Christ's Insight into Men's Souls (John 4:35-38)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/16/2016 2:05 PM

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  Christ’s Insight into Men’s Souls

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 4:35-38 

Message of the verses:  “35  "Do you not say, ’There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 "Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 “For in this case the saying is true, ’One sows and another reaps.’ 38 “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.’”

I have to tell a story from our Missionary speaker from last Sunday evening that goes along with this section.  First of all the speaker was young, somewhere in his twenty’s and he had a burden for the people of Japan, he and his wife and they had spent a year or so in Japan with an older missionary couple to “get their feet wet” as far as being missionaries.  There was a Japanese man living across the street from them who wanted to learn English and so the young missionary began to teach English to him.  This young missionary had taken Japanese in high school and so he knew the language fairly well.  During the course of the English lessons he was able to witness to the man, but the man was more impressed with the older missionary who had, form what he said, “a great smile.”  After the time for this couple was up they moved back to the US and they heard that this man accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  He was honest in saying that at that time he was upset that he was not able to lead this Japanese man to the Lord, but after getting counsel from a more mature believer he understood what his job was.  As I was listening to him speak my thoughts went to what Jesus was saying to His disciples in this section in that “one sows and another reaps,” and to me there was no need to be upset for the important thing was the man had been saved, but in a little way I could understand this young man’s reasons as you could tell he had a burden for the souls of those in Japan.

I first have to say that this section has been a section that missionaries have used for their reasons to go to the places that they go to minister as we have heard over and over about “the fields being white for harvest.”  I have to say that this has always been my way of understanding this section, but after studying this section again came up with a little different way of what this may mean.  I am not going to say that this is not a good section for missionaries to use, but perhaps we can look at it in a different way in our time together today.

Now if this period of time when Jesus is at the well with this woman was in December then the harvest would be four months away, however some believe that this section is like a first century proverb, and don’t look at it as when our Lord was there.  John MacArthur writes “No such proverb has been recorded anywhere else, and the normal time between planting and harvest was closer to six months.  The adverb eti (yet) also seems out of place in a proverbial saying, which would more likely have read, ‘There are four months and then comes the harvest.’”  Jesus has used the grain growing in surrounding fields as an object lesson in other places in the gospels, and what He was doing was impressing on His disciples the urgency of reaching the lost.  Jesus was telling His disciples this object lesson while the woman was gone to tell the men her story that we have already gone over, He was preparing His disciples for the men to return with the woman, something that Jesus knew was going to happen as we see His omniscience here. Now imagine Jesus standing there talking to His disciples giving this lesson to them and they look up and see a group of men coming towards them wearing white clothes, and according to the sermon that I listened to on this section John MacArthur believes this is exactly what happened. 

Jesus was telling His disciples that they had responsibility to tell others the truth of the gospel as he states “who reaps is receiving the wages and is gathering the fruit for life eternal.”  “They would receive their ‘wages,’ the rewarding joy of gathering ‘fruit’ for eternity.” “"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7).”

I began this SD by telling a story of a young missionary couple which illustrated the truth of verses 37-38 so we won’t say any more about those verses other than to say that it is our job to tell the gospel, and it is the Spirit’s job to call those that the Father chose in eternity past for salvation, so we are to keep telling the message and leave the harvest up to the Lord as to who will led someone to the Lord.

   “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.’”  Verse 38 continues with what we learned from verses 36-37.  Just keep telling others how they can go from light to darkness, and from life, eternal life from eternal death.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This section has reinforced my thinking of just getting the truth to as many as will take the time to listen to it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to bring people into my life who are ready to hear the truth.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Delilah” (Judges 16:6).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where was Jacob buried?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/16/2016 2:46 PM