JOHN 4: 27-38
THE WOMAN’S WITNESS
With Jesus’ declaration that He is the prophesied Messiah the conversation has reached its summit. The recounting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman might have closed with Jesus’ evangelical witness and testimony as it did with Nicodemus. The record though continues with the effects of Jesus’ witnessing experience, first upon the woman and then through the woman upon the Samaritan village. Strangely, it also includes the effect of witnessing upon Jesus.
God changes others, the world, and us as we bear witness to Jesus (CIT). Yet Jesus would not only have us bear witness, He would have us join Him in leading others to the eternal life which is only found in Him.
I. HIS DISCIPLES’ CONFIDENCE, 27-30.
II. GOD’S SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE, 31-34.
III. WAGES FOR WITNESSING, 35-38.
Verse 27 records the disciples’ return. At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?”
Jesus’ disciples, who had left to get food (4:8), now return and were astonished that He is talking with a woman, much less a Samaritan. They were likely thinking about the prohibitions of tradition and customs that forbade a man to talk casually with a woman. [They may also have been intrigued that Jesus would engage a woman theologically. The rabbis taught that theological education, that is, instruction in the law, was for men alone. To teach women or girls was not only thought a waste of time, but a profaning of sacred things.] Jesus disregards such custom and here is talking to a singularly irreligious woman about matters of utmost spiritual profundity. They respected Jesus too highly to question His actions. The disciples had learned that Jesus had good reasons for His actions, even when they were strange and radical.
The disciples’ return also breaks up Jesus’ conversation as seen in verse 28. So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men,
The woman, excited by Jesus’ statement about Himself and because of the arrival of the disciples, left and went to the village (Sychar). In her excitement of discovery she forgot her water jar, though that was the reason she had originally come to the well. It was more important to her now to share her new faith with others. Her zeal to share her discovery made her leave behind anything that would hinder her. “She abandoned the bringing of water for the bringing of men.” (Morris. )
Two things happen to those who find Christ. Something begins happens in us and something begins to happen through us.
Verse 29 gives the woman’s testimony concerning Jesus. “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”
At her village her words “a Man who told me everything I ever did,” were bound to stir interest. Perhaps in that village some who heard her had been partners in her past life. Perhaps they wondered, Could this One also know about us also?
Then she focuses their attention with the question of all questions, “Could this be the Christ?” [More literally, her question was, “This couldn’t be the Messiah, could it, or don’t suppose this could be the Christ, do you?” The question expected a tentative negative answer.] She framed the question this way, probability, because she knew the people would not respond favorably to a dogmatic assertion from a woman, especially one of her reputation. Just as Jesus had captured her attention by curiosity, so she raised the people’s curiosity. Her zeal and her invitation spark enough interest that many will decide to investigate the matter for themselves.
How do bees lead one another to nectar? Scientists say it’s all about the “WAGGLE DANCE.” The theory was regarded with skepticism when it was first proposed by Nobel Prize winning zoologist Karl von Frisch in the 1960s. But now, researchers in the United Kingdom have used tiny radar responders attached to worker bees to support von Frisch’s theory. They’ve confirmed that the bee orients its body toward the food source and uses the intensity of its waggle dance to signal the distance to other bees.
The woman who met Jesus at Jacob’s well also found a way to lead the rest of her community to what she had found, the living water of life (John 4: 10). They were drawn to discover why this woman with five ex-husbands and a current live-in was saying, "Come, "see a Man who told me all things that I ever did." Those on the road to heaven will not be content to go there alone.
Verse 30 tell us the result of her sincere news and compelling invitation to her village. They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.
So urgent were her words that the village when out immediately to investigate. This is the heart of the transformation of a soul, the sharing and bringing of other to Jesus. A sign of discipleship is the testimony given to others — words that eagerly spill out because of the preciousness of discovery. “Come, see”(4:29) is an invitation. Potential converts need more than mere information about Jesus, they need to come and have their own experience with Him.
II. GOD’S SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE, 31-34.
While the woman was talking to her village, the disciples were speaking to Jesus at the well. In verse 31 the disciples urge Jesus to eat some of the food they have obtained. Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
The disciples urge Jesus to eat some of the food they had acquire from the village. It was an entirely nature request. They were interested in Jesus physical welfare, knowing His previous exhaustion and presumed mutual hunger.
Jesus’ responses to their offer of food in verse 32. But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
Jesus reply makes a distinction between them and Him. (I and you are in emphatic contrast). Something had happened to Jesus. Before, He was tired and thirsty. But now food and drink were not important to Him. His mood had changed. They offered Him food, but He gave them instruction of substance of which they have no knowledge. I have food to eat that you know nothing about is another of His enigmatic or baffling statements.
The declaration started the disciples taking. Verse 33 says, ‘So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?”
The disciples misunderstand by taking Jesus words at common or surface value. Jesus’ claim to possess food (4:32) baffles them since their assignment was to acquire food. Could someone (the woman?) have given Him food? They are thinking of earthly things or in an earthly manner, but their misunderstanding enables Jesus to press their thinking to another level and impart a valuable truth.
This spiritual truth is found in verse 34. ‘Jesus says to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
This reply does not mean Jesus had no need of physical food, but rather that His great passion and desire was to do God’s will (5:30; 8:29). He knows that man does not live by bread alone, but “by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3; Mt. 4:4). His priority is spiritual, not material. Obedience to the Father’s will is His concern. It is the Father’s work which must be done (John 17:4), and in doing the Father’s will is a substance and satisfaction that the world knows not of.
Obeying the Father is Jesus’ more deeply satisfying task. The Father has given the Son work to do (5:30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:50; 9:4; 10:37 – 38; 12:49 – 50) and His mission is to see it to completion.
[Doing the will of God is an often discussed subject but also an often misunderstood one. How many times have you read of some bizarre tragedy being blamed on the will of God?] For Jesus the will of God was so supreme that He lived and died in the light of it. From the beginning to the very end, He sought to do the will of His Father. Pleasing the Father was the highest aim of His life.
Joining Him in doing the will of God and finishing the work He has given us to do is man’s ultimate source of nourishment and satisfaction. God’s will for you includes more than Bible study, prayer, and attending church. Most of us know more about God’s will for our lives than we accomplish. Knowledge of the will of God is not our primary problem, obedience is! Spiritual nourishment comes from doing the will of God. The will of God includes helping to bring His work of salvation to others. We are nourished not only by what we take in, but what we give out as well.
Lord, help us to do your will of bring your gospel message to others.
LITTLE BIG JOBS
Is church work really all that important in today’s world? When set against the activities of the "movers and shakers” for instance teaching a Sunday school class looks like child’s play. But not in God’s eyes. Whatever advances His kingdom in this world is the most important business of all.
D. J. De Pree felt this keenly . For many years he headed up a large corporation that produce office furniture. After retirement he taught a Sunday school class until his declining health forced him to give it up at the age of 98. When a class member visited him in the hospital Mr. De Pree said it was harder for me to resign my Sunday school class than to step down from being president of Merman ,Miller.
When Jesus discussed spiritual issues with the Samaritan woman He was doing. His, Father’s work (John 4:32- 38 ). And it strengthened His;:spirit just as food nourishes body. Why? Because He was doing eternal work.
So whether you teach Sunday school, do other tasks in the church, or use all your energies to keep a clear testimony in your daily job, never forget that you are doing eternal work. No need to envy people with big little jobs. Serving Christ in the smallest way is the biggest job you can do on earth. Little things done for God become great things. [Our Daily Bread, DJD]
No service in itself is small,
None great though earth it fills;
But that is small that seeks its own,
And great that seeks God’s will. -Anon.
III. WAGES FOR WITNESSING, 35-38.
“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.
Jesus reminds His disciples of a farming proverb in order to point them to their need for obedience and urgency. Jesus is thinking about the span of time between planting and harvest when the grain is growing but not mature, when the fields are full but not ready for cutting. The farmer relaxes and enjoys the promise of plenty. But Jesus abruptly changes the image. The fields are now ready for gathering! He has planted the seed (at the well) and now the harvest (of Samaritans) is coming toward them in their white robes (4:40).
Jesus has come so now it is the day of opportunity. We must not be lazy or seeking comfort, no we must stir ourselves to harvest. All that is needed is spiritual vision and perception. If the disciples would look around, they would see people with spiritual hunger and need. Disciples must acquire a sense of urgency in the task of reaping.
We sometimes excuse ourselves from witnessing by saying that family or friends aren’t yet ready. Jesus makes it clear that there is a harvest around us that is waiting to be reaped. Lift up your eyes and see. Don’t make excuses. Look around you. You will find people ready to hear God’s life giving Word.
The note of urgency continues in verse 36. “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
Jesus offers those who work for Him in the harvest of believers wages. He makes the rewards of witnessing worth far more than the risks. Those heavenly rewards are presently being earned. Already the one who is keen and active in his reaping is receiving his wages. The disciples should not delay when harvest wages are to be had. A harvest is ready. The wages can be received. Let no man hang back. The harvest will not wait.
Jesus not only speaks of wages but of “gathering fruit, or reward, for eternal life.” The one who wins souls for Christ is at work for something with eternal consequences. Reapers harvest the crop for eternal life, that is, Jesus’ disciples were involved in life and death ministry to others (2 Cor. 2:15-16).
Not only is there joy in walking with Jesus and joining Him in eternal labors, but also there are eternal wages for this work. Both kinds of workers, the sower and the reaper, are necessary if the harvest is to be brought in, and both get their pay. There is no greater spiritual joy than leading someone to saving faith in Jesus Christ. All, both sower and reaper rejoice along with the angels in heaven.
A woman criticized D. L. Moody for his method of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord. Moody replied, “I agree with you that I need to learn how to do it better. Tell me how do you do it?”
The woman replied, “I don’t do it.”
Moody retorted, “Then I like my way of doing it much better than your way of not doing it.”
Jesus reaches for another agricultural metaphor in verse 37. “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
Jesus explains what He expects of His disciples. In farming (as in so many other labors) significant labor precedes harvest. Sometimes those who do the preparatory work are not the same as those who harvest. As reapers, the disciples had the great and rewarding privilege of leading people to faith in Christ when they had not planted the seed of the Word in their life.
In the Lord’s kingdom there are sowers and there are reapers. Some do the under-appreciated work of plowing and scattering the precious seed of God’s Word, and some reap benefits of other people’s labors, and are privileged, to gather an abundant harvest. Yet both are vitally needed because no one can do alone the extensive work that Christ commands.
In eastern countries professional weavers are sometimes unable to complete in a lifetime the large tapestries assigned to them. When one artisan dies, however, another picks up the threads and continues the weave according to the original pattern.
The same is true with evangelists, missionaries, and everyone who engages in the Lord’s work. They labor faithfully until death. Then others build on the work they began. Jesus said, “One sows and another reaps. How beautiful is the thought that all Christians are working together in one great task that will bring to completion God’s eternal plan!
Let us take up the threads that others have placed in the loom of service to our Lord and do our part by supporting missionary endeavors with prayers and finances, and by our personal witnessing. One day the tapestry will be finished and we’ll be able to appreciate its beauty throughout all eternity. [Our Daily Bread, HGB]
God, grant to me the strength of heart,
Of motive and of will.
To do my part and falter not
Your purpose to fulfill. Anon.
Many Christians are doing nothing, but no Christian has nothing to do.
Verse 38 continues Jesus’ exhortation. “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
Not only were they to be reapers as well as sowers, they were to reap where they had not even sown. A sower has more difficult labor since he receives no immediate reward or increase. Jesus says others have done the hard work (Jn.12:24), and you have opportunity to reap the benefits of their labor. John the Baptist faithfully preach the Word and stirred a nation to repent but he died before the day of Pentecost, when the disciples in great joy saw thousands come to faith in Jesus. The disciples had the greater joy of seeing the completion of the process that Jesus, John and the prophets had begun.
Here we see the nature of evangelism and God’s participation with us. The Christian mission is accomplished because of what has gone on before, what God has been doing in advance of our efforts. Christian labor is never a solitary effort, divorced from the labor of God. Christians are called to go where God has already “done the hard work” and in this place reap His harvest.
Jesus’ mission to Samaria presents a challenge to us to travel beyond our cultural frontiers, even though it is difficult. John’s account asks a probing question: If Jesus could go to Samaria, where are there “new Samarias” for the church today? Are you willing to go plant and reap His harvest.
CONCLUSION / INVITATION
The woman demonstrates that she has become a disciple by her desire to bear witness to what she now believes and has experienced. I find this decision to share her testimony to be courageous and heroic. She is living on the margin of her community, nearly an outcast. She lived in a society where private life is made public, where secrets are brought into the public arena. And this woman was a noted sinner. Nevertheless, she is willing to take a tremendous risk of rejection by returning to her town and telling the townsfolk about religion as one who has flaunted its precepts for years. The striking part is that they listen to her and respond. In some fashion the story is telling us that when even people who are irreligious meet God, their words have a potency that God uses to call others to repentance.
What about you. Have you ever attempted to harvest a soul or souls for Jesus? Jesus says He and others are preparing them for harvest and He is encouraging you to enter into the harvesting. What are you waiting on? When you have found food for your soul it is only right to lead others to the Source. Then you too may experience as did Jesus, “I have food that the worldly know not of.”
