John 4:35-38 Say not you, There are yet four months, and then comes harvest? behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields… I. THE SOWERS — men, not angels. 1. This seems strange when we consider the grandeur and breadth of the gospel Who is equal to summarizing the truths of the gospel, much less to expounding them? 2. Yet men have ever been entrusted with the gospel — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek. On a human body was placed the priestly robe, and he who entered the Holy of Holies was a man. When another order of teachers arose neither Gabriel nor Michael were summoned, but Samuel, Elijah, and Isaiah. And when Christ came He entrusted the gospel not to the heavenly host, but to Galilean fishermen. 3. There is a fitness, however, in this. The fields are those of earth, the harvest is of men, therefore the sowers and reapers must be not angelic, but human. Knowing their weakness and fallibility, ministers may well shrink; but if they forsake the plough angels will not direct it along the furrow. And with all their fallibility they being men can weep with men's sorrows and partake of their joys, which angels cannot. The appeal of an angel would be more powerful, that of man more pathetic. No angel could speak of human sympathies and call to remembrance the pathos of a mother's prayers. II. THE MAGNITUDE OF THEIR WORK. 1. The seed — the Word of God. 2. The field. (1) The apathetic. (2) The infidel. (3) The depraved. 3. The personal feebleness of the instruments. II. THE GREATNESS OF THEIR REWARD. 1. God-given help to do what they have to do. 2. The sympathy of those who are benefited by their labours. 3. The present benediction of the great Master. 4. Eternity of blessedness in heaven. (R. B. East, M. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. |
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