Matthew 9:38

Plain English Version

So you have to ask God to send more workers out to tell everyone about me, just like the farmer has to ask for more workers for his crop.”

Cross References

Matthew 9:37

Jesus said to his followers, “Lots of people need to hear about me. They are ready to listen, but nobody is telling them. They are like a big crop of food plants on a farm that are ready for the workers to get their seeds for food. But there are only a few workers. The farmer needs a lot of workers to bring all those seeds into the shed, and in the same way I need a lot of workers to tell people about me, and bring them to God.

John 20:21

Jesus said to them, “I want you to feel happy and quiet inside yourselves. And, you know, my father sent me here to the world to give people his message. Well, just like that, I’m sending you out to the people in the world, to give them that same message.”

John 4:35

Listen. I will tell you this picture story about food plants. You can plant seeds, but then you have to wait about 4 months for them to grow before you can get the food from them. That’s how it is with food plants. But you will not have to wait for people to be ready. A lot of people are ready right now to hear the good news and join God’s family. So there is already work for you to do. You don’t have to wait, like you wait for food plants to grow.

Acts 13:2

At one time, Barnabas and Saul, and those other men, they stopped eating food for a while, and they prayed to God. At that time, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Pick out Barnabas and Saul for me now. I’ve got special work for them to do.”

Acts 8:4

The Christians that ran away from Jerusalem went to a lot of different places, and in all those places they told people the good news about Jesus.

1 Corinthians 12:28

And God gives people different jobs in his church, and he gives them the power to do those jobs. – 1st, there are Jesus’s special workers, that God sends to other places to tell people his good news. – 2nd, there are those other people that God uses to tell his messages. – 3rd, there are those people that can teach other people. – After that, there are those people that have the power to do great things. – Then there are those people that have the power to make sick people better. – And there are those people that can help other people. – And there are those people that can lead other people. – And there are those people that can talk in special languages.

Ephesians 4:11

And Jesus Christ gives these special gifts to his people, so that they can help other people in the church. These gifts are the powers he gives to Christians. He gave some of his people the power to be his special workers, and he sent them out to other people to tell them his good news. And he gave other Christians the power to tell God’s messages to people. And he gave some of them the power to help other people to believe in Jesus. And he gave some Christians the power to be pastors, to look after Christians and teach them God’s way. God gave all these powers to his people to get them ready, so that they can work together for him. God works like that, so that his people get stronger, and so that more people join his family. We are like the body of Jesus Christ here on earth, and he wants that body to get bigger and stronger.

2 Thessalonians 3:1

And, Christian friends, there is one more thing we want to ask you to do. Please pray for us. Ask God to help us tell a lot more people about Jesus. We want them to hear that message soon, and we want them to believe it, just like you did.