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"It Takes Guts to Love the Lost" Matthew 9:35-10:1 Love Your Neighbor #1

by Clancy Nixon

October 14, 2007

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

It takes guts to love the lost; to really love people who are far from Christ. It takes

guts; it takes prayer; it takes a decision of the will for us to see people as God sees them.

If you'd like to love your neighbors into the Kingdom of God, but you have not had much

success with that, then you can begin by seeing people as God sees them. This sermon is

the first in a series on evangelism that I'm calling "Love Your Neighbor."

I'll illustrate with a question for you. When you see people coming out of a bar

and they are obviously drunk, what do you think of? How do you feel in your gut? Well,

living in Ashburn, I rarely see drunk people anymore, though when I was in college I saw

plenty of them. One of them was often in my mirror. At that time of my life, I was far

from Christ, and I used to drink to excess. Praise God, when I was baptized in the Holy

Spirit, the Lord delivered me from the desire to ever lose my sobriety again. Now, I have

to go out of my way to see people who are drunk. When I see tipsy people now, I confess

that my first thoughts are not particularly holy! I might shake my head and feel a wish

coming on that they would be arrested for drunk driving. The natural man in me can get

self-righteous in a New York nanosecond about the same sin I was once caught up in!

Many times, compassion is a second thought for me, rather than a gut-level instinct.

When I see someone who is hurting because of their own choices, I have to remind

myself that these are people for whom Christ died, and that I should have compassion for

them. All of us can react with judgment rather than with love, particularly when we're

stressed we can see people as obstacles, as problems for us, as ones who disturb our oh-

so-precious personal peace. The good news today is that, if we ask him, God will give us

the guts to see people as He does; God will empower us to love sinners.

Matthew tells us that "When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,

because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36)

Jesus had compassion on the crowds. For many of us, the only crowd we see is on the

Toll Road or Rt. 7, and we don't exactly have compassion on them, do we!

This illustration comes from Neil Cole's book Organic Church. The Lord Jesus,

whose character we emulate, whose compassion and instinctive responses are our

example for life his body reacted with compassion. Some translations say Jesus

reacted with pity when he saw the crowds, other translations say he had sorrow, others

sympathy. These words are all translations of the Greek word "splancthna." This word

does not sound very pretty, because it is descriptive literally, it means "bowels." Jesus

felt love for the crowds in his gut. When we speak of our feelings in English, we

sometimes say we feel it in our heart. Some emotions, however, we feel in our gut.

When a teenage boy calls a girl for the first time to ask her on a date, her doesn't get

butterflies in his heart; butterflies are in your stomach. When you hear very bad news, it

can feel like someone has punched you in the stomach. Jesus' experience in Matthew

9:36 was not like John Wesley on Aldersgate Street, where Wesley's heart was strangely

warmed. No, Jesus felt this compassion in his gut. I imagine that when Jesus saw the true

spiritual state of these crowds, it was like a punch on the stomach emotionally, and he

bent over in discomfort.

Most of us see people every day who don't know Christ, yet we don't feel for

them in our gut. Have you ever wondered: - Why is that? [pause]

Jesus' baby brother James in 4:2 says "you have not because you ask not of God."

Maybe it's because we have not prayed to see lost people as Jesus does. Maybe we

haven't quite taken in what is the true condition of people who are far from Christ. The

NIV translation says in verse 36 that Jesus had compassion on them "BECAUSE THEY

WERE harassed and helpless." Matthew tells us that this was not just opinion; this was

the truth about these people, and this truth is what hit Jesus in the gut. The NASB says

they were "distressed and downcast." The Message paraphrase says they were "confused

and aimless."

The Greek word that we translate as "distressed" or "harassed" is a violent word.

Neil Cole says it can also be translated as "molested." The word we translate as

downcast is also a wrestling term that can mean "pinned down by force." We know from

John 8:36 that "if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." The corollary is that if

Christ has not yet set you free, then you remain in bondage. In the next verse after

Matthew 9:37, which is 10:1, Jesus sends the disciples to cast out demons. One way to

read Matthew 9:36 is that Jesus sees lost people like this. Imagine that you were out for a

stroll in the twilight, and suddenly you came across a terrible scene: a young teenage girl

at the mercy of a wicked brute who is molesting her by force. If you witnessed that,

you'd respond viscerally, in your gut, with both compassion for the victim and anger at

the perpetrator. I apologize if this cruel image offends, but I believe that it's a part of

what Matthew wants us to understand about the true spiritual state of lost people. If we

can see lost people as under ongoing spiritual molestation by the evil one, we would have

a visceral reaction of urgent compassion for them as well. A major part of the tragedy is

that most often, lost people don't even know that they are being taken advantage of.

Jesus says they are like sheep without a shepherd.

Let's look at sheep. The sheep we domesticate are not smart creatures - at least

not the ones on Charles Strother's farm. If a sheep gets lost, they are not smart enough to

find their way back home. If they fall over on their backs, they can't right themselves

they are like turtles, and they will die if no one comes and rights them. Sheep are

helpless! The male rams are taken as young for lamb meat. Female sheep, ewes, have no

natural defenses at all. Jesus tells us that spiritually speaking, lost people are easy prey

for the devourer of our souls. They are like sheep without the only one who can protect

them, and that is Jesus, the good shepherd.

How can you and I get to the place where each one of us becomes effective in

loving our neighbors into the Kingdom? I suppose I could call you to obedience to make

disciples, since in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, right after telling us to make

disciples, Jesus told us that disciples are to obey everything he has commanded us. The

truth is that very few of us feel like we are any good at bringing people to Christ for the

first time. Many of us have had experiences with evangelism that have left a bad taste in

our mouths. Most of us already bring to the topic of personal evangelism our internally

imposed sense of disobedience and failure, resulting in guilt and shame.

Trust me, I have no desire to heap burning coals upon your head. I truly believe

that the best way to fulfill the great commission is to follow Jesus example here in

Matthew 9: we are to develop Christ's compassion for the lost. Develop compassion

for the lost. Jesus shows us how by his example: we need to see the true spiritual

condition of people who are far from Christ. They are harassed and helpless under the

power of a spiritual brute. We can understand their true condition, but still we need to

actually see them, to rub shoulders with them. Matthew 9:36 says that first, Jesus saw the

crowds.

Many of us never really see the crowds - in person. When I spend too much time

in my office, my love for lost people can grow cold. This week, I've been thinking about

how to reach my neighborhood. I asked God to show me where people gather. This

Friday evening, Sam asked me to come to the Varsity Football game at Briar Woods to

get him. When I saw the two thousand people hanging out there, I felt like Homer

Simpson D'oh! How could I have missed this? I sat in the stands alone, silently, and I

looked at the people for a long time. I asked God to give me his heart for them, to see

them as he does. I heard God whisper to me, "They think they are rich, but they are poor.

They have what they want, but not what they need. They are desperately needy. They are

in bondage to their own desires. I died for these people, and I want you to love them into

my Kingdom." Jesus saw the crowds. I encourage you to take some time this week to

really see the harvest fields in your neighborhood, and ask God to give you his heart of

compassion for them.

Jesus tells us to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that he would raise up workers for

the harvest field. This is not a pass for us to pray that someone else, some gifted

evangelist, will come to relieve us from evangelistic work! No, the laborers we are to

pray for are the converts who come from the harvest that we ourselves reap.

When you pray regularly for lost people, Jesus will soften your heart toward them

maybe he'll even sensitize your guts! In my life transformation group of three, I'm

praying ten scriptures every day for a lost person on my list, and God is using that

discipline to give me his compassion for them. Prayer changes things. It takes guts to

love the lost, and Jesus will give you what you need.

Let's pray.