A Heart For The Harvest

A Heart for the Harvest

Matthew 9:36-38

35 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.

Introduction:

I. The Crowds of seekers

a. They were dispirited – fainted

They fainted.--The English represents the received printed text of the Greek Testament at the beginning of the seventeenth century. There is, however, an immense preponderance of authority in favour of another reading, which gives the passive participle of the verb translated "trouble" in Mark 5:35, Luke 7:6, and meaning literally "flayed," and thence figuratively "tormented, worried, vexed." They were not merely as sheep that have grown weary and faint, hungry, looking up and yet not fed, but were as those that have been harassed by the wolf--the prey of thieves and robbers. (Comp. John 10:8-12.)

b. They were distressed - wandered

WANDERING OFF

Dr. Andrew Bonar told me how, in the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn’t get out of. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can’t jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. "Why don’t they go down there when the sheep first gets there?" I asked. "Ah!" He said, "they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did!" And that is the way with men; they won’t go back to God till they have no friends and have lost everything. If you are a wanderer I tell you that the Good Shepherd will bring you back the moment you have given up trying to save yourself and are willing to let Him save you His own way.

SOURCE: Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. 70-71. In "Blessed Promises From the Good Shepherd" by Paul Fritz on www.sermoncentral.com

c. They were disoriented –sheep w/o a shepherd. scattered

The role of a shepherd is to watch over, feed, protect, guide, comfort, and sustain the flock under his care. Spiritual leaders have a similar responsibility toward the people entrusted to their oversight. While Jesus traveled the countryside ministering to the crowds, He felt deep concern for the people because they lacked spiritual guidance and pastoral care from their leaders: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

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II. The Compassion of the Savior

a. His labor – cities and villages. No one was unimportant to Him. Every soul mattered. He was touched with the feeling of their infirmities.

b. His love – compassion – This is the same word that is used in the other Gospels and it describes His yearning for them; His empathy and His pity. This compassion was his motivation, it is what moved Him.

WHAT IS COMPASSION?

"Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin.

It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too."

SOURCE: Frederick Buechner, "Wishful Thinking." Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1973.

c. His look – He saw the multitudes. He calls us to see the way He sees. To look and see the harassed and helpless all around us.

What is it to serve God and to do His will? Nothing else than to show mercy to our neighbor. For it is our neighbor who needs our service; God in heaven needs it not.

— Martin Luther

III. The Condition of the servants

a. An abundant harvest – plenteous or great.

John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

Do we have eyes to see? Jesus says, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields…”

b. An absence of workers – few. There are millions of sitters but very few seekers. Jesus came to seek and to save and that is His directive. We are to go and take the Gospel to the nations.