“I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor”
There are “seasons” to sow and those to reap, spiritually speaking. In evangelistic parlance, “sowers” are those who explain the good news — that redemption from sins and ever-increasing happiness is available through worship of Jesus — to a hearer who is not ready to accept and obey that truth. A “harvester” is a person who shares the same message with a person who is ready to yield to the Gospel. Sometimes an evangelist will discover that she is functioning as a sower and other times experience the joy of being a harvester. Whether an evangelist is a sower or a harvester in any given instance is entirely dependent on the will of her audience.
Most evangelists will find themselves alternating between these two roles frequently. Others might be called to a long-term mission as one or the other. In order for evangelists — especially sowers — to maintain the motivation to continue their ministry, they must remember that their roles are equally indispensable. It is natural, even appropriate, for an evangelist who rarely harvests to evaluate whether something in her life or strategy is preventing her from experiencing God’s power, in her ministry, to provoke sinners to repentance. However, such an evaluation should be conducted using clear biblical standards to guard against coming under undue guilt. Anyone who is sincerely seeking to live and evangelize based on God’s word can rest assured that not only are their efforts not wasted, they are highly valued by God.
When Jesus referenced that his apostles would reap what they have not sown, he was speaking of all the laborious preaching of the prophets who, despite their desperate pleas for Israel to turn from idolatry, saw their generation die off in a state of moral depravity rather than repentance. Yet they also foretold the coming of the messiah — Jesus — who would offer the most potent antidote God has ever devised for sin. The seeds of expectation of the messiah’s coming were planted and watered by these prophets for generations. Those seeds did not bring forth a harvest until hundreds of years after they died — when the apostles came to spread the Gospel.
Sometimes seeds that an evangelist plants are harvested in an entirely different era. She should nonetheless recognize that there are fields that would never be harvested if not for her faithful sowing.
Raymond Billy is a discipleship mentor for Youth With A Mission.
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