J of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

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1 The First Word FROM FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BONITA SPRINGS SERMON BY REV. DR. JIM SINGLETON MARCH 15, 2015 esus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news J of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on 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 workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Matthew 9:35-38 (NIV) A Cruise that Became a Mission Thanks to the movie, most of you know the story of the sinking of the Titanic. But you might not know the story of the rescue. Are you aware that there were two other boats nearby on that night? One ship, the Californian, was close enough to see the lights on the Titanic. Recent research shows that this ocean liner, on its way to Boston, was around four miles away from the Titanic. The Californian had entered the same ice field as the Titanic, and out of concern for danger, had dropped anchor for the night. They had warned the Titanic by wireless earlier that day of the impending danger. Once the Titanic hit an iceberg and realized it was in trouble, the ship sent a distress signal to the Californian, but it came 10 minutes after the wireless operator on the Californian had gone to bed. The Californian received no visible distress signal from the Titanic, but the watchman on the Californian saw seven flares in the sky, seemingly

2 sent up from the Titanic. The watchman woke up the Captain, but after discussion, they didn t know what to make of the flares and concluded they were signaling another ship. And the Captain went back to bed. When the red lights of the Titanic submerged beneath the icy waters, those at watch thought the ship had left the ice field. While the passengers of the Titanic sank, the passengers of the Californian slept in comfort and complacency. If the Californian had responded, fewer people would have perished. Another ship, the Carpathia, was the vessel that answered the call to help. The Carpathia was on a cruise bound for the Mediterranean, but they became a mission. I am fascinated by that image a cruise that became a mission. Captain Rostron, daringly and heroically entered the ice field at night. They stoked the fires and proceeded from 14 knots to 17 knots, dodging but not slowing down for even the icebergs. The Carpathia was over 58 miles away and yet miraculously they arrived at the scene of the disaster by 4 AM. All the passengers and crew, attorneys, physicians, teachers, cooks, factory workers, all of them transformed the cruise liner into a hospital. They worked together to save the 705 survivors of the Titanic. One ship slept comfortably while another was on a mission. Which ship would you say is more like this church? Let look into what Jesus is bringing before us in this text. The Eyes of Jesus When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36). Notice those first words: When he saw the crowds. There are several words in the Greek language for seeing. This one is more than the simple physical function of the eyes, but rather genuine noticing. Some of us see things, but don t notice things. After my wife and I have been in someone s home she might ask me what I thought of the color of the draperies in the room. I will often ask, Were there 2

3 drapes in that room? Can you believe that I could sit looking right at draperies and not really see them? Is anyone with me on that? The question flowing from this: Do we see people in the same way as Jesus sees people? The first impact of this text is learning to see those people before us. Do we see our neighbors? Do we see children? Do we see those who work around us? Receiving Jesus means to receive His eyes in our lives. The Picture Jesus Saw Jesus saw the crowd and when He saw them He noticed that they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Do we have the eyes of Jesus? Here Jesus uses two adjectives to describe what He sees about people: harassed and helpless. Harassed means to be vexed, troubled, annoyed. It is a word that suggests an anxious state of mind. Helpless means to be hurled, thrown, cast down, scattered, and dispersed. Those two words together gave Jesus a picture most people in that culture could understand: sheep minus their shepherd. In our culture, that might be like an office without management or like a classroom without a teacher. How do you see our country? In the U.S. alone one writer believes there are somewhere between million functionally secular people i.e., people who are effectively outside the touch of the church. Do you realize that only four countries in the world have a larger population of unbelieving people than the U.S.? They are China, India, Indonesia, and Russia. My wife and I currently live in the Northeast one of the most unchurched places in the U.S. I wonder what this area is like. Will we see it with the eyes of Jesus? Every day our culture continues to change it is not like it was. Do we see the culture as Jesus sees it? I see people vexed and scattered and struggling to find the meaning of their lives. To have a 3

4 passion for evangelism we need to see people with the eyes of Jesus. But Jesus didn t just see them He had compassion for them. The Compassion of Jesus The second thing to notice in this verse is the compassion of Jesus He hurt for them. Jesus was neither indifferent to their hurt nor approving of it. His whole ministry was moving toward people in tremendous compassion for them. I believe that the greatest motivation for evangelism and mission is compassion. The motivation is not guilt or compulsion or recruitment, but compassion. Living in Colorado Springs put me in touch with Wess Stafford of Compassion International. Wess is a huge inspiration in my life but he will weep over the lostness of culture. He will weep over what this lost world does to children he has the compassion of Jesus inside. First, see the pressing need of the people around us. Then, ask Jesus to awaken our compassion. When the compassion of Jesus grows greater in us than our fears of rejection, we will share. The Plentiful Possibilities of Jesus Beyond the pressing need of these lost sheep, Jesus also saw possibilities. Here He switches His metaphor from shepherds to farming: The harvest is plentiful (vs. 37). The more literal translations say that the field is white unto harvest. Jesus saw people not only harassed but also ready to respond to the invitation to believe. Jesus saw aspects of the Kingdom of God just about to emerge. The crying need was present, but so was the power of God. At Gordon-Conwell we have students from 50 countries in the world. We have 17 from China; their reports of the harvest there are thrilling. One of the ministries we support is known as Esperanza it is a ministry in the Dominican Republic which was started by a baseball player who used to play for the Seattle Mariners. His name 4

5 is Dave Valle. Valle was sent to play for a team in the Dominican Republic back in the 80s. His heart was broken over the poverty he saw there. He determined to do something about it by helping with micro-loans and medical clinics and water projects. For nearly 20 years now he has built Esperanza International because he sees a ripe harvest field there for the gospel. And it is changing an area of the country for the kingdom. In Boston there is actually a very plentiful harvest among immigrant churches. Is the harvest plentiful here? What do Lee and Collier counties look like to you? Do you see plentiful possibilities? There are so many unreached, dechurched, and underreached people all around you here. How would Jesus see the possibilities here? Can you see the plentiful possibilities in your area of work or service? Some people look at the culture and say, Isn t it a shame. Others see possibilities. The harvest is plentiful. The Big Problem But there are not enough harvesters. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few (vs. 37). There are not enough people sharing the good news of Jesus with someone else. There are not many churches involved in the harvest. In the U.S., there are 360,000 congregations, 80% of which are either stagnant or declining. There are 10,000+ Presbyterian congregations and 90% are stagnant or declining. Of the ones that are growing, most are growing by the circulation of the saints. Somehow, with plentiful possibilities all around us, most churches are not harvesting. A big study was done of 30,000 mainline congregations in the U.S. The study was looking for which ones were doing significant work in evangelism. The study defined evangelism as having adult baptisms that equaled 1% of your worship attendance. So a church with 1,500 in worship would look for 15 adult baptisms per year. 5

6 And the study looked for churches that did that for three years in a row suggesting they had more than one good year. Out of 30,000 congregations how many were in the harvest? The number may astound you: 150 (½ of 1%). The plain truth is that we don t have enough people in the harvest. These harvesters do exist in churches but they are rather rare. I think of a cattleman in OKC who loves to share his faith with business associates. I think of an orthodontist in Dallas who freely and respectfully shares with patients, even while they have their mouths open. Who does that around here? Paul asks, how will they hear without someone telling? (Romans 10:14). Almost every Presbyterian congregation I ve ever visited had a mission statement that said their mission was to share the gospel with the lost, yet little evangelism with the lost is done. This reality troubled the Danish church critic Soren Kierkegaard, who wrote a parable about it. The story goes that a man was passing down the street when he noticed in the window of a shop a sign that read Pants Pressed Here. He paused and looked at his own pants, and they were quite wrinkled. He decided to stop in the shop and get his pants pressed. So he walked up to the counter and began taking off his pants. The clerk was quite shocked. He said, What are you doing, Sir? The man said, I want to have my pants pressed. The clerk replied, Why would you ask for that? The man replied, Well, you are a business that presses pants, and I would like for you to press these pants. The clerk asked, Why would you assume that we press pants? You have a sign in your window that says you press pants. Oh, said the clerk, You don t understand. We do not press pants here, we paint signs here but we don t press pants. 6

7 Historians have often wondered how the first generation of Christians, who for the most part were unlearned men and women, could have propagated the gospel so rapidly. Adolf Harnack, a German church historian of the 19 th century, knew how. He said: We cannot hesitate to believe that the great mission of Christianity was in reality accomplished by means of informal missionaries. That was the secret. Every Christian not just a formal order of missionaries supplied by the Christians at home considered it his or her obligation to bear witness. But now, seemingly, that has been lost. The usual way people come to belief is when regular Christians are willing to share not only their story but the story of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. People take a long time to believe; often it is a slow process. The average time from hearing to belief is four years, and through an average of five witnesses. But Jesus says the major problem with the whole movement is not enough harvesters. The Plan of Jesus Pray Therefore, pray that God will enlist more people for the harvest (vs. 38). We do not need to form a committee (the usual Presbyterian solution). We don t need to coerce people into this who don t want to do it. We don t need to complain that people are not doing it. We don t need another class (though it might help us feel more comfortable). Instead, let us pray and have the Spirit raise us up. Tell the people next to you, He s talking to you. There is a vast need a magnificent harvest more workers needed. So pray. Conclusion When will the passion for the lost be deep enough to move us? Remember: The harvest is plentiful. The workers are few. Will you pray that God will stir up harvesters in this very place? 9751 Bonita Beach Road Bonita Springs, Florida fpcbonita.org