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1. Read verses 27-30. When Jesus’ disciples returned, what puzzled them? How was the Samaritan woman changed and what was her testimony? What happened in the town through her evangelical work? 2. Read verses 31-34. What was the conversation between Jesus and his disciples? What did Jesus say about his food? What does this mean? 3. Read verses 35-38. What did Jesus say about harvest field? How can we see the harvest field? How are the sower and the reaper related? Why does Jesus say this? 4. Read verses 39-42. How could the Samaritans believe in Jesus? What did they ask Jesus? What was their confession to the woman? What can we learn from them?

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Message

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Our God is the God of vision. When he called one man Abraham, he had a great vision to bless all people on earth through him. He is still fulfilling this vision in Jesus the Son. In the previous passage Jesus helped a hopeless woman to be alive and be full of life and hope in Jesus. In today’s passage she becomes a living witness to Jesus. Through this Jesus helps his disciples to see the harvest field in the hope of raising them as men of God’s vision for world evangelization. First, one woman’s change (27-30). Jesus’ disciples had gone to buy food (nearby McDonald) and returned. They thought they would have lunch with their master. But they found something that really surprised them: Jesus was talking with a woman. Jesus’ talking with the Samaritan woman was such a revolutionary event even to his disciples. But Jesus did so to revive one soul. Jesus was ready to be misunderstood and criticized if only he could save one soul. At such an incomprehensible and unusual sight his disciples could have been judgmental toward Jesus. Many questions might arise in them. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” For the things they could not understand at that time they entrusted to God. Their attitude to Jesus was sound and respectful. Their unspoken questions would be answered at the proper right time. Look at 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 ever did. Could this be the Christ?’” She came to draw water alone in the heat of the day. If she had not met Jesus, she would have quietly returned to the town. She didn’t want to meet anyone. But after finding her true object of worship, she was changed. We don’t know why she left her water jar there. How could the author John catch? the scene? The water jar was the very presentation of her thirsty and burdensome life. She had not been able to live without it. And she had been burdened to carry it each day. She had never forgotten the water jar. But now she was probably so joyful she forgot to take her water jar. She probably thought that the water jar was not that important to her. One thing is clear that now she was not thirsty anymore being satisfied with Jesus. She went back to the town and said to the people. In the past she did not want to meet anyone. Now she was eager to meet the townspeople. Her view of the people was changed. They became the object of his love, not the object of hatred. She loved them and wanted them to be happy by meeting Jesus, the Christ. So she became an evangelist to them. Her heart was wide open toward them, and her mouth as well to testify to Jesus. She said, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” No one knew what she ever did. No one knew what kind of life she had lived. Her past life was no one’s interest; nobody was concerned about it. She herself did not want to remember it. Yet, her past was real and she did not know what to do with her past terrible life that bothered her day and night. But Jesus knew all about her. She had not accomplished anything but only accumulated her guilt and shame. Her sin made her unlovely and disgusting. But Jesus loved and helped her to repent of her sins and worship God. Now all things were cleared up and her soul was endlessly happy. Now nothing bothered her. Only a spring of water was welling up in her to eternal life. She was sure that Jesus was the Christ. So she said, “Come and see!” What was the result of her evangelic work? Verse 30 says, “They came out of the town and made their way toward him.” What a beautiful scene! They came out of the town where they were dipped in daily routine, and made their way, unusual way toward Jesus. We know how difficult it is to overcome our daily routine and take a new step toward what we are not familiar with. But the townspeople did so by being inspired and encouraged through the woman’s testimony. Those who make their way toward Jesus are set on the right track in their lives. The one Samaritan woman’s change was indeed beautiful and influential. May our life in Christ also be used to cause our neighbours to make their way toward Jesus. Second, Jesus’ food (31-34). Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” They maybe worried about Jesus’ health. They urged him to eat. They were humanly loyal people. But Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” As far as food is concerned, the disciples were sure that they knew better than Jesus, for they were great eaters. They loved food. They thought they knew all about food. They must have wondered that there was food which they knew nothing about. They said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food, ‘mysterious food’?” With their understanding they would not know the food Jesus was talking about. So Jesus said, “My food—is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” What kind of food is this? Truly this is a brand new food. Then let’s think about this food. Food is essential to our body. Food sustains the body. Without eating food people can faint and later on die. And food should be supplied regularly. Food and body have an inseparable relationship. When Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” it showed that doing the will of God had such an importance in his life that it was his food. Doing God’s will sustained his body. While on earth, Jesus was aware of the Father God who sent him and wanted to do his will at each moment. As we eat three meals a day, Jesus wanted to do the work of God regularly and constantly. Doing God’s work was his daily life with unceasing concern. In the course of serving the Samaritan woman, Jesus did not eat or drink anything. But he did not feel hungry. Rather by serving one thirsty and hungry soul Jesus felt that he ate food and was satisfied. In order to care for the one lost soul, Jesus invested a lot. God’s will for Jesus was to serve one soul to the end whatever the cost would be. Furthermore God’s work given to him was to raise 12 disciples on earth and he completed it (Jn 17:4). Ultimately God’s will for him was to die on the cross as the Lamb of God. So when he breathed his last, he said, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). His mission finished, and then he gave up his spirit. Without finishing God’s work he could not give up his spirit and life. Recall Abraham’s servant in Genesis, how he carried out his given mission of bringing a woman who would be the wife of his master’s son, the covenant son, to Canaan. Until he got the approval of a woman God prepared, Rebekah’s family, he refused to eat the food set before him. He said, “I will not eat until I have told you what I have to say” (Ge 24:33). It is good that some of you decided to skip one meal a week to fish and get one Bible student this fall. May God bless your decision. We also remember St. Paul’s attitude toward the task of doing God’s mission. He said in Acts 20:24, “…I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” May God help us to learn finishing spirit in doing his work. May we have such a prayer as this: “Lord, I cannot let this fall pass by unless I serve one regular sheep.” “Lord, I cannot die until I can raise 12 disciples of Jesus in my lifetime.” Third, Jesus’ vision (35-42). Jesus did not stop speaking to his disciples by mentioning his food only. He continued to say. Look at verse 35. “Do not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” Here Jesus compared spiritual harvest to natural harvest. For the natural harvest the farmers had to wait four months more. But the spiritual harvest is at hand. It is ready; they are ripe for harvest. It is the matter of one’s opening his eyes and looking at the fields. At that time the Samaritan townspeople were coming toward Jesus. That was a good harvest field. Jesus could reap them. Likewise the spiritual harvest is always ready. No gospel worker should say, “I have to wait for several months until the harvest season comes.” When one opens his eyes and looks, he can see the spiritual harvest. This is the reason Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season.” Jesus said in John 12:32, “…I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” After his death and resurrection Jesus met his disciples again and again and said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (Jn 20:1). Jesus would send out his disciples to the whole world. On another occasion he said, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mk 16:15). Since Jesus died for man’s sins and rose again from the dead, this gospel must first be preached to all nations (Mk 13:10). While on earth our Lord Jesus said, “…this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Mt 24:14) This is the course of history Jesus wants us to know, for the world is ripe for harvest. People are dying in their sins under the power of death, and there is no remedy for this except the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection. When the harvest is not done, what happens to the harvest fields? They will be rotten and completely ruined. Natural fields being ravaged and devastated is still okay. But what about the spiritual fields being rotten and ruined? That’s unthinkable. That’s why Jesus said to his disciples, “Open your eyes and look at the fields!” Though we have eyes to see, it is not easy to see. But God wants us to open our eyes and look. When Abraham was in deep despair after Lot’s departing from him, God said to him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.” (Ge 13:14,15) When Abraham was still in a childless situation God again said to him, “Look up at the heavens and count the starts…So shall your offspring be.” When our eyes cannot see a way straight in front of us, we can look in the other three directions. If our eyes are still blocked, we can look upward. When our situations are difficult, it is not easy to see God’s vision. At the time of distributing God’s promised land, Canaan, the descendants of Joseph wanted to possess only plain land. They did not want forest hill country that required hard work. And they complained that the enemies had iron chariots. They could not see any vision. But Joshua said to them, “Go up into the forest and clear land for yourselves…You will have…the forest hill country as well. Clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours; though the Canaanites have iron chariots and though they are strong, you can drive them out.” What a vision! To the descendants of Joseph the forest hill was a hard and unavailable land with enemies occupying it; but to Joshua it was a land of great use if its trees were cut down and cleared up with the enemies driven out. Vision does not come at a favourable situation only. Rather it can come at the adverse circumstances when one has the eyes of faith. How to see the forest matters. The hearts of U of T students are like the forest with relativistic and resistant intellectualism plus physical pleasure-seeking. But still God’s command is “Clear it, and its farthest limits are yours.” Thank God for helping us to talk with many freshmen during the frosh week. Many of them were responsive for signing up for Bible study, and we got about 60 names. May we keep our Lord Jesus’ words, “Open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest” and follow them up and begin 1:1 Bible study with them. We remember God’s promise in Joel, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all peoples. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28). We can pray and raise our sons and daughters and grandchildren to be influential figures in society that this country be restructured and reestablished on God’s truth of the Bible. When we have visions and pioneering and challenging spirit, we are forever young in God’s sight. May God help us to be men and women of visions. Look at verses 36-38. “Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.” In God’s history Jesus’ disciples would be in the position of reapers. Jesus wanted them to be hard-working reapers for the harvest. In many countries the job problem is serious. There are many unemployed because of shortage of work in our society. For man’s work was replaced by machines. But spiritual work cannot be done by machines. It needs men’s endless labour. There is no shortage of work and no job problem at all in the spiritual field! There is lots of work to do. They are ripe for harvest, waiting for many working hands. Sometime we can be sowers, sometimes, reapers. In verses 39-42, many of the Samaritans came to Jesus because of the woman’s testimony and they were reaped. They had such a strong spiritual desire that they urged Jesus to have a Bible conference with them for two days without reservation. They were willing to invest considerable time to know Jesus. Jesus could have said, “My time has not yet come.” Jesus, who was always conscious of God’s timing schedule was willing to accept their earnest request and stayed with them two days. And because of Jesus’ words many more became believers. Their faith was very personal based on the word of God. Their confession is “now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world. Their knowledge of Jesus was personal and universal. We must know that Jesus is the Savour of the world, and all people of the world need Jesus, the Saviour of all. Let’s remember Jesus’ words, “Open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.” May we be men and women of God’s vision and hard-working sowers and reapers, beginning with working for one soul.

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