And Jesus said to them, “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.”
– Luke 10:2
Oh, there’s so much here in this short verse. Obviously, get the imagery. Jesus is talking about harvest. We see this throughout Scripture as a picture of bringing in the fruit of the harvest, the grain in the field. At the same time, we also see all throughout scripture, harvest as a picture of judgment for the chaff.
Luke 10:2 explicitly calls us to pray for gospel workers.
And the imagery is clear. There is coming a day when every single person in the world… Including each one of us and every single person around us that we will interact with today… Will one day stand before Jesus as Judge. And our eternity, their eternity will hinge on whether or not we trusted in Jesus for salvation from our sin. That judgment day is coming.
And what Jesus is saying here through this imagery is the harvest is plentiful. There are people ready to hear this salvation. Ready to be brought into the kingdom all around you and all around the world. It’s plentiful. The problem is not there aren’t people who are ready to hear the gospel, to be saved. The problem is there are few laborers who are going into the harvest field and doing the work of making Jesus known.
So Jesus says, “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest.” The Lord over the harvest. Intercede before him, “to send out laborers into the harvest fields.” Don’t miss this. Jesus is commanding you and me to pray for more laborers. For more men and women filled with his Spirit going into the harvest fields… Right around us and all around the world… Making the good news of his love known.
The problem is not there aren’t people ready to hear. The problem is there aren’t followers of Jesus going into the fields to make him known. And this needs to change and this will change when we pray. So, it couldn’t be any clearer what we need to do in response to Luke 10:2.
Luke 10:2 reminds us of the urgency of the work.
Oh, God, we turn our eyes to you as the Lord of the harvest. We praise you as the Lord of the harvest. We praise you as the just Judge over all, before whom every single person will one day stand or, more appropriately, kneel. And so we pray, according to your Word, that you would send out laborers. God, we pray for a movement of your people. Even just right around us today, we pray you would send out laborers today filled with your Holy Spirit to proclaim this gospel today.
And even as we pray that, for laborers around us, we pray that we would be faithful laborers today. God, send out laborers today, filled with your Holy Spirit, following you, Lord Jesus, and making you known today with boldness. God, we pray for bold laborers in the cities where we live, who are making the gospel known and bringing in the harvest. We pray for spiritual awakening, for spiritual boldness in your people, and spiritual awakening in the plentiful harvest around us.
Prayer for the Zaza-Demli People
And, God, we pray for this all around the world, as we pray every day for unreached people and billions of them in this plentiful harvest, God, we pray, send out laborers. Send out laborers, we pray today specifically for the Zaza-Demli people of Türkiye, to 1.3 million of them. Hardly any known followers of Jesus, maybe none. God, we pray the Zaza-Demli people would be reached by laborers going into Türkiye, and laborers within Türkiye. God, we pray for that all across Türkiye. We pray for that all across all the nations. Send out laborers. More laborers taking the Gospel places that it hasn’t gone.
God, as we pray for this, we pray for a fresh spirit of surrender in every one of our lives today. Are you calling us to be one of those laborers in another place in the world where the gospel has not yet gone? God, we pray that you would give a sensitivity to your Spirit and obedience to your Spirit, as the Lord of the harvest, to go if that’s what you’re calling us to do.
This verse also encourages us to be faithful in spreading the gospel.
Even, I think about conversation I was having with a brother in our church family recently is just his travels are taking him everywhere from Saudi to Tel Aviv to just numerous places in the world. God, I pray that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit and others like him with your Holy Spirit to be laborers in the harvest field. God, help us to faithfully spread the gospel in the harvest field around us that is plentiful, right around us and wherever you might lead us.
And, God, we pray for that multiplied all around the world, that your gospel might go to the ends of the earth. We pray earnestly to you, as the Lord of the harvest, please send out laborers into your harvest field. In Jesus’ name we pray, according to his command. Amen. God, may it be so.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
