The Ministering Heart's Approach to Life! - John 4:27-42

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to keep the important things, important. Keeping things in their proper priority, is a life long struggle.

The Samaritan woman was transformed by her encounter with Jesus (V28) Her life had been radically changed and transformed by Jesus. She indulged a bit of pardonable exaggeration, given the fact that it was impossible in such a short time for the Lord to recite everything she had ever done. But,she felt like He knew her inside and out. Her life was instantaneously changed, and renewed.

Meanwhile, the disciples return from town with food and supplies. (V27) They had not gotten beyond the social and cultural issues of the day. The timing here is uncanny, about the time this encounter is wrapping up the disciples came back. They were surprised that He was talking to this woman. To the disciples talking with this woman was a grave breach of convention. They were not unjustified in their thinking.
Listen to this Rabbinical ruling - "He that talks much with womankind brings evil upon himself and neglects the study of the Law and at least will inherit Gehenna."

So, the scene is set. The disciples were uneasy, judgmental, out of sorts.
The Samaritan woman on the other hand was happy and exuberant. Out of this scene comes some amazing instruction, namely,what it means to have a ministering heart!

I. A Transcending Priority (V31-34)

The disciples encourage Him to eat, but Jesus seems distracted. Their actions were in response to what they had come to know earlier. In John 4:6 we learn that Jesus was wearied, hungry, tired, and thirsty. That’s how the left Him, but now He declines their offer. So, they reason,someone bought Him some food while we were gone
Jesus makes an amazing statement. (v32) "I have food to eat that you do not know about." The “I” and the “you” are emphatic,“I” have something that “you” do not have. He was attempting to draw them to what he wanted to say and teach. When their curiosity was aroused, He goes on, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work."(v34) In this statement,Jesus put the highest emphasis on God’s will and work. "This is my food," He states. • Above all else Jesus lived to do God’s will. The word in(V34, "accomplish", is the Greek word "teleioso." This word means,"to bring to an end." The same word was used later by Jesus in John 17:4 - when he prays the high intercessory prayer - "I have done(tele-osas)what you asked."
Then, on the cross, "tetelestai - It is finished - its the same word, This was His food!

God desires for this to be the transcending priority of our life! Doing God’s will energized Jesus, but this also works in the life of the believer. Being used of God brings strength. For example take the life of the great Scottish preacher - John Knox. As an old man he was very feeble, so much so that he had to lean on the pulpit to balance himself. As he began to preach his voice would be very weak, his words slow and calculated. But, before long his voice would become strong. One observer described his voice as having the power of a trumpet call. The message completely filled the man. Knox experienced super-natural sustenance, the food that Jesus also possessed.

Doing God’s will must be our transcending priority.

II. A Sense of Urgency (V35-38)

There were 4 months between sowing and harvest. This works agriculturally, but it is not so with a heavenly harvest. Dr. H.V. Morton, sat one day at that very well in Sychar. Listen to his reflections, "As I sat by Jacob’s well a crowd of Arabs came along the road from the direction in which Jesus was looking, and I saw their white garments shining in the sun. Surely Jesus was speaking not of the earthly but the heavenly harvest, and as he spoke I think it is likely that he pointed along the road where the Samaritans in their white robes were assembling to hear his words."

To the disciples, Jesus was making a point. They thought there was time, plenty of time. They focused on an earthly kingdom and the eventual over-throw of Rome, even though they had been told that His Kingdom was not of this world. h
So, they lived in the future tense and fixed their attention on things that will happen later. But Jesus wanted them to look...right now...see them coming! If they were going to follow Him, they had to know the secret of His heart - a sense of immediacy, even urgency about the harvest.

Whats amazing about this story is that they were going to reap a harvest that they had nothing to do with. (V36-38) So then, who did the sowing? The Samaritan woman! Imagine that..she could not give theological explanations...She didn’t know the four spiritual laws..She probably quoted no scripture, but they saw the transformation of her life! And as a result, they wanted to know about the Power that had so changed her. (V39-42) What even more amazing is the depth of their understanding. The Samaritans were the first to call Christ, “The Savior of the World”


John Hutton a famous Welsh preacher was preaching, when suddenly a man jumped up and lead the church in the Doxology. Hutton was unable to continue. Hutton later spoke with the man. "I have only been a Christian a few months and I cannot sit still while the Word is being preached. You see, I was a bad lot sir! I drank, pawned the furniture,and I knocked my wife about. Hutton asked the man how he was faring with his fellow workers in the mine. The man replied, "Well,just today working down in the mine they asked me, 'You don’t seriously credit that old yarn about Jesus turning water into wine do you?' I told them, 'I know nothing about the water and the wine, but I know this, in my house Christ has turned beer into furniture and that is a good enough miracle for me.'"

I think that is how it was for the Samaritan woman.

A transcending priority and a sense of urgency are the characteristics of the ministering heart!