Amen and good morning. Please take your copy of God's Word and join me in John chapter 4.
!
Our text for today is John chapter 4 verses 31 through 42.
! Before I read it, I want to make a few introductory comments.
Beginning by saying that God's Word is truly magnificent.
If you've been a student of God's Word for any measure of time, you probably already realize this in some ways.
But I will say, having been a pastor here now for 16 years and having the great privilege of day in and day out,
getting the opportunity to study and to teach His Word, I'm just continually amazed.
It is a wonderful, wonderful book.
We can marvel at it just for its literary structure and its prose and the beautiful choice of words.
Anybody who's just a student of literature could really enjoy this book.
But more than that, it speaks to us powerful words.
Words that bring life.
Today's text, verses 31 through 42, if you're already kind of giving it a skim,
could just seem like an appendix to the story told at the beginning of the chapter
where Jesus stops at a well and interacts with a Samaritan woman.
We spent two weeks on the beginning of that chapter.
And some of you may wonder, why not just include that in the totality of it?
Why are we moving so slow through John chapter 4?
Some of you may be thinking.
And so my answer to you is because God's Word is magnificent.
There are things to notice in these verses and to spend the time that we can spend noticing them.
In fact, I very often think we move too quickly through our verse-by-verse expositions
as I discover things later that I want to go back and cover again.
We recently concluded our study of the book of Romans.
And when I got to the end of it, the impulse of my heart was,
let's just start back over again.
Let's just go right back to the beginning.
I think I'll do a better job at it the second time through.
And leading up to our text today, and in our text today,
starting in chapter 2, we have seen a series of misunderstandings in John's writing.
So first we see John chapter 2 and verse 20,
after Jesus has said some things about the temple being torn down
and it being raised up again in three days,
and he's talking about his death and his resurrection,
there's a misunderstanding.
We just see the Jews then said,
it has taken 46 years to build this temple,
and you will raise it up in three days?
They miss the point.
They're hard of hearing.
They don't understand the spiritual thing that Jesus is there teaching.
Then in John chapter 3 and verse 4,
there Jesus is talking about the need to be born again.
Again, a spiritual reality that he's trying to teach to Nicodemus.
And Nicodemus says,
how can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
A misunderstanding,
not an illumination of what Jesus is trying to say to him.
And then John chapter 4 and verse 11,
this is the Samaritan woman,
and Jesus tells her that he can give her living water,
and she says,
sir, you have nothing to draw water with,
and the well is deep.
Where do you get that living water?
And we talked about how Jesus himself,
the spiritual reality is living water,
fully satisfying for her need.
And then later on in verse 15,
she says again,
sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty
or have to come here to draw water.
And then in our text today,
in verse 33,
Jesus says that he's not hungry.
They've been sent away to find food,
and he says that he's not hungry,
and the disciples misunderstand what he's trying to say to them,
which we'll look at a bit further.
And they say,
has anyone brought him something to eat?
I thought we went off to go get the food,
and yet he seems no longer to be hungry.
Hard of hearing.
Misunderstood.
And so when we come to texts like this,
it's very easy to read the text
and read phrases like in verse 34,
my food is to do the will of him who sent me
and to accomplish his work.
And to not understand it.
To scratch our heads at what it means.
And you'll likely in your life read past phrases like this
and go,
well, that's strange.
And go on and not visit it.
That's why it's good that we press us to sit down
and really take a look at a text as we study it together.
My food is to do the will of him who sent me
and to accomplish his work.
So as we misunderstand these things,
there's a couple of possibilities for why we misunderstand them.
Number one, it could just make no sense
because we are spiritually dead.
We don't have God's Spirit to help us discern God's Word.
Our ears haven't been brought to life.
Our eyes haven't been brought to life in order to see.
And so we just don't understand these types of hard sayings.
It's also possible that it makes no sense to us
because we are regenerate.
We have been made alive by the Spirit of Christ.
But we just don't do the work.
We don't just take the time to really consider what's being said.
We're such an on-demand people, are we not?
These magic devices that we carry around in our pockets all the time
put information right at our fingertips.
My sister-in-law, who's a teacher, went back to work as an ESOL teacher.
And her job is to partner with students.
So she's going into classes and she's partnering with students
who don't speak English as their primary language.
And she, first week of school, was in a class
and the students were asked what the seven continents were,
10th graders, seven continents, and none of them knew.
And she just was milling around the room just trying to help random students
and figuring out if they knew what this continent is.
And a group she was talking to had no idea.
And we were musing about that.
How is it that 10th graders don't know this?
And one of my answers to it was, well, it's in their pocket.
Why know and learn anything when you can access it with just a short query?
And I think we do this as Christians.
We don't take the time to really understand.
We don't let the Word soak deep into us.
Meditate on it.
We are confused, so we run quickly to find an answer.
Or we just decide it doesn't really matter right now.
When it does, perhaps I'll try to figure out what it means.
Just don't do the work.
And I'll tell you, the work is good.
It's really good to do the work.
Or perhaps we're so wrapped up in worldliness that we are just spiritually numb.
We just have become apathetic and stopped really caring that Jesus says things and he does things,
in the case of John, that are often confusing.
And I just don't want to put the effort in at all.
Third possibility is that we do, in fact, put in the work.
And the Spirit illuminates the text for us and we are greatly benefited by it.
Of course, I have concern for the previous of those two possibilities.
I hope and pray that we all find ourselves in that third category.
But in the first case of concern, I've been praying and always do pray.
It's why we pray for the preaching of God's Word.
That God would grant us spiritual life as his Word is studied.
That even this morning, you may not have repented yet of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus Christ.
And that he would make it come alive to you as you come to life.
In the second case, I want to turn your attention away from worldliness.
We have such few moments together.
It seems so often that the gathering of the church just isn't sufficient for the task.
And so we ask that the Spirit would work mightily in our lives in these moments that we have as we come together and open God's Word.
I want to show you that this is a magnificent Word.
And I also want to show you that you can study and understand it.
It's possible for you to do this work.
And so often when I preach, I'm trying to show you the process.
How do we get to the place that we get?
I don't want to present myself as some genius.
It would be difficult to do because I'm not.
I take some time.
I do some work.
I've spent a lot of time in this text.
And I've got a stack of books that were read this past week and studied.
But I want to show you, you can do this.
And so we're going to do that with the text this morning.
So let's pray that God would help us as we study together.
Our Father and our God, we do ask that as we take up your Word together this morning,
we want to rightly understand it.
We don't want to just merely derive some facts from it.
But we want it to affect our hearts the way you intend for it to.
And we know that we can't do this without your help.
We humbly recognize it was written for your glory, firstly, that you would be known and also for our good.
We ask that you would help us believe its promises, obey its commands, and have affection for you, its author.
And we pray this in the name of Christ.
31.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, 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 that 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 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.
So, a little bit of detail.
If you've not been with us, right?
Prior to this, they're outside the town of Sychar.
They're in a region where the Samaritans live.
And the Samaritans were half-breed Jewish people, right?
They're the ancestors of those who returned from captivity and bred with the people of the land,
and they were seen as unclean.
They were seen as outside the grace of God.
This is Christ's first, John's record, cross-cultural ministry effort.
And we believe that he was led there.
The text says that he had to go this way, and there were actually roads that went around this region.
Most Jews would have traveled around the region of Samaria.
And yet he goes through it, and he has this divine encounter with this woman
who has had five husbands and now is living with a man who is not her husband.
And so it's understood that she was coming to the well in the middle of the day to draw water.
Instead of when it would have normally been drawn,
either in the early hours or the late, when it was cool,
she's coming because she's avoiding the shame of being around other people from Sychar.
She's avoiding the talking of the other women.
She's got great sin.
Jesus exposes that sin at the beginning of the chapter
and then offers to her greater mercy,
more abundant grace in the form of this living water conversation that he has with her.
We hope, we think and hope that she is converted.
We're unsure of that, but she goes back to the village.
She leaves her water jar.
She goes back to the village and she begins to ask,
which he had said to her that he was the Messiah,
and she begins to ask that question.
He's told me,
everything that I've ever done,
could this be him?
Like the anointed one that the scripture speaks of.
And so that's where you pick up in verse 31,
the meanwhile.
The disciples have returned.
They're marveling that Jesus is talking to a woman,
and she's gone into town,
and they're there,
and they're waiting.
And so you see in our text that people from the town come out to him,
and this is the meanwhile conversation that's going on.
Now, I'm going to spare you the big, large, chiastic talk.
And if anything I'm about to say piques your interest,
and I hope it does,
feel free to come ask me more about it.
But the book of John is laid out in a chiastic structure,
which means the beginning and the end correspond to each other,
and it continues to work itself toward a center.
And the book has within it chiastic structures.
Right?
So we have before us,
beginning in verse 31 and going through verse 42,
another chiastic structure.
This has become a talk at our table at our house.
The boys are trying to find chiasms everywhere now.
And I'm trying to emphasize that they're not everywhere,
but we want to see them when they are there
because it's a really common literary structure,
and it's meant to help us comprehend
what the text is about.
So look at verse 31 through 34,
and then verse 40 through 42.
These two verses,
these sets of verses correspond to one another.
And the clue to that is the phrase,
urging him in verse 31,
and then the phrase,
asked him in verse 40.
It's the exact same Greek phrase.
Exact same.
Right?
Now the translators give us different English words for it,
which doesn't really serve us in this case,
but we do well when we see patterns of things to go,
hey, wait a second.
Could something be going on here?
I'm going to suggest to you,
and we're going to spend a little bit of time
thinking about this together,
but Jesus' phrase in verse 34,
my food is through the will of him who sent me,
and to accomplish his work,
we'll talk about what that work is,
corresponds to what they say about Jesus,
the Samaritans.
This is indeed the Savior of the world.
So these verses correspond to one another.
Then notice verse 35 and 39.
He says,
Jesus,
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.
Many postulate that the people would have been wearing
some form of white clothing,
and therefore it would have actually looked,
and they came down the road from Sikar,
it would have looked like the fields were ripe for harvest.
I don't know for sure if that's the case,
but we think that these people are coming out of the town,
and they can see this happening.
Verse 39 says,
many Samaritans from that town believed.
Verse 36 and verse 38.
Here we see the phrases,
the one who reaps is receiving wages.
And then verse 38,
I sent you to reap.
And it brings us to the central piece of the chiasm,
which is often there to help us.
It turns on this,
helps us understand the rest of the text.
And here he says,
for here the saying holds true,
one sows and another reaps.
You can do this.
This is not an impossible task
for you to sit down and take the time
to work this through.
And I will tell you that I did this in this text,
and then I went and confirmed it with somebody
who's way smarter at this stuff than I am.
You could buy the book I bought.
I bought it on Amazon.
It came in two days.
Okay?
This is not impossible for you to do.
And then to think about why.
Why?
Why structured this way?
It was a mnemonic tool.
They used it to memorize things.
These things the Hebrew people did.
So perhaps it serves us in that way.
We might find ourselves being able to
story this story to somebody
because of its structure.
But more than that,
it's meant to help us ascertain
its meaning,
to drive us there.
Now I'm not suggesting that you have to
understand Christ's structure
to unlock Scripture.
This is some secret code.
And there's going to be things
you never could have gotten any other way.
Please don't hear me say that at all.
But it helps.
And it enlivens it.
And oh,
does it make the Scripture
magnificent?
What a beautifully complex text
to help us understand
profound,
profound truths.
So we'll pick that back up.
I want you to see.
You can look at this literary structure
and I'll tell you about
some other literary structure
in just a little bit here.
Okay.
Let's start.
Let's start by looking at
the first four verses.
So this first piece of correspondence,
we'll look at verse 31 through 34,
and then it in relation to
verses 40 through 42.
Okay.
So again,
the disciples urge Jesus,
saying,
Rabbi,
eat.
They've been sent away on a task.
That's how he finds himself alone
at the well earlier in the chapter.
And they've returned.
And they say,
eat.
Right.
We brought you food.
And he says,
I have food to eat
that you don't know about.
And they muse.
Right.
They say to one another,
has anyone brought him something to eat?
Where's the food that he's talking about?
And he states this spiritual reality,
which is just astounding.
My food is to do the will of him who sent me
and to accomplish his work.
Food exists or should,
at its basis level,
exist for our sustenance.
Right.
It's how we get the energy.
Our bodies do all the chemical things
our bodies do.
And we get the energy that we need
to go on.
Right.
So we eat,
in physical terms,
we eat so that we can work.
Jesus here says,
my food is to do the work.
The work itself is the food
that sustains me.
Anybody reading this on the surface
doesn't think that this is actually
the physically sustaining thing for him.
That he's talking about his human form
in this case.
That Jesus never ate in his ministry.
We have lots of record of him eating.
In fact,
he had sent the disciples away
to get food.
It's the very thing,
the mission that they were on
at this moment.
But he has now had this conversation,
this gospel conversation,
with this woman.
This is part of the text
that gives me some hope
that this woman is actually converted
because she forgets the chore
she's there to do.
She leaves her water jar
and she heads off into town.
And I think it's energizing to Jesus.
He's doing the will of him
who sent him
and accomplishing his work.
As we read
all the New Testament,
certainly as we read John,
we ought to understand John
as having a fully developed view
of Jesus' nature.
Both that he is truly God
and that he is truly man.
We shouldn't think
that he's confused about it at all.
So I think what we see going on here
is an expression,
Jesus says,
my food is through the will of him
who sent me
and to accomplish his work,
both of Christ's deity
and of his humanity.
I think you see both things going on
in this recorded sentence.
So if we do a little bit of contextual work,
Jesus is truly God.
So in a sense,
him talking about doing the will,
being the sustenance for doing the will,
in a loop,
speaks to his self-existence,
his self-sustaining power as God.
Jesus is God.
John chapter 1 and verse 1.
In the beginning was the Word,
this is Jesus,
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
God needs nothing
to add to his power,
to give him any kind of existence
or sustenance.
He just is.
Wonderful phrase in Genesis.
I am.
His auseity.
He just exists.
Jesus is speaking to this
in some measure here.
Jesus doesn't need bread.
He is the bread of life.
He's going to speak about that
some later.
John chapter 6 and verse 35.
We'll get to look at in some weeks.
Jesus said to them,
I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me shall not hunger
and whoever believes in me
shall never thirst.
Earlier, living water
earlier in our chapter.
Now previously,
in our liturgy,
read from Deuteronomy chapter 8.
I think that Jesus is probably referring to
also Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3.
The very thing that he quotes
to Satan when he's being tempted
in the wilderness,
Jesus is truly God.
His sustenance is to do the will
of his Father.
Also, he is truly man.
Truly man.
And he's been given a mission.
Both as God,
but also as a man.
To come,
live a perfect life,
die a sacrificial death.
So, this idea of him
doing the will
of the Father sending him
and accomplishing his work,
what is that?
Also in John chapter 6,
beginning of verse 37.
There Jesus says,
All that the Father gives me
will come to me,
and whoever comes to me,
I will never cast out.
So, those that I came
to live and die for
will be mine.
He says, verse 38,
For I have come down from heaven
not to do my own will,
but the will of him
who sent me.
Unless we're confused at this point
about what that is.
He says in verse 39,
And this is the will
of him who sent me,
that I should lose nothing
of all that he has given me,
but raise it up
on the last day.
For this is the will
of my Father,
that everyone who looks
on the Son
and believes in him
should have eternal life.
And I will raise him up
on the last day.
Right.
So perhaps,
I hope,
I hope maybe,
if I'm doing a good job at all,
you're seeing how
these first four verses
have some correspondence
to the last four verses.
Remember what I said?
That phrase that he said?
Corresponded to
him being called
by the Samaritans
the Savior
of the world.
The will of the Father
is that he would come
and save
his people.
That he would give them
eternal
life.
This phrase,
Savior of the world,
is a common phrase
in the Christian vernacular.
And for good reason.
It's a really good
title for Christ.
But did you know
that it is only found
here
and in one place
in 1 John
chapter 4,
if I remember correct.
I think verse 14.
Savior of the world.
It's an astounding
declaration
in Jesus' day.
An astounding
declaration.
Because the
concept of salvation
was understood
to be predominantly
restricted
to
the Jews.
Predominantly
restricted to them.
God's grace and mercy.
Not for everyone.
This was the understanding
of the day.
As I said before,
this is Jesus' first
cross-cultural ministry.
And these Samaritan
believers have come
to experience
the greatness,
the over-the-top
nature
of his mercy
to those
understood
to be outside
of his
mercy.
These phrases
ought to cause us
to pause
in its correspondence
to the text
before it.
My food is to do
the will of him
who sent me
and to accomplish
his work.
And here we see
a dawning
of that glory.
Eternal life.
And to declare
of him
this is
indeed
the Savior
of the world.
Rich, right?
Isn't that amazing?
You can get that
from the text otherwise.
I understand it.
But notice,
at least for me,
there's some life
in it
when it corresponds
in this way.
Okay, let's look on.
What he goes on to say
beginning in
verse 35.
Do you not say
there are yet
four months,
then comes
the harvest.
He launches into
an analogy with them.
Look, I tell you,
lift up your eyes
and see that the fields
are white
for harvest.
harvest.
Again,
the understanding
is that the Samaritan villagers
are coming toward them
at this time.
Already,
he says,
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.
Okay.
So,
you do with this
analogy, right?
He's recognizing
that there's
a cycle
that takes place
between
sowing
and
reaping.
There's
four months
between.
The understanding
is
this is likely
wheat
that they're
sowing
and
reaping.
There are four months
then comes
the harvest.
Jesus says,
look,
the harvest
is already
here.
Jesus says
that the disciples
are the reapers.
They're the ones
reaping.
But who sowed?
That's an important question
to ask of this text,
I think.
But who is it then
that sowed?
And I will tell you
that the answer
is not easy to discern.
In fact,
I'm not going to give you
much of one.
The explanations
are
all over the map.
You could almost
pick any possibility
of who sowed
and somebody out there
has written a book
arguing that that's
who
sowed.
Possibly
Jacob,
the question.
He's at the well
of Jacob.
Others would argue
the prophets,
so is the
Torah
and the prophets
that followed,
right?
God's word
that they had
in that day.
Some argue
John the Baptist.
Some argue
the Samaritan woman.
Some,
Jesus.
And there's all kinds
of combinations
of arguments
for these
various
sowers.
And to all
of this,
I just say
yes.
I think they're
all the
answer to
the question
and here's
why.
It seems
that Jesus
both
collapses
and expands
their understanding
of sowing
and reaping.
So notice,
there's a bit
of a juxtaposition
here.
First,
that he
collapses it.
There yet
four months,
then comes
the harvest,
right?
There's this
expanse of time
that most
go on
for the seed
to go into
the ground
and bring
forth
fruit
that can be
harvested.
But he says,
look,
lift up your
eyes and see
that the fields
are white
for receiving
wages and
gathering fruit
for eternal
life so that
sower and
reaper may
rejoice
together.
So he seems
to be saying,
look,
sowing and
reaping.
In the kingdom
of God,
it can happen
here and
here.
So perhaps
him sharing
the gospel
of the kingdom
with the
Samaritan woman,
perhaps her
going and
sharing it
and their
response to
it,
sowing,
reaping,
right here
seen back
to back.
And the
sower and
the reaper
are not
separated by
time,
but they
can rejoice
together.
Perhaps he
has in mind
a text like
Amos chapter
9,
verse 13
and following.
Behold,
the days are
coming,
declares the
Lord,
when the
plowman
shall overtake
the reaper
and the
treader of
grapes,
him who
sows the
seed.
The mountains
shall drip
sweet wine
and all
the hills
shall flow
with it.
I will
restore the
fortunes of
my people
Israel and
they shall
rebuild the
ruined cities
and inhabit
them.
They shall
plant vineyards
and drink
their wine
and they
shall make
gardens
and eat
their fruit.
I will
plant them
on their
land and
they shall
never again
be uprooted
out of the
land that
I have
given them,
says the
Lord your
God.
This collapsing
of field
work,
preparation
work,
and harvest
work.
Things will
be so
very abundant
for God's
people one
day.
And again,
I think we're
seeing the
dawning of
that reality
and it's
what we should
pick up out
of this text
as we read
it.
I also
think there's
an expansion
of the
idea.
He says,
here's the
central piece
of the
chiasm,
for here
the saying
holds true.
One sows
and another
reaps.
So is it
Jesus sowing
and the
disciples are
reaping?
Is it the
Samaritan woman
sowing?
Perhaps,
perhaps.
He says,
I sent you
to reap
for that
which you
did not
labor.
Others
have labored
and you
have
entered
into
their
labor.
You are
harvesting
from
their
labor.
And I
just want
to suggest
that there's
also a
reality here
that someone
else,
again,
perhaps the
prophets,
and now
the day
has come.
These people
were ready,
hearts prepared
by those
who had
gone before
and sowed
for a reap
of the fruit
of righteousness.
So,
it's a
great text.
It's a
really
cool
text.
Let's
think about
some
application
of it.
so what
when we
do all
of that?
I've got
three applications
for you.
First,
if you
have yet
to do
so,
repent
and believe.
Truly,
Jesus is
the Savior
of the
world.
Your
sin
is
great.
Be like
these
Samaritan
villagers,
the many
who believed,
who recognized
that their
disobedience
against God's
word is a
great offense
and it
deserves,
it deserves
death,
hell,
forever.
It's the
wages of it.
It's what you
have earned
in your
rebellion.
sin.
But don't
miss that
Jesus'
mercy is
greater
than your
sin.
Turn from
your sin.
Confess
your sin.
Place your
faith in
Christ.
Secondly,
God uses
seemingly
insignificant
people to
accomplish
significant
things.
as I'm
thinking about
who's doing
the
sowing,
my mind
goes to
the prophet
Hosea,
who's
commanded by
God to
go marry
an unfaithful
woman.
And his
marriage is
like this
play,
this real
life play
of the way
that Israel
was unfaithful
to God
as her
husband.
He must
have felt
so
insignificant.
the ministry
that God
had given
to him.
And yet,
in those first
three chapters
of that book,
what a
picture of
the gospel
as he goes
and redeems
her out of
slavery.
It's beautiful.
I just
wonder the
countless
peoples that
have come to
faith in
Christ,
reading and
understanding
that text,
looking at
his life,
seemingly
insignificant
people to
accomplish
significant
kingdom
things.
When I
think about
who's
sowing,
perhaps it's
the Samaritan
woman.
A woman
scorned.
A woman
avoiding
village life.
And what
does she
do?
Being
amazed
by
Jesus.
She goes
into town
and she
seems to
be the
vehicle
for an
awakening
in this
town.
A seemingly
insignificant
person being
used to
accomplish
significant
things.
And every
one of us,
every single
one of us
ought to
see ourselves
insignificant.
If you feel
you're significant
this morning,
let's have another
conversation.
There's text
for us to
go to.
You've got to
find yourself
in the
Samaritan
woman.
Me?
I'm the one
Jesus comes
and encounters.
I'm the one
that's to
go and
share the
good news
on my
campus,
in my
place of
work,
with my
neighbors,
in my
family.
When we
see ourselves
as so
insignificant
that we
can't be
used by
God,
the offense
there is
against
God.
God is
powerful
and he
uses
little
tiny
means
to show
himself
grand,
to do
miraculous
things
as feeble
people
go and
declare
the good
news
of Jesus
Christ.
So be
insignificant,
but recognize
that God
can use
you to
accomplish
significant
things.
in Matthew
chapter 9
verse 36,
kind of a,
for me,
a mentally
parallel
passage,
although it's
not exactly,
Jesus says
there,
or we see
the record
there,
when he
saw the
crowds,
he had
compassion
for them
because they
were harassed
and helpless
like sheep
without a
shepherd.
Then he
said to
his disciples,
the harvest
is plentiful,
but the
laborers
are few.
Therefore
pray earnestly
to the Lord
of the harvest
to send
out laborers
into.
His harvest.
God has
people.
He intends
to save
and he
will use
you,
oh insignificant
one,
to accomplish
that very
good work.
The back
of your
bulletin,
so quotation
from John
Calvin.
I like to
quote John
Calvin because
I don't want
him to be
scary to
people.
This is
from commentary
on this
text,
speaking to
the
apathetic.
He says,
the Lord
treats us
with a
father's
kindness
to correct
our sloth
and to
encourage us
who would
otherwise be
dismayed
and designs
to give us
an undeserved
reward.
Third
application.
creation.
You are
building,
as you go
and share
the good
news of
Jesus Christ,
you are
building on
someone else's
labor.
One's
sowing,
another's
reaping.
You may be a
sower and
then another
one will
reap.
Many of you
know one of
my earthly
heroes is
George Mueller.
I'll spare you
all the details
of his life,
but in his
journal he
wrote about
three young
men that
he prayed
for the
entirety of
his life.
Decades
he prayed
their souls.
Never saw
any of the
three of them
converted.
But past
his death,
all three of
them came to
faith in
Christ.
Two in
their 70s,
one in
their 80s.
Repented and
believed in the
Lord Jesus
Christ.
In that case,
Mueller was a
sower.
Somebody else
got to
reap.
Both of
them are
rejoicing
together over
the harvest.
You're building
on someone
else's labor.
Someone's
gone before
you.
We stand on
the shoulders
of giants.
We take up
this text.
Others have
shared the
good news.
Maybe some
really rare
cases.
We've got
missionaries
even now in
places where
they intend
to go to
unreached
peoples who
have no
scripture in
their language.
Maybe they're
the very
initial
sowers.
But even
then, the
great, rich
Christian history
of missionaries
they're compelled
by to go and
carry on that
tradition.
You're building
on someone
else's labor.
It ought to
make us
humble.
It ought to
make us
grateful.
mostly,
primarily,
most
importantly,
we're building
on the
finished work
of Christ.
He accomplished
all that needed
to be accomplished
for the salvation
of his people.
And this ought to
give us such
a confidence
to go and
share him
with others.
to press
out there
and declare
the greatness
of this
mercy,
that it is
finished work
as it calls
together
his church.
Now, I mentioned
that I would bring
up literary structure.
This will be in
closing.
Chapters
2 through
4,
we begin
in Cana,
we end
in Cana.
Again, there's a
pattern.
What's going on
here?
The whole thing
is a chiasm.
Chapters 2
through 4
with chiasms
in between.
The corresponding
text to this
one
records Jesus
cleansing the
temple at the
time of the
Passover.
In that
record,
he is at the
center of
Jewish
worship.
He's in
the very
temple.
He's on
that
mountain.
Here he is
far outside
that place.
He's with
Samaritans
who worship
on a
different
mountain.
There's a
juxtaposition
between
the two.
But then,
there's something
being taught
to us.
If we think
these two
things through,
the Passover
celebrated,
at the time
of the
Passover,
when he
cleansed
the temple,
the Passover
celebrated
the sparing
of Israel's
firstborn
during the
tenth
plague,
but also
the
exodus
and the
subsequent
conquest
of Canaan.
John's
readers would
have had
all of that
in their
mind.
It's a
significant
detail that
it was at
the time
of the
Passover.
The Passover
was at
hand,
it says
in chapter
two.
They've
got a
setting,
a celebration
in their
mind when
he cleanses
the temple.
And so
what I want
to suggest
to you is
being communicated
to us
here,
as we see
Jesus now
outside of
this place,
being declared
of him that
he is the
savior of
the world,
that there's
a new
conquest going
on.
In this
new covenant
of God's
grace to
his people,
it's a
different kind
of conquest.
He's calling
together his
people,
and he's not
doing so
militarily,
he's doing
so through
the spreading
of the
gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Layer upon
layer,
it's such a
magnificent,
magnificent
book.
Let's pray
together.
here.