The End to a New Beginning

Matthew 9:35-38

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.”

Title: The End to a New Beginning

Do a quick overview of Matthew ……

1-2 Genealogy of Jesus and His birth.

3-4 Baptism of Jesus and his wilderness temptation

John baptized Jesus (End of 3) Lead by the spirit out into the wilderness (4:1) We now have a “Spirit Sourced Man”

5-7 Sermon on the Mount

Extraordinary Words from this Spirit sourced man

8-9 Actions Chapters

Extraordinary Deeds from this Spirit sourced man

3 miracles

Interlude

3 miracles

Interlude

3 Miracles

The Last “Interlude” (This is where we are this morning.)

PAUSE

The Book of Matthew can be sectioned off and then broken down even more into smaller sections.

Were we are today we can look back and see two sections:

The Extraordinary Birth and Temptation of Christ (Chapter 1-4) Extraordinary Words and Deeds of Christ (5-9)

This would lead us to the final interlude in the second section of Matthew.

This section is broken down into 2 parts:

MAKE SURE THEY UNDERSTAND …….

The Summation (5-9)

We find this in Vs 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.

We can conclude this is a summation of a section by Matthew because he does this in another section …..

(4:23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.)

There are a couple of difference between the 2 verses but all together they SUM up what had been said in the previous chapters.

The second section is an INTRODUCTION to what Matthew is getting ready to expound on ……

(Vs 36-38 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.”

We have an introduction.

This is where we get the title of the Sermon today ….. The End to a New Beginning

In this interlude, in these 2 parts (Summation and Introduction) we find 3 great truths that I believe the Lord wants to point out to us.

Let’s take a look at them and see how they apply to our life today ……

Body:

Truth #1

God’s Word Will Not Be Restrained!

Look at (Vs 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.)

(4:23) says he went through “all of Galilee” but here Matthew states “all the cities and villages” (Plural)!

In this day and time the Word of God is spreading and it’s spreading fast.  Here is how……… Teaching, proclaiming, and healing!

Teaching (didasko) means “it’s the handing down by the church of the doctrine that was handed down by Christ.”

Proclaiming (kerysso) means the delivery of the teaching. 

Basically means this …. The proclaiming (preaching) is the vessel for the teaching (the word of God)! 

Church this is what the Lord wants us to know this morning ….. As long as the church of Jesus Christ follows the leading of the Holy Spirit “NOTHING” can stop it; There is Victory! (Tweet that)

As long as your marriage is led by the Holy Spirit ……

As long as you lead you family/children by the ways of the Holy Spirit ……

As long as your life is being led by the Holy Spirit ………. NOTHING CAN STOP IT.

This is why it’s important for the church to be a “Spirit sourced” church!

What does that look like?

Preaching and teaching of the “Spirit sourced” man! JESUS Healing (Manifestation of the Holy Spirit)

I remember asking one of my friends (mentor) why does some of these other cults or (so called) churches seem to be growing more so than the Church of Christ?

He said when you are a church that is led by the “Spirit sourced man” (Jesus) you will always find Satan (demonic forces) going against it!

Why would they attack something or someone they already control?

2. Truth #2

Sheep need a Shepherd!

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

Look what the scripture says …. “They are harassed and helpless!”

Harassed – “Skyllo” used 4 times in the NT

Means to give one-self trouble (Self-inflicted)  Walking around meaninglessly you can do more harm than good. (Without a leader)

Helpless – “Errimmenos” Cast forth, scatter

The Greek translation of the OT (Septuagint) often used this word for – throwing corpse into a field or into a tomb.

Figurative example used here: Tossed around like a rag doll.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, “Like Sheep without a Shepherd”

They are being inflicted with trouble by the spiritual leaders of the day and being tossed around by the adversary like a rag doll.

Anyone ever felt that way before?

Let us not forget something …….. (I Peter 5:8 says this, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

And Jesus seeing this said, “This is not Good!” Sheep need a shepherd.

The Church needs leaders (Shepherds) to lead it!

3. Truth #3

The Emphasis is Not on More Laborers!

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.”

Up to this point in history the laborers have ALWAYS been FEW!

Jesus says, “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to SEND OUT ….”

That phrase “Send Out” is the same phrase used to expel demonic forces …. “drive out.” What Matthew is saying here is that just as Jesus is VERY SERIOUS about casting out demons, he is just as serious about sending out laborers. So the question still remains then, “Who are the laborers Jesus is asking the disciples to pray to have SENT OUT?”

The disciples themselves. (Apostles and followers of Christ)

Quote: Give me 100 men who hate nothing but sin and love God with all their hearts and I will shake the world for Christ!” - John Wesley

Church, what I have seen, over the years of ministry, is that we have enough laborers in the church.

Jesus is not calling for more laborers as much so as he is calling for those in the church to GET BUSY doing the work of the Lord.

Conclusion

Wrapping this up today …..

We walk away this morning with the assurance that God’s word will go forth. NOTHING will stop it!

We understand that Gods people need a Shepherding.

I tell you what I see ……

There are people who are sold out for Jesus in this church.

I believe there are Sanctified people in this church today who are out harvesting for Jesus.

But I also believe we should not have a problem in trying to get ministry positions filled.

I believe the problem we should be facing, as a church that is being led by the Holy Spirit, is having too many people for the positions we have right now.

Lay out a list of areas that are in need of laborers:

Childrens department.

Nursery

Young adults ministry

Counters

Worship Team

We are looking at doing a satellite campus somewhere in Huntsville.

We will need Mistry laborers for this as well.