Introduction:
A. I like the story of the policeman who pulled a lady driver over and asked for her license.
1. After looking at her license, he said, “Lady, it says here that you should be wearing glasses.”
2. The woman answered, “Well, I have contacts.”
3. The policeman replied, “I don't care who you know! You're getting a ticket!”
B. Having clear vision and clear understanding can be a real challenge.
1. Take a look at these four pictures. Can you pick out the two images in each of them?
2. What do you see on the top left? (a saxophone player or a woman’s face)
3. What do you see on the bottom left? (a face or the word “liar”)
4. What do you see on the top right? (a duck or a rabbit)
5. What do you see on the bottom right? (the face of a Native American or the back of an Eskimo)
C. Do you have trouble with your vision?
1. Are you "near-sighted" or "far-sighted"?
2. Nearsighted people are unable to see far away objects, while farsighted people are unable to see nearby objects.
3. Most people over the age of 50 are far-sighted which means they can’t see things up close and require reading glasses.
4. I started needing reading glasses in my 30s, so I started very early.
5. Then a few years ago I realized that far away things were starting to get blurry for me.
6. I had developed a near-sighted condition, in addition to my far-sighted condition, so now I have bifocals.
7. Being both far-sighted and near-sighted is an aggravating, but bearable condition.
8. But what happens if a church becomes spiritually near-sighted, it is more than aggravating: it is a tragedy!
D. Jesus gives us a “vision check” in our scripture reading for today – can we pass it?
1. Verse 35 reads: “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest!”
2. What did Jesus mean by that? What kind of vision test is this?
E. Many years ago a Polish anthropologist named Alicja Iwanska visited the American southwest, and studied the values of the ranchers she met there.
1. She was interested in their "worldview"; that is, the mental concepts they used to understand their world.
2. She learned that when the ranchers looked around at their world, in their minds they divided what they saw into three categories: Landscape, machinery, and people.
3. Landscape included the distant mountains, the trees, the scenery, the environment.
a. Landscape was something you look at, and you enjoy, but you felt no particular interest in it and had no emotional connection to it.
4. The category of machinery included not only tractors and combines but livestock as well.
a. This category was more important, because it was valuable to their way of life.
b. The ranchers polished their machines and carefully cared for them; they valued their cattle and took a real interest in them, because things that belonged to the category of machinery were vital to the ranchers’ livelihood.
5. The last category was people: this included the neighbors who came in for a cup of coffee, the folks who cooperated in a time of need or emergency.
a. People were the human beings you grew up with, lived and died with, had business and social contacts with.
F. All of this sounds straightforward enough, but what really made her study fascinating was that Iwanska’s research revealed, in the rancher's worldview not all human beings were put in the "people" category.
1. The local Native Americans, for example, belonged to the "landscape" category.
a. To the ranchers, they were part of the scenery.
b. It was common for the ranchers to go sightseeing on a Sunday afternoon, driving down to the reservation to look with curiosity at the Indian communities.
2. The Mexican migrant workers, on the other hand, belonged to the mental category of “machinery.”
a. The ranchers valued the migrant workers in the way they valued a cow or a good fuel pump, for their productivity.
b. If a Mexican got sick or old, he would be discarded much like an old car.
[Source: quoted by William A. Smalley in Practical Anthropology, Vol. 5, No. 5, 1958- p. 701].
G. When we consider her research it helps us more clearly understand what Jesus was saying when he told the disciples to “Look at the fields.”
1. It is possible in our everyday life to “see” people without really seeing them as people worth caring about and who are in need of a Savior.
H. Consider the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4.
1. The text emphasizes three times that this Samaritan woman was an unlikely prospect!
a. First, she was a Samaritan (Verse 9)!
b. Second, she was a woman (Verse 27)!
c. Third, she was not even a respectable Samaritan woman! (Verse 16-18) – Elizabeth Taylor had nothing on this lady.
2. But in spite of all that, Jesus “saw” her: that is, he recognized she was a person who was worthy of his time and attention; that she was spiritually receptive; and most of all, that she had an eternal soul!
3. In fact, even though she was one of the most unlikely “prospects” Jesus ever encountered, he not only demonstrated a concern for her soul but he also paid her the very great compliment of not talking down to her.
4. On the contrary, Jesus discussed serious theological issues with this woman, such as the nature of God, and of worship, and of the New Covenant!
5. All of us have “blind spots” that can prevent us from truly “seeing” people as people.
6. In fact, in order to reach out to this woman Jesus had to overcome three types of evangelistic near-sightedness.
I. Three Types of Evangelistic Near-Sightedness
A. First of all, we can have Geographical Near-sightedness.
1. Some churches miss the big picture because they only focus on the lost who live near them.
2. Most Jews avoided Samaria, because they considered the Samaritans to be religiously “unclean,” and a pious Jew would rather take a long and tedious detour around the region than risk having to associate with them.
a. But John tells us in Verse 4 that Jesus “had to go through Samaria.”
3. In a strictly literal sense, that wasn’t quite true – because Jesus could have taken a route around Samaria.
a. But as we continue reading the story, we see how that statement takes on a deeper meaning.
b. We learn that Jesus “had” to go through Samaria for a very good reason: because he knew he would find lost people there, people who would be receptive to the message of eternal life.
4. This is one of the great missionary stories of the Bible.
a. Churches always run the risk of becoming “near-sighted” when it comes to missions.
b. What is the expression we sometimes use? “Out of sight, out of mind?”
5. The greatest burst of mission activity occurred right after World War II.
a. GI's came back home, put down their rifles, picked up their Bibles, and headed back overseas!
b. What sparked their enthusiasm? Because of their stint in the service they had been overseas for the first time, and had seen the fields!
6. Jesus taught the principle of receptivity: go where the harvest is!
a. Yet so many churches today are "near-sighted"; so wrapped up in their own local problems and projects, they can't "see" the marvelous things God is doing around the world!
b. Missions is not an option – it is a core value and central to our identity. God can't bless a near-sighted, selfish church!
7. I am thankful this congregation has been involved in mission works around the world for many years.
a. We have supported the work in Cameroon for around 30 years.
b. We supported a young lady on a mission team in Prague, until she came home to the U.S.
c. We supported the Zito family in Italy, until they came home to the U.S.
d. We have sent many people on short term mission trips to places like Honduras, Russia, and China, just to name a few.
e. Other members of the congregation have been involved in teaching people around the world through World Bible School.
8. We don’t ever want to become geographically “near-sighted” and miss the big picture: that Jesus wants us to take the gospel to the whole world.
B. Second, we can have Racial Near-sightedness.
1. Some churches miss the big picture because they only focus on the people who look like them.
a. We have racial tensions in our society today, but nothing like that which existed between the Jews and Samaritans in the first century! (Unless you understand that, you won't grasp the point of the parable of the "Good Samaritan"!)
2. It is a bit puzzling that the apostles had this particular "vision impairment," because they had heard Jesus give the Great Commission.
a. They were standing with him on that mountain when the Lord said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:18-19).
b. “All nations” seems clear enough, don’t you think?
3. Not only that, but Mark records these words of Jesus: "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:15-16).
a. “all the world and all creation” – that seems to cover the bases, doesn’t it?
4. The apostles had heard the Great Commission, they knew they were given that worldwide mission mandate, and so what did they do? They promptly settled down in Jerusalem, and didn't budge.
a. It would be a while before they began to fan out through Judea and Samaria, and then only because a persecution broke out and scattered them against their will (Acts 8:1).
b. And even then they only shared the gospel with Jews – it literally took an act of God to shake them out of their complacency, requiring divine intervention before anyone ever thought about preaching to a Gentile (Acts 10).
c. They heard the Great Commission – but somehow they still didn't see the fields!
5. When Jesus said in verse 35: “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest!” He was indicating that the apostles were racially near-sighted!
a. They were standing among Samaritans, but they saw no people to be evangelized.
6. We don’t want to miss the “big picture” – that God loves the whole world, and Jesus wants us to take the gospel to all nations and all races!
C. Third, we can have Moral Near-sightedness.
1. Churches miss the big picture when they only focus on the people who are already morally living like them.
a. Let's be honest: this Samaritan's woman’s life was a mess!
b. And I sometimes wonder, if I had been there with the Samaritan woman, would I have spoken to her about the gospel?
c. Would I have invited her to our church?
2. We learn from the gospels that the religious leaders in the first century were definitely morally “near-sighted.”
a. They criticized Jesus severely for associating with “sinners.”
b. Look at Luke 5:29-32, 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
3. Some churches have adopted the old motto of the Marines: “We’re looking for a few good men.”
a. By that I mean that some churches are only interested in reaching out to the fine, upstanding, respectable members of the community – folks who seem to already have it all together and appear to just need a little “touching up.”
b. Well, I am thankful whenever fine, upstanding folks walk through our doors, and God certainly loves them also.
c. But there are two temptations we must avoid:
1. First, we must avoid “Recruiting” instead of converting: Romans 3:23 tells us “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
a. No matter how good and moral someone is, until they repent and put their faith in Jesus, they are lost and need to be saved.
2. Second, we must avoid “Ignoring” any sincere seeker just because they’ve had a rough past.
a. James warns us in his little letter to be careful not to show favoritism toward the wealthy or upstanding from the world who visit our congregation. (James 2).
b. We don’t want to roll out the red carpet for some and lock the doors on others.
4. As you know, more and more in our culture, people’s lives are a mess and if we are truly committed to reaching those people, it can make for a “messy” ministry and a “messy” church.
a. But isn’t that what it’s all about? Hospitals are for sick people, and the church is for sin-sick people!
b. It is difficult to overcome those barriers, but how can we do it with God’s help?
II. Three Ways to Overcome Our Evangelistic Near-Sightedness
A. First, Realize that Nothing was More Important to Jesus Than Outreach!
1. Look again at John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
2. Evangelism – mission work – was just as essential to Jesus as eating!
3. Reaching the lost was his “meat and potatoes.”
4. Jesus wants everyone to be saved – to have the opportunity to hear the good news.
5. When Jesus went to the home of the lost tax collector named Zacchaeus and helped him find salvation, He summarized His mission, saying, “For the son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)
6. If our goal is to be His disciples and His church, then we have to make evangelism our central mission, individually and collectively.
B. The Second Way to Overcome Our Near-Sightedness is to Realize that there are Many Opportunities Around Us if We will Open Our Eyes to Them.
1. Look again at verse 35, “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.’ ”
2. Matthew's gospel reminds us that Jesus had his eyes “open”: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:36-38)
3. Because Jesus had his eyes “open,” he saw an opportunity that most would have missed, and as a result the entire Samaritan village was saved.
4. We are given that same mandate today:
5. Colossians 4:5-6 says, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
6. Do we “see” the lost around us?
7. Do we see those at school, or work, or in the neighborhood who need Jesus?
8. Do we see those who visit our congregation, perhaps looking for God?
9. Are we making the most of every opportunity?
C. The Third Way to Overcome Our Near-Sightedness is to Realize that God is Already at Work Ahead of Us.
1. Look again at John 4, verses 36-38, 36 “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. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 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.”
2. These verses are telling us that God is already touching the hearts of people all around us.....making them receptive....preparing the soil. God creates the hunger – it is up to us to supply the meal!
3. One of the greatest examples of this is encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch that God orchestrated in Acts 8.
4. That story teaches us that the people God brings us into contact with are almost always already thinking, asking questions, and searching for God.
5. From our perspective this Samaritan woman was an unlikely prospect, but she turned out to be ripe for the gospel because God had been preparing the soil.
Conclusion:
A. Look at what happened because Jesus was not near-sighted: 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
B. In a sermon entitled “The Weight of Glory,” British author C.S. Lewis talks about the worth of human beings, who have an eternal soul: “It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, of my neighbor's glory should be on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken........
All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations (i.e., heaven or hell). It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealing with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." [Source: The Weight of Glory, 1980, p. 18-19].
1. Every person has an immortal soul, and our interaction with every person has immortal consequences.
C. Let me conclude with a few poignant questions for all of us.
1. When was the last time you had a spiritual conversation with someone where you tried to probe with them about their relationship with God?
2. When was the last time you invited someone to come to church with you?
3. When was the last time your efforts led to someone becoming a Christian?
D. If the answer to those questions is “a long time,” then don’t you think it is about time?
1. It’s time for change and challenge.
2. It’s time to open our eyes and open our mouths.
3. It’s time to allow God to use us to bring in the harvest.
4. Let’s not be a near-sighted church that does not clearly see the harvest around us.
5. With God’s help, let’s see the people and reach out to them.
6. One month from today is our annual Friend Day – why not begin asking God exactly who you should invite? Ask God who He is preparing, or who He will begin preparing.
Resource:
This sermon is based on Dan Williams’ sermon “The Near-Sighted Church.”
