Transcript What Jesus HAD. - New Life Community Church

Introduction.
• What Jesus had
• What Jesus did
• What Jesus said
Matthew 9: 35 – 38
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.”
What Jesus HAD.
• Jesus had COMPASSION.
• Wilkins says: ‘The crowds continue to be the
object of Jesus’ ministry, and the motivating
force is His compassion’.
• Compassion Root -splanchnizomai, ….‘moved
in the inward parts’
• Why are we told that Jesus had compassion
on the crowds?
• “Because they were harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd.”
• ‘Moses said to the LORD, “May the LORD, the
God of every human spirit, appoint someone
over this community to go out and come in
before them, one who will lead them out and
bring them in, so the LORD’s people will not be
like sheep without a shepherd.” Numbers 27:
15 – 17
What Jesus DID.
• Wilkins states :
• ‘Jesus sees deeply into the needs of the
crowds and has been bringing healing to
both body and soul’.
• ‘Jesus casting out evil spirits and healing
diseases of sickness are external validation of
the reality of the presence of the kingdom of
heaven’.
Two things that strike me about this situation:
• Firstly Jesus was right in and amongst the
crowds:
• Secondly Jesus was acutely conscious of
spiritual warfare:
• Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy.
• Jesus wants to bring hope, life, joy and peace
– not to mention healing from sickness.
What Jesus SAID.
• ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are
few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to
send out workers into His harvest field’.
• In Jesus day, He was telling His disciples that
there was a harvest of people/souls waiting
to be reached with the gospel.
• Is that still true today?
• I want to shout YES YES YES YES and YES.
• The number of Christians in Indonesia has grown from
1.3M forty years ago to over 11M today. That said, of the
76,000 villages in the country, 50,000 are without a
church (Operation World).
• No Christian was officially allowed to live in Nepal until
1960. Now there is a church in every one of the 75
districts of Nepal with estimates of over half a million
believers (Operation World).
• In A.D. 100, there were 360 non-Christians for every true
believer. Today the ratio is less than seven to every
believer as the Holy Spirit does more than we could ever
ask or imagine (Vision 2020).
• About 500 Muslims come to faith in Christ every month
in Iran--a country ranked among the top ten persecutors
of Christians in the world. Many of the new believers are
young, since 70% of Iran is under the age of 30 (Vision
2020).
• Every day, 20,000 Africans come to Christ. Africa
was 3% Christian in 1900 and is now over 50%
Christian (Vision 2020).
• In 1900 Korea had no Protestant church and the
country was deemed impossible to
penetrate. Today Korea is 30% Christian with
7000 churches in Seoul alone and several of
these churches have over 1,000,000 members
(Vision 2020).
• There are currently 60-80 million Christians in
China with between 10,000-25,000 converts a
day (Open Doors).
• If only 1 out of every 6 believers "reproduced"
themselves one time each year, the entire world
would be reached for Christ by the year 2020!
Application.
• ‘So what”. How is this relevant for me?
• But one thing we have probably ceased to
believe is this statement of Jesus to his
disciples that the fields are ripe to harvest.
• Research suggests that just over half the
people living in this country that you invite to
a church service, or outreach event would
come.
• Have a risk-taking mind-set
Conclusion.
• Everything Jesus did and said was motivated
by COMPASSION.
• Jesus has compassion on those around
you…will you also have compassion for
them?