(Messiah's 39th Command)
By Brother R. Michel Lankford
Matthew 9:37-38 Then He *said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." Matthew 9:37-38 (NASB)
Understanding the Command
We are to pray and plead to God: This is one of the most straightforward commands in all the Scriptures. In Messiah's 39th command in the New Testament we are told to pray. What's more, in this particular command we are told exactly the thing for which we are to pray. We are to pray, (more literally according to the literal Greek, we are to beg, plead and implore), that the Lord of the harvest (which is Almighty God), would send, (literally meaning to thrust) out laborers into His harvest.
Understanding the Guiding Principles behind the Command
Remember for whom and for what you are working: Did you notice that we are also reminded about exactly Whose harvest this is. Yeshua did it on purpose because He knows that we often forget. Messiah clearly reminds us that this is Almighty God's harvest and not ours. This is a not-so-subtle reminder that when we are praying about ministry, our focus should never be on building little empires for ourselves to prove how special we are to God, because once again, this is HIS harvest, and NOT ours.
Sadly, we worry all too often about how "our ministry" or "our service" or "our efforts" are being perceived or how it's advancing. It's not about us, it's about God and His harvest.
Don't forget the Compassion that motivated Jesus Christ: It was Messiah's Compassion that motivated Him to speak forth His command:
Matthew 9:36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36 NASB)
What was it that motivated Jesus to have compassion on these people? Above all Messiah loved them, but more than this he understood them. In order to understand Messiah's sentiment here, it is critical to start back at verse 14 and work our way back down to verse 36.
Messiah understood the People's real need. They needed a complete spiritual overhaul. Beloved, these people were brought up in religion. Believe me, they were not lacking for spiritual exercises and procedures. They needed to be made into completely new people by the Holy Spirit, because trying to incorporate new godly habits into the same ungodly heart doesn't solve anything (Matthew 9:14-17 cf. Ezekiel 36:25-27; Psalms 51:10-13; John 3:3,7).
Secondly, Messiah was moved to compassion because He saw the effects of sin, and recognized it for what it was. Remember, these were God's chosen people. Christ's primary ministry on earth was to the Jewish people first. So it wasn't that these people had no knowledge of God. God's Word, power and provision had been seen in this community of people since that time of Abraham. They went to synagogue every Sabbath day and they heard the promises, commands, words, and deeds of the Most High God on their behalf. Yet they were distressed. They were dispirited. Why? Why were these people, of all people, like sheep without a shepherd?
Was it because they lacked for godly prophets? No, not at all. In fact, they had 16 prophets written in their sacred Scripture. They had four large written prophecies, and 12 smaller prophetic writings. Plus, there were 38 other prophetic ministries mentioned throughout Jewish history in Scripture, for a grand total of 54 prophets altogether, not counting John the Baptizer, and Jesus Himself, who had not yet been recorded during the time of Jesus, but was recognized. So that makes a grand total of at least 56 recorded prophets throughout Israeli history. The sad truth is that most of them were either rejected or murdered. So Israel had not lacked for prophets, but had been so blind that it rejected them all. They did not lack for teachers. In fact, whole groups of people devoted all their time to studying and parsing out 'Godly wisdom.'
The truth is that these people were under God's heavy hand of discipline and their religious leadership was not helping them see it, the religious establishment was not helping them admit it, and certainly their leadership was not repenting or helping the people repent so that they could be restored to God's blessings.
You might say, Brother Michel, that sounds pretty judgmental harsh and radical. How can you say that? Well, in order to understand their state of mind, you need to go no further than the gospel of John (John 8:30-47). I will let you go and read it separately, but this clearly demonstrates that the people did not understand their true spiritual condition and the very real consequences of both national and personal sin. Do not forget, in Deuteronomy 28:1-14, Almighty God described in detail the blessings that would follow Israel if they would obey God and honor His covenant. Conversely, the LORD also described in great detail the curses that would follow Israel if they persisted in dishonoring God's covenant and leadership (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). The fact is that everything which had been promised in the curses for disobedience did in fact happen to Israel, was still happening in the time of Jesus, and continues to this day. The sad fact is that Israel was not only ignoring the word of God and its consequences, but they were also in denial of their own history, as well as denying their true spiritual illness. When Jesus confronted them on this issue, they even went so far as to say, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” (John 8:33 ESV). The scary part is, that even if they had acknowledged their own history they could not rightly make such a statement. Truthfully, Israel has been under more slavery than they ever have been free. In fact, they were under Roman imperial occupation at the very moment when they were speaking those exact words! The fact is that at the very time they said those words they were experiencing the very curses of Deuteronomy 28:15-68, and they were not even able to see it or acknowledge it either to themselves or to God. One cannot repent of sin that they do not recognize to be present or refuse to acknowledge. Jesus understood that they needed leadership which would lead them into genuine repentance, rather than insisting that they were fine simply because they were children of Abraham. I believe that with each passing day Jesus understood more and more that these people had no other hope other than for Him to die on our behalf. He understood our desperate need for real spiritual eyesight (Matthew 6:22-23).
Before you're tempted to say, well that was before Jesus died, we see much more clearly now. Before you say, since we are Christians we are much better off, I am going to suggest to you that American Christianity in 2012 is in almost exactly the same condition. You may say, that is a pretty strong statement. Yes it is, but it's also the truth. Think about it. If you look at the book of Revelation chapters 1-3, you will notice that our Lord commanded the apostle John to write seven letters to the churches. Of those seven letters, five of those churches had serious problems that they were told to resolve, repent and turn away from those things, before the coming judgment. Only two were on the right track and not in need of serious direction, only encouragement to persevere. Only two of the seven were actually successfully doing what Jesus Christ our Lord and Master wanted them to do. That's less than 29% and is not a passing grade on any test I've ever seen.
What's even more frightening is the fact that of the seven churches, the one that looked the best in the eyes of the world, was actually the one in the worst spiritual shape of all the seven churches (Revelation 3:14-22). According to Eerdmans Bible dictionary, "Laodicea was known for its involvement in banking, its linen and wool industry, and its pharmaceutical skills, especially the preparation of eye salve. The city was sufficiently wealthy and its population energetic enough that without outside financial aid it recovered completely from a destructive earthquake in A.D. 60 with hardly any noticeable stagnation in its commerce and industry.
Epaphras labored in the Christian congregation of Laodicea, which was closely linked with the congregations of Hierapolis and Colossae (Col. 4:12–16). Although Paul himself did not visit the congregation in Laodicea (2:1), he did write a letter to the Laodiceans (4:16), as did John later (Rev. 3:14–22). According to John’s letter the wealth of Laodicea had adversely affected the spiritual condition of the Laodicean Christians." So, as far as they could tell, according to their own standards they were very wealthy, and they had everything they thought they could ever need.
According to Jesus though, the exact opposite was actually true. They thought they were wealthy, but Jesus told them they needed godly riches because they were really poor. They thought that their linen industry kept them really well-dressed, but in God's eyes they were in fact shamefully naked. Laodicea assumed that their eye salve industry gave their citizens great vision, but in God's estimation, the church of Laodicea was really blind. By every standard they could recognize, Laodicea considered that they must truly be "Blessed by God." In reality, their passion to seek after and pursue what was really delightful to the heart of God was virtually nonexistent. Their passion to do what really pleased God was tepid and lukewarm. Judging by their prosperity, they no doubt thought that they must be among God's favorite people, but in reality they literally made Jesus want to spew. The church that thought it was the healthiest and had the most going for it was actually the sickest, and this was after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Please do not forget, this was a Messiah-believing congregation. They believed in Jesus, that's why they are recognized as a church, and yet they were still in danger of being rejected by Jesus (Revelation 3:15-16). Why? They were in danger of being rejected by the Lord because they were lukewarm. They had no real passion for what was truly pleasing to Almighty God. They were in danger because they were not recognizing their real spiritual state before God and their urgent need to repent. Sadly that is the condition of many congregations in the United States of America today.
One of the biggest deceptions of our age is the idea that all we need to do is evangelize and preach the gospel more, that if we just get more people to agree to accept and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then all will be fine. However, if we look carefully at the first three chapters of the book of Revelation, it becomes very clear that if people and congregations who believe Jesus Christ do not learn to spot and cooperate with God to overcome our weaknesses, the consequences could still be devastating. So let us Not continue to deceive ourselves and others.
Thirdly, Jesus Christ was daily confronted with the consequences of this spiritual blindness and sin. He saw the overwhelming need of the people for spiritual, emotional, and physical healing (Matthew 9:18-35), and seeing their desperate need, He was moved to compassion, and using God's power, Messiah healed them.
How to Obey This Command
"Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."
1. Take notice and remember to care: In order to successfully obey this command of Yeshua, we will have to remember to pay attention so that we can spot the real needs of people. For some people who are broken and weary the need is for compassion and support, others need to understand and receive salvation through Jesus Christ. Some are being torn apart by their own sin and foolishness, and their need is for repentance. Our job, if we're going to pray is to care enough to notice what's going on in their lives.
Remember what made Yeshua effective in earthly ministry: He saw and understood the problem. He cared about the problems that He saw, and they broke His heart. The problems He saw motivated Him to sincere Biblical compassion. He had great spiritual eyesight. He saw the real spiritual emotional and physical needs of people. Since He saw their real needs, He knew what they were lacking. They were lacking spiritual leadership that would help people recognize their sin and would guide them into authentic biblical repentance, so that they could be restored into God's blessings. They were lacking leadership that really cared about the people and had a shepherd's heart. That's why they were called, "Like sheep without a shepherd."
I strongly believe that one thing American Christendom needs to get away from is the idea that if we just get people to pray a prayer for salvation, that will solve every problem, because God will eventually fix everything else automatically over time.
Beloved, that is how people end up making commitments to Christ, but never grow into effectual overcommers, because we have somehow trained our congregations to believe that making a commitment to Christ is all they really need. Yes, everyone needs Jesus, but once we've accepted salvation through Jesus, we need to grow in Jesus, we need to love and obey Jesus, and we need to learn how to overcome through Jesus. That is the true work of the laborers in God's kingdom. Beloved, remember in Christ's day, He was ministering to God's covenant people. They had the right doctrinal heritage, but they were not truly experiencing the genuine overcoming type of victory in their lives that God had originally intended and wanted for them. That is what truly leaves people distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Please do not missed that point.
2. Don't be too prideful to beg: One thing that is sure to happen as we begin to take notice and care about people's genuine needs. It will seem overwhelming. If we have any brains at all we will notice very quickly the problems are a lot bigger than we are. However no matter how big the problems are, they are never bigger than Almighty God is. So the key to remember is that apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5), but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27). I cannot really solve anything, but God can. So when I see that a person needs spiritual, emotional, mental, physical or financial breakthrough (and usually they need a combination of those things), I am not above actually begging that the Almighty God of heaven will intervene to either save or restore such a person.
3. Remember that there is more than Enough work for every disciple: As I pray for laborers, I also ask that God will send out His most effectual laborers for that person's need. When I pray this way, sometimes He will direct me to contribute some of the wellspring of the love, time, talent and treasure which he has granted for me to give, into that particular person or situation. I need to be prepared whenever He calls me to act. Sometimes, God will use me to be the laborer that I've prayed for into someone's life or situation. At many other times, God will direct me to back away so that other people can work. Either one is perfectly fine as long as God is pleased, and people's deepest needs are met. As Christians, we need to be prepared either to be laborers, or let others labor as God leads. We are not meant to be in competition with one another. Each of us is to consider the other more important or greater than ourselves, so how can we do that and be in competition at the same time (Philippians 2:3-4)? There is no need to compete. There is plenty enough work in the kingdom, that we never need to claw and compete with each other for work in God's kingdom. Believe me. There is no lack of work to be done. It all starts with noticing the problem, caring enough about the problem, begging God to send His laborers to minister in the midst of the problem, and then being willing to either move or step aside however God leads to bring his kingdom and principles into that problem so that it can be solved.
May Almighty God bless you as you pray for God to send laborers into the lives and challenges that you see in your community.
Brother Michel Lankford
