In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
We marvel at the ingenuity, wondrous artistry, and astonishing architecture of this universe, both in its macrocosmic and microscopic elements. The farther and deeper one examines creation, the more astounded one becomes.
Barely over 100 years ago, it was the belief that the human cell was just an extremely small globule of some sort of protoplasm. With the advent of the electron microscope, we discovered that a single cell has far more complexity than the most sophisticated computer chip.
PSALM 139:14
I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Your works; and that my soul knows very well.
Our Milky Way galaxy is over 100,000 light years across (that’s not even considering the entire mass!). It’s dwarfed in size compared to others, the largest galaxy thus far on record is nearly 10 times our size! There are approximately 100 billion (observable) ‘stellar-islands’ dancing about in the heavens, to the tune of GOD’s own orchestrated omnipotent music! There are stars so huge, that you could fit our solar system from the Sun all the way to Jupiter (365 million miles away from the Sun) inside any one of them!
PSALM 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Seeing how GOD is perfect in all of His works, we can sometimes wonder why He even bothers to invite us to join in and participate in any work. Surely He can do it all by Himself far more efficiently and with much better results. And yet, we hear the words of the LORD Jesus Christ:
MATTHEW 11:28
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
So why involve us at all? Because for one, working the sort of work that GOD ordains is far better than any enterprise we might seek apart from Him. We were after all, created for GOD’s good pleasure (REV 4:11), and it’s His good pleasure to give us the kingdom (LUKE 12:31-32) and in working there, we seek and find GOD’s perfect will.
Another reason to involve us, His kids: so that as we work side by side with the LORD, we get to see Him ‘up close’ and learn of Him as well as learn from Him: He is gentle, lowly in heart (this is GOD the Son speaking! – lowly? Yes! Almighty GOD made flesh, lowly in heart, so meek, so humble, so approachable – don’t you just LOVE Him!??). Twice in MATTHEW’s passage we read the word “rest” – this is the only work found anywhere that is actually restful, peaceful, free of stress and weariness, because this sort of work is food for the saint, just as it is for the Savior (JOHN 4:34).
ISAIAH 57:15
For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
And that is the sort of company He craves – not the proud and powerful, not the mighty and magnificent, not the worldly wise and wealthy – but the contrite (those who are broken over their own sinfulness and spiritual poverty (MATT 5:3)) and humble ones.
And such souls He invites to participate in the work of GOD, in seeing the Kingdom built one more soul at a time; this isn’t a mandate to “bring heaven to Earth” as is so popularly promoted these days by unbiblical, even heretical ‘Christian’ movements (this is something the disciples were never commanded to do, nor was this something that the LORD Jesus received of the Father – the first time; this is strictly reserved for the second time the LORD arrives on Earth, and in so coming, establish His kingdom: essentially, heaven on Earth (ACTS 1:6-7; 2 THESS 1:7-8).
Rather than bringing heaven to Earth, we are to bring sinners to the Cross of Christ and should they by faith receive the Gospel and are born into the Kingdom, well then, the population of the Kingdom of GOD has increased by one!
Another immortal soul forever and ever secured in the eternal domain of heaven, having escaped the Holy Judgment of GOD upon their sin through the Kinsman Redeemer, and the place of eternal torment! Such will never even scent the smoke of the Second Death which is the lake of fire (REV 20:14)!
These new disciples, these spiritual babes in Christ are going to need a lot of prayer, and feeding, and discipleship with godly examples to follow and thereby be encouraged in the walk of the Spirit. All of this is kingdom work and it’s what the LORD has called us to!
MATTHEW 9:35-38
35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
There is no greater nor more important work than that in the kingdom of GOD! And it’s the sort of work that has eternal consequences! The stakes are high: immortal souls that hang in the balance between a destiny in heaven or hell!
One might well feel intimidated by such a high and demanding calling such as this – but remember, the LORD calls us to place His yoke upon us (yokes are those wooden collar type things that would be placed over the neck and rest on the shoulders of some beast of burden, like an ox or a mule. This would transfer the power of the animal to the plow that they dragged behind them, creating furrows in the soil where seed would be planted).
Yokes came in single or double collars, and the one that the LORD would have us place upon our shoulders is the double yoke – and who do you suppose the other collar is for? Right, the LORD Himself. Remember also that the LORD said that His “burden is light”, which means that while it’s lighter for us, it’s heavier for Him: He takes the brunt of the load and allows only so much upon us. As we get stronger and more confident in His Spirit, He allows more of the weight to fall on our shoulders.
It’s the same idea as a weightlifter, who grows accustomed to a certain amount of weight. In order to grow in strength, he adds on more weight.
So, in order to grow, the LORD increases the burden, but all the while, it’s still lighter than the bulk which our LORD carries!
The disciples certainly grew in faith, conviction, strength, and power after the LORD rose from the dead and breathed upon them the Holy Spirit (JOHN 20:22) and later empowered them with the baptism of the Holy Spirit as His witnesses (martos in the Greek, from which we get the word martyr) to all the world beginning in Jerusalem (ACTS 1:8).
The Sanhedrin called them into question for their conduct (“turning the world upside down” as they continued to do in the book of ACTS; ACTS 17:6) but while they acknowledged that they changed in a remarkable way, they came to a wrong conclusion when they observed that “they had been with Jesus” (ACTS 4:13).
The LORD Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (HEB 13:5) and “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages” (MATT 28:20). The LORD told His disciples that He was going away, but that He would send “another Comforter” (JOHN 14:16) to fill in for Him as He will return to where He came from (HOS 5:15), seated at the right hand of the Father (JOHN 16:16-17,28).
Yet the LORD made good on His promise that He would not leave any of them, but be with them always:
MARK 16:19
19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
And so it is today – the LORD is in our midst, His church, His body, and we are the co-workers of Christ, working with Him, learning of Him, finding rest, and building in the kingdom of GOD! What a glorious life – there are none like it!
Who is sufficient for these things? How can we accomplish the purposes of GOD who are little more than lumps of living clay?
2 CORINTHIANS 2:16
To the one we are the savor of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
Our sufficiency is found in GOD Himself: He is the One Who calls us to the work, equips and empowers us for the work; guides and directs us in the work. There is nothing supplemental necessary to accomplish the work of GOD as His laborers, His co-workers!
2 CORINTHIANS 3:5-6
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
A good accompaniment in this line of thought is the following article: ABLE MINISTERS Of The NEW TESTAMENT.
Here we shall end Part 1, and when we get into Part 2, we’ll look into all that the LORD has granted to us, these heavenly tools of the trade, and godly giftings by which we skillfully serve the Savior!
Until then, Keep Your Eyes To the Skies and Don’t Believe the Lies! The LORD Jesus Christ Returns Soon In The Skies!
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