This background here, and the NEXT, is going to serve to remind us of what’s next at CCC.
Don’t forget those NEXT things! Remember? We’re going to give careful attention to...
• The next generation of believers
• The next generation of leaders in the church
• The next person who’s going to accept Jesus
• The next project we will throw ourselves into
• The next generation of leaders preparing for service
• The next time we get together to worship
• The next level of maturity in your faith
• The next surprise God has ready for you
Today, from Matthew 9, I want to take a look at a day in the life of Jesus.
Like you, He boots up His laptop, opens up Outlook, and has a look at His calendar for the day.
Let’s see…5-7 am, go away to a lonely place to pray. 7-8 am, heal a blind man and cast out a demon. 8-9 am teach the 12. 9-10 am rebuke the Pharisees. 10-noon teach the multitudes. Looks like another full morning! I’m not sure Jesus used a laptop and a calendar on Outlook, but I am sure He had full days!
In Mt. 9, Matthew has just told the story of his own life change. Jesus came and called this no-good tax collector to a changed life, so he followed Jesus, and threw a party at his house! So, Jesus gets criticized for trying to reach lost people. Mt. 9:14-34 happens in one day. It’s obvious Mt wants us to get a feel for what this is like. It goes something like this:
Today, Jesus is being called into question by, of all people, those who were disciples of JB.
Then, while Jesus is still dealing with that, a synagogue official named Jairus comes and bows in front of Him. He has an only daughter, age 12, so sick, that by the time he gets to Jesus, she’s most likely already dead. But he believes that if Jesus would just lay His hand on her she could recover. Jesus gets up to go to Jairus’ house, and the disciples and a crowd go with Him. On the way, there’s a woman who has had a bleeding problem for years. She thinks that if she could just touch the edge of Jesus’ robe she could be healed, so she does, and she is! Jesus stops and talks with her, and as He is, news comes from Jairus’ house. She’s dead. Don’t bother Jesus. But Jesus reassures Jairus, and they continue. Jesus isn’t intimidated by death. The author of life, the One Who breathed the breath of life into Adam, the one Who invented little girls, takes her by the hand and raises her back to life.
They leave from there, and someone brings a demon-possessed man to Him. Jesus casts out the demon. The crowds are wowed. The Pharisees condemn Him. None of this was on Jesus’ planner for the day, but it was all in one day’s work.
So, imagine that kind of a schedule, day after day after day. That’s the impression we get from Mt starting in vv35-36. Mark adds right here that Jesus even visited His old home town of Nazareth, for the last time – and the only thing He accomplished there was being amazed because of their lack of belief.
Matthew 9:35-36
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus knows His time on earth is very limited. There’s a world to be saved, and He’s going to be present to get it done in a 3.5 yr. ministry. Daily, He is surrounded by reminders of what sin has done to His perfect creation – a world made through Him - a perfect world without pain or death or anything sad. Now, it’s a world where whole cities are skeptical of the truth. It’s a world where men choose dishonest vocations to take advantage of other people. It’s a world where the so-called religious leaders, rather than shepherding the people, are just fleecing them, and rather than leading the people to Jesus, they‘re the ones leading out to get Him stopped. It’s a world where Satan’s angels take over people’s lives, where women have long-term illnesses, where men are reduced to blind beggars, where little 12yr old girls get sick and die.
Jesus faces this schedule for some period of time. Wave after wave of people and their messed-up lives keep coming to Him. He looks at them, and He gets that feeling in the gut – in His splangchna, remember – because they are “harassed and helpless.” English comes up short here. Other translations have “distressed and downcast”, “dispirited” “scattered” “troubled” “wandering” “fainting.” Like sheep with no shepherd. Picture a flock of sheep, surrounded by a huge pack of wolves. They run, panicked, surrounded, away from safety, until they can run no more. They’re exhausted, bruised, bleeding, and now they collapse. Unless someone steps in, they’re doomed.
When Jesus sees a crowd of people with problems, that’s what He sees.
What do you and I see?
When we look out over a crowd of people in downtown Rockford, what do we see?
When we see people crowding their way through the store, or pushing their way through traffic, or sitting in a stupor on the corner, what do we see?
So, Jesus looks at the crowds, He looks at His followers – the 12 men He is investing with His life-mission – and I can just hear the sigh as He says to them:
Men, there’s such a great harvest here! There are so many people whose lives are ready to be transformed! But on the other hand, the workers…there just aren’t enough to get the job done. It’s too much.
He’s tired. The task is overwhelming. What do you do?
Right now, it’s harvest time around here. Farmers are out, cutting beans and corn, getting it in. Someone planted it back in the spring. And like always, the time of harvest is time-sensitive. It can’t be done too soon, or the crop won’t be mature or dry enough. And it can’t be done too late, or eventually it will just be no good anymore.
Ill - We had a garden in No. Indiana. One year, we planted several hills of a particular cantaloupe that did really well that year. I remember, for a couple of weeks, I’d go out to the garden twice a day to find melons that were ripe. There were dozens of them. I’d have to pick the ones that were ripe, and I’d have to make a note about the ones that would be in a few days. And, every time, I’d also discover a few that had been left too long and were rotten.
That’s how harvest time works. It has great potential for great gain. At the same time, harvest time also has the possibility of being a tragic loss of what could have been great. It’s time-sensitive. It has to be done before it’s too late.
But we’re not talking about beans and ‘tators here, are we? We’re talking about human souls. We’re talking about a world that is at least 2/3 lost. Over 100,000 people a day, dying without God, without hope, alone in the world.
So, what do you do when the harvest is big but there aren’t enough workers? Here’s what Jesus said to do:
1. Pray
The “T” in NEXT stands for “taking it to God.” Over the next year or so, we’re going to be putting a stronger emphasis on prayer, and this is one of the main reasons for us to do that: Jesus says to!
Pray!
Because the job is bigger than you or me.
Because there is Someone Who is “Lord of the Harvest.” This is His business! This belongs to Him. He’s more concerned about this than anyone, and if it’s going to be done, we’re going to have to call for reinforcements!
This is a big harvest!
In Jn 4, the disciples run into town to get lunch while Jesus hangs out at the local watering hole – a well that has been there for some 2,000 years. There’s a woman there with problems. She’s probably created a lot of them by her own choices. Her worldview is wrong. She’s skeptical of Jesus, even though she’s talking to Him in person. By the end of one conversation, she’s ready to tell others what she has discovered in this man who has amazed her. So, the disciples come back from town and wonder why Jesus is even bothering with this woman. They’re concern is lunch. Jesus’ concern is the harvest, because in just a few minutes, a bunch of messed up people, Samaritans in fact, are going to come walking out of the city with all of their problems and questions and mixed up worldviews and skepticism, and Jesus is going to teach them…for the next 2 days. He says to His men, “Look! Lift up your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe! It’s harvest time!”
What do you see?
When you see a city full of politicians and businessmen?
When you see a long line at the drive thru, or another person running a red light in front of you?
When you see a panhandler or a group of kids who are out too late?
Jesus tells us to lift up our eyes and see an opportunity – to see that there is a great harvest to be gathered in for Him. Someone else may have even done the planting, but there’s a great harvest to be gathered in here.
Pray! Pray that God will “thrust out” laborers into His field! That’s really what the word literally means – that He will “throw out” workers into His harvest. It’s the same thing the HS did when Jesus was baptized – He immediately drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted.
When was the last time we prayed, as a church family, that God would send out workers into His harvest field?
When was the last time that we prayed, as a church family, that the Lord would raise up people from our very numbers to go out and become harvesters in the Lord’s business?
I want to make it real easy to remember the answer to that question.
Today, before our time together here is over, we’re going to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that He would send out workers into His Harvest Field.
Now, these are the words of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 9. Look there in your Bible. Now, look on over at Ch10. What happens after Jesus says this?
He sends His disciples out into the harvest field.
Imagine it. You’re a disciple of Jesus. He has just given you this instruction, so you take it to heart and you begin praying for the Lord to raise up people who will faithfully go and take the message of life into the world. You’re speaking about this with the Lord, and thinking about who these workers might be. Next thing you know, Jesus is calling you all back together again, and He says, “OK, guys, I’m going to send you out now.” What do you say?
“Wait, Lord, I was praying that God would send someone else, just like You said to do.”
“Someone else? Who said it was someone else? You’re not just the prayer agent; you’re also the answer to your own prayer. I’m sending YOU.”
In other words, we need to…
2. Be Available to Answer That Prayer
I wonder how many times a young woman in Nazareth prayed that God would send His Messiah into the world and free His people Israel, until, one day, an angel shows up to Mary and explains that God is going to answer that prayer and He’s going to use her to do it! I wonder how many times a carpenter in Nazareth prayed that God would send His Messiah into the world to free his people Israel, until, one day, Joseph gets the news that this Messiah is going to born as an infant in his own yet-to-be-formed family.
We’re right to pray for the salvation of people we know and love, and even of those we don’t know. Just remember, that when you pray for something, God may well surprise you by making you the answer to what you pray.
The other thing we need here is to…
3. Get Together
This past Wednesday night, something happened in our class called “Go Fish.” In that class, we’re talking about all this in terms of fishing rather than harvesting. We were talking about the way that this business of fishing for men isn’t a solo business. We work better as partners. Evangelism is an “US” thing! Jesus sent out the 12 in pairs. Meaning? You’re not alone in this!
In fact, you have a great big buddy. It’s called the Church!
We need to pray, we need to be available to answer that prayer, and WE NEED TO PARTNER IN THIS! We need to be workers together in this.
Personally, I used to shun the idea of “inviting people to church.” After all, we’re supposed to be inviting them to Jesus, right? But then I read passages like:
1 John 4:11-12
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
And it dawns on me that this bunch of people, sitting around right here, is the most important outreach tool there is! When someone who’s not a Christian gets around God’s Church and they see us loving one another like we’re supposed to, and they see us laughing with those who laugh, and crying with those who cry, and encouraging one another and holding one another up – when people see us being real – walls will start to come down. Many of the simple surveys I sent around, asking how people were led to Jesus, simply say, “So and so invited me to church..”
So, it makes sense to me that we as a church family ought to be working, as partners, to do whatever we can to create an environment that attracts people to Jesus, because we care about that NEXT person who’s going to accept Jesus, Amen?
Some of you might be thinking, “Wait! You don’t realize what you’re saying! I don’t have my own act together enough to do this! I’m not nearly the person I need to be to be inviting someone else to Jesus!”
What I’m looking at here is what Jesus said and did.
Jesus pulled the 12 together in order to send them out. He gave those 12 authority and power to do His work of harvesting the souls of people. One of those 12 was Judas Iscariot! I think there’s room for you and me in this!
Whatever your role in this, we’re supposed to get together on it. Yesterday, we had the fall thingy at the Bailey’s. Why’d we do that? Because it’s a way to get people around God’s people and get them to see that life in Jesus is real life! Why a car show, a lady’s tea, Trunks and Treats? Because it’s a way to get people around God’s people so they can see just how great He is! That’s not all those events do. They give you and me a big partner – they give us a chance to invite people to see God’s people. They give us a chance to say to someone, “Hey, we’re having this thing at our church.”
And if we were to have a Christian comedian come, or to offer a marriage or parenting seminar, or have some kind of service project for our community, wouldn’t that be the kind of thing you would invite someone to?
This is you preacher speaking, from the heart: CCC can’t continue doing exactly what we’re doing and expect to still be here in 20 years. No church can. CCC isn’t doing exactly what it was doing 20+ years ago. So, I’m asking you, will you partner with me to help make this place an environment that attracts people to Jesus? Will you?
I mean, will you show up here on Sunday morning, consistently, and will you participate in the worship as if someone else’s life depended on it? Will you sing your heart out, and think about helping people be attracted to Jesus? Will you come with a sense of joy and anticipation, excited about what God is going to do here each week?
Will you partner with me? When you walk down the hall and see a wrapper on the floor and pick it up, or when you make sure people are greeted and shown around, or when you set a room in order, or when you help take care of kids, or when you teach, or lead a ministry, or when you set up or clean up some event – will you do that as partners in the Lord’s harvest? Will you see it as something much bigger than just some job or some personal gratification?
Will you see how that’s where we all get together on this thing?
What can we do to make CCC an environment that will attract people to Jesus?
Conclusion:
(pull mirror from bag)
The thing we need in hand now, to get this thing of evangelism in hand, is YOU. It’s you. When all is said and done, the most important, most effective way to help people be saved forever, is YOU. So, here’s what we’re going to do now.
3 men will come to lead us in prayer for workers into the harvest field:
1. For those who are currently in the field on our behalf
2. For the Lord to raise up workers worldwide, where they are needed most, as He sees it
3. For the Lord to raise up workers from among all of us – people who will be active in His harvest field
Wouldn’t it be interesting, if, while we’re praying this prayer together today, the Lord sets it upon someone’s heart to step forward and say, “I’m going to be one of those workers…”
“I’m going to go on a missions trip…”
“I’m going to go to a Bible college to study and then go…”
“I’m going to work up a plan to reach the people who live next door to me…”
“I’m going to be the one who speaks to the person I’ve been praying for.”
That’s what I want to encourage you to do today. As we pray that the Lord would send out workers into His field, and as we become the answer to those prayers, I want to encourage you to step forward and share with us what you’re going to do – no matter how simple or small it might seem.
