We have been looking at what we are supposed to do while waiting for Jesus’ return. As we examined over the past two weeks the parable Jesus told concerning a nobleman who left ten Minas with his servants prior to leaving for a distance country to receive a kingdom (Luke 19:11-27). The charge the nobleman gave his servants is the theme verse for this series:
Luke 19:13 (NKJV) So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’
We are to do Jesus’ business till He returns. And what business is that? We had determined the mina each of us, who are servants of Jesus, have been entrusted with is the Gospel, the life giving good news of Jesus. The question is, will we be good stewards of the gospel and do his business, or will we be like the wicked servant and hide the gospel away?
Today’s message and passage deals with why we need to be busy doing His business with the gospel. It is a familiar passage I have preached before and will preach again.
Matthew 9:35–38
When I was the Sunday School director for the church I belonged to in New Mexico over 30 years ago, I remember asking one gentleman, an older, and supposedly mature Christian if he would teach a Sunday School class. I received the standard "churchy" answer I have heard time and time again. “Brother Doug, let me go and pray about it.” After a week I called on the man for second time, and the response was the same, “I still need to do some praying about it.” After a third week I asked once more, and the response I got was not unexpected, “I’m not sure God is calling me to teach, beside I don’t think I’m gifted to teach.” I must admit that I was disappointed. I guess my call for Him to teach was not quite the same as God’s call to teach. I was in my early 30’s at the time and this man had been a Christian nearly twice longer than I had been alive. The writer of Hebrews has something to say about that. In scolding the more mature Christians in the early church, he said;
Hebrews 5:12 (NKJV) For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
However, one of my greatest joys I ever had as a Sunday School director was about 25 years ago at another church. I made an announcement that I was looking for teacher for an international class, where English was a spoken as a second language. And immediately I had one person jump up and say they were that person. I was taken back by this so I asked, “Don’t you want to pray about this first?” And the quick response was, "No, I had already prayed about it and your announcement was an answer to my prayer." Wow! why can't all my teachers be like this one!.
There is a need to disciple Christians, there is also a great a great need to reach the lost. This is not just a job for the paid professionals. To the church in Ephesus, Paul explained the work of ministry:
Ephesians 4:11–12 (NKJV) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ
Jesus did not give the church pastors and teachers to equip the saints and do the work of ministry He gave pastors and teachers to equip the saints so they, the saints can do the work of ministry. The work of ministry is function of every member of the church. Having said all this, we begin to understand what Jesus is saying in today’s passage. Jesus, as a man, could not do all the work Himself.
Matthew 9:35 (NKJV) Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Jesus was busy. He was going from here to there, hither and yond, preaching, teaching and healing.
There is a fine line between teaching and preaching. Jesus was doing both. He was teaching and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, which in the NT is also referred to as the “gospel of Jesus, the Gospel of God, or the Good News with the focus being on repentance, forgiveness and restoration with God.
Healing and the performance of miracles was subordinate to the teaching and preaching. Healing and miracles were done to validate the message and Messenger.
Matthew 9:36 (NKJV) But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
But as Jesus saw the multitudes, he took compassion on them. That word compassion in the Greek meant more than taking mere pity. Jesus was moved emotionally, he felt it in his gut. In the Greek the word means to be deeply moved in his bowls, his inner most parts. Why was Jesus so moved? Because the verse says they were weary, other translations says they were distressed and harassed. They were greatly troubled. And also they were scattered, dejected and worn out. Isn’t that like so many today. The world beats them up. There is nowhere to turn. They were like sheep without a shepherd.
Sheep without a shepherd are defenseless. No one to lead them to safety, no one to lead them to nourishment. Here is Jesus, in John 10, Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd. What does the Good Shepherd do?
Psalm 23:1–3 (NKJV) 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
Many people know this psalm, but few people really know the Shephard of this psalm.
Part of the problem, is that sheep are dumb animals. They simply put their heads down and following the sheep in front. Many will follow after false shepherds or the latest fad, or mindset of the current culture. The masses follow whatever is popular, many to their own destruction.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was right when he said, "People are living lives of quiet desperation." They are desperate for meaning and purpose distraught by the world's lies and heading for destruction. They are walking down a path that Jesus referred to as "the broad road" that leads to death. [1]
Do we have compassion, do we have pain deep in our gut, for the lostness in the world, as Jesus did? Do we see the world as Jesus sees the world? But the key word in Matthew 9:36 is “multitude.” Jesus saw the multitude. Jesus, in His human form, there was only so much he could do and there were so many.
In Jesus’ day, there was somewhere around 150 million in the total population of the world. Today there is nearly 8 billion, almost 55 times more people. The population the United States is over double the world population of Jesus’ day, nearly 330 million. Who is going to reach them all? This sets the stage for what Jesus says next.
Matthew 9:37 (NKJV) Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Comparing the multitudes to fields of grain, there is so much to do and so few to do it. If there are no laborers or there is not enough laborers, the grain will go to waste with no one to bring it in. But God has entrusted us with His message of the gospel.
Some people look out at the multitudes and population of the world like that of the pharisees. The pharisees saw people, the common people other than themselves and those in their tight little crowd, as chaff, to be burned up. The Pharisees in their pride looked for the destruction of sinners. Jesus in His love, died for the salvation of sinners. Others like Jesus, see those in the world around them as grain to be harvested and saved.
Jesus makes a similar comment when speaking to his disciples after He encountered the woman at the well while passing through Samaria.
John 4:35 (NKJV) Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
We must realize the significance of what Jesus is saying here. The time frame Jesus spoke was after the wheat fields were sown and they were now green. He tells of a proverb, a common saying in that day, 4 months till the harvest. But Jesus counters that by saying the harvest is now.
A farmer would know that when the wheat fields turned a golden hue, it was time for the harvest. When the wheat fields turned white, the grain was ready to fall to the ground and be lost. The time for harvesting was almost gone. Jesus was clearly saying the time is NOW! And it is getting late! If laborers do not get out and reap the harvest now the grain will be lost.
But like the story of the 10 minas, many are like the wicked servant and are content to sit back and say I have done my duty, I did my bit, it’s someone else’s turn. Someone else needs to go.
and in the meanwhile, the harvest is going to waste.
Matthew 9:38 (NKJV) Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
This is dangerous prayer to pray. To pray for more laborers is to be ready to put feet to that prayer. Note that to those that Jesus was speaking to, to those He called to pray, where the same ones He sends out in the next Chapter. In the verse that follow this passage, Jesus sends out the twelve. In Luke 10:2, Jesus says much the same thing and then He sends out the 70.
If we see the need and pray for the Lord of the Harvest, which is Jesus, to send laborers out, we must be putting on our work shoes and be ready to go ourselves.
To reap the harvest we must go out to where the harvest is. Go where? Where is the harvest? To our neighbors, to our schools, to our place of business, to the ends of the earth.
Jesus points us to prayer as something that is effective – But prayer alone is not a substitute for the actual labor – but the labor cannot be done without prayer.
But many people can’t even be bothered with inviting people to church. Yet Isaiah, when he heard the call from God:
Isaiah 6:8 (NKJV) Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Isaiah said send me. Would that be something we would pray? Or would our prayer be: “Send someone else.” We look around, if you see a need and you say “somebody ought to do something.” Guess what? You are probably that somebody.
We are to pray that Lord of the Harvest “to send out” laborers. That is another interesting word in the Greek: "ekballo" Directly translated, it means to expel, to drive out, to thrust out. We are so caught up in our comfort zones, that we need have a swift kick, to be thrusted out. When we are out of our comfort zone, we quickly learn to trust the Lord for guidance, for strength, for power. We must go out because the harvest, (and it is not our harvest, but His harvest) is out there and not in here. The command is to go, not to sit and wait for the harvest to come to us.
But, you say, there are so many people. The harvest is so vast. The needs are so overwhelming. What can I do?
I am reminded of the story about old man, walking the beach at dawn, who noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the youth, he asked what he was doing. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun. "But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish," countered the old man. "How can your effort make a difference?" The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. "It makes a difference to this one," he said. [2]
Are you doing the business of Jesus while we are waiting for His return. Are you making difference, even with one?
Do you see the need? Do you hear the call? Or do we put our heads in the sand and say the call was for someone else. What we must remember, on that Day when the King returns, we all must give a account of all we have done in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). What will we report to Jesus when we see Him?
[1] www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/bringing-in-the-harvest-travis-markes-sermon-on-evangelism-the-lost-159953?ref=SermonSerps
[2] Ibid.
