AND
YOU HAVE ENTERED INTO THEIR LABOR
To everything is a season and a time for
every purpose under heaven.
Ecclesiastes
3:1
Even though it looked like just another day to
everyone else, Noah knew that the time had come for him to take his family into
the ark. There came a time for the Israelites to go over and take the Promised
Land. And because they failed to move when that time came, that generation died
in the wilderness. The times and the seasons that lie ahead of us are not for
us to know. But God expects his people to know the time in which they live.
When you see a cloud rising in the west you
say at once, a shower is coming, and so it happens. And when you see the south
wind blowing you say, there will be scorching heat, and it happens. You
hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why
do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Luke
12:54-57
There is no lack of people who dabble in Bible
prophecy. They love to speculate about which politician is going to be the
Antichrist, or how long it will be before the armies of Gog sweep down from the
north against Israel. They sit in their armchairs and draw maps and diagrams of
the end times and dream about being raptured.
When our Lord tells us to interpret the signs and know
the meaning of the hour in which we live, it's not so that we can play Bible
games in our living rooms and send out warning videos on social media. He tells
us so that we can fit into God's program, so that we can do
the things that need to be done. What's the point of knowing it's going to
rain if you don't get into the ark?
It's all very well to know that we're living in an
hour of judgment... But if we aren't ordering our lives as men and women who
are living in an hour of judgment, then, when judgment really begins to fall,
we are as vulnerable and useless as the people who never knew.
And it's all very well to know that we're living in a
time of harvest... But if we never take a step toward those harvest fields,
what good is our knowledge or our warnings? They will rise up
and condemn us.
The five foolish virgins in Matthew 25 knew that it
was the time of the Bridegroom’s coming. They were absolutely right to go out to meet the bridegroom.
But they never got around to translating their
knowledge of the hour into real living, so they weren't able
to sustain that hope while the bridegroom delayed,
and their lamps went out.
There are lots of people who, years ago, were singing
“we'll see the face of Jesus” with tears running down their cheeks. They had a
clear sense of the time... They knew the hour was late... They knew the
Messiah’s coming was near... And if he had come right away, they would have
been all set. But they didn't have any oil in their lamps. They couldn't
sustain that consciousness of the time they were living in. Now they're running
all over the place trying to find oil for their lamps.
The words that Jesus spoke to his disciples by that
well in Samaria have a special application for the church on earth at this
hour.
Jesus
is saying to his disciples, “Don't you
understand what time it is? Can't you read the obvious signs? You say there are
yet four months then comes the harvest!... Open your eyes, harvest time is already here!
Don't
look at the fields, look at the people!... Look at them...Look at them….
they're ripe!... people just waiting to be reached for the Kingdom.”
“Why master, isn't that interesting. It
reminds me of a book I just read on missions... very stimulating. As a matter
of fact, Lord, everything you said about the harvest ties in with what brother
Barnabas was saying at Bible study last week. What a wonderful thing to be
living at this crucial hour! I'm going to go straight home and write a song
about it.”
Jesus had just harvested A Samaritan woman for the
Kingdom of God. What a joy to see this woman's heart melt and open and reach
out for the things of God … .One soul turning from
darkness to light. And now here she comes with a crowd of people whose hearts
want whatever it is that Jesus gave to her.
They have
to be harvested!
Don't talk about it…. don't sing about it…. don't read books about it...
don’t bemoan social decay on social media.... don't just endlessly pray about
it…
… do it!
This is exactly the situation
in which the church finds itself at this hour. The time in which we now live is
harvest time. For all their confusion, their hostility, their cynicism about
churchianity…
People are searching for the
Christ their inmost hearts tell them must exist somewhere...
People are waiting for the
truth to come and speak to them.
Don't say “We still have four months”….lift up your eyes. Don't
say, “We need more time to prepare,” ….We don't
have any more time to prepare...
The harvest is already here.
1. Jesus dealt with her
personally.
He didn't say, “Madam, see if you can round up a
church full of people for me to preach to. After all, I'm Jesus of Nazareth...
I don't have time to mess with ones and twos.” Jesus dealt with this woman as
if she were the only living soul on earth. He wasn't in a hurry... he wasn't
impatient... He didn't try to cram it down her throat. He took her seriously!
And God isn't keeping score of how many souls you are
instrumental in saving. God is interested in whether you really care about that
one person he sends across your path today.
2. Jesus offered her life.
“Lady you’re a sinner and if you don't change your
ways you're going to go to hell!”... none of that. She
knew that already. Jesus said, “Ask me, and I'll give you living water.” That's what we have for those fainting ones
out there... living water to satisfy forever the thirst of their inmost
hearts.
“If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to,
you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”.
John 4:10
And
people will come to that living water that flows from your heart and be brought
to life. You're not going to be standing there holding an empty bucket. You go
out there offering living water and God will give that living water...
God will make it flow.
People will come to you and say, “Give me this water,”
and God himself will answer their prayer by bringing them into living communion
with Jesus himself.
3. Jesus manifested God's
presence to this woman.
When Jesus is
through talking to this lady, she knows more clearly than she ever knew before
that God really does know everything about her... it's awesome! And she knows
that God desires her worship. And that's exactly what will happen to the people
we minister to in the name of Christ... they will suddenly realize that God
does know them, and that God does want their worship.
Once there was this little old man who kept walking by
us down on Woodward Ave. Every time he swears and says
“Don’t come around here with those fairy tales….there
is no God!” But he keeps coming back. What that man's heart is saying is,
“Please tell me that God does know me... please tell me
that God does want me... please keep telling me these things until I
know them once more.”
4. Jesus so blessed this woman
that she had to share it with others
Come see a man who told me all I ever did! Is not this the Christ?
John
4:29
When Jesus sends us out to harvest, He equips us to
touch their lives in such a way that they will be unashamed to admit they have
been touched by the Christ. If my drinking problem has suddenly ended … if my
depression has lifted... if that load of guilt has vanished from my mind... if
that sickness has gone from my body... if that prison door in my circumstances
has blown open, do you think I'm going to be ashamed to give Jesus the credit?
People will start giving God glory as
they experience his grace through your ministry.
One more thing to remember: when Jesus sent the
disciples out he made clear to them that they hadn't
prepared those fields for harvesting. They hadn't planted any seed... they
hadn't weeded and cultivated. This was all done by other people. The disciples
were being sent to enter into the labors
of others who had worked so hard, who had shed their blood to prepare that
harvest.
I sent you to reap that for which you did not
labor.
Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.
John
4:38
So it is with us. We aren't starting some new
thing. How ridiculous for believers who are seeing some results to think that
they've started something new. “Come and see what we've got going here... we
know how to do it!”
What an insult to those whose labors prepared the soil
long ago... what an affront to the Lord whose blood and Spirit alone make it
possible. Others have labored and we have entered into
their labors.
We have entered into the
labor of our Lord himself who won the battle on the cross and is now sending us
out with the news of his victory.
We have entered into the
labors of countless brothers and sisters in Israel and in the church... little
old ladies... eccentric men... solitary watchmen...forgotten servants of God
who prayed and gave themselves to prepare the earth for this hour.
Yes, these sowers are with
the Lord right now... they've been praying and waiting to see this day and they
are rejoicing as we go out and minister to lives that they prepared long ago.
Soon, sowers
and reapers will be rejoicing together, face to face before the throne.
Meanwhile, the harvest is there... it's ripe!...
verily bending over in readiness.
God help us to interpret this hour.
God grant that it may be our meat and drink to
do the will of Him who sent us and to accomplish His work.
God anoint us all with a double portion, yes,
a measureless portion of His Spirit as we go out there and reap.
He who
reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life,
so that
the Sower and Reaper may rejoice together.
John
4:36