Seeing the Harvest Through the Eyes of Jesus (part 2)

Matthew 9:35-38

III. V. 37, HE SAW THE PROBLEM OF THE HARVEST

1. As Jesus looked at the harvest, He acknowledged the fact that it was plentiful and that it was pitiful. But as He saw lost men all around, He also recognized a problem: there were few laborers working in the Father’s field!
   
2. You know that same problem still exists today! Reaping the soul harvest is hard work, and few, it seems, are willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the work. Jesus called His men to follow Him, promising to make them “fishers of men,” Matt. 4:18-22. Of course, fish requires the fisherman to go where the fish are: to the water! Those of you who farm know that the harvest doesn’t just gather itself. You’ve got to get out there, get down where it is and do the dirty work of harvesting it. Wouldn’t it be nice if the green beans picked themselves and piled themselves on your porch? What if the okra, the squash, and the corn plucked themselves and came to where you were? Well, it doesn’t work like that! To harvest your garden, you have to go to where the harvest is. The same is true in bringing men to Jesus. We can sit in the church, but we won’t see a harvest until we go where the lost men are living. (Ill. Hag. 2:19!) It is dirty work, but it must be done, or the harvest will never be reaped!
   
3. Surely, we can see that people are in sad shape today, spiritually speaking. Indeed, we care about them and want to see them saved by grace. May we come to the place where we are not content to see it, but may we come to the place where we become willing to go into the harvest and reap for Jesus’ sake! (Ill. Psa. 126:5-6) If we can ever come to see the harvest through His eyes, we will not be content to see it merely. We will have to enter it and work to see men saved. May God grant it!

IV. V. 38, HE SAW THE POWER OF THE HARVEST

1. As Jesus spoke about the harvest and the needs associated with it, He told His men what to do first: Pray! Why pray? Because seeing the harvest brought into the barn is God’s work! He must till the soil of the heart. He must water the seed of the Word that is planted, and He must cast the sunshine of grace upon the lost heart, or there will never be a harvest! You see, the new birth is a miracle! It is the incredible work of God in a human heart! Only He can do it, and we must pray over the harvest.
   
2. Notice that Jesus told them to pray that the Lord of the harvest (God) would send forth laborers into the harvest. If we pray as we should, the Lord will work within us so that a desire will be born within us to go into the field and work for the harvest. (We will be like Isaiah – Isa. 6:1-9!) As we develop a burden for the lost and begin to pray for them as we should, the Lord will develop compassion for them within our hearts.
   
3. Can we see the need this evening? If we can, the starting place is to get before God in prayer, trusting Him to do His work in the harvest! If we pray, He will send forth the laborers. Of course, they might just be us!

Conclusion: I will close with a record of something God did 130 years ago in New York City. It illustrates how God has started every harvest time in history through the concerted prayer of his people.

Toward the middle of the last century, the glow of earlier religious awakenings had faded. America was prosperous and felt little need to call on God. But in the 1850s … Secular and religious conditions combined to bring about a crash. The third great panic in American history swept the giddy structure of speculative wealth away. Thousands of merchants were forced to the wall as banks failed, and railroads went into bankruptcy. Factories were shut down, and vast numbers were thrown out of employment. New York City alone has 30,000 idle men. In October 1857, people’s hearts were thoroughly weaned from speculation and uncertain gain, while hunger and despair stared them in the face.

     On July 1st, 1857, a quiet and zealous businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier took up an appointment as a City Missionary in downtown New York. Lanphier was appointed by the North Church of the Dutch Reformed denomination. This church was suffering from depletion of membership due to removing the population from the downtown to the better residential quarters. The new City Missionary was engaged in making active visitation in the immediate neighborhood to enlisting church attendance among the floating population of the lower city. The Dutch Consistory felt that it had appointed an ideal layman for the task at hand, and so it was.

     Burdened by the need, Jeremiah Lanphier decided to invite others to join him in a noonday prayer meeting held on Wednesdays once a week. He, therefore, distributed a handbill:

HOW OFTEN SHALL I PRAY? 

     As often as the language of prayer is in my heart; as often as I see my need of help; as often as I feel the power of temptation; as often as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension or feel the aggression of a worldly spirit.

     In prayer, we leave the business of time for eternity and intercourse with men for intercourse with God.

     A day Prayer Meeting is held every Wednesday, from 12 to 1 o’clock, in the Consistory building in the rear of the North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets (entrance from Fulton and Ann Streets).

     This meeting is intended to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers, and business people generally an opportunity to stop and call upon God amid the perplexities incident to their respective avocations. It will continue for one hour, but it is also designed for those who may find it inconvenient to remain more than five or ten minutes, as well as for those who can spare the whole hour.”

     Accordingly, at noon, September 23rd, 1857, the door got opened, and the faithful Lanphier took his seat to await the response to his invitation …. Five minutes went by. No one appeared. The missionary paced the room in a conflict of fear and faith. Ten minutes elapsed. Still, no one came. Fifteen minutes passed. Lanphier was yet alone. Twenty minutes; twenty-five; thirty; and then at 12.30 p.m., a step was heard on the stairs, and the first person appeared, then another, and another, and another, until six people were present and the prayer meeting began. On the following Wednesday, October 7th, there were forty intercessors.

     Thus, in the first week of October 1857, it was decided to hold a meeting daily instead of weekly …. Within six months, ten thousand businessmen were gathering daily for prayer in New York, and within two years, a million converts were added to the American churches. 

Undoubtedly, the most remarkable revival in New York’s colorful history was sweeping the city, and it was of such an order to make the whole nation curious. There was no fanaticism, no hysteria, simply an incredible movement of the people to pray. Before the end, one out of every five persons in America had been saved by the grace of God! That is what God can do when people begin to see the harvest through His eyes. Can you see? God help us to get a vision of what He can do!