THE STRUGGLE OF THE SAINT
The fourth chapter of the gospel of John contains Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman. This simple episode carries a powerful message.
- Jesus stops at a well and asks a woman of Samaria for a drink....
- He unearths her secret past and offers her the living water of his Spirit....
- Jesus then reveals himself as the Messiah.
Now let’s pay attention to how Jesus’ encounter with this woman impacts on his baffled disciples. How Jesus is trying to teach the twelve (and us) that the struggle of the believer is not only normal, it leads to life.
Basically, these twelve disciples were pretty "dull." They were especially dense during this stop in Samaria. Not only were they unaware of the miracle taking place right before their eyes, they were also ignorant of the great straggle that was taking place that day in the life of our Lord.
Miraculously in a simple and clear way Jesus revealed to this woman, and her entire village, that he was the Messiah. While the disciples were still calling Jesus "Rabbi...good teacher" ... he revealed himself, in Samaria, as "The Savior of the World." Rarely was Jesus so transparent about his mission.
In a few minutes Jesus was able to touch this woman with the power of the Kingdom of God. Jesus overcame vast cultural, religious barriers. The Jew-Samaritan feud, burning for centuries, suddenly was no longer important. In that village the Spirit of God descended as powerfully as it had on Mount Sinai...changing not only her, but all who welcomed Jesus.
How was he able to do this? ...because of his struggle.
Jesus;
- labored and struggled...
- wrestled long sleepless nights in prayer...
- set himself apart to fast in an empty wilderness ... learning to concentrate...
- he learned obedience at the hand of his heavenly Father in the midst of suffering.
And even now Jesus was laboring in the midst of the disciples in a way they didn't understand ... Ile wanted them to see this labor and enter into it.
Let's pick up the story now as the disciples return from lunch in town.
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?"
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a men who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do 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. Even 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: Thus the saying, 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 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." John 4:27-38
The disciples have no idea of what's going on! Their response to the woman they see Jesus talking with (even though they don't say it) is, "Hey lady, what are you doing here...you're a Samaritan!" And to Jesus they're thinking, "Why are you wasting your time with that woman?"
Sensing the hostility from the disciples she quickly leaves. But she cannot restrain herself from telling everyone the amazing things that happened to her.
But, the attitude of the disciples infuriates Jesus!
"Wasting my time! Wake up! This is the harvest. This is what I have been praying and fasting for. We're not just passing through to make a pit-stop!
And you're offering me lunch! How can you even think of eating at a time like this! Don't you see what's going on here? This is my work, my labor ... there is a harvest I must bring in!
This struggle is my life ... it should be your life! This labor, is my food ... it should be your food."
The labor/struggle Jesus is describing is not only "the harvest", he is also trying to teach them about the struggle involved in living as a disciple....
- learning obedience under the hand of God,
- allowing God to work his character into us:
Once immersed in these struggles we will find;
1. Bread from heaven (real spiritual bread).
2. Prophetic vision.
3. The power to sustain us in our work.
4. Where we fit into God's plan for his Kingdom.
All this happens as we labor… as we struggle.
There are two points we should remember about this struggle:
1: It is normal.
2. Struggle in the life of a believer is not desperation, but growing faith..
1. Struggle, in the life of a saint is normal ... not to be avoided ... or feared.
- We labor in the harvest.
- We labor and struggle as we are molded into the likeness of Christ.
- This type of "work" is normal.
There are many people reading this who are working hard to follow Jesus ... struggling ... and this glorifies God. Every day they are at it ... trying! Some are battling alcohol, lust, fear, anger. As others get a word from God, they labor to change their lifestyle.
Many are laboring to bring living words to the lost at the Sunset Hotel ... or a neighbor. Others are working to salvage the lives of broken families … children. Others battle inner boredom, haunting fears, paralyzing loneliness.
In the Body of Christ this struggle is normal! If anything characterizes a living church it's not relaxation, or tranquil repose .... it's this struggle!
Listen to our brother Paul's struggle....
- to the church in Galatia, "I labor till Christ be formed in you."
- to the church in Philipp, "Work out your salvation in fear and trembling."
- to the church in Ephesus, (by way of Timothy), "Fight the good fight."
- to the churches of Colossae and Laodicea, "To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally."
This type of labor is not "working our way to heaven." It is submitting our lives in faith to the work of the cross where I die and the life of Christ is born in me. This living as a disciple is practiced with other disciples in the true Body of Christ, and the struggle is normal.
2. Struggle in the life of a believer is not desperation , but growing faith…
- Despair is a struggle that ends in "burnt-out" collapse.
- Despair is frenzied pressure and toil, without rest or hope.
- Despair is laying down, giving up, and dying.
If our struggle, instead of leading to life, leads to despair, maybe we are not making the simple changes that God has called for in our life. Or, maybe we are too wrapped up in our own "inward holiness" to see straight. And God will make that clear.
But the labor of the saint, the struggle you and I go through, is the travail of childbirth...new life is born in struggle by the hand of God. Not only do our bodies, minds, and spirits crave transformation, the entire creation itself craves this new birth.
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of son-ship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8
…our bodies groan…creation groans… and these birth pains lead to life.
This is the labor our Lord entered into and also the labor he called the twelve disciples to enter into... and now the call comes to us.
Jesus said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Then the disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do 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. Even 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. Thus the saying, 'One sows and another reaps' is true: 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." John 4
For those of us already in the thick of the battle Jesus wants to encourage us to press on, and to continue to find his life in that struggle.
To those still outside the struggle, or to those who have long neglected the call on their life, Jesus says,
"Enter it!..... Today!"
And by his mercy we can enter in at any point.
1. If you need bread…that's where you enter into the work.
2. If you have no vision ... enter the work there.
3. If you need sustaining joy ... enter.
4. If you can't see God's hand at work in the believers around you or how you fit in with them...that's where you start.
Let's look at these four points more closely....
1. If you want bread from God enter into the struggle.
Jesus said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
We enter the labor asking for living bread...expecting it for ourselves and others. We won't find real bread by gorging to the table of "deeper life teaching" ...reading stirring missionary biographies, or even at feasts of spiritual ecstasy. We find bread by joining Jesus in the harvest ... involved in real labor ... where we are brought to the end of our own resources.
In the midst of that harvest of hungry, broken, lost souls he sends our way, we learn to knock on our Father's door asking for living bread...and we find it. We also find it when we join Jesus as we struggle to let go of the mammon that tugs at our soul, the anxiety and care that drains us. We do this expecting God to satisfy our spiritual, emotional, even our physical needs. As we join Jesus in his labor, we will find bread from heaven.
2. Do you want vision from God? ...prophetic insight?... then enter the struggle.
"Do 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."
Vision isn't born at the feet of spiritual gurus or reading heavy books.
- It's born as we join Jesus in the labor of prayer!
- It's born as we join Jesus, laboring in the harvest field!
Even if we are stirred by a genuine prophet, that vision will not endure unless we are under the yoke with Jesus. When we follow him out into that field, sickle in hand, ready to work (where he puts us) we will see him lift up his finger and point,
"Behold, the field is ripe...ready for harvest."
And that vision will seep into our bones and change us forever.
3. Do you want to be sustained in your work… find joy in your calling?...then enter the labor...today!
"Even 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."
...sustaining joy ... refreshment ... is not found on retreats. It is found as we join Jesus laboring in then harvest field.
Today, workers in the harvest are finding encouragement. They are being sustained by the hand of God ... finding power to meet whatever task confronts them.
Today, joy is found by the one who sows.
Today, joy is found by the one who reaps.
- Joy ... when we give someone the seed of life just when they need it.
- Joy ... when we go out of our way to plant that seed in a desert where it seems like nothing will grow.
- Joy ... when I stop rushing around and water the seed of a thirsty brother that God sends my way.
- Joy ... in the struggle of the harvest ... the labor of new birth, imparting God's hope, salvation, forgiveness.
4. Do you want to find your place in the Body? ... see God's hand building his church right in the place where you are, with the people sitting next to you? ... then enter into the work.
"Thus the saying, 'One sows and another reaps', is true. 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."
- We don't find our place by taking aptitude tests.
- We don't see the hand of God building the church by jumping from one congregation to another in search of spiritual thrills or by reading books on “Body Life”, or escaping to a monastery.
No! We find our ministry, and at the same time see our Lord's hand building his church, living stone by living stone, as we enter the struggle ... as we serve, as we work; And to our surprise we find that:
-Guidance is given to the Body as it labors and struggles to be faithful.
- Gifts are given to us and the Body as we labor with the anguish and ills of this world.
- Forgiveness will flow through our church to the world as we labor to forgive and serve one another.
As we labor we also find that;
- unity is given to the Body, not because we all see eye to eye on everything, but because we are struggling together.
It is in the harvest together we see one sowing seed, another reaping. And we fall on our knees and thank God that the same power at work in us is at work in people and places we never expected.
My very spiritual life may be dependent on someone I have taken for granted. The ministry I have (where I am secretly patting myself on the back) may be the result of someone else's intercession.
We will find that the good news ... that precious seed we scatter ... doesn't come out of a three dollar packet we buy at the "Gospel Shop." Living words are not pious phrases we toss like coins from our pocket. Prophetic life-giving words are born in our struggle with the evil of this world---around us and within us.
This is how the Body takes on the image of Christ ... we immerse ourselves in the struggle of the harvest and there find God creating servant-leaders, giving gifts of grace, pouring out his forgiveness, bringing unity, empowering us with good news. As he does this we will see where we belong and recognize those who belong at our side.
For this reason.....
"I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands....
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage---with great patience and careful instruction...
Keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all duties of your ministry....
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day---and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."
Let's join Paul in this race. Let's enter the labor of the harvest.
- We will find bread as we enter the work.
- Joy will sustain us as we labor.
- Rejoicing as we see, God's hand building his church....
And in this struggle we will look forward with joy and hope to his Appearing.