Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.”
• Of course, this couldn’t mean that Jesus do not have to eat.
• Jesus uses this incident to highlight to His disciples what is important.
Someone said, “The greatest danger in life is in permitting the urgent things to crowd out the important.”
• I do not wish to live with regrets. I want to do, not just the right things but the important things in life.
• This is easier said than done, because we have countless commitments.
• Many things may seem urgent, but they are not all important.
Jesus had just shared the gospel with a Samaritan woman.
• He used the time, spent by the disciples in buying food, to talk to a person in need.
• When the disciples return with the food, one soul was saved.
• And not just that, v.39 tells us “many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”
The disciples used the time to buy food – the concern for the material, the physical.
• Jesus used the time to save a soul – the concern for the spiritual.
• One is temporal, the other is eternal. One is worth a couple of dollars, the other is priceless.
• Jesus seized the opportunity given and did the Father’s will – the salvation of the lost.
• Jesus: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.”
It’s amazing to know that Jesus did finish the Father’s work in 3 years.
• That’s very short a time. Jesus lived a purpose-driven life.
• In this passage, He made a special trip to change a woman’s life.
• And He did that for Zacchaeus.
God is doing that same work together, through you and me.
• He did that for Cornelius, through Peter.
• He did that for the Ethiopian eunuch, through Philip.
Michael shared last Friday night on this.
• The Holy Spirit led Philip to the desert road, to a specific place, at a specific time, and brought salvation to this man.
• Although we see only 2 characters, Philip and the eunuch, the Holy Spirit is behind the event, orchestrating the salvation of one man.
The Holy Spirit is doing that today, if we are sensitive to His calling.
• The message is simple – God leads us to people in need of the gospel. We are to be His witnesses.
• The people around us are not there by coincidence. God places them within our reach, connecting them to us in relationships, so that we can share Christ.
Evangelism is an age-old theme, something I am most familiar with; nothing new.
• Yet I was reminded by Michael’s sharing. God is directing the events of life and I am the actor in His plan; to bring salvation to the lost that He has brought within my circle. This was a needed reminder.
Jesus is God’s-purpose-driven, and so must we.
Our purpose in life is to do the will of God.
• The Holy Spirit is still working today, to lead us to people in need.
• He will call us to some place, at some point in time, to meet someone who needs to hear about Jesus.
• The same way as He did to Philip; or to Peter when He called him to Cornelius house.
• God is doing that all the time, but we are not aware of it all the time.
We need to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
• We want to be God’s purpose-driven.
• Don’t waste your time. Don’t waste your life. Do something that matters to God’s heart; something eternal in value.
• If we neglect this, we can be working very hard but achieving little.
• At the end of our life, we would find ourselves writing another Ecclesiastes.
So take care of what you are doing today. Look at the things you’re investing the most time in, and make sure that they are worthwhile commitments.
The second we see in Jesus is His sense of what is important – His priority.
• “…to finish His work.”
• Can you feel the determination here? “I will do His will and will finish His work.”
• He never wavered to the left or to the right.
• With His last breath, He cried out on the cross: “It is finished!”
And He says here to His disciples (v.35): "Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”
• The disciples need to open up their eyes to see that which is important.
• It is a priority in life, not food that feeds the body.
• Doing God’s work is what will sustain us. This is what makes life worth living.
Evangelism (when tickets don’t hurt)
In 1992, a Los Angeles county parking control officer came upon a brown Cadillac El Dorado illegally parked next to the curb on street sweeping day. The officer dutifully wrote out a ticket. The officer completely ignored the man seated behind the wheel of the car, as he reached in and placed the thirty-dollar ticket on the dashboard.
The man in the car made no excuses. He didn’t argue or try to stop the officer and for good reason. For you see, unfortunately, the driver was dead. He had been shot in the head ten to twelve hours earlier but was sitting up, stiff as a board, slumped slightly forward with blood on his face.
The officer, preoccupied with ticket writing, said he was unaware of anything out of the ordinary. He got back in his car and drove off to the next illegally parked car.
The disciples were not seeing something they ought to be seeing.
• And Jesus has to tell them to OPEN up their eyes!
• Are we seeing the same things God is seeing today?
• Can we see the spiritual needs of those around us? Can we train our eyes to see beyond just the physical and material?
• Jesus puts this as a priority in life, so must we. We want to do the will of God and finish it.
Lastly, we see Jesus’ PASSION for the salvation of the lost
Imagine this scene - the disciples had gone to get lunch and they come back to find Jesus breaking all the rules.
• A Jew doesn’t usually befriend a Samaritan. And for a rabbi, He is not supposed to greet women in public.
• In this case, it was worse. The woman was questionable. Most likely immoral, coming at noon time to get water to avoid contact with the people.
• Imagine an honourable rabbi, speaking to a woman, and a Samaritan at that, and most likely living an immoral life.
• For Jesus to even talk to her was a radical gesture.
But this was what Jesus did precisely.
• Here is what we must learn from Jesus – God loves every one of us, in spite of who we are. He will make an extra effort to reach you, if need be.
• We need to see a person as God sees him. And value a person the way God does.
• Make an effort to reach out and touch someone’s life, the way Jesus did.
Michael Card, the singer, has a song called “Violent Grace”
So ruthless, He loves us,
So reckless His embrace
To show relentless kindness
To a hardened human race.
The joy that was before Him
On the Man of Sorrows’ face
And by His blood
He bought a violent grace.
God is so passionate about us, it is as if He is ruthless, reckless and relentless to see us become His children. That’s powerful. That’s passion.
• Do you have that kind of passion?
We want to develop a passion for the souls of men.
• This is necessary because our natural inclination is to meet our own needs.
• Jesus came to serve and not to be served, so must we.
If our encounters with unbelievers are divinely-arranged, so that the persons can have a change to know Christ through us, then we need to be sensitive to what is happening around us, and who are being brought near us.
• We need to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
• We need to pray for God’s blessings on their lives.
• The amazing thing is that as we pray for people,
God has a way of providing opportunities to us to show the love of Jesus to them. It can be a little thing - a phone call, a meal, a cup of coffee. Or it can be more substantial.
But whatever it is, we take hold of every opportunity God gives us to make a difference in their lives.
It’s Your Move
Some years, there is a large billboard along the highway in Louisiana that catches the eyes of drivers. On it was a picture of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross of Calvary, head bowed. The caption underneath said in bold letters, "IT’S YOUR MOVE!"
What a powerful thought. God has already taken the initiative in salvation. Christ died for you. Now - it’s your move!
…James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 70.
