Well, good morning, brothers and sisters.
Good morning. Let us pray.
Living and loving heavenly Father, we thank You, O Lord, for giving us this day and this time. We thank You and praise You for what You have done for us on that cross, O Lord, and for the living hope that You have given to us.
We thank You and praise You, O Lord, for giving us the chance to remember You and to take part at the table, O Lord. As we come before You today, at this time, O Lord, to meditate upon Your Word, please be with us.
Open all of our senses. Help us to listen to Your sweet, still voice, O Lord. Please remember me as well, O Lord. I am not worthy enough to stand here and speak about You, O Lord, but You have opened this door for me.
I commit myself into Your hands, O Lord. Let Your words be spoken through me—not my understanding, not my wisdom and knowledge—but may Your knowledge and wisdom be presented before us today, O Lord, through me. Use me as Your trumpet.
I commit myself, this time, and everyone present into Your hands. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.
Well, the burden that I have on my heart is what I want to share today. I do not know whether it is a complicated one or whether it is a simple one, but I just want to bring it before all of you today.
Whenever there is an opportunity for me to stand here and share the Word of God, I always think, “Okay, let’s pick a tough topic, or a complicated topic. I can do this. I can talk about the specifics of this. I need to prepare this much or that much.”
And every time, right before two to three weeks, God comes back and tells me, “You are not going to speak about that. You are going to speak about a whole different thing.” That has happened. This is the fourth time I am standing here, and it has happened all four times.
So I bring this burden before you with a heavy heart, and I feel like we need to take this seriously. I am sure I am not as experienced as the people sitting in front of me, or the people who have already gone before me to discuss this topic. Many saints have discussed this topic before, but I just want to bring it to your remembrance.
Before going to that burden, I want to lay a foundation—a foundation that every one of us knows, a foundation that every one of us needs to remember, and a foundation that every one of us needs to understand.
What is that foundation? The Lord Jesus Christ is the heavenly vision for us and for His church.
That heavenly vision was presented to Paul on the road to Damascus. That same heavenly vision has been presented to us through Jesus Christ, when we understand what He has done on that cross.
The work of redemption was accomplished on that cross once and for all. We need to understand that this heavenly vision is for us, to transform us, and we have that through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have seen the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, and we have been transformed into living stones for His church. That is the heavenly vision. That is the work of God: to show us that heavenly vision through the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the work of the Father is not complete yet. Is it complete through the heavenly vision that Paul saw on the road to Damascus? No.
John the apostle also had that vision on the island of Patmos. He saw something—not something different, but a continuation of what happened on that cross. There is a continuation. The work is still continuing when we look at our Lord Jesus Christ.
The work of God is still going on. What is that work of God that is still continuing? It is the will of God that His body needs to be built up until our Lord Jesus Christ comes back for us.
It is His will to build the church. Why does He want to build the church? It is for His Son’s sake. The whole theme today is for His sake.
Right from the beginning, when the brother opened the Word today, we were considering for whose sake we have been presented. It is for His Son’s sake. This church has to be presented to the Lord Jesus Christ as His bride.
It is for His sake, and that is the will of God. That is the continuation of the work. As far as the work of redemption is concerned, it was finished when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross. But the work of the church is still continuing, and that is also the heavenly vision we need to consider.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has been taking care of us here on earth as Christians. He is our Intercessor, as we have seen Abraham intercede for Lot. Many have interceded for us in our personal lives, and even Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the throne, interceding for us.
He is not only interceding for us; He is also our High Priest, seated at the right hand of God. That Christ needs to be expressed through this continuing work of the Lord on this earth, which is the church.
So the foundation I want to lay is this: we have a heavenly vision which is still continuing, and that needs to be expressed through the church because that is the will of God. This church has to be presented as a full-fledged bride to His Son.
That is the foundation we all need to remember. Now, to present this church to Christ, the work has to continue. What is that work?
My intention today is to bring that before you—to express what that work could be. As I mentioned earlier, we might have heard about this work many times, but I want to bring it again before you today.
My intention in bringing it before you is because of these verses. I want to encourage everyone through the love of God and through the Word of God. I want to stir everyone up through the love of God and through the Word of God.
Let us turn our Bibles to Hebrews 10:23-25.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for He Who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some,
but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
This is what I intend to do today. My intention is to encourage one another and stir up one another, because the Day is drawing near. The more we encourage one another in love and good works of the Lord, the better.
It is better to gather together and encourage one another for love and good works because the Day is drawing near.
Now, how do I want to encourage us toward love and good works? I want to bring before you a practical representation. Work with me while I do this practical representation in front of you.
Let us take a moment. What can you all see here? You can answer. Grapes—a bunch of grapes. These are grapes, right? These are really sweet when we eat them.
They can be used in many ways, especially in the Bible. There are many representations for grapes. But one exact point I want to bring before you is this: I want to crush these grapes as much as I can.
Imagine having lots and lots of grapes. What would you do with that many grapes? Either you eat them, or you press them in a winepress and extract the wine from them to drink.
Today, I want to consider the second part. I want to crush them. Imagine this little stone is the winepress, and this is the whole bunch of grapes. Let us see what happens.
If I crush them as hard as I can, what happens? The juice comes out. It turns into wine, as much as possible. I am not that strong, so it cannot turn into wine right now, but at least I am trying to represent it.
If I crush this, what happens? It is all crushed and mushy. The juice is flowing out of it.
What happens if human beings are in the place of these grapes, and human beings are being crushed like this? Can you see that? Can you imagine what happens? Would you be able to witness it, when human beings are crushed like this in a winepress?
Blood flows out like wine. Do you think that same thing has been represented in the Bible? Can anyone guess where it is represented?
Let us turn our Bibles to Revelation 14. I am glad that we sang that song to the end, “Maranatha.” It is important for us to remember this when we are singing that song as well.
Let us turn to Revelation 14:14-20. I will read. This is why I want to represent this in a practical way, because we need to understand the seriousness of what is happening in these verses.
Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud One like a Son of Man,
with a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.
And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to Him Who sat on the cloud,
“Put in Your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”
So He Who sat on the cloud swung His sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.
Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire,
and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle,
“Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”
So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth
and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
And the winepress was trodden outside the city,
and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.
Now, do you understand why I wanted to represent this? Who is being crushed here, in the wrath of God? Who is being crushed here?
There are two types of harvest here. One is, by the grace of God, we are in the first harvest. I am really sure about that.
There are different ways of representing the first harvest. I do not want to go into the details or the different interpretations, because that is not the point I want to make here. But we are in the first harvest. Thank God for that.
But what about the second harvest? Look around, people. How many of the people we know are bound to be in God’s wrath? Who are going to be crushed as grapes, and whose blood is going to flow outside the city of Jerusalem?
Are you ready to see it? Are you ready to see it all? No, I am not ready. When we are singing that song, all I can see is, “Lord, I am not ready to see my loved ones being crushed.”
Look around. How many are bound to be crushed like this in God’s wrath? Our families, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues—how many people are there just in your community who do not know about the Lord Jesus Christ?
For clarification, if anyone does not understand why I am saying people are going to be crushed: it is because their way is not according to the Lord’s way.
We had seen that Lot was bound to die or be destroyed in the fire. But what happened? Abraham interceded for Lot. In the same way, there are many people in this world who are bound to be destroyed in God’s wrath.
Should we neglect them, saying, “I am in the first harvest. I do not care about them. I cannot do anything about it, because it is their choice. They are bound to be crushed in God’s wrath”?
Or should we say, “They are bound to be punished. I cannot do anything. The Lord will take His course”? Can we say that? No.
Or should we say there is a lot of time for the harvest, and that there is plenty of time for them to be saved? Should we say that the Lord’s coming can be delayed, and they can be saved when the time comes, while we continue with our own lives?
I do not want to say that. Do we want to say that? No. We never know when the Lord is going to come. He can come the next minute. Then what is going to happen to all those people?
If He comes the next minute, we are here praising the Lord that we are going to be with Him. But what is going to happen to those people around us who do not know the Lord?
We cannot say that there is time for the harvest or time for the Lord’s coming, because the Lord Jesus did not say that. Let us turn to John 4:34-38.
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’?
Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.
Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life,
so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.
Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
The Lord is saying, “There are not yet four months.” There is no time. We saw in Hebrews that the Day is drawing near. We need to understand that the harvest is ready and the Day is drawing near.
There are so many people who need to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. What should we do?
If you say that conditions outside the church are very tough, that people are not open to listening to what we want to share, and that it is really difficult to share the gospel with them, then what is happening at Emporia? At LifeWise?
It is a living testimony in front of us. People are receiving the Lord with open hearts. Children are receiving the Lord with open hearts. What is happening in South Africa, in the Middle East, in India, in Asian countries, and in the secret churches in China?
It is not difficult. Even in the States, the harvest is ready. Here in the United States, everywhere in the world, the harvest is ready.
We cannot say there are difficult situations. Yes, there are difficult situations all the time. First-century believers and apostles faced difficult situations.
Have you read Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand? During the Second World War, think about what he had to go through, and think about the secret churches in Russia, Europe, and Germany. The harvest was plentiful at that time too.
It is not just us who face difficult situations. The harvest is ready right now, but there is something lacking.
Let us turn to Matthew 9:35-38. We see that the harvest is now. It is not something in the future. The harvest is plentiful, but there is one thing lacking.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom
and healing every disease and every affliction.
When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them,
because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Who are few? The laborers are few.
As I said in the beginning, the heavenly vision for the church is to build up the body. So it is not just about believers coming into the church; it is also about new ones being added to the church. I mean the universal church, wherever they are—not just here in this fellowship house.
The harvest is required to build His body. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. To continue the Father’s work on this earth until Christ’s return, we as believers should become those laborers who go out and harvest the people who are ready to be harvested.
God is calling us to be His co-workers for this harvest. God is calling us to leave the cares of this world that are dragging us down, so that we can go out into this world and proclaim the gospel.
It is not just about coming to the fellowship, spending time around the Lord’s table, and worshiping the Lord. Those are all important. But there is another part as well, which Jesus Christ Himself is doing here: proclaiming the gospel.
In Matthew 9:35, Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, healing, and having compassion for the people.
So the gospel needs to be preached to this world. We, as individuals and as a church, need to share and proclaim the good news, just as Jesus did.
Teaching is important. Serving with compassion is important. But proclaiming the gospel to people who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ is tremendously important, because it is not the Lord’s plan to destroy anyone.
Second Peter 3:9 says that it is the Lord’s plan and will to save every human being He has created. He does not want to send anyone into God’s wrath.
Who does He want to use? He wants to use His church. Who is His church? We are His church. We are the individuals.
So we need to come out of our comfort zone to accomplish the will of the Lord. We need to be ready to go into this world and face difficult situations.
I am not saying that none of us is doing the work of the Lord or sharing the gospel outside the church. No, we are all doing it. We hear testimonies whenever we have the opportunity.
But we also need to go out as a church to share that gospel, because it is the responsibility of the church to share the gospel.
We need to stop worrying about the cares of this world, especially the younger generation. If we look at the younger generation today, what are we concentrating on?
Let us consider proclaiming the testimony of Jesus Christ to people who do not know about Him. Let us try to go out and work for the kingdom of the Lord. It is important to add people to that kingdom.
That is what the apostles did in the Acts of the Apostles. No one stayed back, and no one was afraid of the things they were facing.
We are reading through Acts now in our fellowship Bible studies, and we see people going out and putting themselves in danger to share the gospel.
Not just the apostles in Acts—there are people throughout history who have done this. People went before us: Brother Kong, Brother Bakht Singh, Brother Nee. They all put themselves out into this world. They were not afraid to face difficulties.
When I was meditating upon this message, or this thought given to me by the Lord, I remembered one song. I always listen to this song. It always challenges me, and I thought it was for individual introspection or examination.
But while preparing for this, the Lord revealed to me that this is the responsibility of the church. It is His heavenly vision that the work of the church has to be done.
I wanted to read that song to every one of you. It was in Telugu, and I tried to translate it. Some brothers and sisters might know it. I will read it through, and you will understand what the apostles had to go through, what our responsibility is in this world, and what kind of responsibility we need to take upon ourselves.
I always thought about this song as one that challenges an individual believer, but it can be a song for the church as well. We need to realize that it is for the church, and through the church it is for each one of us.
What is your testimony?
What is your sacrificial offering?
Having accepted the Lord Jesus, why do you still slumber?
Having accepted the Lord Jesus, why do you still delay?
Awake, arise, come, O believer.
In the days of the apostles, amidst the pressure of tribulations,
enduring all things, they won souls for the kingdom.
They were stoned; they were cut in two.
Having received the heavenly vision, they proclaimed the gospel.
They were beaten with scourges; they were cast into dungeons;
yet the shackles of the prison could not hinder them.
As a living sacrifice, they fulfilled the service of the Lord.
The gospel prevailed, and the church was established.
The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Jesus is calling you. Will you cast aside the Lord’s call?
I offer myself—spirit, soul, and body.
Taking up my cross, I will follow Thee.
We have seen what the apostles went through. The writer is also saying that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Are we ready to put ourselves in the shoes of the apostles? I am not saying that we are apostles. We are the saints of the Lord, and the same privilege has been given to us. The Lord Jesus Christ is in us. He wants us to represent Him to this world.
Looking at all of this, we understand that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. How can we, as a church or as individuals, serve like the apostles in the work of the Lord for building up His body?
The first thing I want to bring before you is this: let us examine ourselves by asking the questions we have read. Let us examine whether anything is missing from what Jesus did in Matthew 9:35.
Jesus taught. He proclaimed the gospel. He had compassion, and He healed. When we hear healing, we may think of physical healing, but it can also be spiritual healing. The Lord can use us in someone’s life for spiritual healing as well.
When we pray, physical healing can come as well. But what I want to bring before you is that the harvest needs shepherds, teachers, and evangelists: people to counsel, teach the Word of God, and proclaim the gospel.
Let us turn to Ephesians 4 and try to understand what the Bible wants us to do as the body of Christ, to accomplish the work of the Lord.
When we are challenged in life through circumstances, or when we examine ourselves to see whether we are accomplishing the will of God, our hearts can become discouraged. We may think that we are not doing enough as human beings and as children of the Lord.
But the beauty of the Lord is that He says, “Do not look at yourself. You need to look at Me.”
Ephesians 4:7 says:
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
We do not need to depend on our own strength to do all this work for the Lord. God’s grace has already been given to us. We do not need to worry about all those things. We do not need to get discouraged.
We do not need to think, “I am not doing this. I am not doing that.” We just need to look unto the Lord and ask Him, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” His grace has been given to us.
Not only His grace; the Lord has also given us gifts. Let us read Ephesians 4:11-12.
And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ.
God has already given these gifts to the people of the church, to the people of the body. God has already selected you or placed you in a particular position, giving you a gift to preach, to counsel someone, or to proclaim the gospel as an evangelist.
It is not about holding positions, such as, “I am the pastor of this church,” “I am the elder of this church,” or “I am leading this group Bible study. I have leadership over them.” It is not about that.
It is about proclaiming and showing the love of God and the works of the Lord to other people. These gifts have been given to each and every one of us.
Through those gifts, we are called to serve in these roles, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. It is not only about learning from our elders; it is also about teaching our younger ones, wherever we go.
Having been equipped with these gifts, we can go out and proclaim. We can be laborers and co-workers for the Lord’s kingdom.
We all need to understand this, and we all need to ask God, “Lord, what is my gift in the body?” It is not just about preaching or leading a Bible study. It is also about working for His kingdom wherever there is need.
It is about having compassion. It is about serving those who are needy. We all need to ask God and know what our gifts are, what spiritual gifts He has provided for us.
He will equip us for ministry and for the work of the body of Christ.
When we try to do this, when we examine ourselves, and when we go to the Lord for understanding, we will face temptations from this world. Satan will be ready to come and disturb us, to draw us away from the Lord.
But we do not need to worry about Satan’s craftiness or deceitfulness, because the Lord Jesus Christ is already there for us, protecting us.
What is the outcome of all these things for the church and for the individual? It is for the building up of the body of the church.
The body builds itself up when the whole church comes together and equips itself for the ministry and work of the Lord through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us read Ephesians 4:15-16.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him Who is the head, into Christ,
from Whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,
when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
The body builds itself up in love when the work of the Lord is for the body of Christ. We want to work toward this as a church and as individuals, as children of God.
If any of these things are missing among the church—teaching, proclaiming the gospel, healing, or serving with compassion—then the work of the Lord is hindered in His church.
We need to understand that there is need for all these things in this world. The work of the church must be whole. It should not be in fragments.
So what have we seen today? We have seen that there is a heavenly vision of the Lord, and that heavenly vision is still continuing until the Lord comes. There is work for the church to accomplish as long as we are in this world.
The heavenly vision continues today, and the work of the Lord is accomplished through His church. We have also seen that the Day is drawing near. There is not much time.
There are not four months for us to think that this can happen in the future. The harvest is plentiful. If it is not reaped, it is bound for destruction. We saw this in Revelation 14.
The people we love, the people we see, are bound to be crushed under God’s wrath. We, as the church—His body—are called to be His co-workers for His work to be accomplished.
So let us examine ourselves. If we are missing anything in the things we have seen, if there is anything we are not doing, let us ask God to show those things to us.
Let us come out of our comfort zones when we are in this world, and let us work toward building His body as a whole and not in fragments.
Where can we start? The first thing we can do is prayer. Matthew 9:38 tells us what Jesus Christ has asked us to do.
The first thing we can do is pray for laborers to be sent out into this world. That is where we can start.
But we can also examine ourselves as a church and as children of God: “Lord, what do You want us to do? What is our gift? Where do You want to use us? How can we be a testimony to this world?”
How can we bring people who do not know You out of that harvest that is bound to be crushed?
Let us pray.
Living and loving heavenly Father, we thank You, O Lord, for giving us this day and this time. We thank You and praise You for showing us that there is much harvest in this world, ready to be reaped and harvested.
We pray that we will be Your co-workers, O Lord. May we work with You as Your co-workers and be those laborers who can reap that harvest.
O Lord, if we look at ourselves as individuals, as human beings, we are weak. But we can find strength in You, O Lord. We can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us.
O Lord, we commit ourselves into Your hands. Help us to consider this burden, O Lord, to take this burden seriously, and to work for Your kingdom and for the work You have intended for the church.
We commit everyone present into Your hands. In Jesus’ name, amen.