Hear the Reaper

Revelation 14

Reaping the Earth’s Harvest

¹⁴ Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.¹⁵ And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You^[i] to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” ¹⁶ So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Jesus said,  'the fields are white unto harvest' so pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into the field.

And here it is again.

The kingdom in the now and not yet.

The Now

Since the days Christ walked on the earth, the fields have been white. And the Lord of the harvest has sent many reapers into the fields. 

The day of salvation is here.  As Isaiah prophesied 'this is the year of the favour of the Lord'.

People have time and opportunity to repent and turn to God,  and it is our mission to reap the souls of those that do.... In turn making them into reapers,  or facilitators of reaping. 

That is the gospel and the first mission of the church. Christ came to save sinners.

There are many beautiful things about church and church community but if they do not support this mission,  they are redundant.

Are we mission focused today? Jesus placed you where you are for a reason.  To be salt and light; Salt that can be savoured and light that can be seen in the whole room.

Jesus says freely you have received now freely give.

And he gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I thought about that yesterday and it shocked me how trivialised a thing that can seem. I think the term 'gift' seems to undermine the magnitude of that.

The Holy Spirit is not a free gift in the sense that the toys that come with a happy meal are free gifts.The Holy Spirit is God himself. He dwells in you,  he makes your body his temple!!

And he gives you the power to testify and his authority to do wonders.

Yes.  The Lord of the harvest has equipped his workers well.

Be bold wherever you go,  and the Lord will go with you,  giving you the ground beneath your feet,  wherever that may be.

The Not Yet

But one day the reaper will overtake the sower.

Thats means that one day there will be a final harvest.

The year of favour that Isaiah spoke about will give way to a terrible day.
The day of the vengeance of our God.

We have been reaping for two thousand years but on one day he who sits on the cloud will thrust his sickle onto the earth and the whole earth will be reaped. Just like that. 

That day is coming,  when all things will be reckoned.

And who can stand on that day?

Only the blood of Jesus will cause us to be passed over from this judgement. 

This is why we reap now.  Because God will reap then.

The year of favour saves from the day of vengeance.  How must this sober and motivate us to do the work of the gospel, in word and deed.

Jesus told another parable about the harvest.

He said that there was a field of wheat,  into which the enemy sowed weeds.

And rather than scrap the whole field,  the farmer decides to allow them to grow together.  But on the day of harvest,  he will sort the weeds from the wheat.  And the weeds and chaff will be burnt,  but the grain will be bought into the store house.

This reckoning must come.  If it didn't then God would not be just,  and only a just God can be loving.

In his mercy he has allowed time for more souls to be reaped, before the final reaping.

Lord of the Harvest,  we pray, send more workers into the field. And make us reapers of human souls. Open our eyes to the whiteness of the field around us. Send us into this day in the power of your Holy Spirit,  to love and win those you came to save. Those you have purchased with your precious blood.

This day,
And all days.

Amen.