August 2009 - English

He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matt 9:37-38). This verse is commonly and rightly associated with evangelism. But there are several important things that are worth noting: a) Jesus is certain that many people will respond to the gospel message, b) for the harvest to be successful, it requires workers, c) those workers are not volunteers but those that are specifically sent, d) and finally the Lord makes it clear that our response to the need to evangelise people, is not to go, but to pray that God will send workers; He might choose us, but that is at His discretion!

Later, in one of the most famous verses in the Bible, Jesus sends out the disciples with these words: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptised will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:15b-16) They had now been sent with a clear, if large, objective! Before we can go and do the Lord’s work, it is essential that He has sent us. Whatever we do with our lives the most important question we must ask ourselves is to whom and for what is the Lord sending us. Once we have and answer to that question, we will be fulfilling what He has called us for, and not our own or other’s plans for our lives. We will then be assured that the Lord will be working with us, as Mark observed at the end of the same chapter, And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. (Mark 16:20)