Sow, Reap, and Rejoice!
Notes
Transcript
Read
Read
John 4:28–42 (ESV)
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Setting the Stage
Setting the Stage
So, this conversation between the disciples and Jesus is happening while the Samaritan woman is in town telling the people about Jesus.
They are dumbfounded that Jesus was speaking to this Samaritan woman...
They don’t want to say what was on their mind...
They’ve been traveling and Jesus is thirsty and most likely hungry as well.
It’s not unlike humans to divert away from the subject that we really want to talk about due to how that conversation may go...
And, how that conversation may cause us to be perceived by those standing around.
So, they go back to a simple subject, a subject that’s easy…food.
They urge Jesus to eat, regain His strength.
And, Jesus responds in an unexpected way...
John 4:32 (ESV)
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
Once again Jesus moves from the temporal & earthly element to spiritual realities.
The disciples do not get it…right over their head...
John 4:33 (ESV)
33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”
Once again we have a scenario of minds bent on earthly things...
Just like with Nicodemus on the new birth.
Just like the Samaritan woman on water.
Now, the disciples on food.
They want to talk about eating.
Jesus says I have something else that fuels me, that you do not yet understand.
And, Jesus spends a large proportion of His time with the disciples teaching them to think correctly about life.
He spends great time teaching them to think correctly about life.
We are, because of our sin nature, over the top preoccupied with temporal concerns.
We should be able to see this in our own life, if we’re honestly looking.
I’ll come back to this, but first, let’s see what Jesus says fuels Jesus.
What sustains Him, fuels His life...
John 4:34 (ESV)
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
The food Jesus is talking about that fuels Him...
That satisfies Him...
That brings Him the greatest joy is not brisket from Hutchins...
But, rather it is obedience to God.
And, the what that sustains life is a Who...
And, that Who is God.
A greater need than water or food is obedience.
What ultimately sustains life is not water or food, but God.
And, have the disciples not been taught this in Scripture?!
Who sustained Jonah in the belly of the whale?
Who sustained Noah through the flood?
Who protected Daniel in the Lion’s den?
Who shielded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace?
Who directed the stone from David’s sling to Goliath’s forehead?
Who ultimately sustains our life?
God.
Jesus is not teaching to not drink water or not drink food.
What Jesus is teaching the disciples and us...
Is that the greater satisfaction is not from having your stomach stop grumbling...
Or your dry mouth quenched.
The greater satisfaction is delighting in what God delights in.
And, though we have been designed by God to be temporally sustained by food and water in this fallen world...
The ultimate Sustainer of all life is God.
So, we should delight ultimately in doing the will of God.
And, trust ultimately in the sustaining hand of God.
Jesus wants us to see our greatest need and the greatest source to meet that need...
And, that is God.
Now, Jesus points the disciple to God’s will for us on earth towards others...
What Is Truly Urgent?
What Is Truly Urgent?
John 4:35 (ESV)
35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.
This is in light of the woman believing Jesus...
Going back to the town to tell the townspeople about Jesus...
And, we’re told...
John 4:30 (ESV)
30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
The people are coming out of the town...
They want to know more about Jesus.
They want to converse with the Christ.
They want to behold the Messiah.
All from one conversation with an Outcast woman from Samaria.
And, Jesus says look up guys...
This large crowd is coming to Me because of one conversation.
A single seed grain dies in the ground and it comes out of the ground as much grain.
Jesus says...
35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’?
This was evidently a common saying in agriculture.
And, we know, in farming, when you plant the seeds it naturally takes a period of time of waiting for the seed to die in the ground, for the plant to grow, for the plant to get to the point of it being the right time to harvest the best & most plentiful crop.
But, Jesus says this is not so in the Kingdom of God.
It’s not a specific period of time that you have to wait.
I just had this conversation with this woman...
And, not only has she believed, but look at the number of people walking towards us right now...
Already.
The wind blows as it wills, and you do not see it, only the work of the wind...
Same with the Holy Spirit of God.
You do not know where He is working, nor how long He has worked...
Nor how quickly He will work...
You just see the result of the work of the Holy Spirit...
And His work is being expresses in the crowd walking towards us right now.
Now, we know there is mystery in the work of the Spirit.
But, there is also a human element to Kingdom harvest.
God, generally uses means...
And, the means that He has ordained is that people teach the gospel to other people.
So, how can there be a quick harvest within the human element of evangelism...
In farming there is a sower and a reaper.
One sows and waits, the reaper at the right time brings in the harvest.
Jesus says...
John 4:36–37 (ESV)
36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
Evangelism, which is speaking God’s word into someone’s life...
Particularly using the Law and the Gospel as the subject...
Is a work that we do not know the condition of the soil...
We don’t know what elements have been used by the sower...
So, we sow, and that sowing may end in reaping because someone else has already sown.
Paul said this about what Jesus is saying here in this passage...
1 Corinthians 3:6–8 (ESV)
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
We should all be doing the work of evangelism...
And, as we do we all sow, some reap...
But, even though we may not be the one who specifically reaps...
We all share in the reward of reaping.
All of it is done with the same goal in mind...
The glory of God and the good of our neighbor.
We all share in the reward.
Jesus is teaching:
The urgency of evangelism.
The necessity of evangelism.
The will of God for us to evangelize.
The joy that should be ours in sowing and reaping.
Within the work of evangelism, there is:
An unknown condition of a person’s heart or readiness for the gospel.
An unknown work of the Holy Spirit on a person.
The fact that every person needs the gospel...
Whether they’re a PHD religious leader of a nation.
Whether they’re an outcast of society.
Whether they are ordinary middle of the row, middle class people.
Everyone needs the gospel as an ultimate need.
Their life cannot and will not be sustained without believing the gospel.
And a person cannot believe the gospel if they don’t hear the gospel.
And, so we evangelize, out of a motive for faithfulness to God and the good of the hearers.
We evangelize with gratitude for Christ being faithful in place of our unfaithfulness.
And, we do so knowing that if they come to Jesus...
Everyone celebrates and rejoices equally in the harvest.
John 4:37–38 (ESV)
37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
So, speak the gospel into people’s lives...
And, you may see an instant and great harvest.
Or, you may never see the harvest in this life.
But, you will rejoice in the harvest in the life to come.
We can think about John the Baptist.
The labor he put in by sowing the seed of the Christ.
Beheaded not long after Christ came on the scene.
To earthly human eyes, it didn’t seem like John the Baptist was reaping any reward.
But, dear friend, John will rejoice in the reaping from the ministry God gave Him.
But, we must see with eyes of faith.
Faith in the promises of God in His Holy Word.
Let’s think about this...
Let’s think about this...
Maybe the disciples thought the gospel work was not worth the effort on the likes of the Samaritans.
Or maybe like Jonah’s heart towards the Ninevites, the disciples thought the Samaritans unworthy of the gospel and the Savior.
Maybe the disciples held their tongue out of fear for their own personal safety.
In all of those potential scenarios, we find our self behaving in similar fashion, do we not?
Yet, in all of those scenarios we are mistakenly putting our self in the place of God in regards to determining:
who is worth the effort.
who is worthy of the gospel.
who is worthy of the Savior.
forgetting we are unworthy.
who is our actual Protector/Sustainer.
mistakenly thinking that we really need to protect our self because God may mess up.
The Christian life is an over and over, repenting of thinking we know best...
Thinking we can do best.
Thinking we can do anything apart from Christ.
And, learning to trust God in every circumstance.
Believing that He knows best.
His providence is best.
His protection is the best.
His power is the best.
Trusting Him for all things and in all circumstances.
We need to remember...
We Share in the Work & the Celebration
We Share in the Work & the Celebration
And, we are rewarded wages for the work.
The reward is that we can delight in God...
And, share in the work of bringing others to delighting in God...
And, the worship of God, that He so deserves…being increased one soul at a time until the Consummation.
What a celebration we will enjoy in heaven for all eternity.
Luke 15:7 (ESV)
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Luke 15:10 (ESV)
10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Think about at this moment in time...
As this Samaritan woman, a sinner who repents and believes upon Jesus...
Bringing a crowd to Jesus who will repent and believe upon Jesus...
Think about the celebration in heaven on this day.
And, Jesus is saying to the disciples...
Look up and see what is being harvested...
I told you I’d make you fishers of men...
And, here it is...
This, Jesus says, is what fuels me.
This is what brings me joy.
This is what stirs celebration to my soul.
Let it be for you, likewise.
—> So, church family, let it be for us likewise.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
