My Food Is

John 4:31-38
August 14, 2022
Abraham Hong

Sermon Script

When I think about all of you, I have reason to be thankful and happy. It seems that many of you, if not all of you, are doing well. You have good families. You are figuring things for school or for work. You have many things to look forward to in your life. I am thankful and happy for all of you.

But at the same time, when I think about all of us, there is also reason to be concerned and worried. It seems that many of us, if not all of us, are not doing well. We often forget about the ultimate and eschatological things of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not fully understand the time that we live in right now and just how precious and urgent are these last days. And so I am concerned and worried.

But God loves us and he helps us so that we will forget less and understand more. Our Lord Jesus Christ has spoken to his church in today’s passage. And what he has said to us is simple and life-changing.

In today’s passage, Jesus has just met the Samaritan woman at the well. He spoke to her about the gospel truths of true worship, living water, and eternal life. And he told her that he was the promised Messiah who would save people from their sins. Jesus’ disciples arrive at the well with food from the city. The Samaritan woman left her water jar and went into her town to testify to people about Jesus. And the disciples urged Jesus to eat their food. He was, after all, wearied from his journey.

I’m sure that Jesus was indeed hungry. But Jesus turned this moment into a teaching moment for his disciples. And a teaching moment for us.

Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” What a profound statement. Listen to Jesus’ words again. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

Jesus was telling his disciples the truth and the big picture. He had work to do. He was sent by the Father. He was doing the Father’s will. And his food - that is, his goal, his desire, his reason for coming down from heaven - was to accomplish the work.

This is the good news of Jesus Christ. The work that Jesus came to do was salvation. Salvation for his people. Salvation from sin.

The work included Jesus’ life. His obedience to the law, him living a perfect and sinless life of righteousness. That was his work. And he did this work so that you could receive his work by having his work credited to you so that now you are counted and declared as righteous, as if you have perfectly obeyed the law and are deserving of eternal life and a right relationship with God the Father. Jesus came to accomplish this work. This was his food. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

Praise the Lord for his life. Jesus loves you. And he did this work for you.

But that’s not all. The work did not just include Jesus’ life. The work also included Jesus’ suffering and death. His suffering and his death on the cross, his substitution of himself for you to be a sacrifice in your place, his payment for your life with his death, his taking of the wrath and the hell that you deserve for your sin, his satisfaction of the justice of God the Father. That was his work. Jesus came to accomplish this work. This was his food. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

Praise the Lord for his suffering and death. Jesus loves you. And he did this work for you.

Now, why did the disciples need this teaching moment from Jesus? And why do we need to hear this today?

Dear Highland, there are earthly matters such as food. But then there is the heavenly, eschatological, and ultimate matter of Jesus’ work of salvation. This is the big picture. This is the story. This is history. This is his story.

You have good families. You are figuring things for school or for work. You have many things to look forward to in your life. I am thankful and happy for all of you.

But let us also have a healthy dose of concern and worry that leads to spiritual growth and maturity in Christ. Dear Highland, your families are not as important as the ultimate and eschatological things of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dear Highland, your school, your work, and all the earthly things that you are looking forward to in your life in this old and fading world are not as important as the work that we the church have to do in this precious and urgent time that we live in right now in these last days. Dear Highland, do you see what Jesus sees? Dear Highland, what is your food?

I highly recommend the following food for you.

Jesus calls us to see that the harvest is now. And we have work to do.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” A harvest is when people go to a field and gather in the crop. When you plant seeds into the ground of a field, you call that sowing. And when you cut down and gather the food that grows from the seeds in the ground of the field, you call that reaping. A harvest is when it’s time to reap. A harvest marks the end of a season of waiting. And Jesus was talking about the harvest of his people from Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The disciples were to go from Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth in order to gather Jesus’ people who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus. That was to be the disciples’ food. The disciples were to understand that the coming of Christ Jesus marks the end of the Old Testament time of waiting for God’s promise of salvation to be fulfilled for all the nations. Jesus has come to do the work of his salvation. The time of salvation is now. The end of redemptive history is now. These are the last days. The fields are white for harvest. The fields are ready. It is time to harvest. The harvest is now. And the church has work to do.

So lift up your eyes. And see the harvest. In the Bible, the lifting up of the eyes is profound language. It means to see what is ultimate, eschatological, heavenly, and important.

In Genesis 22, after God tested Abraham with the sacrifice of his son Isaac, Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

In Joshua 5, when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.”

And in many of the prophetic books, the prophets were commanded and invited to lift up their eyes in order to see visions of God’s glory and his future promise of salvation.

Dear Highland, this is not the time to be stiff-necked. This is the time to lift up your eyes and see that the harvest is happening now.

These last days are very precious and very urgent. God’s kingdom is advancing faster than you know. It is time to evangelize the gospel of Jesus. When Jesus said, “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life,” he was talking about the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” Many Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus.

Jesus sowed his gospel of salvation. And in the blink of an eye, the Samaritan woman reaped what Jesus sowed. She amazingly went from receiving Jesus’ gospel to reaping Jesus’ gospel unto others. And already the Samaritan woman who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life in her evangelism. Her wages is simply the honor of participating in the work of evangelism and sharing the good news of Jesus’ salvation with others.

This is amazing. The day before, the Samaritan woman was drinking the water of sexual immorality with five husbands and a sixth man who was not her husband. On that day, she found her living water, Jesus. The day before, her food was the things of her world and living her own life. On that day, she found her new and final food: to do the will and the work of Jesus’ harvest. The Samaritan woman’s life was forever changed. She just met Jesus. And immediately, she is evangelizing Jesus to others.

But what is the point of all of this? The point is joy. Joyful fellowship with God and with God’s people. That’s the point of Jesus’ salvation. Notice what Jesus said. “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, … so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”

Dear Highland, the goal is not the work itself. The point is not the reaping itself or the harvest itself. The goal is the people. The people whom Jesus came to save. The point is for such sinners to have a joyful reconciled fellowship with God. The endgame is rejoicing.

I remember going on mission trips to the Dominican Republic when I was a young pastor. It was a lot of work. It was so much work that I lost sight of what the mission trips were all about. But I remember one night when we showed the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to all the people in town.

After the movie, I was assigned to evangelize to the crowd who saw the movie and call them to repentance and faith in Jesus. It was a teaching moment I will never forget.

God by his grace caused me to lift up my eyes and see what was really happening. What was happening was not just a movie night. What was happening was not merely a mission trip. What was happening was a harvest. The harvest of Jesus’ people. Of which I was graciously invited to participate in its work.

That night, as I fumbled through my testimony of who Jesus was and his work of salvation for sinners in front of all the kids and adults in that town, I saw people repent of their sins and believe in Jesus. I couldn’t believe it. But I was so thankful and happy. I learned what I should really be thankful and happy about. And I learned how to rejoice together with Jesus, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

Dear Highland, there is great joy in evangelism. If you take part in this harvest, you will participate in the hardest but most rewarding work in the entire universe. Join the harvest. Enter the labor. By God’s grace, lift up your eyes and see what Jesus sees. Make this your food-food. People are dying. Correction: People are dead. Spiritual dead in their sins. But you have the living water that is Christ Jesus. So leave your old water jar behind. Let go of this world and the things of this world. Let go of your own life, your own story. Start building a new life around the ultimate and eschatological things of our Lord Jesus Christ. Start living a new life that is in line with these precious and urgent last days. The sower has sown. It is time for us to reap and rejoice.

Soli Deo Gloria