Season of the Harvest
John 4:27-38 NLT
27Just then his disciples arrived. They were astonished to find him talking to a woman, but none of them asked him why he was doing it or what they had been discussing. 28The woman left her water jar beside the well and went back to the village and told everyone, 29"Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?" 30So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
31Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus to eat. 32"No," he said, "I have food you don’t know about."
33"Who brought it to him?" the disciples asked each other.
34Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. 36The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37You know the saying, `One person plants and someone else harvests.’ And it’s true. 38I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and you will gather the harvest."
I. “Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you!
John 4:35 NLT.”
A. Behold the harvest!
1. Jesus’ disciples were so preoccupied with their dinner that they missed their destiny! Christ had to instruct them that they were in the season of harvest.
2. Christ told them, “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” (v.35).
Satan, however, loves to try to get us to postpone our harvest efforts to a later date.
I will get when ___________ happens?
3. As Christians, we are entering a season of harvest. The Lord is showing each of us the pressing urgency of the harvest and those
He has prepared for us to reap into His kingdom.
B. "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.” (v. 34).
1. Christ’s life was consumed by the harvest. He was more preoccupied with souls than with a sandwich! In this passage of
Scripture, His disciples had brought Him something to eat, but He was not even interested in it.
2. The harvest must become our “food.” Pleasures, possessions, and positions can never satisfy. Seeing a person restored to God should be the driving passion of a Christian.
As parents, food means very little to us when one of our children is in need.
In the same way, nothing should be more important to us spiritually than seeing God’s lost children restored to Him.
3. The will of God is for “all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). He is not willing that “any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
Because the harvest is God’s will, doing the work of soul-winning brings the joy of being in the center of God’s will.
II. Lessons of gathering in the harvest (John 4)
A. The Lord sends the harvest (v. 6).
1. Christ was tired at noonday and sat down by a well. Along came a woman of questionable character who was probably drawing water outside the city because of her social status.
2. The Lord is sending you your specific harvest. Every day people who are in need are coming across your path. They might look fine on the outside, but they are dying on the inside. The key is to be sensitive to those contacts and not disregard them.
3. Philip found a eunuch, Jesus found Zacchaeus, Paul found a jailer, and Peter found Cornelius. Each of these is recorded in the Bible as being outside the kingdom of God, but, nevertheless, very important to Him.
B. You must not look on the outside of people (v. 9).
1. In Jesus’ day, Jews had no dealings with Samaritans, and men had no public dealings with women. Christ could have rejected contact with this woman, but He knew that God had sent her to Him.
2. So many times we consider gender, age, color, and status as we sift through the harvest. The Lord, however, wants us to stop “qualifying” people before we will minister to them.
We must look at each individual as a person God loves dearly and who has the potential to lead thousands to Christ.
C. You must move in the Spirit to reap the harvest (v. 16).
1. The Holy Spirit knew this woman’s marital background. Through a word of knowledge, Christ told her about her five previous husbands and her present live-in mate. His knowing this immediately opened the woman to the Gospel.
2. The Lord will give you the key to unlock every heart. For the woman, it was her relationships. The private pain and emptiness of each person exposes their need for “living water.”
Wait on the Lord for His revelation concerning a person you are ministering to.
D. Every soul you win is the key to hundreds of others (v. 28).
1. The Samaritan woman was the key to her city. She got so excited about being saved that she left her water pot. The excitement of a new convert is the key to evangelism.
2. The woman’s simple message to everyone was “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.” She was convinced that she had met the Messiah. The people of the city came streaming out, following her to Jesus.
3. The Ethiopian eunuch preached to his nation, the maniac of Gadara preached to ten cities, and Cornelius and the jailer led their households to Christ. Behind every new convert is a host of relationships.
E. A personal testimony has power to convert others (v. 39).
1. The woman’s testimony became the point of faith for many of her neighbors. A changed life is all that you need; your testimony is the key to your harvest.
2. The testimony brought in some, and then the Word brought in others (v.41). Bringing a person to hear the preaching of the Word is just as important as giving your testimony.
F. Every person must be consolidated (v. 40).
1. “Two more days” was what the Lord Himself gave to these new converts. The mentality of our day, however, is to win them and forget them. Christ, however, looked at each new believer as a person who needed to be grounded in the Word of God.
2. In our Encounter Retreats, we give new converts “two more days” of ministry. Christ is our example of effective consolidation.
G. Everyone must be involved in the harvest (vv. 36–38).
1. “He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life.”
Your harvest is your eternal reward. That is why you must be urgent concerning the harvest. The souls you gather in now will determine how God will pay out your eternal wages.
2. “One sows and another reaps.” You will not “harvest” every person you meet. Sometimes you will “sow,” and another will “reap.” Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Cor. 3:6–8 NKJV).
• God is serious about the Harvest that is ready!!
• He is urging people everywhere to get their lives right.
• Then for everyone to get active in the harvest.
• There are people whose hearts the Holy Spirit is preparing to receive Jesus that work right next to you.
• If this was so important to Jesus that He died for it, how important should it be to us?
