Traveling through a ghetto in Samaria, Jesus Christ started up a conversation with a Gentile woman at a well. Though probably weary from His travels, Jesus took the time to speak with her about the gospel message, the truth about the Holy Spirit, and God’s plan. The scene recorded in John 4 is beautiful: Christ reaching out to the weak and base, inspiring them with the vision about God’s Family!
Then His disciples returned, and they couldn’t believe Jesus was talking to this Gentile woman (verse 27). In fact, Jesus was not only spending time with this stranger, He was revealing to her that He was the Christ—something He had not done openly even among the Jews!
The disciples were tired and hungry and not thinking spiritually. They didn’t even ask Christ why He was talking to this woman. They didn’t really care to know.
The contrast between Jesus and the disciples here is sharp: Christ was full of love, seeking to share God’s truth and serve this woman; the disciples were prejudiced, selfish and prideful. They wanted to return to what they were doing—they just wanted to eat (verse 31).
This simple account illustrates the difference between the converted mind and the unconverted mind. The converted mind lives to serve; it seeks to put God and His will first; it sincerely wants to share God’s truth, to help the needy even when it means sacrifice. The unconverted mind wants to serve self-interest, to seek materialism, comfort and ease.
Meditate on Christ’s words to His disciples: “I have food to eat of which you do not know. … My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (verses 32, 34; New King James Version). His desire to serve God was much more powerful than His desire for anything selfish and material, even physical food. Jesus yearned for the spiritual harvest (verses 35-36). He went out of His way to serve one Gentile woman!
This powerful passage reveals what it means to think like a firstfruit.
The Purpose of the Church
Jesus Christ is the first of God’s firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23; Colossians 1:18). God has called us into His Church now to follow His example—to develop this I’d-rather-do-God’s-Work-than-eat mindset (Philippians 2:5). In fact, this is what our annual observance of Pentecost is all about. The purpose of this holy day is to remind God’s people why we are called and who we are!
In Mystery of the Ages, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “The Church is a necessary instrumentality preparatory to, and in order to, bring salvation to humanity. … [L]et it be emphasized that the purpose of the Church is not merely to give salvation to those called into the Church, but to teach and train those predestined and called into the Church as instruments God shall use in bringing the world to salvation.” On this day, God reminds each of us that we are an instrument in His hands!
This truth is so simple yet so profound—and so difficult for God’s people to fully understand and act on! This was the essence of Mr. Armstrong’s warning to the Church in the years before he died: God was telling His people that they didn’t understand the purpose of their calling. Like the disciples in John 4, they were selfish—more interested in physical salvation, even in material possessions.
“The fantastic truth is this: The Day of Pentecost pictures the Church being called and trained for the special mission of preparing for the time when God will open salvation to the world, when they will be kings and priests under Christ! It was necessary that God call and train firstfruits in order to aid in the salvation of the world!”
(Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course, Lesson 31).
Think about the disciples, whom Jesus was teaching and training to become apostles and leaders of the New Testament Church. God needed these men to be servants: to be willing to skip a meal, travel a long distance, or set aside a personal project in order to serve Him and serve His purpose. Jesus did this all the time, and He was training the disciples to do the same. In John 4, they just didn’t see it. Their driving thought was, Can we eat now?
Imagine yourself in the disciples’ shoes. What would your reaction be?
Would it be different? Jesus, we noticed you talking to a Gentile woman—that’s wonderful! Was she interested in God’s truth? Is her family interested? Is there anything we can do to help you work with this woman? Shall we skip dinner to help this woman?
“Why is this Church the firstfruits of God’s harvest for His Kingdom?” Mr. Armstrong asked in his final Pentecost sermon, given in 1985. “Is God unfair? Is He discriminating against others, to choose us first, and they have to wait and come later? Brethren, I want to say to you, I think that most of you don’t understand that at all. I think that most of you think that it merely means that God chose us to get into the Kingdom first, and then they’ll come in later. That is not the answer at all! And I perceive that even our ministers, when they preach, take it for granted that the whole goal is to get us unto the Kingdom of God; and that’s all we are called for now. … We’re not saved just because God wants us to be His favorites and get us into His Kingdom ahead of others. We are saved for a very, very great purpose. We are the firstfruits of God’s harvest for His Kingdom.”
This quote from God’s end-time Elijah is worth rereading and meditating on deeply. It reveals why the Laodiceans failed. They failed because they lost sight of the full meaning of Pentecost. They stopped living the meaning of this day!
Think about this: The meaning of Pentecost reveals how we can succeed in our calling! We succeed by training and qualifying today to be the “instrumentality” by which God can offer the world salvation! We succeed by shedding the selfish, materially focused attitude of the unconverted disciples and taking on the selfless, Spirit-led, law-focused, government-loving, family-building attitude of Jesus Christ!
How deeply do you see your “all-important meaning” to humanity? Do you realize that your life right now has all-important meaning to every human who has ever lived? This takes a lot of vision and faith! Most of us probably don’t feel important, certainly not to humanity. Most days we probably feel pretty weak and pathetic. We all have flaws and issues that make it challenging to think about our “all-important meaning” to humanity.
But God needs you to understand how important you are to humanity! This is why He gives us Pentecost. On this day, God gives us the vision that will inspire us to conquer those flaws and issues! Realize, this Church is the most valuable and important enterprise on Earth.
Restitution of All Things
Romans 8:20-22 describe how the whole creation is groaning, waiting for the glorification of the sons of God. Evidence of this oppression is all around us. We see it in government dysfunction; in the perversion and failure of our schools and colleges; in the tension between races, religions and political persuasions; in the prevalence of drugs, mental health issues, financial and economic woes.
On Pentecost God drives home the truth that we are the solution to man’s problems! God needs us, even now, to be like Christ in John 4.
Acts 3:21 discusses the future “restitution of all things.” This is the World Tomorrow, when God will end the perversion, suffering, death, groaning and travail. He will establish His truth, His true religion, His government on Earth!
Verses 19-20 show that this “restitution” is taking place right now in His Church: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.”
“God’s Church is the means by which God is now preparing this world for Christ’s return!” the correspondence course
states. “It is through God’s Church that He is preparing the future rulers and teachers of His Kingdom. God has laid the foundation: He is now beginning to build the Kingdom of God through His Church today!” (op cit).
This Church, your congregation, your marriage and family, are all part of God’s infrastructure for bringing all mankind into the Family of God.
This truth illuminates the fundamental attitude we must have as God’s firstfruits. To fulfill our Pentecost potential, we must be selfless. As Christ’s Bride, our existence will be devoted to serving our Husband, helping Him bring children into the God Family.
Mr. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages, “Bear in mind further: In order for Christ to restore God’s government over the Earth, He would need with and under Him a qualified and organized personnel of God beings—all having rejected Satan’s false way and having proved their loyalty to the government and righteous ways of God!
“God’s Church was designed in His supreme master plan to prepare that dedicated and organized personnel of God beings. The Church, then, became God’s instrumentality for aiding Him in bringing about the salvation to humanity” (emphasis added).
Again, selflessness is at the heart of the firstfruit mindset.
How to Become Great
Christ taught His disciples that true greatness is measured by the amount of serving you do. Service is not merely a way to become great, it is being great! (Matthew 20:28). Christ is the greatest because He is the greatest servant of all.
We see this divine selflessness in all the great biblical figures: Paul, Ruth, Jesus Christ, Gaius, Jeremiah, Isaiah, etc. We see it in God’s end-time apostles, Herbert W. Armstrong and Gerald Flurry.
It is natural to be selfish. We all are. Paul lamented how nearly all of God’s people “look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:19-21; Revised Standard Version). Epaphroditus was a welcome exception, and he nearly died from working so hard to make up for the lack of service from the other Church members! (verses 25-30).
Are you developing the selflessness of a firstfruit? Are you willing to sacrifice personal pleasures and even personal needs to labor in the Work of God? Your willingness to sacrifice will determine how effective a servant you will be in God’s Work. Service means laying down our lives—our time, our talents, our energies, our will and desire—to help others (1 John 3:16; Philippians 2:3-8).
When converted, we become slaves of Christ (1 Corinthians 7:21-22).
Our life is no longer our own. We must learn the way of the servant. This is the covenant we made at baptism.
A Great Woman
When Elisha came to the town of Shunem, about 25 miles north of Samaria, he was helped by someone whom God calls “a great woman” (2 Kings 4:8-10). “Why great?” Mr. Flurry asks. “… The Bible doesn’t talk about her doing anything—except that she discerned by the fruits and by the Holy Spirit that Elisha was God’s representative. She was great because she perceived that Elisha was a man of God!” (TheFormer Prophets).
Elisha was so impressed with her service, he asked her what he could do in return. She said she didn’t need anything. She just wanted to be closer to God and to support God’s man (verses 12-13). God blessed this woman with a son (verses 14-17). She probably never would have had a son if not for her selflessness and service to God.
But after the boy was grown, tragedy struck. In the fields, this youth suffered a severe head injury and died. Read the account in verses 18-37. His mother called on Elisha, and God used him to bring the boy back to life. This incredible miracle would not have been possible were it not for this great woman’s selfless service to Elisha!
Before it is all over, every one of us is going to need a major, life-altering miracle (or many). God takes care of His Family, those who serve His Family, His Work and His law!
“This woman wanted to do all she could to help God’s man (verse 10). She prayed for Elisha, probably every day. There is no telling how many of those prayers God answered for her. … Is this example just ancient history? No—it is for today! It is about understanding where the mantle of Elijah is. The miracles we receive are often different, but this story shows you how to be great.
“Do you know deeply where the Elijah work is today? Those who perceive that and support it will be rewarded with a headquarters job with God for eternity!” (ibid).
Examine Yourself
Think back to John 4. Who are you more like—Jesus or the disciples? How selfless are you with your time? How much do you give to God, to your spouse, your children, your congregation, the elderly, the shut-ins? Are you selfless in your fellowship, spreading yourself around to the whole Family of God, putting the spotlight on others and their needs? How hospitable are you—not spending time only with friends and family but with Church family you don’t know? How selfless are you in supporting your minister and your congregation?
Do you sacrifice personal pleasures and even personal needs to labor in God’s Work? Are you willing to give up things you are doing, miss certain time with your family, forgo sleep to serve the Work of God and the Family of God?
It can be easy, even logical, humanly, to convince ourselves that we can’t take a certain selfless action. Maybe we can’t serve too much in the congregation because we have a family. Maybe we can’t go to Bible study because the kids need to go to bed or we can’t leave a pet alone. Maybe we can’t arrive early to help because we need our rest. Yes, there are occasions when it might be best not to perform a certain act of service. But what is our attitude?
Remember, we are God’s servants, His slaves. A servant of God does not lead a normal life. He is called on to sacrifice certain things that the unconverted would simply never give up. Again, Jesus set the perfect example for us in this area.
Some might think there is nothing to gain personally by being selfless—God simply wants us to be selfless so we can help others and help God’s Work and His Family. But the truth is that being selfless leads to tremendous personal benefits.
Even on a human level, serving others leads to happiness. Recall the lesson of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, an act that embodies selflessness. Afterward He said, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17).
And beyond the physical blessings and happiness, developing the firstfruit mindset of selflessness qualifies you to be a God being, part of the Bride of Christ!
It is true that God needs us to be selfless so we can do His Work and unify His Family. But ultimately, the blessings we receive outweigh anything we may give up in selfless actions for others. You see, it is impossible for us to be more selfless than God!
Serving the Universe
Romans 8 has a beautiful Pentecost theme. It reveals that Jesus Christ became God’s Son “that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (verse 29). It also establishes that we are not true Christians (“none of his”) unless we have within our minds God’s Holy Spirit (verse 9). That Spirit makes us not only true Christians but also, like Jesus was, God’s begotten sons.
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. … The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (verses 14-17).
It is crucial that we always remember why God gives His Holy Spirit to His firstfruits today. It is connected to the “all-important meaning” of life. God gives His power now so we can be growing into the instrumentality through which He can offer salvation to the world!
Yes, God’s Spirit opens our minds to spiritual understanding. It helps us recognize sin and empowers us to eradicate and destroy it. But these aren’t the ultimate reasons God gives us His Spirit. God has given us His Spirit so we can develop the selflessness of Jesus Christ and become the teachers of the World Tomorrow!
In that final Pentecost sermon, Mr. Armstrong connected our transcendent universe potential, revealed in Romans 8, to everyday Christian living. “How much are you learning, and how much are you developing your life? To grow in grace is to grow in the character of God. That’s not only the knowledge, but it is living that way—to grow in love. That means in how you treat others in your own home. That means in how you treat neighbors and how you treat people. How kind are you? How loving are you? How much do you encourage others and try to help others? How much are you developing the character of God in your own life?”
In short, how selfless am I?
The answers to these questions not only affect our relationships with family, in the congregation and how we interact with people in the world, they have everything to do with our eternal future!
After quoting verse 19, “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (rsv), Mr. Armstrong wrote: “Why should the whole universe—the creation—be waiting with eager longing for the actual birth and appearing of all these sons of God, to be born into the Family of God? The following verses portray a universe filled with planets in decay and futility—yet as if subjected now to this dead state in hope!” (Mystery of the Ages).
To really understand this passage, we need to use our imagination and personify the universe. Imagine the vast, limitless universe—all stars and planets, all galaxies—all of it groaning like a mother about to deliver a child (verse 22). What is it groaning and aching for? For the moment when you will finally fulfill your “all-important meaning”—for you, together with Jesus Christ, to restore God’s law and government!
Meditate on this statement from Mr. Armstrong, made in a May 2, 1974, member letter: “Brethren, you, each, as an individual, were born for the most colossal, the most transcendent purpose our minds could conceive! Let me remind you of it! Let’s get our minds focused on the main goal!” He then emphasized Hebrews 2:7-10, which speak of God preparing to set the entire universe in subjection under us as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ!
In John 4, when Jesus set aside His own will to teach the Gentile woman, He was doing what He had always done, first as the Word and then as a human being. And He was doing what He continues to do right now and will do for eternity: selflessly serving God the Father and the God Family.
Meanwhile, the disciples behaved like humans have always behaved: thinking only about their own selfish interests.
As God’s firstfruits, God needs you and me to be growing more and more like Jesus. To be using God’s Holy Spirit to build the ultimate mindset of a firstfruit: selflessness. This is what it will take to build this Family, to push God’s Work in this end time over the finish line. And this is what it will take to fulfill our incredible human potential and join Jesus Christ to offer salvation to all men, and then, eventually, to heal the universe!