The Harvest
TCF Sermon
July 25, 2010
Many of you know that before I was on staff as church administrator and an elder here at TCF, I had a public relations business for about 15 years. One of the things I did for my p.r. clients was go to trade shows or conventions. This is where companies that made and sold the programming that’s on your satellite or cable TV, or the hardware or software that makes it possible to get all those channels in your home, get together with the cable TV system operators who provide your local service.
My job was to try to get the news outlets – trade and consumer press which covered these conventions - to cover my clients business. The vendors would build these very elaborate display booths to show off their products and draw in potential customers.
One of the things they did to enhance the draw of their booths was to get celebrities to come into their booths and make appearances, sign autographs, etc. Most of the time these celebs had something to do with the product, especially when we’d go to the Western Cable Show in Anaheim, close to Hollywood, and the stars of programs on many of the cable channels would show up at these conventions.
Through the years, I saw or met lots of people you’d know, and many more who were minor celebrities you may or may not know. Harry Caray was the announcer for the Chicago Cubs, who were carried on WGN, which was one of my larger clients. Of course, WGN also carried the original Bozo the Clown. He’s the one on the right.
Ted Turner was the founder of TBS, TNT, and CNN. Gary Owens was an announcer on one of the satellite radio channels distributed by one of my clients. Those of you who are old enough might remember him from Laugh In in the 1960s.
I met Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Vanna White, the cast of Star Trek Next Generation, 70s pop music star Todd Rundgren, the founder of Discovery Channel, the founder of ESPN, and many more people during these years.
The other thing I did which was fun was go to some of the booths and collect various and sundry memorabilia – like my basketball collectors cards here, as well as my Discovery Channel Magazine cover – funny story - it’s amazing how many of our kids see this in my office and ask if I really was a World War II flying ace.
I also knew people who worked for other networks, and once, I was visiting with a friend in another booth, and up walks Mr. T. Now, he was a minor celebrity in the 1980s because he starred in a mediocre, but popular, TV action show called The A Team. He was also in the movie Rocky III. You still see him on TV occasionally today.
Mr T arrived to do an appearance in the booth we were standing in, and he thought I was waiting to meet him, which I wasn’t. So, he looks at me and says, “Come on now, don’t be shy. Come get your picture taken with Mr T.” So I did.
Here’s the reason for this rather long-winded opening illustration. Mr T was famous for one particular phrase. Anybody remember?
“I pity the fool…”
And at last, we get to the point of our illustration here. I pity the fool.
1 Corinthians 15:19 (NIV) If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
The context of this passage is a defense of the resurrection, where Paul is telling the believers in Corinth that if there is no resurrection, there’s no hope of eternal life. And if our only hope in Christ has to do with what we have in this life, we are to be pitied. I pity the fool.
There’s a rather disturbing, and ultimately sad trend in some segments of the church today that relates to this idea. Let me read a few quotes that highlight this line of thinking.
…based on the Scriptures, I believe Jesus primarily came not to proclaim a way out of hell for some after death, but rather a way into a better life for all before death. His message was not about going to heaven after history, but about the kingdom of heaven coming to earth in history. Brian McLaren
And then there’s this:
"Salvation is the entire universe being brought back into harmony with its maker. This has huge implications for how people present the message of Jesus. Yes, Jesus can come into our hearts. But we can join a movement that is as wide and as big as the universe itself. Rocks and trees and birds and swamps and ecosystems. God’s desire is to restore all of it....The goal isn’t escaping this world but making this world the kind of place God can come to. And God is remaking us into the kind of people who can do this kind of work." Rob Bell
As I began to think about this message and had a sense of God’s leading, two passages of scripture came to mind. The first is the one we just read, and let’s look at it again.
1 Corinthians 15:19 (NIV) If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
The other passage is the words of Jesus, in Matthew 9, from which we get this morning’s sermon title.
Matthew 9:35-38 (NIV) Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Now, the word compassion here is a different Greek word than the word translated pity in 1 Corinthians. But I find it interesting that Jesus’ compassion on the crowds who were following Him, relates to what we’re looking at this morning. So, let’s spend a few minutes exploring these two passages, and other related verses, to examine this idea a bit more.
We have contemporary voices with a lot of influence telling us that salvation has as much or more to do with making this life better, making this world the kind of place God can come to, than about saving our souls from eternity apart from God. We have people telling us that it’s not about seeing people get saved – it’s about bringing the Kingdom here now. Yet, we have the apostle Paul telling us, essentially, our hope is not in this life. We have Jesus lamenting that there’s a harvest that’s plentiful, and not enough Godly shepherds or laborers
to show these harassed and helpless people the way.
We have in other places in the gospels, Jesus telling us that His Kingdom is not of this world.
But what is this harvest? It’s a harvest of souls. There’s no way you can read this passage any other way. The harvest is not about helping the poor in a temporal sense. The harvest is not about freeing the oppressed in a temporal sense. It’s not about feeding the hungry, again in a temporal sense. It’s about souls being saved from sin and death.
As laborers in the harvest, and as living answers to the prayer Jesus told His disciples and us to pray, it’s about our faithful witness to the awesome truth of what Jesus has already done to make a way for us into eternal life.
It’s the gospel – the good news that Jesus has saved us from hell.
The harvest is what this church is all about. The training of laborers for the harvest. The releasing of laborers into His harvest. We exist for the express purpose of growing in Christ together, and as we grow into useful and effective laborers, glorifying Him by going into the harvest – in our church neighborhood, in our individual neighborhoods wherever we live,in our individual circles of influence at work or at school, and literally around the world, among those who are like sheep without a shepherd.
The unique component of what we do as a fellowship, and what we do as individuals who are a vital part of this fellowship, is laboring in the harvest. And the harvest is about seeing people saved.
Yes, our individual work in the harvest fields looks differently for each of us. We all have different roles. Some of us plant, some of us plow the ground, some of us reap the harvest. But we’re all a part of this, or we should be.
And let me also be very clear about what I’m not saying here this morning. The same voices that are telling us that Jesus came primarily to make this life better, extrapolate that idea to mean our primary job as believers is to help the poor and needy, in a variety of contexts.
Please don’t hear me say we should ignore people’s needs just to preach the gospel, just to see them get saved. Scripture is very clear about our responsibility to help those in need. Ephesians tells us that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by our works, yet it also tells us “we are created for good works.” James tells us that faith without works is dead, or useless.
So it’s a difference in emphasis and perspective, and ultimately, priority. Yes, as followers of Christ, we can and should serve the poor, help the needy, in whatever context that might mean.
However, this is a byproduct of, a result of, the outworking of, the gospel. Such work is not the gospel itself. The good news means we are saved by grace through faith. One result of the good news means that our changed lives, changed by the power of the gospel through His Holy Spirit, will lead to good works, and those good works will adorn, or make attractive, the teaching of the gospel.
Titus 2 tells us that our behavior should be such that we illustrate the gospel.
Titus 2:10 (NIV) so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
Titus 2:10 (NASB95) …but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
Now, this was written to slaves – the admonition being that Christian slaves should be such good responsible and hard-working slaves that they illustrate the gospel with their lives.
Such living keeps Christians from providing any legitimate grounds for the gospel (the word of God) to be reviled (v. 5; cf. v. 8). More positively, such living highlights the attractiveness of the gospel (“adorns,” v. 10). In keeping with the overall thrust of the letter, this kind of living “proves” the gospel.
ESV Study Bible
Even slaves, low as is their status, should not think the influence of their example a matter of no consequence to religion: how much more those in a high position. His love in being "our Saviour" is the strongest ground for our adorning His doctrine by our lives. JFB Commentary
So, good works adorn, or make attractive, the gospel. But it’s not the other way around. The gospel is still primary. The good news of salvation through the finished work of Jesus on the cross is still of first importance.
1 Corinthians 15:3 (NIV) For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
Let’s go back to the passage in Matthew for a moment.
Verse 36 says: When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd
Jesus had compassion on them. Yes, He cared about their physical well-being in the here and now. This passage also tells us he was healing sickness and disease. But specifically, his compassion was related to the reality that they had no spiritual guidance.
The religious leaders, who should have been their shepherds, were keeping the sheep from following the true Shepherd. Bible Knowledge Commentary
Some versions say they were wearied and fatigued. Is this a physical weariness? The context tells us it isn’t, at least primarily.
The burden that made them weary was that they were weighed down by the teachings of the Pharisees. The rules and the regulations – which made them feel hopeless about actually finding God.
He pities them, and was concerned for them (v. 36); He was moved with compassion on them; not upon a temporal account, as he pities the blind, and lame, and sick; but upon a spiritual account; he was concerned to see them ignorant and careless, and ready to perish for lack of vision. It was pity to souls that brought him from heaven to earth, and there to the cross. Misery is the object of mercy; and the miseries of sinful, self-destroying souls, are the greatest miseries: Christ pities those most that pity themselves least; so should we. The most Christian compassion is compassion to souls; it is most Christ-like.
Matthew Henry
Jesus’ miracles gave His words credibility. Were there people there who were there mostly just to get help with their physical needs? Probably. But most of them followed Jesus, listened to him, because they wanted help for their souls.
So, what did Jesus say to do? He said to pray. To pray specifically for others to help these people with their deepest spiritual needs. He did not say to find doctors to help heal. He did not say to find food to help feed. He did not say to pray for money to help the poor. Again, it’s not that those things aren’t important, or that we shouldn’t do those things to adorn the gospel.
But what was Jesus’ mission? Why did He come to earth?
Early in the first gospel we see it clearly stated by an angel announcing Jesus’ birth to His mother.
Matthew 1:21 (NIV) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
We see Jesus’ purpose outlined in many other places in the Word.
Acts 5:31 (NIV) God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
Mark 10:45 (NIV) For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Romans 5:6-10 (NIV) You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
The good news is about our salvation from sin and death, our rescue from God’s righteous wrath. That was and is Jesus’ mission, and by extension, our mission.
Acts 1:6-8 (NIV) So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Note this:
The disciples asked Jesus when he would restore the kingdom to Israel because they concluded from his resurrection and the promise of the Spirit that the messianic era had dawned and the final salvation of Israel was imminent. However, they were probably still expecting the restoration of a military and political kingdom that would drive out the Roman armies and restore national sovereignty to Israel, as had happened numerous times in the OT. Jesus corrected them, not by rejecting the question, but by telling them (Acts 1:8) that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit, not in order to triumph over Roman armies but to spread the good news of the gospel throughout the world. In other words, the return is in God’s timing; in the meantime, there are other key things believers are to do. ESV Study Bible
The idea of bringing the Kingdom of God to the here and now is a major theme of those who call themselves “missional.” That, by the way, “missional” - is a buzzword that, unfortunately, causes my spiritual radar screen to light up when I see or hear it.
I say unfortunately, because, at first glance, it seems to be only a different way to say what we’ve always said here – missions minded.
But further examination illustrates why it’s so important to define terms. Everybody doesn’t use this word with the same sense, but often missional means the kingdom of God brought to earth now. And yes, there is a sense in scripture of the Kingdom of God being here and now.
That’s the “already here” part. But there’s another sense that we must hold in tension – that the Kingdom of God is also “not yet.”
The Kingdom of God is where God reigns and His rule is honored, and though we see that to some degree on earth already, it’s clear that the totality of this is not yet.
So, though we note that Jesus said in John 18:36, “My Kingdom is not of this world…” it’s clear that many missional folks seem to believe that it should be today. That leads almost inevitably to a different, non-gospel emphasis in their life and mission.
Here’s one explanation of this line of thinking:
Missional churches are “in” these days. Social action is hot. Evangelism is regarded as too aggressive (just a sales pitch), modern (cold, logical), and condescending (my God is better than yours). As one author said, “Your job is to bless people, that’s the covenant. Don’t have an evangelism strategy – have a blessing strategy.” (Reggie McNeil: Out of the Ooze) Now, the emphasis is on human trafficking, AIDS, poverty, the homeless and the environment. To bring Christ’s kingdom of peace, justice and blessing to the world is the mission of God for the church. Why We Love the Church, DeYoung/Kluck
Clearly, we can take from this stream some good things. A passionate concern for social problems. A desire to help the least of these. Sex trafficking. Oppression and genocide in Darfur. AIDS. The homeless. Christians can and should be involved in helping with these kinds of issues.
I’m glad this church is, and many individuals at TCF are involved in these kinds of things.
But I don’t know any Christians who don’t think the gospel has social implications. No one is for genocide or sex-trafficking or poverty or malnutrition or homelessness. Even Hollywood is concerned about these things. Now that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be. It would be a sinful attitude – one my sometimes cynical heart must battle – to say that I don’t want anything to do with something, just because it’s so popular among the cultural elite, when those things are worth caring about. It may be a rare instance where cultural values line up with Christian values.
Yet, what is it that makes the church unique? What makes the church unique is our deep commitment to, more than anything else, knowing Christ and making Him known.
Yes, the Bible talks much about the poor and the downtrodden. But the vast majority of scripture is about our redemption. It’s about how God saves us from our rebellion. It’s about how our sin is atoned for, and how we can become children of God.
If we emphasize, or only tell people, that God will make their lives better in the here and now, if we avoid mentioning the eternal consequences of an individual’s response or lack thereof to Jesus, we lose the main mission of the church.
I recognize that there are good ways and bad ways to do this. I realize Christians have been and can be obnoxious and lack sensitivity when attempting to share the gospel.
And I also agree that it’s vital that we demonstrate and embody and live out the love of Christ – we’ve heard from this pulpit more than once before that sometimes we need to earn the right to be heard. But, remember the implication here – at some point, we want to make ourselves heard. That implies we have something important to say.
Proclaiming the redemption available in and through Jesus Christ is the main mission of the church.
Something I’ve noticed in the missional stream is almost an embarrassment about Christianity. Clearly there are many things Christians have done that are indeed embarrassing. But that embarrassment seems to extend beyond the clear sins of the church or individual Christians. This embarrassment seems to include some of the very basics of the gospel.
Things like God’s hatred toward sin. Things like God’s judgment and wrath. Especially things like hell. Even things like the way God chose to save us – the blood of Jesus. People seem embarrassed by these things.
Yet, scripture is clear that these things are essential elements of the gospel. The passage from Romans we read a few moments ago illustrates this. And another verse in Romans makes it clearer still what our position as believers is to be to the gospel:
Romans 1:16 (NIV) I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:
If we’re ashamed of the gospel, and all it includes – that would include the reality that we are hopeless sinners - that would include the reality that we are unable to do good enough to save ourselves - that would include the reality that our lostness is so great that it took the shedding of the blood of the sinless Son of God to pay the penalty for our sin - if we’re ashamed of these things, it’s no wonder we try to make excuses for God.
We looked earlier at 1 Corinthians 15:19, which says,
1 Corinthians 15:19 (NIV) If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
The interesting thing here is that it says not only are we to be pitied, if all our hope in Christ, has to do with what He will do for us in the here and now, but we are to be more pitied than all men.
Why does Paul say believers would be "more to be pitied than anyone in the world" if there were only earthly value to Christianity? In Paul’s day, Christianity often brought a person persecution, ostracism from family, and, in many cases, poverty. There were few tangible benefits from being a Christian in that society. It was certainly not a step up the social or career ladder. More important is the fact that if Christ had not been resurrected from the dead, Christians would not be forgiven of their sins or have any hope of eternal life. If what Christians believe is a lie, we would be pitiful because we would be going through such suffering for no purpose. Fortunately, that is not the case. Life Application Study Bible.
In the original language of the New Testament, the same word translated pitied in this verse is used in only one other verse:
Revelation 3:17 (NIV) You say, ’I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
These are the words of Jesus to the church at Laodicea. And it emphasizes in a different context what we’ve been looking at this morning. If we reduce the gospel to what we have in this life, we’re pitiful.
The reality is that material wealth often equals spiritual poverty. Having material things, all of our worldly needs met, either abundantly or just barely, does not automatically mean we are spiritually rich.
This passage is clearly an indictment of the materially rich, however, you don’t have to be wealthy to be complacent, and to think you don’t need anything beyond your material needs. The sad thing here in the verse in Revelation is that this means they were pitiable, but they didn’t know it.
So, even though we’re talking about two different groups of people in these two different passages – one a group of people in Corinth who believed in Jesus, but were supposing how awful it would be if what they believed turned out to be false, and another who have believed but grown complacent (the Laodiceans), both are pitiable, because having their temporal material needs met is clearly not all they need. There is a worse poverty than material – and that’s a spiritual poverty.
Mark 8:34-38 (NASB95) And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? "For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
Getting all the material needs of this world met brings no lasting benefit. So, the Word of God is absolutely clear about how we are to treat other people, do good works, and so adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
However, in our zeal to help the least of these in their temporal struggles, let’s never, never lose sight of the harvest. Let’s never lose sight of the reality that we are pitiful fools if we hope in Christ only for what He can do for us in this life – or worse still, pass along that idea to others.
Let’s do good works – but first and foremost, let the church be the church. In closing, let’s remember:
Philippians 3:20 (NIV) But our citizenship is in heaven.
2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV) So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Pray
