Sermon Tone Analysis

*Read Lu 10:1-3* – Two mischievous brothers aged 8 and 10 were always in trouble.

One day their mother heard of a new pastor who was great with kids, so she asked if he would speak to her boys.

He asked to see the younger boy first, then the elder.

On the day appointed, the boy came in.

The pastor sat him down and in his deep, booming voice he asked, “Do you know where God is, son?”

The boy’s mouth dropped open in shock but he said nothing.

The preacher repeated the question, “Where is God?” Again, no answer, so he raised his voice, shook his finger at the boy and asked, “Where is God?”

The boy let out a scream, bolted from the room, ran straight home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him.

His older brother followed him in and asked, “What happened?”

The younger bro replied, “Jimmy, we’re in big trouble this time.

Big trouble!”

His bro asked, “What do you mean?”

The little boy answered, “Welp, GOD is missing – and they think WE did it!”

The truth is God is missing, in a lot of people’s lives.

The question is did we do it?

Are there people out there – friends, neighbors, co-workers – who don’t know God because we are failing our commission to make disciples?

We began to look at this commission that Jesus gave to 72 of His followers last week.

He knew His time on earth was drawing short, so he sent the 72 to represent Him.

It is a commission that by application given to every believer.

Our reason for being is to introduce people to Jesus.

That’s what the text is about – representing Christ to best advantage.

Our outline – The Commission, The Challenge, The Commandments, The Conditions, The Communication, The Conclusion and The Consequences.

*I.

The Commission*

*II.

The Challenge of the Commission*

It is stated very succinctly in v. 2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

So what is the harvest and who are the laborers?

The laborers are those, like the 72, who are being commissioned to represent Christ.

As believers we are part of that group, but the group is small.

It’s pretty clear that even in a “Christian” society, we operate as a significant minority.

The laborers are few.

Not many care about the gospel message today.

So, how about the harvest?

What is that?

It seems pretty clear from the context that the harvest is people.

Harvest often speaks of end time judgment in Scripture in passages like Joel 2, Rev 14 and Mt 13 where Jesus talks about letting the wheat (believers) and weeds (unbelievers) grow together during this age to be separated at an end time judgment.

The harvest is people.

But in this analogy, Jesus is looking near term, not the end of the age.

He is speaking of people who are ready for harvest now.

Who would those be?

As Jesus looks out on the masses gathered around Him, and sees even further, beyond the borders of Palestine, beyond His Jewish heritage and even into the future, He sees those who are His and He wants to see them brought in.

John 6: 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

We see in this passage the unexplainable mix of the sovereignty of God – “All that the Father gives me will come to me” – and the free will of mankind – “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.”

The first guarantees the success of the mission, but the second leaves no doubt as to the accountability of every person.

Therefore, even as Jesus sees the harvest, He sees the need for laborers.

Thus, He says in John 4:35, “35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’?

Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’

38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.

Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

The gospel is for everyone, but as Jesus looks out, he sees many who have never had the message.

He needs laborers.

A teacher asked, “Class, if there were 100 sheep in a field and 5 walked away, how many would be left?”

Johnny answered, “None.”

She said, “Johnny, don’t you know your math. 100 minus 5 is 95 left.”

Johnny didn’t give up.

He said, “Mrs.

Clark, you may know math, but I know sheep.

Once one gets out, they all get out.

One leaves, they all leave.”

And he was right, of course.

That’s why the Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.”

That’s the harvest that Jesus sees – lost individuals, blindly following each other like sheep to the slaughter.

And so He seeks laborers to help bring them in.

*III.

The Commands of the Commission*

Jesus answers that question with two commands.

Two things for us to do because people are waiting to see and hear a clear presentation of the gospel.

To do these is to share in the passion of our Lord.

But it doesn’t come naturally.

We must fight for this.

In Matt 25 Jesus tells how even the act of giving a cup of cold water represents Him when done in His name.

But He warns that when we fail to show the compassion that is close to His heart, we must take heed.

Matt 25:46, “And these [those who fail to give the cup of water – that is to reach out to a lost world] these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Jesus is saying that failure to represent Him well in things big and little could mean we’re not really His!

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

John Piper says, “I need to hear this message again and again, because I drift into a peacetime mind-set as certainly as rain falls down and flames go up.

I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves.

I start to fit in.

I start to love what others love.

I start to call earth “home.”

Before you know it, I am calling luxuries “needs” and using my money just the way unbelievers do.

I begin to forget the war.

I don’t think much about people perishing. . . .

It is a terrible sickness.

And I thank God for those who have forced me again and again toward a wartime mind-set.”

Jesus is calling us to DEFCON I wartime status, even in the comfortable and affluent USA.

We’re in a life and death spiritual struggle.

[Ex Houston order] The battle rages; the field is white to harvest, so 2 things are required –

*A.

Pray*

The first command is fascinating because it is unexpected.

Think about it.

Jesus says in v. 2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

So, what would you expect next?