Sending Workers out into the Harvest Field

We’ve been in a sermon series called The Ministry of Jesus. We’re looking at everything Jesus said and everything Jesus did so that we can find ourselves on the receiving end of His teachings, His instructions, His promises, and His warnings. Before we get into the text today, I like to start off by bringing up an observation that I was reflecting on that I’m sure some of you have probably been reflecting on as well or have thought about before as well. And that is this, we live in a moment in history where we have unlimited access to all the information that we could ever consume to make us, to form us, to shape us into better people. Wouldn’t you agree? We have Google, we have YouTube, we have podcasts, we have conferences, we have seminars, we have books. You see, the opportunities to be better have never been more accessible than it is right now. And yet, at the very same time, we have more anxiety, more bitterness, more addictions, more scandals, more divorces, more abuse, more mass shootings, and more suicides than at any other time in human history. We should be getting better, and yet we’re getting worse.

Our tips for self-improvement, our technological advancements, our medicine, our justice system, and our presidents have proven time and time and time again to have little to no lasting impact on the problems that we’re facing today. You see, the world we live in reminds me of a story from the Olympics in 2004, Matt Emmons was competing in the three-position air rifle competition, and he was guaranteed gold. And in his last shot, all he had to do was hit his target, and he would certainly walk away with first place. So in his last shot, he held his breath, took his aim, and he hit the bull’s eye. Except that when he looked back at the scoreboard, he went from first place to eighth place. And so as the story goes, it turned out the bull’s eye he hit was actually not his target, but it was the wrong target. I tell this story because I can’t help but think that the world today is hitting the bull’s eye on the wrong target. The world is looking for solutions where there are no solutions. No matter how confident and creative this world gets, the world’s solutions will never be able to fully solve the world’s problems.

So of course, that makes me wonder if the world can’t solve the problems, who can solve the problems? What is the actual solution to the problems that the world is facing right now? Well today, as we get into the scriptures, what we’re going to see is that the solution to this world involves working with God to restore this world. More on this later. But for now, just to let you know up top, most of this talk will be educational, and then the remaining time, we’ll leave with a relevant application for our lives. So if you have a Bible, you can go ahead and turn to Luke 10, verse 1. And before we get to Luke 10, let me catch you up from last Sunday. Last week, Josh preached from Luke 9, and in Luke 9, we met Jesus on the road heading towards Jerusalem, toward the place of death. While he was on the road, he ended up getting into an impromptu discussion with three men about what it truly meant to follow him. If you weren’t here last week, I highly recommend that you go back, and take a listen on our Broward Church YouTube page.

But for this week in Luke 10, the story picks up where we see Jesus pivoting how he does ministry. Jesus is no longer going to be the only one traveling all over the place, going up and down all over Galilee, teaching, preaching, working, serving, and healing. Jesus is about to get His people involved. Verse 1, After this, as in after the talk with the three men on the road, after that, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and every place he was about to go. So here in this verse, you see Jesus sending, you see Him strategizing, you see him appointing His followers because even though He’s the Messiah, He can do absolutely anything. He understands that if He wants His impact to outlast him, He has to mobilize His followers. He has to get them involved. What Jesus is practicing here is what the ancient Kings practice and that is whenever they would get ready to go to a town or a village, they would send out representatives to go ahead of them. Obviously, there was no technology to get your message out. You didn’t have the Internet, Twitter, a printing press, or anything like that.

So the representatives, they would take a road trip and they would go on behalf of the King. And when they would get there, they would blow their horns. They would call the town into the city square, and then they would finally make the public announcement that the king was on the way. This is exactly what Jesus is doing. He’s essentially saying to the 70 or the 72, depending on what translation you have, He’s saying to them, You are my representatives. I’m not doing this alone. You speak for me. You have authority in my name. Go ahead of me, two by two in my name. Tell them when you get there, get ready because the King is on the way. Verse 2, Jesus says, He told them, as in the 72, 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, as we saw in the previous verse, not only is Jesus preparing to send the 72 ahead of him, but he looks out into the harvest and he notices that it’s going to take a lot more than 72 followers.

Why? Because the harvest is plentiful, which means the harvest is ready. Some of you have an agricultural background, so you know that a lot of farm work sometimes can be handled at your own pace. But when the harvest comes, your pace goes out the window. You do not have time to waste. You have to drop everything and get out there. And of course, what any farmer would love is to have a ton of workers to help gather their harvest. Does that make sense? Because the farmer knows if he only has a few people on a huge farm, he probably wouldn’t be able to get all his fruit or whatever it is that he’s harvesting. He probably wouldn’t be able to get that in time because it would be ruined or the weather would ruin it, all that stuff. So any farmer would kill to have an influx of workers to help out. When Jesus says the harvest is plentiful, he’s saying the harvest is rich. There are all types of people out there who need and want God desperately. But the issue is there are so few workers out there helping to bring him to God.

Jesus says to the 72, Ask the Lord of the harvest, or a better way to say this from the Greek is beg the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field. You see, instead of praying for an easier job or a lighter load, Jesus tells the 72 to pray for more workers. Now, notice he is not asking the spectators to pray for more workers. He’s asking the workers to pray for more workers. See, I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this point, but there are some of us who spend way too much time praying for somebody else to do the work that they are first unwilling to do themselves. Jesus says the workers should pray for more workers because the harvest is ready. You see, one man and 72 followers were not going to get the job done. There are probably thousands, if not tens of thousands of people all over the place, up and down Israel. And Jesus is like, I need more workers. So pray, pray that more workers are willing to be sent out. And so what does Jesus do? Who does Jesus turn to look for those workers?

Verse 3, To the 72, of course. He says, “Go, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” You see in this verse, Jesus says, Go to the 72. But notice what he does not say. He does not say, Go if you feel like it. He does not say go if you agree with it. He does not say go if your schedule allows for it. He says, Go. This is not a suggestion, this was not an invitation, this was a command. Jesus said to the 72, Go, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Jesus is like, You’ve been following me around now for like six months, nine months, a year or two. You’ve been experiencing the love of the Father. Now you’re up, you’re on, you’ve been praying for the workers, and we certainly need more workers. But to start, you are the workers. You see, brothers and sisters, you’re the answer to your own prayers. Have you ever thought about that? God helped this church to be loving, and God’s like, “Go ahead”. Who’s going to do it? Some person from out of town? They’re going to host a workshop? A love workshop, here’s how to love? No, it’s us. You may be praying, and God has probably already answered through you. Jesus says to the 72, You are to be sent out like lambs among wolves. Lambs are meant to invoke powerlessness. They do not have the talent to defend themselves. They are nonviolent, they are nonforceful, they are non-threatening, and they are utterly peaceful animals. An image that Jesus is creating here is that his followers are to go out even though opposition or danger may be awaiting them, they are to go. They are to move forward in trust because Jesus, the good shepherd, will be with them as they go. So verse 4, Jesus goes on to say, Do not take a purse or bag or sandals and do not greet anyone on the road. Now, all of this language right here might sound odd, but it’s actually symbolic of the Exodus. The bag, the clothing, and the sandals are almost a verbatim quote from the Exodus about the clothing that the children of Israel were to wear on their way out of Egypt. God wanted the Israelites to get out of Egypt as fast as they could. They were not to stop.

Lucas is saying, Israel’s story is reaching its climax, in and through Jesus and through his disciples, Jesus is a new Moses, and His disciples are a new Israel. And together they are leading a new Exodus out of slavery into freedom. Jesus was not instructing the 72 to be rude or to be stuck up or whatever, but he was instructing the 72 to stay focused on their journey as they traveled on the road because time was of the essence. They had to get out of there. They had to get out of slavery. So Jesus is sending the 72 on a mission to help people to be free, to get them out of slavery. Does that make sense? So Jesus goes on to say, in verse 5, “When you enter a house, first say peace to this house. If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them. If not, it will return to you.” Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcome, eat what is offered to you. Here, Jesus gives some commands to the 72 about peace and about greetings.

In Jewish society, friends and family would greet each other by saying shalom, which means peace or peace be with you. Shalom not only served as a greeting, but it was like a way of praying on behalf of the person you were speaking to. So the thought was that when you say shalom, you would be asking God to grant the person you’re speaking to, peace in the core of their being. Shalom was basically a close personal desire for the good of another person. But notice that peace was not some wand that the 72 waived over people, but rather that peace was something that comes and goes with them. So when they came into a house, that peace comes with them. And when they left that home, that peace goes with them. Their presence was a presence of peace. So in addition to the peace commands in the ancient Middle East, both in the first century and to this day, hospitality was paramount to the faith. There were no hotels in those times. So if you traveled from one end of the empire to the other, you would rely on the hospitality of a town or a village along the way.

And so Jesus says to the 72, As you go out, and if someone accepts you or is peaceful towards you and offers you a place to stay, stay with them. But don’t get picky, don’t get selective don’t say, “I want to look at this house, this house”. Don’t look for a better place to live, eat whatever they offer you. Jesus was trying to teach His followers that their focus was to be on the mission and not on their personal comforts. But what did the mission entail? Verse 9, Heal the sick who are there and tell them the Kingdom of God has come near to you. You see, the Ministry of Jesus in a lot of ways can be simply described as this, preaching and demonstrating the Kingdom of God. Now, what was the message of Jesus? The Kingdom of God has come near to you. And what did he do? He demonstrated the Kingdom of God. So He healed the sick, liberated people from death and disease, fed the hungry, made people whole again, and He demonstrated the Kingdom.

And so when the 72 went out, he gave them, and only them, I believe, the authority to demonstrate the Kingdom by healing the sick as well. But not only did he give them the authority to heal the sick, but he also gave them the authority to preach the Kingdom of God. Now, what did Jesus mean by the Kingdom of God? Well, the Kingdom of God is God’s rule, or God’s reign, or God’s kingship arriving through the person of Jesus. The news that Jesus wanted the 72 to preach was a royal announcement. Remember the King sent the representatives ahead? So the message that Jesus wanted the 72 to preach was a royal announcement that God was restoring his reign over his people, Israel, and over all the nations through himself. And so the reason that the Kingdom of God had to be shared is that the Kingdom is the reversal of everything that went wrong when sin entered the world. You see, the authors of the New Testament referred to the message of the Kingdom as good news. Because in a world that’s marked by death and chaos and pain and suffering and bondage to sin and Satan’s influence, Jesus comes on the scene and says, Hey, there’s a new way to live here and now.

You can grab it. You can touch it. It’s ripe for the picking. You can experience it here and now. The Kingdom of God was never supposed to be something we just study in our Bibles. But the Kingdom of God is something that we give away as a gift to the world. You see when the Kingdom is shared, this world has an opportunity to be reordered and restored by God, one person at a time. So what does this mean for us today? Well, if we want to see the world’s problems solved, then we have to work with God by proclaiming his Kingdom. Because the Kingdom is God’s strategy to restore this world through who? Through the disciples, through those who are going to follow. God is looking for individuals who will become the kinds of people who will be sent out to share the Kingdom as Jesus did. Now, to be clear, God does not need our help. Can I get an Amen? It does not need our help, nor do we deserve to work with him. We’re just his junior assistants if you will. We’re imperfect vessels that God so graciously allows into his work and into his Kingdom.

On a personal note, as I was preparing this sermon, I realized the topic of sharing the Kingdom means so much to me. The reason it means so much to me is that before I submitted to the kingdom and before I allowed God to lead my life, I was trying to call the shots, but I was doing a terrible job at it. I was enslaved to my sin, I was a slave to people’s ideas of me, and I was consumed with living my own way, living lies. I made it a goal to hide my faults and sins from people. I hid how perverted I was, I hid how I viewed women inappropriately, I hid how deceitful and lazy and vengeful I was. I hid how I idolized my girlfriend at the time, I hid the fact that I was extremely depressed when my parents were addicted to drugs. I felt like I needed to be fake because the real me wasn’t good enough. I felt like I didn’t measure up. I felt like I wasn’t worth it. But what I learned as a freshman in college from guys like Semi Lightborne, who’s visiting here today. Thank you for being here.

Guys like Derek Gamble, Elijah Handley, Emanuel Norde, Emanuel Phelus, I mean, the list goes on and on and on. But what I learned from guys like that was that the good news about the Kingdom said, My sin didn’t stop Jesus from loving me and from dying for me and from showing me a better way to live. These guys were sent to share the Kingdom with me, to show me the Kingdom. The reason sharing the Kingdom means so much to me, and the reason I’m even sharing my story, just a part of it today is to say I was reached because people were sent. And I bet you, if you’re a Christian here today, you were also reached because people were sent. And today, brothers and sisters, the question I have for you is, will you be sent so that people can be reached? Will you be sent? In another Gospel, Jesus sends out the 12, and he says, freely you have received, so freely you give. Now, for anything like me, you may be wondering at this point, where exactly is God sending me? Well, one way I like to think about it is that maybe God isn’t sending you to every town like the 72, but perhaps he is sending you to the place where he has already planted you.

So for some of us, that means he’s sending you to the office if you’re a working professional. It’s the playground if you’re a stay-at-home parent. It’s the friendship that you’ve had since your college days. It’s the older sibling that you could sometimes avoid the guy talk with. It’s the roommates that you go to the gym with. It’s the classmate that you sit next to every day. It’s the string of tents that you pass by when you commute to work. It’s the Publix cashier that serves you as you get your groceries. Will you love these people enough to introduce them to the kingdom? Will you love them enough? And the reason I say love is because only love cares enough to say something. Only love cares enough to make the first move and risk personal awkwardness and discomfort and rejection on behalf of another person. What I’ve learned in my experience, is that inspiration fades. Willpower is going to burn out and guilt never leads to redemption. So what moves you to share when you’re uncomfortable? It’s love. What won’t let you give up on that friend that you’ve seen go through a thousand phases and you just don’t have the energy this time?

It’s love. What makes being dismissed or misunderstood or rejected worth the risk? It’s love. Your harvest may not be in every town, but your harvest, no matter where you are, needs workers. Will you allow God to send you out as a worker? If you’re a Christian here today, God is commanding you to work in the harvest that he is already working on. So as I come to a close, I just want to add, Jesus will not be content with our distance from the people he desires to save. He’s not going to be content with that. He doesn’t want us hiding behind our big churches, content in our tight-knit group of friends, all the while keeping the world at a distance. If you want to see the world restored, you have to be active in trying to reach it. If people are going to encounter Jesus, they have to come face to face with his representatives, you and me. What if wherever you were, the kingdom was felt? If your neighbor your baristas knew your name? If your friends and coworkers could count on you to bring restoration? Imagine what it would be like if your unbelieving neighbors and family members had some crisis and there was something going on that they needed help in and they could just invite you in.

How might the city change if there were disciples of Jesus doing this all throughout our city? Pockets, just little pockets of God’s kingdom saturated all throughout the city. You see, for some of us, to begin doing the work of Jesus in our city will actually begin with our schedules. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Maybe it looks like learning to say no. Not saying no for the sake of saying no, but saying no so that you could say yes to the kingdom work. Saying yes so that you could be present with your neighbors. Saying yes so you could be present with your coworkers. Saying yes so you could be present with your family members who are far from God. You see, what will restore this world is not a policy, it’s not a program, it’s not a president. While all these things are good and they can be helpful. What we really need is for disciples to be sent out, proclaiming that their King is on the way. Will you be sent out? What would that look like? This week, I want to challenge us. I want to challenge us to practice being sent out in the community.

You see, time and time again, the Gospels emphasize that by sending the disciples out in what? Twos. You notice in that passage, you sent them out two by two? Every single one of the yous and yours in that passage was plural. Jesus assumes that if we’re going to do this, then we have to do it together. If these disciples had any chance of carrying out Jesus’s work, they had to be together in a community. And the same, I believe, is true for us. This week, I want to encourage you to practice evangelism, not only with yourself, you should do that, but with your community group as well. Whether that’s inviting your neighbors to your community group time, when you’re out with your group, inviting your servers to church, or maybe you’re deciding to ask the people who have been visiting your community group for a while to finally study the Bible, whatever it is, decide to practice evangelism in the community. Amen? Now, if you need help finding a group, you can fill out that QR code that Tony was talking about on your seat. Just take a picture of it and you can go ahead.

This is certainly a community group plugs if you didn’t notice. Just go ahead and fill out that QR code on the seat. We would love, as a church, to help you be in the community. If you’re a member here and you’re interested in leading a group, you know helping our brothers and sisters to live the kingdom as well as preach the kingdom. You can certainly email me, at mic@browardchurch. Org. Feel free to email me at any time. We need more workers, but we also need more leaders to set the way for practicing being sent out in the community, and we need people to lead the way. So if you are interested and you’re a member here, you’ve been a member here, a good standing member here, go ahead and email me, and we will certainly talk as well. With that being said, brothers and sisters, a restored society, I believe, awaits us if we decide to proclaim to one person at a time that God reigns, it may be men.hank you, God, for investing us in us. And thank you for allowing us to be a part of the process. I pray that you will mobilize us. I pray that we will be inspired to take on your work, to partner with you, God, to work with you. I pray that you help us to overcome the blocks that stops us from doing that. I pray that it’s love that motivates us to do this, not a person, not a program, not guilt, but it’s love that motivates us to talk about you. I pray that and I pray that it will help us to move in the right direction. I love you so much. Thank you for this time. In the name of Jesus, Amen.