Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / John

John 4:1-42 05/22/05

Message: ‘Eyes for the Harvest’                                                                                                                                        Main Text: John 4:1-42

Introduction: J. Wilbur Chapman  wrote: If
•    If to be a Christian is worthwhile, then the most ordinary interest in those with whom we come in contact would prompt us to speak to them of Christ.
•    If the New Testament is true, and we know that it is, who has given us the right to place the responsibility for sharing Christ on shoulders other than our own?
•    If those who reject Christ are in danger, isn’t it strange that we, who are so sympathetic when the difficulties are physical or temporal, should  be so devoid of
     interest as to allow our friends, neighbors and family to come into our lives and pass out again without a word of invitation to accept Christ, to say nothing of
     sounding a note of warning because of their peril?
•    If today is the day of salvation, if tomorrow may never come and if life is equally uncertain, how can we eat, drink and be merry when those who live with us,
     work with us, walk with us and love us are unprepared for eternity?
•     If Jesus called his disciples to be fishers of men, who gave us the right to be satisfied with making fishing tackle or pointing the way to the fishing banks instead
     of going ourselves to cast out the net until it be filled?
•    If I wish to hear ‘well done thy good and faithful servant,  then let me remember that no intellectual superiority, no eloquence in speaking, no absorption in
     business, no shrinking temperament or no spirit of timidity can take the place of, or be an excuse for, my not making an honest, sincere, prayerful effort to share
    Christ with others.
 
J. Wilbur Chapman 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. electronic ed. Dallas: Biblical Studies Press, 2000
 

And I would add, If our eyes were opened to the harvest God has placed before us, perhaps more of us would be
•    going to the mission field like Andrew and Joy, like Janet and Elizabeth, and Lori.

If our eyes were opened to the harvest God has placed before us, perhaps more of us would be
•    signing up to serve at the Lion’s Fair.
•    giving their time to serve at VBS.
•    asking when the Kindness Patrol will have it’s summer outreach events.

If our eyes were opened to the harvest God has placed before us, perhaps more of us would be
•    casually, but intentionally sharing their new life in Christ with their families, friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors.

If our eyes were opened to the harvest God has placed before us…O what God could do!

Background
We are not alone. The men who followed Jesus had some blind spots when it came to seeing the harvest. Jesus had to open their eyes too. 

Transition: This morning we’ll examine the very familiar story of the ‘Woman at the Well’. But we will see that there is more to it than the obvious. Jesus will use this sinful woman to teach a lesson to his disciples…and hopefully to us today as well.

Open your Bibles to John 4:1 (pg. 812 in the church Bible). Where we find Jesus, once again on the move.

Read: John 4:1-3    ‘He left Judea’

Jesus’ sudden rise to popularity, even overshadowing John the Baptist began to get the attention of the Pharisees. They were jealous of his popularity with the people. Jesus knew it wasn’t time to have a confrontation with them so he leaves the area. The Pharisees figure as long as he’s not coming to Jerusalem, let him go.

Transition: So, where would Jesus and his disciples go?

Read: John 4:4-6    ‘He had to go’

I must admit I missed the main point of every time I read this text in the past. Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria to get to Galilee, there were other routes. In fact, because the Jews hated the Samaritans so much they almost always took alternate routes. But Jesus… ‘Had to go through Samaria’. It was his deliberate choice. You see, Jesus’ eyes were open to the harvest the Father set before him…and it included the despised and outcast Samaritans…in particular was one despised, outcast, sinful woman Jesus will meet along the way.

Transition: It was noon; the sun was high and very hot. Jesus, tired, hot and thirsty, decides to take a break at a well, while his disciples leave to get some food. And by chance (not) a Samaritan woman happened along.

Read: John 4:7-15    ‘Living Water’

A well in Jesus’ day was like the company water cooler. It was the place everyone hung out…but not in the middle of the day, not in the intense heat. It’s surprising that a Samaritan woman would come at this time of the day to get water. Well, this was no ordinary woman.
•    To the Jews she was despised because she was a  woman and a Samaritan.
•    To the Samaritans she was despised because he was a ‘loose woman’, a ‘woman of ill repute’.
She had to go to the well when no one else was there, or be  ridiculed and harassed.

Jesus, simply asked her for a drink of the water she would be getting from the well, because he didn’t have a bucket to get any himself. Simple, non threatening…but as we will see, intentional.

The woman was shocked that a Jew..a Jewish Rabbi would speak to her.  Three things that Jesus said would have stimulated her curiosity:

1.    Just who is this guy?
2.    What is the gift of God he is offering?
3.    What does he mean by living water? Perhaps he means ‘running water’ like a stream. But there are none around.

Jesus told her that physical water quenches only for a time, but the water he has will forever quench what makes her thirsty. The living water he offers as a gift of God is free and without effort, unlike getting water from a very deep well which takes much effort on her part.

Sidebar: See the points of the Gospel here in plain, simple terms that relate to her situation? Jesus relates the physical to the spiritual.
1.    A free Gift
2.    Given by God himself   
3.    Belief that Jesus can give her eternal life
4.    Salvation, eternal life is obtained through no effort on her part
Do you see it?

Transition: Because of her sin, she is unable to see the truth of what Jesus offers. She needs her eyes opened, both to her sin and to her Savior. Jesus does both.
 
Read: John 4:16-20    ‘I have no husband’

Remember John 2:23-25? It says Jesus knew the harts of men. Well, Jesus knew her heart too, he knew her sin because he’s God. To open your eyes to Jesus as Savior, your eyes first have to be opened to your sin.

Jesus confronted her with her sin…not with judgment, not with approval, but with grace.  Notice, long before Jesus confronts her with her sin, he is willing to drink from her cup. Too many Christians want to confront the sin of others from a distance without offering to drink from their cup, without truly relating to them. Oh, we can learn so much just from this alone!

When her sin is revealed, she didn’t try to hide it, she was honest, as we all must be before God.

Through all this she recognized Jesus was no ordinary Jew, he must be a prophet because he knew her life history, her sinful life history. 

Her response however is troubling.
•    Is she trying to avoid her sin issue by changing topics to the right way to worship God?
•    Is she trying to avoid relationship by talking about religion?
•    Is she truly seeking to know how to please God with her life, her offering of worship?

I think the last. Jesus has touched her heart, revealed her sin and she wants to know what to do next…how to worship God in the right way, since she is a Samaritan and he a Jew.

Notice that Jesus not only sees this sinful Samaritan woman as part of the harvest God has placed before him, Jesus pursues her, seeks her out. He does something about what he has been shown.

Read: John 4:21-26    ‘I…am He’

Jesus tells this woman what’s important in life
•    it’s not about where you worship it’s about who you worship.
•    It’s not about the outward motions of worship it’s about the heart of worship.
•    It’s not about being a Jew or a Samaritan it’s about being worshippers.
•    It’s not about your pursuit of God, it’s about God’s pursuit of you.
•    It’s not about what you think, it’s about what God says.
•    It’s not about later, it’s about NOW!

The woman uses the word Messiah and is beginning to wonder if Jesus is the one she and her people have been waiting for. Jesus tells her ‘I who speak to you and he.’ Whoa!  Jesus tells her, he is the Messiah, the one she was waiting for. Talk about clarity…talk about grace.

Notice now that God is not a respector of persons. He revealed himself to the Rev. Dr. Nicodemus in Jerusalem and he revealed himself to a despised and outcast sinful woman in Samaria. The saving grace of God is free…for all.

Transition: It’s at this intimate moment that Jesus’ disciples return and the lesson begins.

Read: John 4:27-30    ‘Come see a man’

The disciples didn’t dare interrupt Jesus, but they were aghast. How can he speak to a Samaritan and a Samaritan woman at that? Why was he wasting his time with her?

Here is a part we often miss…the woman is so excited about what Jesus just revealed to her that she runs back to the village and forgets her water jar…Remember she came because she was thirsty and needed water. But her eyes were opened and her focus on the physical gives in to the spiritual.

She runs back to town and tells the people who, by the way, despise her... ‘Come and see’ (sound familiar?) Come and see a man who knows all about me even though a stranger. Can this be the Messiah? And the people, seeing something different in her come to see for themselves.

Transition: Jesus now has some time to use this as an object lesson for his disciples.

Read: John 4:31-42    ‘Open your eyes and look at the field’

The disciples at this point are oblivious to what is going on and with eyes still closed, try to get Jesus to eat something. Jesus tells them he has food that they don’t know of and this confuses them even more. (The food he is talking about is doing the Fathers will: God will always and abundantly sustain those he calls to serve him)

I believe it’s about this point that the towns people are coming to see Jesus. Picture this:
•    Historians tell us that Samaritans wore white robes and white turbans. There is no reason to think they didn’t when they came to see Jesus.
•    Jesus tells his disciples not to wait four months, but to look now to the field for it is ripe (white) for harvest.
•    I believe Jesus gestures to his disciples to look up and at that very moment they see the entire town coming to Jesus. A multitude of white in the brown dessert…
        -I gotta believe they got it!
        -I gotta believe their eyes were opened to the harvest of lost souls that God revealed to them.
        -I gotta believe their hearts were forever changed by what they saw.

Conclusion
•    Jesus had to go to Samaria to meet this woman and change her life forever with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
•    Jesus had to go to Samaria so that this one woman could be the catalyst for a revival movement in her town.
•    Jesus had to go to Samaria to open the eyes of his disciples to the harvest God has prepared for them.

Think about it for a moment. What would happen if we started opening our eyes to the harvest that God has provided all around us? How would our behavior as a church fellowship be different?

•    Perhaps we might start inviting new people to our homes for lunch after worship or dessert during the week.
•    Perhaps we might begin to look for people we can invite to join us at Sunday Worship.
•    Perhaps we will have to raise the Kingdom Building budget to support all the increasing number who answer God’s call to serve him in both short and long
      term missions.
•    Perhaps, like Jesus’ disciples, we will open our eyes and see that the fields all around us are ripe unto harvest…now!
•    Perhaps when we leave this building each Sunday we will recognize that we are entering the mission field.

Let me change focus a bit.

Perhaps, God is seeking you right now just as Jesus sought the woman at the well.
Perhaps you are thirsty and nothing you’ve tried has quenched that thirst.
Perhaps Jesus is offering you the living water of the Holy Spirit who will meet your every need.
Perhaps Jesus is revealing your sin to you right now.
Perhaps God is opening your eyes to the truth that Jesus is the One and Only Son of Almighty God.

The Bible says that ‘Now is the day of salvation’. What do you do?
Tell God you’re sorry for your sin and accept his forgiveness by simply believing that Jesus died on the cross for you, to pay your sin debt. Ask Jesus to be your savior.

The harvest is now!