Welcome to the Harvest

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Details

Series
The Deeper Truths of Jesus: The Gospel According to John (1-4:42)

Date
20/11/22

Scripture
John 4:27-42

Speaker
Cody John Simpson

Notes:

• • Do you feel like the gospel mission is what your life is about? Probably not. And the church carries a lot of blame. 
    • One particular fallacy we’re going to look at today is that evangelism/mission/sharing the gospel, etc is the work of specialists in the church and is not for everyone. 
    • This has been a destructive lie in the church that us here at Voyage need to stamp out.

• John 4:27-42

• • Recap last story. Disciples return and, as we see, are shocked that Jesus is talking with this woman. 
  • The disciples turn to the issue of food. Jesus is tired and weary, but Jesus uses this moment to direct their attention to something more important than food.
  • Jesus says that His food is to do the will of the One who sent Him (v34)
    • Food is nourishing and sustaining to our bodies and lives. Jesus is simply saying that obedience to God is of greater nourishment than food! Serving God is what nourishes and sustains Jesus
    • Obedience in this case is immediately connected with the image of harvest. Harvest symbol for the spreading of the gospel. Sowing being the action of telling others of Jesus and reaping being when someone comes to faith. 
    • This harvest is framed as what Jesus is supposed to do. In other words the harvest is Jesus’ mission.
      • This reveals who God is. God is missional
        • Many of us don’t see that mission is the story that runs through all of scripture: “The one living God wills to be known throughout his whole creation. The world must know its Creator. The nations must know their ruler., Judge, and Saviour. This is a major subplot of the exodus narrative in the book of Exodus, but later recollections of that great event repeatedly highlight its prime purpose as making a great name for YHWH among the nations.” Christopher Wright.
      • Jesus presents Himself as an example here for His disciples to follow. His mission is their mission. In fact this has been God’s mission through the ages. They are entering the mission to reap while others before them have already sown (OT prophets, JtB).
      • V36 alludes to Amos 9:13 (Jesus began a new era where the true reaping has begun and continues until this day).
    • We should be the woman at the well. After a real encounter with Jesus we are driven to tell others about Him. The power of her witness (and encounter with Jesus) is so powerful that the Samaritans welcome Jesus, a Jew, to stay with them.
    • We so often feel unfulfilled because we don’t have something greater than ourselves to participate in. Going back to v36 we have the image of an incredible harvest that has gone on since the beginning of creation to participate in:
      • We all are called together to partner with God in God’s work: both in sowing & reaping.
  • We see that while God uses our testimony, ultimately God’s the one who saves, as the people believe because of Jesus’ own testimony in their lives. We are missional not because of our ability or success but because God is working through us. 
• How can something that is so central to who God is, something that was so integral to Jesus’ life and ministry be relegated to a few specialists in the church today?
  • Few other activities in the church are so inclusive to all it members than mission. All followers of Jesus are to spread the gospel. Tell others about who Jesus is, what he has done, and how it has won forgiveness for sins and a new life. 
  • This is the foundational starting point of making disciples which again is what we as Christians are supposed to be doing in response to Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:18-20.
• It’s not complicated! We often prevent ourselves from talking about Jesus becuase we think we need to have some polished presentation and irrefutable arguments. But that’s not the approach of the woman at the well. 
  • Rather we tell others about the healing and hope we’ve found in Jesus. We share our story. We open a part of ourselves to others, and as people open themselves up to us we point them back to Jesus. 

Reflection:

Take a moment and think about the people in your life who don’t know God. In the days and weeks ahead how can you  share what God is doing in your life with them?