The Prayer for Laborers
Bible Text: Matthew 9:35-10:1
Preached on: Sunday, April 06, 2008, 11am & 7pm
Call Unto Me Sunday
Tabernacle Baptist Church
7020 Barrington Road
Hanover Park, Illinois 60133
Phone: (630) 289-4110
Website: www.GodCentered.info
AM SERVICE
Introduction: This world needs to be won for Jesus Christ. How can we do it? So often we try to fill the vacuum of laborers by way of human recruitment. In so doing we find that the commitment produced comes way short, and the passion needed is practically non existent, and so there’s always a need for more enlistment. I believe this situation exists because we do not use God's solution for laborers, namely prayer.
This morning we are going to look at the Greatest Laborer and Missionary ever: God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ! We are going to examine how He labored on this earth in His ministry and how He was MOTIVATED! Then tonight we are going to see how His mission is our mission.
So this morning would you open your Bible to Matthew 9:35-10:1. We are going to look first at the Lord’s ministry in verse 35. Then we’ll see His motivation, verse 36 and the first part of verse 37. And tonight we’ll dive into His mission, the last of verse 37 and through the 1st verse in chapter 10.
Would you stand as we read Matthew 9:35-10:1, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and 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 on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. 10:1 ¶ And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”
I. Let’s first look at the Lord’s Ministry (verse 35).
We know from the Jewish historian Josephus that, in Galilee alone (northern Israel), there were probably at least 3 million people living in about 204 cities and villages, and He moved about all these places, “teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” He went to the tiny towns in the valley, and the town squares. He went to the large cities by the coast. He went everywhere, covering every public place, on the farms and in the fields, and He met the people. He did everything possible to meet their needs.
Basically, we find in His ministry three specific elements: Teaching those in right relationship to God, Preaching to everyone the need to come to God, and Healing absolutely everybody in sight.
A. Jesus would Teach. We find out that Jesus was very careful when He opened the Bible of His day. He was a verse by verse, line upon line expository teacher. Since He is the author of all Scripture, it was His practice while on earth to go to every synagogue He could find and teach.
Verse 35 tells us this very plainly. It says, “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues”. The synagogues were the place of teaching, like today we have the church building. The Yiddish word for synagogue is still the word schul, like our word school. They saw the synagogue as the place where they met to be instructed in the Word of God. They came several times a week—not only on the Sabbath, but at least two other times during the week, plus on every feast day and on every holy day. They were there a lot!
And every time they came,
· an elder would read from:
o the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)
o and then another one would read from the prophets
· someone else would then translate that Hebrew into Aramaic, which was the common language of the day
· then someone else would stand up and give an expository sermon from one or both of those passages.
Philo, the historian, tells us that the main feature of a synagogue was the detailed reading and preaching of Scripture.[1] The people came there to hear the Scripture. Everyone had it explained to them.
And there was a custom known as “the freedom of the synagogue”; and “the freedom of the synagogue” provided that any visiting rabbi or distinguished guest could be the one to give the exposition, or the sermon. Consequently, our Lord took advantage of that all over Galilee. He would go into the synagogues, wherever they were meeting, and when it came time for the sermon, as a distinguished teacher, He would stand and He would interpret the Old Testament which had been read. That is why Paul could later speak in all the synagogues. Remember he spoke in the synagogue of the Jews in Berea, and they searched the Scriptures to see if, in fact, what Paul was saying was really true (Acts 17:10-11).
This is why we read and explain the Scriptures in all faithful Christian churches. Paul writing to Timothy says in 1 Timothy 4:13, “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation [EXPLAINING THE TEXT], to doctrine [APPLYING THE TEXT].” That is what we do in this church.
Our Lord's pattern of ministry was this. When He gathered together with the religious people, when He gathered with them in the synagogue, He taught them the meaning of the Scripture. He exposited the Old Testament. We still believe that this is the same mandate for the people of God today when they come together to be taught the meaning of the Word of God.
B. Secondly, it says He Preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom” (9:35). The word “preach” here to herald or to proclaim or to announce, to make a public proclamation. Outside the synagogue, on the streets, the highways, the hillsides, by the sea, in a house, anywhere and everywhere He went, He was announcing the Kingdom.
He was proclaiming GOSPEL the Kingdom. Gospel means “Good News”. And if there is good news, then there is also bad news.
Dear friends, today there are ONLY TWO KINGDOMS that really matter. Oh, yes there are hundreds of nations and kings, but there are only two Kingdoms that matter.
1. There is the kingdom of this world which is controlled by someone called the “prince of this world”, he is the “prince of devils”. The Bible tells us that he’s at work at this very moment in the “children of disobedience”. God is calling you today to come out of that kingdom of darkness and be transferred into the Kingdom of His marvelous light. All people are born into the kingdom of darkness, controlled by their own lusts and passions. People are controlled by food, media, lust, emotions, depression, money. You name it—all people are born slaves to sin. You were born this way. Perhaps you are still living daily under the control of this dark kingdom.
2. Jesus went everywhere “and preaching the gospel [GOOD NEWS] of the kingdom” (9:35). The Bible tells Jesus Christ came into this world to be your Lord and King. If you want to enter into Christ’s Kingdom, then Christ must be your King and Master. Are you willing to renounce your citizenship to the pleasures of this world? Will you live only under Jesus Christ as your only sovereign Lord and Master?
Here’s the terrifying news. You as well as every person on this planet is under a death sentence. “The soul that sinneth it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). Very soon Christ will come back to lay claim on every square inch of this planet. There is coming a day when the last trumpet will sound, and “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
Dear friend, have you laid down your weapons of sin and hate and self down at the Cross of Jesus? He’s settled this matter for you if you will right now choose Him. He conquered sin, death and hell. He was brutally crucified and died in your place as a substitute for you! He took your hell and defeated sin and death. Come to Him today!
Jesus would proclaim this wonderful news of His Kingdom outside the synagogue to all who didn’t know God. He announced this to every one and so do we. We announce this in and outside of the church. We don’t know who truly knows Christ or not. What Kingdom are you a part of today?
So the people gathered together to be taught; and they went out to proclaim; and we believe that that model still stands, even in the church. The church today gathers to be instructed and scatters to proclaim. The Lord established this pattern. Everywhere He went, as summarized so marvelously in the Sermon on the Mount, He would announce that the Kingdom was at hand. He would announce that, to be blessed, you must enter the Kingdom. “Blessed are the poor in heart for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”. He would announce that the entry into the Kingdom is narrow way, but it is a way of indescribable joy. He was proclaiming the Kingdom. He was proclaiming salvation and deliverance from sin, misery, and hell.
C. The third part of Jesus’ ministry was Healing. Look around you today and you will see sin, misery, and suffering. All of this is a warning that our own sins are taking us to a place that is a billion times more miserable than any suffering on earth. But Jesus came into this world to bring another kingdom. There’s coming a day when there will be no more sin and sickness, sorrow and disease. When Jesus was on earth we saw a tiny glimpse of the Kingdom to come. It says in verse 35, Jesus was “healing every sickness and every disease among the people”.
For all intents and purposes, in Jesus’ lifetime, He utterly eradicated disease from Palestine. In fact, John says in his Gospel that, “there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one…even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). The nine miracles of chapters 8 and 9 are only samples of His power. By no means do they touch anywhere near the number of miracles that the Lord did.
Now, why did He do these miracles? Why did He heal every sickness and every disease among the people? For two reasons: Authentification of Jesus Message, and Affection of the heart of God.
1. First, because miraculous healing was a way to Authenticate His message. You see, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught differently than all the other teachers. He went into the highways and byways and preached different than all other preachers of His time. He was saying things that were diametrically opposite the things that the people were being taught by their leaders.
In most of His messages, He actually confronted and attacked them. Now, why should the people believe such messages? Why should they listen to this man from Nazareth who was not even trained in the proper schools? Well, frankly, the miracles were the thing that convinced them that He was of God. They were verifiers of His message. The blind man had it right when he said, “If this man were not of God, he could do nothing” (John 9:33). Nicodemus had it right when he said, “no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” Jesus said, If you can't believe My Words, at least “believe me for the very works’ sake” (John 14:11). How else can they explain these supernatural miracles? So the first purpose was to authenticate the message.
2. But there was a second purpose. I think this is most important. I believe Jesus did these miracles to demonstrate Affection—the loving tenderness of the heart of God. I believe that Jesus wanted those people to know that God was not like the Pharisees said He was, but that God was compassionate. God was sympathetic and tender. God is loving. He is filled with kindness. God is merciful! I believe this was a part of Jesus' ministry, and I believe that it is essential in ours too.
You can teach the Word of God. You can proclaim the good news of the Kingdom and how to enter it, but you must also know that Jesus touched people where they hurt. What amazing compassion and love Jesus constantly radiated! It's so important that people understand that. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
Jesus reached out His hand and touched the eyes of the blind. He touched the skin of the person with leprosy, and the legs of the cripple. Jesus so frequently touched the people He healed, many of whom must have been unattractive, obviously diseased, unsanitary, and smelly. He could have healed crowds of people together, but He chose to come to them and touched them individually!
Jesus' mission was not chiefly a campaign against disease, but rather a ministry to individual people. He wanted those people, one by one to feel His love and warmth and His full identification with them. Jesus knew He could not readily demonstrate love to the crowd as a whole. No, Jesus touched them individually.
Jesus touched people. He was teaching us and showing us how to live in this world. We can't do the miracles. But we CAN do the sympathizing and the loving of hurting forgotten people. I believe we're called to do that.
PM SERVICE
Introduction: This morning we saw this amazing ministry of what a laborer is. We saw Jesus—God in human flesh—as the perfect laborer in Matthew 9:35, “went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people”. Jesus was an expository teacher of the Word of God in the synagogues. He was a preacher and a proclaimer of His Kingdom drawing people out of that kingdom of darkness.
One thing I wanted to mention this morning that I failed to. You say, God has a Kingdom? I don’t see it. God’s Kingdom now only consists of the citizens of His Kingdom on this earth. But one day, He is going to bring the sovereign rule that only true believers know about in their hearts, and it will one day rule not only over every person, but over every square inch of this ground that we walk on. He will destroy this earth and recreate it. The heavens will be rolled back as a scroll and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. So Christ Kingdom is here on earth today only in so far as He is working in the hearts of men, but the full realization of the Paradise of Christ’s kingdom with no curse and no sin and no death is on it’s way. We’ll talk more about that in a moment.
So Jesus was a teacher of the Word; He was a proclaimer of the Kingdom.
And thirdly, He was a miraculous healer. He touched people and transformed their deformed and diseased bodies as a picture of the transformation of the heart and soul. He gave a large group of people a taste of what it would be like without the curse! He authenticated His ministry with miracles and he showed an infinite affection and the tenderness that showed a love only God Himself has.
So we saw this amazing ministry of God in the flesh as a Missionary and Laborer and Evangelist on the earth. But there was a remarkable motivation behind His ministry.
II. Let's now look secondly at His Motivation, and this is the heart of our message tonight. It is found in Matthew 9:36. What motivated Him? Why did Jesus Christ do this? Why did God robe Himself in a human flesh that feels pain, that gets thirsty and tired and overwhelmed and discouraged? Why would Jesus Christ care so much about us? We find the answer in verse 36, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous”. Stop there. Now in those few phrases we have the motives of Jesus. This is an amazing uncovering of the heart of the Lord Jesus right there. There are three elements to His ministry: teaching, preaching and healing; and there are three that motivated Jesus and that ought to motivate any one here that calls themselves a child of God.
1. Jesus’ amazing compassion.
2. The awful condition He saw that we are in, and
3. The awesome and terrible consummation that is coming very soon.
A. Let’s first look at Jesus’ own Amazing Compassion. It literally moved Him to come from heaven to earth! Real compassion MOVES you. Verse 36. What a beautiful thought we read that “[JESUS] saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion on them.” You can picture Jesus perhaps on a hillside; and, as He looks down, He sees a mass of crowded people before Him. They were always following Him. They came mostly with physical needs—just like you have on a regular basis: disease and sicknesses, deformities, and hunger; and He sees them; but He sees beyond the physical to the needs that will follow them for eternity; and we get a glimpse into Jesus’ heart.
As Matthew says powerfully that “[JESUS] was moved with compassion” (verse 36). What does that mean? The word compassion generally means “to suffer with”. Jesus literally felt and was moved with their pain.
1. God’s attribute. Now listen, to understand even further what Jesus was MOVED by, you can’t compare it to human compassion. Human compassion doesn’t compare to what was motivating Jesus. Matthew here is expressing an actual attribute and characteristic of God. Jesus cared because as God, He is love, and love literally moved Jesus as God from heaven to come to earth. It is His nature as God.
So it is over and over again stated in the Gospel record that Jesus had compassion, because it is God’s nature, it is who He is. He is love. He cares unlike you or I could ever care. He is truly a God of love beyond your imagination.
2. Greek expression. Now, the Greek term here is very, very interesting. It literally means “to feel something in the bowels” or your guts. It literally says, “Jesus was moved in his bowels, or in his gut, upon them.” It seems like a strange way to express concern. I mean you would never go to the person you loved and say, “I love you with all of my bowels”. People would definitely think you were a little off!
But actually, it’s no different than going to someone and saying, “I love you with all my heart.” The heart is an ugly, bloody, pulsating blob of muscle that quivers in your chest. John was using a phrase as a way of expressing very deep and profound love.
And so when the people of Jesus’ day wanted to express something they felt very deeply and were very emotionally pained about, they would say, basically, “I hurt with all my midsection.” I feel it DEEP DOWN! Jesus literally said that He was wrenched in pain in His midsection when He saw these people.
Listen, the love of God is far beyond anything that human being could ever experience! And if you put God in a body, and let God love like that, and let God care like that, then you have Jesus on earth. And it wracked his human body with deep emotional pain.
3. Let me give you a few Scriptural examples. In Matthew 8:17, where it says that, Jesus was dealing multitudes of sick people, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, in Isaiah 53 saying, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” It isn't the idea that He contracted the leprosy when He healed the leper. It is the idea that He wrenched in agony in sympathy and compassion, for He felt the pain of seeing what sickness did to those He loved. I've seen parents sick to death over an ill child, and no parent has ever felt the compassion or the love that Christ felt, because it was God loving in His own human body.
4. The illustration of Lazarus. For an illustration, look at John 11. Lazarus is dead; and Jesus comes there, and He goes to the grave, and in verse 33, it says, “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled” We cannot express the depth of what that means. The terms mean He was seized by an anguishing emotion, but only He would know how a supremely loving God is wracked by the pain of seeing the ones He loved in anguish.
I don't believe He was in pain just because of Lazarus, because He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. I think He felt there all the pain of knowing that all of humanity that He loved was going to live its entire history out in anxiety, depression and sorrow; because it would we are always facing the death of those we love. And in verse 35, it says, “Jesus wept”, literally, ‘He burst into tears,” and if He cried, believe me, He cried in an utterly comprehensive manner. Verse 38 then says, He groaned again, which literally has the idea of shaking with grief. He was actually wracked with emotion. He sobbed and wept and felt deeply the pain.
Thomas Watson, one of the great Puritans, said this.
“We may force our Lord to punish us, but we will never have to force Him to love us.”
That’s His nature. This must have been some news to the people of those days. The Jews had been taught by the Pharisees that God was an ogre, uncaring, uninterested, and indifferent. Jesus brought a whole new message. Anna Barbauld wrote,
Jesus, the friend of mankind, with strong compassioned moved,
Descended like a pitying God, to save the souls He loved.
And still for erring, guilty man, a brother's pity flows,
And still Christ’s bleeding heart is touched, with memory of our woes.
There is nothing in us that God should have such love for us.
John 3:16 is like a flame of burning love from heaven, “God SO loved the
world”. How much? “…that he gave His only Begotten Son”!
Gospel: Why, then, should you and I be cared for? We have sinned just like the devils and Satan. We are no different. God has abandoned the devils, but He does not abandon us. God could've met every demand of His righteousness and every demand of His holiness by handing all of us over to the doom we all deserve, just like the devils.
For us Jesus comes and teaches and lives and suffers and dies, because God’s heart infinitely gripped with an awesome incomprehensible love. G. Campbell Morgan said, “It out of the love which inspired the wail of the divine heart that salvation has been provided.” The cry of God’s love was so great for us that He gave His only begotten Son to wrath so that we would not receive the just punishment of infinite torment.
If you want to see the love of God, then LOOK TO THE CROSS! My dear friend, when Jesus stretched out His arms on the cross and took all our sins upon Him, He was saying, “I love you!” to the sinners He came to save!
What moved our Lord? Love, compassion.
B. There's a second motivation: He sees our Awful Condition; and now we move to the Jesus, and look what He says in verse 36, “he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd”. As God Omniscient, Jesus saw the people in their real condition. He was not fooled by their religious fronts. He was not fooled by the façade or superficiality. He saw their desperate need, and He uses two words to describe them. They “fainted” and were “scattered abroad”.
1. “Faint” literally means “worn out or exhausted”. It can also mean “beaten up, battered, mangled, ripped, torn, skinned alive”. They were devastated. They were worn out, exhausted, battered, bruised, beaten, and ripped apart, not only by that day but by life!
2. “Scattered” means to be thrown down, lying prostrate, totally helpless. It means they were mangled and devastated, and then thrown on the ground lying prostrate and utterly helpless. That's how He saw them. It was as if they had no shepherd. They were helpless, and no one was over them helping them. In fact those that were over them were totally taking advantage of them!
These people had shepherds—leaders. They were the scribes and the Pharisees. That's what their shepherds had done to them. This, my friend, is an indictment of their spiritual leaders. Their spiritual leaders didn't show them any pasture. They didn’t feed them with the Word of God, with His requirements. Their spiritual leaders didn't feed them.
· Their spiritual leaders didn't bind their wounds.
· Instead they literally mutilated and took advantage of them.
· Their spirits were mangled messes without any guidance.
· They were mugged and plundered by the scribes and the Pharisees!
· And now they were lying there spiritually prostrate, devastated.
It is a graphic picture of the uncaring, unconcerned leaders; and we see the weariness, the bewilderment, and the wounds that have left these people desolate. It happened because their shepherds never helped them, but, rather, harmed them.
In Matthew 23:13, Jesus said, “You shut people out of the Kingdom." What an indictment.
But now look at what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30. Instead of shutting people out of the Kingdom and putting impossible heavy burdens on people, Jesus says, “Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for My yoke is easy. My burden is light." Can you imagine how wonderful it must have been when they heard Him say this?
Someone wrote a beautiful poem:
Let me look on the crowd as my Savior did
Till my eyes with tears grow dim.
Let me view with pity the wandering sheep
And love them for the love of Him.
Jesus was moved with compassion, He saw their condition, but now He changes the picture from wandering sheep to a harvest. This is what I’m calling the consummation. It is the end of days whether it be the end of your life or the end of this earth as we know it. There is a time when God will harvest the world. He will bring it to an end.
C. We see Jesus MOVED with compassion. Now he WARNS of the final Consummation. Verse 37, “Then saith He unto His disciples, 'The harvest truly is plenteous”—literally the harvest is “filled up”. It’s READY FOR REAPING!!
Now, I believe that when the Lord saw the multitudes, He thought of the harvest that the prophets spoke about SO OFTEN. It's judgment that Joel and Isaiah and Ezekiel speak of. He saw these people from His eternal perspective. He knew that the harvest was coming. Ten out of ten people die. The earth is so temporary. Life is a vapor. He didn't just see people in their current problem. He saw them as doomed to hell.
1. In Matthew 13:30, the Lord, giving a parable said this: “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” It is judgment on every creature—the living and the dead; and some will be barned and some will be burned, but ALL will be gathered.
2. In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8, the Apostle Paul painted such a vivid picture. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8, “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power”. There’s coming a harvest in your life. Will you be harvested for the Lord or for the kingdom of this world?
In our lives, day in and day out, it is so easy for us to lose the sense of the imminence and inevitability of eternal judgment. There's no way to describe hell. Nothing on earth can compare with it. No living person can really comprehend it. No madman in his wildest fits of insanity has ever beheld even the borders of hell. You cannot even imagine a place so frighteningly fearful and terrible. No nightmare racing your mind ever produced a terror to match that of the mildest hell. No murder scene with splattered blood and mutilated bodies could ever suggest the revulsion that one glimpse of hell would bring. Our Lord came to call a people out of hell! He was so MOVED He left Heaven to reach out to individual people.
So our Lord saw the crowds. He taught them. He preached to them, and He healed them, because of His compassion, their condition, and the ultimate consummation. I hope that speaks to your heart.
III. Finally let us look at the Lord’s Mission. For just a moment, as we close, may I speak to you of His method? But what was His mission? Well, at the end of verse 37, He says, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.” It is not God’s plan that Jesus on earth should complete the mission of getting people ready for the final harvest.
So the first thing Jesus says is: “The laborers are few.” ...What is that? That’s part of Jesus’ mission in reaching the world. I’m going to call that INSIGHT. Jesus gives us the example of a laborer for God.
A. First you have to have the Insight to see that there's a problem, and you don't have enough people. You must understand the problem. What are you going do about a lost hell-bound world, a world of hurting people who need compassion? You need to see with the EYES of Jesus. You need to have INSIGHT. True laborers multiply themselves.
They are constantly asking, ‘What are we going to do about the condition of men and women who are trapped under those false shepherds who feed them lies that damn their souls? What are you going do? What am I going to do?
That's insight. How many times in the Bible do you read this?
· “Watch and pray” (Mark 13:33).
· Or how about this: “Be sober. Be vigilant” (1 Peter 5:8).
· Or “Be ready” (1 Peter 3:15).
· We are called to “walk circumspectly” (Ephesians 5:15).
We need to have the eyes of Jesus at all times. We must know what's going on. Can you see the signs of the times? Can you see the needs of men? Are you really discerning? Can you see past the phonies? Do you look through the plastic smiles on to hurting hearts? Do you know how few real laborers there really are?
B. The insight moves to the second element of His method, which I call Intercession. Verse 38 doesn't say look onto the fields and “panic”. It doesn’t say look unto the awesomeness of the task and “get some programs and organization running quick!!!”
It says, “PRAY ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” What a term, “the Lord of the harvest”! The Judge of all the earth, the Lord and Master will one day say “send forth the reapers” (Matthew 13:30)—My table is set, My house is full, call forth the reapers. This very God who is the judge, is the One we calls on us to Him to send laborers into the fields before the harvest comes, to prevent the people from going straight to judgment and damnation.
Christ says in verses 37-38, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest”. Christ sees the harvest as all this mass of people moving toward judgment. But before it gets there says, ‘Pray that God will “will send forth labourers in to His harvest”’. It is God’s harvest. Everyone will be harvested. Isn't it amazing that, in such a desperate situation, He doesn't say, “Get out here as fast as you can and do the job!” NO! God doesn’t call us to recruitment or to enlistment. God doesn’t say feverishly get out there. He says, ‘Stop and “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.”’
Pray, and do you notice what you're praying for? He doesn't say, “Pray for the lost.” He doesn’t say that. He says, “Pray for laborers.” You can sit around and say, ‘Oh, Lord, save my aunt. Lord, save my husband. Oh, Lord, save my neighbor!” And you just keep saying to yourself, “Well, they're not getting saved. I'm sure I'm just going to keep praying.” And you certainly NEED to keep praying.
Then all of a sudden start pray this way, “Lord, please send someone to reach my neighbor,” and just keep praying that for a long time, and pretty soon you're going to say to yourself, “I think maybe I ought to go.”
You see, if all you're doing is praying for the person to be saved, you can keep them at arm's length. But as soon as you start praying for the Lord to send someone their way, you’re going to realize that you are that ONE!
Transition: So the insight, seeing with the eyes of Jesus leads us to pray—intercession. And finally, intercession leads us to involvement.
C. Out of our prayers will come our Involvement.
In Matthew 10:1 that is exactly what happened! Just after this you have our Lord Jesus. He’s just said, You need to “pray” to the “Lord of the harvest” for laborers (Matthew 9:38). And then in verse 1, “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power,” and so forth, and He sent them.
Matthew 9:35-10:1, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and 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 on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. 10:1 ¶ And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”
Now, listen to me, the ones who were doing the interceding were the ones who got involved, right? If you start praying, you are going to have what God gives to those who pray: that is, POWER!
I’m not so concerned that you sign on the dotted line and tell me you are committed to this harvest in Hanover Park. I hope you truly are. The only thing I’m really concerned about is that you get on your knees. If you start praying for the lost long enough, I think God will draw you and lead you right out into where they are.
There's an interesting phrase in verse 38. It says, “He will send forth laborers.” He is using a very strong Greek term that means to throw them out, to shove them out, to thrust them forth. God will send the laborers. Let God do it in your heart. You will have the compassion that Jesus had if you start praying.
God will send you just as He sent His only Son.
God’s plan has not changed since the book of Acts 1:8, “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.”
We so often apply this only to missionaries. Dear friend every Christian is a laborer. And you are faced with great need. We don’t need to panic. We need to pray; and as we pray, we find that maybe we're going be the ones that God thrusts out into the harvest of people!!
Conclusion: Do you hear the call of God tonight. God is working in human hearts tonight, drawing them to Himself. Will you be the mouthpiece of the Lord for them? God could just as easily come down from heaven Himself, but He’s chosen to use you.
· Are you praying for laborers?
· Are you proclaiming the good news of the kingdom?
· Are you endued with power from on high?
Just a brief challenge tonight. You need to pray more. You need to proclaim more. You need more power. You need more compassion. You need to let the compassion of Jesus literally move you. It moved Him from Heaven to earth, and we have so little compassion, we can’t even get out of bed! Wake up church! The reapers are near at hand!
[1] There is a fascinating article that confirms this at New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14379b.htm.