of the spiritual harvest in verses 36 and 37,
and the cooperation of the spiritual harvest in verse 38. Watch this.
I sent you to reap for that which you have not labored. Others
have labored and you have entered into their labor. And Jesus says
it’s not wrong. You’re essentially going into
another man’s field and you’re harvesting his crops. Yes, but they’re God’s crops.
And he’s talking to his disciples. And he’s talking specifically
about the fact that he had just preached the gospel to the woman
at the well. That she went back with news
and that they were about to reap this incredible harvest. They. Others have labored. What Jesus
is pointing to here is to all who had in any way laid the groundwork
Think in your own life, who that is. Who laid the groundwork for
your own conversion? Who laid the groundwork for you
hearing the gospel? Who laid the groundwork? Was
it your parents? Was it a friend? Was it someone
who knew Christ, an evangelist, a pastor? Was it someone who
proclaimed Christ to you? They laid the groundwork, but
there are others. The writers of the scriptures, Moses, the
prophets, They laid the groundwork. They planted seeds. Every time
you open your Bible, seeds are being planted. Jesus
Christ and the apostles, they planted seeds. But what about
this, the Holy Spirit? The Holy, whenever we enter into
that process, we’re always entering in midstream, aren’t we? No matter
who the individual is, no matter how long they’ve been around
the church, we always enter in midstream. And the Holy Spirit
is always at work. I found a quote this past week
from Charles Wesley. God buries his workmen, but carries on his work. In a very real way, God is merciful
to use us, but in the end, He doesn’t need us to be involved
in that entire process. He gives us a privilege to be
part of it at all. You have labored, or rather others
have labored, and you have entered into their labors. In our day
and age, sometimes that bothers us, doesn’t it? It didn’t bother
the Apostle Paul, This past September we looked at a passage in 1 Corinthians
and I close with that. Remember what was happening in
Corinthians? In Corinth there was all this
division. All this hubbub. And Jesus, or rather Paul as
he opens there, he exhorts them, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, let me talk to you with Christ’s authority that you all
agree and there be no divisions among you, but that you be made
complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. What was
the cause of all this? Paul had been informed by Chloe’s
people that there were quarrels. And the quarrels, the nature
of them was, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I
am of Christ, Paul takes that argument and
points out the utter foolishness of it. Has Christ been divided?
Can you sector up the Lord Jesus Christ? And then he closes. He closes with this in chapter
three. What then is Apollos? And what
is Paul? Servants through whom you believed
even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. We sometimes quibble
over the fact that, you know, Somebody’s stealing my sheep
or somebody’s, you know, we have the privilege to do what God’s
gifted us to do just so far as God enables us, don’t we? I planted, Apollos watered, but
God was causing the growth. We have an incredible privilege.
to participate in a spiritual harvest. And whether it’s scattering
seeds, having a Bible study, handing out a book, passing out
a tract, inviting somebody to church, handing someone a link
to a discussion on the internet, whatever the case may be, He
allows us to be used in this process in a myriad of ways. But He also allows some of us,
at just the right time, by God’s own design to step into their
lives in the midstream of this incredible opportunity and reap,
to reap a harvest, to reap a soul for eternity. What an incredible
privilege that we have as Christians. Would you join me as we go before
the Lord? Lord God, for us, We see these
previously complacent disciples worried about lunch, worried
about who Jesus was talking with, worried about the upcoming harvest,
worried about so many other things, and preoccupied. And Lord, that
describes us so well. Remind us, keep us mindful of
the fact that there is a spiritual harvest. And it takes place every
day. The crops are always ready. They
are always in a state of having been prepared. We always, no
matter who we talk to, they are in a state of either being prepared
or already having been harvested for the kingdom. Lord, there
certainly are those who will never be ready. They will never
be prepared. And our hearts pity them. Lord,
we don’t know what they look like. And so we pray, grant us
the grace to reach out, to sow seeds, and to be ready if we
sense that the moment is right, to call someone to repentance
for their sin and to faith in Christ. Lord, if there is even
a single one here today, who’s had plenty of seeds planted.
They know that Christ is the Messiah. They know that they’re
sinners. They know that they’re hopeless.
There’s even one who has not placed their faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, use someone in this room
to reap a harvest even this very day. It’s in Jesus’ name that
we pray. Amen. As we close, if you would
take your hymnals and we’ll sing verses 1 and 2 of 498, Jesus,
What a Friend for Sinners. Let’s stand and sing.