Archive for month: May, 2015

In John 4, Jesus Christ met a woman from the city of Samaria who had come for water to the well where He was resting. When Jesus’s disciples returned to Him with food from the city, “they marveled that he was talking” with her (v. 27).

Why? Because it seemed evident that there was no common ground between the two. Nothing about her would have caused the disciples to think of her as a potential follower of Jesus. Surely Jesus could see this, too, so they couldn’t understand why He would spend time talking with her when He could be resting, or praying, or doing something more profitable with His time.

Let’s notice what Jesus did here and learn from His example.

Jesus looked upon the unloved. No one loved this woman. The many men in her life apparently hadn’t loved her; they had only used her. The other women didn’t love her, that’s why she was drawing water by herself in the heat of the day instead of going to the well in the evening with other women from the town.

Who in the regular routines of your life is unloved? You’ve never thought of him or her or them as being ready for the good news about Jesus, any more than the disciples thought of this woman (or she thought of herself) as being on the verge of conversion. But now you will.

Jesus looked upon the unlikely. No one was more unlikely than this woman and these Samaritans. For starters she was a woman. Rabbis in those days wouldn’t be seen talking with a woman in public, sometimes even their own wives or daughters, lest it be misconstrued by those who might see them talking. Supposedly there was a group known as the “Bruised Pharisees” who wouldn’t even look at a woman in public, but would close their eyes or turn their head. As a result they were always running into buildings, the corners of houses, and other stationery items.

Worse than that, this was an immoral woman. On top of that, she was a Samaritan woman. And all the people coming out of the city to Jesus were Samaritans. They were all unlikely prospects.

As you lift up your eyes, who in your fields would be considered too far from Jesus to be interested in hearing the message about Him? Who is someone unlikely to hear from many Christians because of their politics, or their views on abortion or homosexuality?

Jesus looked upon the unprepared. Who would’ve thought these Samaritans were prepared to hear from this Jewish rabbi?

The predecessor of Martyn Lloyd-Jones at London’s Westminster Chapel, G. Campbell Morgan, said on this text,

If those disciples had been appointed a commission of enquiry as to the possibilities of a Christian enterprise in Samaria I know exactly the resolution they would have passed. The resolution would have been: Samaria unquestionably needs our Master’s message, but it is not ready for it. There must first be plowing, then sowing, and then waiting. It is needy, but it is not ready.[1]

By contrast, Jesus says, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields.” Look on the unlikely and think, “Right now, these people don’t look like it, but God may have prepared some here to be ready to come to Christ right now.”

Who do you know in one of these three categories? Who do you know who is unloved, or unlikely, or unprepared, but could—like this woman—by the power of God, come to Christ right now?

We can believe that anyone—regardless of preparation or background—might be ready to come to Christ right now. That’s because it’s the power of God that opens people’s eyes. It is the power of God that gives people a readiness, even a sudden readiness, to hear the Gospel and believe. In one moment He can remove a heart of stone and give someone a heart for the Gospel that they have never had nor ever evidenced before that moment.

Because of the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel, we need to have the “right now” view about expecting anyone to come to Christ.

[1] As quoted in Leon Morris, Expository Reflections on the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990), 149.

I thrill to read of the 3000 saved when the Apostle Peter preached in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. I glory in reading of people coming in great numbers to Christ when George Whitefield, or Jonathan Edwards, or Charles Spurgeon preached. I believe such spiritual harvests actually happened as reported.

And I pray for and sincerely believe that there will come another day of spiritual harvests like these. But too often my difficulty is believing that such a response to the Gospel like that can happen right now.

This is exactly the problem Jesus addressed in John 4:35 when He said to His disciples, “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.”

Many Christians have the “not now” view about expecting to see people converted to faith in Christ.

The disciples’ mistaken attitude, as portrayed by Jesus, is revealed in their viewpoint, “There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest?”

• The “not now” view believes God has saved many in the past and will again in the future, but “not now.”

The disciples had seen God work through Jesus to touch lives in the past, and at this point in John 4 they had an incredibly optimistic view about what God was going to do in the future. But they didn’t expect Him to do anything at the moment. They were in Samaria. The enmity between Jews and Samaritans was little different then than between Jews and Palestinians today.

The disciples didn’t consider these Samaritans likely to be interested in their message about a Jewish Messiah. So the disciples weren’t thinking of a harvest here. They were between Judah in the south, where Christ had done great things in the past, and Galilee in the north, where Jesus would certainly do great things in the future. But they didn’t expect anything to happen in Samaria, at least not now.

I’m prone to the same kind of unbelief. My preacher-hero, Charles Spurgeon, described my lack of faith almost a century before I was born:

Many unbelieving Christians have a very large stock of reasons for not expecting to see many conversions. They suppose that any present manifestation of divine power in connection with the truth is not to be expected. They read the history of past ages and they wonder, and sometimes, when their eye is sufficiently clear, they look forward with some sort of hope to the repetition of these scenes in future years, that is to say, when they themselves are dead and buried, and a new age shall have come upon the world. But as to God working any wonders in the world now, as to the conversion of thousands now, they do not expect it; and if it were to happen they would be surprised, and beyond all measure astonished. They are for ever dwelling in the past, or seeking to roost in the future; but as for now, now seeing God’s arm made bare, now setting to work for the conversion of men, now expecting that God will win hearts unto Himself, they are not brought up to this mark yet. Their common reason for expecting nothing now is this; that there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. They say, “This is not the time; we must have patience; we must wait; this is not the man; this is not the hour; this is not the place; we must wait till, under other circumstances, other men being given, we look for grander results; but we must not expect them now; there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest.”[1]

We can believe God blessed better men and better preaching in the past, and we can long for the purity of doctrine and practice that was theirs. We can pray for a future day of reformation and revival such as our heroes of the past saw. But as for our own day, our own denomination, our own town, our own church, our own preaching, it’s so easy to unbelievingly think, “not now.”

• The “not now” view believes God sends only special harvest times, not a constant one.

Some think that Jesus wasn’t saying in John 4:35 that there will always be a ready harvest, but rather that there will be only special times of harvest, such as the one about to be seen among the Samaritans, who were approaching at that moment.

And we know by history and experience that there is some truth to this. There are “harvest seasons” which are often preceded by periods, sometimes long periods, of sowing and watering.

Samuel Stoddard, for example, the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards and the man Edwards came to assist in Northampton before assuming the pastorate there, spoke of periods of harvest. In Iain Murray’s biography of Edwards, he writes of Edwards describing his grandfather’s ministry saying, “[Stoddard] referred to five periods of special spiritual awakening–‘five harvests’, was his grandfather’s phrase–which saw ‘the conversion of many souls’.”[2] William Carey and Adoniram Judson certainly experienced this on the pioneer mission field.

But Jesus doesn’t seem to be teaching about taking advantage of a unique opportunity. To be willing to give the Gospel when people are standing in line for it is obvious. He’s teaching us that the “not now” view is not right. He wants us to come with the attitude that the fields—all fields, for “fields” is plural—are always white for harvest.

Certainly there will be times when we will see more of a harvest than at other times. But His point is that usually the problem is not with the harvest, the problem is with our view of the harvest. Too often our view is that a field–a person, a family, an area–is not ready for the Gospel. The problem is not with the harvest, the problem is with our eyes.

Instead of the “not now” view of the harvest, we need the “right now” view. I’ll write about that in the next post, God willing.

[1] C.H. Spurgeon, “Fields White for Harvest,” Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 13 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1867; reprint, Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1980), 457.

[2] Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), 88.