All right, well. Beautiful singing. So I’ve not met you. My name is Aaron, and I’m the preaching pastor here at Red Village. And we’re glad you’re with us today.
I know it’s a special day for Mitchell today, so we’re glad that his friends and I think some of his family are here to visit. And so we’re glad you’re with you, or that you’re with us. I should say. So. If you have a Bible with you, if you’d open up to the Book of John.
So John chapter four will be our text of study today. John, Chapter four. If you don’t have a Bible with you, if you’re not, there are Bibles scattered throughout the pews. If you want to turn there to John 4. If you’re not familiar with John is.
And so he’s one of the first books in the New Testament. So it’s Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. Today, as mentioned, our text studies is chapter four. It’s gonna be verses one through 40. But I’m here.
I’m just going to read verse 39.
And then as we just sung, this is why we’re here, is because we want the Lord to speak, to speak through his word and speak through. Even through the folly of preaching. So if you follow along with me, verse 39, I’ll read this, and then we’re going to pray. Ask the Lord to bless our time, and then we’ll get to work. So John 4:39 says this.
Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony. He told me all that I ever did. Okay, so that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you pray with me, Lord? We do pray that you would speak, Lord.
That’s ultimately why we’re here, Lord. We want to hear you speak through your word and even through the folly of preaching of your word. So, God, please help me to be a good communicator this morning. Pray that you help me just to speak with clarity and with truth. Lord, please be with the congregation.
Please help them to listen well. And, Lord, we pray that your spirit would just be very present, very active, and that you use this time to bring much glory to Christ. In his name, we pray. Amen. I’ve shared this many times.
So I became a Christian in college, which came through. A friend invited me to a Bible study to come and to see and hear about the message of the Lord Jesus Christ. And soon after being Christian, I became more involved in this Bible study. I Learned a phrase or a term that actually I was not familiar with the phrase or term a testimony, as the leader of the Bible study, encouraged me to share my testimony with others. Because I was not familiar with this term.
I had no idea what he was talking about, so he had to explain to me. A testimony is basically telling the story of how God has been at work in your life. In particular, how God has been at work in your life to bring you to faith in Jesus Christ to testify. Now, over the years since, I’ve become very familiar with this term a testimony. As I’ve shared my testimony many times.
I’ve heard many others share their testimony, which testimonies are always so encouraging to hear. They must be very powerful to hear because God uses testimonies in great ways to capture our hearts, including hearts of those who have yet to believe, so that they might believe. Now I share this with you Today she comes a passage that I guess most of us are probably pretty familiar with, or one of the central characters of the story not only comes to faith in Jesus Christ, but then right after coming to faith, this character immediately goes to others to share her testimony of how Jesus was at work in her life, which we’ll see in the passage God used in powerful ways to capture the hearts of many. Now, for us, this is the second of three sermons in the little mini sermons that I started, a mini sermon that I started, our series I started last week on unlikely evangelist, which the woman in this story would have been. So not only was she someone who had been culturally unexpected to come to faith in Jesus, but seemingly would also been a very unlikely evangelist, an unlikely person that God would in turn use to bring many other unlikely people to faith.
And as well which is mentioned, she does through the sharing of her testimony. And for us, as we work through this text, this unlikely evangelist, the sharing of our testimony. This is something that I want to us to do. This is my encouragement to us to. To share our testimony.
To share our testimony. It’s actually a great way how we do evangelism, baseball, which we’ve been talking about the last few weeks, sharing our testimony with others, particularly others who have yet to come to faith in Christ. These are. These are great basics that God can use in powerful ways, as mentioned, to bring others to faith. Now, before we get to the familiar story in John 4, I just want to point out to you the purpose statement of the book in John.
So this is found in John 20, which is at the very end of the book. This is the purpose statement. It says Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of disciples which are not written in this book, this book of John, but these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. So meaning the primary purpose of why John wrote this gospel account is that people would believe in Jesus. Which by the way includes all here this morning, including those who have yet to believe.
The purpose of John purpose of our text is for you to come to Jesus and believe in him. You know, if you read through the Gospel of John, there are different things that John helps his readers to believe that Jesus is the Christ. And one of the things he does to help us to believe is sharing various testimonies of those who did believe, like the one we’re about to work through in John 4. Okay, so this is a little bit longer passage this morning, so unfortunately we’re not gonna have time to work through everything in detail. There’s a lot to unpack one sermon.
So I’m trying to keep things moving for us in this sermon here. And so as I give this flyby, if there’s more things that have interest you that I didn’t get a chance to talk touch on, please just talk to me afterwards. I can try to answer questions you might have from John 4 if it helps as we go through this live. But I’m going to try to break up this passage into three very related parts. Okay, so as we work through this, verses 1 through 30, I just label this like the ministry of Christ.
And then second verses 31 through 38, I’m going to label this the mission of Christ. And then finally we’ll end from 39 and following to verse 42. Actually this is going to be the salvation of Christ. So these are very related, very connected things. So first let’s look at the ministry of Christ.
So you want to look back with me in the Bible? If you have a Bible, please do keep it open. I’m just going to work it through verse by verse. So look at verse one through six of chapter four. So as you look back there, we see a little bit of the context of this story.
So in verse one. So read this is now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees heard that Jesus was making disciples and baptizing more disciples than John, just speaking John the Baptist, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only disciples. So we see he left Judea in verse three and departed again for Galilee in verse four. We read that as he did this, he had to pass through Samaria, and he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field of Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Verse 6.
We see that Jacob’s well was there, which would be important for our passage today. So Jesus, worried as he went on his journey, sat beside this well. And it’s about the sixth hour, which is noon, like at the hot of the day. Okay, now for us, the primary point of interest in this sermon revolves around Samaria. So I mentioned this last week, if you’re with us, in a sermon from Second Kings.
So the kingdom of David and his son Solomon was a kingdom that was divided shortly after the passing away of Solomon, with the northern kingdom referred to as Israel in the Old Testament, which in part, over time, began to be referred to as Samaria or the Samaritans. And then there was a southern kingdom referred to as Judah, which over time, people of Judah became referred to as the Jews. Now, between these two kingdoms, there is a lot of animosity, a lot of animosity concerning who are like the true followers of God. We’re in the animosity. The Jews look at the Samaritans almost as like, unworthy, like half breeds, because of intermarriage that took place in the Northern kingdom after the split.
In addition, after the split, each kingdom set up their own place of worship, which is important matter, obviously most important matter the worship of God. But this also led to great animosity between the two camps. Now, the different of the places of worship, the two camps had a lot of ways connected to where they believe the story of Abraham and Isaac, where that took place in Genesis 22, remember the story how Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac on a mountain only for the Lord to intervene and to provide a ram caught in the thicket, where the ram would be Isaac’s substitute who would die in his place. So in the Southern Kingdom, they believe what scripture teaches about that account, that this event took place at Mount Moriah, which later became Jerusalem, the same place where Solomon would later build his temple, years later. But for the northern Kingdom, they believe the story of Isaac took place in their land, on a different mountain, Mount Gerizim, which for them was the holiest place in the world.
That’s where they set up their worship. And as their worship is based almost exclusively, I should mention, on the Pentateuch, So the first five books of the Bible, where the Jews accepted all the books that make up our Old Testament, including the Psalms and the Prophet. But for us this morning, right what we need to know, there’s a lot of tension between Jews and Samaritans, A lot, a lot of animosity. And this is actually central to our story Today in John 4 of Jesus, a Jew, not only being in Samaria, which by the way, I should mention, often Jews would take like a further traveling route from Judea to Galilee just to have to avoid going through Samaria, which is in between. So in the story, it’s almost bad enough that Jesus is in Samaria, as we’re about to see.
To make things so much worse, Jesus engaged in a conversation with a Samaritan woman. This would have been shameful for any respectable Jew to do during the time, especially for this particular woman, as we’re about to see in the text. So let’s keep going. Verse seven, if you take your eyes there, this is where we meet the woman. So read that.
The woman from Samaria came to the well to draw water, Jacob’s well, which is where Jesus was sitting. And as the woman approached the well, Jesus says to her, give me a drink. The reason why he asked the woman to give a drink was in verse 8 of the passage is he needed her help because his disciples went into the city to buy food. And as Jesus sat by the well, as began to interact with this woman, speaking to her, you see, this really caught the woman off guard. I mean, she obviously would understood all the cultural animosity between Samaritans and Jews, right?
They just would not under interact. She also would understood it would have been even more shameful for a Jewish man to talk with her, a Samaritan woman. So in this scene she’s like caught off guard by the Lord Jesus Christ. And as she’s caught off guard, she proceeded to ask Jesus a simple yet profound question. See this in the text.
Sir, how is it that you, a Jew, asked for me a drink? You know, being a Samaritan woman and all this is not normal. This would not have been a common occurrence. This would not even been like socially acceptable. Rather to keep stressing this, this has been like culturally shameful for Jesus to ask this woman this simple question.
By the way, the author, John, want to make sure that his readers understood this, that we didn’t miss this. So in verse nine, he even writes for Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. This is really important information in the story, right? John, the author does not want the readers to miss this. This is really important information for us as well.
So we seek to be witnesses of Christ, which we’ll get back to at the end, verse 10, as the woman gave her question of surprise to Jesus, we see him answer back to her by saying, woman, if you knew the gift of God and if you knew who it was saying to you, give me a drink, if you knew, you would have asked him, meaning Jesus, and he would have given you living waters. Okay, now this here, this is Jesus doing a couple things that are pretty common for him to do in John’s gospel, which actually he’s going to do a little bit more, just a bit in our text. So first, what he’s doing, he’s using a physical reality to point to a deeper, more important spiritual reality. That’s what the living waters are pointing us to. The life changing, life transforming work that God does in a life of a sinner.
For us, I think we so focused on, on like physical realities or practical realities, not that they’re not unimportant to the Lord, but in the end what the Lord is most concerned by is that we’re spiritual, right? Matters of the heart. This is what Jesus is addressing here. Second, within this is spirituality that Jesus pointed to. He’s making a reference to the Old Testament to make his point.
And not just the Pentateuch, which the Samaritans held to, but he’s also making a reference to the prophets here. So the book of Isaiah, the book of Jeremiah, the book of Ezekiel spokes about like life giving, life transforming waters, waters that we, that we must drink. So this is what Jesus is referring to, verse 11. After hearing Jesus response of these living waters, we see this brought confusion to the woman, so she has to respond back to him. So you have nothing to draw water with.
And this well, really, this is really a deep well. So where, so how do we get this like living water? And somehow do you think you’re greater than our father Jacob? I mean, after all, he’s the one who gave us this well to drink from and not only gives us the well, even Jacob drank of this well along with his sons and his livestock. Our text tells us.
So are you saying that this well is like somehow not good enough for you or that you have somehow like better water than this say. Pause. If you’re not familiar with Jacob, who’s referred to at the start of the text and again here. So Jacob, this is one of the great patriarchs, patriarchs of the faith found in the book of Genesis. He’s the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham.
And in the book of Genesis, God made an incredible promise to Abraham, to Abraham, to his lineage, that Through Abraham, and in turn, Isaac, Jacob, God would bless all nations of, of the earth. So here’s a woman, ask Jesus if he’s like, somehow greater than Jacob. Like, she’s making a point here. I mean, after all, who could be greater than Jacob? And after all, what water could be better than the water coming from the well of Jacob?
Verse 13. Shake your eyes. There is Jesus pressing the point of the living waters that he offers. Says back to the woman, everyone who drinks of this water, this water from the well of the great Jacob, if they drink of this water, they’re going to be thirsty again. It only can satisfy for so long.
However, those who drink the water that I give, those who drink the living waters. Living waters are there for the greater spiritual thirst that we all have. The one who drinks of those waters, Jesus said, they will never be thirsty again. They’ll be satisfied. Which, by the way, is why we must drink of that water.
Because the water that Jesus Christ gives in the text will become to him who drinks it like a spring of water that wells up to eternal life, making those waters, the waters that Jesus gives far more important, far more significant. Waters. We. We must drink. We must drink those waters because not only are those the waters that satisfy.
Say again. Those are the waters by which we find eternal life with God. As Jesus shared about the living waters that he offers in the text, we see the woman understood, at least in part, what he was saying, and that the living waters are much more important, much more significant. So she responds back to Jesus in verse 15. Okay, sir, well, give me this water.
I want to drink of this water so that I have no more thirst, so you don’t have to come here again to draw of water. As mentioned, she understands in part what Jesus is saying, like his water is greater. But at this point, she still didn’t fully understand what Jesus is speaking towards. She still assumed that Jesus speaking in some type of physical reality, some type of physical thirst, rather than the spiritual reality. Because women still didn’t grasp, at least not fully, what the Lord is saying, more discussion was needed.
Jesus needed her to understand what he’s getting at. So in verse 16, Jesus told the woman, go call your husband and have him come here so I can talk to him as well. Simple enough. However, this is a huge problem for this woman with this command. So she responds back, yeah, I have no husband.
Which in the text, in a sense is true. She didn’t have a husband. She responds back, you’re right, insane. I have no husband, for you have five husbands and the one that you’re with right now, he’s not even your husband. So, yes, what you said, in a sense is true.
Now, the five husbands seem to refer to some kind of a combination of five men who at one point were married to this woman. Perhaps they died or divorced her. This would have been a cultural shame as well, for this woman among the Samaritans, even among her own people, to have this many men in her past. And then to add to this cultural shame, she’s currently living a simple lifestyle. She’s currently living with another man as if they were married, even though they have not taken that vow.
So culturally, all this, this would have been shameful. This would have been ostracizing to the woman not just among the Jews, but even among her own people, the Samaritans. I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that this woman almost would have been like the talk of the town in the most negative of ways, or even like her own people would stand in like judgment and condemnation of her. Which, by the way, made me wonder if John, sharing how this woman met with Jesus at the well at noon, you know, at the sixth hour, if that piece of information, there was some insight just how ostracized she was among even her own people. So most culture, commonly, culturally, as women collected water, be done in the morning, right before the heat of the day would come, which is when she was there, right?
She was there during the heat of the day. And the text, she was alone. Even though the collecting of water is often done in groups, I think for some, maybe for some, like social benefits. But also it’s done in groups because they needed help. They need help from each other to help just get water.
So this woman being at the well at noon alone probably points just how ostracized she was. Even among the Samaritans, she had to go by herself during a time when no one else was there, ostracized. And not only that, she’s actively in sin, which Jesus is confronting her on. And Jesus didn’t do this just to further shame this woman, right? Rather, this is an act of love from Jesus.
This is Jesus bringing up to her this spiritual need, the more important spiritual need that she had. She needed a spiritual cleansing that the living waters can give. Or through the living waters, according to the scripture, particularly Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God takes out hearts of stone that are dead in sin, dead to God. And in his grace, he washes them clean. And he gives to his people of faith a new heart, one that now Lives for God, which, by the way, even just backing up just one chapter, John 3, from the story there of testimony of a man named Nicodemus, who’s a Pharisee, Remember, Jesus told Nicodemus that if he’s entered into the kingdom of God, into eternal life, that he must be born again, born from above, born of the water and of the spirit that comes to the new heart which Ezekiel and Jeremiah are pointing to.
So in the text today, Jesus is saying the same basic thing to this woman as he did to Nicodemus. She must be born from above. She needs a new heart, which, by the way, we all do. John 3. We all must be born from above.
It does not matter what type of sinner you are, you are a sinner. A sinner who needs to drink of living waters just as much as any other sinner does. Even if, in a sense, your sin is more socially acceptable than others. Say it again, friends, we all need a clean heart. We all must be born from above.
We all need to die to self and become alive to God, having our life transformed by him. We all need the living waters.
In the text, as Jesus brought all this before the woman, as he helps her see the deeper, more important spiritual need that she had, I’m sure this woman is like standing in disbelief. I mean, amazed. How could Jesus, this traveler, this Jew, how could he know all this about her? How is he able to search her heart? So in verse 19, she Guys there, she responds back to him, to Jesus.
Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. So, prophet, please tell me this. Verse 20. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, Gerizim. But you Jews say that Jerusalem is where we are to go to worship.
So as a prophet, I was hoping you could weigh in on this debate. Is it here? Is it over there? Only for Jesus to answer a question in ways that she was not asking, but answered in ways that she needed to hear. In the text, Jesus says, woman, believe me, thou is coming.
Whether? Where? Neither on this mountain in Samaria nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, which is this.
For salvation is from the Jews. And this here, this is Jesus making reference to the promise that God gave to one of the grandsons of Jacob, a man named Judah, who’s promised that God’s salvation, God’s eternal king, would come through Judah, through the line of Judah. That’s all the nations of the earth would be blessed that this eternal king who saves. Verse 23. Woman but the hour is coming and the Hour is actually now here.
And the hour is now here. Because Jesus is the very one. He’s the very one who came from the line of Judah, the very one who came to be the eternal King who brings salvation to sinners, to sinners who come to him by faith. The text, because he’s now here in the text, we see that true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Now, the truth part is probably easy for us to stand. We worship the one true living God in ways that line up with the truth of his holy and perfect word. But the worship in spirit reminds us in the end, the worship of God. It’s really a matter of heart. It’s a matter of our heart.
This is why we need the living waters to wash us clean. It’s just not enough to go through the formality of worship at this mountain or this city, or for us to be physically at this church service. Our hearts must be present along with the truth for it to be true worship spirit and truth, which in the text we see. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him, which does include us here today. God is still seeking a people calling a people to Himself to come and to worship him in spirit and in truth, which the end.
That’s what fulfills us. That’s how we are never thirsty again, is to worship God the way he has called us and designed us to worship. By the way, friend, if you’re here this morning, if you’re looking for something else outside of the worship of God through Jesus Christ to worship in spirit truth to fulfill your life, listen, you’re going to keep going back to that well and you are never going to have your thirst quenched. It’s only pouring out your life to the worship of God found in the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit of truth. That’s only what satisfies in ways that we will thirst no more.
Verse 24. The reason why we must worship God in spirit and truth is because God is spirit. So those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Keep saying both are important. Both are necessary.
Verse 25. As a woman hears all this, she continue to have questions for the Lord Jesus. So she asked him, I know that the Messiah is coming, who is called to Christ, and when he comes, he will tell us all things. Which is kind of interesting here, that the woman refer to the Messiah. So this is very much vocabulary the Jews would use, not Samaritans.
Scholars point out Samaritans would speak more along the lines of some type of restorer that would come. So it’s kind of interesting that she uses the Jewish term here. Maybe this is indicating she’s beginning to understand. She’s starting to believe that Jesus is indeed the Christ. Keep going.
Verse 27. So we read the disciples came back from seeking out food to buy. We see they came back and they’re like marveled, they’re perplexed. And the reason why is, how is it that Jesus is talking with a Samaritan woman? Keep saying this is not culturally acceptable.
However, as they’re perplexed about this conversation between Jesus woman, we see, we read that none of them went to Jesus to find understanding or to ask him what he was seeking or why it is that he was talking to her instead. Just at face value, like they judge the Lord Jesus without any real understanding. Really judged, I’m sure being perplexed, disappointed, frustrated.
Jesus would go and talk to someone outside of their Jewish circle, outside of their camp, that he would go and minister to someone like her who is not only unworthy to the Jews, but even among her own people did Jesus show care and love and concern towards her. So they’re angry, they’re frustrated, they’re complex. 28. After the conversation between Jesus and the woman ended, we see that she left her jar, the very reason why she went to the well. And she left it because she had more important matters on her heart.
As we see, she went to the town and she goes and tells them, come and see, come and see. There is a man at the well who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? And this here, I think this is pointing to the woman is drinking the living waters, where she’s starting to believe. She’s trusting that Jesus is the Messiah.
And as she believed, naturally she wants others to believe as well. So she goes to others. What about others who were ridiculing her, who were talking about her behind her back? And she goes to them to share her testimony. As mentioned doing so in ways she’s inviting them to come and see Jesus so they might drink of the living waters as well.
Which by the way, is always the hope when we share our testimony, it’ll be dripping to the point that others will want to come and further explore the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, this invitation to come and see, this is actually something we see the first disciples do as well. Chapter one. After they come to Jesus or Jesus came to them, we see how they go to others to share the testimony of Jesus by inviting others to also come. Come and see Jesus.
Verse 30 this call by the woman to come and see was convincing to the people of town to read that they went out and they came to the well, you know, to come and see if that which the woman had said was true concerning Jesus for us, as mentioned in the start, right, this is the first section of passage, right? The ministry Jesus, a ministry to a very unexpected person, like socially, culturally ostracized, not in a Jewish camp, but actually in a rival camp, ostracized even among her own people. Yet in the ministry of Jesus, like, he goes to her, he cares for her, he loves on her, he washes her heart clean. We’re ensuring the Lord then uses this unexpected person to very quickly become an unexpected evangelist who bring others to him as well. So this leads the second section.
So I’m just leaving the mission of Jesus, which is really what the ministry of Christ is tied to, just his mission. So verse 31, keep going. Take your eyes there. As everything is happening with the woman, the sharing of her testimony through the town, we see that Jesus entered into conversation with his disciples, right? The ones who are so perplexed by him as they’re basically standing in judgment of him, his ministry.
Some text we read. Meanwhile, meanwhile, as a woman was out inviting people to come and see Jesus, meanwhile, disciples who you think would have been the ones going around inviting others to come see Jesus. After all, they’re the ones who with Jesus for some time, they’re the ones who have seen his ministry, they’ve heard about his mission. So it seemed like likely they’ve been the ones inviting others to come and see. But meanwhile, they’re more focused on being like, frustrated and more focused on like, eating food.
So in the text we read that they, they urge Jesus deep. They say, rabbi, eat. And as they’re encouraging the Lord to eat, we see the Lord use this physical reality to once again teach a bigger, more important spirituality. So verse 32, if Jake is there, but Jesus said to them, to his disciples, I have food to eat that you do not know about. And this causes disciples to say among another, has anyone brought him something to eat?
They’re clearly not picking up what Jesus is speaking about in terms of the spiritual reality here and this mission, this ministry that he was on. So verse 34, Jesus had to help them understand what he’s referring to by telling them, my food, the food that he’s talking about is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Meaning his disciples are concerned about food to satisfy their physical hunger. Jesus is concerned by a much more important spiritual hunger of doing that which his Heavenly Father sent him to do to complete his mission. Verse 35 to help his disciples understand this more important spiritual reality, we see Jesus giving illustration one that we’re familiar with farming in the text, do you not say that there are yet four months?
Then comes the harvest, which we know in farming seeds are planted, and then months of waiting for the seed to grow before the plant is ready to be harvest. Some texts Jesus look, disciples, I tell you, lift up your eyes. Look, see, the fields are white. They’re ready for harvest. The fields are ready.
The waiting is over. As you spoke about agriculture, clearly he’s using illustration to teach a more important spirituality concerning his mission, concerning his hunger to fill the will of his Father, which is to come to seek and save those which are lost without him, including the culturally unacceptable woman at the well, the sinner seemingly shunned by everyone. The text For Jesus, the time is now here for him to gather in his harvest into his eternal kingdom that will have no end. Hebrew 1, verse 36 which relates to evangelism baseball we’ve been talking about the past few weeks. As a reminder, evangelism is not just simply hitting a home run every time you do it.
Rather, more commonly, evangelism is just a bunch of little base hits that God uses to bring people home. In the text already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. For the saying holds true. One sows and another reaps, meaning evangelism baseball, which includes sharing our faith, including inviting others to come and see Jesus Christ giving our testimony. Those are all little seeds, little base hits that the Lord is using in the lives of others.
Or sometimes those little base hits, those are sown a seed. Other times those little base hits, that’s what the Lord uses to get the runner home to reap from his harvest. And for the Lord, for us friends, it doesn’t matter where our hit is in this process, all the hits matter. They all can be used by the Lord. We’re just happy to be used however we can in the process.
Verse 38 which is Jesus reminded disciples of the sowing and reaping reality, where all these base hits are important in the text I sent you to reap from the harvest which you did not labor. The reason why is because others came before you who labored, others came before you who planted seeds, others who came before you got base hits before you arrived on the Scene and now, as you reap, it’s because you have entered into their labor, which is not just further explaining this process, reaping and sowing. But I think he’s cautioning his disciples here from any type of pride that can well up in their own life. Perhaps they start to see themselves bigger and more important than they are simply because they’re at the time of reaping the harvest.
Friends, for us, right, this is the mission that Christ is on. He came to do the will of the Father. He came for the harvest, so that through the harvest the Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory could he extend his great salvation. Which leaves the third and final section of this passage, just the salvation of Christ. So starting verse 39, if you take your eyes there, takes us back to the Samaritan woman, an invitation to those in the town, invitation to come and see Jesus, to read through this most unlikely evangelist.
Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because the woman simply shared her testimony. Verse 39 was sharing to the people of town, sharing how the Lord Jesus told her all that she ever did. Verse 40. So the Samaritans heard her testimony. God used it in ways to draw them to come to Jesus.
Whereas they came to Jesus, we see in the text, they asked him to stay with them, which he did for two days.
And only add the cultural shame that Jesus is bearing here in the scene. Bad enough Jew traveling through this area to engage in conversation make it worse, he’s now talking to a woman who’s ostracized a sinner. And now he stays two days where he continues to minister to these people as Jesus stayed and ministered, as he stayed on mission, we see in the text, the harvest continues to come in. As his salvation continued to extend, as many more believed because of his Word, and as many more continue to believe ways that they’re trusting in Jesus, his salvation, they go back to the woman. It’s no longer because of what you said, the testimony that you shared, that we believe in the text.
Now we believe because we have heard for ourselves from him, from Jesus. And we know that indeed this is the Savior of the world, which said, again, this is the hope that we have when we share our testimony, that through it others would come and see, to ultimately hear the message of Christ, the message of his salvation in ways that they would believe.
By the way, this message of salvation through Jesus Christ, we see at the end of John, the salvation came not just because Jesus took time to talk and minister to sinners, rather to fulfill his Mission the will of the Father Salvation came because Jesus died in the place of sinners to be the true ram caught in the thicket where Jesus died in a mountain near Moriah called Golgotha, where Lord Jesus Christ died for all kinds of sinners, even unlikely sinners like this woman at the well, to take on the judgment of our sin upon himself, where after he died, was buried, but rose again from the dead. We’re now as a crucified and risen Savior of the world. Jesus is calling out to his harvest to come to him to see and believe that yes, he died, but he rose again. And he offers forgiveness to all who by faith come and drink of his living waters that lead to eternal life, to come and be satisfied by worshiping him in spirit and truth, which includes all here this morning, today, based on the testimony of scripture, worship the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth and believe.
You know, for us as a church, this is a great story, a great, a great story that ends with many from the Samaritan believing in Jesus. When we pull the thread to where this story ends from where it started, it starts with Jesus taking time to love and care for an ostracized sinner who he poured living waters on, who he then used to become an unlikely evangelist who went back into the harvest to tell people from her hometown about Jesus as she simply yet powerfully shared her testimony of how the Lord is at work in her life as she invited others to come and see that they too might taste of this salvation. Great story. Now, before I conclude, I have just two thoughts. Go through these quickly and then we’ll be done so first for us.
First, listen, friends, we must be willing to go and minister to all kinds of people as we seek to plant seeds, as we seek to get base hits. Again, we must be willing to go to all kinds of people, including people that culturally might be tempted to have animosity towards, maybe culturally ostracized who might disagree with us on important matters.
We must be willing to go and minister to all kinds of people because God’s harvest is filled with all kinds of people. Prince maybe we not be like the disciples in the story who did not go, but maybe we be like the woman who did. Second, we must be willing and able to share our testimony. Doing so in ways we’re inviting people, people to come and see Jesus so they might taste of his salvation.
Start. I mention my Bible study leader encouraged me to tell others my testimony of how God is at work to bring me to faith. In turn, I want to encourage you to do the same to to share your story of how the Lord’s at work been at work in your life to bring you to safe saving faith. Share your testimony with others. If you’ve never done that, or maybe you’re unsure to do that, maybe just practically take some time this week just to simply write out your testimony or perhaps find a friend in the church, grab coffee with that person where you take turns like practicing sharing your testimony with each other.
Whereas you practice sharing your testimony. Maybe practice like a longer version of your testimony, but also maybe a shorter version of your testimony so you can be ready to testify no matter what time constraints you might find yourself in. As you practice sharing your testimony, maybe with others, maybe just spend a little bit of time to try to give yourself a little bit of accountability around it as well to help each other to ensure that you are intentionally finding ways we’re all intentionally finding ways to share share our testimony. So share the story of how the Lord Jesus Christ washed you clean with his living waters and brought you to faith. But also let me encourage you to not just share that story of how he came to saving faith, but really just testify.
Share a testimony of all the ways God is at work in your life, even currently, how he’s like growing you and keeping you in your faith, in your salvation. You know, as you go about life, as you interact with all kinds of people who have yet to believe, just find simple ways to share even little testimonies throughout conversations. And maybe just testify that what you’re like reading in scripture. Or maybe just testify like the various things that you’re doing in church life. Or maybe you’re testifying in ways where you’re even offering to pray for people that you know are hurting.
You know, as a church, we spend a lot of time sharing testimony with each other about the evidence of God’s grace in our life. So let me just encourage us to share those evidence of grace with others as well, who have yet to believe they’re powerful. God uses these things, little seeds, little face hits by which the Lord is ministering in his harvest field to bring others to Christ that they might drink of his waters, leading to salvation and eternal life. As a close, let me just share one more verse from John. So he finishes his Gospel account, which really is John, in short, sharing his testimony.
So John wrote this at the end. This is a disciple who is bearing witness about these things, speaking of himself and who has written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did where every one of them written. I suppose the world itself cannot obtain the books that would be written.
Red Village Church May we share. May we continue to share our testimony. May the Lord Jesus use it in ways to draw many to come and see him. That they might drink of his living waters, that they would taste of his salvation, that by grace, through faith, they would have their own testimony. So for the glory of our Lord, many others would believe and worship him in spirit and in truth.
Let’s pray.
Lord, I love this story.
And Lord, you’re so kind and merciful to not only minister to sinners, but to bring sinners to saving faith through your living waters.
And not only that, Lord, you also use sinners to share testimony in ways that others might believe.
Lord, please help us to this end. God, thank you for all the different testimonies that fill up this room, all the many different ways you brought so many of us here to faith in you.
Lord, please help us to be found, faithful to share that testimony to the world around us. Lord, please help us to love sinners.
Help us to remember that we are sinners.
And Lord, we pray that you would indeed bring many from the harvest to faith through Red Village Church.
Praise on Jesus name. Amen.