Prepared by the Father, Purchased by the Son, Powered by the Spirit. John 4:38: “I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.” A steward is a person who oversees another person’s affairs, household, and people. They have the authority and their purpose from their Lord. They provide what was entrusted to them to those around them. They are entrusted. On a ship of war, they provide provisions and supplies to the officers and crew so they can continue to fight and carry out their duties. The chain of command is the lifeline on a ship of war. There is no victory without obedience all the way down the line. Each must labor in obedience to those above them and be true to those below him for victory to occur. Every man’s work depends on those around him. Christians are stewards of dispensing the Gospel, teaching its doctrines, and administering its ordinances. Our privilege, especially in America, is to sow that seed in the field that we did not prepare, which was watered in the Blood of Christ and with the blood of God’s people.
John 4:38 Meaning
That may sound scary, but it’s true and not often taught from the pulpit these days. Those of us who possess the Word of God, in English, found in the King James Bible, know its truth as in: “I defy the Pope and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost!”
William Tyndale said this after he began to translate the Bible into English (his work became the foundation of the KJB’s New Testament). They burned him at the stake. Were it not for Brother Tyndale’s faith (built on the faith of the Son of God, see Galatians 2:20), we would not have the KJB, the Reformation, or so many other blessings we enjoy.
- Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Brother Tyndale was found faithful, and we all stand on his shoulders as he stood on Christ’s. So the labor continues until He comes. Martyrdom serves as a sobering reminder that stewardship often costs something.
God requires all believers to be found faithful. See 1 Corinthians 4:2: “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”
Waking into the Christian life is like waking into the current world as if it’s a bad dream. Nothing is the same; something has changed. It’s like waking up in a nicely furnished home. It’s clean, tidy, and if not, just what you need. It’s fully stocked with food and clean as a whistle. You look outside. The grass is trimmed, and the field has wheat ready to harvest. Seed in the barn, tools on the rack. You wander back into the house ,and there’s a note on the table that simply says, “Occupy and care for this until I return.” Signed, “JC.”
As you ponder the note in your hand, you hear a gunshot in the distance and hear war far away. Far enough that if you keep busy, you could ignore it. Being given a marvelous gift, there is obviously work to do as the realization occurs.
You’re in a spiritual war. See Ephesians 6:12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
You’re a steward of something special. See 1 Peter 4:10: “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
You’ve been given a call to serve. See 1 Samuel 12:24: “Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he hath done for you.”
None of it is dipped in suggestion as you look out the window at the Steward’s Field. The Stewards Field is:
Prepared by the Father
God prepared this field and invested His only Son. Child of God, what will you invest? The Harvest never ends until Jesus comes. The husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth. God is not willing that any should perish. God does not need us; we should want to labor for Him. People are perishing. Paul did not preach where Christ was known; he went where God prepared the field for harvest so that souls could be saved.
See Romans 15:20 “Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation.”
Purchased by the Son
God so loved the world that He gave His only Son for the Blood Atonement of the sin of the world. His Blood purchased it all, made it possible. We have redemption through His Blood because of His grace. It being purchased by Christ, He is the headstone of the corner of it all; the house, the field, whatever illustration you like. What else will stir the heart to service, to go into the steward’s field, other than the Blood of Christ? His Blood purges us from dead works in sin so we can serve the living God.
Powered by the Spirit
See Acts 1:8 (KJV) “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
This verse is the clearest doctrinal link between Spirit-empowered witness and the global call to evangelism. It mirrors John 4:38’s theme of stepping into a harvest already prepared—except here, the power source is explicitly the Holy Ghost. See John 4:38: “I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.”
Also consider Isaiah 55:11: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
If you want to work in the Stewards Field, it starts with repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, obedience to God is now possible and becomes a simple choice to enter the Stewards Field or not:
See 1 Corinthians 3:6–9: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.”
See also Matthew 13:3–9 (the Parable of the Sower) and 2 Corinthians 9:6:
- Matthew 13:3–9: “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
- 2 Corinthians 9:6: “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
Scripture above testifies that it all matters because the harvest is always ready. Lift up your eyes and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. One soweth, and another reapeth. All work is built on the work of others. All work affects everyone else and works to the Glory of God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. In the Stewards Field, all labor matters. Every bible tract to a waitress matters. Every pamphlet at a gas pump matters. Every word of God that comforts an unbeliever at work who confides in you matters. See Ecclesiastes 11:1: “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.”
Christ is coming back. He has called his servants to enter the Stewards’ Field. Our work is prepared, purchased, and powered by Almighty God. Christ as the foundation, our work is built on those who labored before us. Do not be discouraged, all work in the field matters.
In 1854, Anna L. Coghill wrote:
“Work, for the night is coming, Work through the morning hours;
Work while the dew is sparkling, Work ’mid springing flow’rs.
Work when the day grows brighter, Work in the glowing sun;
Work, for the night is coming, When man’s work is done.
Sister Coghill wrote that in the Steward Field. With God, all things are possible to them that believe.
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