Part 3 of 3: The Harvest
I'll admit, since starting this series, I've been struggling with what specifically to write when it came to the Harvest. The reason is I had two equally apt concepts for what 'harvest' could mean in terms of the Great Commission, but all the things I could say about either of them could, as I mentioned in post one, take up an entire book. Heck, it could take up multiple volumes of books. I didn't want to get bogged down here as my objective is to give simple, concise, and very practical exhortations to churches and church leaders and Christians in general to follow the Great Commission in the way I believe Christ intended. Because of that, I'm leaving the second concept (Heaven) out of this discussion entirely and focusing more specifically on 'Harvest' as part of making disciples.
A refresher on the Great Commission before we get started.
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 16-20 NIV)
In the first post of this series, we discussed Sowing (evangelism). In Part 2, we talked about Growing (discipleship). So, what, within the context of this passage, could constitute the 'Harvest'? To ease into that, let me first tell you about a boss I used to have.
I Must Decrease...
I once worked for a medical examiner (I won't name names) who always exhorted his investigators to carry themselves like the smartest people at a given death scene. To him, we were more educated, more experienced, and more knowledgable than any police officer or detective in any of the law enforcement agencies we worked with. Commendable, right?
It would have been, except for how he acted when those same police officers and detectives came to view autopsies. When they came to autopsies, these detectives, in his mind, better address all their questions directly to him. If they so much glanced at one of the investigators while asking a question, he would grow incensed. He would hurl sarcastic comments toward them. On a few occasions, he would openly berate them for addressing their questions of the wrong person. He'd instantly forget that he'd instructed his investigators to foster an air of expertise toward these officers, which would naturally encourage them to ask the investigators (lay persons who could speak the same language with them as opposed to strange esoteric medical jargon). But the doctor's (God bless him. I miss him despite all this) pride would invariably be hurt by what he perceived to be this slight...this insult.
To this doctor, he was always the smartest person in any room and he wanted everyone to know it. Yes, while we were at scenes, his investigators certainly were to be the smartest people there. But if he was present, it should, in his mind, always be understood that he took the crown of smartest and brightest.
With this illustration I just told you, can you guess what the 'Harvest' in the Great Commission is? Take a look specifically at the last part of verse 18: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." In this verse, we see that Jesus proclaims He has the ultimate authority over all creation. However, in Luke chapter 9, as Jesus prepares His twelve Apostles to go on their first solo missionary trip, He shares this same authority with them. Later, when He appears to the disciples after His resurrection, He seems to continue this trend of sharing His authority with them. In John 20, He says this: 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (NIV) [Side Note: I do not believe this authority to forgive sins is given to ALL Christians. In truth, I don't think it was given to any Christians outside His Apostles. But I mention it for the following points.]
So, what is the Harvest? Easy. First, we introduce Christ to others. Second, for those who believe, we are tasked with discipling. And finally, we are to raise these new Christians up in hopes that they will be even wiser, more faithful, and more mature than we are as we send them out into the world.
John the Baptist proclaimed at the baptism of Christ, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30 NASB). Naturally, John didn't have the same authority as Jesus had, nor did he have the same authority that Jesus's disciples would be given, but he understood wholeheartedly that for the Kingdom to grow, the next generation of Christians need to be better, more full of the Holy Spirit, and more faithful than ourselves.
In practical terms, what does this harvest look like? How does it work?
We Reap What We Sow...
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was fortunate enough to attend and serve at First Baptist Church of Middleburg in Middleburg, Florida. It was a good-sized church, but not huge. The pastor there was dynamic. His sermons were biblically sound, encouraging, and at the same time, often stepped on toes (I walked out more than a few times with sore feet!). As this pastor continued to minister, the church grew by leaps and bounds. The more people, the more needs that needed to be met while simultaneously providing more resources in which those needs could be ministered to.
The pastor there recognized his greatest commodity within that congregation: the congregation itself. He intentionally began investing time and energy into specific people. He discipled them. He would match other people to disciple younger Christians as well. He placed specific individuals in highly specific roles throughout the church. This particular person, he felt, should be teaching this particular age group. This other person would do well serving in this ministry. And as the church grew, more and more people were finding very apt positions within its ministries and people (not just the church itself) began to grow.
I'll admit, I didn't always agree with this pastor's decisions on everything, but he had truly been given a gift of discernment and a heart for discipleship that is rare in our world today. And his "hunches" regarding ministry placement paid off. Before he left FBC Middleburg to move to a different church back in the mid-2000s, I saw more people in the congregation surrender to full time Christian ministry than any other church I've ever been part of. I'm not entirely sure how many people went to seminary in my nearly ten year tenure there (including myself), but the numbers were staggering.
See, this pastor understood that he needed to decrease in order for his congregation to increase. In order to have a thriving church, he knew the people that went there had to find their place. And that was a major priority throughout his ministry there. And by the way, I haven't even touched on the huge number of people who didn't surrender to vocational ministries, yet found a very specific calling as a lay minister within the community in some form or another.
That, in my opinion, is the Harvest in relation to the Great Commission. Sowing the seeds. Growing the blooming plants. And sending the harvest into the world to feed people in physical, emotional, and spiritual need wherever they happen to be.
That, my friends, is the end game in our earthly ministry.
If two parents have a baby and do not nurture, protect, and raise it, are they really parents? No. In fact, most of us would call them monsters. If parents raise their children up to a certain point...to where they're able to walk, talk, read, and write and then abandon them to fend for themselves while still being far too immature to survive, are they any better? Most of us would say no to that as well.
No, a parent is expected to raise their children to become completely independent of them. Most parents hope for their children to far surpass them in life, in fact. They hope their children have a much more prosperous and satifying life than they had had.
So should spiritual parents be any different? Should those we lead to Christ or those we disciple be left out in the cold once they're baptised and have gone through a few Bible studies with you? As my favorite New Testament professor was always fond of saying in Koine Greek, "Me genoito!", which means (and is often seen in a bunch of Paul's writings, "May it never be!").
The whole point of discipleship is the Harvest. It's the sending our grown spiritual children out into the world to feed the nations. It's preparing them to be far better ministers than we ever were. It's praying for them constantly even after they've left the spiritual nest. In fact, even after the harvest, we should always be there for them. We should never stop discipling them.
I'll close this post out by telling you to one of the most influential people in my life. His name is David Garrett (and his wonderfully warm, loving, and compassionate wife, Donnie) and he was my youth minister for my final year of high school (I moved to Florida my senior year, so I only got to have him as a youth minister for that single year). But this wonderful godly man is still very much in my life. He's my got-to guy when I'm in need of spiritual counsel or just plain old advice. He gave me my charge at my ordination to become an official minister. He still checks in on me frequently. I know he prays for me. He's watched me grow and mature over the years. He's encouraged me throughout my entire life, no matter how wild and twisty my ministries have gone. Rarely did he ever criticize my decisions, but instead did everything he could to guide me when I seemed to get lost. He still does that, even though I was harvested from his official care decades ago.
You see, even though the harvest leaves the fields to go to market, the farmer still has a responsibility to see it gets their safely. The farmer still has the responsibility to see to it that it gets to where it's going. So, as we disciple our spiritual children...as we grow them, nurture them, and send them on their way to do the same with their own spiritual children, let's never forget (and this is where the metaphor loses traction, but that's okay) that our harvest will always be in our care. Until Kingdom comes, they are our responsibilities. Let's raise them up to surpass us in every way.
Let's make sure our harvest is more fruitful and abundant than we ever dreamed of!
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