Helper to the Helpless

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.  For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.  And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.  When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?  The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

John 5:2-8

This is one of my favorite stories about Jesus in the Bible.  We know that He is “a helper to the helpless” and this story really drives that home.  There was a pool at Bethesda in which an angel would stir up the water.  The first person into the water after that would be healed of whatever disease they had.  This man had been crippled for 38 years.  He was there hoping to get into the pool to be healed, but he had nobody to help him into the water.  When the water was troubled, he could not get himself into it and he had no one to help him.  He was, both literally and figuratively, helpless.  But then he met Jesus.

Jesus recognized his condition and stopped to help him.  He healed him on the spot.  There would be no more waiting and hoping for this man.  He had met the helper of the helpless.

We were dead in trespasses and sins.  We were spiritually helpless.  And Jesus came for us, just as He came for this man.  We should be thankful every day that we know the Helper of the helpless.  What a wonderful Saviour!

The Ultimate Goal

So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.  And many more believed because of his own word;  And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

John 4:40-42

After seeing and hearing Jesus, the woman at the well immediately went into her city and told the people there about Him.  They came out and heard Him as well.  At first, they believed because of what the woman had told them. Then they told her ” Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”  They didn’t just believe because she believed – they believed because of their own experience with Him.  That is really the ultimate goal of any Christian who attempts to bring others to the Saviour.

While it is nice for people to listen to us talk about the Lord because they like and/or respect us, it is another thing for them to listen to the Lord themselves.  That is what we ultimately want.  We have a personal relationship with the Lord and we want others to have that same relationship.

We do our best to bring others to Jesus, but when we get them there, we want them to hear Him and not just us.  We want them to see for themselves that He is “indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”  We want them to see and hear things for themselves.

These people initially listened to the woman and went to hear Jesus because of her testimony.  But they stayed and accepted Him because of His testimony.  It is our job to bring people to Jesus, but once we get them there, they need their own personal relationship with Him.  That is our goal.

The Sower

And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.  I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.  And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.

John 4:37-39

We looked yesterday at the disciples, who, in this passage, were “the sowers.”  The Lord told them that they were going to “reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.”  They weren’t doing the sowing that day; they were doing the reaping.

The sowing had already been done by a woman.  She was not on par with the disciples in many areas.  She had not followed the Lord and seen His many miracles.  In fact, she had just met the Lord at the well.  She was not a scribe or Pharisee who had made a career out of studying the Scriptures.  She was just a woman, an average sinner who met Jesus.  But she did some sowing that day.  She didn’t know everything about Jesus, but she did know that He told her “all that ever I did.”  She did recognize Him as the Christ.  And she did go immediately into her city and told the people there what she knew.  And just look at the powerful impact it had.

“And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman…”  Her “sowing the seed” resulted in “many” believing on the Lord that day.  In Heaven, we will meet those “many people” who believed.  She simply testified of what she had seen, and that little testimony grew into many people believing.

We never know what is going to happen when we sow the seed, but it might end up like this seed – bearing much fruit.  Our job is to sow the seed.

The Reapers

And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.  I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

John 4:37-38

In any type of farming or gardening, there are basically have two absolutely necessary things that you must do if you want a crop: you have to plant the seed and you have to harvest the fruit.  If the seed is never planted, there will obviously never be a crop.  If a crop is planted, but no one ever harvests it, it will eventually spoil and die.  You must do both.  In these verses, Jesus is talking to the disciples about the second aspect: harvesting.  The woman at the well had brought out many people from her city to see and hear Jesus.  The seed had been planted.  It was now time for the disciples to tell them all about Jesus.  It was time for them to reap the harvest.

There is an old saying that says “No man is an island.”  I have always liked that saying because I like the truth it contains.  None of us live in isolation.  What we do, good or bad, affects others.  Sometimes we “enter into the labours of others.”  Sometimes someone else has planted the seed of gospel and we benefit from their labours.  Sometimes we plant the seed and another benefits from our labours.

No matter what our position, we need to be working in the Lord’s field.  They are, as He said, “white already to harvest.”  The disciples were able to build on the labours of another and were able to reap a great harvest of people who had come to see the Lord.  There are probably people that we know today who are ready to come to the Lord, if someone will show them the way.  As “reapers,” we need to be ready to do just that.

Sowers and Reapers, Rejoice!

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?  behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.  And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.  And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.

John 4:35-37

“One soweth, and another reapeth.”  There are many passages in the Bible about sowing and reaping.  We have probably heard many sermons about sowing and reaping, which usually boil down to “sow good things, reap good things; sow bad things, reap bad things.”  But this passage is a little different.  In this passage, the sower and the reaper are different people.  And, after the harvest, they are able to rejoice together.

It is encouraging to know that “he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.”  When we do something for the Lord, it is for eternity.  When we sow the seed of the Word of God or when we witness to someone, we are doing something that is going to last for all of eternity.  Most of the things that we do are very temporary.  Most things that we do aren’t going to last much past the week or year, let alone for all of eternity.  But there are some things that will.

Sometimes we are just going to sow the seed.  Sometimes we can witness to people or give them a gospel tract and they will not make a decision.  We may never see them again.  But maybe that seed takes root and somewhere down the line, another is able to win them to Christ.  Other times, we might get to reap what someone else has sown.  But either way, when the harvest is over, we will all be able to rejoice together, both the sowers and the reapers.  But we will only rejoice if we had a part in the sowing and reaping.  What are we doing today?

The Harvest

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?  behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.  And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.  And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.

John 4:35-37

In these verses, Jesus gives the disciples (and us) some needed advice on “the harvest.”  The context of this advice was Jesus telling the disciples (when they worried about Him getting something to eat) that His meat was “to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”  Jesus was trying to help the woman at the well and the people she brought out of the city.  The disciples wanted to know what was for dinner.  They did not have the same urgency about the kingdom of God and the things of God that Jesus had.

“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?”  We can look at the fields of wheat or corn and easily predict when the harvest will be.  We can even, to an extent, look at the calendar and predict when the harvest will be.  But we cannot do that with the souls of men.  We cannot look at them and know what day will be their last.  We cannot know exactly when the Lord might return.  For those reasons, our harvest is always right now.  This day is the only one that we have and may be the last opportunity we have to work in the field of the Lord.

“Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”  There are people everywhere who need the Lord.  What are we doing today in the area of sowing the seed and reaping the harvest?

The Master’s Meat

In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.  But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.  Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?  Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

John 4:31-34

This conversation between Jesus and the disciples shows us some interesting things about the ways disciples (and us) think.  Jesus had been talking to the woman at the well (and probably those people whom she brought out of the city to meet Him) and the disciples were worried about Him and told Him that He needed to eat something.  He responded by telling them that “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”  This disciples understandably took this literally, asking themselves “Hath any man brought him ought to eat?”  But Jesus had something else in mind.  He told them “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”

We spend a lot of time feeding ourselves and/or thinking about feeding ourselves.  Most of us don’t just eat for sustenance.  Most of us eat, at one point or another, for pleasure.  We enjoy food and we enjoy eating.  But do we look at doing the will of the Lord and finishing His work in the same way?  Do we look at that like we look at eating?  I would have to say probably not.

Jesus was so intent on doing the will of God that He looked at it like He looked at eating.  How do we look at doing the will of the Lord?  How dedicated are we?  We can a lot about our physical well-being, but how much do we care about our spiritual well-being?  It’s definitely food for thought.

The Power of Testimony

The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?  Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

John 4:28-30

When Jesus talked to this woman at the well, she immediately went into the city and told the people there what she had seen and heard.  Then we see their reaction in verse 30: “Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.”  That is an important lesson for us.  We need to understand the power of a simple testimony.

This woman had just met Jesus.  She knew very little about Him, other than the facts that He had told her “all things that ever I did” and that He was the Christ.  She didn’t know Him deeply.  She hadn’t been a part of His ministry like the disciples, following Him from town to town.  She hadn’t witnessed His many miracles.  She wasn’t a master of the doctrine of Christ.  But she used what she did know to tell others about Him.  And her small testimony of “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did…”  was enough to convince them to come to Jesus.

That is a powerful lesson indeed.  Many people are afraid to talk to others about Jesus because they are afraid someone will ask them a question they don’t know the answer to or will try to get them tangled up in some deep doctrine that don’t have a perfect understanding of.  But the truth is that many people will listen if we will simply tell them what He has done for us.  Our testimony may seem simple, but it is a powerful tool indeed.

All We Need To Do

The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?  Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

John 4:28-30

Sometimes, as Christians, we get so wrapped up in finding various methods of witnessing to people.  We try to memorize the right verses and we try to get a list of steps prepared in our minds.  While there is nothing wrong with those things, we shouldn’t them overshadow the simplicity that is in the gospel.  Often, the best method of witnessing to others is doing exactly what this Samaritan woman did.

After meeting and talking with Jesus, she went into her city and told the people there “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”  She very simply told them about meeting Jesus and about what He had told her and done for her.  And do you know what their response was?  They “went out of the city, and came unto him.”  They listened to what she said and they came to Him.  That is exactly what we want people who hear us to do.

Have we met Jesus?  What has He done for us and in us?  Those are probably the two biggest things that we could tell others.  We know Jesus.  We know that He loved us and died for us.  We know that when we believed on Him, He took our sins away and came to dwell in us and with us.

The most important things are often the simplest things, and this case is no different.  This woman just did what she could.  She told the people she knew what Jesus had done for her. That is all that we need to do also.  What has He done for us?

Telling Us All Things

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.  Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

John 4:25-26

The Samaritan woman at the well had heard about the Messiah coming.  While her lifestyle would not indicate that she was a “God-fearing” woman, she did know about the Messiah and she did know that when He came, He would “tell us all things.”  Imagine her shock or excitement when Jesus told her “I that speak unto thee am he.”  And, just as she had known, He told her all things.  In verse 29, she tells the people in her city “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”

We all already know that God is an omnipotent God; He knows everything.  Interestingly, He knows even more about us than we know about ourselves.  Jeremiah 17:9 tells us “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  We can’t even fully know the extent of our own sinfulness.  But Jesus knows all of these things.  And He can show them to us.  He can tell us “all things that ever I did.”

If we will trust in Him, believe what He says in His Word, and approach it with the right spirit, He will tell us and show us whatever it is that we need to know.  If we need wisdom in a certain situation, He can give it to us.  If we have sin in our lives, He can show us what it is and how to get it right.  He can, and is willing to, tell us all things.  The only question is, do we really want to know those things?  Do we really want wisdom?  Do we really want to get the sin out of our lives?  He will tell us all things, if we will let Him.