Sermon
Spiritual Harvest
January 20-21, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

Father, we've come now for our lesson from Your Word and I ask you to touch us and anoint us and make our minds to be open and our hearts to be receptive to what You have to say to us now, in Christ's name.

Let's take from our bulletin our sermon notes that are prepared for us. If you'd like to use your Bible there, we're at page 716 in the red pew Bible. But we are and have been now for a number of weeks; we've been fascinated by this conversation that's recorded in John chapter 4 when Jesus talked to this woman of Samaria. It's a little village that's north of Jerusalem and she, of course, had had a difficult time of her life. We learned from this story that she had gone through five marriages, and she was not a respectable person in her community. So she comes to the well outside her village to fill up her water pail, and she meets a stranger, and that stranger was none other than Jesus. To her He was a rabbi. The result was that the conversation really disturbed her at first because it was the custom that no Jewish man ever talked with a lady -- that is a rabbi in public. You couldn't even talk to your own wife if you were a rabbi. And here is this Jewish rabbi striking up this conversation with her a Samaritan woman, and the Samaritans and the Jews really didn't have much appreciation for each other. And we learned from our lesson that centuries before when some of the kings came in, some of the armies came in, and conquered Palestine. What they did is in the area just north of Jerusalem, in a given area, they left all the poor people there -- took everybody off to Babylon and made slaves out of them, then they brought in foreigners and they intermarried, and as a result, you had in the heart of a nation who really prided themselves on purity of race, you had this little village and this surrounding area of people who were made up of mixtures of many races. And the Jewish people just rejected them because they were not of the pure race as themselves, and that had gone on for centuries. There had been this contention between the Samaritans and the Jews, and that's why in our lesson it says; And at this point His disciples came. That is, after the conversation that Jesus had with this lady of the disciples return from town. They had gone to town to get some food. And they came, and they marveled at He had talked with a woman. Now we know why. Rabbis were not to talk with women. And yet no one said, 'What do you seek?' or 'Why are You talking with her?' The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into this city, and said to the men, "Come, 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. Let's stop there.

We have here the record now of a lady who meets Christ. She's transformed, her whole thoughts and her whole person. She's found Him to be fascinating. He's promised her living water, and so what she does is with all the joy of this newfound experience, she wants to run back into town and get Him a congregation and bring them out to the well. It's an interesting scene. She wanted the same experience for her village folks that she had had in meeting with Jesus. The other day I went to breakfast at one of the local restaurants and in passing the front door I went by the newsstand and there was USA Today. The cover story was about Darryl Strawberry the great baseball player. I started reading. Darryl has had difficult times wrestling with his addictions, and over and over again he's made his promises to his teammates and to his boss that he cracked that, and he's tried hard, but he's failed over and over again. So I'm reading this and it says turn the page. I go to the second page and here's a picture of Darryl sitting on the porch, the front porch, of this home where he's going through this rehabilitation process. His family, and I think it said three children, they live somewhat at a distance and so he sees them only on the weekend. And here sitting on the front porch of this house, this picture, is Darryl Strawberry dressed in the finest clothes that his millions can buy -- beautiful shoes, gorgeous diamond ring, beautiful shirt, but empty eyes just sitting there looking out into space. I held that picture in my hand as I sat there and I said, you know, Lord Jesus may it be that somebody in the sports field who knows Darryl will come to Him and tell him about You dear Jesus so that you can fill this longing, this ache, in this boy's heart and bring him purpose and direction in life. He's got everything, but he doesn't have Jesus. And I said, Lord Jesus, in my prayer may it be that he has the same experience that the woman of Samaria that he might come to know You Lord Jesus.

And that brings us to our notes today. Let's go to the front page, and if you're new with us today, I prepare always the notes. And they're not always perfect because there something I do while I'm just studying and they're not even proofread, and you can see mistakes. I make all the mistakes not the Secretary, as I type them and then I put them down to the press -- they don't even get proofread. But here we are: During the last number of lessons, we've observed the conversion of a sinner, the woman of Samaria. She had left her village a sinner and now she returns to her village born again! She had come down the hill a child of Adam's race, thinking only of the life that she had known and her very mundane need for water. Instead she had met the second Adam, Jesus, who had filled her with a desire for a quality of life that she had never dreamed of, and who had revealed himself to her as the One through whom that life is imparted to men and women. And as a result of Christ's words, this woman believed on Jesus, on him, and she became his witness. Now the new follower of Christ gave evidence to the change that had taken place at the well. And here's my point, when Jesus Christ becomes our Savior and we in faith trust our soul to Him, and we believe in Him and what He did at Calvary, a tremendous thing takes place. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:7, we become new creations in Christ Jesus. Old things pass away. All things become new.

And it's fascinating when you read the stories of men and women of the Scriptures who met Jesus and how their life was dramatically changed by that encounter. Back to our notes. The first thing that the doctor or the nurses attending upon the birth of a child wants to hear is a cry. And the cry of the baby is evidence to the doctors that air has entered the lungs and that the baby has begun to breathe. This is the same spiritually. When a man or woman is born again, the first thing that any Christian should desire to hear is the cry of new life, evidence that the breath of God has come into that person. And that's why the Bible speaks in many places about the need for a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Paul says in Romans 10:9-10, That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. That is, you believe that He's Lord and Savior and that He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So not only is this matter of spiritual conversion something of the heart, it changes our whole vocabulary and our thought process.

Matthew 10:32, Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. And the implied is if I don't acknowledge Jesus, He won't acknowledge me in heaven. 1 John 2:23, No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 1 John 4:15, If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. Mark 8:38, If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes into his Father's glory with the holy angels. So when we go through the Scriptures we find that this matter of verbally expressing our faith is a part of the act of faith. Some persons think that they can be secret believers, closet Christians, but the Word of God never considers this a possibility. If God has done something and our lives through trusting in Jesus Christ, we're going to be talking about it, most naturally. Now secondly, there's the evidence of a dramatic spiritual change in this woman's heart, and it was a change in values. John indicates it beautifully when he tells us, that leaving the water jar, the woman went back to the town. And thus, from one point of view the story is all about water. The woman had come for literal water. There had been a discussion of wells and water, and Christ had offered her living water. Now having found the water that alone satisfies the soul, the woman thinks no more of her water jar. She has changed her values. She's not thinking about the mundane thing of getting water. She wants to go back to that community and tell those folks she's found somebody that she wants them to meet.

May I suggest there out in the side notes, I want you to put three Scripture verses out here in your personal notes. Number one, put down Luke 19:1-10. Would you write that down? because it's the story of Zacchaeus. Luke 19:1-10, now this guy is an interesting guy. He's a Jewish gentleman who sold his soul to the Roman government. He's a tax collector. You see, the Romans were in control of Jerusalem. They would buy these people who would sell their souls cheap to be their tax collectors. An old Zacchaeus went to work for the Roman government and became the IRS of Jericho. He wasn't liked and he was dishonest in some of the taxes he collected, but he hears that this man Jesus is coming to town so he goes and sits up in a tree because he's little. He's short in stature. Jesus comes by, looks up in the tree, and says, Zacchaeus, I want to go to your house for lunch. When Jesus goes to Zacchaeus' house he's terribly, must be terribly, uncomfortable because the couch that He sits on and the food that Jesus eats and the floor that He walks on and the carpets that are there, they've all been purchased with fraudulent tax claims. And now he's got perfection sitting in his house. The first thing old Zacchaeus does is says, Jesus, Jesus, I'll take all this stuff and get rid of it and the people that I have really been unfair with I'll pay them back four times. Now old Zacchaeus knew the Jewish law. He knew that if you had taken something from someone else there were certain decrees of redemption. If it were under certain conditions you would pay back a certain percentage, and he knew what those were and he doubled every one of them. He wanted to get this thing right. So at a moment in meeting Jesus (snaps fingers) he changes from a materialist to a man who desires righteousness. That (snaps fingers) quick. And verse 9 of Luke 19 says, salvation has come to your house this day.

The point is, that when Jesus touches our lives with His grace and His mercy and His love, changes really do take place. Go with me to Acts chapter 9. Write down Acts 9 in your notes. It's the story of Paul's conversion. Now the first verse says, Saul, breathing out threatenings and murder. He hated the Christian church, and he had gotten authority from the religious leaders down in Jerusalem to go up to Damascus about 130 miles away, find anybody he could find that named the name of Christ and call themselves Christians, haul them back to Jerusalem, and ultimately, maybe some of them would be put to death. I mean he was a vicious man. So he's making his way up to Damascus and all of a sudden a light shines from heaven, strikes him, and he hears this voice, Saul, what are you doing? Who are you? I'm Jesus. What do you want of me? And that voice said you go into Damascus and I've talked to a man who's going to come and pray for you. Now old Ananias, he's the devout man in Damascus, and he's in prayer and he sees this vision and the vision says, now there's a man by the name of Saul, I want you to go pray for him, and the way you'll identify him he's going to be praying. That's interesting. I mean the chapter started out he was threatening murder and now he's praying. He's had an encounter with God, and the interesting thing is after Ananias responds, goes to the house prays for him, he's healed, I think it's verse 21 that says Paul went preaching Christ -- 21 verses from a murderer threatening to haul people into the religious courts, to a preacher of the gospel. A tremendous transformation.

Go to Acts chapter 16. I think it's about verse 22 or in that area. You have the story of the Philippian jailer. Paul and Silas have been out in town preaching. They haven't like what he's preached so they've hauled him into jail, beat him up, and put him in stocks. I mean, it was a miserable place and they weren't nice to them. Then they told this jailer, you take care of these guys. So in the middle of the night, old Paul and Silas sitting there bound with these stocks in prison started a song service. I don't know what they were singing, maybe Amazing Grace. Whatever it was, there was an earthquake, all the shackles were broken lose, and the old prisoner [jailer] was rocked out of bed and he comes running and he's ready to kill himself. He's got his sword in his hand. You say, why? Because under Roman law if a jailer lost his prisoners they took his life. I mean, your life was taken in exchange. He didn't want to be taken so he was just going to take his own life. Paul said, hey, stop that, stop that. We're all here. You don't have to do that. The old prisoner [jailer] went and got a light, came running in, and said, what do I got to do to be saved? Old Paul says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. And that man that night, in the middle of the night, that old jailer his heart was transformed and the result was that he brought these guys in that he'd probably helped beat them up, and with those hands that had put those lashes were at least put them in the stocks, those hands are now washing and bathing this guy's bruises and his cuts. And then he takes those same hands and he says, guys, what do you want for supper? And he cooks them a meal in the middle of the night. Now that's change, isn't it? So here's my point; when Jesus Christ comes into our life, Paul says, we become a new creation. Old things pass away. All things become new. It's the mark of a man who's been touched by God's grace.

Now back to our notes; I'm on page 3 now, and on the third page, the final proof of a genuine change in the woman of Samaria is a new concern on her part for others. Her only relationship with people before was what she could get out of it. Now, she wants to see what she can give to them that will improve their lives, and that's a friendship with Jesus. And so she leaves her waterpot and her spiritual concern is for others. Notice, the Bible sets this pattern for us when it declares, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again." There something about Christianity; true Christianity changes a selfish person into a selfless person. It's interesting when you study history of the world, the great acts of charity always started with the church -- with Christians. That's amazing, but it's the natural thing -- the response of one coming to Christ. He takes away our selfishness and He makes us concerned with others, and there's that deep concern to that they come to know Jesus just like we do. It should always be there.

Now I'm in the middle of page 3. So at the heart of this scene is the matter of evangelism; the winning of others to Jesus Christ. She wanted to win her village to this man she had met so well. His name was Jesus. Now I've suggested on page 4, and I have to hurry, that when we talk about personal evangelism often people say, well now the preacher's going to tell us we've all to go out and try to get everybody saved -- that's our neighbors and our friends and our family. Well that's personal evangelism, and oft times we feel that it's a burden laid upon us. Say, I can't. I'm so bashful it's hard for me to talk about religion to somebody. I don't want to do that, and often we excuse ourselves by our own fears. But now if we get a biblical concept of what a disciple of Christ really is, it solves this problem of sharing our faith with others.

So on page 4 look at what we've written. For a complete picture of what the New Testament means by evangelism, we need not look further than the Apostle Paul's account of the nature of his own evangelistic ministry. There are three points. I can't cover them today. We'll just take the first one. Paul evangelized as the commissioned representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach, not with wisdom of words, least the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. And so he sees himself as a steward assigned by God with... Well let's take the next verse. He says, let a man so account of us, that is myself and my fellow-preacher Apollos, as ministers of Christ, and in that capacity stewards of the mysteries of God. A dispensation of the gospel, a commission to dispense it; a steward-ship is committed unto me. Now write out there in your column of personal notes this Scripture reference: 1 Corinthians 4:6,7. 1 Corinthians 4:6,7. Here's Paul's concept of his responsibility before God. It says, for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God in the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He says, God has shined into our hearts and we now understand why Jesus came, and we see His glory manifested in His acts of redemption. He said, we see it in Jesus Christ. And then he makes the next verse and he says, and we have this treasure in earth in vessels. What Paul is saying is when Christ gives us His love, and His life, and His forgiveness, and His mercy, He places within us an eternal treasure of intense eternal value. Because in coming to know Christ you and I know where the source of peace is. You and I know who the Savior of the world is. You and I know the answer to people who are anguishing for a purpose to live! It's knowing Jesus Christ. We've got that treasure. We've got that knowledge within us, and Paul said it's like a treasure. It's a divine treasure.

Notice the next passages I sum that up. He says, Paul saw himself as a bondslave raised to a position of high trust, as the steward of a household in New Testament times always was; he had been approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, and the responsibility now rested on him to be faithful to his trust, as a steward must be, guarding the precious truth that had been committed to him (as he later charges Timothy to do), in the distribution and the dispensing of it according to the Master's instructions. He perceived and understood that divine truth that he held dear to him as a treasure given to him by God. And God said I'm going to give you that treasure so that you will dispense it to others. God never saved us to make us a reservoir to hold in all of our spiritual life within us. He made us to be a spiritual river. Jesus said out of our innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. That's being a steward. Taking that treasure of divine truth, the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ as I've now experienced His grace, that treasure and I'm responsible for passing it out.

You know folks, when I stand here, and have now for decades, maybe some of you have wondered why I'm so serious. I don't have the capacity to have humor or jokes in the pulpit, and I'm not saying pastors who do are wrong. It's just not part of me. I take my assignment of holding a divine treasure, and I see you folks sitting here Sunday after Sunday, and I know that the truths of this divine treasure will change your life, and that's why I stand here. I had a man come up to me last night after the service and said, Pastor, I've been coming only for the few weeks but my life has been totally transformed, and I'll come to tell you about it. I'll call you and make an appointment. I said, I'd love to do that. But I stand here because I realize that the truth that we have as Christians is an eternal treasure, but it's a treasure I'm not to keep. Paul said I'm a steward. I'm to pass out these wonderful divine truths, the truth of God's love and the fact that Jesus died for us, and if we put our trust in Him, He'll save us and forgive us and make us a new creation. Paul said that's my treasure and I'm to pass it out. Now when I look at evangelism that way, now I have a divine assignment.

And I'm going to tell you now why I feel so deeply and why I don't get humorous nor do I tell jokes in the pulpit. I failed God in passing out a treasure -- His treasure -- many years ago. It was in the late 1950s and I pastored a church down in San Francisco. And I got a phone call one day and it said, Pastor Sheley, Pastor Sheley! I want to know about God and I live at a 636 Howard Street and my room number is so and so. And I wrote it down, 636 Howard, the slum area of San Francisco. Somehow I let that note brush to the side for the day and didn't go. The next day, the same call. Pastor Sheley! I want to know about God! I live at 636 Howard Street. And somehow that day went by and I did nothing about it. The next morning I went to my office and quickly picked up that note, went down to 636 Howard Street, and I'll never, I'll never forget the scene I saw. Out of that rickety old hotel room came the coroner pushing a gurney with a corpse covered by a white sheet. I stood, braced myself by the doorframe, and said, sir, what's his name? He gave me his name and I looked at my card. It was the name of the man I didn't go to share the treasure with. You know, sometimes I think that maybe it might happen when I stand at the judgment bar on that eternal day, that man will walk by and say Sheley, you didn't come to tell me. And that's what compels me to be as honest and forthright and serious with you in these matters that pertain to eternity and our souls. But I ask you a question, on that eternal day will there be a family member, somebody where you worked, someone you knew that you never shared your treasure with? And on that day how will you feel?

You say that's a heavy Pastor. But that's why Paul said, 1 Corinthians 9:16, woe unto me if I preach not the gospel! Paul said, God forbid if I fail to take this assignment and take this treasure and keep it inside me and never share it. God forbid that should never happen. That's why he moves throughout the Roman Empire. He was beaten, persecuted, caused to walk naked. I mean, that man went through everything. Why? Because he had a treasure and he wanted everybody to share in the treasure. Let's pray. Father, we sometimes forget why we were saved. Some of us have thought we were saved just simply to save us from going to hell. That's a side benefit, but really the reason why You saved us was to make us stewards and you entrusted in us a treasure of divine truths that we're to dispense to the world around us. And as that little lady hurried back from the well, she wanted to tell the people, her village, of her treasure. Help us to do the same, in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you folks.