If you ever meet someone who was to face problems in life, and their summary response to every problem they could ever face in life, big or small, if you were to meet someone like that who faced any problem in life, and it wasn't a problem, it would be who? Jesus. be Jesus. You think about all the people that walk this earth. If anyone walked this earth and faced real problems, acute suffering and need, how would Jesus respond in summary form? Let me use the Australian paraphrased version of the Bible that I just kind of came up with. It'd be like this. Here is a problem Jesus. What would he say? Not a problem. In his earthly incarnate ministry, when Jesus faces sickness, no problem. He heals. In his earthly incarnate ministry, when Jesus faces suffering, no problem. He restores. In his earthly incarnate ministry, when Jesus faces sin, no problem. He forgives. Which is why, when we come to Matthew 9 verse 35, this feels different. 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. When he saw the crowds, yet compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. It feels like for the first time in Jesus' earthly ministry, he sees human need, and it feels like, initially, Jesus has met a problem. He's not just going to say, healed, restored, forgiven, fixed. In his earthly incarnate ministry, everywhere he goes, he's solving problems on the go. That's why he gets the crowds that no one else gets. But here we see in this episode in Matthew's Gospel Jesus faces a problem. We see in this episode, Jesus preaching the gospel of the kingdom. That's as he goes, you notice there, there's actually a line that if you look in chapter four, verse 23, it's almost word for word. It's almost like Matthew's using this narrative description of what's going on in the gospel of Matthew, of his gospel of Jesus. We see in verse 35, that phrase, Jesus went throughout all the cities, all the villages, in other words, towns big and small, everywhere he went, teaching the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, healing every disease and every affliction, not just some, every. That phrase is repeated word for word in Matthew's gospel. This is what Jesus does. Jesus literally faces the most real and daunting human problems that we face and says, not a problem, not a problem, not a problem, until he comes to this one. He faces a problem, but he turns it into prayer. In this episode, we're going to see how Jesus embodies the why of evangelism. and answers the problem that we face with prayer. Over a filming weekend, we've been blessed with a banquet of teaching. I think hearing from our elders yesterday and those who shared from members of our church on the theology and practice of evangelism was super encouraging. If you missed that, we did record it, but that is something else. I've been to many conferences. I think we in the reformed world can become conference junkies. We attend more conferences or watch more YouTube than we do actual church. But that's another sermon and that's another story for another day. I think it shapes a culture among us actually. Yesterday was something else. I'm not just saying that. It was something different and significant in the life of our church. Because that yesterday and today is all about how we love the lost. And this morning, as we pick up our Bibles, this is the big problem of the lost that Jesus is looking at. And as we go to see him look at the lost, we hear him speak the gospel. We actually get to hear in this little episode, what is Jesus all about? Who is Jesus all about? And you think, why do we need to cover that? I mean, we did cover it yesterday. What is the gospel? Why? Because it's often forgotten or confused. We live in a world that people are confused about Jesus Christ and sadly churches, preachers are confused about Jesus Christ. People are confused over who he is, they're confused about his ministry. But here we see in one verse what Jesus is all about. look at what Jesus is doing in in verse 35 look what he's doing he's going to the synagogues a synagogue is well that's how you pronounce it but a synagogue a synagogue that is the place of gathering and literally the word means to gather it's a gathering of people he goes to the gatherings of God's people the places of teaching and what does he do there you notice what he does he's teaching Jesus is teaching he's speaking and what you see in Matthew's gospel is this now this is where we get surprised Jesus is often teaching and he gets interrupted to do the healing so Jesus primarily doesn't come in to do some healing and then oh look I've been interrupted because some people really want some teaching people will go to Jesus for the doctor stuff you know like you rush to the pharmacy If you want to go to a pharmacy, you're like, I go to a pharmacy. I'm not medically trained at all. And I love pharmacies. I love pharmacists because they know stuff that I, like, I don't even know what my problem is half the time. I go in and have to explain it. Pharmacies are like translators. They're, they're, they're magicians in and of themselves. I say, I've got this problem, this thing in my throat, my cough and the rash. And that's, that's appearing in all sorts of places. Oh, you've got this, this, this, you need this. Thank you. And then I'm walking out. I was like, and I put this stuff on and I'm fixed. amazing Jesus is that he's fixing people yes but with Jesus people go to them with their acute first aid needs what they really need is to hear the gospel and Jesus is doing that He's often interrupted in his teaching to heal and we see here we get the content of Jesus' teaching which clarifies any confusion as to what Jesus is about. Notice what he's doing. What is Jesus proclaiming in verse 35? He is proclaiming the gospel, good news, of the kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom. If you want to see what Jesus first and foremost is in the gospels, it's a preacher. Jesus is a preacher. He's a speaker, he's a teacher, and he preaches the gospel. If you knew the word gospel, it's a media word. The Romans used it of the time. It was to declare good news. We've seen this before reforming. We've seen the pictures of the coins. Good news. A son has been born to Caesar. This son will be the savior of the world. That's the context. With Christmas, we roll that one out usually. That's the context of gospel in this empire when this book was written. That's the context what people saw and heard as the gospel. And then Jesus comes and he proclaims another kingdom, the kingdom which we see is the kingdom of God. Now friends, we've had this last week, didn't we have the king visit? Was it this week or the week before? I'm getting older and time just goes. We had the king visit, didn't we? King Charles III. So Chucky came and he came and visited all the places that kings go. You may have seen the news. It wasn't always well received. And in Australia, we have mixed feelings about kingdoms. Let's be honest about it. I don't particularly mind them. That's just me. You know, I love the queen, but a lot of us have mixed responses about kingdoms. Why is that? It's because kingdoms of this world we get a little bit cynical about because we know the kingdoms of this world often bring pain, suffering and they don't last. They're over oversold to us. Kingdoms of this world are built for the wealth of men, for the pride of people and from Babel to the British Empire they do not last. You can find the empires of this world today. You can go and see The empires of this world stay. Do you know where you find them? In the British Museum. Kingdoms of this world fail and they fade like grass and flowers of the field. You think you're going to build wealth in this life? You think you're going to build a career in this life? Here is the sad reality. It's gone in a few years time. I guarantee you there'll be very few people in this world in three generations time who know anything about me. And my stuff's on the internet. But who knows if that website will still exist? You see, I couldn't tell you much about my great-grandfather. Didn't know the man. The kingdoms, the life of this world is so brief. Ecclesiastes, the writer says, it's breath, it's gone. We often try and build life to last. I drive past houses this morning to get the church that are enormous. Kingdoms of this world, where the garages today don't house things that we need to house, they house our toys. Kingdoms of this world. Gone. Rust, moth, destroy, devalue, stock market crashes, interest rates go up, things get less, they get harder. The kingdoms of this world. Why don't we like kingdoms? Because they disappoint us. They devastate us. Jesus comes into that same world and he says I've got a better kingdom he proclaims the kingdom of heaven it's God's kingdom where he will be king forever and his kingdom is not one that just conquers other kingdoms his kingdom is one that will conquer our world's problems of sin and death because he's the king that goes to death and back There's nothing else like that. And that is actually good news. And so here is this king with, it's almost like a preview of what's to come. Wherever the king goes, he is healing, he is restoring, he is forgiving, he is loving. That's what this king is like. That's what the future of this kingdom looks like. Everywhere Jesus goes, that's a glimmer, a glimpse of what the future kingdom is going to be like. And he is proclaiming it. He needs to tell us about it. Why does he need to tell us about it? We can see it in action. Why do we need to have so much preaching about it? Why? Why do you think? Why do we need to hear the gospel so many times? Why do we need to be preached the gospel so many times? Why? Because we live in a world where the other kingdoms are preached to you on repeat, shuffle, 24 hours a day. If you don't think that little entertainment system you've got in your pocket, that you flash out even in a moment of the lull in the sermon, that you probably just want to check on something just in case. If you don't think that thing is not preaching to you, you've not been paying attention. That little entertainment system in your pocket, that preaches to you constantly. Like I'm Generation X. My dad was like, you're always watching TV, you kids. Why don't you get out on the tractor and actually do something around here? Now, if my dad ever watches this sermon, that's not exactly how he speaks, but that was me. I would watch a lot of TV as a kid, like a lot. Our TV was this big, so that meant that I was like this far in front of it, because he needed the widescreen experience. I remember my uncle saying, is there something wrong with you? And by God's grace, here I am. But you see, we do that with our phones. My kids! Wesley says to me, I've said this before, Wesley says to me, oh, you're on your phone again, Dad. I was like, whoa, he's eight years old. It preaches to us, so why do we need to hear the gospel of the kingdom again? Because we need to see a better world. More beautiful, more compelling, more gracious, more forgiving, more restoring. That's what Jesus is about. And this Jesus who preaches that good news, looks at a crowd of people. And he has compassion. See this in verse 36, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. And the language of verse 36 picks up at cross-reference readings from Numbers and Ezekiel. Remember Numbers and Ezekiel, particularly Ezekiel 34. Every church loves Ezekiel 37. Ah, value the dry bones, we love that stuff. We skip the chapter 34 with a whole critique of the shepherds, the preachers, the leaders of the church of the day, who would rather feed off the people, get rich and build their own platform and their own wealth than actually serve and shepherd Jesus' sheep. And who would rather say, they're actually Jesus' sheep, they're not my sheep, I don't control them, they're Jesus' sheep. And Jesus himself has strong words for them in his equal 34. the language is picked up here in verse 36 because Jesus himself looks at them the same one who breathed onto the page of the Bible is Ezekiel 34 looks at the crowds of people in Matthew 9 36 and he sees that they are harassed and helpless because they are like sheep without a shepherd sheep need shepherds fact I have not watched a documentary and I know this comes up occasionally. It's a running joke around here. Russ likes to build lecterns and pulpits and he grew up on a farm. I get it. Let's not talk about the farm growing up one more time from the front. But let me say this. I do also like to enjoy documentaries. A little bit more distance from the screen. You'll be glad to hear for my own personal health. But I like documentaries. I've never seen and you can never see. You don't even have to know anything about sheep. You might even not know anything about sheep. All you might know about sheep is you wear Ugg boots. That might be it. But you can watch documentaries, you will not find a single documentary on wildlife that sees sheep being predators of another animal. Either not, y'all can't tell me that right. Then the male sheep with the females gathers the lambs as they hunt down. fileris grafts and the clovers in their unsuspecting, unknown habitat as the predators sneak up behind them and chew their leaves off. Sheep are not like that. If you've ever hung out near sheep, and if you don't, if you've never done that, can I commend to you things like, well, usually at Easter time in Bendigo, they have, someone has some sheep in Roslyn Park. You can pay money and go and hang out with sheep. Who does that? But anyway, you can pay a lot of money and go in and touch a sheep and you will find this. They are the most helpless, hopeless, Defenseless animal on the face of the planet. They need shepherds. There are many threats to sheep. Let me tell you a few of them. Foxes are a threat to sheep. Dogs, wild dogs are a threat to sheep. You know, the sheep's only defense is this. They get their front foot and they stamp it. And they look at you, they look at the fox, the dog. That's all they can do. How many a fox and dog with half a fox brain will go, huh, that's not gonna do much. If sheep lay down, crows will often peck their eyes out. Sorry, this sermon has a rating. Often they lay down, it's not just the eyes, there's other things. They run into dams, so when they're thirsty and it's dry, they'll run into the dam, into the mud, and get stuck, and then you pull them out, and I've seen memes on this on the internet, you pull them out, and what do they do next? Is they run back into the dam. Then, there's the fact that sheep often just lay down and die. That's what they do. Sheep need shepherds and Jesus looks to us and he sees we are often helpless, hopeless, harassed, unable to defend ourselves against sin, flesh and the devil. We are in trouble friends and Jesus knows it. He's not unaware. He is not aloof. He knows your anxieties. He knows your pain. He knows your suffering. He knows your questions. He knows you are thinking, I'm not sure if I can make it through this week. And he doesn't look at you like your upper level management boss looks at you from afar via email. It's real, isn't it? It's real. He's not like your boss. He's not your supervisor. He is your... And he looks at you, look at it with compassion. Literally the language of this little passage is when Jesus looks at the crowd, the word for compassion, it's literally he's moved in the guts. He's moved in his insides. when he sees crowds. He's moved with such pity for you and I that he does more than give us a brochure. Here's what might help you. He comes at the end of this gospel to die. He sees the sheep, he sees the foxes and wild dogs of sin, flesh and the devil, and he comes and he lays his life in front of it. And he dies. On a cross, taken the penalty for our sin. Dealing with our biggest problems, he dies. That's his compassion, it takes him to a cross. That's your shepherd. That's Jesus. And he looks to the crowds with compassion, which I think ought to make us reflect. How do we look at the crowds? How do I look at the crowds? Well, I don't know about you exactly, and maybe I'm the worst sinner in the room, chief of sinners. So let me tell you how I often look at the crowds. Here's an admission. I can look at the crowds just cranky. Particularly if I've been driving on the road for a little while, Someone cuts me off. Jerk. Sometimes you gotta watch if the kids are in the car, don't you? Oh, diddly dee. That was a pleasant little experience, wasn't it, kids? Oof. That was fun. That was like taking it to school. I don't know what it is about Bendigo, but the school hour is just madness. Bendigo Council, if you're listening, could do with a double lane between White Hills and Central Bendigo. Just asking. For a friend. And all the other people driving on the road. Back to the sermon. I can not look at the crowds with compassion. That's a real admission. Sometimes at 47 now, I can look at the crowds as a Gen X-er who thought, yeah, TV was good for us, this screen now, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with kids these days? Right? I can be like that. I can be less like Jesus. But this is not just a 2024 problem. Let me read to you someone that wrote about this problem in their day. What is happening to our young people? They write. They disrespect their elders. They disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them? Guess when that was written? And Plato wrote that in the 4th century BC. This has always been a problem. And Plato, as I understand, was a pretty educated guy. Socrates, Aristotle, Plato. Pretty educated. University educated. Knew a lot of stuff. And yet, faced that problem of crowds who were like that and went, ah, I'm done with you. Not Jesus. Not Jesus who predates 4th century BC. Not Jesus. Not our God and shepherd. It's easy for us to judge the generation, isn't it? That's so easy for me. But am I moved for them? Am I moved with compassion for them? More than just throwing a couple of coins for charity at the intersection of Bendigo because I feel a bit guilty. Am I moved for them? Do I care for them? Do I have compassion like Jesus? Do I look like Jesus looks at them and says, well the harvest is plentiful? Because here's the next problem that I often have. You look at verse 37. Notice this. Jesus says the harvest is plentiful. The verb is is. Harvest is. Actually. Ongoing. Continuum. Plentiful. It's not what we assume though, is it? It's not what we assume, particularly in the state of Victoria. I'm from New South Wales originally, so New South Wales compared to Victoria is like Bible land, right? It's like the Bible Belt where I come from, but Victoria, we can say things like this, it's just a bad generation. Oh, it's the government. If we just had an election and we had a different government, if we had a more conservative government, then things would be better. That would change everything. I don't know about you, but I'm not convinced by that. But there are actually people saying that on Twitter today. I happen to know this because I check Twitter. I don't know why I do. Makes me sad every single time. But there are people saying all sorts of things like that. There are Christians saying that. You may have heard there's some election happening in another kingdom around the world soon. They're going to elect a new king, I mean president. And as they do so, everyone's saying, well, if we get this president in, then the world, the nation will be more Christian. Okay, really? When did we replace Jesus with the president? What did we do there? We often blame our circumstances and we often say the harvest is not plentiful. Which means we treat evangelism in that way and we give up. Or we evangelize a friend but they don't become a Christian before our eyes and so we give up. But that shows we've got a common belief among Christians today that it's all up to me and it's actually not. We heard this yesterday. Rory was teaching about this. We might sow seeds, we might share the gospel with someone, and it takes nine times or 90 times for that person to come to faith, and it might not be we see that, but our role is not to stop and give up because we decide that the harvest is not plentiful. We actually miss who is sovereign over the harvest. Whose harvest is it, by the way? We sing about this. You know the song, the hymn, I Cannot Tell? It's got this line in it, and he will reap, he will reap the harvest he has sown. Now, where does that come from? Did that songwriters make it up? No, they get that from places such as, well, 1 Corinthians 9, 2 Corinthians 9, Galatians 6, the whole Bible, really. It's God's harvest. And the harvest is plentiful. And the harvest is ready. I wasn't going to mention it. I did grow up on a farm. When it was harvest time, you had to be ready to roll. The motto was, if you're not ready to roll, it doesn't matter, roll. You gotta get going. We often assume by our plans and prayers and proclamation that the harvest isn't ready, it's not plentiful, it needs time, it's few, it's not what Jesus says. Jesus here uses lots of agricultural metaphors. And right now he's about to change gears. So he might double clutch that thing and shift it, but he changes from harvest grain to shepherds. From shepherds to harvest. Have a look here. We see Jesus speak about, yes, people need a shepherd. but people need harvest workers. Notice the connection here. Notice it's not by guilt. See, a lot of preaching can happen by guilt. What happens now is we end the sermon and in part you're relieved because it's 20 past 11, there's Lord's Supper to come, thus ends the sermon. But if we ended at that point, what would you have? A whole bunch of guilt. Let's pray. And you all walk away going, oh, I just gotta do more, I just gotta do better. I'm not doing enough, I'm not doing enough, oh. And that's not where Jesus leaves us. Because he says the harvest is plentiful. Yes, this is crowd of people. But he shows us here, Jesus shows us here, even as the labor is a few, Jesus has the solution. Now look at that, the laborers are few. Somehow, there's a massive shortfall in workers. Verse 37, then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. As he's moved with compassion, Jesus' compassion translates to him saying, we need more laborers. Now, at this point, you kind of think, well, Jesus, if you can heal people and restore people and forgive people, why can't you just click your fingers and we've got some laborers, problem solved, let's move on? Why can't you do that? Well, it's not how God works in the Bible, is it? The doctrine of human agency, the way that God works sovereignly in and through his people from Genesis to Revelation is all the way through. He uses his church. The church is his mission agency in the world. And Jesus, who is the most powerful harvest worker, He's the one, the problem is not too big for him, rather he would see us see the problem, and us do what we need to do, and that is to pray. Because here is the Lord of the harvest, who will at the end of Matthew's gospel become a lamb, who is slaughtered for our sin, and is saying, that gospel, that kingdom, people need to hear about it. Bendigo needs to hear. I love Bendigo. It's a city of many great things. Been here 16 years now. Do you know that Bendigo is the home of Meijer? The shop Meijer, you probably know this. Do you know it's the home of Bendigo Bank? Well that's pretty obvious. Oof, couldn't see that one coming. Bushmaster military vehicles and the Hawkeyes. 19th century Victorian architecture. Did you know Bendigo is the contested home of the Chico Roll? Because I once said this in Wagga, and I'm from Wagga region originally, and all Wagga people said, nah, nah, nah, it's from Wagga because it was sold at Wagga first, it was a Bendigo and he invented it, so... Bendigo's a great city, got great things. But we're a city of great need. Because Bendigo is like Nineveh, that ancient city Nineveh, 100,000 people in Nineveh was, took three days to get across. Bendigo Council, it takes a long time to get from one end of the Bendigo City to the other. If you're trying to get to Kangaroo Flat in good time to get to Kmart or whatever it is, because that's where it's located for some reason, you'll drive past a lot of people like Nineveh who don't know their right hand from their left hand, they don't know Jesus. as God's harvest Jesus saying we need laborers for that that's what we need and he doesn't load on the guilt notice this what's Jesus solution pray verse 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest but notice this Jesus is showing us the problem is not tactical The problem is not even strategic. Like, we've got to come up with a plan. How are we going to do this? If we just did this X, Y, and Z, and ran a motivational giving campaign, and did something else, and wrote some cool words above it, legacy, whatever else. How are we going to solve this problem? Jesus does nothing of that. Jesus gives us the answer. It's to pray. The problem is spiritual. And notice this, it's not just a matter of number of workers. Like I've been part of ministries where it's almost like we're fretting over not having enough people in pastoral ministry. We're getting to this panic. Notice Jesus does not say, and he could say, the Bible could say, he does not say we need more deacons and elders. Doesn't say it. Jesus is not saying, you know what you need to do? You need to pray for more ministers. If we had more ministers, problem solved. Not what he's saying. The words of Jesus, you can't roll out just for those paid professional laborers. It's not what Jesus is saying. He doesn't even say leaders. He says laborers. Jesus is saying we're to be praying that the church, the church, we're all laborers to be mobilized in this harvest. He doesn't ask volunteers, doesn't whip us into a panic about the problem, doesn't load the guilt on into action. Because why, why doesn't he do that? Because he knows we're also harassed and helpless. We don't need more guilt. We don't need more panic in our life. I've got enough anxiety in my life without coming to get more anxiety at church. And Jesus gives us words of comfort. He's not saying you have to pray, and if you don't, you won't measure up. He's saying, friends, you get to pray. Like if you're cleaning your teeth and you're just feeling your anxieties and love, we've seen this before, church. You get to pray, talk to the one who can listen and do something about it. And here he says, I can do something about it. Talk to the Lord of the harbors. We get to pray earnestly. Pray for people. There are people in our life, in the crowds, or in our family, in our friendships, that do make us anxious, aren't there? I know this. Some of us have adult children who are right now not walking with the Lord Jesus. You discipled them. You taught them. You showed them Christ in your life. You modeled this. And your great grief is right now, for various reasons, they are not following Jesus. And that grieves you. and it can make you anxious for them. But Jesus says you get to pray, get to talk to him about it. Pray that there'll be laborers in their life, it might not be you, it might be wherever they are, whatever part of Australia or the world they're in, that you pray that someone would meet them somehow in their need and tell them about Jesus and be their friend, showing them Jesus. We get to do that. We get to be people that are about Christ and community and compassion. And friends, remember this. How do we get to know Jesus? Because of the laborers before us. Because someone prayed. Someone saw me in front of a TV screen like this and went, has something wrong with you? I need to pray for that kid. And so my uncle prays. Someone prayed for you, someone was sent out as a labourer for you, be that your parents or your uncles and aunties, your cousins, your relatives, a friend, someone who saw you at school, a school teacher. We get to pray that for the crowds. Privilege. As we finish and turn to the table of the Lord, Because the crowd is big, and let's face it, reforming, we are not the largest church in town. We're not the most impressive. If you're offended by that, by the way, let's just talk with me. I'm not impressive. I'm not an impressive preacher or leader or pastor. We're an industrial cafe building, which needs some work. That's not a streamer. That's a bit of tape that we need to cut down. But if you ever think it's too hard, Which I often think it's too hard. Ask my wife Amy. It's too hard, I can't do it. Remember this. That's where we get to pray. And Jesus died with such a small and dysfunctional group of people, there were 12 of them. And then there were 11. That's where it starts. Why don't we start there now? Let's pray. our Father in heaven, Lord of the harvest, we ask that by your Spirit who dwells in our inner being, that we would be first to share in the compassion that Jesus sees for the crowds, that for us this morning, if we haven't seen who Jesus really is, that we would turn to him and trust him. And then we pray as a church that we would be those who are sent out into your harvest We're often wrong, we're always weak, but thank you, we get to always pray. Send us, encourage us, equip us from this weekend to go with compassion, the compassion of Christ. And we pray that you would save many in this region, that you would bring many to faith in Jesus. that they will be part of your flock too. Safe with the shepherd. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.