Know the Work of the Harvest

Keep praying for my wife Barbara. We didn't get the news we hoped for last Friday. Turns out that the original diagnosis of lung cancer, a third type of cancer since 2014, was wrong. When they removed the cancerous nodule from her right lung and analyzed it, it turned out to be the same cancer as was in her bile ducts in the liver. She has a new liver and on that front is doing well.

They assume that because that cancer had escaped her old liver and gone to her lung, that those cancer cellls are now throughout her body. However, nothing shows up for now, meaning these cellls are inactive or dormant. They can remain dormant for many years. That is how we will pray. No further treatment for now. They will keep testing and watching. Who knows? Maybe nothing shows because they got it all. God knows. We will keep trusting Him. He has a plan, and for now that is her continued work with the kids and ladies at church. PTL!

Now to today's Bible Insight: Do you understand the need for outreach? In this passage, Jesus teaches us about the need for outreach by telling us about the harvest. We are to be prepared to dive into the mission of rescuing those who are perishing, even when it is inconvenient and dangerous. Here Jesus challenges us to look out and take a specific action when we see those in need of a Savior.

This is a pivotal passage. It could be called a hinge passage. A hinge is the swing point between two objects. It holds the two objects together. This passage holds together Jesus’ ministry with our ministry. That is why this Scripture is so important, because it is all about us having a similar ministry to Jesus.

Until now, the Book of Matthew has been all about Jesus’ ministry. Jesus has been traveling all throughout Galilee, teaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Not only that, He has been healing diseases and casting out demons. Epileptics, paralytics, and a mother-in-law have been healed! Jesus calmed a storm. The blind have received sight. A young girl has been raised from the dead. Even the mute are speaking again.

As the crowds watch this, they rightly say, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel” (Matt. 9:33). That is what you call an understatement! Can you imagine what it would have been like to see this? It would have been incredible! Yet that is what has been taking place, until now.

But now something happens. Until now it has all been about Jesus ministering in power. But a strange thing happens immediately after this passage. In Matthew 10:1 we read, “Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

It is at this moment that Jesus makes the switch from preaching and teaching and healing Himself, to commissioning His disciples to go out to preach and teach and heal. So when Jesus makes this statement about the harvest, He is about to commission His followers to do what He has been doing. He preached; now they are to preach. He taught with authority; now He is about to send them out to teach with authority. He has driven out evil spirits and healed all kinds of diseases and sicknesses; now He is about to empower them to drive out evil spirits and heal all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. So this pivotal passage is key.

In Matthew 9:35, Jesus shows you the work of the harvest that needs to be done. It says that “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages.” Cities of that day were distinguished by having high surrounding walls for fortification, whereas villages had no wall (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 8-15, [Moody Press: Chicago, 1984], 103). During His time spent in Galilee, Jesus visited “all” of these cities and villages.

So this is an overall summary of Jesus’ ministry in chapters 8 and 9. There the work of Christ was teaching, preaching, and healing—Synagogue-teaching, gospel-preaching, and disease-healing. The church today continues Christ's work. Or more accurately, Christ continues to do His work through the church. It is not first you and me, but Christ who does His work through us.

Look at the Book of Acts. It begins: “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). “The first account” is the Gospel of Luke, which recounts Christ's earthly ministry. The second account is the Book of Acts, which recounts Christ's continuing work through the church. In the first account Christ “began to do and teach.” That means in the second account Christ continued to do and teach. The pattern in Acts is that Christ continues working through the church!

So Christ continues His work of teaching, preaching, and healing through the church, or through us today. As we follow Christ, and as we are led by Christ, He continues to do His work. It is by Christ working through us that we teach, preach, and heal—yes even heal! We pray for those in need and God does great things. In James we read: “Pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16, NASB). Know the work of the harvest and follow Jesus in doing that work, and the Lord will accomplish much. Amen.