Reaching Around The World With The Gospel Of Jesus Christ

NEW TESTAMENT JUDAISM

While I am in the heart of Rome, Italy having passed through London, England a few days ago; in meeting thousands of people and talking to hundreds; of Gentiles and Jews, I find the following Scriptures to be so true!  Matthew 9:37-38, 'Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.'  This Scripture in conjunction with St. John 4:35-36, 'Say ye not, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.  And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathered fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.'  Our Lord, in this Scripture in St. John, points out that there is wages promised him who would reap and they that sow.  It seems in our day, most ministers are not interested in the wages the Lord has promised, but how much The Church will pay  if I will do it.  It seems that the promise of the Lord has been reversed in the minds of the labourers of the harvest.  They seem to forget that the Lord said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 5:33).'

When we think of harvesting grain, we think of it being ripe and the principle of being ripe is applied to all manner of fruit and grain.  Have you ever noticed how hard it is to pull an apple when it is green?  Trees and the stalks of grain release their fruit when  it is ripe almost by the touch of the fingers.  What I am trying to get before our people in this article is that the world is now ripe for harvest for The Church of God, both olive trees, the wild and the natural.  It seems that in my visiting of these foreign countries, they are ready to release their olives, both Jews and Gentiles.  I find one of the most receptive attitudes among the Jews.  My mind is carried to the fig tree, referred to by Luke and the other writers of the New Testament, the fig tree that withered away, which we know was the Jews, because they failed to bring forth the fruit.  Now we find the fig tree already budded and with much of its fruit ripe, ready to be gathered into the basket.  Now where are these labourers?  Is your calling true?  Then why stand idle?  Will you not go into these vineyards and expect your wages from the Lord?  Did the Apostle Paul wait on a salary? Read the last chapter of Romans how Paul sent workers into Rome, Italy.  Now I do not believe that Paul had any way to pay these workers' salaries; he,  himself, was many times naked and hungry.  What I am hunting for is who is willing to trust God and revive this great work in the country of Italy, the city of Rome? Who will climb the fruit tree of England and harvest this ripe fruit in England?  Surely there is some way that God can provide you funds to cross the Atlantic Ocean, as well as He provided for these workers in the 16th chapter of Romans; funds to sail to all the world of those days.

The harvest is ripe and the labourers are so few.  I have just finished speaking to a young man in my hotel room here  in Tel-Aviv, Israel.  I met him this morning at the breakfast table in the hotel along with a good number of others, and explaining to them our Church work; they all became interested.  When we learned where they were from, we found that there were four (4) countries represented.  Some of them were dignitaries of the Government and all wished for our paper, "The Vision Speaks" to be sent to them monthly, asking for books explaining The Church and begging for us to come to their countries which are as follows:  Nigeria; Serra Leone, West Africa; Liberia; and the Philippines.

The young man who came to our room privately, who is a Supervisor of a large construction company, was inquiring how to get salvation and to become a member of The Church of God.  He asked for more literature and stated that when he goes back to Nigeria next week, he was going to give out literature and see how many followers he could get to go with the Church.

My point in telling you this in my article is to show you that the fields are ready to harvest.  Why not go into the vineyard?  The Lord will pay you what is right.  There is nothing greater than a man's works by faith.

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* Article Written By:  The Late Grady R. Kent, St. John II, Chief Bishop of The Church of God, 1957-1964. This sermon was taken from The Vision Speaks, Volume 4 : Number 12 : May 1962.

All grammatical and typographical errors have been corrected except for direct quotations from the Author.  Thought content of said article has not been changed.