John 4 – Harvest Time! The Woman at the Well
Are we afraid to share our faith in Christ? Do we cringe at the thought of telling someone about Jesus? Does the word ‘evangelism’ strike fear in our innermost being? I know that’s a bit of a different introduction, but I want to pose those questions to all of us here today, and hopefully, give you some information that you can use to do just that, to share your faith.
How many farmers do we have here today? Or how many people grew up on or near a farm? Not a dairy farm, or a chicken ranch, I’m thinking of a farm where the farmer GROWS his crop. It could be wheat, barley, corn, or some other planted crop. Some basics in planting crops; from what I know anyway. First, you have to start with some good seed, right? No use putting something in the ground that’s not going to grow. You have to have good soil. Plants need all the right nutrients to grow up properly. You need sun, but not too much that it dries everything up. You need water, but not so much that it drowns the seed. And you need time. You’ve got to plant at the right time. Usually, you would plant crops in the (spring) and harvest in the (fall). In between, you’re weeding and whittling. I love images of the farmer sitting in his rocking chair on the porch, with his faithful dog at his side, sleeping, and he’s just rocking away with a knife and a piece of wood. Whittling a two-foot piece of oak into the best tooth-pick you ever saw!
The point is, it takes time for a plant to grow so it’s ready to harvest. You can’t plant a seed one day, and the next expect to see a field of ripe corn. (story of Jack & the Beanstalk aside). Unless, that is, we are talking about a spiritual harvest.
Let’s take a look at the Gospel of John, chapter 4. We’re going to read the account of Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman, and see what happens when Jesus plants a seed!
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
"I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
What a conversation! Let’s take a closer look at all the things Jesus and this woman are talking about. First, it’s important to note that Jesus is crossing a few barriers by talking with this particular woman. She’s, well, a woman. And Jewish men didn’t just go around talking to women, especially woman all alone at a well in the middle of town for others to see. This would not look so good on Him. She’s a Samaritan woman. What’s a Samaritan? They were a mixed group of people. 750 years before Christ, the Assyrians invaded the northern part of Israel and kicked out the people living there. A few Jews did stay behind. The Assyrians then imported people from other countries they had conquered and settled them in that area. These people intermarried with the Jews to produce the mixed racial group called the Samaritans. Orthodox Jews in southern Palestine looked at the Samaritans as corrupt, and made every effort to remain separate form them. Thus the social faux-pas in talking with this woman. Finally, she’s living a life of sin, and Jesus knows this. She’s had 5 husbands, and is living with a man now who isn’t her husband. We see many marriages fall apart these days, for many different reasons. And they cause pain to family, friends, and many others. This woman had 5 broken marriages, and was now living in a life-style worthy of stoning at that time.
POINT #1 – Jesus was willing to cross all these barriers to share with this woman. What barriers are WE willing to cross in order to share the gospel?
Do we walk along the street and see someone who looks like they’ve lived there for 10 years, and think to ourselves, ‘someone should help that person out.’ Do we hear of a criminal who has committed some terrible crime and think, ‘they sure deserve hell.’ Do we see drug dealers, crooked politicians, and racial bigots as people we would never want to be around? Well, Jesus doesn’t see them that way, and therefore neither should we! He was often found in the company of ‘sinners’. Luke 15:1,2 Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Jesus then tells 3 stories about how important it is to reach out to the lost; The parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. After all, that’s why He came, Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." These people whom we look upon as lost, need to be found! Who’s going to do it? Are we? Or do we think it’s up to someone else? No, it’s our job. The great commission is for everyone. Matthew 28:19,20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Back to the conversation at the well. Jesus asks for a drink, but really, He wants to offer HER a drink. Do you ever get really thirsty? It’s been hot the last couple of days, and a cool glass of water sure feels good. This woman came to the well at midday, all alone (probably because of her lifestyle) to get water. Water is LIFE. Without enough water to drink, we will die. Jesus offers her water that will quench her thirst forever.
POINT #2 – Jesus offers eternal life. What do we have to offer?
Do you know that one of the leading reasons of depression is that people have no hope?
• Major depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States
• Depression affects almost 10% of the population, or 19 million Americans, in a given year
• During their lifetime, 10%-25% of women and 5%-12% of men will become clinically depressed
• Women are affected by depression almost twice as often as men
(all about depression.com)
I tell you today that I could not have made it through all the emotional turmoil that my son Daniel’s situation has put me, and my family, through, without my faith in Christ. At times, yes, I cried like a child, I hurt to the core of my soul; I would rather that God had put this burden on me, and not my son. But through it all, I knew and know now, that God is faithful, He is just, and His love is neverending. He is perfect, this world is not. But I have HOPE and FAITH that I will spend, and Dan will spend, my wife will spend, my daughters will spend, and anyone who calls on the name of the Lord, will spend eternity with our Heavenly Father, and THAT my friends is the kind of hope that we can offer to the lost. That hope is my foundation, that hope is what gets me through the good days, and the bad days, and especially through these last 3 months!
Do you have that kind of hope? Do you know the Saviour? Jesus IS the Messiah, the Christ, and the Hope of the Nations. And you can know Him today, right now! He’s just a prayer away.
What is that prayer? It’s so simple. Just tell the Lord that you’re sorry for living a life of sin, living for your own needs, and not on God’s plan for our lives. Ask Him to forgive your sin, and He will. Ask Him to be the Lord of your life. Ask Him to help you understand the Bible, and then read it, and do as it says. It’s a journey, and there’s no greater journey than one that ends at the gates of heaven!
Finally, Jesus talks about food. When you’re hungry, you need nourishment. The disciples who returned and found Jesus talking with this Samaritan woman offered Him some food. Here’s His reply, verses 34-38 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ’Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the 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."
Remember I mentioned that farmers have to wait for the crop to grow? Jesus uses the same illustration here. 4 months till harvest time. Jesus then says, open your eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest. I think he was literally telling the disciples to LOOK UP. You see, the woman had left her water jar, and ran to tell the townsfolk about the prophet she just met. And they were coming. Lots were coming! They were running to see who this man was. Who is Jesus?
Point #3 – Spiritual seeds can grow very fast. Are we ready for the harvest?
Jesus planted one seed. He started a conversation with one woman, and it lead to an entire town coming to see Him. And many believed in Him. Not all, grant you, but many did believe because of this one woman’s testimony. ‘This is what He did for me’ That should be our testimony too. We don’t have to know the bible backward and forward. We don’t have to have the answer for every single one of life’s questions. We don’t have to be a great leader, a great speaker, a great anything. All we have to be is willing to share what a difference Christ has made in our lives. This is the way my life was before I believed, now this is how my life is. That’s it. What we are to do is simply share. We cannot make up anyone’s mind whether or not they believe in Jesus as Saviour. That is up to every single person in the world. But we ARE to share, we ARE to go, we ARE to live a life worthy of being called Christians. Ephesians 4:1-6 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Jesus food was to do the Father’s will. He lived for that. He was fed by that. The blessing of leading someone to Christ will fill us up in ways that I cannot describe in words. It’s a spiritual fill-up for the soul. And once we’ve done that for the first time, we’ll want to do it again, and again, and again. Once we overcome the barriers that may be keeping us from sharing our faith, we will WANT to do it. It will be like that spring of water Jesus described, bubbling over in our soul; so much so that we can’t help but share with others.
So will we share? Will we see people that don’t know the Lord in the same way God does, with love? Will we offer them the gift of eternal life? And will we share what God has done for us, and can do for anyone?
Let’s pray.
