And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying aloud, Have mercy on us, son of David. When He entered the house, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it done to you. And their eyes were opened, and Jesus sternly warned them, See that no one knows about it.

But they went away and spread his fame through all that district. As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man, who was mute, was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marvelled, saying, Never was anything like this seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, he cast out demons by the prince of demons. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into his harvest." Lord, we ask this morning that You would renew and focus us and just give us ears to hear and that You bless every word that comes from this pulpit. Amen. It's always such a pleasure to consider the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His works, in all of His character, in all of His motives, in all of His objectives for His people.

And here, in this passage again, we're subjected to wonderful things. As we see the Lord Jesus Christ as full of compassion, as we see Him performing two miracles that are just like every other miracle he's ever performed. Because every miracle says something about what his kingdom is all about. And here, in the opening of blind eyes and the opening of the mouth of a mute man, is a parable for all of us to understand more about the glory of the gospel, the goodness of Jesus Christ toward His people. And this passage also takes us into something of enormous significance, and that is this.

It really proclaims to us once and for all, with absolute clarity, what kind of individuals and families and churches we ought to be. And it really, it proclaims to us, and I hope that at least this will be received and embraced this morning from this passage, that the absolute greatest priority for the Church and the family and the individual is the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the gospel of the kingdom as Jesus speaks of it here, the salvation of sinners, the sanctification of the saints. All of it happens through the compassion of Jesus Christ that He implants within His people, so that they would have such a heart in them to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, that this would be the overwhelming focus and agenda that carries them all through their lives. So our text here in Matthew continues to show us more healing, specifically of these two men.

Now, Matthew is, the Gospel of Matthew is organized brilliantly, and it's organized into an introduction, which we've covered, and then there are five couplets of narrative and discourse back and forth throughout the gospel. And we saw the narratives in chapter 4, and then in 5, 6, and 7, this great discourse, the Sermon on the Mount. And then when we moved into Chapter 8, we moved into narrative again. 8 and 9 has been what we've been focusing on since we left the Sermon on the Mount. And this last verse is very significant in its content, but it does mark the end of this narrative that we've been walking through.

And throughout this narrative, you'll remember in chapter 8 verse 3, Jesus cleanses a leper and then directly after that, he heals a centurion servant remotely and then he heals Peter's mother-in-law of a fever. And then after that, he's casting out demons by a word and he's healing all, capital A-L-L, the sick. Imagine, imagine every single sick person around him was healed. And Then he rebukes the winds and the waves, and then he casts out the demons in the Gataring demoniac. And then he heals a paralytic who is lowered through a roof by his friends.

And then a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years, whose body had been harmed by the treatment of the doctors, and she spent all of her resources on it. And then Jairus's daughter, this 12-year-old daughter of a ruler of the synagogue. His daughter is healed as Jesus says, little girl, arise. And so all of these miracles are taking place in order to really say one thing, and that Jesus has exclusive authority over absolutely everything. But His authority is so saturated with compassion.

That is what drives everything that he does with his authority. And that's such a helpful lesson to us. Those of you who are in authority have to understand that this is what authority does. It acts out of compassion. And that's the kind of authority that we see the Lord Jesus dealing with.

Now, in the Gospel of John, we read that these things were written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that you might have life in His name. Every single miracle is meant to whisper into your ear, do you see what a compassionate Savior He is? Do you see how He heals you? Do you see how He makes you whole? Do you see how sick you were until you met Him?

Come to me." That's the whole import of all these miracles. And so now, directly after the healing of Jairus' daughter, we have these two blind men and a mute. So these narratives, the ones that are right before us today as well as all of what we've covered so far, they take us into two of the greatest hallmarks of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the secrets of how it's communicated in the world. And first of all, these narratives take us into the bowels of compassion of Jesus Christ for those who are without a shepherd, for those who are not just soul sick but are also body sick. And then secondly, the necessity of spreading his fame out of compassion.

Those are the two things that are before us here in this text. And so, as we've come through this whole section of narrative, We've just crossed over the principle that Jesus did not just come to put a patch on you. He came to give you whole new clothing. He didn't just come to give you a new outer appearance. He came to give you completely new wine and new wine skins.

So as we've come off of that, now we enter into verse 27. So we'll look at verse 27 here. And if you look on the outline that you have before you, I've titled this, Son of David, Son of Mercy. It's always difficult to find a title for something that's so deep and so rich, so far beyond what a title could even grasp. But what I want to, as we walk through this, you'll see there are five points that I have here.

And I just, I think they are, At least they are this. They are five wonderful and critical expressions of Jesus Christ's compassion. Every one of them. And so, first of all, he opens blind eyes. Second, he makes the mute to speak.

Third, he's a preacher of the gospel of the kingdom. Fourth, he's moved with compassion. And fifth, he appeals to his disciples for the harvest. So that's where we're going this morning. So in verse 27 we see Jesus departed from there, and then two blind men followed him.

So we enter into the whole subject of blindness. Whenever you read the Gospels, whenever you read about these miracles, when you see that something happens, you have to ask yourself, what does this mean? What is this connected to? What is the content of blindness in the mind of God? And So, the whole matter of blindness and open eyes is a critical matter of the gospel.

It's what happens when Jesus Christ has compassion on you and you repent of your sins. He opens up your blind eyes. And you know, the whole matter of blindness is spoken of throughout Scripture. Even back in the days of Moses, you remember when God called Moses and Moses said, you know, I want you to go and stand before Pharaoh and let my people go." Remember the argument that Moses had with God in that time? Well, he's arguing with God and God responds and he says, Who has made man's mouth?

Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I? Says the Lord. God has created blindness, deafness, muteness to declare his own glory. Let's never be confused about that.

Whenever you see anything like that, it is placed there before your eyes to remind you of the glory of Jesus Christ and His ability to open up blind eyes or loose a frozen tongue. So this is the human condition. And we also know that there are such consequences of sin in this area. We've read in Deuteronomy chapter 28, in the curses that come from rebellion against God. And in chapter 28, 28, we know that the Lord says that the Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart, and you shall grope at noonday as a blind man gropes in darkness." So this, it's a parable of how God is able to save and open blind eyes, but it also is a parable to show us how blindness can happen through rebellion and disobedience.

And we don't know why these two men were blind except for the glory of God. We don't know if it was for their sins or of some other thing, except that we do know that it was meant for the glory of God. You know, now, it must have been a challenge for these men to follow Jesus. They were blind, right? They're following him all over the place.

And can you just admit, I just wish I could see the scene. They're following the noise of the crowd, maybe trying to have their hand on someone to try to make sure that they're close to the Lord Jesus. But let's just say they're motivated, okay? And they're walking about with Jesus, and they're overcoming the challenges of the crowd and all these things. You know, they could not see, but they could hear.

At least they could hear. And they were able to understand that faith comes by hearing, by hearing the word of God. And then they were crying out there saying, son of David, have mercy on us. The language that Matthew uses is meant to sort of jar us to get our attention, because it was a cry of mercy. It was a loud cry.

It was the same cry that the demoniac was crying with. It was a shriek. It was a terrifying cry with the demoniac. The same of Christ crying on the cross, probably a different kind of cry, but it was a wail, and they're acknowledging their great need. So it's a very dramatic moment, and they're calling him the son of David.

This was the expectation of Israel, and they're proclaiming it in the streets. They're saying, they're calling him the son of David. You have to understand How significant that is to say that he is the son of David. It's a very dangerous thing for a Jew to say. Or to say around Jews.

And so they're proclaiming that Jesus is the son of David, which is equivalent to saying that he is the Messiah. And they're crying out and they're crying out and Jesus is doing nothing for them. And they just keep appealing to the Son of David. Now this is the second time we've heard the term Son of David in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 1.1 the Gospel opens with the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.

Matthew is piling on evidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he and he and he records this this situation With these blind people in order to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God We know Jesus did he didn't he did so many miracles He did so many things all the All the books in the world cannot contain him. That's what the Gospel of John says. So Matthew is just choosing a few. He chooses this one. I would just like to suggest because he is proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the Messiah who was promised.

It's really an acknowledgement of what we read in 2 Samuel chapter 7, your throne shall be established forever. This is David's throne, will be established forever. So when every Jew heard this term, Son of David, they understood what was net by it. And in Isaiah chapter 11, verses 1 and 2, We read, There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of its roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him.

The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This is from the stem of Jesse. This is speaking of Jesus Christ, the son of David. In Isaiah chapter 29, verse 18, we read, In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and darkness. In Isaiah 35 verses 5 and 6 we read the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert." Well, this is a fulfillment of the prophecy. Matthew is saying this is that which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. This is that which was spoken in 2nd Samuel of David and and he is saying this is that what I said at the very beginning of this gospel, that Jesus Christ is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. So this is very intentional language that is here.

And so these men are crying out for mercy and they're appealing to Him and He does nothing for them. He is silent, He moves about His business, healing everyone else and seemingly ignoring them. And these were men who had mercy. And Jesus, who were crying out for mercy, He seems to hear nothing and he doesn't respond to their cries. And this is often how God works, isn't it?

How you cry for mercy. And there's a time where you can't see any answer to your cry. It just doesn't come. It seems like the heavens are silent or there is brass or something like that. Because God is sovereign.

He's waiting to declare His glory in His own time, in His own way, for His own purpose. And that's what He's doing here with these men. I don't know how often you've had to wait as you've cried out for mercy. If we counted all the people who are waiting for some kind of mercy here today, I think we would think very much like these men here who wanted a quick answer, but they got no quick answer. But they needed mercy desperately.

You know, I was just thinking particularly this week about the need for mercy. Recently I was with a friend, a dear friend that I've known for a couple of decades, and he's a friend who's been enormously successful. Ever since, every day, every year, every decade. He's been very successful and I met with him and he said he had in this recent real estate downturn had ended up with enormous liabilities upon his head, millions upon millions that he had no ability to pay. And he told me that it had opened his eyes to mercy, like never before.

And I could see it in his eyes, it absolutely had. You could tell it in everything that he said as we were together. Every single thing he said and every movement, you could tell he had become aware of mercy in a completely new way. And then he told me that someone came to him just a few days before whom he had loaned a significant amount of money and the man came to him and he said I need I'm here to cry for mercy because I cannot pay what I owe you to do in just about three months ahead. He said, I cannot.

There's no way it can happen. And I'm here to plead for mercy. And he said to that man, He said, you have no idea who you're talking to because I have spent time pleading with bankers, multiple bankers, for mercy over multiple millions of dollars that I do not have." And he said, if you can ever repay it, pay it. But please understand that I too am a man who has had to beg for mercy. So these these men were crying out for mercy.

They were at the end. They were at the end of it. They had no way of digging out of the hole that they had found themselves in. And they needed mercy. And they came to the right person, didn't they?

They came to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, whose Father is the Father of all mercies. And as the Lord Jesus Christ is the good Son of his Father, he always does what he sees his father doing. He always says what his father is saying. And so he responds to them in mercy. Now they follow him into the house.

They are crying and crying out. There's nothing coming back to them and they follow him into the house. This is quite likely Peter's house there in Capernaum. And then he heals them. Now, it's really interesting to study the doctrine of mercy and compassion.

And one of the interesting comparisons of this story happens in Matthew chapter 15, the woman from Canaan who had a demon possessed daughter. And if you look at it, it follows almost the exact same pattern of what we see right here, where the woman is saying, Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. But he answered her not a word. And says, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. But there is silence.

And in the silence is always the testing of faith. In the silence is always the good discipline of the Lord. Every son whom he receives, he disciplines. And when we cry out for mercy and there's silence, There's always the expectation, or at least there ought to be, of the glory of God in the timing of God, in the perfections of His wisdom for our lives as He leads us. So he was testing, I believe, their faith.

And then he asked them a question in verse 28. And when Jesus had come into the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus said to them, do you believe that I am able to do this. So there's this question, do you believe that I am able? And I believe he's making an inquire, he's testing their faith, he's asking whether they trust him. And they say, And they say, and they say, yes, Lord, yes, Lord.

You know, James says, you know, let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Well, that wasn't these guys. They were not driven and tossed by the wind by any means. And they said to him, Yes, Lord. Now these two little words are of enormous significance.

Yes, Lord. Two little words. Yes, Lord. Faith doesn't need very many words. You know, how many times Has your life been changed by words?

Maybe just a very few words. And those words change your life. And remember the Gadarene demoniac? You remember how he was healed? And you remember what Jesus said to relieve him of all of his bondage?

This enormous weight, this legion of demonic oppression and terrorization was released was released when Jesus said, do you remember? Go. Go. One little word. One little word and everything changes.

Martin Luther wrote that song, The Mighty Fortress is our God. Do you remember the part? You know what I'm thinking about, right? One little word shall fail him. One little word.

Faith doesn't need an elaborate exposition of complex issues. Faith just needs to believe in one who is worthy of belief. And so, they say, yes, Lord. And then in verse 29, we read, then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, let it be to you. And verse 30, and their eyes were opened, and they put their trust in him.

In studying this this week, I ran across Psalm 31, verse 19. Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you, in the presence of the sons of men. You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man. You shall keep them secretly in the pavilion. Blessed be the Lord, for he has shown me his marvelous kindness in a strong city." So he opens the blind eyes.

He executes justice for the oppressed. And he raises up those who are bowed down. But then something kind of strange happens. You know, with all of his faith, then Jesus' disposition actually changes rather dramatically. And he puts on a frowning, harsh face.

And he's not sweet, simple little Jesus anymore. And he threatens them with a mighty threatening. And Jesus warned them, in verse 30, saying, See that no one knows it. Now again, Matthew uses a word to try to communicate what was the heart of this situation. And it's a word that means to roar with anger, to storm against.

It's a very, very stern and strong warning. Picture the flaring nose of a horse. That's the kind of response these men get. They are happier than happy. And now, Jesus puts his gain face on and and can make and gives them a command and says see that no one knows it And then these two men directly disobeyed.

Well some people say that means they were not believers. I was talking to someone else this week and said, well that's proof that they were new believers because new believers never are able to obey the Lord. Hardly at all when they're first saved. So whatever it was, I don't know. I think these were faithful men because they were spreading the Word of God across the countryside.

Did they disobey? Probably. Maybe not. There's a case that you can say they were spreading the news about him in the country. I'm not sure, but I do know this.

These men were blessed by the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ and would continue to be so. And they spread his fame. And they spread His fame. So with these blind men we learn something. Jesus opens blind eyes.

And then next we see him opening a man's mouth. You know, it's one thing to change what one's mouth might say when it opens. Like for example, you know, if you remember how you used to speak before you were converted. You used to speak in a completely different way, didn't you? Out of your mouth came things that would astonish you and terrify you if you spoke them today, and your friends.

But it's a completely different matter when the devil has you so that you can't speak at all. Sometimes it's the devil that would have us speak and sometimes it's the devil that would disable us from speaking. So in verse 32, we read of this dumb demoniac who is restored, As they went out, behold, they brought to him a man. Mute and demon possessed, and when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke, And the multitudes marveled, saying, it was never seen like this in Israel. So the text says they brought him to a man.

And I don't know If it was the former blind men that brought him, I think that's who brought it. But it could be the people. But it's always significant when people care about other people. Whether it was the blind men who were so overjoyed, or whether it was just the people who brought him, I don't know. But this man was disabled from speaking.

And there really is a rich testimony in the Old Testament about this whole matter of opening mouths. We read here also of the complete uniqueness of Jesus. And the multitudes marveled saying it was never seen like this in Israel. So this, the world has never seen anything like what was going on in the days of Jesus. That's why the world has never been able to get over it.

Because the news did spread, there were witnesses, and it was verified. And then in verse 34, even though there was such a beautiful deliverance of this man who was demonized, who could not speak because of a demon. The Pharisees responded with hatred in verse 34, but the Pharisees said, he casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. Now this is the standard slanderous response of the Pharisees. In verse 3, in this chapter of the man who was forgiven, At once some of the scribes said within themselves, this man is blasphemous, but Jesus knowing their thoughts said, why do you think evil in your hearts?

Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk. So the Pharisees have acted this way before, now they're acting this way again, and they're saying that he has a demon. But it was actually the demons that had shut him up, so that he could not proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. And then the Lord Jesus in verse 35 expresses his compassion by proclaiming himself to be a preacher of the gospel of the kingdom. In verse 35, then Jesus went out, went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

Now, Jesus was doing four things here. First of all, he's traveling throughout the cities, and he's going about all the cities and villages. He's going to the well-populated and the lesser-populated cities, the cities of obscurity and the cities of prominence. I think we need to recognize Jesus is not avoiding the cities. There's a mentality that leads people to remote areas instead of where people are.

Jesus never did that. He's always where the people are. And He's going about all these cities of Galilee. And I just think it should help us to recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ has compassion on the cities. He has a way of feeling and thinking about cities.

All of you live in a city and All of us need to ask ourselves how we feel about these cities that we're in. He's caused us to live here. Now we have responsibility for them. And our chief responsibility is the responsibility of compassion. That's the beginning of the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom.

And then he's teaching in their synagogues. So he's taking opportunity, even in the synagogues. You know, the synagogues weren't always the most friendly places for his message, but he was allowed to speak there. And of course even the ruler of the synagogue was listening to him. But he was there in the synagogues in spite of the corruptions that were there.

He didn't consider himself to be defiled to be there and preach the truth of God in that place, He was there as a healer. And that should also teach us something as well. That we shouldn't be so high-minded and be unwilling to be even in places like that, to teach the truth. Now, The synagogue consisted of a number of things. They would read a scripture, there would be a sermon, and a benediction.

Typically, the people sat on the floor. There was a ritual bath outside for cleansing. People would read the Torah. They would sit in a particular place. Torah readers sat in Moses' seat to preach, to read and preach there.

So he was in their synagogues. He was in their synagogues, but there nonetheless. And third, he was preaching the gospel of the kingdom. This is a very significant phrase here. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

I started out this morning saying that there is nothing of greater importance or priority in a church or in a family or as an individual than the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so when we come across this phrase, we need to recognize that it does have significance. This is the central message of the Christian. This is the primary function of the Church. This is the greatest need in the world.

No other activity is of greater importance than the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the beginning of life. And we have to be very careful not to be confused. That is the beginning of life. Often we want to begin with other things that are applications of the gospel and forget the gospel.

There are many important applications of the gospel. But you dare not find yourself wrapped up around some application of the gospel and not prioritizing the preaching and the proclamation of the gospel. That would be a dangerous place to be. We live in a world where there are so many amazing principles and lifestyle changes and things like that that need to be considered. Well, they should be considered.

But the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom is this. It's a proclamation of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's a proclamation of repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of the kingdom is a proclamation that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, that God's rulership is what His Kingdom is all about. It's about preaching the whole Council of God, that God is the creator of the world, that He's the lawgiver and the judge, that he punishes sin, that man will give an account, that the wrath of God is from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

It's that God separates the sheep and the goats. It's that only the blood of Jesus Christ can save man from his condition. From Mark chapter 1, we learn about the content of the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

The Apostle Paul prioritized the gospel when he said, for I delivered to you first of all, he's prioritizing, I delivered to you first of all that Christ died for sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." This was how the Apostle Paul prioritized the Gospel. I delivered it to you first, making it of central importance to the Church there in Corinth. Of course, we've said before that there are two aspects of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom, the Gospel of the Kingdom. And the first is that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, that the Kingdom of Heaven exists when a person bows the knee to Jesus Christ and repents and is filled with the Holy Spirit. There the Kingdom of Heaven exists.

That is the gospel of the Kingdom that is in operation in the world today and it's operating in this room. Not only is the gospel of the Kingdom being proclaimed, it's also being experienced in the hearts of those who have repented and believe in the gospel. It's the life of Jesus Christ in the converted person. That's why Jesus could say the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And John the Baptist could say the same thing.

When we say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, we mean two things by it. One is, thy kingdom come, the rulership of your kingdom in my life come, and your will be done, because those are all wrapped up together. And also the Kingdom of Heaven that exists eternally. Those two things are what the Gospel of the Kingdom speak of. The rulership of Jesus Christ in the world today through the operation of His Spirit, and then the rulership of Jesus Christ for all eternity in heaven.

You know, when we get to Matthew chapter 13, We will be filled with such a delight to read things like that, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, And for joy he goes and he sells all that he has to buy that field. Or again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. And when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and he bought it." Well, that is the gospel of the kingdom. And so Jesus is showing the nature of his kingdom, his realm, and under his authority sicknesses are healed, every blind eyes are opened and deaf ears are opened, the mute is made to talk and laugh, and the leper is cleansed, and the fever is cooled, and the demonized person is set free, and every sin is forgiven, and every malady from sin will be dealt with by a compassionate shepherd. And then, and then Jesus' final command, in Matthew 28 of course, corresponds with this, the Great Commission.

So this is just another of the critical expressions of Jesus' compassion, that He's a preacher of the gospel of the kingdom. And then Jesus is moved with compassion in verse 36, but when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd." Now there are two things I want us to see here in this phrase, in verse 36. The two words, he saw, He saw. And it's a very important principle to consider. What you see.

What do you see when you are in the world? Are you offended? Is your heart break? When you see the results of the work of the devil in the people of the world. What do you do?

What do you see? Well, Jesus saw and then he was moved with compassion. Now, he was moved. In other words, something happened to Him. He was under the direction of His Father, the Father of mercies, the Father of all compassion.

And He was moved to compassion. So there was something operating on him. It was a work of his father. And that's a critical thing to understand. That when you're going about your business in your house and in your work or in the city, what is it that's moving on you?

Something's always moving on us. And so we should be aware of what it is that's moving us. Our offenses, our fears, what is it? It would be tragic to go through your life and you're just driven by your fears, what offends you, you know, your tastes, your preferences, rather than to be moved in everything in your life with compassion, by move with this force of compassion. Well, He was moved with compassion.

And so he saw them with these three qualities. They were weary, meaning they were, it means that they were despondent. When you get despondent, you also get weak. You get the faint-heartedness of being tired out by getting worn out by the devil, because he will wear you out. I remember a few years, many years ago, I went to a high school reunion.

And you know what? Some of the people had really been worn out, really worn out. And the devil will wear you out and make you weary. That's what he does. That's his shtick.

He's to weirify you through sin, through independence, that will wear you out like nothing else. And then they're scattered. It means like thrown to the ground. Thrown to the ground with No real help. And like sheep having no shepherd.

All these things that he mentions here are just results of not having a shepherd. You're weary and you're scattered. That's what happens when you have no shepherd. And so there are a number of things that we could focus in on here, But let me focus, let me just sort of walk through a couple of things that I hope are helpful to us. First of all, and I think this is really helpful particularly if you're raising children.

Jesus is showing us how to understand the world in which we live. He is telling us the truth about the world. He's helping you to see the world through His eyes. And you know, how do you explain the things that are going on in the world? How do you explain the psychological problems?

How do you explain suicide? How do you explain divorce? How do you explain all the profanity that's in the media and in the songs? How do you explain this whole culture of drugging depression to oblivion? How do you explain that?

How do you explain a massive psychological, you know, therapeutic psychological industry? How do you explain that? Well, this passage where Jesus is Speaking of not having a shepherd helps you understand the world. This is what happens to people that don't have a shepherd, who are just going off on their own way. And this is a really important-ish thing to teach your children.

Why is there anything going on in the world? Why the abortion industry? Why Occupy Wall Street? Why anything? You have to see that somehow through the eyes of Jesus Christ.

It's one thing to look at what we see going on in a number of cities in the world on this whole thing on Occupy Wall Street, but let me tell you, if Jesus Christ were seeing it, he probably would have some different reactions than we have. And while we can come up with all kinds of true objections to various things that are going on in the world, we have to somehow see the world the way Jesus does and respond to it that way. Here, here Jesus is assessing the problems of the world perfectly. It all comes from not having a shepherd. Or at least not having a good shepherd.

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. So it's a very important principle to help us to understand the world that we live in. And secondly, it's important to see this statement in terms of the Old Testament because the Old Testament has has cast a vision for this also for this whole matter of being sheep without a shepherd. You know in the in the wilderness Moses had a concern that the people of Israel would become lost in their way. And in Numbers chapter 27, Moses speaks to the Lord, and he says, Let the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, who may go before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in." This is the language of shepherding.

"...that the congregation of the Lord may not be like a sheep which has no shepherd. And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand upon him, and set him before Eliezer the priest and before all the congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight. And you shall give some of your authority to him, and the congregation of Israel may be obedient." So, in Numbers chapter 27, it really forms what we should think when Jesus says, they're like sheep without a shepherd, I'm the good shepherd. Now, Joshua is a type of Christ. Moses is bequeathing authority to Joshua to lead the people.

Joshua is a type of Christ. He leads the people into battle. So we have to think about this statement about shepherds and sheep from its larger context. Jesus is proclaiming himself to be the Messiah and that he is the one who was spoken of by Moses. Jesus said, Moses spoke of me.

And I believe this is one of the places that Moses spoke of him, right here. There's the whole matter of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. There's the whole matter in Jeremiah chapter 23, 1 through 6. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds of my people, shepherds who feed my people.

You have scattered my flock, driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings. But I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back into their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. They shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord. I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is His name by which He will be called the Lord our righteousness.

Now Matthew is connecting all of this up into this whole discussion about sheep and shepherds. And that's why the writer of Hebrews said, now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete for every good work, working in you what is pleasing in his sight." You could also think about this in terms of just nature, the way that sheep operate. Sheep have problems, and Jesus is describing what the world is like. Sheep cannot protect themselves. Sheep do not even protect others.

Two sheep can be standing in a field and a wolf can come and completely devour one of the sheep and the other one will just stand there. Sheep are just absolutely helpless to protect themselves or anyone else. They don't know where to go for food. They don't know where to go for water. They really don't know how to conduct their lives.

They need a shepherd. Sheep are completely helpless without a shepherd. And that's what Jesus is saying. Look at the mass of humanity. How do you understand the world?

You have to understand it in terms of the masses of people being without a shepherd. This is what happens to people who do not have me as their shepherd. That's the argument that Jesus is making. That's just another of the critical expressions of Jesus' compassion. Is that He sees, when He sees the world, He sees it as it really is.

And then Fifthly, lastly, Jesus engages his disciples in the harvest. This is just another expression of Jesus' compassion for his disciples and for the world. So there's work to do. It's sad when there are no laborers. Then Jesus said to his disciples, the harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. So these are five expressions of Jesus' compassion. He opens blind eyes, He makes the mute speak, He's a preacher of the gospel of the kingdom, he's moved by compassion and he appeals to his disciples for the harvest. Now I want to give you a number of applications. So first of all, no one can be a faithful minister of the gospel unless the Lord sends him.

You can berate a congregation to go out and preach the gospel and nothing will happen until the Holy Spirit anoints with a spirit of compassion and mercy. He is the only one who can deliver compassion and mercy into the human soul. Unless the Lord of the harvest sends out labors, there will be no labors. Now here's my advice. Do not go into the harvest.

Do not Go and preach the gospel unless you have a heart of compassion. Do not go there. You have not been sent The lord of the harvest is the one who sends you And so We could spend lots of time making people feel guilty about how they've not gone out into the harvest. But it does absolutely no good. The only thing that does any good in the world is the compassion of Jesus Christ on the lips of a person who's preaching the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

That is the only hope that we have, is that somehow God would fall upon us with His mercy and His compassion. And when we see the people, We do see them the way that He saw them, that we have said, Yes, Lord, and then we become His ambassadors. We're not fulfilling some agenda of guilt that has been laid upon a church, we are at the bidding of our Savior, who is placed in our hearts, compassion. If you want to go into the harvest, do not go into the harvest unless you are sent by the Lord of the harvest with His own heart of compassion. Number two, Pray.

Pray for an increase of ministers. Harvesting is the work of God. How do you deal with the evangelistic problem in this church or any other church? You deal with it this way with prayer. It's our only hope to pray the Lord of the harvest.

You can try all kinds of programs, we can crank up all kinds of fancy things and schedules to do to get everybody to go out into the harvest, but let me tell you, if they're not fueled by prayer, I'm just not sure how helpful it will be to anyone. Harvesting is the work of God, and God is pleased to use means, and this is one of the means, and that is to pray. Paul said, I planted that Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God gives the increase. Paul said, how can they call upon him whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe of him whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach?" How shall they preach?

How in the world shall they preach? Unless they are sent, that's what Paul says, unless they are sent, and they are sent through the work of prayer. So there are people that we walk by and drive by, that are going to hell. And we have to ask ourselves, when we see them, do we see them like Jesus does? Or are we just so busy about our business?

Here's a third application. What stands in the way of our laborers? Obviously, prayer is the most critical. Often in the course of prayer, we are convicted of sins that are keeping us from the harvest. It can be a man of accumulation and accomplishment and has no ability, no time to do anything else.

It could be a person who loves to play. It actually could be a very tired wife who has no ability to do any more than just hang on for dear life. There are many things that stand in the way of the spread of the gospel of the kingdom. We should be careful to understand what those things are in our lives and commit those things to prayer and repentance if necessary. Number four, don't misunderstand the sovereignty of God.

Don't misunderstand the sovereignty of God. This is really important. I received a letter from one of our church members this week. It was a tremendous blessing to me, and I think it will be to you as well. I'm going to read it to you.

I won't say who it is. My wife and I used to be much more engaged in evangelism in the days when we were charismatic and Arminian and lacked doctrine. But since coming to the understanding of the Reformed faith, election, and God's sovereignty, I seemed to have canceled without engaging in evangelism and sharing the gospel. I wondered if this is a typical response of people like me who have come to the realization of the sovereignty of God. In my effort to exhort and disciple my family, I did some further reading and I wanted to share this with you, Ezekiel chapter 33 reminds of our duty to sound a trumpet.

Again, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them, when I bring the sword upon the land and the people of the land, and take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land. If he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own hand. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning. His blood shall be on himself. That he who takes warning will save his life.

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes away any person from among them. He is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand." I'll continue reading the letter. I also found J.I. Packer's evangelism, the sovereignty of God, very helpful. In summary, he states, and there are two points.

Number one, the sovereignty of God in grace does not affect the nature and duty of evangelism. It does not affect the necessity of evangelism, the urgency of evangelism, the genuineness of gospel invitations, or the truth of gospel promises, the responsibility of the sinner for his reaction to the Gospel. Point number two, the sovereignty of God in grace gives us our only hope of success in evangelism and should produce the following. It should make us bold and keep us from being daunted when we find people's reaction to the Gospel is to shrug it off in apathy or even contempt. Secondly, it should make us patient, keep us from being daunted when we find our evangelistic endeavors met with no immediate response.

It should make us prayerful and remind us that we depend wholly upon God to make our witness effective and drive us to prayer. These are very, very important points that really draw from the whole doctrine of salvation and our duty and God's sovereignty and how it all works together. We cannot misunderstand the sovereignty of God in all this. And what it means, it doesn't mean that we quit crying out. It means something completely different.

And then lastly, I'll end where I began. The proclamation of the gospel must be the first priority of the Church of Jesus Christ. And that's why Jesus came and he spoke to them and he said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age. Amen.

Oh Lord, you have displayed your glory, You have taught us the way in which we should go, in the way we should see, in the ways that we should feel. And now, O Lord, I pray that you would bless this congregation with all of these things. Amen.