Four Questions to Help Develop a Harvest Minded Church.

Matthew 9:35–38 CSB

Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”

Introduction: I have a very familiar sign with me this morning. I’m pretty sure you have seen one before or at least one like it. It’s a help wanted sign.

If you are a business owner, you may have used one of these before. Finding qualified candidates can be a challenge, especially these days. Finding any candidate can be a challenge since people don’t want to work any more.

Usually you have a job description and qualifications in mind for the people you want to hire. Mostly though you want a candidate that is going to be reliable and hard working, a person that can be trusted.

If you are a job seeker, you are looking for a company that values your service and skillset. You are looking for a job that is going to provide for you needs as well as give you a sense of accomplishment.

I don’t know how much you have thought about this but did you know God always has a help wanted sign out? He is looking for workers to go out into the fields to reap the harvest.

The number one qualification that he is looking for is availability. He is the one that qualifies the called.

Today, I want to look at 4 questions to help develop a harvest minded church.

Do You See What Jesus Saw? (v. 35)

In the context of these verses, we see Jesus out among the cities and villages doing the work of the gospel.

Look at where he was...

He was not set up in a building somewhere on the corner of First Street and Oak Avenue preaching from a pulpit. Nothing wrong with that by the way. The saints need equipping.

Jesus was out where the people were. He was combing the highways and hedges looking for the lost. We would say he was out beating the bushes.

A majority of contacts that Jesus had with people were out in the community.

Why is it that most of the ministry that modern churches plan and execute is behind the walls of the church building?

And I might add, one of the worst things a church can do for a pastor is expect him to keep office hours just in case they want to stop by and check on him. He needs to have the freedom to be out where the people are.

Gone are the days when church attendance comes across people’s radar screen. This was a trend that started before Covid, Covid just accelerated it.

We must bring the gospel to the people.

We must see what he was seeing...

“When he saw the crowds”

He saw multitudes of hurting people.

He saw that they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus looked beyond the outward appearance of people and saw their heart.

It is easy look upon people’s outward appearance but much harder to understand what is going on in their heart.

I do a lot of ministry in downtown Raleigh at the bus station. We regularly interact with a lot of hurting people. Drug addicts, alcoholics, homeless, and racists to name a few. UNDER THE SURFACE…they are people who are made in the image of God who need Jesus.

illus. One of our regulars is a hispanic man named Joseph. Sometimes he is there in his right mind and reasonable. Other times, he is strung out, stumbling around high. You have to watch to make sure he doesn’t step out in the street in front of a car. Each time we see him in his right mind, he takes a Bible or a gospel tract and he reads it. This week, he told us that he now has a place to stay. I believe that the Lord is working in his heart. Will you pray for him?

We must learn to see people as Jesus saw people. He didn’t condemn their unbelief.

Illus. A Song by Brandon Heath - Give Me Your Eyes.

Step out on the busy street

See a girl and our eyes meet

Does her best to smile at me

To hide what's underneath

There's a man just to her right

Black suit and a bright red tie

Too ashamed to tell his wife he's out of work, he's buyin' time

All those people goin' somewhere, why have I never cared?

Give me Your eyes for just one second

Give me Your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me Your love for humanity

Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me Your eyes so I can see.

Do You Feel What Jesus Felt? (v. 36)

What do you think it would be like to walk among a crowd of people and be able to feel everything that they were feeling at that moment. All the disappointment, heartache, pain, the grief, the shame, the guilt, the anxiety, and stress - all at once.

That is very much the idea being communicated here when it says that Jesus had compassion for the crowd. That is how he felt.

The idea of compassion here means “from the pit of your stomach.” Have you every felt something from the pit of your stomach? Have you ever been punched in the gut? I used to study Shotokan karate. Whenever we would spar, there was this one guy who always managed to punch me in the gut. I could handle the other blows and kicks but that one always got me.

Illus. Jesus looked at the marching, milling multitudes on their way to Hell, and Jesus wept tears over them. “He was moved with compassion”—not just that He had compassion; “he was moved with compassion” - Adrian Rogers

He felt this way because he saw the spiritual condition of these people.

They were distressed - troubled, harassed, bothered. It could also mean that they fainted.

They were dejected - it means that they were cast out or thrown away. Thrown to the ground prostrate.

A sheep would sometimes fall in such a way that their backs were to the ground and their feet were up flailing in the air. They can’t get back on their feet without help from the shepherd.

They were like sheep without a shepherd. Sheep without a shepherd are in danger of being devoured by predators. They are helpless. They can’t even find the basic sustenance that they need to survive.

Paul spoke of the feeling that he had for his fellow Jews that they would be saved.

Romans 9:1–3 CSB

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.

Do You Do What Jesus Did? (vv. 35-36)

Notice what Jesus was doing...

He was teaching. Even though it says he was teaching in their synagogues, the original word for teaching refers to both formal and informal teaching. Think witnessing.

He was proclaiming the gospel. The Greek word means, “To publicly announce religious truths and principles while urging acceptance and compliance - to preach.

Romans 10:14–15 CSB

How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

It also says that Jesus was healing every disease and affliction. He was healing people as a sign to confirm that what he was preaching was true.

I’m not so sure that there are people who specifically gifted at healing these days but I do believe God heals. Whenever a person repents and believes the gospel, that person is made whole (Healed) spiritually.

Now I find it interesting that in the next chapter, we begin the chapter with Jesus giving his 12 disciples the authority to go out and do the same kind of ministry that Jesus was doing.

That was his intention from the very beginning to raise up leaders who would carry on the work after his ministry on earth was complete. They were workers in the harvest.

God is on mission to redeem a lost world and he invites us to join him in that mission.

Illus. "We were not saved from our sin simply so that we would qualify for heaven. God delivered us so we would have a relationship with Him through which He could carry out His mission to redeem a lost world." ~ Henry Blackaby

Illus. “Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about him.” ~ Spurgeon

Ephesians 4:11–12 CSB

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,

Do You Pray What Jesus Told You to Pray? (v. 37)

Reflecting upon what He had seen, Jesus commented first upon the fullness of the harvest.

John 4:35 ESV

Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

He said that harvest is plentiful and ready...

There has never been a shortage of people who need Jesus in our world. 42.5% of the world’s population is considered unreached with the gospel according to the Joshua Project.

The lost are everywhere. You are surrounded by them every day. And most of them are ready to hear the gospel.

Picture in your mind a waving field of golden grain ripe to harvest. We don’t farm a lot of wheat around here so perhaps another image is appropriate.

A field of white cotton, each bowl is open exposing it’s fluffy white contents. a seas of white as far as you can see. It’s waiting for the farmer to put the combine in the field.

The impact of Jesus image is lessened for us because in our modern time, we have the technology and equipment that allows a handful of people to actually reap the harvest.

In Jesus day, that was not the case. It took many laborers working by hand to bring in the harvest.

And he goes on to say that the size of the harvest outstrips the number of laborers. There is a labor shortage.

Therefore Jesus talked about the failure of the harvest.

There was nothing wrong with the harvest. It was the fact that there were not enough harvesters.

When it comes to vocational ministry, fewer young people are considering full-time ministry for their life’s work. 1.5% of pastors leave the ministry completely. 70% of pastors going into ministry drop out within the first 10 years.

But we need to look beyond those who are called to vocational ministry.

We need every believer on deck. Every believer witnessing. Sharing the gospel with their neighbors and friends.

Jesus tells us that we must pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest.