John 4:35-38 “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. 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.”
 
JESUS is excited! He’s joyful! Harvest has come to Sychar, Samaria. And it is not the harvest of wheat in the nearby fields; it is the harvest of souls into the Kingdom of God. Centuries of soul preparation and seeds of knowing God had been planted through the law and the prophets. Some of these seeds have now produced a first-fruits harvest in Samaria on this day. This is not a grim reaper of death that has come to Samaria. He is the reaper who gathers in his harvest of the redeemed. Revelation 14:15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”
   God had prepared this wayward people to receive his abundant grace. People are about to come to confess, “This man really is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42) Prophets had proclaimed the kingdom in Samaria. They had been killed, persecuted and ridiculed. Yet, God acted. He chose a few in this rebellious land to become his own. The Sovereign Lord has promised and planned. Now he harvests. The prophets’ work has not been in vain. The disciples benefited from others’ obedient kingdom planting of spiritual seeds. God has used some to prepare the soil, to plant the seed and now to harvest.
   This kingdom pattern is still God’s way. His church – the body of believers together and each one of us who confess Christ – is to respond to God’s purposeful direction to fulfill our role for the eternal harvest. Some of you are gifted to plant seeds – to invite people to church, to teach the Bible and tell of God. Others of you have skills in nurturing faith and encouraging new believers. Some of you are gifted to bring in the harvest – to welcome people into their confession of Christ as Savior.
   Yes, this was a joyful day for Jesus. His physical hunger was put aside as he happily watched the Father’s harvest of hungry, thirsty Samaritans to be born again into new life. The Father had prepared the soil. The Spirit had sown the seed. The Son harvested. Heaven became a sure home for God’s new children that day.
 
Prayer: Thank you, Lord for the harvest. I pray I will be an effective worker in your fields. Amen.

John 4:28-29 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
 
THE woman had come to the well for a bucket of water. She received “the spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14b) Suddenly she becomes urgent to leave behind the physical water to pour the hope of Living Water into her village, “Come see. Could this be the Christ?”
   Hope surely has suddenly sprung in her heart! Imagine the jolt to her soul, how dramatic change had so unexpectedly overwhelmed her. Her life has been one of strain and loss. She has had five husbands. Had they each died? Perhaps some had died, others had left her. Shame ruled her heart. She lived in the death of a pagan culture. Poverty and loneliness darkened her daily life. Physically and spiritually the woman at the well lived without expectation. Where was any cause for hope? Never would it be possible for life to be any different, any better.  
   Then suddenly, the Savior came. Miraculously hope filled her heart. The Christ had come! How long had her people anticipated “the Prophet” as Moses foretold in Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.  How impossible had it seemed that such a one would walk into Sychar, Samaria on a dry, dusty day. Surely no one would hear the Messiah speak to a lone woman at a well the great promise come true, “I who speak to you am he.” (John 4:26)  
   Yes, it’s true, isn’t it? “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27) When life’s circumstances bind us with burdens and worry, what can we do? We must believe and anticipate God’s love will come to us. He has stepped into our dry lives to say, “I am he, your God come to you.” Yes, that is our God. Lovingly he went to the “strangers” before he went to his home in Galilee. Tenderly he speaks to the most hopeless lives of that time to promise his gift of living water.
   God came that day to “refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” (Jeremiah 31:25) He came to encourage and transform. Hope burst into the woman’s heart. Her physical thirst was left behind. Her spiritual thirst was flooded with the Messiah’s grace, love and forgiveness.
   Do you need some hope today? Drink of Jesus. Hear his voice. Know his promises. Believe he will come to you, even into the dry places to wash you fresh and anew with his eternal hope.
 
Prayer. I pray, Spirit, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that (I) may know the hope to which (you have called me).” (from Ephesians 1:18). Amen.   
 
 

John 4:28-29 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
 
THE woman had come to the well for a bucket of water. She received “the spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14b) Suddenly she becomes urgent to leave behind the physical water to pour the hope of Living Water into her village, “Come see. Could this be the Christ?”
   Hope surely has suddenly sprung in her heart! Imagine the jolt to her soul, how dramatic change had so unexpectedly overwhelmed her. Her life has been one of strain and loss. She has had five husbands. Had they each died? Perhaps some had died, others had left her. Shame ruled her heart. She lived in the death of a pagan culture. Poverty and loneliness darkened her daily life. Physically and spiritually the woman at the well lived without expectation. Where was any cause for hope? Never would it be possible for life to be any different, any better.  
   Then suddenly, the Savior came. Miraculously hope filled her heart. The Christ had come! How long had her people anticipated “the Prophet” as Moses foretold in Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.  How impossible had it seemed that such a one would walk into Sychar, Samaria on a dry, dusty day. Surely no one would hear the Messiah speak to a lone woman at a well the great promise come true, “I who speak to you am he.” (John 4:26)  
   Yes, it’s true, isn’t it? “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27) When life’s circumstances bind us with burdens and worry, what can we do? We must believe and anticipate God’s love will come to us. He has stepped into our dry lives to say, “I am he, your God come to you.” Yes, that is our God. Lovingly he went to the “strangers” before he went to his home in Galilee. Tenderly he speaks to the most hopeless lives of that time to promise his gift of living water.
   God came that day to “refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” (Jeremiah 31:25) He came to encourage and transform. Hope burst into the woman’s heart. Her physical thirst was left behind. Her spiritual thirst was flooded with the Messiah’s grace, love and forgiveness.
   Do you need some hope today? Drink of Jesus. Hear his voice. Know his promises. Believe he will come to you, even into the dry places to wash you fresh and anew with his eternal hope.
 
Prayer. I pray, Spirit, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that (I) may know the hope to which (you have called me).” (from Ephesians 1:18). Amen.   

John 4:27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
 
ONE strong emphasis from John’s gospel and his epistles, 1, 2, 3 John, is God’s love. He wrote, “God so loved the world.” (John 3:16). He also defined our Lord as the essence of love in 1 John 4:16b God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. Love, too, is Jesus’ motivating power of discipleship: John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The three-time repetition of “Love one another here points to a fullness of meaning in the Hebrew language. There is no room for debate. Jesus commands love for one another as demonstration of your love for him.
   Do you want to know what that love looks like? Then begin here as Jesus ministers to the Samaritan woman at the well. You can see his love is personal as he talks with her. To us this conversation may not be special, but consider the disciples’ reaction: (They) were surprised to find him talking with a woman. Recall, also, how the woman responds to Jesus asking her for a drink of water: John 4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) There was a deep, hateful divide between the Jews and Samaritans. Jewish men did not talk to Samaritan men. They surely did not talk to Samaritan women.
   Jesus, though, was the Creator God come in the flesh to show us how to transform divisive hatred into “love one another”. He loved the woman so much he ignored the separating cultural rules. He lived into his command to love her because she was made in his image. Jesus sought to protect her, to deliver her from sin. She was vulnerable to evil, and the King wanted to release her from sin’s chains into his kingdom. Jesus loved the woman so much he talked with her! No human barriers can deflect godly love.
   Know this. Jesus has done the same for you. He has come through the Holy Spirit to talk to you. He has used such men as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter and Paul to write the gospels and epistles to speak personally to you. Good teachers, sound preachers and true friends have shown you Jesus’ personal love. He has loved one and another and another and another from creation until now to declare his love and forgiveness to those who love him in return.
   Jesus’ gift of life for the woman that day began with a conversation. He spoke to her because he wanted her to know, “I love you. I know your sin. I forgive you. Repent and live with me.”
   The disciples were surprised Jesus was talking to a woman. They should have been surprised, too, that he was talking to them, inviting them to, “Follow me.” The Holy God does not have to speak to his unholy creation. Yet, he has come to lovingly tell you the way to eternal life.  
 
Prayer: Thank you, God, for telling me, “I love you.” I pray I love one another to tell them, “God loves you.” Amen.

John 4:26 Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
 
ONE way John teaches us of Jesus is through eight “I am” statements Jesus speaks to define and describe his power as Savior.  They are, “I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Way, Truth and Life. I am the Light of the world. I am the Gate. I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the Bread of Life. I am Living Water. I am the True Vine.” These are living images of God’s eternal life.
   But let’s consider the one in this verse: “I who speak to you am he.” Or, “I am he.” This is not included in the “I am.” list.  Perhaps, though, this is one we should put first. Who does Jesus say he is when he confesses, “I am he”?   
   He’s Messiah, the one long expected. John conveys Jesus’ self-confession for two very important reasons. First for the Jewish reader, John again is separating Jesus from John the Baptist. Remember the prophet said in John 1:20b “I am not the Christ.” John the Baptist and John the apostle point to Jesus as the Savior. So should we.  
   Second, John uses this conversation between Jesus and the woman to teach us how to teach the gospel. Jesus is responding to the woman at the well in Sychar, Samaria. She had said to him in John 4:25 “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  When Jesus said, “I am he.” he is proclaiming the Savior has come. He reveals the good news of life, love, grace and forgiveness. The Lord wants the woman to know that God has fulfilled his promises to save. What better way to give authority to his message than to declare, “I am he, the Messiah, who has come to redeem Israel.”
   It’s true, isn’t it, that we can only know Jesus as the Light of the world, the Resurrection and the Life and the Good Shepherd if we know his as “Messiah, Savior, Lord of Life.” Jesus cannot be the Way and the Truth, the Bread of Life, the Gate, Living Water and the True Vine if we deny or compromise he is God in the flesh come to save.
   People need Jesus. They need a Savior – a Messiah to rescue them from the pit of Destruction into eternal life. Only the Messiah can light the path of life for the dark soul. Only the Messiah will close the gate against sin and death. Only the Living Water and Bread of Life will prepare your eternal feast of joy with him in heaven.
   Be a true good news evangelist. Tell people that there is no other name by which they will be saved. People need to know Jesus’ to know eternal life.
 
Prayer: Jesus, you are the Christ, the Messiah, sent to save. I pray I am eager and loving to tell your gospel. Amen.

John 4:25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
 
HERE is a remarkable confession. The woman at the well in Sychar, Samaria is a known adulteress. Jesus had just spoken his knowledge of her sin. The village women do not associate with her. And as a Samaritan her physical ancestry combines Israel and pagan bloodlines. She likely has been taught and experienced a mixture of idol worship and God worship. Yet, she confesses, “I know the Messiah is coming.” She expressed a faithful expectation of a Messiah to come and “explain everything to us”. Yet, she disobeyed God’s laws. Why, then, are her words out of line with her life?
   That’s the age-old question, isn’t it? Some would condemn her as a hypocrite – speak the truth, live a lie. Others would quickly accuse her for allowing worldly passions to rule over her love for God. Others would say, “Why does it matter? God loves her anyway.” Such ready condemnation or complete tolerance seem to be our common responses to sin.
   This, though, is not God’s response. Yes, our righteous Lord does condemn our sins. But he first plainly teaches us his laws and commands. Our all-knowing Lord is fully aware our words and actions will not naturally align. That’s why he graciously has a way to join our words with his commands, our hearts with his heart.
   Yes, Holy Scripture makes plain God’s commands and his condemnation of the unrepentant sinner. There is no general tolerance for sin. That’s why he graciously, then, declares his way of forgiveness. Hear these words from the first sermon of Jesus’ church. When the crowd asked in Acts 2:37b “Brothers, what shall we do?” regarding their sin against God, “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”  (Acts 2:38) Know God’s commands. Know your sin. Repent. Confess. Align your life with your words.
   The Samaritan woman knew enough of God to expect the Messiah’s arrival. Still, her heart needed cleansing, so she could live as her mouth confessed. She would also need to fully understand came for her eternal soul.
   As Jesus’ disciples, do you confess Christ? Does your life demonstrate your words? How do you reveal sin to others? Do not readily condemn nor completely tolerate sin. Model God’s grace to first teach God’s commands, so people know sin. When they ask, “What shall I do?”, clearly speak of God’s forgiveness. Urge people to repent. Guide them to align their life with God’s Holy Word.
    
Prayer: Teach me, Lord, to “Be very careful, then, how (I) live – not as unwise but as wise.” (Ephesians 5:15) Amen.