Vision for Mission: Nurturing an Apostolic Heart

Session 4 The Ripeness of the Harvest and the Shortage of Workers: The Multiplication of Disciple Makers

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. [36] When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [37] Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; [38] therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” ~ Matthew 9.35-38 (ESV) Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. [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.” ~ John 4.34-35 (ESV) The remarkable thing about the nature of the apostolic heart is its clarity . In light of the revelation of Christ regarding the vastness of the field and the inevitability of judgment, the apostles were utterly conscious of the urgency of the hour. The fate of millions of human beings has been placed in the hands of God’s messengers. They are called to proclaim to the very ends of the earth the rule of God in Christ, the promise and hope of eternal salvation, and the certainty of divine judgment. These truths, when embraced and believed, produced a kind of internal urgency in the heart of the apostles. No time can be wasted, no opportunity is to be ignored, and no prospect can be overlooked. Their understanding of the harvest’s fullness and ripeness, when combined with a deep sense of the shortage of workers, produced in them an overwhelming burden to share the goodness, and to go to the ends of the earth in order to tell those who have not heard the good news of salvation. If we see and under stand what they saw and understood, then we will move and act as they did.

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