Matthew 9:35-38 "Responding to Overwhelming Spiritual Need"

0:58Now, of course, we don't only want to think about and talk about and pray about the Great Commission one day a year, but having an annual day for the nations ensures that we cannot go more than a year without thinking about and talking about and praying about the Great Commission and God's call on our lives. Now, as you probably know, we've been preaching through the book of Romans, but we had our marriage weekend last week. And next week is Day for the Nations, and the two weeks after that are spring break.

1:37And so instead of giving you whiplash going back and forth into Romans, I decided that we would just use today as a kind of prequel to the day for the nations. I am hopeful that this prequel will be more like Monsters University and less like Star Wars episodes one through three. But you will have to be the judge of that. By God's grace, we have been a missions-minded church from the very beginning. We have never been a very large church. We've never had a very large budget. We've only been around for 16 years.

2:16But we have sent out 17 missionary units to the field, more than one per year over the history of our church. And through our partnership with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, we help to support more than 3,500 missionaries who are currently serving all over the world today. We have a great missions team here at our church who help us to care for and support our partners on the field and who cultivate these great relationships that we have with our local partners helping to meet spiritual and physical needs right here in Bryan and in College Station. New Life has always Always been a missions-minded church.

3:05But for one reason or another, let's blame it on COVID. That's the easiest thing to do. COVID is not here to defend itself. COVID is not here to defend itself. For one reason or another, I think we've lost focus on missions the past few years. I would say that we've moved missions from the front burner of the church to the back burner, but I don't even really think that's the best illustration. It's more like over the past few years we've moved missions off the front burner of the church and put it in a crock pot in the corner, and we're kind of keeping it warm.

3:50And so, today, my hope is that we would scoop missions out of that crock pot and we'd put it back on the front burner of the church here at New Life, where missions would become once again a great passion and priority of every member of our church. And so, that is my hope today. My hope today is to show you why missions must be a priority here at New Life, how we intend to make it and keep it a priority here at New Life, and how we hope that you will be directly involved in missions through praying, giving, and going.

4:30And so, this morning in this prequel to the day for the nations, through Matthew chapter 9, I want to show you the overwhelming spiritual need of the world and how God calls us as Christians to respond to that need. So, here's what we're going to learn today. You can see it on the screen: Disciples of Jesus respond to overwhelming spiritual need with compassion and prayer. Disciples of Jesus respond to overwhelming spiritual need with compassion and prayer.

5:06Look with me now at verse 35 of Matthew 9. Matthew writes, And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. Now, up to this point, over the last four or five chapters in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has done a tremendous amount of ministry. He's doing all of the things that he is said to be doing in verse 35: teaching and preaching the good news, healing every disease and affliction, and much more.

5:45And here, Matthew says that Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, all of them, not just the big, well-known cities, but the small towns, the little villages as well. And the ancient historian Josephus recorded that in this northern region of Galilee where Jesus is currently ministering, there were at least 200 cities that had more than 15,000 people each in them. 200 cities and villages in the first century. So if Jesus traveled to two of these every single day, Sunday to Friday, took the Sabbath off, it would take him four months to get just through every city and village in northern Galilee. And yet, Matthew says that Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages. And that is because to Jesus, there is no such thing as an insignificant, unimportant town. Because there is no such thing as an insignificant, unimportant person.

6:54Every single person in the world is created in the image and likeness of God. They have inherent worth and dignity. There are no insignificant, unimportant people in the world. And so Jesus traveled to meet as many of them as possible. Look at verse 36. 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.

7:36All throughout the Gospels, we are told that large crowds, great crowds, followed Jesus everywhere he went. We have a good crowd here today, but this is nothing compared to what Jesus experienced in his ministry. On two occasions, we read that he fed 5,000 men and 4,000 men when you account for the women and children who were also likely present, probably 15 to 20,000 people. Luke records that one time the crowd was pressing in so tightly to hear Jesus preach and teach that he had to get into a boat and move out into the water a bit so that people could just see him and hear him. The crowd was so large.

8:20On a different occasion, a woman reaches out and takes hold of Jesus' garment. And he turns around and he says, Who touched me? His disciples are incredulous. They say, You see the crowds pressing in around you, and yet you can ask, who touched me? The question is absurd. Who touched me? It's like asking who touched me while walking up the ramp at Kyle Field. Everyone touched you. Crowds were a part of daily life for Jesus, to the point that he and his disciples had to slip away at night by boat to a different part of the region just to attempt to get some space. Face. And even then, the second Jesus steps out of the boat, there is a crowd of people waiting for him to minister. Crowds everywhere, all the time.

9:18Here in Matthew 9, Jesus looks at the crowds and he tells his disciples: look at this, verse 37: the harvest is plentiful. The harvest is plentiful. Jesus makes this statement while looking at one crowd in one city, in one little corner of the world, 2,000 years ago. Today, there are roughly 8 billion people on earth. 3.5 billion of these people are completely unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 42% are completely unreached. Nearly one out of every two people are completely unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not talking about non-Christians. 6 billion people in the world do not even claim to be Christians. 6 billion don't even claim to be Christians. That's not saying among the 2 billion who do, how many actually do follow Jesus. 6 billion people don't even claim to be Christians. 3.5 billion are. Completely unreached with the gospel. What that means is they do not have access to a Bible.

10:37There is not a church in their community. There is not a Christian in their community. There is not a missionary in their community. Worldwide, there are 420,000 missionaries for 8 billion people. Among the unreached, only 3% of the 420,000 missionaries are there ministering among unreached people groups. That means there is one missionary for every 275,000 people. To put this in perspective, College Station, Texas, 130,000 people. Bryan, Texas, 90,000 people. The campus of Texas AM, 70,000 people. It would be like there is one Christian in this entire area.

11:31How many non-Christians do you have in your family? Among your friends? In your dorm, your classes, at your workplace? You probably know dozens of non-Christians. There are tens of thousands, maybe 100,000 plus or more who do not know Christ here in our community. 3.5 billion people around the world are completely unreached with the gospel. Billion people do not even claim to be Christians. Do you feel overwhelmed yet? The spiritual need in our community, our state, our world is overwhelming.

12:19So, how do we respond? Let's back up to verse 35 and we'll consider our first response to this overwhelming spiritual need, which is compassion. Verse 35 again. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their 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. Jesus looks out over this throng of people and he has compassion for them. Just think about that for a minute. Ministering all day, every day, traveling on foot in the Middle Eastern heat to all of these places, constantly in need, often not even having time to eat because there are so many people coming to him. And he looks at this crowd and he has compassion for them.

13:26What is compassion? Here's one way that we can. Define it. Take a look on the screen. Compassion can be defined as sympathetic concern for the suffering of others, resulting in a desire to alleviate that suffering. Simply put, you see others' suffering, you feel sad about it, and you want to do something about it. This is how Jesus felt when he looked at this throng of people. He had compassion on them. And the text tells us why.

14:06Because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Now, sheep without a shepherd may not mean much to you. If you did not grow up on a farm or a ranch, if you don't work with animals, it probably doesn't mean much to you. That was not my story. I grew up in the city. I've had to learn about sheep and shepherding from books. So I read some books, and here's what I learned: Sheep without a shepherd are dead.

14:40About 12 years ago, there was a story in the news about some shepherds in Turkey who left their flock of 1,500 sheep to go get some breakfast. They thought, this will be fine, what can go wrong? Well, one of the sheep, we'll call him Frank. Frank wandered off, and he walked off a ledge, fell 50 feet to his death. The other 1,499 sheep said, Where's Frank? Let's go find him. And they all walked off the side of the cliff. Now, good news: after the first 400 of them fell, the next 1,000 survived because they landed on the world's largest wool pillow.

15:39Sheep without a shepherd are dead. And when Jesus looks out at this crowd, this is what he sees. When he looks over the billions and billions of lost people in the world today, this is what he sees: sheep without a shepherd. Long before Jesus came, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah. And I want you to look at how he described our condition. Isaiah 53. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, everyone, to his own way.

16:18Look what God says through Jeremiah. My people have been lost sheep. From mountain to hill, they have gone. Have forgotten their fold. All who found them have devoured them. You see, friends, because we are born with sinful hearts, we go astray from birth. We turn to our own ways. We forget our fold. We wander from mountain to hill. We get lost, and then we get devoured by our own sins or by the sins of other people. We are lost. Sheep without a shepherd and sheep without a shepherd are dead.

17:06But thanks be to God. He sent his only son, Jesus, to seek and to save that which was lost, to rescue us from our sin and our sins' consequences. Brothers and sisters, Jesus had compassion on us because we were lost sheep without a shepherd. He came to live and die and rise again so that through faith we could be brought into his fold to be cared for by the good shepherd. We are no longer lost sheep. Every one of us who trusts in Christ, we are no longer lost sheep without a shepherd.

17:49And here in Matthew 9, Jesus is reminding us of this reality. He is inviting us to open our eyes and to see what we are doing. What Jesus sees, the lost men and women and children in our community, our state, and our world, lost, harassed, and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus says to us through Matthew 9, do you remember? Do you remember when you were a lost sheep, harassed and helpless? Do you remember? Do you remember what it was like to be a sheep without a shepherd?

18:34Friends, there is overwhelming spiritual need in the world today. 6 billion non-Christians, 3.5 billion completely unreached with the gospel. And Jesus has compassion on every single one of them. He sees them as they really are. Harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Men, women, children, billions of them, lost in their sin, ignorant of the gospel, headed for eternal punishment in hell. And until we see them as Jesus sees them, harassed and helpless, suffering under the power of sin and Satan, headed for hell, we will not be able to feel compassion for them. We will not have sympathetic concern for their suffering and a desire to alleviate that suffering.

19:31That compassion comes from the heart of Christ and from the mind of Christ. And through faith in Christ, you and I have been given a new heart, a new heart that is filled with the Spirit of God and filled with the compassion of Jesus for others. We've been given a new mind to see the lost as they really are, desperate in their sin, harassed and helpless. That compassion comes from the word of Christ. The word of Christ that we are encountering today, that helps us to see, that reveals the compassionate heart of God toward lost sinners. The Bible shows us Jesus leaving the glory that he had with the Father from the foundation of the world to go on a rescue mission. He could have left us in our sin. The Son did not have to come, but he left all of the glory that he had with the Father to rescue you, to rescue me. He came for us. He is the God who leaves the 99 and goes after the one lost sheep. He did that for you. He did that for me. He is doing that for some of you, even this morning. That is why you are here today.

20:58The Bible shows you. us the compassion of Jesus for sinners. And as we read God's Word, the Spirit of God enables us to feel that compassion and to exercise that compassion on those who are lost, harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And so, friends, compassion must be our first response to the overwhelming spiritual need of the world. And that compassion comes from the Word of God and the Spirit of God as we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Son of God.

21:37That leads us to our second response to the overwhelming spiritual need of the world. And that is prayer. Let's look now at verse 37. Verse 37. Then Jesus 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. This is one of the many times in Scripture where Jesus surprises us with his teaching. He's helped us to see the overwhelming spiritual need of the world. He's modeled a compassionate response for us. He has said the harvest. Is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, what?

22:37Therefore, what? What would you expect Jesus to say next? Therefore, grab a sickle and start harvesting. Go evangelize. Plan a mission trip. Start a missions organization. Go do something, but go do anything. That is what we would expect Jesus to say, but instead, what does he say? He says, therefore, pray. Pray? This is one of our biggest problems. If you're anything like me, you read this and you mistakenly believe that prayer is not really doing anything. Especially here in America, the land of the doers, we don't think that prayer is doing anything.

23:27For many of us, prayer is not a first response, it is the last resort. Prayer is what we do when we have tried everything else. Isn't that right? We feel like prayer is not doing anything, but Jesus commands us to pray. How do we pray? Look what he says. Therefore, pray earnestly. That Greek word translated earnestly means to ask with urgency, to plead. To beg. Jesus says that when we are confronted with the spiritual need, the overwhelming spiritual need of the world, we are to pray earnestly. We are to plead. We are to beg. And who are we begging? Look what he says. Verse 38. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest.

24:25Friends, God is the Lord of the harvest. He is the one who causes the crops to grow by sending the rain on the land and the sun to shine on them. He is the Lord of the harvest. And that is certainly true spiritually. Spiritually, sinners do not seek God. We are lost sheep wandering off the sides of cliffs. That is who we are. We've forgotten our fold. We've been devoured. But thankfully, God seeks sinners. He rescues us. He gives life to spiritually dead people like you and me. He brings life from death. God gives the growth spiritually. He is the Lord of the harvest. And so we pray to him.

25:16What do we ask? Look again. Verse 38. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Harvest. Now that makes sense, doesn't it? If the problem is not enough laborers, the solution is more laborers. So ask God to send more laborers out into His harvest. Did you catch that? His harvest. God is calling people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to himself. He is drawing people to himself. He is the Lord of the harvest. We have the privilege of going out into his harvest to reap what belongs to him by proclaiming the gospel, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of Jesus, and teaching them to obey everything that he commanded. Friends, do you see what this means for missions?

26:28God says that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. The harvest is plentiful. There are people from every tribe, tongue, and nation that God is calling to himself. We get to be a part of reaping that harvest. And that starts with us asking the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers into the harvest. And here's what I find amazing. Jesus commands the disciples to pray. That God would send out more laborers into the harvest. So we presume that they do this. And then in Matthew 10, the very next section, Jesus calls his disciples and he sends them out to the lost sheep of Israel. Now think about that for a moment. Right after showing the disciples the overwhelming spiritual need of the world, right after modeling compassion for the lost sheep, the harassed and helpless, right after he commands them to pray, Jesus calls his disciples to himself and he sends them out to the lost sheep of Israel to preach and teach, to cast out demons, to heal the sick. Jesus sends out the very people that he commanded to pray to the Lord of the harvest.

27:57Brothers and sisters, God teaches that he works through his body, the church. And he does that by showing us needs, moving us to compassion, and calling us to pray. And as we pray in obedience to God, he often says to us, it is you. You are the one that I am sending out to the lost sheep. The reason I showed you this overwhelming spiritual need, the reason I moved you to compassion, the reason I called you to pray is to call you to go.

28:42God is saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And we are the ones who respond, here I am, Lord. Send me. Send me because I see the overwhelming spiritual need. You have moved my heart to compassion. You've called me to pray. And so, Lord, I will go. Friends, I pray that this would happen here at New Life this very morning and next Sunday at Day for the Nations and all throughout the next year, that many of us would see the overwhelming spiritual need of the world. We'd be moved to compassion. We would pray to the Lord of the harvest and we would go.

29:31The vast majority of us in here will not go across the world. We will go across the street. We will go across our classrooms. We will go across the campus. We will go across the office building. We will not go across the world. But every one of us is called to pray and to go in some capacity. Every one of us is called to pray and to send in some capacity. That is the calling to go and to send to all nations for the glory of God.

30:08And so, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I want you to remember this is the prequel to next week. Imagine how excited I'm going to be next Sunday. We're going to dive even deeper into God's Word and look at His call for us to send and go to the nations. But hear me: next week will be for nothing if we do not see the overwhelming spiritual need of the world and if we are not moved to compassion and prayer.

30:44So, if you're a member of our church, if you are a believer here this morning, I want to challenge you to spend the next week praying to the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers into his harvest. I want you to pray and ask God, Lord, is it me? Are you showing me the spiritual need, moving me to compassion, moving me to prayer because you're calling me to go? Who in my life, right now, in my community, in my classroom, on my team, in my neighborhood, at my workplace, who are you calling me to minister to?

31:24Let it never be said by a coworker, a teammate, a friend, oh, I didn't know you were a Christian. God is calling us to go in some way, shape, or form. So let's do that. Let's spend the next week praying. And if you are not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, my friend, you are a sheep without a shepherd. Just like every one of us was at some point, you are harassed and helpless. Maybe you've run off a cliff or two in your life.

32:06You come this morning bruised and broken because of your own sinful choices. For others of you, you have been devoured by wolves, by the sins of other people. And you come in this morning hurting, not because of what you've done, but because of what has been done to you. In either case, you are harassed and helpless because you are a sheep without a shepherd. And my guess is you already know that. That's why you came today. You came by yourself or you came with a friend because you know that you are a sheep without a shepherd.

32:56Well, if that's the case, I have great. News for you. Look at what Jesus says to you this morning. He says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

33:35I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. My friend, you are a sheep without a shepherd. But Jesus is the good shepherd. He came to live for you, to die in your place for your sins, and to rise again from the dead, so that through faith in him, you could be delivered from sin's power and sin's penalty. You could be set free to live a life that is no longer harassed and hungry. Helpless to live a life of joy and peace and purpose because Jesus gave his life for you.

34:40He brought you here today because you are not yet in the fold, but he wants you. He is calling to you. Will you answer him? Will you say this morning, Jesus, I believe that you are Lord. I believe in my heart that God raised you from the dead. You gave your life for me. Now I will give my life for you. Will you do that today? If you do, you will no longer be harassed and helpless, lost, because you will no longer be a sheep without a shepherd. So come as you are. Come today. Come to the good shepherd who loves you and gave his life for you to bring you into his fold forever.

35:34Let's pray. O Father, we pray for the lost sheep among us. We believe that. You are in control of all things, and it is no accident that you have brought them here today. I pray for every man, every woman, every child who is a lost sheep in this room. I pray that they would hear your voice through your word and your spirit this morning, and that they would respond to you, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, with faith.

36:27Would you give them faith this morning? Would you help them to trust in you, to call out to you? Because we know that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And God, for those of us who are already believers, I pray that your word will have spoken to the very depths of our hearts this morning. Your word is living and active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. And Lord, we need to be pierced by the word this morning. We need to see what you see.

37:13God, we confess that we go throughout our day. We go to the grocery store, we go to Lowe's, we do all of these things. We don't see the lost around us. We've become selfish, self-centered, just trying to get through our day. and are weak, forgetting that there are lost sheep everywhere, ignorant of the gospel and headed for hell. We pray that you would move us to compassion, that we would see what Jesus sees and feel what Jesus feels when we look at them. That we would pray, yes, for them, but even more for ourselves. And that we would pray for you to send more laborers into the harvest and certainly among the unreached peoples of the world.

38:08God, thank you for your word. Thank you for using us to achieve your eternal purposes. May we value eternal heavenly rewards more than we value anything else in this world. To hear from you, well done, good and faithful servant. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.