Doing the Work of God 1980

Luke chapter 10, verses 38 to 42. Now as they went on their way, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things.

One thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her. One thing is needful.

Certainly this has been the emphasis in this block, that there's only one thing needful. We don't agree about many things here. But about this I dare say we come in perfect, or pretty nearly perfect agreement, that if we really seek Jesus, everything else will take care of itself.

If the branch really abides in the vine, then it's going to bear fruit that will be just what the vine is able to produce. But the danger is that it is possible to assume that we are sitting at Jesus' feet with Mary, drinking in all this truth from God, when in fact all we're doing is stagnating. Like a man who goes into his prayer room every morning at 6 o'clock, shuts the door, and comes out at 7.30 looking like he's ready to face the world.

The only problem is, nothing's happening in his life. Because in fact nothing's happening in that room. He goes in, sits down, opens his Bible, calls on the name of the Lord, and then falls asleep.

And so it goes, morning after morning. The man himself isn't even aware of how shallow his union with the Lord actually is. He's quite convinced he has a genuine discipline going here, and can't understand why his life is such a bore, why no genuine fruit appears to be coming forth.

After all, I'm seeking the kingdom first. I'm not all caught up in works righteousness like Martha in the kitchen. I'm sitting with Mary at Jesus' feet.

So what's the deal? We have to distinguish between going through the motions of putting Jesus first, and actually, aggressively, diligently, seeking him. In John 6. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

For on him has the Father, God, set his seal. Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. Excuse me.

A householder... Get this clear, then I'll keep doing it, and nobody else's throat will get all bungled up. Whenever I hear somebody doing that, I have to clear my own, and help them out. A householder went out early in the morning to hire some laborers for his vineyard.

After he agrees with them on their wages, he now begins to direct them to the vineyard, tells them how to get there, and what's going to happen when they arrive. You get on that road over there, and you keep going straight to the end. My vineyard is at the end of the road.

Don't turn to the left or to the right. Everybody understands. But as they now set out on the road, strange things begin to happen to these new employers.

They're going down the road, when they see to the left a sign, a great big sign which reads, The Vineyard of the Giant Grapes. And beneath the sign is a man who says, You're here, you've arrived. This is the place the master wants you to serve him.

One of the workers says, Wait a minute. The master told us to keep going all the way to the end of the road. You didn't hear him right.

This is the place. Look at this grape. Did you ever see a grape as big as this? There's the evidence.

A handful of the workers turn aside and enter the vineyard, while the rest keep going down the road a couple hundred yards farther. Another sign painted on a great big red barn, The Vineyard of the True Grapes. Here's a guy like they had down on Michigan Avenue waving the white cloth to get him to come in.

In here, here's the place. We have the real grapes. This is the true vineyard.

All other grapes are false. Ours alone make the true wine. But wait a minute, says one of the workers.

The master told us to keep going to the end of the road. You didn't hear him right. Here, try one of these grapes and you'll understand.

And as one of the workers reaches out to take it, another worker says, Don't touch it, don't touch it. This isn't the place. But of course, some of the workers try the grapes, turn aside, while the rest keep going down the road.

After a while, here's another sign. The Vineyard of Hard Work. And underneath the sign is a guy with a bullhorn.

You who have troubled consciences, this is the place. Come in here. And through the gate you can see men and women picking grapes like mad, sweat pouring off them, while there are angry-looking guards flashing them with whips.

Get on with it, you lazy lug! And you wonder why anybody would go in there but a big group now departs and goes in there. They want to work off their guilt. Okay, the group that's left keeps going.

And just beyond the Vineyard of Hard Work, they see the most magnificent entrance that they've ever seen to a subdivision or anything else. You never saw anything like it in Bloomfield Hills. It was a great big giant arch, and under the arch, a painting, a magnificent painting, illuminated, depicting Mary sitting at Jesus' feet in rapt attention, while in the background, Martha can be seen scowling in the kitchen.

And next to it is the sign, the Vineyard of Pure Faith. This must be the one, says the man who has now taken the lead. Look at the man on that picture.

That's exactly the one who talked to us back there in the marketplace. I'm going in. Some of the workers say, no, this isn't the end of the road.

We're supposed to keep going to the end of the road. I'm going in, he says, and a sizable following goes with him. As they pass under the arch, they are met by a guy in a beautiful white uniform who ushers them to a long row of vines lined with pure white canvas cots.

All we want you to do is lie down in one of these cots, each of you, and relax and believe, and we'll take care of everything. Pretty soon, they're all in their cots, lying flat on their backs, fast asleep. And while they sleep, they're robbed of everything they have.

The handful of workers that stays on the road, never turns to the left or to the right, finally comes to the end. And who should be there to welcome them but the master himself? Welcome, he says, you listened to my word, you did what I said. Come, come with me into my vineyard, and we will work together.

Then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. To work in the vineyard of God is to believe in him whom he has sent. And to believe in Jesus involves more than going into our room and shutting the door and falling asleep in our chair or rotting on a cot.

To believe in Jesus, to choose the one thing needful, involves an aggressive, continuous pressing on down the road to the one who waits for us. This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Those who do this work bear the fruit of God.

The branch that concentrates aggressively on abiding in the vine will receive the life of the vine and will bear the fruit of the vine. Some of us on our way out of the marketplace have been sidetracked at the vineyard of the giant grapes. We've been caught up in delusions of bigness and numbers.

Some of us have proceeded on and we've been drawn in to the vineyard of the true grapes. The big thing for us is to be correct. We want to have the right position, the right doctrinal stand on everything.

Our desperate fear, our deadly fear is that we might make a mistake. And we would rather sit, do nothing, and be correct than to do something and run the risk of making a mistake. Many of us have spent years of our lives in the vineyard of hard work, trying somehow to atone for this uneasy conscience and still finding no peace.

But the vineyard, which is the biggest threat to most of us in this fellowship at this time, is the vineyard that calls itself the vineyard of pure faith, where it's so easy, so possible to think that we have a relationship with Jesus, when in fact that relationship with Jesus has all the qualities of a dream. In a dream, when I'm dreaming, I think I'm climbing a mountain, but in fact I'm just lying in bed. What's needed is for us to wake out of our dream and press on to the one who waits for us at the end of the road to get going and to aggressively seek to have a living, burning, conscious, faithful, diligent relationship with Him so that every day I'm walking under the yoke with Him, walking with Him, talking with Him, doing what He says, get into union with Him.

He is the vineyard. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.

There will be results. I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness.

He who follows me, he said, will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will go in and out and find pasture.

I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father but by me. I am the true vine.

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. Notice that after every I am, there is an if or a condition or a call for action on our part to draw near to Him. I am the light.

He who follows. I am the door. If anyone enters.

I am the vine. He who abides. He's waiting for us at the end of the road, but it's up to us to get up and start pressing on.

And we find that as we press on toward Him, we begin also to experience fellowship with Him all along the way. So we have this picture of Mary sitting at Jesus' feet. And we can misinterpret that into a kind of a symbol of inaction.

But while her body is still, Mary's mind and spirit are in hot pursuit of every word Jesus speaks. She's very active. Zacchaeus even gets into it with his body.

He climbs up a tree. Or the woman with the issue of blood who reaches through the crowd to get ahold of the hem of Jesus' garment. Each of us has to ask herself, himself, every day, is my pursuit of the face of Jesus living, active? Am I willing, even in this pursuit of Jesus, to clear away all the distractions, even if it means the loss of everything I have? Or is my pursuit of Jesus a tired motion, void of mind, heart, soul? Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.

One thing is needful. Mary has chosen that good portion which shall not be taken from her. Notice that Mary not only saw that one thing was needful, she chose it.

It was an act of the will. Now, we can see the one thing needful and understand that very clearly. But to make it ours, we have to do more than nod toward it, vote for it, agree with it, subscribe to it, or sing about it.

We have to go after it with an active mind and a burning heart and a willing body every single day of our lives. If it should be that we're asleep or half asleep, right now, may God help us to wake up and get moving and keep going until we come to him who waits for us at the end of the road. And in the mystery, we shall find that he is with us, in our hearts, and at our side all along the way.

Let's wait upon him now.