Friday 31Dec2021
In today's New Testament reading, Matthew chapters 9 tells of our Lord going from place to place teaching in synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing the sick. We read that the Lord was moved with compasssion when he saw that they were like sheep without shepherd. He told his disciples that there were few labourers to work in a plentiful harvest, and he asked them to pray to "the Lord of Harvest" to send forth labourers.
- Matthew 9:35 - 38 KJV King James Version
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35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every
sickness and every disease among the people.
36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Most probably the disciples did not know that the labourers would be chosen from among them. Immediately after the above account in Matthew 9, the first verse of Matthew 10 tells us that the Lord Iesus chose twelve disciples and gave them power to cast out unclean spirits and to heal the sick. He sent them out to preach the kingdom of heaven to the "lost sheep of Israel" (Matthew 10:5 - 7).
- Matthew 10:1 KJV
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And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power
against unclean spirits,
to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
The following are the disciples whom Iesus called (Matthew 10:2 - 4 KJV):
- Simon Peter, and Andrew his brother
- James ben Zebedee, and John his brother
- Phillip, and Bartholomew
- Thomas, and Matthew the publican
- James ben Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus Thaddaeus
- Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Iesus Anointed, like the unsuspecting disciples who were told to pray that God would send out labourers into the harvest, God may call us to be His labourers too. Let us pray that God will show us what he has sent us to do in his harvest field.
"Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed." (John 6:27 KJV)
