Harvest the Humans
Notes
Transcript
Harvest the Humans
Matthew 9:35-38 (maybe Matthew 10:1-4 as well)
Jesus sees the deep human need, the harassed and helpless. The harvest has only increased. Our world is FULL of people desperate for, and ready for, the fruitful and beautiful life with God they were created and nurtured for. For some ludicrous reason, God has involved us in their eternal story: human harvesters. This is our commission, to harvest the humans, for their good and for God’s glory.
Pinewood Derby
Pinewood Derby
Once upon, many years ago, Logan was not the Man Scout you know today. He was not even yet a Boy Scout. He was merely a young Cub Scout.
We only did the one year… it wasn’t awesome and amazing in every way… but the best thing we did, besides the cool uniform, was the Pinewood Derby. I did these with my Dad growing up too. Logan designed the car, drew it out, and then he cut it out, sanded, polished, painted, glued on the little axles and wheels.
And he kind of whined and complained like the whole time. “Why are you making me do this?!” Now he looks back on it as a fond memory… but he saw it like a chore at the time.
And, to be honest, he didn’t know how to do any of the things right. He didn’t know how to use the saw or the Dremel, he was slow with the sandpaper, clumsy with the paintbrush.
It would have been way faster and easier to do it myself. … and I suspect that’s exactly what some of the kids Dad’s did. There were some suspiciously looking cars out there, nitro boosters, lift kits.
But him doing it was the point. Us doing it together was the point.
Jesus’ Ministry
Jesus’ Ministry
So here is Jesus… he’s now in the full swing of his ministry. He’s doing it all! We saw him do incredible miracles last week: casting out demons, healing the blind, RAISING the dead! People getting healed just by touching the tassels on his cloak.
He’s crushing it!
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.
Teaching in the Synagogues
Proclaiming the “Good News” of the Kingdom
Healing “every” disease
Here’s a great summary of Jesus’ ministry. Teaching, Proclaiming and Healing.
That’d be a great subtitle for the church, in the footsteps of Jesus. What do we do? We Proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven, we teach the Kingdom of Heaven, we bring the healing of Heaven - body, mind, soul, spirit… every disease and affliction.
Does Jesus continue to heal “every disease and affliction?” No, every healing even then was temporary, a sign to earn the opportunity to proclaim and heal. But does Jesus continue to heal miraculously? Absolutely!
So, if Jesus is coming to town and “Teaching, Proclaiming and Healing” everybody… they must be the happiest most awesome people ever. Not so much.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
I love this word “compassion” in Greek.
σπλάγχνον - Splagchnon - guts, bowels, the seat of emotions. The ancient world didn’t so much think of the heart as the center of feels, that was more the decider, the “guts” is where the feels are.
And that resonates with me. You ever have an emotion hit you like a gut punch, right in the feels, ooh. So much emotion it makes you nauseous maybe?
This isn’t an academic thing, it isn’t a distant idea like “some people in the world are hurting.”
There’s a famous quote, often misattributed to Stalin:
One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.
Jesus is actually seeing these people, moving among them, touching them… and even though he is healing their temporary diseases and ailments, he is bringing real help in the now…
Still, he is filled with “compassion.” Right here in the gut. Because?
They were “harassed and helpless”
NASB - “distressed and dispirited”
MSG - “confused and aimless”
NKJV - “weary and scattered”
And in all: “sheep without a shepherd.”
More than anything else they need, more than the healing of “every disease and affliction”… they need the shepherd. They need Jesus.
This is kind of strange, actually. The shepherd is there, right in front of them. He is a shepherd, looking at sheep, but seeing them as sheep without a shepherd… even though he is there shepherd.
Or… he wants to be. But there’s a missing step, a missing piece. They haven’t yet entered his fold, not his sheep yet.
And you would think Jesus “proclaiming and teaching” was the missing piece… but he did that already. Instead, bizarrely, the missing piece is something someone else is going to do.
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
“the laborers are few.” Isn’t that odd? If Jesus is a “laborer,” he’s right there… why would you need more laborers? Jesus has already taught, already proclaimed, already healed. It’d make more sense to me to say that over the towns he didn’t get to, but he’s talking about “sheep without a shepherd” when he’s right there.
This is the way God designed this to work. A vital part in the sheep coming to the shepherd, in the fruitful harvest of the humans, in bringing men and woman to be disciples of Jesus… is another human being, sent by God, to be part of the harvest.
Folks like you and me. Disciples of Jesus bringing people to Jesus.
Does God need that? No. And sometimes he just jumps in and appears to people. Paul on the road to Damascus. I’ve heard a bunch of stories of men in Iran encountering Jesus in their dreams and coming to faith. How cool is that!
But the vast VAST majority of the time, God uses another human being to plant a seed, water and nurture the crop, reap the harvest.
To pull back the metaphor: sharing about Jesus, the love of Jesus, and ultimately praying with someone to recognize and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Why does God make us part of it? Widely considered a “bad idea.”
The story goes that Jesus ascends into heaven, and the angels are gathered around watching the few dozen disciples staring slack-jawed up at the sky.
They ask “Jesus, what’s the plan, the church growth plan, what’s the big reveal?”
Jesus points down at the rag tag bunch of small-town backwater numbskulls… “they are, that’s the plan.”
The angels look at each other. They look at Jesus. They look at the disciples. Peter. John. Thomas. Matthew? James the Lesser… I mean, it’s in the name.
“Okay, let’s say that’s Plan A. What’s Plan B?”
Jesus says, “There is no Plan B.”
And yet, from the very beginning, Jesus invites us to be laborers for the harvest. More than that, he is moved with compassion for the lack of hands for the harvest.
And what is the response?
Time for Guilt and Shame
Time for Guilt and Shame
Okay, a sermon about the lost, and how we should all be doing more, evangelizing more… bring on the guilt and shame!
That’s my goal, I win if I can use guilt and shame to motivate you into grudgingly, reluctantly, awkwardly… inviting your coworker or neighbor to church.
And you win if you can avoid that… or maybe find the least weird and least awkward way to fulfill your “evangelism quota.” Maybe a muttered “I’ll pray for you” at work? Perhaps a veiled Jesus t-shirt of some kind, maybe a conversation gets started?
I can’t say the “evangelism” conversation isn’t coming. We are sent, we are commissioned and on-mission, we are equipped, we are called, we need to be BOLD in making disciples of Jesus Christ. All of that. It’s coming. More about that next week.
But, this is interesting, that isn’t where Jesus starts.
He doesn’t say “Woe to all of you who aren’t doing your jobs!”
What does he say?
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Pray earnestly.
And Jesus doesn’t just say that. He does it. Next verses, he calls the twelve:
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
What did he do before he called the twelve? Matthew doesn’t mention it, but Luke does:
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
Pray earnestly for God to send the laborers, he goes out and prays all night long… that’s some earnest prayer… and then gives special anointing to these 12 men. What a motley bunch.
Those 12 are among those disciples that he calls to “pray earnestly for laborers...”
The call is coming, the sending is coming. But you aren’t sent by me. You are sent by Jesus. Sent by YHWH. Sent where and when by His call and His command and His anointing.
So in that prayer, as we should be in all prayer, our hands are open, our mind is open, if Jesus wants to send us. Not my will, but yours be done.
Compassion for the Harassed and Helpless
Compassion for the Harassed and Helpless
First, step 1, let’s pray for the compassion of Jesus.
Not the general “folks are hurting.” The specific, I see it, kind of compassion. The “in-the-gut” compassion, where we actually care.
Perhaps there are people you have a harder time feeling that for. Numb to it, cold to it.
Harassed and helpless in the park.
This coming Tuesday I’ll be meeting with the Chief of Police, his Deputy, the City Manager, the Parks Manager, the head of CRU… to talk about “lunch in the park.” We will see what they come with, but every expectation is that they want to shut the whole thing down and are coming with a laundry list of excuses why.
I suspect the real reason is “we don’t like to see ‘those people’ there… so let’s hide them somewhere else.
I hope for better. I’m praying for better. I’m praying God gives compassion, he can change the hardest of hearts.
There are harassed and helpless in the park. There are harassed and helpless in the high rises of Denver. There are sheep without a shepherd next door to your house, in your school and in your workplace.
No matter what God does. No matter who God sends… I pray for the heart of Jesus. To see it. To feel it.
I pray that God gives us compassion BIGGER than we can handle, bigger than what and where we can serve… that we know the task is bigger than us. It always has been.
Pray for the Harvest
Pray for the Harvest
It’s the Harvest Season. Fall starts tomorrow, September 22nd. First day of Fall.
Pumpkins and Corn Maizes… it’s all because the harvest is in.
Let us pray earnestly for the harvest, hands for the harvest, disciples with the heart of Jesus, called to the hungry, the hurting, the desperate, the weary and scattered.
This month we are practicing meditation, this is a great verse to sit with Jesus in. See the sheep without a shepherd. See the harvest ready in the fields. God send help!
Prayer (October 5th, all about prayer)… pray for the harvest. Pray for the harassed and helpless. Pray for YHWH to send out laborers into his harvest. Asking. Asking persistently. Let compassion drive us to ask relentlessly.
First, Lord, give us your heart for the harassed and the helpless. May we have real and honest compassion.
Lord, we pray, send the workers, send the laborers, send folks who are called and commissioned, ready and willing, equipped with words to say, hearts to love, hands to help.
Finally, we do call you “Lord.” If you would, when you would, wherever you will... send us out. Give us the authority to proclaim, to teach, to heal as you send. Let us not be reluctant and guilt-ridden...
Let us be full of compassion, full of authority, Sent and Ordained by you.