WWUTT 828 The Fields Are White for Harvest?

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The time is right, right now, to share the gospel. And just as Jesus commissioned his disciples to go into all the world, so we must also share the gospel with all when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back once again to our study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 4, right at the conclusion of Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well in Samaria.

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I'm going to begin reading in verse 25 and read through verse 45. The woman said to him,

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I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.

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Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am he. Just then his disciples came back.

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They marveled that he was talking with a woman. But no one said, what do you seek?

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Or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into town, and said to the people, come see a man who told me all that I ever did.

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Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. 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. So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?

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

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Do you not say, there are yet four months, and then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.

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Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

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For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.

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Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

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He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

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And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves.

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And we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.

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After the two days, he departed for Galilee, for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.

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So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast.

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So right at the conclusion of this conversation between the woman and Jesus, in verse 25, the woman said to him,

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I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.

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And this is the woman's way of saying, hey, you believe what you want to believe. I'll believe what

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I want to believe. When the Messiah shows up, he'll tell us which one of us is right and which one is wrong.

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And this is her way of saying, but I'm right and you're wrong. And then Jesus responds to her with, yeah,

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I'm he, I am that Messiah you're talking about. You know, it just so happens that on the same day that I was teaching through this particular section of John, I encountered a young man in our community.

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And this was a young man that I first met a few weeks ago. And he asked me about Mormonism.

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It turned out that he was attending the Mormon church in town. And so he asked me what my thoughts were on it.

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And I told him that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are incompatible. They contradict one another. What Joseph Smith said about God is contrary to what the

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Bible says about God. And so I gave him some things to think about, and I didn't see him again until just yesterday.

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And I said, hey, did you have the chance to think about some of the things we talked about a few weeks ago? And he said, yeah, you know,

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I went to my bishop and I talked with him about it. And he said, hey, we just need to believe what we believe.

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And you let him believe what he believes. And one day Jesus is going to come back and he's going to reveal to us the truth.

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And I kind of chuckled. I said, you know, it's funny you mentioned that. There was another person in the

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Bible who had that exact same response. It was the Samaritan woman at the well. Are you familiar with that story in John 4?

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And he kind of shrugged. And I said, Jesus said to her in John 4, 24, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

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So let me ask you, what does it mean that God is spirit? And he said he didn't really know how to answer the question.

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And I said, would you say that you're a spirit? And he said, of course not. I said, right. I'm not either. Why? Why aren't we spirits?

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Because we're flesh and bone, right? And he said, yeah. And I said, the Mormons teach that God is flesh and bone.

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So they're teaching something about God that is contrary to what Jesus said about God.

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Jesus said God is spirit. And he said those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

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What does it mean to worship God in spirit and truth? And he wasn't real sure how to respond to that.

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He gave me an answer, but it didn't really make a lot of sense. And I said to him that we must worship

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God according to who he says he is and the way that he says he is to be worshiped.

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He is spirit and all of the attributes that the Bible says about God as spirit, that's the way that we need to recognize him, what the

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Bible says about him. And we worship him in truth in the sense that we worship according to what

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God says worship is supposed to look like, what true worship is supposed to be. And unless we worship according to the true

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Christ of the Bible, we're not truly worshiping God. And he had another friend that was with him.

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One of the tactics, I don't know if this is a regular thing with Mormons, but it's certainly the case with the Mormons in my community.

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One of the tactics that they use is that they'll come in pairs and it's always they have somebody else with them.

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And once this conversation gets started of challenging their beliefs, there's somebody else who's right there pulling on their arm going, hey, we've got to go.

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Every time it happens, every time I have this conversation, I don't know if that's a regular thing or not, like I said.

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But anyway, so he's got a friend with him that's kind of trying to pull him along. And I just pulled him into the conversation.

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So we talked for a little bit longer, but I didn't want to beat him over the head with it because then things would just get hostile.

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And I certainly didn't want to push it there because I want to keep the door open to be able to continue this conversation again later.

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So I said, hey, I love you guys. Thanks so much for talking with me. I know you got to go and come talk with me anytime.

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We'd love to visit with you more about this. Apparently, one of them really likes having these kinds of religious discussions.

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So I hope that we're able to pick it up again some other time. The providence of God that I just happened to be in that section of scripture at the same time, this young man gave almost the exact same answer that this woman at the well gave

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Jesus. But Jesus has come and he has shown us who he is and who the father is.

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We're not waiting for him to show up again to reveal God, because the next time he comes, it will be in judgment and it will be too late.

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We must know what Christ has said now, according to his word. And it's this word we must put our faith in.

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And it's this word that must shape our worship of God, our knowledge of God and our worship of him.

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Jesus said to the woman, I who speak to you am he. Just then his disciples came back.

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Verse twenty seven. They marveled that he was talking with a woman. Now, it's likely that there was something about this woman that it was obvious that she was a woman of ill repute.

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Maybe it was because the way that she was dressed. More than likely, though, it was because she was alone in the middle of the afternoon.

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She was not associated with the other women. So that right there kind of raises some some red flags.

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But they marveled at the fact that Jesus is there talking with this woman. And they probably had been there for a little while, like like a few minutes.

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It's not like they're they're coming up and just seconds later going, hey, hey, what's going on here? That's that's not the way that they responded.

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So what we're seeing of this conversation in the verses prior likely was overheard by the disciples.

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There could have been many more things that were discussed and talked about. And we don't know what they were because John was writing this down and he was giving a firsthand account of this conversation between Jesus and the woman.

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So they marveled that he was talking with the woman. They're standing there and listening to them talk. But no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her?

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In other words, what that means there at the end of verse twenty seven is that the disciples did not think ill of Jesus.

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They did not think that his motives were wrong or that if he's talking with a woman, he might be up to no good.

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That's not the way that the disciples thought of this exchange. That's why it says there no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her?

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Because they did not suspect Jesus motives as being anything but pure. And whenever we read of Christ in the

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New Testament, we should assume that everything that he is doing is good. We should think that of God everywhere in the

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Bible, whatever God is doing, it is good. And it is from it is for some ultimate glorious purpose.

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Remember the words of Joseph in Genesis chapter fifty verse twenty. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

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What he said to his brothers. And so everything that God allows to come to pass, he is doing for some ultimate good.

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And we need to put our faith and trust that he is doing what is best.

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The disciples did so here in John four, twenty seven verse twenty eight.

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So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, come see a man who told me all that I ever did.

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Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him.

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Now, again, the well was not right there next to town. It wasn't like she just jogged down to the main street and went through the town and brought a bunch of people back with her.

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The well was like a mile away. So she had to go all the way back into town and all the way back. So this exchange then that we see between Jesus and his disciples, this also isn't all that Jesus said to them.

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We're just getting a brief glimpse of this conversation. But he was likely teaching them and preparing them for what was about to happen.

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These people from this village that were about to come back to hear Jesus talk.

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Meanwhile, verse thirty one, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them,

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I have food to eat that you do not know about. In other words, what he's about to do is more important to him than eating food and why he didn't eat when they had time for her to go all the way back into town and come all the way back.

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She's not running a four minute mile here. They certainly had some time.

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So why is it that Jesus didn't just go ahead and eat? Well, because he was going to use this as an opportunity to teach his disciples.

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And then once that teaching was over, then the people from the village were going to be there and he was going to teach them.

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So this teaching, this mission that he has from God doing the will of the father is more important to him than even taking care of his own physical body at this particular afternoon.

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So in verse thirty three. So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?

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Jesus says, I have food to eat that you do not know about. The disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?

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So they are interpreting Jesus words the same way the woman at the well did when

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Jesus said to her, if you knew who it was who was saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

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And she thought he was talking literally about water. And do you have a water jar? You know, this well is deep.

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How are you going to get water out of this? Well, the disciples respond to his comment about food the same way they think he's being literal.

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He's talking about literal food. And Jesus said to them, verse thirty four, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

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One of the lessons in this is that the work of God sharing the gospel is far, far more fulfilling, more eternally significant than eating food to nourish your own body.

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That's one of the other things that Jesus is saying in that particular response. Verse thirty five. Do you not say that there are yet four months and then comes the harvest?

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Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.

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Now, there is both an immediate application to that and a long term application.

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The immediate application is these people are coming back from this village and I am going to teach them.

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Here it is. The harvest is right right here and right now. And then, of course, the long term application is that this is all according to the providential hand of God, that Jesus would come at this time fulfilling what was said in the scriptures, that he would die on the cross.

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He would be buried in a tomb. He would rise again from the grave and then the gospel would go out into the whole world and the

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Holy Spirit would come and be poured out upon all flesh, fulfilling what was said in the prophet by the prophet

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Joel. So all of this is coming about by God's sovereign plan.

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And so the fields are white for harvest because God is intended for this to be the time that the gospel would go out into the world.

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That's going to be the long term application. Verse 36, already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

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Now, this is very similar to something that's said in the book of Amos. It's Amos chapter nine, verse 13, where it's talking about the restoration of Israel.

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But there is a more spiritual application of this. Again, Amos 9, 13, behold, the days are coming, declares the

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Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes who sows the seed, the mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it.

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I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.

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They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. They shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

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I will plant them on their land and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land

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I have that I have given them, says the Lord your God. So, again, this is about the restoration of Israel.

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But there's a spiritual application that is way more bountiful than that. It's not literally about Israel rebuilding their cities.

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It's about how the people of God are going to be massive. The plowman shall overtake the reaper.

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There will be the message of the gospel going out into all the world beyond Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.

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And the people will be added to in great number as they hear the gospel and turn from sin and follow

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Jesus Christ. And so it's from that same prophetic word in Amos that Jesus is saying that to his disciples.

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This is not merely about literal ethnic Israel. This is about a people far wider than this particular ethnic group.

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And here they're about to share the gospel with a bunch of Samaritans, or at least

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Jesus is going to. And the disciples are going to be there learning from this experience because Jesus had come not just for the

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Jews. He had come for the whole world. And in fact, the Samaritans themselves are going to say in verse 32, we know that this is indeed the savior of the world.

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They came to understand this thing that Nicodemus himself didn't understand. Because remember, all this is happening right following the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus, Nicodemus, who's the teacher of Israel.

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And yet he did not understand these things. And Jesus said to him in chapter three, verses 14 and 15, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

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Jesus saying even to Nicodemus that the people of God are going to be far beyond Israel for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

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And whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. So again,

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Jesus says to his disciples, verse 36, already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

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For here the saying holds true. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.

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Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Now, oftentimes the explanation for that particular passage is

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Jesus was referring to John the Baptist, John the Baptist and his disciples. They prepared the way and you are entering into the labor that had already begun.

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But it's much broader than that. Jesus is not just talking about John the Baptist. He's talking about all the prophets, everyone in the

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Old Testament who wrote what God told them to write and prophesied about this coming

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Messiah who would come to take away the sin of the world, the the perfect, spotless, sacrificial lamb.

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Those prophets have all labored and now you're entering into that labor.

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The prophets gave us the Old Testament. The apostles give us the New Testament. So now, verse 39, many

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Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did.

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So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there for two days and many more believed because of his word.

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They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world.

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And again, this very encounter with Jesus and this woman and also the

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Samaritans themselves that came to know Jesus Christ as savior. All of this was even foreshadowing the the outpouring of the gospel that was going to go into all of the world.

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For as Jesus said to his disciples in Acts 1 8, before ascending into heaven, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

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So here we have Jesus testimony going even beyond Judea to the Samaritans.

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And he goes from here on to Galilee. And that's where we'll pick up the story next week.

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We are part of that mission, that great commission to take the gospel into all the world.

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And so you likewise love the gospel and share it with your neighbor, that they may hear the truth of Jesus Christ and repent of their sin and believe and be saved.

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Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a

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New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.