Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Dial In - John 4:27-42 (Ep. 10)

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

Dial In is a devotional series with the intention of helping followers of Christ understand God’s word and love Him more. Jonny seeks to communicate the profound depth of scripture in a digestible and condensed format each weekday. The goal of the podcast is that our “minds would be renewed” as we behold who God is in His word. In this series, Jonny is walking sequentially through the Gospel of John.In this episode, Jonny covers John 4:27-42 and highlights 3 essential truths:The Providence of Jesus ChristThe Purpose of Jesus ChristThe Purpose of a Christ followerWatch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hi, my name is Johnny Artavanis, and this is Dial In. Today we are back in Samaria, and we're going to be looking at the second half of the story that takes place there. The gospel writer John is dead set on communicating his gospel's purpose, which is to show that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that he is the Savior, not just of the Jews, but of the entire world. Our passage today is John chapter 4, verses 27 through 42. Let's dial in.

John chapter 4, verses 27 through 42. Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, What do you seek? Or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. 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. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.

Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days. I love this passage, and there's so much that we could talk about, but I'm going to focus on three main things. Number one is the providence of Jesus Christ. Verse 27 says, just then his disciples came back. And that literally means at that exact moment is what it's saying. And so in order to understand that moment, we have to look back to verse 26,

where Jesus for the first time is declaring his identity to another individual, that he is the Messiah. And the disciples walk up to this well, and they're surprised and confused to see a man talking to a woman, a rabbi talking to an outcast, and a Jew talking to a Samaritan. And Jesus is just wrapping up this conversation with this socially invisible, guilt-ridden, shameful Samaritan. And she leaves from there, not ridden with shame, guilt-ridden, shameful Samaritan. And she leaves from there not ridden with shame but with much joy

because she has just heard the news that she can partake in the living water of Jesus Christ. This is such a neat passage. But maybe you're wondering, what does this have to do with the providence of Jesus Christ? Well, let's go back to verse 4 of chapter 4. It says there that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. I said last time that Jesus was on a mission. Everything was being orchestrated by a divine timetable that he was on. And one of the elements of God's power and Jesus' power that's displayed in the gospel

is his providence, which means that God not only knows everything going on in human history and every thought going on in every human head, but he also is orchestrating every event like a grand symphony that is working together towards his great purpose. He shows up at this well after a 20-mile walk at the exact same time as this woman who's trying to be alone. He dismisses the disciples on the way to go get lunch so that he can have an uninterrupted conversation with this woman. And the disciples do not return until the exact moment that he pronounces his identity. Jesus is the composer of all of creation. There are no rogue molecules under his domain. Multiple times throughout the gospel, we will hear Jesus say, my hour has not yet come because no one is forcing his hand. He is not reacting to anything.

He is ordaining everything. Even today, nothing catches Jesus by surprise. This is one of the great comforts and consolations of a Christ that we see in this passage. The disciples come back in verse 31, and they are urging Jesus to eat something. And then Jesus responds and says, And so the disciples in verse 33 are like, wait, where'd you get food? Did someone bring this guy a shawarma? Who brought you hummus? And Jesus responds and says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Jesus is alluding to something very, very significant here. Jesus gets his strength, his joy, and his satisfaction from declaring the water of life

that is available to lost sinners. When he gives himself wholeheartedly to the work of his Father, the Father pours back life into his soul. The sustenance that Jesus craves the most is the sustenance that can only come from God. Yes, obviously throughout the Gospels, we're going to see a human element of Jesus, that he's hungry, that he's thirsty, that he cries at the death of a friend, that he naps on a boat. But what we see here is that although he is in human form, what sustains him is doing the work of his father. Jesus is revealing here that the more that he exerts doing the father's will, the more energized he feels. The purpose of Jesus Christ is this.

Luke 19, 10, Jesus came to seek and save the lost. John's purpose for writing this gospel is that you would believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and have a life in his name. And we see both of those realities play out in the theme verse of this story. It's all building up into verse 42. We have found him, the Savior of the world. The Samaritans here believe that Jesus is the Christ, and they submit to Jesus as Savior.

This whole story is pointing towards the reality that Jesus is the savior of the world. Likely, that is why Jesus here proclaims his identity as the Messiah for the first time, not to the religious elite, not to a Pharisee, not to a scribe, not to a priest, not even to a Jew, but to a lost Samaritan, someone who the Jews would have thought was outside the purposes of God. But Jesus is highlighting and reinforcing something here. He came to save the world. John 1.9, there was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man. John 1.29, the testimony of John the Baptist, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John 3.16, for God so loved the world. Even looking back to the Old Testament, Isaiah 45, 22, all the ends of the earth must turn to him and be saved. There is no other God in all of creation. Jesus is reinforcing this. He is not just the Savior of the Jews. He is the Savior of the world. Acts 4, 12, there is salvation in no other name under heaven by which we might be saved.

The Jews thought Jesus would be the savior of Israel and free them from the reign of Rome. No, Jesus came to be the savior of the world and free the world from the reign of sin. He is the savior of the world and he is the only savior for the world. The purpose of Christ here is linked to that which gives him the greatest joy and that is the salvation of lost sinners. Hebrews says that he does all of this in the gospel for the joy that was set before him. This is his greatest joy and his clearest purpose. He came to be the savior of the world. And lastly, the purpose of a Christ follower is to be linked to the purpose of Christ.

This is a sign of rebirth, a sign of true salvation. Those who have been saved by God want to proclaim what God has done in their life to those around them. 1 Peter 2 9, we were saved in order that we might proclaim the excellencies who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, in order that we would proclaim what God has done. And here, this woman leaves the well, leaves her water jug behind, and goes back to the people she was scorned by and begins to proclaim that she has found the Christ. We overthink evangelism at times, but what we see over and over again in the scripture is that when someone recognizes their sin and believes in their Savior,

they can't help but tell other people about it. Paul, before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, always starts to preach by declaring what God has done in his own life. The demon-possessed man at the Gennesaret in Mark 5, Jesus tells him, go back to your own people and tell them the great things the Lord has done for you and how God has had mercy on you. This is the exact same way it should work today. The redeemed of God declaring what God has done in their life. This woman was so excited. She wanted to share her discovery.

She had found the Savior and she couldn't wait. Jesus says to the disciples in verse 35, lift up your eyes. Don't you see that it is right for harvest? He's not talking about farming and agriculture here. He's talking about a harvest for the gospel. He's telling them this woman that I was speaking with is already going to sow the gospel in her own community. Lift up your eyes. There are many who need to hear this message that the living water of Jesus Christ can be found. He's telling them to be on watch for

gospel sowing opportunities. I love this. He says, see that the fields are white for harvest. What do you think this means? What's he referring to here? Well, I think he's referring back to verse 30, where it says that the woman goes back to her village and the people were coming out to meet him. So the Middle Eastern villagers dressed in white often are coming to meet them. And Jesus is saying to them, you don't have to search far and wide for gospel opportunities. Lift up your eyes. Do you see them right in front of you? We see that in Matthew, the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. Jesus is saying, don't you see gospel sowing opportunities are right in front of you and the workers are few. He's asking his disciples to look on the world with the eyes that he himself does,

who's moved with compassion and is distressed and dispirited by the lost. All of the redeemed have a purpose of global missions and local evangelism. We see in Romans 10, 17 that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. So Jesus is telling his disciples to lift up their eyes, to look around them and see the need for the gospel, and to go tell others. If we believe that God's grace is amazing and God's love is undeserved, and that all those apart from Jesus Christ are damned to hell, then isn't this also just the most logical response? We see here that God's big plan to

seek and save the lost is not put on the backs of merely preachers on Sunday, but on everyday men and women who have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, who desire to faithfully proclaim what God has done in their life through Jesus Christ. And if you are a Christian, you have a story of where you met God and what God has done in saving you. And Jesus looks at the disciples and says, the field is ripe for harvest. Go and tell others about the living water that only Jesus Christ can offer. I love the end of this story. It's amazing. It says that many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

And they say later on that it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we ourselves have heard and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. And so he is. So what do we look at today? Number one, the providence of Jesus Christ, that he is orchestrating all things

according to his grand purpose. Number two, the purpose of Christ to seek and save the lost. And number three, the purpose of a Christ follower to proclaim who Jesus is and what he has done in our own life. I love it. Stay dialed in.