Well, turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 4. John chapter 4.

As we have seen in our study of John’s gospel, John does have a purpose for writing this book. And we’ve looked at this several times, but it is worthy of reminding ourselves that in John chapter 20, the end of the book, in verse 31 of that chapter, John specifically says that these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. They’ve been written so that we may believe these things. So John is telling us that he, in writing this book, is trying to prove who Jesus is, that He is the Christ, that He is the Son of God. And he is doing that by telling us of how Jesus himself showed himself to be those things, both in what he said and what he did. John is trying to relay to us the glory of Jesus that he was witness to.

We read in John 1, verse 14, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And not only that, John says, we beheld his glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. We saw the glory of Jesus and it was the very glory that proved he was from the Father. That’s who this Jesus is. John had beheld his glory and he wants us to behold it as well. And we’ve seen over and over that Jesus keeps revealing this glory, this evidence that he must be from the Father. But we’ve also seen over and over, and we will continue to see over and over, that people are blind to it. People are blind to the glory of Jesus. Because another consistent theme throughout John’s Gospel is the spiritual blindness of the people.

We see the utter inability to see the glory of God. And we ourselves have the utter inability to see God’s glory without Him opening our eyes to see it. So again, John shows us the spiritual blindness that Jesus deals with in all people. And it’s either because we’re dead in our sin and we haven’t been awakened and regenerated to spiritual life yet, and we’ve seen that already, but sometimes, as we’ll see today, sometimes it’s because as believers our spiritual eyes have been dimmed or we’re distracted by things in our own lives or in the world that keep us from seeing the very glory of God. So far in this gospel, we’ve seen four obvious examples of spiritual blindness, one of which is included in our passage today.

Four times when Jesus says something plainly with spiritual significance, and the people completely miss the point. Four times, and it’s the middle of chapter four. And it’s going to happen more and more as we go. But first, we saw in John chapter two. As Jesus is cleansing the temple, John chapter two verse 19, Jesus answers them and says, destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up. He says it plainly. And it has a spiritual significance to it that everybody missed. Because in verse 20, the Jews then said, it took 46 years to build this sanctuary and you will raise it up in three days? They completely missed the point. They had no spiritual sight for what Jesus was talking about. He was talking about his own death and resurrection. You destroy this sanctuary and I will raise it up again in three days. Jesus was revealing the magnificent glory of the eternal plan of God to save sinful and fallen humanity. and they were blind to the glory he was revealing. He is the presence of God more than the temple ever was. And when he rises from the dead, when he did rise from the dead, he will be the place where people meet God. So that’s the first one.

Secondly, we saw in John chapter three, as Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus, we saw a couple times Nicodemus’ blindness, but one in verse three, Jesus says to Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And in his blindness, Nicodemus answers, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb? Nicodemus says, as a ridiculous conclusion, because he had no spiritual eyes to see. what Jesus was talking about. There is a second birth that is spiritual. A birth that, like your first birth, you have nothing to do with. You cannot do it. It has to be done to and for you. And it brings you into being something that you were not before. A living, spiritual person. and you have then the ability to see the glory of God.

Thirdly, the third episode of spiritual blindness we saw was earlier in this chapter with this woman at the well. Jesus said in verse 10 of here in chapter four, if you knew the gift of God and who it is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Verse 11 reveals this woman’s spiritual blindness once again. She says to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? She has no spiritual sight of what Jesus is talking about. In each of these instances, the thing Jesus says, if they had been understanding the scriptures They would have seen it. Because Jesus is referring to something in the Old Testament every time. But she has no spiritual sight of what He’s talking about. She doesn’t yet have the spiritual life that comes from drinking from His living water. And all those examples are, again, spiritual blindness and unbelievers. Those who had yet to believe. And so we know why they don’t understand and they don’t see the glory of Christ. They haven’t been made alive yet. They haven’t been given spiritual eyes.

But as I said, we see a fourth case today that reveals that spiritual blindness isn’t just seen in unbelievers. It is always seen in unbelievers, but sometimes it’s seen in believers as well. Because we’ll see in verse 31 today, his disciples come to Jesus and say, Rabbi, eat. And he answers and says, I have food to eat that you do not know about. And the disciples say to each other, has anyone brought him food? They have no spiritual sight for what he’s talking about. They do believe in Him, they’ve been following Him for some time now. And if they were thinking correctly about who it is in front of them and what He’s been doing, they should have understood that He was referring to something more than their stomachs. But they’re still blinded by their own priorities and their own fleshly desires and focuses And in verse 34, Jesus explains to them what he means when he says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. So again, this spiritual blindness is seen. The blindness to see the glory right before their eyes.

And again, this is in his followers, in his disciples, those who had committed to following him now. And I think this shows us something. Because even as believers, sometimes, we get so focused on our own temporal world and our own desires for things like food or other fleshly desires that we have in this world that we miss the glory of God revealed to us. When we get so focused on what’s in front of us in this world, We don’t see the glory of God revealed to us in his word or in the things he does for us every day. You’ve seen it in all four of these examples. But don’t miss the glory of Christ revealed in his words.

Sometimes we come to the Bible or to the preaching of God’s word and we’re looking for things like, well, give me three steps to make my life better. What are the action steps that this text of the Bible gives me? What do I need to do now? Where’s my list of dos and don’ts? That’s what I need from the Bible. And don’t get me wrong, Scripture is profitable for all things that lead to godliness. And it does give us a lot of practical things to do. But don’t be so concerned with the practical and the tangible and the to-dos of Scripture. You miss the glory of Christ. It’s right before our eyes. And John’s gospel is filled with passages that are meant to make us step back and marvel at the glory of our Savior. It’s meant to show us His glory. Glory is of the only begotten from the Father.

So if all you come away from a text of Scripture with is a clearer picture of the glory of Christ, praise God. You got the point. What more do we need? And our text this morning, as I mentioned, is a text that reveals His glory to us once again. His glory seen in the laser focus of His mission. So don’t miss it.

Again, we are here in the fourth chapter of John, and as we’ve seen, it’s been all about this interaction between Jesus and the woman at the well. Jesus had to pass through Samaria, the text tells us, and he was tired and he was thirsty, so he stopped at this well. He struck up a conversation with this woman, and Jesus was in complete control. of the circumstances and of the conversation. And he was in pursuit of this woman’s heart. And he brought up her sinful past and revealed that he knew all about it. And eventually he revealed to this woman that he is the I Am, the Christ. And when we left off last week, as the disciples returned to witness this revelation of Christ, the woman jumped up and ran into the city to tell people about Jesus.

In verse 30, we saw they, these people of Sychar, went out of the city and were coming to Him. And that’s where we are in this encounter in the text. And we’ll see today what happened while the woman ran into the city. What happened after she jumped up and ran off. And we’ll see two focuses in this text. We see the focus of the disciples and the focus of Jesus. So number one, we’ll see the disciples’ distraction. And secondly, we’ll see the Messiah’s mission. So I’m going to read for us John chapter four, verses 31 through 38. That will be our text for this morning.

John 4:31 through 38. This is the word of the Lord. 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 were saying to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for the harvest. Even now, he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case, the saying is true. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

The first focus we see in this text is the disciples, the disciples’ distraction. Again, verse 31 says, meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. This meanwhile, it shows us that this all took place as the woman jumps up and runs off. The disciples’ focus is not necessarily wrong, not totally off base. The reason they went into the town in the first place was to get food for Jesus. So they bring the food back and now that the woman’s conversation with him is done, they step up and speak up and say, hey, we have your food. Rabbi, eat, we brought food for you. Jesus was weary and physically he did need to eat something. He was truly human. In fact, he probably was still thirsty because we never read that he actually got the drink of water that he asked for. But even though his physical needs were there and they were true, Jesus was focused and he was still focused on why he was here, why he came from the Father.

Verse 32, he says to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. And here’s where the disciples begin to miss it. Jesus begins to tell them what his focus is in that moment. But instead of following Jesus’ line of thinking, and again, they’ve seen this three times now where he says something that they don’t quite get, but let’s just ask a few more questions and you might start to understand. But no, they don’t ask any questions. They don’t ask any more about it. They respond in verse 33, the disciples were saying to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? Has anyone, what food? What is he talking, what do you mean you already ate? We went to get you food. Who else brought you something? Has someone brought him something to eat?” Their question expects a no answer. It’s like, surely no one’s brought him anything to eat, have they? What is he talking about? But again, they are thinking only in physical, material terms. They had just witnessed Jesus confess. That He is the Christ to a Samaritan woman. And not so much as a follow-up question.

In fact, verse 27 says they didn’t ask anything. The first thing they say after Jesus says that is, you want to eat? Want some food? As if the most significant confession ever made was nothing. But it’s not as though Jesus is saying that eating or meeting your physical needs is wrong, but they’re focused on the wrong thing at this moment. They’re completely misunderstanding what Jesus is telling them, so it opens up an opportunity for him to teach them some valuable truths. So that’s the first focus we see here is the disciples’ distraction. Next we see Jesus correct their thinking. We see number two, the Messiah’s mission.

In verse 34, he explains to them. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Jesus responds to their confusion with actually some incredible clarity. But again, if you’re not thinking spiritually as they ought to be by now, this wouldn’t make much sense either. But Jesus responds with this clarity to explain what it is that gives him the strength and the drive to do what he’s doing. His food is to do and finish the will and work of God. In Jesus’ words, they echo what they should already know. From Deuteronomy, where Moses speaks to the people, Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, he’s reminding the people of what God has done for them and what they ought to be relying on at this point.

Deuteronomy 8:3 says, and He humbled you, and He let you be hungry, and He fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. Man does not live by bread alone. The reason why? God humbled them and left them without food, but then provided them with manna so that they would know and learn they need to depend on God for all things. And not only that, but that their physical needs were less important than their spiritual needs. That they needed the Word of God more than they needed food. And Jesus quotes these words in Matthew 4 when He’s in the wilderness responding to temptation. He says, it is written. How does He answer the temptations of Satan to Him in the wilderness? Don’t you know? It’s written. It’s in the Bible. It is written, man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And here in John 4, Jesus says his food, his food is to do and finish the will and work of God. So what is food? What does food do for you? Food is what you need in order to work. Food is what gives you strength and energy. It sustains you. So what Jesus is saying is I am strengthened to do what God has given me to do by doing what God has given me to do. Accomplishing the will of God is what motivates and gives me strength and energy. It is that very thing. Who can talk like this? God can talk like this. Because we as mere humans, as we are always focused on our physical needs, we do need sources of energy from outside ourself. But God is self-sufficient. He needs nothing. He gets his source of power from himself. As a man, Jesus got tired and thirsty and hungry. He needed food and rest like we do. But as God, He is dependent on no one for the strength to accomplish His mission. He doesn’t need an external source of sustenance. He was truly human, but He’s also God.

And remember I said as we began this passage in John chapter 4 that the overarching focus of this whole chapter is to show us both the humanity and the deity of Jesus. This is the glory of Jesus, that He is truly human, but He’s also truly God. We see that in this entire encounter. He knew this woman’s heart. He knew her past. He knew the mission he was on and he needed no external motivation to accomplish it. And as we’ll soon see in this passage, He even knows the hearts of those coming to see Him from out of the city. What glory is revealed in Jesus Christ. The Word was God and the Word became flesh, true flesh, and He dwelt among us. But He was sustained to finish God’s work by doing God’s work. And Jesus will go on to teach his disciples that he came for this very purpose, to do the will of God.

John chapter 6, he says specifically, John 6, 38, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. That’s why he came. In John 4, he says this is his food. This is the reason he’s here. We saw in Matthew 26, in the garden, as Jesus is in anguish over what is before him, he fell on his face, Matthew 26 verse 39, he fell on his face and he prayed, saying, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. He set aside his earthly, fleshly, human desires so that the will of God would be done. That’s what he’s doing in John 4. He was weary. He was tired. He was spent. He was hungry. He was thirsty. There was a bigger mission in front of him. First it was the woman. But then it will be the city. Jesus was on earth not to do what he in his human flesh wanted. He was here to accomplish the will of God. He had more to do than just eat food with his disciples. In this moment, his purpose was to proclaim the truth to a lost sinner and to multiply her faith to others. And they needed to see this.

They needed to see it. And they’ll continue to see it. Chapter 5 is full of Jesus identifying himself with the Father and what the Father sent him to do. In chapter 5 of John, verse 17, he answers them and says, my Father is working until now and I myself am working. What God is doing is what I am doing. And the work that he does, the work that he’s doing here in John 4 proves who he is. In John 5, a couple of verses down, in verse 36, after explaining that he is doing the work of the Father, he says, for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do, they bear witness about me, that the Father has sent me. The work God’s given him to do is to prove who he is so that people will believe. This is why John wrote the book, to prove to us who he is. And he bore witness that he was the Christ. He did that with this woman. that he was sent by the Father.

He repeats this throughout the gospel, in chapter nine, in chapter 10, in chapter 14, in chapter 17, all through this gospel. He’s here to do his Father’s work, and his Father’s work is to prove he’s the Christ, the one to be believed in for salvation. And he wasn’t here to do some of the work, or part of the work. He wasn’t here to start the work. Because here in the verse we just read in John 4 verse 34, Jesus says to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish the work. He was here to finish the work. He lived in complete accordance with the will of the Father. Right through his cry of triumph on the cross.

In John chapter 19, as he’s hanging on the cross in our place, verse 30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. What is finished? What’s finished? The very work that he’s been explaining throughout the Gospel of John that he was sent here to do. He accomplished his mission on earth. He lived in perfect obedience on our behalf. He died a sacrificial death in our place. And he purchased each and every one who would believe in him. As we read in the confession earlier, He purchased salvation for all those from all time who were believers.

He submitted to the Father in His humanity, and that was His true food. That’s what gave Him the strength and the energy to keep pushing onward. And then Jesus gives these disciples a metaphor to help them understand what he’s talking about. In verse 35, he continues. He says, do you not say? He’s using a common saying that they would understand. He says, do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes. and look on the fields that they are white for harvest. Jesus says, you know, typically you plant seeds and you wait four months until the harvest. It takes time for seeds to grow, to produce fruit, and then you can collect the harvest. That’s God’s design. He designed it to be this way. That’s why things work the way they do.

But Jesus says this harvest doesn’t work like that. This is the glory of Christ on display. He says, you know how harvests usually work, but look. Look up. Look at these multitudes coming from the city to Him. Look. And you can just picture all the Samaritans coming out of the city of Sychar, the ones that this woman, whom he planted the seed with, went and told, come see this man who told me everything I ever did. Jesus says, I just planted the seed of the gospel, and I want to show you something. You heard me say to her, I am the Christ. And now the fields are ready for harvest. The seed has grown into a full harvest already. Next week as we get to our next passage in verse 39, we’ll see that from that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who bore witness. He told me all the things I’ve ever done. He knew. He knew what was going on as it was happening. He knew the hearts of these people as they’re coming to Him, that they were ready for salvation. He was calling His sheep and they were hearing His voice. And He’s telling His disciples, look. Look up. The field is ready for harvest. That’s what He says in the next verse.

Verse 36, even now, Even now, he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. Even now, as these people are coming to him, he knows he is gathering fruit for eternal life. He is gathering souls. He is gathering his sheep. He knows exactly what’s going on and he’s revealing it to them. He is showing them His glory. He’s telling them everything that is happening as it’s happening. Who can speak like this? Who knows all of these things? God does. He is God with us. Glory as of the Father. He’s showing them His glory and He’s helping them understand what they’re seeing. And not only does He show them, not only does He show them who He is by all that He knows and all that He can do, He invites them to be part of it. He invites them to be part of the harvest.

In verses 37 and 38, for in this case the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. Jesus clarifies. In this case, one sows and another reaps. I planted the seed, guys. Look, there’s a harvest. Get to work. Usually in farming, it’s the same farmer that plants and gets to harvest. He plants it and he waits patiently for the harvest to grow, and then he collects the harvest. But again, that’s not how this harvest works. That’s not how the spiritual harvest works. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter three. I planted, Apollos watered. But God gave the growth. The spiritual harvest, sometimes you sow the seed and never get to see the harvest. Sometimes it happens like it happens with Jesus. It’s instant. You sow the seed and they’re ready to harvest.

Sometimes you plant the seed of the gospel and they act like you didn’t do anything to them. in one ear and out the other. They have no interest. But you never know what that seed may do. You never know how that seed may grow. Sometimes you get to harvest what others planted. You meet somebody and that person is ready to believe because of some conversation they had years before, or something that’s been in the back of their mind because of something someone else said. And they are ready to believe in Jesus before they even talk to you. And again, sometimes you get to see both the sowing and the harvest. But as always, it’s God who gives the growth. It’s God who brings in the harvest. He’s the one who causes that seed to grow, and He’s the one who determines how fast that seed grows. God is sovereign over all of salvation, every part of it. In this case, as Jesus says, others had sown the seed. And there were many. It wasn’t just Jesus.

We saw that Moses sowed seeds for this woman. She had some understanding from what Moses wrote. And then John the Baptist had been working in this area. Then Jesus himself sows the seed with the woman. But who told the people in the city? The woman did. And yet the disciples would have the privilege of sharing in this harvest, sharing in this work, although they played no part in planting these seeds. Jesus sent them to a harvest which they had not labored for. Others labored and they entered into that labor. And this is exactly what all of us are called to. We are called to bring the gospel to all those around us, whether it’s our family, our community, our coworkers, whoever it is. But you’re not alone in this. Others are working, too.

Finally talk to the person you’ve been afraid to talk to about Jesus and find out that somebody already has. And they’re ready for your conversation. They are ready for you to lead them to Christ. Or, you might talk to somebody who doesn’t want anything to do with what you’re telling them. But what you do tell them, will stick in the back of their mind, and you don’t know what it’ll do. It could fester and grow and grow until they can’t help but go find somebody who knows what they’re talking about to ask their questions about Jesus. That’s how God works. That’s the harvest. Sometimes you sow, sometimes you reap. but God is the one sovereign over every part of the harvest. And these disciples had gone from being spiritually blind and confused about what’s going on to entering into the glorious work of harvesting souls.

They were beholding his glory. Jesus is the glorious Son of God. He is the Savior of the world. It is His food to accomplish what God had sent Him to do. He doesn’t simply need life-giving food. He is life-giving food. He sows His Word. And He brings in the harvest. He reaps eternal life. And again, he invites all of us to enter into that work. God uses men and women to both sow the seeds and reap the harvest. Men and women who are sinful and forgiven. Men and women who are incomplete in their understanding. Men and women who are inadequate in their own minds for what they’re doing. But it’s not up to you. It’s not up to your adequate presentation. Tell the truth. Share the gospel. And see what God does with that seed. And we are always entering into the labor of another.

You’re not in this alone. It could have been another person, but at very least, you’re entering into the labor of Christ. The work that Jesus began on earth. His labor, his work was to live and to die for us and then to call sinners to repentance so that we could join his effort of bringing in his sheep. His food was to accomplish the work that God gave him to do and he did. All of this explanation of God’s sovereignty and salvation from chapter 2 and chapter 3 and chapter 4, it’s setting the stage for what’s to come. Chapter 5 and chapter 6, as Jesus explains in depth how it’s God who’s in charge of all these things. And we’ll remember these things as we keep working through the gospel of John.

His glory is revealed throughout the pages of Scripture. And as Jesus has the cross in mind, the cross for which He came, the cross that would finish the work. In John chapter 17, as He’s praying for His disciples. Verse 4 of John chapter 17, He says, Father, I glorified You on earth. having finished the work you’ve given me to do. Jesus is revealing his glory. This is why he’s here. Don’t miss the glory of Christ and who he’s revealed himself to be. He is truly a man. He felt what we feel. He felt the weaknesses and the frailty of human flesh. But He’s also God. He is God with us. He is the glory of the Father revealed in human flesh. And John had beheld that glory and he is telling us exactly what he saw. The glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. Don’t miss His glory. May God give us eyes to see the glory of Christ and to treasure Him above everything else in this world. All of our human desires and distractions and all the things that we get caught up in in day-to-day life. Don’t miss the glory of Christ in God’s Word. This is why we need God’s Word in our life every day. So that we can see and behold His glory.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer before we go to the Lord’s table. Our God and Father in heaven, we are humbled by a passage of scripture like this. that uncovers for us the glory of Christ revealed in your word. God, I pray that as we see the importance of the mission that Jesus came for, to finish his work of living and dying for us, but then to send workers into the harvest. He began that work. And he’s continuing that work in and through us. I pray that you will help us to see our need to join in the labor of the harvest. Lord, we thank you for who you are. And as we now turn to partaking in the Lord’s Supper, that you would just remind us vividly and clearly the work that Christ finished in his death and resurrection. Lord, we thank you for who you are. We praise you and glorify you. We pray all this in Christ’s precious name. Amen.