The compassion of Jesus
Introduction-
This morning we begin a series “WWJD” What would Jesus do.
The series is designed to look at Jesus as our model of life and help us to be more like-Christ.
The development of being a disciple of Jesus. We know we will not measure up, but we can be determined in our life to be working on it.
To understand the importance of allowing God to work in our lives. We live in a day and age where God is not a priority in most people’s life.
Spiritual awakening is important but most of the time, they do it without God and it tends to be more religious than working on relationship.
Two scriptures from last week are ones that I want you to memorize and put deep into your heart.
Isaiah 43:19-
“See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness.”
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
As we journey together, understand that God
He wants to do a new thing in our lives
He wants us to be more-Christ-like.
He has a plan and it is not to harm us but prosper us in spiritual ways as well as pour out some blessings.
He desires to fill us with hope and for us to know that we have a future in Him.
Let’s pray
This morning let look at compassion.
What would Jesus do concerning having compassion for those that He came in contact with and what does it mean for believers following Jesus.
Do we simply write the check so to speak?
Meet the need. Help people out without any personal contact or is their more to it?
We know that Jesus had compassion but there were different sides of Jesus compassion that we need to look at.
Jesus warned people of their shortcomings and there wayward actions against God and His commandments-
Compassion is warning
Jesus used words like Beware, watch out, take heed, and to listen.
These are warnings because after these words of warning comes the result of not doing them.
This is compassion too- The ability to love someone enough to tell them that they have gone off track.
I think this is the hardest form of compassion because;
we do not want to offend
we do not want to lose friendship
we do not want to embarrass anyone.
It is awkward. If it is not done right, we risk alienation from the person we love.
But to say nothing, is that compassion?
To pretend he/she is okay when you know they are not… is that compassion?
To watch them spiral out of control- what responsibility do we have?
If we do not take opportunity to get involve, restore, maybe at times rebuke… will we be held responsible?
Will we stand before God for missed opportunities because of what we did not say to those that God put in our path?
That side of compassion weighs heavy on my heart. I want to be a witness, and I am sure you do too, but we want to do it in a right way.
To those that protest at gravesites and funerals of gay people and servicemen/women are not compassionate- they are haters filled with anger and use God’s name to further their cause. Nowhere in God’s word did Jesus do that.
In the 60’s preachers preaching hell fire and brimstone and trying to scare people into the kingdom of God. In worked then but didn’t last. Today, it literally pushed people away from God.
The truth has to be preached, but it has to be preached for the right reasons.
If the truth is to set us free, it is preached, spoken for the way of restoration, redemption, fellowship and relationship.
Truth preached for any other reason is not compassion but hatred.
Apostle Paul says (Acts 20:18)
“You know how I lived the whole time I was with you… I served the Lord with great humility.”
Pride is a terrible trait and does not come from God.
Pride breeds quarrels.
Pride separates us from God and from others.
When we have to have the “best seats” insisting on recognition, wanting to be noticed.
When we stop progress just because we can and do not want someone to move ahead because of wrong motives and then we carry that into ministry for God… we will be held accountable by God.
One writer put it this way- “Never think that in lowering yourself you have less power for good. On the contrary, in this humbling yourself you are imitating and using the same means that Jesus used. You are walking in His way and therefore in His truth, and you are in the right state to receive life and impart it to others.”
Compassion alludes to kindness and sympathy, but there is something deeper, something even more profoundly powerful, in its meaning.
The origin of the word helps us grasp the true breadth and significance of compassion. In Latin, 'compati' means "suffer with." Compassion means someone else's heartbreak becomes your heartbreak. Another's suffering becomes your suffering. True compassion changes the way we live.
"We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer." — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Bible is saturated with compassion. It seeps through the pages of the Old Testament, pours out of the Gospels, and presents itself as a challenge to followers of Jesus.
The Bible talks of a God who has compassion for Israel.
It tells of a Savior who suffers for the world, and it asks us to live and act compassionately.
II. Compassion is caring
Acts 20:19-
“I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.”
Illustration- Preacher telling a story
I’ll never forget a funeral I conducted for a small child. As we waited for the family to gather, a little boy walked up to the tiny casket and gazed in. he was obviously distressed and I wanted to comfort him. “Your little sister is with Jesus”, I said. Good theology. Bad timing. He burst into tears. I don’t want her to be with Jesus, he sobbed, I want her here with me so we can play! I put my arm around him and we both cried.
Sometimes we say the wrong thing with good intentions.
I speak for a living-
I study the Bible and I teach the Word of God.
I want you to know that all my schooling does not replace a quiet time with the shedding of tears.
George MacDonald –
“Tears are often the only cure for weeping.”
Sometimes the most Christian thing you can do is just be there and cry with them. (Repeat)
John 11:35
“Jesus Wept”
If the Son of the living God found times where words were not needed, then we can be assured that at times there is no words. Just cry with them. Just show them that you care by being there for them.
In Context
Jesus wept after speaking with Lazarus’s grieving sisters, Martha and Mary, and seeing all the mourners. That seems natural enough. Except that Jesus had come to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew that in a few short minutes all this weeping would turn to astonished joy, and then tearful laughter, and then worship.
So, one would think that Jesus would be a confident, joyful calm in that storm of sorrow. But he was “greatly troubled, and he wept. Why?
The compassion for the suffering
The reality of sin
The cost of redemption
The cause of his eventual death
Kinship links to their sorrow and a bond is established between the hurting and those that comfort.
Compassion grows from our previous failures and sins- letting them know that God cares and can redeem.
Compassion grows from our previous hurts and sufferings- who understands more than those that have gone thru it themselves.
God brings healing for us and we are to bring healing to others.
Apostle Paul writes
“God is our source of mercy and comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so we can comfort others.”
Here are some areas God may call you to have compassion for others.
The pain of divorce
The pain of losing a loved one
Health issues
Relationships
Rejection
Isolation.
What has God brought you through so you could help someone else?
You know what I see as the greatest tragedy concerning a shift in society? We have no time for each other.
We do not have compassion for each other because we are almost desensitized to it because we see pain everyday on the news and every night on TV movies.
Gosh if everyone lived like the reality TV programs, it would be heartening.
I cannot teach you compassion. Compassion comes from the heart and that comes from God.
What is Compassion? Compassion is the power to transform – to transform suffering and fear
to kindness. It is being respectful and sensitive to others even if at the moment they are hurting themselves.
The deceptive thing about compassion is that although it seems simple, it is very powerful, it is often forgotten when things are going well.
Repentance comes before compassion
Compassion comes before mercy
Mercy comes to rescue and restore
God needs us to not forget where we came from and do for others what he has done for us.
Last thing,
Compassion is personal
Acts 20:20-
“I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.”
As a pastor, I pray this house would be full, that we would have to enlarge the sanctuary to “get the word out.” That is a true statement, but also I have learned that individual attention lasts longer.
I cannot invest myself in everyone. But each one of us can invest in someone. We are not called to save the whole world, just the ones that God brings into our lives if at all possible.
Listen to this paragraph from Richard Baxter from the reformed pastor
“For my part, I study to speak as plainly and as movingly as possible…and yet I frequently meet with those that have been my hearers eight or ten years, who know not whether Christ be god or man, and wonder when I tell them the history of his birth and life and death as if they had never heard it before… I have found by experience, that some persons, who have long been unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse in half and hour’s close discourse, then they did from ten year’s public preaching. I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the most excellent means, because we speak to so many at once. But it is usually far more effectual to speak it privately to a particular person.
Small groups
If you can teach, you should teach.
If not, it is a way for each of us to have a personal encounter with God through His word and his teacher.
In a moment we will pray’
As a believer-
We need to heed God’s warnings- quickly
We need to be sensitive to others that God brings into our lives. We may be the person God uses to turn their whole life around.
Compassion is a personal thing- we are all called of God to be kind to those that we come into contact with. If we saw a hungry person, we would give them food- I hope we would. If we saw a hurting person and you have the answer to help them stop the hurting, that is called compassion and it is for all of us.
Prayer
Amen.
