Truth That Changes Lives

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Read the Red. Let's listen as JP gives us part one of Luke 6 and Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

JP Jones: Well, I'm Pastor JP. If you are a guest with us today, thanks for being here. I was gone last week speaking up at Hume Lake at a marriage conference. Pastor Eric, our youth pastor, did an awesome job, and it's a joy for me to be a part of a team where we have such great servant leaders here at Crossline. Thanks for being here, if you are new. We're in a series called Read the Red. What we're doing is working our way through the Gospels, looking at the greatest teachings by the greatest teacher. We're looking at what did Jesus actually teach? This morning, we're in Matthew chapter 9 and Matthew chapter 10.

This passage has a really important historical context for us to be able to unpack in our interpreting of what it says and applying it to our lives. Jesus is commissioning His apostles for a short-term mission experience, very much like we prayed for Brittany to send her out on her mission experience. Jesus sent the apostles out on a short-term experience before He gave the Great Commission after His resurrection and ascension, which was literally sending them out for the rest of their lives as His followers and as His witnesses. But in this short-term mission that Jesus is sending them out, He gives them several specific instructions. Many of those instructions apply to the unique relationship that Jesus had with the apostles and to their unique kingdom assignment with regard to the nation of Israel.

But this is inspired, these are the words of Jesus, so there are transferable principles that not only related to those apostles, but also relate to every generation of Christians in every culture. They relate to us here. The whole theme of this passage and of this message is on being called to mission. I want to tell you upfront that I'm going to be challenging you and challenging myself to step out of our comfort zone. We naturally want to build a comfort zone around our lives. We want things to be in order and knowable and in a way predictable. We want to be able to be safe and secure within a zone of comfort. In fact, many of us, even from a larger scale, have moved to South Orange County for a larger cultural comfort zone.

To be a follower of Jesus Christ is to be on mission, which means we always have to step out of our comfort zone. Living by faith means we have to step out of our comfort zone, and following Jesus in His kingdom mission definitely means that we step out of our comfort zone. So for us to receive this passage and to put it into practice, we've got to be willing to say yes to the call of Jesus on our lives. We've got to be willing to say, "Jesus, I know I naturally want things to be comfortable, but You're calling me to kingdom mission, to live by faith, to do something with my life that has eternal significance." That's to be on mission for Jesus Christ.

Let's see what Jesus said to these first apostles, and then we'll see if we can apply that to our own life experience. It begins with the example of Jesus Himself. Matthew chapter 9, starting in verse 35: Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. And when He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Here's my first observation: we ought to follow the example of Jesus, who served and preached out of a heart of compassion.

Matthew records for us what almost appears to be just a day in the life of Jesus, because Jesus was all about meeting the spiritual needs of people and touching people with God's love. It says that He was teaching in the synagogues, He was preaching the Gospel, He was healing people, He was setting people free from demonic oppression. He saw the people as distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd, and He felt compassion for them. What Matthew tells us is that the motivation for Jesus was compassion, because Jesus was able to see beyond the presenting facade of people.

This crowd, this gathering of people, was no different than any other gathering in Israel, no different than any other gathering anywhere in the world, no different than our gathering right here. In any given crowd, you've got some people who have a very physical presence that indicates they've got some kind of need. It's obvious; you look at them and you can see they're needy. Then you've got other people who just look normal, and then you have other people who look like they've really got it together.

The crowd was the same for Jesus. But Jesus, rather than just looking at the presenting issue, saw into people's hearts. He saw that every person had some kind of need: spiritual, emotional, psychological, physical. Jesus, looking beyond the front, looking into people's hearts, saw that people were harassed and helpless. They were like sheep without a shepherd. Seeing that, rather than judging people and saying, "Why don't you get your act together?" or being repulsed and saying, "Jeez, you're just a bunch of needy wackos, I need to get away from you," He felt compassion. Compassion led Him to teach, to preach, to heal, and to set people free spiritually.

We need to walk in that same path of Jesus. We need to be people who see people as Jesus saw people. We need to be people who feel what Jesus felt. He felt compassion. We need to be people who do what Jesus did: teach and preach and bring healing. Following Jesus on mission means that we need to be motivated by God-given compassion and do whatever needs to be done to help people. That's what Jesus did, and we're called to walk in His steps. He is our example of how to minister and serve people. It begins with that capacity for compassion.

Compassion is a great word. In the original language, it's the word *splagchnizomai*. It's one of those words that is somewhat unique to the New Testament. There are a lot of words in the Bible where they are nouns, but the biblical writers turned them into verbs. They take a word and they make it like an action. The word *splagchna* is a word for the internal organs. In fact, the King James Version calls *splagchna* the bowels. It is a word that describes your gut. *Splagchnizomai*, translated compassion, if you were just to look at it literally, is like a moving of the gut.

The concept is this: sometimes when we see people in their need, we have such an identification with their need that we just feel it in the gut. It's like, "I've got to do something about that." My heart goes out to that person. That's the way we would say it: my heart goes out to that person. But the way the Greeks would say it is: my gut goes out to that person. When you look in the Gospels, this is a word that described the way Jesus ministered to people. In many of the miracles that Jesus performed, it says, "moved with compassion, He reached out and touched them." Moved with compassion, He healed them. Moved with compassion, He cured leprosy. Moved with compassion, He healed blindness.

Jesus had compassion for people in need, whether it was a spiritual, emotional, or physical need. Jesus had compassion, and that compassion drove Him to be involved, because compassion always gets involved. Compassion always reaches out. Jesus is setting up in this passage what it means to be on mission. He's the prototype, the example of what it means to be on mission. What we are to do is follow in the steps of Jesus in serving people and preaching the Gospel out of a heart of compassion.

When we see our neighbor in need, we want to reach out and help meet that need. When we see the guy at work in need, we want to reach out and help. When we go to a different cultural situation, but we're there to represent Jesus and we see people in need, we want to reach out to that need. If it's a spiritual need, if a person doesn't know Christ, out of compassion we share the Gospel with them and tell them how they can know Jesus. If it's a physical need, out of compassion we pray for them for God to heal them. If it's an emotional need, we speak words of encouragement and hope into them. If it's an area of spiritual addiction or bondage, we counsel them biblically to find freedom in Jesus Christ.

The point is, we see beyond the facade. Every person is in need: the ones who really look like they're in need, the ones who kind of look okay, and the ones who look really successful. Everybody has some kind of spiritual, emotional, or physical need. Compassion identifies with that and, in the name of Jesus, reaches out to do something about it.

If you look at the last 2,000 years of church history, there have been some great examples of people who've done that on a very major scale. Immediately I think of Mother Teresa, who went to India to help the poorest of the poor in her ministry of compassion. Or there's Bob Pierce, who started the organization World Vision after World War II and the Korean conflict. Being overseas, he saw all the orphans that were left behind because of war. His heart broke. In fact, Bob Pierce prayed, "God, break my heart with the things that break Your heart." Out of compassion, he started the organization World Vision.

That's worldwide. Most of us here probably are not going to start these worldwide organizations, or be known by everybody for our ministry of compassion. But out of compassion, you can walk across the street and help the needs that your neighbor has. Out of compassion, you can look across the desk to the other cubicle and meet the needs that the guy at work has. Out of compassion, you can look on either side of you here in this church and help meet the needs of the person sitting next to you. If it's a spiritual need, share the Gospel of Jesus. If it's a physical need, pray for God to heal that person. If it's an emotional need, speak words of encouragement. If it's an area of spiritual conflict, share God's word to help someone find freedom in Christ.

It's basically saying, "I'm not just going to look out for me and my comfort. I'm going to open my eyes to see people around me, to see people as Jesus saw people, like sheep without a shepherd, and out of compassion, serve." Why? Because Jesus has called us on mission. He's called us all to be on mission, but we've got to be willing to step out of our comfort zone.

Jesus is doing this, and with Him are His apostles. They're observing what Jesus is doing. Now Jesus turns to them to comment about what He's been doing. As the text unfolds in the very next verse, it says: then He said to His disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into His harvest field. He called His 12 disciples to Him, gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

These are the names of the 12 apostles: first Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. Here's my second observation: we ought to pray for laborers to reach the worldwide harvest and be willing to be the answers to our own prayers.

Essentially what Jesus is doing is He's spiritually reproducing Himself into the lives of these apostles. Jesus has been doing ministry, they've been watching Him do ministry, and now He turns and passes the baton to them to replicate His ministry. That's called spiritual reproduction. You can kind of see the wheels turning in the minds of the apostles because they've seen Jesus reaching out to the crowds and sharing the good news and teaching God's word and ministering encouragement and praying for the sick and casting out demons.

The crowd is here, the apostles are here, and it's almost like, as I picture this in my mind, Jesus turns to His apostles and says this: "The harvest is plentiful. The workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest."

When I was in graduate school, I took a missions class, and we had to read a lot of books on worldwide missions. One of the books was called *What's Gone Wrong with the Harvest?* It's an interesting book. The premise of the book, in answering that question, was: nothing. The problem is we don't have enough workers. In other words, the harvest today is no different than the harvest in Jesus' day, no different than the harvest in any generation of Christians, no different than the harvest in any culture.

The challenge has always been workers. At the time when Jesus said this, guess how many workers there were? One: Jesus. Jesus says, "We need more than me, because I'm going to the cross, and then I'm going to be resurrected, and then I'm going to be ascended to the Father. So dudes, this is what you need to do: you need to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field."

There needs to be a burden in every generation of Christians and a burden in every community of Christians to pray for workers to go into the harvest. We just finished a semester at Biola. You know I teach part-time there, and so I gave a final exam. I gave this final exam, and then I had an extra credit question. The extra credit question was this: I start every class by catching up with the kids, telling some funny story that happened, doing a little devotion, and then I pray for them.

My extra credit question was: this past semester, I started every class praying for the students in this class. In addition to general prayers that I prayed, what was one very specific thing I prayed for the students in this class every week of this entire semester? Some of them got it right, and some of them didn't. Here was the prayer that I prayed every week: "Lord, I pray out of this class You would raise up workers for the worldwide harvest and send students from this class to the remotest parts of the earth as witnesses for Jesus Christ."

I've been teaching at Biola now for 22 years. I started off doing it because it was just kind of novel. I felt honored to be invited to come teach at Bible college. Then I started doing it because they pay me a little money. At this season of my life, there's really only one reason I do it. I enjoy it, but the real reason is I want to challenge young people to consider serving Christ with their lives and going to the ends of the earth to help to fulfill the Great Commission.

I'm very upfront in praying for that, talking about it, and challenging the students in my class to consider being laborers. Why? Because Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, but the workers, the laborers, are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest. But now let me tell you, that's a dangerous prayer to pray. You know why? Because if you pray that prayer, Jesus may say, "Thank you for praying that prayer, and I want you to be the answer to that prayer." That's what He did with the apostles. He said the harvest is plentiful, the workers are few, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers in the harvest, and then He sent them out.

You've got to be willing to get out of your comfort zone when you're on mission for Christ. You may be sent out not to Botswana, but across the street. Not to Malawi, but across the cubicle. Not to Iceland, but to the Jacuzzi at the gym. Wherever it is that God is sending you, you're going as a laborer in the harvest, as a representative of Jesus Christ on kingdom mission with a heart of compassion to minister to people, whether they have spiritual, physical, or emotional needs.

Jesus sent these guys out. We ought to pray for laborers to reach the worldwide harvest and to be willing to be the answers to our prayers. The apostles received the authority of Jesus to do kingdom ministry. I believe we can receive that same authority. In fact, we have received that same authority to serve in Jesus' name, to bless people for Jesus' sake, to meet the needs that people have out of compassion, realizing that everybody is distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus starts to give some specific instructions to these apostles while they're going on mission. You've got to be willing to step out of your comfort zone, take your eyes off yourself, put your eyes on Christ's kingdom call and on people who are in need, and allow Christ to give you His compassion so that you could go out and touch people for Jesus' sake. If it's a spiritual need, share the good news of salvation with them. If it's an emotional need, share words of encouragement and hope. If it's a physical need, pray for God to heal them. If people are in spiritual bondage, share biblical truth they can find freedom in Christ.

Matthew chapter 10 says this: these 12 Jesus sent out with the following instructions: Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: "The kingdom of heaven is near." Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

For your gift of 25 dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a minute, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a passage of scripture talking about Jesus' commissioning of the disciples. It's part of the series that we're developing called Read the Red. It's where we're looking at the teaching of Jesus Christ. What did Jesus actually teach about God, about eternal life, about salvation, and about discipleship?

Here in Matthew chapter 9 and Matthew chapter 10, it gives us a short synopsis of a day in the life of Jesus. He traveled around, He was teaching, He was preaching, He was healing people, He was casting out demons, and He saw people as distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus felt compassion for people. So He turns to His disciples and He imparts this worldview vision. He says the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest field.

Jesus Christ sees people in crisis, in need, in spiritual separation from God, and desperation. As His followers, Jesus wants us to see people that way. We need to see as Jesus saw. We need to see people as people who are in need of salvation in Christ, need of forgiveness in Christ, need of healing in Christ, and need of transformation in Christ. We need to see people through spiritual eyes. We need to see people as Jesus sees people.

When we do, we see that the harvest is plentiful. We see that the world is crying out for God and the world is in need of salvation, and Jesus is the only answer. Our response to the teaching of Jesus is to see a world in need and to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest and to be willing to be laborers ourselves.

Would you tell God that that's your heart today? God, thank You for the harvest. Thank You that You're the Lord of the harvest. Thank You that You're the savior and thank You that You're the healer. Give me Your compassion for people, help me see people as You see them, and may I be a laborer in Your harvest. In Jesus' name, amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you'll find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.