35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:33-38)
If we could focus in on what this brief section of scripture is saying we would have a real overview of what God is seeing. It is a powerful visual of a number of things.
To The Church. Vs 35
Towns and villages: Jesus went through all of them. We need to go through our neighbourhood, our community, and see the people who live there. We need to know who lives there. Who is it that God is showing us?
Teaching: People today have no God consciousness because He has been driven out of school and society by government and the media. We need to understand the need to reintroduce Jesus and to make Him known.
in their Synagogues: This is where we start but we cannot end the journey in God's house. We need venues. We need to find physical space in locations where the church can be gathered and we need to start there.
proclaiming the news of the kingdom: Renewal is the biggest need the church has. We need to get excited about the good news, the gospel. We are building God's Kingdom!
and healing every disease and sickness. What are we sharing? We had better be sharing a God who is a BIG GOD. He can heal every disease and sickness. I like the word EVERY. EVERY is the right word. Physical sickness, Social sickness, Emotional sickness. Spiritual sickness. Relational sickness. EVERY disease and sickness. Are we bold in what we have to share? Jesus was bold. He did not send us to preach a different gospel.
The need to organize the church and care for people. Vs 36
Crowds: I am certain that Jesus saw each individual with their own specific needs. I am also equally convinced that he viewed this as more than a one-on-one problem. There were needs that were common to the human experience and they needed to be addressed.
Compassion: Compassion goes far beyond empathy or sympathy. Compassion is not only vicarious but it is a realization that action is required. God calls us to be compassionate, not only to the poor and the homeless, those bound by sin and by addictions, but also to the sinner. Sin is a terrible condition worsened by denial. Those who do not recognize their need or who deny it are still worthy of our compassion because Jesus has compassion on them.
Have you ever been through a great trial? Perhaps you wondered why you were going through it. I want to suggest today that there is a purpose. God teaches us compassion so that we can show it to others.
1 Corinthians 1:3-5 tells us: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
Harassed and Helpless: Today we see very little encouragement in the world. People who could otherwise seek Christ are sent by social services to the wrong places for answers. The symptoms are being dealt with. The consequences are being dealt with, but Faith itself is being harassed. People who need God, who need a spiritual solution, are being diverted from Jesus Christ. We need to do something about that.
Sheep without a Shepherd: We need shepherds. Jesus is telling us we need spiritual leaders in the community. He is talking about ministry to crowds by people with compassion who see so many who are harassed and helpless and He is seeing the need for shepherds.
Do you see what God sees? Who will go? Vs 37-38
The harvest is plentiful: The harvest is ready now.
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. John 4:35
but the workers are few:
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. John 4:36
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.” John 4:37
A Final Thought from Isaiah 6
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
If we could focus in on what this brief section of scripture is saying we would have a real overview of what God is seeing. It is a powerful visual of a number of things.
To The Church. Vs 35
Towns and villages: Jesus went through all of them. We need to go through our neighbourhood, our community, and see the people who live there. We need to know who lives there. Who is it that God is showing us?
Teaching: People today have no God consciousness because He has been driven out of school and society by government and the media. We need to understand the need to reintroduce Jesus and to make Him known.
in their Synagogues: This is where we start but we cannot end the journey in God's house. We need venues. We need to find physical space in locations where the church can be gathered and we need to start there.
proclaiming the news of the kingdom: Renewal is the biggest need the church has. We need to get excited about the good news, the gospel. We are building God's Kingdom!
and healing every disease and sickness. What are we sharing? We had better be sharing a God who is a BIG GOD. He can heal every disease and sickness. I like the word EVERY. EVERY is the right word. Physical sickness, Social sickness, Emotional sickness. Spiritual sickness. Relational sickness. EVERY disease and sickness. Are we bold in what we have to share? Jesus was bold. He did not send us to preach a different gospel.
The need to organize the church and care for people. Vs 36
Crowds: I am certain that Jesus saw each individual with their own specific needs. I am also equally convinced that he viewed this as more than a one-on-one problem. There were needs that were common to the human experience and they needed to be addressed.
Compassion: Compassion goes far beyond empathy or sympathy. Compassion is not only vicarious but it is a realization that action is required. God calls us to be compassionate, not only to the poor and the homeless, those bound by sin and by addictions, but also to the sinner. Sin is a terrible condition worsened by denial. Those who do not recognize their need or who deny it are still worthy of our compassion because Jesus has compassion on them.
Have you ever been through a great trial? Perhaps you wondered why you were going through it. I want to suggest today that there is a purpose. God teaches us compassion so that we can show it to others.
1 Corinthians 1:3-5 tells us: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
Harassed and Helpless: Today we see very little encouragement in the world. People who could otherwise seek Christ are sent by social services to the wrong places for answers. The symptoms are being dealt with. The consequences are being dealt with, but Faith itself is being harassed. People who need God, who need a spiritual solution, are being diverted from Jesus Christ. We need to do something about that.
Sheep without a Shepherd: We need shepherds. Jesus is telling us we need spiritual leaders in the community. He is talking about ministry to crowds by people with compassion who see so many who are harassed and helpless and He is seeing the need for shepherds.
Do you see what God sees? Who will go? Vs 37-38
The harvest is plentiful: The harvest is ready now.
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. John 4:35
but the workers are few:
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. John 4:36
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.” John 4:37
A Final Thought from Isaiah 6
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”