The Samaritan Town

Introduction

Illustration: I was wondering if this morning I could invite you to do an interesting exercise with me. I want everyone to take a moment of reflection and consider what are the most important things in your life. If you had to create a list of the top 5 to 10 most important things, the things you value most, the things you want to be known for valuing. What would that list look like? Now I want you to take a moment and think about your typical day or week. How much time do you spend on what sorts of things? If you were to break down everything you do and record how many hours you spend on each thing, what would that look like? How many hours a day or week do you spend on those top 5 to 10 most important things?

I’ve actually done that exercise before, I think Youth Unlimited made us do it once. The results can be embarrasing. I mean, I knew it wasn’t going to look like what I had hoped, but it was even worse than I thought it would be. You see life has a way of happening. Like, all the time. Moments come and go and before you know it you’ve spent a whole week not getting any of the projects you wanted done, not spending enough time with the people you love, and worst of all not giving God and His Kingdom the time and attention that He deserves.

It’s a matter of priorities really. We get caught up in the moment, and sometimes in what they call “the tyranny of the urgent,” and first things end up last. I believe that our passage for this morning has something really important to tell us about priorities. We are continuing on to part 9 of the sermon series Believe and Live: The Gospel According to John, where you’ll see that we’re still on chapter 4 of the book. Last week we read the first part of chapter 4, where Jesus rests at Jacob’s Well and speaks with the Samaritan woman. That passage ended with her responding in awe at Jesus declaring Himself to be the Messiah after showing supernatural knowledge of her life. As a result she has gone into her town of Sychar to tell others about Him. We take up in verse 30 with the villagers making their way towards Jesus.

John 4:30–42 CSB

They left the town and made their way to him. In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them. “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.” Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of what he said. And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

It is my conviction that the contrast between the disciples of Jesus and the townspeople from Sychar has a lot to teach us about the importance of prioritizing God and His Kingdom. First Jesus’ answer to the disciple’s concerns about food is to point to doing God’s work as the ultimate form of satisfaction and sustanence for Him. Secondly Jesus points out that when we help bring people to faith in Jesus we are working together with God, and that He has done the work of planting a seed of faith in people and causing it to grow. Finally we learn from the townspeople the importnace of inviting Jesus to remain with us and to learn directly from Him.

Finding Satisfaction in God’s Work

Illustration: As of right now we are at almost the halfway point between thanksgiving dinner and christmas dinner. Is there anything more satisfying than a good turkey dinner?

How would you describe the feeling of satisfaction at the end of a good meal? A feeling of fulness, of rest. Sometimes we even get very sleepy afterwards. The problem with the satisfaction of a good meal is that it doesn’t last. You will get hungry again. Sometimes people get addicted to that feeling of food satisfaction leading to eating disorders.

What if there’s a better feeling of satisfaction out there? Something that makes us feel even more full? That better sustains us and gives us more energy. That gives us enjoyment that we can savor forever?

Jesus knows where that satisfaction comes from and shares it with His disciples in our passage this morning. Let’s take a look at these four verses from our passage:

John 4:31–34 CSB

In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them.

Remember how last week we talked about the Samaritan woman hearing spiritual earths but being earthly minded? And before that when we talked about Nicodemus he had the same problem? Well our disciples here are falling into the same blunder. They are so concerned with earthly things that they are missing the amazing Spiritual things that are happening around them.

Now of course there’s nothing wrong with buying food for the group. In fact Jesus sends them to do so while he rests at the well. The problem is when they get so focused on this that they are distracted from the Kingdom of God.

Let me remind you of another important passage where Jesus talks about food. Matthew 6:31-33

Matthew 6:31–33 CSB

So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Seek first the Kingdom of God. Jesus is of course practicing what He preaches here. He is putting God’s kingdom above His earthly needs. He invites us to do the same.

Yet it’s more than that. It’s not just prioritizing God’s work over our own needs, it’s finding satisfaction in God’s work. Food is meant to sustain us and give us energy. Jesus is sustained and energized by doing the work of God. Food is also meant to be enjoyed and savored. Jesus enjoys and savors doing the work of God. We should strive to have the same attitude towards ministry that Jesus displays here. To crave it like we crave a good meal. To enjoy it like we enjoy turkey dinner.

This means that if we are doing God’s will and making disciples of Jesus and it feels like pulling teeth, something has gone wrong. If we dread the moments we have to speak the gospel and love others, we are missing something. God wants us to have joy to the full, not be Kingdom wage slaves. The only solution to that problem I can imagine is coming to Jesus for rest and praying for the Holy Spirit to re-energize you to do God’s work and reawaken the flame for the gospel and His truth.

Reaping What You Haven’t Sown

Illustration: Finding rhubarb and elderberries on our property after buying our home.

There are a lot of hurt and broken people in the world out there in need of a savior. The only reason I’m not one of those people is because I found the savior. When we hear the great commission calling us to make disciples of all nations, that our work is to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world… Well I could understand if that feels daunting. Like a weight on your shoulders. When I think about even just the city of Fredericton and my heart to see this church be a light to the people of this city and help those in need and give them hope in Jesus, well even in that I can get overwhelmed when I consider the opposition and the trouble that we could face in trying. The risk that we take in opening up to our community and reaching out.

If you feel anything like I do than Jesus has a good word for us this morning in what He says to the disciples.

John 4:35–38 CSB

“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”

When we come to the field it’s already ripe for the harvest. The passage doesn’t say this specifically, but I like to imagine that at the moment Jesus said this people from Samaria started to come up the hill towards the well to hear from Jesus because of the Testimony of the woman.

Let’s take a moment to disect the image that Jesus gives the disciples. What is the harvest? In this case the harvest is people coming to Jesus. People entering the Kingdom and inheriting eternal life. This one is pretty obvious. Who though are the reaper and the sower? Well I think there is two parts to this illustration. When Jesus talks about the reaper gathering fruit so that the reaper and sower can rejoice together He is talking about Himself as the reaper and the Father as the sower. God has been preparring the world for Jesus since the beginning, and now the time is ripe for Jesus to reap what God has sown.

But then in verse 38 the perspective shifts. Now Jesus talks about sending the disciples to reap. The reapers and sowers become plural, and I think the metaphor shifts. Now the sowers are the Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are the Reapers.

What this means is that we are not going out there and saving souls. We’re reaping souls. Which sounds pretty cool, but is also just a way of saying that we’re just collecting the benefits of the work that God has done. That takes the responsibility for making disciples of all nations squarely off our shoulders and places the work in God’s hands where it belongs.

Now does that mean we need not put any effort into reaching others? By no means. It means that any success we see is going to be because of what God has done. We are just the workers in the field harvesting. That means the main work of evangelism is in prayer. That’s why I wanted to start doing evening prayer together and why I will continue to push for more prayer in the life of our church. We aren’t going to reach Fredericton for the Gospel by the sweat of our brow, but by harvesting seeds sown by God Himself.

Remaining In Jesus

Illustration: There’s a big difference between visiting someone and staying with someone. Greater intimacy in staying, but more responsibility to be helpful.

Jesus doesn’t want us to just be visitors. You see it can be easy, especially while Christianity was at its most popular, to be a visiting Christian. Someone who visits church. Who visits the Bible. Who visits prayer. This is not the way to become deep disciples of Jesus. We want to be people who stay, or as John the Apostle would say, remain.

This is something that the Samaritan town in our passage for the day does a really good job of being an example of. Let’s take a look at the last few verses of our passage.

John 4:40–42 CSB

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of what he said. And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

You may recall from last week’s message that the simple fact that this Samaritan town invited Him to stay with them is a pretty big deal. I focused mainly on the Jewish animosity towards Samaritans because the point was about how radical it was for Jesus to talk to the woman at the well, but it’s not like the Samaritans were helpless victims who just wanted to be friends with the Jewish people. In their minds the Jewish people betrayed them and banned them from worship, and now regularly insulted them and avoided them. So for this village to hear from a Jewish man, who boldy told the woman at the well that they were all wrong about God I’ll remind you, and then invite him to stay with them for two days is significant.

You might also remember that in a previous sermon I talked about one of John’s favorite words, mενω, which means “remain.” This is the word John uses which is translated “stay” in these verses. This is no coincidence. John wants us to be like these Samaritans and ask Jesus to remain with us, and us in Him.

Because they remained with Jesus for two days they moved from hearing the testimony of another about Jesus to experiencing Jesus for themselves, hence why they say “we no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the savior of the world.”

My friends we cannot rely only on the testimony of others about who Jesus is. Remember that we don’t serve a historical figure or a dead saint. We serve a living God, a resurrected Jesus. He ever lives to intercede for us with the Father. He gives us the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, that well of living water we talked about last we. Jesus wants you to truly know Him. Not know about Him, but know Him. In the intimate relational sense.

So how do we go about actually knowing Jesus in this way? What’s the three step process to intimacy with Jesus TM? Now that three step process thing was a joke, but I do have three practices which might help. They aren’t quick fixes, but things that if we do them regularly will almost certainly help us to abide in Jesus. These three practices you can probably guess if you’ve heard any of my sermons before. Prayer is the first. Talking to Jesus, and also taking time to quiet yourself and listen for His voice. The second is Bible reading. The Bible is God’s word that He gave us so that we could know Him and His plan for us, and He calls us to know Him by reading it. Finally is evangelism. Jesus is out there seeking and saving the lost, so one of the best ways to get to know Him is to work with Him.

Conclusion

So what have we learned today from reflecting on Jesus speaking with the disciples and the Samaritans? First we have learned that true satisfaction, energy and sustanence comes from doing the work that God has called us to, and so we should put seeking God’s Kingdom first on our list of possibilities. We have learned that when we do God’s work we are reaping the results of the work that God is already doing in other people. We also learned that the goal is not just to meet Jesus once but to remain with Him and growing closer to Him and truly know Him.

It can be easy if we’re not careful to live a “godless Christianity,” where we call ourselves Christians and go to church every week but spend most of our time looking and acting just like everyone else. This passage is an opportunity to remember the things that make us different. Our focus on God’s Kingdom and working with Him and remaining in Him. Christianity without Christ is just insanity. Let’s be a people marked by our commitment to Jesus and His Kingdom.

Let us pray.