The Harvest is Ready - John 4:31-38

Is there any doubt that we live in a performance driven society? Your success or lack of success is the direct result of your performance. We’re always analyzing data in order to better inform our decisions.

Analytics are big in everything from business to sports. College and professional football teams now hire analysts. Information and data analysis is a part of the world we live in.

And the church isn’t immune to our performance driven society. It’s standard practice within the church to collect and analyze data. How many people are in attendance? How many baptisms were there? Which service is more popular: the contemporary or traditional?

These questions are necessarily bad to ask, but a major problem arises when the church makes decisions exclusively based upon performance, data, and information. Suddenly, if a church isn’t careful, theological convictions are overshadowed by performance and pragmatism.

The important question is no longer, “What does God’s Word say?” The important question is, “Does it work?”

And you may even be wondering, “If it works and you’re able to draw crowds, who cares?”

This mentality reinforces an unbiblical works-based theology. The belief that what you and I do will either swing open the pearly gates for lost or send them directly to hell. Churches that are beholden to performance and pragmatism teach a semi-pelagian, works-based, man-centered theology not by what they say, but rather by what they do.

It’s incredibly subtle. We swim in waters that constantly promote pragmatism and performance. The problem is that this mentality reinforces the belief that what we do will either convert people or turn them away. Performance and pragmatism reinforces a works-based, man-centered theology, but God’s Word teaches the exact opposite.

This is precisely what Jesus teaches his disciples in this passage. The Lord sovereignly controls all things, including the salvation of sinners. Our passage teaches us a few things: First, we’re called to faithfulness (vv. 31-34), second, we do play a role in the salvation of the lost (vv. 35-36), and lastly we should recognize that God has to give the growth (vv. 37-38).

Recap of John 4:1-31

By way of reminder, we’re still looking at Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well. At this particular point in the passage, Jesus has revealed to her that he is the Christ - the Messiah - and she has run back into town to tell everyone about him.

And it’s while she’s in town Jesus’ disciples return to the well. And as they’re sitting there a crowd of people is coming out to them. So that’s the setting of these verses. There’s a sense of excitement at this point in the passage.

Faithfulness is fulfillment (vv. 31-34)

In many ways, that’s what fuels pragmatism and a performance mentality within the life of the church - it’s exciting! Results are exciting! What church doesn’t want to see more professions of faith, baptisms, growing attendance? I certainly want to see all of that here at Providence!

You should be concerned if a pastor says, “We have enough believers here.” But is the Lord only pleased with a strong performance record and impressive results that have led to a high level of success? After all, does numeric growth accurately indicate spiritual growth?

It certainly seems that Jesus had a very different perspective. Look at verses 31-33 with me.

31 “Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?””

Again, we see the recurring pattern of Jesus speaking spiritually and metaphorically, but being taken literally. Because obviously, he was thirsty and likely, hungry as well. So the questions about food are natural, but Jesus views these ordinary conversations as wonderful teaching opportunities.

Jesus is talking about spiritual food, which is a common biblical metaphor. Think about how many times this sort of language is used throughout God’s Word: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” In a few chapters Jesus will refer to himself as the “Bread of life” and “Bread of heaven.” Or consider when God provides manna to the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness and says to Moses: “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you…”

We’ll probably be revisiting this discussion in a few weeks. But nevertheless, the disciples probably should have known what Jesus was talking about, and yet they were clueless. So he clarifies exactly what he means in verse 34. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” The food that satisfies Jesus’ soul is doing or fulfilling the will of the Lord. In other words, the food that satisfies the Lord Jesus is faithfulness to the Lord. A steady commitment to do what God had called him to do.

This is true for every Christian. You’re called to holistic faithfulness before the Lord. It’s not like you can be faithful in just this part of your life and ignore the rest! You’re called to give God glory in every area of your life. You’re called to consistently do that which pleases the Lord.

This really reframes everything doesn’t it?

It’s a well documented fact that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism had a terrible marriage. He had a very busy itinerant preaching schedule and was rarely home. His wife, Molly, struggled with his absence and often wrongly suspected him of infidelity.

His relationship with his wife was so bad that she wrote critical letters of him, spied on him, and provided potentially slanderous material to his enemies.

He had an extremely dysfunctional marriage. But Wesley was on the front lines of ministry! Exciting things were happening! But does that cover all his indiscretion? Wesley consciously sacrificed his wife and family on the altar of ministry. He honestly thought that ministry success was more important than his family.

He thought what he was doing was pleasing the Lord, but was it? I don’t think we hear that and think that sounds fantastic! We all hear that and think, “That’s not right.”

The Christian that pleases the Lord isn’t necessarily the person that has led thousands of people to the Lord, or trained a million pastors, or has seen dramatic results to the detriment of other areas of his or her life. Pleasing the Lord is more than your personal ministry “success.”

The Christian that pleases the Lord is the person that consistently and faithfully seeks to do and accomplish the will of the God. Giving God the glory he rightly deserves is holistic.

Isn’t this exactly what the Apostle Paul means when he says, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God?”

In other words, the person that has the courage to share the gospel with someone when the opportunity arises, the person that prays for friends and family, the person that prioritizes public worship and works hard in his or her job - doing all of those things as unto the Lord is what pleases Him.

The food that satisfies Jesus Christ is to do the will of the Father. The will of the Father for you and for me is to live in humble submission to Him in every sphere of life.

We have a role in salvation (vv. 35-36)

But nevertheless, you and I should strive to have a personal ministry. Evangelistic faithfulness is still a part of the Christian life. Look at verse 35 with me.

“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.”

Jesus is making a very interesting point in verse 35: In an agrarian society, everyone knows what happens when you plant something. You have to wait! You typically have to wait months before you can harvest.

If you’ve ever planted anything, you know this to be true. You have to wait to see the seedling sprout, and then eventually it’ll bear fruit, but you have to wait even longer before harvest.

Jesus is pointing out that there is a gap of time between sowing and reaping. But again, Jesus isn’t talking about a literal grain or plant harvest. He’s talking about a “gospel harvest.” He’s talking about people putting their faith in Him.

Because what happened here? He planted the seed of truth with the Samaritan woman and now she’s in town gathering a crowd to bring to Jesus. And it’s likely that a crowd is in view. They’re walking toward Jesus.

It’s in this context that Jesus tells his disciples to, “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”

Typically, when folks reference this verse, they refer to having great evangelistic zeal! There’s so much evangelistic opportunity and so share the gospel with reckless abandon! But that’s not exactly what Jesus is referring to here. He’s referring to the communal team effort of evangelism.

There are some people that are gifted evangelists. And it seems like everyone he or she comes into contact with makes a profession of faith.

Those people are outliers. For the rest of us evangelistic mortals, we’re role players. It’s like how in basketball you have a center that rebounds and makes easy shots, then you have a three point specialist, someone else that dribbles well. Or in football, you have a fast receiver that’s the “deep threat” and the receiver that has great hands and he’s the “possession receiver.”

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses but together they make a great team. This is a great analogy for the necessity of the universal church in evangelism. We need the whole body.

Someone might share gospel truths and see no fruit while someone else leads a person to Christ. Some sow, while others reap and you need both the sowers and the reapers and typically there’s a gap of time between the sowing and reaping. But notice what’s unusual about our passage - there’s no gap of time. The sowing and reaping happen together. It’s compressed or instantaneous. This is Jesus’s point in verse 36 that the sower and reaper “may rejoice together!”

The Lord gives growth (vv. 37-38)

I don’t necessarily think that this passage is calling you or me to reckless evangelistic zeal that intimidates all of us. Rather, I think this passage is calling you and me to pay attention to the people around us and always be willing and ready to share the gospel with those that we may come into contact with.

To reiterate an earlier point: You don’t need to be an evangelistic hero, but you need to be faithful.

You need to have the courage to take advantage of the opportunities to be a gospel witness when they present themselves to you. You don’t have to be an evangelistic hero to please God. You just have to be faithful.

When you think about the overall picture of salvation, the Scriptures are quite clear that we contribute nothing to it. Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We’re saved by the grace of God. And yet, God uses people like you and me to save the lost.

The Lord allows us to participate in the salvation of people despite our inability to contribute anything. How? By being a faithful gospel witness.

Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. It’s with this theological backdrop that the words of Jesus in verses 37 and 38 make a little more sense: “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Jesus is describing to his disciples exactly what’s going on. Jesus did all the work here. He did all the talking. The disciples didn’t do anything. They were off getting food and just show up and now what’s happening? A crowd is walking toward them.

Jesus is presenting them with an opportunity to bear witness of Him. To testify that He is indeed the Christ! The Messiah! The Son of God! You see the disciples have entered into Jesus’ labor. They’re participating in something that they didn’t contribute to.

Another really interesting aspect to sowing and reaping is that neither contribute to growth. Just because you plant a seed doesn’t guarantee growth. Just because you reap a harvest doesn’t mean you did everything perfectly.

That’s the struggle of farming. You have no control over the weather. You don’t have control over cloud coverage. And the actual growth process, the photosynthesis, and whatever else happens on the cellular level - you have no control over that stuff.

Similarly, just because you share the gospel doesn’t mean that someone will trust in Christ.

And just because someone puts their faith in Christ doesn’t mean you did it. What does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 3? “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”

We participate in God’s sovereign plan of salvation but we contribute nothing to it. We’re just the messengers. We just testify. We have no power or authority to convert or save sinners. Ultimately the salvation of souls rests in the hands of the Lord. He saves.

This really reiterates the theological issue of churches boasting about professions of faith or baptisms. It suggests that you contributed something to the process, doesn’t it? There’s nothing wrong with knowing the numbers but it’s simply another avenue to rejoice and praise the Lord for what He’s done and is doing.

This is what so many Christians and churches struggle with: you can’t measure spiritual growth. There is no “hard data” to pick apart. And we definitely shouldn’t manipulate spiritual “success,” “results,” or “achievements,” but we should expect them!

Consider our passage again, if your planting and sowing what are you anticipating? The harvest. Isn’t this true for every farmer? After they plant the seeds they begin to watch, wait, and anticipate a harvest.

You and I should likewise watch, wait for, and anticipate the Lord to bring the harvest. Don’t you want that?

Obviously, the Lord doesn’t promise or guarantee anything. It’s not like if we do x, y, and z then we’ve backed the Lord into a corner and he must return the favor. It’s not transactional.

If we faithfully fulfill what God has called us to do holistically and evangelistically, we can and should anticipate results. We should have a holy expectation that the Lord will do something!

We should expect Him to move in our midst!

It’s not biblical to believe that what we do drives results because the Lord does that. But it’s also not biblical to believe that because God hasn’t moved powerfully in weeks, months, or even years to assume that he won’t.

I can’t tell you how many churches I’ve been to, pastored by men that I love and respect that have essentially resigned to the fact that they’re never going to experience a harvest at their church. Why? Do they not believe that God can do it?

We must expectantly pray for the harvest. The fact that the fields are white for harvest shouldn’t surprise us. We should expect it!