Truth For Life

Bob Lapine: You've no doubt heard the expression, you can't see the forest for the trees. It's a warning against missing the big picture by getting caught up in the minor details. We'll see this idiom in action today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begg takes us to John's Gospel, to a woman at a well in Samaria, and we'll find out why Jesus' exhortation to his disciples in this moment is an appeal that every generation needs to take to heart.

Alistair Begg: John Chapter 4, we have thought of the importance of being in Christ, the absolute necessity of it, and then of being like Christ, viewing him first as a humble servant and then as a compassionate shepherd. And this morning, if you like, as a personal evangelist.

And we're going to read what is the central part of John Chapter 4, beginning at verse 27. John 4, verse 27. Just then, his disciples returned and were surprised to find him, that is Jesus, talking with a woman. But no one asked, what do you want or why are you talking with her?

Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" And they came out of the town and made their way towards him. Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, one sows and another reaps is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days, and because of his words, many more became believers. They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said, now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the savior of the world." Amen.

Father, with our Bibles open before us, we humbly pray for your help that in speaking, listening, seeking to understand and apply your word, we may know ourselves to be under your tutelage. For we pray humbly in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, I wonder, does it appear unduly harsh to suggest that these disciples were more concerned about sandwiches than they were about salvation? Sandwiches rather than salvation. And it would be wrong to suggest that the present-day church, us, that we, his disciples at this point in time, are in danger of making a similar but largely the same mistake. Losing track of the central issue, forgetting really what it is all about that God has come in Jesus to do.

Because you will notice from the text that it was while they were buying food that these events unfolded. They had gone into the town, John tells us, these disciples who would later on be dispatched by Jesus to go out into their community and beyond, and while they were gone, concerned about the importance of providing for Jesus, not that we would want to diminish this in any way, but while they were doing that, Jesus is involved in what is clearly a moment of cross-cultural evangelism.

Indeed, the surprise on the part of the disciples in verse 27 when they return was equal to the surprise of the Samaritan woman as you have it recorded for you there in verse 9. The woman is asking, could this be the Christ in verse 29, and the disciples are asking, could someone have brought him food in verse 33? It is just this wonderful irony that runs all the way through John's Gospel. Here, the disciples preoccupied with the affairs of physicality and the immediacy of temporal need, and a woman who earlier in the day had been focused entirely upon the routine task of collecting water, now finds herself involved in telling a whole community concerning this man that she had met.

So, if you like, the disciples are involved in the developing saga of the sandwich and they're completely unaware of the fact that while they are preoccupied with these things, the villagers are on their way towards Jesus.

And so he provides them, you will notice, in verse 34, with a word of explanation, which we read. He says, "I know that you are concerned and rightly about these things, but my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." That's his explanation. And then his exhortation is in verse 35, "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest."

Now that word of exhortation from Jesus, set in the historical context here in John 4, is a word that needs to be sounded in every generation. And most importantly, when the people of God are in danger of turning the affairs of time into the experience of sailing around in a marina, rather than taking the life board of their life out onto the troubled seas of human existence.

It is very, very possible, and you will see this even in the history of the church that is familiar to us, very, very possible for a church, for a local assembly of God's people to begin with a very clear understanding of their commission and their mission to be engaged in reaching men and women with the good news of the Gospel, to be out as it were, on the highways and byways, compelling people with the news of the kingdom, to be seeking to turn their lives into bridges that are possibilities for people encountering Jesus, and then somewhere along the line, imperceptibly slowly, instead of taking their boats out onto the sea, they've decided that they should just circle their boats in the safety of the harbor.

And you go amongst these people in their congregations and they're very engrossed in teaching, in small groups, in discipleships, in the establishing of the family, in the caring for all of the internal facets of Christian living, all of which are clearly important in the framework of Christianity. But none of them on their own, nor all of them together, come close to the issue of seeing unbelieving people becoming the committed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And to every generation that is in danger of losing its focus, to every Christian that may be preoccupied with that which is helpful but not best. This exhortation rings out from the lips of Jesus. "I tell you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, they're white for harvest." I often say to younger ministers now, as they launch out into their privileged responsibilities amongst God's people, I say to them, "My concern for you is not so much that you will fail, but that you will succeed at the wrong stuff, that you will succeed at the wrong things."

And the disciples here need this lesson, and so do we. You see, the passion for reaching people with the gospel is quenched when we lose sight of the grandeur of the gospel. The passion for reaching people, the passion for mission, whether it is local mission, whether it is the mission of reaching our children or our grandchildren, that passion will always be quenched if and when we lose sight of the grandeur of the story that is in the gospel. When we sing of the name of Jesus, we need constantly to remind ourselves what that name is.

And the word of the angel was clear, wasn't it? "And you will give him the name Jesus." Why? "For he shall save his people from their sins." How? In the cross. And when we take our eyes off Christ and off the nature of the atonement, then we will find that our zeal for evangelism is diminished.

Let me give you a quote that will pin your ears back just a little from an amazing book written years ago by Smeaton, a Scottish theologian, and on the nature of the atonement, and this is what he writes in that book: "To convert one sinner from his way is an event of greater importance than the deliverance of an entire kingdom from temporal evil." I'm going to say that to you again.

I'd like to take this into all of our Christian colleges and I want them to write me now a 2000-word essay on Smeaton's quote. I want to hear from them. And I have a horrible sneaking suspicion that a significant number of them will challenge Smeaton's quote. And I'll tell you why, because either they have never understood or they have lost sight of the grandeur of the gospel. Here's the quote again. "To convert one sinner from his way is an event of greater importance than the deliverance of a whole kingdom from temporal evil."

Now, you must understand that Smeaton was not suggesting that the issues of temporal evil were irrelevant, or that they should not be engaged in by the Christian community. Surely they must. For the Christian is about good news and good deeds. Good deeds foreordained for us to do as it says in Ephesians 2. But Smeaton is introducing proportionality to the thing. And if he were speaking in contemporary terms, he might say something like this: "To convert one sinner from his way or from her way is an event of greater importance than the deliverance of Sub-Saharan Africa from the problem of AIDS."

You see, that's where it really bites now, isn't it? To convert one sinner from their ways. Why do you think it was that Jesus went to individuals? Why is it that Jesus apparently and purposefully goes out of his way for encounters with individuals?

Well, I think because Smeaton's quote is right. And in John chapter 3, you have this encounter with a religious individual, with a man of some standing, of stature in the community. And then you turn into John chapter 4, as we've done now, and you find that the encounter is with somebody from, if you like, the opposite end of the spectrum. In three it's a man, in four it's a woman. In three, he's religious and has some stature in the community. In four, she is apparently irreligious, and her standing in the community is questionable.

And what is the fulcrum if you like? What is the pivot point in between three and four? Well, let me suggest to you that it is the 16th verse of John chapter 3, and maybe the 17th as well. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only son."

These verses are absolutely foundational to the whole development of John's Gospel, and I suggest to you, are the very foundational pivot point in between these two encounters. If you want to put it in a more personalized terms, then you could say that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the woman at the well, but to save the woman at the well.

He didn't send him to the well simply that the woman would discover what a horrible wretch she was, but in order that she might discover what a wonderful Savior Jesus is.

Now, if we prize this kind of thing, then surely we ought to be ever increasingly committed to asking God the Father to make us more like his son Jesus, who was preoccupied with the Gospel. Jesus from the very beginning of his ministry is preoccupied with the Gospel. I will get back to John 4 here a moment, but I'm waggling the club a little on the tee, I admit that. And some of you say, "Why don't you hit the ball?" Well, I'll hit it in just a moment. Just a couple, just a couple more waggles. You remember, at the very beginning of the ministry of Jesus, we're told how he has performed these miraculous signs, people have brought the sick to him and the demon-possessed. The whole town, Mark says, has gathered at the door. Jesus has healed many of various diseases, he's driven out demons and so on.

And then Mark says that very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went into a solitary place where he prayed. And his companions, these fledgling disciples come and find him, and when they find him, they want him to know, "Jesus, last night was fantastic! Everyone is looking for you. Your mission is off to a tremendous start. I mean, the whole town was gathered outside the door, the crowds are here in droves. It's just ripe for the picking."

And Jesus replied, "Let's go somewhere else." What? Well, why would we go anywhere else? The market is ripe here. No, no. We need to go and open up other areas. Let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages.

Now, listen to this, so that I can preach there also, that is why I have come. Remember Luke 4, "He sent me to preach good news to the poor." So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. I resist the temptation to have another sidebar on the nature of preaching at this point in the 20th century. That will leave that for another day and another time. Let's get to John 4 before we run out of time in its entirety.

First of all, in fact, I have three points. Number one, the encounter. Number two, the impact. And number three, a lesson or two. First of all, the encounter. The encounter between Jesus and this lady. We didn't read it, and instead of listening in on the conversation as it is reported in the third person by John, I want to suggest to you that it might come across with a little more vibrancy if only we could have the lady here herself to tell it in her own words. Close your eyes, waggle your head twice, and then listen up.

It started out for me the way most days do, just a routine trip to the well. So you'd understand when I say that I was caught off guard, even by the presence of someone else there, and even more so when the individual proved to be a man. And then when he spoke to me, I found myself immediately recalling, I said, "Hey, we don't do that. You're a man, I'm a woman, kind of. And you are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan, and we don't really converse." But he aroused my curiosity because he created the sensation that I was the one in need of the water, although he was the one who was asking for a drink of water.

He just pointed to the well and he said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst again." Well, I said, "Sign me up for that," because I don't want to have to keep coming back to this well to draw water. And it was then, and right out of the blue, that he says to me, "Go call your husband and come back." Well, my first reaction was, "Which husband does he want me to call?" But all I could get out was, "I have no husband."

Well, you know, he didn't try and probe. In fact, it quickly became clear that he knew it all. And I immediately said to him, "I can see that you must be a prophet." And indeed, I started with a question about where you would go if you were worshiping God. Should you go where the Samaritans usually go, or should you go where the Jews go? Is it Gerizim or is it Jerusalem? And he quickly set all that aside. He said that really that wasn't the issue. In fact, the story was that God was seeking us.

Well, I said to him, "Let's just fold this up now. Why don't we wait until the Christ, the Messiah comes? He'll explain everything." And it was then, without so much as batting an eyelid, that he looked at me and he said, "That's me. The one speaking to you. I'm the Messiah." Well, just then all his friends came back, and I realized it was over. So I just I left my water pot. I left it right back there at the well, and I came back here as fast as I could. And I've come back right here to you, to my friends, and to my community. I've come right back to my town here. And I want to say to you, "Could this be the Messiah? Why don't you come out? Let you come out and meet him. He told me everything I ever did." That's the encounter.

Now we go to the impact. Back into the words of John as he recounts it for us. When you consider this woman's history of relationships, for her to reappear in the town shouting, "Come see a man," is ironic, isn't it? After all, that was the thing she was notorious for in the town. You know? "Who is this? The seventh man," shouted somebody. "She's on number seven now." Well, there was a sense in which he was on number seven, but this man was like no other man. This man was someone entirely different. And the impact of the encounter with the man is clearly seen as you look at your text. Verse 28, she issues the invitation. "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Do you think this might be the Messiah?" Verse 30, they came out of the town and made their way towards him. That you know, when you just read that routinely, you say, "Oh yeah, okay, so she said what about this?" And everybody started leaving the town. That's remarkable, isn't it?

I mean, why would you even listen to her in the first place? What what street cred does she have to have people put down their task for the day and to start walking out of the town? Makes you think of hymns like, "I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the word, creating faith in him." You know, when we've dreamt up all of our most strategic plans for evangelism, and when we've conceived of all that needs to be done necessarily, God just comes in and picks up a no-name lady at a well and says, "Look at this for evangelism."

Bob Lapine: I'm Bob Lapine. Does the thought of telling others about Jesus intimidate you? Tomorrow, we'll see how a simple request can open doors for Gospel opportunities.

The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the learning is for living.