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foreign everyone welcome to Free Grace Baptist Church warm welcome to the visitors amongst us a couple of announcements baby girl was born to Mac and Stephanie cross this week Claire cross great rejoicing in that household we can thank God for a healthy mother and child today cam Porter is preaching in Surrey this morning and this evening so we can remember them when we pray later we have the privilege of having Chris Santiago and his wife visiting Chris will be preaching this morning he gave a report in the earlier hour of his work missionary work for many years in the Far East and they're also pastor Matt troop and his wife April are visiting from Fresno California Matt is Rebecca Butler's brother so welcome to you as well for our cult worship this morning let's turn to Psalm 104. Psalm 104 will begin reading in verse 24 to the end of the chapter Psalm 104 O Lord how manifold are your works in wisdom you have made them all the Earth is full of your possessions this great and wide sea in which our innumerable teeming things living things both small and great they're the ships sail about there is that Leviathan which you have made to play there these all wait for you that you may give them their food in due season what you give them they gather in you open your hand they are filled with good you hide your face they are troubled you take away their breath they die and return to their dust you send forth your spirit they are created and you renew the face of the Earth May the glory of the Lord endure forever may the Lord rejoice in his works he looks on the earth and it trembles he touches the hills and they smoke I will sing to the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have my being may my meditation be sweet to him I will be glad in the Lord May Sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more bless the Lord O My Soul praise the Lord amen for our first song this morning we're going to turn in the psalter hymnal to Psalm 148 be as in bravo Psalm 148 hallelujah praise Jehovah and let's stand and sing together [Music] praise God [Music] forever [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] with a stranger [Music] things [Music] foreign [Music] let's turn to our great God in prayer and ask his blessing upon our meeting this morning gracious Heavenly Father we thank you for the privilege that we have together this morning with your people and to worship together thank you Father for the freedoms that we have thank you for the Bibles that we have thank you for the Christian ministers that you have raised up in this land to preach the gospel as we heard in the earlier hour you work under all kinds of situations and not everyone has the freedom that we do help us not to take it for granted but Lord we we bless you for this privilege that we have together this morning we do pray that your spirit would be at work in our hearts this morning that you would do that good work of applying the word as it is preached to our hearts and to our consciences help us as we worship I pray you'd bless brother Chris as he comes up here later to speak to us I pray that you would anoint him give him fluency and unction to preach the gospel to us do him and his wife good during the during their visit here thank you Lord for the good that you've been able to do in and through them for many years on the mission field Lord we pray that you'd be gracious to our brethren in Surrey this morning bless our brother cam Porter as he preaches there this morning this evening encourage that congregation bless them o God as they continue to March forward in the fear of the Lord in the in the Faith Lord we pray for our Brethren as well in the norfolkanagan bless Pastor Melgar is there in Armstrong and the congregation I pray that you would encourage them pray Lord that you'd bless the the work that is being done there cause that church to grow in maternity maturity in unity and in numbers as you add to the church those who should be saved we pray as well for our sister church congregation out in Dryden Lord we pray that they would be able to soon be constituted and that a man would be installed as their pastor we thank you for the good work that you have begun there and pray that you'd continue to bless them and continue to give them unity and vision for the future Lord we thank you that the gospel is going forward all across this country we know there are many other churches in this very city where the gospel is being preached today we pray your blessing upon those churches those Ministers of the gospel and all across this land lord we do pray that you would raise up more churches allow more churches to be planted and raise up more Ministers of the Gospel but we pray that that we would see a reversal in the society by the work of the Gospel by the Salt and Light of your people and by Souls being saved and added to the church I pray oh God that we would see a revolution the culture of our nation which is deteriorated so drastically In Our Lifetime Lord be merciful to us I pray thank you for what you're doing the world over we Lord we pray for these churches in the Far East and we pray that you would uphold those who are feeling the pressure of persecution be gracious to them o God cause your people to be bold to be tenacious and to continue preaching the gospel Lord add to the church those who should be saved and we pray these things for your name's sake and for your honor and glory amen for our next hymn let's turn in our hymnals to number 341 341 again we'll stand as we sing [Music] and in our sovereign [Music] come on [Music] please [Music] foreign [Music] oh my God [Music] foreign [Music] for our morning scripture reading we are now in Matthew chapter 5. we won't read the entire chapter we'll begin at the beginning of the chapter and read to verse 20. Matthew chapter 5 verses 1 through 20. and seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him then he opened his mouth and taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain Mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when the revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you you are the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its flavor how shall it be seasoned it is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men you are the light of the world a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in Heaven do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets I did not come to destroy but to fulfill for assuredly I say to you till Heaven and Earth pass away one jot or one Tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these Commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven amen let's pray gracious Father in heaven we thank you for these Beatitudes Lord we know that none of us match that stature of a person that Christ describes except Christ himself and thank you that because of his work on our behalf and his righteousness we can stand Justified before you enclothed in those garments of righteousness that he provides we pray O Lord that you would continue with us as we worship pray that you would cleanse us even now from all sin and Corruption and I pray oh God that you would find our worship acceptable in your sight because of Christ we pray in Jesus name amen for our last song We'll turn to Psalm 110 a in the sulfur Hymnal Psalm 110 a is in Alpha [Music] all right [Music] please foreign [Music] together [Music] foreign [Music] we have followed your ministry for many years while you were in the Far East they hail from Livermore California which is where you were sent out from over 20 years ago you've been back for the last two years is it one year one year back in California so retired missionary but still involved in the church in the work of the Lord and we were pleased to hear the report this morning of all that God has done it's been many years teaching training pastors church planting and seeing the work of God go forward in a very difficult country so we welcome you to the pulpit and pray that God will bless your ministry to us this morning good morning to everyone greetings indeed from your sister Church in Livermore California Gateway Church our pastor there Mike Kelly wanted me to make sure that he I represent him to send his greetings to you all I want to thank Pastor Butler for this opportunity to be in your midst to not only give a report in the Sunday School Albert now a privilege to preach God's word let me just say as a parentheses here that hymn that we just sang at the very end here from Psalm 110 I believe that should be a Psalm that Always Rings upon our heart especially after you heard what I shared about the challenges there in the Far East and doing church planting and gospel work and all the opposition that man may give to him yet that Psalm reminds us does it not that Jesus Reigns and rules and though man will try to Bar Christ in his Redemptive work they cannot ultimately thwart he will establish his churches here in North America and there in the Far East and none can stop his hand amen amen would you take your Bibles and turn with me please to John Chapter 4 verses 7 through 42 will be our passage that we're going to consider today John Chapter 4 verses 7 through 42. it's the story of Jesus interaction with the Samaritan woman there at the well let me read this in your hearing a woman of Samaria came to draw water Jesus said to her give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food then the woman of Samaria said to him how is it that you being a Jew ask a drink from me a Samaritan woman for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans Jesus answered and said to her if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water the woman said to him sir you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep where then do you get that living water are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank them it himself as well as his sons and his livestock Jesus answered and said to her whoever drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life the woman said to him sir give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw Jesus said to her go call your husband and come here the women answered and said I have no husband Jesus said to her you have answered well I have no husband for you have had five husbands and the one that you're now with is not your husband in that you spoke truly the woman said to him sir I perceive that you are a prophet our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship Jesus said to her woman believe me the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem worship the father you worship what you do not know we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and Truth for the father is seeking such to worship Him God is spirit and those who worship Him must Worship in spirit and Truth the woman said to him I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ when he comes he will tell us all things Jesus said to her I who speak to you am he and at that point his disciples came they marveled that he talked with a woman yet no one said what do you seek or why are you talking with her the woman then left her water pot went her way into the City and said to the man come and see a man who told me all things that I ever did could this be the Christ then they went out of the city and came to him in the meantime his disciples urged him saying Rabbi eat but he said to them I have food to eat of which you do not know there were the disciples said 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 still four months and then comes the Harvest behold I say to you lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they are already white for Harvest and he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life that both he who sows and he who reaps may Rejoice together for in this the saying is true one sows and another reaps I set you to reap for that which that for which you have not labored others have labored and you have entered into their labors and many of the Samaritans of that City believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified he told me all that I ever did so the Samaritans had come to him so when the Samaritans had come to him they urged him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and many more believe because of his own word then they said to the woman now we believe not because of what you said for we ourselves have heard him and we know that this indeed is the Christ the savior of the world Amen if you were with us in the Sunday School hour you know that my family and I served in the Far East for 20 years and the place where we served for 18 years we served in two countries the first country was served for 18 years and in the province in that country where we served that country or that per particular Province 80 percent of that province is mountainous and hard-working Farmers for hundreds of years have built Terraces there on those mountainsides as well as in those low-lying Hills next to their Villages and there on those Rice Terraces they have planted and watered and harvested rice of all things oftentimes when you plant rice you want to plant it in the flattest field possible and flood those fields with water and let the rice grow but these hard-working Farmers have terraced these mountainsides so that they could plant rice and they reap a harvest of rice in a very unlikely place and in our text today we see Jesus and his disciples reaping a gospel harvest in a very unlikely place there in Samaria So In this passage we want to take a look at three things today first we want to see Jesus sowing the gospel and then secondly Jesus inspiring his disciples and then thirdly Jesus and his disciples reaping a gospel harvest in Samaria so first off verses 7 through 30 Jesus sows the gospel notice that Jesus initiates a conversation with a woman of Samaria we see here that Jesus was willing to go against cultural and ethnic taboos in order to minister to a soul you see in rabbinic Tradition it's strictly prohibited and told men not to speak with women in general and John tells us that Jesus spoke alone to this woman there in Samaria and she being alone without other women drawing water with her at that will probably indicated that she was well known in the community as a woman of ill repute of immorality for Jesus to speak to her alone was in his way of transcending his Jewish culture which said that to do so would be in a way of inappropriately flirting with women and so we have here the record in verse 27. John writes and at this point his disciples came and they marveled that he talked with a woman yet no one said what do you seek or why are you speaking with her to make matters worse or to make matters even more socially and culturally awkward Not only was Jesus speaking with a Samaritan woman but she was just that a Samaritan woman to understand how Jesus was seeking to transcend those cultural taboos we need to remind ourselves of who the Samaritans were in John 4 verse 9 John wrote for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans it captures the historic and racial animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans the Samaritans lived in the area between the Sea of Galilee to the north and Jerusalem right there in the middle this animosity goes back to the Exile of the northern tribes of Israel as recorded in Second Kings chapter 17 verses 24 through 41. after the Assyrians conquered the northern tribes and took them captive they backfilled with people that they had conquered before that is they colonized Samaria with people from other lands that they had previously conquered and they hired According to second Corinthians 17 or second king 17 that they hired a Jewish priest to teach these colonists the Jewish religion and they did this more out of superstition than they did from having a fear for Jehovah God you see in their thinking at that time Assyria believed that these colonists in order to prosper in this new colonized land they the colonists needed to understand the God of this land and to do rituals in order to have a prosperous Harvest in missions we call this mixing of biblical belief and practices with Pagan stuff syncretism and that's what was happening there in the area of Samaria and so the Jews despised the Samaritans as not true ethnic and religious Israelites that's the very root of this animosity between the Samaritans and the Jews and brothers and sisters In this passage thus far in verses 7 through 30 we need to see in Jesus example a model for us in our evangelism and mission's work and what I'm going to be doing throughout the rest of this passage is looking at this story this true story of Jesus interaction with this Samaritan woman and pulling out principles and applications for us in our church evangelism and cross-cultural work and let me say also that I know that I'm preaching to the choir this morning I know all of you are committed to the Lord Jesus Christ not only in your families not only in your personal walk with him not only in your church but you're committed to him to fulfill that Great Commission to see the gospel spread throughout the world I'm a testimony of your commitment 20 years you've prayed for me my family and our work there in the Far East 20 years you've supported us so I know in your hearts you're committed to evangelism and foreign missions and so I'm preaching to the choir and yet still I believe from this passage we can strengthen our commitment to these things by the work of Christ in this passage in our evangelism and missions work brothers and sisters we have to be willing to cross cultural and ethnic boundaries as Jesus did when Jesus gave the church the Great Commission in Matthew 28 he said Make Disciples of all the nations and when he says all the nations brothers and sisters don't do what's easiest for us in our English translation on how to understand all nations we think perhaps political nation states that's what he means by Nations but it's not it's something more important that phrase All Nations doesn't mean nation states but it means all people groups people of different ethnic cultural and linguistic organizations Jesus wants his church to have their eyes our eyes on making disciples through the gospel of all the ethnically different peoples of the world that's our mission that's the scope of our mission do we have that all people's mentality that Jesus wants us as a church to have and again I know I'm preaching to the choir and that you do have that desire I've heard of your work supporting of course not only heard about it but experienced it the work in the Far East I've heard of your work in Honduras and other things so I know you're committed to these things let's grow in that commitment of making disciples of all the different people's groups you know the demographics of your country here and our country to the South here in North America it's changing you know that it's changing rapidly it's been changing for decades now these demographics really started to change in a big way in North America in the 1960s when immigration policies have picked up and one of the reasons for the this phenomenal increase of people from different countries coming to North America is this worldwide increase in international migration the former U.N secretary Kofi Annan said in 2006 quote international migration is one of the greatest issues of this Century we have entered a new era of Mobility unquote now how do we respond to such a fact as this great rise in international migration as Christians how do we respond to that do we see it as a danger to our way of life or what we're used to or do we see it from a gospel lens as an opportunity to make disciples of all the nations missiologist Michael pocock wrote quote according around excuse me around the world Christians are waking up to the reality that the massive movement of peoples in migration presents an unprecedented opportunity for spreading the gospel unquote Scott arbitate arbiter the president of world relief perhaps the largest Evangelical organization reaching out to migrants immigrants as well as refugees has said this quote God is up to something dramatic God is up to something dramatic the mass migration that now brings us into contact with people from every tribe tongue and nation is both a profound privilege and a daunting responsibility unquote how are we going to respond brothers and sisters with the nation now the Nations at our doorstep people groups people of different ethnic linguistic cultural makeups right at our doorstep you know just last night my family my wife and I had the opportunity to see some old missionary colleagues who live right here in Abbotsford we didn't know that until just a few days before arriving here they served with us there in that country in the Far East where we were at for 18 years and so we spent the evening with them and there in their little complex we met people from East India we met a guy from China and we even met a guy just knocked on their door a friend that they're trying to build friendship with he's a refugee from Afghanistan he was evacuated by the people there in the U.S because he had helped them in the Afghan war for 15 years and his life in the life of his people were threatened his family were threatened and so they've evacuated him and he's now here in Abbotsford or there in Abbotsford but people from every Walk of Life or around us from every nation of the world it's the same where we're from from San Francisco Bay Area it's a Melting Pot it's a a display a sample of people from every nation from Europe European nations as well as nations from other parts of the world Asia particularly and how are we going to respond to this as Christians I trust we will respond to it as an incredible privilege a responsibility a wonderful unprecedented opportunity for gospel sharing perhaps brothers or friends that are here today because I'm a visitor here I don't know many of you here by name and personally perhaps you're here today and you feel like this woman in our passage here you feel like a Samaritan you feel like an outcast from your Social Circle perhaps you even feel like a Samaritan an outcast from churches that you visited I hope not this church and I trust not this church but you feel welcomed here but in your heart in other places you feel like a Samaritan and to you my unbelieving friend I want you to see something about the savior of the world Jesus and how he deals with Outsiders you see how tender my friend Jesus is dealing with Outsiders you see how patient he is in working with her soul she was full of immorality and sin and yet he was engaging her he was willing to cross cultural and ethnic boundaries to speak and to minister to his soul her soul and my friend if you're here today and you're feeling I don't know if Christianity's for me I feel like an outcast know that the head of Christianity the king of the church Jesus Christ and his people by his grace want to be compassionate to your soul and meet your deepest need through Jesus and his gospel I want you to see Jesus In this passage my friend as one a savior who's fit for your soul you can come to him today and know that you won't be rejected if you repent of your sins and confess your sins and trust in him he's not going to reject you and you will taste and see that the Lord is good to your soul come today my friend but let's go on in the passage here and see what else we can see the Lord doing with the Samaritan woman Jesus was willing as I mentioned before to cross all these cultural and ethnic traditions in order to sow the seed of the Gospel Into the Heart of a Samaritan woman it's this gospel scene about himself Jesus Messiah the Christ that he's seeking to implant into her heart and he's seeking patiently to take her along in the conversation to get to the point where he can speak very clearly about his person that's his trajectory in this conversation look at verse 10 how he does that Jesus in verse 10 speaks about living water you see Jesus engages the woman with a topic that is very much upon her mind what's the topic upon her mind water physical water yet it's obvious to us that Jesus when he raises that phrase Living Water he's speaking not about physical water but about spiritual water we know if we were to spend time digging around in the Gospel of John that that metaphor living water is used elsewhere particularly in John 7 verse 38 and 39. and in the Gospel of John Jesus uses this metaphor to mean the wonderful abounding overflowing life that the spirit brings to a saved person's life the abounding blessings that the spirit of the Living God the spirit of Jesus brings to a saved person's life and Yet the woman and her thinking is fixated on the horizontal physical water so when Jesus speaks about living water she responds in verse 15 give me this water physical water is what's in on her mind she wants it for herself so she won't have to continue to come back to this well to draw out physical water but we well know that Jesus was gently leading her in the conversation to think about her Soul's deepest needs and he was moving her mind ever so slowly from thinking about just horizontal concerns to the vertical concern about her relationship with the Living God in heaven later in John 17 verses 3 Jesus defines this everlasting life as the Believers entering into an intimate relationship with God such that they might truly know him and here too in this element of this passage that we're considering Jesus being willing to speak with her about the topic that she's interested knowing that his trajectory is to take her into the gospel we see something here for our evangelism and missions work as well brothers and sisters we should tell those that we share the gospel with about the Abundant relational blessings that come from becoming a disciple of Christ The Living Water when we come to Christ the spirit takes up residence in US think about that some of us have thought about that for decades and know about that and it trips off our tongues and off of our lips very easily oh as a Christian the spirit lives within us but think about the significance of that this very Spirit who brewed it over the unformed world the Waters of chaos at the beginning of creation and brought order to the universe is that self Same Spirit that now lives within us what an awesome blessing that is and only Christians like you and me not because of Any Merit in ourselves but because of the grace of God that Spirit resides in US Living Waters the spirit takes up residence in us and the spirit blessed us blesses us with a sense of peace with God Spirit brings us the joy that comes from being joined and in Union with Jesus Christ the spirit gives us Liberty from our fear of the devil and evil spirits which is in the work that we used to do in the Far East with people of animistic traditions seeing spirits in inanimate objects they think they're very animate and being tormented by spirits to know that when they become Christians Christ can set them at Liberty from the fear of the devil and evil spirits this is a huge thing to them he delivers us from the fear of death the spirit blesses us in so many other ways we could go on and on and to you my unbelieving friend you can be like that Samaritan woman here in this section that we're considering you can also be fixated on that horizontal concern about physical water your physical water your salary making enough for your family that's well and good retirement that's well and good but my friend life is more than just getting on in this world it really is you need to be responsible I need to be responsible to care for my family to think about retirement helping other people who are in need physically yes we all do but our greatest need in your greatest need my friend is to get right with God what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul Jesus says my friend in the gospel that you hear in this passage today come to Christ and then as we move on here let's see in verses 16 and through 18 Jesus is the revealer of Hearts remember his interaction with the Samaritan woman Jesus truly wants to lead this woman to drink of the Springs of everlasting life but in order to have this benefit this girl this woman to have this benefit he needs to bring her sexual sins to light in order for her to have this living water of eternal life that Springs up in her soul because of the spirit living in her she must be brought to a point where she would confess and turn from our sins and here too brothers and sisters in our evangelism and our missions work we need we too need to bring up the matter of sin and not to be backwards about it yes we need to be tactful but we need to tell the bad news to those that we're addressing whether here in North America or in the other side of the world before we can really give them the good news and before they can really appreciate the good news they've got to hear that bad news first about them being legally guilty before God you know Paul in his explanation of the meaning of the Cross as a an atonement for sin he's using and he's talking about justification that happens through the work of Christ upon the cross the propitiation there and when we look to Christ and believe we are Justified because of Christ's work on the cross those are all legal terms that we need to preach that here in North America and across the world because it's in the Bible that's one way of understanding the cross and yet Paul when he looks at the cross he sees it as a multi-faceted diamond as it were and one angle is that legal aspect that we need to communicate to people but he also sees it the cross as the Apex The crucial point of reconciliation that's relational language reconciliation between a person who has been offended God in heaven and The Sinner and so In some cultures we need to help them to understand the legal aspects like people that we work with in the Far East they're not so much forensically or legally inclined to think their cultures are oftentimes very collectivistic and relationally based and so we found ourselves when we were presenting the gospel to them to talk of course about propitiation and Christ dying as a substitute upon the cross and him propitiating the wrath of God because of the sins of the people that he was dying for we speak about that but we oftentimes would make sure that we talk about the relational aspect of the Gospel a reconciliation with God and we would bring them to passages like Christ's parable of the prodigal son and how That's So relationally based and immediately they understand the Crux of the Gospel we've offended the heavenly father and we're like that youngest son we've brought shame and dishonor to God as children of God as creations of God and we need to be reconciled to him and so in our cross-cultural work in evangelism we need to know that when we're dealing and sharing Christ with people we need to bring up sin and we need to be aware of how they're perceiving our conversation and Trust in the Holy Spirit to open their hearts and use the means that we have with the example of Paul to share the gospel in different ways to them with the hope that God would open up their hearts and my friend if you're here today and not a disciple or a follower of Jesus Christ then know that you're still in your sins guilt before God you still have this shame of your guilt upon you but the good news is that Jesus and his work upon the cross if you but repent of your sin and look to him that work upon the cross will be applied to you and the guilt of your sins he will bear the shame of your sins and the punishment it does they deserve was upon him two thousand years ago and you will be washed clean and you will be put in a right relationship with the Living God Of Heaven that's for you today if you but look to Jesus and live and then as we move on in the text here look at verses 19 through 24 again and we see Jesus here as the restorer of true worship you see the Samaritans and this Samaritan woman's problem with worship is with the proper place of worship she is asking Jesus where's the proper place of worship here in Samaria we're down there in Jerusalem but Jesus as he often does transcends her thinking he says she's asking the wrong question it's not a question of the proper place of worship but a question of the proper condition and the content of worship true worship consists he says of spirit and in truth and if we were to unpack and dig around again in the Gospel of John we would see that spirit means true worshipers who are people who are born again by the spirit of the Living God and truth that he's talking about here is true worship is focused on Jesus Christ who is the truth as he says in John 14 6 and here too we have something for our event our evangelism and missions work we are we need to be helping and engaged in planting churches not only here in our country and here in North America but and across the world that are churches that are focused on having regenerate Believers in their midst as members of their church and that the worship of these churches that we're planting the focus of their worship is not upon man or a program or our activities in the church as good as they those things may be but it's Upon Jesus Christ as the focus of our worship the truth and the life and then in verses 25 and 26 Jesus gets to the point that he'd been aiming for in his conversation with the Samaritan woman he speaks about his identity he's the Christ and the woman seems to pick up on Jesus meaning when he talked about truth in worship and how it it's a pointer to messiah in Christ and she seems to know that he was talking about Messiah or Christ and so she begins to speak to him about Messiah the Christ and think about the shift that's taken place in the conversation she was talking at one point just about physical water and Jesus has patiently taken her to a point now that she's thinking about Christ and Messiah Jesus has succeeded in bringing her Focus away from physical water and away from the controversy about the place of worship he brings her now to the focus to where her Focus to where he's always wanted it to be upon him and his person he's the Messiah he's the Christ he's the law expected savior of the world and brothers and sisters in our evangelism and our missions work we too need to contextualize our approach and what I mean by contextualize here is taking the biblical content of the Gospel message not changing the core aspect of the Gospel but contextualization is not changing the core of the Gospel but it's packaging it in such a way that it increases God by God's blessing the transmission of truth of that gospel to that person of another culture and we see Christ here doing that very thing Jesus contextualized his message to the Samaritan woman he contextualized it by discussing a topic that greatly interested her cool fresh water he spoke in a way that she could understand and then he moved her to spiritual things and he moved her from speaking about water to the core of the Gospel himself and we too by God's help need to do that contextualizing starts of course with the core of the Gospel and knowing that firm and clear in our minds and then contextualizing also means we need to understand something about that person from another culture in their culture their history a little bit their language perhaps even you know for the first three and a half years in the Far East in that first country that we were in I strapped on a backpack and at 38 I became a university student again and uh I learned how to as it were say my ABC's in a different language and it was humbling I felt so incompetent at 30 I felt like I was back in kindergarten language-wise I was but it was with an aim so that one day I could communicate in their mother tongue the gospel to them and though I'm not advising that you necessarily have to master another language to reach people of different cultural and ethnic origins in your area but maybe some of you will but at least know something about maybe their world view something that will help you to package the gospel in a way by God's help will communicate that gospel more clearly to them we see Jesus doing doing that here we see Paul doing that don't we in Acts 17 when he spoke in terms that those philosophers in Athens could understand and so we too need to learn about these various people groups around us and here in our own communities and this will help us better contextualize the gospel message to them and may God help us in that and in our evangelism in our missions work we must keep Jesus as the focus of our message we need to keep Jesus as the focus of our message in Acts 1 verse 8 you recall what Jesus said to his disciples then Jesus sent his disciples out on Mission with these words but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be Witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth Jesus Calls the church to be Witnesses of him and to him we are to tell people about Jesus birth and his life and his teaching his death his resurrection his Ascension and one day his coming again our witness to them needs to be filled with truth about Jesus and then hastening on in verses 37 through 30. notice the response of the men in the village they heard and they all started to March over to Jesus keep that in mind we're going to come back to that in just a little bit they heard the testimony of the Samaritan woman who would come back and talk to them and summarized her Encounter With Jesus and said that could this be the Christ and the men of the village John writes all left and went out to Jesus and his disciples and where they were keep that in mind and so the first point then has been Jesus sows the gospel second and more quickly Jesus inspires his disciples verses 31 and 38. the disciples are fixated on the horizontal here in this part of our passage in verse 8 look again please we are told that the disciples left Jesus for a time to buy food for the team they have been thinking of horizontally about concerns such as food and drink and they've been doing their duty to care for Jesus and for the team and they're doing well they should be doing that and then in verse 27 the disciples re-entered the scene and when they re-enter remember that they've been thinking for several hours horizontally about food and drink and they bring back food and tell Jesus to eat something and when Jesus replies I have food to eat of which you do not know they almost comically respond huh did someone give him something to eat earlier and we see that their thinking is just on the horizontal at that point and then Jesus goes on to display or to explain to them his meaning of food it's the spiritual food of doing the Redemptive work that the spirit of the father has sent him to do and brothers and sisters aren't we sometimes like the disciples here in this portion of the passage sometimes we can be so fixated on our horizontal duties maybe too fixated on our horizontal duties that we forget the gospel calling that God has Christ has given to his church of making disciples of all the nations and we too need the help of Jesus to bring us back to remember that spiritual food of doing the work of the father of extending his kingdom throughout the world and to the hearts of people all around us we see Jesus in his teaching in other parts of the gospels often doing this doing this reward reorienting reorienting excuse me reorienting his disciples we see that in Luke 10 Martha Martha you're worried and troubled about so many things while her sister was at the feet of Jesus listening to Jesus teachings and then we have in this portion of the passage of the disciples here our urge to have a higher Kingdom aspiration Jesus says to his horizontally focused disciples in verse 35 lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they are already white for Harvest lift up your eyes and look at the fields they are already white for Harvest the disciples were about to enter into a spiritual Harvest right there in Samaria in an unlikely place it was a place that the disciples themselves had never sown any gospel seeds the Old Testament prophets sowed gospel seed in Samaria centuries before John the Baptist worked that area of the world there in Samaria and sowed gospel seed and Jesus now was sowing gospel seed here in the story that we're considering this morning and now the disciples were going to have the privilege of reaping a gospel Harvest and Jesus said to them lift up your eyes I Think Jesus wanted them literally to do that because in verse 30 do you recall what was said in verse 30 we're told that the men of the city were marching out to the place where Jesus and his disciples were located outside of that Samaritan Village you know our son I mentioned to you who were in the Sunday School hour I said that he's a cinematography student at Biola University finished his first year and he's often tell telling us and sharing the things that he's learning and that Christian cinematography College and I often think when I think about this passage here what it would be like to have shot if we were to do a film to shoot it this way that Jesus is facing that Samaritan Village and his disciples are in front of him they're facing him and Jesus sees the horde of men coming out of that Village and they're kicking up dust and he says to his disciples who are facing him and not the people he says lift up your eyes the Harvest is coming stop thinking horizontally here comes the Harvest and they turn around and they look that's how I would have if I did a film I would have shot it if my son shoots that film I'll try to give him that idea but I don't know if he'll take it but Jesus is getting his disciples ready for the Harvest and these are the very words brothers and sisters of Our Lord that I want to have ringing in our ears today lift up our eyes to the fields for they are already white for Harvest do Jesus words grip us or are they like disciples or are we like disciples so preoccupied sometimes with the horizontal concerns of life what Harvest of Souls is right before our eyes and Jesus is saying to you and to me lift up your eyes are they immigrants are they International students they don't need to be people necessarily of course of other cultures but because of this great international migration our demographics are changing ever so quickly we must not neglect them sure we need to reach our neighbors who are same we have that same cultural tie with them yes they need the gospel too but let's remember those of other nations that are coming in our midst and then we want to look at the third Point here we've already taken a look at Jesus who sows the gospel seed here in this passage and Jesus who is inspiring his disciples and third and finally Jesus and his disciples reap a spiritual Harvest verses 39 and 42. the despised mixed blood Jew Jewish and Gentile Samaritans are coming to Christ at the end of our passage imagine yourself brothers and sisters there at that scene all these former enemies these despised Samaritans before your very eyes God is Awakening their dead souls and they're giving themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ God is implanting into them new life and they have saving faith and they're looking to Jesus as their Messiah and you hear them saying now we believe not because of what you said for we ourselves have heard him and we know that this indeed is the Christ the savior of the world what an incredible opportunity what an incredible scene that must have been to experience these enemies of the Jews the Samaritans these unlikely this unlikely Harvest being reaped right there in Samaria Jesus is reaping a harvest and his disciples a wonderful Harvest of souls in a very unlikely place in our hearts brothers and sisters who are the Samaritans in our lives that Jesus wants to reach and reap a harvest from but we're not quite reaching are they people of a certain place people of a certain social class people of a certain ethnicity could God be reaping a harvest of souls to Jesus among our Samaritans and he wants us to be a part of it just like these early disciples were a part of reaping that harvest in the literal Samaria well we've taken a look at three points today Jesus sows the gospel Jesus inspires his disciples and Jesus reaps a harvest it's no coincidence brothers and sisters that Jesus has his disciples with him to witness and experience this Harvest of souls among the Samaritans Jesus is getting them prepared I believe because the church was in just a few years about to enter into a worldwide cross cultural mission of making disciples of all the nations and this is their first taste they themselves of realizing that God is going Beyond the bounds of ethnic Jews to save Souls he's going to the Samaritans of all places Christ is giving them Missionary Training right here and later in a few years Jesus would tell them more clearly of his Gospel Mission when he said to them in Acts 1 verse 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth May our hearts look to always partner with Jesus in reaching people from all over the world Amen let's close in a word of Prayer our gracious Heavenly Father we thank you for sending your son the Lord Jesus that prototype missionary who left the Perfection of Heaven and took on flesh and came here and lived the life that we should have lived and died a death that we should have died upon the cross and now in trusts and empowers us his church to carry on his mission in the world and to partner with him to make disciples of all the nations continue to bless the dear brothers and sisters here at free Grace in doing that very thing the thing that they're committed to empower them bring to bring gospel blessing to the world at in the end you would receive glory and honor and we pray this in Jesus name amen well you can take your handbooks and turn to 568 we'll stand and sing the doxology in praise to our God 568. [Music] praise [Music] foreign [Music] Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all amen father thank you for your word thank you for this wonderful exposition of Christ and the salvation of these Samaritans we pray that your gospel would be proclaimed throughout the Earth today that you would say from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and we ask this through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen well please be seated for a brief time of meditation