To Finish His Work - Part I
“In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 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. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.” —John 4:31-38
The verses of my text follow right after the Lord’s encounter with the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well.
John 4:4 says of this event, “he must needs go through Samaria.” The tenor of the verse implies that the Holy Spirit compelled the Lord to make this journey—a journey, I might add, that few Jews would ever make as the Samaritans were looked down upon.
The great truth of the story of this woman is that she couldn’t get to the Lord, so the Lord came to her. In the midst of all the religious bigotry and bias of the Jews, the Lord didn’t see a Samaritan, He saw a soul that needed saving.
Right now all around the world there are souls of every race, tongue, and gender that are searching for living water. They are drawing water from a polluted well, drinking of the water of the world, but the world cannot satisfy the spiritual thirst of the human soul.
No doubt many of you have wondered why we are doing everything we can do to put SBN on in every country, knowing that the vast majority will never be able to support the network. We do it because there are souls there. We are compelled by the Holy Spirit.
Why South America? We must needs go through Samaria.
Why Central America? We must needs go through Samaria.
Why Europe? We must needs go through Samaria.
Why Africa? We must needs go through Samaria.
The world is our Samaria, and the Holy Spirit is compelling us to go and proclaim to the world, “Come see a man,” for the true gospel is a man—the man Christ Jesus.
Master Eat
The disciples had returned to the well with food. In their concern for the Lord, they said to Him, “Master eat.” The Lord’s answer was a mystery to them for His reply was, “I have meat to eat that you know not of.” They didn’t understand that his mind, his very being, was not focused on carnal things; His focus was on spiritual things. His “meat” and His harvest were these Samaritans who were coming to get saved. Believers must never forget that the salvation of a soul is the most important thing in the world, therefore the harvest is our responsibility.
To Do The Will Of Him Who Sent Me
These words of Christ tell us that the will of God is the single most important thing in the world. The will of the Father regarding Christ was for the Lord to die on the Cross to atone for man’s sins. In doing so, He was carrying out the will of the Father. Today we, the church, must also do the will of the Savior, and His will for us is to carry out the Great Commission. The believer will never find true contentment until he is truly walking in God’s will in every aspect of his life.
I wonder how many Christians are truly walking in the will of God. I wonder how many Christians truly understand the responsibility that has been entrusted to us by the Savior. The will of God is to come first in our lives. His will must be our will. Every effort must be made to carry out the purpose of God in our lives.
To Finish His Work
These four words give to us the will of God for us today. We are to finish His work. The Lord has entrusted to the church the responsibility of the harvest. Every single believer will one day stand before the Lord and have to give account of how he lived his life on earth. All will be judged according to what we did or didn’t do regarding the finishing of His work.
The only goal we have here at JSM is to finish His work. Every time we add a new country or city, we do it to finish His work. Every time we have the share-a-thons, we do it to finish His work. Every time we do a Bible distribution, it is to equip those ministers to finish His work.
Knowing and understanding what we must do to finish His work means that we understand what the message must be, and that message is Christ and Him crucified and resurrected. It means Jesus saves and only Jesus saves. It means Jesus heals, and only Jesus heals; it means Jesus is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit, and only Jesus. To finish His work is all that matters.
This article will be continued in the January 2019 issue of The Evangelist.
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