The Heart of the Matter

Even today Jesus’ words still spring forth like living water in people’s lives. We just need to look and see where Jesus is working and come along side Him to become sowers (like the Samaritan woman at the well) and reapers (like the disciples) of His harvest. Where Jesus is working there will certainly be a harvest in His due time. This harvest produces fruit, and the fruit of every harvest glorifies God!

Digging Deeper

Last week we saw Jesus masterfully lead the Samaritan woman to true salvation culminating in Jesus revealing that He is the Messiah of which all have been waiting expectantly, both glorifying Himself and drawing the woman into true belief.

This week we are looking at the far reaching results of Jesus’ act of kindness and grace towards this woman. Remember last week what the woman did in response to her belief in Jesus? She went and told others of Jesus. So let’s take a look at what happens when we see Jesus working and we come alongside Jesus and work with Him.

John 4:31–33:

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

³²But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

³³So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?”

Now, while the Samaritan woman was out telling those in the city of what she had just experienced and that she had met the Messiah, the disciples were probably eating the food that they had just bought and were trying to persuade Jesus to eat (since they knew He was tired and hungry). In fact, this word “urge” is in the imperfect tense giving us the sense that they were persistent in their urging of Jesus to eat. Yet He had a more important task, which was to do the will of the Father. This would include a lesson that He would teach His disciples. Eating would have to wait.

I want to interject a quick observation here. Did you notice that the disciples went into the city, which was the same city that the Samaritan woman came from. These are the very disciples who have seen the signs that Jesus performed and had beheld Him and talked with Him and learned from Him. Yet when they went into the city, they brought back food to eat. However, as we have seen and shall see later in this section, the woman brought back a harvest of people ready for salvation. The disciples didn’t run to the city to tell everyone of Jesus, but the woman did.

Now let’s get back to the disciples who were continuing to urge Jesus to eat. Jesus responded to the disciples’ persistence by stating that he already has food to eat. But Jesus adds that they do not know of this particular type of food. Now this puzzled the disciples who responded in a very matter-of-fact way saying, “Ok, who brought Jesus food and didn’t tell us?” But the disciples didn’t say this directly to Jesus. They were asking this of each other. This fact along with the way they addressed Jesus as Rabbi in verse 31 and that they did not interrupt Him as He was talking to the Samaritan woman show that His disciples had the utmost respect for Jesus and His words. They just didn’t understand what He was really talking about.

John 4:34–38:

³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

³⁵“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.

³⁶“Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

³⁷“For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’

³⁸“I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

Knowing that His disciples were oblivious to what He meant by “food”, Jesus proceeds to teach them another truth about Himself and His relationship to the Father. Jesus’ “food” or sustenance is to do the will of the Father (the One who sent Him). This is interesting because we just finished the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well last week where He told her of living water that once you drink of it you will never thirst again. Now Jesus is telling His disciples of the necessity of spiritual food. And this spiritual food is to obey the will of the Father. Remember how Jesus responded to the devil when He was being tempted in the wilderness in Matthew 4:4:

⁴But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ”

So living water (i.e., the faith that leads to salvation) and spiritual food (i.e., to do the will of God) go hand-in-hand. You cannot have one without the other. We could say that saving faith leads to obedience to God. For us today this obedience is to live on each and every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In other words, we have the Bible which is God’s word that speaks to us today; therefore, our lives must live out these words that God gave us in the Bible.

Notice that Jesus says that His spiritual food is to do the will of God and to accomplish His work. This conjunction “and” is a connective word in the Greek so obedience to God is directly connected to accomplishing His work. But what is God’s “work”?

In verse 35 Jesus begins to explain what this “work” is. He uses the idea of laborers going out to gather the harvest which was ready to be picked. It is interesting that Jesus moves from spiritual food to a spiritual harvest since food comes directly from the harvest. Working the spiritual field to harvest our spiritual food is the sustenance of the believer.

In the second half of verse 35, Jesus tells His disciples to “behold” the spiritual fields as they are ready to be harvested. Why start with the word “behold”? Well, at this point the Samaritan woman would have already told many of the people of the city about Jesus. You could almost picture in your mind a mass of people walking towards Jesus at the very moment He utters the word “behold”. The spiritual fields that were walking towards Jesus and His disciples were ripe and ready for harvest.

In verse 36 Jesus tells His disciples and us that the person that reaps receives a reward. This reward is part of the spiritual food that Jesus was describing earlier. Our reward is guiding others to Christ so that He might change their hearts and thus grow the body of Christ (i.e., the church). This reward is no financial reward but a spiritual one. One that we may all rejoice together over, sower and reaper alike.

In verse 37 Jesus delineates the two types of workers in the spiritual fields, the sower and the reaper. It’s always wonderful to be the one who reaps a harvest as you get to see the immediate impact of the gospel of Christ on a person’s heart. However, we must not belittle or ignore those who sow the fields. Neither is greater or lesser than the other. For how can one reap if there is no one to sow and what good is the sower without someone to reap in due time lest the harvest rot in the fields?

In verse 38 Jesus explains that they are the reapers of this harvest. Yet they were not the ones that sowed. Who were the sowers? One of the sowers surely had to be John the Baptist as he was known far and wide. It’s easy to think that the Samaritans in this city knew of John the Baptist and were probably baptized by him. And we cannot forget the Samaritan woman who after believing began to sow right away. I imagine there were others. But we are not told of who they might have been nor for this lesson do we need to know.

John 4:39–42:

³⁹From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.”

⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

⁴¹Many more believed because of His word;

⁴²and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”

After Jesus’ “behold” statement I can imagine His disciples going to the people and leading them to faith in their rabbi Jesus. I would believe that Jesus’ disciples led the charge to reap the harvest as, if you remember, last week we read that when Jesus was baptizing it was really His disciples that were baptizing. You see, this was also on-the-job-training for His disciples. It would have been easy for Jesus to do all the work, but the disciples would not have learned as much unless they did the harvesting themselves under the gracious watch of Jesus.

From this harvest we are told that many came to saving faith in Jesus. We are told by John the Apostle that they believed because of the testimony of the Samaritan woman. Her testimony was of a supernatural nature, that is, “He told me all the things that I have done.” Likewise, our testimony of how we came to know Christ is also of a supernatural nature. We can always say with confidence that when we met Christ (although not physically) He knew our heart, our innermost nature, and He revealed the inferiority of our own righteousness. But Christ did not stop there. He gave us His righteousness so that we would become children of God. Just as the Samaritan woman expressed her testimony so we can also express ours to others.

But notice that this harvest did not stop with the Samaritan woman’s reaping. Sensing something much deeper about Jesus and being drawn to Him, the people went out to see Him…to behold Him. They asked that He stay for a couple of days so that they may learn more from Him. Because of this, in verse 41, even more believed in Jesus as Messiah. Judging by the Greek word “many” in verse 39 and “many more” in verse 40 we get the sense that this was no small gathering but a very large number of people. In verse 39 “many” signifies a multitude or a great number of people who believed. However, when Jesus spoke to the people in verse 40, a significantly greater number (“many more”) of people believed in comparison to the previous number. From this we know that our testimony is powerful but the word of God is significantly more powerful indeed. This is why it is crucial to bring new believers to church and to Bible studies so they can say to us, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”

The words of Jesus sprang forth like living water in these people. Today Jesus’ words still spring forth like living water in people’s lives. We just need to look and see where Jesus is working and come alongside Him to become sowers and reapers of His harvest.

I always wondered if Jesus would have stayed longer would more have believed. Surely there would have been an even greater number. But God is all knowing and His ways are far above our ways. But the story of Samaria doesn’t end there. God, not willing for any of His flock to be lost, sends Philip to preach Christ to the Samaritans to finish the work started by Jesus, the Samaritan woman, and His disciples in Acts 8:4–13:

⁴Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

⁵Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.

⁶The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.

⁷For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.

⁸So there was much rejoicing in that city.

⁹Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great;

¹⁰and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.”

¹¹And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts.

¹²But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.

¹³Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.