2018.10.05 Hopewell @Home ▫ John 4:27–42

Read John 4:27–42

Questions for Littles: Who arrived in v27? What did they marvel at? What did the woman do with her waterpot in v28? Where did she go? What did she say to the people (v29)? What did she say Jesus had told her? What did she ask about Him? How did the people respond (v30)? What were the disciples urging Jesus to do (v31)? What did Jesus say to them in v32? What did the disciples wonder in v33? What did Jesus say His food is in v34? What does Jesus tell them to lift their eyes and see (v35)? What does the one who reaps these fruits gather (v36)? Whom has Jesus sent to reap (v37-38)? Who believed in Him (v39)? Why? What did these Samaritans urge Him to do (v40)? How long did Jesus stay with them? How many else believed (v41)? Why? What did they say to the woman (v42)? What did they now know about Jesus?

In the Gospel reading this week, there’s eating and harvesting.

But neither are what they seem. You see, it’s not just that the Lord Jesus uses illustrations from real life in order to make His teaching easier to understand. It’s much more than that.

Jesus invented eating. He’s the Creator. Jesus invented harvesting. But there’s eating and then there’s eating. Jesus says that His human life isn’t sustained nearly as much by bread as it is by a desire to do the will of God. O that our lives would be sustained by a desire to do God’s will!

Jesus then turns to them and their work. What should they be looking for as a reward for their work? Pay? Food? No—joy. Joy that belongs to everyone involved. Joy that is everlasting.

Joy like the woman gets. The woman that they marvel that Jesus would even speak to her. They ask a question: “who is this woman?” And the answer is marvelous: “this woman is the harvester of some and the sower of others, who is about to be an example of what the disciples should aspire to be like!”

And I hope that you and I shared in that joy too—especially as we read v42. They know and delight in Christ for their own experience of Him. Praise the Lord! And they know that He’s not just the “Christ” who will give them directions to worship, but is the Savior of the world. Hallelujah!

What is the food that sustains you? How are you working for eternal joy?

Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH438 “I Love to Tell the Story”