True Food | Sermon 01/15/2023

Apologia Utah

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

If you would, please turn with me and your Bibles to the Gospel according to John, chapter 4.

00:11

We're going to be in verses 27 through 42, Gospel according to John.

00:22

The title of this sermon today, church, is True Food. True Food, starting in verse 27 of the

00:36

Gospel according to John, chapter 4. Hear now the inerrant and infallible word of the living and true

00:41

God. At this point, his disciples came and they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman.

00:49

Yet, no one said, what do you seek or why do you speak with her? So the woman left her water pot and went to the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all the things that I have done.

01:03

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,

01:11

Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that which you do not know about.

01:18

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.

01:32

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.

01:39

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.

01:52

For in this case, the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that which for you have not labored, others have labored and you have entered into their labor.

02:05

From that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified.

02:11

He told me all the things that I have done. So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them.

02:19

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.

02:29

For we have heard for ourselves and know that this one indeed is indeed the savior of the world.

02:38

Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray quickly. Lord, please illuminate the scriptures to your people today, dear

02:46

God, by your Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that gave us these words.

02:53

Lord God, please help us to be focused on your word. We know it is the words of life.

02:58

It is living. It is sharper than a two -edged sword. So Lord, would you use your word today to teach us, guide us, and edify us and encourage us?

03:09

Lord, I ask that you would speak through me. Help me to be faithful to the text, faithful to your word.

03:16

Let none of my thoughts and words, Lord, remain. Let them fall away and let what you want your people to know remain.

03:27

God, please be with us. I pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well church, with it having been several weeks since we were in the gospel according to John, it might be prudent for us to kind of do a recap of all that has happened in the text from the beginning of chapter 4 until now.

03:48

I think that would be important. This is a very long account, honestly. The whole woman at the well encounter runs from chapter 4, verse 1, all the way to verse 42.

04:01

Okay? So it's a pretty long account, pretty long dialogue. And that also means, though, today we will be done with the woman at the well.

04:11

We're ending on verse 42. But if you remember, Jesus left the area from which he and the disciples were baptizing from chapter 3 and beginning in chapter 4, and desiring to go to Galilee, Jesus had to pass through Samaria.

04:30

Now if you remember, I had spoke about the fact that many Jews choose the long way, the eastern route, beyond the

04:38

Jordan, to go north. Then they head back over west to get to Galilee because they didn't want to go through Samaria.

04:49

They wanted to avoid these half -breed, intermarried enemies of theirs.

04:57

But God's providence ushered him and the disciples there.

05:04

In fact, it was providence that determined the exact time at which Jesus was at the well.

05:12

And that he would be alone, waiting there for the disciples as they went to the city to purchase supplies and food.

05:21

Providence is a theological word that means God controls everything.

05:29

You say, well, Pastor Wade, I already believe that. I believe God controls everything.

05:36

But with providence, it's at every single detail, every contingency, every single circumstance, and decisions and events and people of all time, to every minute of timing, everything moves to the desired points of the will of God.

05:55

That's what the Bible shows. That's his providence. Our faculties are free.

06:01

I'm doing this. I'm under no compulsion. And yet, we are here at this moment in God's providence.

06:08

Those who are not here today, it's God's providence. That is the underlying factor of this interaction at the well, providence.

06:19

Now a woman of Samaria we know came out to draw water from Jacob's well. And we ascertained that she came out at noon and without any other women due to her own sin and shame.

06:33

She came out alone. And it is this kind of undeserving and considered unclean woman who

06:42

Jesus actually asks for a drink of water from. He's a

06:48

Jew. You don't do that. You don't let Samaritans touch things you're going to eat or drink from.

06:55

That's what they would say. There is when he offers her something better than what she is drawing out.

07:04

He offers her living water. He offers her eternal life and it will be, he says, like a well springing up.

07:15

It'll be abundant, giving that image that it will never run dry, it'll freely flow.

07:22

And he establishes that he is even better than the patriarch Jacob. He's better than the one who dug this well.

07:29

He's better than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus' well of living water is better than this regular water.

07:42

And upon giving her the good news and she responding with desire for this eternal life, he shows her the obstacle.

07:51

So he's established, I want to offer you living water. And she says, OK, I'd like to drink from a well where it never runs dry.

08:00

And he brings up the obstacle and that's her sin. She has had this messy and ugly life, five husbands.

08:09

And the one she has now is either another woman's husband, which means she would be committing adultery, or he's no one's husband.

08:19

And therefore, she's living in what's called fornication. And it's at this exact moment that Jesus then discloses this supernatural knowledge of her situation and she perceives him to be a prophet.

08:38

Remember, once again, the Samaritans didn't believe in the rest of the Hebrew scriptures.

08:44

They believed that the Pentateuch, that is the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, they believe that only those five books were inspired by God.

08:55

They didn't believe in the kings or the prophets or the chronicles or the Psalms. They held only to the first five books of the

09:02

Bible. That's the Samaritans. So, she at least should remember, though, in Deuteronomy 18, it says a promise of Moses.

09:16

He says that there will be one who will come, who will do signs and wonders.

09:22

He'll be like Moses. He'll give the word of God. He will be the prophet. That one was promised.

09:30

And she hadn't realized at that moment that he was the prophet that was promised by Moses in Deuteronomy.

09:38

And yet she recognizes the spiritual authority of this Jewish rabbi and asks him about the biggest point of contention between Jews and Samaritans.

09:51

Remember the two temples. The Jews established the temple in Jerusalem at the instruction and blessing of the

09:59

Lord. And the Jews then understood that that was where God's glory dwelt.

10:07

And yet the Samaritans constructed a temple on Mount Gerizim in the north.

10:14

And that's the place where the covenantal blessings were shouted from Mount Gerizim.

10:20

And then on the other side of the valley, on Mount Ebal, the covenantal curses, if they disobeyed

10:27

God, were shouted from there. And that's where the Samaritans constructed their temple. But they would later syncretize their worship.

10:37

They wouldn't just simply worship the Lord there, Yahweh. They would worship him, they said.

10:43

Then they would add all the Baal worship and all that sort of stuff. They syncretized worship there.

10:53

But Jesus declares to her that an hour is coming where he will be the temple.

10:59

We saw that in John 2. He will be the sacrifice. He will be the high priest. And he is

11:05

God on earth. And worship of God will be done in spirit and in truth.

11:14

He will be the high priest. He doesn't need the priesthood anymore.

11:19

He will be the temple. No more physical temples are needed. He will be the sacrifice.

11:27

There's no need to raise lambs anymore. That's offensive to God. We don't need to offer animals.

11:32

Christ was the once for all sacrifice. That's the promise. And so the scope of salvation then in chapter 4 has changed from one small nation,

11:45

Israel, to all the nations of the world will experience salvation.

11:53

And then it will change even in the worship of God from one temple in a city called

11:59

Jerusalem. And the worship of God will now occur by those who worship in spirit and truth.

12:05

And you can be anywhere. You can be anywhere. You don't need to be in Israel to worship God. So it's unheard of.

12:13

This is revolutionary in this sense. The living waters are now floodgates opening wide the salvation of our

12:22

God to the whole earth. The Samaritan woman then speaks confidently that the

12:29

Messiah will declare such things. And if you remember verse 26, the verse right before the one that we're starting today is where Jesus declares that he is the

12:42

I am. Ego me. The Christ I am.

12:47

The restorer she's been looking for is right in front of her. She need not look any further.

12:55

And all that Jesus says hits her like a freight train. And as she stands there beaming up at Christ, probably speechless, looking at the man who was once to her a weary traveler, now the prophet, now the restorer, now the

13:15

Messiah. The disciples walk up. They walk up at the end of this conversation.

13:23

This is where we're at. Verse 27. This point, his disciples came and they were amazed that he'd been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, what do you seek or why do you speak with her?

13:37

So that word amazed is also astonished or they marveled.

13:44

And they marveled for two reasons. First, because of all the things

13:51

I taught you about the Samaritans, that you don't speak as a Jew with Samaritans, you avoid dealings with them as much as possible.

14:00

There's this nationwide hatred for these people. And then the second reason why they marveled is because of what the text says, that he had been speaking with a woman.

14:13

They were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman. Now, you see, there was nothing in the

14:19

Mosaic law that prohibited a man from conversing with a woman. But rabbinic traditions and customs would soon place boundaries up that weren't there before.

14:32

They would make laws that would elevate inequality. For instance, the temple that Solomon built, right, the first temple, that had no special designated court for women.

14:47

It's not in the Bible. We don't see that. But the temple of Jesus's day did have a court for women only.

14:55

And those women couldn't go to other parts of the temple. They were designated to that court.

15:04

In fact, some Jews believe that rabbis should not dare even talk to a woman. Some said not even their own wives, specifically in regards to spiritual matters.

15:16

Don't speak to your wife about spiritual things. In Jewish oral tradition, a law was actually made for it.

15:23

Pirkei Aboth 1 .5. This is Jewish rabbinic tradition. It says, "...engaged

15:30

not in too much conversation with women." They said this with regard to one's own wife even.

15:37

How much more does the rule apply with regards to another man's wife? From here, the sages said, as long as a man engages in too much conversation with women, he causes evil to himself.

15:49

He neglects the study then of the Torah. And in the end, this kind of man will inherit

15:55

Gehennam. That's radical. Some would be able to then argue, looking at Jesus, that what he is doing inherits

16:07

Gehenna, which is hell. This is how much they've been blinded to their legalistic rulemaking.

16:15

In fact, some Jewish teaching authorities believe to teach even their daughters the

16:21

Torah. If some men teach their daughters the Torah, it's literally written down that it was like teaching them how to sell themselves into prostitution.

16:33

You're telling me that a man can't teach his wife and his daughters about the Word of God?

16:39

How far have they gone? This is unreal. Jesus, though we know, let

16:45

Mary sit at his feet and she sat and listened to his teaching. In fact, many women got to hear

16:54

Jesus' teaching. Jesus demonstrates no partiality. It is in Christianity that women are treated righteously.

17:03

We're in a pagan world of the occult and paganism where women were ravaged and treated terribly.

17:12

Christianity shows them as equals with men.

17:19

Treated as God, as intended, and not as inferior. Of course, a different sex and a different role.

17:26

No doubt there's different roles in the Bible. We acknowledge that. We see that. But just like men made in the image and likeness of their

17:37

God. So as much as the dividing wall we learn of Jews and Gentiles was broken down in the temple, in the same way the wall that divided the women, the court in the temple was broken down as well in Christ.

17:59

John narrates that the disciples didn't question either the woman nor Jesus. Some translations pit both of these questions to Jesus.

18:10

So they would capitalize that you, what do you seek? I don't see that. I think the disciples have come up and they didn't ask this.

18:21

That's what it says. They didn't question them. But in their minds, they were thinking about asking the woman, what do you seek?

18:27

What are you doing here? Then they thought to turn to Jesus and say, why do you speak to her?

18:33

Why do you speak with her? But they didn't. They didn't ask these questions.

18:39

They restrained themselves. Now, some argue it's because they trust their rabbi.

18:46

They trust Jesus. He's their Lord and their Savior. And if he is doing something, it must be for a specific reason.

18:54

But it's also likely that they considered getting their master food and water was more urgent of a matter at this time, which we will see shortly.

19:06

By the way, this word seek is zeteo in the Greek, in this question that they would have asked her.

19:14

And it is the same word in verse 23, in which God is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and truth.

19:23

God is seeking. The woman didn't know what she was seeking. However, God in this moment was seeking her.

19:33

He was seeking her. Let's go on to verses 28 through 30. Verse 28 says,

19:41

So the woman left her water pot and went into the city. This woman states when the

19:48

Messiah comes, he will declare to us all things. Jesus reveals his true identity. He is the

19:53

I am. He is the Messiah. And the disciples walk out and she doesn't even think to say anything more, but immediately leave her water pot and alert the men of the city.

20:07

She left it. She abandoned it. The very thing that she came to do, fill her water pot.

20:13

She left it. This is another lesson of providence. She thought she was going to draw water today.

20:22

God had totally different plans for her. How often does that happen to us?

20:30

You're just going about things on a regular day. You go to the grocery store. Maybe you go to the grocery store.

20:37

You're going to run in. You're going to run out. But then somehow God puts someone in your path that you obviously need to minister to.

20:44

And it happens. And you happen to be there for an hour. And you come home and your spouse is like, what were you doing?

20:53

Probably accuse you of getting in and out on the way home. And then you're going to boil hot dogs for them. And they're bummed.

21:00

Yeah, you do that sometimes. Or we have other moments where your family has planned to do

21:09

X, Y and Z. But today God wanted to slow you down, cause you to stay home and be together.

21:17

So he allowed a stuffy nose to go throughout your children. So you're home. And you had all these plans.

21:23

But somehow you got to stay together. And it's probably for a good reason. This woman either left her water pot because it was too heavy.

21:32

And she needed to run to the city with much haste. Maybe she left it as a kind gesture for Jesus to use.

21:40

He was still thirsty. She had still not given him water. The conversation changed. Maybe he left her the, she left the water pot for him to use.

21:49

But what is significant about her abandoning this water pot is what it symbolizes.

21:56

She abandons the water that never really quenched her thirst. And eagerly then drinks living waters that Jesus Christ offers.

22:05

That's what this shows. She's abandoned that water and she's taking in living water.

22:16

She's compelled to share it with those in her city now. She's tasted what

22:22

Christ has offered. And she knows she needs to give it. Think about it.

22:27

She's doing what all followers of Jesus ought to do. We are to spend much time in listening to Jesus.

22:35

We are to hear His words. Read His words. Enjoy His teaching. And then we are to go.

22:41

That's what she does. We act. We wash ourselves in His Word.

22:46

Then in haste we share the message with others. Because right now people are dying from spiritual dehydration.

22:58

They need the living water that Christ offers. So she goes into the city and she comes to the men.

23:06

She says, come see. Come and see a man who told me all the things that I have done.

23:12

This is not the Christ, is it? She's like the messengers of old. A message would be handed to a guy.

23:21

He'd tighten his sandals and he'd run across the desert to go give a message. You must come.

23:31

You must hear this. The news of the king has arrived. We talked about how this woman came alone at noon to draw the water.

23:45

Women always come to draw water together. And in the morning or in the cool of the coming evening.

23:51

But she avoided the townspeople. We suppose she avoided the townspeople because of her shame.

24:01

Because of her sin. Her multiple failed marriages. She didn't want anyone to see her. But now that doesn't matter anymore.

24:11

It doesn't matter who she was anymore. Christ has come. That's the same for you.

24:18

It doesn't matter who you were. It doesn't matter what you did. It doesn't matter where you came from.

24:27

If Christ has saved you, what matters now is moving forward. And that's what she's done.

24:35

She's eager to share the news of Christ by the well. This is no longer,

24:40

I perceive that you are a prophet. She is supposing him then to be the prophet.

24:48

She said, he told me all the things that I've ever done. He told me everything. Is she exaggerating?

24:57

Did he speak more to her that's just not recorded here? Did he really list off everything she's ever done? Maybe she's just excited and wants them to understand the supernatural nature of this man that she believes is the

25:11

Christ. You've got to come. You've got to come hear this man. He's told me everything I've ever done.

25:19

I think her hyperbolic statement actually shows how central her tumultuous and sinful life was in her mind.

25:28

Her encounter with Jesus was deep and personal because Jesus touched on the very thing that haunts her.

25:37

He told me everything I've ever done. That's how much her sin was in her mind. She couldn't deal with it.

25:44

She couldn't get rid of it. It feels like he told her everything.

25:53

She can be free of that sin and shame. That ugliness can become beauty.

26:00

If you think about it, this is the greatest fulfillment of the blessings that were proclaimed thousands of years prior on Mount Gerizim.

26:08

They announced the covenantal blessings if you obey God. But now here,

26:15

Jesus announces the living waters and it's not going to be based off of your perfect obedience to the law.

26:21

It's going to be based off of Jesus's perfect obedience to the law. It's the most wonderful announcement.

26:32

In Christ, we receive the greatest and infinitely lasting covenantal blessing, eternal life. So this woman is no theologian.

26:40

She's no scholar. She's definitely no apologist. She's simply a witness.

26:46

And sometimes we think that we have to know every single thing in the

26:53

Bible to be able to share this news. It keeps you from running to others, though, that sort of mentality.

27:03

It keeps you from running to others to talk about this God -man, that Christ has come. It doesn't matter.

27:11

So you don't know a lot yet. Just don't try to act like you know more than you do.

27:17

Don't try to answer questions that you really don't know the answer to. Tell them, look, I don't know that.

27:23

All I know is Christ is real. And he's come to save sinners and you can be saved.

27:31

Place your faith in him. Well, what about this? What about that? What about evolution and all that?

27:37

Look, I don't know about all that. But Jesus Christ is real and he's coming again to judge the living and the dead.

27:44

And we need to be ready. But what about, like I told you,

27:49

I don't know. But I know this is God's word. I know we can trust it.

27:55

You can, too. Put your faith in him. That's all you got to say. That's what she did.

28:02

She told them, look, this might be the Christ. Come see this man who told me everything

28:09

I ever did. She puts her question kind of in a negative way in the

28:15

Greek. This is not the Christ, is it? This statement, the way she said it is not to necessarily show her disbelief or hesitation about Jesus.

28:26

It's that could this Jewish Messiah be a Samaritan Messiah?

28:36

Could this Jewish Messiah also be our savior? This is unreal.

28:42

This Jewish rabbi is offering me eternal life. Could it really be that this is for us also?

28:49

So they set out immediately to speak to him. Apparently, she raised enough suspicion and curiosity out of the people.

28:57

And I'm assuming it wasn't necessarily the credibility of her witness, but it was the object of her witness.

29:05

She's saying that the Christ is out by the well. And these guys are like, OK, we've got to check this out. So let's go to the verses 31 through 34.

29:16

We step out of the main narration. We leave the interaction with the woman at the well.

29:24

And it goes to the disciples and Jesus as they await the return of the people.

29:32

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. And he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.

29:39

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.

29:52

So the disciples had just finished getting supplies from the city, right?

29:58

They got food and they came out. Jesus decided, which we know is

30:05

God's providence, to stay by the well. And he waited. Jesus was thirsty and weary from his travel.

30:12

No doubt he was also hungry. And yet all that is happening here is not as what it truly seems to be.

30:22

You see, the weariness, the thirst, the hunger, that's not

30:28

Jesus's. That's them. Those are things characteristic of the woman at the well and the men coming their way.

30:39

They need rest from their inability to perform the law. They need living waters to quench the eternal thirst.

30:48

They need real food. They need the bread of life, Jesus Christ, to sustain them.

30:56

You see, Jesus is the creator. He made all the food and water there is. In this moment, though, he is being sustained by something else.

31:07

And as usual, the disciples don't understand Jesus's statements. I don't think we would either.

31:16

Has he eaten? Did he have a protein bar under that cloak? How is he not hungry?

31:24

These misunderstandings are typical in the Gospels. Just as the Samaritan woman believed

31:30

Jesus was speaking about literal water and responded that he has nothing to draw from, so do the disciples also think that someone else must have brought him food.

31:44

My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. That is the true food.

31:52

That's the true food. Jesus is echoing even Moses's statement in Deuteronomy 8 .3.

32:02

Moses says to the people, He humbled you and let you be hungry, and he fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

32:20

All that proceeded out of the father's mouth for Jesus to do, he will do. Jesus came to do the will of his father and nothing less.

32:33

This is his highest priority. What feeds me, he says, is to do the will of the father.

32:40

That is in the Greek, the will, the wishes, the wants, the desires of God.

32:49

What Jesus feeds on is saving people, people he loves.

32:57

What feeds Jesus is going to the cross. He is sustained by fulfilling his mission.

33:08

This isn't even like Jesus miraculously made water flow from a rock or manna to fall down from heaven.

33:15

This is a divinely spiritual food. The prologue showed us behind the veil of the divine eternality of Jesus, who is the logos.

33:26

We are reminded of the logos finding sustenance in those heavenly things.

33:33

Jesus will then sacrifice the embedded natural callings of the human body to do his mission.

33:44

He'll give up even his body later. He will give up his lunch now.

33:49

If he's going to give his body later, he's fine with giving up his lunch now. Ultimately, Jesus shows us following the will and desires and commands of our

34:00

God in heaven is more important than even our most basic carnal instincts.

34:08

Think about even our most strongest instinct. What is the most strongest instinct in a human that God has put in us?

34:16

It is to save our own lives, to survive, to live.

34:25

And there will be moments in history, we've seen it, where Christians will weigh on the scales desiring

34:35

Christ or giving up their life. Right? There will be moments where the sword is above the head of a

34:44

Christian and they'll say, denounce this Christ that you follow.

34:50

Stop following this Jesus and follow this Caesar, this king, whoever, or we're going to kill you right now.

35:00

And even Christians will deny the most basic natural instinct to preserve their life.

35:06

And they'll go, I'll do the will of my father in heaven. I'll follow

35:12

Jesus instead of Jesus. Trying to save my own life. It goes against the basics of what we know and see to be true.

35:24

And yet there is something transcendent and true beyond those things. The disciples thought they, this whole time, were the ones getting food and getting fed.

35:37

But they weren't. This example of Jesus shows us how even in times of intense prayer, we can get hungry but we don't stop because that's what truly fulfills us.

35:51

You can even do a spiritual fasting. Jesus says when you fast, He assumes it.

35:57

You deprive yourself of food, physical food, and you seek God. And He will even often remove those feelings of hunger and give you spiritual food.

36:10

Your physical appetite can go away in times of unbounded glorious joy that God gives you when you satisfy the spiritual appetite.

36:23

You know, when you obey God, it feeds you. When you read God's Word, it feeds you.

36:31

When you pray to God, it feeds you. When you go and you share the gospel with someone, even when they reject the gospel, there's a sense in which that feeds you.

36:45

Coming here to church on the Lord's Day, you're offering yourself.

36:51

You're offering praise to God. It's coming out of your mouth. You're praising God. You're praying. You're directing everything towards God.

36:59

Some of you are worshiping God by giving even some of your paycheck to this church back to God.

37:05

You're serving each other in here. You're praying with one another. You're giving and you're giving and you're giving in this church.

37:12

But the promise is if you come here too, God's going to feed you as well. God will feed you too.

37:21

That's our true food. Just like Jesus, to do the will of our Father in heaven.

37:28

So if you're starving right now spiritually, you know where to get fed and you know where to find it.

37:36

Just remind yourself and feast. Because some of us are walking around starving.

37:46

And if you cut that clip and I just said that, they'd be like, he don't look starving.

37:52

No, I'm just kidding. But we are walking around spiritually starving sometimes.

37:59

And you've gotten used to it. And you keep walking and you keep doing things and you go to work and you come home and you deal with this argument with your spouse and you yell at the kids and you're starving and you're starving.

38:15

And you need to feed yourself with the Word of God, with the will of God. That's what feeds

38:21

Jesus. That's what feeds you. Go to verses 35 through 38. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest?

38:32

Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, look on the fields. They are white for harvest. That would be when the grain heads of the wheat were ready to be pulled.

38:40

You would look upon the field of grain and it would be white. It would be gold and white. He says, 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.

38:56

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.

39:03

Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. So he does not say there are yet four months.

39:12

I'm sorry. He says, do not say that there are four months and then comes the harvest. Some scholars believe that this was some proverbial saying.

39:24

They would have said this all the time. People walk around. Four months, then comes the harvest.

39:30

They would say that about certain things. It's possible. Some scholars look at this very literally and they try to time this conversation with the woman at the well.

39:41

Jesus is saying the harvest is in four months. So that would have meant that they normally sowed seed for wheat at this time during the year.

39:49

So this is the time that Jesus is at the well. I don't think that's it either. If you look up,

39:59

I'm not kidding. If you look up what it takes when you sow wheat grain into the ground for it to germinate, to grow, to bud, to fruit out, to be ready for harvest, to be picked, it takes exactly four months.

40:17

It takes four months. So Jesus is right. However, Jesus is trying to shake them out of that thought process.

40:27

This saying, because they would sow the seed and then they would have four months of waiting.

40:36

But he's saying that's not the case right now. Don't think about that now.

40:42

The thing about the gospel is sowing and harvesting can happen in the same day.

40:48

That's what he's saying. That's the power of God. He's saying, look up.

40:55

I just sowed seed and the harvest is coming. Be ready. In other words, stop waiting around.

41:03

Stop being lazy. Stop going about his business as usual. Get to work.

41:09

Lift up your eyes. Look around you. It's time to collect the wheat. There are people who need the gospel, people who need saving.

41:20

This is a lesson to the disciples and to us, remembering that Christ came to do this and he calls us now to participate in the same thing now that we're saved.

41:34

He says three things there if you look at it. Behold, lift up your eyes and look.

41:43

Behold, lift up your eyes and look. Behold Jesus and his gospel.

41:50

Lift up your eyes from your complacency, whatever's paralyzing you.

41:57

Look at the harvest. It's plentiful. Getting to work will work on you in the most positive way.

42:04

That's true. Sharing with the lost will make you remember that you've been found.

42:11

Jesus is reminding them to have the correct vision about this. Okay. Look around.

42:19

It's time to harvest. Although things may appear to be unseen, we can see correctly through his word there is a harvest out there.

42:30

You can't see it, but there are people literally coming this way. They're arriving now.

42:38

Verse 36, 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.

42:49

Jesus knows supernaturally that the townspeople are coming out to him now so that he's even saying,

42:58

I'm receiving wages already. He sowed seed. The woman went to share and he already knows that they're coming back.

43:07

He says, I'm already receiving wages. He's about to go to market on what he's sown.

43:14

In his statement, he is the sower and right now he is about to reap as well.

43:19

He's doing both. But the disciples will also get to harvest what

43:25

Jesus has planted. A work has been done in these Samaritans and even after Christ ascends, they will need to be there for the harvest.

43:35

He's saying, don't be worried about the food right now. Rejoice with me.

43:40

People are about to be gathered as fruit for eternal life. And that's what it is.

43:48

Reaping in this context literally means gathering men and women for eternal life.

43:55

You're not trying to pull on weeds. You will either come across the ones that God has sown and calls his wheat and you simply gather or if someone is vehemently resistant to the gospel, you move on.

44:11

But if someone keeps receiving the good news, receiving your pleas, obviously labor with them, pour fertilizer on it, pour water on it, continue to wait as long as that person is willing.

44:24

God will show you which. But what Jesus is also doing is pointing to the

44:31

Old Testament Scripture. The sower and the reaper will rejoice together and a new day has come.

44:39

This is actually Jesus pointing to prophecies of the

44:44

Old Testament. Amos 9 .13 Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes will overtake the one who sows seeds.

44:58

Then the mountains will drip with sweet wine and all the hills will be dissolved. This is a prophecy of the

45:06

Messianic age. It's now upon them. An abundance is no longer on the horizon, it's here and now.

45:15

It's so abundant that the harvester can't keep up with the sower and the sower can't sow new seeds fast enough with how quickly it's being harvested.

45:27

Harvested. I had our deacon Dusty read it.

45:32

Psalm 126 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.

45:39

He who goes to and fro weeping carrying his bag of seed shall indeed come again with a shout of joy bringing in the sheaves.

45:49

This is where you get that classic hymn. Some of you know it. Bringing in the sheaves.

45:56

We shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves. Okay. No? That's all right.

46:03

You just got a free song. I'll send you the invoice. Okay. It's a good hymn.

46:11

Now you know why people are like, I don't get this hymn that's about bringing in sheaves of wheat.

46:17

What is significant about this? It's this. It's this and it's this.

46:22

It's this messianic promise. We can now joyfully sower and reaper rejoice with laughter and gladness and bring in the sheaves.

46:36

Bring in those who have been harvested for eternal life. Isaiah 9, 2 through 3.

46:44

Isaiah 9 is typically that famous Christmas passage, but we just need to keep reading. It says, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light.

46:52

Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation.

46:58

You shall increase their gladness. They will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of harvest.

47:06

The gladness of harvest. And the amazing part is, is that Jesus' statement allows for other sowers other than himself.

47:19

In fact, that's his very design. You and I are given the privilege to be able to sow.

47:26

Verse 37, for in this case, the saying is true, one sows and another reaps.

47:34

Some have speculated that Jesus is saying the sower will never see the harvest while the reaper gets to see the reward of the sower.

47:44

Others argue he is demonstrating the equality and the necessity of both the sower and the reaper, that we need both for the harvest.

47:53

It's true. However, the sower works with anticipation for the future.

48:03

And the reaper, the harvester must never forget that the fruit came at the labor of another.

48:11

Both work. Both work though. And the point is, you may plant seed today and you may never see the fruit of your labor.

48:23

That's true. That's true. You may plant and sow seed all your life, but only long after you are gone will then there be fruit.

48:39

Some of you have been doing it for a long time. I know pastors who have been here 30 plus years and it's getting really hard on them.

48:47

But one of them, when I had a meeting with him, with tears in his eyes said, I know

48:53

I've been planting for a long time and I'm just praying that guys like you will come in and you'll get to reap what we've sown.

49:04

We'll do that. We'll both work. We'll both labor. My wife has been reading about Adoniram and Ann Judson.

49:15

Really, really fascinating story. If you want to read a missionary story, learn about the

49:22

Judsons, Adoniram and Ann Judson. Those are some really good stories. The memoirs of Ann Judson are probably some of the best writings out there for the

49:33

Christian to check out, just seeing what they've done. But they labored and suffered and even died in Burma for the gospel.

49:45

There was times where they suffered so greatly, children dying.

49:52

Adoniram was lost at sea for a year or so.

50:00

Months. And so they suffered greatly in all that work. They only saw a handful of people come to faith in Christ in Burma.

50:09

They translated the Bible to Burmese. They worked all that time and then mostly everyone died.

50:19

Did you know that when we were looking, when it was possible, we were going to have to find another building to worship at?

50:26

I asked my good friend, Pastor Matthew Amadi at Crossroads Church, another Reformed Baptist Church.

50:32

I said, do you guys have an afternoon slot? And he smiled. And he said, we don't. I said, oh yeah?

50:39

Who's renting from you guys in the afternoon? He said, a Burmese church was planted here in Sandy, Utah.

50:48

That's simply just fruit. That's fruit of even what the Judsons did so long ago.

50:55

It's amazing. That's what we do. We labor with the long game in mind.

51:02

We labor now by planting baby oak trees so that in 50 to 100 years or even more than that, people will come up to these little oak trees that were small to us and they can't even see the tops of them when they are below them.

51:18

That's what we'll do. That's what we'll do here. He says in verse 38,

51:26

I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.

51:33

You see, the disciples' fruitfulness will only be possible by another. God's got to pave the way.

51:39

God's got to work in the hearts of men and women. And then they will be fruitful.

51:47

You see, John the Baptist sowed seed. Jesus sowed seed. Jesus is even indicating,

51:54

I think, to the Old Testament prophets and patriarchs and men and women of God who sowed seed.

52:00

And they sowed seed for thousands of years. And then finally Christ came. And they looked ahead.

52:06

They looked forward. They didn't get to see the Messiah, but they knew

52:12

He was coming. And so that's what Jesus is saying. You get to join in on their harvest.

52:22

You get to participate in their labor. You didn't labor, but now you're going to labor because of what they've done.

52:30

Christ will gather His wheat little by little. At the very end, there will be no doubt who are wheat and who are not.

52:37

We will labor well, excuse me, if we look to the one who is all at once the sower, the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died, as Jesus said, and rose again and sprang up, resurrected, and also the harvester.

52:56

Jesus will be the one who separates the wheat from the tares at the final day.

53:04

We labor because Christ has already labored for us. The disciples and even us now are part of that will and work of God.

53:14

We get to participate in the true food, the will and work of God. They've been sent.

53:22

You've been sent. I've been sent. He said, you have entered into their labor.

53:31

It should simultaneously thrill us and horrify us that He says, you've now entered into their labor.

53:40

That's a heavy thing. This is the Word of God. This is the Gospel. But ultimately, the harvest is a joyful time.

53:52

They and we get the privilege to come and reap, sow seed. And it's too perfect of a lesson, brothers and sisters.

54:00

While the disciples were looking for food to eat in the city, Jesus was doing this.

54:09

He had His true food. He was preparing for them something else to feast on.

54:16

Instead of taking food from the Samaritans, they'll be called to come back and give it.

54:22

We see that especially in Acts chapter 8. It says that Philip the evangelist, this is after Christ has ascended.

54:31

Philip the evangelist in Acts 8 will come back to Samaria. No doubt the same people that Jesus had been talking to, it says

54:40

Philip will come back and he will announce to them that Christ has ascended.

54:49

He will fulfill what has been sown here. Okay, it's amazing. It literally says, and there was much rejoicing in that city in Acts chapter 8.

55:01

Acts chapter 8 verse 12 says, but when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized men and women alike.

55:12

Men and women were being baptized, sowing and harvesting, sowing and harvesting such is the kingdom of God.

55:23

Let's go to our final verses for today. Verses 39 through 42.

55:30

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've done.

55:42

This isn't ultimately because of her word, but it's because of the word made flesh,

55:48

Jesus Christ. You see, a prophet can be given revelation from God to know some private things about people's lives.

55:59

But Jesus speaks with divine authority and divine knowledge. Something supernatural has occurred here.

56:08

Now, what else do you do when you meet the Messiah, but ask him to stay and tell you more, right?

56:18

Will you stay with us? Will you show us more? Will you do more? Will you tell us more? They're asking him to stay with them.

56:28

Shows that they desire to be his disciples and he their rabbi. This happened even in John one.

56:34

Do you remember that? When the apostles met Jesus, they asked to stay with him for a time and they became his disciples.

56:43

Very much similar thing. But to stay in a

56:48

Samaritan's home or inn was considered a transgression of their customs. Jesus, though, is not breaking the law, but fulfilling it.

56:59

He's hitting at the heart of the law. Remember, Jews weren't simply to be recipients of the

57:06

Abrahamic blessing. They were to be those who shared the Abrahamic blessing.

57:12

They would facilitate the Abrahamic blessing out among the nations, the rest of the world.

57:19

Jesus is showing the heart of that blessed promise. John 1 .11

57:24

through 13, He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.

57:31

You see that? He came to his own. They didn't receive him. But as many as received him, where is he at?

57:38

He's at a place where people have received him. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

57:58

The Samaritans have even overlooked their own prejudice and the projected prejudice of the

58:03

Jews. They've overlooked it. It doesn't matter anymore. They've invited a

58:08

Jewish rabbi to stay with them, and he's even stayed with them. They realize he's not simply a

58:16

Jewish rabbi, though. Amount of people believe because of Jesus' own words.

58:24

Jesus gave essentially an autobiographical statement, I am he. Who knows all he told them?

58:35

The harvest continued. They now believe not by her testimony, but by their own personal encounter with the

58:45

Messiah. So although the gospel is often delivered to us by someone else, we must each have a personal encounter with Christ by way of the

58:56

Holy Spirit. You see, Christianity is all at once deeply communal, but also deeply personal.

59:06

The Samaritans are not reproaching the woman at the well. They're not trying to make her feel bad.

59:12

Well, you told us about him, but now we believe off of his word. That's not what they're doing. They're confirming her testimony of Christ.

59:21

They ascertain her witness to be true. They have seen and heard him with their own eyes and ears.

59:28

And when they say, we know this one is indeed the Savior of the world, it is a realization that not only the

59:35

Jews have a Messiah for just the Jews, or the Samaritans have their

59:41

Tahib, which was their own Redeemer. It's that this Messiah is the

59:47

Messiah of the world. He's the Savior of the world. Every type of person on this earth.

59:56

Jesus is greater than the Samaritans' idea of the Tahib, the

01:00:01

Redeemer. This Jewish Messiah would actually save us too.

01:00:08

This is what they're thinking. Redemption will leave the shores of Israel and borderlines beyond the

01:00:15

Jordan and will span oceans, mountains, seas, and rivers. It will go that far.

01:00:22

Salvation will touch every area of the earth. The Bible puts it this way, from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth, so is the kingdom of the king.

01:00:34

Wherever the king's rule goes, which is over the whole world, so also his salvation goes and vice versa.

01:00:43

It's the whole world. Jesus even declared in Acts 1, verse 8, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and even

01:01:00

Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. What's happening here at the well is only the beginning.

01:01:11

This passage has established the doctrine of the inclusion of the Gentiles in the vastness of the new covenant.

01:01:18

It's not just for these Jewish people anymore. It's for the whole world. He is the savior of the whole world.

01:01:27

So as I wrap this up, church, I can't help but think of Jonah and Nineveh, okay?

01:01:37

God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, which was a Gentile city, and to preach repentance, that if they repented and believed in God, He would forgive them and spare them

01:01:50

His judgment. Jonah, of course, as you know, didn't want to go.

01:01:55

He didn't want to go to Nineveh. He didn't want to do what God told him to do.

01:02:01

This was a Gentile nation. These were people who were outside of the covenant.

01:02:10

It says in chapter 4, verse 2, Jonah says, I knew that if I went, you would do this.

01:02:18

He's speaking to God. I knew that if I went to Nineveh, you would do this. You would forgive them.

01:02:24

And so he didn't go until God rerouted Jonah through a great fish.

01:02:32

He got to Nineveh, and he called the city's inhabitants to repentance.

01:02:38

And what was shocking is they actually did repent, and God did forgive them and withhold

01:02:46

His judgment. Jonah went out and asked

01:02:51

God to kill him. Kill me. Because Gentile conversion and forgiveness was repugnant to him.

01:03:04

But Christ is the better prophet. He is the prophet.

01:03:11

Christ is the better Jonah. Christ goes to Gentile cities and nations and gives compassion and mercy.

01:03:20

He wants them to be saved. Compassion and mercy is all intertwined with God's providence.

01:03:29

Christ goes to the place here in John 4 that is considered the most undeserving of salvation,

01:03:35

Samaria. Samaritans were considered less than human.

01:03:43

But now we see there are Samaritans that drank living waters even before some Jews did.

01:03:49

Unbelievable. And that's what he did for us. The least deserving and the most unworthy, those are the people that God saves.

01:04:01

Some of you have even grown up here as non -Mormons. You've grown up in Utah, and you were treated differently by the

01:04:11

Mormons in this state. Some of you have articulated feeling bad about that because you were wrongfully treated.

01:04:22

Some of you have grown up here in this state of Utah, and you were once a

01:04:29

Mormon, and then you got saved, and you turned to Christ, and your family attacked you, your community attacked you because of it.

01:04:38

Okay? You were ostracized. But the fact is, we don't look on this valley like Jonah and say, destroy it.

01:04:49

We don't look on these people and say, God, destroy them. We don't. We are to look at this valley and look at these people in our community and say,

01:04:59

God, would you save them? Will you save them? That's the true food.

01:05:11

That's Jesus's true food to share the message of living waters and the forgiveness of sins to an undeserving people because that's what was given to us.

01:05:21

And that's the food he gives us to do. So let's eat of it. Let's share it with those of the harvest.

01:05:30

Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, please bless the message that went out today for the glory of your namesake.

01:05:41

God, we are a people truly who don't deserve this salvation. We could be like the

01:05:47

Samaritans, all of us. It's not because we're worthy that makes us worth saving.

01:05:55

It's because you're worthy, and you're gracious, and you're loving. So God, remind us of that.

01:06:05

Help us all here who don't ascribe to this local organization, the

01:06:14

Mormon Church. Help us all who are not a part of it, Lord, to not have the

01:06:19

Jonah complex. Help us, Lord, to be loving towards them. Help us, Lord, to see them as people ripe for harvest.

01:06:29

The fields are white. They're ready to hear that there is a

01:06:36

God who gives grace. They're ready to hear that there is a gospel in which they don't have to labor perfectly to attain it.

01:06:44

There is one who labored perfectly to attain it, and that's Jesus Christ. Lord, let us participate in the harvest.

01:06:53

Let us not be bitter. Let us join in. Thank you, God, for giving us that privilege.

01:06:59

And thank you, God, for the fact that you came to this Samaritan woman and that you caused

01:07:07

John to share this story, that we would see the importance of the inclusion of women and Gentiles in the salvation of Jesus Christ.