Sermon – “What Compassion Looks Like”

30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. 33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. 35 When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.” 37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”

When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 And when they came out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, 55 ran through that whole surrounding region, and began to carry about on beds those who were sick to wherever they heard He was. 56 Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well.

this week as I was going this message was kind of speaking to me. Now it was she was just now saying but what she is saying before we sang the praises of songs that we are to hate the sin but yet love the sinner. The Lord’s const beacon to me that that will be a message here in the future. Next week we will with the Fourth of July and events they have a message. Sarette are focused around Independence and red white and blue and all that. But today what compassion looks like what compassion looks like what does compassion look like to you when you think of that big compassion What do you think. Have you witnessed or been the recipient or the extender of compassion tenderness love caring what’s compassion look like to you. That’s a question of their own out there they want to share what help and someone who needs help. You know we’re going above and beyond that like interaction here going to be on you’re all right on right on target in the right place at the right time and we did you guys a director has only put us in the place and where are we going to act. What are we going to do. What does compassion look like. Well today Scripture gives a great example of what compassionate was like beginning with Mark Chapter six versus thirty to thirty seven and then also thirty three through that the six hour read it all. Today that one time. Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told him all things both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said to them Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile. For there were many coming and going and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. But when the multitude saw them depart the people were watching when they saw them depart and many knew him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came to him. So the people ran around on foot and got there before they even arrived in the boat and Jesus when he came out saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent his disciples came to him and said This is a deserted place and already the hours late. Send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread for they have nothing to eat but he answered and said to them You give them something to eat. Now I’m going to skip over a big portion of Scripture here but I am going to talk about it we’re going to jump the verse fifty three. When they had crossed over they came to the land of Jeanette’s or it and anchored there. And when they came out of the boat a measly the people recognised him ran through that whole surrounding region and began to carry about on beds. Those who were sick too to wherever they heard he was wherever he entered into villages cities or the country they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might just that they might just touch the him of his garment and as many as touched him were made well everywhere he went. He had compassion for the people he had compassion on the people every place he went. The Greek word for compassion is an extremely hard word splaying mid exam he something I haven’t broken down and can’t even pronounce it but it means to yearn in your seat of emotions with pity or sympathy toward someone too long to be moved to help someone to sympathize with them. That’s what compassion is. As you have just said to help them that are in need to get a full understanding of this passage or this message today. I do have to share what preceded this passage and what was in the middle though left out to get a full understanding of your passage begins with Jesus trying to lead the disciples to a quiet place that they might find some rest because they had been busy because prior to this some thought you know we what we said we discussed is this race and you always got to read a few verses before in a few verses after well more than a few verses you have to read the entire section before this to get a good understanding because Jesus before this had sent his disciples out two by two and he said I want you to go in to the surrounding Arabs and I want you. I’m giving you a power and authority. He says I give you a thirty over demons. I give you power to heal the sick and I’m sending you to teach. So he sent them out two by two and he says whatever city you enter into. He says I don’t want you to take two tunics I don’t want you to take a money bag our one is your sandals on your feet and I want you to go and I want you to preach the message preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God is near. Preach that word heal the sick cast out demons that’s what I want you to do. He said because wherever you are I want you to the home that receives you I want you to stay there until you’re done this time only. And he says that they will. Not receive you. If they do not receive the word did you bring for them when you leave that place. Shake the dust off your sandals as a testimony against them he said because it would be worse for that city on the day of judgment then it will be for the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. So he sends them out and they do miraculous things. They heal the sick they cast out demons they teach the word and they come back diseases they’re all excited because they they were moved by the pair of goggles upon them. Jesus wasn’t with them he was right there watching over him he wasn’t the one that they were. So they come back and they’re all pumped up. I mean come on wouldn’t you be. You’d be all pumped up you’re all going those things. So they’re all pumped up they come back in or want to tell Jesus about all this in this busy there’s people come in and go on come in and go on Jesus let’s get into the boat let’s go find a quiet place we can sit down and talk. You can share with me all that had happened. But they get there and we just read what happens. People run around and they get there before them. There’s no time to sit down with the disciples. So Jesus don’t think for one moment that Jesus didn’t know that all these people were going to run around to get there before them because he knows all things. I don’t think for a moment that he didn’t already know that he knew they were caught. So he gets out of the boat and has compassion on them because they’re hungry is why he had compassion on them. They’re hungry for the word they’re hungry for the teaching because what they’re hearing in the synagogues is not what they needed to hear. They’re hungry for the unadulterated truth of God They’re hungry for the mercy of God They’re hungry for God’s grace and he sees that and knows it. That’s why he had compassion on him he taught them many things. It says until the day was far spent he had compassion on them. There was Celis there was Ellis to hear the words of Jesus. Have you ever stopped and thought of the pressure that was on Jesus and His disciples continually continually. They couldn’t find rest. These people weren’t worried about oh well let’s let Jesus go arrestable come back tomorrow. No they weren’t worried about that. They was worried about their needs. But can you see a test in this passage. Can you see a test of faith. Jesus the disciples just come back from Dong great and mighty things. They get in the boat they go to the other side. The crowd falls around. Jesus gets out and teaches them all day long. Then the disciples come up and say Lord the day is far spent the hours late. Send them away send them away. Now they are just seeing demons cast out the sick healed. So what Jesus tell would he tell you feed them you feed them. There’s a test of faith there he say and can you believe can you believe in me can you believe in the Father to heal. Can you believe in the Father to do all these things. But can you believe in the father of this multitude. It was five thousand men. That’s not counting women and children so there could have been possibly fifteen to twenty thousand people in that crowd. So the cycles look out over the sea of people. This multitude of people and I think there’s no way we can feed them. There’s no way that we can feed them we don’t have enough food. They say if we would go spend two hundred unary could we possibly buy enough food for all these. People that was a year’s wages. Let’s put this in today’s perspective is today’s years’ wages an average of forty to sixty thousand dollars probably. So you’ve got a mass of people out there fifteen to twenty thousand people that would take every bit of that to feed them. You might have enough to spend a few dollars on every people or every person I repeat every person. Would you have the face to say we can feed them. We can do it. Would you have the faith. So you said you see it and there was a test of faith there. Do you believe that you can do it. You’ve heard the passage many times. Jesus said how much food do you have. So they went in through the crowd and found out what they had five loaves five loaves of bread and two small fish is all they had. Jesus said Have the people sit down and bring it to me and he didn’t pray any longer lab or a prayer. He just looked toward heaven. He took the bread and he broke it and blessed it and gave it to His disciples and they all ate in the same with the fish. Could you imagine they take this bread and they break it off I think a loaf of bread I break it off and hand you a piece and you take it when you break it off you still have the piece in your hand you had that person and just had this kept multiplying and multiplying. So they all ate and were filled and they took up twelve basketfuls of leftovers. All he did was say thank you Father blessed it bless this bread bless the stew that we’re about to protect. And he provided he had compassion on that crowd of people and he fed them they were hungry and he fed them. That is what compassion looks like they were like sheep without a shepherd and he fed them. William Barkley once wrote. Jesus teaches that human needs must always be helped that there is no greater task than to relieve someone’s pain and distress and that the Christian’s compassion must be like that of Jesus and that is unceasing other work may be laid aside but the work of compassion but must never be laid aside. Remember Jesus’ words in Matthew twenty five verses thirty seven through forty. It says in the righteous way answer him saying Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty and give you a drink. When we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you or when do we see you sick or in prison and come to you and the king way answer and say to them. But surely I say to you and as much as you did it to the least of these my brother and you did it to me you did it to me. That is compassion. This message is really kind of a two apart to mess it up reached couplets ago go make disciples and share what someone said to me. We’ve had enough training this is time to go it’s time to go. Well it’s kind of this ties right into that message. Go and have compassion. The point is you know doesn’t going doesn’t always mean that we have to go up there on the street corner and hand out tracks and say Do you know Jesus. Go in might be going and feeding them or helping them whatever their needs may be and then telling them about Jesus because when you’re tired or hungry they don’t listen or hear very well so that compassion might be caring for them first showing them Jesus if you will showing them Jesus. You can see in our passage that Jesus cared for people he loved people. Many many years ago I read when I first became a believer. I read a little book called in steps by Charles Sheldon It was written in one thousand eight hundred ninety six and it was subtitled what would Jesus do. That’s where the W W A J D bracelets and all that stuff come from. But Sheldon’s novel grew out of a series of sermons that he delivered to his congregation was church. It’s a peek a canvas in this popular novel. The main character Reverend Henry Maxwell encounters a homeless man who challenges him to take seriously the Imitation of Christ. The homeless man had difficulty understanding why in his view so many Christians ignore the poor so the homeless man says to the pastor he said I heard some people saying in a church prayer meeting the other night and they were saying it all for Jesus all for Jesus all my being’s ransoms ransom power all my thoughts and all my doings and all my days and all my hours he says and I kept wondering as I sat there on the steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me that there’s an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn’t exist if all the people who sings that songs went and lived them out if they went and lived them out. He says I suppose I don’t or Stan but what would Jesus do. Is that what you mean by following his steps. It seems to me sometimes as a people the people in the big churches had good clothes and nice houses. They cations and all that. And while the people outside the church thousands of them I mean die in tenements and walk to streets for jobs and never have a piano or picture in the house or grow up in the. And they grow up in misery and drunkenness and sin. And this leads many of the novel’s characters to ask what would Jesus do with faith. If with decisions faced with decisions of some importance this has the effect of making the characters embrace Christianity more seriously and to focus on what they see as its core and that is the life of Christ. So what does compassion look like. It looks like the things that Jesus did and the things that his church should do. If we are serious about our claim that Jesus Christ is our tortie and he is our Lord then we ought to take his teaching seriously. He was serious when he talked to Peter and John Chapter twenty one. He said so when they had eaten breakfast Jesus said to Simon Simon Peter Simon son of Jonah do you love me more than these. He said to him Yes Lord you know that I love you. He said to him feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time Simon son and Jonah do you love me. He said to him Yes Lord you know that I love you. He said to him ten my sheep. He said to him a third time Simon son of Jonah do you love me. Peter was grieved because he said in the third time do you love me. He said to him Lord you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him feed my sheep. So he said feed my lambs ten my sheep and feed my sheep. We can’t take this passage and say oh it doesn’t apply today but we can say this isn’t for me because if we are a believer in Jesus Christ we have to take his teaching seriously. It’s what Jesus was teaching that we should do. That’s what the church should do have compassion on people. Jesus had compassion on people and love people. We too should have compassion on people and love people when Jesus seeing someone in need. He didn’t say well what have you done to deserve this. He didn’t judge and say What sins have you done. When he helped them. He wasn’t judge and jury. He just helped them even when they brought the adulterous woman to him. He had compassion on her. Yes he said Go and sin no more. But he didn’t say all you deserve what you’re getting. He helped or didn’t he help her definitely in her time of need for they would have stoner. But he had compassion. I would rather err on the side of compassion than be the judge in a jury. I’d rather rather err. So while you don’t really have a need I’d rather err and try to help because I don’t have to answer to what they do with the help we give someone they do. I found an amazing story of compassion and December one nine hundred forty three German ace pilot Hance Stigler had every reason to shoot down the American B. seventeen bomber that was in front of him and in the forces had already killed his brother earlier in the war and were now bombing German cities. Not only that but if Stigler took down this particular bomber he would round out his kill score and secure the German equivalent of the Medal of Honor. He had that nice medal wear on his chest but as SIGAR prepared to squeeze the trigger he thought that it was kind of strange that the bomber wasn’t firing back at him going for a closer look. He saw that the gunner was already dead in the most of the crew was wounded. The plane itself was riddled with bullets and struggling to stay aloft. But in his heart so in his heart Stingley knew that he would be killing these men in cold blood. So instead he opted to do the honorable thing. He signaled to the shocked American politicians flew with the bomber to prevent it from being. Did by anti-aircraft missile fire stinger escorted the plane until it reached the North Sea where he broke off and saluted his adversaries one last time. It was not until five decades later that the American pilot Charles Brown successfully tracked down the man who saved him and his crew. The two men became best of friends and as a show of thanks. Brown they made Stinger the guest of honor at a reunion he had planned with his crewmen. They showed Stigler a video of their children and grandchildren. People who would not have lived were it not for his act of compassion. That’s the true heart of compassion that story don’t touch and nothing will. He had compassion for that crew. He could have shot him down it was the enemy it would have been murder because it was war. But he had compassion for them. He seen the people that compassion for them. Let’s have compassion for a neighbor that’s the face of compassion loving our neighbor caring for them. That’s what we’re called to do have compassion for those that don’t know Christ’s compassion for those that are in our workplace or neighborhoods. Let’s love them as Jesus did.