The Rotting Harvest
Matthew 9:35-38
Her husband, the love of her life and father of her children had just died. It was a heart attack in the middle of the night. Filled with shock and grief, she struggled to make sense of the events of the past 24 hours. He was so young. He seemed so strong. Why God? Why now?
John had always been so self-sufficient, so self-assured. He had handled the family farming business from beginning to end, from the purchasing of the seed, to the planting of the crop, to the fertilizing and all the way through to bringing the harvest into the local co-op. But now he was gone. How would they ever survive?
As she looked out into the fields that were ready to harvest, tears began to stream down her cheek. It was impossible. Even if she worked morning, noon, and night –she would never be able to collect the harvest before most of it had rotted in the fields. All of John’s labor of love, his planting and cultivating of these crops would be lost. The work was just too great for her and her small children. She needed a miracle, and so she began to pray.
What do you do when the work seems too overwhelming? What do you do when the harder you try, the more you seem to fall behind? What do you do when you feel like you are all alone in the work, and no one is near by to help you carry the load?
Most of us either get angry that no one is helping, or we throw up our hands in exhaustion and give up. Some struggle and keep trying, but eventually even the strongest and most determined worker among us will quit when confronted with a task that never seems to get finished.
Do you know that Jesus grew weary and overwhelmed also? Do you know that Jesus, in His humanity, struggled with the immensity of the work? Do you know that Jesus recognized that the work the Father had given Him to do was too great for one man to accomplish? Does that sound like heresy? Turn with me to Matthew 9:35-38.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harasses and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Theme: The harvest is rotting in the fields. so get involved.
1. Pray for compassion for the lost.
The language of this passage is powerful. Jesus has been busy. He has traveled throughout Galilee, entering every town and village, hoping to reach the lost sheep of Israel. As He has traveled he has preached the Good News, He has taught the people Kingdom principles, and He has healed individuals from all kinds of diseases and afflictions.
But something else has happened to the heart of Jesus, the man. His compassion for the people has grown. His frustration over the immensity of the problems and needs has driven Him to His knees, and He has become increasingly aware that He is just one man. Yes, He is the Savior. Yes, He will do what no other man can do - He will die for the sins of the world. Yes, He will make it possible for every man, woman and child on this planet to be forgiven and saved. But He cannot reach them all alone. There are just too many people, and too many needs.
Compassion floods His heart. The Word compassion is an interesting word. It literally means: with passion. Compassionate people are filled with feelings for others. They feel the pain and the suffering of others. They hurt. They want to help. They want to ease the pain and heartache of others. They have a sense of what it is like to be in the skin of another person, to know their sorrow.
Jesus uses words that create a picture.
The crowds of people are harassed. The Greek language is literally ‘to be flayed, or skinned”. Imagine the horror of watching people who have been skinned by their problems, their wound are open and festering, their bodies mangled and torn by some disaster, and that is how Jesus described the masses of people He encountered along the way. The pain and suffering of people was so great, their lives in such agony, that the Word Jesus would choose to describe them is someone who has been skinned alive.
Then He describes them as helpless. This Greek word is also full of imagery. It was used to describe a battle scene where the bodies were scattering the fields, some lying in their own blood, others broken and bruised and moaning for someone to come and heal them. It was also used to describe a person who collapses out of utter and complete exhaustion, like a runner who cannot run another step and who collapses alongside the road. Jesus saw people as exhausted, worn out, broken, bruised, and bleeding.
Finally He describes them as sheep without a shepherd. Sheep are extremely vulnerable creatures. They have no natural defenses. In an open field a wolf or a bear could tear them to shreds, and they are too stupid to hide. A sheep could be within a few meters of water and be unable to find its way to cool refreshing stream. They need a shepherd to guide and protect and provide for them.
Of course the scriptures speak of the Lord as our Shepherd, but Jesus saw the masses of people as lost. They had not developed a personal relationship with the Lord as their shepherd. They were still blind, groping along the walls seeking salvation.
And the sight of all these lost people moved Christ to compassion.
Do we have compassion on people? Do we consider them as lost? Do we have any sense of the agony and heartache most people endure without the gift of the Holy Spirit to comfort them? Do we remember what it was like to lost? Or have we become so accustomed to our own salvation and our own relationship with Jesus that we no longer feel for those who live in darkness?
We have a problem. I am sure that you have noticed that our church is getting smaller. We are losing individuals to other bigger churches with greater programs. But that is not the problem I am addressing this morning. The problem I am most concerned about is not that people are leaving our church to move to other churches. I am most concerned that the lost people outside this building are being ignored.
When is the last time you heard of someone getting saved? When is the last time you heard of someone’s marriage turning around? When is the last time you heard of someone who was on fire for Jesus because they have had their eyes opened to see the truth of the Gospel?
And it is not just in our church. Hordes of Christians are moving from one congregation to another, some churches swell in size with people transferring out of smaller churches, while smaller churches continue to shrink, meanwhile millions and millions of men, women and children are headed for hell.
Most of us don’t believe in hell. Most of us believe that most people are basically good and that they will be forgiven and enter into heaven because of their basic goodness. But the bible, and Jesus Christ, said; ‘NO man comes to the Father but through Him.” That person sitting next to you in the cubicle is going to spend and eternity in torment. That friend who you enjoy going to the movies with is going to live an eternity separated from Jesus.
Even if you believe the most optimistic statistics of the Gallop organization which says that there are between 30 and 50 million evangelical believers in this country today, that means that there is between 250 and 270 million who are lost! Or if you prefer to believe that anyone who goes to church must be saved, then you have about 90 to 120 million church goers in this country. That still leaves more than 150 million who never set foot in a church.
Do we have any compassion for them? Is there any evidence in our lives that indicates that we even think about them? Can you show any proof that these lost sheep have cracked even a part of our calloused hearts?
Jesus has compassion for your friends and family. You can’t say that you love Jesus, and not care about the things that He cares about.
A good place to start is to pray that God will give you compassion for others. Remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh, Dear Lord!
2. Pray for workers to be added to the field.
Jesus, seeing the crowds, turns to His disciples, His friends. In my own paraphrase, this is what He says: “There are too many. I can’t do it alone. And even though I appreciate your commitment to follow me and to be my disciple, the 12 of us can’t do it alone either. It’s just too much. So boys, I need you to be passionate about this with me. I need you to pray, and to pray hard, that our Father in heaven will raise up an army of laborers to work in this harvest.”
Notice that Jesus affirms that the harvest is ready, it is ripe. We do not need to pray for the harvest to ripen. I think for too long I have been praying for people to be open to the Gospel. But God is already doing that work in the hearts of individuals.
One of the lies the enemy has sold to us in this church is to believe that people aren’t interested anymore. We believe the harvest is past. The harvest is not ripe. We believe that people do not care anymore about God. We believe that no one is interested in becoming a Christian anymore.
When we believe that lie, we are in fact saying that God is failing to do His job. You see, it is God’s heart to seek and to save that which is lost. The Holy Spirit is constantly calling out to people. He is tugging at their hearts. He is using circumstances and events in their lives to create a hunger and a thirst for something they can’t provide for themselves. God has and is preparing the harvest.
The problem is not with the harvest. The problem is the lack of laborers. Harvesting is hard work. It is intense. It requires a total commitment.
Harvesting is done outside, not inside a building. You have to go where the crop is, out into the field. Harvesting requires a team effort. There are those who use the sickle to cut down the crop. There are those who gather the crop in bundles and baskets to bring to the storehouse. But everyone works together to make sure that the crop doesn’t rot on the fields. You don’t want to lose anything.
The Apostle John wrote this in John 4:35-38
Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, ’One person plants and someone else harvests.’ And it’s true. I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and you will gather the harvest."
There is so much joy in working together to bring in a harvest. Much of our American Fall culture center around those kinds of celebrations; square dances, and harvest festivals and thanksgiving dinners all celebrate the harvest work being accomplished. It is a time of tremendous hard work followed by a fullness of joy.
When is the last time you felt an incredible surge of joy? When is the last time your heart overflowed with thanksgiving? Could it be that we don’t have much joy or thankfulness in our hearts, because we sit in our easy chairs while the harvest rots in the fields? Let’s get busy. Let’s get to work. Let’s pray for laborers to join us in the field, and watch the level of our joy and enthusiasm explode.
Jesus doesn’t tell us to pray for the crop. He doesn’t want us to pray for the field. He wants us to pray for laborers. Are you committed to praying for workers? Have you prayed for workers in this church? Are you praying for people who will reach kids for Christ? Are you praying for men and women who have a burdened to help teens find Jesus? Are you praying for your fellow church members to have opportunities to share the gospel? Are you praying and asking what job God has for you to do in the harvest?
3. Pray for your part in the work.
As Jesus spoke these words, I am sure the disciples started to ask: “What can we do? How can we help? Maybe we are part of that answer of prayer of Jesus? I can’t do everything, but I can certainly help. If this harvest is ready now, this isn’t the time for me to sit back and wait for an invitation. I need to jump in with both feet and roll up my sleeves and break a sweat and get busy with helping in this harvest.”
In His book, “Every believer, a minister” Dr. Rex Edwards graphically paints the painful picture of far too many Christians today. He writes: “We sing the words of the hymn, ‘Onward Christian Soldier’, and sit back waiting for someone to draft us into service. We loudly sing, “O for a thousand tongues”, but we never use the one tongue we already have. We join the congregation in singing that old hymn, “Serve the Lord with Gladness”, yet we complain when the church doesn’t have enough workers to meet our own needs. We need to change. We need to move from a state of survival to a state of revival!”
How will you apply this message? Will you leave our church for a bigger church that has more programs to meet your needs? Will you sit back in your chair and wait for someone to beg you to participate? Will you turn your face away from the masses of people in this community who are dying without Jesus? Will you throw your hands in the air and say, the work is too much and I am just one person? Or will you get on your knees and join Jesus in praying for the laborers needed for today’s Harvest?
Let me close with a record of something God did more than 150 years ago in New York City. It illustrates how God uses prayer at harvest time. America’s great awakenings were a think of the past. Most people had grown cold and indifferent towards religion. The time was very much like our own.
But God started to do something. A great economic crash swept the country and suddenly people became aware of their own bankruptcy, not only materially, but spiritually as well. Merchants had to close their stores. Railroads declared bankruptcy. In New York City thousands of people were fired and left jobless.
On July 1, 1857, a quiet businessman by the name of Jeremiah Lanphier grew restless to do something for God. The Dutch Reformed church where he served as a layman had been in serious decline for many years. Most of the congregation had left for the outskirts of the city, leaving just a few die-hard members behind in the inner city. Burdened by the despair he saw all around him, and by the weakness of his own congregation, Jeremiah felt a burden to start a prayer meeting. He posted fliers all over the surrounding community declaring that a prayer meeting was to be held every Wednesday from Noon until 1:00pm in the rear of the North Dutch Church. In the flier, Jeremiah declared that the prayer meeting was intended:
“..to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers, and businessmen generally an opportunity to stop and call upon God amid the perplexities incident to their respective avocations. It will continue for one hour, but is it also designed for those who may find it inconvenient to remain more than five or ten minutes, as well as for those who can spare the whole hour.”
And so on Wednesday, September 23rd, 1857 at noon, the door was opened to the church and Jeremiah took his seat to await any who may have seen the flier. Five minutes went by. No one came. Ten, fifteen, and a full 30 minutes past without anyone joining him in prayer. Then a little after 12:30pm he heard some steps walking on the hard wooden floors of the church. Slowly people started to arrive and by 1:00pm six men had joined Jeremiah in his little prayer meeting. The next week 40 came, and on October 7th the decision was made to hold the meeting daily, not weekly.
Within 6 months, 10,000 businessmen gathered in various halls in New York City for daily prayer at noon, and within two years more than 2 million converts had been added to the Church. It was the greatest revival ever to occur in New York City. There was no fanaticism, no hysteria, no hoopla, just a simple and incredible movement of God’s people to pray.
Will you pray for compassion for the lost?
Will you pray for laborers in the harvest field?
Will you pray about your role in God’s Kingdom work?
