The Workers Are Few – Part One
“Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Matt. 9: 27 NASB).”
The HARVEST spoken of in Matt. 9: 27 is the process of saving souls from among the multitudes of the world’s population, and the process of making disciples (students and appliers of the Word of God) out of those who have been born again.
Consistent with the ominous words of Matt. 7: 13, the world’s population, as of November 2022, will be close to 8 billion people, with less than one third identifying themselves as being a Christian of one denomination, group, or another.
With an ever-increasing global population, combined with the increase of the 1Timothy 4: 1 apostasy within the Christian Community, the harvest from the fields is greater now than it has been in many previous generations of the Church Age.
There are two different fields to be harvested in each generation of the Church Age. Every soul here on Earth is in one of these two fields.
One field consists of spiritually-dead souls in need (1) of salvation. Such souls can be found not only out in the world, but sitting in the pews of the local assemblies. Going to Church does not, in of itself, mean one is going to Heaven.
The other field consists of born-again believers within the Christian Community in need of ongoing edification (2).
From divine viewpoint, every soul here on Earth is in one of these two fields. Either you have been born-again or you haven’t. As a born-again believer, either you are advancing post (after) salvation discipleship, or you are not.
It is by no coincidence that the marching orders given to the Church, found in the Great Commission (3) fulfils the needs of BOTH groups.
Sad to say, but the Great Commission has become the Great Omission in the lives of many who claim to be followers of Christ. Jesus said that if one is a follower of Him, He will make him or her to become a fisher of men (4). Have you checked your net recently?
Could it be a time for a 2Cor. 13: 5 self-examination?
Only a very small percentage of Church Age believers are called to be pastor-teachers, evangelists, or missionaries in foreign lands.
But every Christian is called to the post salvation life of discipleship. Discipleship begins with the study and application of the Word of God for one’s own edification and spiritual advancement, but with the long-term goal of working the fields, wherever they are, 24 – 7. No exceptions.
In the natural realm, when a crop is not harvested on time, the potential crop spoils on the vine and wastes away.
In the spiritual realm, when a soul leaves this world having disbelieved the Gospel Message, he or she dies in his or her sin (5). As an unbeliever, he or she will find himself or herself in the torments of Hades until summoned to the Court of Heaven (6), only then to be tossed into the lake of fire (7).
When a Church Age, born-again believer departs this world, he or she will find himself or herself in the 3rd Heaven (8) in the presence of God (9). He or she will have an interim body, having left his or her natural body behind at the moment of physical death. He or she, among other things, will be in the 3rd Heaven, waiting for what theologians refer to as the Rapture to take place (10), when his or her interim body is exchanged for his or her resurrected body.
There is no soul in any corpse, on any deathbed, morgue, funeral parlor, funeral service, urn, or cemetery. The departed soul is already where the choices, that he or she made during his or her time on Earth, brought him or her.
When a born-again believer fails to identify and remain in advancing discipleship, his or her post spiritual life bears little or no fruit (11).
Crop failure, consisting of unsaved or unedified souls can take place in the afore-mentioned fields inside and outside of the Christian Community.
Crop failure in the field inside the Christian Community takes place when born-again believers fail to produce the fruit (saved and edified souls) of advanced discipleship by participating in the work (12) that God gave His Church (and every member of it) to do.
Crop failure inside the Christian Community results in the loss of Heavenly reward (13) and privileges (14) that are reserved for those who advanced in discipleship while here on Earth.
After sharing the Gospel Message with an unbeliever, or an edifying principle of Scripture with a fellow-believer, the advancing disciple is not for responsible for crop failure, if the recipient chooses to reject or chooses not to apply the information that we passed on to him or her.
But let it not be said by an unbeliever on Judgement Day, that it was we who never told them what they needed to hear, when we had the opportunity to do so!
All born-again believers (15) will have a home in Heaven, but not all born again believers in Heaven will share the same experience (16). There will be some that will experience eternity with GREAT (17) reward and MANY privileges. There will be some that will experience eternity with SOME reward and a FEW privileges (18). There will be many who will experience eternity with NO reward (19) or special privileges.
The 1Cor. 3: 12 -15 event that takes place in Heaven, will make it clear to all present, who were the wise ones (20), and who were the fools WITHIN the Christian Community during their appointed time here on Earth.
Exactly how any one given born-again believer will experience Heaven will be different, based in part, on the quality and the quantity of the fruit they harvested.
"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of (taking a stand for) Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is GREAT; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt. 5: 11, 12 NASB parenthesis mine).”
“Whoever then annuls ONE of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same (by word or example while here on Earth), shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5: 19 NASB parenthesis mine).”
The 1Cor. 3: 12 – 15 evaluation of a born-again believer’s post salvation crop, determines if he or she will receive or forfeit the 1Cor. 3: 15 reward and the Rev. 2 and Rev. 3 privileges that are reserved for advancing disciples.
Born-again believers do not serve God in order to be rewarded or privileged, but God has made it clear that He is going to reward and privilege in eternity, the ones who work the fields here on Earth.
This fruit that glorifies God begins to sprout as one builds his or her own edified soul structure ( 21) and applies (22) what he or she has learned, to all that he or she thinks, says, and does.
God is further glorified when the believer participates in the Great Commission (23), when he or she presents the Gospel Message to unsaved souls and when he or she shares edifying Biblical principles with fellow believers.
Sad to say, but it will be a jaw-dropping experience for many Christians when they see much of what they thought was going to be the basis for their heavenly reward (good behavior, good deeds, man made religious traditions) going up in smoke (24)!
Relatively good behavior and deeds of human good have their own rewards and benefits HERE on Earth, but none of them can generate (25) eternal life or entitle one to receive reward in Heaven.
If such things did generate eternal life and reward, then even a relatively well-behaved unbeliever who did good deeds would be entitled to a at least a little of each. Trust me; that is not going to happen (26).
Man, independent of God, can engage in a lot of humanitarian good and or religious activity, but John 15: 5 teaches that apart from God, a born-again believer can produce NOTHING of eternal value.
The fruit that has eternal value is produced by God (27), working THROUGH (28) a Spirit-filled, born-again, Church Age believer. The believer’s part is to communicate the unadulterated Gospel Message and accurate Bible Doctrine to people abroad and or to the people in his or her personal periphery.
Any deed in which God is not involved is at best, only human good.
Granted, deeds of human good do have great Earthly value. Deeds of human good are produced every day by unbelievers and believers alike at home and in every profession and area of human labor.
One of the greatest forms of human good are those that save the natural lives of those they serve at the expense of risking or losing their own (29).
Such deeds of human good are produced by born-again believers, unbelievers, and by atheists, who share the same professions or occupations.
Human good has a place and serves a purpose in the Earthly lives of both saint and sinners alike. But deeds of human good, no matter who produces them, will be the 1Cor. 3: 12 wood, hay, and straw that is burnt up (rejected) as far as having any ETERNAL value at the judgement (evaluation) event spoken of in 1Cor. 3: 12 - 15.
Only a born-again believer’s deeds of divine good, that God produced through (30) him or her, will receive reward.
Judgement Day for the unbelievers is a different event altogether (31). Judgement Day for the unbeliever will take place at its appointed time when all the departed souls in Hades are summoned to Court of Heaven and thrown into the lake of fire.
Some erroneously interpret the 1Cor. 3 wood, hay, and straw to be our individually accumulated load of sin or bad deeds, and the silver, gold, and precious stones to be our accumulated total of our religious rituals and or good human deeds.
They envision these things being placed on opposite ends of a balancing scale, and depending on which way the scale tips, determines where and how they will experience eternity.
The truth is that if just one violation of God’s laws were to be brought up at the 1Cor. 3:12 -15 evaluation, the soul would be condemned the same as the one who had broken them all.
“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point (commits one sin), he has become guilty of all (James 2: 10 NASB parenthesis mine).”
The born-again believers’ past, present, and future sins were atoned for on the cross. They will NOT be brought up at the 1Cor.3: 12 – 15 evaluation event.
The forgiveness of past, present, and future sin and the reception of the irrevocable (32) gift of eternal life takes place the moment one is born again, HERE on Earth.
The purpose of the 1Cor. 3: 12 – 15 event therefore, is NOT to reveal who gets to live in Heaven, but what reward and privileges (if any) the departed soul of the born-again believer is to receive and enjoy in eternity future.
The 1Cor.3: 12- 15 event is to distinguish between one's GOOD deeds that were accomplished with human power, and the GOOD deeds that God accomplished, working through the Spirit-filled believer. There are no bad deeds or sin in the picture.
The believer’s record of the his or her good deeds performed with human power are burned up (rejected), and are given no consideration as far as 1Cor. 3 rewards are concerned. It is the deeds of divine good that God accomplished through him or her (33) that are rewarded.
The rule of thumb is that if an atheist can do it, the deed is only human good, at best.
(1)\tJohn 3: 5, 7 (2) 2Pet. 3: 15 (3) Matt. 28: 19, 20 (4) Matt. 4: 19 (5) John 8:24 (6) Rev. 20: 13 (7) Rev. 20: 15 (8) 2Cor. 12:2 (9) 2Cor.5: 8 (10) 1Thess. 4: 16, 17 (11) Mark 4: 19 (12) Matt. 28: 19, 20 (13) 1Cor. 3: 15 (14) Rev. 2 / Rev. 3 (15) Rom. 8: 1 (16) Matt. 5: 19 (17) Matt. 5: 12 (18) 2John 1: 8 (19) 1Cor. 3: 15 (20) Prov. 11: 30 (21) Matt. 7: 24-27 (22) James 1: 22 (23) Matt. 28: 19, 20 (24) 1Cor.3: 15 (25) Titus 3: 5 (26) Rev.20: 15 (27) 1Cor. 3: 7 (28) John 15: 5 (29) John 15: 13 (30) John 15: 5 (31) Rev. 20: 13-15 (32) (Rom.11: 29) (33) John 15: 5
End of Part 0ne
“Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Matt. 9: 27 NASB).”
The HARVEST spoken of in Matt. 9: 27 is the process of saving souls from among the multitudes of the world’s population, and the process of making disciples (students and appliers of the Word of God) out of those who have been born again.
Consistent with the ominous words of Matt. 7: 13, the world’s population, as of November 2022, will be close to 8 billion people, with less than one third identifying themselves as being a Christian of one denomination, group, or another.
With an ever-increasing global population, combined with the increase of the 1Timothy 4: 1 apostasy within the Christian Community, the harvest from the fields is greater now than it has been in many previous generations of the Church Age.
There are two different fields to be harvested in each generation of the Church Age. Every soul here on Earth is in one of these two fields.
One field consists of spiritually-dead souls in need (1) of salvation. Such souls can be found not only out in the world, but sitting in the pews of the local assemblies. Going to Church does not, in of itself, mean one is going to Heaven.
The other field consists of born-again believers within the Christian Community in need of ongoing edification (2).
From divine viewpoint, every soul here on Earth is in one of these two fields. Either you have been born-again or you haven’t. As a born-again believer, either you are advancing post (after) salvation discipleship, or you are not.
It is by no coincidence that the marching orders given to the Church, found in the Great Commission (3) fulfils the needs of BOTH groups.
Sad to say, but the Great Commission has become the Great Omission in the lives of many who claim to be followers of Christ. Jesus said that if one is a follower of Him, He will make him or her to become a fisher of men (4). Have you checked your net recently?
Could it be a time for a 2Cor. 13: 5 self-examination?
Only a very small percentage of Church Age believers are called to be pastor-teachers, evangelists, or missionaries in foreign lands.
But every Christian is called to the post salvation life of discipleship. Discipleship begins with the study and application of the Word of God for one’s own edification and spiritual advancement, but with the long-term goal of working the fields, wherever they are, 24 – 7. No exceptions.
In the natural realm, when a crop is not harvested on time, the potential crop spoils on the vine and wastes away.
In the spiritual realm, when a soul leaves this world having disbelieved the Gospel Message, he or she dies in his or her sin (5). As an unbeliever, he or she will find himself or herself in the torments of Hades until summoned to the Court of Heaven (6), only then to be tossed into the lake of fire (7).
When a Church Age, born-again believer departs this world, he or she will find himself or herself in the 3rd Heaven (8) in the presence of God (9). He or she will have an interim body, having left his or her natural body behind at the moment of physical death. He or she, among other things, will be in the 3rd Heaven, waiting for what theologians refer to as the Rapture to take place (10), when his or her interim body is exchanged for his or her resurrected body.
There is no soul in any corpse, on any deathbed, morgue, funeral parlor, funeral service, urn, or cemetery. The departed soul is already where the choices, that he or she made during his or her time on Earth, brought him or her.
When a born-again believer fails to identify and remain in advancing discipleship, his or her post spiritual life bears little or no fruit (11).
Crop failure, consisting of unsaved or unedified souls can take place in the afore-mentioned fields inside and outside of the Christian Community.
Crop failure in the field inside the Christian Community takes place when born-again believers fail to produce the fruit (saved and edified souls) of advanced discipleship by participating in the work (12) that God gave His Church (and every member of it) to do.
Crop failure inside the Christian Community results in the loss of Heavenly reward (13) and privileges (14) that are reserved for those who advanced in discipleship while here on Earth.
After sharing the Gospel Message with an unbeliever, or an edifying principle of Scripture with a fellow-believer, the advancing disciple is not for responsible for crop failure, if the recipient chooses to reject or chooses not to apply the information that we passed on to him or her.
But let it not be said by an unbeliever on Judgement Day, that it was we who never told them what they needed to hear, when we had the opportunity to do so!
All born-again believers (15) will have a home in Heaven, but not all born again believers in Heaven will share the same experience (16). There will be some that will experience eternity with GREAT (17) reward and MANY privileges. There will be some that will experience eternity with SOME reward and a FEW privileges (18). There will be many who will experience eternity with NO reward (19) or special privileges.
The 1Cor. 3: 12 -15 event that takes place in Heaven, will make it clear to all present, who were the wise ones (20), and who were the fools WITHIN the Christian Community during their appointed time here on Earth.
Exactly how any one given born-again believer will experience Heaven will be different, based in part, on the quality and the quantity of the fruit they harvested.
"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of (taking a stand for) Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is GREAT; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt. 5: 11, 12 NASB parenthesis mine).”
“Whoever then annuls ONE of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same (by word or example while here on Earth), shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5: 19 NASB parenthesis mine).”
The 1Cor. 3: 12 – 15 evaluation of a born-again believer’s post salvation crop, determines if he or she will receive or forfeit the 1Cor. 3: 15 reward and the Rev. 2 and Rev. 3 privileges that are reserved for advancing disciples.
Born-again believers do not serve God in order to be rewarded or privileged, but God has made it clear that He is going to reward and privilege in eternity, the ones who work the fields here on Earth.
This fruit that glorifies God begins to sprout as one builds his or her own edified soul structure ( 21) and applies (22) what he or she has learned, to all that he or she thinks, says, and does.
God is further glorified when the believer participates in the Great Commission (23), when he or she presents the Gospel Message to unsaved souls and when he or she shares edifying Biblical principles with fellow believers.
Sad to say, but it will be a jaw-dropping experience for many Christians when they see much of what they thought was going to be the basis for their heavenly reward (good behavior, good deeds, man made religious traditions) going up in smoke (24)!
Relatively good behavior and deeds of human good have their own rewards and benefits HERE on Earth, but none of them can generate (25) eternal life or entitle one to receive reward in Heaven.
If such things did generate eternal life and reward, then even a relatively well-behaved unbeliever who did good deeds would be entitled to a at least a little of each. Trust me; that is not going to happen (26).
Man, independent of God, can engage in a lot of humanitarian good and or religious activity, but John 15: 5 teaches that apart from God, a born-again believer can produce NOTHING of eternal value.
The fruit that has eternal value is produced by God (27), working THROUGH (28) a Spirit-filled, born-again, Church Age believer. The believer’s part is to communicate the unadulterated Gospel Message and accurate Bible Doctrine to people abroad and or to the people in his or her personal periphery.
Any deed in which God is not involved is at best, only human good.
Granted, deeds of human good do have great Earthly value. Deeds of human good are produced every day by unbelievers and believers alike at home and in every profession and area of human labor.
One of the greatest forms of human good are those that save the natural lives of those they serve at the expense of risking or losing their own (29).
Such deeds of human good are produced by born-again believers, unbelievers, and by atheists, who share the same professions or occupations.
Human good has a place and serves a purpose in the Earthly lives of both saint and sinners alike. But deeds of human good, no matter who produces them, will be the 1Cor. 3: 12 wood, hay, and straw that is burnt up (rejected) as far as having any ETERNAL value at the judgement (evaluation) event spoken of in 1Cor. 3: 12 - 15.
Only a born-again believer’s deeds of divine good, that God produced through (30) him or her, will receive reward.
Judgement Day for the unbelievers is a different event altogether (31). Judgement Day for the unbeliever will take place at its appointed time when all the departed souls in Hades are summoned to Court of Heaven and thrown into the lake of fire.
Some erroneously interpret the 1Cor. 3 wood, hay, and straw to be our individually accumulated load of sin or bad deeds, and the silver, gold, and precious stones to be our accumulated total of our religious rituals and or good human deeds.
They envision these things being placed on opposite ends of a balancing scale, and depending on which way the scale tips, determines where and how they will experience eternity.
The truth is that if just one violation of God’s laws were to be brought up at the 1Cor. 3:12 -15 evaluation, the soul would be condemned the same as the one who had broken them all.
“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point (commits one sin), he has become guilty of all (James 2: 10 NASB parenthesis mine).”
The born-again believers’ past, present, and future sins were atoned for on the cross. They will NOT be brought up at the 1Cor.3: 12 – 15 evaluation event.
The forgiveness of past, present, and future sin and the reception of the irrevocable (32) gift of eternal life takes place the moment one is born again, HERE on Earth.
The purpose of the 1Cor. 3: 12 – 15 event therefore, is NOT to reveal who gets to live in Heaven, but what reward and privileges (if any) the departed soul of the born-again believer is to receive and enjoy in eternity future.
The 1Cor.3: 12- 15 event is to distinguish between one's GOOD deeds that were accomplished with human power, and the GOOD deeds that God accomplished, working through the Spirit-filled believer. There are no bad deeds or sin in the picture.
The believer’s record of the his or her good deeds performed with human power are burned up (rejected), and are given no consideration as far as 1Cor. 3 rewards are concerned. It is the deeds of divine good that God accomplished through him or her (33) that are rewarded.
The rule of thumb is that if an atheist can do it, the deed is only human good, at best.
(1)\tJohn 3: 5, 7 (2) 2Pet. 3: 15 (3) Matt. 28: 19, 20 (4) Matt. 4: 19 (5) John 8:24 (6) Rev. 20: 13 (7) Rev. 20: 15 (8) 2Cor. 12:2 (9) 2Cor.5: 8 (10) 1Thess. 4: 16, 17 (11) Mark 4: 19 (12) Matt. 28: 19, 20 (13) 1Cor. 3: 15 (14) Rev. 2 / Rev. 3 (15) Rom. 8: 1 (16) Matt. 5: 19 (17) Matt. 5: 12 (18) 2John 1: 8 (19) 1Cor. 3: 15 (20) Prov. 11: 30 (21) Matt. 7: 24-27 (22) James 1: 22 (23) Matt. 28: 19, 20 (24) 1Cor.3: 15 (25) Titus 3: 5 (26) Rev.20: 15 (27) 1Cor. 3: 7 (28) John 15: 5 (29) John 15: 13 (30) John 15: 5 (31) Rev. 20: 13-15 (32) (Rom.11: 29) (33) John 15: 5
End of Part 0ne