Compassion for Sinners [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Some days I just feel like I read the paper, and I just want to say, have you ever felt this?

And is there a deserted island we can go move to? You've had that feeling, haven't you? How does Jesus feel about all these people that can be so frustrating, and we can be so disgusted with them, and have so much consternation, all the compassion? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, You'll See, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. You ready for some good news? You don't have to just walk around frustrated with people and culture and the crowds that are all going in the wrong directions. You can have your frustrations changed more to compassion. And this comes by seeing as Jesus sees.

We're in a new series. It's called You'll See. And it is all about getting the perspective of Christ because how you see something determines how you think about it, how you feel, and how you act. And today I want to show you a beautiful text that reveals something not only about the heart of Jesus, but how He sees people, how He sees people that aren't acting the way they're supposed to act, how He sees the crowds.

And it can change everything in your heart as well. It's in Matthew chapter 9, Matthew chapter 9, verse 35. Matthew 9, verse 35. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom in healing every disease and every affliction. And when He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. And 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. That was a man who was affluent. He traveled the world and in his travels, he liked to often send some exotic gift back to his mother who lived in a simple rural area of the United States. And sometimes she didn't quite understand what was so fancy about these gifts he would send back, but one time he sent her a parrot he had found in another country that had been trained with one of the most extensive vocabularies that any bird had ever learned. And he sent this very expensive parrot to his mother, thought maybe, you know, she lived by herself and the parrot would be interesting to have in the house and all that.

And so a week or two after he'd sent the parrot, he called her up. He said, Mom, did you get the bird that I sent you? And she said, yes. She said, it was delicious.

He said, what? She said, yeah, it was very delicious. And he said, Mom, you ate that bird? And she said, well, yeah. He said, Mom. He said, that bird has been trained in an extensive English vocabulary.

Mom, that bird could talk. And she said, well, he should have said something then. You know, sometimes you just get frustrated with people because they're just not doing what we feel like they ought to be able to do.

They aren't acting the way they should act. And today I want to challenge that thinking through the lens of Jesus, because he didn't really look at the crowds of people who were acting lost and confused and doing wrong things and just sinning. He didn't really look on them as though, well, you ought to know better.

You ought to be better. And just Jesus going around being frustrated with them. Instead, we learn from today's text that Jesus saw them in a very common image. It would be very common to Middle Easterners of his day. He saw them as if they were sheep that didn't have a shepherd.

I've been to the Middle East. You can still see there'll be shepherds, young shepherds out with small flocks wandering around rural areas. One sight you never see is sheep that aren't in a pen that are just wandering around by themselves, because sheep just cannot function by themselves. And we're going to learn a little bit more about that. But I want us to look through the eyes of Jesus so that instead of just walking around being frustrated, we can have compassion. And compassion fuels our prayer life and compassion fuels our ministry.

And that's what people need. As a frustrating world, I looked at an online magazine because it had an article listing the 50 most annoying things that people do. There were 50 of them they wrote down, things like humble bragging. That's where somebody acts like they're being humble, but they're actually bragging. I had to hire a housekeeper because my new house is just too big for me to handle by myself.

Here are some of the others they list. Not returning your shopping cart. I might have done that one. Talking ad nauseum about how busy you are. Nobody likes that. Looking at your phone while talking to someone in person. Parking too close to the line in a parking lot.

Going to the express checkout lane with more than 10 items. Not letting people get off an elevator before you attempt to get on. Now here's one that I definitely have never, never done. And that is not wiping down the exercise equipment that you use at the gym. And been to the gym, so I haven't done that one. That's one that I haven't done. You could give your own list of frustrating things. I think it was top of mind. Is trying to pay for something at a store and the person who is attending at the cash register is talking on the phone to their friend.

From the customer here. It was interesting reading the online list of the 50 most annoying things that they didn't list the bigger things that you might think be there like terrorism, racism, hatred, crime, and abuse. The bottom line, these are the things that frustrate us the most. Some days I just feel like I read the paper and I just want to say, have you ever felt this?

And is there a deserted island we can go move to? You've had that feeling haven't you? How Jesus feel about all these people that can be so frustrating and we can be so disgusted with them and have so much consternation. He had compassion. He had compassion. I want to be clear about a couple of things as we launch into this invitation into Jesus' heart of compassion.

And the first thing I want to say is most of you understand this. I have a thoroughly biblical worldview and that means that I carry a biblical view of human sexuality and marriage. I have a biblically based view of the gift of life that causes me to have strong feelings about the sanctity of life and the rights of an unborn child.

I abhor racism. I carry a biblical worldview. So please understand that this is not an expression today of somehow saying that error is okay. That's not all what we're going to be saying today. And it's not to say that people aren't responsible for their sin. We are responsible for our sin despite the picture that we're going to see today of just how much we're like sheep. I also want to say that the words that I have today about fostering compassion are not an invitation for us to be deceived or to become codependent, meaning that we feel like we exist simply to care for others. You don't exist simply to take care of dysfunctional people.

And there is a place for tough love. So keep that sort of under the backdrop of this as we think about the compassionate ministry of Jesus. Thanks Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Want to give someone a present this Christmas that they'll never forget? Let us help you give a gift that money can't buy. This Christmas, give someone your blessing, a positive biblically based faith-filled vision for their life.

In the beginning, God blessed Adam and Eve and then told them to be fruitful and multiply because in God's design, blessing isn't the reward for productivity, it's the fuel for it. Now, more than ever, someone you love needs your blessing and we're here to help you craft it. This month's special offer from Alan Wright is a beautiful booklet that will teach you how to craft a meaningful blessing. The easy step-by-step instructions are biblically based and even include a worksheet that helps you write your blessing. So this Christmas, give someone you love a present not found in stores, a gift from your own heart that will encourage and empower.

Write down the blessing and put it in a package under the tree or put it in your Christmas card, they'll never forget it. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you this booklet as our thank you so you can discover the power to bless. Call us at 877-544-4860 or visit pastoralan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. The text says that Jesus went teaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing. Teaching, proclaiming or preaching and healing, teaching and preaching and healing.

And this is not the only place where this is mentioned. The extent of Jesus' ministry is that in his teaching he wants people to be educated into the truth because the truth sets us free. But he proclaimed a message of good news, the euangelion, the good news of the kingdom, that the kingdom of God was at hand. And that's the proclamation or that's what we preach is that God has done for us in Jesus something extraordinary in which he has paid for our sins and inaugurated the kingdom of God's reign on earth which one day will be consummated when he returns but has already begun. And that everywhere he went was healing people in their soul and in their body.

This is what he was doing. And when he saw the crowds, he had compassion. The word compassion in English is not nearly strong enough to represent the word that is here in Greek. The word, this verb for being moved with compassion is a verb, splagnizumai, that is founded on the root splogna, which is the Greek word for the entrails or the inmost being. It is in the vernacular, it's your guts. And sometimes we'll even say that like I feel it down deep in my gut. And so when Jesus is moved with compassion, what he has moved with is something that is visceral, something that is deep within him.

It's not just a passing pity. It's something that grips the entirety of his being. Henry now in his book, Compassion, said compassion is such a deep central and powerful emotion in Jesus that it can only be described as movement of the womb of God. When Jesus was moved to compassion now and writes, the source of all life trembled, the ground of all love burst open and the abyss of God's immense inexhaustible tenderness revealed itself.

That begins to come close to what Jesus experienced. Not only here, but many other instances you'll see if you have an eye for it, read the New Testament gospels and see how often Jesus is moved with compassion. Like in Mark chapter six, similarly at verse 34, similar to our text, 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. And in Luke chapter seven at verse 12, we read as he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother and she was a widow and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep.

And then he resuscitated the man. In Matthew 14, when he went ashore, Matthew 14, 14, he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Matthew 20 verse 32, Jesus stopped and called them.

What do you want me to do for you? He asked, Lord, they answered, we want our sight. And Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes and immediately they received their sight and followed him. Mark chapter eight, verse one, in those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and he said to him, I have compassion on the crowd because they've been with me for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them hungry to their homes, they'll faint on the way.

That's why he fed them. John 11 is the story of Jesus coming who will raise Lazarus from the dead. But when he sees Lazarus' sisters and the crowd weeping, this is what happens in John 11, 33, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

And he said, where have you laid him? And they said, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. He was literally trembling with compassionate emotion, even though he knew he was going to resuscitate Lazarus from the grave. He was moved to heal, not just for his own glory or the validation that the kingdom of God had come, though those are true. But the picture in the New Testament is that Jesus taught and preached and healed because he felt so for the people. Compassion will move you in a way that your good intentions never will. And why was he so moved? He was moved when he, at verse 36 of Matthew 9, when he saw the crowds. So it was something about the way he saw them.

See, when you, when you see someone in a whole new light and you understand something about their plight, it changes all of your feelings. I was, I was in a men's room not long ago, and I was just washing my hands. And a man came up approaching sort of from the back and he just got a little bit too much in my personal space. There were two sinks in this particular, he got a little too close to me. And just for a moment, just a fleeting moment, I just was a little irritated. I was like, well, why, why didn't he just go on over to that sink?

Why is he, what's he going to come over here and try to bump me out of this sink or what, you know? And I mean, I wasn't upset. I was just like, well, irritated a little bit until I paused and I looked more closely and looked around and he had a cane, he had a stick and he was, I realized he was blind. Was I irritated anymore? Of course not. He sort of stepped up and he said, is there a soap dispenser over on the right?

I said, yeah, just a step or two to your right. How else can I help you? Irritation turned to compassion, just like that.

Sometimes you might be expecting more of someone and maybe they should get their act together more. But if you could see with the eyes of Jesus, I think you'd see something deeper underneath it. We have a ministry we celebrate with Larry Reavis Ministries every December here, a Luke 14 banquet, that is a lavish celebrating and Christmas meal for some of the disenfranchised in our community, homeless people of the different shelters. We send buses and vans and people bring them in from the missions and the shelters and feed the homeless on nice china, silverware and glasses, not paper goods.

And we don't scrimp. It's a wonderful feast and it's a delightful thing. It's from the earliest time that I thought it was appropriate. I like to bring my kids to come and serve. I remember when Bennett was little and the first time that he came to serve with me and we were washing our hands before going in to serve. And there was one of our guests that was there. He was disheveled. He didn't smell very good. And he was over the sink and he was putting water on his hair and it was in front of the mirror and he was trying to get his hair to look good. And he looked back at us. He said, if I knew I was coming to something so nice, I would have tried to get a bath before I came.

You know, I mean, maybe there's somebody that just, the reason that they don't try any harder than they do is they hadn't seen a point in it yet. I just wondered what it would be like to see everybody through the eyes of Jesus. There's a story behind lives of people. What Jesus said is that I see them as if they are sheep who don't have a shepherd. It's a very, very prominent image because everybody knew that you never see sheep that don't have a shepherd.

And if you do, it's a bad situation for the sheep. Alan Wright, today's good news message. It's titled How to Have Compassion for Sinners.

It's in our series You'll See. And we've got Pastor Alan back to join us in the studio with our parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Want to give someone a present this Christmas that they'll never forget? Let us help you give a gift that money can't buy. This Christmas, give someone your blessing, a positive biblically based faith-filled vision for their life. In the beginning, God blessed Adam and Eve and then told them to be fruitful and multiply because in God's design, blessing isn't the reward for productivity.

It's the fuel for it. Now, more than ever, someone you love needs your blessing and we're here to help you craft it. This month's special offer from Alan Wright is a beautiful booklet that will teach you how to craft a meaningful blessing. The easy step-by-step instructions are biblically based and even include a worksheet that helps you write your blessing. So this Christmas, give someone you love a present not found in stores, a gift from your own heart that will encourage and empower. Write down the blessing and put it in a package under the tree or put it in your Christmas card.

They'll never forget it. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you this booklet as our thank you so you can discover the power to bless. Call us at 877-544-4860 or visit PastorAlan.org. Back here now in the studio sharing Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day and this one's about compassion and compassion for those who aren't like us, compassion to those maybe who we're frustrated with. Yeah, people I think that follow God want to have compassion, want to be a people who can feel with others and can have mercy in their hearts. And yet sometimes we just struggle with it.

We can become embittered and we feel as though people just ought to you know buck up and pull themselves and get on the right path. And so Jesus when he looked at the crowds of the sinners, what he saw were people that were harassed and helpless under a spiritual battle. And they were like sheep.

It was a very common image. Everybody saw if a sheep didn't have a shepherd that sheep's in trouble. And that's the way Jesus saw people. So instead of trying to work harder to have a better attitude towards people, ask Jesus to help you see them as he does. He's the shepherd and he sees the sheep as in need. If they don't have a shepherd, then they're going to act in very strange ways. Jesus, how do you see the quote centers?

He'll show you. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.