John 4:31-42

Amen and good morning. Please take your copy of God's Word and join me in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

!

Our text for today is John chapter 4 verses 31 through 42.

John 4:31–42

! Before I read it, I want to make a few introductory comments.

Beginning by saying that God's Word is truly magnificent.

If you've been a student of God's Word for any measure of time, you probably already realize this in some ways.

But I will say, having been a pastor here now for 16 years and having the great privilege of day in and day out,

getting the opportunity to study and to teach His Word, I'm just continually amazed.

It is a wonderful, wonderful book.

We can marvel at it just for its literary structure and its prose and the beautiful choice of words.

Anybody who's just a student of literature could really enjoy this book.

But more than that, it speaks to us powerful words.

Words that bring life.

Today's text, verses 31 through 42, if you're already kind of giving it a skim,

could just seem like an appendix to the story told at the beginning of the chapter

where Jesus stops at a well and interacts with a Samaritan woman.

We spent two weeks on the beginning of that chapter.

And some of you may wonder, why not just include that in the totality of it?

Why are we moving so slow through John chapter 4?

John 4 · chapter mention

Some of you may be thinking.

And so my answer to you is because God's Word is magnificent.

There are things to notice in these verses and to spend the time that we can spend noticing them.

In fact, I very often think we move too quickly through our verse-by-verse expositions

as I discover things later that I want to go back and cover again.

We recently concluded our study of the book of Romans.

And when I got to the end of it, the impulse of my heart was,

let's just start back over again.

Let's just go right back to the beginning.

I think I'll do a better job at it the second time through.

And leading up to our text today, and in our text today,

starting in chapter 2, we have seen a series of misunderstandings in John's writing.

So first we see John chapter 2 and verse 20,

John 2 · chapter mention

after Jesus has said some things about the temple being torn down

and it being raised up again in three days,

and he's talking about his death and his resurrection,

there's a misunderstanding.

We just see the Jews then said,

it has taken 46 years to build this temple,

and you will raise it up in three days?

They miss the point.

They're hard of hearing.

They don't understand the spiritual thing that Jesus is there teaching.

Then in John chapter 3 and verse 4,

John 3 · chapter mention

there Jesus is talking about the need to be born again.

Again, a spiritual reality that he's trying to teach to Nicodemus.

And Nicodemus says,

how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

A misunderstanding,

not an illumination of what Jesus is trying to say to him.

And then John chapter 4 and verse 11,

John 4 · chapter mention

this is the Samaritan woman,

and Jesus tells her that he can give her living water,

and she says,

sir, you have nothing to draw water with,

and the well is deep.

Where do you get that living water?

And we talked about how Jesus himself,

the spiritual reality is living water,

fully satisfying for her need.

And then later on in verse 15,

she says again,

sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty

or have to come here to draw water.

And then in our text today,

in verse 33,

Jesus says that he's not hungry.

They've been sent away to find food,

and he says that he's not hungry,

and the disciples misunderstand what he's trying to say to them,

which we'll look at a bit further.

And they say,

has anyone brought him something to eat?

I thought we went off to go get the food,

and yet he seems no longer to be hungry.

Hard of hearing.

Misunderstood.

And so when we come to texts like this,

it's very easy to read the text

and read phrases like in verse 34,

my food is to do the will of him who sent me

and to accomplish his work.

And to not understand it.

To scratch our heads at what it means.

And you'll likely in your life read past phrases like this

and go,

well, that's strange.

And go on and not visit it.

That's why it's good that we press us to sit down

and really take a look at a text as we study it together.

My food is to do the will of him who sent me

and to accomplish his work.

So as we misunderstand these things,

there's a couple of possibilities for why we misunderstand them.

Number one, it could just make no sense

because we are spiritually dead.

We don't have God's Spirit to help us discern God's Word.

Our ears haven't been brought to life.

Our eyes haven't been brought to life in order to see.

And so we just don't understand these types of hard sayings.

It's also possible that it makes no sense to us

because we are regenerate.

We have been made alive by the Spirit of Christ.

But we just don't do the work.

We don't just take the time to really consider what's being said.

We're such an on-demand people, are we not?

These magic devices that we carry around in our pockets all the time

put information right at our fingertips.

My sister-in-law, who's a teacher, went back to work as an ESOL teacher.

And her job is to partner with students.

So she's going into classes and she's partnering with students

who don't speak English as their primary language.

And she, first week of school, was in a class

and the students were asked what the seven continents were,

10th graders, seven continents, and none of them knew.

And she just was milling around the room just trying to help random students

and figuring out if they knew what this continent is.

And a group she was talking to had no idea.

And we were musing about that.

How is it that 10th graders don't know this?

And one of my answers to it was, well, it's in their pocket.

Why know and learn anything when you can access it with just a short query?

And I think we do this as Christians.

We don't take the time to really understand.

We don't let the Word soak deep into us.

Meditate on it.

We are confused, so we run quickly to find an answer.

Or we just decide it doesn't really matter right now.

When it does, perhaps I'll try to figure out what it means.

Just don't do the work.

And I'll tell you, the work is good.

It's really good to do the work.

Or perhaps we're so wrapped up in worldliness that we are just spiritually numb.

We just have become apathetic and stopped really caring that Jesus says things and he does things,

in the case of John, that are often confusing.

And I just don't want to put the effort in at all.

Third possibility is that we do, in fact, put in the work.

And the Spirit illuminates the text for us and we are greatly benefited by it.

Of course, I have concern for the previous of those two possibilities.

I hope and pray that we all find ourselves in that third category.

But in the first case of concern, I've been praying and always do pray.

It's why we pray for the preaching of God's Word.

That God would grant us spiritual life as his Word is studied.

That even this morning, you may not have repented yet of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus Christ.

And that he would make it come alive to you as you come to life.

In the second case, I want to turn your attention away from worldliness.

We have such few moments together.

It seems so often that the gathering of the church just isn't sufficient for the task.

And so we ask that the Spirit would work mightily in our lives in these moments that we have as we come together and open God's Word.

I want to show you that this is a magnificent Word.

And I also want to show you that you can study and understand it.

It's possible for you to do this work.

And so often when I preach, I'm trying to show you the process.

How do we get to the place that we get?

I don't want to present myself as some genius.

It would be difficult to do because I'm not.

I take some time.

I do some work.

I've spent a lot of time in this text.

And I've got a stack of books that were read this past week and studied.

But I want to show you, you can do this.

And so we're going to do that with the text this morning.

So let's pray that God would help us as we study together.

Our Father and our God, we do ask that as we take up your Word together this morning,

we want to rightly understand it.

We don't want to just merely derive some facts from it.

But we want it to affect our hearts the way you intend for it to.

And we know that we can't do this without your help.

We humbly recognize it was written for your glory, firstly, that you would be known and also for our good.

We ask that you would help us believe its promises, obey its commands, and have affection for you, its author.

And we pray this in the name of Christ.

31.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat.

But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.

So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?

Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

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.

Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life,

so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps.

I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor.

Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

He told me all that I ever did.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

And many more believed because of his word.

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.

So, a little bit of detail.

If you've not been with us, right?

Prior to this, they're outside the town of Sychar.

They're in a region where the Samaritans live.

And the Samaritans were half-breed Jewish people, right?

They're the ancestors of those who returned from captivity and bred with the people of the land,

and they were seen as unclean.

They were seen as outside the grace of God.

This is Christ's first, John's record, cross-cultural ministry effort.

And we believe that he was led there.

The text says that he had to go this way, and there were actually roads that went around this region.

Most Jews would have traveled around the region of Samaria.

And yet he goes through it, and he has this divine encounter with this woman

who has had five husbands and now is living with a man who is not her husband.

And so it's understood that she was coming to the well in the middle of the day to draw water.

Instead of when it would have normally been drawn,

either in the early hours or the late, when it was cool,

she's coming because she's avoiding the shame of being around other people from Sychar.

She's avoiding the talking of the other women.

She's got great sin.

Jesus exposes that sin at the beginning of the chapter

and then offers to her greater mercy,

more abundant grace in the form of this living water conversation that he has with her.

We hope, we think and hope that she is converted.

We're unsure of that, but she goes back to the village.

She leaves her water jar.

She goes back to the village and she begins to ask,

which he had said to her that he was the Messiah,

and she begins to ask that question.

He's told me,

everything that I've ever done,

could this be him?

Like the anointed one that the scripture speaks of.

And so that's where you pick up in verse 31,

the meanwhile.

The disciples have returned.

They're marveling that Jesus is talking to a woman,

and she's gone into town,

and they're there,

and they're waiting.

And so you see in our text that people from the town come out to him,

and this is the meanwhile conversation that's going on.

Now, I'm going to spare you the big, large, chiastic talk.

And if anything I'm about to say piques your interest,

and I hope it does,

feel free to come ask me more about it.

But the book of John is laid out in a chiastic structure,

which means the beginning and the end correspond to each other,

and it continues to work itself toward a center.

And the book has within it chiastic structures.

Right?

So we have before us,

beginning in verse 31 and going through verse 42,

another chiastic structure.

This has become a talk at our table at our house.

The boys are trying to find chiasms everywhere now.

And I'm trying to emphasize that they're not everywhere,

but we want to see them when they are there

because it's a really common literary structure,

and it's meant to help us comprehend

what the text is about.

So look at verse 31 through 34,

and then verse 40 through 42.

These two verses,

these sets of verses correspond to one another.

And the clue to that is the phrase,

urging him in verse 31,

and then the phrase,

asked him in verse 40.

It's the exact same Greek phrase.

Exact same.

Right?

Now the translators give us different English words for it,

which doesn't really serve us in this case,

but we do well when we see patterns of things to go,

hey, wait a second.

Could something be going on here?

I'm going to suggest to you,

and we're going to spend a little bit of time

thinking about this together,

but Jesus' phrase in verse 34,

my food is through the will of him who sent me,

and to accomplish his work,

we'll talk about what that work is,

corresponds to what they say about Jesus,

the Samaritans.

This is indeed the Savior of the world.

So these verses correspond to one another.

Then notice verse 35 and 39.

He says,

Jesus,

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.

Many postulate that the people would have been wearing

some form of white clothing,

and therefore it would have actually looked,

and they came down the road from Sikar,

it would have looked like the fields were ripe for harvest.

I don't know for sure if that's the case,

but we think that these people are coming out of the town,

and they can see this happening.

Verse 39 says,

many Samaritans from that town believed.

Verse 36 and verse 38.

Here we see the phrases,

the one who reaps is receiving wages.

And then verse 38,

I sent you to reap.

And it brings us to the central piece of the chiasm,

which is often there to help us.

It turns on this,

helps us understand the rest of the text.

And here he says,

for here the saying holds true,

one sows and another reaps.

You can do this.

This is not an impossible task

for you to sit down and take the time

to work this through.

And I will tell you that I did this in this text,

and then I went and confirmed it with somebody

who's way smarter at this stuff than I am.

You could buy the book I bought.

I bought it on Amazon.

It came in two days.

Okay?

This is not impossible for you to do.

And then to think about why.

Why?

Why structured this way?

It was a mnemonic tool.

They used it to memorize things.

These things the Hebrew people did.

So perhaps it serves us in that way.

We might find ourselves being able to

story this story to somebody

because of its structure.

But more than that,

it's meant to help us ascertain

its meaning,

to drive us there.

Now I'm not suggesting that you have to

understand Christ's structure

to unlock Scripture.

This is some secret code.

And there's going to be things

you never could have gotten any other way.

Please don't hear me say that at all.

But it helps.

And it enlivens it.

And oh,

does it make the Scripture

magnificent?

What a beautifully complex text

to help us understand

profound,

profound truths.

So we'll pick that back up.

I want you to see.

You can look at this literary structure

and I'll tell you about

some other literary structure

in just a little bit here.

Okay.

Let's start.

Let's start by looking at

the first four verses.

So this first piece of correspondence,

we'll look at verse 31 through 34,

and then it in relation to

verses 40 through 42.

Okay.

So again,

the disciples urge Jesus,

saying,

Rabbi,

eat.

They've been sent away on a task.

That's how he finds himself alone

at the well earlier in the chapter.

And they've returned.

And they say,

eat.

Right.

We brought you food.

And he says,

I have food to eat

that you don't know about.

And they muse.

Right.

They say to one another,

has anyone brought him something to eat?

Where's the food that he's talking about?

And he states this spiritual reality,

which is just astounding.

My food is to do the will of him who sent me

and to accomplish his work.

Food exists or should,

at its basis level,

exist for our sustenance.

Right.

It's how we get the energy.

Our bodies do all the chemical things

our bodies do.

And we get the energy that we need

to go on.

Right.

So we eat,

in physical terms,

we eat so that we can work.

Jesus here says,

my food is to do the work.

The work itself is the food

that sustains me.

Anybody reading this on the surface

doesn't think that this is actually

the physically sustaining thing for him.

That he's talking about his human form

in this case.

That Jesus never ate in his ministry.

We have lots of record of him eating.

In fact,

he had sent the disciples away

to get food.

It's the very thing,

the mission that they were on

at this moment.

But he has now had this conversation,

this gospel conversation,

with this woman.

This is part of the text

that gives me some hope

that this woman is actually converted

because she forgets the chore

she's there to do.

She leaves her water jar

and she heads off into town.

And I think it's energizing to Jesus.

He's doing the will of him

who sent him

and accomplishing his work.

As we read

all the New Testament,

certainly as we read John,

we ought to understand John

as having a fully developed view

of Jesus' nature.

Both that he is truly God

and that he is truly man.

We shouldn't think

that he's confused about it at all.

So I think what we see going on here

is an expression,

Jesus says,

my food is through the will of him

who sent me

and to accomplish his work,

both of Christ's deity

and of his humanity.

I think you see both things going on

in this recorded sentence.

So if we do a little bit of contextual work,

Jesus is truly God.

So in a sense,

him talking about doing the will,

being the sustenance for doing the will,

in a loop,

speaks to his self-existence,

his self-sustaining power as God.

Jesus is God.

John chapter 1 and verse 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

In the beginning was the Word,

this is Jesus,

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

God needs nothing

to add to his power,

to give him any kind of existence

or sustenance.

He just is.

Wonderful phrase in Genesis.

I am.

I am.

His auseity.

He just exists.

Jesus is speaking to this

in some measure here.

Jesus doesn't need bread.

He is the bread of life.

He's going to speak about that

some later.

John chapter 6 and verse 35.

John 6 · chapter mention

We'll get to look at in some weeks.

Jesus said to them,

I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger

and whoever believes in me

shall never thirst.

Earlier, living water

earlier in our chapter.

Now previously,

in our liturgy,

read from Deuteronomy chapter 8.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

I think that Jesus is probably referring to

also Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3.

The very thing that he quotes

to Satan when he's being tempted

in the wilderness,

Jesus is truly God.

His sustenance is to do the will

of his Father.

Also, he is truly man.

Truly man.

And he's been given a mission.

Both as God,

but also as a man.

To come,

live a perfect life,

die a sacrificial death.

So, this idea of him

doing the will

of the Father sending him

and accomplishing his work,

what is that?

Also in John chapter 6,

John 6 · chapter mention

beginning of verse 37.

There Jesus says,

All that the Father gives me

will come to me,

and whoever comes to me,

I will never cast out.

So, those that I came

to live and die for

will be mine.

He says, verse 38,

For I have come down from heaven

not to do my own will,

but the will of him

who sent me.

Unless we're confused at this point

about what that is.

He says in verse 39,

And this is the will

of him who sent me,

that I should lose nothing

of all that he has given me,

but raise it up

on the last day.

For this is the will

of my Father,

that everyone who looks

on the Son

and believes in him

should have eternal life.

And I will raise him up

on the last day.

Right.

So perhaps,

I hope,

I hope maybe,

if I'm doing a good job at all,

you're seeing how

these first four verses

have some correspondence

to the last four verses.

Remember what I said?

That phrase that he said?

Corresponded to

him being called

by the Samaritans

the Savior

of the world.

The will of the Father

is that he would come

and save

his people.

That he would give them

eternal

life.

This phrase,

Savior of the world,

is a common phrase

in the Christian vernacular.

And for good reason.

It's a really good

title for Christ.

But did you know

that it is only found

here

and in one place

in 1 John

1 John 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4,

if I remember correct.

I think verse 14.

Savior of the world.

It's an astounding

declaration

in Jesus' day.

An astounding

declaration.

Because the

concept of salvation

was understood

to be predominantly

restricted

to

the Jews.

Predominantly

restricted to them.

God's grace and mercy.

Not for everyone.

This was the understanding

of the day.

As I said before,

this is Jesus' first

cross-cultural ministry.

And these Samaritan

believers have come

to experience

the greatness,

the over-the-top

nature

of his mercy

to those

understood

to be outside

of his

mercy.

These phrases

ought to cause us

to pause

in its correspondence

to the text

before it.

My food is to do

the will of him

who sent me

and to accomplish

his work.

And here we see

a dawning

of that glory.

Eternal life.

And to declare

of him

this is

indeed

the Savior

of the world.

Rich, right?

Isn't that amazing?

You can get that

from the text otherwise.

I understand it.

But notice,

at least for me,

there's some life

in it

when it corresponds

in this way.

Okay, let's look on.

What he goes on to say

beginning in

verse 35.

Do you not say

there are yet

four months,

then comes

the harvest.

He launches into

an analogy with them.

Look, I tell you,

lift up your eyes

and see that the fields

are white

for harvest.

harvest.

Again,

the understanding

is that the Samaritan villagers

are coming toward them

at this time.

Already,

he says,

the one who reaps

is receiving wages

and gathering fruit

for eternal life

so that sower

and reaper

may rejoice together.

For here

the saying

holds true.

One sows

and another reaps.

I sent you to reap

for that

which you did not labor.

Others have labored

and you have entered

into their labor.

Okay.

So,

you do with this

analogy, right?

He's recognizing

that there's

a cycle

that takes place

between

sowing

and

reaping.

There's

four months

between.

The understanding

is

this is likely

wheat

that they're

sowing

and

reaping.

There are four months

then comes

the harvest.

Jesus says,

look,

the harvest

is already

here.

Jesus says

that the disciples

are the reapers.

They're the ones

reaping.

But who sowed?

That's an important question

to ask of this text,

I think.

But who is it then

that sowed?

And I will tell you

that the answer

is not easy to discern.

In fact,

I'm not going to give you

much of one.

The explanations

are

all over the map.

You could almost

pick any possibility

of who sowed

and somebody out there

has written a book

arguing that that's

who

sowed.

Possibly

Jacob,

the question.

He's at the well

of Jacob.

Others would argue

the prophets,

so is the

Torah

and the prophets

that followed,

right?

God's word

that they had

in that day.

Some argue

John the Baptist.

Some argue

the Samaritan woman.

Some,

Jesus.

And there's all kinds

of combinations

of arguments

for these

various

sowers.

And to all

of this,

I just say

yes.

I think they're

all the

answer to

the question

and here's

why.

It seems

that Jesus

both

collapses

and expands

their understanding

of sowing

and reaping.

So notice,

there's a bit

of a juxtaposition

here.

First,

that he

collapses it.

There yet

four months,

then comes

the harvest,

right?

There's this

expanse of time

that most

go on

for the seed

to go into

the ground

and bring

forth

fruit

that can be

harvested.

But he says,

look,

lift up your

eyes and see

that the fields

are white

for receiving

wages and

gathering fruit

for eternal

life so that

sower and

reaper may

rejoice

together.

So he seems

to be saying,

look,

sowing and

reaping.

In the kingdom

of God,

it can happen

here and

here.

So perhaps

him sharing

the gospel

of the kingdom

with the

Samaritan woman,

perhaps her

going and

sharing it

and their

response to

it,

sowing,

reaping,

right here

seen back

to back.

And the

sower and

the reaper

are not

separated by

time,

but they

can rejoice

together.

Perhaps he

has in mind

a text like

Amos chapter

Amos 9:13

9,

verse 13

and following.

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.

I will

restore the

fortunes of

my people

Israel and

they shall

rebuild the

ruined cities

and inhabit

them.

They shall

plant vineyards

and drink

their wine

and they

shall make

gardens

and eat

their fruit.

I will

plant them

on their

land and

they shall

never again

be uprooted

out of the

land that

I have

given them,

says the

Lord your

God.

This collapsing

of field

work,

preparation

work,

and harvest

work.

Things will

be so

very abundant

for God's

people one

day.

And again,

I think we're

seeing the

dawning of

that reality

and it's

what we should

pick up out

of this text

as we read

it.

I also

think there's

an expansion

of the

idea.

He says,

here's the

central piece

of the

chiasm,

for here

the saying

holds true.

One sows

and another

reaps.

So is it

Jesus sowing

and the

disciples are

reaping?

Is it the

Samaritan woman

sowing?

Perhaps,

perhaps.

He says,

I sent you

to reap

for that

which you

did not

labor.

Others

have labored

and you

have

entered

into

their

labor.

You are

harvesting

from

their

labor.

And I

just want

to suggest

that there's

also a

reality here

that someone

else,

again,

perhaps the

prophets,

and now

the day

has come.

These people

were ready,

hearts prepared

by those

who had

gone before

and sowed

for a reap

of the fruit

of righteousness.

So,

it's a

great text.

It's a

really

cool

text.

Let's

think about

some

application

of it.

so what

when we

do all

of that?

I've got

three applications

for you.

First,

if you

have yet

to do

so,

repent

and believe.

Truly,

Jesus is

the Savior

of the

world.

Your

sin

is

great.

Be like

these

Samaritan

villagers,

the many

who believed,

who recognized

that their

disobedience

against God's

word is a

great offense

and it

deserves,

it deserves

death,

hell,

forever.

It's the

wages of it.

It's what you

have earned

in your

rebellion.

sin.

But don't

miss that

Jesus'

mercy is

greater

than your

sin.

Turn from

your sin.

Confess

your sin.

Place your

faith in

Christ.

Secondly,

God uses

seemingly

insignificant

people to

accomplish

significant

things.

as I'm

thinking about

who's doing

the

sowing,

my mind

goes to

the prophet

Hosea,

who's

commanded by

God to

go marry

an unfaithful

woman.

And his

marriage is

like this

play,

this real

life play

of the way

that Israel

was unfaithful

to God

as her

husband.

He must

have felt

so

insignificant.

the ministry

that God

had given

to him.

And yet,

in those first

three chapters

of that book,

what a

picture of

the gospel

as he goes

and redeems

her out of

slavery.

It's beautiful.

I just

wonder the

countless

peoples that

have come to

faith in

Christ,

reading and

understanding

that text,

looking at

his life,

seemingly

insignificant

people to

accomplish

significant

kingdom

things.

When I

think about

who's

sowing,

perhaps it's

the Samaritan

woman.

A woman

scorned.

A woman

avoiding

village life.

And what

does she

do?

Being

amazed

by

Jesus.

She goes

into town

and she

seems to

be the

vehicle

for an

awakening

in this

town.

A seemingly

insignificant

person being

used to

accomplish

significant

things.

And every

one of us,

every single

one of us

ought to

see ourselves

insignificant.

If you feel

you're significant

this morning,

let's have another

conversation.

There's text

for us to

go to.

You've got to

find yourself

in the

Samaritan

woman.

Me?

I'm the one

Jesus comes

and encounters.

I'm the one

that's to

go and

share the

good news

on my

campus,

in my

place of

work,

with my

neighbors,

in my

family.

When we

see ourselves

as so

insignificant

that we

can't be

used by

God,

the offense

there is

against

God.

God is

powerful

and he

uses

little

tiny

means

to show

himself

grand,

to do

miraculous

things

as feeble

people

go and

declare

the good

news

of Jesus

Christ.

So be

insignificant,

but recognize

that God

can use

you to

accomplish

significant

things.

in Matthew

Matthew 9:36

chapter 9

verse 36,

kind of a,

for me,

a mentally

parallel

passage,

although it's

not exactly,

Jesus says

there,

or we see

the record

there,

when he

saw the

crowds,

he had

compassion

for them

because they

were harassed

and helpless

like sheep

without a

shepherd.

Then he

said to

his disciples,

the harvest

is plentiful,

but the

laborers

are few.

Therefore

pray earnestly

to the Lord

of the harvest

to send

out laborers

into.

His harvest.

God has

people.

He intends

to save

and he

will use

you,

oh insignificant

one,

to accomplish

that very

good work.

The back

of your

bulletin,

so quotation

from John

Calvin.

I like to

quote John

Calvin because

I don't want

him to be

scary to

people.

This is

from commentary

on this

text,

speaking to

the

apathetic.

He says,

the Lord

treats us

with a

father's

kindness

to correct

our sloth

and to

encourage us

who would

otherwise be

dismayed

and designs

to give us

an undeserved

reward.

Third

application.

creation.

You are

building,

as you go

and share

the good

news of

Jesus Christ,

you are

building on

someone else's

labor.

One's

sowing,

another's

reaping.

You may be a

sower and

then another

one will

reap.

Many of you

know one of

my earthly

heroes is

George Mueller.

I'll spare you

all the details

of his life,

but in his

journal he

wrote about

three young

men that

he prayed

for the

entirety of

his life.

Decades

he prayed

their souls.

Never saw

any of the

three of them

converted.

But past

his death,

all three of

them came to

faith in

Christ.

Two in

their 70s,

one in

their 80s.

Repented and

believed in the

Lord Jesus

Christ.

In that case,

Mueller was a

sower.

Somebody else

got to

reap.

Both of

them are

rejoicing

together over

the harvest.

You're building

on someone

else's labor.

Someone's

gone before

you.

We stand on

the shoulders

of giants.

We take up

this text.

Others have

shared the

good news.

Maybe some

really rare

cases.

We've got

missionaries

even now in

places where

they intend

to go to

unreached

peoples who

have no

scripture in

their language.

Maybe they're

the very

initial

sowers.

But even

then, the

great, rich

Christian history

of missionaries

they're compelled

by to go and

carry on that

tradition.

You're building

on someone

else's labor.

It ought to

make us

humble.

It ought to

make us

grateful.

mostly,

primarily,

most

importantly,

we're building

on the

finished work

of Christ.

He accomplished

all that needed

to be accomplished

for the salvation

of his people.

And this ought to

give us such

a confidence

to go and

share him

with others.

to press

out there

and declare

the greatness

of this

mercy,

that it is

finished work

as it calls

together

his church.

Now, I mentioned

that I would bring

up literary structure.

This will be in

closing.

Chapters

2 through

4,

we begin

in Cana,

we end

in Cana.

Again, there's a

pattern.

What's going on

here?

The whole thing

is a chiasm.

Chapters 2

through 4

with chiasms

in between.

The corresponding

text to this

one

records Jesus

cleansing the

temple at the

time of the

Passover.

In that

record,

he is at the

center of

Jewish

worship.

He's in

the very

temple.

He's on

that

mountain.

Here he is

far outside

that place.

He's with

Samaritans

who worship

on a

different

mountain.

There's a

juxtaposition

between

the two.

But then,

there's something

being taught

to us.

If we think

these two

things through,

the Passover

celebrated,

at the time

of the

Passover,

when he

cleansed

the temple,

the Passover

celebrated

the sparing

of Israel's

firstborn

during the

tenth

plague,

but also

the

exodus

and the

subsequent

conquest

of Canaan.

John's

readers would

have had

all of that

in their

mind.

It's a

significant

detail that

it was at

the time

of the

Passover.

The Passover

was at

hand,

it says

in chapter

two.

They've

got a

setting,

a celebration

in their

mind when

he cleanses

the temple.

And so

what I want

to suggest

to you is

being communicated

to us

here,

as we see

Jesus now

outside of

this place,

being declared

of him that

he is the

savior of

the world,

that there's

a new

conquest going

on.

In this

new covenant

of God's

grace to

his people,

it's a

different kind

of conquest.

He's calling

together his

people,

and he's not

doing so

militarily,

he's doing

so through

the spreading

of the

gospel of

Jesus Christ.

Layer upon

layer,

it's such a

magnificent,

magnificent

book.

Let's pray

together.

here.