Compassionate Shepherd

Whether he was teaching a crowd or healing the sick, even criticizing the Pharisees, Jesus always conveyed compassion. Maybe the best example of his kindness is found in the account of a pagan soldier who had a sick servant.

This is the weekend edition of Truth for Life. Alistair Begg is teaching today about Jesus, the compassionate shepherd. Luke chapter 7. When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a Centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The Centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the Centurion sent friends to say to him, Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.

That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one, go, and he goes, and that one, come, and he comes. I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. And turning to the crowd following him, he said, I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.

Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. Soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said, Don't cry. Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still.

He said, Young man, I say to you, get up. The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. A great prophet has appeared among, as they said, God has come to help his people. This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. Well, we've looked at Jesus in terms of his humility, seeing him as a humble servant, and we want to look today at Jesus in his compassion, if you like, seeing him as a compassionate shepherd. Keeping in mind what we've said so far, namely that the great issue is to be in Christ and having been placed in Christ to become like Christ and like him here this morning as we think in terms of compassion. And in these little incidents, the power of Christ is revealed, and the compassion of Jesus is extended beyond man-made barriers of race and respectability.

And you will see that as we look at these two households. First one is a household of a centurion, and this centurion was a man of prominence in his community. I don't like people who delay on all the historical stuff, creating the impression that they really know a lot of material when, in point of fact, they only read one paragraph in an entire book. And so, I don't want to fall foul of that, but let me give you the one paragraph I've read in the entire book concerning centurions. This is from Polypius, whom I'm sure you all know very well. Polypius, the historian of a centurion, he writes of a centurion, as such, these men must not be so much seekers after danger as men who can command, steady in action and reliable. They ought not to be overanxious to rush into the fight, but when hard-pressed, they must be ready to hold their ground and die at their posts.

It sounds a bit like the Marines, doesn't it? So, this is the kind of man, and it is a centurion to whom we're introduced. This man has slaves within his house, according to his status. Slaves in Roman law had no rights at all. That's why they could be bought, and sold, and even killed.

Now, that's the environment, okay? Centurion, strong, in control, running his household, ready for every challenge, and here he is. And in his house, one of his servants. You will notice, interestingly, whom in verse 2, we're told, his master valued highly. This is an interesting centurion.

Interesting on a number of fronts, but this one true. There is a centurion servant, and he would come down in the morning, as it were, and he would have said to one of the other people in his house, how is Gaius this morning? How is Gaius my servant? I just invented his name, Gaius. One of the most common names in the Roman emperor, I believe.

A bit like Fred or Joe. How is Gaius this morning? Well, there's no obvious change in him, I'm afraid.

No, dear. In fact, he's sick and about to die. Then look at this interesting little phrase at the beginning of verse 3. The centurion heard of Jesus. The centurion heard of Jesus. Doesn't that just pique your interest?

You don't want to go off on these things, because all that we need is in the Bible, and nothing has been left out that we need. But it is interesting, is it just as he heard of Jesus. I wonder who he heard from. I tend to think probably it was a kind of Naaman experience. You remember how Naaman heard of Joshua, the servant of the Lord. Not as a result of an evangelist coming to town, but as a result of a lady in the broom closet, as a result of the lady who was a domestic help in his house, as a result of a lady who loved Jesus and did her work. She was a cleaner in a house. She was a cleaner in a rich man's house, and she cleaned to the glory of God.

And so she said to her mistress on one occasion, you know, I know that your husband is horribly ill. I wish he would go and see the prophet of God. I'm sure he could help him.

Maybe something like that here. We don't know how he heard of Jesus. But what he heard of him obviously was of importance, because having heard of Jesus, he sent some elders of the Jews to him. Where did he get this from? Where do you get this faith from?

This is amazing. If you don't think it's amazing, Jesus thought it was amazing. He actually says so. So he sends them. And so they come to Jesus, and look at how they plead. They plead earnestly in verse 4, and they plead on the basis of patronage.

They're completely wrong, but nevertheless, this is their approach. Jesus, we'd like you to come to this man's house, because he actually loves our nation and has built our synagogue. Therefore, he's done a lot of stuff for us, so why don't you do something for him? It's not uncommon in Christian circles today to try and build into the lives of people on the strength of patronage. But actually, that is not going to cut it.

And indeed, while he was still far from the house, the centurion sent friends. So the friends come down, and the friends come down with a very different message. Lord, Lord is a good start, isn't it? Lord, don't trouble yourself. I don't deserve to have you come under my roof. That's why I didn't even consider myself worthy to come to you. I wouldn't even for a moment consider coming down to meet you and parade my crummy credentials, as if somehow, some way, I was worthy of your attention.

And I could, on the basis of who I am and what I've done, make an appeal to you that would be significant enough for you to do for me what I ask, even though I ask for someone else. You see, when grace grips a man or a woman, we come to Christ on bended knee. We may present ourselves in business, in academics, in athletics, in military matters, on the strength of our stars and our stripes, but when we come to Christ, we come face down. And the centurion understood what the religious Jews could not get.

Why? Because Pharisees always come to Jesus on the strength of how well they're doing. That's why we will never then be the conveyors of such mercy till we understand that it is with mercy and with judgment my web of time he wove, and I, the dews of sorrow, are lustered by his love. And Jesus steps forward, responding now to this entreaty. And we're told in verse 9 that Jesus was amazed. The humility of the man is wonderful, isn't it?

Notice how he introduces himself. For I myself am a man under authority, not of. Not of.

Prepositions matter, not only when you're playing Scrabble. For I am a man under authority, not I am a man of authority and you're a man of authority. Therefore, there's two of us of authority, and I do my part, now it's your turn to do your part.

No, no, no, no. I am a man under authority. I am able in my limited sphere to say, You can go and another can come. But you, Jesus, you can actually say to disease, Go and it will go. Now say it, Jesus, for my servant's sake. And when Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. There's only two places in the Bible that I've found Jesus described as being amazed. One is here, and the other is in Mark chapter 6, when Jesus returns to his own town, remember?

And it says in the Bible that he's unable to do anything. And he says, You know, a prophet is not without honor save in his own country. And it says there that he was amazed at their lack of faith. And now here in Luke chapter 7, in an environment that is absolutely counter to the growing-up experience of Jesus, once again he is amazed. And turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, I have never found such great faith even in Israel. And then the man who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

Let me just make three observations. Observation number one, the prophecy of Simeon in this instance is being fulfilled. Simeon, remember, the ancient man in the temple takes the child Jesus in his arms, and he prophesies over him. And part of what he says of this child in his arms, he says he has a light for revelation to the Gentiles. And people say, Well, I wonder what that's going to mean. Well, here we've discovered part of what it means, right here in the home of the centurion. That's observation number one. Observation number two, Jesus does not draw insider-outsider distinctions, even when confronted with the possibility of potential defilement.

What do you mean? It was a defilement for a Jew to go into the home of someone who was a Gentile, without the necessary preparations. But Jesus apparently was quite prepared to make the journey as necessary. And the third observation is that we find in this little incident two essential requirements for receiving true blessing. Number one, deep humility. Number two, a steadfast faith in Jesus. We have to turn to our next incident, leaving behind the question, What kind of faith did this man have? Did he have faith only to believe that Jesus could heal his servant, or did he come to faith in Jesus himself as not only the one who would heal his servant of physical disease, but also who would cleanse his evil heart from sin?

We're going to have to wait until eternity to find out. But I have him on my list to look for early on in my experience of heaven. I'll be wandering around going, Has anyone seen the centurion from Luke chapter 7? Jesus was so kind to him.

Now to the second one, and we've got very little time left, but it's a briefer account of Jesus' compassion. Soon afterwards, verse 11, Jesus went to a town called Nain. This is another sad home, six miles southeast of Nazareth, a day's journey from Capernaum, which is where we've begun in verse 1 of this chapter.

Archaeologists, we're told, have found tombs in the rocks along the roads leading to Capernaum, and particularly around the eastern gate of this little village. The sounds of sadness would have been present from the dawn of that morning. Many of her friends—that is, the widow—would have had gathered outside her home. The plaintive songs from the flutes, the cymbals, would have reminded the lady even before she'd get out of her bed what the day held for her.

This was the saddest of all days. And once again, in this little incident, the focus, like before, is not so much on the healing as on the centurion's faith, and here, not so much on the raising of the dead son as it is on the compassion of Christ for the woman in her need. She is a woman, first of all. She is a widow, therefore she has no husband. And now she is sonless.

Isn't that what he says? So this is the end of the line for her. It's a bit like the experience of Naomi as it's recorded in Ruth, isn't it?

And all of the potential bitterness that floods in upon her. Interestingly, in this incident, there's no request. Nobody's sending anybody to do anything.

No one has the idea. Why don't we get Jesus involved in this? No, the events are unfolding as per routine. And then we read, in verse 13, when the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her. Seems that he saw her before he heard her. We would expect this of a compassionate shepherd, wouldn't we? Because Luke also tells us that in relationship to crowds, when Jesus saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion, not simply because the crowds made him feel a certain way, but because when he looked at them, he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Just like when you sit at a football game, and you're at one end zone, and you look down to the other end zone, and you see all of these people, all whom the Bible says will stand before the bar of God's judgment and give a reckoning for their lives. At least once in a while, if there is anything of Christ in us, we must have been moved with compassion. But is it not true that depending on our social status and our background, when we see people who are in a mess—often a mess of their own making—we may be a lot quicker to the methodology of John the Baptist than to the compassion of the Lord Jesus? Look at that.

I can't believe… Can you believe somebody's like that? Look at that. You're looking at yourself apart from the grace of God. At one time, we were foolish and disobedient, without God and without hope in the world.

By our very nature, all of the sins of humanity wrapped up in our evil hearts, the fact that we never gave rain to them all is only an indication of God's amazing grace to us. And when the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said to her, Hey lady, don't cry. She didn't know that he saw her, but he did. Into the extremity of this little lady's life comes Christ, the compassionate shepherd. And Luke tells us that he halts the progression of the coffin to the grave. He's doing what only he who is the resurrection and the life could ever do. He halts the tragic progression to the grave. This is who Jesus is. This is why he's revealed to us in all of his power and in all of his authority. And this is what makes his compassion all the more magnificent, that somebody as vast in his resources would stoop to the level of this, to some no-named woman in her miserable circumstances on a routine day as she buries her only boy.

Who really cares ultimately? Oh, the people come for a while as they do at funerals, and they'll send little notes for a while, but she's going to live with this for the rest of her life. And into the middle of all of that, Jesus comes and speaks.

Don't you wish that you could have seen the eyes of the people first as he touches the coffin? And Luke says, And those carrying it stood still. You bet your life they did. They were riveted to the spot. They're like, Whoa, whoa, what is this? And they couldn't have been prepared for what happened next. And then Jesus said, Young man. People are like, What?

What young man? I think he's talking. Don't be crazy. You can't talk to dead people.

Don't be daft. No, I'm telling you. Listen, watch. Who knows what's going to happen? Young man, I say to you, get up. And the young man sat up.

Why? Because he speaks, and listening to his voice, new life the dead receive. And notice, here's the key to this whole thing. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

That's compassion. He says, Listen, your mother needs you still. Now, don't get all hung up on how Jesus spoke to the dead and everything else. He's the Lord of life and death. He possesses power over the invisible sphere of the spirit world to which the soul goes. He, of all people, is able to call back that which is apparently gone.

He is the only one who could do it, and he did it. And the fellow looked up, and I guess he just said to his mom, Hey. And she said, Hey, I'm glad to have you back. Observations 5. They go like this. 1. Unlike others, Jesus doesn't simply comment on the great enemies of mankind. He overcomes them—sin and sickness and death. 2. He hears the cries of the sorrowful, and he knows your heart, and he knows your cries.

3. He's the loving comforter. He's the victor over death. He's the reuniter of separated, dear ones.

4. What he did here, he will one day do for all the faithful in a final, perfect form. When the blessed, who sleep in Jesus, at his bidding shall arise, from the silence of the grave and from the sea, and with bodies all celestial, we shall meet him in the skies. What a gathering of the ransomed that will be! What a gathering! What a gathering! What a gathering of the ransomed in that summer land of love! What a gathering! What a gathering! What a gathering of the ransomed in that happy home above! Into the sadness of our circumstances comes this compassionate shepherd.

And fifthly, he will bring full and final comfort on that day, raise all his people, reunite us with our loved ones and all who have died in him. You're listening to Truth for Life. Alistair Begg has titled today's message, Compassionate Shepherd. This original message was nearly 40 minutes long because of time constraints.

Much of Alistair's teaching was not included as part of today's program. You can hear the entire sermon start to finish at truthforlife.org or on the Truth for Life mobile app. There are nine messages in our series called To Know Christ, and downloading the sermons is free. If you're a frequent listener to Truth for Life, you know that all of Alistair's teaching can be accessed online without cost and that our resources are made available to you with no markup. This is because we're passionate about men and women from all walks of life having unlimited access to what the Bible teaches about life and death, about salvation and about the Lord Jesus Christ. We invite you to browse the extensive library of Bible studies available to you online and on our mobile app. In fact, don't hesitate to pass the link to a friend so they can hear clear and relevant Bible teaching as well.

Now as we wrap up, I want to draw your attention to a book we've selected for you. It's called Created to Draw Near. God has wired us for connection.

All of us long for deep relationships, but too often, whether because of our sin or our failures, we assume that God wants to keep his distance from us. Ed Welch's book, Created to Draw Near, explains that God welcomes us into his presence with open arms. We think you'll be encouraged by this biblical study about our identity as priests in God's kingdom.

For more information, go to truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine. So glad you've been able to be with us for today's study. Be sure to join us again next weekend as Alistair turns to John chapter 4 where we'll see Jesus as a personal evangelist. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.