I've entitled this message this
morning, Rejoicing Together at the Harvest. I want us to just
go back and have a look at these verses in John chapter 4, just
briefly. Verse 35, say ye not, there are
yet four months, and then cometh the harvest. Behold, I say unto
you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white
already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth
wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal. that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein
is that saying true, the one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon
you bestowed no labor. Other men labored and you are
entered into their labors. It is a remarkable privilege,
isn't it, to actually witness the Lord Jesus Christ in His
activities, meeting with people like this woman. And I want us
to think about the fact that when the disciples came back,
the Lord Jesus Christ was overcome emotionally. We don't read much
of the emotional life of the Lord Jesus Christ. The times
we We do often, it's him rejoicing. He's rejoicing over the proclamation
of the gospel. He's rejoicing over the success
of the disciples that he sent out. You might recall in Luke
chapter 9, he sent out that 72 and they came back and they were
so excited. They said, the devils, even the
devils submit to us in your name. And the Lord was joyful in spirit,
but he told those disciples something that was fundamentally more significant.
He said, don't you rejoice that the devil has submitted to you.
Rejoice That's where your rejoicing is. But here he is tired and
weary and together with the woman who left her water pot and forgot
her mission there, she was captivated by something else and the Lord
Jesus Christ was equally captivated with her. Our God feels. The God who made us, the God
who rules this universe, is a God who feels, a God who rejoices,
a God who weeps at the tomb of Lazarus with Mary and Martha.
He is touched according to the scriptures with the feeling of
our infirmities. And so he's not like the gods
that people make. I was in a coffee shop this morning
and there they had their, out near the toilet, they had their
Buddha. And the Buddha was falling over in the garden. Their poor
little Buddha fell over in the garden and he couldn't pick himself
up. That's exactly what the scriptures
say, don't they? You listen to what God says in
Psalm 115. He says, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and
for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God, where's our God?
Our God is in the heavens. He has done, he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. Everything that's gone on in
all of history is according to the pleasure of God, according
to the purpose of God. And listen what he says, this
is what God says. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear
not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat. They that make them, listen to
what God says, they that make them are like unto them. And so is everyone that trusteth
in them. The words we have before us in
John chapter four are recorded by John, and he leant, he leant
on the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ at the supper, and he
called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, didn't he? Here we have A glorious picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ rejoicing, and He's rejoicing. He's rejoicing
over the harvest. He's rejoicing over the fact
that the glory of God is revealed in the salvation of the sinners,
of sinners. And this woman is so typically
a sinner, isn't she? She's had five husbands. She's
living with another fellow. She's a Samaritan. Everything
is going against her. Everything is going against her. Can you think of a more unworthy
messenger of the King of glory and of truth? Can you think of
a simpler message? She just said, come and see. Can you think of more unworthy
recipients of this message? The Jews couldn't, the Jews couldn't. God is always in the business
of reminding us that His ways are not our ways and that He
will have His will done. Listen to what He said earlier
to this woman. He said, God seeketh such to worship Him. They'll worship Him in spirit.
They'll worship Him spiritually and they'll worship Him in truth. And the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. And he seeks them through sending
the Lord Jesus Christ into this world. God the Father sent his
Son into the world. God so loved the world that he
sent his Son. And the Son came on a mission
from God. And he sends us out, doesn't
he? He sends his people out like
this woman was sent. She wasn't worse to go, was she?
She wasn't flogged to go. She didn't have to do a training
course. She just went with the news that she had. She went as
a witness to him. And such is the cause. It's called a great work. Nehemiah was building the walls
of Jerusalem, which represent the Lord Jesus Christ and the
place where he gathers his people and worship. And the enemies,
enemies of the gospel and the enemies of God came and said,
look, we want to work with you. And Nehemiah says, you can't.
This is a work for God's people. And they said, well, come down
and we'll compromise with us. Come down and we'll have a discussion
about this and we'll compromise. And Nehemiah's up on the wall
and he says, I'm doing a great work and I can't come down. When
David went down to do battle with Goliath, he went down there
and he said the beautiful thing, didn't he? When he came there
and he heard the blasphemy of God from the mouth of Goliath,
and he saw all of the nation Israel, all of the army of Israel,
cowering in their trenches, afraid every time Goliath stepped over
the parapet and made himself known and challenged them. David
goes down there as a shepherd boy. just a shepherd boy, anointed
of God, and he says, is there not a cause? Is there not a cause? Brothers and sisters, there's
a great cause, isn't it? The glory of God is at stake.
The revelation of God. We are commissioned by God. The love of Christ is to be revealed. We have a remarkable opportunity,
don't we? We've been placed here, my brothers
and sisters, we've been placed here at this time. And it might
seem like a dark time. But the darker the time is, the
brighter the light shines. Esther lived in the darkest time
in Israel's history, and I love what Mordecai said. You've been
placed here for such a time as this. There is a cause. There is, there is a time. And the Lord wants us, as his
witnesses and his servants, to rejoice with him. He wants us
to rejoice with him. He rejoices, he's rejoicing here,
he's captivated by these events and he created all of them, isn't
that wonderful? The Lord creates and then he
rejoices over his creation and so he ought. He makes his church,
he gathers his church, he sanctifies his church, he purifies his church,
he makes his church a fit habitation for himself and then he inhabits
the praises that he creates. He creates the fruit of lips
that sing praises to his name. So we rejoice together. We are
and we should be rejoicing people. So let's go to our text. In John
4, he says to his disciples, who have questioned him about
whether he needs food and what he's doing, and they were obviously
concerned about him talking to a woman, was contrary, not to
the law, but contrary to the religious practices of the Jews. The Lord Jesus Christ never broke
the law in one tiny little bit in thought, word and deed. And
he says, When they ask him about this meat, he says in verse 34,
my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish
his work. Then he says to them, say ye not, there are yet four
months and then cometh the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift
up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already
to harvest. See, the Lord Jesus Christ looks
upon this world very differently to the way we do, don't we? We
get so discouraged and we think that there's so little harvest
and so little opportunity. The Lord Jesus Christ looks on
the fields and he sees the fields white under harvest. White under
harvest. White under harvest. He's saying
to the disciples, the harvest time is now. And the harvest
time is always a now. We should, brothers and sisters,
I love what Paul's prayed, didn't he? He prayed that the Lord would
give him a door of utterance, that there would be a door opened
where he could talk and share the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. say you're not there are four
months under the harvest. Today is a day of salvation. We don't have to do what the
religious world does to flog people. I've put it again in
the bulletin this week and I wanted to repeat what we said last week,
if we ever truly learn that faith in Christ is the gift, the work
and the operation of God, a supernatural thing, it will have a profound
effect. It will alter everything. We
will stop trying to figure out how to make the gospel effectual
and we'll just preach it. We will quit trying to determine
where God is likely to work and serve him where we are. We will
cease trying to determine who is likely to be saved and preach
the gospel to anyone whose ear we can get. We will quit trying
to make the gospel politically correct, socially palatable,
culturally relative, and we'll just preach it. May the Lord
cause us to preach it. May he cause us to have the eyes
of our understanding open that we might see something as the
Lord Jesus Christ sees. And I love what he says to the
disciples. He says, lift up your eyes. Lift
up your eyes. Lift up your eyes. What do you see when you lift
up your eyes? You stop looking at the dirt
for a start. And if you lift up your eyes,
you stop looking at yourself, which is a jolly good place to
start. And it's amazing what happens when you lift up your
eyes. We used to have young students and willing workers on organic
farms come and stay on the farm all the time. And we had a girl
from Japan come, and she was read in Tokyo. And because we
were one of the closest organic farms to Sydney, they used to
come to us sort of fresh. They'd come to Australia, and
they'd come sort of straight down to us. And one night we
took her out on the front lawn, the kids were probably playing
out there after dinner, and she looked up And she saw stars for
the first time ever. And I still remember Mikio dancing
around in her lawn, just absolutely overwhelmed at all these remarkable
things in the sky. She hadn't seen them before.
It was just an amazing experience to think that someone had lived
for 18 or 20 years and still hadn't seen them. Such is life
in Tokyo. But we lift up our eyes. What
do we see when we lift up our eyes? We see that the heavens do rule,
I trust, that God will do all of his pleasure. We'll see that
when the Lord Jesus Christ echoes the promises that were made between
he and the Father before the foundation of the world, We'll
see that the father seekers such as these and those that worship
him must worship him in spirit and truth. They'll worship him
because he seeks them. He comes and he reveals himself
to them. You lift up your eyes. As you
lift up your eyes, you see a wider horizon, don't you? And that's
what the scriptures are wanting us to see again and again and
again. We want to see what happened in eternity. If you lift the
knife high enough, you'll look as far as you can into the distance
of eternity. And if you look back in eternity,
for want of a better word, you'll look back to God. in that glorious
union he had the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in delightful
communion and union. You will see them as they made
that promise, didn't they? That promise that God the Father
would give his Son a bride and God the Father would own that
bride and at that moment in eternity He would take, before the Father
and before the Spirit, He would take absolute full responsibility
for everything that's necessary for her to be brought back in
to the fellowship of God forever. And if you look up, you look
to eternity into the future, won't you? And you'll see, you'll
see the wonder of that new creation, that glorious creation spoken
of in Revelation, the home of the righteous. where God's people
will live forever. They'll live forever in a place
where sin can never enter. can never finish, where all of
the glory of that new creation, the light of that new creation,
the sun, they don't need any natural light because the Lord
Jesus Christ is the light of that. He illuminates all of it. And every look and every breath
and every thought there will be one that praises him. And
if people think that's boring, they have no idea of the wonders
of our God. They have no idea of the glory
of his creative power and purposes. We look on the beauty of this
fallen creation and we ought to be amazed at the wonderful
works of God. Is there going to be any less
in the new creation, brothers and sisters? Fancy seeing all
of that through eyes that cannot ever sin to see God in his glory. Lift up your eyes. Lift up your
eyes. You'll see Christ on his throne.
You'll see what's going on in heaven now. You'll see that the
heavens do rule. You'll see all of the redeemed
of God in heavenly glory. You'll see it. And the remarkable
thing is that in this passage of scripture, the Lord Jesus
Christ is wanting his disciples to rejoice with him in the gathering
of his people together. God's people should be rejoicing
people. It's really sad when you go around
town, and I spend a good part of every day in town, and you
see so many sad people. be miserable people. Christians
shouldn't be miserable people. We'll have our trials and our
struggles and we'll have plenty of time to wet our pillows with
tears. But there's a lot of time when we should be rejoicing people.
Our God's on the throne. He rules. Lift up your eyes. Lift up your eyes. You'll see him as Isaiah did
when he was caused to be seen. You'll see him high and lifted
up. High and lifted up. The high
and holy one. I do love Isaiah 57. It's a remarkable
verse of scripture and a remarkable declaration of the character
of our God and his promise. And it's a word for us, isn't
it? He says, for thus saith, Isaiah
57, 15, for thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in a high and lofty place. And he doesn't dwell on his own
there, does he? I dwell in a high and lofty place with him also
that is of a contrite and humble spirit. And he does it with a
purpose, doesn't he? To revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For these apostles, Lord Jesus
Christ was wanting them to lift up their eyes. They will in time
come to see him on Calvary's tree lifted up. and they'll see him through the
eyes of faith. John was the only apostle recorded
who saw the Lord Jesus Christ. What a sight that must have been
for someone who loved him. What a sight to see him and knowing
that his mother is standing beside you. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
again, doesn't want us to be feeling sorry for himself. He
went there as a victor. He went there as a triumphant
savior. He went there fully fulfilling
the purpose and the will of God. And because of that perfect,
fulfilled will of God, he can say to these disciples here,
you lift up. This is the harvest time. The
harvest time is here now. And if they lifted their eyes
up from looking at him and wondering what had happened in those immediate
events, they would have seen the Samaritans coming over the
hill. And they were coming over the hill because they had the
word of this testimony. The Lord Jesus Christ is always
in the business of gathering his people. He teaches them. He teaches them through his word
of promise and then he teaches them in the very events of their
lives. And his testimony becomes our
testimony in the Scriptures. We're actually reading our biography
again and again and again. It's the biography of all believers,
isn't it? The Lord says to us, lift up
your eyes, the fields are white under harvest. Look at the fields. Let's turn back in Matthew chapter
13. I want us to see clearly The Lord gave these two parables,
and I'll only read the shorter one, but there is a parable of
the sower and the seed. In Matthew 13, verse 24, there's
a parable of the wheat and the tares. We're looking at who is the field,
what is the field, what is the seed sown in the field, and in
this verse, we're looking at the harvest of that field. Verse
24 of Matthew 13. And another parable he put forth
unto them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the housekeeper
came and said unto him, sir, didst thou not sow good seed
in thy field? From whence then hath it tears?
Where did these tears come from? And he said unto them, an enemy
hath done this. When I first went to India and
saw sights that I could never imagine possible amongst humanity
and people degraded by the circumstances of the wickedness of other men,
I used to often think, an enemy has done this. An enemy has done
this. The servant said unto him, wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, no, no,
lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat
with them. Listen to what God says. Let
both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the
harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the
tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the
wheat into my barn. This is one of those parables
where we don't have to have any doubt about what it actually
means. The Lord explains it, let's go down to verse 36. Then
Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house and his
disciples came unto him saying, declare unto us the parable of
the tares in the field. He answered and said unto them,
he that soweth the good seed is the son of man. The field
is the world, The good seed are the children
of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked
one. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil, and the harvest is the end of the world, and the
reapers are angels. As therefore the tares are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of this world.
The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do
iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, and there
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who
has ears to hear, let him hear. One thing to note about the wheat
and the tares, we know who sowed the tares, we know who sowed
the good seed into this world, this field that is being harvested,
is being harvested as the gospel is proclaimed, and there will
be a great harvest at the end. Tares and wheat look almost exactly
the same as they're growing. The difference is that as the
tare gets older, and has its head, it stands more and more
proud. As the wheat gets older and mature,
as you've seen, wheat feels no doubt, the wheat, as it matures,
becomes more and more bowed to the ground. It's a great picture,
isn't it? It's a great picture in the very
plants of the field of the work of God in the hearts of his people
and the work of Satan in the hearts of those, isn't it? There
is in God's people a humbling. There's a humbling again and
again and again. The Lord uses his word and the
circumstances of our lives to bring us low. knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To grow in grace is to grow down in your estimation of yourself,
brothers and sisters. That's what it is to grow in
grace, is to grow more and more in your own estimation, completely
unworthy and being in absolute need of God coming and doing
absolutely everything for you. You have nothing to offer God
and He must come and He must clothe you and He must reveal
Himself to you. That's what it is to grow in
grace. But that growing in grace is also a growing in the knowledge,
the knowledge of the power of our God, the knowledge that causes
us to lift our eyes above the things that we see in this world,
and to rejoice with our God, and to acknowledge the fact that
he does all things well. The Pharisee went to the temple,
didn't he? And he prayed with himself, and he said, I'm not
like these other people out here. I'm not like them. I know what
those sinners are like. And I've seen that public, and
over there, he's not even allowed in the temple according to our
rules. I know what he's like. And look what I've done. I fast,
and I tithe, and I pray, and I do all these things. He prayed with himself. And the public can hit on his
chest. The cause of his problem was
all internal. It was in his heart. He had a
heart problem. He had a physical problem, but he had a heart problem.
And he said, Lord, be merciful to me. Lord, be merciful. You
look upon your son on the cross of Calvary. You look upon the
lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, and you be merciful
to me. And God said that that man, that
publican, went down to his house justified. In the sight of God,
he had never sinned. That's what it is, to be justified.
Because all of his sins were laid on that lamb, hanging on
Calvary's tree, and the Lord Jesus Christ owned them as his
own. He'd never sinned. He went down to his house justified. Look on the fields. The Lord
Jesus Christ wants us to look on the fields, and I love what
he says. We're to look out, we're to look
up, and we look on this field, and we look. The fields are white already,
this is what God says, the fields are white already unto harvest. And this Samaritan village, these
believers in this Samaritan village coming out, are picturing exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, isn't it? He's come as
he must come. He's revealed himself as he must
reveal himself. He's spoken words of promise. He's also revealed that woman
to herself for the first time in her life. She was confronted
with two things immediately. She was confronted with the holiness
of God and she was confronted with the wretchedness of her
own sin. He exposed her life in a heartbeat, in a moment of
meeting the Lord Jesus Christ. That woman at the well knew more
about God than all of the theologians and the religious people in Jerusalem. They saw miracles and heard him
proclaim the fact that he is God in their very temple, and
they still didn't believe on him. She saw no miracles, brothers
and sisters. She saw no miracles. She saw
a weary man beside a well needing a drink of water, and he revealed
himself as God to her. As I said at the start, God's
activity is a supernatural activity, and it's not carried out in the
ways that men think it's carried out. And it's revealed to people
that this world would think are unworthy of even being told the
remarkable things. The fields are white already
under harvest, he says. All of the Lord's children are
ripe under harvest. That white is the white of the
robe of the Lord Jesus Christ that shone on the Mount of Transfiguration. It's the white of the angels
at the temple when they were declaring the resurrected Lord
Jesus Christ. They are white already. It's
the white robe of the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
are white already under harvest. So we don't make them ready.
And they don't make themselves ready. God has made them ready. So why is the Gospel delightful
news to a Samaritan woman and some people in a Samaritan village?
When they hear of a Saviour, they hear of the Christ of God. They hear this woman telling
this extraordinary simple story. He told me all the things that
I've ever done. They believe and multitudes didn't. We rejoice to think that the
Lord Jesus Christ gathered 3,000 to himself on the day of Pentecost
and within weeks there was another 6 or 8, maybe 10,000 people gathered
and we think, isn't that a remarkable outpouring? And it was a remarkable
outpouring and a remarkable declaration from God of the powerful work
of the Holy Spirit to gather His people from all over this
world and bring them to Himself on eagles' wings and cause them
to be His Church and cause them to be a place that sings praises
to His Name. There were a million people in
Jerusalem, brothers and sisters. is always calling out his own,
and they're always going to be a remnant, and they're always
going to be unseen and unnoticed. Over the hills and back in Jerusalem,
they had no idea that God was rejoicing and God was being worshipped
in a Samaritan village. Our God's activities in the scriptures are his activities
today, aren't they? He says, I change not therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. He says, I'm the same yesterday,
today and forever. He says, I'll never ever leave
you nor forsake you. Our God doesn't change. The circumstances
vary with all of the circumstances in this world. But as far as
the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned, the fields are white under harvest.
They're white under harvest. The harvest is ready all the
time. Just turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 1 and let's see how ready
they are to be harvested. He says in verse 8 of 2 Timothy
chapter 1, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord. She wasn't ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, was she?
Nor of me, his prisoner. Be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God. If God's power
is at work in your life, then the afflictions of the gospels
are going to come. We'll have many afflictions in
this world. According to the power of God,
then God's power will see that his purpose is fulfilled as it
always must be. Listen to what verse 9 says.
2 Timothy 1 verse 9, Who has saved
us, past tense, completed activity, and called us. The saving comes first, and then
the calling. The fields are white under harvest,
brothers and sisters. He's called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. But now is made manifest, light's
shone on it, manifest by the appearing of our saviour Jesus
Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. Where am I am appointed a preacher
and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which
cause I also suffer these things. Paul's in prison in Rome about
to have his head severed from his body. I suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed
because I know whom I have believed. So the woman at the well knew
whom? The religious leaders in Jerusalem knew an awful lot about
a what, didn't they? And the religious leaders are
saying, come and do. And she says, come and see. There's
a vast difference, isn't there? She's saying, come and see. I
know whom I have believed. May God cause you to be able
to echo Paul's words in your heart. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day. What's he committed unto
him? Absolutely everything. everything
in this life, everything for your soul's future beyond this
life. That's what you commit to Him,
that's what it means to commit. The Lord Jesus Christ had all
of his bride entrusted by the Father into his care, and all
of the bride entrusts everything into his care. I'm trusting him.
I'm trusting him for all my righteousness before God, and I can't trust
anything else. I've got nothing to boast about
at all. I'm trusting him for bearing all of my sins. I'm trusting
him for carrying me through this world. I'm trusting him that
on that great day of judgment, My judgment will have already
been passed. My judgment was dealt with 2,000
years ago on Calvary's cross and we'll have boldness. God
says we'll have boldness on that day. We'll have confidence on
that day. And the reason is because he is, so are we in this world. It's made manifest. So what happens
in the preaching of the gospel? God's people are made manifest.
So behind Ben out there is some trees and those Kamboora Mountain. And if he lifted the curtain,
is he going to create them? Lifting the curtain just reveals,
that's what it is to make manifest, isn't it? It's just shedding
a light, it sheds a light. In this one event with this woman,
the Lord Jesus Christ shed a light on who she was, shed a light
on who he is, shed a light on how he saves sinners, shed a
light on what it was to worship God in spirit and truth. and
he wants the apostles to join in the celebration. The harvest
is always ready. The fields are white under harvest. Verse 36, and he that reapeth
receive his wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, life
eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice
together. The number of times I've had
you people come to me rejoicing over the fact that someone has
actually listened. Norm has his shop over there
in Bombardier and people come in and you just long, don't you?
You long for a time when people will have a conversation about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lisa's nephew came down yesterday
and I thought he was going to stay the night and we'd have
a long time to talk, but he didn't. And yet just before he left,
we had a conversation. I went away rejoicing all afternoon,
thinking that this is just another, I don't know what the Lord's
going to do with the words that I spoke to him from the scriptures
and my testimony. We don't know, do we? There's
a rejoicing here when there's opportunity, but there's going
to be a great rejoicing together. There is joy in heaven over one
sinner who repents. Verse 38, I sent you to reap. God sends his people out to reap. Whereupon you bestowed no labor. Isn't that a glorious picture
of the gospel? You reap, whereupon you bestowed no labor. Who's
done all the work? Who does all the work? He brings
his people that cause joy to our hearts because we can share
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to us. The whole Gospel
is about us receiving where we've done nothing, isn't it? You bestowed
no labour. The Gospel is not coming to us
as a reward for our hard work and all of our effort. What did
that woman have to offer God? Five husbands, a notorious life,
a Samaritan idolater is what she was. And yet, she was rejoicing,
and the Lord was captivated by the events of it, to the extent
that he had no interest in food, and he'd forgotten about the
water. So that's what happens, isn't it, when the Lord Jesus
Christ reveals himself. Reveals himself. We reap where
we have bestowed no labor. That's why he says, doesn't he,
come and buy, come and buy without money, without price. You can't
bargain with God is what those verses are saying. You can't
come and do a deal with God. I sent you to reap. God has sent
these apostles to reap. What were they going to reap?
What on earth had they done? They were going to be there as
the Samaritans came over the hill and the woman with them.
She said, come with me. She didn't say, you're going
to go on your own. I'm coming with you. I want to witness this
again. I experienced him and I experienced
extraordinary things in his presence and in his company and by his
word that I'm not going to miss out on a second of it. If there
are God is handing out blessings, brothers and sisters, I want
to be there. Just like that woman that came to him. She was desperate.
She said, I'll just have a crumb from the table. Thank you very
much. That'll do me. A crumb from his table. This
nourishes and delights the soul of God. And what were they going
to do? Those Samaritans were going to
come. They came to him, verse 40, and
they besought him that he would tarry with them, and he barred
thee with them two days. And many more believed because
of his own word, 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 Saviour of the world. He that reapeth, receiveth wages,
and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth
and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that
saying true, the one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to
reap, whereon you bestowed no labour. Other men laboured, and
you entered into their labours. What a glorious picture of salvation. What a glorious picture of the
Lord coming to someone who is unworthy, unwilling. And where
he comes and he reveals himself, he gathers them to himself and
they rejoice together. What went on for those two days
in that Samaritan village? What went on? The Lord Jesus
Christ preached himself to them out of the scriptures. Do you
think they rejoiced? Do you think they rejoiced? As
we close, let's turn over to Acts chapter 8 and see what happened
in Samaria. You might recall that there was
persecution that came upon the church after the stoning of Stephen. and the church was scattered.
You see, God will scatter his church and send us, won't he?
We don't have any problem about where we'll end up going. God
will do the sending. But there was a certain man called
Simon. Let's go down a little bit, sorry.
I don't want to read about Simon. I don't want to read about the
sorcery. And to him they gave regard because
of that long time he bewitched them with sorcery. But when they
believed Philip in the preaching, the things concerning the kingdom
of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both
men and women. And Simon himself also believed
and was baptized and he continued with Philip and wondered beholding
the miracles and the signs which were done. Let's go back to verse
4. When they were scattered they
went abroad everywhere preaching the word then Philip went down
to Samaria. and preached Christ unto them. Verse six, and the people with
one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing
and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying
with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with
them, and many were taken with palsies that were lame and were
healed. Verse eight, and there was great
joy in the city. There was great joy in this city
of Sychar for those two days, and that joy remained, and for
the next three years they watched on as the apostles bypassed them
generally. They were told not to go to Samaria. was so on and the harvest continues
and there's going to be great joy in that city. There's great
joy in the city of God. There's great joy wherever the
Lord Jesus Christ gathers his people together. There's going
to be great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and comes
to faith. There's great joy in heaven right
now. For the joy set before him, for the joy set before him, the
Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross. gathering his people and being
in their presence, having them robed with the very righteousness
of God. Look up, the Lord began. Hebrews 12, two, we go, looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of faith, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Look up, do you see that? Look
up, look up, look up to a rejoicing saviour and God. Heavenly Father,
we do pray that you'd bless your word to your people and that
the experience of those people in that village of Samaria might
be our experience, that we might simply believe, Heavenly Father,
because we've heard him speaking. May that be our portion this
morning, our Father, for we pray in Jesus' name and for his glory.
Amen.