Satisfaction Guaranteed
Fortifying the Foundations # 10
John 4:27-42
6-22-03
Please follow with me as we read John 4:27-42
27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." 33Then 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. 35Do 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. 36Even 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. 37Thus the saying `One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38I 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."39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers. 42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world." NIV
That time in Samaria must have been a wonderful experience in Jesus’ life. He meets the woman at the well and her life is marvelously transformed. In her excitement over that encounter with Christ she testifies to her friends in town. They come to hear Jesus and a two-day revival breaks out. During that revival a great number of people come to the Lord. I love what they say about Jesus in verse 42 “...we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
In verses 31-38 Jesus speaks to his disciples. He makes a series of statements that are profoundly important for his followers to hear—they are statements about how life can be fulfilling, satisfying, and rewarding. Jesus exemplified the kind of life he has called you and me to live. He tells his disciples and us how we can enjoy certain dynamics of living that the world knows nothing about. How many would agree, that there should be an essential difference in the way we experience life as Christians verses the world’s experience?
Our society is full of frustration. I wish I could say that only the non-Christians are frustrated but you and I know that Christians can experience an awful lot of discontentment and frustration as well. Have you noticed the difference in the way people drive to work on Monday morning compared to the way they leave their work on Friday after noon? On Monday morning they drive like a turtle on his way to execution. Then on Friday after work they tear out of there like they’re leaving the scene of a crime. You would get the idea that they don’t like their jobs. Then they run to and fro on the weekend frantically trying to find some kind of satisfying reward for all their hard work. And it seems the harder they try to have fun the emptier they feel inside. All of us have had those kind of experiences. What is the problem? More importantly, what is the solution?
I find in these verses three keys to living life the way it was meant to be lived. Is there something that I’m missing? Is there something these disciples were missing in our text? How can I enter into the fullness of God’s provision for me?
1st Seek satisfaction in the work God has given you to do.
When the disciples returned from town in verse 27 they were surprised to find Jesus talking to the woman at the well. They were not sensitive to what God was doing. They were focused on the food they had brought from town. When they offered Jesus something to eat, he was so excited about what had just happened in this woman’s life that he was no longer hungry.
That’s when Jesus said to them in verse 32, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” He explained what he meant by that in verse 34, “My food is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.”
Food is a natural source of strength. It is where we get our energy. And Jesus is saying I’ve got a source of strength and energy that you don’t know about--but I want you to know about it, I want you to experience it in your own life. So what is this energizing influence? It is the Holy Spirit invigorating our inner man when we are doing the will of God. God supplied Elijah grace to outrun Ahab’s chariot. God supplied Noah strength to build an ark. God gave Nehemiah courage and persistence to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He supplies strength to those who are using their strength the way he wants it to be used. He does not supply strength for us to seek our own pleasure. He does not sustain us in our own pursuits. But when we discover His will and do it, then something supernatural happens--He supplies something that would not otherwise be there.
What causes that change in driving habits I mentioned earlier? Something is going on in people’s minds that make them behave that way. They are trying to find a recreation that will satisfy their famished soul. So they buy a boat. Since they’ve got all that money invested in it they’ve got to use it. They go to the lake hoping to come back refreshed and ready for a new week. Sometimes they do come back refreshed. God is not against boats. Jesus rode in boats. But if that boat is in any way a substitute for the will of God, that family will not come back refreshed. They will return more frustrated than when they went.
Renewal, refreshment is not found in recreation per say. It is found in doing the will of the Father. If a weekend at the lake is something He desires for you it will be refreshing. But if God’s plan was something different then it simply won’t work. The irony is that even work is refreshing when God is in it. It doesn’t mean we won’t be tired. Jesus was tired and weary when he arrived at Jacob’s well in John 4. But as he did what God had for him to do, he was energized in his spirit. And the spirit of a man will sustain his outer being.
Have you ever helped someone in need and found yourself vibrant inside at the end of the process? Maybe you helped someone move. Maybe you watched someone’s kids. Maybe you worked at the church. And such a sense of God’s approval came on your spirit that you felt better after doing the work than when you began. No wonder God loves a cheerful giver. In contrast, have you ever done the same thing and you did it just because you didn’t want to say no—God wasn’t in it and you were totally drained when it was all said and done?
One way we can tell we are operating in our gifting is this sustaining influence of the Holy Spirit. It’s not that we don’t get tired. It’s not that there are no problems. It has all the dynamics work has. But there is a kind of buoyancy in our spirit while we do it that is different than when we’re operating outside our gifting. Life is not so neatly packaged that we can always be doing what we’re gifted to do. Sometimes the ox needs to be pulled out of the ditch and we just have to get a hold of the rope and pull regardless of whether we fell called to that sort of thing or not. But we are well served to find out what God has called us to do and gifted us to do and give ourselves largely to that.
Jesus lived with a sense of mission. Notice in verse 34 he does not say my food is to do the will of God (although that is implied). But my food “...is to do the will of him who sent me...” Later, Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”[1] When life has lost its luster, when we have lost a sense of mission it is time to go back to God in prayer and say to the Father, “Here am I send me.”[2] If you are a follower of Jesus you are sent to a lost world with the good news of Jesus Christ. But sometimes we need a kind of re-commissioning from the Lord. There came a point in Elijah’s life when his previous experience could no longer sustain him. So God met with him and renewed his sense of mission.[3] We see the same thing in Abraham’s life and Jacob’s life and others.[4] Some of us here this morning may need the Lord to renew our sense of mission. There is strength in knowing what you are about.
There was also a sense of determination in Jesus’ words to his disciples—“...and to finish his work.” I’ve found it’s a lot easier to start something than to finish it. Almost everything is harder to do than it looks like. It’s easier to start well than to finish well. But God has called every one of us to be strong finishers. Is there something in your life that you need to finish? Finishing a building is harder than beginning it. Finishing raising a family is harder than starting a family. Finishing a ministry is harder than starting a ministry. But the same God who empowers us to start will also empower us to finish. Phil 1:6 “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” A study was made of leaders in the Bible and a sample of secular leaders. The results of both studies indicated that two-thirds of leaders do not finish well.[5] I want to be in that one third that do finish well. Don’t you?
Frustration comes when we know we have not fully done God’s will for our lives. It is said of one of the famous composers that he had a rebellious son who used to come in late at night after his father and mother had gone to bed. And before going to his own room, he would go to his father’s piano and slowly, as well as loudly, play a simple scale, all but the final note. Then leaving the scale uncompleted, he would retire to his room. Meanwhile the father, hearing the scale minus the final note, would toss and turn on his bed, unable to relax because the scale was unresolved. Finally, he would get up and stumble down the stairs and hit the previously unstruck note. Only then would he be able to go back to sleep.[6]
Is there an unstruck note of obedience in your life or my life robbing us of spiritual rest and contentment? Are we tossing and turning in life—frustrated because some note of obedience has not been struck? There is nothing like the feeling that comes when we strike that last note and experience God’s full approval.
So, what is the secret of fulfillment in Jesus’ words here? What is Jesus teaching us here? How can I live life to its fullest? By living with an ongoing sense of mission and day-by-day fulfillment of that mission—living in the center of God’s will for our lives.
2nd See people the way God sees them.
Jesus said to the disciples, “...open your eyes and look at the fields.” There may have been wheat fields growing in that area. But Jesus was telling his followers to see people as a great harvest field. At that moment the town’s people who heard the woman’s testimony about Jesus were probably coming toward them.[7] As Jesus looked upon the crowd he saw a rich harvest for the kingdom of God. He wanted his disciples to see what he was seeing.
Just prior to that these disciples had been rubbing shoulders with these people in the market place. They had not seen a harvest field. All they saw was people to do business with—people to buy bread from. We tend to see what we’re looking for. These disciples were not focused on eternal issues. They were focused on their own needs. They were walking right by people who were ready to receive the Lord but they did not see that. Earthly distractions blinded them to the harvest of souls standing right before them. “Open your eyes and look at the fields”, Jesus said to them. Wake up and see what’s right under your nose.
The way we see people will profoundly affect the way we relate to them. The disciples were not seeing these Samaritans the way Jesus was seeing them. When they looked at these people they saw a resource of bread, they saw idolaters, they saw political adversaries, they saw religious contamination. They saw the same people Jesus saw but they did not see them the same way Jesus saw them.
Turn with me to Matthew 9:9-12, 9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and`sinners’?" 12On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." NIV
Matt 9:35-38
35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues,preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." NIV.
What did Jesus see in Matthew that led him to say to that tax collector “Follow me”? Were there not far better candidates for discipleship than Matthew? When the Pharisees saw Matthew they saw a traitor, a scoundrel, someone to be avoided rather than led. Those Pharisees looked at the crowd gathered at Matthew’s house and they saw potential contamination. They saw people to be avoided. They wondered why Jesus would have anything to do with those people. Jesus looked at those same people and saw something altogether different. Yes, he saw their sin. But he looked deeper than that and saw the transformation God wanted to make in their lives.
When you and I see people what do we generally see? The greedy person sees potential profit. Perhaps this is someone I can sell something to or make some money off of. The lustful person sees a sex object—someone he can use to get person pleasure from. The fearful person sees a threat—someone who might reject him or hurt him in some way. The self-righteous person sees contamination—someone who might hurt his reputation. The way we see people is a reflection of what dominates our hearts. And it powerfully drives the way we respond to those people. That’s why the devil works overtime to distort our outlook on life and our perception of others. If he can corrupt or distort that he can neutralize our effectiveness in ministry.
Notice carefully what Matthew 9:36 the way Jesus saw people and the influence that had upon his attitude toward them.
“When he saw the crowds----he what? “had compassion on them”. And what fueled that compassion? He saw them as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” When we see people in that way we will be compassionate toward them rather than be judgmental—we will reach out to them rather than shun them.
Take a moment and ask yourself this question, “What is my general view of people?” Do I see them as a threat to my emotional security? Do I see them as a threat to my spiritual purity? Do I see them as takers—people who want something from me, I just have not yet discovered what it is? Do I see them as someone I can use to make my life easier? Or do I see them as harassed by the enemy and in need of my support and encouragement?
This is a major factor in evangelism. We will reach out to people with compassion when we see them through God’s eyes. We will shun them or abuse them when we view them from a distorted or self-centered perspective. Open your eyes and see what God sees in the people around you. Are there people around us needing to be plucked from the jaws of hell? Have we been desensitized to eternal realities by all the immediate concerns? Has the urgent distracted us from the eternal? I find myself needing to be reminded of the realities of heaven and hell lest I forget the big picture.[8]
In this passage Jesus also addressed another problem we can have in our perception of people—the idea that they need God, God wants them to come to Him, but they are not ready or willing to respond. So we say, “Maybe in four months the harvest—but not now, maybe later.” Jesus is telling us not to assume that. How can they believe if they don’t hear? How can they hear without a preacher? And how do we know they won’t respond without giving them a chance to do so? I think most of us struggle with this lie of the devil. It keeps us from talking to them about the Lord. It sooths our conscience to postpone witnessing rather than just deciding not to do it. It is perhaps Satan’s best way to undermine evangelism. One way I deal with this is to remind myself that I responded. I am no better than them. Why would I just assume they had no interest in the matter? In reality, everybody has an interest in his or her eternal destiny. The harvest field around you may be riper than you think. The people you work with may be pondering eternal issues more than they are saying. “Do 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.”
3rd Share the joys of success with the people of God.
John 4:36 “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.” NIV
Have you noticed how much more fun events can be when we share them with others? It’s more fun to go to Silver Dollar City with a bunch of friends than to go alone. It’s more fun to paint a room if some other people are there doing it with you. Ministry is a team effort. Ministry does not happen in a vacuum. If you or I lead someone to the Lord it is very, very likely that others have gone before us and invested in that life and prepared the way.
Here in Samaria others had laid the foundation for the great two-day evangelistic event that was about to happen. These people had a heritage from Old Testament scripture. Their ancestors had been Israelites—following the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They had the witness of God’s awesome acts in Israel. They also had the testimony of John the Baptist who had ministered there.[9] And now this woman at the well has gone to them and testified of her experience with the Lord. Even Jesus recognized the process of evangelism and the contribution of others to the success he experienced here in Samaria.
This is the perfect antidote to spiritual pride and vain competition. The success I may be experiencing had many streams of effort flowing into it. Only God knows how much I contributed to it. I may be reaping where others have toiled tirelessly. I may be reaping because others have prevailed in prayer. One sows, another waters but God gives the increase.[10]
Several years ago, a study was done by an agricultural school in Iowa.
It reported that production of a hundred bushels of corn from one acre of land required
4 million pounds of water, 6,800 lbs. of oxygen, 5,200 lbs. of carbon
160 pounds of nitrogen, 125 pounds of potassium, 75 pound of yellow sulfur
In addition to these ingredients the rain and sunshine must come at the right times.
They calculated that although many hours of labor were necessary from the farmer, only 5% of the produce could be attributed to his efforts. In reality the credit for the harvest belongs to God. Without His grace there would be no harvest.[11]
So we are not authorized to boast in results. But we can rejoice in results. There is joy in heaven every time a sinner repents. To have any part in that process at all is cause for great joy.
Jesus’ words in our text are cause for encouragement to anyone who is sowing in other’s lives. Maybe you’re not the one who actually leads someone through the sinner’s prayer. Maybe someone else is used by God to do that. But if you have invested in that person’s spiritual future—if your life has been a testimony of Christ before them—if your words have pointed them to the Lord then you too can rejoice in the final outcome. Part of the wages for the effort is the joy that a sinner has come to Christ. It is God’s desire that the sower and the reaper be glad together for what God has done.
In witnessing to people in America I have found it helpful to ask them if anyone in their family line was a Christian. Most people will immediately remember a grandfather or great grandmother or aunt or somebody that was a godly influence in their lives. It’s amazing how open a hardened sinner will become when he begins to talk about those influences. His or her heart is softened by the recollection of God’s love in those people’s lives. Occasionally a person will bring up some hypocrite in the family. But that seldom happens and when it does it becomes an opportunity to address that issue.
There are immediate rewards for many things we can invest our life in. We can take a second job and get more money and get more things. We can accept certain positions and get the praises and admiration of men. But when we invest our time in the will of God there are eternal rewards that come our way. What’s ironic is that it almost always looks like a waste of time or something that we will get nothing out of. In reality and in the long run serving others and obeying God brings the greatest of all returns of the investment of our lives. Where will you and I invest our time and effort during the coming year? Will it be a wise investment of the most precious thing we all have—time?
We live in the greatest harvest time in human history. More people live on earth today than ever before. In Jesus’ day only about 300 million people lived on the earth. Today it is over 6 Billion. Here is a visual to help us grasp the relative growth just since 1750.[12] What do you see when you see that chart? Some people see a threat to man’s future—food shortages, water shortages, other problems. I see opportunity. I see 6 billion people who will spend eternity somewhere. I see the greatest harvest this world has ever seen. I hear God saying, “Who will go?” I hear some of us saying, “Here am I send me.”
Satisfaction is guaranteed to those who will give themselves to the will of God. How can you and I live rich fulfilling lives?
1st By Seeking Satisfaction in the work God has given us to do.
2nd By Seeing People in the way God sees them.
3rd By Sharing the Joy of our success with others.
Let us pray.
Richard Tow
Grace Chapel Foursquare Church
Springfield, MO
www.gracechapelchurch.org
[1] John 20:21 NIV
[2] Isaiah 6:8
[3] I Kings 19
[4] Gen. 15 & 17; for Jacob Gen. 28; for Moses Ex 3 & 18 & 33
[5] Dr. J. Robert Clinton studied 100 leaders in the Bible of which 49 had sufficient information to make a determination as to whether they finished well or not. Clinton noted that less than 30% finished well.
Rick Langeloh (www.missionpastor.org/fishin.htm) reported that Clinton studied 900 leaders, some biblical and some contemporary, and had found only about one out of three had finished well.
[6] I think this story came from George MacDonald’s book entitled Restoring Your Spiritual Passion
[7] Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Vol. 1, Book III, Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, 1984, p.419.
[8] As I recall it was Charles Finney who suggested that we mediate on scriptures concerning heaven and hell to allow those realities to find preeminence in our thoughts. I remember reading the concept but cannot find the exact source. Certainly the cares of this life can distract us from those urgent and eternal issues.
[9] Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2000, p 153
[10] I Cor. 3:5-6
[11] From sermon entitled “Waiting on the Harvest” preached by Michael Murdock at Park Church of Christ in May 2002. His source was Illustrations Resource Database online.
[12] The attached chart is from http://www.prb.org/Content/NavigationMenu/PRB/Educators/Human_Population/Population_Growth/Population_Growth.htm
