LISTEN TO JESUS: FEEDING ON GOD'S WORK

LISTEN TO JESUS

FEEDING ON GOD’S WORK

John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

Susie: Jesus explains that His food is to do God’s will. 

Susan: Jesus’s main purpose in becoming flesh was to show us the way to the Father in a tangible form to which we could relate. The final fulfillment of this purpose was to die in our place on the cross. 

Susie: This was the ultimate demonstration of the Father’s love for all who would believe and become His children. Even for us, there is nothing more fulfilling than knowing God’s will and obeying it. We can have completely full bellies yet feel a hunger deep within if we are not living out our God-given purposes. As Christians, we all have the primary purpose of “knowing God and making Him known” as Dawson Trotman of the Navigators so aptly put it. 

Susan: The specific ways that we fulfill making God known falls to every believer individually as they submit the gifts that God has bestowed upon them back to Him for His service. 

Susie: This is the secret of being spiritually filled. As Paul stated in Philippians, we can be content even if hungry or in need:

Philippians 4:12 (NIV) I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Susie: The secret of contentment is to be completely surrendered to Jesus Christ and filled with the power of His Holy Spirit.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Susie: When our primary pursuit is an intimate, obedient relationship with our Lord, our spiritual hunger will be satiated. 

Susan: If we neglect to use the gifts the Lord has given us, we starve spiritually. If we are not being filled, we have nothing to pour into others.  This is the reason discipleship (mentorship) is vital, to nourish others. The mentors/ministers need someone to pour into them as well. 

Susie: And all of us need to be plugged into the main source – the Bible, the living Word of God.

Hebrews 4:12 (NASB) For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

John 4:35-38 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.

Susie: Four months before harvest, the grain would still be green. A note in the John MacArthur Study Bible indicated that the crowd of people coming out from the town of Sychar, wearing the whitish robes of the day, may have looked like ripe heads of grain against the field of green. The harvest was coming to them, and all they had to do was reap. 

Susan: Because Jesus knows the hearts of men, has an eye better than superman’s, He knows they are ripe for harvest. 

Susie: He knows they are being drawn by the Holy Spirit to salvation. 

Susan: Jesus says to the disciples, “Get busy, boys, here they come!” 

Susie: As we serve Jesus, we are given the privilege of sowing seed (the Word of God) and reaping the harvest, seeing others surrender their lives to the Lord. Sometimes we sow, and sometimes we reap what others have sown. 

Susan: The disciples were late arriving to the harvest party, but Jesus still included them in the most important festivities. They probably had the privilege of baptizing the new believers. 

Susie: Both sowers and reapers receive wages or rewards. 

Susan: The wages or profit which Jesus offers here is the joy of seeing new believers come into the Kingdom of God. These rewards are accredited to our eternal account.

John 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.

Susie: Because of the testimony of one irreputable woman, an awakening began in Sychar. 

Susan: The woman’s encounter with Jesus made her fearlessly bold. She dared to approach men with the message that she believed Jesus to be the Messiah and zealously presented them an impassioned plea to come and see for themselves. 

Susie: After they had met Jesus face to face, the people asked Him to stay with them because they wanted to hear more of what He preached. 

Susan: They were mesmerized by the truths that He was sharing and asked Him to stay on and teach them more. 

Susie: Therefore, Jesus and the disciples stayed there for two days. He not only traveled through Samaria but lodged there!

John 4:41-42 And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Susie: After hearing Jesus teach, many more believed. Some told the woman they now believed because of hearing it with their own ears. 

Susan: What the woman had told them got them to travel to where Jesus was, but what Jesus taught after they arrived caused them to believe. 

Susie:  They proclaimed that Jesus was “indeed the Savior of the world.” 

Susan: Jesus was indeed the long-awaited Messiah.

Ways we can apply this to our lives:

·     We are tempted to believe that our one voice cannot make a difference in our world. The witness of this one rather unlikely woman sparked an interest that changed an entire town. Will you venture to be that one voice that shares with others the truth that Jesus has changed your life and is able to change theirs?