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Message
John 4:35-38
Key verse 4:35
“ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open our eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest”.
Good evening! My name is Alexey Belykh. I am from Moscow, the capital of the biggest country in the world. This evening let’s learn about the fields of our countries which are all white for harvest. Wow! Just like my last name Belykh, this means white. This means that I am also ripe for the spiritual harvest!
These days are days of materialism and post-modernism. People can easily satisfy their emotional needs through internet and various modern forms of entertainment. It is easy to think that nobody is able to overcome the power of sin and be used by God for his history. However, that is not true. Today’s word challenges us that people are ready now to accept God. May God give us an opportunity to look at the world with his eyes and be ignited with a burning desire in our hearts to dedicate ourselves to the work of God.
First, the fields are ripe for harvest. In Jesus’ time Jewish people, including Jesus’ disciples, considered Samaria as a land of cursed people useless for God. The Jew’s prejudice against Samaria was so strong that they didn’t set their foot on that land. But Jesus did not think like that. He came to Samaria. He saw a woman, who was a sinner, rejected even by Samaritans. But Jesus didn’t reject her. He began to talk to her first, breaking all national and cultural barriers. Jesus had no intentions to judge the Samaritan woman. Furthermore he told her about God’s gift for her. This gift was God’s love, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in the Kingdom of God. The woman had a strong sinful thirst for man's love. But this was not a problem for God. Jesus had the living water which was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has the power to quench any thirst of human souls. Jesus invited the Samaritan woman to drink this water.
Through Jesus’ love, the Samaritan woman opened her heart to God, and she accepted Jesus as the Christ. She became joyful and happy. The Samaritan woman even began to talk to people about God’s love. And all people from her town came to Jesus. Seeing that, Jesus said to his disciples: “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.” The disciples were wrong. Samaria was a land which was ripened for harvest! Not only Jesus’ disciples but sometimes we also have strong prejudice that modern students can’t be changed into God’s people. But today God tells us ‘’Open your eyes! And see God’s love for people” Before God’s love all kinds of sinners become ready for harvest.
Second, Jesus’ vision. Through the transformation of one Samaritan woman and a whole Samaritan town, Jesus saw the real vision of changing all Samaritan women of the world. Great joy, encouragement and hope overflowed in Christ. All his fatigue and hunger suddenly vanished, because the work in God’s field is true food for life. But the disciples didn’t see God’s vision. They looked at the world with the eyes of a hungry dog. Their thoughts laid on how to fill their stomachs, receive recognition and. Having such worldly desires, they didn’t see the happiness of Jesus’ life. They didn’t see that the work with God’s vision was the most interesting, and the only true source of strength, joy and satisfaction. Thank God for His gift – work in His field with vision.
Our UBF ministry is carried out by self-supporting servants of God. Because of this, it is easy for us to focus our thinking on how to survive. It may appear that material security is our main food. But Jesus tells us “Open your eyes and see great vision of God”. God wants us to have true happiness and satisfaction in our lives. He enables us to give all our hearts and strengths to fulfill God’s mission.
Look at verse 36, 37: “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”. God worked hard as a sower in Samaria for centuries through many prophets, having a great vision for this land. God worked hard in our world and sent His one and only Son to call people to his heavenly kingdom. When we accept God’s vision we can work in His salvation history as God’s servants like sowers or reapers. It does not matter whether we are sowers or reapers. Anyway at the end we will all share the same great joy.
Look at verse 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.” The disciples didn’t do anything practically. They just followed Jesus to Samaria and went into the town for food. However, Jesus appreciated their labor as important work. God has already prepared everything. Now He calls us to his field to study the Bible one by one with different people.
Looking at the current situation around the world, such as Russia and Muslim countries, it may appear that God’s harvest time has not yet come and our one to one Bible studying is not effective. But it’s not true. God’s work is well-underway. God’s work is well-underway in Muslim countries. Through the one to one Gospel preaching of a missionary a young Muslim man accepted Jesus as his personal Savior and experienced the forgiveness of sins and the peace of God. Then he began to share the gospel with people around him. As a result he was put into prison for a time. His faith only grew stronger. The woman he had been expected to marry for a long time was influenced by his faith and became a Christian. Now they have a house church in a Muslim country and they are preaching the gospel. We cannot name this person for security purposes. Through this one changed person we can see the power of God at work in Muslim countries.
God’s work is also well-underway in a Russia. I can see it through my personal transformation. I also was a Samaritan man, not as active as this Samaritan woman seeking love from people, but passive like a paralytic. So I was Samaritan paralytic man. As a child, I was not a leader, and was a quiet dreamy boy with an inferiority complex, suffering from the meaninglessness of life. When I was a sophomore, I was invited to 1993 Moscow International Bible conference. God moved my heart by His word from Genesis “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” I understand that God loves me as I am. I received spiritual desire to study the Bible and keep God’s word in my heart. God’s absolute love was with me constantly, so I was healed from an inferiority complex and received power to be a servant of God. By God’s love, from March 2013 I became a Moscow UBF Director. I thank God for His absolute and constant love that made me a ripened harvest. I have a vision that God’s love will transform many Russian Samaritan people like me into God's people.
In this conference God calls to us open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. That’s true by God’s love. May God help us to open our eyes and see is field, which is ripe for harvest. May God give us a burning desire to dedicate our lives to his work. Amen.