Prayer Evangelism: Pray for Gospel Workers

Last week, I commenced a short series on the subject of “Prayer Evangelism.” This week, I want us to continue with that theme by considering how you can pray for gospel work worldwide.

Many Christians are limited due to health or circumstances, so they cannot be involved in face-to-face evangelism – but they still have a vital role to play in the success of gospel ministry.

As we look around, we see a world full of people who are in spiritual darkness. They are broken, hurting, and separated from God. At the time of writing, the world population clock estimates there are 8,130,348,293 people currently living, with the population expected to rise by 200,000 people each day. Think about those numbers, then realise every number represents a person who is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and who will spend eternity either in Heaven or Hell. We have a massive task before us – how can we reach over 8 billion people?

To demonstrate the enormity of the task before us, let me quote from David Platt’s book, ‘Radical’:

There are more than 4.5 billion people in the world today who are without Christ. As if this were not serious enough, more than a billion of these people have never even heard the gospel … More than five thousand people groups, totalling approximately 1.5 billion people, are currently classified as “unreached” and “unengaged.” “Unreached” means that a people group does not contain an indigenous community of evangelical Christians with adequate numbers and resources to spread the gospel within the people group. “Unengaged” means no church or organization is actively working within that people group to spread the gospel. In other words, for these 1.5 billion unreached and unengaged peoples, almost every individual within them is born, lives, and dies without ever hearing the gospel. Even worse, no one is currently doing anything to change their situation. No one.

Platt’s statistics are gathered from surveys and census data, which means many of those who claim to be Christian aren’t true converts. It also doesn’t factor in the number of people who have heard the gospel but have rejected it, or those who think they’ve heard the good news but haven’t understood the biblical gospel. This means the number of people without Christ and not engaged with the gospel is much higher than Platt’s numbers.

But if we take these statistics as a ballpark figure, we should still see how huge the task is before us. As we consider the numbers, we need to be asking ourselves, “How can all those lost be reached? There are so many lost people, but few gospel workers – what can be done?”

There is something you can do! No matter your situation, if you are a Christian, you can do something right now to help turn the tide. What you can do is pray to the Lord, asking Him to raise up more gospel workers.

In Matthew 9:36-38, we read:

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”

The Lord Jesus, upon seeing the multitudes of those who are perishing, is moved with compassion – He loves the lost. Likewise, when we realise how many people are without Christ, we should find ourselves with broken hearts. We should lift up our eyes and see the perishing, then plead with the Lord to raise up workers to reach them with the good news.

There are still many unreached people groups in the world today. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries to go to them. There are countries where false religion dominates; pray that the Lord would raise up labourers to proclaim the truth. But don’t just think of people overseas as being the mission field; realise that around you, there are people who have never heard the true gospel.

On the streets, I regularly speak with people, especially those under thirty, who have no concept of the gospel. No one has ever told them of Jesus – they have never heard the good news. The Western World, which at one point was the hub of world missions, is now a world that has become a ‘reached yet unreached people group.’ What I mean by that is that, as a culture, we are ‘reached’ in the sense that we have gospel resources and material, but ‘unreached’ because people are not accessing the gospel, as the truth isn’t being taken to them.

To resolve this crisis, you need to follow the command of Jesus, to “pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”

Notice what Jesus is saying. He says we need to pray to the Lord; that is, we are to realise that this work of evangelism is only accomplished by His sovereign grace. We need Him to raise up workers and save the lost. We must spend time seeking the Lord, asking Him to raise up men and women who will faithfully share the good news at home, in their communities, in their nations, and indeed to all the ends of the earth.

Not all of us will move to the other side of the world, but we can all go there by prayer. You can read about the need for world missions, then pray that the Lord raises up workers for particular people groups or nations. When you see the darkness in society, instead of looking to the Government for rescue, or a political saviour, commit to praying for society, that the Lord would raise up workers to be a light in the darkness.

When you’ve finished reading this article, let me urge you to spend a few minutes praying to the Lord for gospel workers. Then, put the need for labourers on your prayer list so you can pray each day. If you are a Pastor or Elder, then ensure you are regularly praying for gospel workers to be raised up during your pastoral prayers on the Lord’s Day, and during the prayer meeting.

The only way the world will be reached with the gospel is by more people being raised up and sent. Seek the Lord for more workers!

Will you commit to praying for labourers?

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