RIPE FOR HARVEST
John 4:30-38
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: LONE COWBOY AT CHURCH
1. One Sunday a cowboy went to church. When he entered, he saw that he and the preacher were the only ones present. The preacher asked the cowboy if he wanted him to go ahead and preach.
2. The cowboy said, "I’m not too smart, but if I went to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I’d feed him." So the minister began his sermon.
3. One hour passed, then two hours, then two-and-a-half hours. The preacher finally finished and came down to ask the cowboy how he liked the sermon.
4. The cowboy answered slowly, "Well, I’m not very smart, but if I went to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I sure wouldn’t feed him all the hay!"
B. TEXT
30 They [a large group of Samaritans] came out of the town and made their way toward him. 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 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a 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.” Jn. 4:30-38.
C. THESIS
1. We’re going to look at the Timing of the Harvest, the Nature off the Harvest, and the Reward of the Harvest.
2. The title of this message is “Ripe for Harvest.”
I. TIMING OF THE HARVEST
A. THE WORK: PREACH & DISCIPLE
The work they had to do was to preach the Gospel and to set up the Kingdom of the Messiah. The Lord Jesus compares this work to “harvest work,” the gathering in of the fruits of the Earth.
B. HARVEST PLANTED BY OTHERS
1. In Christ’s day, the period of harvest commenced with the work of John the Baptist, who planted seeds of repentance throughout Judah.
2. This was the reason there was such an opportunity for the disciples. Jesus’ statement, “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.” (4:37-38)
3. We are currently in the “dispensation of grace” when the door of salvation has been opened to the Gentiles, since the Jews rejected Christ.
4. Paul said, “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all [true] Israel will be saved.” Romans 11:25-26, NIV1983.
5. So we are in “harvest time” as far as the Gentiles are concerned. At the end of this period, God will turn back to Israel and gather His final harvest of them.
6. Many have gone before us in America planting the seeds of the Gospel. That’s why we have such a golden opportunity to harvest lost souls!
C. TIME OF THE HARVEST? NOW!
1. “Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:35.
2. We have the tendency to think of witnessing as being something for another day, but Jesus told the disciples to look around them TODAY.
3. While it’s true that some people are closed to the Gospel, it’s also true that there’s always someone around us who is receptive to the Gospel.
4. It is those people we must ‘home in’ on. There’s always some opportunity around us that should be undertaken immediately.
II. THE NATURE OF HARVEST TIME
A. HARVEST TIME: A BUSY TIME FOR ALL
1. Harvest time is always a busy time. As you know, I pastored in the Panhandle of Texas for 3 years.
2. While there I watched, first hand, as all the workmen in the Panhandle stopped their regular jobs and worked around the clock – for weeks – until the harvests were gathered in.
3. All night long you could great combines harvesting the various grains and huge trucks driving beside them to receive the grain.
4. It was a sober environment. The whole community was united in one purpose – to gather the harvest while they could.
5. Witnessing is never pictured as the exclusive work of ministers or evangelists. EVERY CHRISTIAN IS SUPPOSED TO BE A WITNESS FOR CHRIST!
B. BRIEF WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
1. The term “ripe” describes how fruit slowly develops until it becomes edible. It only remains ripe for a short time, then it will spoil. So there is always an urgency at harvest time. Once the fields are ripe, they’re ready.
2. But a bad storm of rain or wind can irrevocably destroy it in one night. So harvest time is always a race against time. The longer we take to harvest, the greater the chances that a fluke of bad weather will come and destroy it.
3. It’s tragic to see all the efforts and expense of farmers, all the once-a-year growing season lost, all the efforts the plants have put forth to struggle and grow to maturity – all be lost by one bad-night’s storm! All that must NOT be lost!
C. PARABLE OF THE ORANGE TREE
1. A man who wanted to be an orange picker went to Florida to follow his dream. Upon arriving he passed grove after grove of trees ripe with oranges, but no pickers were in sight.
2. Finally he arrived at Home County where he discovered the pickers were busy erecting bleachers around several orange trees.
3. Multitudes of pickers came several times a week to sing from the Orange Picker’s Hymn book and listened to a man read from the Orange Picker Manual.
4. After an hour, the speaker reached up and picked two oranges off one of the trees and placed them in a basket. The applause was deafening.
5. As the prospective picker sadly left Home County, he realized that the groves of orange trees were not filled with people, but were filled with fallen, rotting fruit!
D. SOULWINNING – A LIMITED OPPORTUNITY
1. It is the same way with gathering souls for Jesus. Wars or disease can break out and doom millions to die without Christ.
2. Economic bad times can cause people to be driven to work night and day to keep body and soul alive. Political or cultural changes can make it difficult to preach the Gospel.
3. So when there’s a clear opportunity to gather souls, God’s servants must not be negligent, but rather diligent to seize the opportunity and reach as many people as they can.
4. It’s tragic to think of people whose hearts are ready, who are under conviction, and who only need a believer to tell them the way to life – to perish because the believer didn’t have the desire or will to share the light with them!
5. May God give us faithful and diligent hearts so that souls need not go to hell needlessly!
III. REWARD FOR THE HARVEST WORKERS
A. REWARDS FOR WITNESSING
1. “Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together” John 4:36.
2. One of the greatest rewards of being active in Gospel work, is that God’s life flows through the disciple to the one its intended for, so that the “channel” gets new life and new revelation too!
3. Many Christians are not growing and are ‘stale.’ Why? Because there’s no outflow. The Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee are near each other; but one has no life in it while the other abounds with fish.
4. What’s the difference? The Dead Sea has no outlet, so it stays full of salt and never gets freshened. The same is true of many Christians who never share their faith.
5. We’re also going to receive a reward in eternity for witnessing. We’re using our ‘talents’ (Matt. 25:12,23); “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of your Lord.”
6. Luke’s version of this parable has the Lord giving the two successful servants 10 cities and five cities (Lk. 19:17,19. This indicates rulership during the 1,000 year reign of Christ!
B. NEGLECT OF DUTY TO WITNESS
1. The two above-mentioned parables also imply the failure of the king’s servants to do His will resulted in serious punishment and loss of what they had.
2. God told the entire Jewish nation: “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God” Isa. 43:12.
3. Acts records how ALL THE EARLY DISCIPLES WITNESSED. “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria….4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went” Acts 8:1,4.
4. Not everyone’s called to be a “preacher,” like we’re not all called to be attorneys, but we are all called to be “witnesses!”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A man was appointed to Africa missions. His sweetheart had told him that she wouldn’t marry him if he accepted. He wrote her one last letter asking her to marry him and to accompany him to the mission’s field. “If your answer is ‘no,’ then don’t answer; if ‘yes,’ then write me back.”
2. She prayed about it and finally felt a release – that she should marry him and work with him in the ministry. With great joy she took up her pen and wrote her tear-filled letter of her love and joy to be his wife and ministry partner.
3. She started to the Post Office, but torrential downpour of rain came down. She called her little brother and asked him if he would deliver the letter if she paid him $5. He said yes, thinking of all the things he could buy. He headed out.
4. Anxiously she awaited her lover’s letter, but it didn’t come. Months dragged by. At last she learned he had left for the mission field without her. She was heart broken!
5. Several years later when she was moving to a different house she found an old coat – belonging to her brother. HER LETTER WAS STILL IN THE POCKET!
6. God too has written a letter to those He loves. Will we fail to deliver the letter like the brother?
B. THE CALL
1. Call to be witnesses.
2. Prayer.
