The Right Response to the Messiah

Laurel Bible Church

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Chapter 4, verses 27 through 38, is the text before us this morning.

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Please stand with me for the reading of God's Word. John chapter 4, starting in verse 27.

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And at this point, his disciples came and they were marveling that he was speaking with a woman, yet no one said, what do you seek or why are you speaking with her?

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So the woman left her water jar and went into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all the things that I have done.

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Is this not the Christ? They went out of the city and were coming to him.

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Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat.

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But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat?

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Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

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Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white for harvest.

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Even now 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.

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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.

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Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. From that city, many of the

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Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who bore witness. He told me all the things that I have done.

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So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them.

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And he stayed there two days and 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 truly the savior of the world.

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And after the two days, he went from there into Galilee for Jesus himself bore witness that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

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So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast for they themselves also went to the feast.

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You may be seated. The right response to the Messiah. And so we can just start with that question.

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What is the right response to the Messiah? We can maybe even think about it like this, make it a little bit more personal.

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If you knew the greatest secret that would help the most people, would you keep it to yourself or would you tell other people about it?

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Maybe even think about the danger that's involved with not responding correctly to the Messiah.

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If a person was driving down a road with a collapsed bridge, would there be an urgency to warn them?

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I heard an illustration that I thought was almost kind of humorous, but it was thinking about this principle of warning others.

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It was about a guy who applied for a job as an usher at a movie theater in the local mall.

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And as part of the interview process, the manager asked him, what would you do in case a fire breaks out?

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And the young guy answered, don't worry about me, I can get out fine. Didn't quite understand the question.

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But if we're honest, that's exactly how many in today's world respond to a lost and really dying world around them.

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If you ask them, what would you do if Jesus came back tomorrow? They would probably respond, oh, don't worry about me,

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I'd be fine. But what is all too easy for us to forget, especially as Christians, is that you are an usher.

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You are an usher. It isn't enough to just get out yourself. You are responsible for helping others know the way.

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I mean, let's think about this from the lens of the Scripture. Think of the example we have from Scripture about sharing the good news with others.

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Some helpful parables for us recorded in the gospel of Luke, the parables of Christ.

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These parables come directly from our Lord helping His disciples then and future disciples think through this issue.

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He says this, what man among you, if he is 100 sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

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And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost.

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I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents over the over 99 righteous persons who have no need to repent.

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You know, just think about it. You would go everywhere and anywhere you needed to go to save someone you cared about.

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There is a desperation and urgency in the going after the one that is lost.

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Or what woman, if she has 10 drachmas and loses one drachma, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

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You might be thinking, what is a drachma? In your translation, it probably says coin. It's one of the reasons

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I love the legacy standard Bible and the fidelity to the original Greek manuscripts. The lost coin parable in the original

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Greek gives us the precise coin it's the drachma. You think, well, why does that matter?

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It matters. Let me explain it. A Greek silver coin is the drachma.

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It was equivalent of a laborer's daily wage. This matters. One historian made this connection.

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The drachma is an unusual coin of Christ's time. The Roman denarius had long replaced the

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Greek silver coins and was their equivalent. It has been thought that perhaps the coin mentioned only in Luke 15, 8 was a

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Cappadocian drachma bearing Tiberius's image or his bust.

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Since these coins have been found in Palestine and were contemporary with Jesus's story of the woman and her lost coin,

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Jesus's reference seems to be to a bride's dowry portion retained from a wedding.

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Such coins would be passed from mother to daughter and would explain both the presence of a coin, no longer in current circulation, and the woman's desperation.

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Or what woman, if she has 10 drachma and loses one drachma, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

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And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which

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I had lost. In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

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You would look everywhere and you would not stop looking until this important thing was found.

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There is a desperation and urgency in the looking for the thing that is lost.

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Remember the parable of the prodigal son. The son goes out, gets his inheritance early, goes out, squanders his inheritance, finally comes to the realization,

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I need to go back home. How did the father react when his wayward son had returned to him?

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Did he keep it to himself? Was this a private matter? You know, that's one that just baffles me.

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I've heard before, oh, my faith is private. I just keep it private. This is a private thing between me and God.

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Says who? What are you talking about? Just think about the prodigal son. Was this a private exchange?

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Was this something he kept to himself? No, the opposite. The father's immediate response was to tell others about this good thing that had happened.

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But the father said to his slaves, quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him.

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Put a ring on his hand, sandals on his feet, bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, let us eat and celebrate.

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For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found.

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And they began to celebrate. This is celebration. This morning we will see how the

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Samaritan woman at the well responded to the Messiah. And this account shows that Jesus didn't consider social norms, ethnicity, the sin of a certain people group as being barriers to evangelizing the lost and sharing the gospel.

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If we are followers of Jesus, we must follow him, follow his example. And we must do no less than our master in this regard.

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And also we need to make this note, we don't want to have a misunderstanding of this broader passage that as he was reaching out to her, that somehow he was just meeting her where she was and accepting her.

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He was accepting her sin. He was accepting her in her sin. No, Christ doesn't accept you for who you are.

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Jesus doesn't accept sinners. He saves sinners. He calls you out of your sin.

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Important observation. In the following verses, we see the right response to the

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Messiah in a couple of ways. Both her response and Jesus's follow -up with his disciples.

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In verses 27 through 38, the apostle John records the last part of the interaction between the woman and Jesus and his disciples.

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So that you can follow her example of pointing others to Jesus with a sense of urgency.

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The last part of the interaction, two ways, the excitement of the woman, verses 27 through 30, and the encouragement from Jesus, verses 31 through 38.

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The last part of the interaction, verses 27 through 30, the excitement of the woman.

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And at this point his disciples came and they were marveling that he was speaking with a woman, yet no one said, what do you seek or why are you speaking with her?

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So the woman left her water jar and went into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all the things that I have done.

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Is this not the Christ? They went out of the city and were coming to him.

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I think a few things to point out in this section. Well, the response of his disciples.

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John added the specific details of their response by telling us what they didn't say.

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They didn't make a big deal about it and they didn't question why Jesus was talking to her.

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It illustrates that Jesus' disciples, his followers, are like him in some way.

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Not perfect, not in perfection, but Jesus' disciples display

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Christ -likeness, Christ -like qualities, because they're the disciples.

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The students are like their teacher. They display Christ -like qualities after their master.

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A mark of a true Christian is that you're like Christ. And so here we see this insert that John gives us.

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He certainly didn't have to. They didn't have a problem with him crossing cultural boundaries or smashing cultural restrictions or the norms of the day.

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Their response echoed from their earlier response when accompanying Jesus into Samaria. John also gave us an extra detail about their mindset and attitude.

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Look at chapter 4 and verse 8. His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

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That's a simple verse, but it tells us a lot about his disciples, kind of their attitude.

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They didn't have a problem with buying food from the Samaritans, which would not have been common amongst their

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Jewish brethren, especially the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You're not going to see a Pharisee or the religious elite in town buying food from the

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Samaritans. It just would not have been a common practice. But it's not that they thought this was a normal interaction.

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He also includes that. John says they were marveling. They were marveling that Jesus was speaking to a woman.

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They understood the ramification, but they didn't question Jesus' motives or intentions.

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They silently marveled. This is to be extraordinarily impressed or even disturbed by something.

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They noticed. This is wonder, marvel, to be astonished. And the context determines whether in a good or bad sense.

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Here, their silence implies it was in the good sense, silence evoking a sense of wonder.

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And so that's helpful as we ponder, as we consider already some of the things that the disciples are displaying in Christ's likeness, not challenging him, not questioning him, but humbly submitting, being a disciple.

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A good example for us today, her response has several important takeaways.

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She left her water jar and took off immediately. And you think about the context, you know, this whole thing was about her misunderstanding.

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Oh, if you give me your water, then I don't have to come back every day to draw. She was just thinking about the immediate need.

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Her human response recorded earlier about not having to come back to the water well to draw water in the future if he could provide the living water he was talking about.

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Well, that changed from no longer caring about the water. She just simply left her water jar and fled.

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She understood that this man wasn't just a prophet. No, she's going in her urgency to tell others, is this the

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Christ? No, something changed for her. The physical need of the water isn't even on her mind.

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She just simply left her water jar. She fled no longer. What can you do for me?

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Her response changed to, I have to let other people know about this right away. She could have taken her water jar with her.

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She didn't care about the water anymore. Others needed to know about this. Who cares about the water jar?

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The physical provision wasn't even a factor. It just completely went out of her mind, apparently. She leaves the water jar and goes to the men in town.

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The other takeaway is the practical part of her response. Certainly, if she had been married five times before and if she was living with a man now who was not her husband, going to the men who probably would have been meeting at the gate of the city would be going to the leaders of the city or that community who certainly would have known her history.

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That's implied in the passage. And she says, come and see. She actually has the same response of Philip in the calling of Nathanael and Philip.

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How did Philip respond to Jesus' command to follow him? Turn back a couple pages to chapter one.

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Let's get a refresher on how Philip and Nathanael were called. John chapter one, starting in verse 44.

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Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found

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Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote,

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Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

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Philip said to him, come and see, come and see.

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He's pointing them. He's pointing his friend. He's pointing Nathanael. Come and see.

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Same thing that she says. Go back to chapter four. And you can only think about their reaction to her claim.

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Imagine the reaction to the claim. I met a man who told me all the things

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I have done. These were the men of the village, the leaders. They would have known what was going on in their own community.

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The reality is they all knew. They all knew. They were probably thinking, yeah, does he know anything more than we already know about you?

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Notice she didn't say the Messiah. She just said, come and see. I met a man. But if we remember the context of this meeting, she was coming at noon to the well, the hottest time of day, which implied she was trying to avoid the crowd, to avoid people.

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And I don't think it's just because she didn't want to wait in line. Normally, a person would draw in the evening or in the morning.

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Why? Because it was the coolest out. That's when you would go to the well to draw. Not in the middle of the day.

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Yeah, evening and morning. But that's when everybody else in town would have been there. But she came at noon, and there's an implication that she was avoiding or she had shame.

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She had shame in her life. The takeaway now is that she's going to the very people she was trying to avoid and telling them about her life and that the

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Messiah had come. This is a response of somebody who truly believes that she has met her

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Savior. Her shame, think about it like this, her shame that she was trying to avoid is now her testimony.

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The things that I've done that you know about, he knows about too. He knew all about me.

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She's openly talking about it. Her shame becomes her testimony. The sin that she was keeping secret and avoiding now became the very testimony to point others to the

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Savior she had met. No more shame. Now the shame is the testimony.

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What an amazing response we see from her. Her testimony led ultimately to Jesus's testimony about himself.

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What did he say? I, whom you speak to, am he. I am the Messiah. Her testimony is not just her own personal story, but she's no longer trying to avoid the sin in her past.

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She's happy to tell them about it. She's like, it's front and center. The personal testimony she has ultimately leads to Jesus's testimony that he is the

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Messiah. And then we see their response to her response, to her claims.

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They went out to see who he was. They went out to see who he was. She responded like Philip, they responded like Nathaniel.

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Obviously, they would have known about her life and her status. They knew she was going out to draw the well water the time she was, but yet here was this woman hiding and trying to avoid people, living in shame, coming to them with an excited urgency, proclaiming to them her shameful life, and saying, there's somebody that's not here in the village that knows everything

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I've ever done. Can this be the Christ? And there's an important principle here.

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Since I believe, I will speak. Since I believe, I will speak.

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The psalmist declared something similar. I thought this was interesting. Psalm 116.

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Listen to the psalmist here. He says, I love Yahweh because he hears my voice and my supplications.

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The cords of death encompassed me, and the distresses of Sheol found me.

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I found distress and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of Yahweh.

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Oh, Yahweh, I beseech you, provide my soul escape. Gracious is

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Yahweh and righteous, and our God is compassionate. Yahweh keeps the simple.

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I was brought low, and he saved me. For you have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

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I shall walk before Yahweh in the land of the living. I believed when

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I said, I am greatly afflicted. In other words, just like the woman,

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I believe, and therefore I will speak. She believed it, and she went out with urgency to tell others about what she had discovered.

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Calvin said this on the Samaritan woman's response, quote, this circumstance is related by the apostle

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John to express the ardor of her zeal, for it is an indication of haste that when she leaves her picture and returns to the city.

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And this is the nature of faith, that when we have become partakers of eternal life, we wish to bring others to share with us.

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Nor is it possible that the knowledge of God shall lie buried and inactive in our hearts without being manifested before men.

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The earnestness and promptitude of the woman are so much the more worthy of attention that it was only a small spark of faith that kindled them.

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For scarcely had she tasted Christ when she spreads his game throughout the whole city.

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In those who have already made moderate progress in his school, sluggishness will be highly disgraceful.

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But she may appear to deserve blame on this account that while she is still ignorant and imperfectly taught, she goes beyond the limits of her faith.

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But when she desires nothing more than to excite her fellow citizens to hear

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Christ speaking, we will not say that she forgot herself or proceeded farther than she had a right to do.

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She merely does the office of a trumpet or a bell to invite others to come to Christ.

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Thought that was just a great quote. Think about the response that she has.

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Jesus clearly had a very strong impact on the Samaritan woman.

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Her response shows an eagerness to share the good news among the people that she lived with in town.

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She went and sought out the very people she had avoided because of the reputation she had.

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Her testimony and transparency of her own life had an effect on them. Their response to her response of transparency, really candor, was to go and see

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Jesus for themselves. The excitement of the woman demonstrates an urgency in sharing

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Jesus with others to the point of turning the private shame we feel for sin into a public testimony to Him as the

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Christ. And we ought to have some kind of an urgency.

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You know, tragedy can strike any time. Any time.

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We are not promised tomorrow. And just on a moment's notice, your world can change.

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The death of a loved one, a terminal diagnosis of some kind, everything's going great, and then all of a sudden this thing happens in your life.

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And then the tragedy that you see in the destruction and the ill -equipped response of the unbeliever to deal with these things.

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Our sense of sharing the gospel needs to be tied to the reality that people are going to go to hell.

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A person dies unexpectedly, tragically, but they're a believer.

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And there's sorrow, and there's loss, and there's pain in that. Not seeing them again while you're here on earth, but also there's a joy, there's a relief.

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It's usually the first thing I ask, were they a believer? And to hear that, oh yeah, they knew the

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Lord. Oh, it's like such a relief. Oh, praise the Lord. It's like, oh, they weren't walking with the

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Lord. They weren't a believer. The horror that a person could pass away from this earth and not be with Christ in eternal glory, with no more tears as the

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Savior wipes the tears from your eyes, to think about the horrific, it's almost too much to think about, the horror of a person spending their eternal life in a place of torment away from Christ, ought to give every

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Christian a sense of urgency to go and tell people about Christ, whether there's estrangement or not.

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Honestly, who cares if there's estrangement? And it's never too late. The thing that we can take away from this example, too, is the way that she responded.

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You know, we should follow the woman's example and tell everyone immediately, but her confession was genuine.

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She wasn't selling something. This isn't a solicitation. You know, we all have that past.

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We should never shy away from our sinful past, but what actually does happen when you hear a person's testimony who's saved?

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The person who was a drunkard, who was an alcoholic, who was a drug addict, who was a violent person, their sexual sin, fornication, all of these things that we live in our past life in the old self, what actually happens to that?

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Instead of hiding those things, the Christian says, God saved me from those things, and those past sins are actually part of our testimony.

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She wasn't trying to win a theological argument. She was going to them genuinely trying to tell them the truth about an amazing thing she had discovered, that the

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Messiah was here. If we go to those in our past and we stop trying to hide and we just are honest and truthful with genuineness, you can't fake genuineness.

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You know, you can't go up and try to talk somebody into believing, but if you make a genuine plea, is this not the

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Christ? And she's telling them about her life. People will respond to your proclamation or your confession, and they'll see whether they disagree with you or not, that you really do believe it.

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And you go out with that sense of urgency, not knowing what could happen. And I'll tell you right now, if there's somebody in your life that you have not shared the gospel with because maybe there's estrangement in your past, if that person doesn't know the

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Lord, you don't want to experience the regret that you're going to feel when they pass away and you think,

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I should have just called. I didn't want to call because I didn't want to be the first one to put the olive branch out.

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Humble yourself and put your pride away. Pick up the phone today and call the person in your life, whoever that is, coworker, fellow student, family member, friend, anyone that knows you should know about Christ.

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If you're a Christian, is there anybody in your life right now that you haven't even talked to in a long time, or some coworker, a person, maybe even a person you've met only once before, do they know that the

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Messiah has given His life, that they can have everlasting life? Make sure they know that.

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Meet them for coffee. Make a phone call. And don't wait. Do it today.

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When this worship service is over, pick up the phone and reconnect with that person. And here's the great thing about the

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Holy Spirit. You already have an image in your mind of who that is. So now humble yourself and pursue them.

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Go with a sense of urgency to those in your life and tell them about Jesus. Tragedy can strike at any time.

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We should follow the woman's example and tell everyone immediately, and we should never shy away from our sinful past.

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In today's passage, the Apostle John records the last part of the interaction between the woman and Jesus and his disciples so that you can follow her example of urgency, her example of pointing others to Jesus with a sense of desperation or urgency.

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The last part of the interaction, the excitement of the woman. And then in verses 31 through 38, the encouragement from Jesus, the encouragement from Jesus.

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Look at verse 31. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying,

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

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So the disciples were saying to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

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Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white for harvest.

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Even now 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.

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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.

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Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.

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The encouragement from Jesus, the harvest was ready and is still now ready.

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At this point in the gospel account of the apostle John, we've heard Jesus explain the realities of not receiving him, not accepting, not believing.

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Even in chapter 3 in a couple places, chapter 3 verses 18 and 19, he who believes in him is not judged.

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He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten

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Son of God. And this is the judgment that the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil.

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John chapter 3 verse 36, he who believes in the Son has eternal life but he who does not obey the

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Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him.

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As the disciples witness the tail end of the interaction and how the woman responded by leaving immediately to tell others,

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Jesus then helps the disciples to understand the same object lesson as the woman, albeit with some nuance.

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He gives them an encouraging lesson on the work of evangelism ministry ahead of them.

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Like the woman, they were thinking of physical food and sustenance. Jesus points them to the need for spiritual sustenance, spiritual transformation.

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Similar lesson, different perspective because the audience is different. The Samaritan woman had a misunderstanding of Jesus's words, thinking he was talking about literal water.

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The disciples were thinking of literal food. One of the unique things about the eyewitness testimony of John is that when we see these misunderstandings, we see that they are used to move along the discourse, his argumentation, his support of his gospel account, and the theology of the gospel.

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The argument for the truth of the gospel in response to human misunderstanding, and we'll see this again and again early on now and then later as Jesus is arguing with the

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Pharisees. The Jewish crowd, when Jesus cleansed the temple, misunderstood that Jesus was talking about his own body and the resurrection.

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John chapter 2, therefore the Jews said, this sanctuary took 46 years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?

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But he was speaking about the sanctuary of his body, so when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the statement

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Jesus had made. Nicodemus, in misunderstanding Jesus's comments about being born again.

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Again, John chapter 3, but how can anyone be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked him.

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Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born? Jesus answered, I assure you, unless someone is born of water and the

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Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the

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Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going, so it is with everyone born of the

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Spirit. A common theme or teaching tool in this gospel, human misunderstanding leads to divine clarification.

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Same with the woman at the well. Same here now with his disciples. Jesus wasn't talking about literal food.

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The food he's referring to is spiritual, literally the will of God the

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Father, and John will make that clear for us as his eyewitness testimony continues.

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Jesus's spiritual food is his Father's will. John chapter 5, I can do nothing for myself.

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As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

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John chapter 6, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

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Jesus is summing up his earthly ministry for them, making it clear what he's doing there.

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His spiritual nourishment is the Father's will. His earthly ministry is the Father's work, and again, we can stay in this gospel as later in this eyewitness testimony, the

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Apostle John will make it clear what the Father's work is, is what the Son will finish.

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Again, John chapter 5, but the witness I have is greater than the witness of John the

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Baptist, for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do bear witness about me that the

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Father has sent me. John 17, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true

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God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, I glorified you on the earth, having finished the work which you have given me to do.

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It is finished. And on the cross, John 19, after this,

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Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished, in order to finish the scripture, said,

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I am thirsty. Therefore, when Jesus received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

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It is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. In terms of application, we can easily make the connection that the food that Jesus was talking about was spiritual nourishment.

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Us, as his followers, we understand that that happens through the reading of his word and Bible study, also through evangelism, doing the work which we have been called to do, doing the work that we were saved to do.

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We do prayer, both privately and corporately, attending church, fellowship with the saints, practicing the one another's.

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And the plain truth is, is that if you're not attending Bible study, corporate prayer, and fellowship events of the local church, you are starving yourself of spiritual nourishment.

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You can't attend church for an hour and a half once a week and consider yourself fed. Practicing the one another's happens in fellowship with the saints.

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But this kind of spiritual food goes beyond those practices that we engage with as Christians.

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The spiritual nourishment derives from doing God's will, synergistic cooperation with the

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Holy Spirit, and helping in a human response by his enablement to bring the work of the salvation that he granted to its completion.

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God does this. The spiritual food is not just what we take into our bodies and minds.

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It also reflects how we live our lives, living our lives like a thank you letter to God, giving our lives back to God, giving all to God.

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And part of that is the work of the ministry, evangelism. God didn't call you to be in a relationship with him divorced or separated from you telling other people about him.

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So if that's in your mind, erase that from your mind. Evangelism is part of your

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Christian life. It's why God saved you. He saved you and sent you out to tell other people.

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It's a very convicting reality that we all need to reckon in our mind.

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This is why you're here. You have a ministry here on earth. And the reason

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I know that is because you're not dead yet. You're still alive here on earth. And now it's time to get to work and do the work of our

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Master, the King. As we continue in the narrative in verse 35,

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Jesus gets very practical in his illustration, talking about a literal harvest.

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So this illustration, he's referring to something that's actually going to happen very soon for them. The Savior helps his disciples understand.

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Jesus always meets us where we are, and praise God, he never leaves us where we are.

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So he gives this really helpful illustration about a literal harvest. One commentator made this helpful note, quote, the event probably happened in December or January, which was four months before the normal spring harvest, which would have been mid -April.

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Crops were planted in November, and by December or January, the grain would be sprouting up in vibrant green color.

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Jesus used the fact that they were surrounded by crops growing in the field and waiting to be harvested as an object lesson to illustrate his urgency about reaching the lost, which the harvest symbolized.

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Jesus points out the Samaritan woman and people of Sychar, lift up your eyes, who were at that moment coming upon the scene looking like a ripened harvest that urgently needed gathering, as in evangelizing.

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Their white clothing seen above the growing grain may have even looked like white heads on the stalks, an indication of readiness for harvest.

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Jesus knew the hearts of all, so he was able to state their readiness for salvation.

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Remember, scripture isn't written in a vacuum. These are real people with real experiences and real needs.

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The harvest illustration was practical and helpful. This is an encouragement from Jesus, and in our human response, we need this encouragement.

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We need this. More often than not, what do we do as Christians when thinking of witnessing or sharing the gospel?

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Well, I think it's fair to say that oftentimes believers can make excuses in not witnessing. We all have that one friend or that one family member, that one co -worker, that one fellow student who just seems completely unreachable.

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And we can rationalize or even convince ourselves that our family or friends aren't ready to believe.

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We can look at society and see the broad acceptance of sin and sort of throw in the towel, even those who don't worship like we do and or professing

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Christians that seem to really not know or care about the Bible's teachings.

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Whether it's an indifferent or outright God -hating atheist, a false religion cultist, or the false

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Christian convert who looks and acts more like the world than they do a disciple of Christ, atheist or false converts, we can adopt a hopeless attitude of joyless resignation that people are unreachable.

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Jesus says the opposite. Crystal clear clarification that around us there is a continual harvest that is ready, a harvest that waits to be reaped.

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We don't want to be ones that are found by Jesus to be making excuses. If we look around not only in our sphere of influence, but in the community of Laurel and the surrounding communities, you will find a myriad of people, a harvest ready to be reaped.

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People ready to hear God's Word. In verses 36 through 38,

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Jesus sums up his comments and concludes his encouragement to his disciples. The encouragement comes in the form of a promise, a reward, or wages.

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As he describes a fruit that brings eternal joy, there is also an implication of the mutual partnership of shared privilege that Christ's followers participate in.

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Although it is true if you ask 10 people if they want to hear about Jesus, 9 out of 10 will tell you no.

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I'm good, not interested. The rewards that Jesus is talking about is the joy of living in obedience to him by going out in faith to do this work.

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And then amazingly, God graciously sometimes allows you to see the harvest of new believers.

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The joy that the seeds of salvation have taken root. To experience a new conversion is joy for any

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Christian, any true follower of Jesus. And it's not just joy here on earth for the person who gets to witness this.

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It's joy in heaven now while we're here on earth. And it's joy in heaven as we see in the future those that did respond at a later time that we'll never get to see while we're here on earth.

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The joy or wages, rewards that Jesus is talking about is both for the planter, us, and for him, the harvester.

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One may plant. God sends another at a different time who waters. But it is

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God himself who causes the growth. Jesus is the harvester.

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If we understand the work of the ministry and is both being in obedience to God as our master and king as his subjects and both in cooperation with him as our savior and heavenly father, we can rightly understand

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John the Baptist comments that his joy was made complete as he saw

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Jesus's gospel preaching ministry taking off. We find joy in the new believer's salvation right along with the

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God that we are working in obedience to. Both finding joy and seeing new believers being granted access into the kingdom of God, Christ's kingdom.

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And it's also an encouragement for us to think of the work we now do that we do now today is a part of a legacy.

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We have ancestors in the faith going back to the Old Testament, the Old Testament prophets, all those who have come before us, faithful servants of Yahweh, and all the

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Old Testament saints just like John the Baptist. They paved the way for Jesus along with all those faithful brethren in the last two thousand years of church history, all who paved the way for the good news to be spread.

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We have a legacy. The encouragement from Jesus helps his followers to understand that they are not alone in the work of gospel ministry and evangelism because it is

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God's will and he is with them. And there is a great need for evangelism today, a great need.

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I recently read some statistics online that illustrate this fact. Most Americans, including professing

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Christians, this is what's so disturbing, including professing Christians, believe that people are inherently good.

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People are inherently good. That their primary purpose is to enjoy life as much as possible.

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People are inherently good and the purpose of life is to enjoy it as much as possible.

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Thirty -eight percent believe that it doesn't matter what religious faith you follow because they all teach the same lessons.

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Forty -four percent believed that all people will experience the same outcome after death, regardless of their religious beliefs.

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Fifty -five percent, over half, believe that if a person is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in heaven.

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This was illustrated a little bit for me personally. I had someone knock on my door Saturday morning and it was a timely knock because I was working on this sermon and there were some

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Jehovah Witnesses in my door. And two older gentlemen and Laura just kind of said, hey

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Rob, there's someone at the door. We don't usually have like foot traffic. So it's like, it's not our neighbors, who is it?

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So I went and threw a cap on and opened the door and I could see his Watchtower, I don't know, bulletin or handout.

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So I said, oh Jehovah Witnesses. They were all excited. Oh yeah, we are. And my opening line was, you're talking to a

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Protestant pastor. And they didn't leave. They just stayed and talked to me. And they were trying to, you know, ask me a question.

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I said, guys, before we continue, I just need to call you to repent and believe in the gospel. And they were kind of like stunned.

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Like, what do you mean? Yeah, you need to believe in the gospel to be saved. You need to turn away from your sins and return to God and believe in the gospel.

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Christ died for your sins. Like, oh, we believe that. I'm like, well, but who is, who is

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Jesus? Can I just ask you that question? Who is Jesus? And then they went into their whole, you know, spiel.

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And the one guy pulled out his iPad and they were going to start quoting stuff and they were talking about Yahweh. And when

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I started talking about Hebrew and Greek in the original language, he put his iPad away and he said, we need to go. He kept trying to get me off track.

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And I kept trying to get to him saying, who is Jesus? Is Jesus God? It's like, we believe

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He's God. Well, is He a created being or is He the Messiah promised in the Old Testament? Because whoever that was, if it is

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Jesus, that claim is that He is God. And God is the only one who can pardon sin.

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And so it just got to a point where they said, thanks for your time. And they walked off. And I said, thanks for coming by, but turn away from your sins.

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Believe. Quite an exchange. You know, they're going door to door. And if you visited the house, we don't, we don't live in an area where there's foot traffic.

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They drove to our house. There was like a team of four people in an SUV and they just had got out of the car. So they're driving around the rural areas of Billings, hitting, pounding the pavement.

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That's a works -based theology, that if you're good, you can go to heaven. This is prevalent.

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And it's not just the so -called Christian cult of Jehovah Witness or Mormon or Seventh -day

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Adventist or Roman Catholicism. This has now trickled into evangelical Protestants, Protestant pastors.

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And I'm not talking about the other side of the world or, oh, this is only going on in California. No, this is here in the state of Montana.

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This is a satanic doctrine that has infiltrated the church. We, it's like the disciples being told, you need to go evangelize the

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Samaritans. But don't they already believe in Yahweh? Don't they already believe in the Messiah or the Christ?

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We, it's almost like we have to go evangelize the other so -called Christians in this community. Because they no longer believe the

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Bible. They don't hold to the teachings of the apostles. They don't believe this anymore. Church has just become an activity or a pastime.

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There is a great need for evangelism today, right here in Laurel and all of the surrounding communities.

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And so we have a task before us. And this is my challenge, if you want application, let me spell it out for you.

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These are called gospel tracks. There's a stand out there. It says outreach.

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I challenge every person in this room. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, I want you to take three gospel tracks when you leave.

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I want that display out there to be empty by the time I leave the building today. Please don't, if you're here and you call yourself a follower of Christ, then take some gospel tracks.

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And I'll just say it like this, if you don't take the gospel tracks, I'm going to be worried whether you're really a follower of Christ.

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Take three of these gospel tracks and don't put them in your glove box. Don't put them on the shelf at home.

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Go and hand them out to three different people. And I'm going to ask every person in this room, if I get to you,

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I hope I do. I'm going to make a point. Hey, how did it go for you? Who did you give it to? Go up to a stranger in the grocery store and say,

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I'm a Christian. I attend Laurel Bible Church. I just wanted you to have this. I want you to know Jesus. You can do that.

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You can open your mouth. Are you afraid? Like what's going on with you? Are we afraid to go talk to people?

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Are we embarrassed? Or is it awkward for you? I'm asking.

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Think about this in your mind. How many people in the last 30 days have you told about Jesus Christ?

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But you're his follower? I'm praying for you. I'm praying that this will hit your heart.

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We have to tell people the truth. The doctrine of hell is taught by one person more than anyone else in the entire

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Bible. And it's Jesus Christ. Do we believe in the doctrine of hell anymore?

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Is there an urgency to go out and save people? Here's the reality.

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Jesus Christ is coming back to the earth as the judge of all creation.

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And these people that don't know him, who haven't received him, are going to face a righteous judge.

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The one that is giving wrath is perfect in holiness. It should be terrifying for us to think about a person going to hell.

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We have to have a sense of urgency. We have to stop caring about what society thinks, what our friends or family will think.

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We have to go out and tell people about Jesus Christ. And this passage is helpful as we look at this example from the woman.

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In verses 27 through 38, the apostle John records the last part of the interaction between the woman and Jesus and his disciples.

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So that you can follow her example of pointing others to Jesus with a sense of urgency.

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The last part of the interaction. The excitement of the woman demonstrates an urgency in sharing

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Jesus with others. To the point of turning the private shame we feel for sin into a public testimony to him as the

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Christ. The encouragement from Jesus helps his followers to understand that they are not alone in the work of gospel ministry and evangelism, because it is

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God's will and he is with them. In the letter from Jude, the half -brother of Jesus Christ, Jude says this.

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I thought this was just so timely for our age. We often think about, well, are we living in the end time?

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Is Christ's return imminent? The scripture makes it clear we've been in the last time since Jesus Christ came to the earth.

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So if you're worried, if you're thinking about that, settle it in your mind. You live in the last times. We all do.

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Listen to Jude. He says, contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

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Beloved, you must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, in the last time there will be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts.

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These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly -minded, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the

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Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our

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Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And on some who are doubting, have mercy.

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And for others, save, snatching them out of the fire. And on others, have mercy, but do so with great caution, hating even the sins that contaminate their lives.

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May you be ushers who are rescuing people out of the fire.

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May there be an excitement in telling people the good news, like finding the lost sheep, finding the lost coin, or the return of a wayward son.

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May you take the certainty of unexpected tragedy and the finality of death seriously.

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May you digest and realize that many are deceived into thinking they are inherently good, or that one can be good if they do good.

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May you be defenders of the truth, refuting those who propagate lies.

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May the Lord impress upon your hearts the reality that there is a great need for evangelism today.

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The right response to the Messiah is to point others to Him, that by believing in Him, they might be saved in Him.