Focus - Special Session

COMPASSION

Mark 6:30–34 NLT

30 The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught. 31 Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. 32 So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone. 33 But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them. 34 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

Matthew 9:35–38 NIV

35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

1. We must have the same compassion Jesus had for the harvest!

He was always concerned with the fact that people were just going through life with no purpose being helpless and harassed. He had compassion. The Greek word is

σπλαγχνίζομαι splanchnízomai, splangkh-nid'-zom-ahee; middle voice from G4698; to have the bowels yearn, i.e. (figuratively) feel sympathy, to pity:—have (be moved with) compassion.

Jesus felt for people deep down in His inner self. we all know what it means to be harassed. The fact is that the devil harasses people daily. He lies to us about our future by reminding us of our past. “You’re not going to make it because you always do that.” “Don’t remember how you failed in the past?” “Remember the pain you felt the last time you tried something and failed.” All of that harassment can make us also feel helpless. It’s never going to change and so there’s nothing I can do to make anything better.

How many people fell that today. We need to have the same compassion Jesus had for those that are harassed and helpless.

John 4:4–38 NIV

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

2. We need to look at the harvest with a sense of urgency!

People all over are ready for someone they can place their trust in. They’re ready to hear the Good News of Jesus. The situation we’re in is giving everyone a sense of hopelessness. “Is this pandemic ever going to end.?” “Will life ever get back to “normal”?” “What’s going to happen to my job?” Worry, fear, frustration, are consuming the minds of the masses. What does this tell us? It is the best time for the Church to bring the hope that comes only from Jesus to this dying world. Let’s look at what we see in this passage of scripture. After Jesus spoke with the woman at the well, she left her water jar, her present life, and went to her village and told them she met a man that told her everything about her and could it possibly be the Messiah? The result, the people of the village came to Jesus because they needed what we need today, hope.

This would never have happened if Jesus didn’t have compassion for the woman at the well and for the people living in Samaria. He gave a compassion principle lesson to His disciples who couldn’t grasp the fact that He was talking to this woman. We must have His compassion on others in order to be effective with the Gospel. We need to love our neighbors as ourselves.

1 John 3:16–19 The Message

16 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. 17 If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. 18 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. 19 This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality.

3. Compassion involves laying down our lives for others!

Are we just concerned with our being comfortable or are we concerned about others? We need to love each other. If we really want to crank it up, Jesus told us to even love our enemies. Wow, compassion for others will cause us to even have pity and love for those that are against us. People that don’t really care about us are the ones we need to purpose to have compassion on.

Matthew 5:43–48 The Living Bible

43 “There is a saying, ‘Love your friends and hate your enemies.’ 44 But I say: Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way you will be acting as true sons of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust too. 46 If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even scoundrels do that much. 47 If you are friendly only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even the heathen do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Remember what Jesus said on the cross.

Luke 23:34 NKJV

34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots.

Compassion means we do things that are not normal. We do things the way Jesus did and told us to do.

Mark 16:14–20 ESV

14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

4. Compassion causes us to carry out our mandate from Jesus!

We have heard a lot about mandates lately. There are county, state and national mandates coming at us all the time. The basic definition of the word mandate is, an authoritative command especially : a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one.

So this Great Commission is our mandate from God. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a command. Notice the first word that Jesus says, GO! Not go when you have some spare time. Not go if you are not afraid of the results. Not go once a decade. But GO! And where do we go? Into all the world. Remember what Jesus said the baptism of the Holy Spirit is for?

Acts 1:6–8 AMP

6 So when they were assembled, they asked Him, Lord, is this the time when You will reestablish the kingdom and restore it to Israel? 7 He said to them, It is not for you to become acquainted with and know what time brings [the things and events of time and their definite periods] or fixed years and seasons (their critical niche in time), which the Father has appointed (fixed and reserved) by His own choice and authority and personal power. 8 But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.

Are we in the last days? We’ve been in the last days since His resurrection. We’re not supposed to focus on that because only the Father knows when that will happen. We are to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the world. I like to look at it this way. Our Jerusalem is the Big Island, our Judea is the state of Hawaii, our Samaria is the United States, and then the rest of world.

When we are moved with the compassion of Jesus, we share the Good News of Him wherever we go so others will have hope and strength and blessings no matter what we are facing. Let’s have the compassion of Jesus. Focus on Him and Him only.