Participant or Spectator
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Participant or Spectator?
Sunbury GMC 2/24/2021
Sunbury GMC 12/29/31
If you would go ahead and open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9, we will be looking there soon. I’m going to start with a story. Now I am not sure if I should or not. Last time I told a story some of my family were apparently offended that I ruined the ending to the story of the tortoise and the hare according to them. Some of them are here tonight so hopefully this story doesn’t bother their literary senses.
Imagine with me a desert. Your nostrils fill with the smell of dust. As you squint through the blinding haze of dust and brilliant sunlight’s you see people. Everywhere you look there are people, pressing after each other following someone. You follow. Why not? Everyone else is going this way so it must be important. Your sandaled feet stumble over the parched earth. Your feet are burned by sand and sun, and weary of walking. Who know how many or few hours you have walked?
Finally the throng stops moving forward. As the dust begins to settle a man steps from a boat. You realize you are at the sea. Why? Who is this man? Grass grows on the seashore, a cool relief for your weary feet.
The crowd stills. Suddenly you hear the man speaking plainly and clearly through He is far away. You stand, you listen. You forget your burnt and bruised feet and stand, hanging on every word. What is this teacher saying? It is unlike anything you ever heard. There is power in His gentle voice. Though what He says challenges all your knowledge you know he is correct!
You step forward to hear better, to get closer! It feels like just you and Him. Then you trip. A boy scampers past following a rough sailor.
“Careful boy.” You hear yourself growl.
The moment flies, the peace and wonder of His voice lost one your frustration. Your feet scream for relief. The miles of walking, and who know how long of standing and listening become too much. It feels that you have just come out of a trance! You see where you are, by the sea far from home. The sun beats directly on your back, you see the day is well nigh gone. As you take stock of your surrounding another reality grip you in the pit of your stomach. Hunger. No, not starvation, but that fierce hunger of a well-fed stomach protesting the lack of food. You realize that you have hardly eaten.
Suddenly food appears before you! That boy is back, offering his lunch. You refuse at first, then realize what is happening. His lunch is being passed through the whole crowd! The teacher breaks and blesses. It does not run out but increases! You sit on the cool grass and eat your fill.
As you eat, your mind runs. You now recognize this spellbinding teacher. It is Jesus. The man who does miracles. The prophet? The Messiah? Who knows? He is the man who called out for some to become fishers of men. You too now feel that call. But there are doubt, questions. What will you choose?
I. The Harvest is Plenteous
Matthew 9: 36 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.
37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.[1]
We know the story right? Jesus is teaching and traveling around the countryside. He sees the throngs of people following Him. He sees their lives, the emptiness, and the aimlessness. As sheep having no shepherd. He loves them He came to die for them! He turns to His disciples. “there are all these people needing a savior, needing a shepherd, needing a guide, but there are so few people to tell them about me! Pray that more laborers will be sent into the harvest!”
Do you see the multitudes today living aimless pointless lives? Do you see them wandering around like sheep without a shepherd? Do you see the masses searching for meaning? They are all around us even tonight! Pray, pray then that God will laborers into His harvest fields. The harvest is plenteous, the unsaved throng about us! The laborers are few pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers!
II. Go Ye Into all the world
Matthew 28: 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
As we turn in our Bibles to Matthew 28 we see I believe already the answer to the prayer! Pray ye the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers. Here we see the lord of the harvest, Jesus Christ Himself, sending forth laborers. His disciples, those who didn’t just follow after, but became like Him were sent into his harvest field. This call is for us as well! We, who try to be like Christ! We who do more than just follow Christ, we are called to go into the harvest field, and share the Love of God with all who will listen! Will we spectate the teachings of Jesus, or will we participate in building His eternal kingdom? The disciples participated, we see them change the world! Acts 1: 14-15 records the beginning of the story “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. 15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) [1]”
One hundred twenty. One hundred and twenty. He fed five thousand. Thousands praised Him as he entered Jerusalem. Over 500 saw the resurrected Jesus! So many spectators. Thousand upon thousands saw miracles. 5000 fed from his hand. Hundreds upon hundred healed by him. Yet only 120 participants began Christianity.
III. Do you love God?
I am reminded as I read these passages, see the prayer, and hear the call of God of when the lawyer tried to trap Jesus in His words. He asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. Jesus response is the core of the Bible and the gospel. “37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
I hear again the master saying 15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
I hear him asking Peter “Do you love me?” Then telling Peter to “Feed my Sheep.”
Then I find our loving Savior looking on the multitudes with compassion, with Love, seeing their aimless wanderings, their pointless struggles, their fruitless lives as sheep without shepherds. I see His love for us, for others. I hear him call us to Love Him and love others. I read the words commanding us to follow the example of Christ, the great shepherd, I hear His voice cry out “If you love me, keep my commandments” and I see as he commands all his followers to make disciples, to participate in building God’s kingdom, to reach out in love for others and tell of the love of God. Will you be a spectator or a participant?
IV. Will you be a spectator or a participant?
That’s the question I have for you tonight. Will you be a spectator, or a participant? Back to the story I opened with. The person stands feeling the pull of God, the call to be a fisher of man. He questions, he doubts, he wanders? What does he choose? Is he one who was in the upper room or one who cried in the end crucify Him? I do not know, for you are that person. You are in that story. No, you didn’t taste the dust, you didn’t see Jesus with your own eyes, you didn’t hear him with you ears. But you are there. You’ve heard the message! You’ve read the words, you’ve communed with God in your heart. You are there now, hearing the call of God. Hearing His voice saying “go and make disciples” hearing Him cry “feed my sheep” and hearing His gentle petition “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” You feel Him begging, pleading with you to reach out to those around you, to touch lives with the Gospel. He calls each of us to participate. I do not know then end of the story, because it has not been written yet. So what story will you write? Will you be a spectator as God builds His eternal kingdom? or will you be a participant?