| Gleanings From My Readings |
GLEANINGS
The Field Is the World
Matthew 13:38
by Dr. Glenn Mathews
Matthew 13:38
by Dr. Glenn Mathews
The Lord spoke those words in explanation of a parable in Matthew 13:
24-32,38a. There are implications to those simple, but profound words.
I will list some truths that arise from that statement and make com-
ments about them.
1. Where ever a believer is in the world, he is in the field. Why do we
assume that the “mission field” is some place other than where we
are? In many churches there is a sign over the exit door that reads
“You are now entering the mission field”. It has often been said that
“you are either a missionary or a mission field”. How many of us
actually believe that? I remember a psychology professor saying “you
only believe those things that motive you”. I cannot improve on that
statement, but how many of us live and witness as though we believe
that we are in the field?
2. As long as a believer is in the world, he is in the field. The senior
citizen that consistently witnesses, even so little as to give someone a
gospel tract, is the exception, not the norm. Why do we “retire” on
witnessing, the same as “retiring from employment”? Is it not strange
that the new convert is far quicker to witness for the Lord than in the
person who has been saved for many years?
3. No part of the field is greater or lesser than any other part of the
field. Is there really a difference between “home and foreign” mis-
sions? When we hear the word “missions”, why do we think of
primitive savages with grass skirts and a bone through their noses?
Are not the affluent, educated people in the great cities of the world
that are without Christ a mission field? Why is it that Central American
countries and the islands of the Caribbean are routinely being “evan-
gelized” by short-term missionaries (many of them teenagers) from the
USA, while immigrants from those same areas live among us in the
states and we never think of witnessing to them? New York City is
now home to multiplied thousands from over 100 countries. Why is New
York City not experiencing a great influx of missionaries who will labor
there for a life time, instead of going on a 5 to 7 day short-term mission
trip? Why is it that many of those trips end up as sight-seeing
adventures?
4. Because the field is so large, we cannot expect all parts of the field to
yield a harvest at the same time. When it is summer in the Northern
Hemisphere, it is winter in the southern half. You do not expect a
harvest of fruit in mid-winter. During World War II (1939-1945), and
for a few years afterward, there were times of revival and great
numbers of people were born into the family of God. In those days,
sometimes many unsaved people attended church services twice on
Sunday. Some even came to Wednesday night prayer meeting. The
fields were indeed, “white unto harvest”. If during that same span, you
had preached to the Bible Believers in Europe that the fields were white
unto harvest, they would have had difficulty believing you. Their
emphasis, as one aged Polish pastor told me in 1991, was on survival,
not evangelism. Now, in Eastern Europe and in Asia, the Bible
believing churches are experiencing results far greater than those we
saw in the 40s and 50s.
5. Some parts of the field may be allowed to lay fallow, even burned
over. Question: Could God be allowing the USA to be burned over and
thus see no harvest? In the parable of Matthew 13:24-30, the Sower is
The Son of Man. Both the good seeds and the bad seeds (wheat and
tares) are people. It behooves us to question the kind of seed that we
are sowing. Perhaps the reason so small a harvest is being experienced
is that (a) we have allowed the devil to sow the tares and (b) we have
been negligent about sowing good seed. I have seen fields that were
burned over and the picture is not a pretty one and there is no harvest
expected or reaped!
6. The need for workers is always greatest at the time of harvest. A
farmer and his sons may work the farm by themselves most of the year.
However, extra helpers (hired hands or volunteering neighbors) are
essential at the time of harvest. I have witnessed such a scenario in 2
countries in Europe. In 1991, two years after Solidarity caused the fall
of Communism in Poland, Fleta (my wife) and I spent almost a month
ministering in large cities, small towns and in homes. On our flight from
Vienna to Warsaw, there were about 80 people aboard. Four or five
men were traveling on business, and all the others, except the two of us,
were young Mormon men, going to do mission work in Poland for at
least a year. They, or their families, and not the “Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Days Saints” were paying the cost of their trip and for
all their living expenses! There were not thousands saved in Poland,
because there were not many people who were there doing the
harvesting. While we were in Poland, we wondered why there were not
hundreds of evangelists/missionaries there also. On 3 separate trips to
Ukraine in the late 1990s and the early 2000s we saw the fruit so fresh
that it fell from the trees easily and so rapidly that you could not harvest
them all. People were most eager to receive a tract, to attend services
and we saw thousands of people saved. Why is it that when a field
“opens”, the cults are quick to enter and to dig up, tear down and burn
the potential harvest, while fundamentalists sit and bemoan the fact that
we don’t have the money to send people from our churches to help in the
harvest? God expects each of his children to tithe. Would he not expect
churches to tithe – support missionaries? I wonder what percentage of
churches actually give at least 10% of their income to the support of
missionaries and evangelists.
7. Even when it is not harvest time, there is still much work to be done.
The farmer does not reap a harvest without working all year, preparing
for the harvest. In this day of most churches in either maintenance or in
decline, there is still much work to be done. Saints need to be taught,
edified, strengthened, comforted challenged, etc.
Missionaries/evangelists need to be supported, in prayer as well as
financially. On percentage, fewer people are becoming career
missionaries in spite of the tremendous increase in population. Do you
not wonder why that is so?
Finally, the answer is far simpler than we might think. Jesus gave us
the answer in Matthew 9:38 “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,
that he will send forth laborers into his harvest”
THAT IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO!
24-32,38a. There are implications to those simple, but profound words.
I will list some truths that arise from that statement and make com-
ments about them.
1. Where ever a believer is in the world, he is in the field. Why do we
assume that the “mission field” is some place other than where we
are? In many churches there is a sign over the exit door that reads
“You are now entering the mission field”. It has often been said that
“you are either a missionary or a mission field”. How many of us
actually believe that? I remember a psychology professor saying “you
only believe those things that motive you”. I cannot improve on that
statement, but how many of us live and witness as though we believe
that we are in the field?
2. As long as a believer is in the world, he is in the field. The senior
citizen that consistently witnesses, even so little as to give someone a
gospel tract, is the exception, not the norm. Why do we “retire” on
witnessing, the same as “retiring from employment”? Is it not strange
that the new convert is far quicker to witness for the Lord than in the
person who has been saved for many years?
3. No part of the field is greater or lesser than any other part of the
field. Is there really a difference between “home and foreign” mis-
sions? When we hear the word “missions”, why do we think of
primitive savages with grass skirts and a bone through their noses?
Are not the affluent, educated people in the great cities of the world
that are without Christ a mission field? Why is it that Central American
countries and the islands of the Caribbean are routinely being “evan-
gelized” by short-term missionaries (many of them teenagers) from the
USA, while immigrants from those same areas live among us in the
states and we never think of witnessing to them? New York City is
now home to multiplied thousands from over 100 countries. Why is New
York City not experiencing a great influx of missionaries who will labor
there for a life time, instead of going on a 5 to 7 day short-term mission
trip? Why is it that many of those trips end up as sight-seeing
adventures?
4. Because the field is so large, we cannot expect all parts of the field to
yield a harvest at the same time. When it is summer in the Northern
Hemisphere, it is winter in the southern half. You do not expect a
harvest of fruit in mid-winter. During World War II (1939-1945), and
for a few years afterward, there were times of revival and great
numbers of people were born into the family of God. In those days,
sometimes many unsaved people attended church services twice on
Sunday. Some even came to Wednesday night prayer meeting. The
fields were indeed, “white unto harvest”. If during that same span, you
had preached to the Bible Believers in Europe that the fields were white
unto harvest, they would have had difficulty believing you. Their
emphasis, as one aged Polish pastor told me in 1991, was on survival,
not evangelism. Now, in Eastern Europe and in Asia, the Bible
believing churches are experiencing results far greater than those we
saw in the 40s and 50s.
5. Some parts of the field may be allowed to lay fallow, even burned
over. Question: Could God be allowing the USA to be burned over and
thus see no harvest? In the parable of Matthew 13:24-30, the Sower is
The Son of Man. Both the good seeds and the bad seeds (wheat and
tares) are people. It behooves us to question the kind of seed that we
are sowing. Perhaps the reason so small a harvest is being experienced
is that (a) we have allowed the devil to sow the tares and (b) we have
been negligent about sowing good seed. I have seen fields that were
burned over and the picture is not a pretty one and there is no harvest
expected or reaped!
6. The need for workers is always greatest at the time of harvest. A
farmer and his sons may work the farm by themselves most of the year.
However, extra helpers (hired hands or volunteering neighbors) are
essential at the time of harvest. I have witnessed such a scenario in 2
countries in Europe. In 1991, two years after Solidarity caused the fall
of Communism in Poland, Fleta (my wife) and I spent almost a month
ministering in large cities, small towns and in homes. On our flight from
Vienna to Warsaw, there were about 80 people aboard. Four or five
men were traveling on business, and all the others, except the two of us,
were young Mormon men, going to do mission work in Poland for at
least a year. They, or their families, and not the “Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Days Saints” were paying the cost of their trip and for
all their living expenses! There were not thousands saved in Poland,
because there were not many people who were there doing the
harvesting. While we were in Poland, we wondered why there were not
hundreds of evangelists/missionaries there also. On 3 separate trips to
Ukraine in the late 1990s and the early 2000s we saw the fruit so fresh
that it fell from the trees easily and so rapidly that you could not harvest
them all. People were most eager to receive a tract, to attend services
and we saw thousands of people saved. Why is it that when a field
“opens”, the cults are quick to enter and to dig up, tear down and burn
the potential harvest, while fundamentalists sit and bemoan the fact that
we don’t have the money to send people from our churches to help in the
harvest? God expects each of his children to tithe. Would he not expect
churches to tithe – support missionaries? I wonder what percentage of
churches actually give at least 10% of their income to the support of
missionaries and evangelists.
7. Even when it is not harvest time, there is still much work to be done.
The farmer does not reap a harvest without working all year, preparing
for the harvest. In this day of most churches in either maintenance or in
decline, there is still much work to be done. Saints need to be taught,
edified, strengthened, comforted challenged, etc.
Missionaries/evangelists need to be supported, in prayer as well as
financially. On percentage, fewer people are becoming career
missionaries in spite of the tremendous increase in population. Do you
not wonder why that is so?
Finally, the answer is far simpler than we might think. Jesus gave us
the answer in Matthew 9:38 “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,
that he will send forth laborers into his harvest”
THAT IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO!
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