I'm Working for the Lord

Big Idea of the Message

“God uses his people to bring the kingdom of God into the spheres of influence in their lives.”

“No Right to Be Idle”

If I am a Christian I have no right to be idle. I saw the other day men using picks in the road in laying down new gas pipes. They had been resting; and just as I passed the clock struck one, and the foreman gave a signal. I think he said, “Blow up,” and immediately each man took his pick or his shovel and they were all at it in earnest.

Close to them stood a fellow with a pipe in his mouth who did not join in the work but stood in a free and easy posture. It did not make any difference to him whether it was one o’clock or six. Why not? Because he was his own: The other men were the master’s for the time being. He, as an independent gentleman, might do as he liked, but those who were not their own fell to labor.

If any of you idle professing Christians can really prove that you belong to yourselves, I have nothing more to say to you. But if you profess to have a share in the redeeming sacrifice of Christ, I am ashamed of you if you do not go to work the very moment the signal is given. You have no right to waste what Jesus Christ has bought with a price.

Charles Spurgeon, 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Lynnea Smoyer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017).

Context of Matthew 6, Colossians 3, and John 9

Matthew 6 is a continuation of Jesus’ manifesto, or better known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is here where Jesus speaks of the kingdom and provided the road map to find Jesus. The manifesto provides the roadmap to kingdom living so that we can live eternally with him. He begins by telling them public approval when you give is not necessary, teaches them how to pray and fast, the importance of where your treasure is and how to eliminate anxiety through depending on God’s provision, your position, and seeking the kingdom first.

Colossians 3 Paul encourages those raised with Christ to look for the things above as they were to set the minds on things above, and not on the earth. Dying to the world makes one alive in Christ, and because our life is hidden in Chris it will be revealed with him in glory. He admonishes the new converts to die to your earthly self and put on the new self as God’s chosen ones (1:12-17). Lastly, he provides rules for Christian households as he encouraging wives to submit to their husbands “as fitting unto the Lord” and husbands love your wives and treat them kindly. Children please God through their obedience to their parents, and fathers are warned to not provoke their children because it brings discouragement. Bondservants are commanded to obey their earthly master through actions and sincerity of heart.

John 9 the Beloved opens with Jesus healing a man born blind from birth by telling him to wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam. He washed his eyes and came back seeing, and his neighbors ask “is this not the ma who used to sit and beg?” (9:4). As he testifies about his miracle, the Jews attempted to discredit it and Jesus. The Pharisees spoke to this man multiple time even to the point where they questioned his parents, but the man said how many times do I need to explain this to you, Jesus healed me. He angered the Pharisees so until the cast him out, not because Jesus healed him, but because he taught them something as a “sinner.”

“Moving On to Do More Good”

It may be that we undergo changes in order that we may do more good. Some Christian man, perhaps, who has long been in one position, has practically brought to Christ all who ever will be brought in by him in that place. I know that it is so with ministers. We sow our seed, and we reap our harvest, and it would be very wise of some brothers if they would just take their sickles and go off to another field, and sow and reap there. After you have been a long while fishing in one pond, and have caught all the best of the fish, it will be a weary task to go on fishing there. So do as a wise angler would do: Take your rod and line off to another pond and try there.

Changes for God’s servants are not at all things for which they ought to be blamed. At least, I know some ministers whom I would not blame if they were to make a change. Neither do I think that the people of their charge would be particularly anxious to retain them. It is the same with us in our Christian life.

Charles Spurgeon, 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Lynnea Smoyer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017).

“Expect what happens above to happen below.”

Matthew 6:10 ESV

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

While teaching the disciples to pray, he instructs them to celebrate the coming of the kingdom, or basileia to earth that they could experience God’s reign and rule.

The word come in Greek is erchomai, meaning to move toward or up to the reference point of the viewpoint of character or event.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven expressed the desire that the acknowledgment of God’s reign and the accomplishment of his purposes take place in this world even as they already do in God’s throne room. The first half of the prayer thus focuses exclusively on God and his agenda as believers adore, worship and submit to his will before they introduce their own personal petitions.

The word will in Greek here is thelema, meaning what one wishes to happen, objective sense, what is willed.

“Working for the kingdom is not just a call to preach, but it is a call to live out the kingdom message.”

When we pray for God’s kingdom, that has the ability to change your whole working atmosphere… What God is doing above you he can make for you…..

“Your work life reflects your kingdom relationship.”

Colossians 3:23 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Paul here speaks of genuine servitude to earthly masters reflects your relationship and reverence to the Lord.

Work here is ergazomai, meaning to carry out or perform an action or course of action.

Everyone has their particular course of action within the overall commission to go out and make disciples.

Heartily here is psyche, meaning the essence of life in terms of thinking, willing, and feeling.

“Whatever you do from the soul accomplish it as to the Lord and not men.”

Paul continued the command to genuine service by urging slaves to work “with all your heart” (Col 3:23). Recalling the general admonition of 3:17 (“whatever you do, whether in word or deed”), Paul applied the principle to the slaves’ work. The command involves the imperative form of the word “work.” Even work for someone else was to be heartfelt. Literally, Paul stated they should work “out of soul.” The phrase occurs synonymously with the word “heart,” but if there is a difference, perhaps it is in the fact that “soul” stresses the life principle and expended energy, rather than the pure choice which comes from the heart. Thus one may choose to work from the heart, but the actual work done comes from the life source itself.92 The point is that the Lord concerns himself with the expenditure of energy and choices made with the life. He is the real Master.

Richard R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, vol. 32, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 317.

Understands the priority and time sensitive nature of the work

John 9:4 ESV

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

Jesus provides an explanation for healing the man at the pool of Siloam as this man was part of reaffirming the personal mission of Jesus (“Him Who Sent Me”) and the role of Jesus with his followers (“We Must Do the Work,” 9:4). The emphasis in this verse clearly falls on the earthly work of Jesus.

The word works here is ergo, that which displays itself ion activity of any kind.

The blind man was Jesus’ priority as his mission was to open blinded eyes….

Jesus understood his time wasn’t long as walked the road towards Calvary, or his night season where he would sacrifice himself for the world.

The symbols of light and darkness, as noted at 1:4–5 and at 8:12, were ancient universal religious symbols used to represent themes of good and evil. The symbolic contrast between night and day would have been read by the early Christians in the postresurrection era as a reminder that after the “night” of the Lamb of God’s death (note especially 13:30), the daylight had reappeared with the resurrection of the Lord (note especially the contrast in 21:3–4). The night, however, was to be an extremely difficult time when the disciples and Jesus were separated in the trauma of the cross, and at that time all seemed to be lost—“when no one can work” (9:4).

Moving On to Do More Good

It may be that we undergo changes in order that we may do more good. Some Christian man, perhaps, who has long been in one position, has practically brought to Christ all who ever will be brought in by him in that place. I know that it is so with ministers. We sow our seed, and we reap our harvest, and it would be very wise of some brothers if they would just take their sickles and go off to another field, and sow and reap there. After you have been a long while fishing in one pond, and have caught all the best of the fish, it will be a weary task to go on fishing there. So do as a wise angler would do: Take your rod and line off to another pond and try there.

Changes for God’s servants are not at all things for which they ought to be blamed. At least, I know some ministers whom I would not blame if they were to make a change. Neither do I think that the people of their charge would be particularly anxious to retain them. It is the same with us in our Christian life.

Charles Spurgeon, 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Lynnea Smoyer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017).

Gerald L. Borchert, John 1–11, vol. 25A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 314.