And You Have Entered Into Their Labor

We'll look today at John chapter 4, verses 35 through 38. And before I read this, rather than reading the whole fourth chapter, I'd like to recommend that we do that later on today, perhaps, or first chance we get. This little passage I'm going to read follows a session that Jesus has with the woman at the well.

You remember, they're traveling up through Samaria, and they get to this near the village of Sychar, and Jacob's well is there. And the disciples go into the village to get some food. And while Jesus is resting there on the well, he's tired from his journey, along comes this Samaritan woman.

And the amazing thing is that Jesus, this is never done, says, give me a drink. And how come you're asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink of water? And he says, of course, you knew who it was that was asking for the drink. You'd ask him, and he'd give you living water.

And then a discussion follows in which Jesus really opens to this woman the mysteries of the kingdom and manifests to her the kingdom and opens the door. And she really walks into it. And she's so moved and so thrilled by what goes on during this time that she, as the disciples return from the village with food, runs back to the village to tell everybody and bring them over to this Jesus, too.

And so then the disciples, they're wondering about this. How come you're talking to this woman? But they don't say anything. And instead, they say, well, here, master, here's some bologna sandwiches.

Let's have something to eat. And he doesn't want to eat. Because he knows, you know, now something far more important is going on.

I'm not going to have my lunch right now. Not that it's sinful to eat. But right now, I have something else.

You know, I have food to eat that you know not of. It is my, you know, my meat and drink is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes and see how the fields are already white for harvest.

You know, and as he says this, along comes the woman with this crowd of people from the village. He who reaps receives wages and gathers 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 that for which you did not labor. Others have labored.

And you have entered into their labor. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. For instance, it looked like just any other day to the people around them.

But there came a particular day when no one knew that it was time to take his family into the ark. Much, much later comes the time when it's now God's will that the people of Israel shall move across the Jordan River and take the promised land. And because they were unwilling to move at the time when God said it was time, that whole generation perished in the wilderness.

Now, it's not for us to know the times and seasons of the future. Those belong to God. But God expects his children to understand clearly the meaning of the hour in which they live.

You see a cloud rising out of the west, and you say, there's going to be a storm. And so it happens. Or when you see the south wind blow, you say there's going to be scorching heat.

And it happens. You hypocrites, Jesus says. You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky.

Why don't you know how to interpret this present time? Of course, there's no lack of people who love to dabble in Bible prophecy. 50%, maybe 90% of so-called Christian radio is based on this lust to know all kinds of goodies about the future. There are all kinds of people who love to speculate about whether Kissinger is going to be the Antichrist, or whether John F. Kennedy is going to rise from the dead, and his mortal wound is going to be healed.

Or how long it'll be before the armies of God sweep down from the north, G-O-G, sweep down from the north to invade Israel. They love to sit in their armchairs and draw diagrams and maps of last things and dream about the rapture. But when Jesus tells us that we are to know the meaning of the hour in which we live, to read the signs of the times, it's not so that we can play Bible games in our living rooms or church parlors, but so that we can fit in with God's program and do the thing that needs to be done.

What's the point of knowing that it's going to rain if we don't have enough sense to get into the ark? What's the point of knowing, see, that we are living in an hour in which we are in an hour of judgment if we never get around to ordering our lives as men and women who know that this is an hour of judgment? When the judgment comes, it begins to get heavy. You know, the people who know all these facts but did nothing about it will be just as helpless and as useless and as vulnerable as the people who never knew. It's all very well to know that this is harvest time.

But if we never take one step toward the harvest field, our knowledge is going to rise up and condemn us. The five foolish virgins in the gospel that John read knew that it was the hour of the bridegroom's coming. And they were perfectly right to go out to meet the bridegroom.

They had it. But they never got around to translating their knowledge into a hard, down-to-earth, day-by-day living. And so they ran out of oil.

They were not able to sustain that hope through the whole season. Now, there have been lots of people, you know, say, three years ago, with tears running down their cheeks, were singing, we'll see the face of Jesus, and then we'll leave. They had a marvelous sense of the lateness of the hour.

They had a vision of the coming of the Messiah. And that's beautiful. The only problem was these people didn't have any oil in their vessels with their lamps.

They were unable to sustain that hope. They never translated it into a hard living. And now they're running all over the place trying to find oil for lamps that have gone out.

Now, these words that Jesus speaks to his disciples at that well in Samaria have particular application for the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth at this hour. He's saying to his disciples, don't you know what time it is? Can't you read the obvious signs? Don't be saying we have four months, then comes the harvest. Open your eyes.

The harvest is already here. No, don't look at the fields. Look at those people coming.

Look at them. They're ripe. They're ready to be harvested.

And we could just hear the disciples saying, with us. Bravo, Lord. That was a wonderful sermon.

Oh, I really appreciate it. It warmed my heart. You know, it reminded me of a book on missions I read last month.

Marvelous. It was really stimulating, Lord. You know, Lord, all those things that you said tie right in with what Brother Barnabas was saying at Bible study last week.

What a wonderful thing, you know, to be living in these crucial times. I'm going to go straight home and write a song about it. Jesus had just harvested this woman for the kingdom.

What a joy this was for him to see her heart melt and open and reach out for the things of God. And now here she comes with a whole crowd of people who want whatever it was that Jesus gave to her. And they have to be harvested.

They have to be harvested. Don't talk about it. Don't sing songs about it.

Don't read books about it. Don't endlessly pray about it. Do it.

Now, this is, as far as I'm concerned, exactly where the church is at this hour. This is harvest time. And there has never been a harvest time like this since the earth began.

And there will never be one like it again. For all their confusion and their hostility and their cynicism about churchianity, people are ripe for the kingdom. They may not be ripe for church membership, but, buddy, they're ripe for the kingdom.

They're trying to find the Christ that their inmost hearts are telling them does exist somewhere. They're just waiting for the truth to come up and talk to them. See, and you can't say, we got four months and then comes the harvest.

The harvest is here. Open your eyes. We can't say, well, wait a minute, Lord.

We're not ready. We're not prepared to bear. Here's the harvest.

Let's do something. And to harvest people into the kingdom is no big, complicated thing. We do exactly what Jesus did with that woman in John chapter 4. Read over it again sometime.

First of all, we notice in the way Jesus dealt with that Samaritan woman. First of all, he dealt with her personally. It wasn't, madam, do you think you could light up a church for me and fill it with people? After all, I'm Jesus of Nazareth.

I don't have time to fool around with ones and twos. That's not how he did this, and that's how we do it. I'm not going to do anything unless I get a church full.

I'm going to wait till the crowd gets bigger. Then I'll really tell them, Jesus dealt with this woman as if she were the only one on earth. And almost as if he had all the time in the world.

Everything is pushed aside. Time, in a sense, stands still. And he just ministers to her with great patience.

He doesn't try to ram it down her throat so he can put another mark in his book, I save another soul today. But he just deals with her really personally. And this is what we're called to do.

God is not going to measure. He's not keeping account of how many souls you were instrumental in saving. That's not nearly as important to him as whether you are taking seriously, really caring about that one person that he sends across your path today.

Second thing we see, Jesus offered this woman life. It wasn't, lady, you're a sinner. You're going to go to hell if you don't change your ways.

None of that. She knew that stuff already. The world is sick of hearing that.

Show me some life. Ask me, and I'm going to give you living water. That's what he said to her.

That's what we're to say. That's what we have. Living water to satisfy forever the thirst of their inmost heart.

He who believes in me, as scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. People are going to come to you and say, what are you going to want to drink? And you're not going to be standing out there holding an empty bucket, feeling like some kind of fool. You'll feel like a fool.

That's beautiful. But your bucket won't be empty. If God sends you out there, and he is, and tells you to give these people living water, do you think he's going to let the bucket be empty? They're going to come, give me a drink.

Let me have some of that. And God is going to answer the cry of their hearts, their prayer, by bringing them through you into communion with his son. Third thing we see about Jesus' ministry to this woman is that he manifested the kingdom of God, and the power of God, the presence of God right there.

He didn't say, now, wait a minute. Lady, here's the address of the church where I'm going to preach on Saturday night. You want to come by, and you really hear something.

Or I know a brother, I have to go on to Galilee, but here's a brother over down the way, and go listen to him. Go to church. He manifested the presence of God right there at the well.

And when he was finished talking with this woman, she knew more clearly than she ever had known in her life that God sees everything about her. And it just filled her with awe. And she also knew that God, for all that, desires her worship.

See, and this is what it is for us to do, too. If we really go out there in the name of our Lord, people will know that God is there and that God sees their hearts. We won't have to be trying to play hocus pocus and tell them what they had for breakfast.

But God will uncover their hearts as we minister to them. And they will know that God sees their hearts. And they will also know that God wants them the way they are.

There's this little man that we run into again and again down on Woodward Avenue and State Street downtown. And every time he comes by, he swears at us. He says, don't come around here with those fairy tales.

There is no God. But he keeps coming back. Every time he comes back.

And it's obvious that this man's heart is saying something quite different from what his mouth is saying. I believe that man's heart is saying, keep telling me. Tell me that God cares about me.

Tell me that God knows all about me. Tell me that God wants me. Keep telling me until I know it.

And the fourth thing we see about the way Jesus ministered to this woman was that he gave her such a blessing that she just couldn't keep it to herself. She had to tell somebody else about, come and see a man who told me all I ever did. Now, I'm convinced that if we go out in the name and power of our Lord, God then equips us, really equips us, so to touch people's lives that they will be unashamed to acknowledge that Jesus touched them.

If I'm delivered from my alcohol problem, if my depression lifts, if the guilt rolls away from my heart, if the sickness goes out of my body, if that prison door in my circumstances just blows open, I'm not going to be afraid to give Jesus the credit. People are going to glorify God and his son through the blessings that come into their lives through your ministry. One more thing.

When Jesus sent these people out to the harvest, he made very clear to them that they had not prepared a harvest field. That was done by somebody else. They didn't sow any seeds, and they hadn't done any weeding and cultivating.

That was done by other people. He was sending them to enter into the labors of others who had poured out their lives, worked so hard. Some of them had died in order to bring the harvest to what it was.

I have sent you to reap that on which you bestowed no labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors. Now, this is important for us to keep in mind, because we sometimes are tempted to think we're starting something new.

And this is deadly. We're not starting something new. As soon as believers have a little evidence of fruit, immediately they think they're the showcase for the city.

Come and see how to really do it. Send your people here. We'll show them how to do it.

What an insult to the men and women who quietly labored for a long, long time to bring that harvest to that point. And what an affront to the Lord, whose blood and spirit alone make it possible. We're not starting something new.

All we're doing is entering into the labors of others. And never to forget that, we're entering in, first of all, to the labor of our Lord himself, who won the battle on the cross. And all we're doing is going out there now with the victory, the gospel of the victory.

We're entering into the labors of countless brothers and sisters in Israel and in the church, little old ladies, eccentric men, lonely watchmen, forgotten servants, who poured themselves out and prayed and prayed to see this day. Most of them are now with the Lord. And they're still waiting.

They've been waiting for a long time and praying. And now they're rejoicing as they see the harvest coming to a head. And they're rejoicing as they see brothers and sisters on this side of death going out.

Soon, the sowers and the reapers will rejoice together, face to face, before the throne. Meanwhile, the harvest is there, and it's ripe. It is bending over, ready to be reaped.

May God give us the wisdom to be able to interpret the hour in which we live. God grants that we may find it our meat and drink to do the will of him who sent us and to accomplish his work. May God pour out upon us a double portion, yes, a limitless portion of his spirit, as we go out there and reap.

So that sower and reaper may really rejoice together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're just praying, first of all, that those of us who have seen Jesus may also hear him speak to us now.

Now. Father, we're praying that, should there be any in here right now who have not yet seen Jesus and are beginning to see him, perhaps at this moment, that they may be harvested into the kingdom right now. And that the things that have held them back from committing themselves or opening the doors of their hearts may be removed now.

And that before they leave this place, they may find him as their Lord. Father, pray that you give to all of us a spirit of great patience and holy wisdom to deal with the people that we're going to be ministering to this coming week. And that we may have authority as we speak.

And heaven-given compassion as we listen. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.