Sermon Transcript — May 13, 2006
We are all familiar with the concept of a count-down. The first thing that comes to mind is the count-down for the launch of a Nasa space shuttle, or if you are a little kid, maybe you learned to count backwards ten to zero by sending your own little toy rockets off. Ten, nine, eight, that sort of thing. Count-down is generally associated with something that is exciting - an exciting event. Looking forward to something in anticipation and eagerly awaiting them. Students sometimes count down the number of days they have until school is out, till summer vacation begins, or a young couple who is engaged maybe counting down more specifically until the date of their marriage. Four weeks, three days, seven hours, twenty-six minutes and forty-seven seconds or something like that.
Let's go to Leviticus 23:15, because God gives His Church and His people and official count-down of sorts. We have a fifty day count-down from the Unleavened Bread season to the next festival which is the Feast of Pentecost.
Leviticus 23:15 And you shall count, it says, for yourselves from the day after theSabbath, the meaning would be the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
V.16 – Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.
Later on we will see a few more details about that wave sheaf offering and the very specific time when the count-down was to begin. Let's go down to v. 21 because we see the instructions for the Feast of Pentecost.
V.21 - And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your generations.
Pentecost is the only one of God's festivals that does not fall on the same day of the Hebrew calendar every year. The correct date of Pentecost has to be counted starting with the very specific event during the days of Unleavened Bread. Right now we are about a little bit more than half way through the fifty day period – the count-down to Pentecost. A question we might want to consider at this point is: Do those fifty days between Unleavened Bread and Pentecost have any special significance, any special meaning or application to us? Is there anything we should be considering during that period of time? It is easy for us to think of the Spring Holy Days as a unit. There is Passover and Unleavened Bread and one follows immediately after the other. It is kind of a unit themselves and then we sort of skip forward fifty days roughly, and then comes Pentecost and for all practical purposes those fifty days become just sort of a fifty day void with no special meaning or significance during that period of time. But there is, as we look a little bit closer, there can be a special meaning.
The meaning of those fifty days is easily lost on us because we are really not an aggregation or agricultural society. If you and I had been Israelites in the Old Testament, living in the land of Palestine, agriculture would have been very much important to us. Today if we plan a garden and we invest a little time, a little money, a little effort and a little energy and we plant some plants and plant some seeds we may end up with a few delicious tomatoes and maybe some sweet corn. Maybe a few other vegetables. I don't know why it is that zucchini always seems to do well. You plant one, you get two hundred. You plant two hundred tomatoes; you get one, the way it seems to go. Zucchini's are good, they are fine. Whether our gardens do well or don't do well is really not that big of a deal. Whether we get too much rain or not enough rain or whether the deer come along like in my area, and eat everything that is green, it's maybe disappointing to us a little bit but it is not tragic. There is no tragedy involved because we simply don't go hungry. We can just go to the store and buy what we need to eat and stock up the refrigerators and freezers and that sort of thing. Our standard of living and our level of comfort are nearly not affected for most us at least, by how well or how little a garden does. We tend to forget the importance of the blessings that come from a good harvest in our country and God at this point is continuing to bless our country tremendously. So we still have plenty of food. We are not nearly running out.
In our complex society we don't have much personal involvement with growing or raising our food stuffs but the Israelites, living in a very agrarian agricultural society, was much different than our society today so those fifty days don't mean nearly to us what they did to them. The size, the quality of their harvest was directly proportional of how much they prospered. It was an indication of a lean year or a good year depending on how the crop went. A good harvest could be the matter of life and death. It could be that they have food to survive or whether they might starve. If the crops failed it could be very serious for ancient Israel but on the other end of the scale, if their crops did extremely well, they really felt very blessed – that God was being very good to them.
Another factor we need to keep to mind is that if we imagine ourselves living in the time of the ancient Israelites, the growing season in Palestine is considerably different than it is here and I think it is well worth noting. Here in Ohio we have a growing season of spring and summer. A few months of mild, warm weather where plants and vegetables and fruits and things can grow, but in Palestine the winters are much milder. It is much warmer. If you look on a map you see that Palestine is on about the same latitude as southern California or northern Florida and of course we know the climate in southern California and northern Florida is milder. Things grow there year round. They grow crops; they grow fruits in the summer as well as in the winter.
So if you had been an Israelite, when you came home from the Feast of Tabernacles last fall, that would have been the time you would have planted barley and wheat, if you were a farmer. Those were the two most important grain crops. The barley would grow through the winter as the wheat would, and they would become ripe during the days of Unleavened Bread. Now that is different than our schedule, of course. They planted it right after the Feast of Tabernacles and it grew and ripened. By Unleavened Bread the barley was ready to be harvested and a few weeks later the wheat would be ready as well. It is very different than here in our section.
Let's go to Leviticus 23:10, next. The spring harvest couldn't begin until a very special ceremony took place. It was actually a ceremony that began the spring harvest of this barley and wheat. Verses 4 through 8 discusses the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread but we pick it up in v. 10
V.10 - Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the landwhich I give to you, and reap its harvest, now this is primarily referring to harvesting the barley and the wheat that would have been planted in the fall, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. So each farmer was to bring a hand full of grain to the priest.
V.11– He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Now other offerings were made at this time as well, but let's skip down to v. 14.
V.14 - You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
So if we lived as an old testament Israelite, and the Passover and Unleavened Bread came around, the barley and wheat would begin to be ripe, be ready to harvest. You could begin, once a certain ceremony had taken place. The priest took the grain that he was brought from each of the farmers and waved it before God; waved it to Heaven, offering as it were, an offering to God. This is about two quarts of grain. Once that ceremony had taken place, then the harvest could begin. But nobody could harvest until the first was offered to God. This wave sheaf that was offered to God represented Jesus Christ. In the Gospels we read that the Sunday, the day after Christ was resurrected, later that day He traveled to Heaven and presented Himself to God the Father on His throne. The same day during the days of Unleavened Bread was the day on which the wave sheaf was offered. So throughout the Old Testament they took the grain on this specific day and they waved it to God and it was the same day that Christ rose to heaven, and that grain, the wave sheaf, was a type of Christ being accepted by the Father.
Once the spring harvest began, this was during the days of Unleavened Bread, the harvest lasted seven weeks. First the barley was harvested and then a few weeks later the wheat became ripe and it was harvested. It was all finished harvesting by Pentecost. Now there is a connection between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. I think we are all familiar with the concept of bookends. If you have bookends at your house, we do at ours, bookends are often used to the extremes; the ends of a bunch of books. You have a bunch of books stacked; you have bookends at both ends on a shelf that holds everything together. In a sense Unleavened Bread and Pentecost are like the bookends that hold the seven-week harvest period together. It begins with Unleavened Bread, it ends at Pentecost. That seven week period of time was when they harvested the wheat and the barley. Now when I say bookends I don't mean by any means to detract from the specialness of the Holy Days during Unleavened Bread or Pentecost. Obviously that is Holy time and it is very special. I only use the concept of bookends as a marker to note that there is a beginning period and there is an ending period of the harvest season for the spring harvest.
The harvest began during Unleavened Bread, ended during Pentecost, and the significance of the fifty day count-down was that it was a spring harvest; it was a time of harvesting. We don't do that here in Ohio because, except for strawberries or something like that really, most things are not ripe by that time but the harvest season in Palestine had great significance. A lot of importance to the Israelites. It was intended by God to be a season of great joy. They planted their crop, it matured during the winter, it ripened in the spring, they harvested it and this was going to be an indication of their prosperity, their ease during the next year. It was a time of great joy. They were anxious to see how much grain have we gotten. It is true that there was a measure or hard work involved in harvesting and threshing and storing the grain but it was a very joyful time, a very positive time. They were happy to do this because the crops were so critical to their existence and their well-being and their prosperity. The harvest was considered to be a blessing, a gift from God.
In the Bible the harvest of the physical crops is really an analogy. It is a type for us and we learn a spiritual lesson from that because we see what God is doing spiritually. He is preparing and bringing sons and daughters into His Kingdom. He is harvesting human lives and bringing them into His Kingdom, into His family. Jesus Christ was the first one harvested, the first one who was flesh and was elevated to Spirit and He is the ultimate wave sheaf offering. After this God could then begin His Church and pour out His spirit upon more people. He began to call people, He began to work with them, began to give His spirit and that group of people, His Church, those who have His Holy Spirit, are called in the scriptures the first fruits and that includes us. We are among the first fruits that's represented by, that is similar to, that small spring harvest that took place between Unleavened Bread and Pentecost.
The title of my sermon today is: From Unleavened Bread to Pentecost – Harvest Lessons. There are a few lessons we can learn from that fifty day period of time. Now I have to cover two primary lessons with us today.
The first lesson is that the fifty day period from Unleavened Bread to Pentecost should be for us also a season of joy. This should be a special time for us. A time when we should have a focus, a special understanding, a direction, a clarity as far as who we are, where we are going, how we got here. Just as the fifty day harvest was intended to be a time of joy for those who were physically harvesting the grain in Israel, it should be a time of joy for us too. I mean that those fifty days are a time for us to focus on our calling, to zero in on the fact that God really does have a plan. It is laid out very clearly in His Holy Days and of all things one of those facets of His plan involves us directly. God is calling a few now like that small spring harvests and He will use us to work with others so that others can become part of God's family. This is a crucial part in God's plan. By no means is it the most important but it is a crucial part and it involves us directly.
This should be a time of joy. It should be a time that we reflect special gratitude to God for calling us and adding us to His Church. It certainly is a part of human nature that virtually all of us take our blessings for granted. It is very easy to do that especially when we have so many blessings. Some times the good example of another person kind of perks us up and prods us and reminds us to be more thankful as well. It kind of rekindles that appreciation.
Several years ago my wife and I were visiting a Church area in our region and interestingly enough it happened to be on the Feast of Pentecost. We sat down, it was a combined service of the circuit and they had services in the morning, lunch and then services in the afternoon, and lunch time we all sat down together and it was just kind of random. We sat down at the table and one of the people sitting at our table was quite interesting. It was an elderly woman who had just come into the Church. She introduced herself and she mentioned right away: "I am new" and you could tell as she was sitting there and talking that she was really excited. She was excited because as she said: "I am an older woman and I've got so much to learn but I am really excited to be in the Church." And she mentioned how that she lived alone, she had all these home project things to do: clean up around her house, but she said: "You know, all these things can just wait because I have to spend several hours a day studying my Bible" She said: "I've got a late start. I am old and I have to get caught up because I want to be in God's Family and I've got to know this Bible". That was a very refreshing and exciting experience that she realized, she understood her calling. She understood the importance of her getting herself ready and her involvement in the program. It was exciting to sit there and listen to her talk and see how much it meant to her that God had called her into the Church.
I am not saying that we should all study our Bible's several hours a day. Obviously we have work to do and other important responsibilities but this woman was at a stage in her life when she could give hours each day. She had extra time praying, extra time studying, extra time fasting – she had the time and she used it very well. So I am not encouraging us to follow her example as far as the number of hours but certainly I think we can learn from her example as far as her heart and her attitude and her excitement. She was glad to be in the Church. She was old enough, I think, to have quite a view of life and realized that for all these years she had no real purpose and suddenly God had given her now a purpose. She saw where she fit into the plan of God and she loved it. She was inspired by it.
Another example is a man who recently came in the Church. He was baptized in the last few years. He has become a good friend of Margie's and mine. It has been inspiring and touching to hear him talking about how much he appreciates being in the Church. See, as a little boy his father attended the Church of God and he grew up and the only part that he remembers from his youth was the great tribulation and the Day of the Lord. The real spicy parts and as a result he was scared and all his life he was concerned that in the back of his mind he remembered all of these bad things that were going to happen at the end of the age. But he was searching for answers and he kind of went back to check his roots and he found out that the organization that his father had attended was no longer teaching the same truths so over the internet he began to look for the Church. When he came across our website and began to read our literature he said: "I have found it! This is it!" But he was hesitant at first and the more he learned, the more he was able to understand because he was much more mature by this point, but his comments were very interesting. He said things like: How thrilled he was that God had called him. He said: "I just can't believe that God has called me." He said: "I am amazed at: why me?" He kept on saying: "Why me? Tell me, why me?" Here is a quote from a recent e-mail he sent. He said: "At times I feel so lucky to know what really is happening in God's plan. Every time you mention that God is choosing us I can't imagine why he chose me. It's just too stunning". And he certainly means that from every fiber of his being.
People in the world get quite excited when they are selected for something special, maybe to win a prize of some kind. I remember reading in a newspaper a couple of years ago that on one particular show Oprah gave every guest in the audience a brand new car. Under their seat was a set of car keys and they went out to the parking lot and which ever car these keys fit, that was theirs. Free. That was amazing. Now I am sure there was a lot of jumping and excitement and yelling and screaming and a lot of involvement and enthusiasm when all these people won a brand new car. I am not suggesting that we start every morning by jumping up and down and thanking God for our calling, that may be a little over the top, but certainly to, every day, appreciate the fact that we understand where we fit in. That we understand why we were born. That we understand what God is doing on this earth and He has involved Himself with us. He chose us to be part of His Church, part of the first fruits, part of the early harvest. It is something we should treasure, something we should value. It is something we should express gratitude to God that it is happening because it is exciting and it is very important that we show God how much we appreciate His calling.
A second harvest lesson is that we have been called to be enthusiastic laborers in God's spiritual harvest. So God has called us, but part of the responsibility is that we have to be laborers, but enthusiastic laborers for God's Kingdom, for this harvest. It becomes very clear when we look at the New Testament and we see what Jesus Christ taught and what He did between His resurrection and finally His ascension, when He went to Heaven; that fifty day period from Unleavened Bread to Pentecost.
Let's go to Acts 1:1. In this account we read about Jesus being taken up to heaven several weeks after, actually this is His ascension to heaven. Weeks earlier He had fulfilled the wave sheaf offering by quickly going to Heaven, appearing to the Father and then returning, but this ascension in Acts 1 is different because this is one where He went and He stayed there and He is still there and will be there until He returns to earth a second time.
Acts1:1 Lucas writing and he said: The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
V.2 – until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had givencommandments, in other words instructions, to the apostles whom He had chosen,
Right away here in the book of Acts our attention if focused on the fact that Jesus Christ gave very specific instructions to His disciples, later called apostles.
V.3 – to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
So for forty of the fifty days between Unleavened Bread and Pentecost Jesus appeared to His disciples and He taught them. He instructed them and He focused their attention on what they were to do once He left them. He in essence instructed them to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God but He zeroed in their attention on: Now you have a job to do. This is what I want you to do.
V.4 – And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which" He said, "you have heard from Me;
He talked about the Holy Spirit.
V.5 - for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
They would receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The apostles were going to be laborers in the spiritual harvest. That was not something they could accomplish on their own. It wasn't a matter that they had enough human ability, enough intellect, and enough personality power to accomplish this. This was a job bigger than they were and they were going to need extra help to preach the Gospel as far as He wanted the Gospel preached and the very same thing is true for us today. That God has in reality given us a job that is bigger than us.
We are a small Church. But the job He has given us, of preaching the gospel around the earth is bigger than we are. It takes more resources than we humanly have and we need God's help to accomplish that. God seems to work that way. He gives you a job but it is bigger than you are and as a result the way it is designed is that we realize our limitations and then we reach out to Heaven and say: "I need help to accomplish this. Please help me." That is exactly what God had in mind. It is a very encouraging concept to understand and believe because it focuses our eyes not on ourselves, not on our innate abilities, not on our talents, not on our gifts, but on how much we seriously need God's help. And that is a good equation. That is a good relationship to have. That is essential for a Christian to flourish and to grow. We don't have enough of our own human resources to accomplish what the Church needs to do. We've got to have God's help.
In verse 6 the disciples asked a question I think we all like to have an answer to: When will the kingdom be set up on the earth?
V.6– Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
V.7 – And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
In essence He said: "Leave the timing to God. You concentrate on the job I have given you to do. That is where you put your time and your money and your energy. Don't sit around trying to figure out all these charts and graphs and things like that. Don't waste your time on that. You focus your energy on doing the job God has given you to do."
V.8 – but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
The job of preaching the gospel to the end of the earth was a direct commission from Jesus Christ Himself. He said: "I don't want you to just be a little group doing a little nothing. I want you to take this gospel to the end of the earth." I think it is significant that Christ's very last words before He went to Heaven was: "Here's a job I'm commanding you to do and I'll give you the power to do it."
Just imagine what it would have been like for those eleven men that Christ had called and worked with to realize they were to take the gospel to the end of the earth. Eleven men; an impossible task. They had no cars; they had no trains, no airplanes, no internet, no TV, no radio, no printing press. All they had were sandals. But they were planning to do the work. They put their heads together. They were determined they were going to do this. Now obviously they had seen Christ raised from the dead; they saw Him ascend to Heaven; they saw a number of miracles and having close contact with Him for those 40 days I'm sure it was very inspiring to them, but here eleven men were determined they were going to take this gospel to the end of the earth with God's help.
Let's go to Acts 1:24. Drop down a bit to verse.24. During this 50 day time between Unleavened Bread and Pentecost the disciples were thinking; they were planning; they were speculating; they were trying to figure out: How can we get this job done? They saw the need for a replacement for Judas who had died and under God's guidance they chose Matthias and we see that in Acts 1:24.
Acts1:24 And they prayed and said, "You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen
V.25 – to take part in this ministry… They understood it was going to be a work of service, a work of ministering. The work did need doing. …an apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
The word apostle means: one sent forth, and Jesus Christ had done exactly that. He sent them forth. He said: "I want you to take this message to the end of the earth". Their minds were now focused on: How can we do this? How can it be done?
Let's go next to Matthew 28. There is a reminder here that this work was not only something given to the original apostles, that this is an assignment, this is a commission, this has been passed down to every generation and we'll pass it down to the next generation. We will continue. Matthew 28:18. Again, this is taking place sometime during the 50 day count-down from Unleavened Bread to Pentecost in 31A.D.
Matt. 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority ….in essence has just been given to Me, because He ascended to the Father; the Father had restored Him to the Family of God and gave Him all authority of power. "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
And what did God the Father choose for Jesus Christ to do with this unlimited power and authority?
V.19 – Go therefore, He said, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
V.20 – teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;
We summarize the words in verses 19 and 20 by saying: "Preaching the gospel and preparing a people". It is a very good summary. Jesus Christ gave a tremendous promise then that regardless of the circumstances they would face when they come into the Church, He would always be with them. They would never be alone.
Verse.20 goes on to say: and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Those words "even to the end of the age" makes it clear that God's people at all times in Church history had an obligation to preach the gospel to the world to the end of the age. It is still our commission. Now not only had we been called to be laborers in God's spiritual harvest but Christ has promised to be with us individually and also collectively. He helps us to do the Work of God but He also evaluates us on how we are doing: the quality and the quantity of the work that we are investing in the work, in the Church.
Let's go next to John 4:34. We'll see Jesus' example and we will notice something He said. It may not be obvious to us on the surface. Jesus' disciples in this particular day knew that He must be hungry because He had not taken time to eat but notice what Christ said. He words it in a way that probably you and I might not think of it.
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
That's where I draw my strength; that's where I draw my energy; that's what keeps Me going: is doing the work of God. Notice that He is not just saying just knowing God's will; He is saying what matters is doing it.
V.35 – Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Apparently there was a proverb that was familiar at that time that typically a farmer would plant a crop and then he would wait four months and the crop would come ripe and he would harvest it. Reading the rest of the verse: Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
Jesus was telling His disciples in their day and time, that there were human lives waiting to be harvested, ready to be changed by hearing God's plan, hearing the gospel. It wasn't going to be a long gap from His leaving earth until the harvest; there were people right now who will be ready to listen and to respond to the gospel. He said there is no time to waste. The same is true for us. People are looking for answers. Answers that you and I can easily take for granted because we already understand "why were you born?", but there are many people out there who do not. They are searching and yearning for answers to deep questions. Never has there been a time where there has been more urgency to preach the gospel than it is right now.
V.36 – And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
I would like to reread verse36 from a modern translation. It says: Already the one who harvests is being paid, and is gathering crops for eternal life. So the one who plants and the one who harvests celebrate at the same time.
Notice again that a harvest is associated with joy and rejoicing. What could or should be more fulfilling than having a part in changing a person's life? What could mean more than helping someone understand why they were born, beginning to get their life in order as a result of that, and begin to fulfill the purpose for which they were born? What could be more important and more fulfilling?
V.37 – In this verse Jesus quotes a different saying of His day. For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.'
V.38 – I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."
All of us in the Church are here as a result of other people's work; other people's tithes and offerings; other people's prayers. We are the fruit, the result, of all the Christians who have gone before us. We are here because we heard a broadcast; we read a magazine; we saw a booklet; we learnt the truth because somebody else made it available and now it is our turn. Now it is our turn. Once we understand that and once we mature to the point that we grasp that fully, that we are excited by it, it is now our turn to turn around and give it back to other people. So our turn to plant for a largest harvest. This is the appropriate time I think, to ask ourselves: "What kind of laborer am I in God's spiritual harvest? How well am I planting seeds? Am I doing my part as far as preparing for this harvest?"
Let's go next to Matthew 9:35. What effect does it have when you see people suffering in the world? Maybe on the evening news or you read an article in the news magazine about it, and there are many parts in the world that are suffering seriously. What effect does that have on us? Or maybe you see it in your extended families. Serious suffering, and you wish there were something you could do to change things.
Matt. 9:35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
V.36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
The phrase, weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd, is a good description of the world around us today. Weary; scattered; sheep with no shepherd. What did Jesus says to do? What can you and I do to make a difference in their conditions? Is there something we can do or do we just kind of suck it up and say, "Well, God's Kingdom come"?
V.37 – Then he said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
V.38 – Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
You see, our prayers do make a difference. He is saying it can make a difference. You can make a difference. There is a roll that you and I play in the spiritual harvest today. Thinking back on the original apostles during those seven weeks between Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, they had time to think and plan and look and investigate and examine what a huge task they had, but they were thinking about it and trying to figure out how they could do that and they were excited about the job they were given and they threw themselves into it. They were excited; they had purpose; they had a job to do and they were doing it with all their heart. They were zealous. We too, should be filled with enthusiasm. That word means: God in us; and joy, because we are laborers in God's harvest. Zeal is something that should be on our minds, that we do the work of God zealously. That is a topic that Mr. Kilough and the Church are focused on for the last year or so.
There is an interesting and cute story about Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt. It comes from one of his biographies of how he was introduced to the topic of zeal. I'll read this small portion to you.
"When Teddy Roosevelt was a small boy his mother found out that he was afraid to go into the Church his family had tended. He was terrified she discovered, about something in the church called 'zeal'. It was crouched in the dark corners of the Church ready to jump at him. When she asked him what a zeal might be, he said he wasn't sure but it probably would be a large animal like an alligator or a dragon. He heard the minister read about it from the Bible so he knew it was true. Using a concordance, she read him the verses containing the word zeal and suddenly, very excited, he told her to stop. The line was from John 2:17 which said: And his disciples remembered that it was written: The zeal of your house has eaten me up". Not bad for a little kid! He misunderstood part of it but …. No wonder he was afraid to go to Church!
At the general conference of elders, Mr. Kilough expanded and elaborated for the ministry again on the importance or our being zealous and how important it was for us to set the pace and set the example and be involved zealously and hoping it would be contagious and spread to our congregations so that every one would crank it up a little bit as far as their zeal and intensity and enthusiasm for the Church of God, for the work we have to do. And as a Church and individual laborers in the harvest, we want to maintain, we want to increase the zeal that we have. In light of the fact that God is blessing our finances, God is blessing the Church in wonderful ways. He is giving us stability and peace in the Church. We have some exciting possibilities ahead as far as being able to preach the gospel; some doors are opening for us and things are available to us if we had the money and the energy and the time to do these things.
This count-down from Unleavened Bread to Pentecost should be a time when we celebrate and we rejoice in the fact that we have a privilege and an opportunity to be part of the work of God, that we are laborers in the spiritual harvest. The May issue of the United News should be arriving at your house soon and in it there is a fascinating 4-page section. I think it begins on page 5 of the latest, brand new United News; it is a section entitled: "Appreciating volunteers" and it is referring to many members who labor and donate their time helping the Church. It says: "On these four pages we celebrate the service that helps United in its mission of preaching the gospel while preparing a people" and it has four fabulous pages of what people are doing. Things that can be done, things that are being done, how you can be involved, really a very helpful section. It is an excellent issue of the United News.
I hope, brethren that we will use the United News which contains tremendous helpful and inspiring information, a lot of examples as well, of how people are involved. Things that are being done. I remember a number of months ago, I believe it was Mr. Kilough mentioned that on one of his trips to the Philippines, he bumped into an individual who recognized his name, Clyde Kilough, and he said: "Well, have we met?", and he said: "No". And he said, "How did you know my name?", and he said: "When I get the United news I read it and every name that I come across, I pray for that individual". And I thought, wow, I never thought to do that. Now it was fascinating. Here was a man half-way around the world that used his time and every time he read somebody's name he prayed and asked God to bless and help them. I thought that was really an outstanding example.
Perhaps our most important job as a Christian and as a laborer in the harvest is having our hearts in God's work and praying fervently for it. This is an indispensable part of the work we have to do; that is our job; our commission. It is foundational; it is elementary. It has to be done. We need to be involved in asking God to bless our efforts and bless the work. This is still a work of faith. We are a small Church with a huge assignment. God's work will only be blessed according to the sincerity and the fervency of our prayers. That's our job. If we ask God to continue to bless the work, it is going to make a difference but if the progress of the Church, the progress of the work, depended on your prayer, how effective would it be? How much would the Church be blessed? How far forward and how much would be accomplished as a result of your or my single prayer? And if it is a matter of my commitment or yours to the Church, how much of a difference would that make?
I hope we can begin to see that we collectively, can make a huge difference but everybody's got to pulling his own weight. We can't just expect the ministers or the widows to be doing their part. We have all our part to do. You know, it is fascinating to me to notice in Paul's letters to the Churches that he made it very clear to the brethren living at that time that he engaged them in the work. He talked about what he was doing here, what he was doing there. Doors that were opened; doors that were closed; things he wanted to do; wanted to visit them; wanted them to understand this, but he also talked about people by names. It is kind of a miniature United News in some of those letters. He talks about the Church, He talks about the work. I hope brethren that we can begin to use, not only Paul's letters, but use the United News and the home office updates in a very constructive way. These are wonderful tools to use and resources to know what to pray about. Where there is need; issued that are being addressed around the world. This is an encyclopedia.
We can spend hours just praying about the issues that are raised in the United News. It is a wonderful resource. We can use that information; we can lay it out in front of us as we are praying and go through the details and through the specifics and pray for the people that are listed there. That is a good idea too, but I hope that we can use that as a wonderful resource. Some times your prayers get kind of flat and you are wondering what you ought to be praying about and you realize that maybe there is too much repetition; that should cure a lot of those ills. There are brethren around the world that need our prayers; developments in the work that need it. The media; the efforts of preaching the gospel publicly – very important. Surely the summer camps and many more laborers, more ministers in the church, for the next generation as our old ministers are in some cases being retired. It is very important.
It is also interesting to walk by a newsstand and to notice the types of magazines that are now available. It is fascinating. You can find a magazine on virtual every hobby and topic imaginable. There are magazines for model train enthusiasts, quilters, remote control airplane lovers, bow-hunting, interior decorators, runners, walkers and cyclists, gourmet cooks and the list goes on and on. Virtually every interest – there is a magazine for us. Often an enthusiast who subscribes to one of these magazines can't wait for the next issue to come. He wants the latest information; he wants to learn more about his hobby, or his level of interest. He wants more information; more understanding; he wants to be more effective in his hobby. We should be enthusiasts for the work of God.
I would like to think of the United News as being the publication for laborers for God's spiritual harvest. A publication that we can't wait to read – can't wait for the next one to come. To find out what's going on with the church in Africa and Australia and Europe and across the country and around the world. When it comes to news and information about the work and the Church the United News can supply much, much to the information and generate excitement and enthusiasm and things to talk about at Church. Topics of conversation: Did you read in the United News about this going on here and the project there. I hope that we will be as excited about the work of the Church after reading the United News as someone who reads their model train or plane enthusiast magazine, and I would like to make a suggestion: I hope that we could use the Sabbath day very constructively. Not just kind of let the time slide through our fingers. God has given us extra time. It is time to rest, and that is important too. We should have extra time to be able to pray for the Church and for the work of God in detail. Time to go through the United News and find sections that are really of interest that kind of perk us up. Things to pray about; things to be concerned about; involved in; asking God to bless all facets of the Church and the work. That is our responsibility; that is where an active involved Christian is going to draw his material from. Please use that time productively.
Another reason to pray fervently for the Church of God and the work of God is because we have an enemy who never sleeps. We do. We have an enemy who hates God, who hates the Church of God, who hates the work of God, who hates this spring harvest, these first fruits: and that is Satan the devil. We should never forget that. We shouldn't be overly preoccupied with that but we should never forget that we have an enemy. The Church has an enemy.
With any physical crop, of course, there are certain dangers and environmental concerns and enemies that can ruin any harvest. When our children were small my wife and I would read The Little House on the Prairie books to the kids. It is fascinating to read the challenges that folks faced back in the 1800's on the Prairies when they were trying to grow enough food to support their family and put their children through school and that sort of thing. But how many hazards there were to crops – often times they were ruined by hail or winds or fire or birds. One of the most interesting examples from the Little House Books, is the story about how the Ingles family, how their wheat crop was totally destroyed by locusts. Some historians believe that story was an eye-witness account of what is now called: The Rocky Mountain Locust Plague that devastated the great plains of our country. The Rocky Mountain Locust Plague was the greatest insect scourge of North America ever. In 1875 the Rocky Mountain locusts form the largest locust swarm in history. That swarm was this size: It was 1800 miles long by 110 miles wide - all locusts. I like to quote a couple paragraphs about the Rocky Mountain Locust Plague.
"This torrent of insects eclipsed the sun for 5 days." They couldn't see the sun for five days. "They became a super organism composed of three-and-a-half trillion locusts". Other sources say maybe many as 15 trillion locusts. "The swarm outweighed man to the same degree that the biomass of a whale exceeds that of a mouse. This metabolic wildfire rage across the Great Plains, devastating two tons of vegetation per hour and leaving over a hundred and fifty thousand settlers on the brink of starvation. In what became the most massive relief effort in the young nation's history, the United States army distributed nearly two million food rations to relief the suffering." One government proposal was not very helpful, not very well received; it suggested the settlers eat the locusts to avoid starvation. Not well received. Contemporary accounts described the nature of the locust plague.
"They came like driving snow in winter, filling the air, covering the earth, the buildings, the shocks of grain and everything". "Their alighting sounded like a continuous hailstorm. The noise was like suppressed distant thunder or a train in motion." "They were four to six inches deep on the ground and continued to alight for hours. Their weight broke off large tree limbs." "By dark there wasn't a stalk of field corn over a foot high. Onions were eaten down to the very roots. They gnawed the handles of farm tools and the harness on horses or harnesses hanging in the barn, the bark of trees, clothing and curtains of homes and dead animals - including dead locusts." "They even ate blankets that women put over their crops to protect them. It was commonly said that grasshoppers ate everything but the mortgage."
Interesting, the Rocky Mountain Locust became extinct in the early twentieth century. The last pair of these locusts, collected in 1902, is now a part of the Smithsonian. This is the type of threat to physical crops that has been a sad and recurring part of human history.
On a spiritual level Satan is a very real and powerful being who would love to destroy the work of God and if not destroy, at least diminish it. He would love to distract us. Satan is so good at that. Getting us just a little bit off course so we miss the target. Distracting us with what ever it might be. Distracting the laborers, luring us away from our primary goal so we loose enthusiasm and we loose momentum and we become hum-drum. His attacks are very real - just as real as the Rocky Mountain Locust plague was real, and he never quits.
So we need to be on guard asking God's blessing and protection for the work of God but also for the laborers. For each other. We need each other praying for each other. For our final scripture today, let's go to Mark 4:26. This is a very short four verse parable that appears only in the gospel of Mark but there is quite a message there.
Mark 4:26 And He (Jesus) said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground,
V.27 – and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.
V.28 – For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.
V.29 – but when the grain ripens immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
Nelsons Study Bible has a helpful comment on those verses. It says: "Plants develop in a complex, intricate process that the humans still do not fully understand even two thousand years after Jesus spoke these words. Yet plants grow and bear fruit and seeds just the same. God's kingdom likewise is growing, although we do not understand all that is happening."
Verse 29 said that "when the grain ripens immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." This assures us that God's plan will succeed. His Kingdom will come; it's going to happen right on schedule. There will be a spiritual harvest of children into His family. That is going to happen. This parable reminds us that we don't know in detail all the plan that God has for the Church and for the work right now but we can see it all laid out.
If we could somehow see a sneak preview of what God has laid out in Heaven, of what He wants the Church and the work to do and how we will accomplish that, I believe we would be inspired to see what God has in mind for the Church and the work of God to do between now and His second coming. If we could see what God has in mind, if we could somehow see a vision - I am not suggesting that we ask for a vision, please don't misunderstand me - but if we could understand what God is planning to do and how He is planning to use the Church, we would be zealous. We would be excited; we would be very grateful.
Our focus and priority during the spiritual harvest between Unleavened Bread and Pentecost should be to seek God's Kingdom with renewed zeal and continual commitment to personal growth and dedication to God. Let's focus on the lessons of being thankful for our calling as first fruits, and understanding our responsibility as zealous laborers in the harvest that God is reaping.