Daily Dose of the Word of God - John 4: 27-42

Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor

Transcript

Gregg DeMey  0:07  

Good Morning and welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose of the Word of God. It's Thursday, January 29th and we are starting this year with a spotlight on Jesus with the apostle John as our guide. And we're reading today from John 4, verses 27 through 42.

Gregg DeMey 0:24  

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?”  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 Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward 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. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a 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.

Gregg DeMey  2:14  

There has been quite a bit of food and drink in this passage, right? First, Jesus speaks of springs of living water, by which he means eternal life and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. And now in this later conversation, it turns to food. And Jesus says, his sustenance, his food, is to do the will of God and to finish God the father's sacrificial redemptive work. This coming Sunday, it's awesome that we get to come to Jesus' table for communion at which there is food and drink to nourish us. One second observation about the end of this passage in John 4 is that the Samaritan woman becomes the most natural evangelist in the world. She creates interest simply by going back to her hometown and telling her friends, "there's this amazing guy who has a prophetic gift and he has revealed things about me and seems to know everything that I've done!" And then the people come out. It's not just her testimony, but their own direct experience with Jesus shows them that he really is the Savior of the world. Friends, what better outreach could we do than that? Simply by telling our story and creating some interest in the one who knows us and loves us and has done so much for us.

Gregg DeMey 3:41  

Let's pray, Oh God, we ask that today you will fill us again anew with living water, that we might be born again by your Spirit and that you will satisfy us with the good food of doing acts of service and kindness. In Jesus name, amen.