Tilling and Toiling for the Harvest
A farmer spends endless hours laboring over the crops. The process begins with the tilling of the soil. The farmer breaks the ground up. The tractor goes back and forth. Next, the farmer makes rows for the crops. The right tools are used to create just the right depth for the seeds. After many exhausting hours and days, the farmer has come to the time of planting seeds. Some seeds are meticulously placed into the ground, while other seeds are simply cast into their designated area. Once the seeds are cast and planted, the farmer covers them with dirt in order that they may begin to grow.
Even through all the hard work, the job is not done. The seeds have been sown, but they must be cared for in order to grow. The farmer must set up an irrigation plan to ensure the plants receive the proper amount of water. Fertilizer is cast on the newly planted crops as well. The crops need regular nutrients for life and growth. These crops will never sprout out of the ground if they are not regularly cared for. Further, the farmer must seek to remove weeds to protect the crops. The land has the threat of outside influence to destroy these newly planted crops once they begin to sprout.
The process of planting crops is long, strenuous, and laborious. The ground may not quite be ready. The plant may lack sufficient nutrients. Animals and weather threaten to subdue each plant that begins to sprout. The farmer has a lot of work to ensure the crop begins to sprout in the hope of a fruitful harvest. The tilling of the land is not just to say you had a hard day of work. The farmer seeks to provide food and income through this work. Toiling over the crop is not merely to have sprouts. The farmer seeks to have a harvest that produces the finest of crops.
Long Days of Labor
The church culture many of us find ourselves surrounded by sounds nothing like the long, hard work of a farmer. Our culture views the church, as well as Christianity, in terms of consumerism. We do not want to be inconvenienced. Entertainment is our barometer for a good worship service. The pastor is the labor force in the local church. However, according to Scripture, the purpose of the local church is not for any of the previously mentioned reasons. The local church is the foundation of evangelism and discipleship.
“The local church is the foundation of evangelism and discipleship.”
This disconnect between the covenant members of a church and the work at hand is often found in a low view of membership. Why are you a member of your church? What is your role as a member of a church? What does your Monday–Saturday look like as a member of your local church? These questions begin to help us understand whether we are functioning as we ought.
The purpose of the local church is to herald the good news of Jesus Christ to build up the Kingdom of God (Rom. 10:13–15). Weekly worship services are equipping times for members to then go and be the workers in the field. Each person, from the pastors to the regular worship attendees, is a laborer over the fields where God has placed us. The church is the visual makeup of the Kingdom of God on earth. As we participate in life together, we are to display the vertical and horizontal effects of salvation and being a child of God.
Maybe it is not evangelism you struggle with, but the discipleship process you are not so sure about. Just as the farmer spends much time tilling the land, so should the Christian spend sharing the good news and teaching God’s Word. Each child of God is to make disciples. Do you know what this entails? The discipleship process involves toiling over the souls of individuals. If you have spent any time sharing the gospel with someone or teaching them to obey God’s Word, then you know it is not simple. A person may fall back into sin. An individual may even stop showing up for your Bible studies. You might begin to feel overwhelmed and under-equipped to help them with the pressures they are facing.
Nevertheless, the Great Commission instructs us on faithful discipleship. In Matthew 28, the Great Commission passage is bookended with the promise of God's presence in the process. Sure, this promise brings comfort and reminders to go forth, but the process is still hard. We are sinful people who live in a sin-affected world. Holiness is the opposite goal of our culture. Righteousness is far from the natural desires of our flesh. Suffering will come our way. The pressures of the world are strong. People will come and go.
Reaping Joys of Redemption
Jesus speaks many parables about farming in the Gospels. In Matthew 13 and Luke 15, we find parables that I assume are common to most Christians who have been around church for a decent period of time. The Parable of the Sower is often preached as a go-to evangelistic message. In Luke, we find the parables that are often preached to call back the lost and the wandering. In danger of overgeneralizing, these messages are often individualistic. They should instead be understood as speaking to the church more than merely an individual. The parables were instruction to the religious leaders of their failure to recognize their job as shepherds. He was not giving them a challenge to go find that one person to evangelize. He was calling out the religious institution’s failure to accomplish the work to which God has called his people. The church is about the mission of reaching the lost. Dining with them. Receiving them. Teaching them. As Luke 15 begins with Jesus being criticized for eating with sinners, we see more clearly in this parable that Jesus was revealing the heart of God in the redemption of mankind.
“The church is about the mission of reaching the lost. Dining with them. Receiving them. Teaching them.”
The Parable of the Sower clearly communicates God’s sovereignty in salvation. In this passage, the church gains a clear understanding on how people react to the gospel message. This discourse about conversion informs us about the counterparts to evangelism in the heart of people. The lay of the land is not right, or the heart is not ready, or the roots are not deep enough. We have no control over the heart of man, but we have been given the tools to understand how to till the land.
The Parables found in Luke 15 show the heart of God for those who are lost. The church is to have a deep and earnest care for the lost. If one of our brothers or sisters is missing, we must go find them. If our neighbor does not know Jesus as Savior, we must labor over their soul to share the good news with them. Again, while we have no control over the heart of man, we should from time to time experience exhaustion in sharing with them. The task is difficult but let us toil over the souls in order that they may experience the love of God as his children.
We are laborers who seek to share the gospel with those around us and seek to disciple others to maturity in their faith. The work will be difficult, but the promise is of a harvest that will be unfathomable.
Charles Spurgeon once said this about our labor in the fields of evangelism: “If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stop, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for” (“The Wailing of Risca,” Sermon 349, December 9, 1860).
Wesley Lassiter is the lead pastor at The Rock Church in The Rock, Georgia. He is married to his wife Lindsey. Wesley received his undergraduate degree from Spurgeon College (MBTS) and has written for websites such as For The Church, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, Doctrine and Devotion, and Servants of Grace. You can follow him on Twitter.
