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.
Finger of God
An old deacon was leading in prayer using one of his stereotypical phrases, which was “Oh Lord, touch the unsaved with Thy finger.”
As he intoned this phrase in this particular prayer, he stopped short.
Other members came to his side and asked if he were ill.
“No,” he replied, “but something seemed to say to me, “Thou art the finger.”
c. An answer for the scarcity – prayer. It is a sign that God is about to bestow some special mercy upon a people, when he stirs them up to pray for it. And commissions given to labourers in answer to prayer, are most likely to be successful. Matthew Henry
Prayer for Compassion
Then we can pray a prayer like David Mains prayed years ago. He was once pastor of the Circle Urban Church, an inner city church in Chicago, and one day, in the course of his ministry among such great need, he prayed, “Lord, let me see the world as you see it, and break my heart with the things that break yours.”
Do you know: he really meant that prayer, and the next day he found himself weeping so much, he had to ask God to stop.
I encourage you – trust the Lord on this one. If you find your heart a little calloused this morning about the needs of so many around us, then be honest with Him. Tell Him, “I’m sorry that I’m not sorry. Would you please soften my callous heart. Would you please break my heart with the things that break yours.”
From a sermon by C. Philip Green, Real Compassion, 10/22/2009
We have all taken notice of the loss of life and the devastating effects of the storms this week and we have sympathy for those who have suffered and lost so much but I wonder how many of us give any thought to the spiritual condition of the souls who have passed out into eternity and those many thousands who have suffered material losses but are in even greater danger of spiritual loss?
Conclusion: THE HARVEST IS RIPE
The Harvest is ripe -- Here's proof:
Wycliffe: Vision 2025 Translation projects started in every language on the planet by 2025. Worldwide evangelism:
In "The Faith Equation," Dr. Marvin Bittinger, Professor of Mathematics at Purdue University and author of over 175 college math textbooks, claims that by 2033 every person on the planet capable of understanding the gospel will have been presented the gospel, according to modern evangelism trends.
34,000 converts each day in South America
28-37,000 Chinese converts daily
23-25,000 African converts daily
16,000 Muslims come to Christ daily - the following stories are all quoted.
"In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on a live interview on Aljazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. "In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity," Al Qataani warned. "Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity." Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric. "Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to Christianity?" Al Qataani repeated his assertion. "Every year," the cleric confirmed, adding, "a tragedy has happened."
Stories from Muslim countries: Iraq -- thousands of new Christians since Saddam was overthrown, many new churches started, Egypt -- some reports say 1 million Egyptians have trusted Christ over the past decade or so. The Egyptian Bible Society used to sell about 3,000 copies of the JESUS film a year in the early 1990s. But last year they sold 600,000 copies, plus 750,000 copies of the Bible on tape (in Arabic) and about a half million copies of the Arabic New Testament. The largest Christian congregation in the Middle East, meets in an enormous cave on the outskirts of Cairo. Some 10,000 believers worship there every weekend. A prayer conference the church held in May 2005 drew some 20,000 believers, Afghanistan -- only 17 Muslim converts to Christianity before 9/11/01, but now more than 10,000, Kazakstan -- only 3 known Christians in 1990, but now more than 15,000, Sudan -- more than 1 million Sudanese have converted to Christianity just since 2000, and some 5 million have become Christians since the early 1990s, despite a radical Islamic regime and an on-going genocide that has killed more than 200,000.
Seminaries are being held in caves to train pastors to shepherd the huge numbers of people coming to Christ. Why such a dramatic spiritual awakening? "People have seen real Islam, and they want Jesus instead," one Sudanese evangelical leader said, Iran -- in 1979, there were only 500 known Muslim converts to Christianity, but today Iranian pastors and evangelical leaders say there are more than 1 million Iranian believers in Jesus Christ, most of whom meet in underground house churches. One of the most dramatic developments is that many Muslims are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus and thus coming into churches explaining that they have already converted and now need a Bible and guidance on how to follow Jesus."
Worldwide: 174,000 converts daily -- David B. Barret and Todd M. Johnson of the Global Evangelism Movement.
This is truly the most exciting time in all of history to be alive and a part of His Great Commission. The opportunity has never been more dramatic and the need has never been so huge:
All of history has built up to this point. Global impact in your hometown. Multiplication opportunities. Transportation and communication impacts. Globalization English Current end time events. Israel, wars and other events. The 4th qtr., bottom of the 9th, the end-game.
(From a sermon by Nate Herbst, The Great Commision -- Discussion, 11/21/2009)
Scriptures: John 6:25-35, Luke 10:1-5, Matthew 9:37-38
The fields are white unto harvest. Thousands are being saved daily all around the world. How many of you know that within 10 miles of our church there are 3,938 people, many of whom do not know the Lord. The Harvest in plenteous but the laborers are few. Nowhere in Scripture are we told to save anybody; that is not our job but we are tasked with the job of telling everyone that Jesus loves them and will save them if they will only turn to Him. The heart of the harvest is confessing with your mouth, believing in your heart and calling on Jesus to be your Savior and Lord. That is the heart of the harvest! What will you do with the Last Commandment and the Great Commission?
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
