The Two Harvest Fields

Introduction

Mateo 16.18 ESV

18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew

Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 16

Since the original Greek text lacks the preposition “against” in the verse, the phrase may be literally rendered “the gates of Hades shall not withstand it.” Given this, the verse indicates that the gates of Hades, the realm of death and evil, will not be able to withstand the advance of the Church.

God has called the Church to be so influential that nothing in this world will be able to stand its power, influence and dominion.

As I prayed

Hechos de los Apóstoles 3.19–22 RVR60

19 Así que, arrepentíos y convertíos, para que sean borrados vuestros pecados; para que vengan de la presencia del Señor tiempos de refrigerio, 20 y él envíe a Jesucristo, que os fue antes anunciado; 21 a quien de cierto es necesario que el cielo reciba hasta los tiempos de la restauración de todas las cosas, de que habló Dios por boca de sus santos profetas que han sido desde tiempo antiguo. 22 Porque Moisés dijo a los padres: El Señor vuestro Dios os levantará profeta de entre vuestros hermanos, como a mí; a él oiréis en todas las cosas que os hable;

Hechos de los Apóstoles 3.19–21 ESV

19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

There are

The Restoration of All Things includes the a restoration of influence in the supernatural and natural.

Efesios 4.11–16 ESV

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

God is looking for:

Unity of the Faith

Knowledge of the son

Mature Manhood

A Measure of the Stature of the Foulness of Christ

Apocalipsis 11.15 ESV

15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

The Church must look have all those things in order to participate in the Kingdoms of this world becoming the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ.

VISION

In a vision I had a few years ago, during a time of prayer for the harvest God showed me the two Harvest fields that existed in the end-times. These two fields have different needs and different anointings to harvest.

In this vision I could see the field that we as a Church commonly focus on. It is the world, where there are people who have never heard of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom. I could see the unbeliever, the wicked, the depressed, the oppressed and the one who has given himself to a life of sin.

In the vision this field was represented by the streets, the neighborhoods that we walk daily, shops, schools, businesses, etc.

It was a field where you could clearly see that the harvest was ready to experience the power of a Church given to the proclamation of the Kingdom.

The second field, I was surprised because suddenly God took me inside his Church. And although I shed tears for the harvest that we must bring to the Kingdom of God, when I saw the Church I began to weep even more. And during that time God showed me the forgotten field of harvesters that needs to be re-evangelized for the end times.

Mateo 9.35–38 ESV

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. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Here we can see the two fields and how Jesus sees those two fields.

THE FIRST FIELD: helpless and scattered sheep that have no shepherd.

THE SECOND FIELD: workers who have to be sent (activated), we have millions of inactive saints.

We pray for the field of harvest (the world) for the Kingdom. But Jesus Christ said the following:

Mateo 9.38 ESV

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

Mateo 9.38 TPT

38 As you go, plead with the Owner of the Harvest to thrust out many more reapers to harvest his grain!”

The word “ask earnestly” is deomai and means "urgently request (need) v. - beg for something (which is indispensable or necessary). "

Jesus Christ has put urgency in activating workers for the harvest in the end-times..

We must not see our ability to evangelize but our ability to activate workers.

We must not see our capacity of how many you can sit in our congregations but the ability to send out workers.

We must urgently ask God for a revival of workers to be sent to the harvest field.

The word send is ekballo and means "send, throw v. - towards an objective and with a designated purpose." It is the same word that Jesus used to cast out of demons. In other words, the urgency of Jesus Christ is so much that he wants to send and launch with such ferocity and strength the children of light to the harvest field in the end-times.

This day God say to you EKBALLO

The word laborers is the word ergates and in secular Greek literature was usually used to describe people who worked the land, country people, fishermen, or someone with specific skills for a work or task and were people who worked long hours.

The workers are inside churches where there are inactive saints. They are saints in Denominations and Churches that have remained inactive.

These saints are professionals, artists, teachers, government officials, students, etc.

We do not have an Evangelism Crisis, we have a Labor Crisis

In modern Christianity, there are:

Saints who have forgotten what it is to be saved.

Saints who have forgotten what it is to be loved by Jesus Christ.

Saints who have forgotten what it is to have received mercy.

In the United States we have a very big problem, and that is that everyone believes they are saved. And when you ask them about Jesus saving you? They do not know what to say. Because they have only been taught to come to services and not activate the power of salvation they have received and become workers in the Kingdom of God.

(ChristianityToday Article by Dean Inserra “To reach the unsaved Christians, First Help them Get Lost)

If there is such a thing as missional insecurity, I have felt it. It’s that feeling you had in college when your friends spent spring break serving in a Haitian orphanage while you drove to the beach. My most vivid experience of this insecurity came while moving out of my seminary apartment. I was loading up to make the drive back to my hometown of Tallahassee, where I would begin local church pastoral ministry. I was excited to be heading home until I saw my neighbor from our seminary apartment complex, Matt. He was moving to Northern California to join the staff of a local church. Great, I thought. There’s Matt packing up his family and entire life to move to one of the most secularized regions in America, and I am going back home, where I will live ten miles from the Georgia state line and less than an hour from Alabama. He’s going on mission. I’m headed to the Bible Belt.

I felt like I was taking the easy road and Matt was taking the courageous one, leading his family to an area where preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ would be just barely harder than finding a Republican. I was heading to the Land of the Monogrammed.

I said, “I really admire what you’re doing and will pray for you as you head to an area with such an important Great Commission need.”

Matt’s reply was not what I was expecting.

“Whatever,” he said. “The Bible Belt is the most difficult place in America to pastor a local church.”

I was stunned. He must have sensed my confusion because he explained further. As he did, I had a serious epiphany. I believe the Lord knew what I needed to hear in that moment, and it changed my perspective forever on my role as a pastor in the part of the country where I live and minister. “In California,” Matt said, “there is rarely confusion. Either you’re a Christian or you’re not. In the Bible Belt, many people think they’re Christians but have no concept of the severity of sin, necessity of repentance, message of grace, or the overall message of the gospel. They think they’re just fine with God and God is fine with them because they aren’t atheists and have been to church before as a kid. It’s almost like you have to help them get lost so they can actually be saved. They believe in God but do not believe their sin has done anything to separate them from him or to need the Jesus they claim to believe in.”

IT IS TIME TO EKBALLO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST AND DECLARE EKBALLO

There are 7,000 different ethnic groups that have not been reached for Jesus Christ.

There are more than 2.9 billion people who have not heard about Jesus Christ.

According to a study done in 2015 there are more than 2.3 billion Christians.

In the year 100 AD, there were 360 unreached people for every believer. Now there are 7.3 unreached people for every believer. (Winter et al., 1)

In the year 100 AD, there were 360 people for every believer. Now there are 7.3 people for every believer. (Winter et al., 1)

In the year 100 AD, there were 12 unreached ethnic groups for each congregation of believers. Now there is 1 group of unreached people group per 1000 congregations. (Winter et al., 3)

In the year 100 AD, there were 12 unreached ethnic groups for each congregation of believers. Now there is 1 group of unreached people per 1000 congregations. (Winter et al., 3)

90% of foreign missionaries work among groups of people already reached. 10% work among groups of unreached people. (Winter and Koch, 543)

There are 430,000 missionaries from all branches of Christianity. Only between 2 and 3% of these missionaries work among the unreached peoples. (The traveling team)

Despite Christ's command to evangelize, 67% of all humans from AD 30 to the present day have never even heard the name of Jesus Christ. (Baxter 2007, 12)