The Delight of a Disciple-Maker
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What things in life delight you? What do you live for? What is it in this life that fills you with satisfaction?
A freshly brewed cup of coffee in the morning, sitting down in the quiet of the early morning, reading my bible and letting the Word of Christ dwell in my heart richly.
Walking out to my garden, that I put a lot of labor and toil into this year, and every day seeing the progress and the success of each plant.
Coming over to the new church building and standing in the new auditorium and dreaming of the future of this church.
Hearing my three year old giggle when I sing the “wheels on the bus” song.
What delights you in this life? What should bring you delight, what should you be living for, what should fill your heart with satisfaction as a disciple of Jesus Christ? What should the biblical delight of your life be?
What was the delight of the Master? What was the one thing that filled Jesus Christ with satisfaction while He was here on this earth?
Last week we looked at the story of the Samaritan woman. We studied the example of Jesus Christ the master evangelist. We developed several principles of Christlike evangelism that we could apply to our own personal evangelism in an effort to become more Christ-like.
And we boiled all of those principles down into one statement: Our goal is to make people curious enough about spiritual things to read the Bible with us. I would encourage you to go back and re-listen to those sermons if you missed it, or if it didn’t stick the first time because there is a lot of important “stuff” that we need to learn about our evangelism from the example of Jesus.
The narrative dealing with evangelism and focusing on the Samaritan woman ends in v. 26
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
Starting in v. 27 I believe the focus of the narrative shifts to that of Jesus’ disciples. And it shifts from viewing Jesus as the master evangelist to instead looking at Christ as the master disciple-maker.
In vv. 27-42 Jesus takes the divinely appointed opportunity to instruct His disciples on what being a real-disciple maker looks like. Remember Jesus has three years to get these guys up to speed. After that Jesus ascends back up into heaven, and as he is leaving He gives them the Great Commission- Go into all the world and make disciples. Here in John 4 we see Jesus wisely taking this real life opportunity to train his disciples to be disciple-makers themselves. This is no class room setting- Jesus does this in the normal patterns of life. And through this real life situation Jesus teaches the disciples several important lessons about what it means to be a follower of Christ and ultimately a disciple-maker themselves.
And I think we need to learn these same lessons, so that we can all be used by God, as disciple-makers for Jesus Christ.
What lessons do we need to learn from this story about what it means to be a disciple-maker for Jesus Christ?
I. Established cultural or religious “norms” may actually be detrimental to the real work of making disciples for Jesus Christ (vv. 27-30)
I. Established cultural or religious “norms” may actually be detrimental to the real work of making disciples for Jesus Christ (vv. 27-30)
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
Actually, there is a subtle lesson in the beginner of v. 27 that the disciples almost assuredly missed in the moment of the day. Perhaps, as they reflected back upon the day’s events weeks, months, or years later then they would have understood this subtle lesson.
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
Remember back to v. 26-
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
Jesus just reached the whole point of his conversation with this woman. Jesus just point blank told her that He was the long awaited Messiah. Remember everything that Jesus said to lead her to this point? Jesus did not give people answers until what? Until they were ready to hear them.
1. Become their friend before you become their preaching- Jesus asked her for a drink of water- he showed himself friendly.
2. Make them curious about spiritual things- He offered her living water, and she had no clue about what he was talking about- but eventually she asked for this living water for herself.
3. Help them to see their wrong thinking- Jesus pointed out her immoral lifestyle and how she had been seeking fulfillment in husbands instead of in God, and he pointed out the futility of her religious thinking- worship was not based on geography it was something done in spirit and in truth.
4. Don’t give them answers until they are ready to hear them- Jesus waited until she made a profession about the coming Messiah, and then and only then, when she was ready to hear the answer did he make the statement, “I that speak unto you am He.”
Now, think about the timing of all of this. First of all Jesus just happened to pass through Samaria, and he just happened to arrive at the well at noon at the same time that she arrived. And it just happened that Jesus sent his disciples into town to get food so He could have the time He needed to lead the woman to faith in Himself. This all just happened right? Wrong. What do we call this? Providence.
What is providence? It’s that theological word that means God controls all contingencies, all circumstances, all exigencies, all choices, all events, all people, all time to converge to precisely fulfill His will. It is the massive miracle of redemptive history. (John MacArthur)
As soon as Jesus makes his statement that He is the Messiah, what happens?
v. 27a- Καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἦλθαν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ
And upon this exact moment, at this exact point in time, His disciples came unto Him.
What would have happened if they came 5 minutes earlier? They would have interrupted Jesus. What would have happened if they came 5 minutes later?
Look at the next verse:
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
What does the woman do? She leaves and she leaves in a hurry. Notice what does she not take with her? Her waterpot. Why is that? We don’t know exactly why, but maybe it’s that she is so excited (because she really believes what Jesus just told her), she has found the Messiah and she can’t wait to tell the whole town.
So if the disciples would arrived 5 minutes later what would have happened? They would have missed Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman. Now, that is providence! Jesus timed his gospel presentation down to the exact second. Thousands of minute details all converge together at exactly the right time, in exactly the right manner, exactly as Jesus wanted them to happen.
Illustration: Do you know that as a follower of Christ sometimes you get to see God’s providence at work through you? The other day I was out driving in my car and I was praying about what God wanted me to do that day. The Lord laid it on my heart to stop at on of the church member’s houses, so I stopped and no one was home. I though, “well, that’s weird.” So, I had to go stop by my mechanic and God opened the door to continue to build a friendship with him for the purpose of the gospel. So we talked for an extended amount of time. I get into my car and I had an extra half-hour before my next engagement and I prayed, “Lord, what do you want me to do now?” At that exact moment a saw a truck drive by, and I recognized that truck. It was one of the members of the church. So I said to the Lord, “OK, thanks very much.” I followed that person for a block or two where they pulled over and we had a half hour conversation about disciple-making and evangelism. That is providence. Strictly speaking this is not a miracle. God did not alter the natural order of the universe, but He controls all contingencies, all circumstances, all exigencies, all choices, all events, all people, all time to converge to precisely fulfill His will. And the cool thing is we get to be a part of it! And, if we will just make ourselves available and have the heart of disciple-maker and learn the lessons that Jesus taught us all those years ago, God can use us providentially for His will. And it’s not all up to us. We just water and plant seed, but God gives the increase!
Coming back to our story we have to ask the question, why? Why did Jesus plan for his disciples to see him talking with this Samaritan woman? Look at v. 27 again.
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
What was the response of the disciples when they came back at the exact moment that Jesus wanted them to come back? They “marvelled”- this means they were extraordinarily disturbed by something. Why? Well, Jesus was talking to a woman and a Samaritan woman at that.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 9. Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (4:1–42)
Their unvoiced surprise that he was talking with a Samaritan woman reflects the prejudices of the day. Some (though by no means all) Jewish thought held that for a rabbi to talk much with a woman, even his own wife, was at best a waste of time and at worst a diversion from the study of Torah, and therefore potentially a great evil that could lead to Gehenna, hell (Pirke Aboth 1:5). Some rabbis went so far as to suggest that to provide their daughters with a knowledge of the Torah was as inappropriate as to teach them lechery, i.e. to sell them into prostitution (Mishnah Sotah 3:4; the same passage also provides the contrary view). Add to this the fact that this woman was a Samaritan (cf. notes on v. 9), and the disciples’ surprise is understandable.
They are so taken aback by this they have no clue what to do. They are amazed, but they don’t say anything. They want to! They want to ask the woman, “What do you want?” But they don’t, probably because then they would have to talk to a Samaritan woman. And they want to ask Jesus, “Why are you talking with her?” But they probably don’t have the guts to ask him that. We are not told.
What lesson is Jesus teaching his disciples? Look guys, I know that cultural norms and religious norms say I can’t do this, but I did it anyway and look what is about to happen because of it.
This is an important lesson to understand. Sometimes, we get stuck in this same kind of rut. I am not saying that we have a sexist and racist mentality like the Jews did toward this Samaritan woman. But, are there cultural and especially religious norms that we just do because that’s the way we have always done them. How many songs do we sing on Sunday mornings before the sermon? 3 songs, an offertory, and a special. Why? Because that is the way we have always done things. Well, what if that actually is getting in the way of worship? What if we have just gotten stuck in a rut and we are moving through the motions of it, but it has become empty and shallow and useless? But pastor, we can’t change the order of service! But what if it is actually detrimental to being a disciple of Jesus Christ? What if it is antithetical to making people into disciple-makers? I am not say that it is necessarily. But it begs the question. What else do we do as a church because it is a cultural and religious norm? We have always done it that way! But if we would stop and think about it, we might realize that it is actually hurting the cause of the gospel. It is making us less effective at being disciple makers. Shouldn’t we change? It doesn’t happen by accident. It only happens if we sit down and evaluate ourselves and our ministry and see if we need to learn this lesson that Jesus is showing His disciples. Look what happens next in the story!
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
This woman is so excited that she leaves her waterpot, or maybe she knows Jesus is thirsty and she wants Him to drink as much as he needs- not sure. But she heads off into the city and she comes to the men of the city. The men of the city typically sat at the city gate conducting the business affairs of the day. They were the leaders of the town. And she comes to them and asks, “Come, see a man who told me all things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” Now, why does she ask them a question? Why not just make a statement? “I have found the Messiah.” Would they have listened to her? Probably not, but she peaks their curiosity by asking them to find out for themselves. Hey, come and see this guy that told me every bad thing I have ever done in life. And these men probably all knew her circumstances right? It’s a small town, everybody knows everything. Well, they decide they have to find out for themselves so they get up and they go out of the city and they come to Jesus.
This is incredible! Because Jesus was not willing to held hostage by the sexism of his day, and entire town is on its way to find out for themselves if Jesus is the Messiah? Imagine the opportunity that Jesus would have missed if he followed the established cultural and religious norms!
This is a profound lesson for his disciples to learn, and one that would be important one day when they became the disciple-makers.
Maybe the reason that we haven’t been successful disciple makers in our Jerusalem is we haven’t learn this same lesson.
Visualize a large manufacturing plant in your town or city that produces shoes. The management has invested great sums of money and many man-hours into the plant to produce the finest shoes possible. Money has been spent on salaries for the employees, machinery for shoe-making, and materials from which the shoes are to be made. The plant is now in operation with hundreds of workers scurrying to and fro. Machines are running full blast, and activity is at a maximum.
One day the president asks the production manager, “How many shoes have we produced so far?”
“None,” the manager answers.
“None!” the president exclaims. “How long have we been in operation?”
“Two years.”
“Two years? And still no shoes?”
“That’s right,” the manager says, “no shoes, but we are really busy. In fact, we have been so busy that we are all nearly tired out. We’ve been very active at our jobs.”
Now let’s put a cross on top of that building and transform it into the church on the corner—our church. Again, there is much activity. Men and women are working hard. The budget is higher this year than ever before. The church is very active. The objective, however, is not to produce shoes but disciples.
In the last two years how many actual disciples has this church produced? I mean, someone from outside the walls of our homes and outside of the walls of our church? How many? Ok, let’s go back 5 years? 10 years? Can you think of very many people that we have reached from our Jerusalem with the gospel and have worked with them to produce actual disciples of Jesus?
Folks, maybe our well established cultural and religious “norms” are actually detrimental to the real work of making disciples for Jesus Christ. Maybe we need to re-evaluate our religious traditions. Maybe we need to change the entire culture of our church? What do you think? Not a single Jew would have dreamed of doing what Jesus did at this well in Samaria, and yet Jesus did it and he brought an entire town to saving faith in Himself. How about us?
What is lesson number 2?
What lessons do we need to learn from this story about what it means to be a disciple-maker for Jesus Christ?
II. The chief delight of a disciple-maker must be to do the exact will of the Father (vv. 31-35)
II. The chief delight of a disciple-maker must be to do the exact will of the Father (vv. 31-35)
31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
So, the Samaritan woman high-tails it into the city. The disciples are amazed that Jesus would talk with a Samaritan woman, but before they can ask Jesus about it, they get distracted with another pressing issue. Food! That was the reason they went to town in the first place— to get something to eat.
So, they urged Jesus, “Master/Rabbi, eat.”
Again, Jesus takes this opportunity in the everyday, natural course of life, to teach his disciples another lesson about what it means to be a disciple-maker.
32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
Here you go Rabbi, eat. Jesus responds, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
Huh? What is He talking about they wonder.
33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
He already ate? Did you bring him food? Did you? How about you?
Again, patiently, calmly, Jesus teaches his disciples:
34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
My meat or my food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish or accomplish His work.
One of my favorite meals to eat is smoked BBQ-ed ribs. It is also one of my least favorite meals to make. Why? Because, if you are going to do ribs right, you have to slow cook them and you have to smoke them. That means early in the morning you have to prepare the ribs with a dry rub, and soak the woods chunks. Then you have to put the ribs on at just the right time and get the wood smoking. And then comes the hard part. Waiting. Waiting all day long. And the smell of the ribs just permeates the whole house. And you can’t rush it, you have to wait until the meat is mouth-watering-ly tender. But then, when you finally sit down for supper and you are starving and you sick you teeth into that first amazing bit. There is nothing more satisfying than that!
Jesus is teaching His disciples, do you want to know what satisfies me more than anything else? Do you want to know what I delight in the most? It is doing the will of my Father and accomplishing His work. This is my highest delight. And, if you want to be a disciple-maker for Jesus Christ, it needs to be yours also.
This is such a cool theme that runs through the gospel of John. Jesus knowing perfectly the will of the Father and doing perfectly the will of the Father.
34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
Imagine the perfect delight of the Son. Jesus could perfectly do the will of His Father because He perfectly knew all the words of the Father. Every word that Jesus spoke came directly from the Father, and every word that was in the Father’s inner most being Jesus knew perfectly. And what delighted Jesus more than anything else? Doing the very will of the Father perfectly. And accomplishing His work. This must be the heart of every one of us if we are to become the disciple-makers that God wants us to be.
Sometimes, when you start talking about changing well established religious traditions people get really nervous. And sometimes they are justified in their hesitancy. There have been many well intending churches, that for the sake of reaching more unsaved people with the gospel, they whole-heatedly embraced worldliness. They bent and broke their standards and convictions and they changed their theology all in the name of reaching more people with the gospel.
Here is Jesus’ counter lesson to that pitfall. Yes, sometimes you have to re-evaluate and change some longstanding religious traditions. But on the flip side anything and everything that you do must also come from one chief delight of the soul- to perfectly do the will of the Father and to accomplish His work. So we are not going to compromise and we are not going to allow sin to creep into our church. But the idea of changing our current religious culture and also not compromising our convictions are not mutually exclusive. It can be done. We can learn both lessons. And if we will just learn from Christ’s example, if we will take both of these things to hear guess what it will produce?
35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
What is Jesus talking about here? Why is he all the sudden talking about fields and farming and harvests? Isn’t this just a little off topic? In order to get this- and this is so cool and you to put yourself at that well at that exact moment in history.
What is Jesus trying to drive home to His disciples? They need to delight in doing the exact will of the Father and in accomplishing His work. What does that look like? What is the will of the Father and what kind of work is Jesus talking about?
Then, Jesus says lift up your eyes! I don’t think Jesus is being spiritual here. He does not mean lift up the eyes of your heart and gain a greater burden for souls. I think he means look up- over there in the distance- what is coming toward us as we speak? Well, what or who is coming toward them?
Look at v. 30 again.
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
Who is coming out of the city? Who is on their way to the well to see this supposed Messiah? The men of the city, and probably a lot of the rest of the town. And Jesus is saying you want to know what the will of the Father is, you want to know how to accomplish His work? Lift up you eyes. You see all those people coming this way? Don’t say that in four months comes the harvest- look on the fields now- look at all those people- the fields are white unto harvest. Now imagine they are still a ways off and they are wearing the customary white robes of the day, and they bear a passing resemblance to the white tips of wheat whey they are ready for harvest. Do you think Jesus got his message through?
This is the chief delight of a disciple-maker. People! Seeing people come to faith in Christ- and doing it because it is the exact will of the Father- in other words it is what brings Him glory. And we don’t have to compromise our church in order to do it. We just need to follow the example of our Savior. We need to have the delight, and we need to take a hard look at the religious rut we have allowed ourselves to fall into and then look up and see a whole town full of people ready for God to use us providentially for the gospel. We just have to diligently purse it. Imagine, if we just implemented these two things into our ministry how different do you think this church would become?
What is lesson number 3?
What lessons do we need to learn from this story about what it means to be a disciple-maker for Jesus Christ?
III. The task of making disciples is designed to be a team operation (vv. 36-38)
III. The task of making disciples is designed to be a team operation (vv. 36-38)
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
Again, Jesus takes time while most of the town is on its way to see Him, to instruct His disciples.
Jesus wants his disciples to know that they are about to reap fruit unto eternal life- they are about to lead a whole town to faith in the gospel. But, this didn’t happen all in one day. There was a process that led up to the days events unfolding as they did. Someone, had to come ahead of time and sow the soil.
In other words there have been other people that have ministered to these Samaritans in the past before Jesus and his disciples showed up on that day. Who? Well perhaps Moses is in view. The Samaritan bible was the Pentateuch- the first five books of the OT. Somehow, they knew about the coming Messiah as evidenced by the Samaritan woman’s profession. Perhaps, it was also the ministry of John the Baptist.
23 And John also was baptizing in Ænon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.
So, maybe he, or one of his disciples had mad their way to these people, or at least his message. We are not sure. The point is that someone else had already sowed the seed of faith. And that both the sower and the reaper rejoice or they are glad together. The task of winning people to Jesus Christ, and then of training them to be disciples of Jesus is not a one man show. It takes many different people, all working together in the ministry to accomplish the will of the Father. But, we all get to rejoice together come harvest time.
This year I grew a lot of tomatoes. I have three grape tomato plants on my deck. And one thing I love to do is go out on the deck every day and pick and eat the ripe fruit. And my three year old is like a hawk. Every time he sees me and he comes yelling out onto the deck, “I have one? I have one?” And so I have to find him a ripe tomato too and we enjoy the harvest together. And I get a lot of joy out of that experience.
Imagine working together for the sake of the gospel!
This past Tuesday was truss day. One of the cool things that happened was I got to witness to the crane operator. And I was trying to think of ways to make him curious about spiritual things. And then I looked around and saw an entire team of people working on the building. So we started talking about the CBM builders and how they would give up their normal lives and live in trailers (he could not understand that) and build churches for other people. I got to ask him several times, “Why do you think they would do that?” Then I told him that a group of people from Michigan that I didn’t know from Adam gave up a week of their vacation to come and live in tents and help us build our building. Again, I got to ask him, “Why did they do that?” Another time, this man commented on the bracing for the first truss. He said in 30+ years he had never seen the quality of work that the CBM builders put into this building. I got to say, “they really care about their work.” “That is hard to find.” He said. It wasn’t just me witnessing to him. It was the entire team of people working together to plant spiritual seeds in his mind and heart. That’s what the work of disciple-making should look like.
I can’t do it alone. I need your help. And then we can rejoice together when God gives the harvest.
If we have the mentality in this church that it is just the pastor’s job to sow the seed, or it is just the deacon’s job, or its only for people who are “super” Christians- then we are going to either fail, or we are going to have a depressing harvest. We need everyone to work together to make disciples!
Have we learned that lesson?
What is lesson number 4?
What lessons do we need to learn from this story about what it means to be a disciple-maker for Jesus Christ?
IV. One of the most effective ways of sharing the gospel is to let people experience Jesus for themselves (vv. 39-42)
IV. One of the most effective ways of sharing the gospel is to let people experience Jesus for themselves (vv. 39-42)
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
41 And many more believed because of his own word;
42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Here we see the harvest in full detail. Many of the Samaritans believed on Jesus- and much of it had to do with the witness of the Samaritan woman when she testified what Jesus told her. As a result most of the city came out to meet Jesus for themselves and they begged him to stay longer so Jesus stayed and taught them for two more days. And because of that many more believed of his word. By the way, this is the only time when Jesus has this great of an impact on an entire city. Most of the cities in Israel reject Him, or they believe in ones and twos. On the city full of the rejected Samaritans fully embrace and believe in Jesus as their Savior. That is worth thinking on.
But notice again v. 42
42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
What made the most amount of difference in their hearts? What made the biggest impact on their faith? At first it was the testimony of the woman, but then it was the fact that they heard Jesus personally and they experienced him personally, and this is why they say, “and know that this one is indeed the Savior of the world.”
There is a lesson to be learned here. It does not matter what we believe about Jesus or about the Bible. It matters what other people believe about Jesus for themselves. Jesus does not want blind faith. He wants a well-thought-out faith. And our job is to get people to experience Jesus for themselves. How do we do that?
Well, this is one of the reasons I like the idea of inviting people to read the Bible with you. If your whole goal in evangelism is to make people curious enough to read the Bible with you, and you sit down with them and allow them the time to experience Jesus for themselves from the pages of Scripture- how much more effective will that be in bringing them to real faith in Jesus? “We have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”
For that matter, I could never convince you by myself to change your thinking about doing the work of a disciple maker. I could never convince you to change well established cultural and religious norms. Why should you listen to a word I have to say. And you shouldn’t. But if you have seen for yourself the lessons that Jesus taught His disciples all those years ago, and if you believe in your heart that you need to apply these same lessons personally, then let’s follow Jesus’ example together. Let’s delight in doing the will of the Father, and accomplishing His work. Let’s work together as a team to bring in the harvest. Let’s be awed and amazed as God providentially works in us and through us for His glory. Let’s labor at getting people to experience Jesus for themselves so them will know that He is the Savior of the World.