An Unexpected People Receive Life Pt 3

I ask you to open up your Bibles to John chapter 4, as we continue our study in this gospel. We'll be looking at 31 through 42 today, but let's go back to 27, and we'll read to 42. So John chapter 4, verse 27. Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that Jesus was talking with a woman, but no one said to him, what do you seek 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. Can this be the Christ? So they went out of the town and were coming to Jesus. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, saying, 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?

Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months? then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. 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 for two days.

And many more believed because of his word. And so 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 let us pray well father we ask for your help now to receive your word god we know that with our own flesh it is an impossible task but by the aid of the spirit we know that we can receive your word and it becomes effectual for salvation for justification for sanctification and we await the day in which we are glorified to be together with you. But until that day, I pray, Lord, that we would constantly bring our souls to bear on your truth, that we would see our need for repentance, that we would see the wonderful and merciful Savior of the world.

God, that we would never grow dull or weary of doing this, but instead we would be encouraged by grace to do this very thing. So help us, God, we ask. Be with the people before me as they hear. And may they hear in a way that's filled with life. And may you be with me as I speak. May I preach and teach your word faithfully to get the sense of what it's saying and to bring it to bear upon our very souls here today.

Thank you, Lord, that we can rely upon you for all these good things. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. well since my youth I have always been very fascinated with things related to like the end of civilization or the crumbling or the teardown of it I don't know why it's just always been a fascination for me and so when you can imagine when 2020 came around I was pretty stoked I thought this was it this is this is going to happen you know of course we saw that everything went back to normal unfortunately but it's just always been a desire of mine just to see the breakdown of society to TV shows that kind of depict that have always been interesting to me.

And so there was, I remember this one TV show that was on the History Channel. That was back before the History Channel had just constantly like aliens. I guess now that's all it is. It's just about aliens. I don't know why. But it was before that time in which the show was, I forget exactly what it was called.

I meant to Google search it before I came up. I forgot. But it's something to do with what the world would be like without humans, right? So if humans were to disappear, what would it look like on the earth afterwards? And it would go through the years and everything, the decades. And I watched a few episodes and I got bored with it because there's only so much you can say about that topic.

But it was fascinating because it was interesting to see the vast cities that are around this earth, the places where humanity has made its mark known, and then to see life kind of take it back over. To see these cities like New York City, these major cities in which it's just one big cement blob, and then all of a sudden throughout the years you see the the the vines take over the plant life take over life indeed kind of encroaches upon it and it slowly becomes a forest it slowly becomes nature again and of course this isn't just you know this is something that has happened before with different ancient civilizations that you had this vast metropolis taken over after humanity was gone there, taken over again by life, by nature. And I bring this up because there is something about life, and I've said this before behind the pulpit, I think when I was preaching through Psalms, there's something about life, there's something about God and life that he's created in which it has a desire to spread.

It has a domain, it has a borderline within its view, and it has this longing to spread to that border as far as it can go. There is something about life in everywhere you look where that is the case. You look closely at the human body, there's life throughout the whole human body. You look closely at a plant, same thing. And you see plants constantly wanting to spread life everywhere.

That is the nature of what life is or what it does And why that important I think where we at now in John is because if you remember John is teaching us what life is You remember the purpose of John I hope you never get tired or maybe you get a little bit tired of me saying what his purpose in John is because we need to remember that he wrote this thing so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. What is life? What does that mean? and we've been learning what life is.

And one thing we learned and we saw last week is that life is righteousness flowing forth from the forgiveness of sins in which we drink deeply of and become righteous ourselves. Remember, Jesus was having that conversation with the Samaritan woman saying that you need to have a drink of living water, of me, of my righteousness, of my forgiveness, and then you can be righteous and no longer thirst after it. Remember, that's been the conversation last week.

But now, this week, the conversation transitions from life is to receive Jesus and his righteousness, forgiveness of sins, right? And now it moves on to life also looks like that we don't just keep that life within us, you know, hold it tightly and we don't ever let anyone know. But there is something within us that just desires this life needs to go out from us.

In fact, we looked at John 7, in which Jesus says that those who believe upon me, they'll have living waters in which they'll go forth from their very souls. And so this week we get a taste of what life is, and that is that this life that is received, this righteousness from Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sins, through his righteousness, then has a desire to go forth to our neighbors. That is what life does, and that's what we'll see here today. and Jesus is going to teach us this, really this gospel, he's going to teach us this in three different ways here.

And the first way is Jesus is going to point to himself. He's going to point to himself, and then he's going to challenge his disciples, and then we're going to see an example of it in the Samaritan woman of life is spreading forth to other people. That's what we're going to see this morning. And so let's start to look at that now. Let's look how Jesus points to himself to reveal that fundamental truth of what life is, to spread forth to others.

He says, the gospel, the narrative says, in verse 31, meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, saying, Rabbi, eat. That word meanwhile connects with what we've already went over to where we're at now. And again, not to repeat myself too much here, but if you remember, Jesus was tired, he was thirsty, hungry at the well in Samaria, unexpected place if you remember the disciples were on it they were going to get food into town and they were that's what their concern was to get food into town and to bring it back and Jesus sitting at the well uses his thirst to make a spiritual point to the Samaritan woman that you are thirsty too and you need a drink you remember that that's what we looked at last week but but this whole time the disciples were going into town to get food so that they could eat because they were hungry, they were weary, they were tired.

And I think what we see in this text here is that, you remember, the disciples come back with the food, and they see Jesus speaking to this woman of Samaria, and it's weird to them, but they don't bother to ask any questions. And I think, if we read between the lines here, it's because they're really concerned about the food. They're really hungry, and they're really concerned about it, and they say, okay, that's weird, but we got this food finally, and let's prepare it and make it and eat it because we are very hungry.

Imagine traveling all morning through that desert. You'd be thirsty, hungry, tired, ready to eat. And so I think what we're seeing here is that the disciples see the weird thing of talking to a Samaritan woman and they don't really ask any questions. They don't bother to ask anything. They just focus on getting that food prepared. And I think some time goes on here to do that because in a moment we're going to see Jesus refer to a crowd coming in from town.

And that takes a little bit to happen. I mean, I imagine at least a half hour longer. So I think some time is happening here, meanwhile, where they got the food, they're preparing it, and they start to eat it. And the strange thing is, is that Jesus doesn't seem to be interested in eating, which is strange because he's hungry. They know he's hungry. They're all hungry.

They've been hungry. So it's strange that he's not eating the food set before him. And so they finally say, after a time, they say, they urge him with urgency, Rabbi, eat, eat the food. I understand, again, why the disciples would be concerned about this, right? Remember, when you're hungry, when you need to get food prepared and together for people, it's hard to think about anything else, whether you're hosting.

If you know people are hungry and you need to get this together, that is what your mind is on. It reminds me of traveling up to Caseville, Michigan in the thumb. And in the thumb, it's like Ohio. If you ever want to go to a place that's outside of home, but it's just like home, go to the thumb of Michigan. It looks just like Ohio. And there's no restaurants around.

And I didn't know that the first time I made a trip up to Caseville. And so there's a restaurant, right, you know, we leave in Metro Detroit. And I'm like, ah, no, it's not quite time yet. And we start going up, and there's not a restaurant for the eye to see. And the kids are getting hungry. My wife's getting hungry.

I'm getting hungry. All I had on my mind was food at that point. and I couldn't find any, right? I had no desire to see the spiritual things of anything. It's not like I saw a rainbow and said, kids, look at that rainbow. Now let's discuss the covenant of grace for a little while. None of that.

It was just food. Where is food? We need to get food. We need to get ready. And that, I think, I think it's clear from the scriptures, that is what's been the focus of these disciples up to this point. And they are confused why Jesus isn't eating the food that they finally got.

They said, Rabbi, eat. They're urgent. Eat. Eat the food. Now we're going to see, they should be urgent about something else that Jesus is. And that's the lesson that needs to be taught.

But Jesus, in teaching this, he says in verse 32, and he going to point to himself to teach this lesson he said to them I have food to eat that you do not know about That a criticism against them You do not know anything about this. I have food that I'm enjoying right now that you have no idea about. There's a reason why he's saying I'm not eating right now.

It's because I'm concerned with a greater food that's nourishing me that you do not know about. They should have known something about it, or they should have at least asked about it. right they saw him speaking to the Samaritan woman giving her spiritual well uh living water and they should have asked no desire because we have this food to work on and they could have asked while they're eating and there's no indication that they had any questions to ask there they just wanted to eat and then we'll see moving forward in the next verse they don't understand in fact when he says this point they still think what did someone feed him and so they are completely oblivious to the urgency of the fact that living water is being expelled right now and being received. That should be their focus right now, even in light of their hunger for physical food.

But they're not urgent on that. There's no urgency on that. Instead, there's an urgency to eat food so that they're no longer hungry. He says, you don't know about it. You don't have eyes to see it. So again, verse 33, that's the point being made.

I have a food that I've been doing, that I've been nourished on, and I think the crowd is coming at this point. I think Jesus is ready to welcome that crowd and give them spiritual water. That is his food to do, as we'll talk about. The disciples should be getting ready to do the same thing, and what they're concerned about is, Rabbi, eat. Eat your food. and he says, I have a food that you obviously don't understand.

In verse 33, the disciples completely don't get it. They don't say, hey, maybe that has something to do with the woman at the well. Hey, maybe that has something to do with the fact that she left in a hurry and now she seems to be bringing back a whole crowd of people. They don't think that. Instead, they say, no, there's no way. Has anyone brought him something to eat?

There's no way in Samaria a Samaritan brought a Jew something to eat. that's absurd. So what does he mean that he has food, right? Again, he's making a spiritual point. I have a spiritual nourishment that is bigger than this physical nourishment that you want me to have, but they miss it altogether for the physical. And remember, we've been seeing this as a theme.

Nicodemus missed the spiritual point being had. He was ignorant, right? You must be born again. How is someone going to be physically born again, Jesus? Remember, he missed it. And the Samaritan woman before she received the living water.

She missed it too, right? If you would have asked me, Jesus says, you would have received living water. And she says, what are you talking about? You have no way to get water from the well. Miss the spiritual point altogether. And here we see the disciples missing the spiritual point altogether as well.

And just let's take a moment. This isn't the main thing that's being said here, but that is the humanity's plight. That is the error of humanity is that we are both body and soul. And in sin, we miss the soul part of life completely. We are just fixated on the physical like animals. And so this problem that we've already seen a few times in John is a problem of humanity.

In our sin, we cannot see the invisible soulness or spiritualness of the things around us that is everywhere. Imagine, they just witnessed, they are witnessing living water exploding and they don't have eyes to see it. It's just as real as their physical body. It's just as real as the food they're holding in their hand, yet they are blinded to it because of the ignorance that comes forth from sin.

And that is our condition as humans, that we need Christ to overcome for us, to see, to awaken to the spiritual reality, not just in eternity but even now happening right now it reminds me of just being at the park here where joe libby got married and jelena got married and brandon right i believe at that same park and um and you go to that there's those mature trees and you hear like the leaves the living leaves on top of the trees and it just makes like a a rumble noise and and it sounds beautiful and Anyone could hear that physical thing happening. It's wonderful. But do you understand, those are literally trees clapping to Jesus Christ, to God for creating life, saying, I will give you life.

And now they are responding with that life, giving him praise and worship, clapping to him. That's scriptural. The spiritual thing that's going on there is a praise to their God for creating life there, in which you can go there, stand amongst the trees, and praise God with the leaves clapping to him. Now, you might look a little weird if you get a little too fanciful, but nevertheless, that is truly what's going on.

Or even look in this room. There is something deeply spiritual going on in this room. That the man or the woman who has no eye to see it, no heart to receive it, they don't understand it. Because they're cut off from that true reality that's happening because of their sin. The worship, the praise, the word. Without understanding that, this all seems very weird, dull. why would you waste your time doing that?

And so this issue that we're seeing now again with the disciples, they are missing the spiritual point because they're so fixated with an urgency on the physical. Did someone give him food when really he's talking about the wonderful living water that has been exploding forth from him to this woman and now that's about to happen to this town. That's where their urgency ought to be, but they are blinded by it.

So Jesus, again, still pointing to himself, still pointing to himself to teach this lesson. He says to them very plainly in verse 34, My food, here's the point, the physical interacting with the spiritual, now bringing it together to teach us, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work So that the spiritual point being made here is that I have a food a spiritual food to do the will of God. My hunger, Jesus is saying, is to do his will.

That is what leads me, guides me, is I'm hungry to do what pleases the Father. And so my food that nourishes me, the spiritual food, is to do that very thing. and so he's using this physical point of his hunger to teach that spiritual point there notice it's wonderful that jesus uses his deep thirst last previously to make a spiritual point of how this woman is thirsty and now he's using his hunger to teach this spiritual point of how our hunger should be to do the will of god and our food should be to do it and notice how jesus uses his thirst and hunger to make these spiritual truths come alive for us to understand and practice. Where when we're thirsty and hungry, we're like ogres who just consider ourselves, get out of my way, just give me these things.

Jesus is helping others to understand. This is what his food is, is to do what pleases God. His hunger is to do what pleases God and his food is to do those very things. I want you to imagine for a moment or even, I even imagine this week sometime, fast for 24 hours. Fast for 24 hours. Okay, I'll say the caveat.

Make sure it's fine for you to do that. Okay? But fast for 24 hours and in the 23rd hour, consider this verse. Meditate on it for a while. That Jesus is saying, my hunger is to do what the will of the Father is. That's my food.

And in 23 hours after not eating and you are very hungry, consider that sentence there to say that I am getting a little bit of a taste of the desire Jesus had to do what pleased God. That his food, as hungry as I am now, that is something like his hunger to do what pleased God. Now, don't do this part. Now, just don't eat up until almost starvation. And the moment before you die of starvation, consider that same point.

Jesus had a desire that is beyond comprehension to do what pleased the Father. That's what he hungered for, and his food was to do it in a way that we cannot even fully comprehend. This is what our Lord, this is his life that he had. He had a thirst, a desire, a hunger constantly to do what pleased God. And that's what makes sin so evil, by the way, because it's not so much to say that sin is bad, don't do it, although that's true, but is that when you waste time with sin, you are not being nourished on what pleases God.

There is always the opposite of sin, right? If you are struggling with sexual immorality, the biggest, you're breaking God's law, you're dishonoring him, and you could be spending your time, if you have a wife, to all that for her, to be nourished by that, to enjoy the food that comes forth from that, but instead you're wasting time on this sin. Jesus, what nourished him, his food, his desire, was what pleased the Father.

He would never waste time with sin because that is the direct opposite of that. So he's telling the disciples, he's telling them that the reason why I'm not so focused, urgent, on this physical food is because there's something spiritual here happening. There's something that pleases my Father that gives me my food. and it overcomes my physical hunger.

It reminds me, I have a house that was built shortly after the Garden of Eden was planted and so there's a ton of work to be done and there's plenty of times when I'm in the middle of doing a work, something, a project, and I forget that I'm a creature that's supposed to eat food because I'm just so ingrained in the project. That's just what my desire is. That's what I want.

And my wife has to remind me, you are supposed to eat food. There's one time where I got up quickly after doing some work, and I almost tipped over and fainted. I didn't tell my wife that. But I was like, what is going on there? There's something wrong. I realized, well, I haven't ate in like 12 hours.

That might be it. And the point is that whenever we have something before us that really motivates us, that really drives a determination in us, we forget about these other things. and Jesus is saying my food my nourishment comes forth from doing what pleases God and so therefore I'm not so urgent on eating right now I'm urgent on the task that is set before us that needs to be done that is to give these this town living water let's spend a moment though looking at as we are finishing this point of looking at Jesus and then he's going to challenge his disciples to do the same. Let's take a moment to look at what is exactly, what pleases the Father?

What did Jesus come to do? What pleased the Father for him? And really to answer that, again, what pleased the Father? What did Jesus, what was he called to do? What was his food? What was his hunger?

Well, again, I think I already quoted it once, and if I could quote it a billion more times, you remember the point of the book is that by believing in Jesus, you'd have life in his name. And so the will from the Father for Jesus was to do everything necessary for you to have life. Does that make sense? The will from the Father for Jesus was to do everything necessary for you, and in this context with the Samaritan woman and the Samaritan town, to have life.

That is what fueled Jesus. That is his determination. This is what pleased the Father for him, and he did it. His righteous life was lived so that you would gain righteousness. His righteous death that he suffered was that you would be forgiven of your sins and receive righteousness. Everything Jesus did, his food, nourished him, what pleased the Father was to provide you with living water, to provide the woman with living, the town with living water.

That's what his will, that's what his desire beyond anything was to do. What a comfort that is. Again, just a quick moment as a side. What a sweet comfort that is that when Jesus returned to be with the Father, that tenacity didn't go away. It's not like he's like, okay, I did it, and now I can just relax at the right hand of the Father. He still has that same drive, motivation to provide you, beloved, with living water.

So if you're an unbeliever, do you understand that Jesus says, beckons you, come to me and receive? If you are a follower of Jesus and you are caught in sin, you're caught in sadness for some reason, that you feel like you're letting Christ down, Do you understand that he still has that desire to give you living water that transcends physical food and the comforts therein? He is for you, not against you.

Remember that as you battle your sin and you want to believe, oh, this is it. That is it. And not only, as we then move on to challenge the disciples, not only did he provide everything for living water for you to be righteous, but also he's done everything to enable you to then spread that righteousness abroad. Going back to the beginning of the sermon, right, is that life is revealed in the fact that it doesn't stay hidden and just locked up in here, but it just has a desire to go forth to your neighbor, go forth everywhere.

And so Jesus' desire was to provide, or his food, was to do the will of the Father, and that is to give you righteousness, to give the disciples righteousness, but also to give them that display of righteousness in which they have a longing and desire to reach out to the people with that same righteousness. And so that's where his challenge then comes forth from moving on. He then moves on to challenge his disciples.

He says in verse 35, he says, Do you not say that there are yet four months? Then comes the harvest. Really what we're seeing here is that this whole challenge is going to be basically packaged up, and you ought to have an urgency to reach these people with living waters. That is my urgency. That's why I'm not eating, and you don't even have eyes to see it.

And it ought to be flipped for you. You ought to be joining me saying, hey, here they come, Jesus. Let's go. Let's get to work, right? But instead, they have no idea, nothing. And so here, Jesus is challenged and says, I do all that pleases the Father, which is to provide righteousness and give you that desire to do the same thing, to reach the people.

And now he's going to that challenge. It's going to be bound up, and there's an urgency here that you ought to share with me to reach these people. And he begins this by saying again in verse 35, Do you not say that there are yet four months, then comes the harvest? What he's saying there, it's probably a popular proverb at the time, that when you plant seeds in four months or so, there'll come a harvest.

So in yet four months, there'll be a harvest. And the point is, we gotta wait, right? You see the busyness of the farmers as they plant in the field, and then all of a sudden there's waiting for a couple months. How silly would it be for them to go out when it wasn't ready yet to start harvesting that stuff that's not ready? No, they need to wait for that to happen, right?

I remember first coming into Ohio, being around crops for the first time, and I was just so confused when the corn and the beans were turning brown and dying. I'm like, what are they doing? It's all about to die. Go get it. Go get the harvest. I didn't realize that that's supposed to happen and then the harvest comes.

For them to go out when it's green would be to ruin the whole thing. It would be silly. They need to wait a while longer to bring in the harvest. And Jesus is saying that you've heard that proverb. There are yet four months, then comes the harvest. But then he's going to make a contrast.

He says, look, I tell you, lift up your eyes. look up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest now. There is no waiting. Typically you would wait for the harvest, but he says, look, there's the harvest that's ready now. And what do you think Jesus is pointing to when he's saying this? He's pointing up to the crowd coming. He's saying, look up and see there's a harvest right now.

So enough, he says with that proverb, that doesn't apply anymore. We're not waiting. The harvest is ready immediately. upon planting. Look up and see that the harvest is white for collecting. It's ready to be received. There's nothing worse, right?

Can you imagine a harvest that's ready to be received and a farmer too lazy to receive it? That would be the epitome of laziness and corruption, that a farmer would not, after planting and waiting, would not be eager to go out and harvest what's ready. And Jesus is saying look it the harvest is ready now The crowd comes to receive living water Do you see them coming It is ready now Their urgency should not be on eating this food but on receiving the harvest Look up He says in verse 36, underline that word there, already.

That's the point of what he's saying, already. The one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life. He says it's happening now. You imagine back then you might be just this your main job or one of the main jobs would be to go to the fields that are ready for harvest and hire yourself out to receive the harvest. Right. Or during the planting season, you might go out to someone who owns land and I'll plant.

Right. And I'll receive wages for that. And then you'll go out a few months later when it's ready. You see it's ready and you go out and you say, I'll harvest what has been planted to receive wages. And what Jesus is saying, he's saying already. There is no waiting.

He says already the one who reaps is receiving wages. And he's gathering fruit for eternal life. Notice the connection with the physical to the spiritual point. The gathering fruit for eternal life, he's not talking about his concern for farmers to be good farmers here. He's saying it is ready now to receive souls for eternal life. there is a harvest right now, Jesus is saying, to receive those souls for eternal life.

And that goes back to him pointing to himself about what he's done. Because Jesus Christ has done the work of righteousness to spread through the world. He's done the work. And so what he's saying is, I've done the work, now look the harvest is ready, go and finish the work, so to speak, as you collect the souls for eternal life and receive your wages for eternity so as he points himself and says my will is to do or my food is to do the will of the father the will or what he has done as he spread righteousness so that we could go and gather that harvest that should be our will as well he says already they are gathering their wages already they are gathering souls for eternal life He says, so that sower and reaper, in verse 36, finishing that off, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

You see the quickness involved there. It's like the imagery is that the sower sows, and then right behind him is reaping the fruit. And the thing that you need to put your mind on is the quickness. It's ready now, the urgency now. And this isn't just for this time period. Jesus is making a declaration about the church age, that I have come to do the work so that the souls would be collected now.

The urgency is now, so much so that it would be planting and reaping almost in the same breath. And he finishes off by saying in verse 27 and 28, or 37, 38, excuse me. He says, for here the saying holds true. One sows and another reaps. But I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.

Another proverb, right, in which you have the sower, right, and then you have a reaper that comes later on and he says that the sower has sowed and you are right behind them reaping what they've sowed. Now who's the one doing the sowing? Is it Jesus? Is it the Samaritan woman going and reaching the town, bringing them here so you can reap? is that John the Baptist, some people say, right, who has recently went out and started preaching this gospel of repentance.

Take your pick, right? I think it probably, he's referring to the Samaritan woman who's going out and planting, right? Going out, hey, come see this one. And he's saying, now, right away, it's a harvest, it's ready. But the point is, is that you have the planters, you have the sowers, or the receivers, and it's happening quick, it's happening now. Your urgency should reflect that.

Now that's a challenge to the disciples, right? The challenge is you have received life, well, go out and get life. This is the way life operates. It has a desire to reach forth to all that it can for life. And he's challenging the disciples, the time is now, the harvest is there, go forth and receive souls for eternity. But then notice that then we have the example of the Samaritan woman for these next few verses here.

There's an example of the Samaritan woman of this very thing that he's teaching. He says in verse 39, the narrative, John the apostle says in verse 39, many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. You see that example right there? The woman receives the living water and she goes out to the town and says, Come see this man who knows everything about me, my sins.

He told me all that I ever did. And so the town believed based off of her testimony. This is an example of what Jesus is saying She receives living water and she goes out and she can help but to express this living water to those around her We talked about that last week a little bit But the example continues, though, and something that we need to grab hold of and learn from.

In verse 40, it goes on, the narrative goes on to say, So when the Samaritans came to him, that is, they come, right? That's been the whole, you know, in the background. They finally come to him and they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. So they have a receiving of him. There's a thirst there.

And they see someone that they want to be around for a couple days. And so he's there for a couple of days. In verse 41, many more believe because of his word. So those couple of days they were hearing him for themselves. And in verse 42, 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 indeed is the savior of the world you see the point there is that the Samaritan woman's goal or job was not to bring everyone to herself it was to bring everyone to Jesus and then when they hear Jesus they say ah yes we taste and see that he is good that this is true and this is the point of us gathering the harvest is we're bringing people to hear of Christ themselves.

We say, taste and see. He's everything. He's promised. Just see for yourself. We see that the Samaritan woman gathered them up not to be a prideful show-off, to bring them to herself, but instead to bring them to Jesus. And they came to him, and they saw, yes, he is everything you've said.

So what are some conclusions? Some implications or applications we can get from this these last few minutes that we have as a disciple of jesus your hunger needs to be for the will of god that that is that is what a disciple of jesus is your hunger is no longer for sin you have been redeemed you have been brought out of that no longer as a christian as a follower of jesus your hunger matches the hunger of jesus that is you desire the will of God above everything and your food is to do that very thing as it was the will of God for his son to do the work needed to make the soil fertile right that's why Jesus I my hunger is to do this work of righteousness for the world so it is the father's will for you to go and bring in the harvest now there are seasons where the harvest is more plentiful. There are seasons of drought, but your hunger simply is to be the laborer for God and let him decide what season it will be.

So in other words, your hunger, your thirst needs to be for what pleases God, and that is for you to go and labor for the gospel, to spread it. And if he decides it's going to be a season of great harvest or a season of great drought, that's his prerogative. Your prerogative is simply to go and be the worker. and I think we have gone through a drought in our nation.

We have gone through a drought in this last generation. I am so tired of seeing young people leave the faith. I'm so tired of the whole thing, of seeing generation after generation of people thinking sin is better. And the problem is that can influence us to say, ah, there's not much of a harvest here. I'm not going to do the work. But beloved, your will, your desire, what gives you nourishment is to do what pleases God. and he says go out to the harvest and collect the harvest no matter if you're gathering a ton of sheaves or very little this is what should drive us not the outcome so much as what he has told us to do i want you to notice too from this text that you're not called to be an expert in argumentation and an expert apologist perhaps you are and you're very good at that and perhaps you can you can fulfill that void that's needed in our church.

It's to be a very good, you know, apologist, as we see on the internet. But that might not be the way that you bring in the harvest. I hear all the time that I'm afraid to share my faith. I'm afraid to go and be bold for Christ like this because I just, I'm afraid I'm going to lose an argument or I'm just, someone's going to get the better of me. Notice what the Samaritan woman said.

She didn't get into this big apology. Hey, guess what? I found out worship always supposed to be a Jerusalem the whole time. We were wrong. It's not in this mountain. She doesn't say, and guess what?

It's not going to matter anymore. What does she say? He knows everything about me. He knows my sin. He knows, and he offers forgiveness. You are called to talk about sin when you talk with others, your own and the forgiveness found in Christ.

And you are to talk about their sin and the forgiveness that's found in Christ. This isn't some huge rocket science argumentation that you need to be great at before you can even think of giving the gospel. It's not the way it works. I want you to notice you are not called to be an expert in argumentation an expert apologist You are simply go and talk about sin and righteousness and Christ who gives us that drink And in a lot of ways actually that harder It's a lot easier to have all these arguments that you can point to.

But when you're called to point to your own sin and the mercies found in Jesus and their sin, that gets a little deeper, doesn't it? But what fuels us is that Christ Jesus is a conqueror of sin. He's done the work. He's gracious and kind and merciful. And so we talk about sin around here. We don't put it under a blanket and try to just avoid it because Christ has conquered.

So you're called to go and talk about sin. But I think what will stop us is that we're too prideful. We don't want to talk about sin. We're too afraid to talk about others. Well, we have too good of a Savior to avoid doing that. I want you to notice also about this text.

I want you to notice Jesus has a very optimistic view of the harvest. now that he has come to do his work. He has done the will of the Father, that was his food, and he has a very optimistic view of the harvest, doesn't he? And that doesn't mean that the harvest, a lot of times there's a drought, but if you look at the church age as a whole, it's been one of harvesting.

That's what it's been. I know we're in this time of history where it's been one of drought, and we think that's how it's always been. No, it's not. have a certain optimism as you look at the harvest before you. Instead of waking up and murmuring and complaining at the news, murmuring and complaining about the things happening around you, have an optimism that Jesus had that there's a harvest out there to be collected.

Jesus had an optimistic view of this. Therefore, as people in the age after Christ has done his work, we should be optimistic about the harvest too. If you look at the age as a whole, I think this is panned out to be an age of harvests. So carry this with you as a harvester. Whether it's with a stranger on the street, the friend at a social gathering, a co-worker in the break room, or even your children in your own home, that you are called to harvest for the Lord.

Do it with optimism. Do it with, this is better. Christ is better. Sin is worse. He has provided something better. I want you to notice, too, a complete indifference to be a laborer for Christ, for God, is not the sum of the excuses you have made.

You don't have good excuses. You just don't. I'm not very sociable. I'm not very smart. I don't know enough. It is a result of a lack of a hunger to do the work of Christ that he's enabled by his blood. repent and ask God to create such a hunger in you to continue to sit to no longer sit on your hands but rather to be light and salt to a world around you so life is always seeking to spread within the bounds set for it Jesus has given you has granted you as the people of Christ life within you that it would spill over to all you come into contact with.

In an age when we are told to look up and see a billion reasons to complain and to hate, Jesus tells you to look up and see the harvest. It's ready, plentiful, love, preach, teach, tell the good news of the gospel, show it in your lives. The harvest is ready. Oh God, thank you for the life that you've offered to your children. God in heaven, we know that we are enjoying you most when we're glorifying you, when we're honoring you.

I pray, Lord, that you would help us not to be like the disciples in this point, in this part of the story, where they're so concerned with the things of this life, the physical, that they cannot see the spiritual life that was blooming right before them that they could engage in. Lord, would you give us eyes to see the different ways around us that living water is flowing to a people? Would you give us those eyes to see God we know that you do this we see the same disciples here when Pentecost happens and the Holy Spirit comes down we see them go forth there was no bounds for them Lord I just pray I ask Lord that as we enjoy the life of Jesus as we enjoy his righteousness as we taste him each day and enjoy him I pray that it would be our food and drink to reveal this life to those around us Lord let us be praying towards this end let us be praying oh give me a sensitive heart to see who can I be sharing Christ with let us be faithful to do it not because we're strong not because we're smart or intelligent but because we are sinners who have tasted righteousness in Christ and we have plenty of sinners before us the harvest is there oh Lord may we be the people that say here I am send me I will go Thank you for Christ.

Thank you for the Spirit. Thank you for the strength that's found in the gospel. May we walk forward by that power. In Jesus' name, amen.