It’s Not Lunchtime — It’s Harvest Time | John 4:27-42 | Richard Leadbeater

Thank you again for having me. Let me pray and

ask for God's help as we look at this together.

Father God, thank you so much for your living

word. Thank you for your Holy Spirit who inspired

these words. Please, would your spirit be at

work in our hearts now, helping us to see Jesus

in all his glory so that we might love him and

live for him. In his name we pray. Amen. I don't

know how you'd answer the question, what do you

do? You know when people say, what do you do?

It's pretty tricky when you're at college, isn't

it? What do you do? One Christian minister I

know answers the question by saying, I prepare

people to die. It's pretty provocative, in the

hope, of course, that it would lead to a conversation

about Jesus. I tried that a while ago, and unfortunately,

I tried it on a doctor. just after a nurse had

given me a general anaesthetic. And instead of

following up by telling the doctor all about

Jesus, I got drowsier and drowsier as the doctor

started telling me all about his Buddhism. So

it slightly backfired. But how would you answer

the question, what do you do? How do you think

God would answer that question? If you'd ask

God that question, what do you do, God? It is

important to be clear on what God's doing, because

if we don't understand what our Father's doing,

then we won't understand what we're doing. There

is a link, isn't there, between what God is doing

and what his people are to be doing. I ask that

because in this part of John's Gospel, Jesus

tells us what God's doing. And it is all about

verse 34, reaping a harvest. My food, said Jesus,

is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish

his work. Don't you have a saying? It's still

four months until harvest. I tell you, open your

eyes and look at the fields. They're ripe for

harvest. So Jesus is working in his father's

harvesting business, reaping a harvest not, of

course, of crops, but of people. Now, that's

something at this point in John's Gospels the

disciples really hadn't yet grasped. You'll know

the story of John's Gospel. Jesus had recently

met two people. In chapter 3, he met a religious

leader called Nicodemus. At the start of chapter

4, he met a Samaritan woman, unnamed. And those

two people couldn't be more different, could

they? One was a man, one was a woman. One would

have been thought of as pure, Israel's teacher,

Nicodemus. The other was thought of as unclean,

a woman who'd had five husbands. One meets Jesus

at night, the other in the middle of the day.

One of them comes to Jesus, the other one Jesus

goes to her. Two completely different people.

And yet they both need the same thing. They both

need the sin -bearing death of God's Son and

they both need the life -giving word of God's

Spirit. Two different people both need the same

thing because God is at work saving people, all

kinds of people. The disciples, however, hadn't

yet grasped any of this. Have a look down in

verse 27. Just then the disciples returned and

were surprised to find him talking with a woman.

But no one said, what do you want or why are

you talking with her? In other words, they don't

understand what God is doing in the world. They

don't know what their father's business is because

if they did know, they might have said, hey,

Jesus, have you told her about the kingdom yet?

We've just been into town, Jesus, and we've been

telling loads of Samaritans about you. But now

the disciples are more concerned with food. They

think it's lunchtime. And so Jesus goes on to

explain to them that it's not lunchtime. It's

harvest time. Because God's work is reaping a

harvest of people, and now is the time for that

harvest. with an idea of lunch in mind. I am

looking forward to lunch, by the way. I do get

lunch, do I? These verses are a bit like a sandwich.

So if you think, the bread on top is the woman

sewing. So verse 29, she goes into the town and

says, come see a man who told me everything I've

ever done. That's the sort of bread on the top.

The bread at the bottom is the Samaritans believing.

So in verse 39, the Samaritans come from the

town. believe in Jesus, and they refer to the

woman's testimony. He told me everything I've

ever done. So there's the bread on the top, the

woman sowing, the bread on the bottom, the Samaritans

believing, and the meat, or the cheese, or the

hummus, or whatever it is you have in the middle

of your sandwiches, is Jesus explaining to his

disciples that he's all about reaping a harvest

of people. That's what the Father's doing in

the world. Therefore, that's what the Son's doing

in the world. And therefore that's the work that

the disciples and we should be doing in the world.

Let's look at the sandwich for the next few minutes.

We're going to think about an unlikely sower,

a ripe harvest and then a world saviour. Let's

think about the unlikely sower. We meet her in

verses 27 to 30. The disciples return from their

shopping trip and they're surprised, literally

astonished. to find Jesus talking with a Samaritan

woman. But what she says next is equally astonishing.

It's in verse 28. Then leaving her water jar,

the woman went back to the town and said to the

people, come, see a man who told me everything

I've ever done. Could this be the Messiah? Notice

she does three things. The first thing she does

is she leaves her water jar. Now that is amazing

because The water was the very thing that she'd

come for in verse 7. And now she's leaving it

behind. I was going to say that the water bucket

pales into insignificance, but that would be

a terrible joke and I would never make that.

It's as if she realizes that what Jesus is offering

is so much better than what she originally wanted.

She leaves the jar behind. The second thing she

does is she goes back to town. Now that would

not have been an easy thing for this woman to

do. Given this woman's relationship history,

she wouldn't have just been avoided by the Jews.

She'd also been avoided by her own people, other

Samaritans. Five previous husbands, and now having

a man she's not married to, would have meant

that she was viewed with disgust by other women,

treated with contempt by other men, which is

presumably why she's at the well at midday. This

woman would have been ignored and isolated and

yet she went back into the town. And she goes

because she has found someone unlike anyone she

has ever met. Who knew all about her past and

who still offered her life. So she leaves the

jar, she goes back to town. The third thing she

does is she tells people about Jesus. Verse 29.

Come see a man who told me everything I've ever

done. Could this be the Messiah? Come and see.

Come and see is what Jesus had said to his first

disciples in chapter 1, verse 39. It's what Philip

had said to his friend Nathaniel in chapter 1,

verse 46. And now the invitation to come and

see is given by a Samaritan woman to a bunch

of filthy outsiders. She's an unlikely sower,

sowing in an extremely unlikely place. Now, she's

not cleaned up her life, this woman. She's not

had the time. She hasn't been to theological

college. There's loads for her to learn. She

hadn't done a training course in personal evangelism.

I mean, her testimony needs some work, doesn't

it? But what she lacks in knowledge, she more

than makes up for in courage and enthusiasm.

And it is often the case, isn't it, that new

believers are the most eager evangelists. It's

like they can't keep it to themselves. There

was a recently converted guy in our church who

turned up last Sunday at our 6 .30 service with

four people. One of them had smelt of weed and

he was carrying a loud hailer. Because this Christian

guy, who'd been converted a couple of months,

went into Wimbledon, near where we are, in order

to do some street evangelism with some Christians.

The Christians didn't turn up, so he was on his

own, and he saw four people handing out flyers,

I think protesting against ID cards or something.

So he said, hey, if I join you, will you join

me? So he spent two hours in Wimbledon handing

out flyers about ID cards. They then went for

dinner at Nando's, and then he said, six o 'clock,

church time. They all came. And as one of them

walked in with a loud hailing, you think, oh

my goodness, what's going to kick off here? But

they all came. They were singing the last hymn.

One of them has come back every week since. But

he's bubbling over with enthusiasm. He can't

stop himself. It's wonderful to see. Well, this

Samaritan woman is like that. She's just met

the Messiah and she can't keep it to herself.

She goes and tells. And the people do come and

see. Verse 30, they came out of the town, they

made their way towards him. It is ironic, isn't

it, that the disciples go into town and they

come back with bags of food. The Samaritan woman

went into town and she comes back with crowds

of people. Which shows that she understood what

the disciples hadn't understood. It's not lunchtime.

It's harvest time. She's an unlikely sower. And

I guess the same could be said of you and I.

We're unlikely sowers. Well, then we get to the

meat, or whatever it is, lettuce, in the middle

of the sandwich. Verse 31 to 38, this is a ripe

harvest. A ripe harvest. Again, what would you

say if somebody asked you what you're most concerned

with? So what occupies your mind most? What do

you pray about most? What fills your diary? Well,

the disciples seem most concerned with physical

things, in particular food, because as the people

are coming over the fields towards them, they

urge Jesus in verse 31 to eat something. So they've

been to Greg's in Sychar, and they've come back

with 13 meal deals, because it's lunchtime, isn't

it? Their concern is eating food. Jesus' concern

is verse 32, harvesting people. I have food to

eat, he said, that you know nothing about. Now

again, the disciples think he's talking about

physical food, but he's not saying, when he says

I've got food to eat you know nothing about,

he's not saying I've got a secret stash of energy

bars. Just as he did with Nicodemus and the Samaritan

woman, Jesus is talking about spiritual things,

not physical things, as he explains in verse

34. My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of

him who sent me. and to finish his work. Don't

you have a saying? It's still four months until

harvest. I tell you, open your eyes and look

at the fields. They're ripe for harvest. Now,

I'm no farmer, and my record of keeping plants,

and actually household pets alive, is not good.

I do know that four months before harvest is

not harvest. That's why it's four months before

harvest. Four months before harvest is the time

of year when the fields are brown and the seeds

are sown. Well, at this time of year in Sychar,

it was four months before harvesting crops. But

when it comes to harvesting people, it's not

four months away. It's now. So what do the disciples

see when they look out over the fields? Verse

30. They see crowds of Samaritans coming from

the town. The fields are white for harvest, four

months before harvest. And they're coming at

the invitation of the Samaritan woman. Jesus

is saying, look, forget food. Forget crops. It's

saving people that I'm most interested in. That's

why I'm here. That's what my father's about.

That's what I'm about. Harvest time is now. It's

time for all sorts of people. To be given life

and enter the kingdom. That's the work of God

that Jesus came to finish. It's like food to

him, verse 34, in the sense that doing God's

work, his father's business, brings him much

greater sustenance and satisfaction than any

sandwich or Sunday roast could. He's come to

finish God's saving work. And he does that by

speaking his word, as we'll see in a moment,

verse 42. And ultimately by dying on the cross.

So you'll know at the end of John's Gospel, chapter

19, verse 30, Jesus' final words before he dies

on the cross are, it is finished. Not I'm finished.

It's finished. What's finished? Well, God's rescue

plan is accomplished. Sin has been paid for.

God's wrath has been satisfied. The way to the

Father is now open. But from the time of Jesus'

first coming up to the time of his second coming,

it's harvest time. He's saying to his disciples,

open your eyes. Wake up. Understand the times.

There are people all around us in need of living

water. Stop being concerned with food. Imagine

for a moment that you're a consultant in charge

of A &E. And one evening the call comes in that

there's a huge crash on the M25. And you're warned

as the chief consultant to expect a large number

of patients coming in in critical condition.

And so one by one the ambulances arrive. Paramedics

bring in stretcher after stretcher. And all around

you in A &E people are suffering. They're dying.

And you as the A &E consultant sit in your office

with your feet up. with a food menu, trying to

work out whether to order pizza or a curry. That's

a little bit like what the disciples are doing.

All around them, people are dying of spiritual

thirst and hunger, and they're thinking about

lunch. By the way, before we think too critically

of the disciples, I do want to confess that I'm

exactly the same as them. My mind and diary and

prayers get very quickly taken up with me and

now and physical. And I dare say I'm not the

only one in the room. It may well not be food

that occupies our minds, but we can so easily

pour all our energies into our work in this world

and very little thought or energy about God's

work that lasts into eternity. Or in church life.

Church life can very easily focus on the barns.

and not the fields we do need to keep lifting

our eyes don't we to the fields and the future

because our heavenly father's business is saving

people that's the work that lasts into the next

world and i take it that we just see our jobs

our course our relationships our the whole of

our lives in the light of that In the light of

the fact that it's harvest time. So Jesus says

to us now, as he says to his disciples then,

open your eyes, look around you, understand the

times you're in. Now when it comes to harvest

time, there are two types of people. There are

those who sow and those who reap, verse 36. Even

now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests

a crop for eternal life so that the sower and

the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying,

one sows and the other reaps, is true. So sower

and reaper have different roles. Just as Paul

says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 6, I planted the

1 Corinthians 3:6

seed, Apollos watered, God's making it grow.

God employs different people in different roles

in his harvesting work. You'll see this every

week in your... You see it every day in college.

Different people, different roles, different

gifts. But it's the same work. It's the same

ministry to share in the joy when the harvest

comes in. And Jesus' disciples were particularly

privileged in verse 38. I send you to reap what

you've not worked for. Others have done the hard

work and you've reaped the benefits of their

labor. Now we may be referring to the prophets.

And John the Baptist, they do the hard work.

They've laid the ground. The disciples come in

and sort of in a football analogy, they just

tap it in an open goal on the back post. They've

done all the hard work. You reap the benefits.

But I think actually in the immediate context

suggests that it's the Samaritan woman who's

done the hard work. She's the one who's gone

back into town and brought back a load of people

who were about to be harvested into the kingdom.

That's the work that God is doing in his world.

And therefore, whether you're a teacher or a

student, for those who are full -time mums or

part -time physios, every Christian is employed

in God's harvesting work. Because it's harvest

time. Apparently a South African bishop called

Frank Retief gathers all the church leaders together

in his area once a year. And he tells them to

get their diaries out and write at the top of

each page this phrase. People without Christ

go to hell. And then he says to them, now organize

your life around that truth. Imagine putting

that at the top of every page of your diary or

on your Google calendar. People without Christ

go to hell. Okay, I've got to... What am I going

to do in the light of that then? See, there's

an unlikely sower. And there is a ripe harvest.

And the third thing, much more briefly, is a

world saviour. We see that in verses 39 to 42.

This woman is an unlikely sower. The Samaritans

are definitely an unlikely harvest. And yet,

verse 39, many of the Samaritans from that town

believed in him. because of the woman's testimony.

He told me everything I've ever done. But notice

they want more. They don't just want to hear

her testimony. They want to hear his word. And

so they plead with him to stay for longer, which

leads to verse 41. Because of his words, many

more became believers. They said to the woman,

we no longer believe just because of what you

said. Now we've heard for ourselves, and we know

that this man really is the saviour of the world.

See, God is doing his work in his world, his

harvesting work, through the word of his son.

So these people here in Samaria aren't like those

at the end of chapter 2. If you know the story,

there are people at the end of chapter 2 who

believe in Jesus because they saw the signs that

he was performing. It's sort of superficial belief,

if you like. You know, give us another one, Jesus.

But they don't actually trust him. They don't

want him. They just want his tricks and his miracles.

It's superficial. This is sincere faith. The

Samaritans haven't seen any miracles. They believe

because they heard the words that he was speaking.

We no longer believe because of what you said,

but because of what he said. And there are two

big announcements, if you notice, of Jesus' identity

in this chapter. One was by Jesus himself, that's

in verse 26. I am the Messiah, the Christ, the

King. The other is by a group of Samaritans in

verse 42. They identify him as, rightly, the

saviour of the world. And John's bringing those

two things together. The Messiah is the saviour

of the world. In other words... Here is the one

through whom God is reaping a harvest among all

sorts of people. From the Nicodemuses of the

world to the Samaritan women of the world. To

people like me and you. The Messiah, the saviour

of the world. That's how God, that's through

whom God is reaping a harvest. And now is the

time for that harvest. Just two brief invocations

as I close. And that is, number one, doing God's

work is a privilege. It's a sign, isn't it, of

God's outrageous grace that Jesus not only goes

to Samaria, talks to this outcast, and offers

her living water. He washes her clean by his

Holy Spirit, and then he employs her in his harvest

field. And God has done that for you. If you're

a Christian believer, he gives us new birth and

involves us in his work. I said it earlier, but

I find it absolutely staggering that God doesn't

just save people like you and I, as if that's

not outrageously gracious enough. He says, I've

got work for you to do. I want to involve you

in my harvesting business. You've got lots to

learn. But don't worry about that because I'm

going to be with you. I'm going to help you,

equip you. I'm going to give you my Holy Spirit

to change you and give you gifts to make you

useful in my service. I think one of the things

I've been struck by the longer I've been in Christian

ministry is actually, I've been struck by several

things. One of them is hard work. But also at

the same time, it is privileged work. What else

would you rather do with your life than give

yourself to playing your part in the harvest

field, in harvest time? Doing God's work is a

privilege. And don't let the devil ever tell

you otherwise. It's the meant privilege. But

secondly, doing God's work is a priority. The

harvest is plentiful, says Jesus in Matthew,

but the work is a few. Ask the Lord of the harvest

to send out workers into the harvest field. When

I've always thought about that verse previously,

I've always thought, oh, the workers are few.

I've emphasized that bit. And by workers, I think

I've meant vicars. The vicars are few. Now, there

are few, and we need more and more. But a couple

of things to notice. Jesus says there is a plentiful

harvest field. I mean... You see that in John

4, the crowd of Samaritans walking over the field.

There is a plentiful harvest, and we do need

more workers for that harvest field. But not

just more vicars and pastors and women's workers

and children's workers and youth workers to be

full -time. Every Christian is involved in the

harvesting business. We do need more workers,

and it is a priority. And so whether we end up

in full -time Christian ministry or not, the

harvesting work is a priority. So what do you

do? If I ask that question at the start, what

is it you do? You could answer that in all kinds

of ways. I'm a husband. I'm a dad. I'm a lecturer.

I'm a student. You work in God's harvest field.

That's what you do. It's not that you will work

in God's harvest field one day when you graduate

and when you finish your exams. You already work

in God's harvest field. And so give your life

to those privileges and that great priority because

it's harvest time. Let me lead us in a prayer.

Thank you Father for your outrageous grace to

people like us that you would, just like this

Samaritan woman, save us and employ us in your

service. Father, we're sorry, I'm sorry for times

when we forget that that work is a privilege

or a priority. Father, please would you persuade

us in our hearts and minds. That it is now harvest

time and we get to play our part in harvesting

the crop of people. Thank you, Father, that you

involve us in the family business. Father, please

help us to be useful, to be faithful, to be fruitful

in your service so that many more people like

these Samaritans, like us, would come into your

kingdom and enjoy eternal life. In the Lord Jesus.

And it's in his name we pray. Amen.