Sermon Tone Analysis

COMPASSION 20

JESUS IS MOVED BY OUR DISTRESS

Matthew 9:35-38

(cmpas20.doc)

*THE FRUIT OF CHRISTLIKE LOVE*

 

        Eleanor Chestnut, a former medical missionary in China, beautifully exemplified Christlike love.

A beggar had come to the hospital badly burned, but no one was willing to donate skin for a graft.

So the next morning the nurses were surprised to learn that the operation had been performed.

Then they noticed that Dr. Chestnut was limping and realized that she had surgically removed some of her own skin to save the victim's life.

They were amazed at such a sacrifice, for they couldn't understand why she would do that for a total stranger.

Later, during the Boxer uprising, this gallant missionary again manifested a selflessness that profoundly impressed the Chinese people.

As she was being led to prison, she saw a little boy bruised and bleeding.

Immediately she broke away from her captors, and kneeling down she bound up the youngster's wound.

A few hours later she was executed.

Even after 50 years had passed, people in China were still talking about the foreign doctor whose loving concern for others made them think of Jesus.

We have been studying the compassion of Jehovah God for 19 messages.

In the past three messages, we have been observing the compassion of God as it was demonstrated through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

We have noted one confirming statement concerning the compassion of Jesus Christ, and we have studied the two passages of Scripture where Jesus demonstrated the compassion of God and the word /eleos 1656/ is translated compassion.

We are now ready to further study the compassion of God as it was demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ.

This study brings us face to face with the Greek word that is most often translated "compassion."

The Greek word is */splagchnizomai 4697/.

This word is translated "compassion" 11 times in the New Testament; 10 times of Jesus directly or in illustration and 1 time about God in illustration.*

Today we shall begin our study of these 11 occurrences of the word /splagchnizomai/.

/(Would you turn with me to Matthew 9:35-38 and follow along with me as I read this passage for us.

Let's first consider:)/

 

I.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES (OR SETTING) (v 35).

Jesus had established an itinerant ministry in the cities and villages of Galilee.

He was accustomed to teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and sickness.

teaching /1321 didasko/ - to teach

 

proclaiming /2784 kerusso/ - to be a herald, proclaim

 

gospel /2098 euaggelion/ - good tidings

 

disease /3554 nosos/ - disease, sickness

 

sickness /3119 malakia/ - softness, weakness

 

Three components of Jesus' ministry are mentioned here:  (1) teaching; (2) preaching; and (3) healing.

I believe the same three components of ministry are important today.

People need to be taught, i.e. they need to have things explained to them.

Jesus did this through contrast, question and answer, parable, narrative, object lessons, etc.

At times, people need the good news of the gospel heralded to them with all of the formality and gravity which is due the subject and the Originator.

So, people need a balanced diet of preaching and teaching.

People need a balanced diet of preaching and teaching, but they also need to have their practical needs met.

Jesus also healed their bodies of every kind of sickness and weakness.

Jesus, the King of the coming kingdom, gave people a taste of the coming kingdom.

He provided for their intellectual, emotional and physical needs.

Even though we may be unable to heal the sick as Jesus did, we can promote practical healing for our listeners by dealing with practical matters.

We can also dispense the healing of

 

Luke 4:17-19, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

That quote comes from Isaiah 61:1-2, where the phrase "He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted" occurs.

If we pattern our ministry after that of Jesus Christ we will teach, preach, and heal the broken-hearted.

At any rate, here, during His ministry, He took special note of the multitude.

/(Since we know the circumstances, let's get to know:)/

 

II.

THE CHARACTERS.

1.

The Protagonist Is Jesus.

This whole paragraph is concerning the ministry of Jesus Christ.

It specifically takes up the *p*erception, *p*assion and, *p*ronouncement of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the Protagonist is Jesus Christ.

We can learn valuable lessons concerning ministry by watching and emulating Jesus Christ.

\\ 2.      The Antagonist Is Not Stated.

Although there are no stated antagonists in this discourse, we can infer that there are two antagonists.

1)      The first inferred antagonist is self.

We can infer this from the clause,

 

"because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd."

"The crowd was in a sad and pitiful state" (A.

T. Robertson).

They were like sheep without a shepherd.

People are often likened to sheep in the Bible.

Sheep are helpless, defenseless, aimless creatures.

The do not fare well without some kind of care.

A sheep's life is meant to be lived under the keeping of a shepherd.

People who have no regular care from a shepherd are distressed and downcast.

One meaning of the word "distressed" is "to give one's self trouble" or "to trouble one's self."

This leads me to the conclusion that self is sometimes one of our enemies.

Sometimes life is bitter, cruel, hard, difficult, and confusing.

People like sheep need someone to care for them, feed them, and lead them.

Spiritually, life is meant to be lived under the keeping of the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Those who live their lives apart from the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ, will be distressed and downcast.

/(But life is not the only antagonist that we can infer from the text.)/

2)      The second inferred antagonists are the Pharisees.

This can be inferred from the two words describing the condition of the multitutde.

First, they were

 

distressed /4660 skullo/ {skool'-lo}

1b) to rend, mangle; to vex, trouble, annoy; to give one's self trouble, trouble one's self

 

A.

T. Robertson says that the crowds were rent or mangled as if by wild beasts.

He says that /skullo/ occurs in the papyri of plunder, concern and vexation.

This particular word is used here of the common people and describes their religious condition.

This was the religious condition of those without shepherds and those with hirelings for shepherds like the Pharisees.

They were harassed, importune, bewildered by those who should have taught them; hindered from entering the kingdom of heaven, laden with the burdens which the Pharisees laid upon them.

/ /

/(Not only were they distressed, they were downcast.)/

downcast /4496 rhipto/ {hrip'-to}

1) to cast, throw; throw down; to cast forward or before; to set down (with the suggestion of haste and want of care); to throw to the ground, prostrate

 

Again, A. T. Robertson says the masses were in a state of mental dejection.

This is what life does to you when you are not under the care of a good shepherd, or when you are harassed by a hireling.

/(There is still one more antagonist that we can infer from this text.)/

3)      The third inferred antagonist is Satan.

Jesus is using the metaphor of sheep, and we know that sheep have natural *p*redators.

Robertson says that the Greek word translated distressed has the meaning of being mangled as if by wild beasts.

There are wolves, lions, bears, and thieves after the sheep.