Introduction:
We have a responsibility to ourselves our families and our community to bring the light of the gospel to those who live in darkness and without Christ. Perhaps we get discouraged with how we see other people living.
How do we respond when we see others not living for the Lord? Perhaps we sometimes get frustrated with family members or friends that keep running from God.
Christ is always our example for everything…
Text: Matthew 9:35 thru 38
Prayer:
There are many people who do not have a desire for the things of God. Sometimes their interest is only for shallow philosophy instead of the bold message of repenting from their sins and living for Christ.
This is what Jesus saw in these four verses.
That is, there are disgruntled sheep who are blind and do not follow Jesus – the Good Shepherd. They are sheep that scatter and run off in different directions.
When Jesus saw this, the Bible says that He was
“moved with compassion”.
It was (no doubt) bad then, but (many believe) that it is even worse now. What do I mean?
1. Christian churches have a lack of commitment and loyalty to God. Finding servants who will faithfully serve God is fading. This is evidenced in many of the churches in the U.S. Surprisingly, the big churches have the same problems the small churches do. Finding committed servants of the Lord is typically the same…everywhere…
2. Righteous living is considered old fashioned and often too much to expect in our culture.
3. Church attendance is considered (by many) to be a secondary option, while things like weekend recreation ranks first in priority.
How do we respond to this growing problem?
What we see must cause us to be moved with compassion as Jesus was. We must not look at what the world is doing this morning and become resentful and (certainly not) judgmental of others.
Our friends and extended family members need something much more than just being in church.
That is, they simply need to follow the Good Shepherd.
In our text - Jesus was moved with compassion when He saw all of the scattered sheep.
How do we respond?
· Many folks we know are indifferent to the Gospel. Their lives are filled with (what the believe is) greater priorities and responsibilities.
· Many gratify themselves with what the world is doing instead of making themselves accountable to the One Who created them.
· Many have little or no concern for their soul or their eternity.
How do we respond? Are we discouraged, or are “moved with compassion”?
In our passage, there is no mention of Jesus sighing or moaning. Our reaction to scattered sheep must be the same reaction that Jesus had. Jesus saw weary sheep that were “scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”
The response of Jesus was simple and direct.
“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
As a church – how are we responding to these “scattered sheep”?
1. Lighthouse Assembly of God will soon ship the necessary Bible Training courses to the shepherds located in one of the most remote and darkest regions of the world. In the bush country of Zambia and the Congo, there are literally thousands upon thousands of sheep who are scattered and without a shepherd.
2. Lighthouse Assembly of God (also) continues to train and mentor men and women and (even) boys and girls into being spiritual leaders for the scattered sheep of Southern Illinois.
In our text, Jesus was grieved by the sin of the weary sheep. This Man from Nazareth experienced the heartache and had sympathy for those who were lost and without a shepherd.
The people saw the heart felt compassion for the sheep who were lost. And this is one of the reasons why the people followed Christ and listened closely to Him. Simply because He had a heart for SCATTERED SHEEP.
Jesus Christ is our example to live by…
In the scriptures we never see where Christ condemned the SCATTERED SHEEP. We never see where He felt that the sheep were too stupid, too ignorant, too evil, too sickly, or even too self-righteous…
Jesus remained so practical, and was never too discouraged or disheartened to reach out to the lost sheep. Jesus only saw the multitudes that needed Him.
And this (frankly) is our downfall. Sometimes we do not see the multitudes. We may drive through downtown areas of big cities like Chicago or New York and think we have seen a multitude of people, but we really have no idea. We have no comprehension of the multitudes that Jesus saw.
I cannot imagine the endless sea of people who are out there…who are lost and scattered this morning. In our little town we see those we know and maybe grew up with, but Christ saw the all of the multitudes who are living in darkness.
God has tried to get us to understand when He (on several occasions) referred to the multitudes as grains of sand on the shore or stars in the heavens.
Our nation alone is only 300 million.
That is a small fraction of the 6 billion people who live around the world. Why is this important for us to know?
Listen carefully. Either these billions of people will be saved or they will perish on judgment day.
In our text, Christ may have seen hundreds of scattered sheep with His natural eyes, but I wonder if what He saw with His heart was even greater…
Perhaps Christ saw the hundreds of millions and the hundreds of billions of people who have lived and died on this planet that His Father has created.
What do you see when you read this passage? What happens to your heart when you consider those few SCATTERED SHEEP of whom you know and come in contact with each day.
How do you respond?
Are you moved with compassion?
Or will you continue to concern yourself with only those you come to church with? What do feel for the SCATTERED SHEEP that Jesus is speaking of?
The SCATTERED SHEEP that Jesus sees are the ones who are sick and weak. Not able to care for themselves.
Jesus has compassion for all sheep that have gone astray. He gave up all of the comforts of heaven so that He could bear the discomforts and pains of His SCATTERED SHEEP.
I know that Jesus cares for me personally, but I also know that He can easily see the multitudes and He is “moved with compassion”. Even though He could not save Himself, He did save others.
The compassion that Christ has for His SCATTERED SHEEP has not changed. His work at the cross was completed with the last breath that He took, but His compassion is still the same. While in heaven, Jesus still pleads for the safety and redemption of His sheep. Nothing has really changed except the lives of those who have surrendered themselves to the Good Shepherd.
The heart of Jesus still grieves for the lost sheep that live in darkness. He sees their plight of weakness but not with anger and judgment…only with gentleness and sympathy. He has always been this way…
Matthew 20:30 thru 33 reveals the heart of compassion Jesus has for the multitudes of SCATTERED SHEEP:
30And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”
31Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”
32So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
33They said to Him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.”
My friend we should know that when we see how other people live their lives in complacency and lethargy that there are sheep who are blind and they will one day cry out to the Lord, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David…Lord that our eyes may be opened.”
Christ can save and heal any lost sheep that cannot see Him. We may grow impatient for our loved ones to come to Him. We may try to convince or coax them to come to church, but we must know that the SCATTERED SHEEP will only see the Good Shepherd when they realize they are blind. It is the SCATTERED SHEEP that must (one day) call out to Jesus for His mercy.
And what of the leper in Mark 1 that came to find Jesus and be cleansed of his disease? What was it that Jesus said to him? Verse 41 - Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
Closing:
There are those who will say, “If I could only believe that Jesus could save me and make me a new person…”
To that person I would say that Jesus has such compassion for you that He will even take pity on your unbelief.
Many times there are those who want to be saved but are embarrassed to admit their sins, and do not feel worthy enough to socialize with church people.
They have lived lives that they are ashamed of but do not know what to do. If that is you, you must listen very carefully to what God said to Moses…
“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
God’s plan to save you was His choice long before it became your choice. If you are here and have a desire for more of the Lord in your life, then God has already decided to save your soul.
But you are the one who must stop running from Him, and making excuses not to give your life to Christ.
Today is the day to give your life to Christ!
