[0:00] Amen and good morning. Please take your copy of God's Word and join me in John chapter 4.!
[0:16] Our text for today is John chapter 4 verses 31 through 42.! Before I read it, I want to make a few introductory comments.
[0:30] Beginning by saying that God's Word is truly magnificent. If you've been a student of God's Word for any measure of time, you probably already realize this in some ways.
[0:46] But I will say, having been a pastor here now for 16 years and having the great privilege of day in and day out, getting the opportunity to study and to teach His Word, I'm just continually amazed.
[1:01] It is a wonderful, wonderful book. We can marvel at it just for its literary structure and its prose and the beautiful choice of words.
[1:15] Anybody who's just a student of literature could really enjoy this book. But more than that, it speaks to us powerful words.
[1:28] Words that bring life. Today's text, verses 31 through 42, if you're already kind of giving it a skim, could just seem like an appendix to the story told at the beginning of the chapter where Jesus stops at a well and interacts with a Samaritan woman.
[1:49] We spent two weeks on the beginning of that chapter. And some of you may wonder, why not just include that in the totality of it? Why are we moving so slow through John chapter 4?
[2:03] Some of you may be thinking. And so my answer to you is because God's Word is magnificent. There are things to notice in these verses and to spend the time that we can spend noticing them.
[2:19] In fact, I very often think we move too quickly through our verse-by-verse expositions as I discover things later that I want to go back and cover again.
[2:31] We recently concluded our study of the book of Romans. And when I got to the end of it, the impulse of my heart was, let's just start back over again. Let's just go right back to the beginning.
[2:44] I think I'll do a better job at it the second time through. And leading up to our text today, and in our text today, starting in chapter 2, we have seen a series of misunderstandings in John's writing.
[3:05] So first we see John chapter 2 and verse 20, after Jesus has said some things about the temple being torn down and it being raised up again in three days, and he's talking about his death and his resurrection, there's a misunderstanding.
[3:22] We just see the Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? They miss the point.
[3:33] They're hard of hearing. They don't understand the spiritual thing that Jesus is there teaching. Then in John chapter 3 and verse 4, there Jesus is talking about the need to be born again.
[3:49] Again, a spiritual reality that he's trying to teach to Nicodemus. And Nicodemus says, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
[4:02] A misunderstanding, not an illumination of what Jesus is trying to say to him. And then John chapter 4 and verse 11, this is the Samaritan woman, and Jesus tells her that he can give her living water, and she says, sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.
[4:28] Where do you get that living water? And we talked about how Jesus himself, the spiritual reality is living water, fully satisfying for her need.
[4:42] And then later on in verse 15, she says again, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.
[4:53] And then in our text today, in verse 33, Jesus says that he's not hungry. They've been sent away to find food, and he says that he's not hungry, and the disciples misunderstand what he's trying to say to them, which we'll look at a bit further.
[5:12] And they say, has anyone brought him something to eat? I thought we went off to go get the food, and yet he seems no longer to be hungry. Hard of hearing.
[5:25] Misunderstood. And so when we come to texts like this, it's very easy to read the text and read phrases like in verse 34, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
[5:42] And to not understand it. To scratch our heads at what it means. And you'll likely in your life read past phrases like this and go, well, that's strange.
[5:54] And go on and not visit it. That's why it's good that we press us to sit down and really take a look at a text as we study it together.
[6:07] My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. So as we misunderstand these things, there's a couple of possibilities for why we misunderstand them.
[6:20] Number one, it could just make no sense because we are spiritually dead. We don't have God's Spirit to help us discern God's Word.
[6:32] Our ears haven't been brought to life. Our eyes haven't been brought to life in order to see. And so we just don't understand these types of hard sayings.
[6:45] It's also possible that it makes no sense to us because we are regenerate. We have been made alive by the Spirit of Christ. But we just don't do the work.
[7:00] We don't just take the time to really consider what's being said. We're such an on-demand people, are we not?
[7:11] These magic devices that we carry around in our pockets all the time put information right at our fingertips. My sister-in-law, who's a teacher, went back to work as an ESOL teacher.
[7:26] And her job is to partner with students. So she's going into classes and she's partnering with students who don't speak English as their primary language. And she, first week of school, was in a class and the students were asked what the seven continents were, 10th graders, seven continents, and none of them knew.
[7:46] And she just was milling around the room just trying to help random students and figuring out if they knew what this continent is. And a group she was talking to had no idea.
[7:58] And we were musing about that. How is it that 10th graders don't know this? And one of my answers to it was, well, it's in their pocket. Why know and learn anything when you can access it with just a short query?
[8:11] And I think we do this as Christians. We don't take the time to really understand. We don't let the Word soak deep into us. Meditate on it.
[8:22] We are confused, so we run quickly to find an answer. Or we just decide it doesn't really matter right now. When it does, perhaps I'll try to figure out what it means. Just don't do the work.
[8:36] And I'll tell you, the work is good. It's really good to do the work. Or perhaps we're so wrapped up in worldliness that we are just spiritually numb.
[8:49] We just have become apathetic and stopped really caring that Jesus says things and he does things, in the case of John, that are often confusing.
[9:02] And I just don't want to put the effort in at all. Third possibility is that we do, in fact, put in the work. And the Spirit illuminates the text for us and we are greatly benefited by it.
[9:19] Of course, I have concern for the previous of those two possibilities. I hope and pray that we all find ourselves in that third category.
[9:29] But in the first case of concern, I've been praying and always do pray. It's why we pray for the preaching of God's Word. That God would grant us spiritual life as his Word is studied.
[9:44] That even this morning, you may not have repented yet of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus Christ. And that he would make it come alive to you as you come to life.
[9:57] In the second case, I want to turn your attention away from worldliness. We have such few moments together. It seems so often that the gathering of the church just isn't sufficient for the task.
[10:11] And so we ask that the Spirit would work mightily in our lives in these moments that we have as we come together and open God's Word. I want to show you that this is a magnificent Word.
[10:25] And I also want to show you that you can study and understand it. It's possible for you to do this work.
[10:36] And so often when I preach, I'm trying to show you the process. How do we get to the place that we get? I don't want to present myself as some genius. It would be difficult to do because I'm not.
[10:49] I take some time. I do some work. I've spent a lot of time in this text. And I've got a stack of books that were read this past week and studied.
[11:01] But I want to show you, you can do this. And so we're going to do that with the text this morning. So let's pray that God would help us as we study together.
[11:13] Our Father and our God, we do ask that as we take up your Word together this morning, we want to rightly understand it.
[11:25] We don't want to just merely derive some facts from it. But we want it to affect our hearts the way you intend for it to. And we know that we can't do this without your help.
[11:38] We humbly recognize it was written for your glory, firstly, that you would be known and also for our good. We ask that you would help us believe its promises, obey its commands, and have affection for you, its author.
[11:58] And we pray this in the name of Christ. 31. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat.
[12:10] But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
[12:27] Do you not say there are yet four months, then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.
[12:40] Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps.
[12:54] I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.
[13:07] He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word.
[13:18] They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.
[13:31] So, a little bit of detail. If you've not been with us, right? Prior to this, they're outside the town of Sychar. They're in a region where the Samaritans live.
[13:41] And the Samaritans were half-breed Jewish people, right? They're the ancestors of those who returned from captivity and bred with the people of the land, and they were seen as unclean.
[13:54] They were seen as outside the grace of God. This is Christ's first, John's record, cross-cultural ministry effort.
[14:06] And we believe that he was led there. The text says that he had to go this way, and there were actually roads that went around this region. Most Jews would have traveled around the region of Samaria.
[14:19] And yet he goes through it, and he has this divine encounter with this woman who has had five husbands and now is living with a man who is not her husband.
[14:31] And so it's understood that she was coming to the well in the middle of the day to draw water. Instead of when it would have normally been drawn, either in the early hours or the late, when it was cool, she's coming because she's avoiding the shame of being around other people from Sychar.
[14:47] She's avoiding the talking of the other women. She's got great sin. Jesus exposes that sin at the beginning of the chapter and then offers to her greater mercy, more abundant grace in the form of this living water conversation that he has with her.
[15:12] We hope, we think and hope that she is converted. We're unsure of that, but she goes back to the village. She leaves her water jar. She goes back to the village and she begins to ask, which he had said to her that he was the Messiah, and she begins to ask that question.
[15:28] He's told me, everything that I've ever done, could this be him? Like the anointed one that the scripture speaks of. And so that's where you pick up in verse 31, the meanwhile.
[15:43] The disciples have returned. They're marveling that Jesus is talking to a woman, and she's gone into town, and they're there, and they're waiting. And so you see in our text that people from the town come out to him, and this is the meanwhile conversation that's going on.
[16:02] Now, I'm going to spare you the big, large, chiastic talk. And if anything I'm about to say piques your interest, and I hope it does, feel free to come ask me more about it.
[16:15] But the book of John is laid out in a chiastic structure, which means the beginning and the end correspond to each other, and it continues to work itself toward a center. And the book has within it chiastic structures.
[16:29] Right? So we have before us, beginning in verse 31 and going through verse 42, another chiastic structure. This has become a talk at our table at our house.
[16:43] The boys are trying to find chiasms everywhere now. And I'm trying to emphasize that they're not everywhere, but we want to see them when they are there because it's a really common literary structure, and it's meant to help us comprehend what the text is about.
[17:00] So look at verse 31 through 34, and then verse 40 through 42. These two verses, these sets of verses correspond to one another.
[17:13] And the clue to that is the phrase, urging him in verse 31, and then the phrase, asked him in verse 40.
[17:23] It's the exact same Greek phrase. Exact same. Right? Now the translators give us different English words for it, which doesn't really serve us in this case, but we do well when we see patterns of things to go, hey, wait a second.
[17:39] Could something be going on here? I'm going to suggest to you, and we're going to spend a little bit of time thinking about this together, but Jesus' phrase in verse 34, my food is through the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work, we'll talk about what that work is, corresponds to what they say about Jesus, the Samaritans.
[18:03] This is indeed the Savior of the world. So these verses correspond to one another. Then notice verse 35 and 39.
[18:18] He says, Jesus, do you not say there are yet four months? Then comes the harvest. Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.
[18:30] Many postulate that the people would have been wearing some form of white clothing, and therefore it would have actually looked, and they came down the road from Sikar, it would have looked like the fields were ripe for harvest.
[18:40] I don't know for sure if that's the case, but we think that these people are coming out of the town, and they can see this happening. Verse 39 says, many Samaritans from that town believed.
[18:55] Verse 36 and verse 38. Here we see the phrases, the one who reaps is receiving wages. And then verse 38, I sent you to reap.
[19:10] And it brings us to the central piece of the chiasm, which is often there to help us. It turns on this, helps us understand the rest of the text. And here he says, for here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps.
[19:28] You can do this. This is not an impossible task for you to sit down and take the time to work this through. And I will tell you that I did this in this text, and then I went and confirmed it with somebody who's way smarter at this stuff than I am.
[19:44] You could buy the book I bought. I bought it on Amazon. It came in two days. Okay? This is not impossible for you to do. And then to think about why.
[19:55] Why? Why structured this way? It was a mnemonic tool. They used it to memorize things. These things the Hebrew people did. So perhaps it serves us in that way.
[20:05] We might find ourselves being able to story this story to somebody because of its structure. But more than that, it's meant to help us ascertain its meaning, to drive us there.
[20:18] Now I'm not suggesting that you have to understand Christ's structure to unlock Scripture. This is some secret code. And there's going to be things you never could have gotten any other way. Please don't hear me say that at all. But it helps.
[20:29] And it enlivens it. And oh, does it make the Scripture magnificent? What a beautifully complex text to help us understand profound, profound truths.
[20:44] So we'll pick that back up. I want you to see. You can look at this literary structure and I'll tell you about some other literary structure in just a little bit here. Okay.
[20:55] Let's start. Let's start by looking at the first four verses. So this first piece of correspondence, we'll look at verse 31 through 34, and then it in relation to verses 40 through 42.
[21:07] Okay. So again, the disciples urge Jesus, saying, Rabbi, eat. They've been sent away on a task. That's how he finds himself alone at the well earlier in the chapter.
[21:18] And they've returned. And they say, eat. Right. We brought you food. And he says, I have food to eat that you don't know about. And they muse. Right. They say to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?
[21:29] Where's the food that he's talking about? And he states this spiritual reality, which is just astounding. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
[21:43] Food exists or should, at its basis level, exist for our sustenance. Right. It's how we get the energy. Our bodies do all the chemical things our bodies do.
[21:54] And we get the energy that we need to go on. Right. So we eat, in physical terms, we eat so that we can work. Jesus here says, my food is to do the work.
[22:10] The work itself is the food that sustains me. Anybody reading this on the surface doesn't think that this is actually the physically sustaining thing for him.
[22:20] That he's talking about his human form in this case. That Jesus never ate in his ministry. We have lots of record of him eating. In fact, he had sent the disciples away to get food.
[22:33] It's the very thing, the mission that they were on at this moment. But he has now had this conversation, this gospel conversation, with this woman.
[22:45] This is part of the text that gives me some hope that this woman is actually converted because she forgets the chore she's there to do. She leaves her water jar and she heads off into town. And I think it's energizing to Jesus.
[22:59] He's doing the will of him who sent him and accomplishing his work. As we read all the New Testament, certainly as we read John, we ought to understand John as having a fully developed view of Jesus' nature.
[23:20] Both that he is truly God and that he is truly man. We shouldn't think that he's confused about it at all. So I think what we see going on here is an expression, Jesus says, my food is through the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work, both of Christ's deity and of his humanity.
[23:42] I think you see both things going on in this recorded sentence. So if we do a little bit of contextual work, Jesus is truly God.
[23:58] So in a sense, him talking about doing the will, being the sustenance for doing the will, in a loop, speaks to his self-existence, his self-sustaining power as God.
[24:18] Jesus is God. John chapter 1 and verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, this is Jesus, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
[24:33] God needs nothing to add to his power, to give him any kind of existence or sustenance. He just is.
[24:46] Wonderful phrase in Genesis. I am. I am. His auseity. He just exists. Jesus is speaking to this in some measure here.
[25:01] Jesus doesn't need bread. He is the bread of life. He's going to speak about that some later. John chapter 6 and verse 35.
[25:12] We'll get to look at in some weeks. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[25:26] Earlier, living water earlier in our chapter. Now previously, in our liturgy, read from Deuteronomy chapter 8.
[25:36] I think that Jesus is probably referring to also Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3. The very thing that he quotes to Satan when he's being tempted in the wilderness, Jesus is truly God.
[25:55] His sustenance is to do the will of his Father. Also, he is truly man.
[26:07] Truly man. And he's been given a mission. Both as God, but also as a man. To come, live a perfect life, die a sacrificial death.
[26:22] So, this idea of him doing the will of the Father sending him and accomplishing his work, what is that? Also in John chapter 6, beginning of verse 37.
[26:35] There Jesus says, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. So, those that I came to live and die for will be mine.
[26:51] He says, verse 38, For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Unless we're confused at this point about what that is.
[27:04] He says in verse 39, And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
[27:14] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day.
[27:27] Right. So perhaps, I hope, I hope maybe, if I'm doing a good job at all, you're seeing how these first four verses have some correspondence to the last four verses.
[27:39] Remember what I said? That phrase that he said? Corresponded to him being called by the Samaritans the Savior of the world. The will of the Father is that he would come and save his people.
[27:53] That he would give them eternal life. This phrase, Savior of the world, is a common phrase in the Christian vernacular.
[28:05] And for good reason. It's a really good title for Christ. But did you know that it is only found here and in one place in 1 John chapter 4, if I remember correct.
[28:18] I think verse 14. Savior of the world. It's an astounding declaration in Jesus' day. An astounding declaration.
[28:31] Because the concept of salvation was understood to be predominantly restricted to the Jews. Predominantly restricted to them.
[28:43] God's grace and mercy. Not for everyone. This was the understanding of the day. As I said before, this is Jesus' first cross-cultural ministry. And these Samaritan believers have come to experience the greatness, the over-the-top nature of his mercy to those understood to be outside of his mercy.
[29:10] These phrases ought to cause us to pause in its correspondence to the text before it. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
[29:22] And here we see a dawning of that glory. Eternal life. And to declare of him this is indeed the Savior of the world.
[29:36] Rich, right? Isn't that amazing? You can get that from the text otherwise. I understand it. But notice, at least for me, there's some life in it when it corresponds in this way.
[29:49] Okay, let's look on. What he goes on to say beginning in verse 35. Do you not say there are yet four months, then comes the harvest.
[30:05] He launches into an analogy with them. Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. harvest. Again, the understanding is that the Samaritan villagers are coming toward them at this time.
[30:20] Already, he says, the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true.
[30:33] One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.
[30:44] Okay. So, you do with this analogy, right? He's recognizing that there's a cycle that takes place between sowing and reaping.
[30:58] There's four months between. The understanding is this is likely wheat that they're sowing and reaping. There are four months then comes the harvest.
[31:12] Jesus says, look, the harvest is already here. Jesus says that the disciples are the reapers.
[31:23] They're the ones reaping. But who sowed? That's an important question to ask of this text, I think. But who is it then that sowed?
[31:34] And I will tell you that the answer is not easy to discern. In fact, I'm not going to give you much of one. The explanations are all over the map. You could almost pick any possibility of who sowed and somebody out there has written a book arguing that that's who sowed.
[31:52] Possibly Jacob, the question. He's at the well of Jacob. Others would argue the prophets, so is the Torah and the prophets that followed, right?
[32:02] God's word that they had in that day. Some argue John the Baptist. Some argue the Samaritan woman. Some, Jesus.
[32:14] And there's all kinds of combinations of arguments for these various sowers. And to all of this, I just say yes. I think they're all the answer to the question and here's why.
[32:32] It seems that Jesus both collapses and expands their understanding of sowing and reaping. So notice, there's a bit of a juxtaposition here.
[32:44] First, that he collapses it. There yet four months, then comes the harvest, right? There's this expanse of time that most go on for the seed to go into the ground and bring forth fruit that can be harvested.
[32:58] But he says, look, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
[33:10] So he seems to be saying, look, sowing and reaping. In the kingdom of God, it can happen here and here. So perhaps him sharing the gospel of the kingdom with the Samaritan woman, perhaps her going and sharing it and their response to it, sowing, reaping, right here seen back to back.
[33:28] And the sower and the reaper are not separated by time, but they can rejoice together. Perhaps he has in mind a text like Amos chapter 9, verse 13 and following.
[33:44] Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed.
[33:57] The mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.
[34:07] They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God.
[34:20] This collapsing of field work, preparation work, and harvest work. Things will be so very abundant for God's people one day.
[34:33] And again, I think we're seeing the dawning of that reality and it's what we should pick up out of this text as we read it. I also think there's an expansion of the idea.
[34:46] He says, here's the central piece of the chiasm, for here the saying holds true. One sows and another reaps.
[34:58] So is it Jesus sowing and the disciples are reaping? Is it the Samaritan woman sowing? Perhaps, perhaps. He says, I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor.
[35:09] Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. You are harvesting from their labor. And I just want to suggest that there's also a reality here that someone else, again, perhaps the prophets, and now the day has come.
[35:28] These people were ready, hearts prepared by those who had gone before and sowed for a reap of the fruit of righteousness. So, it's a great text.
[35:41] It's a really cool text. Let's think about some application of it. so what when we do all of that? I've got three applications for you.
[35:53] First, if you have yet to do so, repent and believe. Truly, Jesus is the Savior of the world.
[36:07] Your sin is great. Be like these Samaritan villagers, the many who believed, who recognized that their disobedience against God's word is a great offense and it deserves, it deserves death, hell, forever.
[36:27] It's the wages of it. It's what you have earned in your rebellion. sin. But don't miss that Jesus' mercy is greater than your sin.
[36:41] Turn from your sin. Confess your sin. Place your faith in Christ. Secondly, God uses seemingly insignificant people to accomplish significant things.
[36:59] as I'm thinking about who's doing the sowing, my mind goes to the prophet Hosea, who's commanded by God to go marry an unfaithful woman.
[37:12] And his marriage is like this play, this real life play of the way that Israel was unfaithful to God as her husband. He must have felt so insignificant.
[37:26] the ministry that God had given to him. And yet, in those first three chapters of that book, what a picture of the gospel as he goes and redeems her out of slavery.
[37:40] It's beautiful. I just wonder the countless peoples that have come to faith in Christ, reading and understanding that text, looking at his life, seemingly insignificant people to accomplish significant kingdom things.
[38:00] When I think about who's sowing, perhaps it's the Samaritan woman. A woman scorned. A woman avoiding village life.
[38:10] And what does she do? Being amazed by Jesus. She goes into town and she seems to be the vehicle for an awakening in this town.
[38:25] A seemingly insignificant person being used to accomplish significant things. And every one of us, every single one of us ought to see ourselves insignificant.
[38:39] If you feel you're significant this morning, let's have another conversation. There's text for us to go to. You've got to find yourself in the Samaritan woman. Me? I'm the one Jesus comes and encounters.
[38:54] I'm the one that's to go and share the good news on my campus, in my place of work, with my neighbors, in my family. When we see ourselves as so insignificant that we can't be used by God, the offense there is against God.
[39:15] God is powerful and he uses little tiny means to show himself grand, to do miraculous things as feeble people go and declare the good news of Jesus Christ.
[39:33] So be insignificant, but recognize that God can use you to accomplish significant things. in Matthew chapter 9 verse 36, kind of a, for me, a mentally parallel passage, although it's not exactly, Jesus says there, or we see the record there, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
[39:58] Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into.
[40:11] His harvest. God has people. He intends to save and he will use you, oh insignificant one, to accomplish that very good work.
[40:24] The back of your bulletin, so quotation from John Calvin. I like to quote John Calvin because I don't want him to be scary to people. This is from commentary on this text, speaking to the apathetic.
[40:43] He says, the Lord treats us with a father's kindness to correct our sloth and to encourage us who would otherwise be dismayed and designs to give us an undeserved reward.
[41:01] Third application. creation. You are building, as you go and share the good news of Jesus Christ, you are building on someone else's labor.
[41:17] One's sowing, another's reaping. You may be a sower and then another one will reap. Many of you know one of my earthly heroes is George Mueller.
[41:31] I'll spare you all the details of his life, but in his journal he wrote about three young men that he prayed for the entirety of his life.
[41:42] Decades he prayed their souls. Never saw any of the three of them converted. But past his death, all three of them came to faith in Christ.
[41:54] Two in their 70s, one in their 80s. Repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. In that case, Mueller was a sower. Somebody else got to reap. Both of them are rejoicing together over the harvest.
[42:10] You're building on someone else's labor. Someone's gone before you. We stand on the shoulders of giants. We take up this text.
[42:21] Others have shared the good news. Maybe some really rare cases. We've got missionaries even now in places where they intend to go to unreached peoples who have no scripture in their language.
[42:34] Maybe they're the very initial sowers. But even then, the great, rich Christian history of missionaries they're compelled by to go and carry on that tradition.
[42:50] You're building on someone else's labor. It ought to make us humble. It ought to make us grateful. mostly, primarily, most importantly, we're building on the finished work of Christ.
[43:10] He accomplished all that needed to be accomplished for the salvation of his people. And this ought to give us such a confidence to go and share him with others. to press out there and declare the greatness of this mercy, that it is finished work as it calls together his church.
[43:33] Now, I mentioned that I would bring up literary structure. This will be in closing. Chapters 2 through 4, we begin in Cana, we end in Cana.
[43:44] Again, there's a pattern. What's going on here? The whole thing is a chiasm. Chapters 2 through 4 with chiasms in between. The corresponding text to this one records Jesus cleansing the temple at the time of the Passover.
[44:04] In that record, he is at the center of Jewish worship. He's in the very temple. He's on that mountain.
[44:17] Here he is far outside that place. He's with Samaritans who worship on a different mountain. There's a juxtaposition between the two.
[44:28] But then, there's something being taught to us. If we think these two things through, the Passover celebrated, at the time of the Passover, when he cleansed the temple, the Passover celebrated the sparing of Israel's firstborn during the tenth plague, but also the exodus and the subsequent conquest of Canaan.
[44:53] John's readers would have had all of that in their mind. It's a significant detail that it was at the time of the Passover. The Passover was at hand, it says in chapter two.
[45:03] They've got a setting, a celebration in their mind when he cleanses the temple. And so what I want to suggest to you is being communicated to us here, as we see Jesus now outside of this place, being declared of him that he is the savior of the world, that there's a new conquest going on.
[45:26] In this new covenant of God's grace to his people, it's a different kind of conquest. He's calling together his people, and he's not doing so militarily, he's doing so through the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[45:47] Layer upon layer, it's such a magnificent, magnificent book. Let's pray together. here.
[45:57]