Daily Devotions
John
Living with a special sense of destiny
Text: John 4:1-45
LIVING WITH A SPECIAL SENSE OF DESTINY
One of the things that Jesus sought to cultivate in His Disciples was a sense of purpose. He certainly lived with a great understanding of what it means to be “sent”. When His Disciples urged Him to eat the food they had bought from Sychar, Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,
and to finish His work.”
John 4:34
Jesus was most conscious of His Father’s Mission. He spoke of His Father as “The One who sent” (lit. translation of the text). As He sought to train His Disciples, He also desired them to have a great sense of purpose in their hearts. When one has a great sense of purpose in life, one also has a wonderful sense of destiny in one’s life! When one understands that sense of destiny, one dares to attempt and achieve great things.
AN INVITATION TO SHARE IN THE WORK OF JESUS
The work that Jesus did may indeed be compared with a farmer’s work. There would of course first be sowing, and then finally the reaping process. To those who understand the work of farming, this was a powerful imagery indeed. Jesus elaborated,
“And he who reaps receives wages,
and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both
he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
For in this is the saying true,
‘One sows and another reaps.’ “
John 4:36-37
The farmer never works alone. He must have workers. He would hire workers to do the urgent work of reaping. The work that Jesus came to do involved both aspects. In some He sowed the seeds of the Gospel, and sometimes it was the work of reaping. The one who sowed and the one who reaped find meaning and joy in their respective areas of work. Both aspects are important and both should bring joy to the heart.
The Apostle Paul borrowed from this imagery in his writings.
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase…
Now he who plants and he who waters are one,
And each one will receive his own reward
According to his labour.
For we are God’s fellow-workers; you are God’s field…”
1 Corinthians 3:6, 8-9
Paul was right in his understanding of what it means to be involved in God’s work. All who serve must see each other as being part of one and the same team. Not only are labourers to be seen as fellow-workers of each other, they must try and see themselves as “God’s fellow-workers”! What a lofty concept of ministry!
SENT WITH A DEFINITE SENSE OF PURPOSE
Slowly but surely, Jesus built within His Disciples a sense of destiny. However, they must first understand what it meant to be sent with a sense of purpose.
“I sent you to reap that for which you have not laboured;
others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.”
John 4:38
Jesus applied this concept into the immediate context. The word “sent” that Jesus used in this text was a little different one from the one He used when He spoke about how His Father “sent” Him (Cf. John 4:34).
When Jesus spoke to His Disciples, He used a word that in its noun form literally means “apostle” (Greek “apostello”) which simply means, “The sent one”. An apostle is one who was sent with a definite or specific purpose. Even at this early stage of their training, Jesus was alerting them to the fact that they would be sent as His apostles in time to come. They must learn this lesson well. They must learn what it means to be sent with a sense of purpose!
Jesus used the more general word ( Greek “pempo”). Of the two, the word that he used to speak to His Disciples, telling them that He was sending them to reap, carried with it a great sense of purpose, even authority. Jesus did not need the stronger of the two words, because He knew all too well just what it meant to be sent by His Father to fulfil His will!
BUILDING A STRONG TEAM SPIRIT
It is important that the Disciples learned how to build a strong team spirit. The Disciples came from different backgrounds, even though they were all Jews. Whatever their background, they must learn to work together as a team.
Sowers and Reapers may not be the same people, nevertheless they belonged to the same team! They were fellow-labourers. There were some who must have sowed the seed of faith in the hearts of the Samaritans. Jesus certainly did. The Disciples were going to enter into the labour of the Sowers. They were going to be Reapers!
OVERCOMING PERSONAL PREJUDICES
The challenges to minister among the Samaritans were very real. The Disciples must overcome whatever personal prejudices they had in their heart. They would not be able to be effective in any way if they were to hold back while being sent forth to minister.
The Disciples had one of the first tastes of a successful ministry. Who would have imagined that just a short conversation with a woman of Samaria could result in such a rich harvest? They had many more lessons to learn about serving God. This was a good beginning! They could see the obvious power of the Word that Jesus employed! So this was what it meant to be sent as His apostles!