The Bible Text (Luke 9:57-10:2)

“And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”" (Luke 10:2a). (from NASB).

Development of Mission Worldview (Lu 10:2a)

Jesus shaped the vision of those He sent. It is good that all of us listen closely to how He trained them. He started by envisioning them. He passed on to them the way they needed to look at the world. “And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2a). This is, no doubt, the very way that Jesus looked at the world.

There is a growing trend for missions to impact the culture. This is really the wrong way to approach missions. Culture will be changed by the gospel, but we do not change our methods. We copy Jesus’ method. We live out Christ’s life wherever we are, but we strategically focus on carrying out the proclamation of the Gospel.

Jesus spoke about the harvest for three reasons.

1) The harvest needs to be harvested now.

The harvest is not just a field of crops. You can travel through miles of fields of corn, wheat or rice, and not find a harvest. The harvest here represents a group of people that are ready to receive the word of God and believe. On the side, I must make the comment and observation that more people within some cultural groups are ready to believe than others. The key is to go where Jesus sends you. Jesus will primarily send us where the harvest is ripe.

Right now many people are coming to the Lord. I received a note from a doctor from East Asia that is in the Middle East. He has a house church. He asked for me to assist in training. I will read also about his conversion so that you gain a fuller feel for how God is working and sending workers out from all parts of the world.

Greetings in Jesus' name!

I was born and brought up in a Hindu family in West Bengal, northeastern part of India. Before that let me tell you that Bengalis (my own people group) are the biggest unreached people group in the world (Source: Operation World). Only 0.56% population is Christians among us.

Then till my 17 years of age I followed all the rituals of Hindus and worshipped idols in order to get favor from them. However, these all came to an end, when my father was affected with throat cancer.

Being disappointed with all our gods and goddesses and with no one to turn to, we were looking for peace and solace for our lives, yet depressed to the core. During this time, a man of God (pastor) from a far away place came to our house and shared with us about the love of Jesus. It was so refreshing.

Realizing that the Lord wants us to be included in His fold, as a family we confessed our sins and welcomed Him into our house. Our lives took U turn and a joy of salvation field our hearts always.

However, within 9 months of time, leaving my brother and me behind, both my parents passed away. Again I was discouraged, but this time the Lord was with me. The more I read the Word and grow in His presence, one day I realized that the Lord was calling me for His service, mainly to work among my own people group.

Thus since last eight years, after having being theologically trained little bit, I am serving Him in His vineyard, planting a numbers of house churches.

Presently, as I realized that there was a need for a ministry who will solely work among the Bengalis, along with few of my brothers in the ministry, we prayed and started the work of a mission.

By His grace, we have now 17 self supported missionaries working in different fields of West Bengal, planting house churches, and also many prospective brothers and sisters who are willing to serve the Lord in the coming future and looking out for a Training program. Along with planing house churches our brothers are also involved in holistic ministry, community development program, and child educational program among the under privileged children in the society. This holistic efforts are done mainly with the donation raised by the local believers.

Thus herewith, I would request you to please, as I came to know about you through your website, kindly pray for us and see if you can help all our brothers in the mission field with an effective training program or lessons for equipping our brothers further in the ministry which you are running in different countries. Or any advice from you will help us greatly to expand His Kingdom among the unreached masses of West Bengal, India.

This is the now! The harvest. The harvest doesn’t mean that it is always here, however. Often they are in hard-to-reach places. If you do not go when you should, if the harvest is not plucked when it is ripe, what happens? People are lost. The major point here is that if God is calling, respond and follow His steps of preparation. Don’t put it off for there is a harvest.

2) The plentiful harvest demands many workers.

Jesus is not only stating that there are harvests. That the harvest is plentiful makes the task even more urgent. There are plenty out there to focus on but they will not be plucked if we do not get out there. This makes it more urgent.

The word for plentiful or many here, pollus, is the root word for city. We can hear the word in megapolis. A city is a place of many people. We can sense this urgency when literally thousands of immigrants invade the big cities of China day after day.

There are more people today than ever. With over 6 and a half billion people in the world, there are more unsaved people today than at any other point in the world. Note the picture of the world population clock on the web above.
Dare we avoid the implications of the plentiful? God’s people have this special treasure in their lives and on their lips. Why would they not share it with those who are perishing. They can be saved but if not soon reached will be beyond reach. The harvest will be wasted. This is Jesus’ perspective of world missions and certainly should be our own.

3) The harvest only has few people who are committing themselves.

Jesus reaches the climax of the way He looks at the world here by stating only a few people are committing themselves to be sent. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
The fact is that we have an overabundance of overly trained Christian workers in America. If I or you took a broad perspective of the resources in the West, compared to the needs in the East, we would have to conclude that something is horribly off kilter. 80% of the world’s resources are in the West!

Some people ask God, hopefully not critically, “Why are you allowing the lost to perish?” “Why is the harvest rotting?” “You mean we have so many more Christian workers here in our country when other places have none?” “How can God allow our preachers to spend over a hundred thousand dollars getting one degree for training here while in another country one could for the same amount build a school and fund many a student through graduation?” I understand the importance of training but again, when we look at the whole picture, something is terrible wrong. If we would follow the same illustration of the harvest, we would need to say something like 90% of all the harvesters are where there is only 10% of the harvest. Are we crazy? How can we allow such a situation persist? Here are some statistics to help us round out our world view.

In a global village of 12 Evangelicals there would be 2 North Americans, 2 Latin Americans, 3 Africans, 3 Asians, 1 European and 1 Pacific Islander.

According to figures provided by Interdev, by the year 2002, 60 percent of missionaries worldwide will be from the non-Western, two-thirds world.

(The total number of missionaries increased from) 76,120 in 1990 to 97,732 in 2000. Ten years ago, about 91% of foreign missionaries were sent out from the West. By 2000, this percentage decreased to 79%. Foreign missionary sending increased three-fold from Non-Western countries in spite of very difficult global economic conditions. (https://www.missionfrontiers.org/2001/04/ow2001.htm)

Once you start looking at the real needs and ability for us to make a difference, then I think you will better appreciate Jesus’ words here.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

I have a big family. But I am ready to move overseas if God calls. Right now I am taking trips overseas. It is not easy for me. I am trying to compel myself to go as the Lord calls me. It isn’t easy. I know what it would mean for my wife and children. (While I am away for a month she watches and homeschools six children). I do get many invitations to bring my children over (though we would almost need a charter plane to do this). I am waiting for the Lord to send me. This world is changing but still the great need are for those going long term, people who learn the language and love the people.

I would like to believe that I would go if God would call. I like the example of Pastor Lee who was pastoring a very big and comfortable church in America. He went to Thailand to be a missionary. Even though he was older, he was willing to dislodge his family, leave a respectable pulpit empty, and take on the rigors of heat, smells, hard knocks of learning language and the rest for the Lord.

Although I spend my time in training pastors, church planters and evangelists, I am right there on the front of God’s kingdom. These leaders are being beaten up. Recently there was severe persecution not far from where I was. I am not saying that we should foolishly go into dangerous situations, but we need to go where we are sent.

We will spend our whole eternity enjoying the Lord’s presence. May God forbid any of us miss out of His full blessings because we did not go when sent.

Summary

To go when sent is urgent because the harvest is now. It is even more urgent because the harvest is great. It is even more urgent because many who should go are not going. We as a people of God must understand that we are at the ends of the world. With great numbers of new people being added to the world each moment, we must not only prepare ourselves to go, support others who go, and go when we are sent.

Next => Prayer for kingdom expansion (Luke 10:2b)