Make The Most Of God's Compassion! Series

Make the Most of God's Compassion!

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 14:13-21; John 6:25-41

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared June 29, 2022)

BACKGROUND:

*Today in Matthew 14, we will focus on some of the Lord's amazing miracles. But first, think about how many miracles Jesus worked. In John 20:30-31, the Apostle John tells us that, "truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." John 21:25 tells us that "there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."

*Why did Jesus work all of those miracles? Mainly it was to give miraculous proof that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, the promised Messiah, and only Savior of the world. But through those miracles, Jesus also proved that God is full of compassion and love for people everywhere. God cares infinitely more about us than we care for ourselves. He is a compassionate God!

*Psalm 145:8-9 says, "The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works."

*In Isaiah 49:15, the LORD asks, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you."

*And in Micah 7:18-19, the prophet asked, "Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

*Christians: Our God is a compassionate God! We see this truth many other places in both the Old Testament and the New.

*In Matthew 9:35-36, "Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd."

*In Matthew 20:34, blind Bartimaeus and another man cried out to the Lord for help, "so Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him."

*In the Lord's great parable of the Prodigal Son, that young man repented of his foolish ways and returned to his father. The father in the story is a picture of our Heavenly Father. And Luke 15:20 tells us that the young man "arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him."

*This is the kind of compassion God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has for us! But how can we make the most of God's compassion? Please think about this as we read Matthew 14:13-21.

MESSAGE:

*Today's Scripture begins just after Matthew's report on the brutal murder of John the Baptist, and it gives us more examples of the Lord's compassion. Verses 13-14 tell us that when Jesus heard about John the Baptist's death, "He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick." Then in vs. 15-21, Jesus fed maybe more than 15,000 people, counting women and children, and He did that with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish!

*The original word for God's compassion in all of these New Testament examples is the idea of having gut-wrenching love and pity for someone. It's the same kind of feelings we have over a sick baby or spouse or parent or anyone else we deeply love. And that's the kind of compassion God has for us.

*Jerry Shirley explained, "This means Jesus didn't just see a man with leprosy. He also felt his pain, rejection, loneliness, and isolation. Jesus didn't just see a man whose daughter had died. He also felt his sorrow and bereavement. When Jesus saw people with broken hearts, His heart broke too. And Jesus didn't look on an adulterous woman in the judgmental way we often do, He looked at her with love, compassion, and forgiveness, wiping her slate clean." (1)