Harvest

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It once more continues to be my great privilege and pleasure to share the Word of God with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church.

William R. Klemm was a professor of Neuroscience at Texas A&M. He authored 20 books related to his field and published numerous articles. Professor Klemm passed away June 21, 2021.

Less than a month prior, on May 26, 2021, Professor Klemm published his last article for the online resource, Psychology Today. I haven’t read much from Professor Klemm, nor do i know of the theological background and influences, but his last article, entitled “Our Narcissistic Culture” stuck a chord with me and I wanted to share some of its content with you this morning.

The article begins, “I, I, I, me, me, me. We are becoming a nation of narcissists. We are so focused on superficial personal identity that it makes us obsessed with race, ethnicity, sex, and political ideology. Tattoos, body piercing ornaments, and body enhancement surgery have not been enough to satisfy our self-obsession.”

Not to be confused as a novel topic, Professor Klemm then discusses the origins of the word Narcissism, coming from the greek legend of Narcissus. He then explains how Narcissism “causes the pursuit of self-serving behaviors that are psychologically unhealthy, and that aggravate an underlying lack of empathy and self-esteem that stunt psychological maturation.”

He then dives into the social problems that result from narcissistic behaviors. Some of those he listed include:

- “Cheating, deception, and lying have become a new normal, most notably in education, business, politics, and the media.

- Riots motivated across a range of left-to-right ideologies seem to be increasing.

- Marriage is in decline; more couples are deliberately childless.

- People are making more and more unrealistic demands on society and government to cater to their perceived needs.”

He then concludes his article with a stingingly true statement:

“Selfishness is our god. We worship ourselves. It causes suffering for everyone, including the narcissists.”

Much of what the Neuroscientist noted about the world coincides with the truth we are given in God’s Word.

2 Timothy 3:1–5 ESV

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

This list of godless behaviors are complimentary to the list of narcissistic behaviors noted by Professor Klemm because when we make ourselves out to be the god of our lives, when we worship ourselves, when we confuse the cosmic order of creation, when we are narcissists we are practically, if not literally from an intimate personal and spiritual perspective, godless.

Today I am hoping to showcase how narcissism effects not only our views of ourselves, but also our view of God and the things of God.

Let’s look at this idea broadly, then we will look at it specifically in our given text this morning.

A Narcissistic view of God and God’s Word, places us, or more specifically ME, as the point of God and God’s Word. When I have this view I look to every page trying to see myself, trying to see our own image. I look for what this text does FOR me. I try to see how I can use this for my immediate benefit. I might even step over the parts that make me uncomfortable. I begin to believe that the chief end of God is to glorify ME and enjoy MY presence forever!

If you think I’m talking too much about myself right now, then you get the gold star! We learned last week in the children’s question that WE ought to glorify GOD because HE is the Creator! He is the One from whom all blessings flow!

As we read the Word and learn about God, we see that while there are many good promises given to us, every page is proclaiming that God is the One deserving to be served.

We have spent the last couple of months walking through the Signs and Conversations that Jesus had in His earthly ministry contained in Matthew chapters 8-9. The narcissistic reading of those chapters would lead us to believe that WE will certainly be healed of all of our afflictions. The Narcissistic reading would lead us to believe that WE are certainly given access to the same great supernatural power Jesus displays. The Narcissistic reading would lead us to believe that if we just pray hard enough WE will raise dead and bring our loved one’s back to us for our immediate pleasure. But the Narcissistic reading, then, would be leading us to lies. And when those afflictions don’t leave us, when our loved ones don’t return to us, when we feel like we’ve prayed all we can pray and still don’t have the results we desired, we then get frustrated and turn away from the God who didn’t bow to us, when in reality we were to be bowing to Him the entire time.

When we remove the narcissism and take God’s Word for what it is truly meant to be, we see something glorious. We see that the great healings of Jesus proclaim His Authority. We see that He is worthy to be served even through our affliction. We see that He is deserving of our praise because of His incomparable glory. We see what an expression of Love it is for the God of glory to step into a sin corrupted world, live, and die, and rise again to bring a corrupted creature like you and me before the throne of the uncorrupted God.

We struggle with narcissism. And that will be tested today. Even in the last verse from the section of 2 Timothy 3 we have on the screen today. In that section we’re given a list of godless types of people. We’re told to avoid such people. The Narcissistic reading would lead us to the same place as the Pharisees and the Scribes. Meaning that we mark such people as unreachable, unworthy of the gospel, and we grow insular. We look at the world around us, see the real depravity that there is, and retreat. You say “pastor, it says it right there! Avoid such people!” But in the context of Paul’s letter to Timothy, Paul is giving instruction intended to protect the church from being influenced by false teachers. He is not contradicting the love that we are to have and show for all people made in the image of God. Today as we wrap up Matthew 9, Jesus shows us that while we avoid being influenced and taught by the godless, we are to have great compassion for all people. Our Narcissism doesn’t allow us to do that. But it is my hope that as we walk through the text we would learn from the compassion of Christ to Love God first and other’s second, even before ourselves.

With that in mind, turn if you have not already, to Matthew 9 and we will begin in verse 35.

As we are turning there, we can be reminded that immediately before this, Jesus was confronted by narcissistic theologians. The Pharisees accused Jesus Christ of accomplishing His wonderful miracles by the very power of Satan. We said last week that these Pharisees were truly spiritually blind. They were unable to see beyond their own selves and process the great glory of the God-man, Jesus Christ. Where we come to this morning is in direct contrast to the blind Pharisees’ conclusions. Begin with me in verse 35.

Matthew 9:35–36 ESV

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 harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

We have discussed throughout this series and even this morning that Jesus is the Ultimate Authority. He is the one that is worthy to be praised and deserving to be served in every aspect of our lives, simply because of who He is, the second person of the Triune God. The incredible thing about Jesus is that He is not only the epitome of excellence whom we serve, but He is also the model for us to follow. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, imitate me as I imitate Christ. We look to the actions of Christ as the perfect blueprint for godly living.

In this verse, Jesus works in direct contrast to the actions of the religious leaders of that day. Jesus looks to the crowds of people and has great compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. This requires us to ask, “Who, prior to Christ, ought to have been the shepherd for those helpless sheep?” Well, it ought to have been the very Pharisees and Scribes whom claimed to serve God while calling the Son of God a servant of Satan. Make a note to read through Matthew 23. There Jesus lists out the ways the scribes and the Pharisees abused the people. They sat in positions of Authority, like that of Moses, but they deny the real righteousness of God. They preach to the people, but they do not practice what they preach. Instead of tending to the sheep like a Shepherd is to do, they would tie heavy burdens and lay them on the people’s shoulders. They cherished their titles above all else. They lacked true justice, mercy, and faithfulness. They were blind guides. In summation they were self-serving narcissists.

Now contrast that to Jesus! If anyone has a right to be self-involved focussed and aggrandizing it would be the One who spoke Creation into existence! But instead, the Son of God stepped into corrupted creation and shows genuine compassion for it! While God is totally self-sufficient, out of His deep and perfect love He cares for little people like you and me, whom He does not need nor is He dependent upon, but even so He loves us anyway!

Jesus exemplifies this idea through deep compassion and action. The word for compassion in verse 36 carries the connotation of feelings that hit deep to the core of our being. We all know how this depth of emotion but we typically express it in self-serving ways. We say, “I hate that guy with all my guts.” Or when we get called out by someone our heart sinks deep in our chest. The compassion that Jesus is exuded in these verses carries the deep and tangible weight of emotion that we all well know in our varies experiences, but it is not self-serving, its self-giving and shows a desire for the betterment of others. Jesus feels this compassion knowing full and well that He would be going to the cross to save these people from their sins. He knows the great cost of laying aside the privileges of heaven, veiling His glory, and submitting to the Father. One scholar wrote “At His incarnation He remained ‘in the form of God’ and as such He is Lord and Ruler over all, but He also accepted the nature of a servant as part of His humanity.” And serve He did!

Jesus lived and served with great compassion, but how did He practically live that out? What can we learn from Christ here?

There is a three point paradigm for the ministry of Jesus Christ given to us in verse 35. Jesus taught, Jesus proclaimed the Gospel, and Jesus met people at their point of need.

Let’s quickly explain and apply these three acts today.

Teaching in the synagogues. The synagogue was the center of Jewish life. It was a school, a worship center, a town hall, and a courthouse all rolled into one. Within the Synagogue there were opportunities to teach. In the public portions, there would be prayer followed by a reading from the law of Moses which was proceeded by an exposition, an explanation of the text. In these cultural centers, qualified men were allowed to teach the crowds from the passage that was read. You can see Jesus, and Paul for that matter, do this frequently throughout the gospels and the book of Acts. In these moments, Jesus rightly and masterfully explained the meaning of God’s Word. You can reference Luke 4:16-21 to see an example of Jesus teaching all of Scripture is about Him. The modern equivalency of this is our church! Though the church is often not the center of our society it should be and the synagogue was, the church is the place where we gather together to hear proper teaching from the Word of God. We are correctly teaching when we are showing how the Word of God points to Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ.

The second act of Jesus’ paradigm for ministry is proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. This would not have been limited to the synagogue, but taking place as Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages. It happened in the synagogues, but also on the street corners, in the homes, on and off the beaten path. The gospel of the kingdom is the reality of the present spiritual kingdom of God’s people. It is the “understanding of the grace of God in truth” as it is put in the book of Colossians. It is the message of the book of Matthew. The Gospel is that Jesus Christ is the rightful Authority over creation worthy of our devotion who loves us and reconciles us to the Holy God through His sacrifice on the cross to pay the cost of the sins for all who believe in Him. This applies directly today as it ought to be our proclamation as well! Those who understand the grace of God in truth, the gospel, are to proclaim it! To implore others in the church, on the street corner, in your office, in your neighborhoods, to be reconciled to God through faith in the Son.

The final act of Jesus’ paradigm for ministry explained here was meeting people at their point of need. Verse 35 says that Jesus healed every different kind of disease and affliction in the places that He went. Now, we have noted extensively throughout this series that the healings accomplished by Jesus showcase His divinity and authority. There is no one on the earth today who can match this power, nor was healing for the sake of healing the overarching point of Jesus’ ministry. However, in the context of our verses this morning we see that healing was directly related to the compassionate Jesus has for humanity. For the church today, we don’t have the power to heal on command. But, we are commanded to do good unto all people. To seek their betterment. To compassionately serve at their point of need, as our church’s core value 4 points out.

Jesus, as our great model shows us that God-honoring ministry is not centered around building our own, personal kingdoms, but rather compassionately seeing the crowds, the masses of harassed and helpless sheep without a shepherd and being compelled by the Love of God and the love of others to teach the Word, proclaim the gospel, and meet people at their point of need. We are to chuck our narcissism out the door, serve God and serve others.

And there is much to be done. Jesus notes as much in the next verse from our text this morning.

Matthew 9:37 ESV

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

In this verse, Jesus switches His metaphor from shepherding to the harvest. It is pertinent to discuss the harvest at this time of the year. My wife I were just commenting this week about how the leaves are already turning to the beautiful shades of orange and red and yellow. I don’t want to speak beyond my knowledge but I think the farmers amongst us will confirm that this is the time of the year where the fields are being harvested. In the harvest the good crops are kept and the bad crops discarded. Throughout the Bible you will find the imagery of the harvest pointing to Judgment. One pastor noted, “Jesus ministered compassionately and tirelessly because He could see the ultimate consummation of divine judgment towards which every person in the multitudes would be headed.” It is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment.

Jesus poignantly points out that there is much to do, many good fruits to cultivate, but the laborers are few. He uses the same word for laborers in Matthew 10:10 to describe the disciples that He is sending out to proclaim the gospel and minister to people in need. This shows us that Jesus’ plans for the cultivation of His Kingdom is to work through people. While the means of miracles may be different today, the method of sending people to proclaim the gospel and serve others from a place of compassion has stayed true ever since this declaration of Christ some 2000 years ago. Christ has built His kingdoms, expanding to the east and the west, the gates of hell have not prevailed against it, and it grows even today through the ordinary method of sharing the gospel and allowing others to understand the grace of God.

It is at this point in our text where we should be seeing the great honor and responsibility it is to join Christ in the efforts of teaching, preaching, and serving. The laborers may be few, but they are not laboring in vain. Church, our congregation, all believers in the Lord for that matter, have the responsibility to work in the fields of the Lord and prepare the harvest. Jesus taught His disciples who taught disciples who taught disciples who made it all the way to today! We are to join in those efforts!

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” I can honestly say that I am thankful to the pastor here and be afforded the opportunity to spend my life caring for the members of this church through prayer, strategy, and study of God’s Word. Sometimes when I’m talking with people I find that I just can’t shut up talking about pastoring our church in the corner of Clay’s Ferry. Maybe you’re like that in your profession, you loved being a firefighter or a stone mason or a nurse practitioner, and you find it being a consistent point of conversation in your life. When we really care about what we’re doing, it becomes for than an obligation, it is a part of who you are.

Now, I know we all have different vocations and we are all in different parts of our lives. However, if you have been saved by grace through faith, you have been given a lofty calling to be an ambassador for Christ! Think about how cool it is that God literally makes His appeal to the masses through you! Church, teaching the Word, proclaiming the gospel, and serving in times of need are not the begrudging obligations of the grunt worker! They are the life’s calling for the sinner saved by grace! It is a joy that we GET to do such things. It is a response to the grace of God that we have come to understand through the hearing of the gospel! We need to understand that the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few, but as the laborers, are efforts are not in vain, they are instead a great joy of incalculable value!

When I’ve heard this passage preached, this is the point that I’m always left with: The church has a job! I’m part of the church! So I better get to work! And there is truth in that, but if we were to stop right there, it would be a bit of a narcissistic interpretation! We put the burden on ourselves to accomplish the harvest. We think the whole weight of the church lies on our back! After some time toiling in the fields, the sweat begins to show through our shirts and we’re ready to give up on the mission because we’re not capable of accomplishing the task on our own. So while it is true that we must get to work, we must simultaneously realize and rest in the reality that we are invited into the work, but we are not the make or break of the work. Look where Jesus points the attention. He acknowledges there is much to do and few to do it, but then He says this in the final verse from our text this morning.

Matthew 9:38 ESV

therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Before we ever get to work as a church, we need to be reminded who is already at work. That is Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, the Triune God. Our response to the great plight of sin in society is to get to work but it is first to get on our knees! Therefore, since there is much to do, Christ says PRAY! Pray earnestly, pray fervently, pray vigorously to the Lord! Because He is the one who sends out the workers! And the Incredible thing is that in our passage this morning and for us today is that Jesus is already at work! In the direct context, immediately following this verse, Jesus sends out the 12 to do the very work we have been talking about this morning! Before any of us were ever recruited to join in this endeavor, the Holy Spirit had already been working through the lives of faithful believers to continue to the spread of the gospel and get it to us.

Then as we join in this labor, we are to begin first not by resting the results of the work on our own shoulders like God’s plan can finally happen because I’M on board! No, that is the narcissistic reading! We join this labor by first going to the Lord in prayer because we realize that we are utterly dependent upon Him every single step of the way!

On the flip side, you might think, Brad, if everything that has happened in the book of Matthew points to Jesus’ Authority and if the work is wholly dependent upon the Lord of the Harvest, why does He need me? Why can’t I just settle in to be the frozen chosen? This is once again a narcissistic reading of the text. When we think like this we mischaracterize the nature of God to justify our sluggish nature. When we look at the whole of God’s Word, given to us by a gracious God who allows us to know Him through His Word, we see that God is a God of means. God works consistently through people. He uses our prayers for our own good. O Donnell notes, “He uses even his own Son. God does not sit behind a thundercloud and zap all our sins and infirmities away. He sends his Son, in our very flesh, to touch blind eyes, crippled legs, dead bodies, and sin-stained souls. So, it’s an attribute-of-God issue. It is part of who God is and how he has decided to work in this world.”

When we are tempted by our narcissistic tendencies to question why God is the way He is we are being utterly foolish.

A couple months ago I got in a well spirited argument with a brother in this church, one Charlie Davis. Now if you know Charlie and I, you know neither of us are very opinionated so its probably hard to imagine either of us getting in a debate. Well, we were arguing over the location of a gas station down town. You see I spent a few years living on 5th street in Lexington. I drove the area all the time and knew it well. So I was adamant, the gas station was on the corner of elm tree and 3rd street across the street from the Lyric theatre. Charlie was adamant that it was not there. It was on the corner of 3rd street and MLK. I said Charlie I lived there. I went to the gas station a number of times. Its across from the Lyric Theatre. (Riveting debate topic, I know). Charlie said it wasn’t, its on the corner of 3rd and MLK. So I, being the tech guy, got on google maps and turned on the street view, went to the lyric theatre, turned around to face the camera across from the Lyric theatre, the corner of Elm and 3rd. And there it was the gas station! Except one problem. It wasn’t there. I was looking at a parking lot. I headed down the street to the corner of 3rd and MLK and wouldn’t you know it but Mr. Davis was right. The gas station was right there. You see, I may have lived in that area for a couple of years, but Charlie was a firefighter at the station right beside the gas station for over 20 years. In my hubris, I devalued the words of the expert. In my narcissism I thought I knew better.

When it comes to God, He is the ultimate expert on Himself and He has expertly made Himself known to us through His infallible Word. To get back to our question from a moment ago, Why does God need me to work for His harvest? According to His Word, He doesn’t NEED me, but He is a good of means and graciously chooses me, chooses us, chooses His church to accomplish the good works He has prepared beforehand for us to walk in them. When we see the plight of sin in the world the right response is to be moved with compassion to reach the masses, and that begins with dependent pray to the Lord of the Harvest.

What we have talked about this morning should be convicting us. We should see the great need there is to teach, proclaim, and serve. But our conviction should be seen in light of Lord of the Harvest. Our conviction should be centered around seeing the worthiness of Christ of to be served, not about trying to be good enough for the sake of being good enough. We’re not good enough. But Christ is! And knowing that is the total point! “Jesus has built his church, is building his church, and will build his church, and all the powers of Hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus is at work.”

If you take nothing from this series, take this: The beauty of the real Jesus sent to serve with compassion by God the Father, made know to us through the Proclamation of the Word and understood by the Holy Spirit leaves no room for narcissism. This World is not about us. It is about Jesus Christ who compassionately invites us from brokenness in sin to reconciliation with the Holy God. To Him be the glory and dominion forever. Amen.

Do not create a self-centered Gospel. Allow me to share with you the real Christ centered gospel of the Kingdom once more:

Three Circles Graphic