31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." 33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" 34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 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. 36 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. 37 Thus the saying ’One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 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." John 4:30-38
Well this passage we are at today is kind of a parenthesis. Before this passage we have seen Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman who had had 5 husbands and 1 live-in lover. He tells her that if she continues on in her lifestyle she will continually be thirsty, because drinking from the well of one relationship after another doesn’t truly satisfy. And He offers her living water, that is, a relationship with Him, the 7th Man, the Perfect Man, and He would quench her thirst so that she would be satisfied eternally. She understands his offer, drinks of the water of forgiveness and eternal life, leaves her water pot and runs and invites the whole town to come see Jesus.
Then, the passage after this is that the whole town of Samaria comes out to see Jesus, and the whole town believes and invites Jesus to stay with them. So the whole context surrounding today’s passage is, you might call it, a recipe for revival. Take one thirsty person, who is yearning and longing and craving, and add one thirst-quenching, heart-satisfying, life-changing Savior, and you end up with a whole town of revival, a feast fit for a King.
But between these two passages you have this short story of Jesus and His disciples. And I want us to look at this passage today in 3 ways, because there are 3 subjects brought forward in these verses: food, farming and fellowship.
Food: verses 31-34
Farming: verses 35-38
Fellowship: verse 36
So let’s look at the first subject today, that of food: 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." 33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" 34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
While Jesus was speaking with the Samaritan woman, the disciples had gone back into town to get something to eat (verse 8). I guess they didn’t know yet that Jesus could whip up a meal for 5000 with just one prayer, and they were focused on eating so they went into town to buy food. Then they came back and told Jesus He should eat something. They were very interested in physical food, at this point, but Jesus speaks of another kind of food. The food of doing God’s will. This is spiritual food. It’s food for the soul.
And what specifically is the food of doing God’s will? In context it is ministering to people. Jesus went to this Samaritan woman, ministered His grace and truth. He satisfied her and quenched her thirst, and in quenching her thirst He satisfied His own hunger. In ministering to her He, Himself was nourished. You can picture Him ministering to her, giving her grace, loving her heart, setting her free from immorality, and when it was all said and done Jesus goes, “yum, yum, that was delicious.”
And all through His 33 years of life, He fed off of doing God’s will. He ate the food of ministry. He had breakfast one day as He touched a leper and healed him, He ate lunch by opening the eyes of a blind man, He had dinner when He saved the life of a woman caught in adultery. He fed on loving the immoral and healing the crippled, and forgiving people who had done wrong. This was His food, this ministry sustained His life and nourished His soul.
But I want you to pick up on 3 little words in verse 34. “Finish His work…” My food is to “finish His work.” You know what Jesus’ greatest feast was? When He stretched out His arms on the cross, and welcomed a thief into paradise, and prayed for those who murdered Him, and He poured out His life to save us. God "prepared a table before Him, in the presence of His enemies." Yes, He had a feast of ministry on that cross, and when dinner was over He said, “It is finished.” “My food”, said Jesus, is to finish His work.”
So I want to apply this to us just now, by asking this question: are we more like the disciples of old and more interested in physical food, or are we like Jesus who loved the food of ministry? You know what I love to see? I love to see people ministering to one another and enjoying it, feeding on it. Ministering to each other with love in our hearts, praying for each other, meeting each other’s needs, and feeding ourselves as we minister to each other. Illustration of Mr. Smith. Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent me, and finish His work.” To give my body to others nourishes my own soul.
Then we move from the subject of food to the subject of farming: 35 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. 36 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. 37 Thus the saying ’One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 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."
And here Jesus means that all the Old Testament prophets had done the hard work. They sowed seeds by calling people to repentance, they sowed seeds of hope by pointing forward to the Messiah, but none of them reaped eternal life. That was saved for the time when Jesus would come and destroy death.
And now He calls to His disciples to look at the fields, and be involved in Christian farming. In other words, look at all the people we can harvest for eternal life. You know, a farmer can tell when his fields are ripe for harvest just by looking at the fields. He sees large stocks of corn, and he can tell the field is ready for harvest, and Jesus says “look at Samaria”, they are ripe for harvest. Look at Jerusalem, it’s like a field in full bloom.
Look at Lodi, or look at your city. Do you know what you and I should see as we look at our towns? We should see large stocks of corn, just waiting to be harvested. All we have to do is go get them and bring them into the barn. This rec center is a ripe field. I see all these older people here every time I come, and I just wonder if they’re ready for the next life. And we’re working on a brochure with the Smiths to take to them. Look at the fields. In other words there are many people just waiting to hear the gospel, many people are under a load of guilt and shame, their sins pressing them down into the ground, and they desperately need to hear that Jesus died for them, that He took their problem on Himself in order to fix them. The fields are ready, it’s harvest time, and many will believe and be forgiven of their sins and gain eternal life. All we have to do is go get them and bring them in.
See Jesus used a farming illustration teaching us the value of sowing the gospel and reaping people. That is what He was doing with the Samaritan woman, He is sowing into one life and He is going to reap a whole town.
So this morning I want to show you some very important principles of Christian farming. I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. This passage teaches us one of the most important principles of Christian farming. It speaks of giving financially as sowing:
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 2 Corinthians 9:6-9
One of the most important principles of farming, or evangelizing, or giving, is to sow generously. There are 3 words here that all teach this: verse 6: generously. Verse 8 “abound.” Verse 9. “abroad”.
These all teach that we not only reap what we sow, but we also reap in direct proportion to the amount we sow. Listen we need to minister to as many people as we can, meet as many needs as we can, help as many people as we can. Sow generously, not sparingly. This is the very passage that gave us the idea for “Operation Saturation” where we are going to try to place door hangers and cds in the hands of every house in Lodi, and then move out from there. We want to be good farmers, sowing generously.
But notice that all our “good work” comes through God making grace abound in us. I’m not exhorting you to do good work, get out there and sow and reap, no I’m rejoicing that God meets our needs, and fills us with His grace, thereby enabling us to minister.
I want us to notice one other principle of Christian farming. Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 3:6-7. This is the final principle of Christian farming. We have sow generously. Look at 1 Corinthians 3:6-7:
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
So we are to sow in humility. We are not only to sow generously but we are to sow in humility, recognizing that only God can make things grow. See every farmer knows that all he can do is plant and water, but God has to bring the sun and rain, and if there is too much of one and not enough of the other there will be no growth. Growth is in the hands of God. And people in ministry who do a lot of sowing, who minister to a lot of people, must keep in mind that they are nothing and God is everything. So we are to sow generously and sow in humility.
This is what Jesus did. In humility He came to this earth for the purpose of sowing His body right into the ground. And because He died and planted His body in the ground, He reaps millions of people for eternal life.
Now, I want to apply this truth to ourselves, too, and I want to say that this is what Christians do: we sow and reap; that is, we minister and we evangelize. The woman at the well encountered Christ, and because of that encounter the first thing you see her doing is going out to her community, and sowing. Because people who meet Christ are eager to tell others about Him. He becomes precious to us.
Now, we don’t all evangelize in the same way, we are not all given the same ministry. But I’d like to ask us this morning to examine our lives, and see if we are involved in Christian farming. Are we sowing and reaping? Surely in our families we are sowing and reaping, and that is our priority, but I would like to challenge us this morning to develop an evangelistic outlook on life in general. Christianity is farming; it is sowing and reaping. So now, I want to challenge you with something that is bound to be fun. As a way to apply Christian farming, I am inviting you as a family to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen, and ask yourselves these 5 questions:
1. Who has a need that we can meet? A physical need, a spiritual need, an emotional need. Who has a need, and discuss ways that you and your family could help meet that need.
2. Who can we pray for and with? I want to encourage you to just stop in, or call them and pray with them. Listen, don’t just talk with people, ask if you can pray with them. Get used to bringing people into the presence of God. Do not be embarrassed about simply saying, “Do you have any needs I could pray about with you?” or “Could I pray with you right now?”
3. Who can I visit or call to encourage?
By doing these things we are planting, we are sowing, and if we do them enough we will reap a harvest of people for eternal life. This is not a burden. To those who have an experience with Christ, to those who have been feeding on Christ, this is not a burden, it was a blessing. The woman at the well did not have a burden placed on her, she had a burden taken off of her and so was able to go and bring good news to others.
So we have talked about Jesus’ food, it was to do God’s will, to minister grace and truth to people, to forgive sinners. And especially it was His food to die on the cross, that is to “finish the work” God had given Him to do. That was His food. And we have talked about farming. The disciples needed to look at the fields, in other words to understand that they were to sow and reap, to plant and water.
And finally, what happens to you and I when we are feeding on Christ in ministry, and involved in Christian farming? Well it’s the joy of fellowship. Look at verse 36:
36 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. John 4:36
“so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.” See in heaven, the Old Testament prophets who sowed, and the New Testament disciples who reaped will gather around the throne of God and they will be glad together, they will party together.
Do you know why I want to be involved in Christian farming with you? So that we can be glad together. So that when people’s lives are changed by Christ we can rejoice together. Do you know what will make us a joy-filled church? Is if we sow and reap together.
Jesus is central to all these things. Jesus is our food, Jesus enables our farming (we’re sharing our experience with Christ), Jesus restores our fellowship and enables our joy. Notice the knitting of hearts together here. A church that sows together reaps together, and is joy-filled together.
