JOHN - Chapter 4: 30-34 - THE WILL OF GOD
JOHN – Chapter 4: 30-34
THE WILL OF GOD
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
March 14, 2017, the Year of Our Lord
The exactness of Jesus’ ministry took Him from place to place and person to person. The Gospel of John reveals the physical movement of the Lord from beginning to conclusion. All the places Jesus went and their sequence were in exact obedience to the Father’s will.
The Bible says that Jesus must go to Samaria.
The woman of Samaria is the first self-confession of Jesus in the Gospel. When Jesus told the woman of Samaria, I am He, she immediately left her water pot and ran into the city to declare, is not this the Christ?
John 4: 31-34: In the meanwhile His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, eat.
But he said unto them, I have food to eat that you know not. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Has any man brought him food to eat? Jesus said unto them, My food is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.
Jesus’ ministry was set on an exact appointed time. He is teaching his disciples here that we must ever be attune to the perfect timing of the Lord. Jesus’ was on God’s schedule. “In the life of Jesus, two words took prominence: “work” and “things’ of the Lord. John, more than the other gospel writers, stressed these two venues. Spiritual authority was based on “assigned work” given by the Father to benefit His kingdom. The Lord empowers those who are to carry out, “his assigned work.” It is His “work” which stands.” (C. R. Oliver) It is His “work” which acts as the standard for all judgment. Those who do His work will hear, Well done good and faithful servant. This was an appointed time and day when the city of Samaria would be saved. Jesus must attend to His “work.”
“Spirit-given authority has time and space delineations. There are prophetic utterances which eclipse the life span of the “utterer.” Jesus’ words have authority beyond the framework of time. Jesus did the “work” and “things” of the Lord, hence He was never without power.” (C.R.O.) He operated within the sphere of God’s will, on God’s time, in the exact place.
When Jesus said “he must needs go to Samaria,” it was God’s time schedule that they would believe Jesus is the Savior.
Jesus is saying to do my Father’s will is my sustenance. The will of God is the salvation of men. His assignment was clearly to do nothing apart from that “work” given Him by the Father. Spiritual power and authority only comes in relation to “His work.”
The law, too, is the work of God, since it was written by the finger of God and fulfilled in Christ, For the end of the law is Christ (Ro. 10:4). Jesus put an end to the law by fulfilling every one of its requirements, and Who transformed material worship into spiritual.
By calling the “will of God, and to finish His work” his food, He teaches his disciples that having been ordained as the teachers of the Word, they, too, will learn the exactness of the Lord’s will, time and place for which they were chosen. In the fullness of time, they were in their exact place, at the exact time, doing the exact deeds the Lord commissioned them to do.
35-38: Do not say, there are yet four months, and then comes harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white ready to harvest. He that reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit unto life eternal; that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together. Herein is that saying true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that where you bestowed no labor; other men labored, and you entered into their labors.
Now the Lord begins to reveal to the disciples the meaning of his words, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. The temporal harvest (16th of Nissan) was four months away; but the noetic harvest is here already. Jesus is referring to the Samaritans who were then approaching. Lift up your eyes, both noetic and physical and look on the multitude of approaching Samaritan souls ready and eager to believe.
They are like fields white for the harvest. Just as whitened ears of wheat are ready for reaping, so are these men’s souls prepared for harvest. He that reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit until life eternal; that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together.
We have not yet witnessed the glorious harvest of the earth (Rev. 14:15). But when we come into the fullness of God’s time, Spiritual authority will come upon the earth. In these last days, God’s saints will have visions of where spiritual powers and principalities have their strong holds. God-sent words will once again be heard from authoritarian lips. Fiercely armed with a knowledge of Him that surpasses the supposed wisdom of the “enlightened,” these saints will call down fire and resist to the face those who betray the kingdom. They will speak to mountains, trees, open fields, buildings, walls, and fortified bastions without judging it to be foolishness. They will be unafraid of man and man’s furtive judgments, for they will operate only in the realm of the Spirit. The secular church will fear them. Governments will fear them. The ungodly will be in terror before them!” (paraphrased from C. R. Oliver)
The Samaritans begged Jesus to stay with them always. The word tarry means to make one’s home among them. But He was not persuaded to do so, and stayed there only two days. During which time many more believed because of His teaching. Jesus did not perform any signs or miracles there because the scripture says in verse 54 that the healing of the nobleman’s son was his second miracle.
Certain Samaritans were convinced beyond all doubt that Jesus was God’s provision for universal salvation.
43-45: Now after two days he departed from there, and went into Galilee. Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. Then when He was into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did at Jerusalem at the feast; for they also went unto the feast.
I have often spoken that we must not have an expectation that we will be honored and recognized as a prophet in our own family and where we live. Why? Jesus said it!
Galilee was the place where Jesus grew up. The Lord explains that He did not remain in that country because its people showed Him no honor. It is human nature to disregard what is usual and familiar.
However, some of the Galileans believed in the Lord having seen the signs which He did in Jerusalem. The Samaritans believed in Him without the benefit of the signs. The Galileans, like the Samaritans were despised as coarse and uncivilized, which is why it was said by the Pharisees, Out of Galilee arises no prophet.
Consider how often those regarded as outcasts are commended for their faith, while the elite are rejected. Likewise, we Gentiles have been accepted.
46-50: Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where He made the water wine. There was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto Him, and besought Him that He would come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Jesus said to him, except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The nobleman said to Him, Lord come down or my child will die. Jesus replied, Go your way; your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.
Jesus says the Galileans accepted the Lord because of the signs He did among them and in Jerusalem. The nobleman held Christ in high regard, but still did not understand His true greatness.
(I do not believe this is the same man as the centurion in Matthew’s account who was also at Capernaum (Mt. 8: 5-13). That man was a centurion commended for his great faith and this man, a nobleman, was reproved.) The Lord reproves the nobleman for having only partial and not perfect faith.
The Lord commended the Centurion for his GREAT
FAITH: Mt. 8:10: When Jesus heard it, he
marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith,
no, not in Israel.
Because the nobleman displayed the weakness of his understanding by urging the Lord to come quickly to heal his son, the Savior tells him, Go your way, your son lives, demonstrating that He can heal from afar.
Blessed Theophylact: “There is a difference between a wonder and a sign. A wonder, such as giving sight to one born blind or raising the dead, goes against the prevailing laws of nature. But a sign, such as healing the sick, does not contravene the normal laws of nature.”
Today we know the power of the Lord’s wonder and His signs. Deliverance is a wonder. Often a man’s mind burns with wicked pleasures and lusts as the noble’s son who burned with a fever. When this happens, let him/her approach Jesus and ask Him to touch him/her in His love and forgive his sins before he dies from the disease of lust. For if God did not condescend to us, but should mark iniquities, who shall stand (Ps. 129:3)? Such a man or woman need only to approach the Lord, and he will obtain what he desires (Mt. 7: 7-8) ---the healing of his mind.
51-56: As he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Your son lives. Then the nobleman inquired of them the hour when he began to amend. They said to him, yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was the same hour which Jesus said to him your son lives. He, himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when He came out of Judea.
The boy did not recover gradually in the usual manner of convalescence, but so suddenly that Christ’s power was evident. When the nobleman learned the hour at which his child was restored to health, he believed completely in the Lord. Before his faith was partial---for had he not believed, he would not have approached the Lord. When one’s child is desperately sick, a loving father leaves no stone unturned. If no doctor he fully trusts is available, he will resort to going long distances to find a better doctor.
The signs and wonders which Jesus performs are only intended as sign-posts to the compassion, power and love of God. To use them alone as a basis for belief is not enough.
James 2:19: You believe there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe---and tremble!
Jesus did miracles, signs and wonders all across Israel, and the same crowds who saw him do the miracles, are the same crowds who crucified him.
John 20:29: Jesus said unto Thomas because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.
We know that Thomas repented and became a great apostle of the Lord going into India and preaching the Gospel to that sub-continent.
When the nobleman took Jesus at his word, his faith was not yet saving faith. It was only as yet assurance that Jesus was a genuine man-of-God. When he knew his son was healed at the exact hour Jesus spoke, his faith was then absolute.
Without doubt, the Lord could move in our midst in great demonstrations of His Power and Presence. Many would be saved because of the awe, fear and power of the Lord. I know many people who have experienced powerful visitations of the Lord’s grace; yet they have back-slid and grown cold, falling out of love with Jesus Christ.
Recently I had a dream, in it was written, “I am separating out those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness from the lukewarm.”
I believe the Lord is establishing a dominion of His Kingdom in the hearts of people unparalleled in spiritual history. He is assembling His church, one that hears His voice, and does what He instructs.
To experience Pentecost, the church of Acts had to first experience Spirit-timing. The expression of the Spirit demands the sovereignty of the Spirit.
The church was born in the wind and fire-power of the anointing through the Holy Spirit. Its spokesmen were moved by the Holy Spirit daily. Who, but the Holy Ghost could have ordered the steps of Peter down certain streets in order for his shadow to fall on those needing healing and deliverance? Angels escorted prayer recipients through closed gates and guarded towers, carrying out the orders of the Most High (in order for them to appear at the proper time and place the following day). Every believer in the early church was accustomed to such words as: “Arise, Go, Cease, Stop, Stay, Watch, Pray.” Such leadership required an ear attuned to Divine Orders.
If you found Jesus in the Temple, it was because He followed the Spirit’s prompting to go there. If He laid hands on the sick, or raised the dead, or prayed all night, it was because the Spirit led Him. No turn, no advance, or word was outside the scrutiny and realm of the Spirit. He and His Father walk as One, talk as One, work as One.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
I entered into the labors of C. R. Oliver En Punto, Zadok publications. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Rev. Oliver.