Signs of Spiritual Harvest

We’re continuing with the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, and this morning we’re looking at what happens after their conversation—the disciples come back, the woman goes away, and by the end of our passage, a whole town has been changed. We see a movement of God.

Our culture loves the idea of “movements” today. In the age of social media, we see viral movements—everyone right now is filming themselves sitting down for their own “Netflix documentary”. In our public sphere we see political movements, which could be based around a position or a leader. On a broader scale, we see social movements that can shape a generation’s values and how they engage the world.

The idea of a movement is a very positive thing in our culture because we want to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and we want to make a difference. Some things allow us to do that in little ways (like when it seemed like I was the last guy on the Toms shoes bandwagon back in the day). But other things can feel really substantial and important.

But maybe that’s not how you would personally describe Christianity. Maybe it hasn’t felt like much of a movement in your own life. Maybe you grew up going to church but felt like it was too ritualistic to be impactful for you. Maybe it didn’t feel alive or even that relevant. Here in John 4, we see Jesus paint a different picture with the idea of a field. In verse 35, he mentions the people were still waiting four more months before they’d be able to harvest their crops.

But he uses that physical imagery in contrast to make a point about a spiritual reality. Look with me at the verse. He says, “I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” Eternal life, or “living water” as Jesus called it to the woman—it’s available now. Jesus was using the image of harvesting to talk about our witness and the way we point others to Jesus—not a method of ministry or a style of music or a way of teaching—God might use those things, but those things are not the power that can transform your life. Only Jesus can.

And what Jesus accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection birthed a global movement. Christianity has touched every major corner of the world. From the Roman empire that ruled during the life of Jesus to where we are today, the shift of our values towards things like equality, compassion, freedom, and even science can trace their modern foundations to Christ and the impact he had on his people.

Glen Scrivener, in his book, The Air We Breathe, does an incredible job connecting so many of our shared morals with Christian thought. Even people’s criticisms of Christianity—which are often warranted—but many of those criticisms require people to adopt uniquely Christian values in order to make their argument—values that wouldn’t have been shared in ancient Rome or other kinds of societies.

In a very tangible way, the world has been impacted from a movement of the gospel. But we don’t just see this in broad, global ways. We can also experience it in concentrated, local ways. When the good news of Jesus is active in a community it should affect that community. We see that happen to this Samaritan town in John 4.

But what would it look here today? What would it look like if a movement of the gospel happened here in Mandeville and across the Northshore? How would that affect our church? How would that affect our neighbors and coworkers and the people around us?

Our passage this morning gives us four signs of spiritual harvest when we make the good news of Jesus central in all we do:

1. We’ll see people come to Jesus who were far from him.

2. We’ll see Christians grow hungry to do God’s will.

3. We’ll see the church gain an urgency to share the gospel.

4. And our community will see the unifying love of Jesus in his people.

So first, in gospel movements we see people come to Jesus who were far from him. Let’s start by looking at verses 27-30.

John 4:27–30 ESV

²⁷ Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

The disciples’ timing is impeccable here. Like walking up to a group of people as someone’s telling the end of a joke, they’re left in a weird spot. What’s going on here? Why is Jesus talking to a Samaritan? Why is Jesus talking to a woman?

As we’ve mentioned the past couple weeks: Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along. On top of that, some schools of Jewish thought at the time considered it wasteful for a Rabbi to engage with a woman. John, the author of this book and one of Jesus’ disciples, gives us some of the blunt questions they were thinking, but they don’t ask any of them. Why?

Because even though they don’t understand what had happened while they were gone, they have started to experience what Jesus does. He draws people. He engages people. And he changes people. The world might have viewed this woman as far from God because of her background and behavior, but her life was changed because Jesus drew close to her.

As the disciples return, the woman heads out, and what does she do? This lady who had gone alone to a well at the hottest part of the day in order to avoid being seen by others as she dealt with shame from her life—this woman that was trying to avoid others now intentionally runs back to tell others in verse 29, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

It would be one thing if Jesus’ conversation with the woman simply led her to believe he was the Messiah. But we learn something about her belief in how it changes her behavior. She went from hiding to witnessing, from thinking of her life as shameful to talking about her life as a testimony.

Think about it. It’s not like Jesus covered every part of her life when he was talking to her. Back in verses 16-18 he brought up that she had been married 5 times and that the current man she was living with wasn’t her husband. Certainly, that’s a big part of her story, but it’s not everything. And yet, she tells the other people in the town, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.”

Her hyperbole spotlights just how significant these relationships had been in her life. She felt like that defined the core of who she was as a person. And Jesus both knew that as well as invited her to trust him with that. Now, the thing she didn’t want anyone to be talking about has become part of the thing she’s excited to share about.

You can tell when someone’s been set free from something in their past by the way they talk about it. Someone that’s struggled with a certain behavior might make less excuses as they begin owning their sin. Someone that’s dealt with failure might start to be more willing to talk about how they contributed to it. Someone that’s suffered loss might start being able to help others with their suffering as they grieve.

In each of those cases, it’s not that the hard thing goes away, it’s that we find a source of peace that changes our relationship to it. Jesus didn’t erase this woman’s past; he gave her a clearer vision of a more joyful future. In our passage last week, she had asked him whether the Samaritans were right in how they worshiped on Mount Gerazim or if the Jews were right in how they worshiped at the temple in Jerusalem. Given the way she was avoiding people and her past, it would seem like she struggled with thinking she could be accepted by God at all.

But Jesus doesn’t say that true worship happens because you’re in this place or that place. He says true worship happens because of what God does in your heart, through his Spirit in revealing the good news of his Son. We worship in spirit and truth. That’s not something the woman has to earn. It’s not something she can earn. She doesn’t have to fix her past in order to worship God. He already knows it, and he is able to be her peace in it and give her a new foundation for her identity.

Gospel movements are marked by people coming to Jesus who were far from him. He draws near to them and gives them a new story, a new foundation for their identity, a new purpose, and a new source for peace. And as believers see Jesus drawing more people to himself, it increasingly fuels our zeal for the Lord as we become hungrier to do his will in our lives. Let’s keep reading with verses 31-34.

John 4:31–34 ESV

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

We’ve seen how the woman was affected by her interaction with Jesus, and now we turn back to Jesus and see that he’s been affected as well. If you remember all the way back in verse 6, Jesus originally stopped at Jacob’s well because he was weary from the three day journey between Judea and Galilee. His body needed to rest, so his disciples went into town to find food.

But now that they’ve come back, he’s not as interested in their food. Nothing in these verses say that Jesus didn’t eat what they brought him, but he does make a point to use their food just like he used the woman’s water to teach them more about what it means to follow God.

He starts off by saying in verse 32 that he has food to eat that they don’t know about, and just like the woman at the well when he mentioned living water, they’re confused. They’re wondering where he got this food from.

It’s like if your spouse asks you for you to go grab her phone from the kitchen and then after you get off the couch and go look for it, you come back and she says, “Whoops, I guess it was here the whole time.”

The disciples are wondering, “Why did we go to get you food if you already had some?” But then Jesus brings it home in verse 34. He says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” Throughout the gospel of John, we see Jesus describe his ministry as doing the will of the Father.

In John 5:36, he says the Father has given him these works to accomplish. In John 8:29, he describes his life as always doing the things that are pleasing to the Father. He’s described as both submitting to the Father and as obeying the Father.

If we look back to the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 8:3 summarizes the heart of Jesus well. After God frees his people from slavery in Egypt and provides manna for them to eat in the wilderness, he says to them, “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

That’s how Jesus is describing himself in John 4, and we as the church live in light of that passage today as well. But just like the Israelites were freed from their slavery to Egypt only to complain and want different bread then what God provided for them, we can so often find ourselves freed from our slavery to sin only to complain and want different bread than the will that God has for our lives. We want to be nourished by our success or our status or our comfort or our praise.

But followers of Jesus find their greatest fulfillment in the same way as Jesus: by knowing the heart of God and walking in his will. We like to think of a movement of the gospel in how it brings new people to know Christ, but it also wakes up sleepy Christians to once again see and savor Christ. Jesus uses the imagery of food here because it’s something you need to survive. It strengthens you. It sustains you.

But is that how you see the will of God in your life right now? Is that how you would describe your relationship to the Bible, the Word of God that teaches you more about him, so that you can live for him? Does you feel like you need that every day of your life to survive? We don’t often realize the level of our need until we’re faced with it.

Macie tends to order groceries for pickup or delivery most of the time these days, but earlier in our marriage she would have me stop by the store on my way home from work to grab the things on our list. I was usually happy to do it, but I was always naive about what I was getting myself into.

Because, for whatever reason, grocery stores do not make sense to me, and I have trouble finding things all the time. Or, even worse, I might find what I’m looking for, but I have no idea how much of it we need. Macie had to learn that if she sent me to the grocery store, she better keep her phone near her because I was going to have questions.

God graciously gives us reminders of our need all the time. We might be faced with a big decision or we make a mistake or we hurt someone we care about or we’re stressed over something we can’t control. But the life of the Christian is not meant to be lived like me walking aimlessly around the grocery store trying to succeed before finally calling in Macie for backup. God’s not our backup as we try to direct our own lives. His will is the only direction that can give a connected purpose and joy to every part of our lives.

But Jesus in verse 34 doesn’t just paint a picture of needing to follow the Father’s will. He also desires to. His hunger is satisfied in a life of obedience to his Father. If you only think you should follow God because you need to, then you don’t really understand the gospel of grace. God’s grace through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus takes care of our need so that we can enjoy him even while we depend on him.

But it’s hard to enjoy something when you’re distracted by other things. That’s part of the reason why Christians practice the discipline of fasting, and I’d be the first to confess that I wish I did that more consistently in my life. When we go for any period of time without something our body needs like actual food, we’re put in a position where we can trust God with that need.

When we abstain from something we enjoy, like good food, we have the opportunity to remind ourselves that Jesus is our greatest joy. Walking with him will satisfy you more than any other food you could find for yourself. And as we grow in our hunger for God’s will in our lives, we’re going to see that naturally go hand in hand with gaining a greater urgency to share the good news of Jesus as well. Let’s go back to our text, starting in verse 35.

John 4:35–38 ESV

³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Immediately after saying his food is to do the will of his Father, Jesus uses a farming analogy to say that the harvest of eternal life is here. This is the work he’s saying that the Father gave him to do. Which means, that as followers of Jesus, it’s the work that his church should be following him in as well. He’s not just telling his disciples to look up at the fields in verses 35 just so they can notice it. He’s telling them—and us—that we’re going to participate in the harvest.

How? Some of us might be sowers introducing people to Jesus and dealing with their doubts and serving them in their needs. Some of us might be reapers used by God as he gives a person a new heart and they repent of their sin and place their faith in the atoning work of Jesus for them. But no matter how God might use you, every follower of Jesus is called to share the good news of Jesus. 

And two things on that from Jesus’ words here. One: telling others about Jesus is good news for us as well. In verse 36 he says, “the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together.”

Think about something you really love. I love watching Pelicans basketball games. And so when I introduced Macie to what it was like going to games, when Ollie and I went just the two of us to his first game—their joy became my joy. His love for “Pelicans” was so meaningful to me because it was a love I was getting to share.

In evangelism, we get the gift of sharing the greatest love we’ve experienced with another person. When they wrestle with belief, it pushes us to grow in our own understanding. When they place their faith in Jesus, it strengthens our faith toward Jesus. Whether you’ve just been a part of someone’s faith journey or you get to see them come to know Jesus for the first time, verse 36 reminds us that both the sower and reaper rejoice together.

But secondly, we can freed up from any pressure in sharing the gospel because we know that only Jesus can bring eternal life. That’s the work that he received from the Father in verse 34. We’re not going to get ahead of his work, and we’re not going to keep him from fulfilling his work.

We’re called to be “faithful pointers”, but we can’t save anyone. Yet Scripture tells us our creator God can, which means that we’ll see how much we trust his ability to redeem others by how willing we are to tell others about him. Spiritual harvest doesn’t come from us bringing the growth, but it is the responsibility of Christ’s church to plant and water seeds. In Romans 10:14-15, the Apostle Paul says,

Romans 10:14–15 ESV

¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Who is it that might be far from God but close to you right now? That’s not an accident. It is God’s sovereign design to redeem his people by sending his church to share the love of Jesus with those around them. We often talk about missionaries as those who sell all their possessions and do ministry “out there.” But each of us who follow Jesus have the privilege and the calling of living sent in exactly where we find ourselves every day of our lives.

I think it’s worth being said, though, that many people are turned off by the idea of evangelism and calling people to repent of their sin and place their faith in Jesus. They see it as Christians trying to impose their beliefs and and make others like them. But I think a truer understanding of the heart that’s meant to be behind evangelism is that of a loving gift.

Giving is one of the ways we show we care for another person. We might give a compliment, we might give flowers—if you believe that Jesus is who he says he is, loves us the way he says he does, and has done for us what we could not do for ourselves, then the greatest gift you could give someone, the greatest way you could love them, is by introducing them to our loving Savior.

Our church cannot focus on how the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is good news for every part of life and it not cultivate a deep sense of urgency to share that news with people in every place where we live, learn, work, and play. But even beyond our verbal witness for Jesus, one final sign of spiritual harvest is that the surrounding community will increasingly see the unifying love of Jesus in his people. Look with me one more time at verses 39-42.

John 4:39–42 ESV

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

We finish this story returning to the woman. Except this time the focus isn’t on her faith in Jesus; it’s on the town’s. Verse 39 says, “Many Samaritans from that town believed.” And by verse 42, their belief is no longer even built on the words of the woman. They’ve met Jesus for themselves and now “know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

It’s interesting that the Samaritans would describe Jesus as “the Savior of the world.” Their culture had a different kind of faith from the Jews. They had a different practice of worship. The two sides didn’t like one another and didn’t get along. But as early as John chapter 4, these Samaritans have recognized something that’ll be emphasized throughout the rest of the New Testament: Jesus can make any person his child, and Jesus can make any people his people. Only Jesus is the Savior of the world.

And because Jesus can take different kinds of people and give them a common foundation for their identity even as they continue to live in their own unique culture, Christ’s church should be an ongoing demonstration to the world of how the love of Jesus brings people together.

Here in John 4, we see the Samaritans leaning into fellowship with Jesus and his Jewish disciples. Verse 40 says they stayed together for two days. From the outside looking in, how would the rest of the town explain that? What could have made these two hostile peoples now a hospitable community? Only a movement of the good news of Jesus (because that’s good news for everyone).

We might not see this kind of diversity in every local church. Not every neighborhood on the Northshore has a strong ethnic diversity themselves. But even when churches look different from one another, they still share a theological and spiritual foundation that should lead to communion with and care for one another.

You’ve heard me talk about a collection of churches across denominations in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parishes called the Northshore Gospel Network, and this is exactl why that kind of unifying and collaborative work matters.

Whether it be these two different groups of Jesus followers here in our passage or the various churches that the Apostle Paul wrote to across the ancient world or the white church in one part of Mandeville and the black church in another part of Mandeville and the Baptist church over here and the Presbyterian church over there—the unity of God’s people, even in the face of our very real and still very important differences—the unity of God’s people is a visible statement to the power of God’s redeeming love.

That’s why, in Jesus’ longest recorded prayer in the Bible in John 17, he doesn’t pray for his church to grow or for the world to improve—he prays for the unity of his people, both past and present. He says,

John 17:20–23 ESV

²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

When the gospel moves in a community, God’s people unite as they grow hungry for who he is and intentional about reaching those far from him. Not because we’re able to do something. But because the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in our place has convinced us that he is worthy of making our life, our work, our church, and our relationships all about him.

Let’s pray.