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Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 4-9] Many More Came to Believe Because of Jesus’ Own Word (John 4:27-42)
(John 4:27-42)
“And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, ‘What do You seek?’ or, ‘Why are You talking with her?’ The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the 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. In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’ Therefore the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.’ And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.’”
Today I would like to share the Word from the Gospel of John chapter 4 verses 27-42 together with you. The Lord, who came out of Judea and entered the land of Samaria, met a woman at the well there. Who was this Samaritan woman that the Lord met here? She was not satisfied even though she had five husbands before, and she was not even satisfied with the sixth husband she had now and she was leading a wretched life. She was a spiritually thirsty woman who could not find satisfaction in life even though she tried hard.
This woman finally met Jesus the Savior here. She revealed her bare self through Jesus. She finally saw how filthy she was and realized what kind of person she was before the presence of God and desired the water that would not make her thirty ever again. Our Lord Jesus gave the water that springs forth forever to this woman who was always feeling hunger and thirst.
Are You Spiritually Thirsty?
Who is Jesus? Is He a historical figure that appears in biographical books, or is He a prophet like Elijah? If not, is He a figment of imagination created by human beings? That is definitely not the case. Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of humanity, and He is God Almighty who gives us salvation.
Look at John 4:29 that says “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ” and the Word in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God’s Word tells us that Jesus knows everything about us because Jesus is God and He is our Lord and our Creator. It is our Lord and Creator who made us and speaks to us more precisely about us. Only He knows everything about us.
That is why Matthew 10:30 says that He even knows the number of hairs on our head. Do you know how many hairs you have? Can you count them? No, you cannot. However, our Lord knows even this. Jesus, who created all humanity, knows all about us like He knew the circumstances and the past career of this Samaritan woman. Jesus, who knows everything about us, in such manner told the Samaritan woman all the things she did until that time. He told her about her circumstances that are always spiritually thirsty with her heart that could not be satisfied in this world. He also enlightened her that she had to drink the water of everlasting life to quench her spiritual thirst.
The Jews and the Samaritans had bad relationship between them at the time and they did not even talk to one another. But Jesus loved humans beyond the racial boundaries. As He said that whosoever knew Him and believed in Him would receive eternal life, the Lord gave the light of salvation to this lowly Samaritan woman who wanted to gain new life from Him. But Jesus did not give the woman the water that would not make her thirst ever again from the beginning. Before giving her the water, He told her to go and bring her husband. Was the Lord curious about her husband’s face? No. He told her this to make the Samaritan woman realize her own self. But this woman just told Him that she had no husband and avoided answering in detail.
It was embarrassing for her to say with her own mouth to a stranger that she has had many husbands because she did not know exactly who Jesus was at that time. But Jesus did not just pass over her concerns and instead told her frankly about her past saying, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” After hearing this, the woman finally realizes that Jesus was not an ordinary person. As such, before the Lord gave the woman the bread of life and the water of eternal life, the Lord reminded the woman that “You are a sinner. You cannot attain spiritual satisfaction because of your sin.”
This is the same for you and me as well. We must first recognize the fact that we are sinners like this woman in order to receive the remission of sins before the presence of God and receive the water of eternal life. We must know that we are a complete mass of sin in order to receive the true salvation by believing in the Lord, who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the Savior.
The disciples of Jesus came back with food at the time when the Lord was having a conversation with the Samaritan woman. They gave the Lord the food, but the Lord said, “I have food to eat of which you do not know,” and did not eat it. With that, the disciples thought that some other person brought Him something to eat already. But Jesus told the disciples who had such thoughts, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” He tried to enlighten His disciples on the truth that “The spiritual food for the person who has received salvation is preaching the gospel.” Now that Jesus has given the salvation to the Samaritan woman and she had the spiritual food of Jesus to fill her up, He was telling the disciples to hurry up and seek the spiritual food, not just the food for the flesh.
When are we, the righteous who have been born again, full? Of course, our stomach is full physically when we eat a lot of good food. But all the good food we eat is digested within a few hours and they are discharged from our body as excrements. People who have preached the gospel probably know what true spiritual fullness is. What did you feel at the moment you shared the gospel of the water and the Spirit to a person who was struggling with the problem of sin, and saw the person receive salvation and have the hope of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven? Didn’t you feel proud, joyful, and satisfied? That is right. As the Lord said to us here, the satisfaction that comes when we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is entrusted to us perfectly gives greater joy and happiness than the satisfaction that we feel when we are eating food for our flesh.
The almighty Lord also felt satisfaction while doing the work of salvation. The disciples were physically hungry, but our Lord was preaching the gospel like that because our Lord was always hungry spiritually. He was finally full when the true food was produced in His heart at the time He fulfilled the duty the Father entrusted to Him. We, the righteous people who follow the Lord are the same way. We have a deep satisfaction in our hearts when we make the evangelistic books and hold book exhibitions and other works of the Lord to preach the gospel. I also feel these things a lot. I do not worry very much, even if there is nothing to eat in the refrigerator and we are out of living expenses. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having a lot of food. Though I do not have anything, I am so happy and my stomach feels so full when I meet a soul who has sin and share the gospel with him. I am so happy when the person receives the remission of sin and when I see him become an upright child of God.
The more work we do for the Lord, the fuller we become spiritually. As a cow has several stomachs, each of the righteous has two stomachs; the physical stomach and the spiritual stomach. The spiritual stomach feels full only when we are doing the work of the Lord. But most people do not know this fact and they just try to fill up their physical stomach. Such people may ask me why I am causing such a big deal, but I am still very hungry spiritually.
Therefore, I want to establish God’s Church in China and share the Lord’s gospel there. They say that the doors of North Korea may open in next year as well. I plan to print many books for them beforehand and share with them at that time. I want to distribute them to our people in North Korea. The people who encounter our gospel may pray in regional dialect, “Our Father in Heaven, Thank you.” It would be nice to hear such prayers from North Korea. I am spiritually full already just from the thought of that. I earnestly desire for that day to come.
The Lord witnessed to the Samaritan woman and felt fullness of the spiritual stomach. That is why He did not eat anything when the disciples brought the food for His flesh. He said, “My heart is full when I faithfully fulfill the work the Father has commanded Me,” and made the disciples realize that spiritual hunger is more important than physical hunger. We, the righteous, must be like that also. We also must attain the spiritual food from doing the Lord’s work as our Lord received the satisfaction in His heart from doing God’s work.
God gave us the Holy Spirit when we received salvation from sin. This Holy Spirit feels the satisfaction and fullness only when we have spiritual food. It means that we are very happy and satisfied when we do God’s work and serve the Lord faithfully. This is the spiritual food the people in the world can never understand. People in the world are satisfied when they eat bread for their flesh, but we, the righteous, are full and satisfied when we do spiritual work. That’s because the Lord of salvation is in our hearts. The Lord that is in our heart is happy and satisfied when we do the Lord’s work because the Lord, who lived in this world for 33 years, now lives in our hearts as the Holy Spirit and because the Lord is manifested in our hearts when we receive the remission of sins.
Are You Spiritually Wealthy?
On the other hand, how are the people who don’t do the Lord’s work? You may say that they are very poor spiritually because they do not receive any spiritual food at all. They do not have joy or satisfaction no matter what they do. They just live each day in bondage to the things that will perish.
Galatians 6:8 says, “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” People who do not do the Lord’s work and just seek the food for the flesh will just reap corruption from their flesh (Galatians 6:8). But people who do the Lord’s work for the Holy Spirit are different. They receive new born again souls that shall not perish as fruit.
That is why the heart of the person who serves the Lord is very wealthy. His heart is wealthy and God’s blessing accumulates because he always stands on the side of God, and therefore his flesh becomes naturally wealthy. Maybe that is the secret to becoming wealthy. It is difficult to become wealthy even if you bought lottery tickets every week. But we can become spiritually and materialistically wealthy if we do the Lord’s work faithfully. We become abundantly blessed people spiritually and materialistically when we serve the Lord faithfully.
What satisfaction is there in a church building, no matter how huge it may be? The huge and magnificent building cannot give us satisfaction if it is not a church building that does not preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the wretched souls, and share the bread of the heart with people. It is more blessed and satisfying to have one soul come to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and receive the remission of sin than to build 100 huge church buildings.
When people get to attain salvation through our preaching of the gospel, the Holy Spirit inside our hearts is happy because the will of the Lord is fulfilled. The remission of sin of a soul is a thing that is rejoiced of, not only by us, but also in Heaven,. The Scriptures say, “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7). The salvation of one sinner from sin is more desired in Heaven even if there remained ninety-nine self-styled righteous persons. That is the Lord’s will, hope, and the thing with which the Holy Spirit in our hearts is most happy. Joy comes to our hearts because it is the thing the Lord is happy with. Also, the reason why our hearts are so frustrated and hurt and filled with compassion when we meet people who go against the gospel is because it is the work that our Lord in our hearts does not want.
Acts 2:38-39 say, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” It means that the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart as the gift when we understand and believe that Jesus Christ took all our sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism. How would such people who have received the Holy Spirit in their hearts live? They become happy due to the Holy Spirit. They live a life of true blessing and happiness.
Do you now accept that all your sins have been transferred over to Jesus Christ when He came to this world and received the baptism? Those who believe in this have already received the Holy Spirit. Our Lord took over all our sins by receiving the baptism at the Jordan River and suffered the judgment for those sins on the Cross. We have received the perfect remission of sins by believing in this fact. We have received the remission of sins because our sins have been transferred over to the Lord and He died for us, because He received the judgment for us. Believe in this. You shall receive the precious Holy Spirit from the Lord as the gift the moment you receive the remission of sins.
The Holy Spirit does not manifest Himself in you just because you cry out aloud “Lord! Holy Spirit!” like some people claim. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all the same God. That Holy Spirit does not go in and out whenever you say greetings to Him. The Holy Spirit is the precious Being that dwells in the heart of those who believe that the Lord saved us completely from the problem of sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit; the heart of people who have received the remission of sins by believing in that Truth. The Lord puts the seal of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people who have received the remission of sins. The Holy Spirit can come into that heart perfectly and dwell in it because there is no sin in the heart. The Holy Spirit can dwell in it without being shaken because there is no sin.
However, this Holy Spirit cannot go into the hearts of the people that still have sin remaining in their hearts. People who believe in Jesus falsely misunderstand that the Holy Spirit goes in and out of their hearts. However, it is definitely not like that. The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in the heart when there is sin, and it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to go into that heart. The Holy Spirit does not come in when you tell Him to come in and go out again when you tell Him to go. The Holy Spirit is not our servant. The Holy Spirit is the gift that the Lord gives along with the eternal life to people who have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the gift from God. The Holy Spirit comes as the gift of God in the people who have received the cleansing of sin. Therefore, we must receive the remission of sins perfectly by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Holy Spirit can dwell with us only if we know and believe the fact that our Lord blotted out all our sins. It is such great grace and such a blessing to receive the remission of sins because we have received the precious gift from the Lord. The Scriptures say there is no condemnation to those who have the Spirit of Christ and there is condemnation to those who do not have the Spirit of Christ.
However, there are many people who believe in the Lord without receiving the Holy Spirit in their hearts. There are so many Christians who are deceitful and so many who believe incorrectly. They say they speak in tongues and murmur words that cannot be understood. However, the Holy Spirit never does such a thing. The Holy Spirit is not a being that speaks words that He cannot understand.
Our Lord came to this world and blotted out all the sins of the souls and gave the Holy Spirit as the gift to their hearts in this manner. The Lord wants us to spread this Truth to the world just like the Lord personally told this Truth to the Samaritan woman, because that is the true bread of life. You and I must fill our souls with the spiritual food the Lord has given us by sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world rather than seeking the physical food
Let’s look at today’s Scripture passage again. John 4:35-38 say, “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
The Lord said this about the people who preach the gospel. Let’s look at its significance in more detail. There is a large field that people have planted crops. People thought that it would be at least four more months before they could harvest, but it was already time for harvest when they opened their eyes and looked at the field.
What does this mean? When we go around preaching the gospel, there are times when we pick a day to preach the gospel and save a soul according to our own thinking instead of asking God first. We make a judgment by ourselves and say, “This person is not ready yet. I think I need to wait a little longer,” in spite of the fact that the person is waiting to be harvested. The payment had already been paid for the harvest and they just needed to gather them in, but they thought from their fleshly perspective and decided that a little more time needed to pass. Consequently, they could not harvest the crops.
God has planned the salvation of humanity in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He put the plan into action through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit guaranteed this. God promised this salvation to us by recording this salvation all over the Scriptures.
However, we did not do anything. The servants of God that lived in previous generations tried to protect the Bible that is God’s Word. During the 1600 years that Scriptures were being recorded, there were many who tried to destroy the Scriptures, and there was even a king in Israel who burned God’s Word. But the servants of God heard God’s voice and recorded it again and passed down to the Israelites. They worked hard to keep God’s Word. We who live in this world now have not done much compared to that. We have received salvation for nothing.
Now Is the Time for Us to Do Something for the Lord
Doing the work of God is not a difficult thing. We just need to gather in the work the Lord has done. We just need to share the gospel of the water and the Spirit to many souls around us, find the souls that want to bear fruit, and harvest them. Then the one that harvests and the one that has done all the hard work will both rejoice together. The Lord said, “Others worked hard for this and you have participated in their hard work.” There is not much that we have to do that is special. All we have to do is simply preach the work that Jesus and the prophets have already done. I want you to know that this is our spiritual food and mission.
What is the gospel of truth? The Greek word for “gospel” is “euaggelion”, which means “the good news.” Then what is the good news to us? It is that the Lord has blotted out all the sins of the world. We just need to preach the good news that the Lord fulfilled a long time ago. The Lord said, “And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together” (John 4:36). As this Word says, we have already received the payment. Therefore, we would be truly happy people if we just did the work of gathering the harvest of the work God has done through faith.
Take a look at me and see how happy I am. I am truly a blessed being because I have truly received the remission of sins through the Lord, and I just have to do the work of sharing that experience. As such, we enjoy great happiness and become spiritually full when we harvest the work the Lord has done in His place. The Lord, who has much love, rejoices at our harvest and tells us that we have done well even though it is the work He has already done.
We would have had to offer up prayers of repentance every day if we had to receive the remission of sins through such prayers. However, that is such an imperfect salvation. How can we, insufficient human beings, remember all the details of all the wrong we have committed? There are probably more sins that we have forgotten and cannot even remember. In addition, we would have had to go to hell because of that forgetfulness if we did not repent for the sin that we forgot about. What an imperfect and terrible thing! However, God did not save us like that.
Let’s look at the Word from John 4:39-42, “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did,’ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.’”
We must understand what important Word the Lord is talking about here. The Word says the Samaritan woman who received salvation from the Lord threw away the water jar and went to her village. She told the other people, “Look, people! There is a person who has spoken everything to me. He is the Savior. Come and see!” She gathered people like that and brought them to the Lord. Then the Lord spoke to them personally and many people believed His Word and received the remission of sins. The Samaritan woman did the work of gathering the people and bringing them before the presence of the Lord, and those Samaritans received salvation through the Word that the Lord spoke to them personally.
I know this is how we must be also. We must also bring souls that have not received salvation before the presence of the Lord. We must make them come and listen to His Word. Many people will receive salvation through the Lord’s Word if we just do that. We can never save souls no matter how well we speak and no matter how cunning we may be.
We could never preach the gospel properly with our own fleshly wisdom. Other souls receive the true remission of sins and salvation through the Word when we speak only with the recorded Word. Let’s look at the verse 42. It says, “Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.””
The Samaritan woman realized that the Lord was the Savior of this world by hearing the Word from our Lord personally. Can we preach the gospel by speaking well or through the reputation of denomination when we preach the gospel of the Lord? No, we cannot. It is possible only through the Word of Lord who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must first develop good human relationships and then share the gospel of the water and the Spirit along with God’s Word. Then, we can say, “See! The Word says that He carried the sins of the world. Look! Doesn’t it say that it is right for all the righteousness to be fulfilled in the Jordan River? Doesn’t all the righteousness mean blotting out all the sins?”
We receive the remission of sins in our hearts when we hear with faith God’s Word, which came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The sins disappear. Why? It is because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is God’s Word. We receive the remission of sins when we encounter this Word with faith because the work of salvation the Lord has fulfilled is already recorded in God’s Word, and because the Word is the Word with such power.
Therefore, we just need to do the work of sharing that Word of God with faith. We are not blotting out their sins now. We are just preaching the Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has already blotted out the sins of all people long ago. The power of the evil spirit departs when people listen to the Word concerning the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It clearly reorganizes the mind that is confused. The Word with power brings spiritual order. I am saying that it makes us understand the real Truth of salvation and His righteousness.
Therefore, we must always preach with God’s Word when we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to people. Only then, can people truly receive the remission of sins, and we become the worker of righteousness as we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit with God’s Word.
How did we come to believe in the righteousness of the Lord? Did we believe in it through the doctrines of Christianity? We believe it only through the Lord’s Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is recorded in the Word. This is the Word of Truth that never changes. The people who preach and believe in God’s Word that is the same now as it was long ago have received the remission of sins. People cannot receive the true remission of sins in their hearts through the doctrines of Christianity that are prevalent these days. It is also impossible to become born again through the faith of believing according to one’s own heart. We can receive the remission of sins only by believing in God’s Word that came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we can share the remission of sins to others only when we share the gospel with the Word. We must know the method of preaching the gospel clearly.
Do you feel the pressure of preaching because you do not speak well? Whether you speak well or not is not an important factor. Whether souls receive the remission of sins or not depends on how well I know the Lord’s Word and how much I believe in it, and how correctly I witness this Word. The important thing in preaching is whether we understand the Word correctly and believe in it correctly. It is decided right there and then.
Today we are learning the method of witnessing and what true satisfaction in our heart is through the Gospel of John chapter 4. There is satisfaction when we do the Lord’s work and serve Him with heart. We can witness the blessing of the remission of sins to other souls when we witness with the recorded Word; not with our own words. We must become such people.
Get rid of the thinking that “I cannot share the gospel well because it has been only a short time since I have been born again.” When you just share the Word that gave you the remission of sin as it is, then the person hearing it will also receive the remission of sin accordingly and naturally. When a person attacks you and you do not have anything to reply, then you just need to come back to God’s Church again and learn. Then there will come a time when you will be able to share the Lord’s Word perfectly, and the person hearing your witness will receive the remission of sins just like you and me. However, we cannot share the true remission of sins if we do not understand the Word correctly.
Some people think the ‘sins of the world’ spoken of in the Word, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” to be just sins we have committed so far. Some others say that the Lord took just our original sin but did not take our personal sins. But, what is the Truth? The Truth is that our Lord took all our sins completely. We are no longer sinners.
Therefore, most Christians are sinners regardless of how much they believe if they do not understand the true meaning of Jesus’ baptism. They cannot help but be sinners even if they believed for 100 years. There are so many strange people. Some say they are still sinners even though they have believed since they were in their mothers’ womb.
What does this mean? It is the proof that they still have not received the remission of sin if they say they are still sinners. They would have received the remission of sin and be spiritually full if they believed correctly. Hence, we must understand God’s Word correctly. There will be spiritual revival in other people’s souls only when we share the gospel with correct understanding of God’s Word. I want you to remember this. Halleluiah!
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission