35. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
37. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans believe

39. Many of the Samaritans from that town believe in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40. So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41. And because of his words many more became believers.

42. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said: now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world!.”

Jesus heals the official’s son

43. After the two days he left for Galilee. 44. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)

45. When he arrived in Galilee, the Galitians welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.

46. Once more he visited Cana in Galilee where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

48. “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, “Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

49. The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

50. Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live. The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52. When he inquired as to the time when his son had gotten better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”

53. Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “The son will live.” So he and all his household believed.

54. This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.

 

Topic: Missions
John 4:20
 True worshipers from all nations

In the days of Jesus, Israel's religious leaders sent out missionaries (see Matthew 23:15, p. 1121), but their message to outsiders was something like this: Only if you follow our way can you be saved; only then can we accept you. The Samaritan woman had sensed this attitude, so she was surprised by Jesus' openness to her.

Samaritans were a mixed-blood race resulting from the intermarriage of Israelites left behind when the people of the northern   kingdom were exiled (in 722 B.C.) and Gentiles were brought into the land by the Assyrians. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews, who had not intermarried with other peoples. Samaritans claimed that Mount Gerizim was holy and appropriate place to worship. They had built a temple there around 400 B.C., but the Jews - who claimed the only place for true worship was at the temple in Jerusalem - destroyed in about 128 B.C.

Similar thinking even crept into the early church. Certain Jewish Christians were requiring Gentile believers to be     circumcised, as mandated by the Jewish law. The apostle Paul vigorously protested this teaching, say the only requirement   for salvation is faith in Jesus Christ and his death for our sins (see Galatians 5:1-6, p.1343)

Jesus told the Samaritan woman genuine worship depends not on your location but on the condition of your heart. We need   to be careful not to impose our cultural traditions on others as a condition for knowing God. Jesus once described himself as the gate through which those seeing salvation must enter (see John 10:7-9, p. 1225). He, and no other ritual or practice, is the way to eternal life.

When you share the gospel with outsiders, what message do they hear from your behavior? Do you put extra requirements, consciously or unconsciously, on people who want to become Christians?

MORE STUDY:
John 10:1 - 16; Acts 10:1-11:18
Galatians 2:11 - 14; 6:12 - 15

 

 

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THE STARTING POINT STUDY BIBILE New International Version
The Luis Palau Evangelistic Association / www.luispalau.org