The Waiting Harvest
- Read John 4:27-38
Last week we saw Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well. He asked for a drink. Spoke with a woman, a woman of the world, when societal norms said He shouldn’t. Because of His encounter, that woman’s life was changed. Because of His encounter, many others from the city came to know Him as their Lord and Savior.
I sure am glad Jesus was there that day. I sure am glad He saw what others normally wouldn’t. I sure am glad He did what others normally wouldn’t. It changed the lives of many people.
Think about it for a moment. The disciples had gone into town to get something to eat. This woman was coming out of town to the well to get some water. They must have passed on the street. 12 men. 12 preachers, passed this woman, and all they saw was a woman going to get water. All they saw was a woman alone in the middle of the day. All they saw was a worldly woman, for there was no other reason for this woman to be on the street, alone and unescorted, carrying a water pot in the middle of the day.
12 men passed her, but they were intent on getting something to eat. They were on a mission and in a hurry, they did not see a hurting woman. They never saw a person in need. They missed an opportunity.
How quickly they forgot what Jesu had said so recently to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but hath everlasting life.
How quickly they forgot what Jesus said to Nicodemus in verse 18, that anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is condemned already.
My friends, we cannot take too lightly the mission to which Jesus has called us. We can not take lightly the responsibility the Lord has given us. We cannot treat as unimportant, the call the Lord has placed on each of our lives. He has called you to be light in a dark world. He has called you to be salt, in a tasteless and rotting world. He has called you to be an ambassador, representing the Kingdom of God. He has called you to be a planter, sowing the seeds of the Gospel.
- Read John 4:34-38
Think for a moment, about the setting these words were spoken in.
In the plain that was near this well, there were vast fields of wheat. Of grain. It may be that as they walked along, they looked at these fields and lamented the fact that the wheat was not yet ripe. That it wasn’t ready to eat yet. If it had been, they could have simply walked into the field, picked some and had lunch, instead of having to go into town to buy something to eat. So they complained that it wasn’t ripe yet. But, if they had simply looked over their shoulders, they would have seen the crowd of people doing from the city, led by the woman herself.
These eager townspeople represented a harvest of a far greater kind-harvest that was much more important to our Lord than His lunch.
And you know my friend, you have been called to play a part in the great harvest that’s coming as well.
After our Lord had died on the cross and was raised from the dead, and just before He ascended to the Father, He told His disciples,
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20).
That was His commission to them. And that’s our call to the work too. No matter what else may be happening in the world—no matter what the ‘unemployment numbers’ may be, or no matter what the economy looks like—for us, there is always an abundance of significant work to do! We operate in an entirely different ‘economy’ from everyone else; because Jesus told us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”, and that everything else we need would be provided for us (Matthew 6:33).
Now, as we look at this passage together, notice, the field is prepared.
1. THE FIELD IS PREPARED (v. 38).
When He speaks of the “labor” of others, the word that is used in the original text is one that speaks of hard, strenuous, wearisome work. In fact, it’s the same word that is used to describe Jesus’ condition when He arrived at the well at the beginning of the story—”being wearied from His journey” (v. 6). He is telling us that the work that He calls us to—the work of reaping the harvest of precious souls in His kingdom—although difficult, is a work that has been going on forever, and you and I are called to join the work of those who have gone before us.
Think of the great honor that has given to us. We join the ranks of those who have warned of the coning of God, like Noah, who told the world judgment and flood was on the way, though they had an option.
We join with Jonah, who though reluctant, saw a whole kingdom repent and come into a saving knowledge of their heavenly Father.
We join the ranks of Isaiah, who foretold the coming of a Savior, and who shared with the world His vision of God being worshipped by angelic beings.
We join the ranks of David, who boldly stood before a giant others saw as undefeatable, and who later wrote, “The Lord is my Shepherd, and Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, the comfort me. “
We join the ranks of the apostles, of Peter, and James and John.
We join the ranks of the blind man who testified, “I was blind but now I see.”
We testify with Lazarus, “Once I was dead but now I’m alive.”
My friend, the mission the Lord has called us to, and the message we are called to share is not a new one. It is a message first shared in the Garden of Eden when the Lord told Adam and Eve and the serpent that one was coming who would crush the serpent’s head.
Oh, the great honor the Lord has given you and me, to be ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, sharing a message He made possible at the cost of His own life!
I proclaim with Paul, “The Lord died for sinners, of whom I am the chief.”
The field is prepared.
Next, look with me to verse 37; and see that . . .
2. The Jobs are assigned (v. 37).
- Read verse 37.
This appears to have been a popular saying of the day. I suspect that it was probably spoken with a tone of cynicism—as if to say, “Some people get all the breaks! One person does all the hard work, and somebody else reaps all the benefits! ‘One sows and another reaps’!” But Jesus here takes what was probably a popular gripe and turned it into an expression of truth. “For in this”—that is, when applied to the work of the harvest—”the saying is true . . .” One person really does do the sowing, and another person really does do the reaping—but both in concert with one another in the fulfillment of God’s great kingdom plan.
And that’s not a reason to complain. That’s something to rejoice in to be encouraged by. In our sovereign Lord’s work of the harvest, everyone has their proper role. In the Lord’s good plan, some are sowers. They are the ones who came before and did the hard work of preparing someone’s heart for a hearing of the gospel. Others are reapers. They are given the privilege of coming—at just the right time and in just the right manner—to lead someone to a faith in Jesus. Some do the preparatory work; and others get to reap the fruits of that work. But it’s all in the Lord’s field in the service of His great kingdom plan; so that all—having done their part—get to rejoice together in the harvest itself.
Thursday night, My brother Dusty, my niece, my mother and I were on the way back from South Dakota. We had a layover in Dallas. While we were there, I saw a man with a t-shirt on that said, “Sports Ministry, First Baptist Church of Chuluota. While he was talking on the phone I walked up and snapped his picture. I know it surprises you that I would put someone on the spot like that, but I did. He told the person on the phone, “Let me go. Somebody just walked up and took my picture and I don’t know if he doesn’t like my shirt or what.”
When he got off the phone I introduced myself and told him his pastor was a friend of mine and I intended to send his picture to him.
Ya’ll have met his pastor - Richard Mays. He preached here the Sunday after Christmas.
Well, this man and I started visiting and he told me about the sports ministry they were doing there at their church. They have flag football, and soccer, and baseball. That’s some of the outreach they have to reach their community. He told me how they had the kids memorize a Bible verse each week.
He said he recently had one of the kids invite him to his baptism. He was being baptized at another church. He went and found out that there were 3 of the kids they were ministering to being baptized there that Sunday.
He said, “I don’t care where they are saved, or where they are baptized. I’m just sowing seeds.”
That is what the Lord calls each of us to do. That is the attitude each of us are to have. There is plenty for all of us to do in sharing the gospel and in telling others about Jesus Christ.
Do remember the account told of the 3 servants and the talents. One received 5, another 3, and another 1 talent? They weren’t all the same, but each of them received a talent to use for their Master.
The same is true of you and I. Not all of us are preachers. Not all of us are teachers. Not all of us have the same skills, or talents, or abilities, but all of have been given some talent, some ability to be used for the kingdom of God.
Some decorate, some mow. Some build buildings. Some invite. Hopefully all of us pray. We all have a part to play in the kingdom of God.
I think the apostle Paul illustrated this wonderfully in 1 Corinthians 3. He wrote to the Corinthian believers because they were trying to elevate one of God’s workers over another. Some were big fans of Paul’s ministry. Others were big fans of another minister named Apollos. They had a “my-servant-of-Christ-is-better-than-your-servant-of-Christ” complex. But Paul wrote;
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it (1 Corinthians 3:5-10a).
I remember hearing that Dr. Billy Graham used to refer to the crusades he held as “reaping events”. They were the events at which people made a visible decision for Christ. But he called them “reaping events” because he knew that a lot of “sowing” had gone before that remarkable moment of “reaping”. He knew that a lot of people who had brought an unsaved friend or relative to a crusade had been working to develop a relationship with that person, serving them, sharing with them in bits and pieces, inviting them to their church, and praying very fervently for them—all long before they heard the gospel call from Dr. Graham and accepted Jesus as their Savior.
Dear brothers and sisters; some of us are planters of the seeds; and others of us are reapers of the harvest. Sometimes, some of us seed-planters get to be the reapers of someone else’s seed-planting; and some of us reapers get to plant seeds for someone else’s reaping. But all of us have our tasks in God’s work. Let’s not fail do our part—so that we will rejoice in the harvest together.
* * * * * * * * * *
Moving next to verse 36, we see that . . .
3. THE LABOR IS MEANINGFUL (v. 36).
It’s a horrible thing to be involved in a work that feels unrewarding and that seems to accomplish nothing. It’s a terrible thing to feel like all your labor is fruitless and pointless. But the work of the harvest—whether it’s sowing or it’s reaping—is always meaningful. There is, in fact, no greater work that we can do!
- Read verse 36
Look at what Jesus says. First, there are wages in this work. Those who faithfully serve in our Lord’s great work of the harvest are rewarded. Even if someone cannot go out and do the work in the field itself, our Lord faithfully remembers those who make it possible for others to do so. On one occasion, just before He sent some of His disciples out to preach on His behalf, He told them;
“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward” (Matthew 10:40-42).
** Ms Jennie praying for me.
Any work that we can do that the Lord Jesus promises to so faithfully reward is very much worth doing!
Second, notice that there is a great purpose to this work—the ‘fruit’, or we might say the ‘product’, of eternal life! When you and I do our parts in advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ, we are doing a work that will bring glory to our Lord and joy to a saved soul throughout eternity! The precious souls we win to Christ will live forever in the Father’s house, and share eternally in the inheritance of the redeemed! This was something that the apostle Paul felt a great privilege in getting to do. He wrote;
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek (Romans 1:16).
The fact that his labors were for such a high purpose, and resulted in such a glorious product, gave him great boldness in his work.
Finally, notice that there is a glorious outcome to it all—that those who sow and those who reap will, with the Lord Jesus, rejoice together! The prospect of that rejoicing was what drove the apostle Paul. He wrote to a group of believers that he had helped lead to the Lord and said;
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20).
My friend, there’s no greater work in the world that we could ever do than the Lord’s work of the harvest! No other work pays so highly, serves so glorious a purpose, and results in so much eternal joy!
* * * * * * * * * * *
4. THE TIME IS AT HAND (v. 35).
When the disciples had looked at the fields of grain that stood nearby, they thought of how harvest-time was off in the future. Ordinarily, when harvest time has come and the grain is fully ripe, the fields look ‘white’ and ‘bright’. But when they looked upon the fields around them, they saw that they were still green. They assumed that the time when workers would go out into the harvest was still far off. And perhaps when it came to fields of grain, this was true. But this is not the case in our Lord’s great work of the harvest.
- Read verse 35
When it comes to our Lord’s harvest, the problem isn’t that the time is far off. In fact, the time is here and the harvest is plentiful. The real problem is that there are too few workers in the harvest. Do you remember what our Lord said to His disciples on another occasion? He told them;
“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).
The apostle Paul expressed the sense of the urgency for the work in this way:
We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says:
“In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).
We shouldn’t let ourselves think about entering into the work someday in the future. It’s already harvest time! Now is the time to get into action!
Looking at the world with this vision reminds me of a man on a train going across the desert in Arizona. He was the only person in the chair car who had not pulled down the window shades to keep out the glare of the hot sun on the parched earth. In contrast to the other passengers, he kept looking out his window, and seemed actually to enjoy the dismal scene.
After a while the curious man seated across the aisle, asked, “Sir, what do you see in that wasteland that makes you smile?”
“Oh,” he replied,” I’m in the irrigation business, and I was thinking if we could only get water to this land that the desert would become a garden.”
That’s what Jesus is teaching His disciples. He wants us to see the world’s people as He sees them. Though lost and on their way to Hell, they are precious in His sight. By divine grace, they can become a new creation, made beautiful in holiness.
So; according to our Lord, the work is prepared, the tasks are assigned, the labor is meaningful, and the time is at hand. And finally, as we look at verse 34, we find that we can eagerly throw our ‘all’ into this work; because . . .
5. THE FULFILLMENT IS GREAT (v. 34).
- Read verse 34
What was the will of the Father for our Lord? He tells us in John 6:37-40. He said,
- Read John 6:37-40
He was so captivated by the joy of doing what the Father sent Him to do, and of finishing the work that He gave Him, that it satisfied Him more than His daily food. The “food” of delighting in the Father’s will was so great that He could easily forget—or perhaps not care for—the temporal food of this world; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2)
And I believe that the same is true for you and me. Jesus delighted to do the will of the Father who sent Him, and to complete His work. And you and I have one who has sent us. Remember how, in verse 38, Jesus said, ” I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored . . .”? Our ‘food’ is to do the will of Him who sent us!
A man was talking through the multistory projects in a city one day, when he saw a young boy with a mirror, reflecting the sun up into a widow on the 6th floor. He asked the young boy what he was doing. He said, “My brother is cripple and can’t get out. The sun never shines in the windows on our side of the building, so the only sun my brother ever gets is what I shine up to him.
My friends, all around us are people who need the light of the Gospel, and for sone of them, the only sun they will see will be reflected by you.
You are the light of the world. Who are shining the light on?
