{"id":14138,"date":"2021-02-08T21:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T04:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john_4_15-30-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-02-07T16:51:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T23:51:22","slug":"john_4_31-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john_4_31-42\/","title":{"rendered":"Enjoy the Fruit of Jesus\u2019 Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 4:31-42 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 4:31-42.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

John 4:31-34 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 31-34:\u00a0\u00a0I could see the disciples coming to Jesus with food already in their mouths and casually inviting Jesus to eat something (v31).\u00a0\u00a0Yet Jesus\u2019 response confuses them (v32-33).\u00a0\u00a0When Jesus says, \u201cMy food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work\u201d (v34), what does he mean?\u00a0\u00a0Jesus means that what drives him, satisfies him and empowers his life is doing his Father\u2019s will and completing the assignment he has been given.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus would say something related in Matthew 4 in the desert: \u201cMan shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.\u201d (Matthew 4:4)\u00a0\u00a0Take John 4:34 and Matthew 4:4 together and we get a powerful truth:\u00a0Jesus fed on two things \u2013 meditating on God\u2019s Word and doing God\u2019s work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Likewise,<\/strong>\u00a0you were made with more than just a physical appetite.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0You were made with an appetite to know God and to fulfill the purpose He has for you.\u00a0\u00a0Until you are feeding on God\u2019s Word and doing God\u2019s will for your life, you will never be satisfied.\u00a0\u00a0Like Jesus, may doing the will of the One who placed you on this earth be what drives your life every day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

John 4:35-37 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
\n36\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 35-37:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cFour months more and then the harvest\u201d (v35) may have been a common saying in Jesus\u2019 time.\u00a0\u00a0People in Jesus\u2019 day may have even used that saying whenever they wanted to take it easy or have an excuse for being lazy.\u00a0\u00a0But Jesus combats that mentality by saying that even now the fields \u201care ripe for harvest\u201d (v35).\u00a0\u00a0What harvest is Jesus referring to?\u00a0Jesus is referring not to physical crops, but \u201cthe crop for eternal life\u201d (v36), that is, the saving of human souls.\u00a0\u00a0In other words, according to Jesus,\u00a0even now \u2013 today \u2013 is a day when people are ripe for salvation, ripe to experience God<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus saw this first-hand: while the disciples went shopping for food, Jesus was busy reaching out to a Samaritan woman and leading her to salvation.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus encourages his disciples, including you and me, to have the same kind of urgency when it comes to winning souls.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t give yourself excuses like \u201cIt\u2019s not my time yet\u201d, \u201cI don\u2019t know enough\u201d or \u201cThe people aren\u2019t open or ready\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Like Jesus, see the fields of people in front of you as ready and ripe for something greater that Jesus can give.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Then you will go to them and reach people among them with faith that will change their lives.<\/p>\n

John 4:38 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n38\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I 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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 38:\u00a0\u00a0What does Jesus mean by this sentence?\u00a0\u00a0Jesus is referring to how privileged his disciples were to be living in this time in history.\u00a0\u00a0In previous centuries godly men and women worked hard to sow the Word of God into people\u2019s hearts and to point people to the Messiah, but they did not get to see the Messiah personally.\u00a0\u00a0Now the disciples were getting to be with the Messiah every day, to witness his amazing work in person and to point others to him.\u00a0\u00a0They were reaping a harvest that others before them had worked for.\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus says elsewhere, \u201cFor I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.\u201d (Matthew 13:17).<\/p>\n

In addition, this sentence is a reminder that all of us have received benefits that we ourselves did not work for but that Jesus Christ worked for.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus Christ did the hard work of going to the cross and paying for our sins.\u00a0\u00a0We are the beneficiaries of Christ\u2019s hard labour, reaping the forgiveness, righteousness and salvation that we did not earn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

John 4:39 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n39\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
\n40\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
\n41\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And because of his words many more became believers.
\n42\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 39-42:\u00a0\u00a0The woman at the well encouraged people in her town to go and listen to Jesus for themselves.\u00a0\u00a0Based on her encouragement, the Samaritans go to hear Jesus and come to believe that he is the Messiah too.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t just listen to other people talk about how they experienced Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Go to Jesus and experience Him yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus, I declare that, like You, my food is the Word of God and the work that God sent me to do.\u00a0\u00a0Your Word and Your work satisfy me in ways the world cannot.\u00a0\u00a0Today may I see the people around me as ripe for harvest, as needing You, whether they know it or not.\u00a0\u00a0Help me to know the key to their hearts and help me to show them that You are the answer to their deepest longings.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that today I am the recipient of so many blessings that I did not work for but that You worked for to give me.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 4:31-42.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

John 4:31-34 (NIV)\u00a0
\n31\u00a0\u00a0Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
\n32\u00a0\u00a0But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
\n33\u00a0\u00a0Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
\n34\u00a0\u00a0“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.<\/p>\n

On verses 31-34:\u00a0\u00a0I could see the disciples coming to Jesus with food already in their mouths and casually inviting Jesus to eat something (v31).\u00a0\u00a0Yet Jesus\u2019 response confuses them (v32-33).\u00a0\u00a0When Jesus says, \u201cMy food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work\u201d (v34), what does he mean?\u00a0\u00a0Jesus means that what drives him, satisfies him and empowers his life is doing his Father\u2019s will and completing the assignment he has been given.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus would say something related in Matthew 4 in the desert: \u201cMan shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.\u201d (Matthew 4:4)\u00a0\u00a0Take John 4:34 and Matthew 4:4 together and we get a powerful truth:\u00a0Jesus fed on two things \u2013 meditating on God\u2019s Word and doing God\u2019s work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14139,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14138\/revisions\/14139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}