Luke 10 is a passage God is using all over the world to bring in a massive harvest. Here are the principles again, as taught by an Indian church planter who is living the reality of this. (Teachings from India 4)
Jesus sent the disciples out in teams. The team consists of three people, because Jesus must go with us.
In Luke 10:2, Jesus says the harvest is plentiful.
Following the testimony of the woman at the well in John 4, the people of the town come out to see Jesus. He tells his disciples, "You say that there are still four months until the harvest is ready. Look and see, the fields are already white." Ripe grain is yellow in color. If you leave ripe grain in the sun, as it dries out it becomes white, so Jesus is saying that the harvest is over-ready. The disciples thought the village was not ready, but Jesus response was that it was past ready. Jesus is Lord of the harvest. He sends us to where the fields are ready.
Jesus found the most worthless person of her village. She was alone, unable to face the other women in the village who would not have been collecting water in the middle of the day. After her encounter with Jesus, she became bold, letting everyone know what had happened to her. She brought her whole village to the feet of Jesus.
Millions of laborers for the harvest are sitting in church. A farmer wants his laborers to be out in the fields. The harvest is ready. Are we willing to leave the comfort of the pew (or sofa) to become a laborer?
6 replies on “The Over Ready Harvest”
When a child, especially a poor child, gets a new bike, his Dad doesn’t have to tell him to go out and tell his friends about it. That is the first thing he does.
The bike has become a prized possession that is something everyone he tells would also want. So, when someone becomes a child of the kingdom, and receives the promise of God, the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2), why do they need to be urged to go share that even and that gift with others?
It might be because they don’t know they have it.
Or It might be because they don’t know how they can use it.
Or… it might be because they are being told that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are only good to get you to heaven and they don’t know they can open and use them now.
It won’t be useful to go make disciples until they can ride the bike themselves. Without the power that accompanies the authority of the believer in the kingdom of God (which he wants to have us establish here – see the Lord’s prayer) they are going to sit on their hands and smile and enjoy his presence, but not be able to do what The Lord told them to do. Make disciples.
This series of posts has been good to read. I would like t have dialog with the author to help me understand a couple of things. At times I wonder if we (Christians) will use Jesus’s words to a specific group in a specific instance and generalize it to apply to all Christians everywhere, such as that we are absolultely to be making disciples.
Not that I disagree with any of the content of the posts. I’m just left to wonder if this practice would have us becoming one body part instead of having the variety of body parts. Anyhow, that is just my “deep” pondering for the day.
I would enjoy to dialog on this.
On the subject of making disciples, although Jesus only mentions it once (in the Great Commission), as far as I can see, it is the main activity the disciples engaged in after Pentecost. After three years of life lived with Jesus, their understanding of the Kingdom was to live a shared life together (Acts 2) and to spread the Good News which resulted in more followers of Jesus (disciples).
The believers in India who are living out these truths are seeing amazing numbers of people becoming Christians-hundreds of thousands, in an area of the world where there is persecution of Christians. There is a 3 year mandatory prison sentence if someone is caught baptizing, for example. These posts are a summary of the training their people are given. Some of what I’m writing may apply more within the Indian context, but principles apply across cultures. They have a huge emphasis on the importance of “going” rather than asking people to come to our churches.
I’d welcome your feedback.
Felicity, this teaching series if very good!
Doxa, I would say that the best thing we can do
is to bring these teachings to the Lord and let
him speak to us about how we can implement them
in our context. We’d not be rigidly transferring practices between cultures, but applying
Bibilcal principles, from whatever source.
This is not a matter of uniformity, but of
learning from those who have been faithful and
fruitful. Many folks all over the world,
including me, are learning from these brothers
and sisters who are going out into hostile areas and bringing Christ to the lost.
Felicity, I agree with your comment, that God
calls us to GO to where lost people are,
rather than to try to get them to come to our
meetings and events. Thank you so much for
sharing these teachings with us.
Hi Felicity.
Thanks for this post on luke 10.
I think this has been something that has been glossed over for far to long here in the states.
The exciting part for me here is God’s prevenience of going before us by preparing particular people who will be integral to reaching whole groups of people.
It is the Lord of the harvest who is preparing these people of peace to be a key to reaching their villages, or subcultures or group of people.
Thanks for tying John 4 in together with Luke 10.
I think the woman at the well is one of the best examples of a person who God has prepared to reach her people.
Check out verses 39-42 of John 4. It tells us that people believed because of her and that Jesus stayed with them for 2 days at the end of which verse 42 states, “They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
WOW! They believed at first just because of what she had said and then they came to understand who Jesus was through spending time with Him.
Let’s pray for God to raise up such people of peace who will open up whole pockets of people among neighborhoods and people groups and subcultures to see His church spontaneously expand.
thanks again Felicity.
blessings from denver,
Desi and Rose Starr
These comments from everyone are really helpful. Thank you!!