Sending Labourers into the Harvest Field
ICS Daily Devotions
Luke 10:1 (NKJV) After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.
Luke 4:43 (NKJV) but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”
Jesus sent out the twelve, the seventy, and He is sending all of us to minister to those who are lost. There is an urgency to share the good news of the Gospel.
Jesus Himself had the urgency to minister to the next group of people in another city who were lost without a shepherd. He was hindered and limited by the ability of the physical body when He was on earth. Although He was tired and thirsty, it never stopped Him from walking from one village to another bearing the good news, because the very purpose of His coming was to preach the Kingdom of God so that the people could enter the Kingdom. Jesus knows that our physical body is temporal. In fact, everything that one owns is temporal, but it is the “spirit man” that lives for eternity. Jesus is aware that man will live and die once, and thereafter will face judgement. Moreover, He knows that nobody can face up to His righteous and just judgement because the earthly sacrificial system has its flaws, and He is also aware nobody will be able to use their own strength to stand right before God. Even though Jesus came to minister to the Jews who are His covenant people, God through the Abrahamic Covenant desires for all the families of the earth to be blessed. God’s heart is for the entire world to return to Him—for every nation, every tribe and everyone to have a restored relationship with Him.
Luke 19:9-10 (NKJV) And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV) The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God’s heart has not changed through time. He is still longing for those who are lost to return to Him. It is His desire that none should perish. In other words, nobody should enter into an eternity without Christ in their lives. He doesn’t want anyone’s name to be missing from the Book of Life and ends up being thrown into the lake of fire after the final judgement at the Great White Throne.
The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are indeed few. Therefore, God is asking us to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers to the field. He is asking us to respond to His call to go and share the Gospel.
Sermon Series: Arise and Build
