Sermon Tone Analysis

! Envisioning The Harvest

John 4:27-38

 

 

*The Greatest Missed Opportunity In History*

 

Bob Weiner wrote in Forerunner magazine, towards the end of 1993, “Recent events in Russia remind me of another historic moment, when the leader of another super power wrote these words to Christians:  ‘Send me 100 men skilled in your religion...and I shall be baptized, and then all my barons and great men, and then their subjects.

And so there will be more Christians here than there are in your parts.’

“Those words were written by Kublai Khan, ruler of China, the largest empire in history, to Marco Polo in the year 1266.

The emperor’s heart had been touched by the news of Christ’s death for the world’s sins, and he wanted his whole empire to be evangelized!

“How did the church respond to this incredible chance?

After many years, only two missionaries came forward who were willing to endure the hardships necessary to bring the good news of Christ to the Chinese Mongolian empire.

And even then they turned their back halfway into their appointment before reaching their destination.

They left behind the legacy of the greatest missed opportunity in history.”

[The Forerunner, Nov~/Dec 1993.

Page 18.]

 

*The church during that era, like the church during our time, could not see the tremendous potential of the harvest.*

Jesus talked about this in the 4th chapter of John.

We have just studied the circumstantial and historical background to this chapter in the sermon “I Have To Pass Through Samaria.”

Jesus was traveling on one of His missionary journeys from Judea to Galilee, but on this journey he had to pass through Samaria.

·        He had a divine appointment with a woman at a well.

·        He had a divine appointment with destiny.

·        He had a divine appointment with a pivotal, watershed moment in history and in eternity.

·        He had a divine appointment with the Samaritan people.

*He was interested in initiating a well of living water in one woman that would become a great river and overflow to a whole nation of people in revival.*

Jesus had just revealed to this woman His true identity.

He had just let her know that He was the Messiah, the divinely appointed Author of eternal salvation.

This is where we pick up the story.

Notice with me please John 4:27-38.

\\         The disciples walked up just as Jesus was revealing Himself to this woman as the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, the divinely appointed Author of eternal salvation.

They were shocked that He was talking to a woman.

No self-respecting Rabbi would be caught talking to a woman, and beyond being a woman she was also a Samaritan!!!

She had two strikes against her and the third was the fact that she was a sinner who had many husbands.

*The disciples could not figure out what Jesus was doing talking to “this” woman!!!  *Yet, no one spoke to Him about what He was doing.

*       *So, this woman, left the well and her waterpot and went into the city and witnessed to the men saying,

 

John 4:29, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”

And this woman started a revival among the Samaritan people!

People were coming out of the city and coming to Jesus Christ.

(This is where we come to what I want to talk about and what I believe God wants to say to us.)

In the meantime, “Back at the ranch,” in the midst of all of this evangelistic and revivalistic activity, the disciples were asking Jesus to eat.

Is there anything wrong with the disciples’ concern?

Well, certainly *not* on the surface.

Jesus was ministering to people on such an ongoing basis that He often did not take time to eat, relieve Himself, or sleep.

So, the disciples’ concern seemed genuine enough, but Christ’s response was penetrating, revealing, and instructive.

He said, “I have food to eat that you do *not* know about.”

The disciples did *not* understand His statement at all, because—as usual—they were concerned with temporal things, instead of eternal things.

They were concerned with material things, rather than spiritual things.

The misunderstanding of the disciples gave Jesus the opportunity to clarify His statement and deliver a discipleship lesson.

He said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.”

With one statement, Jesus has transcended time and space.

He has raised life from the minor key to the major key.

“This does not mean Jesus had no need of physical *food, *but rather that His great passion and desire was to do God’s will (cf.

5:30; 8:29).

He knows that man does not live by bread alone, but ‘by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’ (Deut.

8:3).

His priority is spiritual, *not* material.

It is the Father’s *work *which must be done (cf.

John 17:4).”[1]

He turned the attention of the disciples from their needs to the needs of the world.

*He modeled to the disciples a deeper passion than food.*

\\ This is why we are on this earth.

·        We are *not* on this earth for selfish reasons, but for spiritual reasons.

·        We are on this earth for anthropological reasons, but for theological reasons.

·        We are *not* on this earth to be consumers, but contributors to the kingdom of God.

We were put here for one ultimate purpose:  to do the will of the Father and accomplish His work.

*We are to follow His Word; do His will; and accomplish His work—in His way!!!*

        */Can I talk about this a little bit?/*

We live in a world that is addicted to food, that is the nice, new way of saying that the world is full of people who are trapped by the sin of gluttony.

Because of this, their talk, their thoughts, their desires, their passion has to do with food.

They don’t eat to live; they live to eat.

Their “food,” i.e. their substance, that which satisfies them, that which nourishes them, that which preoccupies them is food.

Go to Montrose, Chapel Hill, Rolling Acres, what do you find?

Not only retail shops, but fast-food places, restaurants, and grocery stores by the dozens.

*But Jesus said, “I’ve got food to eat that you do not now about!”*

 

·        There is a greater source of food.

·        There is a higher kind of food.

·        There is a heavenly food that fills the intellect, emotion, will, and spirit.

·        There is food that engages the heart, pervades it, fills it, and leaves it with little time for temporal things.

·        There is a different quality of food that never runs out, it has no calories, it is not fattening, and it brings reward to the eaters and eternal benefits to the world.

What kind of food is that?

Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.”

*Excuse me, but I’ve got to testify!*

I believe that I know what Jesus is talking about.

I believe that I have tasted of this spiritual gourmet!

I have partaken of this food and it is filling and satisfying.

Just a little bit of this food will take care of your needs and your desires.

I have a passion to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.

This passion crowds out my appetite for all other things!

This passion fills me up and leaves no room for the appetites of the flesh.

This passion even fills me up with respect to food sometimes.

I get up in the morning and I don’t even eat, because I can’t wait to pray, read the Bible, and get to my computer and begin to receive sermons that will do His will and accomplish His work.

*As Jesus stated, most of us are unaware of this kind of food being available to me or to ourselves.*

Don’t you ever wonder why your life is unfulfilling?

You have a house, car, clothes, food, etc., but your life is mundane.

You need spiritual food.

So, let me invite you to this spiritual feast!!!  When we walk into this reality there is a preoccupation and a fulfillment that most have never known.

I hear Jesus saying to us, “House of the Lord,” it is time to eat food that the world knows not of.

/(Jesus does not stop at this point, but He also gives further explanation and illustration of what He is talking about, by pointing to the harvest.)/

Jesus draws a contrast between something that the disciples and~/or the people were saying with what He wanted them to say.

They were saying, “There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest.”

This saying was probably some kind of local proverb that pointed to the harvest as yet future, and the need to wait for it.

But, Jesus challenged the proverb and focused the attention of the present and the need to move at the moment.

In typical Sermon on the Mount language, i.e. “You have heard it said…but I say to you,” Jesus commands their attention and prepares to elaborate on what He was saying to them with the words, “Behold, I say to you...”  In this elaboration are important instructions for us at this pivotal time in our church history.

Jesus first says, “Lift up your eyes.”

The season of harvest was already upon them, but they were unaware of it, because of the blindness or lack of focus.