Let’s see it, how many of you went shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, black Friday. How many of you finished up your shopping? Was anyone crazy enough to be there at 4 am? Confession time, I have to admit, I went shopping on Friday but fortunately we didn’t do our shopping until the evening when the crowds died down. Let me ask you kind of an unusual question. How many of you paid attention to the crowd? I mean really noticed the people. I don’t just mean the person you glared at for stealing your parking spot, or the lady who jumped in the shortest checkout line in front of you, or got the last sale item. I mean did you notice the people surrounding you? I’ll admit I didn’t. I was just there to get Christmas presents at bargain prices. I didn’t see the lady the standing next to me with a child slung under one arm while losing a fight with the other one who wanted candy from the checkout lane because she was recently divorced and trying to raise two kids on her own now. I didn’t see the store employee who served me whose face was downcast because he recently lost his mother to cancer and had to spend Thanksgiving alone. I didn’t see the man who was ringing the bells for the Salvation Army because he wanted to help them for all they did for him. Of course I don’t really know any of their stories because I was just there to get my Christmas presents at bargain prices.
In the gospel story, it tells us Jesus saw the crowds that had gathered around him and he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. The crowds who came to see Jesus weren’t your typical church crowd type. They weren’t dressed in their finest, acting on their best behavior. They were real people with real needs and real hopes that Jesus could do something to make a difference in their situation. They had real problems, they were “sinners” and religious folks alike, like the woman in the crowd who had suffered from a bleeding hemorrhage for twelve years who hoped that just by touching the hem of Jesus’ cloak she would be well. Or the synagogue leader who hoped Jesus would heal his dying daughter. Or the paralyzed man who needed both a physical and spiritual healing.
We have “crowds” of the same kind of people around us. And I’m not just talking about those crowds out on the busiest shopping day of the year. They are people who live near us, they may even be our neighbor. They are the people we see in town at the gas station, at the restaurant, or perhaps they are people we don’t see at all because we don’t hang out in the same places they do. They are people with real needs, sinners and saints alike, secretly hoping to find something or someone who will help them. They feel harassed and helpless. The word “helpless” in this passage literally means to be cast down, to be thrown down, dejected. Just like in Jesus’ day, some of the people find themselves in this situation by their own bad choices, others find life has given them sour apples, their life situation is beyond their control.
When Jesus saw the crowds it didn’t matter to him how they came to him. He didn’t get annoyed by their neediness or how they got that way, or for “using him” for their own purposes. Jesus just had compassion for them, he loved them, he cared about them, he wanted to help them.
If we are honest with ourselves we don’t typically see others with Jesus’ eyes or love with Jesus’ heart. We look right past the crowds. We are quick to judge (they probably made bad choices, they’re probably addicted to drugs, ) and slow to help.
[Pray of confession and for eyes and a heart like Jesus]
There was a time in the OT, when the shepherds God had appointed, political and religious leaders, hadn’t done a very good job in caring for His people. The word of the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel and he voiced God’s criticism (Ezek. 34):
2b ’This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?
4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd.
Later in Ezekiel 34, God spoke through the prophet that he himself would send a shepherd, a servant of David, meaning he was in the lineage of David, who would feed his sheep, and be a shepherd over them. He would establish a kingdom of peace and justice. Jesus saw himself as that shepherd. Didn’t Jesus once say, “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11, 14)? Jesus came to be the Shepherd who would strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back those who had strayed from the Lord, and seek and save the lost, those who were far from God. That was Jesus’ ministry in a nutshell. He came to be the Shepherd for the helpless sheep.
The Harvest is Plentiful
Jesus said if we look around us we will see that the harvest is plentiful. If we look through Jesus’ eyes and with his heart we will notice there are people all around us who are harassed and helpless (cast down), people who are hurting whether physically, emotionally, relationally, and/or spiritually by sin. To be truthful all of us fall into that boat at some point. We all need a shepherd, the Good Shepherd, Jesus.
What we have to decide is if we believe Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is THE answer to our problems. I don’t just mean Jesus is the solution to forgiveness of sin, and receiving eternal life. I mean he is the solution to receiving true wholeness and healing. Jesus is not just one answer among many, but THE answer. Do we really believe Jesus will strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind the injured, bring back those who have strayed, and seek the lost? This is a serious question because if we don’t really believe Jesus can do any of these things, we have nothing to offer the world. If we do believe it, then we know our job is to point people to Jesus and pray that God would send workers into the harvest fields.
Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, it’s all around us, the people are there, they need the Good Shepherd. The problem is that we either don’t see them, we don’t have compassion or care, we don’t believe Jesus can truly help them, or there is nothing we can do about it. But Jesus said we can do something about it.
Ask the Lord of the Harvest – Prayer as the starting point
Jesus said we can pray, “ask the Lord of the harvest.” By praying we can ask God to change the current situation. Jesus said, “ask and it will be given to you (Mt. 7:7).” Ask the Lord of the harvest to touch the lives of those who are distant from God. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into the field. Frequently when we pray a prayer like this we think of God raising up someone other than me. We pray for God to raise up more pastors, more missionaries, which we certainly need, but I think what God wants most is ordinary people, living extraordinary God-centered lives right where they are, compassionate about the lost, ministering to their needs and helping them find wholeness and healing through the Good Shepherd. Notice that in the very next verses Jesus sent his disciples out in the fields two by two preaching and healing. They prayed and God answered, he sent them. Praying means we are willing to allow God to send us.
What I wonder is, what happens if we don’t ask? What happens if we don’t pray for those who are far from God? What if we don’t pray for workers, like us, to go into the harvest field? I believe that if we don’t pray there will be less workers. Less workers means there are less people who are being reached, which means there are less people who come to know Jesus.
I’m not trying to load a guilt trip on us, I’m just trying to prove a point. God certainly has his unchanging plans, but God also chooses to work in cooperation with his people. Is it possible people would not come to the Lord if we aren’t praying for them, or there would be less workers if we are not praying for them? John Wesley once wrote, “God does nothing but in response to prayer.”
Our Bible study has been challenged in the area of prayer. God has placed a burden on us over the vacancies in our church, and I don’t mean the empty seats. I am referring to the missing persons, wives whose husbands aren’t attending, parents and grandparents whose adult children and grandchildren are not a part of a church (whether this one or another) even though they live right here in our community. For those who are in that boat I know it breaks your heart that they are not here, just as it breaks God’s heart. I’m not pointing fingers or placing blame. I am simply recognizing a fact. Now, I realize not attending church here on Sunday morning doesn’t necessarily equal lack of faith. I know that some are not able to participate for various reasons such as health or job, but by in large most are choosing not to be a part of a church. However they are not choosing to abide in Christ, or to walk closely with him.
The Need for People to be a Part of the Church
If a person claims to trust in Christ, but is choosing not to be a part of the church, two things happen: First, they are choosing not to be a part of Jesus. The Bible tells us Jesus is the head of the church and the church is his body (Col 1:18, 24). Together all Christians make up the body of Christ. If you say, I don’t want to be a part of a group of believers, for whatever reason (and they may be legitimate) than you are saying I don’t want to be a part of Jesus. Where God’s people are gathered, that is where Jesus is. Jesus said, when two or three are gathered in my name I am there with them (Matthew 18:20).
The second thing that happens when a person decides not to be a part of a church is that neither that person nor the church can accomplish God’s will or God’s plan completely. It’s impossible because doing God’s will requires the entire body of Christ working together. In 1 Corinthians 12 we are told that every person has a contribution to make, a gift, a talent, a skill which contributes to the whole body. If an individual chooses to be absent from the church body, than neither he or she, nor the church can do all God intends for them to do. This means that if enough people are absent from a church it may even become severely handicapped because it is missing leadership, workers, teachers because people are not there to take the roles God intended for them to have for the body to accomplish its purpose of making disciples for Jesus. In John’s gospel, Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).”
The reason I say all of this is to say, it’s not okay for us to accept the reality that some people are choosing not to be a contributing part of our church family whether they are believers in Jesus yet or not. They may think they don’t need the church, or the church doesn’t need them, but they are wrong. All of us need to receive the wholeness of Jesus, and we all need to be a part of Jesus’ body, the church. Choosing otherwise, whether they know it or not, it hurts them and it hurts us, and we are not able to everything God wants us to do.
Conclusion
What I am asking is that we make the unchurched a prayer focus for our church beginning now and continuing through 2008. By unchurched it may include, persons in our own family (such as a spouse, child, grandchild, or sibling), it could be a neighbor, or any person in our community who are not believers or participating in the family of Christ. Let us begin by selecting a few people and praying for them daily, and praying for the Lord of the harvest to raise up workers to help connect them with God and the church. Who knows that person may just be us. God may reveal something we need to do or to say.
[Prayer - Give time for people to think of at least three-four people they know]
