So often, we go into the work of evangelism and mission already defeated. The view is often that the culture is increasingly secular or even anti-Christian, the church is in decline, ears and minds are entirely closed to the gospel. Evangelism is often embarked on with the underlying sense that we’ve got work that Jesus has given us to do so we better get on with it even though it’ll probably be unfruitful.
There is a little cause for encouragement even in this Eeyorish defeatism. It is heartening that despite feeling this way, there are a set of people who nevertheless want to obey Jesus. Admittedly, they are obeying Jesus believing – just like Isaiah and Jeremiah were told – they are going to speak to a people who won’t listen and their efforts will bear no fruit. There is some encouragement in recognising that some Christians are willing to obey Jesus even when they believe their labour is going to be fruitless. There is something good about taking Jesus at his word and obeying him despite how things may seem to us; his ways are higher than our ways and all that.
But I wonder whether we can help the Eeyores. I think the bible gives us some good grounds to be more optimistic than we often are. Given the Eeyores are typically faithful workers, keen to be obedient to God’s word despite how things may seem from their perspective, their commitment to the bible may make optimists of them yet.
Of course, the bible has lots to say and far more than we have time for here. But let me land on just a few passages which are often jettisoned in the work of disciple-making:
35 ‘Don’t you say, “There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest”? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open[a] your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready[b] for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. (John 4:35f)
Jesus says there is a harvest to be gleaned now. He insists there are people waiting to be saved. There are people the Lord has appointed for salvation. There is an expectation here of fruit.
35 Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every[a] disease and every sickness.[b][c] 36 When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.’
Here is the big one. Jesus says explicitly that the harvest is plentiful. He tells us the real problem is that there aren’t enough workers to bring in the fullness of the harvest. The great thing about this harvest is that the sheafs turn into harvesters once they are brought in (I don’t know if this is what Paul meant when he spoke about us becoming new creations!) Nevertheless, more workers are found when the harvest is harvested.
But the key point for us here is a simple one. Jesus insists the harvest is plentiful. He doesn’t say nobody is coming in. He doesn’t say ‘go, but don’t expect much to happen’. There is a plentiful harvest to be reaped. He tells us in the earlier passage that the harvest is ready to be reaped; indeed, it is being reaped now. We are not being sent out on a wild goose chase, but we are being sent into a ready harvest field to harvest what is already there and ripe for harvesting.
In the earliest days of the early church, what do we read in Acts 2? The fledgling church in Jerusalem grew from around 120 believers to over 3,000 overnight. What do we read about the spread of the gospel as we go through Acts? As Jesus insisted his disciples would ‘be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth’ (1:8) and by the end of Acts, the gospel has indeed gone from Jerusalem, through Judea to Samaria and reached ‘the ends of the earth’ as understood at the time.
How does Paul report on the work of the gospel? In the introduction of his letter to the Colossians he says, The gospel ‘is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace.’ They learnt about the spread of the gospel from Epaphras, one of Paul’s fellow mission workers. Paul tells the Roman church ‘I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles. I am bound both to Greeks and barbarians both to the wise and the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.’ Paul says the gospel is bearing fruit all over the world, he has had a particularly fruitful ministry amongst Gentile people and so wants to come to Rome where he expects similar gospel fruit. When we get to the end of that letter, we discover Paul intends to go on to Spain for more of the same.
The scripture does not teach that we should go into the work of mission and evangelism expecting nothing to happen. It does not teach that the ears of those we are going to reach are entirely stopped up. It, of course, recognises that not everybody will be saved, not everybody will respond positively. There is a realism in the scriptures about what we can expect. But its biggest noise is that the gospel will produce fruit, the harvest is plentiful, people will respond positively to the gospel. If we are happy to obey Jesus and take him at his word when we don’t really believe this, just imagine how active we might be when we take him at his word and accept that this is what he really says!
We don’t have to be pessimistic. We don’t have to admit defeat before we have even started. The Lord has his people and he sends us into the world to find them. The Lord tells us those people are there, he tells us the fields are white for harvest, he tells us the harvest is plentiful and the bigger problem is the lack of people going to get it! Let’s not take the gospel into the world expecting nothing. Let’s take Jesus at his word and go expecting real gospel fruit, expecting people to be saved, expecting disciples to be made. We know it must be true because Jesus says so.