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Time to Get to Work |12.17.23|The Word Became Flesh p3
December 17, 2023
John 4:1-45
Pastor Erik Anderson
Good morning, everyone.
(...)
It's great to see you all here this morning. It is a great sign, and I want to encourage the fact that our time of passing the peace takes longer than the minute that we give you on the countdown.(...) Keep that up. I want to see that hit like 90 seconds and you like you introvert to like, oh, God, please no, no more time of that. But it's great to see you all here this morning. My name is Eric and one of the pastors here. If you're with us online, I want to offer you a special welcome as well. We are continuing our time of reflecting on this Advent season. The fact that the word became flesh last week. Drew talked about this passage from John one where we heard that God moved into the neighborhood by being born as one of us in Jesus, that it is the Lord who is actually invading our space. Bringing the kingdom to earth. We're going to continue that conversation looking at John chapter four. So you want to grab the black seat back Bible in front of you. You can grab that. We're going to be in John chapter four, and I don't know what page that is. It's in the Bible in front of you. It's in the New Testament. So you're going to get about two thirds away. Open it up once. Seventy two is what somebody said. Thank you. So you can open up the page 72 in the seat back Bibles.
(...)
My Bible. It's page eight hundred and sixty one. So that's not helpful for you guys. That's way different. It's 72.(...) All right. So we're going to be in John chapter four page seventy two. We are beginning in verse twenty eight. We're going to be jumping into the middle of the story here.
(...)
Verse twenty eight.(...) Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.(...) She said to the people, come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. He cannot be the Messiah, can he? They left the city and were on their way to him.(...) Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, Rabbi, eat something. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, surely no one has brought him something to eat. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me to complete his work. Do you not say four months more than comes the harvest? But I tell you, look around you and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.(...) The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life. So that sower and reaper may rejoice together for here, the saying holds true one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.(...) Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because the woman's testimony. He told me everything I've ever done. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. 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 truly is the savior of the world. This is the word of the Lord.(...) Thanks be to God.(...) Well, I had a really good experience this year, the good opportunity. I got to go into the Dixon Dixon Correctional Center and do a class throughout the summer and into the fall. And I had done some prison and jail ministry before when we lived in Wisconsin for about two years. I went into a county jail every Sunday evening and did a Bible study with the men who were in the jail. And I love being able to go into prisons and jails and give the word of God, do some teaching, do some pastoral care, those kinds of things. Because when you go into a prison or a jail, you literally have a captive audience. They have nothing else to do, nowhere else to go. And so they say, sure, I'll go to that class. Sure, I'll go to that Bible study. And you get to work with people who truly have nothing else to lose.
(...)
So many of them are so down on their luck. So many of them are at the rock bottom. And there was one gentleman while we were in Richland Center, Wisconsin, that experienced this. We'll call him Jonathan. That's not his real name, but we'll call him Jonathan. And while I was there for the two years, I saw Jonathan come in and out of the jail probably three or four-ish times.
(...)
And if you have been through the system or know people who have, you really go to jail while you wait for your trial dates, for your court date. And then you get to get out on bail or bond or whatever, and then you have to wait for the trial to actually begin if it goes to trial. And prison is where they send you after you've been convicted of something and you have to serve your time. So Jonathan was a local there in Richland Center, and he just kept coming in and out of the jail.(...) Jonathan was an addict. He was addicted to opioids. He was a big, strong guy. He was about one and a half width of me. And he was just, he did some bodybuilding when he was younger and really just got into some relationships that were really damaging. Got into some habits that were really damaging. Had some friendships and some girlfriends that just put him in a position in a place to cultivate this addiction that he had.(...) And every time he came into the jail, he'd just be like, "Oh, pastor, I got to get better. This has, something has to change." So he would be part of the Narcotics Anonymous group in there, and he kind of did that. And every, he would leave and get released. And then sure enough, he would go back to his old friends and his old girlfriends. And sure enough, he would use again, and then he would wind back up in jail. And like I said, this happened three or four times. And every time I saw him back in jail, he always told me, "This is it. I have to change. I have to change. I have to change." Well, finally, a really dangerous situation happened with Jonathan, where he overdosed, passed out, and ended up face down in the Culver's parking lot in the community. And the police found him in the morning.
(...)
So they took him to the hospital. They were able to take care of him, make sure that he was healthy, do all the detox they needed to do. But there he was again in the jail. And I talked to him this time. And this time when he said something has to change, there was something different about his eyes and the way that he said it, where I really believed him for the first time. And every week that I went in there, he was there for about eight weeks or so for that stint. And every week that I went in there, he would show up on Sunday evening for the Bible study, and he had read scripture. He had questions to ask. He wanted to know how to be different. I could really tell that this time he was really hungry for change. He would talk to other inmates about how he could be different. He would talk to the guards about how he could be different. He wanted a change in his life.(...) And there are so many people, so many of the guys that I've worked with in jail and in the prison that are like this, hungry, ready for a change. And some of the men that I got to work with in Dixon that are serving, you know, 60, 70 years or even lifelong sentences, they've had a change because they've hit their rock bottom. Because what it's called in Alcoholics Anonymous, they've hit their rock bottom where they've known beyond a shadow of a doubt, something's got to give or I'm going to be dead.
(...)
In prison and in jail, these people know that they need a change lots of times. They know that something has to change in their life, which is why I like going there so much.
(...)
There, the need is obvious. The hunger is obvious. You're in a really bad situation if you wind up in prison.
(...)
But for many of us in this room, our friends and family, we also are missing something and we also are hungry for a change. But our hunger just doesn't go against the law.
(...)
So many of us are just as bad off. We're suffering just as much, but it's just not as visible, not as obvious. Loneliness, unfulfilled dreams,(...) these types of things, they leave us wanting, searching for something more in our life.(...) And in this passage in John chapter four, Jesus interacts with a woman, a Samaritan woman, who is hungry, looking for something different in her life, looking for some kind of fulfillment. Earlier in John chapter four, we hear about Jesus walking up to this woman. His disciples have gone off to find some food. And he goes up to this woman who's drawing water from the well in the middle of the day, and he begins this conversation with her. And during this time in this context, the Jews and the Samaritans did not like each other. The Jews thought the Samaritans were heretics. The Samaritans thought the Jews were apostate. And they had several even armed conflicts against each other. They worshiped the same Lord. They both worshiped Yahweh, but in different places. There was kind of a bad relationship.(...) And so really, you try not to talk with too many Samaritans during that time if you were a respected Jew.(...) And also this context, if you were a man, you really weren't supposed to talk to a woman in public. You weren't supposed to be interacting with a woman you didn't know. So Jesus breaks some of these unspoken rules. He kind of does this taboo thing of having this conversation with this woman. He takes the time to sit down and talk with her and asks her, "Hey, can you give me some water?" Asks her for a favor. And then she's like, "Why would you want to talk to me? I'm a Samaritan. You're a Jew. I'm a woman. You're a man. We shouldn't be having this conversation." And Jesus begins to have this dialogue with her about her life.
(...)
And he goes, "Oh, why don't you have your husband draw up the water for me?" And she says, "Well, I don't have a husband."(...) And Jesus then responds, "You're right. You don't. You've been married so many times, and now the man that you live with isn't your husband."(...) And during this context, this was extremely taboo. To be married so many times and to be living with somebody you weren't married to,
(...)
and this woman is floored that Jesus knows her life. He sees right through her. And then Jesus gives her a promise.(...) He says, "I have water for you that if you drink it, you will never thirst again.
(...)
I have water for you that if you drink it, you will have eternal life."
(...)
Jesus takes the time to talk with this woman.(...) He knows her story and he speaks into it and offers her eternal life.
(...)
And this is where we jump in with verse 28 and 29. The woman runs back to her village and she says, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done."(...) He cannot be the Messiah, can he? Because the Samaritans were also expecting a Messiah.(...) And so she runs out and tells everybody that probably wouldn't be caught dead talking to her because she's taboo. She's kind of the one that's outcast in the community doing things she shouldn't be doing. And she runs in and tells everyone and they leave the city. The city leaves to go see what Jesus is doing. They come out in droves to see this, even though they were not Jews. Even though this man that she told them about was a Jew that they thought maybe he was the Messiah.(...) And while they are coming out of the city, the disciples show back up. And they say, "Rabbi," which means teacher, they say, "Go ahead and eat something." They bring the food back.(...) Now what we don't see here, or what we kind of see in between the way that this phrase, this sentence is worded, is that really this is more of an urgent request.(...) "Rabbi, come with us and eat something. Kind of get out of this situation." We don't know if the disciples were trying to distract Jesus or to keep Jesus from interacting with these Samaritans, but the disciples wanted to take a break. They wanted to get out of this situation. They see the droves coming. They show back up and they're like, "What's going on? Let's get out of here." And Jesus, in his genius and his gentleness, slaps him on the wrist. And this is what he says, "Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work."
(...)
Do you not say four months more than comes the harvest? But I tell you, look around you and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.(...) Jesus brings in this conversation about agriculture, and I'm sure the disciples were very confused. They're like, "What are you talking about? It is four more months to the harvest." Those would be like here if somebody in June said, "Hey, go out and pick the corn." You're like, "Well, there is no corn to pick yet." Right? We got to wait. There's months yet before we can pick. But Jesus tells him to do this. And of course, he's not talking about crops, but he's actually talking about people.
(...)
He says, "Look at the harvest." Maybe he even gestured to the people who were coming from the Samaritan village. "Look at the harvest. It is ripe.(...) The crops are ready to be reaped. They are ready to be harvested." Jesus continues. He says, "The reaper, the harvester, is already receiving wages. They've been working so long they're already getting paychecks to them and is gathering fruits for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together." So instead of the harvest being months away, it's right now. In fact, there are already people, Jesus says, who are harvesting a crop for eternal life. And not only that, but the harvester and the sower get to celebrate together.(...) "For the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps."
(...)
And then Jesus says, "I sent you to reap, to harvest,(...) that for which you did not labor.
(...)
Others have labored and you have entered into their labor."(...) "The work is already beginning," Jesus says. "The harvest is already being collected for eternal life. The kingdom is already here," we might say.(...) Jesus is using this metaphor of reaping and harvesting to show the disciples that he's been at work. He's been sowing seed. The kingdom is already here. He's already moved into the neighborhood and now he sends them out to do the work, to join in to the labor that he has begun.(...) You see, Jesus is already at work in the people around you. And you get to join him in his work.
(...)
God is at work and God always wins. He is going to win. He is going to make our world good. He is recreating things. He is birthing a new creation. He is overlapping heaven and earth as we looked at last week. And he is calling each of us, even if we don't realize it yet, to be part of that new creation. He's calling our friends and our family and our neighbors to be part of that new creation. He's offering this gift. He's offering eternal life. He's offering the fruit of the spirit, love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness. And the people around us are hungry for a change, even if it doesn't look like it. Even if we're really good at covering it up. People are hungry. They're ready for something different.
(...)
Everyone in our lives could use some more peace.
(...)
Everyone in our lives could use some more patience.(...) They could use some more joy.(...) They could use some more gentleness and faithfulness and goodness in their life.(...) God is calling each one of us and our neighbors to a good, full life as a new creature,(...) as a new being in Jesus Christ.
(...)
And oftentimes when our friends and our family and our neighbors have needs,(...) when they feel that hunger,(...) whether it be their disappointment or their loneliness or maybe an actual physical sickness. Remember last week, Pastor Drew talked about how if there's a need, that's a great indicator that God is at the bleeding edge, ready to bring healing, ready to bring comfort, ready to bring transformation. He wants to bring about this new creation. He wants to bring comfort and healing and transformation and goodness and fullness in life.(...) And God is gently calling our neighbors to this change and to transformation.
(...)
And then He's inviting you and me to be the harvesters, to be the ones who offer that comfort,(...) offer that grace,(...) offer that hope, offer that transformation,(...) because we ourselves have been transformed.
(...)
We get to invade the earth now with hope and goodness and joyfulness and fullness and purpose.(...) And we get to offer that to our neighbors.(...) So how do we do this?(...) What's the big secret here that Jesus had? Well, in this book from our friend Greg Finkie, which is a fantastic book called Joining Jesus on Mission,(...) he says this here on page 60.(...) He says, hanging out and enjoying people was Jesus' secret weapon for winning the world to His Father.(...) You want to know the thing that Jesus did to bring transformation to the world? He sat down and had dinner with people.(...) He spent time with them.(...) This Samaritan woman, he could have just ignored her.(...) But instead, he got close, he took the time and he talked with her. He paid attention and listened to her life.(...) He, the Holy Spirit, had given him clues into what was going on in her life that he could speak into it, that he could offer her the kingdom during that time because he spent time with her.
(...)
Jesus spent so much time with people who were drunks and liars and cheaters that he was called a drunk and a liar and a cheater. He enjoyed spending time with people and that's how he offered them the gift of the kingdom and the gift of transformation. He paid attention to them. He listened to their story. He knew who they were.(...) And we get to do the same thing.
(...)
You want to know what Jesus is asking you to do? He's asking you to spend time with people, to truly enjoy them and to offer them in part what you have in abundance.
(...)
The peace and the patience and the goodness and the fullness you have been given in abundance because you know Jesus.
(...)
We just got to celebrate a baptism this morning where God promises Ali this transformation. If anybody is in Christ, they are a new creature and they have joy and goodness in abundance.
(...)
And we do too.(...) So by sitting and mourning with people who grieve, by crying with them and praying for them,(...) by celebrating with those who celebrate, by serving those who need to be served, by making meals, by visiting, by calling on the phone, these are the ways that we get to join Jesus in his mission.
(...)
Because our neighbors, our friends, our family are in need. They're hungry. They're looking for a change and we get to offer it to them.
(...)
Gary Haugen is the president of IJM, International Justice Mission. It's an organization that works to end modern day slavery. And they use policy and they use law to do this. And so it's a great organization of a really diligent servants who are trying to get this done. And this is what he says. He says, God thoroughly transforms people through thoroughly transformed people.
(...)
God thoroughly transforms people through thoroughly transformed people.
(...)
You've been given a gift.(...) You've been given love and joy in abundance and you are invited to go out and offer to your neighbors in part what you already have in abundance. By sitting and mourning, by celebrating, by serving, by making meals. In fact, if you want to know a way that you can do this today, today, right after service, is we have a bunch of Christmas cards out by the fireplace that are being sent to people who are part of our church, but are homebound, who can't get out, either because of sickness or infirmity or whatever it is. And if you just go and sign that, you're actually already participating.
(...)
It's a great first step to go and sign those Christmas cards and send them to somebody who can't be here this next weekend for Christmas Eve.
(...)
The joy that we get is to be thoroughly transformed by Jesus Christ.(...) And we get to join Jesus in transforming others, offering a full, good and joyful life, because that is what he has given us.
(...)
And this is the good news.
Pastor Erik Anderson
Good morning, everyone.
(...)
It's great to see you all here this morning. It is a great sign, and I want to encourage the fact that our time of passing the peace takes longer than the minute that we give you on the countdown.(...) Keep that up. I want to see that hit like 90 seconds and you like you introvert to like, oh, God, please no, no more time of that. But it's great to see you all here this morning. My name is Eric and one of the pastors here. If you're with us online, I want to offer you a special welcome as well. We are continuing our time of reflecting on this Advent season. The fact that the word became flesh last week. Drew talked about this passage from John one where we heard that God moved into the neighborhood by being born as one of us in Jesus, that it is the Lord who is actually invading our space. Bringing the kingdom to earth. We're going to continue that conversation looking at John chapter four. So you want to grab the black seat back Bible in front of you. You can grab that. We're going to be in John chapter four, and I don't know what page that is. It's in the Bible in front of you. It's in the New Testament. So you're going to get about two thirds away. Open it up once. Seventy two is what somebody said. Thank you. So you can open up the page 72 in the seat back Bibles.
(...)
My Bible. It's page eight hundred and sixty one. So that's not helpful for you guys. That's way different. It's 72.(...) All right. So we're going to be in John chapter four page seventy two. We are beginning in verse twenty eight. We're going to be jumping into the middle of the story here.
(...)
Verse twenty eight.(...) Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.(...) She said to the people, come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. He cannot be the Messiah, can he? They left the city and were on their way to him.(...) Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, Rabbi, eat something. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, surely no one has brought him something to eat. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me to complete his work. Do you not say four months more than comes the harvest? But I tell you, look around you and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.(...) The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life. So that sower and reaper may rejoice together for here, the saying holds true one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.(...) Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because the woman's testimony. He told me everything I've ever done. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. 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 truly is the savior of the world. This is the word of the Lord.(...) Thanks be to God.(...) Well, I had a really good experience this year, the good opportunity. I got to go into the Dixon Dixon Correctional Center and do a class throughout the summer and into the fall. And I had done some prison and jail ministry before when we lived in Wisconsin for about two years. I went into a county jail every Sunday evening and did a Bible study with the men who were in the jail. And I love being able to go into prisons and jails and give the word of God, do some teaching, do some pastoral care, those kinds of things. Because when you go into a prison or a jail, you literally have a captive audience. They have nothing else to do, nowhere else to go. And so they say, sure, I'll go to that class. Sure, I'll go to that Bible study. And you get to work with people who truly have nothing else to lose.
(...)
So many of them are so down on their luck. So many of them are at the rock bottom. And there was one gentleman while we were in Richland Center, Wisconsin, that experienced this. We'll call him Jonathan. That's not his real name, but we'll call him Jonathan. And while I was there for the two years, I saw Jonathan come in and out of the jail probably three or four-ish times.
(...)
And if you have been through the system or know people who have, you really go to jail while you wait for your trial dates, for your court date. And then you get to get out on bail or bond or whatever, and then you have to wait for the trial to actually begin if it goes to trial. And prison is where they send you after you've been convicted of something and you have to serve your time. So Jonathan was a local there in Richland Center, and he just kept coming in and out of the jail.(...) Jonathan was an addict. He was addicted to opioids. He was a big, strong guy. He was about one and a half width of me. And he was just, he did some bodybuilding when he was younger and really just got into some relationships that were really damaging. Got into some habits that were really damaging. Had some friendships and some girlfriends that just put him in a position in a place to cultivate this addiction that he had.(...) And every time he came into the jail, he'd just be like, "Oh, pastor, I got to get better. This has, something has to change." So he would be part of the Narcotics Anonymous group in there, and he kind of did that. And every, he would leave and get released. And then sure enough, he would go back to his old friends and his old girlfriends. And sure enough, he would use again, and then he would wind back up in jail. And like I said, this happened three or four times. And every time I saw him back in jail, he always told me, "This is it. I have to change. I have to change. I have to change." Well, finally, a really dangerous situation happened with Jonathan, where he overdosed, passed out, and ended up face down in the Culver's parking lot in the community. And the police found him in the morning.
(...)
So they took him to the hospital. They were able to take care of him, make sure that he was healthy, do all the detox they needed to do. But there he was again in the jail. And I talked to him this time. And this time when he said something has to change, there was something different about his eyes and the way that he said it, where I really believed him for the first time. And every week that I went in there, he was there for about eight weeks or so for that stint. And every week that I went in there, he would show up on Sunday evening for the Bible study, and he had read scripture. He had questions to ask. He wanted to know how to be different. I could really tell that this time he was really hungry for change. He would talk to other inmates about how he could be different. He would talk to the guards about how he could be different. He wanted a change in his life.(...) And there are so many people, so many of the guys that I've worked with in jail and in the prison that are like this, hungry, ready for a change. And some of the men that I got to work with in Dixon that are serving, you know, 60, 70 years or even lifelong sentences, they've had a change because they've hit their rock bottom. Because what it's called in Alcoholics Anonymous, they've hit their rock bottom where they've known beyond a shadow of a doubt, something's got to give or I'm going to be dead.
(...)
In prison and in jail, these people know that they need a change lots of times. They know that something has to change in their life, which is why I like going there so much.
(...)
There, the need is obvious. The hunger is obvious. You're in a really bad situation if you wind up in prison.
(...)
But for many of us in this room, our friends and family, we also are missing something and we also are hungry for a change. But our hunger just doesn't go against the law.
(...)
So many of us are just as bad off. We're suffering just as much, but it's just not as visible, not as obvious. Loneliness, unfulfilled dreams,(...) these types of things, they leave us wanting, searching for something more in our life.(...) And in this passage in John chapter four, Jesus interacts with a woman, a Samaritan woman, who is hungry, looking for something different in her life, looking for some kind of fulfillment. Earlier in John chapter four, we hear about Jesus walking up to this woman. His disciples have gone off to find some food. And he goes up to this woman who's drawing water from the well in the middle of the day, and he begins this conversation with her. And during this time in this context, the Jews and the Samaritans did not like each other. The Jews thought the Samaritans were heretics. The Samaritans thought the Jews were apostate. And they had several even armed conflicts against each other. They worshiped the same Lord. They both worshiped Yahweh, but in different places. There was kind of a bad relationship.(...) And so really, you try not to talk with too many Samaritans during that time if you were a respected Jew.(...) And also this context, if you were a man, you really weren't supposed to talk to a woman in public. You weren't supposed to be interacting with a woman you didn't know. So Jesus breaks some of these unspoken rules. He kind of does this taboo thing of having this conversation with this woman. He takes the time to sit down and talk with her and asks her, "Hey, can you give me some water?" Asks her for a favor. And then she's like, "Why would you want to talk to me? I'm a Samaritan. You're a Jew. I'm a woman. You're a man. We shouldn't be having this conversation." And Jesus begins to have this dialogue with her about her life.
(...)
And he goes, "Oh, why don't you have your husband draw up the water for me?" And she says, "Well, I don't have a husband."(...) And Jesus then responds, "You're right. You don't. You've been married so many times, and now the man that you live with isn't your husband."(...) And during this context, this was extremely taboo. To be married so many times and to be living with somebody you weren't married to,
(...)
and this woman is floored that Jesus knows her life. He sees right through her. And then Jesus gives her a promise.(...) He says, "I have water for you that if you drink it, you will never thirst again.
(...)
I have water for you that if you drink it, you will have eternal life."
(...)
Jesus takes the time to talk with this woman.(...) He knows her story and he speaks into it and offers her eternal life.
(...)
And this is where we jump in with verse 28 and 29. The woman runs back to her village and she says, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done."(...) He cannot be the Messiah, can he? Because the Samaritans were also expecting a Messiah.(...) And so she runs out and tells everybody that probably wouldn't be caught dead talking to her because she's taboo. She's kind of the one that's outcast in the community doing things she shouldn't be doing. And she runs in and tells everyone and they leave the city. The city leaves to go see what Jesus is doing. They come out in droves to see this, even though they were not Jews. Even though this man that she told them about was a Jew that they thought maybe he was the Messiah.(...) And while they are coming out of the city, the disciples show back up. And they say, "Rabbi," which means teacher, they say, "Go ahead and eat something." They bring the food back.(...) Now what we don't see here, or what we kind of see in between the way that this phrase, this sentence is worded, is that really this is more of an urgent request.(...) "Rabbi, come with us and eat something. Kind of get out of this situation." We don't know if the disciples were trying to distract Jesus or to keep Jesus from interacting with these Samaritans, but the disciples wanted to take a break. They wanted to get out of this situation. They see the droves coming. They show back up and they're like, "What's going on? Let's get out of here." And Jesus, in his genius and his gentleness, slaps him on the wrist. And this is what he says, "Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work."
(...)
Do you not say four months more than comes the harvest? But I tell you, look around you and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.(...) Jesus brings in this conversation about agriculture, and I'm sure the disciples were very confused. They're like, "What are you talking about? It is four more months to the harvest." Those would be like here if somebody in June said, "Hey, go out and pick the corn." You're like, "Well, there is no corn to pick yet." Right? We got to wait. There's months yet before we can pick. But Jesus tells him to do this. And of course, he's not talking about crops, but he's actually talking about people.
(...)
He says, "Look at the harvest." Maybe he even gestured to the people who were coming from the Samaritan village. "Look at the harvest. It is ripe.(...) The crops are ready to be reaped. They are ready to be harvested." Jesus continues. He says, "The reaper, the harvester, is already receiving wages. They've been working so long they're already getting paychecks to them and is gathering fruits for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together." So instead of the harvest being months away, it's right now. In fact, there are already people, Jesus says, who are harvesting a crop for eternal life. And not only that, but the harvester and the sower get to celebrate together.(...) "For the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps."
(...)
And then Jesus says, "I sent you to reap, to harvest,(...) that for which you did not labor.
(...)
Others have labored and you have entered into their labor."(...) "The work is already beginning," Jesus says. "The harvest is already being collected for eternal life. The kingdom is already here," we might say.(...) Jesus is using this metaphor of reaping and harvesting to show the disciples that he's been at work. He's been sowing seed. The kingdom is already here. He's already moved into the neighborhood and now he sends them out to do the work, to join in to the labor that he has begun.(...) You see, Jesus is already at work in the people around you. And you get to join him in his work.
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God is at work and God always wins. He is going to win. He is going to make our world good. He is recreating things. He is birthing a new creation. He is overlapping heaven and earth as we looked at last week. And he is calling each of us, even if we don't realize it yet, to be part of that new creation. He's calling our friends and our family and our neighbors to be part of that new creation. He's offering this gift. He's offering eternal life. He's offering the fruit of the spirit, love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness. And the people around us are hungry for a change, even if it doesn't look like it. Even if we're really good at covering it up. People are hungry. They're ready for something different.
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Everyone in our lives could use some more peace.
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Everyone in our lives could use some more patience.(...) They could use some more joy.(...) They could use some more gentleness and faithfulness and goodness in their life.(...) God is calling each one of us and our neighbors to a good, full life as a new creature,(...) as a new being in Jesus Christ.
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And oftentimes when our friends and our family and our neighbors have needs,(...) when they feel that hunger,(...) whether it be their disappointment or their loneliness or maybe an actual physical sickness. Remember last week, Pastor Drew talked about how if there's a need, that's a great indicator that God is at the bleeding edge, ready to bring healing, ready to bring comfort, ready to bring transformation. He wants to bring about this new creation. He wants to bring comfort and healing and transformation and goodness and fullness in life.(...) And God is gently calling our neighbors to this change and to transformation.
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And then He's inviting you and me to be the harvesters, to be the ones who offer that comfort,(...) offer that grace,(...) offer that hope, offer that transformation,(...) because we ourselves have been transformed.
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We get to invade the earth now with hope and goodness and joyfulness and fullness and purpose.(...) And we get to offer that to our neighbors.(...) So how do we do this?(...) What's the big secret here that Jesus had? Well, in this book from our friend Greg Finkie, which is a fantastic book called Joining Jesus on Mission,(...) he says this here on page 60.(...) He says, hanging out and enjoying people was Jesus' secret weapon for winning the world to His Father.(...) You want to know the thing that Jesus did to bring transformation to the world? He sat down and had dinner with people.(...) He spent time with them.(...) This Samaritan woman, he could have just ignored her.(...) But instead, he got close, he took the time and he talked with her. He paid attention and listened to her life.(...) He, the Holy Spirit, had given him clues into what was going on in her life that he could speak into it, that he could offer her the kingdom during that time because he spent time with her.
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Jesus spent so much time with people who were drunks and liars and cheaters that he was called a drunk and a liar and a cheater. He enjoyed spending time with people and that's how he offered them the gift of the kingdom and the gift of transformation. He paid attention to them. He listened to their story. He knew who they were.(...) And we get to do the same thing.
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You want to know what Jesus is asking you to do? He's asking you to spend time with people, to truly enjoy them and to offer them in part what you have in abundance.
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The peace and the patience and the goodness and the fullness you have been given in abundance because you know Jesus.
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We just got to celebrate a baptism this morning where God promises Ali this transformation. If anybody is in Christ, they are a new creature and they have joy and goodness in abundance.
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And we do too.(...) So by sitting and mourning with people who grieve, by crying with them and praying for them,(...) by celebrating with those who celebrate, by serving those who need to be served, by making meals, by visiting, by calling on the phone, these are the ways that we get to join Jesus in his mission.
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Because our neighbors, our friends, our family are in need. They're hungry. They're looking for a change and we get to offer it to them.
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Gary Haugen is the president of IJM, International Justice Mission. It's an organization that works to end modern day slavery. And they use policy and they use law to do this. And so it's a great organization of a really diligent servants who are trying to get this done. And this is what he says. He says, God thoroughly transforms people through thoroughly transformed people.
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God thoroughly transforms people through thoroughly transformed people.
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You've been given a gift.(...) You've been given love and joy in abundance and you are invited to go out and offer to your neighbors in part what you already have in abundance. By sitting and mourning, by celebrating, by serving, by making meals. In fact, if you want to know a way that you can do this today, today, right after service, is we have a bunch of Christmas cards out by the fireplace that are being sent to people who are part of our church, but are homebound, who can't get out, either because of sickness or infirmity or whatever it is. And if you just go and sign that, you're actually already participating.
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It's a great first step to go and sign those Christmas cards and send them to somebody who can't be here this next weekend for Christmas Eve.
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The joy that we get is to be thoroughly transformed by Jesus Christ.(...) And we get to join Jesus in transforming others, offering a full, good and joyful life, because that is what he has given us.
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And this is the good news.