To Believe in Jesus – Part 33

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:38

བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པ་གང་དེ་བསྡུ་བར་མངགས་པ་ཡིན། མི་གཞན་གྱིས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་བརྟེན་ཅིང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ངལ་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་དེ་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 4:38

 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

 

What Jesus said here in John 4 if the disciples had paid any attention to it at that time they would have kept it in their hearts while trying to fully understand what does it all means. As we will read further into the records of the Four Gospels these same disciples who followed Jesus till the day He was crucified they were still struggling to understand what Jesus actually said to them. We know from Bible records that many who came to Jesus left, many walk away when they could no longer accept or agree with what Jesus said. And when Jesus was crucified on the cross the few disciples who were still holding on to their faith that this Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God were shaken.

We face the same difficulties too in trying to fully understand what Jesus actually said. However today we have the benefit of hindsight and more writings of the apostles who went about preaching Christ after His resurrection, and we have volumes of commentaries. But we still need to carefully follow through and stay close within the context and circumstance of what Jesus actually said.

I believed it was after Jesus’ resurrection that a lot of what Jesus had taught to His disciples begins to make sense.

To better understand what Jesus said here in John 4, I would like to refer to what Jesus said in Matthew 28.

Let’s look at Matthew 28:16-20

 

མད་ཐཱ། 28:16-20

16ཐུགས་སྲས་བཅུ་གཅིག་པོ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་བཀའ་བཞིན་དུ་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་གྱི་རི་མགོར་ཆས་པ༌དང༌། 17ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཐོང་བ་དང་ཕྱག་བཙལ་ཏོ། །འོན་ཀྱང་ཐུགས་སྲས་ལ་ལ་ད་དུང་དོན་འདིར་ཐེ་ཚོམ་སྐྱེས༌སོ།། 18སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཚུར་ཕེབས་ཏེ་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། གནམ་ས་གཉིས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་ལ་གནང་ཡོད༌པས། 19ཁྱོད་རྣམས་སོང་ནས་མི་རིགས་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་གི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང་དུ་འཇུག་པར༌གྱིས། ཡབ༌དང༌། སྲས༌དང༌། དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་བཅས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལ་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་བྱོས༌ཤིག 20ངས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་གནང་བའི་བཀའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལ་ཁྲིད་སྟོན་བྱོས་ལ་བསྲུང་དུ༌བཅུག ལྟོས༌དང༌། ང་ནི་རྟག་ཏུ་བསྐལ་པའི་མཐའ་མའི་བར་དུའང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་དང་མཉམ་དུ་གནས་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།། །།

Matthew 28:16-20

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

 

What Jesus said here in Matthew 28:16-20 is well noted among modern day Christians as “The Great Commission” – the very foundational message of evangelism, preaching the gospel to unreached people groups, and making disciples for Jesus worldwide. However we must not overlook the fact that this message from Matthew 28 was spoken by Jesus after His resurrection!

 

Jesus was speaking to His disciples in His resurrected body!

 

For these same disciples who had followed Jesus during the time of His public ministry and had witnessed His crucifixion and death on the cross, and to stand before the resurrected Christ in person listening to Him speak – this was a whole new experience.

I believed what Jesus said in Matthew 28:16-20 happened at the same time and circumstances of Acts 1:3 and Acts 1:6-12 –

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 1:3

ཁོང་གིས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱངས་རྗེས་རྟགས་མང་པོར་བརྟེན་ནས་རང་ཉིད་གསོན་པོར་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་བསྟན༌ཏེ། ཉིན་བཞི་བཅུའི་རིང་ལ་མངོན་པར་མཛད་ཅིང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་སྐོར་གྱི་དོན་ཡང་གསུངས་སོ།།

Acts 1:3

He (Jesus) presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 1:6-12

6དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་དང་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་རྣམས་ལྷན་དུ་འཛོམས་པའི་དུས་ལ་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་བསྐྱར་དར་མཛད་པའི་དུས་ནི་ད་ལྟ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ལ། 7ཁོང་གིས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་དབང་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་གཏན་དུ་ཁེལ་བའི་དུས་དང་ཟླ་ཚེས་ནི་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་མི་རུང༌ངོ་།། 8འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེང་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཁྱབ་པ་ན་དབང་ཐོབ༌སྟེ། ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ༌དང༌། ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་དང༌སཱ་མར་ཡ་ཡུལ་ཐམས་ཅད༌དང༌། ས་མཐའི་བར་དུའང་བདག་ལ་དཔང་པོ་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 9དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་སྐད་གསུངས་པ་དང་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ལ་ལྟ་བའི་དུས༌སུ། ཁོང་ཉིད་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་དྲངས་པ༌དང༌། སྤྲིན་ཕུང་ཞིག་གིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་བསྒྲིབས་ཏེ་མི་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ཏོ།། 10སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་འཕག་བཞིན་པ༌དང༌། སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིག་ཅེ་རེར་ནམ་མཁར་ལྟ༌སྐབས། གློ་བུར་ཉིད་དུ་གོས་དཀར་པོ་གྱོན་པའི་མི་གཉིས་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་བྱུང་སྟེ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། 11ཀྱེ། ག་ལིལ་པ༌རྣམས། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཡར་ལངས་ནས་ནམ་མཁར་ལྟ་བ་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་མདུན་ནས་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་དྲངས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཉིད༌ནི། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཇི་ལྟར་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་དྲངས་པ་མཐོང་བ་བཞིན་སླར་ཡང་དེ་ལྟར་འབྱོན་པར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

12དེ་ནས་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་རྣམས་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་དང་ཐག་ཉེ་སར་ཡོད་པ་སྟེ། ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོ་གཅིག་གི་ལམ་ཐག་ཙམ་གྱི་སྐྱུ་རུ་རའི་རི་བོ་ཞེས་པ་ནས་ཕྱིར་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་དུ་ལོག༌པ་རེད།

Acts 1:6-12

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.

 

Putting together all these messages from John 4:38, Matthew 28:16-20, Acts 1:3 and Acts 1:6-12, we can see how Jesus was preparing His disciples and sending them to reap what He had been sowing. And this instruction by Jesus sending forth His disciples to reap what was being sowed continues to us today and it will continue till He returns.

I want to highlight one of the key points of what Jesus said in these contexts

 

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth

 

The most important message we need to communicate when evangelizing and preaching about Jesus is to intentionally make known His death and resurrection.

Jesus death on the cross and how He fulfilled scripture prophesies of old that God will redeem Man from condemnation of sin through His chosen Messiah is a fundamental foundational truth why we need a savior.

 

Salvation belongs to God and He will save us through His chosen Messiah. And this Jesus of Nazareth is proven to be the Messiah chosen of God.

 

The resurrection of Christ from the dead demonstrated the power of God to redeem Man from sin and death and to completely fully restore Man to eternal life with God.

 

The resurrection of Jesus is our hope of eternal life in the presence of God.

 

This is what we need to bear witness about Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus our hope of salvation and eternal life with God.

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 32

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:37-38

37ཡང་ཁ་དཔེ༌ལ།

མི་དེ་ཡིས་ས་བོན༌བཏབ།།

མི་འདི་ཡིས་འབྲུ་རིགས༌བསྡུས།།

ཞེས་པ་དེ་བདེན༌ནོ།། 38བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པ་གང་དེ་བསྡུ་བར་མངགས་པ་ཡིན། མི་གཞན་གྱིས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་བརྟེན་ཅིང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ངལ་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་དེ་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 4:37-38

37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

 

In previous post we examined how the apostle Paul who had suffered for the sake of preaching Christ taught us the necessity of enduring hardship for the ministry of the gospel for Jesus and that we are to be mentally prepared.

We learn from the examples of our Lord and Savior Jesus that the fruit of obedience to the will of God is life, resurrection to eternal life. However, in our current life circumstances we may have to suffer hardship due to two possible factors

 

1. Dying to our own sinful nature that works against the will of God. We often struggle with temptation to neglect doing the will of God.
2. People and situations surrounding us that may work against the will of God. Not everyone around us will agree to do the will of God and yet we need to stand firm and persevere and continue with Jesus till He returns.

 

Let’s read again what Jesus said here

 

37ཡང་ཁ་དཔེ༌ལ།

མི་དེ་ཡིས་ས་བོན༌བཏབ།།

མི་འདི་ཡིས་འབྲུ་རིགས༌བསྡུས།།

ཞེས་པ་དེ་བདེན༌ནོ།། 38བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པ་གང་དེ་བསྡུ་བར་མངགས་པ་ཡིན། མི་གཞན་གྱིས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་བརྟེན་ཅིང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ངལ་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་དེ་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

 

Jesus was definitely talking about sowing and reaping. But Jesus was telling His disciples that they were reaping something they did not sow!

How did that work?

Was Jesus talking about “shared labor”?

Yes He did!

From a much broader perspective, this shared labor transcends time and locations and went beyond generations and across different races and nationalities.

Jesus was preparing His disciples for harvest beyond their expectations.

By now the disciples should had noticed Jesus was not referring to the material physical agricultural sowing and harvesting process. Jesus was talking about something deeper and related to people – how people response to the preaching of the kingdom of God.

 

The purpose of harvesting is to reap what was sowed.

 

That means to say we can only harvest what was being sowed, right?

So what exactly was being sowed previously?

Jesus said “I sent you to reap” and that give us the clear understanding that we are to harvest what is rightfully belonging to Jesus and what He expects to reap.

This is not the first time Jesus speaks of sowing and reaping. In Matthew 13 when Jesus speaks of The Parable of the Sower and when His disciples asked Him to explain they understood Jesus was referring to His ministry of preaching and calling people to repentance and to obey God’s teachings.

In the beginning of the Gospel of John, the author identified Jesus as “the word of God”. And Jesus went about preaching the words of God.

So what was being sowed?  The words of God!

And what is to be harvested? People who response in obedience to God’s teachings!

This sowing and reaping cycle had started long ago –

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 55:10-11

10གནམ་ནས་ཆར་དང་ཁངས་བབས་ཏེ། ནམ་མཁར་ཕྱིར་མི་ལོག་པར་ས་གཞིར་རློན་བཟོས་ནས་དེའི་སྟེང་གི་སྐྱེས་དངོས་ལ་མྱུ་གུ་འབུ་བར་བྱེད་པ་དང་། ཞིང་འདེབས་མཁན་ལ་ས་བོན་ཡོད་པ་དང་། ཟས་སྤྱོད་མཁན་ལ་འབྲུ་རིགས་འཐོབ་ཏུ་འཇུག་པ་ཇི་བཞིན། 11བདག་གི་ཁ་ནས་བྱུང་བའི་གཏམ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་དེ་བཞིན་ཡིན་ཏེ། དོན་མེད་དུ་བདག་གི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕྱིར་ལོག་པར་མི་འགྱུར་གྱིས། བདག་གི་འདོད་བློ་བཞིན་དུ་འགྲུབ་ཅིང་། བདག་གིས་མངགས་པའི་དོན་རྣམས་སྟེང་དུ་འགྲུབ་པར་འགྱུར།

Isaiah 55:10-11

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

 

The words and teachings of God had gone forth to men and women before Isaiah, and it started since the days of Adam calling for obedience with promises and guarantee of eternal life in the presence of God but for those who continued in rejection death and separation from the life of God.

One of Jesus prominent apostle Peter did affirm the ministry of sowing the words of God started long ago

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 2:5

ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་གནའ་བོའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལའང་བཟོད་སྒོམ་མ་གནང་བར། དད་གུས་མེད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་ཆུ་ལོག་གིས་བསྣུབས་པར་མཛད༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཡང་དག་པའི་ཆོས་སྒྲོག་མཁན་ནོ་ཨའི་ཁྱིམ་མི་བརྒྱད་པོ་བསྐྱབས་མྱོང་།

2 Peter 2:5

if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

 

Peter recognized Noah as a preacher of righteousness. The message of Noah made clear distinction between those who obey God and those who refused, and by the time of Noah’s Flood, few were harvested for their obedience to God’s warnings and teachings.

We can see a God-ordained principle here – the harvesting of people who acted in obedience to God’s words and to bring them into eternal life in the presence of God.

Back to the message of John 4, Jesus is teaching that we are to continue this cycle of sowing and reaping. And this sowing and reaping have everything to do with the ministry of God’s words.

Jesus was sending His disciples to harvest those who will obey God’s teachings.

To be continue …

 

David Z