Working In God's Harvest Field

Missions Sunday

Topic: Working in God’s Harvest Field

Text: Luke 10:1-3 (NIV)

Good Morning Brothers and Sisters!

Today is our Missions Sunday. June is our missions month here at MGC, and we’ve heard sermons on missions for the past 3 weeks. So this morning, we will conclude our missions month with a topic “Working in God’s Harvest Field.” Our text comes from the Gospel of Luke 10:1-3.

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”

Here, we see that Jesus is appointing and sending 72 people out for ministry. This is the only place in the Bible where we read about Jesus sending a specific number of people aside from the 12 disciples. And the number of people here seems to be little confusing. Some translations of the Bible have 70, while others have 72 people that Jesus appointed and sent out. Whether 70 or 72; the number is not the major thing here. The major thing is the appointment with instruction that Jesus gave, to send them out.

So, He ‘sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.’ Jesus sent them in twos for mutual encouragement and accountability. He knew that His public ministry was coming to an end very soon. But, there were still so many places that He had not yet visited with the Good News of God’s Kingdom. So, He is sending out these 72 people to those places where He was about to go.

Now, let’s look at the actual words of Jesus to these 72 people, as He was about to send them on their mission. He told them:

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”

This morning, I would like to share with you three key principles on how you can be a worker in God’s harvest field: The first principle is -

1. Seeing the harvest from God’s perspective (2a).

What kind of harvest is Jesus talking about here? Jesus was not talking about a physical harvesting of fruit or grain. He was talking about spiritual harvesting of people. He was talking about the harvest of souls for salvation. Matthew 9:36 says, “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus saw their need, that’s why He had compassion for them. Compassion means to be emotionally moved by what we see around us. Jesus was moved to compassion. His heart was broken when He saw the crowds harassed and helpless. Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision International says, "Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart"

The world's population today is 7.5 billion. Only 2.3 billion are Christians. 5.2 billion people in the world today are without Christ. The harvest is really plentiful. If we are going to see the crowds as Jesus did, we must open our eyes. The world is full of people who are not like us. So, the first step is to see them. Jesus said to his followers in John 4:35, "Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." The harvest is waiting to be harvested. And the time to harvest is now.

But, “The workers are few.” Now, the question is, why are there only few workers in the harvest field? The workers are few, because there are a lot of people who do not follow Jesus. The workers are few, because people love all that is in the world, than they love God. And the workers are few, because even among those who follow Jesus, there are some who are not working in the harvest field. And the main reason why there are only few workers in the harvest field is because; we don’t see the harvest like God does. It does not mean that everyone has to go to far way places to serve in mission. But, everyone has a role to fulfill in God’s harvest field. If we just lift our eyes and look at school, at work, at the gym, at the sports event, at the neighborhood or at home, we will see that harvest is waiting to be harvested.

Tony Abram said, “The greatest joy next to the joy of your own salvation is winning another soul to Christ. The Bible teaches us that there is GREAT JOY in heaven over one sinner that repents.”