Reaching the Lost

Last Sunday our Global Outreach and Discipleship for All Nations team had the opportunity to minister in a community in Humble, TX. They opened the doors to us to share the gospel. Today I want to share with you about that experience and how it reminded me of the way Jesus carried out his ministry, especially among the lost. Notice what the Bible says about this:

Jesus went through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all sickness and all disease in the people. And seeing the crowds, he had compassion on them; because they were helpless and scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples: Indeed the harvest is great, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest (Matthew 9: 35-39).

The first thing I see is Jesus going through the cities and villages. The phrase "walked" in the original text conveys the message that Jesus walked as he reflected on the things he was observing. It is as if Jesus walked through cities and towns in an attitude of prayer and reflection. I imagine that Jesus saw the weight of the curse on the people; their inability to see God's will for their lives and the hopelessness that oppressed them. This is the reason why the Word goes on to say that "Jesus had compassion" for them; because they were helpless and scattered like sheep without a shepherd. The compassion of Jesus led him to intervene in the face of what he witnessed. Compassion is not a feeling of sympathy for the suffering of others, but rather an experience that can be highly spiritual when it projects the heart of Jesus to the effects of separation from God on the lost and motivates us to do something about it. Jesus did something about it, He began to go through the cities and villages, that is, not only it was once, but He was again and again healing all diseases and diseases of those who approached Him.

I also see in the biblical text how Jesus was teaching and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom. While it is important to serve and love people in practical ways, just as important is bringing the message that can transform their lives and that calls them to enter the Kingdom of God. Our movement aspires to follow this model, Zig Zighlar said that "people don't care what you know until they know how much you care." That is why love must be manifested in tangible ways while continuing to share the message of the Gospel. In this way, the basis of our scope is relational, but at the same time intentional. Both of these allow us to introduce believers into a process that leads them to maturity and victory in Christ.

The community welcomed us, it was very beautiful. As we prayed and shared with the neighbors, the Lord reminded me Matthew 10:40 says,

He who receives you receives me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Many times people cannot discern Jesus, but anyone that open the doors of their home and their community to Jesus´ disciples, they open it to Jesus. Those kinds of receptions are very important. When Jesus sent the 70, two by two, to minister in the surrounding places, he told them, “In whatever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house. And if there is a son of peace there, your peace will rest on him; and if not, he will return to you… In whatever city you enter, and they welcome you, eat whatever is set before you; and heal the sick that are in it, and tell them: The kingdom of God has come near to you… He who hears you hears me; and he who rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me, he rejects him whom he sent me. " (Luke 10: 5-9, 16). The goal of this whole process of going to the places that God sends us is for people to receive Jesus. I am not saying this in terms of receiving him in a sentence only, but in terms of receiving the essence and manifestation of the Kingdom from him. This process begins by receiving the disciples of Jesus who serve as ambassadors in the name of Christ, calling men to be reconciled with God.

Given this, we finally see Jesus teaching his disciples to pray for the multiplication of workers who can respond to the call of the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations. Our movement in the Houston Texas area is committed to reaching and discipling every person that God allows us to minister. Although we are a Christian church in the Houston Texas area, our philosophy is that by winning a lost we gain a worker to continue the multiplication of disciples who make disciples for the Glory of God.

The need is immense and it deserves that we pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers to his harvest ”. Amen!