Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 15 (05-01-19)
Bob George shares from his heart, out of the depth of God’s love for him, to others. God truly lives in you and through you as you let him. Love bubbles out as you get to know the depths of God’s love for you. A simple thank you letter to your pastor of a church when you were young, or giving out a gospel tract to a neighbor, or sitting down and listening to a co-worker’s brokenness and struggles of life are all examples of God living His life through you. When you read the gospel of John concerning Jesus encounter with a woman at the well, what thoughts come to your mind? Does God have a purpose and plan for your life? Are you willing to finish the work God has assigned you to do? Do you realize that if you let Him, He will use you to reach the deepest need of the human heart, to know God and His Son Jesus Christ.
Bob shares again the story of Jesus encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well. As he shares, he recalls experiences in his life to explain what it means to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He explains what finishing the race meant for Jesus and what that also means for each one of us who are born again. As we ponder God’s word, let your mind be renewed and let the Holy Spirit redirect your priorities in life so we know that good, perfect and pleasing will of God, that reasonable act of worship. Oh, let us worship Him, the God who sent His Son to give us new life.
John 4:27-38
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.
38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
When Jesus said, “I have food to eat you know nothing about”, immediately the disciples were thinking about physical things. Jesus is always talking about spiritual things and man always interpreting them as physical things.
Jesus came to finish the work God assigned him to do. Prior to going to the cross, facing the agony of a cruel and harsh death, with tears like drops of blood falling from his cheeks, he was obedient even to death on a cross. Jesus spoke from Psalm 22, the prophetic word of prophecy, the plan of God before the foundation of the world. For the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame. Jesus was singularly focused to complete the work of dying on the cross to take away the sins of the world. He did not come to do his own will but the will of the Father who sent him.
Many times in our lives, we might be sent by God to do something and we get discouraged along the way. Has that happened to you? Bob, speaking to people who knew him well, asked them: “Do you think I ever had a thought that I should stop doing something?” Such thoughts come that tell you to quit or hesitate in doing something, and those thoughts do not last for long, for they are fleeting. Satan does not want you to finish the race. He wants you to stop before you cross the finish line. We all have doubts, don’t we? We hear such fleeting thoughts, “Oh, I might as well give up because nobody is listening anyways.”
Bob George shares his personal experience as a young believer, excited about the Lord and the good news he had believed and received. Bob hit the ground running, sharing with everybody, with everyone who walked and anyone who didn’t. One day Bob recalls that he said to God, “I am tired of talking about you. I am not going to talk to anybody about Jesus today.” Bob convinced himself that is what he was going to do. He had an appointment with a credit manager with a company purchasing material for. Driving there, Bob thought, “I am not going to talk to him about you. I am going to talk about business.” As the conversation started, Bob asked him, “How are you doing?” He replied, “Not very well.” Bob answered, “Really, what is the problem?” So he told Bob about his problem. So now Bob is thinking, “Oh, well, okay Jesus, maybe just once today.” Bob led the man to the Lord that day. In our flesh, we say we are not going to do something. God gives you an opportunity and it overrides your flesh. So the Spirit at work in you says, “Lord, this is your business not mine.”
Jesus is saying the same thing to us today. If we live to do the will of God, he will add to you, a promise from His word. Are you afraid that preaching Jesus, you will lose business? Maybe you will and maybe you will not. But what has God promised us in His word? What is the attitude in your heart that God wants to develop in you? Whose will are you to be singularly focused on? Are you going to the finish the race God has assigned you to do?
Matthew 6:33-34
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
How many of you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, letting him add to you instead of trying to get all the additives? Do you say to yourself, “If I have time left over then I will go seek the kingdom of God.” So are your actions testifying of this attitude, “In the meantime, seek business, and seek, seek, seek.” He said seek first the kingdom of God and I will add to you.” Do you trust God and take Him at His word? Have you ever known God to lie or not fulfill His promises? Yes, God also foretold there will be tribulations ahead but to trust Him. Is not the relationship of trust what is really most valuable, and is really what you needed all along? God knows what you need and as a loving Father longs to bless you with good things too. But even if none of the things you hoped for comes to pass, would you be content with that and entrust your spirit to the one who perfectly loves you? Is not faith the most valuable asset you have to receive from God?
Mark 10:29-31
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields — along with persecutions — and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Can you trust God to walk with you through the fires of life? Would you be willing to walk in that fire and entrust God with whatever the results may be?
Daniel 3:16-17
16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Do you want to be successful in business? Do you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness? If so, he has promised to add to you. But are you willing to let go of something you value as so important in life that you think you have to have it, and spend all your energy in pursuit of that? If you grasp onto something so strongly but do not release your grip to receive what God has for you, will you receive God’s blessings for you? We forget about the saints who have gone before us, what they were willing to let go of to complete the work God has assigned for them to do. Multitudes were martyred for their faith.
Depending on the fires of life and reacting in the flesh, most of us will say I will seek something else. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and He will add to you. If you are living for God to finish the work, to do the will of God who sent you, then you will go out in the attitude of servitude, not to make money, but to serve people. With that attitude of love, the farthest thing from your mind is what you will receive from others or from business ventures. The most successful people are those who truly serve other people. If you seek money, all you will get is money, and it will ultimately destroy you. You go out to seek to serve people and you will be blessed all your life. That is what God wants us to do.
John 4:34
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
John 8:28
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.
Jesus lived on total dependence of his Father and finished the work of the Father.
When Jesus cried out, “Why have you forsaken me?”, quoting from Psalms 22, he was speaking about fulfilling the plan that was already laid out for him by His Father for him to complete.
When Jesus said, “I am going to complete the work He gave me to do”, he meant that he was going to die on a cross to take away the sins of the world. That was the work God assigned for Jesus to do.
Jesus then explained to his disciples what he really wanted them to understand, spiritual truth. In the vernacular of today, Jesus is saying, “You are thinking about physical food. I have something for you much more important than physical food. If you take the time to listen, you will get a message of life. If you have ears listen to me. The physical will take care of itself. These people who were yearning for a message from God, then they were fed. Did not the 5000 people who came to me, were they not fed?”
From the account in John 6, when he fed the 5000, they were coming to get a message from God. They were there so long they were hungry and were fed. Now when Jesus went to the other side, there were these people who heard about these people getting fed. So they came to Jesus not for spiritual food, a message from God. So just as Jesus explained to the disciples that he has food you know nothing about, he was teaching them to look not for things of this physical world, that are here today and gone tomorrow, but to listen to the very words of God, so you may have life eternal, which can never be taken away.
So this is what Jesus is saying to those who do not come to listen to the words of God. “To be real honest with you, you are not coming to get me, but to get fed. You are not coming to seek me. You are coming to get food. You are not coming to me, you are coming to get healed. You are not coming to me, you are coming to get a special gift of some kind. You are not after me. You are after manifestations and feelings.” That is why Jesus will say in the last days, and will say to many, “I do not know who you are”. Did you come to Christ to get wealthy? Why did you come to Jesus? Did you come to Jesus to get spiritual life?
John 4:34
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Jesus came to finish the work God had sent him to do, the work of His Father and not his work.
Do men meet together in what are called churches today to do the work of God or to do their own work? Who builds the true church, the body of Christ, and assigns each their task?
Matthew 16:18
I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Yet, as one observes what is called church today, people are out building a church and following principles of this world. There are seminars on church growth and how to increase numbers and attendance. The church at large is building entertainment centers, buildings for people that do not know Jesus.
Bob George grew up in a small town, in a Presbyterian church, that had basketball courts, a juke box and ping pong tables. They drew kids. He recalls 300 people come down aisles on a palm Sunday, seeing parents with tears down their eyes. A bunch of kinds coming down aisles not knowing Christ is all that was. The pastor knew how to attract kids. The problem is he did not know the Lord so he could not give the gospel out. He could not give what he did not have. He drew kids. Kids were kept busy with lots of activities. Do you want your kids busy or saved? If you can get saved, busy kids, then that is okay. But if getting activities just for the sake of activities then that is a serious problem. Bob George said he could tell you the number of kids he knew who came out of this church and got into all sorts of evil behavior in college and among those were many who contracted aids.
Bob George, after becoming a believer in his later 30s, went into full time Christian work. Bob was reflecting on this pastor of his youth. Bob reconnected with Mr. and Mrs. Daley, Tom Daley being one of the few from this church who became born again. Bob asked if Mr and Mrs Daley ever heard from Spurgeon. So Bob found out that this pastor, so wonderful with kids, later got into alcohol and dropped out of ministry. Bob asked for his address and wrote to Spurgeon. In the letter, Bob reflected on the positive things he received from Spurgeon.
Bob recalled what he wrote. “I imagine you are thinking if anything you ever did was worthwhile, whether your whole ministry was destroyed. But I want you to know that I thank you that at least I could be in a place to hear songs of Jesus. I want you to know that later in life I was confronted with the good news of Jesus Christ and became born again. Tom Daley also became born again. I explained how we became born again, not in us in what we did, but what Jesus did. I am glad I got in a church to at least hear words about Christ. I want to thank you for your contribution.” It was some time later Bob heard from his wife, apologizing for not responding sooner. Spurgeon’s wife wrote back and said that when you sent the letter, Spurgeon was extremely ill when he got your letter. Every night, he would be reading the letter with tears down his face. The letter touched his heart like no other letter touched his heart.”
There was a man, a pastor who has been to seminary, but did not know the dynamic of Jesus Christ. In the final analysis, God knew Spurgeon’s heart, that he knew he had weakness of the flesh, but forgiveness was extended to Spurgeon at the cross. He knew deep down the man was searching and used that letter to reach him for Christ.
Bob shares his thoughts and heart-felt exhortation on reaching others with the love of God. “God has called you unto himself, has carved you, now working on you, developing and maturing you to send you some place. I do not know where. That used to scare me. He might send me to Africa. God might be preparing you to be a fantastic mother. I may send you to be a real estate or insurance agent. I may even make a lawyer out of you, but going to send you some place, to send you in society, so where you are, I am also. God wants a man who is willing to give an account of the hope that is in you.”
Bob recalls places God has sent him and how he used other men to allow him to be in places he would never have dreamed of. But the one place Bob was sent that he holds so dear in his heart is not a place he was sent to preach, but to learn from the expressed attitudes of heart in the broken lives of men. That so moved and touched Bob’s heart. Bob recalls these precious memories.
“Guy Brown, an ex Dallas Cowboy football player, a super-bowler, and dear brother in Christ, had me speak in the Smokies, and also put me in contact with an Old Dallas athletic club. There was a great response. Bunch of men met in the Friday group who had an encounter with Christ Jesus who just wanted to talk about Him. They talked about what Christ did for them. Bob went and such meetings had great meaning to him, just interacting with the guys, who were so open and honest with their weaknesses. A man speaks with a broken heart about his wife leaving him. As he finishes speaking, another guy shares the same. People from different denominational persuasions just meeting together. Whatever differences there were that all paled as insignificant. That all will get straightened out over time as people are meeting together in love. There is a love relationship going on. Those other things get straightened out as we know one another and hear from God in His word. Bob went there not to teach but to learn. What does God call us to? It does not matter. Jesus and you are there together, and that is what is important. Jesus promised, “I will add to you what needs to be added to. You do not need to go out and grunt and strain.” Bob expressed his thoughts, “I do not look at results at all. I go to serve and talk about Jesus. God keeps adding.” Jesus is saying, “I got a message for you. I got a place for you.” Bob continues, “It may not be a glamorous thing. Just wherever you are, you and Jesus are there together. Just finish the work that God gave you to do.”
John 4:35-38
35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.
38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Bob recalls that the most discouraging thing he experienced was going to New York City and seeing myriads of people, and thinking how are these people ever going to get saved. Bob shares from his heart. “God says, ‘do not worry about, I will reach them’. Look up and look out. There are people out there who do not know the Lord. I do not know how to speak very well. It does not matter. God will give you words. Love and serve them. Maybe a simple letter like a letter to Spurgeon. Be sensitive in what you can do.”
Bob really had great respect fro Bob Heck, who he has been with for over 25 years. He knew him since 1992. He was born Jewish and became born again. What moved Bob George was his faithfulness. Here is Ben Heck, always carrying in his pocket, “Born Free” gospel tracts, handing them out. Bob George recalls and says to himself, “What a jerk I am”. Bob recalls, “I wrote the book but he carries it.” Gospel tracts are effective tools. You hand them out and can always go back and ask him. “Did you get a chance to read the book? Does it make sense to you?”
Use the means and opportunities God has given you to serve one another in love, expressing to them what knowing God means to you. When you know the depths of what God’s love is for you, how hard is it to share from out of that relationship so others can experience that too.
1 John 5:20
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
