Compassionate Authority

Good morning - It is good to be with all of you

Our team headed out for Moldova this morning, so be praying for the gospel work that they will be doing overseas this week

If we have not met, my name is Stefan… I am the pastor of preaching here at harvest

And we are finishing up Matthew 9 this morning as we continue in part III of our series in Matthew

So let’s take out our Bibles and turn to Matthew 9

If you did not bring a Bible, there should be one under a seat nearby.

Well, as we’ve been walking through the Gospel of Matthew, we have been encountering the authority of Jesus

He has displayed authority over sickness, over nature, over demons, over sin, and even authority over death

And now as we reach the end of chapter 9, there is no question of who Jesus is:

He has the authority that only God has and he can do things that only God can do.

And so we are confronted with the reality that this Jesus has this authority precisely because he is God in human form.

But Matthew has not just shown us the authority of Jesus, he has also shown us the heart of Jesus.

Jesus cares enough to move close - To draw near in the midst of pain and suffering and to care for those in need

And when we take these two things together, the authority of Jesus and the heart of Jesus, it helps us to have a right view of him.

Jesus does not have authority without compassion, as if he were a tyrant or a dictator who cared nothing for his people.

Nor does Jesus have compassion without authority, as if he were a pushover who cares but is unable to actually do anything for us.

No, in our passage this morning in Matt. 9:35-38, Matthew is going to help us to see very clearly that Jesus’ authority is a compassionate authority.

Jesus holds all authority over all creation

And with that authority he shows perfect compassion.

And this requires us to pause for a moment - because those who belong to Jesus, who follow him by faith, who have been adopted into his family through the forgiveness that he has accomplished for us

We are now brought into his mission in the world.

And we must be so careful to not divorce the mission of Jesus from the compassion of Jesus.

Instead, because Jesus has all authority, we submit to his authority as we live on his mission

But because Jesus authority is compassionate authority, that means that compassion is an essential part of the mission

And in a world that is colder and more indifferent to one another (and even hostile toward one another) than ever before, we as the people of God must be different

We must be a people of compassion, because Jesus was compassionate and if we are to reflect Jesus to a lost, cold world, it will be because we showed compassion to the world.

And Matthew is going to show us what that looks like in v. 35-38, so let’s give these words our full attention.

Matthew 9:35–38 “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘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.’”

These are God’s word for us as his people - May we have ears to hear them and hearts to obey them.

Big idea: The mission of Jesus requires that we share the compassion of Jesus. [5:00]

This passage serves as a transition in the gospel of Matthew

Up to this point we have seen the ministry of Jesus and the person of Jesus

And this passage serves as a transition from showing us what Jesus mission is

Showing us how Jesus invites us into that mission

And central to the transition from the mission of Jesus and our place in that mission is the compassion of Jesus that is at the center of this passage

And so Matthew is showing us that the mission of Jesus, and our participation in it, requires that we share the compassion of Jesus

[Bridge Question] What does it look like to share Jesus’ compassion? And how does that impact how we now participate in that mission?

Matthew is going to show us three qualities of compassion that we must imitate if we are to be a part of the mission of Christ

Qualities of Compassion:

Compassion Engages Truthfully (35) [7:00]

Look with me at v. 35

Matthew 9:35 “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.”

This verse is a summary - Matthew is saying, wherever Jesus went, these three things marked his ministry.

Teaching, preaching and healing…

Now, all three of these things communicate that wherever he want, things were not as they should be

People were believing things that were not true, so he had to teach the truth

People were lost in their sin, so Jesus preached the good news of the Gospel

People were sick and afflicted, so he healed them

You see that?

By nature of the fact that Jesus did these things shows us that these things were needed…

And v. 36 helps us to understand why Jesus did these things…

Matthew 9:36 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them…”

v. 36 is telling us why Jesus taught and preached and healed… Because he had compassion on them.

It’s common for people to see compassion and truth as being mutually exclusive

as if it’s heartless to tell the truth and compassionate to ignore it.

You’ve seen it.

When you bring facts and truth to bear on a situation, people call you hateful.

That just shows that our culture sees compassion and truth as being in competition with one another.

But Jesus helps us to see that truth and compassion are actually complementary to one another.

It is because Jesus had compassion on the crowds that he taught them what was true and that he healed what was broken in them

This means that sharing the compassion of Jesus will require us to not only see the needs of the people around us, but to also bring the truth to them as well.

If we are to be a church that is on the mission of Christ, we need to have the same heart as Christ - To see the needs around us and to meet them like Christ did

With the help for their immediate need and with the truth for their spiritual need

Throughout the last 2000 years, it has been been Christians who have believed the truth about the compassion of our Lord and have sought to meet the needs of people while also pointing them to the truth of the gospel

Hospitals, caring for orphans, care for widows, homeless recuse missions, these are all things that were first started by Christians who believed that the mission of Christ required us to share in the compassion of Christ

This is why I am so thankful for resources like the Harvest Compassion Center, where we can provide food and clothing and the things that people need, but also point them to the God who has made a way for them to be right with him

We must not be a church that cares for the truth only and cares nothing about the needs of people around us

The ministry of Jesus is summarized as teaching, preaching, and healing… He cared about the truth and he cared about the needs of those around him

But we must be careful… We must be careful not to swing the pendulum and care only about the needs of people to the neglect of the truth

No, Jesus never engaged people in a way that suppressed or denied the truth

And neither should we

Look at what Jesus was doing in addition to healing…

Teaching… which means he was correcting their flawed beliefs…

Preaching… which… if you remember back when we were in Matt. 4, what he was preaching was

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

To repent is to change your mind and go a different direction.

So the content of Jesus’ message was calling people to repent

To turn from their way and their desires and to follow God’s way and God’s desires.

So notice this… The same Jesus who looked on the crowds with compassion,

is the same Jesus who preaches a message of repentance to them.

Why?

Because if God is real, and the Gospel is true, the most compassionate thing you and I could ever do is speak the truth and proclaim the message of the Gospel.

It IS compassionate to say,

“There is a God. Because of sin you are far from Him, but through Jesus you can be made right with Him. Turn from your sin and run to the God who forgives and restores.”

It’s compassionate, not judgmental, when you see a fellow believer wandering from the truth and you lovingly call them back.

It’s compassionate, not judgmental, to tell your neighbor who doesn’t know Jesus about the good news of the kingdom.

You know what isn’t compassionate? Pretending as if that good news doesn’t exist.

But isn’t that what we so often do?

We don’t want to make people uncomfortable.

We don’t want to offend.

So we stay silent… in the name of compassion.

But Jesus loved people enough to tell them the truth while also meeting their immediate needs.

We will never impact the world around us with our words only if our lives are void of compassion

We will also never impact the world around us if our compassion is void of the truth.

The impact of Christ was found in the fullness of truth and tenderness

And if we are to be a part of the mission of Jesus, we need to share the compassion of Jesus as we engage those around us truthfully.

So think about your life… your neighborhood, your workplace, your family…

What needs do you see in the lives of the people around you?

And how can you show the compassion of Christ by helping to meet those needs?

And how can you show the compassion of Christ by pointing them to the truth about Jesus?

We need both… because true compassion engages people in their time of need truthfully.

So, that is the first quality.

The second Quality of compassion…

Compassion Feels Genuinely (36) [15:00]

If the mission of Jesus requires that we share the compassion of Jesus,

then we must be a people who feel for those around us—genuinely.

Now, we need to camp out here for a while

This verse is the turning point in the entire gospel

Up to this point we have been told everything that Jesus has been doing

And after this verse Jesus invites his disciples to participate in it with him

So this verse is the hinge from Jesus ministry to our participation in it

So we would do well to mine from this verse as much as we can

Look at verse 36:

Matthew 9:36 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Now, this isn’t describing one isolated moment.

Matthew is giving us a summary of everywhere Jesus went.

Whenever He came to a city or a village and saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them.

Matthew is saying: This is who Jesus is—all the time, everywhere He goes.

And I think it is worth stopping for a moment and just considering that fact: Whatever you are going through right now, Jesus sees you like he saw the crowds and he feels for you like he felt for the crowds.

Hebrews tells us that Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because he lived like us in every way.

So your plight is not foreign to him… it is known by him and he feels compassion for you.

And that word “compassion” literally means “to feel it in your guts.”

It’s not just pity—it’s a deep, gut-level response.

It’s when you are moved so deeply that you can’t stay still - It is a compassion that drives you to act

Jesus feels that kind of compassion for these people because he sees them in their struggle.

And Matthew tells us what that struggle is: he says they were harassed and helpless.

“Harassed” refers to external struggles

It is a word that refers to being beaten down by the things around you.

It is the circumstances of life weighing on their shoulders.

Their government. Their finances. Their sickness. Their grief.

Life is pressing on them from every side.

“Helpless” refers to internal struggles

It is a word that means being weighed down by what’s within you.

It is the sin, the fear, the hopelessness, the inability to change.

It’s when you know things are not the way they should be,

but you also know you don’t have the strength to make them right.

So they are harassed from the outside and helpless on the inside.

And Jesus looks at them and He feels for them, like sheep without a shepherd.

Sheep need guidance to thrive - They need to be led to pasture for food and they need to be protected from that which would harm them

When sheep don’t have a shepherd, they wander and they fall prey to all kinds of trouble.

In a world that says, “You do you” and “Follow your heart” and “You are enough” people are being told they don’t need to be guided…

But they end up wandering into all kind of trouble

And the result is that they are weighed down by things outside of them and by things inside of them… with no way of being free of any of it.

And what they need is for the people of Jesus to feel genuinely for them.

And we can feel genuinely for them… you know why?

Because you and I know exactly what it feels like to be harassed and helpless.

You and I know what it feels like to be weighed down by all of the things around us

You and I know what it feels like to be confronted with all the things that are wrong within us, but being unable to do anything to actually change them.

And when you and I have been in that place, Jesus showed us compassion

He is the Good Shepherd who cares for us, who leads us beside still waters, guides us toward green pasture, who restores our souls, and who protects us from those things that would harm us

And when you and I have known the compassion of Jesus when we were harassed and helpless,

and we see others in the same place,

we can feel genuinely for them and point them to the good Shepherd who will care for them,

just like he cared for us

But here’s the truth:

We don’t often feel compassion like we should.

We see people in pain, and instead of being moved, we move on.

Why is that?

Well, I think there are 5 main reasons… there are probably others, but there are 5 that I think are the main reasons we lack compassion…

So if you are taking notes, write these down.

Why do I lack compassion?

I am self-absorbed

We are constantly taught to think about ourselves—our goals, our schedules, our comfort.

We filter every situation through one question: How does this affect me?

So when we see someone struggling, if it doesn’t touch our lives directly, we move on.

The ability to swipe past things that we find irrelevant has conditioned us to walk past real people that we find irrelevant to our lives…

Jesus confronts this by looking outward.

He saw the crowds. His compassion started with paying attention to what was around him, not just what benefitted him.

If we are to share in the compassion of Jesus, we need to look outward

And we will quickly see the brokenness all around us… and we can begin to feel genuinely for the people God has put in our lives.

The second reason I don’t feel compassion…

I am over-exposed

We live in a world that bombards us with information.

The constant news cycle, endless social media posts, constant stories of tragedy—every day there’s another crisis to care about.

And when we try to care about everything, we end up caring about nothing.

We become desensitized because it becomes all too common…

And so then we treat the people around us like they are just another post or just another story

But Jesus confronts this by showing personal compassion.

When He saw the crowds in front of Him, He felt for them.

He wasn’t overwhelmed by everything happening everywhere else… He cared for the people right there in front of him.

If we are to share in the compassion of Jesus, we need to turn down the noise and pay attention to the people in front of us.

You don’t have to fix all of the problems in the world… you just need to love your neighbor.

Related to this, the third reason I don’t feel compassion is…

I am misfocused

Social media has made the world much more accessible and as a result, we’ve become global citizens who care deeply about issues around the world.

But often the focus on things around the globe cause us to ignore the struggles right down the street.

We’ll share posts about injustice in another country,

but not share a meal with person down the road or down the hall who just lost his job.

We’re passionate about “the world,” but detached from our community.

Jesus confronts this by being present where He was.

His compassion was local first - He cared for the people in front of Him, in the towns and villages He walked through.

If we are to share in the compassion of Jesus, we need to be faithfully present where He has placed us.

Before we talk about changing the world, we need to start by caring for the person across the street.

Fourth…

I am hard-hearted

Sometimes our lack of compassion comes from cynicism.

We see people struggling and assume it’s their fault.

“They made bad choices.” “They got themselves into that mess.”

And so we justify not helping, thinking “Well, that’s his problem.”

But Jesus confronts this by seeing the deeper need.

He saw that the people were “harassed and helpless”

pressed down by what’s around them and paralyzed by what’s within them.

He didn’t blame them for their pain, he met them in it… and cared for them regardless of the reason.

If we are to share in the compassion of Jesus, we need to stop judging people based on what we think about their situation

and start seeing them based on what we know they need.

And then we can meet them in their need and lead them to the one who can meet their deepest need.

And the fifth reason why I don’t feel compassion…

I am spiritually dry

Sometimes the problem isn’t that we don’t see others clearly… it’s that we’ve stopped seeing Jesus clearly.

When our walk with Christ grows cold, our heart grows cold with it.

Because genuine compassion flows from genuine communion with Jesus.

If we are to share in the compassion of Jesus,

we must stay near Jesus.

If I want to think like Jesus, I must read his word

If I want the heart of Jesus, I must draw near to him in prayer

Only when we walk closely with the Jesus will we begin to share in what Jesus feels.

********

If you struggle to feel genuinely for those around you who are harassed and helpless, it is likely because one or more of these things are true about you.

Church family, if we’re going to live on mission for Jesus,

We have to feel what Jesus feels.

We have to see people the way He sees them - harassed, helpless, sheep without a shepherd.

And we need to meet them with compassion that leads us to act.

And when we feel what Jesus feels, we will begin participate in his mission.

Which leads us to the third quality of compassion…

Compassion Responds Hopefully (37-38) [30:00]

Now that we’ve seen what Jesus does, and we’ve seen what Jesus feels,

we come to how Jesus says we must respond.

Matthew 9:37–38 “Then he said to his disciples, ‘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.’”

When Jesus says “the harvest” he is using an analogy of harvesting a field to refer to the bringing in of people into the kingdom of God.

Like a field that is ready to be harvested and the fruit of the field brought into the barn.

Jesus is telling his disciples that there is multitude of people who will respond to the Gospel and be brought in to the kingdom

The problem is not that people are not responding to the message of the Gospel

The problem is that there is a shortage of people who are sharing it.

Church family, I am so concerned for us as a church that we would be apathetic toward sharing the good news of the Kingdom of God becasue we wrongly think that no one will respond…

No, Jesus is helping us to see that the lack of response to the gospel in the world is directly linked to the lack of people sharing the gospel in the world

There are people in your neighborhood, in your workplace, in your own family who are ready to hear the Gospel…

Because they are harassed and helpless, crushed by things outside of them and discouraged by things inside of them

And they are ready for the life changing truth of the Gospel…

But how will they believe if no one tells them?

And you might be saying, "But I don’t know where to start - I don’t know how to share the Gospel…”

Notice what Jesus says is the first step:

“Pray earnestly…”

You might not be confident you know how to share the gospel and you might not be confident that you could answer all of the questions that might be asked

But you know what you can do right now? You can pray.

You can pray for the hearts of those people in your life who need Jesus

You can pray that God would send people into harvest to with the message of his kingdom

As you and I share the compassion of Jesus, we will become increasingly aware of the fact that what the world needs most is NOT our opinions or our politics

What the world needs most is to be restored to a right relationship with God

And as we grow in our compassion toward the world, we will earnestly pray that God would draw people to himself because we know that is what they truly need most.

The first step in participating in the mission of Christ is to pray

Now, why would that be the first step?

Because prayer is the most effective way of God changing my heart to look more like his.

When we pray, we are submitting ourselves to God’s will and aligning our hearts with His heart.

We then start to see people the way He sees them.

We start to long for the things He longs for.

And as we pray that God would send his workers into the field, because prayer causes my heart to look more like his, I will not be surprised when I am one of those workers that he sends into his field.

The mission is not for other people

The mission is not for a select few people

The mission is for all of us as God’s people

And so we should pray earnestly that God would lead his people to participate in the mission.

Church family, you are the answer to the prayer that God would reach your neighbor with the Gospel

You are the answer to the prayer that your relative would hear the message of the Kingdom of God

Your life is the one that will demonstrate the compassion of Jesus

Rather than saying, “God, send someone”, we should, like the prophet Isaiah, say, “Here I am Lord, send me!”

But at the same time, we should also pray for part of the world where we aren’t

We should pray that God would send more people into his harvest that more and more would come to know him.

And we can participate in what God is doing around the world by praying, by giving, or even by going

And listen: We don’t pray and go into the harvest without confidence…

We go with great confidence, responding to Jesus’ invitation with hope.

Notice, Jesus calls God the “Lord of the Harvest”

That means it is His harvest.

It belongs to Him.

He reigns over it.

He’s sovereign over it.

And so we can pray confidently, knowing that God’s kingdom will not be stopped, Jesus will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

We don’t pray to a God who doesn’t know what the harvest will be

We pray to a God who is Lord of the harvest…

In complete control of the entire harvest.

And so, we can pray and we can go with hopeful confidence

You see, our confidence doesn’t come from how gifted we are at sharing the Gospel;

Our confidence comes from knowing that God is Lord of the Harvest

So church family, we must be a church that prays for the lost, that prays for our community and our city

We must be a church that asks God to give us his heart and to give us eyes to see where the need is

We must be a church that says, “We share the compassion of Jesus so we will be all about the mission of Jesus”

And we must be a church that says,

“Here I am Lord. Send me…

Send me next door. Send me across the globe. But no matter where, I am ready to be sent

Because you have change my heart and I want to be used by you with the rest of my life.”

We don’t go out into an uncertain field - we go out into a plentiful harvest

led by a sovereign Lord,

filled with His compassion,

sent with His authority.

That’s the mission we’ve been invited to join.

May we be a church that responds hopefully to that invitation.

[Conclusion]

The world doesn’t need another church that is loud with opinions and silent with compassion.

It needs a people who engage truthfully, feel genuinely, and respond hopefully according to the mission of Jesus.

Because the mission of Jesus is what the world needs and that will require us to share in the compassion of Jesus as we go on mission for him

[Challenge to consider who to go to… challenge to consider where God might send you]

[40:00]

We will have compassion on the lost when we remember that we were lost and that Christ had compassion on us

Ordinary bread and juice - Spirit’s presence in us makes this a means of grace for us

Open communion - Only believers

We don’t mock the cross

Be made right with God

Be made right with others

you may not be able to fully reconcile right now, but you can certainly take the first step toward reconciliation

2 elements - Ushers in front/Gluten free on the sides

Direction - You’ll come as the team sings over us