Mark 6:30–34 ESV

30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

Mark 6:53–56 ESV

53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. 54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

The Gift of Compassion

Introduction

To be compassionate to others is to have mercy on them. To look at another person who is struggling and be compelled in someway to alleviate the suffering that they are feeling at the moment.

Jesus looked upon all those who were following him and he had compassion for them because they we searching for something that they just didn’t know what it was. Many of them wanted to see another miracle performed. Some of them wanted Jesus to do something to help them be free from the Romans or even the religious elites. But whatever the case, they were searching.

There are so many in our world today who are searching as well. They are trying to find their place. They are looking for something to fill that God-shaped hole in their hearts, but they don’t know where to turn. Many are looking to find some kind of spiritual connection because it is such a deep need within us.

Even within the church, there are some of us who are trying to do as much as we can so that we can somehow prove to God and ourselves that we deserve compassion from him. We serve on a committee or do some kind of outreach and we think that we are building up the things that we need in order for us to “store up treasures in heaven.” What we are really doing is filling that hole in our heart with the good works that we do without really being in relationship with God.

This morning, we are going to look at how God has compassion on us as we understand the grace and love that God has poured over our lives through the work of Christ on the cross.

1. Compassion is rooted in our relationship with the Lord. (vs. 30-33)

James 4:8 ESV

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The disciples had been out preaching, healing, and casting out demons. When they came back from doing this work, Jesus invited them to go away by themselves for a while to a desolate place and rest. This is a pattern that is established by Jesus in his ministry. He would preach and teach, do miracles, cast out demons, and then go away by himself to pray. This idea of going by one’s self to pray and communion with God is important in building our relationship with God.

How many of us spend time with the Lord everyday? How much time do we spend in prayer and worship everyday? James reminds us that when we draw near to God he will draw near to us. He will cleanse us and purify our hearts.

When we hear that Jesus invites them to a desolate place, we are thinking of a barren wasteland. But in the time of Jesus, the wilderness or desolate land was the place where one could be in communion with God as well as battle demonic powers. It was in the desert that Jesus prepared for his ministry through prayer and fasting. We must develop spiritual habits that allow us to be in a place that is without detraction so that we can spend time with the Lord.

Compassion that we may bring to others is rooted in the fact that God has been so compassionate with us. In a world where it is so easy to get into fights on Facebook or Twitter because of our disagreements, how much better would it be if we showed compassion to one another. When we have that deep relationship with God, there is no room for the kind of hatred and vitriol that we can throw out into the world. As Christians, this cannot be our witness. We must be a compassionate people.

2. Compassion gives us a desire to share the gospel with others. (vs. 34)

Ezekiel 34:5 ESV

5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered;

When compassion becomes part of our response to others, we have the opportunity to be able to share the good news. Jesus looked out upon all those who had gathered to hear him preach and saw them as those who did not have a shepherd. They were lost.

I think when we truly have a compassionate heart we look at so many people in the world and have a desire to want for them to know the truth of the gospel. We want to share that gospel with them because we know that they are lost and that they are in need of something so much deeper than what they have been searching for.

For too many of us, we do not have a heart to tell people about Jesus. We make excuses all the time. We are afraid that they will turn their backs on us. We are afraid that they will mock or ridicule us. But if we truly have compassion for the lost - if we look at the world and see them as sheep without a shepherd - we will be compelled to share the gospel. It will be welling up inside of us for them to know the truth of Jesus and his love. But we have gotten away from that. We are afraid to offend people just by giving them the simple message that Jesus died for their sins and wants to be in a relationship with them.

Evangelism is part of the nature of the Christian. It should be innate within us. We should want to go out like the disciples did and tell others of Jesus. We will not always be welcome, but we can still give the good news. There has to be a heart of compassion for the lost in our world if the church is going to what we are truly called to do as God’s people and win souls for Jesus.

3. When we show compassion to others, they become open to the message of the gospel. (vs. 53-56)

John 13:35 ESV

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

By showing compassion to others and loving others, they will become open to the message of the gospel.

I want to share a story with you that I think will bring all of this together for us.

I recently became aware of a book by a young man named Micah Wilder. Micah was grew up as a Mormon. His parents converted to Mormonism before he was born, and he was immersed in the culture and religion for all of his childhood and adolescent life. He grew up in a wooded area near a river in Indiana. He would go out along the river and talk with God and commune with him as a child.

When he was a teenager, his mother took a job as a professor at BYU, and he went from a Midwestern town where he was one of three Mormons in his school to a place that 98% Mormon. After moving to Utah, he began to be even more immersed in Mormonism. He went to the temple to perform various rites and rituals like baptism for the dead so that he could prove his worth to Heavenly Father.

Just like his two older brothers before him, when he turned 19, he went on his two-year Mormon mission. He was sent to central Florida. While he was in Florida on his mission, he was met with opposition after opposition. He and his missionary partner would go from house to house to share the Mormon gospel and have doors slammed in their faces by people who told them they were Christians. Sometimes profanity was used by these “Christians.” There were times he was spat upon and even harassed. However, there was an African-American pastor who they met because his missionary partner was in search of a restroom, and they stumbled upon a church. That pastor shared the true gospel of Jesus Christ with them for the first time while showing respect for them. Another pastor a few months later also had the opportunity to share the gospel with Micah and his missionary partner. This second time, the pastor challenged Micah to read the New Testament and see if what he read revealed what Mormons teach about Jesus and the gospel.

He took the challenge. In the remaining year and a half of his mission, Micah read the New Testament almost 20 times. As he read it, he knew that what he had been taught all his life about the Mormon church, Joseph Smith, and all of the ordinances of the temple were wrong and were completely different from what the New Testament teaches. He learned that doing all of the works that were required by the Mormon church in order to gain the celestial heaven were contrary to the grace that is offered to us in Jesus Christ and the shedding of his blood on the cross. There is no amount of works that we could do that would be able to get us into heaven. There is nothing that we can do that can gain God’s approval. God has already done the work in Jesus on the cross. He died for our sins and gives us his righteousness.

Micah was called into the mission president’s office three weeks before his mission ended. He was forced to go home to Utah because he could not state that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Within ten months of him leaving his mission, his entire family became Christians, and they are now working to share the good news with other Mormons to bring them out of Mormonism and into Christianity.

Conclusion

Now, why did I share this story with you? It truly does encapsulate all that we are talking about this morning. God looks upon our world and sees that they are without a shepherd and has had so much compassion and love for us that he sent Jesus into the world to die for our sins and reconcile us to himself.

When we show that same kind of compassion and love to others, it gives us the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with them and tell them the gospel message. By us sharing that message in a loving way, it may be the key for someone to turn his or her life over to Christ.

I’m sure that Pastor Shaw and Pastor Benson who first shared the good news with Micah never thought in a million years that it would lead to a young man giving his life to Christ and his entire family giving their lives to Christ and creating a ministry so that others can know the truth of Jesus.

This is why the way we share the gospel is so important. We cannot be brow-beating people into a relationship. We have to lovingly and firmly share with them the gospel and invite them into the wonderful relationship with Christ that we have so they can know of his mercy and love in the same way we do.