Will you please turn to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 42, the first four verses?
Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
Mine elect, in Whom My soul delighteth:
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
He will not cry, nor lift up,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed will He not break,
And a dimly burning wick will He not quench:
He will bring forth justice in truth.
He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has set justice in the earth;
And the isles shall wait for His law.
The book of Acts, Acts 10:38.
Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power: Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.
The Gospel according to John, John 5:17.
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work.
And finally, John 21:25.
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, how we do thank Thee for Thy mercy, for Thy grace in giving us Thy only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we do ask that we may be able to appreciate Him more and more. Do reveal Thy Son to us more and more.
We ask that Thou wilt bless Thy Word this morning to our hearts and bring us closer to Thy beloved Son. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We have been sharing on the life of our Lord Jesus. We believe that it is God’s will that we behold His Son, to know Him; and to know the One Who sent Him is eternal life. There is nothing better than for us to concentrate ourselves on our Lord Jesus Christ.
We mentioned before His walk, how He walked upon this earth as the perfect Man, the Man of God’s own heart. We also mentioned His teaching as the Prophet of God. He teaches us of the kingdom of God, that we may be in that kingdom, that we may be that kingdom to Him.
Now this morning, we would like to share together on the work of our Lord Jesus, or the doings of our Lord while He was on earth.
So far as His relationship with God His Father is concerned, He is the only begotten Son of God, in Whom God is well pleased. But so far as His relationship with God in work is concerned, He is the Servant of the Lord.
So, on the one hand, we find that in life He is God’s only begotten Son; in work, He is the Servant of the Lord. And in Isaiah 42, which we read in the beginning, He said, “Behold, My Servant.”
God wants us to behold our Lord Jesus as His Son: “My Servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect, in Whom My soul delighteth.” He is the Servant of the Lord, and God gave Him the Holy Spirit without measure.
While He was on earth, He did not cry, nor lift up His voice, nor cause Himself to be heard in the street. And yet, a bruised reed He would not break, and a smoking flax He would not quench.
He did not faint, nor was He discouraged, but He worked steadily until He brought justice to the earth.
Then again, you find Isaiah 52:13:
Behold, My Servant shall deal wisely,
He shall be exalted and lifted up,
And shall be very high.
Again, you find that God wants us to behold Jesus as His Servant. “My Servant shall deal wisely.” While He was on earth, all He did was prudent, wise, just right. And He shall be exalted, and be lifted up, and be very high.
Now we know that He is at the right hand of His Father, highly above all, even a name that is above every name; and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
As many were astonished at Thee
(His visage was so marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men),
So shall He sprinkle many nations;
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him:
For that which had not been told them shall they see;
And that which they had not heard shall they understand.
When He was on earth, people were amazed, astonished. His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the children of men. Now, this refers to Calvary. Before He was brought to the cross, how He was whipped, scourged, how He was crowned with a crown of thorns.
And there on the cross, He was nailed to that cruel cross. His visage was marred more than any man, His form more than the children of men. And yet kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for what had not been told them shall they see, and what they had not heard shall they consider.
On the cross, He finished the work of redemption. It is something that the world has never seen, oh, never; and yet it is done. Now, this is our Lord Jesus, the Servant of God.
Not only did the prophet Isaiah mention our Lord Jesus, prophesying that when He came to this world He would be the Servant of the Lord, but if you read the New Testament, you will find the same thing.
For instance, in Acts 3:13, when Peter and John were used by the Lord to heal a man born lame, that man was healed, jumping and leaping and praising the Lord. A crowd gathered around them, and you remember Peter said, “Now do not look at us. It is not because of our piety that this man was healed. It is because the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus.”
Again, you find Acts 4:27. When they returned to their own company after they were threatened, all the believers began to pray and say, “God, how true it is that all the nations, according to Thy Word, will rise up against Thy Servant Jesus.”
So, brothers and sisters, I believe that God wants us to know our Lord Jesus as the Servant of the Lord.
Now, as the Servant of the Lord, how obedient He was. Obedient, He went unto death, even the death of the cross. When He came into this world, He said, “Behold, sacrifices and burnt offerings are not what You want, but You have prepared Me a body to do Thy will, and Thy law is in My heart.”
Now, that is our Lord Jesus. As the Servant of the Lord, He was faithful. He was faithful to God to the very end. In Revelation 1:5, His very name is the faithful witness. Again, in Revelation 19:11, His name is Faithful and True.
How faithful He was to God in doing everything that God had commanded Him to do.
Now, brothers and sisters, our Lord lived on earth only thirty-three and a half years. And yet, during those thirty-three and a half years, thirty years were hidden years. Only three and a half years was He exposed to the public.
During those three and a half years, how He travelled through all quarters doing good, teaching people, preaching the kingdom of God, healing the sick, casting out demons, because God was with Him. He did many wonders, many miracles; He did many things.
These are all recorded in the four Gospels. So, if we want to know what our Lord Jesus did, go to the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—because these four Gospels record the doings of our Lord Jesus.
He did many things, but what was recorded is only a little bit. You remember that John, in closing his Gospel, said, “If I were to write all that He did, even this world could not contain the books that would be written.” Oh, what He did!
Now you go to the library, and you will find many books. If you go to Washington, D.C., to the Library of Congress, there are so many books there. But, brothers and sisters, during those three and a half years, what our Lord Jesus did—if you were to write everything that He did—the whole world, not just the Library of Congress or our little library in Richmond, the whole world as a library could not contain the books written.
Within such a short period, He did so much—not only in the sense of quantity, but especially in the sense of quality. What our Lord Jesus did, no man has ever done, and no man will ever do.
The Lord Jesus, in John 5:17, said—this was after He healed a paralysed man—“My Father worketh even until now, and I work.”
Brothers and sisters, all that our Lord Jesus did was only the doing of the work that His Father had been doing. In other words, His work is the continuation of the work of His Father, nothing else.
You know, one day our Lord Jesus did a miracle with five loaves and two fishes. Now remember, these five loaves and two fishes were given to Him by a little child. In other words, that child’s lunch was small. So you can imagine how small the loaves must have been: five little loaves and two small fishes.
The Lord used that and fed five thousand grown men, women and children besides. And there were twelve baskets left. People were all amazed. They even wanted to force Jesus to be king because He solved the food problem.
The Lord said, “No way.” He even sent His disciples away, because His disciples also wanted to make Him king.
They found Him the next day on the other shore, and the Lord said, “Now do not seek for the food that perishes, but seek for the food that is for eternity.”
Then you remember the people said, “What should we do, that we may do the works of God?” That is in John 6:28. You want us to do the work of God—what is the work of God? What should we do that we may do the works of God?
The Lord said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent.”
Now, if you read very carefully, you will find that in John 6:28 the people said, “What should we do, that we may do the works of God?” The word works there is plural. You know, in our mind, work means many works, lots of works. Some works are secular works; some works are sacred works, works of God—many works.
But in verse 29, the Lord said, “This is the work,” singular number. In other words, to God there is only one work that God does. And that work is: if you want to do the work of God, believe on the One Whom He has sent. Now, we will explain later.
It is true that our Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, did many things—so many that they cannot be recorded, beyond record. And yet, He did only one work, because God does only one work.
It is true that He created heaven and earth. He created man. He created all things. And through human history, God has done many works, and He is still doing many works. But, brothers and sisters, so far as God is concerned, He does only one work. All the works are included, all for the sake of that one.
“My Father worketh even until now.” From the creation of man until the time our Lord Jesus was speaking, God had been working. And the Lord said, “Now I am continuing in that work.”
In Psalm 103, we are told that God made known to the children of Israel His acts, but to Moses His ways. You know, the children of Israel only saw the acts of God. They saw manna coming down from heaven, and they were glad. They saw water coming out of the smitten rock, and their thirst was quenched.
They saw the acts of God, this act and that act; and when God acted, they were happy. But soon they forgot. Now, that is the children of Israel. But Moses was better, because he knew the ways of God. He knew that God always did things according to certain principles, and if you kept to those principles, you would be in the will of God. Now, that is far better.
But, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus shows us God’s purpose—not only acts, not only ways, but purpose.
God has only one work to do. And what is that work? You remember in the book of Genesis, after Adam and Eve, our forefathers, sinned, what did God do?
God came into the garden seeking, and said, “Adam, where art thou?” Man, where are you? The man that God created had fallen. The man that God desired in His heart had fallen. And now God came to seek, to call home, to restore, to recover.
Brothers and sisters, this is the work of God. Throughout human history, God has been steadily working with that one objective: to recover, to find, and to save the lost; to bring them back.
Not only to a sinless state, but even to the holy state. In other words, God’s work is centred upon one purpose, and that purpose is to bring man back into His original design.
Now, what is God’s original design for man? His original design for man is that man may be joined to Him in life. His original design is that He wants to give man as a life companion to His only begotten Son; or, to put it in another way, He wants man to be His Son’s bride, His helpmeet.
Not just in one individual, but man as a corporate man. Now, that is God’s purpose, and it is towards that purpose that God has been steadily working. And our Lord Jesus continued that work.
We mentioned that the Gospel according to Mark is a book that deals especially with the works, or the doings, of Jesus. Now, that is true. As a matter of fact, all the three Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—record the doings of Jesus.
But it is the Gospel of John that interprets history. So you find in the Gospel of John that, in interpreting the doings of our Lord Jesus, John does not use the word miracles or wonders. John uses another word: signs.
The same thing was done, but in the other Gospels it was called a wonder, a miracle. But in John it is called a sign. Why? Because John is interpreting the doings of our Lord Jesus. All that our Lord Jesus did has a meaning behind it. So it is a sign; it is a signpost. It points us to something else.
You will find in the whole Gospel of John that he gives us eight signs. We are studying John now, so I will leave it; but altogether there are eight signs given. And all these signs are showing one thing.
As John said, “I write these signs that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, you may have life in His name.”
This is the work of God: that you believe Him Whom God has sent, and in believing Him, you have eternal life.
Why? Because our Lord Jesus came to this earth for one purpose: to seek and to save the lost. That is speaking individually. But speaking corporately, He came into this world to do one thing, and that is to prepare His bride.
He came to this world, and He could not find His bride anywhere. So He had to seek and to save the lost, and bring them into life, bring them into living union with Him, bring them into the place where they begin to take up His own character, to be like Him.
And in doing that, one day we will become His bride, His helpmeet. Now, this is the work of our Lord Jesus.
Oftentimes, we are attracted by His many doings. Of course we are. When He used five loaves and two fishes to feed five thousand, we are amazed. But, brothers and sisters, what God wants us to see is behind all these doings: to see the purpose of His work.
If we see the purpose of the work of our Lord Jesus, then, brothers and sisters, we can do the work of God.
You know, so far as our Lord and God is concerned, when He was on earth, He was the Servant of God, the Son. But so far as our relationship with Him is concerned, He is our Master. We are His servants. We are called to be His servants.
Do you know that it is He Who teaches us servanthood? If we want to serve Him, if we want to be His servants, we need to learn from Him what servanthood really is.
Otherwise, we would be like the Jews at that time, saying, “Now, what should we do that we may do the works of God?” We are thinking of many works: this good work, that good work, this is God’s work, that is God’s work. And we will be occupied with all these things.
But, brothers and sisters, we need to realise what is the work of God. And after we understand what is the work of God, then all these works we are doing will not be just scattered, isolated, unrelated acts—you are doing this for God and I am doing that for God. No.
You will find that whatever we are doing, there is only one purpose: it is to bring men to God, perfect in Christ Jesus. It is to prepare for the glorious church, the bride of the Lamb.
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his teacher, and the servant as his lord.
So we need to know the Lord Jesus as the Servant of the Lord, because it is He Who teaches us servanthood. He said, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
When you think of a yoke, you think of work. You yoke oxen in order to till the ground. Now there is a work to do, called the work of God. And our Lord Jesus is the Servant of the Lord. He put His neck under that yoke, and He ploughed the field, obedient and faithful to the very end.
Now, you and I are all wild oxen. We have not been broken; we are not trained. And we are called into the work of God. Every one of us, brothers and sisters, every one of us is called to the work of God—the work of God.
We are called to work together with our Lord Jesus, not to work alone: to put our neck under the same yoke. Now, the yoke has two places for the neck. I do not know what you call it, but our Lord is on one side and you are on the other side, and we are yoked together with Him.
And that is the way to learn. Because when we are ploughing in the field, being untrained and undisciplined, when we see something good there, we want to go to the other side. We forget that we are under the hand of our Master, that there is a work to do.
Here you find our Lord being strong and steady. He will hold us back, and we begin to learn. We come to learn.
To be the servants of our Lord Jesus, we need to see the Lord as the Servant of the Lord. We need to learn everything from Him. Otherwise, you and I are just doing our own work for God, not doing the work of God.
So, first of all, we must realise that God has only one work, and Christ is doing that work. He is calling every one of us to share with Him in that work.
Individually, it is to present every man perfect in Christ, as we find in Colossians 1. Paul said he laboured, he toiled, to bring every man perfect in Christ. Collectively, it is that all may grow up into maturity, into that full-grown man, into the fullness of Christ, that we may become the life companion of our Lord Jesus.
Now, that is God’s work, and we are all involved in that work.
You notice how our Lord Jesus does His work. He did many things, many wonders, many miracles; and yet, brothers and sisters, listen to what He says in John 5.
“I can do nothing of Myself. What I do is what I have seen My Father do; and what My Father does, I do also.”
In other words, you find that when our Lord Jesus was doing His work, there was nothing that He did out of Himself.
Our Lord is the perfect Man. He is the only sinless, perfect Man. Even if He wanted to do something out of Himself, it could not be wrong. You know, if we do something out of ourselves, it is always wrong. But our Lord Jesus, being the perfect Man, even if He wanted to do something out of Himself, He could not be wrong; it would always be right.
But even so, you find He said, “I can do nothing of Myself.” He refused to do anything out of Himself. He refused to do anything for His own self. Whatever He did, He did the will of His Father.
Do not think that because He is the perfect Man, therefore He can do anything He wants to do. Do not think that because He is the Son of God, therefore He can do anything He wants. You know, He was tempted.
Satan came and tempted Him when He had fasted forty days and forty nights and He was hungry. Satan came and tempted Him, saying, “Well, You are the Son of God, are You not? Then turn these stones into bread. Satisfy Yourself. You can do it.”
But the Lord said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” In other words, our Lord Jesus would not do anything for Himself, would not do anything out of Himself. He was waiting for His Father’s will. If His Father wanted Him to be hungry, He was content to be hungry.
Now, that is how our Lord does the work of God: “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” Brothers and sisters, this is servanthood. He is teaching us how to do the work of God.
Oftentimes, we initiate a work for God out of our good intentions, out of our own concepts. We think that this ought to please God, not knowing that anything that comes out of ourselves, however good it may be, may not be God’s will. Good will is not necessarily God’s will.
And if we really want to serve the Lord, brothers and sisters, we need to learn of our Lord Jesus as the Servant of the Lord: do nothing out of ourselves, do nothing for ourselves, but always wait to know the will of God and then faithfully do it.
Not only did our Lord Jesus do nothing out of Himself, but our Lord Jesus never did anything by Himself—by His own strength, by His own cleverness.
You think you are clever? You think you are more clever than God is? The Bible says the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. Sometimes you think God is foolish; He does something very foolish in our eyes. But remember, His foolishness is wiser than your wisdom.
Our Lord Jesus, as the Bible says, increased in wisdom as He grew up. He is the wisest Person in this whole world. Solomon is not His equal. He is greater than Solomon, and Solomon is a synonym for wisdom. And yet our Lord never initiated anything for God out of His own mind. He denied Himself and obeyed His Father.
There is nothing more foolish than the cross. Can you think of anything more foolish than the cross? The cross to the nations is foolishness. Why should God Himself come to be a man and be crucified on that cross? What is the sense of it?
And yet, brothers and sisters, did our Lord Jesus question God’s wisdom? He was obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross. And we know today the cross is God’s wisdom.
Our Lord Jesus never did anything out of His own power. He had power to feed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, but He would not use His power to turn the stones into bread to feed Himself.
He had power to send twelve legions of angels to come and rescue Him, but He allowed Himself to be crucified by men. He never did anything out of His own power. Whenever His power was manifested, it was the power of God.
When He began His ministry, you remember in Luke 4, which is a quotation from Isaiah 61, He opened the book of Isaiah and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor.”
In other words, you find that everything He did was under the anointing of God, the power of God. He never did anything out of His own power.
Now, this should be a lesson for each one of us as we are serving Him. Do we serve out of our own cleverness, out of our own strength? Or do we serve under His anointing?
Furthermore, while our Lord Jesus was doing all these works, did He seek any glory for Himself?
In John 7, He said, “He that seeketh not his own glory, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.”
You know, we always seek our own glory, whatever we do. There is a secret thought within us: we want to be glorified. That is why we want to do something that can be seen by everybody. Everyone likes to preach. Why? Because he will be seen.
People do not like to pray in the closet because nobody sees you. No, whatever we do, even when we are doing so-called sacred good, we want to be seen. We seek our own glory.
But, brothers and sisters, when our Lord was on earth, He never sought, for a single moment, His own glory. He never sought His own glory. Throughout His life, His one purpose was to glorify His Father.
Is that not a good lesson for us too? Whenever we serve the Lord, let us not seek any glory for ourselves. Let all glory be unto Him, because He is the only One Who is worthy.
Furthermore, when our Lord Jesus was serving God, how did He serve? Now, you read the Gospel according to Mark, because Mark tells us the work of our Lord Jesus. You will find one word in the Gospel repeated many times, and that word is immediately—straightway, right away.
You know, that is a servant’s attitude. Our Lord never put off something until tomorrow. Yet He never went ahead of God’s timing. Sometimes He said, “My time is not yet come.” God has a time, but when God’s time comes, He never hesitates. He is right on time—diligent, straightway.
Now, that is the attitude of a servant, and that is something we ought to learn. Now, brothers and sisters, when we are serving the Lord, are we diligent? Are we right on time? Or are we always five minutes late? Do we postpone it until tomorrow?
When we know the will of God, do we do it right away?
Well, there are many other things we can mention, but I would like to conclude with this word.
The Lord is the Servant of God, the Son. He teaches us what servanthood is. He calls us to serve together. And what an honour, what a privilege that is.
But one thing we need to remember is that we cannot serve Him; we cannot work with Him until we allow Him to work in us.
You remember Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”
Before we can work—be careful—before we can work God’s work, remember, we are His work. We are His workmanship.
And that is the reason why, in John, the Lord said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent.” Oh, I believe, because when we believe in Him, then God is able to work in us.
If we do not believe, then He is not able to work. Our Lord Jesus has provided for us salvation, full salvation. But if we do not believe, salvation will not become our portion.
We are His workmanship. He is ready to work in us, not only to give us life, but to let that life grow in us, that His character may become our character; that we may grow up, be transformed, and be conformed to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Now, He is ready to work. But remember, first of all, you have to stop working and start to believe. Because if you are working, you do not allow Him to work.
But if you stop working and believe in Him, you allow Him to do all the work that is necessary. After He has worked in you, then yes, He has created you for good works. So you must let Him work in first, and then you work out.
Now, that is the principle of working God’s work. Unfortunately, we find today, with good intentions, brothers, we want to serve God, so we start to do this and do that immediately, instead of waiting and letting Him do the work that is necessary in us.
As a matter of fact, the measure of His working in us will be the measure of our working God’s work. The more you allow Him to work in you, the more you are able to work the work of God.
So I do look to the Lord that we may see our Lord Jesus as the Servant of the Lord, not just objectively, but seeing Him as the Servant of the Lord that we may be drawn into that servanthood that alone can please God.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee that through Thy beloved Son, Thou hast not only done that work that no man can do, but Thou hast also demonstrated what servanthood is.
We will then give all the work that Thou hast done upon us. And Lord, we do want to open ourselves to Thee and let Thee work to the fullest, that we may be able to be used of Thee and work God’s work.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.