The Right Response of Compassion

[00:00:00] All right, let's go to Matthew, chapter nine, and we will dive right in. You know, I don't. Generally don't plan stuff like this, or sometimes I do. But it's interesting how when I don't, it just works out in this way. You know, as we've approached the mission conference, I've been thinking, you know, I really. I need to concentrate on some missions verses that deal with that and get our minds and hearts set in that direction. And it just so happens we're at the end of Matthew, chapter nine, and there are fewer passages of scripture that really catch the heart of biblical missions than Matthew, chapter nine. And so we're going to look at verse number 35 and just look at a few things in these four verses. So verse 35. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. [00:01:02] But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Would you pray with me tonight, Lord? Once again we come to you, Lord, we. [00:01:37] Sometimes it feels like we're just. We're praying the same things over and over. But, Lord, as we come in our evening service this first Sunday of April, Lord, we need your help again as we look in your word, Lord, help your word to be fresh, to be renewed, have renewed value to us as we look in it. Even though all of us in this room at some point or another have heard a message about this passage and have heard maybe in a missions conference, Lord, we've heard these truths taught, but I pray these things will be fresh to us. [00:02:13] Please help us to have your heart and, Lord, especially as we go into the mission conference, Lord, that our heart and our mind would be oriented and to be just set toward the things that you are thinking about that are seen in this passage. [00:02:33] Lord, as the mission conference approaches and our missionaries start to come in toward the end of the month, Lord, would you please help us to be a real blessing to them, Lord, a church that would be a source of refreshment, that they would be strengthened, that you would use us, Lord, to give them a greater vision and desire to serve you and to labor for you. As we read here in this passage, and, Lord, we also ask to be blessed by them and that we would be challenged and that we would be. Our heart would be moved by the things that we hear and our desire would be stirred to serve you where we're at and perhaps even to go somewhere else to make your name known. So, Lord, we just pray for your blessing. Lord, help me to say what your people need tonight and help us to just walk away from this place, strengthened, edified by your word and your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen. [00:03:33] So you see here in verse number 35, Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the people. The Lord Jesus was a worker. He was a. He had a work ethic. He was not hanging around waiting on everybody to come to him. [00:03:54] He was going from place to place. That's what he did. For three and a half years he worked. He went from place to place, from village to village. And when you do that, and you know, as you go from place to place and as you try and minister to new places, and this is what happens, you know, I mean, you might do it when you travel for vacation or for work or whatnot. [00:04:22] When you go from place to place, what you start to realize very quickly is how small of a world that we live in. I'm not saying the world itself, but I'm saying the world that I live in, the world that you live in as an individual, you know, basically we rub shoulders with like 20 or 30 people that we see on a regular basis. You know, we just. Our world is pretty small. But when you start going from village to village and place to place, you know, you get. Start to get an understanding for where people are at. You start to get an understanding for the enormity of the task. Now we have to remember that when our Lord left, he left the church of God with a commission, with a mission to perform. And it is our duty to be involved in that mission. [00:05:15] It is a matter of obedience to the Lord to be involved in, in that mission. And as we go from place to place, you know, as we see the Lord Jesus here doing, we start to see there's a lot more to be done than what we are doing. And what we have done, it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I know as a missionary we did some of this and went from place to place and surveyed places. And you realize, man, this is far more than I have the capacity to do. And I think every missionary who has had any kind of vision beyond just like his little area, his corner, every missionary who has that vision, I think in unified voice would say it is way bigger than I could ever do in my lifetime. That's generally what missionaries would say. [00:06:04] But our Lord went to these different places and taught them and interacted with them. And as you do that, you get a good feel and a good understanding for where people are at. This is one of the greatest dangers of never being involved in ministry outside of the church, Never being involved with people and interacting with people outside of our group is that you lose touch for where people are. [00:06:31] How do you find out where people are? You find out where people are by going to where they are and engaging with them and hearing their responses. You see their reactions, you learn of what's on their mind and you pick up on how, in this case with our Lord, you pick up on any kind of deceptions. You pick up on what their worldview is and what their value system is and what their needs are and those kinds of things. And what it does is ministry outside, which is what we read in verse 35, is what gives us a balanced view of people instead of the church centric view of people. Because the Lord has definitely a ministry inward for us and he also has a ministry outward for us. But would you not agree that many, many, many times churches are almost entirely inward focused and, you know, listen, and I want, Lord knows, I want our church to minister to one another. I want our church to be, to be an assembly where people are supported and strengthened and edified and they can grow and all of that. But it can't only be that. That would be out of balance. Our Lord went out and dealt with people outside where they were, and it wasn't even. This principle also reminds us that even though we're having a friend day two weeks from now, that's not our primary way to reach people. Our primary way is not to bring them in, despite what the song says, but it's to go to where they are and see them where they are, you know, and that's what the scriptures say. And of course, we use all means and we have friends, we have acquaintances that come two weeks from today and we hope they come and we'll, you know, we'll be a friend to them and they'll be our honored guests. But as a matter of priority, and our primary method is go to where they are, see where they're, what their life is like. [00:08:29] If we always surround ourselves with people that we're familiar with, if we always surround ourselves with the people that make us comfortable, and we never venture out to People who are outside of that bubble of ours, and every one of us has one. [00:08:44] We will start to think that the world is small. We will start to think that the task of ministry and getting the gospel to people is basically what we see. But it's what? Way bigger than that. It's hard to even believe. Listen, as a missionary, we. We surveyed towns just in a single province of Cambodia. One province which is about the size of a US County. Okay, one province. We went to the towns in that one province. And then once we decided where we would go first to evangelize, we spent three years in one place. [00:09:23] One place. [00:09:25] You know what I realized? Hey, there ain't no way. There ain't no way I'm going to be able to do all this. There is way too much to be done. And so that's what the Lord wants us to pick up on. [00:09:36] And this, you know, seeing the Lord's work ethic going from place to place, intentionally, actively engaging people, trying to reach people in various ways and means. [00:09:48] It's a good example to us. So we go down to verse number 36. And as a result of what our Lord has been doing, he's been going from place to place. What has he seen? He has seen people, the multitudes, in other words, because he's gone to various places. But when he saw the multitudes, he's seen a lot of people. You see, the problem is, again, when you only see the people that are here, you get the idea that that's all there is. When you go to other places, you see there's a lot more people out there. And he saw the multitudes, right? Think about this. I just ran a few statistics and these are very rough numbers, so don't hang your hat on them or anything. [00:10:34] Greenville County, South Carolina has about 525,000 people. People, right? Greenville County. And it's one of the larger counties. [00:10:44] It is the biggest now. Okay, so it's the largest now. I didn't know it had grown that much. So 525,000 people. We're not even at a million. We're barely at a half a million in our country. [00:10:56] Just our country. In our country only has 380 million. And it's just. What is it as a percentage of the world's population? It's like 7% or something. It's very small. [00:11:08] Just in our country, there are roughly 250 counties that are approximately the size of Greenville. [00:11:18] Think about that. [00:11:20] And we have been. Look, we have been faithfully, by the grace of God, we have been faithfully trying to knock on doors in Berea around it. We've been faithfully trying to give out gospel tracts in downtown Greenville. And we've given out thousands. And I praise the Lord for that. [00:11:36] But when you look at the map of just our county, which is not a big county in comparison to a lot of places, and if you shade it in the part that we have covered, it is just. It's like nothing in the county. It's just nothing. Look, it's not about bragging rights. It's just about we do the best we can, we work hard, we leave the rest to God, because God has other people in other places. [00:12:01] But think of it, we're in just this one little spot, and in the whole county, 525,000 people. And there are 250 counties of similar size in the country. Not just that. [00:12:15] We haven't even knocked on every door in Berea. Berea. 15,500 people in the Berea community, which is closest to here. I don't think this is actually Berea like where Sister Pam lives is Bere. But we're on the line in the Berea community, 15,500 people approximately. [00:12:35] Did you know that? In the country, plus or minus 50%. So very roughly, there are 2,000 communities of similar size in the country. And that doesn't even count the ones that are bigger and the ones that are smaller. Thousands and thousands more. And we haven't even finished going once over half Berea. [00:12:58] Here's the thing. We get out and you start ministering, you start to realize, man, there is a lot to do. There is a lot of opportunity. There is a lot of opportunity for ministry. So you see the multitudes, you see that by ministry. But notice this. When he saw the multitudes. Let me ask you a question. What is the multitude? [00:13:21] You know what the multitude is? [00:13:23] The multitude is composed of many individuals. [00:13:30] That's profound, right? I know. They ought to give me an honorary doctorate for that. [00:13:35] The multitudes are composed of many individuals, many sinful individuals. [00:13:43] So it's one thing to step back and see the multitude in. It's another thing entirely when you're face to face with the individuals that make up the multitude. There is a big, big difference. And as we go into mission conference, you're gonna start to hear things that missionaries say that is all true reading. For instance, verse number 36, he saw the multitudes. In other words, you see the group, but you gotta remember the group is made up of individuals. You know, as a missionary, you get really moved by that, you know, you think of the teeming masses and all the people and the millions of people, and you think of all of that, and you think of them as a group. And then when you get there, you start to meet those multitudes one by one by one by one. And it looks a lot different. [00:14:35] It looks a lot different. It really does. [00:14:39] You can say it like this. The view of the whole field at a distance looks much different than the view of the field when you're standing among the grain looks a lot different. [00:14:52] The ground's dirty. There's manure everywhere. [00:14:56] Fertilizer. It stinks. You know, you see the ugly when you get up close. [00:15:03] But that's what our Lord dealt with. [00:15:06] And here's the thing. [00:15:08] When you get up close to people and you don't see the multitude in that romanticized way, you get up close, you see people. You know what you see. [00:15:16] You see. [00:15:19] You experience people being rude, individuals being rude, individuals that are unkind, individuals that reject you, individuals that do not want to listen. That's what you see when you get up close in the multitude. And there's no way to minister without doing that. And you know what the effect of that is? It destroys our compassion because we get offended. You know, we don't want to be insulted. We don't want to be treated in such a way. And it will destroy our compassion. [00:15:48] How is it that we can have compassion on people who are so apathetic? Remember, we're not talking about the multitude, we're talking about the grain. Up close, individuals. How can we still have compassion on people up close when we see all the ugly and we're mistreated by them, and sometimes they're hostile to us? [00:16:07] You think of Jesus himself. The one who had compassion on them, was hurt by them, these very people, over and over and over. The individuals that comprised the multitude were the ones who hurt our Lord, and yet he maintained compassion when he saw them. [00:16:27] So we can say this kind of compassion is not a regular human compassion, but it is a divine compassion. And the only way possible that we can have this kind of compassion. Which word compassion means to suffer with. That's what the word means. [00:16:45] The only way we can do that is if we have the sanctifying power of God's spirit within us, working in us to make us see beyond the individuals, to see where they actually stand. He gives us a spiritual mind, and that gives us compassion. In other words, he gives us the mind of Christ. [00:17:10] Because even though our Lord was hurt and rejected and mistreated he did not lose his compassion on the multitude. Even though he saw the multitude up close and ugly, he did not lose his compassion on the multitude. Jesus, our Lord was never callous, he was never apathetic. He was never unfeeling as we are. Right? We are that way. [00:17:37] If I were to ask you this. [00:17:40] Are you moved? [00:17:43] Am I moved with the knowledge that someone is not saved? [00:17:49] Just take an individual, anybody. Am I actually moved? Of course, in my head I know that's not good, right? Of course. But are we moved with compassion? [00:18:02] Do we suffer with them? [00:18:06] That's the way. That's what the Bible says Jesus was. He wasn't apathetic. [00:18:12] Our Lord was moved with compassion. But notice this, I want you to see this in verse number 36. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. [00:18:21] Them. And it gives the reasons you can imagine. In the first century, there's no modern medicine, you know, there's diseases rampant, all kinds. Viral diseases, bacterial diseases, genetic diseases. I mean, that's why there's so many blind and lame and mute. And there's people that have palsy and paralysis and all kind death and all kind of people. I mean just it's everywhere surrounded them. Because in a society without that, that's what you have. You have a lot of people who are ill and it surrounds him. But I want you to see this. Upon what thing is he compassionate? What it is that moves him, though he is surrounded by disease and human suffering of various sorts. Look at what verse 36 says. He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd. Two reasons. First, they fainted. He had compassion. He was moved and suffered with them. Felt pain himself because of them, because they fainted. That means obviously their strength was spent, which was a manifestation and an evidence of sin, human suffering. Because human suffering ultimately comes from sin. Here's the point I want you to see from this. They fainted. It shows that sin is hard. [00:19:45] Sin is hard. It has a moment of fun, but its pain lasts. Sin is not easy like it's presented in the commercials. Nobody, you know, you see the beer commercial and everybody's having a good time or whatever. Yeah, it looks fun, but that's just momentary. The effects of it are forever and the effects of it really stink bad. The Bible says the way of transgressors is hard in Proverbs 13:15. So this kind of hardship, the effect of sin has a real effect on people. I mean, it really does hurt them and it makes their Life stink. It makes their life terrible. I mean, you look at people who, you know, you think of drinking and, you know, you take a drug addict, the life of a drug addict. And I know I have one in my family, my brother, and I've had conversations with him, and he's like, do you think I want to be addicted to drugs? [00:20:38] His life is hard. [00:20:40] His life is hard, right? You think of a man or a woman who betrays their family and betrays the commitment in their marriage and they commit adultery and they lose their family and they lose their kids and they're sitting alone while their kids are in another state. Do you think that's easy? No, that is hard. That will make you faint, right? The effect you say, well, and here's the thing. Do we not do this? Well, he had it coming. Well, that's true. But see, that's not the compassion that the Lord had. He looked at suffering. Just separate off the cause. Because we bring it all on ourselves, do we not? We often bring it, a lot of it on ourselves. But separate that for a second and just look at the person as they are in this moment, suffering. We know sin causes a lot of it. [00:21:29] He still had compassion on them. He saw that person. Those people fainting. [00:21:34] Sin destroys people. And often they have no idea why it's happening. Like this morning. They're blind. [00:21:43] They think it's normal. This happens to everybody. [00:21:47] They see everybody's fainting. But those who are shepherded by the Lord Jesus are not fainting. [00:21:57] We are not fainting. [00:22:00] We might have difficult things in our life, but our life is not hard compared to those who are under the weight of sin. But then he says Also in verse 36, he had compassion. And his heart was moved and suffered with them because they were scattered abroad. [00:22:17] They were scattered from the Shepherd. Notice Ephesians 2:12 says this. @ that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. They were not in the fold. That's what we see here. They were. The Lord had compassion because they were not in the fold, but they were alien to it. They were not his sheep. And this speaks directly. The first one speaks to the effects of sin. The second one speaks the Lord's compassion because of their relationship with him or lack of, was for these two reasons that he had compassion. Now I want you to note this. [00:22:58] Note that both of those reasons are spiritual in nature, not physical. [00:23:06] We know that Jesus had compassion like we saw this morning on People because of physical ailments. But in this matter, when he looks across the multitude, it is not all the illness. And if he could just heal all the illnesses, because that's what he's doing. He's healing. His compassion comes of seeing their spiritual plight because that supersedes any physical ailment. [00:23:27] Now, we know that on paper, but do we really believe it? Right, we know it on paper, but the Lord knew it and believed it to such a degree that it actually moved. Moved Him. [00:23:41] It was not simply pity for them not having enough to eat or not having running water or because of illness of various kinds. His concern was far more profound and eternal. His compassion came from eternal realities of these people. [00:24:00] And what the Lord wants to do in Second Corinthians 3, 8 says it. He wants to make us into the image of Christ and to give us that kind of compassion for those reasons, you know, and I see it. You know, you see it on social media, too. And I don't make light of it. I don't intend to tend to make light of it, but you see kids who are going through cancer and stuff and, you know, fight for, you know, so and so, and they have stuff like that and they're raising money, and I feel compassion. I honestly do. I feel sad, and it's a shame to me because I feel compassion for these kids who are suffering. I saw this morning on Facebook, that gives away my age. Right there on the Facebook. Right, the Facebook. I saw a little picture of Mary Lynn when she was in 2014, a year ago yesterday. A year ago. [00:24:54] 11 years ago yesterday. It was a picture of Mary Lynn when she was just five. [00:25:00] Right? And I saw it and I felt, we have a leak. Where is it leaking, brother? [00:25:17] Okay, well, I'll hurry up and finish, and then we'll have to deal with it. [00:25:25] Oh, Lord, help us. [00:25:32] Okay? [00:25:36] You see people suffering like that, especially little kids. I saw that picture of Mary Lynn, and honestly, you see people like that and you feel compassion. But I think to myself, do I feel. Am I moved in that same way towards someone who's just lost without a shepherd, you know, who's perishing? Do I feel that way? And often I think the answer is no. [00:26:03] You know, Romans 9:2, Paul said this. He says that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart, even though he had been hurt so many times. So look at verse number 37. [00:26:19] As a result of the Lord's compassion in verse 37, he says this. Then saith he unto his disciples, this is compassion with Action. Because compassion is not just a feeling. It prompts action to alleviate the suffering. It is not just a feeling of compassion. [00:26:37] I mean, what would you say if someone said, oh, I have compassion, and then they did nothing? What if Jesus saw the sick and could heal them and said that he had compassion, but he did nothing to actually alleviate the compassion. Compassion. [00:26:48] But he does something. He says the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. [00:26:56] Now, just note that word harvest. [00:26:59] A harvest. You know what the harvest is. Think about it. In cultivation, the harvest is the final step in a laborious process, right? Of cultivation. You don't start with the harvest. You think of a harvest as a quick thing. Yeah, it is quick. But what leads up to it is this long process, this hard process of cultivation. And the Lord is looking at the goal. He's looking at the final product, which is the salvation of souls. And that is a spiritual. That is an eternal perspective. But he says this. The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. [00:27:36] This is the primary problem. [00:27:39] Lack of laborers. [00:27:43] Lack of laborers has always been the primary problem when it comes to the Lord's harvest. [00:27:48] Missionaries have always pointed to that. Even at the high point of missions in the 1800s with William Carey and Hudson Taylor, it was always an issue of laborers. We don't have enough people. We need more people. We need more people. But let me ask you a question on this matter of laborers. [00:28:09] Why are there so few laborers? [00:28:14] Why are so few people willing to serve the Lord? [00:28:19] Or in this particular instance, go to be a laborer in his harvest as a missionary, for instance? Why are there so few people? Maybe it's a. A lack of compassion. Because compassion is what drove the Lord to say these things, right? He pivoted straight from compassion to this. [00:28:37] But maybe there's another reason. Maybe it's a result of our own spiritual apathy. [00:28:46] You see, nobody can become a laborer as long as he is stuck himself in the mire of spiritual mediocrity, spiritual lethargy. We can't be a laborer if we ourselves are not growing, if we ourselves are not spiritually strong, if we ourselves are stuck in the quicksand of our own spiritual apathy. Well, how are we going to be a laborer? How is the Lord going to use us? Indeed, the Lord is not sending those people. [00:29:19] He is sending laborers. He's sending workers. He's sending people who are doing the job. But the thing is, how can we go as a laborer for the Lord if we can't even be faithful? Here, where we are right, if we ourselves are apathetic about our own spiritual condition, how are we going to show concern about the condition of others? Our own condition doesn't even bother us. We're certainly not going to be moved with compassion toward others. So here's the problem. The problem with laborers. It could be an issue of compassion. But no matter what the actual reason is, here's the truth of it. [00:30:05] There is a direct connection between the lack of laborers and our own spiritual condition. They are connected. [00:30:18] If we are spiritually weak and apathetic and mediocre, there will be no laborers. [00:30:24] If we don't care and have a concern for our own spiritual condition, we will have none for others. We got to get ourselves right if this is going to happen. [00:30:36] And that's frightening. [00:30:38] Think about it. What's the result if grain is ready for harvest and there are no laborers? [00:30:49] I don't presume to know the grand scheme of all of this. The Lord is the Lord of the harvest. But Jeremiah 8:20 does say this. The harvest is past. The summer has ended, and we are not saved. The idea being there was nobody to harvest. That's a frightful thing. We're going to give an account. [00:31:09] Could it be that we might give an account not just for our own spiritual apathy, but we give an account for the effect downstream of lack of laborers because of our own spiritual apathy? See, it's not just about us. [00:31:28] And so in verse 38, the Lord says this as I close the only recorded prayer request of the Lord Jesus, Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. [00:31:46] What's the subject of our Lord's prayer request? It's not about physical matters. It's purely spiritual and eternal in nature. [00:31:59] The Lord is telling his people to pray that he, because he's the sender, would send out people from among them. This is us. This is us right here to go into his harvest. And so if the Lord is saying, pray about this, number one, you got to ask yourself, church, we have to ask ourselves, are we obeying the Lord? Are we obeying this command? He says, pray ye. Therefore, are we, as a church, praying, Lord, send someone. You know, I mentioned this morning in talking about faith, about Can Choice Hills Baptist Church actually rock an entire nation with the gospel? Is that possible? Well, God is able to do it. I think a first step in that is to ascertain which nation that is and start praying God send forth laborers into that nation. That's a biblical prayer request. [00:32:50] Are we obeying that. [00:32:53] But we have to understand that when we pray that we should be expecting that the Lord's going to send somebody out of our group to do that. And you know what? That would be a great honor for our church. Honestly, I mean that it would be a great honor to send a missionary from our church to go labor that represents us in that place. [00:33:17] Hey, I'm just telling you. I'm praying. The Lord's going to do that. [00:33:21] And I'd like you to join me to pray that the Lord would send forth laborers generally, that the Lord would send forth laborers maybe into a particular country that he would like our church to have an effect upon and maybe send forth laborers from among us. This is biblical. As we look into the mission conference, I think we should start praying this. [00:33:47] Lord, help me to care about the spiritual and eternal plight of people. Lord, help me to pray for them. Help me to respond. Give me compassion. Take away my apathy. Take away my own mediocrity. Take away my own lethargy, my own sleepiness. [00:34:07] Take it away from me that I might. That I might pray that I might serve. That I that, Lord, you might send laborers from among us, that we might be revived. Because it's a function. Whatever we do outside is going to be a function of what we are internally and our own relationship with the Lord. [00:34:25] Let's pray together.