Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Now let us open to the gospel of John yet again. So go to John chapter four.
[00:00:08] John, chapter four.
[00:00:10] So in this gospel, the gospel is the genre of this book. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are gospels.
[00:00:19] These are sort of like biographies of Jesus. They zoom in on particular aspects of his life, particularly his three years of ministry, his death and resurrection.
[00:00:32] And their goal is to present a message with his life.
[00:00:37] So they might rearrange or emphasize different parts of his life. It's not to be comprehensive, but to declare to us a message.
[00:00:44] And so this is what John is doing. He is helping us to see his main point, which is simply believe in the Word made flesh.
[00:00:54] Now, there are numerous repeated themes. I've introduced some of these already.
[00:00:57] We've seen light versus darkness, receiving Christ versus rejecting Christ, Jesus revealing the Father, the work of the Holy Spirit, and belief which leads to eternal life. All of these are themes we've seen, we'll continue to see. And there are some others.
[00:01:13] So I think from now on, because there are so many and they come up so often, I'm just going to start making a noise.
[00:01:20] So you guys know this is one of those repeated themes that's important.
[00:01:24] You'll know it when it comes.
[00:01:27] Christ is the word of God made flesh, revealing perfectly the Father. He is the light in a dark world, and the light will overcome the darkness. He will send the Holy Spirit to teach and to guide us. And if we receive him and believe in him, we move from being under God's wrath to being under God's grace and kindness.
[00:01:48] So at this point, Jesus disciples, they believe in him, even though they don't fully get him and grasp everything he's saying.
[00:01:58] But his own people have rejected him.
[00:02:03] They've rejected him, they've been confused, they've seen his signs, and yet they don't really believe in him.
[00:02:13] So in chapter four, Jesus moves away from Israel. And interestingly, he receives far less pushback than he does in his own home country.
[00:02:23] These verses do not contain one of Jesus seven signs. I've talked about these seven signs that John shows us, but it crucially helps us to see that new birth from Jesus.
[00:02:34] What he is offering is for more than just his people, the Jews.
[00:02:40] Jesus goes and seeks out a Samaritan woman and shares with her the good news which should lead her and all others to know him and worship him truly. So the main idea of John 4:1 42, the main idea is that God seeks sinners, that they would know him and worship him truly.
[00:03:01] So too should Christians seek out sinners.
[00:03:06] God seeks sinners that they would know him and worship him truly. So too, should Christians seek out sinners. We're going to turn and read our passage at one time. It's a bit long, but we can do it.
[00:03:20] So John 4:1 42. Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John.
[00:03:29] Although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
[00:03:37] And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
[00:03:45] Jacob's well was there.
[00:03:47] So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
[00:03:55] A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink.
[00:04:01] For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
[00:04:04] The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, woman of Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
[00:04:14] Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
[00:04:25] The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.
[00:04:39] Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
[00:04:49] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
[00:04:55] The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.
[00:05:02] Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband.
[00:05:07] Jesus said to her, you are right in saying I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.
[00:05:15] What you have said is true.
[00:05:17] The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
[00:05:21] Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.
[00:05:27] Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
[00:05:36] You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. For salvation is from the Jews.
[00:05:42] But the Hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit, spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
[00:05:54] God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
[00:06:01] The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.
[00:06:09] Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.
[00:06:13] Just then, his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman. But no one said, what do you seek? Or why are you talking with her?
[00:06:20] 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?
[00:06:29] They went out of the town and were coming to him.
[00:06:32] Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, rabbi, eat.
[00:06:37] But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.
[00:06:41] So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?
[00:06:46] Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
[00:06:53] Do you not say there 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.
[00:07:11] For here the saying holds true. One sows and another reaps.
[00:07:15] I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.
[00:07:23] Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did.
[00:07:30] So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. 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. And we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.
[00:07:47] That is John 4:1 42.
[00:07:53] Now, sometimes when I come home from work, I pull into my garage.
[00:07:59] Inside, Annie says to Katie that they need to hide.
[00:08:04] Says, let's hide so that I can come find them. She's not paranoid. It's a game to her, where she's not just afraid every time.
[00:08:11] Now, there are only so many places to hide in our house, so I can pretty easily find them. Especially since all three other girls will be hiding in the same place.
[00:08:19] But she loves it for me to go find her.
[00:08:23] But what If I didn't seek them, I think there's at least one time I thought they were outside and I left them hanging for quite a while.
[00:08:30] But what if I just decided to not seek them and find them? Well, Annie would be disappointed, maybe confused, but I don't do that, at least on purpose, because I love them. I look forward to seeing them at the end of the day, so I look for them right away.
[00:08:45] This is what Jesus is like. He seeks the lost. He goes to find the people he loves.
[00:08:53] Even though people naturally seek for God, in some sense, they seek for purpose.
[00:08:59] Left to yourself, you will not be able to find him unless he first finds you in the same way. 1 John 4:19 says, we love because he first loved us. It must start with him as the initiator and the seeker.
[00:09:17] In this passage, Jesus seeks a Samaritan woman and reveals to her that he knows everything about her and that he can offer her living water which eternally satisfies. He teaches her that true worship of God is done in spirit and truth because we don't need to find the right place to worship.
[00:09:34] Fundamentally, Christ is with us by His Spirit, wherever we are, especially with the church. And Jesus teaches his disciples to reap what God has sown with his labor.
[00:09:45] So as God seeks sinners, he charges Christians to reap the harvest. So point number one, answer when God seeks.
[00:09:55] Answer when God seeks.
[00:10:00] So verses one through six kind of set the scene for us.
[00:10:06] So we see that they tell us that Jesus heard the Pharisees had learned that he was baptizing.
[00:10:13] And, you know, presumably because they wanted to go oppose him, he left the area because maybe they were going to come oppose him, right? And on his way to Galilee, where he performed his first sign in John 2, he doesn't get there here, he'll actually get there. In the passage we cover next week, he passes through Samaria. Now, verse four says he had to. But interestingly, geographically, he did not need to pass through Samaria. Therefore, we can see that there must be some other meaning than just it was on the way.
[00:10:46] Based on his divine plan for his ministry, he needed to have this encounter in Samaria. It's for our benefit even that he went through Samaria, as we now have this teaching from him.
[00:11:00] So he went through Samaria. And in this town was a well. This town in Samaria.
[00:11:06] This well was dug by Jacob. Jacob, the one from Genesis, the grandson of Abraham. Maybe you've heard of him.
[00:11:15] Now, Jews did not like Samaritans. It's kind of indicated in the text that they had no dealings with Samaritans. And there are several reasons for that. But I think the main point for us to know is that Jews and Samaritans rarely interacted. Very rarely interacted.
[00:11:31] And it was the sixth hour, so it was midday, nice and hot. You can see why the topic of water would have been fresh on their minds. Verse 7.
[00:11:40] It is now just Jesus and this Samaritan woman at the well, and Jesus asks her for water. She's mostly confused about why a Jewish man is even speaking with her. And the point we want to grasp here, the point we want to grasp, she doesn't know who Jesus is.
[00:11:58] She doesn't know who Jesus is.
[00:12:04] We can all understand that if she knew who he was, she would have responded differently. Which is why he says in verse 10, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
[00:12:18] Now Jesus will explain what living water is, but first she responds. Look at verses 11 and 12.
[00:12:25] Sir, you have nothing to draw water with. Are you greater than our Father Jacob? This is how she's responding.
[00:12:32] Clearly, she doesn't know who Jesus is or what he can do.
[00:12:38] She doesn't know him or what he can do.
[00:12:42] She believes he's speaking of actual water and she thinks it is crazy for him to think he's greater than Jacob.
[00:12:50] Even though he is.
[00:12:52] She doesn't know who Jesus is or what he can do.
[00:12:57] Verse 13.
[00:12:58] Whoever drinks the water from the well will be thirsty again. Of course, thirst students, is a great reminder of our dependence on God. It's a great reminder because no matter how much you have today, if you have no more for 3ish days, you will die.
[00:13:21] I think that's actually kind of crazy. It means you really aren't that far from death.
[00:13:27] Thirst is a really great reminder that life can be short.
[00:13:32] We're not that far, so verse 14. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again and will not die of thirst.
[00:13:45] Jesus is offering water that eternally quenches thirst. Thirst.
[00:13:50] So it can't be regular water from a well. In fact, quite different than the daily draw of water up, you know, however many feet with a heavy bucket, Jesus offers a spring that naturally bubbles up with water, constantly flowing forever and ever, a natural spring bursting.
[00:14:12] And of course, like us, the woman in verse 15, she wants this living water.
[00:14:21] Of course, first, this is a metaphor that Jesus spoke to her. She still doesn't know who Jesus is or what he can do, but she wants relief from her toil. She wants relief from the work and labor of her life.
[00:14:39] As normal people, we too work to live.
[00:14:43] We have to. You know, maybe not at this stage in your life, but eventually you have to work to live, or someone has to be working on your behalf to live.
[00:14:51] Nothing is free. But even now, you have to eat and drink to live or you won't live.
[00:15:00] The fact we have to do something to live again shows us the frailty of your life.
[00:15:06] You are locked in to the toil of living, but Jesus offers you more.
[00:15:14] He's offering you what he offered the woman, this living water, freedom from work and labor and life. That brings forth more life.
[00:15:26] Life giving life is what he's offering you. And so, ding, ding, ding. The theme of eternal life. Life.
[00:15:35] The theme of eternal life. We see this again and again. Eternal life.
[00:15:41] Now, I remember being in school like you.
[00:15:44] Doesn't seem like it was that long ago. And I would think, you know, maybe this isn't you, but this is just something that would go through my head every once in a while. You know, maybe I just need to get through middle school, then I get to be in high school. That'll be way cooler.
[00:15:58] And then I just need to get through high school. And then I can study what I actually want, college, not just whatever these teachers make me take.
[00:16:05] And then I just need to graduate college and I can finally have a fulfilling job, something that I really like to do.
[00:16:11] And then I did basically the same thing through seminary. And then you might think, well, I can work hard and I can get a better job.
[00:16:19] And why do we want better jobs typically? Well, so we can finally retire and then do nothing.
[00:16:26] That's kind of the path of life.
[00:16:29] But then you're not even actually done when you retire. Now you're dealing with pain and aging and the deterioration of your life.
[00:16:38] It's not over until we die or Christ returns.
[00:16:42] We're always looking for the next stage that's going to be better, more fulfilling.
[00:16:48] And at the end, we decline and die.
[00:16:51] It's not over. But Jesus is offering a spring of new life that stays new and stays living forever and ever. This is your only hope when you consider the toil of your life.
[00:17:09] Now, the best natural water that I have ever tasted comes from the faucets in Louisville, Kentucky, United States of America.
[00:17:18] It is so good that Katie and I bring as much home as possible whenever we travel there. I'm not joking, we fill up water bottles and bring it home. It is so delicious.
[00:17:31] Our water comparatively tastes like pool water. It is horrific.
[00:17:37] The point it is sweet, it is tasty, it is refreshing.
[00:17:43] Do you want to taste the sweetest and most life giving water, though it doesn't come from Kentucky.
[00:17:51] You need to believe in Christ.
[00:17:53] That is the sweetest, the most refreshing, the only life giving water that you can have. And so you need to know who he is and what he can do.
[00:18:05] You need to know who he is and what he can do.
[00:18:09] But how can you know Him? How can you know this Jesus? The Samaritan woman couldn't tell.
[00:18:14] Nicodemus couldn't tell. The crowds in Judea couldn't tell.
[00:18:20] Jesus is the one who seeks you.
[00:18:24] He seeks you. He finds you. First he knows you and then you can know Him. First he loves you and then you can love Him.
[00:18:34] One of the main lessons from this passage, when Jesus seeks you, you must answer the call.
[00:18:41] You must answer the call. Don't ignore the pinging on your heart, the nagging in your brain, the pebble in your shoe. Answer the call when he seeks you.
[00:18:52] Don't put it off.
[00:18:53] Remember how short life can be. Don't put it off.
[00:18:58] Answer the call.
[00:19:01] Now point number two, kind of this next section of verses, worship where God is.
[00:19:08] So we want to answer when he seeks. And when we do this, we can worship where he is. So in these next verses 16 to 24, again we see that Jesus knows her. Even though she doesn't know who Jesus is or what he can do, he demonstrates his prophetic power, really his omniscience, his all knowingness by telling her about her history with her husbands.
[00:19:32] And whether this points to her sinfulness or her brokenness as a victim of an unhealthy culture is not really the main point.
[00:19:41] The point is that Jesus knows who she is and he shows her. I really know who you are, though you don't know who I am.
[00:19:52] And because of this, she starts to grasp that Jesus is not an ordinary man.
[00:19:57] So she asks a theological question to this prophet about where people should worship Yahweh, since Jacob had supposedly worshipped on that mountain, but Jews would only worship in Jerusalem. And here Jesus answers in another unusual way for her, says woman, believe me, ding, ding, ding. Belief the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem was will you worship the father? That's verse 21.
[00:20:26] So the Samaritans do not know whom they are seeking because Jesus is coming from the Jews.
[00:20:33] So the Jews receive Him first, literally, because he is born into the nation of Israel. But at the end of the day, verse 23 says, the hour is coming and is now here, where the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
[00:20:53] So again, ding, ding, ding. Jesus is revealing the Father, and we see and hint a hint of the work of the Spirit as we worship in spirit and truth. But the takeaway is that because of what Christ has done, anyone who knows Christ and has been sought out by by him can worship the Father. Truly anyone.
[00:21:22] You don't need to do a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
[00:21:27] In fact, there's no spiritual benefit of going there at all. True worshipers of God worship God in spirit and truth wherever they are.
[00:21:37] The reason that this relates to the work of the Spirit is that Jesus says verse 24, that God is saying Spirit.
[00:21:44] He is not contained in a house, in a temple, in a particular place.
[00:21:50] Therefore we can worship him in spirit and truth.
[00:21:54] God's presence is wherever his people are, because he dwells in them.
[00:22:00] The Christian is the temple of God where His presence dwells.
[00:22:06] That is wonderful. So during the time of the the Old Covenants, worship was done in the tabernacle and then the temple. So the tabernacle was like a mobile version of the temple, and the temple was built in Jerusalem because that was where God's presence was.
[00:22:25] But through Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells directly in and with believers.
[00:22:30] No pilgrimage necessary.
[00:22:33] We don't need to go to a particular place.
[00:22:37] And really where this is most true is when people are gathered as the church.
[00:22:43] Jesus says that where the church gathers, he is there among them. Matthew 18:20.
[00:22:49] And he gives the church special authority to exercise when they are together. These are called the keys of the kingdom.
[00:22:56] Therefore, I think we can say that there is a special measure of Christ's presence when the church worships together.
[00:23:05] He gives the church the duty of worship, the keys of the kingdom to do together.
[00:23:12] So that means, just in case you thought I was going in another direction, the wrong way to take this is to say that church doesn't matter because I have Jesus wherever I go.
[00:23:22] That is the wrong. That would be the worst application you can make. And I'm emphasizing it because a lot of people think that we justify our missed attendance, our neglect of the church, to say, well, Jesus is wherever I go, it's not a building, it's the people. Well, you have to be with the people for it to be church, so don't do that. That ignores Hebrews 10, 24, 25, which says we cannot forsake gathering together.
[00:23:50] It ignores the duties of churches to affirm who is in the church via baptism and the Lord's Supper and declare who is not in the church because we have to do those things together.
[00:24:00] And it ignores all the commands given to Christians in the New Testament letters which are commands given to churches to obey, not individuals.
[00:24:10] So my goal is to convince you that church can never be an afterthought. Because of this passage.
[00:24:17] The church is where God's presence is most clear, clearly displayed. It's where the mystery of the gospel is revealed. Ephesians 3 says, so love the church enough that you do all you can even to stay awake and pay attention when we worship. Sounds simple. It could be hard.
[00:24:38] Love the church so much that you make your decisions in the future for college or for jobs based on whether there are healthy churches in that city or town.
[00:24:48] Let that at least be a calculation in your mind.
[00:24:52] Love the church so much that you even come to a members meeting if you are a baptized member of that church.
[00:25:01] Something radical like that.
[00:25:04] Christ's work has set us free from the sacrificial system of Jerusalem so that we can worship him in whatever church we are gathering with all around the world in spirit and truth. And even as the church scatters throughout the week, he is with you still. You can still worship Him.
[00:25:23] So worship in spirit and truth. Worship where God is. And if you're in Christ, then He is in you.
[00:25:31] Point number three. Now reap what God has sown.
[00:25:37] Reap what God has sown.
[00:25:40] This kind of takes us from verses 25 through verse 42. Reap what God has sown.
[00:25:49] So the first point to take note of in this section is the ministry of Jesus, verse 26. So to complete his seeking of the Samaritan woman, Jesus reveals plainly who he is.
[00:26:02] He is the Christ.
[00:26:04] I am he, the Messiah that had been prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures.
[00:26:10] And then verses 34 through 38, Jesus responds to the disciples.
[00:26:14] Being hyper fixated on the actual eating of food. Jesus has something more important in mind than actual food. Let's look at those verses closely. Verse 34, Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
[00:26:36] 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 the harvest already. The one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
[00:27:00] For here the saying holds true. One sows and another Reaps, I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.
[00:27:11] So even more essential to his life and ministry than food which is needed to live. Jesus is truly human. He needed food.
[00:27:21] More essential than those things, than food is his need to do God's will in his ministry.
[00:27:27] That is his top priority of his life, to do the will of God.
[00:27:32] Doing God's will is sowing and reaping for eternal life.
[00:27:39] So in the literal sense, I think Jesus is referring to the law and the prophets, having sowed the seeds among the people, so that now, since Christ has come, the harvest is ready to be reaped. He is answering all of the promises of the Old Testament that His disciples and his fellow Jews held dear. And the harvest is ready to be brought in.
[00:28:03] But in a different, maybe spiritual sense, we can understand that God prepares the soil.
[00:28:10] Some people plant some water and some reap.
[00:28:16] Some people plant the seed of the gospel in someone's understanding. Some water and help it grow and flourish and become more convincing to them. And others reap and help someone come to know the Lord Jesus christ. That's what those mean. We all need to do all those jobs as God gives the growth. But before we get more into that idea, let's take note of the Samaritans and what they do, because they also play a prominent role in this passage.
[00:28:46] So upon Jesus more fully revealing who he is, the woman is compelled to go and tell her neighbors, the people in town.
[00:28:54] We can see in her testimony, her witness, what just happened, that she is compelled by Jesus because he knew her and sought her. He knew who she was.
[00:29:07] He told her everything she had done.
[00:29:09] And now her testimony intrigues the town to come and see him for themselves. Verse 30. And then verse 39 we see they believed her testimony to come and see, but once they heard him teach, for he stayed in their town for two more days.
[00:29:25] Verse 41 says, Many more believed because of His Word. Many more believed because of His Word. So they believed, verse 42, because they heard for themselves.
[00:29:35] They came and found and heard for themselves.
[00:29:39] The belief actually came from encountering Jesus.
[00:29:43] And their belief is specifically that this is indeed the Savior of the world.
[00:29:48] So briefly, before looking at the role of the disciples in this, consider whether Christ might be seeking you like the Samaritan woman and her neighbors.
[00:30:00] I'm here to tell you that he is the Savior of the world. The Samaritan's testimony here is absolutely correct.
[00:30:07] He knows everything I have ever Done. And yet he came to pursue me anyway. He knows all that you have ever done as well.
[00:30:15] That doesn't mean he does not want to pursue you. That doesn't mean you are outside of his reach, outside of where his mercy can go.
[00:30:26] So open your eyes, ears and heart and come and see.
[00:30:30] Look in the gospel of John, really apply yourself to studying this book and see who Jesus is.
[00:30:38] He is right here, fully on display.
[00:30:41] This Jesus is God in the flesh.
[00:30:44] And he has come to seek even the most evil of sinners to bring them to God.
[00:30:52] Because he can do that, you can believe, just like the Samaritans did. And he will welcome you in and stay with you.
[00:31:02] But now take note of the disciples.
[00:31:05] They're fixated on food.
[00:31:08] So they don't even ask any questions of the Samaritan woman. As if kind of like they see right through her. You can kind of see they don't really deal with Samaritans. They don't address her.
[00:31:19] So here are some lessons Jesus imparts to them.
[00:31:25] First, in verse 34, he says, we learn that to do the will of God is more important than even your life.
[00:31:34] Even food, something we need to live, takes a back seat to do the will of God.
[00:31:42] Sure, don't take this to an extreme. You can and should eat and take care of yourself.
[00:31:49] But the issue with the disciples was that their fixation on food caused them to overlook the woman in need entirely.
[00:32:00] They knew she was there, but they didn't act as if she was there.
[00:32:05] This is for those of you who have already turned to Christ. Ask yourself, do you think you've ever neglected to share the gospel with someone in need because you are filled with fixated on something less important? Think about that for a second.
[00:32:22] This is very convicting to me as someone who is quite task oriented.
[00:32:30] Whenever I am out, I'm typically looking to do what I set out to do and then go right home.
[00:32:40] How many people am I overlooking when I do that?
[00:32:44] Do you do this too fixated on your task, what you're doing? Do you miss what God might be putting in your path or who God might be putting in your path?
[00:32:57] The second lesson Jesus imparts from verse 35 is that the elect are ready to be found.
[00:33:05] The elect are ready to be found.
[00:33:07] That word just refers to those who will be saved. In other words, those who will be saved are out there. Those whom God has foreknown are out there.
[00:33:18] God already knows them.
[00:33:20] He knows them and will seek them.
[00:33:23] He foreknew them before the foundation of the world. And he has tasked his followers to seek them and to find them, and they're ready to be found.
[00:33:34] The harvest is white and ready to be reaped.
[00:33:40] Third lesson from verse 36. Believers from all generations get to rejoice together with those who come to belief in Christ. Believers from all generations get to rejoice together with those who come to believe in Christ.
[00:33:54] The prophets of the Old Testament and the Christian teenagers of today will unite in praise.
[00:34:05] Think about that.
[00:34:07] Christians from all times and places, no matter how different we are, come together and rejoice together over this.
[00:34:15] That's encouraging.
[00:34:17] The fourth lesson from verses 37 and 38. God has prepared the harvest, new believers, for us. So we talk a lot about Christ doing the work so that we can be justified by faith.
[00:34:33] But even in missions and evangelism, God does the work so that he gets the glory.
[00:34:41] There is no step in the process of someone going from sinner to saint that you can take credit for, that you get the glory for cause. It all belongs to the one who seeks, knows, and loves first, that equips us with his spirit that we can find them. And he ultimately uses us to bring in the harvest, so he gets all the glory, even as others before us labor, even before them. God has prepared the soil.
[00:35:14] We are entering into their labor, Jesus says.
[00:35:19] Which reminds me of my college biology lab group.
[00:35:24] I took biology. It was hard.
[00:35:27] This group was assigned to me, so these people were strangers. But surprisingly, with strangers, we came to a very quick, unspoken agreement.
[00:35:38] I was handling the cockroaches and mice and things that we were experimenting on.
[00:35:45] And the three very smart girls I was partnered with, you know, they did not want to touch those things. I didn't really either, but I kind of felt like I had no choice.
[00:35:55] And by the time I was finished with whatever the experiment was, putting the cockroaches back. There's a couple with cockroaches that really scarred me. As you can tell, by the time I was done, they basically had their whole report written. You know, the lab report, that's like the. That's like the meaty part of what you're doing. Like, handling the bugs is super easy.
[00:36:12] And I would just write the abstract, which is like a little intro paragraph at the beginning, and be done when it came time to write. I fully entered into their labor. They did all of the hard stuff. I don't even know how to write a lab report because of this experience.
[00:36:27] And I just did my last little thing. I entered their labor, and I reaped the benefits of a very good grade.
[00:36:35] That's the Christian's role in evangelism.
[00:36:38] We come into the labor and reap the harvest.
[00:36:42] We get the grade that we don't deserve. We get to rejoice with people we're not worthy to rejoice with.
[00:36:49] That is our role, and it is a blessed role.
[00:36:52] Though at the same time, God can use us in various ways.
[00:36:57] It's not what I'm saying that. Well, God does all of this. You really just do nothing. No, he genuinely uses us in various ways. Sometimes we introduce the gospel to someone.
[00:37:09] Sometimes we help the gospel grow by making it make more sense.
[00:37:14] And sometimes we come across someone who has been mulling this over and is ready to turn to Jesus.
[00:37:21] And when this happens, we reap what God has sown.
[00:37:25] We then come all together and worship the Lord in spirit and truth with the church.
[00:37:30] And we worship the one who put on flesh to seek us.
[00:37:35] Without his initiative, we would be like the woman at the beginning of the story.
[00:37:40] We would not know who Jesus is or what he can do.
[00:37:45] But God seeks sinners that they would know him and worship him truly. So too should Christians seek out sinners.
[00:37:54] Let's pray.
[00:37:58] God, we thank you for your son and his wonderful work to seek sinners, his love for people. Whether these people are seen or unseen by the world, God we know you see.
[00:38:10] Lord, we pray that those whom you have loved and sought, Lord, we pray that they will come to know you. They would repent of their sins and trust in you. Lord, help us to be bold evangelists, that we may reap the harvest further. But God help us to be content. Whether we are doing the sowing or the watering or the reaping.
[00:38:33] God help us to be thankful for the ministry, the labor that we have entered into.
[00:38:40] Lord, we also thank you for the church that we can worship together in spirit and truth.
[00:38:45] I pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen.
