Prayer Evangelism: Part 2 - Pray for Gospel Workers

Last week we commenced our short blog series on the subject of Prayer Evangelism, this week I want us to continue in that theme by considering another way which we can pray for gospel work worldwide. There are many Christians who are limited due to health or situation that cannot actively be involved in face-to-face evangelism, but they still have a vital role in the success of gospel ministry by being people of prayer.

When we look out at the world around us, it is clear that there are billions of people who are in darkness, who are broken, hurting, and separated from God. At the time of writing the world population clock says there are 7,842,046,049 people in the world. Of that 7,842,046,049 every single one of them will spend eternity somewhere.

To illustrate the enormity of the evangelistic task before us, let me quote from David Platt in his 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.”

These statistics are based off surveys and census data, which means a number of people would have said they were Christian, but the reality is they are not truly converted. This means, the number of people today without Christ is actually much higher than what Platt mentions.  

As we look at these numbers the question all Believers need to ask ourselves is, “How can the lost be reached?” There are so many people, but so few gospel workers – what is to be done?

That leads us to our focus of Prayer Evangelism for this week. The way that the world can be reached is if we pray to the Lord asking Him to raise up more workers.

Pray for Workers

In Matthew 9:36-38, we are told:

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 laborers into His harvest.”

When we see the gigantic task of world evangelisation, we like Jesus, should be moved with compassion. It should break our heart that there are billions of people in the world who are not worshipping God, so we should pray that the truth would go to them. But for the truth of the gospel to reach them, there needs to be workers. So, we must pray that the Lord would raise up labourers to take the gospel to all peoples and languages.

There are still unreached people groups - pray that the Lord will raise up workers to be sent to them. There are countries where false religion dominates – pray the Lord would raise up labourers to take Christ to them. But don’t just think of overseas as being a mission field, if you look around, you will soon discover that there are people in your community that have never heard the gospel also.

I regularly speak to people, especially younger people, who have no concept of the gospel. In our secular Western world, we are fast becoming a “reached yet unreached people group.” That is to say, we are reached in the sense that we have the gospel in our language, and we have resources, but unreached because people are not gaining access to that gospel, because the truth is not being carried to them.

To remedy this crisis, we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Notice, what our text is saying; we need to pray to the Lord, that is, our reliance is upon Him when it comes to solving this problem of worker shortage. We must spend time seeking the Lord, asking Him to raise up men and women who will faithfully share the gospel at home, in their community, in their nation, and indeed to the ends of the earth.  

Not all of us can pack up our lives and move to the other side of the world, but we can all go there by prayer. We can read about the need of world missions, then we can pray that the Lord would raise up workers for that people group. When we see the darkness in our society, instead of looking to the Government for rescue, or for a political saviour, let’s commit to pray to the Lord asking that He raise up gospel workers who would go into the darkness with the light of Jesus Christ.

When you’ve finished reading this blog, let me encourage you to spend a few moments praying for gospel workers to be raised up. Then, put the need of labourers on your prayer list so that you can pray for them each day. If you are a Pastor or Church Leader, then please ensure that you are regularly praying for gospel workers to be raised up during your pastoral prayers on Sunday, and also during the prayer meeting.

The only way this world will be reached with the gospel is by more labourers being raised up. Let’s all seek the Lord for more workers!

Pray for labourers who will seek to make much of Jesus!