Coming Harvest Includes Impending Judgement

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
(Matthew 9:37b)

As Jesus changes the metaphor from shepherding to harvesting, He gives another motive for His ministry. He ministered because people face God’s final judgement.
Jesus ministered compassionately and tirelessly because He could see the ultimate consummation of divine judgement toward which every person was headed — every one in the multitudes who did not trust in Him. Paul said, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11).
In 2 Thessalonians, Paul paints a vivid picture of God’s judgement: “The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (1:7-9).
It is easy to lose awareness of the imminence and the inevitability of God’s judgement, but the Christian who loses sight of that judgement loses a major portion of his motive for witnessing.
When Jesus saw the crowds, He taught them, preached to them, and healed them — all for the ultimate purpose that they might come to Him and escape the harvest of judgement they could not otherwise avoid.

Ask Yourself:
Think of the cost that sin has already extracted from you, here where God’s mercy is still available and the promise of His restorative forgiveness is actively in force. Imagine its cost on those who will be paying its price forever. Be sure that as you witness to others, you don’t minimize the cost sin brings.

The Religious Leaders’ False Solution

“They were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”(Matthew 9:36b)

The Scribes and Pharisees offered a religion that only added burdens instead of lifting them. For them, the common people were the object of disdain, not compassion; individuals to be exploited, not served. In that sense, the scribes and Pharisees were true descendants of the false shepherds whom the Lord railed against centuries earlier through the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 34:2-4).
Even today, many religious leaders are still trying to keep people out of the kingdom by distorting and contradicting God’s Word and perverting the way of salvation. By telling people they are already saved because “a good God would never condemn anyone to hell,” they lead people to be content with themselves and to see no need for repentance and salvation — thereby shutting tight the gracious door God has provided. Similarly, when people are told they can work their way into God’s favor by avoiding certain sins or by performing certain good deeds or participating in some prescribed ritual, they are likewise deceived and left in their lost condition.
How wonderfully refreshing it must have been to hear Jesus say, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11: 28-30). What a contrast those words were from the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.

Ask Yourself:
You may not mean to do it, but does the gospel you present to others involve more requirements than Jesus Himself placed on it? Make sure the gospel you proclaim and portray is all about lifting their burden of sin, not loading others down with more than they’re carrying already.
Pastor Ben

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Mankind’s Lost Condition

“They were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”(Matthew 9:36b)

One of Jesus’ main motives for ministry was the knowledge of man’s lost condition. He saw the people He lived among in the reality of their need. He was moved by their diseases and sickness, and He healed every one of them (v. 35). But He was moved even more deeply by the deepest need that most of the multitude did not even know they had — to be freed from their bondage to sin. He saw their hearts, and He knew that inwardly “they were distressed and dispirited.”
Jesus saw the multitudes as being inwardly devastated by their sinful and hopeless condition. The idea behind “dispirited” is to be thrown down prostrate and utterly helpless. Jesus saw the dispirited multitudes as sheep without a shepherd to protect and care for them.
Those who claimed to be the shepherds of the multitude were the scribes and Pharisees, yet it was those very shepherds who were largely responsible for the people’s confusion and hopelessness. The people were spiritually led by uncaring, unloving leaders who should have been meeting their spiritual needs. That’s why Jesus calls the people “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6) — God’s chosen people who had been left to perish.

Ask Yourself:
Begin to develop Jesus’ motive for ministry as your own. Take every opportunity to introduce others to the Great Shepherd. God Bless you!
Pastor Ben