4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him
who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
- John 9:4, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
I want you to use your imaginations this morning. Imagine that God is up in heaven surrounded by meters. There are thousands of meters all around him, each one measuring one specific thing that people could be thinking about down on earth.
As important events take place, as seasons change, as time goes by, the needles on these meters fluctuate in keeping with what is on people’s minds. For example, if you had been able to monitor the meter that measured people’s thoughts about the end of the world immediately after the attacks on our country, the needle probably would have been buried. And even though two months have passed since the initial shock, this "end of the world" meter continues to display a very high reading.
Because many people have been forced to come to grips with their own mortality, because so many in our country are afraid of the unknown and uncertain about the future, because there are literally millions of people in the world who were coldly reminded that they have no real hope of life after death, it is good for those of us who do to put everything into perspective.
When we study what God’s Word has to say about Judgment Day, the Lord wants us to come away with two things. First, we find comfort. We are comforted because God tells us that the end of the world is not really the end. The end of the world will pave the way for a new beginning, the beginning of eternal life in heaven.
Along with this comfort, God gives us a command. The words of Jesus recorded in John 9 summarize this command and synthesize our thoughts on what is for us both Last Judgment and Commitment Sunday. In simple terms, our Savior calls us to....
Have you ever tried to do a job without a job description? Maybe you were handed some general instructions, but they weren’t all that clear. It’s likely that you were frustrated because you didn’t know if you were doing what you were supposed to do or if you were accomplishing anything at all.
When it comes to the work God calls us to do, this is not a problem because his instructions are clear. Jesus said: "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me" (John 9:4). Jesus spoke those words with confidence because he knew exactly why God the Father had sent him to this earth.
"The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work" (I John 3:8). Jesus appeared in the world to undo the evil that Satan had done in the Garden of Eden. His work was to destroy the work of the devil.
But Jesus came into the world to build up his own kingdom as much as he came to tear Satan’s kingdom down. Jesus described his work this way: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). Jesus’ mission was to save the lost, to rescue people drowning in a sea of sin.
And how did he accomplish that mission? "When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law..." (Galatians 4:4,5). According to God’s perfect plan, Jesus came into the world at a time of God’s choosing. He was born as a human being like you and me. He faced the same temptations we face. He felt the same emotions we feel. And just like every person alive today, he expected to face death.
But for all of these similarities, the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ death were unique. Jesus didn’t just die. He was killed. The Son of God was killed by his enemies even though he had done nothing wrong. But Jesus didn’t put up a fight. Our Savior allowed this great injustice to happen in order to "redeem" us. He willingly died on the cross to buy us back from Satan and take away our sin.
Do you remember the exact words Jesus used in our text? He didn’t say: "I must do the work of him who sent me." Talking to his disciples, Jesus said: "We must do the work of him who sent me." That means God has given us work to do as well. And again, God’s instructions are clear.
In a very general way, the Christian’s entire life is one of service. "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31). Christians exist to worship God. We give him glory today as we listen to him and pray to him and sing his praises.
But we also glorify God when we set a good example for our children. We praise God when we obey our parents. We show God love and respect when we give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. We give God the honor he deserves even when we perform the routine tasks of everyday life. Our work in the service of God is not limited to any single activity.
Still when Jesus says, "we must do the work of him who sent me," I cannot help but think of something very specific. I can’t save the world from sin. I can’t rescue the soul of a single person from death. But I can point people to the one who can. God not only wants me to do that. He commands it.
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15), Jesus told his disciples. And the Lord continues to send out his followers with the words: "You will be my witnesses...to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). We are witnesses of God’s grace, sent out by the command of God himself to witness in every part of the world.
"We must do the work of him who sent me." The words of Jesus are clear, but they were spoken two thousand years. Does that mean the work is basically finished? Or that the nature of the work has changed? Or that the work is not as important as it once was? Jesus answers all of those questions with an emphatic "No." In reality, the work that God gives us to do is more urgent than ever.
Jesus went about his work on earth with a sense of urgency, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. At the very beginning of his ministry, Satan tried to stop him before he got started. Three times he tempted Jesus to sin. Three times Jesus warded of Satan’s.
The devil lost that initial battle, but he was not about to give up. Not a single day went by without him nipping at Jesus’ heels, trying to derail him from his mission. And sometimes he enlisted others to do his dirty work.
In the verses immediately following our text for today, Jesus got into hot water with some religious leaders. Did he do something wrong? Was he guilty of some terrible crime? The Pharisees were indignant because... Jesus had restored the sight of a man born blind on the Sabbath.
Whether they were aware of it or not, these men were working for Satan. They lashed out at Jesus because they hated him. They asked him questions to trap him. And finally, Satan had so filled their hearts that they hatched a plot to kill him.
Like waves crashing against the seashore hour after hour, day after day, year after year, this constant pounding would have worn down any other person. But not Jesus. He was well aware of the challenges before him, but he also understood the importance of his mission.
Our situations may be different, but the challenges are the same. The devil is still "prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (I Peter 5:8). The world hates God more than ever and takes out its anger on his followers. In some parts of the world, these threats are still physical. In other places they are more subtle, but they are still there.
And there is another enemy we have to contend with, an enemy that Jesus didn’t face, an enemy that is with us every day of our lives, an enemy that is extremely dangerous because it works from the inside. That enemy is our sinful flesh. Our sinful nature coaxes us. It prods us. It tells us what we want to hear. It makes promises it will never keep, all in an effort to separate us from God.
So when we see these powerful forces lined up against us, what are we to do? Do we give up? Do we give in? Some might draw that conclusion. But for the person who knows and believes that "God is on my side," these challenges only confirm that our work is more urgent than ever.
Our work is urgent because hell is real. God’s Word says that whoever does not believe in Jesus will be condemned, condemned to an eternity in hell. And what is hell? It’s called a "lake of fire" in Revelation (20:15). Jesus describes hell as "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt 25:41).
If you have ever burned yourself, you probably remember how that felt. You may even have a scar to remind you. Now think of the same kind of pain, but it never goes away. It doesn’t even fade. That’s hell, eternal pain, eternal punishment, eternal separation from God.
How many people in the world do not believe in Jesus as their Savior? How many will stand condemned before God on the Last Day? Millions of people lost forever? Billions who will never see heaven?
The fact that Satan has deceived so many is disturbing in and of itself, but now I want you to ponder this question. Among those millions of condemned people, how many do you know? Among the sea of faces in the crowd, how many can you recognize? We work with a sense of urgency because hell is a real place and because we want to rescue every possible soul from this terrible fate.
Our work is urgent because our time is limited. Jesus said: "Night is coming when no one can work" (John 9:4b). No one knows when the sun will set on our world. It could be this afternoon. It could be next week. It could be next year. It could be many years after all of us have passed away, but night IS coming.
We don’t know if God will call us home before the Last Day, but we do know that we are here right now. We do know that God has given each of us a time of grace, a limited amount of time on earth within which the Holy Spirit brings people to faith, precious minutes and seconds to tell other people about God’s promises.
Those promises contained in God’s Word are yet another reason that our work on earth is so urgent. God promises that his Word is powerful. The more God’s Word is shared, the more it is heard. And the more the Word is heard, the more the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of people who hear. And when the Spirit is at work, God guarantees results.
It is tempting to think about the Last Judgment or Last Judgment Sunday only in negative terms. All this talk about fire and death and hell doesn’t sound very uplifting. But it is. It is uplifting to know that God has rescued us from eternal death. It is uplifting to know that the doors of hell have been sealed shut and the gates of heaven are open wide.
When viewed through the eyes of faith, our thoughts about the end of the world are uplifting and compelling. We are compelled to recommitment ourselves as individuals to the Lord’s work. And on this Commitment Sunday, we also make a commitment to a specific cause.
For one hundred and twenty years of daylight, God has blessed the work of this congregation. If the Lord wills it, we will do great things for him in the years to come. The future may include new and improved facilities, but buildings do not stand monuments to human achievement. They are monuments to God’s amazing grace and tools God’s people use to carry out God’s work.
As Christians, we can say with all confidence: "I can’t wait for Judgment Day to come." But we don’t stand around looking up into the sky because the Lord has given us important work to do. He gives a message to share and the motivation to share it. "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work." Amen.