NO SEED, NO HARVEST 

MATT. 9:35-38 

            Thank you for inviting me to come and speak to you for your harvest tea.  Let me first admit that I know very little about farming or harvesting any kind of plant life. But my guess is that this is called a harvest tea because this is the fall season, the time when farmers would be brining in their crops.  He would look at his fields and decide that his fruits and vegetables were ready to be picked. 

            Jesus walking through this farming region of Israel, looked at the masses of people and was moved with deep emotion.  I am asking God that as we look at this portion of scripture today that he will move us, the Church of Jesus Christ, with deep emotion.  There are two points that I want to make as we look at this passage. 

Point 1.  Somebody was failing on their job. 

Why do I say that?  These people of whom Jesus is speaking are Jews.  They are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They are the relatives to those people whom God delivered out of the hand of Pharaoh.  The laws of God were given to their ancestors through Moses.  These were the people who had covenant relationship with God.  They were the people of God, yet Jesus describes them as weak sheep, scattered abroad, having no shepherd.  A weak, broken down sheep, without the protection of a shepherd was bound to soon be food for a hungry wolf.  

Why do I say that someone was failing on their job?  I say that because God did not leave these people without a shepherd or without spiritual guidance.  He had appointed a whole group, the tribe of Levi, to serve as priest for these people.  However, the spiritual leaders of that day, the Pharisees and Sadducees, had become so caught up in their religious practices that they overlooked the masses and focused their attention only on those who a particular standing in the community.  These Sadducees and Pharisees were well educated.  They had been taught the Law from an early age.  They spent hours debating the scriptures.  They were generally wealthy and thought the masses of common people were beneath them.  Though the Pharisee and Sadducees had read and studied their history, they could not see that their ancestors were slaves in Egypt just like those of the poor masses.  As such they neglected these people, note recognizing that God saw just as much value in these poor hardworking farmers, fishermen and merchants as He did in theses religious rulers. 

Jesus looked as these people followed him from place to place, listening to Him preach the gospel of the kingdom.  He saw masses of God’s people who were hungry and beat down both physically and spiritually, like sheep with no shepherd. 

I want you to ponder over this question.  Has the church become like the Pharisees and Sadducees?  We come to our place of worship, minister to ourselves, go away and live among the masses of people who are hurting, and desperate, without hope in this world because they Don’t know Jesus as savior, deliverer, provider and Lord.  We walk right pass these people, live beside them, work with them and never offer them the one thing that they need, Jesus.  Some of us even think that the sinner is beneath us.  Some of us have been saved so long that we can not remember what it was like to be a sinner.  Oh we can remember what we use to do, but we can’t remember what we use to feel, the despair, sadness, emptiness.  Have we the church become like the religious rulers of that day.  

Listen to what Jesus told the Pharisees. 

Matthew 9:10-13 - They that are whole do not need a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  

Is the church failing at the job that Jesus left for us to do?  Are we neglecting the masses? 

Point 2.  If Jesus, today, came through Smithfield, Raleigh, NC, or the USA, would he still say as He did in Matt. 9:37 that the harvest really is plentiful? Or would Jesus find very few to harvest?  I believe that Jesus would not be able to say that the harvest is plentiful.  Why do I say this?  I say that Jesus would find few to harvest because there are certain thing that you need in order to have a good harvest and I believe that the most critical requirement is lacking. 

What do you need in order to get a plentiful harvest? 

Soil – Soil in the Bible represents the heart of man.  Jeremiah 4:3-4 says “This is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:  "Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.  Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire  because of the evil you have done, burn with no one to quench it.”  In the parable of the sower recorded in Matthew 13:18-23, Jesus explains four types of ground; ground that is so hard and crusted over that the seed cannot even penetrate it, ground that is a shallow bed of soil covering rocks which hinder the establishment of root and thus stunt plant growth, ground that is full of thorns and weeds that choke the seed, and then good fertile ground that gladly receives the seed and allows it to grow and produce fruit.  As we consider the masses of unsaved people that we know, we can see examples of all of these types of ground.  Some people have hearts that are cold and crusted over with sin, causing them to completely reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  But there are others that are okay as people go.  They don’t really reject the Gospel, they have just not paid a lot of attention to spiritual matters.  The point I am trying to make is that the soil is in place. 

Seed – In that same parable of the sower Jesus explained that the seed being planted was the Word of God.  1 Peter 1:23 says that we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever.  It is by hearing the Word of God that we come to see ourselves as sinners and thus recognize our need for the saving blood of Jesus Christ.  The Word of God is still the seed needed to produce a harvest of souls and that word is still available to every man that will hear and heed it.

What else do we need for a good harvest? 

We need rain and sunshine.  Well God is still raining down His Spirit on the Earth.  1 Cor. 12:3 says “that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”  The Holy Spirit that God is still raining down is the same Holy Spirit that drew you and I to Christ.  He has not lost any of his power, authority or ability to draw man to Christ.  He is still here trying to draw others to Christ. 

As for sunshine.  Sunshine gives light.  God is still shining light on His will for mankind.  He is giving new revelation, insight and understanding to mankind through His word.  As we read and study the Word, God shows us things about ourselves and about the world that we live in.  But most of all, through prayerful reading and studying the Word Christians come to understand God better and the great lengths He went through to bring mankind back into fellowship with Him.  God is still shedding light on His character and His love for man.  The sunshine necessary for a spiritual harvest is available to us. 

For a good harvest, you might need fertilizer or plant food to replenish the nutrients in the soil.  Well for the Christian, we have fertilizer.  It is called prayer.  James 4:8 says “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”  We draw near to God through prayer and he promises to draw near to us when we draw near to Him. 

Hebrews 4:16 - Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. 

 In prayer we get revitalized, we get strengthened, so that we can continue in this fight.  Our General meets us in prayer and gives us encouragement and instructions.  Prayer takes us right to the thrown room of God where we can find grace and mercy and get the help that we need.  So as Christians we have fertilizer. 

So to get a good harvest we need soil, seeds, rain, sunshine, and fertilizer; all of which we have.  But those things alone will not bring about a good harvest.  There is yet one thing lacking. 

You must have a farmer, or better stated, you must have some one to sow the seeds.  I believe that this is the ingredient that is lacking today. 

Matt. 9:35 – Jesus spent 3 and a half years walking around, spreading the Gospel and ministering to the people.  The ministry of Jesus covered Judea, Samaria, Perea, Galilee and parts of Syria.  He spent His time traveling a space that was 400 miles long and 50 miles wide.  That’s 20,000 square miles.  Now to put that in perspective for you, NC is

52, 712 square miles.  So Jesus ministered in an area that was less than half the size of NC.  We know that he spent some of the time preaching in church.  But we also know that a lot of his preaching was done outside of the church walls, to the masses who did not make it to the synagogue.  In Galilee, He taught the Beatitudes from the side of a mountain.  In Bethsaida, He feed 5000 in a desert plain.  At the Sea of Galilee, He taught the parable of the sower from a ship.  Jesus sowed seeds among the masses.  He went to the people and preached.  Jesus could see a large harvest because he had sown a lot of seeds. He did not spend His entire ministry sitting in the church waiting for the people to come to Him. 

Now some of you are thinking, yea preachers ought to get out in the community more and share the gospel.  But guess what, preachers are the only people who are suppose to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

II Cor. 5:17-20 – Are you born again? Are you a new creature in Christ?  Have you be reconciled (or made right) with God?  If your answer to these questions is yes, then you have also been given the Word of Reconciliation and the ministry of reconciliation.  You are a spokesperson for Christ.  You too have the responsibility to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some of you will say, “Well, I witness for Christ by my actions” and that is good.  We should live upright.  But Romans 10:17 says “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” 

I believe that if Jesus were to walk the earth today, His prayer would not be Father send laborers to harvest the field.  Rather His prayer would be Father, send seed sowers to plant the Word of God among the masses.  For once again the masses are being overlooked and I have compassion for them. 

Brothers and sisters, if you are saved today, God expects you to be a seed planter and there can be no harvest if there is no seed being planted. 

NO PLANTING EQUALS NO HARVEST

At this your harvest tea, I hope that this word will encourage you to sow seeds for God, that God’s harvest may be great when he returns to get his church.