John 4.43
November 3rd 2013
Well, it’s the first Sunday of the month and a time we have set aside for what we call communion.
Let’s pray and then get our minds and hearts prepared to partake of the elements He introduced by rehearsing the seven statements He made from the cross.
PRAY
(SEVEN STATEMENTS HERE)
In the Latin, “communion” means com (which is “with” or “together”) and unus union (which means oneness or unity).
So the Latin for communion is best understood as “together as one.” From it we also get common, meaning also, “oneness.”
What do we have in common or what do we hold up together, as one?
Not our ages or birthplaces or parents (necessarily).
Certainly not the same DNA or address.
Our unity isn’t even built upon how we respectively believe because when it comes to scripture we all have varied ideas on different things, don’t we?
We do, as partakers of this unleavened bread and wine, have one thing in common or unity though don’t we?
We believe Jesus was born, that He lived a sinless life, that He was killed through the shedding of His blood, that He died, and was resurrected on the third day.
The scripture says this is the Gospel – the Good News.
And on it we agree and on Him we believe.
What’s interesting, however, it is not from the Latin that we have come to call this gathering communion. It is, as you will remember, from the Greek word, Koinonia, which comes from koinos, and means:
one.
One with our Lord, remembering Him in unified beliefs.
One with each other, united and having one faith, one Lord, one baptism (of the Holy Spirit) in common.
One in this memorial as we all ingest unleavened bread and juice of the grape.
From the Latin it is intriguing that other words associated with communion include common, community, commute, communication, commonality, commonwealth, comrade, communist, communal, commune – all words that describe oneness, unity, brother and sisterhood.
From the Greek Koinonia, meaning one, and from it we get the word coitus, which pictures two separate parts joining together and becoming one.
How does this apply to our faith in Christ.
He reconciled fallen man and God – making two separate parts one.
By what means? The Cross. Which are?
Two separate parts coming together to form one. Where do the parts point?
From earth to heaven, from heaven to earth and then out over and across the world.
In this amazing emblem, we have imagery of God being reconciled with sinful humanity and all human beings coming together under the canopy of His outstretched arms.
Wow.
By and through the shed blood and death of God in flesh. All for us.
For this we praise Him.
And remember Him.
And seek Him collectively here as we have gathered in His name as one.
Let’s pray. (Include thanks for the elements and what they represent)
MUSIC
“Take Eat”
(2 times through)
PRAYER
Alright, we left off last week with what I said I believed are some of the single most important passages in all of scripture – John 4:23-24 where Jesus says to a Samaritan woman at a well:
“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
We discussed this at some length. The narrative (which is our text for today) goes on, saying (at verse 25)
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
41 And many more believed because of his own word;
42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
Alright, back to verse 25:
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
Because the Samaritans acknowledged the five books of Moses, they expected, also, the coming of the Messiah.
Where in the first five books of Moses is a Messiah promised to the Jews?
There aren’t too many, but we do have one – Genesis 3:14-15.
Prior to this chapter Adam and Eve had life – eternal life – in an umblemished garden. Satan got them to fall, and in Genesis three God pronounces a curse on Satan and Adam and Eve, saying
Genesis 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Satan was cursed first because he was the instigator by enticing the woman to disobey the simple command. It is in this sense that the first utterance of a coming Messiah is stated in the next verse where God continues and says:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
This is a complex passage. It is known as the “Proto-Gospel” because it foretells of God’s means of saving humanity from Satan through the coming of Good News by a future Messiah.
It is understood by most scholars (Jewish and Christian) to be speaking of the promised Messiah. Let me explain.
God in his endless mercy has put hatred (enmity) between the race of men and Satan so that, though all mankind love his ways by and through our fallen nature, we really truly (or at least invariably) hate him.
Why? He is ultimately totally hateable – human beings just don’t aways realize this because we’re beguiled by his lies.
If God did not put enmity between fallen Man and Satan I’m not so sure anyone could ever be saved – because our fallen flesh would innately adore his horrid nature. And maybe he would adore ours.
But in His mercy God put hatred between Satan and the Woman (meaning it flows both ways)
And between Satan’s seed and her seed.
I’m not going to cover all the conjecture about what Satan’s seed could possibly be but notice what the passage says:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
The fact that the passage speaks of her “seed” and “his heel” unquestionably speaks of offspring of Eve’s (notice Adam is not mentioned, the idea being that Jesus, as a Man, would come from the Seed of a woman) and not to the entire human race but to a future “Him.”
Taking it all out and examining it what the passage is telling us is that in the face of Satan getting Adam and Eve to fall, God would put hatred between them and then, through woman, provide a man who’s heel Satan would wound but to whose head this Messiah would do the same.
To bruise the heel means Satan would have the ability to hinder, but to “bruise the head” means Jesus would have the ability to overwhelm his strategies.
So this Samaritan woman, while ignoring the other prophetic books of the Bible, did believe a Messiah was coming.
Where John has the Samaritan woman say,
In verse 25:
I know that Messias cometh, (which is called Christ) when he is come, he will tell us all things.
We can probably assume that John included the “which is called Christ for clarification because there would be no reason for a Samaritan woman to say, “I know the Messiah is coming (and then explain what Messiah means from the Greek perspective).
“ . . . and when He is come, He will tell us all things.”
Now I am of the opinion that this woman knew Jesus was the promised Messiah. He had just told her about her private life and later we will read that she tells her friends, in describing Him, that He “has told her all she has ever done.”
So I am of the opinion she was indirectly asking Him if He was the Messiah – if He would admit to her.
A few verses earlier she “perceived He was a prophet.” But now she seems to be diving deeper into His identity.
(verse 26)
26 Jesus saith unto her, “I that speak unto thee am he.”
What a fantastic think to hear.
I mean imagine that you are all alone praying in the hills and a man appears and it’s Jesus and after conversing with Him He tells you who He is.
I’m not so certain this happens today (I’m not saying it doesn’t) but it did happen shortly after Jesus resurrects when two men are walking together on the road to Emmaus.
Up to this point in John’s narrative Jesus has not admitted His identity so directly.
I think in Jerusalem He had to be careful and cautious – they would have tried to kill Him before His time. But there in Samaria He was not in any jeopardy – they were more likely to receive and embrace Him than try and kill Him.
It’s interesting when we think about it.
Where the Jewish religion was well established and riddled with hierarchy and success, He would have been rejected (and was ultimately killed) but where the people truly languished in outward sin and darkness, He was readily received.
It’s no different today.
Show me an established religious hierarchy that is successful, wealthy, powerful and has it all going on and I will show you a group of men and women wholly resistant to truth – even if it walked in the front door and took a seat in their lobby.
But show me the lowly, the suffering, the humble – even the sinful – and I’ll show you people hungry for truth, solutions, and Him. (verse 27)
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
This sight must have blown these guys back a few centuries. As we’ve said, Jews did not mingle with Samaritan’s and it would have been a cultural anomaly for single Jewish man (let alone a spiritual leader) to engage with a woman alone in a setting like this.
So they “marveled,” (in the King James) they wondered. But John tells us nobody asked Him about it or mentioned it.
It’s funny, but when you read the older commentators on this passage they will say things like:
“Upon seeing the Lord they knew it was not in His character for anything to be improper, so they refrained from even asking the question.”
Others say things like:
“They were of such an place of faith that there was no need to question Him – whatever the Lord said or did they were certain it was proper.”
I’m not so sure about these insights. For one simple reason – his name was Peter.
I don’t think Peter would have hesitated to have asked the Lord what He was doing talking alone with a Samaritan woman at a well, and knowing human beings I do not doubt they secretly wondered if He was doing something improper, but I just think they were afraid.
Could be wrong, but Peter had to have the Lord tell him three times to take and eat unclean foods in the book of Acts, I’m not so sure he would have remained silent for ANY other reason that fear or timidity in this situation.
Whatever it is verse 28 and 29 says:
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
Notice that the woman came to the well to get physical water. But after this discussion what happened to this objective?
It was forgotten – so much so she left the waterpot there all together!
We might have all sorts of plans and ambitions and ideas about what we are supposed to do with our life and time, but “when love comes to town, we gonna catch that train” . . . . and everything else takes a back seat. (and if it hasn’t, it will).
So having apparently been converted, at least to some extent, she leaves her waterpot there at the well, goes to the city, and says to the men:
“Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
Did you experience this very same type of reaction in your life when you came to know the Lord?
I did. I remember being like a wide eyed unfiltered loudspeaker on rerun – not possessing any sort of ability to fathom that anyone WOULDN’T believe me!
Right? After a few rounds of sharing Jesus and being rejected cold and hard, the filters start forming don’t they?
But she had not filters – yet. And went directly to “the men,” who I would think were either the leaders of her community or her friends – probably the latter.
What was the evidence she used to prove He was the Messiah?
He told her everything she had ever done.
I can’t help but believe this is yet another great picture of what Jesus does with everyone when they come to see, and hear, and know Him – His person reveals to us “all we have ever done” all the sin, all the lousy attempts to win or please God, “all the phoniness of our existence. He has an ability to do that, doesn’t He.
In response to what she said (verse 30)
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
And so we have before us one of the main ways God has arranged for the Good News to propagate – by and through believers sharing Him with others.
I’m not sure why this is the means He established but I’m pretty sure it has to do with freedom.
What I mean by this is Satan still reigns in the hearts of Man. Sure, I suppose God could come down and overwhelm everyone to the point where they would believe and receive what He offers them.
But that would be operating through spiritual coercion – something I’m not so sure is part of His nature.
So He makes it natural for human beings to want to share that which we find is good and beneficial with others –especially with people with love and who are closest to us.
As we grow in love, we yearn to share what we have found with the world, to the point that we begin to even see that our enemies could use the Good News.
It seems that in this God is able to freely move people to do good as a means to overcome evil – but He does it by those who love and believe and follow Him choosing to share with others.
And this is exactly what the Samaritan woman did.
John the adds in kind of “Meanwhile back at the ranch” line here by saying:
31 In the mean while his disciples asked him, saying, “Master, eat.”
They had gone to get grub – Pizza, I think –and it was getting cold.
32 But he said unto them, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”
Here’s yet another situation where Jesus is speaking in very deep spiritual terms but it was lost on his literalist apostles (verse 33)
33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
Did someone already bring him pizza! I mean, we walked all the way over to little Anthonies down on the corner of Ephratus and Herodotus lane and . . . and .
34 Jesus saith unto them, “My meat (my food) is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
The great design of His life—short as it was – was to do the will of God.
It was lunch time and we know He requested water. He probably was hungry too – which is why the disciples went and obtained food, but this opportunity to reach a soul presented itself and it’s almost like he, like the woman who left the waterpot behind, left his hunger behind too – and focused on something far more valuable.
It’s interesting (isn’t it) that both the sharer (Jesus) and the recipient (the woman at the well) forgot their physical needs in this exchange and sort of transitioned to operating in realms of the Spirit.
Love it.
Ever notice when you are engaged in something you really really love and are engaged in the necessities of life take a back seat.
Children do this when they have to use the restroom. They are so enchanted with what is going on around them they would rather hold off a visit to the restroom until it is absolutely miserable – just to engage in every second of “the fun.”
People involved in theater, the arts, filmmaking can often go for hours and hours on end without breaks they love it so much.
Because my life is ministry – something I adore – I can go from sun up to sun set without eating when I am fully engaged.
But unfortunately it’s in the downtimes, when I am not engaged in something that I adore that I more than make-up for it.
Job said (in Job 23:12):
“I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.”
I believe we have Jesus – the fulfillment of all the Old Testament foreshadowed – living this very saying of Job’s out.
I think this exchange can also serve to remind the believer that there are things of far greater importance that supplying our basic needs, wants, and desires.
I am all for helping and assisting the poor and needy for their basic wants. It is a good thing.
But more and more I am noticing that the world is greatly focused on improving the material well-being of people.
Volunteering organizations and opportunities to serve are popping up everywhere as are some tremendous efforts to initiate philanthropy.
All good.
But focusing on material support over spiritual is akin to shining the brass on the deck of the Titanic.
Jesus knew this – and was trying to teach the twelve that He had little time, and while we know He loved a good party, and food, and wine, He said, as a means to prioritize it all:
“My meat (my food) is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”
When we come to John chapter six we will have a discussion on what the will of the Father is, but without question Jesus did NOT come to do His own.
In this chapter (at John 6:38) Jesus says:
“For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”
Yes, this would include living a perfect sinless life in total accordance to the Law.
Yes, it would include offering Himself up for the sins of the world.
Yes, it would include dying (giving up His life) and then resurrecting from the grave, but in this interchange with the woman at the well He’s been spending time doing why He would do all of the above – to redeem sinful people from death and hell.
As a means to then move the twelve toward the same activities, Jesus says: (verse 35)
35 Say not ye, “There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
“Don’t men say?” “Isn’t there a common saying among men from this agrarian culture that there are only so many months of growth left and then we will be in the midst of a great harvest?” He seems to ask
In Judea there are apparently about four months from the time of sowing seed to the harvest so His meaning seems to be this:
“There is an expression among farmers that says there is a period of time between sowing seed and a harvest.
“But this is not the case here and now with the labors we are engaged in.”
“The seed has been planted over the course of history even up until this very moment of this very day.
They started sprouting with the teachings of John, and an abundant harvest is about to come to pass. Why, I just said 73 words to a woman at this well and you are about to see amber waves of grain roaring toward us.
This last part He seems to have said in this way:
“ . . . Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, (look around you guys) and look on the fields (tying into the analogy to agriculture); for they are white already to harvest.”
In other words look and see not only the Samaritans coming to hear the gospel, but the many who will push in toward you from all areas of the Land some day.
Of course being the farmers you are you realize that grain, when green, is not ready to harvest but when the grain turns amber or white, it’s time to reap it.
Jesus goes on, saying
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
Sowing and reaping.
Two different jobs in both farming and in bringing people to receive Christ.
Sometimes they’re done by the same people, but often, especially in sharing Him, this is not the case.
It’s truly a remarkable one two combination – sowing and reaping for the Lord – because they both require the same Christian characteristics to do them effectively – just applied with a different purpose in mind.
The sower is planting the seed, the reaper is harvesting. One is in sales, the other is a closer – same end in mind – same tools used to do their job, including love, longsuffering, patience, humility, truth and faith.
But where the sower walks in radical faith, the reaper walks in total humility.
Jesus says both “receiveth wages.”
Both are laborers and neither will go unrewarded, or as Jesus says, “both gather fruit unto life eternal.”
Unlike earthly grain, converts souls, who will inherit eternal life, are fruit that lasts unto the eternities. In the end, Jesus says this will amount to both sower and reaper “rejoicing together.”
Can you see it?
Your standing there talking to a friend in the afterlife and a guy walks up and says to your friend:
“Hey, I just wanted to tell you thank you for sharing the Good News with me when you did and how you did. It has not only affected me and my eternities but all of my family too.”
And the two men hug.
Maybe you feel a little out of place at that meeting. Like you didn’t do any converting when you were on earth but then the man turns to you and says:
“And I want to thank you too.”
You’re perplexed.
“You see, years before I met this guy and he brought me to the Lord I was sitting in the park one day and you asked me if I have ever considered Jesus as Lord?
Of course I said no, and get the heck away from me, but when times got tough in my life I reflected on your words over and over again.
Because of you, when this guy shared the Good News when he did, I was ready. And then the three of you embrace and shout for joy over this eternal relationship, forever void of any tears or trials, that is now part of your existence.
So while Paul might plant, and Apollos might water, we know that it is God who causes the growth – and all involved will someday rejoice.
Jesus quotes a familiar proverb as a means to sort of summarize it all, saying (verse 37):
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
And then He explains the apostles job as reapers, saying:
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.
The prophets who came before you have long labored to prepare the way for my coming, as have all the teachers among the Jews, and John the Baptist, and even my own labors have all contributed to a harvest that is ready.
Even Jesus saw little in terms of results from what the eleven would see. So He is teaching them their part in the overall collection of souls unto Him.
But in His life we are privy to see an illustration of the power of both planting and harvesting in an amazing way.
He had a brief conversation with a woman at a well and the results of it would come in multi-fold. (verse 39)
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
41 And many more believed because of his own word;
42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
43 Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
What is beautiful about this story is that again, we see the process.
Jesus spoke to a woman that was NOT of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
There was an exchange.
She was revealed.
She thought Him first a prophet.
Then the Messiah.
And she went to her town and shared Him (planted or sowed, as it were, among others).
And then they were moved to pursue Him.
And in seeking Him, they found (and on their own accord), not relying on what the woman had said to them, but seeing and hearing for themselves, they too came to KNOW that Jesus is “indeed the Christ, the Savior of the World.”
And after spending two days in a place He had not intended, the Lord went forward to more “of His own” in Galilee.
Questions / Comments
