The Harvest For God - I Am Involved, I Am Prepared For Eternity Series

Intro:

Good morning. 2 weeks ago, I exhorted the importance of knowing our levels of involvement that we can use in our service to God. Last week, we were exhorted by Ptr. Jeric to value the souls which we are going to harvest for Christ. Over these few weeks, we focused on the traits and values we need in order to have an effective involvement in God’s vineyard.

Today, God wanted us to understand the importance of the Great harvest that God has prepared for us and how are we going to be a part of this harvest. Our exhortation today is entitled…

The Harvest for God Ang Pag-ani Para sa Diyos

John 4:35-38

35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

ASND

35 Hindi ba sinasabi n'yo na apat na buwan pa bago ang anihan? Ngunit sinasabi ko sa inyo, anihan na. Tingnan n'yo ang mga taong dumarating, para silang mga pananim sa bukid na hinog na at pwede nang anihin! 36 Kayong mga tagapag-ani ay tatanggap ng gantimpala mula sa Dios. At ang mga taong inaani ninyo ay bibigyan niya ng buhay na walang hanggan. Kaya magkasamang matutuwa ang nagtanim ng salita ng Dios at ang nag-ani. 37 Totoo ang kasabihang, ‘Iba ang nagtatanim at iba rin ang umaani.’ 38 Sinugo ko kayo upang anihin ang hindi ninyo itinanim. Iba ang nagtanim ng salita ng Dios, at kayo ang umaani ng kanilang pinaghirapan.”

What did Jesus mean? Ano ang ibig sabihin ni Hesus?

If we read John 4:3-35, Jesus was passing through Samaria on the way to Judaea. When He rested near a well His disciples went in search for food. While they were gone a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well and Jesus shared the Gospel with her. When His disciples returned with the food, Jesus said to them:

32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

The most important thing to Jesus, more urgent than natural food and the necessities of life, was to do God's will and finish His work. Ang pinakamahalaga bagay sa ating Panginoong Hesus na mas mahalaga pa kaysa sa pagkaing natural at pangangailangan sa buhay ay ang gawin ang kalooban ng Diyos at tapusin ang Kanyang Gawain.

It was at this point in the conversation that Jesus used the example of the natural harvest. He used it to illustrate what He had just told His disciples: The most important thing in life is doing God's will and His work.

What is God’s will and His work? Ano ang kalooban ng Diyos at ang Kanyang gawain?

What is God's will? What is His work? It is revealed in the vision of the harvest.

Jesus told His disciples to lift up their eyes and look at the natural fields of grain ready to harvest.

He used these fields as an example of the spiritual fields of multitudes of men and women around

the world who are ready to be harvested for the Kingdom of God.

The Samaritan woman with whom He had just talked was an example of this great spiritual harvest. She was ready to receive the Gospel and accepted it with great joy. Through "harvesting" this one woman, an entire city came to know Jesus:

39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”

42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

Why did Jesus choose The Harvest? Bakit napili ni Hesus ang Pag-Ani para tukuyin ang Kanyang gawain?

The harvest was an example to which His disciples could easily relate. The history of God's people, Israel, dated back to Adam, who was first to till the ground. Agriculture continued developing to the time of Moses when it became the basis of the economy.

At the time of Christ's ministry, the economy of Israel was centered on agriculture. The disciples of Jesus could easily apply these principles to spiritual harvesting because of their familiarity with them in the natural world. Applying these natural principles spiritually would bring forth an abundant spiritual harvest that we can understand until now.