‘Night is Coming when no one can Work’
John 9:4
Introduction: Very often Jesus in his teachings concerning ‘the importance of work’ uses the verb of necessity and urgency: "I must!" For example in Luke 2:49, even as a Child in the temple He said to his parents, "Didn’t you know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
In Luke 9:22 we find that in the days of His Galilean ministry, He said to His disciples, "The Son of Man must suffer and be killed, and be raised the third day from the dead".
And in the greatest of all texts of the ages he said to Nicodemus in John 3:7: "You must be born again".
And again the word must appears in the context leading to the crucifixion,: in John 3:14 where he says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up".
These words of Jesus describe ‘necessity’ and ‘urgency’; that they were so frequently found on His lips. And this verse which is our text for this evening describes ‘necessity’ and ‘urgency’ of the hour: "As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work." (John 9:4).
First of all we see that there is the urgency of time. “Night is coming.”
When you compare this statement of Jesus “night is coming” with v5, it shows that it is obviously metaphorical. So the night can represent:
- The coming judgment
- A period of opportunity that is no more available
- The rejection of Jesus as Lord of your life and no recovery whatsoever.
The Scottish preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne, on the dial of his watch, had drawn a picture of the setting sun, and underneath were the
words of this verse, "for the night cometh".
Time is a gift of God; precious, gracious and holy, valuable beyond any possession that a man could ever have.
Time is a donation of God; you cannot buy it, you cannot merit it, you cannot purchase it, you cannot trade for it.
Time is an incredible capacity that God gives us. And in the creation of God, everyone is oblivious of it, except humans.
The crows in the air, the ocean in its turbulence, and the stars in their courses have no sensibility of time. Even a child has no conception or appreciation for time. It is something that comes into the conscience of a man when he reaches the age of accountability.
Jesus is insisting that time is in the same moral equation as when a man stands face to face with God.
Time is unstoppable. You can stop that clock, you can stop every indication of a chronometer; but you can never stop the relentless movement of time. It is like the planets that swing around their suns, without haste, and without delay.
So the movement of time in our lives however a man might persuade himself against it, or rush his life to interdict it, there is no such thing as a man being able to stop the inevitable march of the minutes and the days and the years: because "the night is coming."
Not only is time moving, but it is also elusive; you cannot keep it. You cannot seize it. You cannot store it. You cannot treasure it. It is elusive; it passes away and beyond. ‘You cannot store the water that is already passed down the stream.’
When Jesus said for the “Night is coming,” He was talking about the urgency of time!
You see when Jesus says that as long as it is day we must do the works of him; the ‘day’ in the verse represents the opportunity; and the Night represents the loss of that opportunity.
The point is not so much about the cycle of day and night, but the principle behind the assertion. The Principle of Jesus is this: if we work for God, then we must do it now.
Now in His second statement, Jesus says, “we must do the works of God who sent us”.
A. The question is: What type of work is Jesus talking here about?
The immediate context here in this passage is that Jesus is healing a blind person. He is invovled in a ‘Need based Mission’. In John 6:29 we find the answer where Jesus says, ‘this is the work of God, that you believe in the one he has sent’.
In this statement He is talking about the urgency to work on ‘ours’ and the ‘world’s’ spiritual life.
The urgent need is first of all spiritual. All the currents of life run in deep spiritual channels. Paul says to the Corinthians, “For the things that are seen are temporal; it is the things that are not seen that are eternal [2 Cor. 4:18).
Even if a person may critique religion or be skeptical about spirituality and pass it by as scrap, there will come a time inevitably someday, when s/he will stand as a soul - naked before God, then they will begin to see the deep and eternal need of God.
Our needs are finally going to be spiritual. The human soul is like the dove in Noah’s ark: when the bird was sent out, it came back to the ark because, the Gen. 8:9 says, "She found no place to rest …her foot". So also it is with the soul of a man: there’s no place to rest himself except in the ark of the divine love of God.
The world and ourselves included – needs this awareness of spirituality. The world needs to know that there is forgiveness for every evil deed in the name of Jesus Christ.
The people of this world need encouragement; life is so full of struggles for them. But God alone has the word of hope and victory through the cross. That’s why the message of the Cross is called the gospel, the good news. My brother, my sister, God is for us, as much as He wants to be for those who are yet to know Him.
And this message of the cross is the need for us to make it known to those who struggle with guilt, with fear, with issues of death and with sin. So that they will know that they can experience the true freedom of life.
Jesus says, “we must do the works of him who sent me… for the night is coming, when no one can work.” [John 9:4].
Life is a sphere of Work! You see we are not sent into this world as a butterfly; which comes in the summer hovering over the flowers; but we are sent to work for the world's advancement into holiness, and to mould our own character into God's likeness through the help of the Holy Spirit to gain true happiness and be holy as He is Holy.
Strangely for some people – ‘time’ and ‘life’ is all about becoming materially rich; but they find themselves so empty that they are continually going about to find something to make them happy. They are not content! They have so much but yet not found the true definition of ‘happiness’.
So when Jesus said that night is coming when no one can work – the question is:
B. What type of work then is impossible in the “night”?
The ‘night’ in the text is not talking about a physical cycle of day and night. Today we live in an era where people work for their livelihood during the night, and some work during the night hours for certain companies.
The ‘night’ in the text talks about the impossibility that prevents even God’s action - which is the impossible case of reconciling a sinner to God when the night comes; and this night metaphorically speaking is the night of the judgment day. This night is the night when the opportunity is no more available. This night is the night when there is no recovery for the life lived and worked for.
Therefore we must work to be ‘holy’ as God is holy ( 1 Pt. 1:16; 1: Lev. 11:44) with the help of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:26-27). This is doing the works of Him who has sent us. We must work to witness about Jesus Christ to those who have rejected Him as the Lord of their life. We must be able to assist those who are blind to the Gospel and to spiritual concerns with a defense of the Christian message. We must do our work in the society which requires our presence and virtues among those who are underprivileged, malnourished, abused and the destitute. These are the works of Him who has sent us.
And as you go about doing these remember the Great promise of Jesus that ‘He is with you’ (Mt. 28:18-20) and the ‘Spirit will teach you what you ought to say’ (Luke 12:11-12) when you work to tell the message of the Cross of Jesus through words and deeds.
