The Heart That Ministers - John 4:1-9

James Gilmour was a missionary to Mongolia in the late 1800’s. When he first arrived he prayed this prayer, "Oh Lord, suggest by the Spirit how I should come among them. And guide me in gaining the language, and in preparing myself to teach the life and love of Jesus Christ."

He labored there for over 21 years. In the end he wrote this in his journal, "In the shape of converts, I have seen no results. I have not as far as I am aware, seen anyone who even wanted to be a Christian."

James Gilmour came from a prominent family in England. He had every opportunity to do whatever he wanted to do with his life. One can well imagine that had he remained in England, he would have enjoyed a very productive and successful life.

As believers we must choose again and again between two very distinct courses.

One is to cultivate a small heart. This is by far the safest way to live because it minimizes our sorrows. The other path will subject us ti sorrows that a shriveled heart knows nothing about. Enlarge your heart, cultivate a ministering heart, and you will at the same time enlarge the potential for pain.

The second path is the path James Gilmour chose, consequently it is the path that Jesus chose as well. in our text Jesus gives us a vibrant example of the heart that minsters.

1) A ministering heart reaches our even through it is tired. (V1-6)

Very often the ministering heart is a tired heart. In this text our Lord was weary in the service of souls. Unending questions from His disciples, coupled with the constant scrutiny of the Pharisees, along with the long walk from Jordan brought Jesus to a point of physical weariness. (v4) We should never minimize the fact that Jesus was fully God and fully man at the same time. At no time did her ever lay down His deity, but at the same time he also was fully man experiencing weariness.

He was resting by Jacob's well in Sychar in the middle of the day. A Samaritan woman approaches the well. How easy it would have been for Jesus to rationalize this situation. He had just traveled a long way on foot. He could very simply have kept His silence and let this opportunity go right on by. That choice was surely available to Him. But, that is not what He did. Our Lord in fact, went for her heart, because He had a ministering heart.

Oswald Sanders believes that. "The world is run by tired men." Anne Ortlund states, "No where in the Bible are we told to slow down and take it easy."

Most souls are won by tired people continuing to share their faith. The best sermons are preached by tired men. The best camps are run by exhausted youth ministers. The world is evangelized by tired missionaries. And, you show me a successful Vacation Bible School and I will show you some very tired workers.

this has been true in the lives of some of the men God has used down through the ages. Martin Luther, worked so hard that when he went to bed he literally fell into bed. DL Moody often prayed at bedtime, "Lord, I am tired, Amen!" Calvin's biographers marveled at his output. Wesley rode 60-70 miles a day on horse back and preached an average of 3 sermons a day.

Our Lord's example is a call to us to expand our heart, and when we do we will see much to do for the work of His kingdom.

2) A ministering heart overcomes barriers (V7-9)

The Samaritan woman responded to a heart that crossed barriers.

First, she was a Samaritan. The bitter hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans was long standing. Here's where it came from. In 721 BC the Assyrians swept thru Israel, The Northern Kingdom. They took the inhabitants of Israel back to Assyria.
While there, many of them inter-married with the Assyrians, resulting is a people who came to be known as the Cuthites. These folks became the Samaritans. A bit later in 587 BC the Babylonians took the people of Judah, the Southern Kingdom captive. In Babylon, there was no intermarriage, these Jews maintained unadulterated Jewish blood. They came back to Jerusalem eventually during the time of Cyrus. They despised the Northern Kingdom because they saw them as half-breeds. They often prayed, "O Lord do not remember the Samaritans in the resurrection." The Rabbi's of the day taught, "Let no man eat bread with the Samaritans, for he who eats their bread is as he who eats swine’s flesh."

In reaching out to this woman Jesus overcame the prejudicial barrier of religious and cultural hatred. He even went so far as to ask her to use her ladle. Under the Jewish law he would have become defiled as a result of this action.

He also broke another barrier, she was a woman. Rabbi's forbid their devout men to speak to women in public. There was actually a sect of Pharisees who became known as "the Bleeding and Bruised Pharisees." When they was a woman coming they would cover their eyes and consequently run into walls or fall down stairs, etc.

Yet, the ministering heart of Jesus spoke to this woman.

Alexander Maclaren shares this insight, "When these words were spoken, the then-known world was cleft by great, deep gulfs of separation, like the crevasses of a glacier.. Racial animosities, class differences, language, religion, national animosities, differences of condition, and saddest of all, difference of sex.. these things split the world… each group standing on opposite sides of a gulf, flinging hostility across. But then the Gospel came! Then barbarian, Scyhtian, bond and free, male and female, Jew and Greek. Learned and ignorant, clasped hands and sat down at table, and felt themselves “all one in Christ Jesus."

The great glory of the church is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ crosses barriers. It crosses geographical barriers, driving committed believers like James Gilmour to far off places for the cause of the Gospel. It crosses cultural and language barriers. It crosses condition barriers, free men ministering to those in bonds.

The very nature of the Gospel of Christ causes it to break down the walls that divide, making us one in Christ Jesus. The ever enlarging ministering heart understands this.

3) A ministering heart sees Providence in relationships (v4)

I find this verse to be most interesting. Jesus went through Samaria on purpose. The ministering heart has an awaremess of the sovereign ordering of life. This meeting at the well in Sychar was a divine appointment. God's will and plan were evidently involved.

You and I must realize this as well. We never talk to a mere mortal!

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers about death, he told them that, "this mortal must put on immortality." (I Corinthians 15) We often assume that this truth is for believrs only. But Revelation 20:5 tells us that, "the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended." The "rest of the dead" here speaks of those who have refused salvation and are now under the judgment of God. Everyone we meet will live eternally, either as a glorious being or as a dreadfully lost soul. The ministering heart sees this and treats all encounters accordingly.

A ministering heart is an expansive heart that ministers even when it is weary. It is a heart that intentionally crosses the normal barriers of life. It also sees the divine potential in all relationships.

Yet, this enlarged heart is remarkably vulnerable... just as Christ's was.

CS Lewis states it so eloquently, "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is ...Hell."