A, Mid Week Lent 3- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Work"

By the toils of Jesus, Lord teach us how to work; allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire work within us.  Amen.

If you’re going to do the job, you may as well do it right the first time.

But how was God to do the work of saving humanity?  He tested humanity and showed that anointing the Israelites as his chosen people was not good enough.  He placed kings over Israel and they too failed.  His most faithful king, King David, also turned away from God, trusting the strength of his own fighting men.  Even David, was not good enough!  God had to find the right way for humanity to fulfill all righteousness; one that was effective, functional, and perfect.

God needed the work to be more than just pragmatic, that is, done because a certain deed works, or  for the love of the deed.  No!  He needed the work done to convey his deep love for humanity.  This love needed not just be practical but personal, relational, and demonstrate to the recipient their worth to God the Father, and his willingness to make the recipient holy.  Only through becoming holy can a person come to God without fear of God’s almighty holiness causing death.

It seems God the Father was in a bit of a quagmire over how to sort out humanity’s sin and at the same time, give us access into his holy presence, for a relationship that brings life rather than death.

In Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father found the effective, functional, and perfect answer to bring the work of righteousness to completion.

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus at Jacob’s Well with the Samaritan Woman.  Here, Jesus proves to be the perfect mediator between a Holy God and a sinful woman.  Without fear the woman speaks to Jesus, and without condemning the woman, Jesus condemns her sin and gives her his Word of life, God the Father’s Word of life!

To the woman, Jesus teaches and says, “[T]he hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:23–24 ESV)

Then to his disciples, Jesus teaches and says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.  …Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. …Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”  (John 4:34,35b,38 ESV)

See how Jesus works!  He mediates the two together.  Sinner and teachers, so the sinner leaves to become the teacher, and the teachers learn that they are sinners. 

But the work Jesus does just does not end there!  We know if the work was finished here, it would be left undone, and the sinners would not have the power to teach, and the teachers would lose the power to learn about their sin.  God needed to do the complete job.  If he was going to do the job he needed to do it right.  If there was to be righteousness on earth, Jesus needed to finish, complete, or fulfil all righteousness.

The mediation work of Jesus was completed on the cross, when Jesus cried out, “it is finished”!  He hung his head, and he died!  The work was done!

God now calls you to hang your heads, and know that, “it is finished!”  His work is done and so too is yours.  However, like the disciples Jesus taught, you are called to enter into the labour of others, to continue the work of others!

Therefore, the teacher-sinner paradox continues.  Jesus’ work is finished in you, but now through you he seeks to finish it in others.

It now seems we are in the same quagmire as God.  We have been finished, but death is not finished for all others.  In fact, certain elements of death still remain with us in this life, and will not be finished until the death of eternal death in our earthly death.  How do we demonstrate the death of eternal death to others, while we live on this side of death? Or, how do we teach others about life in the realm of death?

What does God’s Word say?  We go back to the work and Word of Jesus!  See how he functioned while he lived under the sentence of death, and listen to what he taught, knowing his death and resurrection justifies what he said and taught.

True worshippers of God the Father, workers of God, worship in spirit and in truth. 

Jesus said, “‘it is finished’, bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30 ESV)  You and I are called to give up our spirits and know it is finished.  This involves allowing the Holy Spirit to give us life, having died to sin, so he can inspire us to live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 

We the sinners, learn from our sinfulness to become the teachers, continually being taught by the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ righteous work, what the toil of God is.  So, what is the toil of God, given to us?  It is the work of holiness.

Paul gives us the reality of Jesus’ finishing work, saying, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.  For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  (1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV)

The paradox of God’s holy work is strange to the world, and therefore, takes time to sort itself out in us.  This is because we still struggle with the works of darkness and death!  But God the Holy Spirit is constantly bringing us to the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  In fact, this is the work and purpose of the Holy Spirit in us, as individuals, and within the worshipping community of those needing to gather around Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit works to call, gather, and enlighten us with faith in Jesus Christ’s work.

Jesus left humanity’s visual presence, but he has not gone!  He is hidden but now we see him with faith, given through the Holy Spirit’s work. 

God the Father perfectly finishes the job by sending Jesus Christ, to work salvation on the cross.  He continues this work, by also sending the Holy Spirit, to finish this salvation in us, by constantly leading us to Jesus Christ, out of our sins.  You are both a student and a teacher of the Holy Spirit!

In this finishing school of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12 ESV)

What is it you learn and teach?  What are these strange works, we both learn from, and teach?  What are the good works, the greater works we do now, since we are under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who makes us alive in Jesus Christ, so we can reflect this life, to the masses who are dead and dying around us?

These are the works of confession!  Confessing our sin, learning from what God teaches us about his forgiveness of sin, and teaching others about how they can be forgiven, by sharing what God has forgiven, and how God has forgiven in Jesus Christ.

In this finishing school of the Holy Spirit, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

Let us allow the Holy Spirit to foster in us, “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”  (Ephesians 1:19–20 ESV)

Amen.

Next week: we hear about the love of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to love.