The Fields are Ripe for Harvest

John 4:31-42

Recap of chapter 4 so far-

Jesus and His disciples were passing through Samaria as they were going to Galilee

Jesus arrives at a well near Sychar and stays there while the disciples go into town to get food

A Samaritan woman comes to the well to get water and Jesus begins to talk with her

Jesus points her to the great need for the Messiah, He bears witness that He is the Messiah, and she responds in belief

The disciples return with the food that they went into town for and find Jesus talking with this woman

She goes and tells everyone she sees about Jesus

(vv. 31-34) Jesus’ food is to do the will of the Father

Many were coming to Him because of the woman’s testimony, and He was tending to them rather than eating the food

His disciples urge Him to eat the food that they brought for Him

He tells them that He has food that they do not know about

An allusion to Deuteronomy 8:3- And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

He is making a statement about what most deeply and truly satisfies

He is saying that His talking to the Samaritan woman is doing the will of His Father, and this is infinitely more satisfying than physical food

This is making 2 points:

Doing the will of God is the purpose for which He has redeemed us

What we often value most is merely temporal and unsatisfying

So what about you? What food do you value most highly?

(v. 35) The fields are ripe for harvest

They are asking what food He has, and to show them their folly He simply tells them to look up and see

There are many Samaritans who have come to Him

They are lost and in need of saving

Do you not say “there are yet 4 months until harvest”?

Jesus is referring to the normal gap between sowing and harvesting crops

He is saying that this is not so with spiritual sowing and harvesting

He has just sown the seed and a harvest is already ready to be collected

There is an urgency in this language

There is no downtime in the Christian life

John 9:4- We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

Lift up your eyes and see that the fields are ripe for the harvest

There are billions of unbelievers around the world as we speak, and God has been saving millions from among them

He is preparing hearts

He is causing the gospel to be spread

He is raising up men and women to do the work of evangelism and missions

There are many among our own families and friend groups and friends and community who are being prepared by God for gospel transformation in Christ.

Lift your eyes from your work, and sports, and TV, and Facebook, and political news, and recreation, and the mirror. Lift your eyes and see. See the lost and see that the fields are ripe for harvest.

(vv. 36-38) Sowers and reapers working together for the harvest

Continues with agricultural language

Both sowing and reaping are essential

Jesus is expressing the nature of their calling

They will go out and do the work of reaping a harvest for which they did not work

The prophets who came before them were the sowers

God’s work in redemptive history had led up to this time when Jesus would usher in a new age where He would establish His Church and saved people from every tribe, tongue, and nation

And we see that others after them harvested what the disciples sowed

We stand on the shoulders of faithful gospel sowers and harvesters who have come before us. Praise God for that!

The sowers and reapers will rejoice together

Amos 9:13- “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.

The work of the gospel is joy-giving. It is not boring or an inconvenience. It gives joy to those who do it.

There will be sowers and there will be harvesters, and sometimes you will be both

Whether you sower or whether you harvest, do it faithfully

The point is not to always get the results you want, the point is to be faithful to the calling of God

Go and evangelize the lost

Trust God to do the heart work that will prepare the harvest

This is the way that Christ builds His Church

There are so many Christian who complain about the state of the church in America today and yet we have so few who will do the one thing that God has ordained to build His Church

May we be a church of deeply committed sowers and harvesters. The church does not need passive pew-fillers. The church and the world desperately need Spirit-empowered, Christ-saturated, glory of God consumed gospel proclaimers.

(vv. 39-42) They believed

No longer because of the woman’s testimony about Jesus

It was now because of the very words of Jesus

We proclaim the truth of Christ in the authority of Christ

All authority has been given to me- therefore go

We do not merely proclaim a set of truths. We proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ who reigns in power and glory. We proclaim a message of power that brings peace with God to the enemies of God. The gospel is power because our Savior is powerful.

Romans 1:16- For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.