The harvest is plentiful...

Matthew 9

³⁵ 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.”

This very brief portion of scripture from today's reading in the One Year Bible, follows several more accounts of Jesus miraculous healings, including raising a young girl from death. At the one point He had opened the eyes of two blind men. Here is that account.

²⁷ As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” ²⁸ When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus *said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They *said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” ²⁹ Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” ³⁰ And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: “See that no one knows about this!” ³¹ But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.

There are several times recorded when Jesus tells those He has healed to tell no one about it. Most often though like these men they could not help but testify of what Jesus had done for them. That should be true of every believer. None of us should be able to stop telling of what Jesus has done. If we are living and walking with Christ our testimony should not be only about how He saved us. It should be more than the story of our changed life 5,10,20,30 or more years ago. Our testimony should be a living changing testimony. Father God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are present and active in our lives every day and so we should thank Him and testify of His goodness  every day. Revelation 12 says:

“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. ¹¹ And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

We are saved and overcome the "accuser of our brethren", satan, by the blood of Jesus and the word of our testimony. Testifying of what Jesus has done and is doing is part of our victory.

I want to get back to why Jesus often told people not to talk about the healing they experienced. I believe our text today sheds some light on that. It begins by saying: 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.  Jesus main focus was to teach and proclaim the gospel(good news) of the kingdom. The miracles and signs the healings that took place were a conformation of the words He spoke. The miraculous was evidence that the kongdom of God, the kingdom of heaven had indeed come. In the presence of Jesus, working with the Father, empowered by the Holy Spirit things tryly were on earth as they are in heaven.

Jesus desire was to continue to teach and proclaim.  The miraculous would come, it had to. The presence of Jesus Christ changes things.  Our text continues,

 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.”

Jesus came to redeem and restore. He was sent by the Father because:   "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."(John 3:16)    Jesus compassion for the people was much deeper than their physical needs for healing. He saw that people were "distressed and dispirited", they were lost. Jesus came to bring these lost people into the kingdom of God, to restore man's relationship to God. That's the harvest He  sees as plentiful, souls to be brought into the kingdom, into restored relationship with God.

In Matthew 13:39, when Jesus is explaining one of the end of the age parables He says: ... the harvest is the end of the age...  When Jesus was here and teaching and proclaiming He spoke of a time when He would return. The age that is ending is the age of grace which He established through the finished work of the cross, the time when men can be saved by grace through faith in Christ. Jesus will return just as He said He would and when He does:

   we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11For it is written, "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD." (Romans 14:10-11)

Jesus spoke of these things over 2000 years ago. He has not yet returned but He is coming.   2 Peter 3:9 says   The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.     Jesus desire is for a complete harvest, for all to come to repentance. What He said to the disciples then, He says to us today.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”   As we pray and beseech the Lord of the harvest to send workers we need to know and understand that we are seeking to be sent. We are all to be part of and partners in, workers in the plentiful harvest of souls to the kingdom of God.

Dare to declare. Pray it out loud.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, Lord of the harvest, Holy Spirit thank You that You are not slow about Your promise to come and establish Your eternal kingdom, but rather You desire that all would come to repentance. Thank You that it is indeed my testimony that You have saved me, redeemed and restored me. Forgive me when I fail to testify of all you continue to do every day of my life. I beseech You, the Lord of the harvest to send workers into Your plentiful harvest. Send me. Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.   Amen