God's Mission and You

GOD’S MISSION AND YOU

Matthew 9:35-38

After the visit of the Ministry Mapping team followed by hearing from our missionaries Fay, Eric Brown, and the Mansvelds, I thought it would be good to conclude our missions conference with a question they each raised in their own way: Why are we here? What is our part in God’s mission?  Should it really be a priority today?  Should we be concerned with the unsaved around us, isn’t that God’s business?  I’d like to reflect on those questions using a familiar text as our starting point, Matthew 9:35-38. 

“Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.  ³⁶ Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.  ³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  ³⁸ "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

  As Jesus was ministering in Matthew 9 he looked out on the multitudes and was moved to compassion, literally he was “filled with pity” for them.  In modern English we might say, “His heart ached for them…” He saw their need and in response to that need he urged a specific response from his disciples.  Do we see the world as Jesus does? Do we have our Father’s eyes?  As we hear from various missionaries we can begin to see the world differently, we can be moved with compassion, and hopefully, to action. But what does that look like? 

Context: Matthew is interested in discipleship in the context of God’s worldwide program.  I believe Matthew 28:18-20 is the key passage, an interpretive grid that compels the reader to look back in the gospel and to give special attention to the commandments of Jesus.  Preceding this text at the end of Matthew 9, we see in Matthew 8-9 a series of 10 miracles in which Jesus reveals his messianic identity.  He can calm the stormy sea, heal the sick, cast out demons, even raise the dead.  The miracles he did proved who he was; they showed he had the right to teach with authority.  Chapter 10 might be called the missionary discourse of Matthew as Jesus sends out his disciples to preach and to heal. In between in the pericope we are looking at this morning. 

          This paragraph in its context shows the attitude of Jesus toward the need in the world, and his authoritative instruction to his disciples (and us!) concerning our appropriate response to that need.  Not everything in the Gospels translates directly to our situation (in Matthew 10 the disciples were sent exclusively to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” whereas the Great Commission makes it clear that we are to go to the world).  But if the situation that Jesus described in 1^st century Palestine is still a reality today, then I the commandment he gave is one that we need to listen to as well.  If the world still needs the message of salvation, if the harvest is still plentiful and the workers still few, then we should be praying that the Lord of the harvest would send workers into his harvest field. And we’ll see that means you and me!

I. DO WE SEE THE WORLD AS JESUS SAW IT? Are people still “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a Shepherd”? Are we moved by that need?  Jesus’ insight into the condition of the world moved him to compassion. Do people still have the same tremendous spiritual need that Jesus observed in 1^st century Palestine?    (9:35-36).

  First notice the condition of the multitude: “Harassed and helpless” (NIV). The English translations handle these adjectives in different ways:  NKJV “weary and scattered”  --  NAS “distressed and downcast”  --   One paraphrase says “their problems were so great and they didn’t know where to go for help”     In this instance the compassion of Jesus is caused by quite specific needs that he observed, here the cause is expressed only in general terms: “for they were harassed and confused.” There was tremendous spiritual need.

The multitude were “…like sheep without a shepherd…”  What causes Jesus’ deep compassion at this point is not the abundance of sickness he has seen but rather the great spiritual need of the people. People long for life with meaning, most are just existing, far from the kind of abundant life that can only come from God.

The whole Gospel is a response to just this universal human need. (Cf. the reference to the gospel being sent out to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” [10:6; 15:24]; cf. 18:12, “the lost sheep”; and 26:31, the “scattering of the sheep”; cf. 1 Pet 2:25.) Jesus, as the promised messiah, is to “shepherd” his people Israel (2:6, a quotation of Mic 5:1; cf. Ezek 34:23; 37:24). The Old Testament uses the metaphor of “lost sheep” to convey the idea of deep spiritual need. Isaiah says “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way…” (Isa 53:6).  In relation to the concern of the following verses with the need of workers, Ezek 34:6 may be in view: “my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them” (cf. Isa 53:6). Jesus himself is the shepherd of his people according to many NT references (cf. 25:32; 26:31; John 10:11–16; Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 2:25).

When we look at our Jesusalem, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Edgecomb, Southport, is the need still great?  Can we say the people are “harassed & helpless”, in need of a Shepherd?  Could it be that there are unreached people since our church has been here for over 200 years?

One of the shocking statistics we heard from the ministry mapping team was that less than 2% of Lincoln Country residents are in an evangelical church on Sunday morning.  According to their data that qualifies us as an unreached people group! Think what that means: 98 out of a hundred people that we pass on the streets, in the shops and schools and offices, at the Y, 98 out of a hundred don’t know Christ. They are sheep, without a shepherd.  Does your heart ache as you lift up your eyes and see need around us?

The ministry mappers reported that census figures estimated 7,000 people in a five mile radius of our church. There are only a couple of churches reaching out to this needy mission field. We know the truth about the liberal mindset so prevalent in our state, as evidenced by the vote to legalize same sex marriage. We’ve heard reports of the world view that is increasingly informing the public education in our schools that would ridicule faith and idolize humanistic thinking. 

       So what do we do? Do we circle our wagons and prepare to ward off the attack of liberalism and humanistic thinking? Or, do we have our Father’s eyes? Do we see the world as Jesus does? Are we moved to compassion? Does our heart break over their lostness, do we ache for them to know the truth?   Boothbay and the region around us, our Jerusalem and Judea, is still needy, but can we still say that the task remains, that the “harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”?

II.  Do we accept the evaluation that Jesus gave of the state of the missionary task (9:37)?  We know in this gospel that we have been given the task of taking God’s message to the world.

Jesus said “…the harvest is plentiful…”  Is this still the case today?  Is Jesus still building his church?  Are people still coming to faith?

 We have seen people coming to Christ, but honestly it is mostly been in the context of our Children’s Ministries, Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, and Word of Life (our Olympian and teen groups). Thank God that we can be encouraged that young people are hearing the truth and believing!  It is true that the older we get the more difficult it is for us to turn in faith to Christ.

Though our numbers are not great we can be encouraged that a group of families from our church have been able to establish a beach head for the Gospel on the next peninsula. We miss them, by Bremen needs Jesus too, so praise the Lord! The harvest is still plentiful.

 We have seen a steady stream of maturing disciples in our church – we can do better, and I’ve been encouraged to see a welling up of interest and ideas for outreach, suggestions for how we can do better at equipping our people – a burden to be the Lighthouse in this community that so desperately needs the truth. Jesus has not changed, He will build His church, and He is present and working in our midst.  

Jesus also said “…the workers are few…”  The harvest is still plentiful, but can we still say that the workers are few?  Every week churches close around the country. Get this: in our county, there is one evangelical church for every 5,000 people county wide.  The challenge is great!   There is still tremendous spiritual need in our Jerusalem, the harvest and still plentiful, the workers are still few…

III. The Command: If the conditions are still true then the com-mand is still valid.  Jesus’ instruction for addressing the need (9:38). 

“Therefore,” because these conditions prevail, “…therefore pray that the Lord of the harvest…”  Notice to whom we are to pray: to the Lord of the harvest. God is sovereign, he is the Lord of the harvest.  He is the Creator and Savior.  We can pray in faith, knowing that we are praying in accordance with God’s will, knowing that he is able to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. So we are to look to Him the Lord of the harvest, and pray…

What specifically are we to pray for?  That He “…would send workers into the harvest…”  Pretty specific isn’t it?  But remember the context in Matthew:  In Chap 8-9 Jesus proved his identity through a series of ten miracles (he shows his authority).  Here He gives this instruction to the disciples: “…pray…”  But if we pray, we need to pray in recognition of the fact that we might be part of the answer!  Look at Acts 13:1-3…  What, do you suppose was their prayer?  Could it have been: “Lord, send forth workers in the harvest”?  If I am right about that, praying that prayer cost them something.  They had to send two of their best, two they had come to know and love.  Two who had significant ministry among them.  Sending out our families for the Bremen plan wasn’t easy, but that is what got call us to do in the context of His mission.

 Here in Matthew 9 Jesus urges his disciples to pray for workers for the harvest, and then what happens in chapter 10?  He sends them out! Do you see the need? Will you pray?  Will you go? Will you be God’s “undercover missionary” where He has placed you, always looking to give a reason for the hope that is in you? I’ve lost the source of this quotation but it is absolutely true:

“We live on a mission field not because our nation has abandoned its Christian heritage – though it has – not is it because people are any less Christian that they once were – although that is also true. We live on a mission field because we have been sent here as missionaries by God!”

What is God saying to me in this passage?  Missions are at the heart of God’s worldwide program:  “The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Missions.  The closer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we must become.” Boothbay and the surrounding region, our Jerusalem, is still a needy. People are still harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  The harvest is still plentiful, the workers are still few.  Will you pray, as Jesus instructs, that the Lord of the harvest send forth workers into his harvest?  Will you pray, asking how you are a part of the answer? 

            1. Will you give, to support missionaries like Through the Fire, the Mansvelds, Word of Life, and the Hope Haitian Choir?

2. Will you look, with your Father’s eyes, at the lost sheep in your sphere of influence? Have you identified a group of people around you who you can pray for and seek to share Christ with?  Have you begun praying for them?

            3. Will you pray that the Lord of the Harvest would give us eyes, and hearts, for this field in which He has planted us?

     I sense a new sense of mission is welling up in our church, an excitement about what God is going to do. Will you ask Him, the Lord of the Harvest, how you can help show Christ to our neighbors? How can we, as His church, be more effective in the mission He has entrusted to us?  Are you willing to be part of the answer?    To God be the glory.               AMEN.