The Reflexive Request

Nothing ever stirred the passion of Jesus like multitudes of lost souls. The Scripture does not often emphasize his emotions, but it does so often when He is faced with men and women who are on their way to Hell.

Jesus did not care so much about the colour of their skin; but He cared much about the condition of their souls.

In this chapter Jesus is raising the dead, healing the sick and being branded as the devil for doing it. Yet, the chapter ends with Jesus having what has been described as a spiritual heart attack. A moment of strong emotion. A statement of great passion.

Let us read it again, but not in a monotone voice. Not in Alexander Scourby’s perfection of diction. But rather in the emotions and passion that Jesus displayed and the Spirit directed Matthew to record. Because here, uniquely, the Spirit wanted us not only to hear the words of Jesus, but to witness the emotion of Jesus. This is a descriptive passage. A dramatic passage. An outpouring of emotion on the part of Jesus Christ.

The Spirit also gets us past the mouth of Jesus and lets us travel right into the thoughts of Jesus. Not only is it of concern what Jesus said, but God wants us to know the unspoken thought of Jesus in that very moment.

Jesus can always read your thoughts; now, for a moment, you get to read the thoughts of the Son of God and colour His words accordingly.

Jesus is looking at the multitudes. He is physically upset: « he is moved ». His emotion is changing his demeanour, changing His voice: « with compassion ». His thought, which He does not verbalize is that the multitudes are like sheep without a shepherd. They are starving. They are easy pray for the enemy. They are unprotected. They have no purpose. They exist, but without any recourse or any help whatsoever. They have no hope. And Jesus heart is breaking. His body, his voice respond.

And He speaks. He pours out. He exclaims. He shares his feelings, not just His thoughts.

« The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. »

One of the books that made the most impact on me is the book “Days of Blessing in Inland China”. It’s mostly the transcript of addresses given by Hudson Taylor to missionaries of the China Inland Mission in China. The book records great conversion stories, great workings of God in China, great principles of revival and missions, and it ends with the financial records of the China Inland Mission for the year 1886, as well as a special prayer request.

Days of Blessing in Inland China: Being an Account of Meetings Held in the Province of Shan-Si, &c. The China Inland Mission

The missionaries and native helpers are supported, and the rents and other expenses of Mission premises, schools, &c., are met, by contributions sent to the Office of the Mission without personal solicitation, by those who wish to aid in this effort to spread the knowledge of the Gospel throughout China. The income for 1886 was £22,149

Their income for 1886 was $3.1 million CAD in today’s money. And they go on with a request:

Days of Blessing in Inland China: Being an Account of Meetings Held in the Province of Shan-Si, &c. The China Inland Mission

China at the present time, taken as a whole, has only one missionary to about half-a-million of its people; while its interior provinces have only a missionary to several millions of the population.

Daily prayer is being offered that during this year, 1887, GOD may send out 100 additional workers in connection with the CHINA INLAND MISSION.

If you do a Google search for key dates in the history of the China Inland Mission, you will find an entry that states: 1887 - “The Hundred Missionaries Sent Out In One Year”.

I don’t know that there is a prayer request taken as seriously by God as this one: Send forth labourers into your harvest!

I want us to take this familiar passage and look at it in an unfamiliar way. I want to look at the face of Jesus as it were, sense the urgency in his voice, look for the heaviness of his heart, and then pray as He asked us to pray. Would you do that with me tonight?

I. The One Reason v. 37

According to Jesus, there is one reason why the multitudes are as sheep that have no shepherd. They are lost for one reason. They are on their way to Hell for one reason.

That reason is not Islam. That reason is not Buddhism. That reason is not the Roman Catholic Church. That reason is not atheistic university professors. The reason is not communism, fascism, socialism or anything else.

In the heart, mind, and words of Christ, the one reason that so many people are as sheep without a shepherd, perishing for lack of nourishment and lack of protection...that one reason is that the labourers are few.

I have often been told that I serve in a hard place. A preachers’ graveyard. A place where more missionaries leave than stay. A place where it allegedly can’t be done. A place that when you fail, people don’t have an issue with it, because it’s seen as the norm.

Not long ago, a preacher put his hand on my shoulder and said, “The very fact that you are there is the victory. Even if nobody ever gets saved, your presence is the victory of God.” I still don’t know what that was supposed to mean. The best I can tell is that he was telling me that nothing is going to happen in Quebec, but thanks for showing up.

A veteran pastor in Quebec said not long ago: “This is the hardest place in the world to start a church.” I thought that was strange. Really? Harder than Saudi Arabia? Harder than North Korea? Harder than Laos or Myanmar or Vietnam? Really?

We often blame the field for our lack of success. It’s hard here. It can’t be done, but just be faithful.

Hudson Taylor well said, “Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success.”

Read more: https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/top-24-hudson-taylor-quotes/#ixzz62rSJIOnO

Now the fields of souls in Jesus day were not any easier than they are today in that same part of the world. The temperament of the people was the same. False religions held people in bondage just the same. The social price for converting to Christ was the same as it is today. People would get thrown out of their synagogue or their social circle. People would get killed, thrown to hungry lions, rejected by their own, cast away by parents or spouse, just like in many places today.

The plenteous harvest of which Jesus spoke was not an easy Harvest. Jesus Himself only had few committed followers, all of which doubted and left Him for a time. A plenteous harvest is not an easy harvest.

Again, Jesus highlights one single reason for the condition of the harvest. That one reason is the lack of labourers. The labourers are few!

Canada is not a spiritual desert because of our political parties. It’s not a spiritual desert because of socialism. It’s not a spiritual desert because of the hardness of the field.

Canada’s one need is labourers. Labourers! More labourers!

Jesus did not want us to ask for rain to soften the soil. He did not want us to ask for good weather to work. He wanted us to ask for labourers.

The one reason why this world is perishing is lack of labourers. Now that lack of labourers is multi-dimensional for sure: lack of faith, lack of surrender, lack of sacrifice, lack of prayer, lack of love, lack of this and lack of that. But the sum total of it all is lack of labourers. And that lack is why the harvest is still so plenteous, and billions are like sheep without a shepherd. And that is why Jesus was and still is MOVED with compassion.

II. The One Role v. 38

Modern Christians like the parts of the Bible that benefit them. Even when preaching on missions, we often feel like we need to emphasize the benefit that it will be to the hearer. “Fruit to your account”, “pressed down and shaken together will men pour into your bosom”, etc. All that is absolutely and very true. It’s in the Bible. Yet, why is it that we only obey when we can get something out of it?

We all love the names of God. In French, we have a hymn that we sing that is only a number of divine titles strung together, with the chorus, “Who is like unto thee?” It’s a great song! But most of the titles included there are titles where there is some benefit to us.

I like to pray through the names of God in my prayers. I have a book that gives them all and unpacks their meaning, and I use one or two of His titles a day to worship Him.

Jehovah-Jireh - the Lord will provide. Love that! It’s good for me!

Jehovah-Tsidkenu - the Lord my righteousness! Love it! It’s good for me!

Abba, Father - love it! He cares for me!

But here is one: the Lord of the Harvest. That doesn’t sound very beneficial to me. It sounds like a lot of work for me instead!

We love the names of God that make Him of great benefit to us; but here is a divine title that makes us a benefit to God, should be sincerely pray the prayer that Jesus is asking us to pray.

If I am going to fit into the prayer that Jesus is asking me to pray, there is only one role available: a labourer.

Not a missionary, a labourer. What’s the difference? You can be a labourer without being sent as a missionary, and sadly not all missionaries are labourers like they should be.

You can be a labourer in three main ways:

Proclaiming - you can go yourself and give the good news (primary intent)

Praying - you can support those who do go with your bended knee (necessity)

Providing - you can send those who are called to go with your dollar (necessity)

III. The One Request v. 38

I have an app on my phone that highlights one Unreached people group every day. One ethnic group somewhere in the world that is either unreached or unengaged with the Gospel. I am pretty sure that if Jesus had a phone, that app would be on the first page of his phone. Because the one time that He gave a specific prayer request, was that the Lord of the harvest would send forth labourers into His harvest.

I want you to notice two things about this request:

A. A reflexive request

If you are an English whiz you will know what a “reflexive pronoun” is. Reflexive pronouns are “myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves”.

The word reflexive means something that by nature turns back to itself.

Sending an email to yourself is reflexive. At the prisons where I minister, I have a government of Canada email address: sometimes I have to email something to my work email. I am sending an email that will return to me. It’s reflexive.

This is a reflexive request. It is a request that when prayed will cause God to give us something to do.

Hudson Taylor: “I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working.” Read more: https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/top-24-hudson-taylor-quotes/#ixzz62rFpcDYJ

Read more: https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/top-24-hudson-taylor-quotes/#ixzz62rFpcDYJ

The reason we don’t pray for labourers any more than we do is because we know that those labourers will be us. In our heart of hearts, because of the Holy Spirit who has been sent to empower us as witnesses, we know that the pray this prayer amounts to saying “Here am I, Lord, send me.” We know innately that this is a reflexive prayer.

B. A rhetorical request

The word “rhetorical” means something that is self-evident. A rhetorical question is a question that you don’t need to answer because it’s obvious.

Asking a drunkard, “Would you like a drink” is a rhetorical question because you know he wants one.

Asking a freezing man if he wants a blanket is a self-evident question.

Asking me if I want a coffee is a self-evident question. I answered no one time, in 2006 I think it was.

Asking God to send labourers is a self-evident, rhetorical request! You know He wants to!

“For God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten Son!”

Praying for labourers is not a request aimed at informing God or moving God in some way. Praying for labourers is not a request aimed at moving the arm of God. It is a request for God’s working in us!

It’s a rhetorical request because you already know that the Lord is not willing that any of those shepherdless sheep should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We know that going into the prayer closet. We know that we are praying a rhetorical prayer - a prayer for something that is so very clearly God’s will.

But it’s a reflexive prayer. Are you brave enough to pray it? Do you love God enough to pray it even though it appeals to one of His titles that might make you poorer in this world rather than richer? One of His titles that may call you to discomfort rather than ease? One of His titles that may call you to be a labourer in the one cause over which Christ calls all his disciples to prayer?

Conclusion

In 1722 a man named Christian David arrived in Dresden to knock on the door of a newlywed man named Nicholas Von Zinzendorf. He was hoping to find asylum because of persecution against Christians in some parts of Europe.In December 1722, 10 more refugees arrive on Zinzendorf’s estate in Berthelsdorf, and they will build a village that will be called “Herrnhut” - the Father’s House.

The next few years will be a bit rocky as people from different denominations will move into the community of Herrnhut. There will be lots of problems, and finally Zinzendorf will go house to house and call people to prayer. In May 1727, revival will come to their little community during a special prayer meeting in Herrnhut.

On August 27, 1727, 24 people will covenant together to spend at least one hour a day in prayer - a round-the clock prayer chain. Then more people joined in. According to historian A.J. Lewis, that prayer meeting lasted over 100 years!

About 6 months into it, they got a vibrant passion for foreign missions. Zinzendorf challenged them about at least 4 mission fields, and the next day 26 people from Herrnhut stepped forward to go as missionaries. This kept on to the point that hundreds of missionaries went out from there across the world.

The Moravians of that day discovered something: you cannot truly be on fire for Christ and fully engaged in the word of prayer without praying for what Jesus prays for. And His prayer is for laborers! And if you pray for laborers, that prayer will turn back to you.

You must pray it. If you love Jesus, you must pray it! “Lord of the Harvest! Send forth laborers into your harvest!” And the unspoken but understood undertone of the prayer: “And Lord, make me one of them.”