Seeds Of Faith, Fields Of Change

Hungry crowds, weary hearts, and one voice that cuts through the noise—this message follows Jesus from Samaria’s surprising revival to Galilee’s guarded welcome and asks a piercing question: do we want wonders, or do we want the Word that actually changes us? We unpack how the Samaritans believed by hearing, how Jesus called His followers into the harvest, and why prayer for laborers so often turns into our own commissioning to show up, speak clearly, and trust God for the growth.

We dig into the two harvests Scripture reveals: the merciful harvest of salvation happening now and the sober harvest of judgment at the end of the age. The parable of the wheat and tares exposes how similar faith and pretense can look from the outside, and why humility, clean conduct, and a ready, gentle answer matter so much. Rather than policing the field, we learn to abide in Christ, keep a good conscience, and let love and truth do their quiet, steady work.

At the heart of the episode is the nobleman whose son was dying. He asks for a visit; Jesus gives him a word. Your son lives. The man walks away on a promise and meets confirmation on the road. It’s a hidden sign—no crowd, no spectacle—meant to anchor us in the same pattern: hear the Word, believe it, then watch how evidence often meets faithful steps. Along the way, we contrast receiving Jesus for benefits with believing Him as Lord, and we offer practical ways to sanctify Christ in our hearts, share hope without swagger, and enter the field as sowers and reapers who rejoice together.

Listen if you’ve been waiting for proof before you move, if you’re tired of shallow religion, or if you’re ready to be part of a harvest bigger than your own story. If this encourages you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s searching, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

Opening And Theme Of Change

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Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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He spoke to us. He said the same thing that you said. Our hearts resonated and confirmed it. And we believed it. He changed us. The word of God changes us. When Jesus speaks, it changes people. Just note in your minds that they were changed by what Jesus said and not anything that he did.

The Power Of God’s Word

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These days, it seems like folks only trust what's right in front of them. Imagine trying to convince a crowd that a monkey can soar through the sky. Most people would just shake their heads in disbelief. But did you know that the word of God holds such incredible authority that it can reach even the hardest of hearts, touching them in ways you might not expect? Today, Pastor Carl talks about the power of God's word. Just share the good news of the gospel with those around you and let God take care of the rest. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

Sowing, Reaping, And Shared Joy

Compassion For The Weary Crowd

Pray For Laborers, Then Go

Two Harvests: Salvation And Judgment

Wheat And Tares Explained

Humility, Witness, And Real Faith

Samaritans Believe By Hearing

Galilee Receives Without Believing

The Nobleman’s Son And Hidden Signs

Believe Without Seeing

Closing Appeal And Ministry Info

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He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. Jesus sows, and we get to come behind and reap. And we get to get rewarded for that. And we rejoice, we are excited, he's excited. The people that are getting saved are excited. For in this saying it is true. This is all part of the body of Christ at work, with Jesus the head working through the power of the Holy Spirit in his people. It's not about any individual. Although God uses individuals in this process of bringing people to the Lord. He's been working, John the Baptist has been working. In our lives, when we come across people, chances are that God has been working on that individual through others coming up to that time. And sometimes you get to come upon him when they're ripe for harvest, when they're ready to hear the gospel, when they've been pondering and praying, and you present it to them, and it opens up their eyes and they are changed. It may be you're one of those who come behind and plant seeds. And you might never see that harvest, but you are part of the work. Jesus said, This is part of the food I'm talking about. This is the work of God that you are invited to be a part of. Another way he described this was in Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 35. Jesus was all about, was went about the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherds. They would come for healing, and there was great things, but but people were not, they were still kind of haphazard. They didn't know where to go and what to do. They needed a shepherd, somebody to guide them in the ways of the Lord to the Lord. And he said to his disciples, The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. There are people that are ready to hear the gospel. Are they being ignored because the harvesters are not going out? And as you pray for harvesters, many times the Lord will say, Yes, I know just the right person. You. Go out and share the good news. Now this is a good harvest. This is a harvest that are bringing people into the kingdom. But there's another harvest at the end of the age that uh has more of a negative concept. Uh Revelation chapter 14. We read, I looked and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat one like the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and on his hand a sharp sickle, and an angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, thrust your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. So he who sat on the cloud thrust his sickle onto the earth, and the earth was reaped. This is a harvest of judgment that's coming at the end of the age. And Jesus kind of gave a picture of it when he shared his parable of the wheat and the tares. You remember that? Matthew 13, we'll go through it real quick. Another parable he put forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, the enemy came and sowed among the wheat, sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came to him and said, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? And he said to him, An enemy has done this. The servant said to him, Do you want us to go and gather them up? But he said, No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at that time of harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather the tares and bind them in bundles and burn them, but gather the wheat into my barns. And then Jesus turned to his disciples and he said, He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. This harvest he's talking about now, that the fields are ripe for harvest, is a salvation harvest. And the harvest at the end is a separation between those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ and those who pretended to. I mean, some are clear that, you know, no, we do not follow the Lord, but there are many that come up together. You realize the wheat and the tares look exactly alike as they're growing. And churches are filled with people that are wheat and people that are tares. People that know that they're saved and people that think that they're saved, or people that just want to pretend that they're saved and cause havoc in the church. You know, some of the best work of the devil is done in the church. So here's some other harvests that Jesus is talking about, a harvest of salvation, a harvest at the end of the age. And he follows up on this tares and wheats. Therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, and so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all the things that offend. And those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Are you gonna be part of that number that that shines forth the glory of God in the kingdom? Or are you gonna be providing light in the fire? Listen. This is important. Listen. And going back to our study, he's here molding these disciples, showing them the work of the Father, is proclaiming the gospel, changing lives, meeting needs, and just changing a whole perspective on life. When you've been intercepted by the Lord, everything changes. But we can pretend that we're good enough. We can pretend the things that we've done in life will please God and He'll accept us in. We don't recognize the fact that, you know, in us there is no good thing except for what God has done. All our good works are as filthy rags. Listen. It's not about what you do, but it's about what Jesus did. Put your trust in him and not yourself. Peter puts it this way Peter, foot and mouth disease, Peter, really got eloquent after Pentecost, didn't he? This is how we shine our light. This is how we share the gospel. Sanctify the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. Sanctify the Lord God in your heart. That's the first step. Have you really been saved? Have you really been set apart? Have you emptied your heart of yourself and put Jesus in there? It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That's your first step in being able to be used by the Lord. And always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you, a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear or respect. Don't slam the Bible over people's heads, but be ready to share with them truth in love, especially when they ask. Having a good conscience that when they defame you, notice he didn't say if, he said, when they defame you as evildoers, calling good evil and evil good, you're a bunch of haters, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. We have got to be humble before the Lord. Surrendered to him, filled with his spirit, allowing him to work in and through us, denying ourselves, picking up our crosses and following after Jesus, so that when they say bad things about us, nothing sticks. Because it's God at work in us. And they're they're coming against God working in us and not against us. That's a good verse to chew on. Going back to our story, after all this, many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all that they ever did. She was changed, and immediately she goes out and tells her story. And people were open to hear it. And they believed it just from her testimony. Now, as we'll see later on, they will see firsthand from Jesus and believe as well. Verse 40 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. Alright, you have to back up again. These are Samaritans, the capital of the Samaria region. Right? Jews didn't like Samaritans, and Samaritans didn't like to not be liked by Jews, so they didn't like Jews either. Just go on past our town. But they're opening their arms and their homes to Jesus and his disciples to come in. Why? Because Jesus showed them the love and acceptance of God. They knew they were far from the glory of God, but Jesus had the answer because he is the answer. He is the way. And they realized it. And they were changed by it as they put their faith in him. They said, Come and share with us. So he stayed and he shared. And they believed. And 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 indeed is the Christ, the Savior of the world. He spoke to us. He said the same thing that you said. Our hearts resonated and confirmed it. And we believed it. He changed us. The word of God changes us. When Jesus speaks, it changes people. And just note in your minds that they were changed by what Jesus said and not anything that he did. We'll look at that in a few minutes. But this again, what they said reminds me of what John said at the beginning of his gospel and at the beginning of his epistle. We looked at this when we looked at John chapter 1. This is 1 John chapter 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and declared to you that eternal life, which was from the Father, was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things he wrote to you that your joy may be full. Again, this is what the Christian life is about. We have Jesus in common. If you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, you're my brother, you're my sister. And we have this in common. And when we see God working in our midst, it just fills us with joy when we see lives changed and hearts healed. And it's because we've we've not only known about Jesus, but we've come to know him personally. Have you seen Jesus? Have you heard Jesus? Have you been touched by the Lord? Then you know what we're talking about. If you haven't, he wants to speak to you, he wants to touch you, he wants you to be in relationship with him and share in this communion of saints, as it's called. Well, after two days he departed there and went to Galilee, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet had no honor in his own country. Now the way this is written in the English is a little awkward, and it was hard for me to kind of put it together. I think if you put 44 in some parentheses, maybe think of it as John is kind of hinting at something here. Connect these things together. So he's going to Galilee, an area that uh he's from, and a prophet has no honor in his own country. And we've seen when he went to uh in other gospel accounts, when he went back home to Nazareth, for sure he was not accepted there. He was kind of mocked. So when you go into your own area, especially among your own family, they they know you and they've seen you, and and they it's hard to you know be accepted. You know, an expert, you know what an expert is? I've heard this before. An expert is somebody with a briefcase that lives more than 50 miles away. But look at this. He came from a people that were not his own. In fact, they were considered enemies, the Samaritans, and they accepted. They believed, they were changed by him. Now he's going into Galilee, an area that is his hometown, where you know a prophet is not honored. So John is making this comparison between what has happened in Samaria and what's happening in the Galileans. But then he says something that doesn't quite fit. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him. You would think in that context, it would say the Galileans rejected him. But they received him, having seen all the things he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also had gone to the feast. They're like, Yeah, I want to see this Jesus fellow. Come on in, Jesus. Come and do some of the stuff you were doing in Jerusalem. Because they saw him overturn the money changes in the temple, and they're going, Yeah, yeah, you tell him, Jesus. Next thing you do is you take over the governor, the the the the the government. You take over, overthrow the Roman government, and you set yourself up and you be our Messiah that saves us. They had an interpretation of what Jesus was doing. I got an ache right here. Can you fix it, Jesus? I got a need over here. Will you feel it, Jesus? And a lot of times when people came to Jesus and were touched by Jesus, what did they do? They go off and live their lives. Did they really believe Jesus? Did they commit to Jesus? Were their lives changed by Jesus? I think that's the picture that John is trying to show us. They received him, but that word received is not the same as the word believed that the Samaritans did. They received, but they didn't believe. Jesus was meeting practical needs for their lives, but he wasn't their Lord and Savior. They weren't changed by him. So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water into wine, his first miracle. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. Now we don't know who it was, and we don't know what his position was, but he was an important man, had an important position, but his son was sick, sick unto death, and he was concerned. And when he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and implored him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. And then listen to Jesus' response. Jesus said to him, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe. I just came from Samaria and they believed because I said it. You need to see some things happening. And he was just kind of reflecting on this man who is coming with a need to him. But Jesus has compassion and he wants to meet the needs, but our greatest need is to know him, to be forgiven of our sin, to be changed, to be given new life. But the noble man said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. You're my only hope. Would you come and touch my child, please? I believe you. I trust you. Would you do this for me? And Jesus said to him, Go your way, your son lives. So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. He was looking for a miracle, but he left in faith. He left believing. And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Your son lives. And then he inquired of them what hour he got better. And he said to him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, about one o'clock, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at that same hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives. And he himself believed. He really believed then. This miracle confirmed the word that he believed, and his whole household believed again. And this again, in other versions, it just says this is the second sign Jesus did when he had come out of Judea into the Galilee. The second sign that he did in Cana. And you notice these are both kind of hidden miracles. The only people that saw the water turn into wine were those that were scooping it up, and people noticed there was something different. And later people started talking, but the whole crowd didn't see it. Jesus didn't stand there and say, Now watch the water turn into wine, to bring attention to himself. He didn't do that in that situation. In this situation, too, he did not go with the man so that everybody could see the son be healed. He just said, Go, go, he's healed. Kind of a hidden miracle. And trying to put this together, I thought the commentator, Bible scholar David Gusick did a real good job in explaining it. So I just thought I'd share that with you. The first two signs in the Gospel of John took place at Cana of Galilee. The first was the best party ever, a wedding party. The second was connected with the worst tragedy ever, the illness and soon death of a child. Jesus is real and Both aspects. In the best of times, in the worst of times. Jesus is still the one that changes everything. And the Samaritans believed without a sign. Think about doubting Thomas. Unless I see the scars and put my finger into the holes, I'm not going to believe. And Jesus in his grace showed himself to Thomas. But blessed are those who don't see yet believe. Do you believe the word that is declared to you? The word that is powerful. More powerful than more powerful than a sharper surgeon's instrument to cut between flesh and marrow, between the spirit and the flesh. The Lord is the Lord. Jesus is our God. He is our brother. He became a man to show us how to live and to take our place so that we could live the life that we were predestined to live. Did I say predestined? The Lord knows those who will come to him. And it's his heart that all would come to faith in Jesus Christ. And I trust we all know the Lord. But I think we could all grow in our relationship with him. And if we don't, if somebody's here that doesn't know the Lord, I pray that the Lord would move on your heart this morning to help you realize that the things that you think you believe you don't believe, and you need to believe them and be changed by them. Because believing the Word of God is what changes your life for eternity. And the message of the Gospel is what He's given us to those who have been changed to share with the world that they might be changed as well. Amen.

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You've been listening to the teaching of Pastor Carl from the Mountain Cross on Come On Up. We're in the Gospel of John, and there's much to explore in this exciting book of the Bible. Jesus does all kinds of miracles in the book of John, such as turning water into wine and raising Lazarus from the dead. These were signs that he was far more than human. He's God. However, Jesus didn't shy away from expressing his humanity on earth either. When his friend had died, he was sad and he cried. He experienced righteous anger, seeing people abusing and defiling the temple while taking advantage of the poor. He cleared out the temple area with a cord of whips and showed his authority. But he was also tender with children and compassionate to those who were considered outcasts. This is the juxtaposition of the book of John. Jesus was both God and man, and you get to fully appreciate it more and more by reading this rich book of the Bible. If you're enjoying the teaching on Come On Up, would you consider helping us get the word out to others? Simply visit themountaincross.com/slash donate. It's a safe and secure way for you to give online. The Mountain Cross meets Sunday mornings at 10 at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville, North Carolina. If you are nearby and don't have a church home, we'd be delighted to have you join us this weekend. And be sure to come on up to the mountain with us next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.