Matt. 9:35-10:1

35 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.‌

Our passage begins with a short summary Matthew has included earlier in His gospel. In Matthew 4:23, Matthew began writing about the ministry of Jesus in the exact way He does in Mathew 9:35. The difference between the two is that in Matthew 4, it was a ministry that began in the region of Galilee and in Matthew 9:35 it is expanded and will be further expanded with the disciples.

Matthew 9:35 reiterates what Jesus had done, is doing, and will be doing until His expected death. This verse marks a special transition in Matthew’s gospel that communicates we have reached a new stage in Jesus’ ministry, one that looks ahead to the cross and the beginning of the church.

Before we look ahead, we must be reminded by what Matthew has said about who Jesus is and what He is doing. The ministry of Christ is accomplished in revealing Jesus as (1) the teacher who teaches, (2) the messenger who proclaims the gospel of the kingdom, (3) and the great physician who heals every disease and every affliction.

The gospel of Matthew from chapters 5 to 9 operates in accordance with the summary given by Matthew. From Matthew 5-7, Jesus is teaching before the crowds in His famous Sermon on the Mount. This sermon highlights various laws from the Old Testament that Christ expands on. Everything concerning anger, lust, divorce, giving to the poor, and more must be handled rightly but most of all, they must be handled with a heart that loves God.

The popular teaching that was in opposition to Jesus was one that stressed perfect obedience to the law. Do this and you will be rewarded. Do this and you will be recognized by others as worthy of entering the kingdom of Heaven. This way of life was measured by speaking and doing rightly which presented a “false religion”. While God does care about living in obedience to Him, what He desires most as taught by Jesus is the posture of the heart. Holiness is not something earned in obedience but rather given to the one who finds rest in the Lord.

Jesus was the good teacher who taught the way of life, but not only was He the good teacher, but He was also the messenger sent by God to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom. The sermon on the Mount contains various teachings from the good teacher but within and around those teachings is a message of fulfillment. Jesus near the beginning of His sermon even, makes that clear as He stated that He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. If He has come to fulfill the law, then what He is doing is providing a literal entry way into the family of God.

The Old Testament Law as we know, explains how we can honor God, but it also makes a clear distinction between who God is and who His people are, as we are not like God. While the Law is good and necessary it does not bridge the gap between Creator and Creation. What does bridge the gap is the One who the prophets spoke about and brought fulfillment. When Jesus proclaims the gospel of the Kingdom, the good news that He is proclaiming is that He is here. He says repeatedly that the kingdom of Heaven is at hand and what that speaks is that we can see it, feel it, and experience it through Him.

Jesus is the good teacher, He is the messenger sent from the Father and thirdly, He is the great physician who heals every disease and every affliction. As great and necessary it is for Christ to teach and proclaim good news, the healings performed by Christ provide credibility as well as confirmation to who He is as the Christ. Without performing miracles and healings, the content of his teaching would be all for nothing.

‌From Matthew 8 to 9, Matthew includes many stories that demonstrate Jesus’ power over all creation. From the leper to the paralyzed to the sick to the blind, whoever comes before the Son, can be healed proving that there is nothing that Jesus cannot do. Whenever we come across the stories of healing, we must not ignore another layer of importance and it’s that Christ has power over the physical realities of our world as well as the spiritual. Whether it be depression, hopelessness, emptiness, guilt, fill in the blank, He can heal that too and bring all things into restoration.

Matthew 5-9 laid out everything we need to know about what Jesus has done up this point and Matthew 9:35 is the perfect reminder of who Jesus is and what He does… But, we do not stop there. We continue to verse 36 which closes in on a specific emotion that clarifies why Jesus does what He does.

Verse 36 reads…

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

The one word in this verse that must stick out to us is compassion. If you were to tell someone one thing about Jesus, would you describe Him as one with compassion? Of all the emotions that Jesus felt in His ministry, there is no other emotion felt more than compassion. Whenever He spoke to crowds He felt for them. Whenever he healed someone, He felt for them. We know this to be true because this word appears frequently throughout the gospels.

The compassion Jesus has for all implies two things: (1) He feels deeply for the lost and (2) He is the good shepherd.

The first implication of his compassion is that He feels for the lost. As we consider the word compassion, other words or ideas that share in relation to it include pity or deep affection. Pity sometimes is understood as a negative thing but in this instance, it is not as having pity for someone must involve prior suffering or misfortune happening to the other individual. Matthew describes the people in the crowds as harassed and helpless. Other translations use weary and scattered or distressed and dispirited. Regardless of the translation you prefer, these words capture the same idea, that these people are people who have great needs.

Everyone who followed Jesus was in search of something. Some wanted food, some wanted healing, some wanted wisdom, some wanted answers to their skepticism. Whatever it was, you name it, what they were in search of, Jesus knew what it was, and He was able provide for them.

A specific story where Jesus demonstrates compassion towards someone is from John 11:28-37. At this point in John’s narrative, Lazarus just died, Jesus comes into town, Martha runs to him first and He tells her one of His seven I am statements saying, “I am the resurrection and the life”. After Martha hears these words, she gives a profession of faith then runs to get her sister Mary. Mary then comes running to Him and falls at His feet and weeps. The response of our Lord is tightly given with the shortest verse in our Bibles, “Jesus wept”, and John then observes that He (Jesus) was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled.

Prior to this story, Jesus was far off and away from Lazarus, but aware of what happened to him. He knew how Martha and Mary felt towards their brother. In that moment when Jesus was brought to tears by the hurt Mary felt in her heart, He identified with her feelings. He knew her brokenness and how she longed to see her brother again. He knew that she had faith in Him to do the impossible and He that He did, by raising Lazarus from the grave!

I do not know what many of you are going through. Every Sunday we gather after our week bringing whatever. We all carry burdens to the altar in hope and expectation that we will see an act of God in our lives as Mary did. Praise God that we have a mediator who identifies with us, has compassion for us, and wants to deliver us who are helpless and harassed people with great needs.

Matthew 9:36 first implies that Jesus feels deeply for the lost and secondly that He is our shepherd. All over the Old Testament there are references to sheep and shepherds. One of the more obvious references is with David. When we are introduced to David, he is a young shepherd tending to sheep. Another instance in the Old Testament that contains sheep and shepherd language is in Ezekiel when God tells the prophet that He will be as a shepherd over His sheep. Whenever sheep and shepherd language is used, it is meant to give hope for the people who are lost. Prior to David, God’s people had been misled continually by false shepherds and desperately needed one who would provide direction for them. During the time of Ezekiel, Israel had been in a similar place it was in before David and lived in expectation to see how God would restore them.

Before the time of Jesus these people lived without a good shepherd. They had kings and rulers who failed to correct them and put them on the right path. The rulers not only failed in correction, but they also brought about harm on their own people. Matthew’s words shine light on the idea that the false shepherds played a role opposite of the good shepherd and were like wolves. Instead of caring and tending to their flock, they chose to devour them and bring them to their end.

As Matthew pens the words “like a sheep without a shepherd” there is no doubt that he has the words from the Old Testament in mind and how Jesus is the shepherd over His sheep. The shepherd bears great responsibility, and this is a responsibility that Christ desired to bear for us. He is our good shepherd, and would we choose to follow the direction he guides us in like His disciples who listened to Him.

As we choose to listen to Him, let us listen to the words He now tells us in verse 37…

Matthew writes…

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

Matthew has worked through as little as two sentences to summarize the ministry of Jesus. After he gave us the summary, he proceeds to zoom in on a calling from the Lord to His own who have chosen (out of a leap of faith) to follow Him. Verses 37 to 10:1, while in connection with verses 35 to 36 lay the foundation for the next stage of His ministry. From Matthew 5 to 9 Jesus has labored in His ministry alone. He had stragglers at His side through most of it, but none have chosen to act in the way He has. None of his followers have stepped up to the plate yet to teach, or proclaim the gospel, or heal as He has.

Knowing exactly what is to come, Jesus lays out the situation for those have been at His side through it all by saying, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”. To assess the situation properly we must ask two questions, 1) what is the harvest? 2) Who are the laborers?

First, what is the harvest? A harvest is a period when crops are cut and collected from the fields. With that definition in mind, Jesus is likely alluding to the harvest as a harvest that concerns the kingdom of God and its people. Using His ministry as the example to follow, we are familiar with what He’s done. He has been teaching, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing everyone to collect individuals into the family of God. The period in which He has been sent from the Father involves the collecting of individuals to bring them into His kingdom he has promised. The harvest is here, and it is now as this is the period in which the gathering of God’s people is taking place.

Now that we know what we know what the Harvest is, let’s ask the second question, who are the laborers? By looking at the situation in Matthew 9, there apparently seems to be one laborer, Jesus. If the work in the harvest involves collecting people into the family of God, the only one who seems to be participating in that work is Christ. As alluded to earlier, the disciples who have taken a leap of faith and dropped everything to follow Him have only served as bystanders with front row seats watching Jesus. It is possible I could be overstepping in saying there aren’t any laborers because we only are limited to our text, but in Matthew’s gospel at least, there has been little to no activity from disciples. The only man in the gospel of Matthew up to this point who has served as a possible laborer in the harvest is John the Baptist as he prepared the way for Jesus.

With few laborers and a plentiful harvest, there is much work to be done. The situation given from the Lord to His own serves a purpose in that it opens their eyes to what is in front of them. They have spent their days at the master’s side enjoying the benefits He offers but have been negligent to participate in the work He’s been doing. I am not going to deny the necessity of learning from someone, it’s important that the disciples took take their time in learning under Christ, but if Christ’s mission from the beginning is to save all then what good is it if His own disciples do not do as He did? At some point, they needed to be bold and live life as He does in teaching, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction. That time was now, and He was making that clear to them in telling them that “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”.

Before we go on to verse 38, for those who have sat under the teaching of Jesus as students, I want to beg a question that I’m sure if Jesus was here, would ask you… Have you remained seated under the teaching for too long? “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”, you have been enjoying the fruit that I offer, but now is the time to go share that fruit. I have compassion for you as much as I have compassion them, so go, and do as I call you to…

Verse 38…

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

As laborers in the harvest, our first assignment is to pray. Not just pray but pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest that He would send more laborers into the harvest that belongs to Him. Prayer is of utmost importance for the laborer because it is the way in which He communes with the Lord. For the work to be completed in the harvest, the man or woman of God must not start by picking up their tools. It is not a work to be done speaking in front of a large crowd or with hands to heal but instead on knees before the Lord of the Harvest.

Whenever we go before the Lord in prayer, we are choosing to submit ourselves to Him in humility recognizing that nothing in this life is our own. The air we breathe, the ground that we step on, and the people that are in our lives, all are given by God. If He is the Lord of the harvest and this is His harvest which He sends laborers into, we cannot dismiss the reality that His hand is over all creation. Instead of living in fear, we must live in comfort because He is the Lord who provides for His people.

The call of prayer should come to us as no surprise at all because this command given by the Son is something He regularly does before the Father. Between all four gospels there is a total of 25 different prayers from Jesus to the Father. Prior to walking on the water before the disciples: He prayed. At the time when He was transfigured on the mount: He prayed. The night prior to His death: He prayed… Not only did He pray the one time in the garden of Gethsemane, but He prayed three times! If He who was perfect prayed regularly, then how much more shall we who are not pray regularly to our Lord?

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and grow in maturity, you cannot do so if your life is not a prayerful life. For progress to be made in the harvest we must pray because it’s exactly what He desires for us to do.

When was the last time you prayed earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest? If that question is too difficult to answer, when was the last time you prayed for more laborers? If that is even more difficult, when was the last time you went down on your knees before Him in prayer?

The Christian life accomplishes nothing outside of prayer to the Lord. To be in a position of prayer on bended knees is to be in a position that requires submission to our God. Our lives must be marked by our choosing to submit to Him. In our day, we hype up missions, evangelism, and doing good things but how can those things take place if our prayer lives are nonexistent? As Jesus called His own to pray to the Lord of the Harvest, would we follow in doing as He says and pray earnestly to Him who is the Lord of the Harvest. Would He who is at work in us also provide more laborers because this work is not accomplished alone. We are the people of God who need each other and must also pray for one another to labor in His harvest because He is ready to send us into it!

In the last verse of Matthew 9, He commands His disciples to pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest and now onto in chapter 10, He calls them to go into the harvest and carry out His work!

We bring this passage to a close with Matthew 10:1…

10 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.

Originally when I planned to preach this sermon, I had intended on only preaching from verses 35 to 38. However, after taking some time to study, reflect, and even hear from other preachers it became obvious that Matthew 10:1 must be attached to Matthew 9:35-38. If we were to look back at 9:35 we would be reminded of Christ’s ministry as one of teaching, proclaiming and healing. Now, here in 10:1 after Christ has called His disciples to be laborers in the harvest, they go out into that harvest working in the exact way He did! As He has gone out healing every disease and every affliction, they go out and heal every disease and every affliction.

What we find here, is the literal representation of what it means to be a follower of Christ who labors in His harvest. Laborers go and act as the Lord commands because they are His disciples whom He has given authority to. The disciples here in this verse have been given power to heal every physical disease and every physical affliction for the purpose of bringing gathering more people into the family of God.

As the one who is teaching over this passage, must not overlook the unique authority given to the disciples of Christ. They are His twelve whom He has entrusted great authority to bring growth in the kingdom. The authority given to them is much different than the authority that has been passed down to those who also bear the title of being in Christ. We will not sit at the Lord’s side in the day of judgement as He promised His twelve. We will not experience ministry and life as they did who He gave authority to, but we who must follow in their example should desire to act and follow Jesus as they did! While they made mistakes, they still chose to pursue lives that modeled true discipleship and boldness! As they were bold, we must be bold as well and reflect our new identities in Christ that we have been given!

Consider with me a golfer. In golf, a player plays 18 holes to shoot his lowest score possible. For that golfer to succeed he must practice repeatedly to get better and master his craft. There are a variety of ways in which he can choose to practice to become better but he must discern accordingly and seek help along the way to reach different goals he may set for himself. For him to succeed, he must be bold and stretch himself in new ways from before. He must not limit himself to practicing one thing and one thing only, instead, he must regularly try new things to excel. If he were to spend all his time in books reading about the history of golf and the philosophy of golf, he will never get better unless he goes out and plays the sport he feels destined to play.

If golf doesn’t work well for you, consider a songwriter. The song writer spends any given length of time penning lyrics and notes on a song to compose something beautiful. For her to see results in their work, the songwriter must regularly associate herself with the world of music and form habits that increase her skill. Again, like the golfer, there are variety of ways she can choose to do so, but also like the golfer, she must be wise in how she spends her time and seek help along the way because she cannot succeed alone. She must not limit herself to one way of thinking because by doing so she will never reach new heights or excel in her craft. If she was to waste her time studying music history and music philosophy all the time, she may increase in knowledge, but she will not live out and putting her skills to practice the thing she feels destined to do.

What do these parables have to do with Matthew 10:1? The answer is this… We must act and live as we are called to do with boldness. If we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came to save us from the sin of the world, we must no longer remain seated as students under his teaching. Instead, we must do as we are called, in prayer, living as His disciples laboring in His harvest!

Jesus did not die for us so that we would gladly claim our place in heaven and not care about anything or anyone else in the world, Jesus died so that His laborers whom he calls into His harvest would gather more people into the family of God! This is the love of our blessed Savior! His love is not limited to a select group of people. It is not limited to the self-righteous but extended to the unrighteous! He came not to heal those who are perfectly healthy but came to heal the sick and desperate in need! He promised not abundance to the rich but instead the kingdom of God to the poor! Each of us here in this room who have experienced the work of God in our lives already know such things to be true, but how often are we so caught up with our lives to be blind to the ministry Jesus wants us to be a part of?

Jesus is real. He came teaching in synagogues proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. He looks at creation right now at the throne next to the Father as He did with the crowds having compassion because here exists a people who are harassed and helpless as sheep with no shepherd. He speaks to us currently through His Word, saying, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; calling us to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

As we transition to the climax of our service, the Lord’s Table, would we desire that upon hearing His call that we would go and follow Him as His disciples labored in His harvest.

Thesis: We are not asked to remain seated as students under His teaching but instead, are called to live in prayer as disciples working in the Harvest