Sunday, November 17, 2024 AM

The Lord of the Harvest and the Call to Pray

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you that this is the day that you have made and you have made it for your glory. You've made it for our good.

You have made it in the light of your truth. We thank you for what you have said to us about your Son, by your Spirit, in this word. We are here to bow the knee to our King, Jesus Christ, to bow before you, our Creator, and ask that you would have your way in us.

And Lord, we pray that as you give us the grace to pay attention to your Word and to rejoice in it, you would also give us the grace to be changed by it, to be ever more conformed to the image of your Son in whom you are well pleased.

It is in Christ's name that we pray for these mercies. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18, and we will be reading verses 1 through 8 together. Acts chapter 18, verses 1 through 8.

The title of this morning's sermon comes from the Gospels, including Luke chapter 10, the expression, laborers into his harvest. We've been seeing a lot of that theme throughout the book of Acts, preaching at Pentecost, preaching in the temple, preaching in Jerusalem, preaching throughout Judea and Samaria, preaching that went down to Ethiopia, preaching that went up to Antioch, and even all the way to Athens.

Laborers into the Lord's harvest. They started counting early in Acts, and at some point they lost count. But the Lord never lost count. The numbers were ordained by God, though they were incalculable by men.

This harvest was a plenteous harvest. Long rows and full. We find good news on display that Jesus Christ is a Savior who saves. This is a trustworthy statement. That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, the chief of which has already been saved, so there's hope for you too.

God continually saves sinners despite all manner of persecutions, despite all manner of perversions to His Word, despite so many perils that we see facing Paul and those with him as they preach the Gospel here, there, and everywhere.

As we finish out Acts 17, we see that the harvest in Athens has begun, but now here in chapter 18, we see the harvest beginning in Corinth. I invite you, if you're able, to stand with me as we read God's holy word, Acts 18, verses 1 through 8.

After these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them.

So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for by occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.

But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justice, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

You may be seated. To appreciate what goes on here in Acts 18 and to think about how Jesus put it to his disciples, we should also read Luke 10, verses 1 -3. We read there,. After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and beyond the twelve, he appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go.

Luke 10, verse 2. Then he said to them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

Go your way.

Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Jesus gave instructions to his disciples, not just to the twelve, but also to these seventy, and told them to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers into his harvest.

Did Peter pray for that? What about Luke, who wrote those words down? After he finished writing that down, by the inspiration and bearing up of the Holy Spirit, did he just pause and go ahead and pray in obedience for that?

What about Ananias there in Damascus? Did he pray for that? Sometime after that, God says, Go see Saul of Tarsus. Did Barnabas pray for that? As he went to go grab Saul, and bring him to Jerusalem. The Lord answered his own prayer, didn't he?

And raised up Saul of Tarsus to be one of those laborers in his own harvest, in the Lord's harvest. Why are so many laborers needed? There are few, we need many laborers. Why? Because the Lord says the harvest is truly great.

Truly great. Verily, it is great. Amen and amen. It is great, truly great. Why would he have to tell his disciples that? Well, they probably saw several discouraging signs. A lot of opposition, a lot of confusion, a lot of chaos in their own time.

Why do we need to hear that? The harvest is truly great. Because we may not believe it. Do we believe it? How many Christians today believe the harvest is truly small? Truly tiny?

Truly pitiful?

The Lord says the harvest is truly great. We ought not fail to believe our Lord. We ought not sit back and reflect, especially in this Thanksgiving season, and think that the harvest has been and will be truly miserable.

No, indeed, the harvest is truly great. And the Lord's harvest is His. It's His in every sense of ownership, from the initial prayer request to the final sifting, He is the Lord of the harvest. He both designs and desires our obedience to His glory, that we would be laborers in His harvest.

And as we look at this passage here in Acts 18, we are reminded of how He sends out His laborers into His harvest. So it shows us what to pray for, shows us how to proceed. We find that as He sends laborers into His harvest, they partner with the saints.

They proclaim the Savior and they persist by the Spirit. We are to labor wisely and confidently in the Lord's harvest because of who our Lord is. Because of who our Lord is, we have a great sovereign, a great shepherd, a great Savior.

And His name is Jesus Christ. Let our confidence be in Him. The more we put our attention upon ourselves and other people, the more we put our attention upon the times and the frustrations, the more we will begin to think that the harvest is truly miserable.

But our Lord says to us, the harvest is truly great. Let us partner with the saints. We see partnership happening in this passage. We find folks by the name of Aquila and Priscilla. We find folks by the name of Silas and Timothy.

Paul is not out there on his own. He's not working in the Lord's harvest by himself. He is in partnership with the saints. We remember from Luke 10 that Jesus sent out His disciples as laborers two by two.

We are reminded of the story of Noah. The animals are coming in two by two. But also, this man of rest, Christ, brings in a new creation, sends out His workers to call sinners to salvation. And Peter makes much of this in his writings in 1 and 2 Peter.

But there's just a practical wisdom, is there not, in going out in partnership two by two? Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9 says, two are better than one. Two are better than one, and then all the reasons why two are better than one are given right after that.

And the Lord, in whom is all the Lord's wisdom, seeks there to be partnerships in His laboring in the harvest. We don't need a laborer here and a laborer there. We need partnerships with the saints. And the Lord provides that.

Paul travels from Athens. He travels to the west and then southwest, 50 miles to Corinth. And there in Corinth, he finds a city 200 ,000 folks strong, a double port city, a port on both sides of a small isthmus there in this hub of travel and trade.

And he finds lodging with Aquila and Priscilla because they are of his same culture and trade. It's easy for Paul to spend time with Aquila and Priscilla. They have so much in common. We see that in verses 2 and 3.

He found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them. So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked.

For by occupation, they were tent makers. So they all had the same craft, and by working together, they were able to get more done. The tents that they would have made would have looked small and strange to us, who are used to very vast, large, synthetic, fibrous tents.

The tents that they made were very small, made of leather and linen and woven from goat's hair. Paul was trained in this, and the tools were easy to carry with him, and so he worked with Aquila and Priscilla, making use of this talent and skill.

Aquila and Priscilla are originally from Bithynia, north of Galatia, but they had been living in Rome. They got kicked out of Rome, along with all the rest of the Jews. Why did they get kicked out? By Claudius.

The Roman historian, Suetonius, said that Claudius got a little fed up with the Jews. The reason why is because they were continually rioting because of someone named Christus. And Claudius said, I'm tired of all of these Jews getting upset and angry and throwing riots in my town, in my city, my imperial capital city, about somebody named Christus.

Let's just get rid of the whole lot of them. What was going on there? It was the conflict between the Christians who were preaching Christ and the Jews dedicated to the temple who were rejecting Christ.

And the Jews, as they had in Galatia, as they had in Judea, were also in Rome, stirring up trouble and trying to persecute the church. And Claudius did not like the civil unrest that came with that, and so he kicked all of the Jews out of Rome.

The Jews and Christians were now officially unpopular in the Roman Empire, and that trend would only continue to get worse under the second emperor after Claudius, the next emperor after Claudius, Nero, who committed open warfare against the Christians and later on even opened warfare against the Jews.

Aquila and Priscilla are therefore on the road, on the run, trying to find some place to be. So they are there in Corinth, and Paul sees them as fellow travelers and tent makers, and they're making do together.

We don't have a conversion story about how they come to faith, so apparently they're already Christians. Paul is being hosted by them, and they are being well-instructed by him, and later on we find that they are vitally instrumental in discipling an evangelist for the church by the name of Apollos.

So we find that God is using Paul's partnership with Aquila and Priscilla to greatly build his church. There's a partnership going on here even in difficult times. There's more partnership. Silas and Timothy show up in verse 5 when Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia.

And the last time we heard, Paul was waiting around in Athens for Silas and Timothy to come down to him there. But then we learn from 1 Thessalonians 3, verses 1 through 6, that Timothy had made it down to Athens and seen Paul, and Paul had sent him back up to Thessalonica to further establish and encourage the saints there in their faith.

And then Silas and Timothy finally get back to Paul in Corinth, and they come with gifts from the Macedonian churches we find from 2 Corinthians 11. So they're bringing in supplies from the churches, and they're coming to encourage Paul.

Paul didn't want to be a burden to the church in Thessalonica, so that probably means that this gift was the one he talked about coming in from Philippi. So they come now to Paul in Corinth with gifts from the saints at large, and they come to encourage Paul in his work there in Corinth.

As soon as they arrive, you can see the change in Paul. You see how encouraged he is. You see how bold he is. Look at verse 5 again. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.

You can almost sense him shifting into fifth gear. When Silas and Timothy show up with the encouragement and the gifts from all the saints, and he begins to preach very boldly about Christ to the Jews.

So we find that Paul is helped, he is emboldened, he pushes forward with the gospel in confronting the Jews. And that crisis point there in verse 5, then changed the nature of the harvest labor in Corinth as the church was then planted.

And notice they planted the church right next door to the synagogue in the house of justice. So that's taking the gospel straight into the teeth of the opposition, and the Lord blessed it. Now, we see this partnership going on here.

It's not just Paul on his own, there's Aquila and Priscilla, and there's Silas and there's Timothy, and there's this growing church. And the churches from abroad are sending support and gifts to help with the advancement of the gospel throughout the rest of the peninsula.

This is what is pleasing to the Lord. This partnership, this co-laboring that we read about often in the New Testament. The giving and the praying, the laying on of hands and the sending out, the going and the hospitality, brothers and sisters, laboring together in Christ as one, unified by the Spirit in the love of God.

That is what brings glory to God. When we think about the harvest in Matthew, Jesus actually tells His disciples, lift up your eyes unto the harvest.

Meaning what?

It means their heads are down, or perhaps their eyes are distracted, they're not paying attention to the task that the Lord has for them. Lift up your eyes, take a look, pay attention. Look at how the fields are white under harvest.

Look how great the harvest is. We pray that the Lord will send laborers into His harvest. Now, when we think about this harvest, what is entailed in this? Well, it's going to be very clear from both Luke 10 and this passage here, this is all about proclaiming who Jesus is and applying the reality of Jesus Christ to all of life, from the need to repent and believe in Him to growing up in Him.

The harvest, the labor in Christ's kingdom, is the bringing to bear of the message of Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ who is crucified for us and risen for us and reigning over us.

So when we think about laboring in the harvest and partnering in that, many times our thoughts will go immediately to thinking about cross-cultural missions, to unreached people groups, and that's very important, or getting the gospel in behind the walls that are built up by totalitarianism, getting the gospel to those who are cut off from normal opportunities to have their own Bibles and to have churches and so on, and that's good.

That is not the only part of the field. That is not the only place where the harvest is. The harvest is great, remember? The harvest is not in bleak corners of the world. The harvest is not in places where there is no functioning internet.

The harvest is not restricted to tyrannical regimes. The harvest is great. Look up, look around, look how great the harvest is. It is not far from you. Pray the Lord will send laborers into His harvest.

Anything from cross-cultural missions to neighborly help and hospitality, raising children to know and fear the Lord. Lift up your eyes to the harvest. To whom do we talk about Jesus? King of kings and Lord of lords, who died upon the cross, was raised the third day for us and for our salvation.

Who are we talking to about Him? Do we talk to our children about Him? His worthiness, His excellencies, the need to bow the knee and welcome His authority. Do we let our good works so shine before men that they see those good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven?

When our helping hand goes out to our neighbor, saying, you know, I'm doing this because of my love for Jesus Christ. I just want you to know that. It's not about me. It's not about me. It's about my master.

It's about my king. What did you just do there except herald that there's a king on a throne and I'm following Him, I'm following the Lamb wherever He goes? Do we see that the harvest is great? It's all around us, the opportunity for us to herald Christ.

It is not something that we outsource to professionals and experts in very out-of-the-way places. And so we are to partner together, partner in every fashion. We are to think about how to broaden the partnership and deepen the partnership and sharpen the partnership and stir up and strengthen and support and sharpen and steady and stay with this partnership beginning here in our local church.

Beginning here. There is comfort and safety in our gathering. It is so encouraging and affirming to come together as brothers and sisters in Christ and to bless each other and to greet each other with the warmth of Jesus Christ.

And that is essential for our Christian growth. But this, brothers and sisters, is a beachhead, not just simply the beach. This is base camp, not just camping out. There is a purpose.

There is a purpose.

And so as you are reminded in Hebrews chapter 10 that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, we're calling why we gather together is that we're holding fast the confession of our faith and we are stirring one another up to love and to good deeds all for the glory of Christ.

We are to encourage one another and to compel one another and to sharpen one another in our gospel labor. I have a relative. I have an acquaintance. I have a neighbor. I have someone who I have spoken about Christ to before and I am still burdened for them.

And, oh my brother, oh my sister, would you pray for me? And what would you do if they responded this way? And can you think of some scriptures that would help me here? And what are we doing? But we are partnering together.

It's not me on my own trying to reach my children. I have two by two, praise the Lord, for a husband and wife who raise their children as mother and father, two by two in the field laboring for that harvest.

Praise the Lord that we can come together and encourage each other in this harvest, in this labor. And yes, this also includes us supporting our brothers and sisters who go far beyond our capacity and our ability to travel and to plant churches.

We're going to have the Wilcox here next week. We partner with them. We labor with them. They're members of our church. They don't tend a whole lot, but they're members of our church. We sent them out to do missionary work and we should be praying for them and we should be giving them funds and we should be checking in on them and seeing what we can do to partner with them in their work in Latin America and in their work in the UK.

So we do labor together with all the missionaries that we support. Christ is the one who builds this church. Praise the Lord, He builds this church. And the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

He puts us together. And so in that confidence, remembering that it's His harvest, we are to partner together in that and pray for Him to bless those partnerships. Now, what does it look like in partnering with the saints?

It's not simply getting a work crew together. There's something about it that makes it gospel labor. There's something about it that makes it laboring in the harvest, in the Lord's harvest. And it's this, that we proclaim the Savior.

It is not simply that we find good, noble, helpful things to do. That might be labor. But is it gospel labor? Not until we proclaim the Savior. Let us proclaim the Savior and be bold about it. Let us be truthful about it.

Let us be unashamed about it. Let us be clear about it. Notice that Paul, in verse 4, he proclaims the Savior. Verses 4 and 5, read that again. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled...

Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Now, so he's testifying, but what was he doing in verse 4? He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

So three words, he reasoned, he persuaded, he testified. He reasoned, he persuaded, and he testified. When he reasoned, it's the idea that he laid thought alongside thought. As he explained the Scriptures in the light of Jesus Christ, he was reading the Old Testament with an unveiled face to those who had their faces still veiled.

That's the way he describes it in 2 Corinthians 3, verses 12 -18. Paul, time and time again, would go into these cities. He would find the Jewish synagogue, the Jewish gathering, and he would open up the scrolls and he would read to them and testify to them of Jesus of Nazareth as being the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He would show them from the Scriptures the glories of Jesus Christ, and many of them couldn't bear the sight of it, didn't want to see it, and their veil was over their face, and then others, the veil was off, and they beheld the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and the light was on, and they believed in Jesus Christ.

And he just kept on preaching, and he said, when I preach the gospel, it's like the stench of death to some, and it's the aroma of life to others, and God be praised that he saves and saves and saves.

He reasoned with them, and he brought biblical evidence, and he showed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, and he spoke persuasively. He persuaded both Jews and Greeks. He was urging them. It wasn't simply that he was laying out a documentarian's case, but he was trying to persuade them and compel them.

There was a sense of urgency, given the authority of Christ, given the holiness of God, that sinners should repent. He urged them to submit to Christ. Remember, Paul's expressed zeal for those of his brethren, his earthly brethren, fellow Jews.

In Romans chapter 10, how great a zeal he had for them, how much he desired to see them to be saved, because they had a zeal, but not according to the knowledge of God, and they were trying to establish their own righteousness, but righteousness which is in Christ.

Righteousness is in Christ. He's the end of the law unto righteousness for all who believe in him. And so Paul would persuade them to turn from themselves, and to turn from the temple, to turn from their ways, and turn to Christ who is the way.

And then he testified to them in verse 5. He testified. This is his personal witness. He could say, look here in this Scripture passage, and look here in this Scripture passage, and then he could take them by the shoulder and say, don't you know that you need a Savior?

Don't you know that you need to repent before the Almighty God? And then he could say, I was right where you are. I was on the road to Damascus. I was heading to kill Christians. I was zealous. I was full of myself and full of my own righteousness, and Jesus of Nazareth knocked me down and confronted me.

I used to think the way you thought, but now Christ has changed me. That's his testimony. He was testifying to them about how God changed him. And so he reasoned, and so he persuaded, and so he testified.

Why did he do this? Because he was compelled. Verse 5 says he was compelled by the Spirit. You remember that famous passage, that Paul's famous quandary in Philippians 1, when he was to stay here and keep up the gospel labor or to depart to be with Christ.

Remember what he said about that? That he was hard-pressed between the two? Same word here for compelled. Same exact word. Paul is a city besieged by the Holy Spirit. He surrenders to testifying of Christ.

He is a ship constrained by the Spirit in a narrow channel, only one way forward. He's compelled to testify of Jesus Christ. He is powerfully moved, not by pride, not by emotion, not by terror, but he is compelled by God himself to give personal witness.

When God moves you to testify, when God moves you to persuade, when God moves you to reason the gospel with others, what can stand in that? That's why we pray that the Lord will send out laborers into his harvest.

We need the Holy Spirit to compel us, to move us, to urge us, to bring us along. And what did he proclaim? Simply this message that Jesus is the Christ. He testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.

He's the Anointed One, long promised, long testified to by all the Old Testament. He testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, that he's the seed of the woman, that he's the man of comfort, that he's the heir of promise, that he's the Lion of Judah, that he's Shiloh, the one to whom it all belongs.

He's the bright and morning star. He's the greater than Moses prophet, the greater than Aaron high priest, the greater than Solomon son of David. Here is the man of peace. He's the beloved. He's the branch of Jesse and his root.

He is God's only son, the righteous servant, the armor of the Lord, the messenger of the covenant, the Messiah, the Christ, and his name is Jesus. That's what Paul preached in the synagogues. He testified to them that Jesus is the Christ.

That's what makes it gospel work. That's what makes it gospel work. His person, his work declared. That was not well received by some of the Jews as we see. And Paul knew that that was going to be the case.

Stumbling block to the Jews, foolishness to the Greeks. But Jesus Christ to those who are being saved, power of God. Power of God. Gospel work is not to be done according to the mandates of survey says.

Survey says? Not our authority. It's not what directs us. It's not our goal to get the majority of responses into positive. We're not here to get five-star reviews online. We're not here to please men.

Remember, it's the Lord's harvest. So when you go out and you go into the master's field with the master's tools and the master's resources, and you're one of the tools that is owned by the master himself, what are you there to do?

Please the master. It's the Lord's harvest. And we're employing him to send out more laborers into that harvest, aren't we? So it's about pleasing him. And laboring in the Lord's harvest means spirit-empowered, Savior-expositing labor.

Simply talking about Jesus from the Word. I want to show you an example of that and how to pray for that from Colossians 4. In Colossians 4, verses 2 through 6, we have a prayer request from Paul. What you love when you find prayer requests in the Bible.

Paul would often send prayer requests to his fellow believers in his continuing partnership with them. Partnership may be simply all we can do is pray. Sometimes we can send resources. Sometimes we can be right there alongside and help do the work.

But notice what he asks for in Colossians 4, verse 2. He never met the church in Colossae. He knows Epaphroditus, but he doesn't know anybody else in the Colossian church. Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, praying also for us. That God would open to us a door for the Word. To speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in chains. That I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Let's think about that passage for a moment. Paul asking for partnership. This is the gospel labor, laboring in the harvest.

What are we praying for? What are we desiring? That God would open to us a door for the Word. It's become such a common metaphor in Christian language that we don't even know what it means anymore. You remember that Jesus' instructions to his disciples in Luke 10 involved them going into a city, heralding Jesus Christ as the king, the gospel of the kingdom, and then seeking out a person of peace who would open up their home to them and let them live there with them so that they could operate in that city and preach the gospel as long as the Lord would have them there.

But if they could find no person of peace and no hospitable house in the city, that would hear the message of the gospel, then they were to wipe the dust off their feet and leave that city, and that city would be under the judgment of God.

The opening of the door for the gospel is... Think of an actual door and someone saying, yes, you can stay here with us in my house while you preach this message to my neighbors and throughout the city.

So, Paul is saying, we need that. Now, he's in chains, he's in prison, but he's still looking for that beachhead in the city where they can continue the work. And he wants to speak. Notice, he's asking that he would speak the mystery of Christ, making it manifest as I ought to speak.

Meaning, making the good news of Jesus Christ in the way that He saves sinners, manifest, clear, revealed, obvious, without misunderstanding as I ought to speak. So that helps us understand what he means when he says to them, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you are to answer each one.

That's not, how can I say this about Jesus in a way that you walk away happy with me? No, this is, how can I say this to you to make the mystery of Christ manifest to you where there's no misunderstanding, that you're absolutely clear on His authority and that He alone is Savior?

How can I make this clear and manifest? That's what Paul desires in this gospel work. That's what we are to be praying for the Lord to send. Send those kinds of laborers into His harvest. Let us not be tempted to restrict our speech so as to avoid clarity that might bring offense, or to appease, or to call the reduction of evangelistic efforts into just doing nice things in the neighborhood, and call that actual gospel labor.

That's not gospel labor. That's not gospel work. We ought not to be impatient. We should continue and persist in giving the gospel in its clarity, in its fullness. Are we unwilling to suffer? Are we unwilling to risk?

Are we unwilling to die? We partner with the Lord's saints and the Lord's harvest that we may proclaim the Savior persisting in this harvest labor by the Spirit. Paul was compelled by the Spirit to testify of this Word.

To testify of Christ, despite the opposition, despite having to be on the move. We see that in the power of the Spirit, Christ overcomes the opposition, even in this passage. Notice verse 6, the opposition.

When they opposed Him and blasphemed, He shook His garments and said to them, Your blood will be upon your own heads. I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. He shakes His cloak. Why does He shake His robes like that?

Well, it's a different motion, but it's the same notion as wiping the dust off your feet. But Paul's not leaving town. He's staying in Corinth. So he doesn't wipe the dust off his feet because he's not leaving town.