SERIES: The Gospel of John
Fields Ripe for Harvest
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: Have you ever stopped to think how much of life revolves around food? When you add up the time and money spent on shopping for it, storing it, preparing it, eating and drinking it, cleaning up afterward, or even going out to a restaurant for it, food obviously consumes more of our time than anything other than work and sleep, and more of our money than anything other than housing. It’s not surprising, then, that Jesus would use food, water, and wine as spiritual illustrations so often in His teaching.
Last Sunday we saw the amazing story of how Jesus brought a sinful Samaritan woman face to face with her need for living water, and how she and many of her acquaintances became believers. Today’s text is found right in the middle of that story and is intimately related to it. In fact, we are going to refer back to the woman at the well a number of times this morning, because that same event also has much to teach those of us who are already His disciples concerning sowing and reaping in the spiritual harvest.
Let’s read our text, John 4:27-38:
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Allow me to set the stage. Jesus is traveling with His disciples from Judea in the southern part of Israel to Galilee in the north. He chooses to go through Samaria, not because it is the normal route but because He has a divine appointment there. When they arrive at Jacob’s well, located just half a mile outside the town of Sychar, the disciples walk into town to get some groceries and leave Jesus at the well to rest. Jesus is apparently sitting there just a short time when a Samaritan woman shows up to get water. One assumes this woman has just passed by the disciples as they were going into town and she leaving it.
If that is the case, how do you think they greeted her on the road, taking into consideration their attitude when they returned to the well, as revealed in verse 27? Remember, these disciples were a rough lot, blue-collar rednecks, only recently converted and by no means relieved yet of their worldly ways. Frankly, it doesn’t stretch one’s imagination to see them walking three or four abreast down the road and forcing the woman off into the ditch. It wouldn’t surprise me if a couple of them didn’t stare at her, giving her the once over, as lustful men often do. It wouldn’t even be beyond belief that a few racial slurs were uttered under their breath.
One thing is clear from what follows: these disciples do not see this woman as an eternal soul they should be concerned about. After all, she is a woman, and that puts her beneath their dignity. Furthermore, she is a Samaritan—obvious from the way she is dressed—so she clearly isn’t one of God’s chosen. And they are busy besides. After all, they are grocery shopping for the Messiah. Some tasks are too important to be interrupted by insignificant passersby. Furthermore, they are probably proud of themselves for “Jewing down” those Samaritan merchants back in Sychar. As they lay out the felafels and bagels and matzo balls on the picnic table by the well, they urge Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.” But He responds enigmatically, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Immediately the disciples get caught in the same trap as Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman—they take Jesus’ words with strict literalness and fail to recognize that He is once again speaking symbolically and spiritually. The new birth is not physical birth, the living water is not H2O, and the food He must eat is not bagels and cream cheese.
Living water is followed by spiritual food. (27-33)
Water may save a thirsty man’s life, but he can’t grow just on water; he must also have food. So, while spiritual water results in salvation, the disciples must learn that Christian growth requires spiritual food. They have clearly accepted the living water from Jesus; they have forsaken their selfish pursuits and have chosen to follow Him without reservation. But that doesn’t make them mature or even especially godly; they must be trained to eat spiritual food.
Consider these contrasts between living water and spiritual food:
Living water Spiritual food
Is offered to lost sinners. Is offered to saved disciples.
Results in salvation. Results in effectiveness.
Removes spiritual thirst forever Spiritual hunger is continual. Is a gift. Is experienced only through
obedience and hard work.
What exactly is this spiritual food Jesus is talking about?
The best spiritual food a Christian can eat is doing the will of God. (34)
“My food,” says Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” The implication is, “This should be the staple of your diet too.” Now I have little doubt that as Jesus speaks, He is not only thirsty but physically hungry as well, yet His physical hunger has been overridden by the spiritual nourishment of ministry.
Have you ever had that experience? Have you ever been so tired you thought you would die, and yet somewhere you got the strength and will to do a task you knew God wanted you to do? Have you ever skipped a meal because you were so engrossed in Bible study that you didn’t even miss the food? Have you ever been sick and yet found instant healing when a spiritual emergency arose?
I remember very well a day ten years ago when I was home from work and sick in bed when I received a call from a policeman in our church informing me that a beautiful little 6-year-old girl in our church had been run over by a trash truck just four blocks from our home. I jumped up, threw on my clothes, and ran out the door, arriving at the home while the little girl was still lying in the street next to her crumpled bicycle. When her father arrived home from the hospital where he was a physician, I was the one who had to tell him his daughter was dead. For the next four or five hours I cried with that family and comforted them, totally oblivious to the symptoms that had put me in bed.
If you’ve ever had such an experience, then you can understand how Jesus could have His appetite satisfied by spiritual food. God certainly does not intend to teach through this passage that we should ignore our physical needs—only that we should recognize that spiritual needs are even greater.
Now when Jesus claims that His spiritual food is to do God’s will and finish His work, He is expressing an idea that is a virtual compulsion for Him.
Let me show you other similar statements just in the next ten chapters of the Gospel of John:
5:30: “I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
6:38: “For I have come down from heaven not to my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
8:29: “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”
9:4: “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.”
12:49: “Whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
14:31: “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.”
15:10: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love.”
Let me ask you a question: “If Jesus, who was the perfect Son of God, showed that much concern about God’s will for His life, how much more concern should we show, seeing that we are very imperfect, and our thoughts are not His thoughts nor our ways His ways?”
So far Jesus has taught His disciples the very important truth that doing God’s will for the believer is the best spiritual health-food. But He hasn’t yet told them what God’s will is for them. In fact, I don’t believe His intention here is to give a complete analysis of God’s will, for in many respects that is a very personal thing and different for each disciple. But there is one thing that is clearly God’s will for every Christian, and that is personal evangelism—sharing Christ with the lost people around us. And that is where the discourse takes us now.
The will of God is for His people to join the harvest. (35-38)
If the disciples are really interested in doing the Father’s will and accomplishing His work, then they will quit giving excuses when it comes to the task of evangelism. Listen to verse 35: “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest.’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” The four months that typically elapsed between the end of planting and the beginning of harvest apparently had given rise to a proverbial saying indicating that there is no hurry for a particular task, much like our adage, “Rome was not built in a day.” “Four months more and then the harvest.” Jesus makes clear that such a saying is inappropriate when applied to the spiritual realm.
The harvest is now, so don’t procrastinate. His disciples must not lazily relax, comfortable in the thought that there is plenty of time before the spiritual harvest must be gathered. Rather they must acquire a sense of urgency in their task, for there are many, like the Samaritans of Sychar, who are ripe for conversion. Tragically, we have such a tendency to procrastinate when it comes to personal evangelism. We have good intentions to share our faith, but the time rarely seems quite ripe. Perhaps I have quoted Francis Cornford before, but he’s worth repeating:
“There is only one argument for doing something; all other arguments are for doing nothing. One of these is the argument that ‘the time is not ripe.’ ‘The Principle of Unripe Time’ is that people should not do at the present moment what they think right at that moment, because the moment at which they think it right has not yet arrived. But time is like the papaya; it has a trick of going rotten before it is ripe.” [i]
There is a second truth here in addition to the fact that “the harvest is now, so don’t procrastinate.”
The harvest is everywhere, so don’t discriminate. This is not verbalized by Jesus, but it is obvious in the context. The disciples would undoubtedly have been eager to preach the Gospel had a group of Pharisees come down the road or even Jewish peasants. What they couldn’t grasp is that Samaritans are also important to God and worthy to receive their time and attention.
Perhaps the opposite problem troubles many of us today. We believe in missions to Africa and Mexico and Eastern Europe and Somalia, and some will give generously to send the Gospel to these parts of the world but will hardly lift a finger to share with a neighbor or fellow-employee or fellow-student. The harvest is everywhere, so we must not discriminate. We must be willing to share the Gospel in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the world. We don’t have the option to restrict our vision to just one segment of the world’s population, either at home or overseas.
The harvest includes sowing and reaping, so don’t hesitate. Every farmer knows that sowing must precede reaping. He also knows that if he doesn’t plant his fields, no one else will. But in the spiritual realm, says Jesus, there is a different dynamic operating. Others may sow and let you reap; on the other hand, you may sow and others will reap. Don’t get discouraged and don’t hesitate if your planting of seed doesn’t bear immediate fruit—perhaps someone else will be the reaper. There’s an old saying that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” The martyrs don’t see the fruit, but it does ripen eventually.
Furthermore, there are unusual times when the sowing and harvesting happen almost simultaneously. In fact, Jesus may well be referring here to Amos 9:13: “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.” We see this happening today in parts of Africa, in Eastern Europe, in Russia. The implication is that when the fruit is ripe, every effort should be made to get the harvest in at that place.
Now I would like to spend a few moments this morning on two practical questions intimately related to this passage. First, why should we join the harvest and secondly, how do we join the harvest?
Why should we join the harvest?
Because Jesus Christ has given us a clear command. Besides the encouragement in our text today Jesus emphasizes our responsibility to share the Gospel in the very last command He gave on earth, recorded in Matt. 28:19,20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
It has been well said that this is the Great Commission, not the Great Suggestion.
Because people are lost without Jesus. This is a profound fact that I believe has not sunk into our heads and hearts sufficiently. People are eternally lost unless they receive Jesus. I made the observation several Sundays ago that people cannot tolerate their beliefs and behavior being in disequilibrium over a long period of time. Either their behavior will change to conform to their beliefs, or their beliefs will change to conform to their behavior. Here is an area where we can observe that happening before our very eyes.
The evangelical church professes to believe that Jesus is the only way to God and that unless a person believes in His name, he is lost and will spend eternity in hell. But our behavior demonstrates very little urgency in sharing the good news of salvation with them. This cannot continue. Either we have to get serious about sharing our faith or our theology has to change. And it is changing in many circles.
Various forms of universalism are becoming quite acceptable in the church as scholars argue that the heathen can be saved without knowing Jesus because God is such a loving God. Others argue that hell isn’t all that bad or that it isn’t eternal. John R. W. Stott, one of the great voices for evangelicalism in the 20th century has recently adopted “annihilationism,” which teaches that unbelievers don’t suffer conscious punishment for eternity but are instead annihilated at the Great White Throne Judgment. In other words, they just go out of existence. Well, whatever Stott’s motive in espousing this view, and I assume it’s noble, the practical effect of it, in my estimation, is that Christians who accept it will become less and less concerned about the lost, because annihilation is certainly not as frightful as eternal conscious punishment.
A far better approach than changing our theology to fit our practice would be for us to change our practice to fit our theology. We simply need to get more serious about our responsibility to share our faith.
Because people really are hungry for the Gospel. That’s obvious in many parts of the third world, but I think it’s also true here in the U.S. You, say, “but I don’t see people that eager to receive Christ?” Could it be because no one’s bothering to share Christ with them? You say, “but there’s Christian radio and Christian TV and Christian bookstores and churches on every corner.” But why should the average unchurched individual be attracted to any of these sources? His view of media preachers is molded by scandals on Prime Time and Sixty Minutes. His attitude toward church, various polls show us, is that they want to take away your money and your fun. They’d be no more likely to go into a Christian bookstore than you would be to go into a New Age Bookstore.
But as an unbeliever gets to know a real live Christian who loves him and cares for him, it is amazing how hungry he can become for the Good News.
Because we have the greatest news ever announced. We aren’t peddling a dead hero or a tired, worn-out philosophy. We have a living Savior to share, one who lived a perfect life, one who always spoke truth, one for whom we never have to apologize or cover up the seedier aspects of his life, as so many have to do with their religious gurus (Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, etc.). And most importantly, we have a living Savior who offers forgiveness of sins and changes His followers lives for the better.
Why then are we so hesitant to share this good news? Why is it that we so readily discuss our political views or athletic preferences, our gas mileage or utility bills, our children’s growing pains or office gossip, but we clam up when it comes to discussing the greatest news ever announced?
Because the love of Jesus compels us to share Him with others. 2 Cor. 5:14,15 says, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” Are we really convinced that Jesus died for all? If so, then we should no longer live for ourselves and for our own selfish pursuits, but for Him. And that compels us to obediently join the harvest. By the way, isn’t it strange how new Christians often have more zeal for evangelism than mature saints? The disciples who knew Jesus well brought only food from the city of Sychar, but the Samaritan woman, who knew Him but briefly, brought a stream of people to see Him and hear Him.
Frankly, I think there are a lot of Christians who really want to share their faith, but they are afraid, or they just don’t know how. Allow me in the closing moments this morning to offer six suggestions on how to join the harvest, and then this evening at 6:00 we will talk about the nitty-gritty of doing this. In fact, we will see a video of how some people in this church are getting involved in the harvest.
How should we join the harvest?
Be a friend. The problem with so many of us is that we have few unchurched friends. Because our unbelieving acquaintances may have habits or priorities or goals or humor with which we are not comfortable, we avoid them socially and spend all our time with believers. That’s understandable; I do it myself. But if we’re going to reach our neighbors, our fellow-workers, our schoolmates, it will only be as we first seek to be their friends. We haven’t earned the right to witness to people if we are not first willing to show kindness to them and spend time with them. Jesus, you will recall from last Sunday, smashed the twin cultural barriers of racism and sexism in order to reach out to the Samaritan woman. He showed Himself to be a friend.
Establish common ground. Jesus did this too. Remember, He didn’t open the conversation with the Samaritan woman with something like, “Lady, don’t you know I am the Messiah and that you should believe in Me?” Instead, He starts with something she is thinking about—namely water. He lays a simple foundation on which to build the conversation.
Unfortunately, many Christians who witness (and the percentage who witness at all is tragically small) don’t take time to establish common ground, but rather approach every victim (I mean, “potential convert”) the same way. As Fritz Ridenour puts it, “They shoot from the hip with a fusillade of Biblical bullets that leaves the victim … running for psychological cover.” [ii] It is true that bridges are harder to construct than walls, but bridges are the only way to cross the gulf between the unbeliever and his creator. Just a little effort and a few well-thought-out questions can often succeed in revealing common ground, opening up an opportunity to share Christ.
Answer questions without getting sidetracked. Again, we saw how Jesus masterfully handled the Samaritan woman’s questions. Her goal was to get the attention off her sin, but He steered the conversation back to the crucial issue of her relationship with God. Now I’m not suggesting for a moment that every conversation we have with an unbeliever must be a spiritual conversation. But when we have the opportunity to share our Christian faith, and the person is evidently under conviction by the Holy Spirit, then we should learn to steer diversions back to Christ.
Focus on the good news that Jesus has solved our sin problem. The Gospel is good news. In fact, the term “Gospel” means good news. Why then do we so easily get trapped into a negative, condemning approach to unbelievers. Sure, they have a sin problem, and they need to know it; Jesus wasted no time pointing that out to the woman at the well. But He never made her feel condemned. Instead, He focused on her need to have a right relationship with God and the positive impact living water could have in her life.
Bring the listener face to face with his or her need to personally receive Jesus Christ. If there’s one step missing from much of our evangelism, it is the most important step. None of us likes to be turned down. We don’t want to hear the word “no.” So even when we get up the courage to share our faith, we often stop without asking the person if they wish to personally receive Jesus. That makes no more sense than a salesman spending an hour with a potential customer and never asking if he wants to buy his product. He wouldn’t be in business very long.
Conclusion: Evangelism has been defined simply as one hungry (thirsty) beggar telling another hungry (thirsty) beggar where to find a piece of bread (a drink). If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you not only know where to find a piece of bread or a drink; you know where there’s a magnificent banquet just waiting for people to come and enjoy. The fields, friends, are ripe. May God help us to seize the day and join the harvest.
DATE: November 29, 1992
Tags:
Evangelism
Friendship evangelism
Missions
Will of God
[i] F. M. Cornford, Microcosmographia Academica, Being a Guide for the Young Academic Politician, see http://educ.jmu.edu/~brownet/Microcosmographia_academica.pdf.
[ii] Fritz Ridenour, How to Be a Christian without Being Religious.