“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out laborers into his harvest field” Matthew 9: 37-38
These verses have been quoted a lot. For me, they are some of my favorite verses but personally I have completely fallen short in following them. In them Jesus is talking to the disciples. He refers to the world as the harvest and calls all of us as Christians to be laborers. I think Jesus was referring to a couple of things when he tells us to be “laborers.” Serving others and loving unbelievers are some of those things but I think the most important labor Christ is referring to here is telling those who don’t believe about Jesus.
Like I said this is something that I shamefully suck at. So I really wanted to write about this topic to help myself and anyone else that falls into the same boat to push each other to be better at spreading the good news.
The Importance of Evangelism
Why is evangelizing so important? Well let me share something that I heard from a pastor at my home church recently. He posed this question:
“If I don’t share my faith will I go to hell?”
…No, but hundreds of others will.”
Evangelism is so important because eternity is at stake. How selfish and scary is it for us to know where we are going after this world, know where unbelievers are going and not tell them about Jesus?
For me the two biggest excuses I have come up with with not evangelizing are hypocrisy and awkwardness. Here are why both of them are absolutely stupid: If everyone was worried about people judging them for telling people about Jesus while they weren’t living the “perfect life” then the religion of Christianity would have stopped at Calvary, because no one on this earth is not a hypocrite, because no one is perfect. And awkwardness? Do you think the 21 Syrians who died at the hands of ISIS were worried about awkwardness when they were telling people about Jesus? They didn’t even care that the possibility of dying was incredibly high; they knew that a faith in Christ was so important they had to tell people about it. Awkwardness is such a futile excuse, and I am ashamed that has kept me from telling others about my faith.
Finally here is something to keep in mind. I think the most important element in these verses is actually what Jesus says after them. In Chapter 10 Jesus gives warnings about what will happen when you spread the good news. He tells the disciples they will be flogged, arrested, even killed but not to worry, continue to tell people. These are the things that the disciples had to overcome to tell others and all we have to overcome is some slight awkwardness when saying “Hey can I tell you about this guy named Jesus?”
So I hope you join with me with getting the word out. Sit with someone random at Sbisa. Go to Breakaway with someone that doesn’t know Christ. Pray asking God to give you opportunities to share. Even just start a conversation with someone by asking them “So do you have a faith?” this is a great way to get to share your faith after they share what they believe. Tug is a perfect example of someone that lives this commandment out well. I hope you guys see the importance of the cross this Easter weekend and turn around and share that with the world. Happy Easter fellas, love you guys.
-Patrick Rea
AMC Devotional 