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MEMORY VERSES: “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”” (Matt 9:37-38NIV)

BACKGROUND
Not long after we had started our church meetings, I had a dream in which the Lord showed me a very large farm, all cultivated. The farm was so large in size that I said in the dream, “It will take a very long time before anyone will notice that someone is working here.” And right then, I began to look around to see if there was anyone that was willing to join in the work. Sadly, I could only see a handful of people. To make matters worse, it was hard to tell whether the people I saw were willing to join in the work or not.

Now that dream always reminds me of what the Lord once said to His disciples, which was, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” That was the condition of the work of the kingdom of God during the earthly days of the Lord. Unfortunately, we cannot safely say that it is not also the condition of the work in most parts of the world today. And if we want things to change, we will have to adopt the approach that the Lord told His disciples at the time to adopt. That, of course, will be the focus of this study, to look at why we are confronted with the same situation of few labourers to do the work of God in every age and what we must do to solve this problem in our own time. And may the Spirit of God grant us sufficient understanding of the study and also strengthen us to apply the lessons adequately and appropriately. Amen.

THE LABOURERS ARE FEW
Now under what circumstances did the Lord say that the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few? Let us look at what Matthew has to say to us in answering this question:

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”” (Matt 9:35-38NIV)

From what we see here, the reason Jesus said that the harvest was plentiful but the workers few was that too many people were coming to Him to be ministered to. In other words, the fact that He was continually being followed and sought by crowds of people was an indication that those involved with Him in doing the work of the kingdom were too few. So, it really did not make Him happy that He was continually having to minister to crowds of people. Rather, it gave Him much concern about the attitude that those in the position to do God’s work at the time had towards His work.

Now it is clear from that text that Jesus was a hard worker in the kingdom of God when He was here on earth. God actually anointed Him for the work of His kingdom, as He Himself acknowledged and as we are shown in Scriptures (Luke 4:16-22; Acts 10:38). But even though He was anointed by God for the work of the kingdom, He could have chosen not to do it. He could have chosen to continue His vocation as a carpenter. Why, then, did He not do that but gave Himself to the work God had anointed Him to do? Here are a number of reasons:

– A high sense of duty: If Jesus had not had a high sense of duty, He would not have done much about the work entrusted to Him by God. At least, He was not the only one equipped by God to do this work. There were Pharisees, Sadducees and other religious leaders in the land of Judah at the time. But He happened to be one of the few that did not wait for anybody to push or encourage them to go out and start doing the work of the kingdom, teaching, preaching and healing. And that was because He had a high sense of duty. Look at what He said to His disciples on one occasion: “”My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34NIV) He also said this: “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4NIV) So, one of the reasons we do not have many today doing the work of the Lord is that they do not have a high sense of responsibility, if they have any sense of responsibility at all, in relating to God and His work.

– An understanding of the enormousness of the work: From what Jesus says in that in Matthew 9, we can see that He understood how enormous the work of the kingdom of God can be. It is always beyond what one person can do. So, you can only do your own part of it – others will have to do their part too for all the job to be done. That explains why Jesus did not attempt to do it alone when He was here on earth; rather, He got as many willing hands as possible to join Him. In fact, on one occasion, He told His disciples not stop a man that was casting out demons in His name, even though the man was not among His direct disciples (Luke 9:49-50). Why? It was because He knew that the harvest was plentiful and God could use as many willing and competent hands as possible in taking care of it.

It follows, then, that one of the reasons many of us are not serious or busy with God’s work is that we do not appreciate the volume of what needs to be done. Imagine the number of people always coming to Jesus and often following Him. Why were all those people coming to Him, even though He was just one person? The reason was that most of them had no one else to go to minister to them. When John the Baptist was still preaching, they both shared the crowds for a while. But even John later began to tell the people to go to Him. And that was because He was readily equipped by God to minister to them in ways that John could not. So, unless He did His own part of the work, a lot of lives would remain untouched and unchanged by the power of God.

– An appreciation of what He was ordained to do: One of the reasons we do not have many hands joining in the work of the kingdom is that many do not understand what sort of work God wants them to do. Paul says this to us in Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (NIV) So, there are good works God has appointed for each of us to do in this life. It is on us, then, to labour through devotion to prayer, the word of God and Christian fellowship to know these works. Otherwise, we will not be deliberate in giving ourselves to them. Jesus knew what He was ordained by God to do here on earth, that is, besides dying for us. And because He knew what He was ordained to do, He could busy Himself doing it. Where God’s people, then, do not know what God expects of them, they are unlikely to do anything in His kingdom. (Cf. Luke 4:42-44)

– An appreciation of the fact that God was with Him and also had made Him fit for the work: Apart from knowing what works God appointed for the Lord Jesus to do, He also knew that He had been enabled or made fit by God to do them. Not only that, He knew that the one who gave Him the work was always with Him. That gave Him the boldness to give Himself to doing the work. But where people are not sure or do not know that God is always with them and has made them fit for whatever He is asking them to do, they will show all the reluctance they can, like Moses, and refuse to do the work. (Cf. Ex 3&4; Luke 4:16-21; John 5:19-23&14:10; Acts 10:38)

– An appreciation of shortage of workers for the work: Where workers are too few for the work to be done, the few that are working will most likely have to work harder. And they will actually work harder, if they have a high sense of duty. That was the case with the Lord Jesus. As crowds of people kept following Him and coming to Him, it became clearer and clearer to Him that those who were given to doing the work of the kingdom at the time were few in number. So, even when it was not convenient for Him and His disciples, they still had to give themselves to doing the work, knowing that if they did not do it, no one else may do it. Where God’s people, however, do not appreciate the fact that those involved in the Lord’s work are few, they may just leave it for some other people, when they are actually leaving the work for nobody. (Cf. Mark 6:30-34; John 4:31-34)

– An understanding of the consequences of not doing the work: Another reason Jesus gave Himself to doing the work of the kingdom was that He understood the consequences of not doing it. As Matthew points out in our main text, when Jesus looked at the crowds of people coming to Him, there were a number of things He observed. For instance, He saw that they were harassed, helpless and like sheep without a shepherd. So, the reason those people were being harassed by the devil and looking helpless and hopeless was the absence of shepherds in their lives. God told Ezekiel some things along these lines once while speaking to Him. He told him of how His sheep were suffering because the shepherds He had given to them would not do their work. And the point of it all is that when the work of the kingdom of God is not being sufficiently done, many people will suffer at the hands of the devil. Those who understand this, then, will unlikely feel unmoved when they see the work being neglected. More so, those who understand this will know that God will someday judge them for failing to do their own part of the work of His kingdom and causing others to suffer for their negligence and irresponsibility. (Cf. Ezekiel 34)

– A heart of compassion: It is one thing to see a lot of people suffering because of a neglect of the work of the kingdom; it is another thing to be compassionate enough to begin to do our own part of the job. And one main thing that moved Jesus to do give Himself to doing the work of the kingdom of God was compassion. He was always filled with compassion for the people. So, even when it was not convenient for Him, He still ministered life and healing to the people. It follows, then, that where we do not have compassionate people, the work of the kingdom of God will suffer. (Cf. Mark 6:34)

– Unwillingness to make excuses: In Luke’s gospel, he shares something similar to what Matthew shares about Jesus’ attitude towards the work of the kingdom. And this has to do with the attitude of some of the people Jesus spoke to about giving themselves to the work of the kingdom. Some of these people were simply making excuses for not being ready to do the work. But if Jesus too had wanted to give excuses, He would have found all sorts of excuses to give for not doing the work. And if we also want to make excuses for not doing the work of the kingdom, we will surely find enough excuses to give. (Cf. Luke 9:57-10:2)

How, then, did Jesus solve the problem of inadequate workers for the kingdom of God when He was here? He did not fully solve it. But He did show us what we need to do in order to have it solved. The first thing He told His disciples to do was to pray to God, who is the Lord of the harvest Himself, to send labourers into His harvest field. That means if God does not raise and send those who will work in His harvest field, there will not be anyone working in it.

Interestingly, it is the same Greek word, ‘Ekballo’, that Jesus uses in Mark 16:17 to refer to how believers in Him will drive out demons that He uses in Matthew 9:38 and even Luke 10:2 to refer to how God should send in labourers into His field of harvest. That means the problem is not always with an absence of those equipped or to be equipped by God to do His work. Rather, it is often with the unwillingness of those that can do the work to do it. So, unless they are thrust or driven out into His field to get working, they may never make themselves available to do it.

But does God have to do that with you or with me? Does He have to drive us out of our comfort zone, handling us as He handled Jonah, before we begin to take His work seriously? It is up to answer to answer these questions, really.

In any case, if we are already labouring with the Lord in the kingdom, we should also give ourselves to praying that God will send in more people to do the work. That is because none of us can do the work or finish it alone. It is bigger than any of us. So, we need as many faithful and competent labourers to join us in doing it.

The second thing the Lord did was to send out those who were already labouring with Him out to begin to do the work. It is good to pray that God will send our labourers into His harvest field. But if we ourselves are not out in His field working, what right would we have asking Him to send others to do what we do not want to do ourselves? So, it is those of us that are already labouring in the kingdom that can rightfully pray that God should send others into His field of harvest to work. We are also those who can rightly encourage and call others to join in the work. (Cf. Matt 10; Luke 9:1-6; Luke 10:1-12)

The third thing the Lord did was not to give room for anyone who was already doing the work in His time to be discouraged. For instance, Luke reports this about how He handled an incident reported to Him:

“Master,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”” (Luke 9:49-50NIV)

Did you see that? The disciples tried to stop a man that was driving out demons in the name of Jesus. Why? Their reason was that he was not one of them. But was he not doing the right thing? He was! Even though Jesus did not personally commission this man to help others in this way, he took it upon himself to do so. Why? He had faith in the name of Jesus. And how did he gain faith in His name? It must have been through His sermons. So, he went out and began to use His name to do the same things that He Himself was doing. And He was getting results.

Now why should anyone try to stop that kind of kingdom worker? Ignorance! Arrogance! Well, Jesus lost no time in telling His disciples that they were wrong and that people like that were not working against them but with them. No, they may not look like them. No, they may not have been called and sent the way they had been called and sent. But as long as they were working by faith in Him, they must not discourage them but encourage them.

In like manner, we must not constitute any form of hindrance or discouragement to others being used by God to do the work of His kingdom, just because they do not look like us or because they are not a part of our own little group. Instead, we are to give them all the support and encouragement we can give them, as long as they are doing the will of God. Remember that the kingdom of God is one and not divided, regardless of how diverse in colour or language the children of this kingdom may be. So, we should all learn to work together for the progress of the kingdom and not to harm or hinder it.

CONCLUSION
The work of the kingdom of God will remain enormous as long as the earth remains. Therefore, He needs as many willing hands as He can get to keep doing this work until the end of this age. Will He, then, find a willing hand in us, or will He have to look elsewhere? Jesus was a willing hand. The apostles of old were willing hands. And may we too be encouraged by the Spirit to be willing hands.

QUESTIONS
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?
– Can you mention any other reason, apart from the ones mentioned in this study, many people don’t join in the work of the kingdom?

By Johnson O. Lawal

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