I feel that the honor is mine to
be invited to come to a conference here
sponsored by the Navigators.
These people have always challenged me, and to
be in this lovely church, God, this is
a beautiful place, and it's wonderful to hear
these musicians.
You know, music is the language of heaven,
and when we get there we'll all be
able to join the music, and as they
were saying, let everything that hath breath praise
the Lord.
I think that this is a preparation for
us to get ready for what is to
come, and to praise God.
And with that note of praise and anticipation,
I want to begin to think about the
Great Commission, for the objective is to gather
all of God's people, finally, around the throne
of heaven, a people from every tongue and
tribe and nation, who will never cease to
praise the Lord.
That's why, to begin, I want to cast
that vision of the day when the Great
Commission will be fulfilled.
And Jesus taught his disciples to live always
with that anticipation, and to look out upon
the world, or as he spoke of it,
as the fields that are ready for harvest.
Open your eyes, he said, look out there,
the harvest is waiting.
You'll find this in the fourth chapter of
the Evangelist John's gospel, and if you have
your Bible, you may want to turn to
that fourth chapter of John, as we see
this unfold.
It begins there in the opening verses of
the chapter, Jesus is on a journey going
to Galilee, and on his way, he passes
through the little village of Sychar.
They arrive there at about noontime, and the
disciples are hungry, so they go into town
to get something to eat.
But Jesus lingers outside the city gate there
at the well, and while the disciples are
away, this woman comes with her water jar.
It's strange that she would come at this
hour of the day.
Normally, women would gather at the well early
in the morning, or later in the evening,
when it was cool, and it was a
time when they could have some social fellowship.
But this woman who came today would not
have felt comfortable with the other ladies in
the city.
She had had a very unfortunate life, and
was even now living in sin, and she
came at a time then when she thought
she would be alone.
But Jesus saw something in this woman that
the other people in Sychar had not seen.
They looked only on the surface, but Jesus
looked into her heart and could see beyond
what appeared on the surface.
He saw her not just for what she
was, but what she could become by the
grace of God.
And he asked her for a question, asked
a question for a drink of water, and
this initiated a conversation which led this woman
finally to the discovery Jesus was her Messiah.
And she was so thrilled, she couldn't keep
this good news to herself.
She forgot all about the water and rushed
back into town to tell her story, and
became the first evangelist of the New Testament.
Meanwhile, the disciples returned.
They've had a good dinner, and they probably
saw this woman pass them as they approached,
and they were surprised that Jesus would be
talking to such a person of her reputation.
Not only that, he missed his lunch, and
so they urge him to eat something.
And at this point, we're going to pick
up the story beginning at verse 34, and
we'll read through verse 38.
38.
My food, said Jesus, is to do the
will of him that sent me and to
finish his work.
Do you not say four months more and
then the harvest?
I tell you, open your eyes and look
at the fields.
They are ripe for harvest.
Even now, the reaper draws his wages.
Even now, he harvests the crop for eternal
life, so that the sower and the reaper
may be glad together.
And thus the saying, one sows and another
reaps, is true.
I sent you to reap what you've not
worked for.
Others have done the hard work, and you've
entered into their labors.
As we think of this teaching of Jesus,
there are four great truths that I want
us to notice.
The first is to recognize the harvest is
waiting.
It's ready.
The second is to see the workers that
are needed for the harvest.
The third is to understand the mission that
we are sent, which involves commitment to the
harvest.
And finally, the joy that comes in the
harvest.
Now let's begin with the first that's brought
out so clearly in verse 35, where Jesus
tells these disciples to open their eyes and
to look out there on the fields, and
to see the harvest that is ripe.
We're told it had been a recently planted
field of grain, still several months away from
what you normally would think of in terms
of the physical harvest.
So Jesus obviously wants them to think in
spiritual terms.
And with eyes of faith, to see what
God wants to do.
Look out on the fields, he said.
Don't you see?
The harvest is ready.
Well, those disciples peer out on the barren
fields, and that's all they see.
But if they had used spiritual vision, they
would have recognized some men coming out from
the city that have heard the testimony of
this redeemed woman.
They're so intrigued, they want to know more.
Do you see them?
They're coming through the fields.
They're coming to Jesus.
And when they arrive, as you read on,
we're told Jesus talked with them, and now
many more believe.
And they urge him to stay and tell
them more.
And so for two more days, he lingers
in that city.
And before he goes, note verse 42.
Those Samaritan men realize that Jesus is the
Savior of the world.
That's what Jesus wants his disciples to see.
To see how God's love reaches out across
the globe, and how he is seeking to
gather a people from all the nations who
will always praise him.
He wants us to recognize the harvest is
waiting.
It's prepared.
Do you see it?
I think of the man that was on
a train going through Arizona in the summer.
It was hot.
Everybody had pulled down the shades in the
chair car to keep out the glare of
the hot sun, all except one man who
just kept looking out the window.
And a big smile came across his face.
And finally, the lady across the aisle became
so curious, she turned and said, Mr. Can
you tell me what you see out there
in that wasteland that makes you smile?
He said, oh, I'm in the irrigation business.
And I was just thinking to myself, if
this land only could get water, why the
desert would turn into a garden.
That's what Jesus is teaching his disciples.
He wants us to see beyond what appears
on the surface.
He wants us to look with eyes of
faith and to see what God proposes to
do in this world.
And faith is to be sure of what
you hope for, and to be certain of
what you do not see.
Oh, to look out today with that kind
of anticipation thrills you.
As some are saying, we are living probably
in the greatest in gathering of the harvest
since the beginning of the church 2,000
years ago.
And you only have to go to many
parts of the world, usually underprivileged, often oppressed,
where people seem to be often living in
poverty, in parts of southern Africa, all across
South America and Latin America, in many parts
of Eastern Europe, even extending into Russia and
some parts of Asia.
Oh, the world is seeing today a gathering
of the people of God.
Would that we could see more of it
here in North America.
But if we would use spiritual discernment, we
could see how God is preparing the way.
Hearts are lonely and troubled, some distraught, wondering
where they can turn.
Do you not see them as you look
out upon the people around you, even up
and down the street where you live?
Don't you see that anxiety, that vacuum in
the human soul that has not been filled?
Oh, see the potential, the opportunity, that God
is preparing today a harvest to fulfill his
plan to gather a people from the nations.
But he brings out here a second truth
that we must understand as we think of
the harvest in verses 35 and 36 and
7.
He speaks about the workers that are needed.
He mentions specifically those that sow and those
that reap.
Of course, there are many other ways that
you get involved.
Somebody has to get out there early and
plow the field and then harrow it or
disc it, get it down where you can
plant the seed.
And then after the seeds begin to sprout,
someone needs to be there and cultivate those
growing seedlings.
And when finally you gather the harvest, someone
is busy taking produce to the market.
Someone is back at the house cooking a
meal for the hired hands.
But everybody is needed.
However we can help out, no one takes
a vacation during harvest.
And in the church, it's even more realistic.
There are diversities of gifts, but all of
us are needed.
And some way each one of us here
has a part in fulfilling the Great Commission
and the discipling of all nations.
And Jesus pointed out how the need was
to increase the working force.
We read over in the ninth chapter of
Matthew how he went about healing the sick,
opening the eyes of the blind.
He was teaching, he was preaching, and multitudes
were gathered.
It's not surprising when you show that kind
of practical ministry to people, you have their
attention.
But as he looked out upon the crowd,
moved with compassion, he realized that the people
were harassed and scattered like sheep who had
lost their way.
And the tragedy was they didn't have someone
who could lead them, someone like a shepherd
who really cared, who would show them the
way to the fold.
He was doing all he could, but in
the incarnation he accepted a limitation, which is
obvious.
He couldn't be with all the people that
needed help.
How then would he ever fulfill his mission
to reach a world?
Well, only as workers could be multiplied, workers
who would have a heart like a shepherd,
who would go in his name and minister
to the people that wanted direction.
And so he told the disciples, you pray
to the Lord of the harvest.
Every time we pray, we think of the
harvest, we think of the Great Commission, because
God loves this whole world.
But you don't pray in generalities, pray for
the solution to the problem.
Jesus said, pray that the Lord of harvest
will send forth workers into his harvest.
And the way those words come together indicates
that workers have the characteristic of a shepherd,
someone who knows the way and who will
lead them.
You multiply those kind of people, and someday
you will reach the whole world.
And you can see that's what Jesus was
doing in his ministry.
While he ministered among the people, continually responding
to their needs, he was alert to those
that wanted to learn more.
What do we call them?
What are learners called?
Disciples, that's the way the word translates, as
in the sense of an apprentice or a
follower.
And so Jesus drew these men to himself.
You might say just ordinary people, but they
had a desire to learn.
And with the exception of the trader, they
followed him to the end.
He brought them close to his own heart
for about three years.
And they could see his vision unfold, his
compassion for the multitudes, yes, but they could
also see the inner life of his spirit
and his communion with the Father in prayer,
his dependence upon the Word, his discipline of
time.
And as they were able, he found ways
for them to get involved, to have a
sense of importance helping him.
And he would send them out and bring
them back and check up to see how
things were going on, building in them a
sense of accountability.
And then before he left, he gave that
final instruction, you go now and do what
I've been doing with you, you go and
make disciples.
And you leave with them a vision that
you have seen as you followed me for
three years, a vision for the harvest, a
vision to disciple all the nations.
We're going to be talking a lot more
about that tomorrow, try to look at some
of the details, some of the applications.
But I want you to realize that's what
we are to be doing now.
I think of Dost Trotman, how he would
often ask, where are your men?
And as you look back upon your life,
do you see some men and women who
are working in the harvest?
And how they in turn have been able
to influence a few others, and now they're
reaching out, and that principle of multiplication now
is continuing to move on ever farther and
farther into the harvest.
That's the question I want us to ask
here.
Where are the workers that are going out
of our life to fulfill the Great Commission?
But it brings me to observe that third
point.
We are sent, and it certainly speaks of
commitment.
Because you've got to accept this challenge and
actually go.
That's brought out there in verse 38 when
he tells the disciples, they join others who
have preceded them.
I'm glad that we don't ever have to
go ahead of someone else.
Sometimes people have already shared a witness, and
we just join their labors.
But even if no one has visibly crossed
their trail, they have been prayed for.
You always follow prayer, don't you?
He's the one that really opens the way.
You're not alone.
You're following the Holy Spirit.
You'll note the same word is used in
reference to Jesus, this word sin.
It has the idea of being commissioned and
sent like an ambassador.
We have an ambassador from our country and
all the major capitals of the world, and
they're in that place to represent us, to
speak for our president.
In that same way, we are sent like
an ambassador with the authority of him who
sends us.
And with that authority, Jesus was sent of
the Father.
And that's why 2,000 years ago, he
clothed himself with our flesh and became one
with us and bore our sorrows and carried
our griefs and finally accepted in his own
body the judgment of our sin.
As he was hanging on the cross, you
remember how the worldlings came by?
They began to mock him.
They said, look, well, he was the one
people said would be the savior of the
world.
Look at him.
He can't even save himself.
And they laughed him to scorn.
The irony is that in their derision, the
mocking crowd said the truth.
Have you thought about it?
Of course, Jesus could not save himself and
still complete his mission.
He was not sent into the world to
save himself.
He was sent to save us.
He said to seek and to save the
lost.
He was not sent to be served.
He came to serve and to give his
life a ransom for many.
That's why he was here.
And he would not be diverted from that
mission.
Like one setting his face like flint, he
went to Calvary and he bore it all.
And there his work was finished once and
for all.
It can never be added to or subtracted
from.
It's complete.
But the announcement, the bringing of that good
news to the world is the mission that
he has now given his church.
That's our task, to have the joyous privilege
of announcing the gospel, of making disciples, who
in turn will pass the word along until
by multiplication the whole world hears the good
news.
The temptation is for us to get occupied
in other things.
They're always pressing demands.
Jesus realized that with his own group of
disciples.
And he so earnestly prayed that they would
not deviate from his mission to the world.
It comes out most powerfully in the 17th
chapter of John, that longest recorded prayer of
Jesus.
And it's there where he prays that these
disciples will be kept from the evil one,
that they will have his joy.
He's going to die in a few hours.
He wants them to have his joy in
doing the will of him who sent him.
And then he prays that they will be
sanctified.
And he goes on to say, as you
sent me into the world, Father, I send
them into the world.
And for their sakes, I sanctify or I
set myself apart that they also may be
sanctified through the truth.
We usually think of sanctification as an inward
cleansing.
And certainly when you set apart a gift
for God, it becomes his possession.
It becomes holy.
But here is a dimension sometimes overlooked.
Jesus did not need to be cleansed from
sin.
He was already the blameless son of God.
As the context clearly indicates, his setting himself
apart for the cross, his sanctification was not
that he lacked something, but as he said,
for their sake, I sanctify myself.
It was for the sake of the mission
for which he was sent.
A mission now that he has committed to
his church, that we are to take up
as we go forth, sent just as he
was sent of God, as an ambassador.
And oh, this is going to be the
expression of the holiness that flows in your
heart.
Let us not try to keep it to
ourself.
And certainly we can be thankful for that
inner cleansing, but it doesn't stop there.
As the apostle Paul said, you're sanctified to
be meat for the master to use, to
become a channel through which the spirit of
God now can move through you to fulfill
a mission, to reach a world.
Here in America, we have the Coast Guard
branch of the armed services that has the
responsibility of protecting our coast and also to
be there in times of emergency to assist
in rescue if someone is in peril at
sea.
Some time ago, a Coast Guard station got
a signal from a ship that was in
distress at sea.
They picked up the SOS, and the commander
immediately told his men that they must prepare
to go out and effect rescue.
It was a stormy night, and one of
the young apprentice seamen had never before been
out on the high seas at night in
a violent storm.
He was scared.
He turned to the commander, and he said,
sir, if we go out tonight, we may
not come back.
And the officer said, young man, learn it
now.
We don't have to come back, but we
have to go out.
That's the purpose of the Coast Guard, not
to protect themselves, but to seek to help
those who have no one else to help
them.
In a much more realistic way, that's what
the church is commissioned to do, not to
enjoy our own blessing and to be thankful
for all of the ways that our lives
have been benefited, but to remember that God
loves a whole world, and we have been
sent as his ambassadors sent in the place
of Christ now through his Spirit to bring
in the harvest that is waiting.
And it will involve sacrifice.
It's not going to be easy.
The hard part still is waiting, and there
will be a price.
That's why I want to mention this last
truth that he brings out.
If you look again at verse 36, Jesus
teaches these disciples about the joy that comes
in the harvest.
They were singing about it tonight.
The joy of the Lord is our strength.
Isn't that beautiful?
Jesus always lived in that joy, and the
Bible tells us, seeing the joy that was
beyond, he endured the cross.
I feel sorry for you tonight if you
have to whip yourself to go out and
share the faith or to really care about
helping someone who needs discipling.
It's the joy that feeds strength into your
soul.
Jesus often referred to himself as the Son
of Man.
Have you noticed that?
About 80 times that expression is recorded on
the lips of Jesus.
It goes back to the seventh chapter of
the prophecy of Daniel, where the prophet envisioned
one coming in the clouds of heaven like
the Son of Man.
And he would receive a kingdom that would
never perish.
A kingdom encompassing every tongue, every tribe, every
people, every nation.
It's a Messianic promise.
It looks to the day of our Lord's
return in glory in the clouds of heaven.
Sometimes we call it his second coming.
Of course, in his first coming, he knew
he was sent to complete the mission of
redemption that would be finished on Calvary, and
that's where it was done.
But on his way to the cross, he
always lived in the anticipation of his return,
when the kingdom would finally come to consummation.
He told the disciples to pray for the
coming of the kingdom.
Yes, there is the sense that you enter
the kingdom now when you're born again, but
it cannot really be consummated until Jesus said,
this gospel of the kingdom has been preached
in all the world.
Then the end will come.
You remember the last time he had supper
with the disciples in the upper room?
When they passed the cup, he told those
disciples around the table he would not drink
the fruit of the vine with them anymore
in this world, but he would take it
again in the Father's kingdom when he returned.
Every time we observe this holy sacrament, it's
more than a memorial of his death.
It is but an anticipation of his coming
again, when finally the gospel has reached the
ends of the earth, and disciples have been
made of all nations, and his people are
gathered around the throne to praise him forever.
Doesn't that thrill you?
John, the beloved, saw that day, and he
wrote about it in the revelation of Jesus
Christ in chapter 7.
He describes what he sees as he's caught
up by the spirit, and the door of
heaven is open, and there he beholds the
throne of God.
And gathered around the throne is this gray
multitude.
They are clothed in white robes, a symbolical
way of speaking of their purity.
They've been washed in the blood of the
Lamb.
And then he sees that they're waving palm
branches, which is another symbolical way of expressing
their joy and their victory.
And then he tells us where they come
from, this great multitude that no one can
even count as far as the eye can
see in every direction, from the east and
the west, the north and the south.
He says they come from every tongue, from
every tribe, from every people, from every nation.
Do you realize what he's describing?
The Great Commission is fulfilled!
It's already accomplished in the schedule of God!
The celebration has started!
And any activity now that does not contribute
to that destiny is an exercise in futility,
because nothing finally will remain but the Word
of God and the souls of men and
women.
What a day to anticipate!
What a joy!
The old missionary E.P. Scott spent most
of his years working among the northern tribes
up in India.
One day, he was seeking to reach an
area that had not yet heard the gospel,
when suddenly he was surrounded by a band
of armed warriors, and they pointed their long
spears at his heart.
The old missionary thought, well, this is it.
He was a bit scared, but it happened
that he had his violin with him.
He quickly opened that case, took that instrument,
put it to his shoulder, and he began
to play and sing in the native language
which he knew.
All hail the power of Jesus' name.
Let angels prostrate fall.
Bring forth the royal diadems and crown him
Lord of all.
And as he played and sang, he closed
his eyes, momentarily expecting death.
But when nothing happened, even after he finished
the third stanza, he opened his eyes, and
he saw that the spears had fallen from
the hands of his captors, and tears were
streaming down their faces.
And they begged him to tell them of
that name, that name above every other name,
the only name under heaven, given among men,
whereby we must be saved.
So he went home with them and told
them the old, old story of Jesus you've
heard so many times.
And a church was raised up there that
is still worshiping God today.
Now I'm not suggesting that you're going to
be delivered from the spears of tormentors.
I don't want you to think that you're
going to be spared difficulty and hardship.
In fact, if you take seriously this teaching,
I can only promise you a cross.
But whatever comes in your heart, there'll be
a song, because you can see beyond the
veil of this world.
You can see what God is doing.
And you're living already in that assurance that
his will shall be done.
His kingdom shall come, and the great commission
will be fulfilled.
And while it does not yet appear all
that we will be, we know that when
he appears, then we will see him as
he is.
At last, our faith will turn to sight,
and we will behold him and all the
glory of his presence.
And every knee will bow before him, and
every tongue will proclaim to the glory of
God, Jesus Christ is Lord.
That's reality.
That's eternity.
Do you see it?
Then open your eyes, use your spiritual vision,
and behold the coming of the kingdom of
God, and the fulfillment of the great commission.
Father, I'm left breathless with wonder when I
think on these things, but, oh, oh, the
joy to contemplate that glory.
And when I look at what little I've
done, and how I've often been intimidated by
circumstances that were difficult, oh, Father, I can
see how small has been my faith.
Forgive me, Lord.
Be pleased to do a deeper work in
my soul.
Open my eyes that I may behold more
clearly what you're doing, and I may see
more definitely what I can do until
that glorious day is fulfilled.
Give us, Father, that sense of expectancy, that
joy of the Lord.
Where is our strength?
I pray in the precious name of Jesus.
Amen.