1. The fields are ripe for the harvest! Many in our church are busy harvesting at this time of year. It is a busy time. It takes much work. But the rewards are worth it.
2. Jesus is talking to His disciples. And He is talking to us as well. In vs. 35 He says - I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
3. But it seems that Jesus is confused. For it is December or early January. And the crops would not be ready until April or early May. That is why the disciples had said four months more and then the harvest. But the disciples are looking at the grain growing in the fields.
4. Jesus is looking is looking at a crowd of Samaritans who have just heard about Him from the woman He had met at the well. They were coming to see if He was the Christ. They were walking through the fields towards Him.
5. The disciples failed to see these people the same way that Jesus saw them. Perhaps they thought they were just coming to the well to get some water. Perhaps they saw them as the kind of people they would not associate with or did not care much about. We talked about that this morning. But Jesus saw them as lost souls who were ripe for being harvested into the kingdom of God.
6. We do not have a crowd of Samaritans coming towards us. But we have many people in our lives. We have classmates, fellow workers, neighbours, friends, and relatives. I wonder if we look at them in the same way that Jesus sees them. Or do we see them as the disciples do?
7. There are those we know that do not believe in Jesus. They may even have let us know that they really do not want to talk about faith or church. There are those who are sinners - in the sense that they live godless lives - bar hopping, sleeping around, living with someone. We may even be upset inside about the way they live and talk about God.
8. But I wonder if we feel any love or compassion toward them. It is easier to be upset at their sinful lifestyles or their rejection of our faith than it is to feel love and compassion toward them. We do not weep over the lostness of those who oppose the church as Jesus wept over the coming destruction of Jerusalem, even though the people deserved it. We do not share His compassion for the lost. At least, I donít, and Iím a minister who is supposed to care. I forget that there may be seeds planted within them. Years ago by a Sunday School teacher or parent or grandparent. Or by the Holy Spirit who may inwardly be convicting them of their sin.
9. Jesus tells His disciples that one sows and one reaps. And that they are being sent to reap. I believe that we are called to sow and reap. We are all to be witnesses. To see others as a potential harvest. And I believe that if we take this task seriously God will provide us with opportunities to harvest.
10. How many souls have we harvested in our 50 years? How many have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? How many of our children and neighbours? How many entered these doors as unbelievers doomed to hell and left as children of the living God?
11. I believe we need to increase our efforts. But to do so we need to seek opportunities and know how to respond to the opportunities we have. This morning we considered how Jesus followed His Fatherís leading to go through Samaria and how He was willing to talk with the woman.
12. This evening we look at how Jesus made the most of this opportunity. When we see how He communicated with her, we learn how we can better approach those who God has placed in our lives.
13. Jesus was resting by the well when the woman came. 1Jesus did not introduce Himself or preach to her. He did not even offer her something. He asked her for help. Perhaps that sounds like no big deal but because Jews hated Samaritans, they would not like to ask for help.
14. To ask someone to whom we look down for help is belittling ourselves. But Jesus asked her for a drink of water. She had a pail to draw the water and He did not.
15. She is quite surprised that Jesus made this request. "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" For other reasons, as we will see, the woman was a person who was looked down on by others.
16. To be asked for help makes a person feel more important. That they have something to offer, that they are of some worth.
17. John in Holland, Michigan, lived upstairs. Nt a Christian but a counselor. Had his MSW. I often asked him for advice about counseling. Later he told me that I had been witnessing to him. I did not even realize it.
18. Sometimes we do just the opposite. When we meet a person we can either criticize them for their sins and tell them they need to change their lives. We can so easily put them down or make them feel like they are less than we are. So easy to have a hard voice when someone calls for food or help (last night). But when we do, we treat them the same as everyone else. That they are a bother and we do not care for them. We can see an alcoholicís biggest need is to not drink. We can lecture him about drinking. Or we can talk with him and discover that he is lonely and hurting. And if we ask about his pain, he sees that we care and that he is important to us.
19. Jesus responds to her in a surprising way. He changes the conversation to that which is really important. But His words are connected to what she says. He does not brush off her words and thoughts as unimportant but uses them as a launching pad to a deeper conversation. "If you knew who I was, if you knew that I was offering you a gift from God, you would have asked me for water and I would have given it to you. I would have given you living water."
20. When we introduce spiritual matters to people, try to make the flow a natural one. That makes us all fell more comfortable. The woman would not have known what Jesus meant by living water. Was this water than came bubbling from a spring? Or did He just mean the water from the well?
21. And so she reminded Him that He had nothing with which to draw the water from this deep well. From where was He going to get this water? Jacob had dug this well. He and his family and flocks had drank from it. And here, hundreds of years later it was still being used. Was Jesus greater than Jacob? The womanís words seem somewhat confusing. What this shows is that she is intrigued by Jesus words. They are like a riddle which she is trying to figure. What is happening is that her interest is making her open to hear the good news. She wants to know what this living water is.
22. Jesus responds by continuing in the same direction. The water in the well would quench her thirst for a while but she would be thirsty again. But the water that he has will lead fill one to never be thirsty again. It will be like a spring that continues to well up and which will give eternal life.
23. Notice Jesus still has not told her who He is and that she must believe in Him. I wonder if we, because of time factors or inexperience, throw too much at people for them to receive at once.
24. If I think of those whom God has led to Himself through my ministry, usually, it took many talks before they could accept some of the hard to believe teachings of the Gospel. Too much thrown at once will overwhelm them.
25. And when people learn out of curiosity they learn more easily than when they are being told things they still have no interest in or ability to comprehend. She is still not sure of what Jesus is talking about. But she sure would like to have some of it. "Sir, give me some of this living water so I no longer have to come here to draw water."
26. Jesus still does not explain what He is talking about. He must continue first to let her see who He is before He tells her. He knows her and so He tells her to go and get her husband.
27. She tells Him that she has no husband. Jesus lets her know that he knew this. And that she had 5 husbands and that man she now has is not her husband.
28. Notice a few things. Jesus let her open this subject rather that bring up the matter Himself. That means she will not become defensive. It means that He is not entering an area of her life without her permission. It means that he is not accusing or condemning her. He repeats to her what she said and adds to what she said. He does not call her a sinner nor does she acknowledge this sin. We know that she feels shame. That is why she came to the well at a time when there usually would be no one else there.
29. Sometimes we do not need to say things. Things that are understood. But we sometimes feel we must say things that might better be unsaid.
30. Jesus also let her know that He knew her. That He had special knowledge. He was again giving her a clue as to who He was. But slowly, He was letting her discover Him. Again allowing her to absorb what she could. She thought that He was a prophet. She knew that He was from God.
31. And that makes her mention the subject of worship. We wonít go into detail but in verses 21-24 Jesus responds to her comment. Notice again how witnessing should be a response to what is in the heart or mind of the other person. Jesus mentions that there will be a time when worship will not depend upon place or upon outer acts of worship. That then worship will be in spirit and truth./
32. The woman knows about this. And she says that this will happen and be explained when the Messiah comes.
33. This is the moment Jesus has been waiting for she has said His name and now He tells her who He is. "I who speak to you am he."
34. We know the rest of the story. She believed Him, at least she though she did. She shared her experience with the others in the town. It would have been hard to talk to the others. For they looked down on her because of her past. But they listened and they came and they believed.
35. This sounds exciting. People coming to salvation. Because Jesus made the opportunity and made the most of it. May we do the same.
