A Plenteous Harvest but the Labourers are Few

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SUNDAY 19 OCTOBER 2025 - REV PAUL HANNA

Matthew 9 verse 35 - chapter 10 verse 6, 16

I don't know about you but I love this time of year. Perhaps I inherited it from my mother. She loved the autumn. She was married in September and that love for autumn came to me as well. This time last year I was in Tennessee, America and the colours were lovely. It is so dry there, something like a postcard picture. I know that this is a hard time of year for farmers when reaping of crops is done. It marks the change between good growing point of the year and enduring the winter months using what was gathered during the summer months. It is the time of the year when everything seems to pause. You are now looking at a video picture of nature pausing. Maybe you know what I mean. A busy time of year in the farming calendar with all our weather problems and other factors. I love to trace the life and ministry and teaching of the Lord Jesus in the 4 gospels. He was always on the go. There was much indeed of the hustle and bustle involved in his talking, going and doing. Large crowds followed him from the inception of his ministry to the last, at the end of it all. We find the Lord teaching all classes of people. Chapter 9 verse 1 shows us a beautiful picture of the Lord entering into the ship. He passed over to Capernaum, the north coast of Galilee. Almost immediately in verse 2 they brought him a man sick of palsy and he healed him. The immediate reaction with the people - right away people were constantly watching him especially the zealots with an eye to accuse him. Verse 4 "he knew what they were thinking before it was vocalised." In verse 10 when he went to eat he was especially under particular scrutiny and attack from those around him. Yet again Jesus is on the move in verse 35. He was so busy in preaching, teaching and healing. Those are the 3 things he did. Verse 35 the Saviour was so busy, always on the move. Then he stops. Whilst Jesus was always on the move there were some notable times when he did stop and pause. Think of John 4 and the woman at the well. The disciples went into Sychar to buy meat whilst Jesus sat by the well at the hottest part of the day. He did that for a particular reason. He had a divine appointment with a woman. He knew all about her sin and he used her to reach many others to himself. At other times the Lord stopped and he did so with purpose and for a reason. Perhaps it is his plan and purpose that we are stopped - he has a word in season for you. Perhaps he has something for you to do in this area and he stops you in your tracks. I need this word as much as anyone else. Sometimes I take on far too much and I am too busy. What does the Lord say - Psalm 46 verse 10 "be still and know that I am God." I remember a time when there were 4 channels on the television and it stopped at midnight with the national anthem. Now today there are thousands of channels and nothing is on them. There is nothing new. God says stop while the world wants constant 24 hours a day noise. Verses 36, 37 and 38. He saw the need around him. Think of Luke 19 and the story of Zacchaeus. He wanted to see the Lord but he was too short and there were too many crowding the Lord. There was no way he could see the Lord until he came up with a plan. He climbed the tree and was just happy to get a glimpse of the Saviour. Again the Lord had a divine appointment with him. He stopped at the tree, looked up and said to Zacchaeus "come down, for today I must abide at thy house." Perhaps the Lord has a similar word for you today. Verse 36 then he turned to his disciples and tried to give them something of the burden he had for those individuals around him. Verse 37 talks of a spiritual harvest. It is a plenteous harvest but the labourers are few. When the Lord looked at those following him he didn't look at the outward appearance. He sees their hearts, what is on the inside. What is on our inside is reflected on the outside. He sees not only the outside but also sees what is on the heart too. Remember what we said in verse 4 - Jesus knew their thoughts. They didn't have to say anything, he saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion. He saw the need, on the inside not only the outside. 1 Samuel 16 the Lord was about to put his hand on the man after his own heart. Verse 7 "But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The Lord sent Samuel to anoint and choose the next king of Israel. All these great mighty men were marched past Samuel but God told him not to look on their countenances or the height of his stature. I live a couple of hours from hear and drive a school bus for the pupils of Spa Primary School. There is a natural water near me. It is beautiful. Sometimes as I drive past I would slow down and even stop at it. I tell the children to look at it. It changes appearance every day. "No man ever steps in the same river twice for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." On that beautiful water there is a reflection of the mountain behind it. I can only see whats on the surface, I don't know what lies beneath. So too the Lord - he sees what is on the inside. Verse 36. He saw the multitude and saw the need in their hearts. He saw the depth of each individual. It moved him with compassion. My God seeth me. He sees your heart, your needs and is indeed moved with compassion for you. Think of his compassion. Did you ever really stop to really think of it? Especially if you are unsaved today. God knows your state. Have you ever stopped to think of the Saviour's compassion for fallen mankind? He willingly left heaven's glory. He was the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God. He came to this earth to die in the lowest of the low place. He came to heal the sick and raise the dead but his central purpose was to come and die for your sin. So that we might be reconciled to God. That comes from his compassion for lost mankind. "For God so loved the world." That word "so" is such a deep word. He willingly came. God sent and he willingly came. His love and compassion for us drew salvations plan. We find the word compassion 14 times throughout the gospels. Each and every time it is used by the Lord or in referring to the Lord in relation to his thoughts. Matthew 9 verse 36 is the first of those occurrences. Think of his compassion. Let us carry that thought away with us. It was the thing that moved him to do what he did. He was not only filled with compassion but moved with it too. When was the last time we were moved with compassion? To speak to someone about the Lord? There is a generation headed down the broad road to hell itself. Are we moved to stand in the way while the world burns? Are we not moved to tell them of the truth of the hope that is within us. The Lord was so moved because they were lost and he knew they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. The word "faint" means to have no control, people just drop in front of us. In our own strength we can do absolutely nothing. Notice what the Lord commended to the disciples. He tried to give them something of that burden. he didn't just tell them as so many try to do in the business and church. They lead by their leadership - they are managers giving out instructions. They tell people what you should do and when you have done something wrong they tell you. We need someone like Jesus, to lead from the front. The disciples had to only watch the Saviour interact with people. In John 4 they went to the nearby city to buy meat. Jesus had that love to draw the woman to himself. In Sychar a revival came. For 2 days they came and spoke to Jesus but it all started with the woman. The firstfruits of revival. The disciples witnessed that incident. This was near the beginning of Jesus's ministry. Think of the instructions of the Saviour. The harvest has been a busy time in Northern Ireland. In the past I can remember going to pick the potatoes. It was a physical way of life. Now it is all machinery led. Many in the past were employed in the harvest gathering. Now we are governed by term time in our education system. School holidays are different here than anywhere in the world. Farming involved everyone. Everyone got involved. There is a spiritual application as well. Everyone used to get involved in the work. Children get off school in time to dig potatoes. Summer holidays were timed to allow everyone to work at gathering in hay. Bringing in the harvest became the priority. The spiritual harvest - is that our priority today? Or is it an extra shift to bring in more money. Is bringing in God's harvest our priority? Is there a challenge here for us? What am I doing? What is my priority today? Is is serving the King or is it taking an extra shift offered to us. I remember talking to a man who must be 90 years of age now. He talked about the thresher coming to the country. To thresh the corn involved a lot of people but today it only involves one sitting in an air conditioned luxury combine harvester. In those days threshing corn was labour intensive. First the field would have been cut with scythes. A man who was good at this could scythe 2 acres of a field in a day. Then the corn was tied up into sheaves and rucks. They were brought into a stook yard with horses and carts. 10 or 15 rucks were stacked together. That all happened until around the 1930's when the thresher became popular and the real work began. The thresher would have parked up between 2 stooks of corn. It took 1 or 2 men to pitch the sheaves up into the thresher, then 2 or 3 were up top loosening the stooks and pushing them into the thresher. There was a man on the bags at the back. A couple of men were needed to draw the bales away. So in all it took 8 or 9 good men working hard to thresh the corn. Nowadays one man or perhaps 2 are involved. One man will take the corn away as well as the one man driving the harvester. Let us think of this in spiritual senses. The Lord looked with his all seeing eyes. He saw beyond the extraordinary and said "the harvest is truly plenteous but the labourers are few." He exhorted these men to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers . We are called to field to work and labour. I attended a missionary convention a few years ago in Oxford. I asked the man what direction he wanted me to preach. The man told me the real problem today is that God's people are content to sit back and d let the oversight do the work. "I am doing enough" is the cry. That stuck with me. That motivates me. The Lord is highlighting here the need. In the rest of the verses of chapter 10 God gave instructions on how to do that. This is how we ought to reach people for the Lord. We will do nothing unless we have got a burden for the lost. You have heard the saying "where there's a will there is a way." There are numerous excuses people give. When you find an answer for those excuses they will find another problem. The converse is also true - if you are determined to do something you will find a way. There was a man speaking to me the other day about playing an instrument. I said to him "if you really want to play it you will learn it." His response? "I don't have time to play."  In other words "for me that is not a priority." Let's get to that priority again. Do we have that compassion? Do we have a burden for the lost souls? If we really have that burden we would d something about it. God's word and his gospel changes lives but also eternities. Do you have that desire? Compassion? Burden for the lost? The Lord Jesus died for the lost around us. 
"And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."

"If we could see the lost as Christ saw them how much more would we do." 

Amy Carmichael

I trust we have that burden for the lost that we would be moved to do as he wants us to do today.