John 4:25-42 (Gospel-ignited Missions)

A Confused Call to Action at the Well

I want to say right off, I know we're not at the end of service, but thank you, Tracy, for stepping in and for helping us today. You're doing a great job. It's just great to be in the house of the Lord to be able to praise God, no matter who we are, what we've been doing through the week, right?

I'm going to start with a story. Shannon and I were married in January, or sorry, we were married in February. That wasn't part of my notes. We were married in February of 2010, and we were pregnant with Haley.

Near the end of the pregnancy, we were kind of croasting, we were kind of thinking that things were going to go just according to plan. We had about four weeks left until little Haley Grace got here, and we had no complications up until that point.

Now, the night that I'm talking about, Shannon was working night shift. It was a 12-hour shift at the jail. We both worked at the jail. I met my wife in jail. You can determine whether you still want to come to this church or not after hearing that.

But Shannon had spent all night upstairs in the female booth. She was looking down on the female prisoners, because since she was pregnant, she wasn't going down into the general population. And she didn't feel Haley move.

Now, that's an important point, because Lankford babies are especially vigorous babies. They're like Olympic swimmers. They swim laps around the uterus. That's just what they do. So it seemed odd for Haley not to be moving.

Now, her co-workers had told her, I'm sure everything is going to be just fine. This is normal. But Shannon didn't have a good feeling about it, so she went to the doctor after she got off work. So she'd been up all night.

She goes to the doctor. And I was on my shift. I was now working day shift, because we were married. We had to work opposite shifts so that we could just manage child care. And they called me in from the back.

I think I was giving inmates showers. I was basically providing security at that moment. And they called me. They said I had a phone call, and that I need to take it now. So I put the inmates back in their cell.

I came down. And I took the phone call, and Shannon was talking at 90 miles an hour. And she was saying all kinds of things. And I had no idea what she was talking about. I was in those moments where I was trying to catch up to reality.

What is going on? And I realized that she was telling me that Haley was going to be coming today. Now I thought we had four weeks. I had not packed a bag. I hadn't done anything. We didn't have bottles bought.

We were the most unprepared parents. You'd think we would have learned from that, but we didn't. We did the same thing the next time. The reason Haley was coming early was because when she got to the doctor's appointment, they found on the ultrasound that she had arrhythmia.

We found out later it was because Haley had tied a knot in her own umbilical cord. Remember I said Lankford babies are vigorous. Now praise God that Shannon had the idea to go to the doctor that day. Praise God that the Lord is in control and sovereign over those things.

She could have taken the advice of her co-worker. She didn't. But what I find most funny about this story is that when I picked up the phone, I was confused. I was like, but I'm at work. I know that doesn't matter, but I wasn't processing yet.

I was like, but we don't have our backpack yet. That's okay. Shannon said, you're going to have to go and buy the stuff. And I hate shopping. It's not like stereotypical male. Like I'm way worse. I don't even, I sit in the car while Shannon goes in just because I hate shopping so much, but I was willing to do it because my baby was coming, but I was confused.

I was trying to catch up to all of the details and you should have seen me. I left the jail. There was no one to cover for me. I'm running Forrest Gump style out to the parking lot. I get in my truck, I'm flying down the road.

I go into the store, I'm buying everything that I can. I'm pacing up and down the aisles. I have no idea even what I'm buying. I'm just like pulling stuff into the cart. I'm asking people for their help.

Finally, I check out and I'm driving to the hospital while I'm putting together our little bag that we're supposed to pack. It was a mess. I came in totally frazzled. Shannon was beautiful, but she was exhausted and it was, it reminds me that in those moments when you're confused and you finally catch up, when you get that call, you don't know what you're going to do when you get that call, but when you get that call, you just bolt into action.

That's what I think is happening in today's passage a little bit. They start out confused. They're like me. They're like, I don't know what's happening. I don't know what's going on, but the moment that it clicks for them, they start understanding.

They start doing stuff. They get moving. That's what I think is happening today. Start in confusion. They're led to understanding and then eventually into action. So that's what we're going to do today.

We're going to look at the disciples' response to this woman at the well narrative. We're going to read the passage. It's a long one. Then we're going to go through some context and then we're going to look at those three points.

What were they confused about? How did Jesus help them understand? And then finally, how did they get moving? So let's turn to John four verses 25 through 42 together. This is the word of the Lord. The woman said to him, I know that the Messiah is coming.

He who is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare to us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. At that 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 man, come see a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it?

And 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 bought him anything to eat, did they?

And Jesus said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say that there are 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 eternal life 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.

I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. From that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified.

He told me all the things that I have done. So when the Samaritans came to him, they were asking him to stay with them and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. And they were saying to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe.

For we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this text. Thank you for the gospel of John and thank you for the way that you take your confused disciples and you teach them and you bring them into understanding.

And Lord, thank you for the testimony of the fact that when they come into understanding, their feet get moving. Lord, I pray that for us today that as we look at this text and as we look at it, it's a very practical text, that as we look at it and as we dive into it, Lord, that any confusions that we have would fall away, that, Lord, we would be left with understanding of what it is that you want from us, and that, Lord, we would just live our lives with a sort of simple obedience to participate and be involved in the mission of God.

It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. The scene of this passage is pretty interesting. The disciples had no intention of staying in Samaria for two days. This would be like planning to spend a week in a Motel 6.

You just don't do that. In their mind, this was just a stop on the road. This was just a place to pull over, a rest stop to grab some things, to grab some food, to grab some items. Jesus was tired. They wanted to rest a little bit, but their plan was to go straight through Samaria as fast as they could to Galilee.

Now, Galilee was Jesus' home. That was where the disciples were from, but Samaria is a place that no one actually went to unless they absolutely had to. If you'll remember, the disciples have just recently left Jerusalem, where they confronted the temple leadership with Jesus, and now they're heading towards Galilee to go back home to do what they consider to be real ministry.

But they were missing the fact that ministry was getting ready to happen right before their very eyes. They were so busy on the end goal that they missed all the parts in the middle. How often do we do that?

But again, instead of going straight through Samaria, Jesus decides to rest at a well. In the sovereignty of God, Jesus knew this interaction was going to happen, so it's not an accident, but the disciples we see are very confused.

So, as these disciples go off to get the food for Jesus, as they go off to get the supplies that they think their master needs, we see this interaction with this woman, and we saw that over the past two weeks.

But I bet you can imagine how confused the disciples must have been when they came back and Jesus is talking to someone, because at 12 noon, no one should have been out at the well, but not just anyone.

He's talking to a sexually immoral Samaritan woman. Again, this would have been the most odd pairing that has ever happened in human history. You have Jesus, who's at the pinnacle of the social order, talking to a woman who's at the very bottom of the social strata.

You've got a rabbi talking to someone who was uneducated. You've got someone who's gaining in popularity and notoriety talking to someone who is thoroughly rejected in her society, living in shame. You've got crowds who are following Jesus, and the town who's actually rejecting this woman.

These two could not have been more different. It would be like leaving the Senate chambers today, having a meeting with a senator, going to have lunch with a prostitute. That's kind of what it is. And I know that shocks us, and I know that kind of chafes at us when we hear that, but that's, socially speaking, how taboo this sort of encounter would have been.

And the disciples would have felt it. The disciples were not used to seeing a dignified scholar dealing with such a sinful person. A woman, even. Now, the disciples were silent about this encounter, which I think says a lot.

The disciples do not rebuke Jesus. There's moments in the Gospels where Peter even rebukes Jesus. Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. Peter never rebuked Jesus again after that. But in this moment, they don't rebuke Jesus.

And I think it's because they understand his character. They understand who Jesus is. It says, 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?

And I think even though this violated every social norm in their time period, and even though that it was something that they probably were not used to seeing, probably never thought in a million years that they would have seen, they didn't say anything because they knew who Jesus was and they knew his character and they knew that something was about to happen.

They were confused about it, but they were ready to understand. Now at the same time as they returned, this woman is hearing those famous words, I who stand before you am he. And it clicked for her. She goes from confusion about who Jesus is.

We just read all of that in the narrative. She's confused at every point, but at the moment that she realizes that she is standing in front of the Messiah. What does she do? She leaves her water pot on the ground.

She runs immediately back to the city. She came confused, Jesus gave her understanding, and then she bolted into action. You see the pattern? That's the pattern that disciples are going to face. That is the same pattern that we face in our lives.

We came to Christ confused, Jesus gave us understanding, and then our feet are supposed to follow after. I love the fact that she dropped her water pot. This woman was clinging to that water pot because it was the only means that she had of getting water.

She's out there in the middle of the day because she has such a shame-ridden life, and yet in the midst of all of that hard work to get out there in the middle of the day, she leaves her water pot. She leaves the thing that she thought that she was looking for because what she had found was so much better.

Her hiding was no longer important in light of who she just met because you can't hide anymore when Jesus shines his light on you. Her shame was no longer crippling to her because your shame cannot exist in the precious love of Christ.

Her fear for people was no longer debilitating. Notice she runs into the town of the people that hate her, and of the people that shamed her, and of the people that have gossiped about her. She does that because what she found was more important than everything she had ever lost, and she was willing to do anything in order to tell people about it.

It was kind of like when I picked up the phone in a small sense. I was willing to knock over anyone in my way to get to my truck and to get to the hospital so that I could meet my baby. When this woman found out who Jesus was, there was nothing stopping her from running back to that town and telling everyone that she met who Jesus is.

Now I ask because I don't see the same zeal in me, and I often don't see the same kind of zeal in the church. Why is it that this woman on the first day of her encounter with Christ is so zealous to tell everyone that she knows about Jesus?

What happens in our life that it wears off? What happens in our life that we settle in and that we stop being excited? We stop waking up with joy. We stop going and telling every single person that we know about Jesus.

I'll tell you a story. The day I fell off the house last year and landed on the softest concrete you can ever imagine, I got up with a pep in my step. It was all adrenaline. I sat down pretty much right after that.

But when I got to the hospital, I was telling everybody. I was like, God rescued me today. I was so excited because that's out of the ordinary. Why is it that my ordinary doesn't look like that? Why am I not excited today to leave from here and to just meet someone and say, you know, my God saved me, rescued me from hell, and you can know him too.

His name is Jesus. Let me tell you about him. What happens in life that causes us to stay quiet and to stop talking? I think it's because we get used to it. We get into the ebb and flow of the normalcy of it, and we forget just how radical the message of the gospel is.

We were dead. Not a little dead. Not mostly dead. Miracle Max couldn't bring us back. We were all dead. That's a Princess Bride reference. When this woman came to grips with who Jesus was, she ran. She sprinted back to the city that hated her.

And that's my prayer for us. That's my prayer for me. That's my prayer for you, that we would have that sort of thrilling, joyful posture towards Jesus and that we would never be afraid to share. We live in a world that's full of dead people that need to hear about life in Christ.

You can throw a dart on the map of New England, and there's someone there who's lost. Millions of people here who are lost. I want that for us. Now, in all of that, we see that the woman got it. She came to him confused.

He spoke to her. She understood. Now we're going to see how this happens to the disciples. Because the exact same pattern happens to them. And the first thing that we see about their confusion is they were confused about the scope of what ministry is.

Today we're going to be talking about ministry and mission. This is what Jesus is talking about. And they're confused about a couple different points. Number one, it's the scope of his ministry, the scope of his mission.

Like all Jewish men, they were thoroughly confused to see Jesus talking to a Samaritan. Why wouldn't they be? That never happened, especially a Samaritan woman. It says in verse 27, 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?

In their mind, this is what they were looking for. They were looking for a Messiah who was going to come on mission to Israel, not to the world. They were looking for a Messiah that was going to usher in the kingdom of God for Israel, who was going to cleanse their temple and it was going to cleanse their toxic leadership structures and who was going to purify their religion and who was going to overthrow the yoke of slavery from Rome so that God would bless Israel again.

And so that they were expecting that the Messiah was going to lead them into battle. So when they looked at Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman, that didn't fit their paradigm. They were thinking, let's get back to Galilee.

Let's figure out how to start this thing that you're talking about called the kingdom of God. They had no idea that it was going to start with a woman, a Samaritan. They were looking for Jesus to lead them into battle so that he could sit on the throne of his father, David.

That's what they were looking for. They were looking for a political kingdom so that they could have peace in their nation and so that they could have a kingdom of righteousness where Israel's glory was restored.

The only problem with that is that they hadn't read their Bible and they hadn't noticed what the prophets had said. Israel was never supposed to be the one who got the glory. It was always supposed to be God.

God did not choose Israel to make them glorious to the nations. He chose Israel so that they would make God glorious to the nations. He didn't choose them so that they would get the honor and the praise.

He chose them so that their temple would magnify the honor and the praise of God, that would showcase the awesome glory of God. He chose them to be a spectacle to the world, and now that they had missed it for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, Messiah has come, not to reinvigorate the Jewish religion, but to start a brand new covenant.

A covenant where the kingdom would no longer be Israel, it would be a worldwide kingdom filled with everyone, from Samaritan women to Gentile men. His mission was not to cleanse the temple and purify their religion, it was to bring an entirely new covenant.

Not to overthrow Roman tyranny, but to overthrow sin, a much greater tyrant. And not to overthrow Caesar, but to overthrow Satan himself. You see, the Israelites' plan of salvation was way too small when Jesus was coming to kill sin, death, and Satan himself.

The disciples were not going to fully get this right away. It would take years for them to get it. Honestly, in Acts 10, when Peter still hasn't fully got it, you wonder, like Peter, when are you going to get it?

But if we were there, we wouldn't have gotten it either. But what Jesus is going to do is he's going to start with their confusion, he's going to bring them to a place of understanding so that these men would be transformed into some of the boldest, lion-hearted evangelists that have ever lived.

Peter would be crucified upside down because he got it, and he went to every town he could think of, telling every person he could think of, and they hated him for it and they killed him for it. Paul was beheaded in 68 AD because he did the same thing.

All of the apostles, except for a few of them, were murdered for their faith. Why? Because they got it. They understood that their faith was not about their comfort, it was about what Christ had called them to do, and that was to make his name known among the nations.

This is what they understood. But at this point, they don't. That's the first thing. They didn't understand the scope of Jesus' mission was going to be to the whole world. They thought it was just Israel.

The second thing they didn't understand about his mission was the degree of his ministry. They didn't understand that his ministry encompassed every area of their life. It wasn't just the spiritual things that they got to do, like the baptisms that they got to do in John chapter 3 with Jesus.

I bet that was fun. They were hanging out with Jesus. They were doing ministry. But they're missing the fact that this rest stop at this well is also ministry. They're thinking the sacred stuff is ministry, but not the secular stuff.

They're thinking, like we do today, I'm going to go to church so that I can participate in ministry. But when I go to my job, I don't think about my job as ministry. That's what they were doing. Every moment when you are saved by Jesus Christ is sacred.

Every second of your existence is holy. Everything that you do in life can be a moment where you can see redemption happen. Because look where Jesus found you. Look where Jesus came to find you. Not all of us were saved in churches.

Jesus did not just plan to do ministry in a temple or in a synagogue or in a church somewhere. Jesus was going to bring the ministry to the highways and the byways and to the valleys. He was going to go where sinners were.

And I think he expects, as we go through our life, that we will go where sinners are. We will bring the message of the gospel where they are. Remember, I told you last week or two weeks ago that the Old Testament was all about come and see.

The New Testament is all about go and tell. That's what Jesus is preparing these men for. But they had no idea that all of their life, like all of it, was ministry. They're like, we've got this compartment of our life that's ministry, and we've got this compartment of our life that's fishing, and we've got this compartment of our life that's something else, family, whatever.

They didn't realize that when you come to know Jesus Christ, he invades all of your categories. There's now nothing that Jesus Christ doesn't look at in your life and say, mine. Our entertainment, our families, our relationships, our jobs, the way that we do with money, all of these things are in the lordship in the hands of Jesus Christ.

He has all of us. They didn't understand that. Jesus went to places that no one else would go to save people that no one else wanted to save. Praise God for that. I love the fact that they're doing the exact same things we would have done.

Jesus is hungry. Let's go get him some food. We love Jesus. That's very practical. They come back, and Jesus starts talking about, well, I have food that you don't know about. And they're like, what? Did somebody give him some food?

Like, you see where their mind's at. And Jesus knows this. They're not abnormal for thinking this way. We would have thought this way too, but Jesus is using this moment to show them that every part of their life really is a part of the ministry of God.

They need to open their eyes and see that this Samaritan woman is just a part of the mission as Galilee. And it was right in front of their very eyes. If it were a lion, it would have pounced on them.

If it were a bomb, it would have blown up right in front of them. But we do the same things today. We look past the ordinary moments of our life, and we start looking for extraordinary moments to do things to praise God.

I remember when I was a kid, I used to tell my mom, I want to do big things for God. And I remember I thought that way probably until I was like 20 years old when a pastor told me, you know, God also accepts the little things too.

You don't have to go and preach a sermon in front of 10 ,000 people to serve God. Why don't you go serve God today at your job? I remember when he told me, Kendall, the way you sweep the floor at the jail is just as much a ministry as I get to do from the pulpit on Sunday.

And that broke me because I hated sweeping the floor at the jail. And I didn't want to like it, almost as bad as shopping. I remember in that moment, he said, whatever you do, whether you eat or whether you drink, do it all to the glory of God.

He was saying to me, and the Bible was saying to us, that everything we do can be an act of worship to the Lord. Everything we do can be a part of the ministry of mission. I would go as far as to say that if we saw mission the way that Jesus saw mission, that we would never in our entire life live a single unintentional moment.

Let that phrase sit in. There would never be a moment that slips by that we say, huh, I missed it. If we saw mission the way that Jesus saw it. That's the second thing they were confused about is the degree.

The third thing that they were confused about is the priority of mission. And this sounds a little bit like degree, so I want to differentiate those two. When you say that it's limited in scope, I'm saying that they thought it was Israel when it was the whole world.

When I'm saying that it was limited in degree, they thought that it was sometimes in their life, but not all of their life. When I'm saying that it was limited in priority, I think they were thinking that because Jesus is exhausted and his mood did not match mission or what they thought of it, then he wasn't going to do any ministry that day.

How often do we do that? When we make serving God about our emotions, or we make serving God about our circumstances or about our comforts. In this moment, Jesus is exhausted and they're not expecting him to get up and serve.

They're expecting him to sit down and eat, but Jesus saw the value of this interaction with this woman so that this is convicting for me. This week I had a kind of a chummy week, I guess, a bad week. My emotions were all over the place.

I was praying last night, Lord, help me as I come into church today to have joy. Because it's not about my comfort, it's not about my emotions, it's about what God has called us to do. And when we're in the throes of despair, when we're in frustration, when we're in anxiety, when we're in all of these things, it's not an opportunity for us to sit in the lies of Satan and say, okay, just, I'm going to accept the bad mood, I'll go do something later.

That is the exact moment when we need to stand up and serve the Lord, because I believe that those are the moments that Christ is willing to redeem inside of us. There's moments like, especially when we were in seminary, I didn't want to go to small group because I had a paper I had to write.

And the small group leader that we had at the time, it wasn't my favorite, I'll just be honest. But the Lord convicted me, and for a single semester, I had missed a couple of times because I had a paper, or because I was tired, or because I had a headache, or because whatever.

The Lord convicted me to make a commitment to that group, to serve that leader no matter what, to help him, even if I didn't feel like it. And I'll tell you this, every single time that I went to sleep, I always found a way to catch up.

I always actually was more efficient. The Lord was gracious to me to allow me to get my papers done, even though I went to this group. I think if we make a priority for the Lord, even when we don't feel like it, I believe that the Lord will bless it.

I believe that the Lord will cover us and will help us. All the anxieties that we have are just lies from the enemy that are trying to get you to say no to God. When God is ultimate, even if we're exhausted, we can serve him.

Even if we're tired, even if we're like Jesus and we want to stop and rest, we can serve the Lord. We can see God do amazing things. Jesus knew that the mission was more important than his comfort. These disciples were still living in their confusion, they were confused about the scope, they were confused about the degree, and they were confused about the priority of mission.

So now we've learned the three things they're confused about. Now, Jesus is going to meet their confusion with answers, and he's going to teach them a couple of different things. Number one, he's going to teach them what is the actual purpose of mission.

We've learned their confusions, now he's going to teach us the purpose, and we're going to do that from verse 31 through 34. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you don't know about.

So the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything to eat, did he? But Jesus said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Very simply, what Jesus is saying here, while these disciples are still focused on food, is that the mission of God is to do the work of God.

It seems like Jesus is being a little bit enigmatic here, or being a little bit coy, but he is using this opportunity to teach them what God has called them to do, and it's the will of our Father in heaven.

While doing God's will is not going to be physical food for Jesus, he is teaching them that ministry and mission is a sort of spiritual food that will never leave you hungry. He's saying that it is better to be physically hungry and obedient to God than to be disobedient and full.

Jesus is saying it's better to be hungry and obedient to God than disobedient and full. He's saying that the purpose of his mission, that Jesus came to be obedient to God, Jesus came to announce the kingdom of God, Jesus came to gather ambassadors who would go out on mission for God, and once they understood what the kingdom of God was about, which is to do the will of God, then they would turn this entire world upside down.

The first century of Jesus' church turned the world upside down. That's what I want to see Jesus' church do today, understanding that the mission of God is to do the will of God, and the will of God is for you and I to be gospel knights to a world that does not know Christ.

And I believe that we can still set this world on fire, and I believe that we can still turn this world upside down if we will just get it into our minds that to do the will of God is to do what God has said, and that is to share the message of the gospel with everyone.

This woman got it, and she ran off to do that very thing. Now what I find fascinating here is that at this moment, she's probably in her town telling the people. She's ran. Jackie Joyner-Kersee-style.

It's a woman runner, that's all I know. And she's been telling them every single thing that Jesus has just done, and the people are so curious about it that they're now coming back. So Jesus has just a few moments to teach his disciples what it is that he's been doing because they're coming.

This is the mission that Jesus has been preparing them for, which is higher and better than going to Galilee, which is more pressing and more necessary than getting back to their homes and seeing their friends.

This is more important to them than food and water. Do you see the last two weeks, these passages have been talking about the most ordinary things. Jesus is living water, and he's pure food because at the very bottom of our lives, we have to have food and water and oxygen.

Jesus is saying that I'm even more important than that. He reaches down to the most ordinary, everyday examples to show us that he is sovereign and he is holy and he is more important than even those things, that all of our lives should be in submission to God.

That's the first thing. Jesus teaches them about the purpose of his mission, and the purpose of his mission was to do God's will in sharing the gospel with others. The second thing that he teaches them is the immediacy of his mission.

It's immediate. We learn that in verses 35 and 36. Do not say, or do you not say that there are 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 gathering fruit for eternal life, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. Now, Jesus is using a common farming metaphor here. You plant the seed, and four months later it grows.

Jesus is saying, it is already time for the harvest right now. What Jesus has been saying is that the kingdom of God is coming and it's now here. He is saying, look guys, it's happening now. The harvest is now.

When the wheat was blossoming, I think it's barley actually that turns white. When the barley harvest was ready to be reaped is when it was fully white. This is the moment that Jesus is saying. He's saying that just as the farmer plants the seeds, the harvest is coming now.