IT’S A DAYSHIFT JOB 

JOHN 9:1-7 

          Today I would like to focus on verse 4, where Jesus told disciples “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work” and I would like to use as a title, “It’s A Dayshift Job.”  Jesus said he had to work while it was day.  What does he mean here?  Certainly Jesus is not saying that He can do no miracles after dark.  Certainly Jesus did not keep bankers hours, you know 8 to 5, or farmers hours, sun up to sun down.  In fact let’s look at a day in the life of Jesus. 

MARK 1:21-35

          First of all I want you to take note that this is the Sabbath Day, a day of Jewish rest.  But look at what all Jesus did on His vacation day.  First He started early in the morning by going to the synagogue and teaching.  I doubt that he did a 15 or 20 minute sermon, because the people were amazed at the clarity and authority with which He taught.  While in the synagogue he took time to cast a demon out of a man.  This says something about the synagogue and its leaders.  First of all, until Jesus came and began to teach the demon was comfortable coming to the synagogue.  We recognize that demons show up to church every Sunday morning, but they should not be comfortable in the house of God.  2 Cor. 3:17 says “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” and the Devil and his forces are not interested in liberating anyone. A church were demons are comfortable in attending must ask itself if the Spirit of God is attending.  When Jesus left the synagogue, he headed to Peter’s house for a break.  Arriving there he found that Peter’s mother in law was sick, so instead of taking a break he ministered to her needs.  Then around sunset more people showed up looking for Jesus.  Now this was not just a few people.  The scripture says they brought all who were diseased and possessed with devils.  It looked like everyone in the city showed up to either be healed or to see what was happening.  So Jesus probably worked several hours after sun down.  But then verse 35 says he got up the next day a great while before sun up and went to pray. 

          So Jesus worked morning and night.  So when He says work while it is day, because night comes when no man can work, he is not referring to darkness and an inability to work when it is dark outside.  He is referring to death.  Christ knew that his time on earth was limited and he had much to do to fulfill God’s will.  Not only did he need to heal the people and meet their needs and to get the disciples ready to continue when he left, he also had to get the people to understand there need for something more than mere religion.  Recognizing that his time was limited, Jesus put his every effort into fulfilling God’s will for His life.  He worked all day and sometimes well into the night, got a few hours of sleep, got up early the next morning to get the schedule for today from God and then went to work fulfilling the schedule.

JOHN 5:19

          Jesus did not set about to do just any work.  He met with the Father to see what he was supposed to do.  He did what he saw God do.  Many times our work for God is not successful because we are working alone.  We have no direction from God.  We are not doing what we see the Father do, or what the Spirit is leading us to do because we don’t see the Father and we don’t understand the leading of the Spirit.  Seeing God and understanding the leading of the Spirit of God requires intimacy with God and intimacy can only be developed by communing with God.  Reading your Bible, singing praise and worship songs, and even praying will not guarantee you intimacy with God.  Intimacy requires communing with God.  That means that God must be involved in your reading, praying and singing. (Read, pray or sing while driving, watching TV, doing dishes, etc.)  Notice that Jesus departed into a solitary place to pray.  He wanted to get alone with God; to get in a place of quiet so that he could commune with God.

JOHN 6:27-29

          After having fed 5000 and having moved on to His next destination, the people came looking for Jesus.  He basically told them not to follow Him because they could get their physical needs met, but because He met their spiritual needs.  They were to work for that which is eternal.  They said to Him, “what shall we do to work God’s work”?  He answered first believe.  These people got stuck on believing so they received no further instructions at that time. 

          But Jesus, through His Word tells us to follow Him, meaning follow the example that he has set for us.

MATTHEW 16:24-27

          Jesus said that any man who will choose to come to him must do three things. To deny oneself means to not give in to one’s desires and to not follow after one’s own will.  To take up ones cross means to be willing to suffer thru whatever life throws at you and a willingness to submit to the will of God.  To follow Christ means to do as he did.  Not only was he willing to submit to the will of God, He submitted to it.  To save one’s life means to hold on to doing things our own way.  If you run your life your own way and make a mess of it then you can see that you have made a mistake and a bad choice.  But if you run your own life brilliantly, such that you gain everything you wanted in life, what will that profit you since one day you will die and lose all that you have gained and your own soul as well.  Can gaining everything you can possibly want for 70 to 100 years compare with losing everything you have and your soul for an eternity?  God offers us the opportunity to surrender our lives in love and service to him and gain eternal rewards for our work.  1 Cor. 3:8-9 says that we are labourers together with God and that every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.  One thing we know that we can count on is that God will do His part.  In fact, God shows us through many Bible examples, that He will do His part before we even commit to doing our part, and in spite of whether or not we even do our part.  The other thing that we can be assured of is that payday is coming and we will indeed be rewarded for our labor.

GALATIANS 6:4

          Each man must make sure his own work, so that when it is time to receive rewards he can not only be happy for others but for himself as well.  Imagine being in Heaven when rewards are being handed out.  Let’s imagine that God shows on Heaven’s screen the works that each of us has done before handing us individually our rewards.  The names are called in alphabetical order; Oral Roberts, Mother Willa Turner – prayer warrior, your name and you have done very few of the things God desired for you to do.  Just as hard as you will have cheered and clapped for Oral Roberts and Mother Willa is just how bad you will feel at your own lack of work.

          Hebrews 9:27 says “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”.  It is while we are here on earth that we are given an opportunity to work for God.  With death comes the end of the pay period and the time for rewarding of our labor. Psalm 88:11 says “Shall God’s loving kindness be declared in the grave? Or His faithfulness in destruction?”  Of course the answer is no.  We will not be able to preach of God’s goodness in the grave.  Our work for God must be done in the time of our living because at death work ceases.  Working for God is a dayshift job. 

I CORINTHIANS 15:58

          We are told here to be overflowing in the work of the Lord.  As Christians working for Christ is not a part-time job, but rather it is our full-time job.  Jesus told his disciples in John 4:34 “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”  In other words, Jesus says His very means of existence; His sustaining energy was to do the will of God.  From God’s point of view, the Christian has no higher priority than to do the work assigned by God.  The Christian’s duty is to fill the time he or she has, and no one knows how much time that will be, in service to God.  Work while it is day, because night will surely come, wherein no one can work.