Luke 10:2
~16 min read
💭 Consider this: When you consider your unbelieving loved ones, why do you think their need for salvation can easily become less of a priority in your relationship with them?
TRANSCRIPT
Our text for the message is taken from the Gospel of Luke 10:2. “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.”
Let me read for you another similar passage in Matthew 9:36. “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:36–38)
The Lord bless the reading of his holy and sacred word. In a week's time, we will be commemorating the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before we consider the significance of his death and resurrection, we need to understand why must Jesus come. He came to save his people from their sins through his death and the shedding of his precious blood. And his resurrection was a confirmation that his atoning sacrifice was accepted.
So his birth, his life, his 30 or so years of ministry, his suffering, his death and his resurrection, they were not the result of some random situations or some adverse circumstances due to a series of bad decisions. They were all well planned and executed to the finest detail. In other words, from the beginning, Jesus was already on a mission, a mission to save mankind from their sins.
Luke 10:2 is a marvellous verse that has been frequently quoted to talk about missions, to help the people to understand the importance of missions, but it is also a verse that shows the heart of Jesus Christ. So for our message, we want to look at missions, look at evangelism, the mission to save lost souls through the eyes of Jesus, which is the title of our message.
I. The Compassion Of Christ
When Jesus was on this earth, there was a great multitude that followed him for many months. They were always there wherever he went. If he entered a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee, they would either follow him in other boats or run around to the other side and meet him there. They followed him from town to town, from house to house, and from synagogue to synagogue.
Some saw him as a miracle worker, others saw him as a prophet, yet others saw him as a teacher. So they came simply to watch and listen. They were eager to see and hear what this great miracle worker or prophet or teacher would say and do. Many people came with their special needs and physical infirmities in their own lives and in the lives of their loved ones and friends.
But we know that Jesus is more than just a miracle worker, a prophet, and a teacher. He is the Son of God who came into this world to save lost sinners. When Jesus saw the great multitude, what was the thing that came into his mind? What did Jesus see and what did he say?
Jesus said the harvest truly is great. Here firstly we see the compassion of Christ for the people. He felt compassion as only God could feel. Over and over again, we see in the Gospel that Jesus had great compassion and love for the people.
Just to quote a few examples, after the death of John the Baptist, Jesus entered a boat to be alone. And when the people discovered where he went, they followed him on foot from cities. “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. “(Matthew 14:14)
On another occasion, after Jesus had healed a great number of people on a mountainside in Galilee, “Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.” (Matthew 15:32)
So Jesus did not just heal the lame, the blind, and the sick. When they had nothing to eat, he cared for their hunger. When Jesus saw Mary and her friends weeping over the death of her brother Lazarus, the Bible said he groaned in the spirit and was troubled and “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)
When Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, his concern was not for himself, but for his disciples. Therefore, he said to the Romans, “I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way.” (John 18:8)
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, facing death, suffering great physical agony from the crown of thorns in his head and the nails driven into his hands and feet, his main concern was for his mother Mary. John 19:26 said, “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!” Then he said to his disciple John, “Behold thy mother!”
On the cross, when our Lord Jesus was rejected by the vast majority, the ones who scream and shout, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” he was not filled with hatred and anger. Instead, he prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) Throughout his life, Christ demonstrated a heart of great compassion.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus so frequently touched the people whom he healed? The eyes of the blind man, the man with leprosy, the lame and the deaf. These people were ostracised by their own families and society at large. They were dirty and smelly. With his power, he could have healed them from a distance. But he did not do that. Instead, he chose to let them feel his love by identifying himself with them through his loving touch. That was our Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of us may be asking what has that got to do with him saying the harvest truly is great. Well, it has to do with the word harvest. Very often people always understand the word harvest as a reference to those who are lost, those who are outside the kingdom of God, those who are elected and they are harvested for salvation so to speak. While that may be true, if you read the Scriptures carefully, you will realise that the word harvest also has a different meaning, a reference to God's judgment, which means the people were ripe for judgment.
The prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 17:10, “Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.” (Isaiah 17:10–11) There the word harvest was a reference to God's judgment.
All of us are familiar with the parable of the wheat and tares. The wheat is a reference to the believers, the tares, the unbelievers. Jesus spoke of the two plants being allowed to grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, Jesus will say to the reapers, “Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30) This parable teaches us that the harvest will bring the righteous, the believers, into eternal blessing. But the emphasis is also on God's judgment. The tares, the unbelievers, will be gathered together to be burned.
Men have sinned against God. And the Bible said “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23) “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
Our Lord Jesus was compassionate because he could see the divine judgment coming toward every person in the multitude who did not trust in him. He was compassionate because he knew the lake of fire was a terrible place where the fire never stops burning. So when Jesus saw the multitudes, he taught them patiently. He ministered to them lovingly. He preached to them and he healed the sick. All for the ultimate purpose that they might come to him and escape the harvest of judgment.
Most of the time we do not see the way Christ sees. We only see our own needs. We only care for our own things and how other people could and should help us. We come to church thinking, “Why did not somebody notice me? Why did not anybody say hi to me? Why did not the people appreciate my services?” We come for fellowship meetings thinking, What about my assignments? What about my work projects? Well, this program does not appeal to me. How can I benefit from this program? It is all about me.
Some of us may have memorised the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
But Jesus did not intend this verse to be just as a memory verse for us to remember and then to recite in our mouths. But this verse ought to be applied into our lives. Do we really obey his commandment? Do we really have a concern for lost souls? Do we really believe that once a person draws his last breath that would be the end? If there be any salvation, it must be while he is still alive. After that, there is no second chance. Do we really believe that?
Maybe we have shared the gospel. But the problem with many of our evangelistic efforts is that we share the gospel once in a while. We may do it fervently but only for that time and then we come back feeling good about ourselves thinking that we have done something for the Lord and we stop sharing the gospel until the next evangelistic outreach. But that is not what we have been commanded.
The worst thing is when some people say, “So what if the harvest truly is great? What has that got to do with me?” Dear friend, unless we look at this unbelieving world through the eyes of Jesus, unless we understand the compassion of Christ, you and I will see no need of sharing the gospel.
II. The Desire Of Christ
Our second point is the desire of Christ to save the people. The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Christ's desire was God's desire because he was God. And his desire was for mankind to be saved. And he was compassionate and patient, longsuffering. And here in the Gospel of Luke 10:2, his main concern was there were few labourers. “But the labourers are few.”
Who can reach out to the lost and those who are still outside the kingdom of God? Who will tell them of the divine judgment that is coming their ways and show them the only way of escape through Jesus Christ alone? Who will share with them the compassion of Christ that he loves them so much that he will come into this world to save sinners who deserve only the condemnation of hell?
The answer is you and me, the labourers. The need for the gospel to be brought to the world far surpasses the number of labourers who are willing to carry the gospel. Millions of people profess to be Christians saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. But why are there so few labourers? Because Christians have not learned to look at this unbelieving world as Jesus looked at the multitudes in Galilee and in the city of Jerusalem.
Jesus saw the potential harvest. But what do we see? We only see the potential problems. We want our unbelieving grandparents, our parents, our uncles and aunties to be saved. But it is just too inconvenient. It is just too difficult. They will reject us anyway because their hearts are hard. We want our classmates and friends to be saved. But there are too many assignments to finish. We like to sing I love to tell the story but we have no time to tell the story.
Dear friend, we were once outside the kingdom of God. Lost for all eternity. We will be lost. But God sent someone to share the gospel to us. And now that we are saved, we start giving excuses about sharing the gospel with our relatives and loved ones. How can we do that? May the Lord forgive us. Perhaps we think that we are nobody to share the gospel. Who am I to share the gospel?
There was this story of a man who was an elevator operator. And every time someone comes into the lift, he would try to share the gospel or at least pass an evangelistic tract to the person. One day a rich man came into the lift and he was offended when the elevator operator tried to share the gospel with him. And the rich man said, “Who are you to share the gospel with me? You are just an elevator operator. You are a nobody.” The operator replied, “Yes, I am a nobody telling everybody about somebody who is able to save anybody.” What a wonderful testimony.
That should be a picture of you and me who call ourselves Christians. We are nobody but we are telling everybody about somebody who is Jesus Christ and he alone is able to save anybody. That should always be our perspective. Perhaps we think it does not make any difference whether we share the gospel or not. Have you ever had this kind of thinking that what difference does it make if I were to share the gospel or if I were not to share the gospel?
Again, a story was told of an old man walking along the beach one morning, and he noticed a young man picking up stranded starfish on the beach and throwing them into the ocean. The boy explained that he was afraid the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun. The old man replied, “Young man, but the beach goes on for miles. What difference will it make? There are thousands and thousands of starfish and there is nothing you can ever do to make a difference.” As the boy picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean, he said quietly to himself, “It will surely make a difference for this one.”
There are people who are closest to us yet they are not saved. For some of us, it could be our parents, our children, a brother or a sister. If they do not trust Jesus for salvation, they will go into eternity without Christ in hell. Can we look them in the eyes and say with all our hearts, what difference will it make? What difference will it make if I were to share or not share the gospel?
Well, it will make a world of difference between heaven and hell for all eternity. God forbids that any one of us would ever say that. It is the desire of Christ to save the people. And that was why he said, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” Christians are to pray for more labourers.
The Lord of the harvest is a title of Christ that represents his role as the ultimate judge of the unbelievers who will stand before him at the final judgment and be condemned to hell. Our first responsibility is not to go out and start working as soon as we see a need. We must first go to the Lord in prayer. Waiting on the Lord is a most crucial part in evangelism. We humble ourselves and we come before the Lord pleading and praying. Why?
Because we know salvation belongs to the Lord and he would use us as labourers. It is his prerogative. So we pray to him that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. That is why it is so interesting that Jesus did not command his disciples to pray for the lost. Well, it is important. But their first prayer was for the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Why is it so? Allow me to say this.
God knows that it is possible for you and I to pray regularly for the salvation of our loved ones, whether it be our parents, our relatives, our neighbours, and yet forget our responsibility to be that labourer whom God may call. When we earnestly pray for the Lord to send someone to those unsaved people, we must also be open to be that person whom God may call to be his labourer.
You see, it is so easy for us to pray. Thank God for calling so and so to be a full-time preacher. Thank God for calling so and so to be an evangelist or a missionary. But will we place ourselves at God's disposal to become one of his labourers? Jesus said in John 20:21, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”
We may agree with everything the Bible says. We may agree with everything the preacher said about evangelism, about the urgent need to save lost souls. But at the same time, we may walk out of the church building after the worship service and do absolutely nothing about it. Unless we look through the eyes of Jesus, unless we understand the compassion of Christ, unless we let his desire be our desire, we will see no need of sharing the gospel.
The 19th century missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, who most of us are familiar with. One day he was travelling in a Chinese junk, a small boat. Travelling with him from Singapore to China was a young man named Peter whom he was evangelising to for some time. However, Peter refused to embrace Christ as his Saviour.
During their journey on a particular day, Peter actually fell overboard and began drowning. Then Taylor immediately sprung to his feet and shouted for someone to save Peter, but no one would. So he himself let down the sail and jumped overboard in search of his friend, but he could not find him. Then he noticed a fishing boat nearby and he cried out to the fishermen to let down their nets and save his friend. They refused unless Taylor would give them some money.
So here was Taylor wanting to save his friend, and these fishermen wanted to make some money out of him. He had no choice but to climb on board, took all his money, gave them to the fishermen, who then agreed to let down their nets. It took only a few moments for them to bring up Peter, but it was too late. He had drowned. They were too busy living their lives. They were too busy attending to their own businesses and were still trying to make money out of this drowning man.
Some of us will be horrified to hear stories like this. How could these men be so cruel? But yet we are guilty of a similar sin. We may not see a man drowning in the physical sea and then walk away from him. But spiritually speaking, there are thousands of people surrounding us every day, drowning in the sea of sin, perishing. And like those fishermen, it is as if we do not even care. Why? We are too busy living our lives. We are too busy enjoying the pleasures of this world. We are too busy giving excuses not to care for the perishing souls.
And the Almighty God, the one who saw the multitudes, then he said, “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” The Lord Jesus Christ can see into our hearts. He will know whether we are true fishers of men or we are fishers of our own pleasures. He knows because he is omniscient. He is the Almighty God.
Dear friend, is there anyone God wants you to minister to? Is there anyone whom God has brought into your life who does not know the gospel of Jesus Christ? And you look at that person and you see this divine judgment coming toward him or her, and the only way of escape is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the only escape that he or she can have from the harvest of judgment. Will you not share the gospel with them?
Unless we put on the eyes of eternity, unless we look at this unbelieving world and the people whom God would bring into our midst, into our families, into our church, into our lives through the eyes of Jesus, when we understand his compassion and let his desire be our desire, then you and I would be able to say, The harvest truly is great indeed. I pray that our church, our families, our individual lives will always have this spiritual perspective, and we will look at the unbelieving world through the eyes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, indeed we want our unbelieving loved ones, whether it be our grandparents, our parents, our children, our brothers and sisters to be saved. But so often we do not see as our Lord Jesus sees. We only care about ourselves. We care about our own things, and we do not see the potential harvest. Instead, we only see the potential problems, and we say it is so inconvenient. It is so difficult. We will be rejected anyway. Why do we try anyway? God forbids.
Thou hast taught us salvation belongs to thee. And therefore we pray to the Lord of the harvest, our Lord Jesus, that he would first send us, his labourers, into his harvest. We must have willing hearts. We must be always availing ourselves to be the person whom our Lord Jesus will send. And everyone whom thou will bring into our lives, we see them as a potential harvest that God would use us as the instrument to reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we pray that thou will teach us through our Lord Jesus to see his compassion, to let his desire be our desire. So all of us as believers, as we look into this unbelieving world, truly we will say the harvest truly is great and plenteous. And let us be the labourers whom God will send into his harvest. All this we do for thy glory. And we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.
THE BOOK OF LUKEJoy to the WorldJoy to the WorldLuke 2:8-14
Responding to Christ's BirthResponding to Christ's BirthLuke 2:8-17
Message 4: Basic Principles on PrayerMessage 4: Basic Principles on PrayerLuke 6:12
Looking Through The Eyes Of JesusLooking Through The Eyes Of JesusLuke 10:2
Message 2: The Parable of the Good SamaritanMessage 2: The Parable of the Good SamaritanLuke 10:30-37
Message 3: The Pattern from the Lord’s PrayerMessage 3: The Pattern from the Lord’s PrayerLuke 11:2-4, Matthew 6:9-13
Message 3: The Parable of the Friend at MidnightMessage 3: The Parable of the Friend at MidnightLuke 11:5-13
Message 1: A Sincere PleaMessage 1: A Sincere PleaLuke 11:11
Overcoming MaterialismOvercoming MaterialismLuke 12:13-34
Message 4: The Parable of Counting the CostMessage 4: The Parable of Counting the CostLuke 14:25-35
Message 5: The Parable of the Unjust ServantMessage 5: The Parable of the Unjust ServantLuke 16:1-13
Lessons on StewardshipLessons on StewardshipLuke 16:1-13
Message 3: Praying to God to Increase our FaithMessage 3: Praying to God to Increase our FaithLuke 17:5-6
To Seek And To Save That Which Was LostTo Seek And To Save That Which Was LostLuke 19:10
Message 1: God’s Covenantal DealingsMessage 1: God’s Covenantal DealingsGenesis 17:5-7, Luke 22:2
The Goodness Of Good FridayThe Goodness Of Good FridayLuke 23:13-25
