Gospel of John Series - Yet a time is coming and has now come... Part 2

            “Yet a time is coming and has now come…” Part 2

John 4:27-42

Revivals and awakenings all have their hallmark in the gospel and the individual evangelism of a changed life, so is the hallmark of the rest of the story of the lady at the well. Let’s get into the text, “Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 

Missing out on the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, the disciples were surprised at what their eyes beheld. A Samaritan woman talking with Jesus, definitely piqued their curiosity and stirred their indignation towards the Samaritans. Yet to the disciples’ credit they kept their words to themselves, even though Jesus could read their hearts and minds, as well as the questions they were thinking. “What did she want from the master? Who does she think she is, doesn’t she know the traditional and cultural taboos between Jews and Samaritans? Did she bring him food and drink, tainted by the hands of a ceremonially unclean person?

Application - It is still interesting that even after nearly 2000 years of the gospel, there is still prejudices and bias among God’s people. The Word of God says, “God doesn’t have any favorites!” Rom. 2:11, “Remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.” Eph. 6:9, Peter learned this lesson at least twice. "I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. Acts 10:34, “And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. 1 Pet. 1:17 

God does not favor one person over another. Everyone has an equal opportunity to receive God's blessing. No one is excluded. Imagine what the church would be like, for the choice is ours. What God has done for others, He will also do for you.

Next, the revival in the heart and life of the Samaritan woman begins. The living water is overflowing in her soul and spirit. Let’s look at the verse, “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 

She leaves her bucket and water vessel there at the well in her haste. She has found something that all the people of her town need to hear and see. Her enthusiasm could not be contained. Imagine her testimony to the others, “This Jewish man, a stranger to our town, told me everything about my sorrowful life and all that I did. He knew my heart and distress, He knew my shortcomings and all my failures and yet he was kind, humble, and gentle towards me!” “He said He was the Messiah, the Christ, the chosen One of God, whom the prophets and scriptures foretold to us!” Come on and see, don’t wait, He is waiting down at Jacob’s well with living water so that we will never thirst again. I know I have tasted the living water, and it is good! 

Application - I remember the day I tasted the living water. I met Jesus with the same sinful past as every other who had come to him. He was gentle and kind, he was gracious in receiving me to himself. Like the woman, I couldn’t be contained, I had to tell others everything that He had done. He had changed me from the inside out, He took away all my sins and filled me with the living water of the Holy Spirit. I wanted more than just that one infilling, I wanted to immerse myself in his presence. This infilling, this salvation, this holy peace that passes all understanding is for anyone who is willing to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and he will forgive all your sins as you confess them to him. Like the woman, we must be honest and truthful, for he knows our heart and mind, and all that we have done.

The disciples were about to get a lesson in spiritual food that will be reinforced over and over again by Jesus. Let’s look at the text, “Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” 

The disciples were still in the “awe state” of their walk with Jesus. Everything Jesus said and did seemed to go in contradiction to all they understood about religion. He had spoken to the religious leaders with authority, disrupting the ordinary with the supernatural” changing water into wine, overturning the passover court, lecturing Pharisees, instructing the lost and healing the infirmed. And now he was talking with the outcasts. Even after seeing all this, they saw only through human eyes that Jesus must be tired and hungry, or did he have food brought from some other place? 

Jesus opened the door knowingly to their minds and hearts, for he states, “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” They had not known of the temptation in the desert, where the devil tried to tempt Jesus to make bread from the stones, and Jesus’ reply,  “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matt. 4:4. Nor did they have any concept of spiritual food, or the real reason that Jesus came to the world. Jesus is about to open their spiritual eyes to the work and purpose of God. “Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”  

The disciples were not farmers, yet Jesus taught them a lesson they all understood from an earthly standpoint, the harvest. They all understood the colloquial sayings from life. If you see the grain or fruit ripening it would soon be harvest time. They had celebrated the harvest with the feasts since childhood, but the phrase ‘It’s still four months until harvest’ wasn’t a saying of anticipation, but a saying of procrastination. Leah Lesesne explains,  “Typically we think of harvest in the Fall, yet in Israel the harvest began in Spring. Cheshvan, the end of the Autumn months, is actually when the harvest was over – four months until it would begin again in Spring. This saying, “four months yet until the harvest” seems to have been a sentiment of procrastination in Jesus’ time. The harvest isn’t for another four months, we don’t have to worry about that right now. Yet Jesus pushed back against this cultural phrase, insisting that his Kingdom wasn’t someday far off, but present and available now.” (https://www.healinginthehebrewmonths.com/four-months-yet-until-the-harvest/)

The disciples had been indoctrinated in the cultural complacency of procrastination. Jesus wanted them to see the urgency of the harvest as an opportunity now, which Paul preached later to the Galatians (Gal.6) the importance of sowing and reaping. Jesus saw the Samaritans as God saw them, lost and in the need of the Saviour. Jesus used this saying of procrastination to change the disciples' hearts towards the lost of the world. The harvest was ripe, Jesus was reaping a harvest through the revelation of speaking God’s word and the kindness and gentleness of the Holy Spirit. The harvest was now, the hearts of people were ready to receive salvation. “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.” 

The disciples’ understanding of eternal life was still in its infancy, and Jesus used this time to explain God’s purpose and plan. He had come into the world to fulfill the will of the Father and to reap a harvest of souls. The people had heard of the coming Messiah (someone had taught them, who had been sent), and now since they have heard, it was time for the harvest. (“As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom.10:11-13)

 The disciples probably understood the wages of a harvester, being fisherman and businessman, and they would get this lesson several more times (Matthew 9:35-38, Mark 13, Matthew 21:33-43). Now they can see the harvest that Jesus was about to reveal to them. 

Application - I once taught a lesson by using a single sheet of white paper, and on the paper I drew a dot. I asked the people. “What do you see?” almost all responded, “We see a dot.” I explained that they missed the heart of the lesson. For there was far more white space than there was a single dot. In life we miss what God wants us to do because “we only see the tip of the iceberg”. The opportunities that God has placed in front of us each day to tell someone about the love of Jesus and his plan of salvation are missed because we are too focused on the dots of life and not at the bigger picture of God’s purpose.

We also don’t see because like the disciples we have given ourselves to procrastinating, like the saying, “It’s still four more months until harvest.” We have become accustomed to putting things off or that we don’t need to attend to that now. Meanwhile souls who are ready for harvest walk by us everyday, thirsty for the comfort of living water that can only come from God. They never hear of a Savior who loves them, or of living water that will quench their soul and spirit with a peace and love beyond comprehension. 

We are to be the sowers and reapers in God’s harvest field today. You may not know that someone tilled up the ground, another planted a seed, and it is just now beginning to grow and needs water and nurturing. Yet a time is coming and is now here for the harvest. They will believe upon the One who died for their sins, rose triumphant from the grave, and who desires to give them living water to quench their spiritual thirst and eternal life. This is the true lesson for every disciple who follows Jesus. 

Last, the harvest of Samaritans. Let’s read the text, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

The Samaritan woman’s life was transformed into a new creation, the old had gone and the new was springing to life. In her exuberance and zeal, she ran with the rest of the town to see Jesus again, and they were not disappointed. The town people had believed the woman’s testimony, had seen the supernatural change of her heart, mind, and soul as she had testified about all that Jesus had said and done. When they arrived, they saw the disciples with Jesus and urged them earnestly and persistently to stay as their guests. Jesus spent two days unfolding the purpose and plan of God, and as Jesus opened their eyes and hearts to believe, there was revival in that town as they testified to the woman and to one another of how Jesus was truly the Messiah, the Savior to the world. The well of living water was infilling each one as they believed in Jesus as Savior of the world.

How this must have been a shock to the disciples and yet a revelation of how “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son…” They were about to see even more astonishing miracles and hear even more about the Kingdom of God.

Application - What a day that must have been! The whole town listened to the testimony of a woman they all knew, and now was changed, transformed, from a reclusive and pudahish lifestyle, to a viverant and spirit-filled believer in Jesus Christ. When I was first saved, I would tell everyone and they who knew me knew the transformation was real. They asked where have you been? What happened to you? I got to share everything that Jesus did to me that Sunday. I wished all who heard came to believe in Jesus, but they certainly knew that I had been changed from the inside out. A few came to hear my testimony, one who had fallen away was convicted and repented, and was restored to his family. I say all of this, “Yet a time is still coming and has now come.” As Paul wrote to the Corintians, “For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Cor. 6:2

The harvest is ripe, will you seek Jesus. Let him give you living water that you will no longer thirst after the world’s water. For the days are drawing to a close as Jesus said, “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.” NLT

    I’m again including the ABC’s of salvation (JD Farag). Please, Jesus, God the Son, came to this world to save all who would believe and trust in him. He desires to reveal himself to you, He is the Light that overcomes the darkness of this lawless world. If you haven’t asked him to be your Lord and Savior, today could be that day.

 First, A - Admit that you are a sinner. This is where that godly sorrow leads to genuine repentance for sinning against a righteous God and there is a change of heart, we change our mind and God changes our hearts and regenerates us from the inside out. Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (We are all born sinners which is why we must be born spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bad news is that the wages of sin is death, in other words our sin means that we have been given a death sentence, we have the death penalty hanging over our heads, that's the bad news. But here's the good news: The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Second,

 B - Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is trusting with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. Romans 10:9-10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Third, 

C - Call upon the name of the Lord. Every single person who ever lived since Adam will bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Romans 14:11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." Don't wait until later — do this now. Romans 10:13 - For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "O God, I am a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe that He died on the cross for my sin and that He was buried and You raised Him to life. I have decided to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting only in His shed blood as sufficient to save my soul and to take me to heaven. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

Please share this with someone this week, the Lord knows that we and they need it.

If you would like other lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis

 

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