A Call To Compassion

 

 

"And Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon,  who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. And all the crowd was trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all."

Luke 6:17-19 

Good Morning my beloved,
 
We welcome you to worship today in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I am reminded of what a joyous occasion it is to come together as a community of faith, united in worship of our Great God. I'm thankful for each one of you who have remained with me on this wonderful journey. I'd also like to take a moment to express my deep gratitude to each and every one of you, and for your steadfast prayers and unwavering commitment to sharing the Word of God through our website and social media outlets does not go unnoticed. I couldn't do what I do with your love and support.

When I first began my journey as a preacher of God's Word, once I got past the initial feelings of insecurity and vulnerability that I mentioned last time, I had gained quite a bit of knowledge, a little bit of experience, and suddenly I found myself making a grave mistake, thinking that I had it all figured out. I'm sure that some of you may have felt that same way at some point in your lives, when we start feeling as though we're literally holding the keys to understanding everything, the moment we begin to rely on our own wisdom, we become blind to the complexities of faith. Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

 

I never anticipated that only a few verses could take so long to get through. But that's what happens when you rely on the Holy Spirit to take the lead, thoroughly illuminating the text before you, and as many of you know by now, we can literally spend several weeks in one passage, and more than a year in the same book, however, you walk away with a much deeper understanding of the Scripture. After all, isn't that the essence of what studying the Word is all about? 

 

When I am studying a particular portion of Scripture, some of you may have noticed, that I will often jot down some of the thoughts that begin swirling around in my mind, thoughts that might appear to be a bit moralistic or didactic in nature, I believe that you can generally tell when somebody is saved, by the way the interact with other believers, Hebrews 13:1 says, "Let love of the brethren continue," in order for something to continue, that implies it had to be there to begin with, right?  Whenever we come together as believers, whether we're gathering at church or at someone's home, there should be a desire, a great affection for the brethren. From my own perspective, I believe there is a very serious problem occurring within the church. The world will make their evaluations of God and on Christ, on the basis of the conduct they see from you and me,.

You can recite all the Scripture you want, but if it's not being lived out, if the world is unable visibly see that we are different, what good is your faith? Are we publicly exalting and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ, Whose death provides a covering for shameful sinners, doing good, even to our enemies? That should be the focus, that is how we point others to Christ. If you’re only going to live like a Christian on Sunday, please do not tell people the rest of the week that you are one. Proverbs 13:1, "A wise son heeds his father's discipline, but a mocker does not listen to rebuke."

Jude 17-18, "But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, "In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts." This is why we must carefully assess those within the church to ensure they truly follow God. While we can't judge their hearts, because only God knows a man's heart, we are called to evaluate their actions and if necessary, enact church discipline. Sound doctrine is the foundation of godly behavior, however, there can be no godly behavior apart from sound doctrine, but without putting into practice what we learn in our daily lives, it will lack the necessary practical application that brings about real spiritual transformation to effect change.

There are many Christians who, though they are in a sanctifying process because that's just the way it is if you're saved, they fall into patterns of sin, it's not as consistent as before but it's not the unbroken pattern of their life like it used to be, but there's a pattern of righteousness that's being interrupted and disrupted by sin. Beloved, that sends confusing signals that can still hinder their progress towards sanctification.  Then there are those who claim to be a Christian, they claim to know Christ, who though they attend church regularly, they tithe, participate in the various church programs and activities, but patterns of sin have never been broken, if you were examine their life very closely, it would difficult to tell the difference between them and one who has never been saved, there is no evidence of a new life, the patterns of sin have never been broken or interrupted, it's been ongoing, they never been rescued from this present evil age. And, if you look very closely, you'll find the churches are full of them, the pulpits are full of them, however, most people can't tell the difference, they appear to be almost the same as those who are saved, who have been rescued from this present evil world, whose lives confirm they received the gift of salvation, which if you think about it, is not really shocking because Satan is endeavoring to do exactly what Jesus said he would do, sowing the tares among the wheat. Jesus came into the world to save unrighteous sinners, to forgive sins and heal the spiritually sick, transforming their lives of those who know they’re sinners, not to entertain those who think they’re righteous but remain in their reprobate condition. Beware of pastors who teach Satan's damning lies, claiming God accepts your sin. Read the Bible for yourself, nowhere in Scripture does God say that forgiveness is a license to continue in your sin! Your flesh doesn't care if you spend eternity burning in Hell, because it's not going with you.

Despite being one of the greatest, most influential leaders in early church history, credited with writing thirteen books of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, continually sought to deepen his understanding of this faith, as well as his knowledge of the mystery of Christ Jesus. While it’s essential to remember that we too must acknowledge the importance of ongoing spiritual growth, faith is about trusting God in the unknown, acknowledging our limitations, admitting that we don’t have all the answers. Seeking God’s guidance in difficult situations is not a sign of weakness; instead I believe that it showcases the humility Jesus modeled for us throughout His life. In Matthew 18, He said, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Children are curious, and they like to ask a lot questions, with a willingness to learn, as children of God, it's important that we cultivate that same spirit, understanding God’s wisdom far surpasses our own. In Isaiah 55:9, the Lord reminds us through the prophet Isaiah that He sees the complete picture, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts," inviting us to contemplate the vastness of God's wisdom which is infinitely greater than our own, as well as helping us to recognize  the limits of our own humanity, often obscured by our immediate circumstances.

 

Those of you that know me, I love the Bible, I love every page of the Old Testament where you can really hear the Word of God, I also love the New Testament, where we see God in all His glory, all His perfection manifest in the person of Jesus Christ. But I particularly love the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, because in them is the captivating story of the life of the incomparable Jesus Christ, Who is God in human flesh, that came into the world to preach the forgiveness of sins to all who would repent and believe, where His divine attributes are revealed in a way that is more intimate, more clear, more profound, more understandable than any other record contained in Scripture. 

 

From the onset of his Gospel, Luke has taken us on a remarkable journey, a journey that has been fast-paced almost too rapid for us to grasp, filled with irrefutable evidence declaring that Jesus is not just a historical figure or a wise teacher, but that He is the Christ, that He is the promised Messiah, He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the ultimate authority, both King of kings and Lord, and Savior, to solidify our unwavering belief that Jesus is God in the flesh. I pray that your hearts will be open to the evidence Luke has laid before us thus far. As we continue delve deeper into Luke’s account, we see the significance of this evidence unfold like a captivating movie scene right before our eyes. Every now and then, Luke strategically hits the pause button to give us a much need break, allowing us to slow down, catch our breath and reflect on these remarkable, profound  truths. As Christians, I'd like to encourage you to celebrate our salvation, no matter how difficult things may be, but especially in those times where there has been little else to celebrate. 

 

The first thing I want you to notice here in verses 17 to 19, is the popularity of Jesus, I mean, this is  a remarkable phenomenon; every day there were crowds of thousands and thousands and the crowds kept growing larger and larger, as more and more people were drawn to Jesus' magnetic presence. His unequaled popularity was overwhelming, bordering on frightening, as the constant demand for His attention and the pressure of the crowds expectations grew, people literally flocked to Him from far and wide, as the news about His profound teachings and miraculous healings began spreading farther and farther like an out of control wildfire. It's important to note, that nobody in all of Israel has ever commanded such attention before or since Jesus. Can you imagine the excitement, as people hung on His every word as He inspired a hope that transcended their circumstances, and as they anticipated His compassionate, healing touch? Are we like those early followers, willing to unashamedly share the hope we have found in Jesus?

Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father,

Father, we thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the gracious gift of salvation, may we never lose our perspective, even in the midst of our trials, of just what a precious gift it really is, that we will spend all of eternity praising You for it. Lord, help us to take Your Word seriously, to anchor our lives in Scripture in a world filled with distractions and conflicting messages, makes us to live the kind of lives that You want us to live, lives that embody Your teaching, to live holy lives, lives of marked by compassion and love, lives of grace and kindness and mercy, in a society that prioritizes self-interest, so that we can demonstrate before a watching world what a person living a transformed life looks like, in stark contrast to the world around us. We want to live for Your glory, we want to live in a way that exalts You, but we confess we need Your help to bring others to the same salvation, we've received, we cannot do it alone. Use us to that end, for Your glory.

In Christ's name

Amen

Today's Message: A Call To Compassion

The world is full of people who at some point in time wanted to pull themselves up out of the mud and clean up their lives, tragically, many of them have fallen, sinking deeper into their lust and greed. They are as Peter says, "Dogs returning to vomit." have become disillusioned with power, especially when they stray, far from the values they proclaim to uphold. These leaders are not merely names on a ballot or a screen, these are lost souls. Instead of merely condemning the actions of others, I urge to fervently pray, asking God to touch their hearts and guide them to the path of righteousness that is possible through our Lord Jesus Christ. We must remember to pray for those who are lost, calling for repentance! Even as we recognize the fallibility of our nations leaders, we must also hold fast to the hope, looking at our own lives, that transformation through Jesus Christ possible. Let us remember, that through the power of Divine Intervention, every individual has the potential for change, through perseverance in prayer, and faith in God, including ourselves.

 

2 Chronicles 7:14, reminds us that If "My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive  their sin and will heal their land." And in verses 19-22, the Lord says "But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’"

 

Open you Bibles with me, if you would and turn them to the Gospel of Luke chapter 6. Luke 6:17-19. I invite you to follow along with me as I read, to set the text in our minds, while we open up our hearts and listen for what the Spirit of God has to say to each of us today.

"And Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. And all the crowd was trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all."

 

Let's look at verse 17, "And Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon." And Jesus came down with them, Luke identifies them for us as the apostles,  Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James, Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Jesus had gone up into the mountain the night before to pray and seek the will of God to determine who would become the twelve preachers in training to take the Gospel message to the world. When He came down in the morning, identified the twelve who would become the apostles out of all His disciples. Now, they've come down with Him, and stood on a level place, He's standing because He's not teaching yet, when the rabbis taught, they would sit down. He will soon teach, but His teaching doesn't begin until verse 20 and then goes to the end of the chapter in verse 49, which is Luke's record of the Sermon on the Mount, even though it is more brief than Matthew's account, it is absolutely consistent with it. The location is traditionally said to be a hillside slope near the town of Capernaum, on the northern shore the Sea of Galilee.

 

Then Luke tells us there was a large crowd of His disciples, these are the ones who were following Him more closely on a regular basis, some of them have just embraced the truth, repented of their sin and acknowledged Jesus as their Lord and Savior, it was from this group He picked the twelve out of who were with him in the previous verses. I believe this detail is more than just a backdrop; it reflects His utter approachability, that the Kingdom of God is open to all, regardless of our diverse backgrounds, personal experiences  or even our heavy burdens. Only in God's kingdom could a zealot and a tax collector found common ground and become part of the same community of faith and yet, Matthew and Simon the Zealot were united in their desire to bring truth, hope and healing to the world. While I believe it is important to cultivate an environment in our churches and communities that reflect this inclusivity, we must NOT change the message of salvation to do so, a false Gospel lacks the power to heal a sick soul. Judas was no more or less qualified to be transformed than the others, he had every opportunity, the difference was the heart, he had an unwillingness to change. The same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay.

 

Next, Luke separates the crowd even further, by telling us "and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon." This is a massive crowd, if you'll remember, everywhere He went there were multitudes of people, to hear Him preach, teach and to be healed of their diseases of all levels of understanding and faith, includes the wheat and the tares. We all know that when Jesus taught it was not uncommon for Him to be surrounded by 5,10 or 20 thousand people, they're just people who came from all over because they are curious, it's a term typically used in Scripture for the uncommitted, we saw that in the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus drew all kinds of people from everywhere, from very religious elite, like Nicodemus, the teacher of teachers to the average, common pagan, but it's important to mention that regardless of the audience, He always taught the same divine Truth to them all, because it's the only Truth that has the power to save. We must continue to proclaim that same Truth today without concerning ourselves with what people may think, do or say, I’m not trying to be unkind or unloving but this is the true calling of every man of God. 

 

In 2 Timothy 4, the Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction." The church is called to be the pillar of the Truth, the foundation of the Truth, a responsibility I take very serious, nothing is more important to me as divine Truth, because apart from the Truth of God, nobody can be saved. We must be very careful about embracing those in an apostate form of Christianity, John warns us in 2 John "do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds." Truth is the benchmark of our Christian faith, in John 14:6, Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." Let's face it, apart from the Truth, it doesn't matter what a person believes, they cannot be a Christian and they are not saved. Jesus warned us against offering sacred things to unworthy recipients, because they'll only receive it with contempt, when He "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." It is astounding to me, that the church has its greatest opportunity ever in the history of the world to fulfill the great commission, and all they want to do is argue what the message is, just preach the Truth, and trust that some will be offended, but some will be saved, we have lost people all across this nation and around the world, I do not believe that we can afford to exclude anyone from hearing the Truth of the Good News. 

 

In verse 18, Luke tells us "who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured." I am compelled to emphasize the fact that these people were primarily attracted to what Jesus could do for them, a miracle healing, the casting out of a demon can't save you, I've already said this many times, Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God and and forgiveness everywhere He went, it's the reason that He came; the miracles were merely to affirm that He was speaking the Truth. That's the assignment that I’ve been given, to preach the Truth, I'm not called to entertain anybody, I don't have the power to heal anyone, I'm commanded to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the masses, I don't have anything to do with who is willing to receive the message, that's strictly a supernatural act of God, well above my pay grade, I'm just the messenger proclaiming the Gospel that He taught to you. Jesus had perfect knowledge, He knew everything there was to know, if at anytime, someone preaches another Gospel that that doesn't align with the divine words that He Himself taught, do not listen to him. I believe this verse emphasizes that we are not alone in our struggles, whatever the source. Even today, He still encourages us to come before Him, and lay our burdens at His feet, trusting in His ability to our needs, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. The Body of Christ is meant to be a safe haven where we can share our burdens, pray with and for one another, and seeking relief in our burdens that are just too heavy to carry. This is what salvation is

 

That brings us to verse 19, "And all the crowd was trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all." The desperate crowd had heard of His miraculous works, longing for healing, both physical and spiritual, they were seeking to touch Him. Much like the crowd, Jesus invites us to reach out, to seek Him with our whole hearts,  I believe it's important to recognize that Jesus was willing to engage with people intimately, by entering into their struggles, not just offer to help them from a distance. We've often seen this all the way through His ministry, as followers of Christ, we are called to mirror this same compassion for others in our lives, whether it’s through listening, offering a helping hand, or just simply being present in someone’s greatest moment of need. I encourage each of you to ask yourselves, how can you be a source of healing for those who may be struggling or hurting around you?  Let us be intentional about taking our discipleship from being very comfortable to becoming broken vessels of His love and compassion to a world in desperate need.

In John 13:35, Jesus reminds us that "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

 

May it be so..

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name

Amen


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