A
Study of the Book of John
“That
You May Believe”
Sermon
# 12
“A New Vision for the Harvest”
John 4:27-42
It
has been said there are few things in life as tragic as having missed an opportunity. May
I ask you a question, “Have you ever missed an opportunity to speak up
for Jesus that you later could have kicked yourself about?” Well I have
and I believe we have an example of just such an occurrence in the lives of the disciples.
We are returning one last time to the meeting between
the Samaritan woman and Jesus at the well in Sychar. Jesus and his disciples have arrived
in the heat of the day and Jesus sits down by the well to rest while his disciples go on
into the village to buy something for them to eat. It is at this point that a lone
Samaritan woman ventures out to the well when she is sure that none of the ladies from the
village will be present to humiliate her for her scandalous lifestyle. Yet today is the
day that she meets and accepts Jesus as her personal deliverer from sin.
In my sanctified imagination I
can see Jesus as he watches His disciples as they start up the hill into the village of
Sychar. Perhaps he saw them as they passed the woman on her way down to the well; it could
be that they even forced her to step off the path to let them proceed. At any rate they failed to see her as anything but an
impediment to their plans, not as a person who needed to be reached with the gospel.
That is still a problem, in life you see
what you are going after. If food is what you go after then food is all you see. If
money is what you are going after you tend to shut everything else out. If career
advancement is what you are going after then that is what you see.
The
disciples apparently arrive back from the village just in time to observe the conversation
between Jesus and the Samaritan woman end. They are astonished that Jesus has been talking
with her. But for once they seem to hold their tongues and do not bring it up. Perhaps
they have put their foot in their mouth one too many times lately and no wants to be the
one who voices the latest stupid question. Although they did not talk to Jesus about their
concerns, Jesus knew their hearts.
In verse twenty-seven
we read, “And at this point His disciples came, and they
marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why
are You talking with her?” .... (31) In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying,
“Rabbi, eat.”
(32) But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” (33) Therefore the disciples
said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to
eat?” (34) Jesus
said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
After the woman left, Jesus
is pressed by his disciples to eat, He refuses to do so, telling them that He has other “food” to eat of which they are unaware. As Leon Morris
points out, “we often read of people who took literally the
words that Jesus used of spiritual realities. The Jews did this when Jesus spoke of
destroying and raising the temple (2:20). Nicodemus did it with the new birth (3:4), and
the woman did it with the living water (4:15). Now the disciples do it with the food that
Jesus eats.” [Leon Morris. Reflections On the Gospel of
John. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson pub., 2000) p.147]
The disciples thought that
Jesus was speaking of physical food and they wondered where he could have gotten it! Then
Jesus went on to explain that doing the Father’s will, in this case leading the
Samaritan woman to faith, was nourish-ment for his soul. At this point Jesus leaves the
imagery of food and begins to talk about the harvest, the source of food.
When the disciples returned to Jesus that day
they were not at all concerned with getting know this woman. They weren’t interested
in her condition or her heart, they had already made up their minds about her and as far
as they were concerned she had been written off.
In verses thirty-five through thirty-nine Jesus gives the disciples and his readers
today a three-fold commission.
First,
Jesus Taught Them About The Need To Lift Up Their Eyes. (v. 35)
“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and
then comes the harves’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes…”
Jesus uses a folk saying to remind the
disciples that although they may think harvest time is yet four months away, it is in fact
harvest time right now! I can imagine that as Jesus told them to lift up their eyes that
the woman was returning with the men of the city. As Jesus told them that the fields were
white to harvest that there were quite literally dozens if not hundreds of people of the
town in their white robes streaming down the hillside toward them. The disciples had
already missed several opportunities and he did not want them to miss yet another.
“In
telling his disciples to lift up their eyes and look on the fields, Jesus is saying
something about spiritual priorities. He has already told them: “I have food to eat of which you do not know,” and “My
food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (vv. 32,34). Now in effect he’s saying to them: What you should
concentrate on at this moment is not our picnic, but those people coming across the fields
of Sychar led by the woman to whom I’ve been
speaking.
To see the work God has
called us to, we must lift our eyes from the things which hinder us, and to the fields
white unto harvest. This morning I
want to talk with you for a few minutes about the harvest that Jesus is trying to call our
attention to, that is the unchurched, that is the people of this community that that need
to be reached with the gospel of Jesus.
Like the disciples we also
make preconceived judgment calls about the people who are all around us. We also make
judgments about the receptivity of the people that we are passing on the thorough-fares of
life, and many times we are wrong.
Who are the unchurched and
what do they really look like? I want us to consider some common myths that Christians
hold about unchurched people. The myths I am going to share with you come from the
research of Thom Rainer and resulted in his writing a book entitled “Surprising
Insights From The Unchurched” (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001).
So what are some of the
preconceived ideas or myths that we believe about the unchurched who live all around us?
Thom Rainer in his book lists nine myths but I just want to give you a couple this morning
to challenge your thinking!
# 1. The Unchurched Never Attend Church.
We give up on people because
we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that it is no use trying to reach people who don’t
regularly attend church, because they are not interested in doing so. I read a statistic
that really challenged my thinking when I have read that on Easter Sunday in 1999, 12% of
atheist and agnostics attended a Christian church service. That 12% comes out to nearly
one million adults attended church that day.
# 2. The Unchurched Cannot Be Reached By
Personal Evangelism.
Rainer’s surveys
revealed that 53% of those who joined any church did so after someone from the church they
joined came and shared Christ with them. We have wrongly come to believe that personal
evangelism just doesn’t work when it fact
it is still the one of the most powerful tools God uses to reach those who do not know
Him.
The only way to see people as Jesus would have
us to see them is to allow the Lord to shatter our preconceived ideas about those fields,
about the people we need to reach. It is absolutely necessary that we take a fresh look at
the unchurched in our community and begin asking tough questions about who they are and
whether we are really interested in reaching them.
Second,
Jesus Taught Them About The Need To Look On The Fields. (v.
35)
“… and look at the
fields, for they are already white for
harvest!”
While the disciples were in the village buying
supplies they were surrounded by the unchurched, unreached people and they apparently
never thought about it, not because they did not know better, but because in this
particular case their preconceived ideas prevented them from even wanting to reach these
people.
What
does Jesus mean when he says we are to “look” at the fields? There
are many ways in which we can look at something
1. We
can look with disgust (like stepping on a slug)
2. We
can look in a casual and superficial manner - as we would looking idly through the
want ads in the newspaper.
3. We
can look in alarm and anger as we read of crime in the newspaper.
4. We
can look with awe and admiration, as we view a sunset.
But the specific word used
here (theaomai) means to look attentively and
with regard, interest and desire at something.
This means to look as Jacob
looked upon his son Joseph after a long separation. (Gen 46:29)
This means to look as the
father of the prodigal looked upon his returned son.(Luke 15:20)
This means to look as Jesus
looked upon Jerusalem. (Matt. 23:37)
Jesus said to “look
at the fields,” the unsaved people around us, and to look with regard,
interest and desire - concern, mercy, compassion and commitment to help them.
Jesus says the fields are white already for
harvest, but the problem is that we don’t seem to really believe Him. There
are no white fields anywhere near us. When we look around, we don’t see any white
fields. We see fields filled with weeds and overgrown vines. We see the sinfulness of men
at every turn. We see violence on a daily basis and corruption in high places is common
place. We see broken promises and broken homes. We see people whose lives are consumed
with their fulfilling their own selfish purposes. But we do not see fields white to
harvest. We see a world full of spiritually hopeless and uninterested people. To us the
world looks a lot like Sychar.
Third,
Jesus Taught Them About The Need To Become Laborers In The Harvest.
(vv. 36-38)
“And he who reaps receives
wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps
may rejoice together. (37)
For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’
(38) I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have
entered into their labors.”
Whenever opportunity affords,
evangelism is to be our first priority. It’s also, or ought to be, a joyful
privilege: “He
who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may
rejoice together” (v. 36). There’s nothing more
worthwhile than seeking under God to be the human agent in saving men and women for all
eternity.
· Notice
The Urgency
Jesus
began by saying “Don’t you say, there is
plenty of time.” When harvest time comes, everything else is set aside. Nothing
else matters as much at that point. Nothing else is that urgent, as necessary, as getting
to the fields that are ready to harvest. Why? Because the time for harvest does not last
forever. In Christian work there never seems to be enough time, and there is always more
to be done than can ever be accomplished. But the task is not some insignificant one,
where it does not matter much whether it is done or not. Jesus is talking about work in a
field where the eternal welfare of people is at stake. The issues at stake here are
eternal!!!
· Notice
That It Is A Team Effort (v. 37)
“one sows and another reaps”
Evangelism is also a partnership.
Jesus said to his disciples, “I sent you to
reap that for which you did not labor” (v. 37). What
did he mean? He meant that he had been witnessing to the Samaritan woman, and she had been
witnessing to her friends and neighbors and now they were coming to the well. It would be
the disciples’ privilege to “reap” them: to teach them more about Jesus and establish them in the kingdom
and family of God.
It
takes great humility to say, without jealousy or resentment, “I sowed, now you reap.” But that’s
the pattern. In the winning and nurturing of souls sometimes we will be the reapers and
sometimes we will also be the sowers, preparing the way for others to reap. Yet each role
is essential; so we must be ready to fulfill either.” [J. I. Packer. “Your Father Loves You”
(Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986) Page for March 27]
· Notice
That It Is God Who Produces The Fruit
(v. 38) “…others
have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
The apostle Paul reminded
the believers at the church at Corinth that all who work for the Lord are in it together
when he said, (1 Corinthians 3:6-7) “I planted but
Apollos watered, but God gave the increase (7) So then neither he who plants is anything,
nor he who waters, but God gives the increase..” We need to remember that what
ever we have done or have tried to do, it is God who produces the results.
The end result of this woman’s testimony
is given beginning in verse twenty-eight where we read, “The
woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, (29) “Come, see a Man who told
me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”(30)
Then they went out of the city and came to Him.”
When the woman got back to
the village she found the men of the town and told them, “Come and see a man who told
me everything I ever did.” Given this woman’s checkered past, that comment
apparently stirred considerable interest. As the disciples were talking with Jesus the
woman is talking to the men and brings them back to meet Jesus. In fact when the verse
says, they “came to him” it literally means they “kept coming out.”
In verse thirty-nine
we read, “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in
Him because of
the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” (40)
So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed
there two days. (41) And many more believed because of His own word. (42) Then they said to the
woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we
know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the
world.”
The Samaritans, as Jesus had
declared were ripe and ready to receive the gospel. Many of the Samaritans believed in
Jesus through the testimony of the woman and many more believed when they heard Jesus for
themselves.
Conclusion
Are we seizing the
opportunities as the Lord did? Or do we do as the disciples did and walk right by them?
So
What can we do?
1. WE MUST CARE!
We must lift up our eyes and
look! It is not that we are blind it is that we are preoccupied. We must look on the
fields.
2. WE MUST PRAY
“Then He said to His disciples,
The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. (38) Therefore pray the Lord of
the harvest, to send forth laborers into His harvest.” (Matt. 9:37-38)
We are commanded to pray
that God will send forth laborers into His harvest. And as we pray we should ask God to
open our eyes to the opportunities all around us to be a testimony for the Lord.
“Paul Rader used to
tell the story of a great wheat harvest in Australia that rotted in the fields during WW
I. Because so many men had responded to the call of the colors, nobody was left to gather
in the grain harvest. It was a case of “reap or rot,” as Rader pointed out.
This is exactly the
situation we face in our churches today: a plentiful harvest, and few reapers. This is no
time to panic. The vast needs of the world stand as a fresh call to prayer. Christians
have been commissioned to the high task of being co-laborers with God in His harvest. In
so many areas, it is ripe to be gathered. It is a harvest for which God gave heaven’s
best. He is not about to let it rot in the fields. We must take the words of the Lord
seriously.” [Source unknown -
www.bible.org/illus/John ]
3. WE MUST GET INVOLVED!
We must get involved in the harvest. We don’t just need more people we need more people to get involved in the harvest.