Move Out: People

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

So what is in this verse that’s so important about people? We can see in this verse two distinct groups of people.

First, there’s an entire world full of people that need Jesus. But that’s quite overwhelming so let’s narrow that down a bit. Our community is full of people who need Jesus.

Second, there are a bunch of people who know Jesus. We call ourselves Christians. It comes from the term “Christos,” which means “little Christ.” People were called Christians by the gentiles to mock them, because they were living and behaving like Jesus Christ.

Jesus is saying, you know my father’s plan, is that those who know me (the second group) are supposed to get together with those who don’t know me (the first group).

The harvest is plentiful. The soil is rich and the crops have produced a magnificently large harvest. Our community is full of people who need Jesus.

But, there’s a problem. The laborers to reap the harvest are few. There aren’t enough people going out into the fields and harvesting the crop.

My reason for this “Move Out” series is that hopefully we might join the few. Maybe if we’re faithful in that we can attract others who want to labor and push the “few” up to “some.” Because, there’s a big harvest waiting and we need to get out into the fields.

We’ve started building the foundation for that. We’ve been praying for ourselves and each other to have the desire. We’ve been preparing our hearts and our minds for our roles. We’ve laid out some action steps the last few weeks.

Pray for laborers. Pray for ourselves and each other to have the desire to labor. Pray that God makes us laborers. Pray that God brings us more laborers.

Prepare to move out into the harvest. Prepare to be outside of our comfort zone. Prepare to move past our excuses. And prepare to make a commitment.

Jesus sends us to places. There are many places that Jesus will show up. We are to remain in our places and build the kind of relationships that prepare people for Jesus to show up.

Today is about the people in those places. The people who need Jesus. God’s purpose for our lives is to live out His plan. God’s plan is only concerned with people.

Jesus’ main focus in verse two is the harvest. People who don’t know Jesus. His plan has a single pinpointed focus. People.

People being forgiven. People being redeemed. People receiving hope. People receiving peace. People being saved.

We’re going to step outside Luke’s Gospel and go to Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew 9:35-38 and it will probably sound familiar.

Matthew 9:35–38 KJV 1900

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

The last part sounds really familiar doesn’t it? It says the same thing Luke 10 says. This may or may not have been a different occasion than what Luke records. However, Jesus probably said this a lot as He went through “all the cities and villages.”

However, this verse is packed with far more than just what matches Luke 10. It gives us a prime example of how we are to view and relate to people. It gives us great instruction in our role.

We can be confident in our roles by understanding what three segments of this verse teach.

Kingdom Focus First

Jesus Has Compassion

We Must Have Compassion

Kingdom Focus First

Jesus is kingdom focused first. What does that mean? How do we understand kingdom focused? Let’s look at verse thirty-five again.

Matthew 9:35 KJV 1900

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

It says Jesus was teaching in “thier” synagogues. Those places were built to praise and honor God! They were built as the place for God to be with His people. That means they would be Jesus’ synagogue, right?

But, Jesus says, “their synagogue” not “my synagogue.” He’s preaching the “gospel of the kingdom.” He’s preaching the good news of the kingdom. His focus is not on the present, temporary, worship centers, practices, and sacrifices.

No, His focus is on the eternal kingdom that God the Father is building through the work Jesus is doing. That is the cornerstone. That doesn’t mean we completely separate ourselves from the world or the world from the kingdom.

Jesus heals every sickness and every disease among the people. This has both spiritual and physical connotations.

You see, unlike all the ancient healers and even the healers of today, Jesus was 100% effective in physically healing those Who came to Him. But, He was also healing them spiritually and preparing them for the kingdom.

We are to be kingdom focused in our roles. Yes there are physical needs that must be addressed, but there is a far greater spiritual need that must be addressed. We can only do that through safe, intimate, loving relationships.

Jesus Has Compassion

In verse thirty-six we see the compassion of Jesus.

Matthew 9:36 KJV 1900

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

There are multitudes of people that need Jesus. The word for multitude here represents the common people, the rabble. It is meant to contrast the common people from the elites, the authorities. Those who run and control things

When Jesus sees the great number of common people, He’s “moved with compassion.” The Greek word “splanhnizomai” is an expression of deep compassion. It is similar to having deep feelings in our “gut” or “heart” of empathy for another person.

One commentator says, “outside the original parables of Jesus there is no instance of the word being used of men. It is always used to describe the attitude of Jesus and it characterizes the divine nature of His acts.”

This isn’t just deep human empathy, this is a divine compassion for lost people. People who are preyed upon from every direction with no source of protection. The KJV says, “they fainted and were scattered abroad.”

But, there are many different translations for the two Greek words translated here fainted and scattered.

You know me, I can’t just let that go. It might be an unhealthy obsession at this point.

But, as I dug into the Greek deeper to try and understand the differing translations I think the best translation is harassed and scattered.

The first Greek word Skyllo means to suffer trouble or harassment. to be troubled, to be harassed, to be bothered.

The second word rhipto means to throw with considerable force. To be cast down or tossed out.

Again we can see a two-fold meaning. Physically, these people are being preyed upon by the leaders who are supposed to be leading and protecting them.

Spiritually, because of our sin nature, we are cast down by God. We are spiritually harassed by Satan and his demons. We are scattered and lost.

The idea of sheep without a shepherd is significant. I’m going to be as nice as I can to sheep here. Because we are all sheep that belong to Jesus.

Sheep without a shepherd are in perilous danger. They are completely helpless and can’t defend themselves from any kind of predator.

They are stupid and will get themselves caught in thorn bushes, crevices, or anything else they might come across. That also translates into their foraging.

They will eat the grass all the way down to the roots, killing the grass in the pasture. Worse than that, they don’t know how to go find new pasture to forage. That’s why we hear all the time in Scripture about the shepherd leading sheep to greener pasture.

Because they don’t know how to find it on their own. Now, I don’t know about you, but that pretty much sums up exactly what happens to me when I try to do things without Jesus.

It’s the same today as it was then. Our society today is being devoured by Satan’s attack. Let’s face it, all people, us included at times, are so stupid we don’t even know we have to defend ourselves. We’re completely helpless against Satan’s attacks.

People are getting stuck in all kinds of thorn bushes and crevices with their own ideologies. They’re stuck in the idea of seeking physical pleasure and satisfaction on their own.

The problem is they have eaten all the grass down to the roots and have no idea how to get to greener pastures. They are so lost that they don’t even know they need greener pastures.

Jesus sees every single one of them as the lost sheep, aimlessly wandering, getting stuck in thorn bushes, and dying an eternal death. And He has a deep divine compassion for them.

He desires to be their shepherd and lead them to greener pastures. But the Father’s plan is not for Jesus to walk all over the earth and bring them home.

No, the plan is that we are supposed to go bring them home. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a deeply flawed plan. Jesus is relying on me, just another sheep, to go find and bring lost sheep back to the shepherd.

What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

We Must Have Compassion

However, that is the plan and we must trust in God to fulfill His plan.

Here’s the most interesting part of this passage for me. Jesus switches up his analogies. In verses thirty-seven and thirty eight, He goes from lost sheep without a shepherd to reaping a harvest.

Matthew 9:37–38 KJV 1900

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Did you catch the shift? It takes all the weight off our shoulders. Yes they are still helpless, stupid, lost sheep who will die without a shepherd. But so are we! Praise God for His grace and mercy, that we have Jesus as our shepherd.

Now Jesus is telling us that we must have the same kind of deep divine compassion for those sheep without a shepherd that He has. He is telling us we must have enough compassion to go harvest them.

Do you see the difference? He’s telling us He will and has grown the crop. All we have to do is the work to harvest it. And He says the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

How many Christians act like they have their salvation so not much else matters? We tend to be less than ambitious about getting into the harvest.

In fact, couch potato might describe some of us. Why? Are we afraid of rejection? Are we afraid we might get mocked? Are we afraid of talking to people? Are we afraid we don’t know enough?

I think the biggest reason why is because we just don’t have the deep, divine compassion for them that Jesus has. Without that compassion to move us off the couch, we tend to become selfish.

Jesus says, the harvest is there, all you have to do is go out in the fields and bring it in. That also implies a lot of work though right? Remember they didn’t have the big equipment we have today for harvesting.

They had to go cut every stalk by hand. They had to bring it all back and pull all the wheat coronals off the stalk by hand. They had to put all those coronals on the threshing floor and beat the chaff off the wheat. Then they had to lift it up and toss it in the air over and over again until all the chaff blew away leaving only the wheat.

It was a process. And that process had specific steps along the way that must be done before moving on to the next step or the process would fail.

It’s the same thing with our spiritual harvest. We are called into the harvest, but we have to follow the process or the harvest fails.

The first step in that process begins with us. Do we have that deep down, internal, divine compassion for the lost. Far too often we just see people as bodies occupying space. That is until they get in our way.

Sometimes they’re angry at us and we feel attacked. Sometimes they avoid us and we feel rejected. So, we allow our emotions to take over and lash out at them. That does nothing to help the harvest. We are cautioned to control our thoughts, our actions, and our tongues.

Have the love and compassion for them Jesus has and recognize their anger, their helplessness, their defensiveness, stems from confusion. They are confused about life and about themselves.

Be sincere and take the opportunities to build relationships. That’s the next step in the process. Build a sincere loving relationship that is safe. A relationship where they know we are absolutely in that relationship whether they come to our side or not.

A relationship where we are vulnerable with them so they can be vulnerable with us. Care about what they think and believe. Trust me there’s always some truth in those beliefs that we can learn from as well.

Let them express their beliefs without ever telling them they are wrong or giving any specific negative retort. Instead listen and learn from what they believe. Look for the truth in their belief and find areas within the truth to agree in small parts.

This opens the door for them to hear our views with an ear for learning instead of just listening to respond. Sometimes we just ask simple questions for them to think about, and let them answer however they choose. Again find the truth in their answer and agree on the common truth.

We have to find out the place they are starting and meet them there. Because they are on a certain stage of the harvest process and we have to complete that stage before we can move to the next stage.

Be praying for them and be praying for God to give you the wisdom and discernment you need in your interactions with them. Don’t rush the process, but don’t slow their movement down either. Allow the Spirit to work in their lives.

It takes time and work to harvest God’s crop, but the fruit is so sweet when we harvest it correctly. The only way we can do that is if we have the same deep down in our heart divine compassion for them that Jesus has for them.

Jesus is calling all of us to be His delegates. He’s calling all of us to labor in the harvest. That harvest is kingdom focused. So we must also remain kingdom focused.

We are called into the harvest because Jesus has a deep, divine compassion for the lost. His compassion is full of desire for them to come to Him as their Shepherd.

We must have the same compassion and desire for them that Jesus has for them. We must take the time to harvest correctly by going through the full process. Build the safe, loving, compassionate relationships that lead them to their eternal shepherd.

Jesus is about people. Lost sheep who need a shepherd. People who need a savior. Who do we know that needs compassion?

I’ll leave you with this question to ponder for the week.

Are we ready to form those loving, compassionate, safe relationships that lead people to Jesus?

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