How to Be an Effective Witness: Your Testimony

How to Be an Effective Witness:  Your Testimony – The One Thing That No One Can Take Away from You

Acts 22:1-16, Acts 26:4-23

The passage we just talked about in our introduction revealed something rather unique – the chief priests could not stop the effect that Lazarus’ resurrection had in bringing Jews to seek Christ.  The only way they could think of preventing its spread was by killing Lazarus, so they planned a way to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.  But if they thought about it carefully, would killing Lazarus have solved the problem?  Likely not, because the story of what Christ had done in raising Lazarus from the dead would likely still be told.  That witness, that story, that testimony could in no way be taken away, destroyed, or invalidated.  Lazarus’ testimony of what Christ had done in his life could not be taken away from him.

Every Christian has his own unique story of how Christ came into his/her life and changed it.  Sometimes the dramatic parts of the story come when they first meet Christ.  For others, the story heats up only after years of growth as a disciple.  Whatever the case may be, this testimony of what God has done can never be taken away.  No matter what questions people throw at you about apologetics, no matter how much they try to argue with you about the existence of God, no matter how much they discourage you, they can never take away your testimony.  It is the one thing they cannot rebut or debate, for it is your personal experience with the Lord.  And this testimony can be one of the most powerful witnessing tools in a Christian’s arsenal.  Paul, one of the greatest apostles and the writer of almost half the New Testament, understood the impact that a testimony could have and used his testimony twice to share the Gospel with people (Acts 22 and 26).  Tonight we will be looking at both these passage to see two things:  1)  What are the key components in a testimony (specifically of salvation) and 2) What should we emphasize about God in our testimony.  For those of you, who have yet to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, please continue to listen, for there is also some truth for you to hear as well, because in hearing Paul’s testimony, you will learn a lot more about God’s mercy, love, and grace.

1)  God’s mercy is reflected in the situation you were in before you knew Christ.

Paul begins his testimony by recounting what his life was like before he met Christ on the road to Damascus.  These are detailed in Acts 22:3-5 and Acts 26:4-11.  There are two major things we can take note of in Paul’s testimony about his life before he knew Christ.

1. No matter how “righteous” you may seem to be, you still need Christ.

Paul had one of the greatest pedigrees for Jewish scholars before he met Christ.  He sat under the teaching of Gamaliel, a well-known rabbi of the time.  In addition, he was born a Roman citizen and likely of a wealthy or learned family, being that he had the time to sit under the teaching of such a renowned teacher.  Added to that, he was a Pharisee, a Jewish religious sect that adhered to the law strictly.  Likely based on the law of Moses, Paul would be almost without reproach.  But no matter his pedigree, no matter how “righteous” he was in his own sight and in the sight of others, all this meant nothing to God.  He was still considered a sinner in need of God’s mercy and grace.  Without Christ in his life, Paul was completely lost without a clear understanding of God’s desire or will; therefore, he did the only thing he thought was right, which was to persecute the early church.

2. No matter how “evil” you may have been, Christ can still save you.

This persecution made Saul, the most feared man in Christian circles.  He was like the “boogeyman,” ready to capture and kill any Christian at any time.  According to his description, Paul not only imprisoned Christians, but he also tried to make them recant their beliefs and to put them to death.  He didn’t even stop within his vicinity; he went out purposefully looking for Christians to persecute and kill.  In Acts 7:58 and 8:1, when Stephen was martyred, Saul was said to approve of his execution.  Saul was outright fighting against Jesus Christ.  Saul was the ultimate persecutor.  This was a man that Christians today would likely have been praying for God to strike down in an instant.  But when Christ met Saul on the road to Damascus, he didn’t kill him for his sin, but instead, he took the time to speak to Him.  He showed Saul mercy instead of judgment, which he so rightly deserved.

MERCY means that we do not get what we deserve.  As humans, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  According to Romans 6:23, the payment for this sin is death.  Yet, instead of receiving the death, we do deserve, Christ died for us.  While we were His enemies, He allowed Himself to be put on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.  Instead of striking us down, He showed us mercy by extending His hand to us to restore us.  One of the most important parts of our testimony is what we were before Christ.  Before we met Him, we were wretched sinners in need of a Savior.  We were people deserving of hell and taking one step closer towards that direction every day.  But in our sinful state, God showed us mercy.  When we share our testimony, we can begin by being vulnerable, sharing who we were before Christ came into our lives.  We can share all the dirt and messiness, no matter how bad, for even the chief of sinners “Paul” was shown mercy.

2)  God’s love is reflected in the situation you were in when you came to know Christ

When Saul was heading toward Damascus to persecute the Christians in that city, he was met by Jesus Christ.  God had every right to strike him down and kill him on the spot.  He was torturing and hurting His people; Saul was vehemently seeking to destroy Christianity.  But instead of coming as a God of wrath and judgment, Jesus Christ met Paul with a different attitude – an attitude of love.  Although Christ came in His glory, appearing in a bright and blinding light, he didn’t come swinging a sword, but He came ready to start a conversation with Saul saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?  It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”  Saul having no clue who he was talking to asked, “Who are you, Lord?”  To which Jesus replied, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”  This does not sound like a conversation between a vengeful God and an enemy of His, but one between a Father seeking to bring home His wayward son.  He even says, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads,” an agricultural metaphor referring to how oxen who are being yoked to a plow are taught submission by using a spike at their heels to keep them from kicking themselves out.  God was trying to reach Saul right there.  He was trying to meet Saul and show him His love – an unconditional love that sought restoration while Saul was still an enemy.  This love was displayed through a disciple Ananias, who was God’s physical loving hands and feet to Saul at this moment.

When we come to know Christ, at that specific moment, we are experiencing His love for us at its fullest.  Yes, the action of His love was seen on the cross, when He willingly laid down His life for us.  But we experience His love for the first time, when we submit to Him as our Lord and Savior.  It is at that moment, we receive the Father’s love, as He accepts us as His child; the Husband’s love, as He accepts us as part of His bride – the Church; and the Ultimate Friend’s love, as we accept the gift that He gave when He laid down His life for us.  When we share our testimony with others, we must be sure to share the moment we came to accept Christ, for it is at that moment we passed from death to life.  It is at that moment, we go from orphans to adopted.  It is at that moment, we switch from sinner to saint.  It is the most important part of your life.  Now, I have to admit that I personally do not have a specific time or day, but when I share my testimony it is a series of situations over a range of time that led to my life finally be given fully over to Him; for me a share a process instead of a moment.  But whatever the case may be for you, when you share your testimony, don’t forget to share the time you finally gave your all to Him.

3)  God’s grace is reflected in the situation you are in after you came to know Christ

After meeting Saul on the road to Damascus, showing His mercy and love to this wicked persecutor, Jesus Christ followed up by showing Saul His grace.  Although Saul was a wicked man with an awful past, one that could be considered by many to be unforgiveable, Jesus Christ did not just rebuke Saul and then leave him to wallow in his guilt and misery; instead, Jesus Christ gave him a job – to be a witness to the Jews and Gentiles of who Christ was and what Christ did for him.  He was given the opportunity to be a servant of the Lord.  Saul was given a chance to make up for all the pain and suffering he had caused.  This was a grace – a gift that he didn’t deserve.  Christ showed His grace to Paul by saving and forgiving Him, by restoring his sight, and by giving him a life’s purpose.  God would continue to show His grace towards Paul for the rest of His life, whether it was by protecting him in certain cities, preserving him in a shipwreck, providing for Him strength in his weakness, or giving him the words to speak when sharing the Gospel.  From that point forward, God would shower His grace on Paul.

Like Paul, during and after we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are showered with His grace.  We clearly see His grace in the eternal life He gives us.  We see His grace when He prepared for us a place in heaven.  We see His grace when He calls us to be witnesses for Him throughout the world just like Paul.  We have the wonderful opportunity to be servants of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This may sound like a weird statement, because our world has taught us that we need to be independent and masters of our own destinies; but one of the greatest gifts God has given us is the opportunity to be a part of His work.  Imagine if you were Neil Armstrong when you first took that step on the moon.  Although he was serving his country, he was given a privilege, an opportunity to be the first man on the moon – a servant role was also a gift.  Let us not take for granted the grace that God shows us when He gives us the opportunity to work with Him.  And let us definitely not take for granted the continued grace He shows us in our lives. He makes so many promises to Christians, and all of them are things we do not deserve – they are graces shown to us by the Heavenly Father.

When we share our testimony we should definitely take the time to share all the amazing things that God is now doing in our lives since we have come to know Him.  We can share His grace by sharing about how He is using us sinners for His glory.  We can share His grace by describing all the changes He has made to our attitudes and characters.  We can share His grace by describing the hope we now have in our lives of an eternity with Him.  Great Grace!

As Christians, we are given one thing that no unbeliever can argue with us on – our testimonies.  If you have yet to receive Him, look at the testimony that Paul shares here and see the mercy, love, and grace that He wants to show you today.  Make Him a part of your life, so you have a testimony to share.  There is no sin so deep that He cannot show you mercy; you are not so wicked, He cannot show you love; you are not so tainted, that He cannot use you for His service.  But if you are already a Christian, then take the time now to remember what you were like before you came to know Christ, how you came to know Christ, and what Christ is currently doing in your life.  Craft your testimony, for it is a powerful witnessing tool that God wants to use today.

How to Be an Effective Witness – Introduction

*The next series of posts on “How to Be an Effective Witness” are a series of sermons that I shared for a youth camp this past weekend.  I hope by sharing these with you, you also can become an effective witness for Christ.

For the whole passage please read John 11.  

John 11:4 – “But when Jesus heard it he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death.  It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’”

John 11:45 – “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him…”

John 12:9-11 – “When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.”

To help you understand why I selected “How to be a witness for Christ” as the topic for our camp this year, I want us to reflect on a story in the Bible that helped inspire this theme.  The story is that of Lazarus, one of the close friends of Jesus.  In John 11, we are told of a time when Lazarus was very ill – to the point of death.  During that time, his sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus to hurry back to Bethany to heal their brother.  Instead of immediately running to the city, Jesus instead chose to stay longer in the place where He was at and stated the words found in vs. 4, “This illness does not lead to death.  It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”  Jesus stayed behind, so that God would be glorified in the situation.  When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead for four days and was buried.  How could God be glorified in the death of a loved one?  This is probably the question that popped up in the heads of both Mary and Martha.  How could this friend of theirs, Jesus, who claimed to love them, not be there to heal their brother?  They had no clue what was about to come.  Later that day, Jesus would come to the tomb, ask the people to roll the stone door of the tomb away, and say, “Lazarus, come out.” (vs. 43).  At that moment, Lazarus was raised from the dead.  Jesus had just performed a miracle unlike any other; He had just raised someone from the dead (the only other account of this is with Elisha in 2 Kings 4).  Verse 45 says that because of this miracle, “Many of the Jews….believed in Him….”  One of the worst and most horrific situations that Mary and Martha and Lazarus could have gone through became a tool for brining God honor and glory.  Lazarus’ death and resurrection would be a witnessing tool that brought many to a faith in Jesus Christ.

The part that inspired me the most though came later in John 12:9-11.  Here we are told that although the crowds came to see Jesus; they came not only to see Him but also to see Lazarus, who He had raised from the dead.  The life of Lazarus was a witnessing tool to bring people to seek Christ.  It was so effective of a tool that the chief priests stopped seeking to only kill Jesus but also to kill Lazarus, because on account of that miracle, many Jews were turning to Christ.  These verses forced me to reflect on my own life – to ask myself the question, “Is my current witness for Christ so effective and useful that the Devil and others who oppose Christ would have to dispatch of me in order to stop my witness?”  Was I living in a way that caused others to see Christ so much, that the Devil was afraid of how God could use my life for His glory?  Was my life a witness for Christ?  It was this passage that inspired the series of messages we will be talking about in camp this weekend.  So for the next few days, I want us to take the time to think about these questions:

1. Am I living my life as a witness for the Gospel of Christ?
2. Am I being an effective witness for Jesus Christ through my words and actions?
3. Would I be a threat to the Devil based on my witness?
4. How can I be a better witness for Christ to those around me who are watching today?
5. Who around me can I share the Gospel with and how?

Quick Note – Luke 8:38-39 – Declaring All That God Has Done for Us

Luke 8:38-39 – “The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’  And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”

Maybe I am speaking for myself, but I think everyone loves to be appreciated.  When you do something for someone (although you are not doing it for recognition), it is always nice when that person is so happy that they want to share what you did for them with everyone around them.  For example, I am overjoyed, when I do something nice for my girlfriend and she posts it on social media.  It’s not because I want a whole bunch of people to know what I am doing, but it makes me feel like she is proud of me and appreciates what I did for her.  It makes me feel like she is not ashamed of me.

And I am almost certain we have all been on the other side of the equation, in which we experienced something so amazing we couldn’t wait to share it with everyone around us.  Based on what I have seen with friends and family as well as television, some of the guaranteed times this happens is when someone has just accepted a proposal/been proposed to or has a child born.  Since I have not experienced either of these things, some examples when I personally felt this feeling was when I got my first training grant, when I bought my new car, and when I was first going out with my girlfriend (Some of my workmates can attest to how I couldn’t stop talking about her).  Good news is just hard to keep in!

In our passage in Luke 8 today, we hear of a man who was demon possessed in a region of Israel known as the Gerasenes.  This man was possessed by so many demons, that the demons called themselves Legion (likely as a reference to a legion of Roman soldiers).  Although he would be restrained by the people in the town, he had a tendency to break out of them and run around naked in the wilderness that surrounded that town.  When Jesus came to that place, he exorcised the demons, leaving the man in his right mind.  When Jesus was leaving the country, the man wanted to go with Him, but Jesus told him, “No!”  instead He wanted the man to go back home and share that all that God had done for him.  In other words, Jesus told him to go home and share the good news.  (As a side note, take a look at vs. 39 and how it describes that the man shared what Jesus had done for him, after Jesus told him to share what God had done for him.  This is a clear indication that the man recognized Jesus as God as we should too.)  The man then went home and did just that.  He shared what Jesus did for him with everyone in the city.  He did this likely because he appreciated all that Christ had done for him.  He recognized how much Christ had changed his life.

We as disciples of Jesus Christ have also been given the same command by Jesus Christ, “Declare to everyone you know how much God has done for you.”  God has given us life and health and protection.  God has given us His Son and salvation.  He has given us grace and mercy.  He has called us to Himself and made us His children.  Yet many of us feel ashamed to share the Gospel.  Many of us feel ashamed to tell others about what God has done and is continuing to do in our lives.  We often fail to show our appreciation for all that he has done for us.  We unlike the man in the Gerasenes take for granted all that God has done for us.  Let us change our attitudes and begin to reflect on all that God has done for us.  Let us then go out and share with everyone we know what he has done in our lives.  Let us share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, praising and worshipping our God, by declaring His wondrous works to the world.  For Jesus has done so much for us.

Sermon – Caring for the Lost

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.’”

I never thought to look up the statistics on world religions until a few days ago and was surprised to find that one research group called the Pew Research Center had published some results online based on their statistics and prediction models (http://www.pewresearch.org/).

They shared these findings back in April 2015, and it must have received some attention, because even CNN decided to report on some of their findings.  As I looked at the statistics, I was saddened by what I found, for the current state of the Christian church did not look good, and based on their predictions the future didn’t look any brighter either.  (This was even with the Christian group actually being mislabeled, because they included Jehovah’s witnesses and Mormons and likely other groups that are pseudo-Christian but do not interpret the Bible in context.)  I put together some of the most striking results based on their published data on April 2015 (http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/) and November 2015 (http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/) in some slides.  One of the major findings was that the Muslim population was probably the fastest growing religious population and would eventually overtake Christianity in the year 2070 if the predictions and growth rates held true.  Now of course, their statistics took in things like age and fertility which helped boost the numbers, but nonetheless, the data indicated that Christianity was in the decline.

When they looked at people switching into and out of religions by 2050, Christianity was predicted to have the biggest net loss with a number of countries losing their Christian majority.  Even the U.S. would see a drop in the percentage of Christians in the population, while other religions (even unaffiliated) would see a growth.

What was worse for wear was that the predictions themselves were not the only bad thing, when they showed the statistics for the current state of Christians in the United States today based on a 2014 Religious Landscape Study, it was awful.  First and foremost, those who claimed to have a religious affiliation and found religion to be important declined since 2007, while those who didn’t care increased.  Second, those who claimed to be Christians carried much less socially conservative views, being open with things that God made clear in the Bible that He was not supportive of like homosexuality.  Third, 2/3 of these so-called “Christians” believed that other religions could lead to eternal life, which is a complete disregard of the teachings of the Bible that say that Jesus Christ is the only way (John 14:6).  This result wasn’t too surprising after I read that only 4/10 “Christians” say that the Bible should be interpreted literally.  From these findings, I could definitely conclude that Christianity was in decline and was in worse shape than they reported, because very likely the numbers they gave were overestimates since based on these results the majority of “Christians” they polled aren’t Christians at all.

This study indicated that the state of the world is dire.  I wouldn’t be surprised that if I looked at statistics about other moral issues I would find even more unwelcome news, because based on their Religious Landscape Study of the US, the majority of people don’t even believe in an absolute right and wrong but that it depends on the situation (http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/sources-of-guidance-on-right-and-wrong/).

Just look at how so many traditional values have already been tossed aside, like life-long marriage and abstinence before marriage; television shows are littered with unnecessary sexual garbage that show where we are spiritually as a people.  I don’t doubt if in the next decade or so, we will find out that the majority of people find pornography okay, premeditated murder in certain cases is acceptable, and polygamy is fine.  I think I heard that in Brazil there was even a group of three girls who got married to each other.  What is our world coming to?  All I can conclude is that the world is heading in the wrong direction and towards judgment – judgment for wickedness which is worse than it was before the Flood.  All I see is a world in dire need of a Savior, a world in need of someone to forgive them of their sin and to turn them back on the right path, a world in need of Jesus Christ.

The questions I want to ask you today are “Does this even matter to you?”  “Does it affect you?” “Does this do anything to your heart?” “Knowing how lost the world is, will this shift your actions?”  I have to admit that before seeing these stats, even though I already had a feeling that the world was in this condition, I didn’t care.  I already knew that I had many friends, colleagues, and relatives who are “lost,” who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, yet I did nothing about it.  If I took a poll right now, with all of you, asking you how many of you could name at least ten people in your life that do not know Christ, all of you could name them within 30 seconds.  It would be even faster if I included celebrities and people who you didn’t know personally.  But knowing this, have you done anything to share the Gospel with them?  Have you done anything for the lost?  Because I truly believe the harvest that Christ is speaking about in Matthew 9:35-38 is still there, we just have to go out and reap it.  Today, I want us to look at our passage and consider Jesus’ heart towards the lost and how ours should be as well.

Set Your Hearts for the Lost

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

The first thing we need to take note of in our passage today was Christ’s heart toward the lost.  Christ already had His hands full – healing the people, casting out demons, and preaching in all their synagogues.  He had spent countless hours with these men and women who had come to Him for the single reason of wanting to get something from Him.  These men and women who crowded Him now would eventually call to crucify Him, and He knew what was in their selfish hearts.  Yet rather than do the “human, natural” thing of being disappointed in them and turning them away, when He saw these people He had compassion for them.  The King of kings and Lord of lords who now acted as a servant rather than His deserved place as Master had compassion for the people who should be serving Him.  This was not some surface level concern for people who were in trouble that would be there for one moment and pass the next.  He wasn’t simply looking to start some social welfare program to help these people get on their feet and learn what it’s like to have three meals a day.  No, it was a strong emotional care for those who needed Him.  The word compassion in the Greek meant literally “to be moved as to one’s bowels”; the reason for this was that the bowels were supposed to be the seat of love and pity – it was where those emotions resided (Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon).  Christ here is described to have been so moved that love and pity for these people poured out of Him.  He saw their need for a Savior, for a Shepherd, for a person to care and help them, and He longed to fulfill that need.  He saw a people who were lost and in need of guidance, and He wanted to be that Light and Way for them.

To help us better understand what was going on here, I want to relate it to a story about how my cousin got her dog.  My cousin maybe three years ago now adopted a dog from the shelter named Stewart.  She takes that dog everywhere.  When she comes down from Northern California to visit family, that dog rides home with her.  When she comes to my house for a family party that dog tags along.  That dog and her are almost inseparable.  And when I look at the dog, I’m not too sure why she chose him.  The dog granted is a pretty cute dog, but it doesn’t know any tricks and half the time it looks sad, because it has sad eyes.  And I am almost certain that it wasn’t cute when she got him, because it’s through her proper grooming that the dog looks nice today.  I can only assume that she must have chosen the dog out of the compassion of her heart.  If I recall properly, that dog was supposedly abused before it had gotten into the shelter, and because nobody was adopting him, he was in line to be put to sleep.  When she was at that shelter, she must have seen him so sad, so defeated, so in need of rescue, and was moved with compassion for him – a compassion that called her to act in the way of adopting him.  That is the heart of Jesus Christ here.  He saw the loneliness in each heart; He saw the lack of guidance; He saw their helplessness and was moved with compassion to act.

Our world today is so lost.  Just like the people in Christ’s time, they are like sheep without a shepherd.  Just like sheep that follow the thing in front of them whatever it may be, they are wandering this world drawn by the lights of fame and fortune and power.  They are being led by media, celebrities, and science.  They are blind people leading the blind.  They are going on through this life helpless and harassed by sin and the Devil.  And they have no hope for eternal life.  They turn to drugs and alcohol and sex.  They turn to professional careers and legacy.  They turn to all these temporary things of the earth to fill that hole in their hearts.  Yet how many of us are moved with compassion to bring them to know the only Person who can fulfill this hole in their hearts?  Take Miley Cyrus for example.  When I mentioned her name, what did you all think?  I’m almost certain that at least half of you thought, “What a waste?  If only her parents had disciplined her better?”  But how many of you thought, “That girl needs Jesus?”  How many of you did not think to condemn her but pray for her right now?  I doubt that even 10% of us did.  As Christians, we need to develop a heart for the lost; we need to be moved with compassion to act.  Not to just set up social programs for the lost; not just to teach them how to live their lives; but to lead them to the Good Shepherd.

Before moving on to our next point, I want to share another story.  Last Friday, I was talking with the Thai church’s college/youth group during dinner and the name of a kid came up.  This kid supposedly has bipolar disease and abandonment issues, because his mom and dad both didn’t want him, and right now, he is currently living with his grandma, who probably isn’t too privy to having him either, especially since she has trouble understanding him and his condition.  As we were talking, I could hear how everyone was saddened by his story and the struggle he had to deal with, but all were too afraid to do anything about it.  We all could tell he needed a person to show him love and concern, but nobody was waiting in line to volunteer.  This teenager who needed someone to stand alongside him and teach him and likely also discipline him had no one who cared for him enough to do anything about it.  I won’t say that I volunteered to do the job, because I’m probably just as worried about failing as everyone else is.  But our hearts as Christians need to be moved with compassion to act for these people.  This is one case in millions that are happening around the globe.  Is your heart moved with compassion for the lost?

Pray for the Lost

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.

After Christ saw the multitude and was moved with compassion for them, the next thing He did was tell His disciples to pray for them, specifically to pray “to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  Christ did not stop after having feelings of pity and love for these people; rather, He took those feelings and did something about them.  He prayed.  Now, in this passage, we are not told specifically that Christ prayed to the Father to send laborers out, but we can safely assume that if He asked His disciples to pray, He did as well.  He saw this not as a last resort action, but a necessary first move.  But so much of the time, people feel like prayer is the last thing that one should do.  I’m sure that we have all heard the story of how a man was sick in the hospital and had tried every treatment imaginable and was still not well.  When the doctor came in to speak to the family, he told them that now they should pray, and the family responded with “Have we already come to that?”  We might think this is just a joke, but in the last week, I heard this same type of response to prayer and seeking God for help twice.  First, in my lab, during a meeting, I think someone was struggling with an experiment, and jokingly, the lead investigator said something along the lines of “Maybe you can pray for it?” By the way he spoke he made it clear to everyone that he treated this option lightly.  Second, in the same lab, I was told a story about another scientist who was having the hardest time trying to get his experiment to work, struggling for five months or so.  Eventually, he went to the basilica of the school and grabbed holy water to use in his experiment instead of regular water.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that “holy water” from a church is something more powerful and should be used.  But the response of the person telling me the story clearly showed me that he didn’t hold much regard for prayer, faith, and seeking God for help as an important part of anything.  The sad thing about all this is that we as Christians often take prayer as our last resort too.  We will try our hardest to put in every physical effort we can, and only when we are at our whit’s end do we turn in prayer to God.

But prayer is always valued by Christ.  He prayed before He selected His twelve disciples (Luke 6:12-16).  He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion.  He prayed in the late nights and early mornings.  Christ was always in prayer with His Father.  And in the Bible, we are called to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16) and told that the prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16).  We are always told to pray.  So why we would think the work of winning the lost would require otherwise?  In asking us to pray for the harvest, I believe Jesus was asking us to do two things in our prayer for the lost.

First, the more subtle hidden thing is that we need to pray for the harvest itself – the lost.  We need to pray that the people in this world who do not know God will be drawn to Him.  When was the last time you prayed for someone you personally know who doesn’t know Christ as their Lord and Savior to come to know Him that way?  I have to admit that this prayer is not one that comes up on my list often.  Just last week, I told the youth group that I teach to pray daily for at least 10 people they knew that weren’t Christians, but when I reflected on whether I did it as well, I think I only did it two out of the seven days.  It must have not been important to me, because I prayed about so many other things daily, but that wasn’t one of them.  I’m not looking to bash anybody who has left this prayer request out, but I am trying to remind you of how important it is.  Some of us have probably already spent years praying for someone we love to come to know Christ, yet it still hasn’t happened.  I encourage you to keep praying.  I know that I used to pray for a college classmate when I was still in undergrad, never expecting him to come to know Christ.  I think a year after I started to pray for him, he came to know Christ as His personal Lord and Savior.  So trust me, it can happen.  But I also understand the opposite case, because I have prayed for some friends for years, yet they still don’t know Him.  Currently, my list includes a close friend I made while at the NIH, a friend I made on the bus, some of my new classmates in graduate school, the lab supervisor who taught me how to work in a lab for the first time, the fiancé (whom I have never met) of a dear friend I met on a cruise ship, and many, many others.  I encourage you to compile a list of people you know that aren’t yet Christians and pray for them daily.  They are that harvest; so pray for them.

Second, obviously, Jesus Christ told us to pray to the Father to send laborers into the harvest.  We need to make it part of our daily prayer routine to ask God to send people out to share the Gospel.  We need to pray that God sends missionaries to places where His Word is not known.  We need to pray that God opens doors for those who are calling on Him in persecuted places to receive pastors and ministers.  We need to pray that more and more disciples will desire to enter into full-time or even part-time ministry so that more people will come to know Christ.  Pray for the revivals and crusades led by Franklin Graham and Greg Laurie.  Pray for encouragement of those people in your church who are going out and sharing the Gospel in their daily lives.  Pray for opportunities for you yourself to share the Gospel with others.  There are so many people in this world today who are hungering for God and the Bible, they just need someone to go out and share it with them.  In Acts 10, we are told the story of Cornelius who was a Roman centurion who sought God and followed Him.  He did not have a full picture of the Gospel, until Peter was called by God to go and share Jesus Christ with them.  There are people like Cornelius out in the world today, pray that God sends a Peter to serve them.  Pray for laborers to be sent into the bountiful harvest out there today.  When Jesus Christ sent out His disciples in Matthew 10, He told them that they would not even be able to go through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.  Simply put, He was telling them that there are so many people that need and want to hear the Gospel that even if they were to try their hardest to cover them all they couldn’t.  That means there needs to be more laborers.  Our Lord said, “The harvest is plenteous,” so let’s pray for some laborers to reap that harvest.

Labor for the Lost

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.

Matthew 10:5-8 – “These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers,[c] cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.”

Lastly, Christ asked His disciples to labor for the lost.  He set an example for them in vs. 35, going out and teaching in all the cities and villages and healing every disease and every affliction.  Then, He told His disciples to pray for laborers to labor in the harvest.  But He didn’t stop there, in Matthew 10, He finally told them to go out and be those laborers.  They were to follow His example and heal the sick and share the Gospel.  They were supposed to do the laboring.  So much of the time, we are just too lazy to work for the kingdom of God.  We are willing to give of our money to the ministry.  We are even willing enough to give of our prayers.  But how many of us are willing enough to give of ourselves?  How many of us are willing to put in the time and effort it takes to reap that harvest?

When we pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into the harvest, we better be sure that we are ready to be called as one of those laborers.  We can’t expect that God will simply ask us to sit this one out and just watch as the work is done.  No!  He already asked each and every one of us to “Go out and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19-20).  Go out and make are not passive words, they are active action words; they are things that should be done – things that must be done.  James argues that faith without works is dead.  He states that there is no point in saying to a hungry man words like “Blessed be you and be filled,” when you don’t do your absolute best to feed him.  (James 2:14-26).  I argue that the same rule applies here.  There is no point in you praying to God to send out laborers into the harvest, if you aren’t out there working already.  You need to go out there actively reaping that harvest.

How many people in the last year did you share the Gospel with?  If I were to guess, most of us (and I include myself) could count the people in one hand.  This is not something to be proud of; it is a disgrace.  Who of you would go to work only one day in the year, if you knew your life and those you loved depended on it?  So why would you treat this spiritually important issue that way?  Who of you would only call out to save one person from a fire in a burning building?  So why would you not warn every one of the Lake of Fire?  In Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel was called a watchman.  He was called by God to give warning of the impending judgment.  It states very clearly in vs. 7-9 that if he did not give warning, the blood of those who died would be on him – “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.”  This is the same call that is given to each and every one of us.  We are the watchmen of this generation.  We need to call out for the lost.  We need to labor.

I want to challenge everyone to go out and share the Gospel with at least one person every month of this year – that means twelve people will hear the Gospel from your mouth this year.  That’s not asking a lot.  There was a famous preacher (I’m not sure if it was Spurgeon or someone else), who made a promise that he would share the Gospel with at least one person every day.  It was said that one time, he forgot to share the Gospel before he got home, so what he did was he put his jacket back on and wandered the streets until he found one person to share with.  He made a commitment to spread the Word, and he did it.  Make a commitment to do so today.

Conclusion

The world we live in today is filled with so many people that are lost.  If you look right outside your door, there is a harvest before you.  Many people are ready to receive the Gospel.  Many people are just waiting to hear it.  I encourage you to take the effort and consider those who are lost.  Don’t make it a passing thought, but really be moved in compassion for them; pray for them; labor for them.  Don’t be afraid!  God will give you the words to speak and to share.  Just go out and be willing to be a laborer in that harvest for Him.  Go out and share the Gospel, so we can change those statistics.  Let’s prove the Pew Research Council wrong and show them that Christians are not in the decline, but we are in a new growth phase that they did not expect.  Work with God and the Holy Spirit to reap the harvest.

1. Strong, James. Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship, 1995.

Quick Note – Ezekiel 2:7 – Serve God for God

Ezekiel 2:7 – “And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.”

Since July of this year, I have been teaching a youth/college group Bible study.  It has been one of my greatest joys to get to know each and every student in the study as well as to share God’s Word with them.  But one of the struggles I have constantly had is the feeling that what I am doing makes no difference.  Some of the time, they are super excited about what is being shared, and it feels like they are clinging on every word; but at other times, they seems so disinterested, focused merely on their phones or each other.  It is in these latter times, that discouragement and the desire to quit creeps in, because I feel “unsuccessful” in the ministry that God has placed me in.  Without the growth in numbers or interest, I feel like I failed.  Fortunately, even though these feelings of insufficiency may arise, I am encouraged when I talk to each of them individually, for I learn that I am making an impact (no matter how small) in their lives.  When I think about this struggle of mine “to feel like I matter,” “to feel successful,” I realize that I still have an important lesson to learn in ministry, which is that success in ministry is not defined by the numbers or the interest of people but that I am serving God will all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  I shouldn’t be teaching to receive recognition or applause but simply because God has asked me to.

Many times in the Bible, God has called prophets to deliver a message to His people that would not be heard.  Prophets like Jeremiah were asked to share the Word knowing that the message would not be received upon listening ears.  Ezekiel was told in our passage today that his message might not be received as well.  But God didn’t tell them to just give up and keep their mouths shut because they wouldn’t hear.  Instead, He told them to preach whether the people would listen or not.  Later on in Ezekiel, God would even tell him that the people would come and show interest, but the words would go in one ear and out the other, because the people were just listening with their ears but not responding with their heart.  According to today’s standards, we would consider these prophets a failure, but God saw them as faithful, for they shared His Word even without recognition and in most cases with persecution.

As Christians, in Matthew 28:19-20, we were given the task to go out and make disciples.  Usually when we first receive Christ or attend a revival meeting or a retreat, we have this huge emotional high, where we are “gung-ho” to share His Word and to serve Him, but eventually, as we here rejection after rejection, we become discouraged and stop doing His work.  We must remember that we do not share the Gospel to get recognition or to even make converts but because we are being obedient to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Ezekiel shared the word whether he was listened to or not.  Jeremiah did so to.  Many of the prophets’ words fell on deaf ears, yet they continued in their ministry.  The disciples had their fair share of rejection.  And even Christ’s words were often not heeded by the crowd, although they flocked to Him.  They all served because that’s what God told them to do, and that should be our heart as well.  So serve God, because He is God and told you so, not because of people.