Shorthand notes below and pdf slides presentation available for download above from the “Save” circle:
Introduction
2 pictures of Chris the Sheep with full fleece
o What do you see when you look at him?
Plump, healthy, unhealthy, glutton, undisciplined, indulgent, happy, sad,
enjoying life, depressed? Hard to tell…it’s a sheep.
Does your perspective change when I tell you this is an Australian sheep?
Not coddled…free range, tough, rugged, with a cool accent (beaut,
bloke, barbie, you call that a knife…’beeehhhh’, not ‘baaahhhh’)
Does perspective change when I tell you this is a celebrity sheep?
World record of 88 pounds of wool in 2015
I’ll bet he was proud he had the record
Just started a new series on evangelism – and we talked about the amazing opportunity
to share the gospel here in the US alongside the reality that the American Church is less
likely to share the gospel than ever before.
We talked through Jesus’s reminder to the pharisees that He desires mercy and not
sacrifice and how the self-righteous person will often become so self-absorbed that
they’ll be more concerned with keeping the religious rules – as they define them – then
they will with sharing life-giving truth and helping those in need around them.
And then we look at several developments in the last 70 or so years of western
American Christianity – particularly in the evangelical stream – that have contributed to
an evangelical complacency in the church today.
We’re going to pick things back up in verses 10-13 today and then continue on to verses
35 and 36.
Pray
What the Pharisee Sees
Matthew 9:10-13 “10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax
collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And
when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with
tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have
no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I
desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.””
(v11) “And when the pharisees saw this…” what did they see?
o (v10) many tax collectors and sinners – Matthew did not invite “righteous” people
to this party…and Jesus had no problem engaging with them
Question of perspective
o How do you view people? What is important to you when you evaluate someone?
What do you notice about someone? Attractiveness, dress, cleanliness, skin
color, appearance of wealth or poverty, how they carry themselves,
whether they engage with other people or remain aloof?
When they speak, do you note their grammar and word choice, measuring
intellect or education…perhaps accent?
Do you note someone’s profession or lifestyle choices?
o The answer is that you do, to some degree, to all these things. We can’t help but
evaluate and make judgments.
o Jesus knew this, John 7:24 “24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right
judgment.”
The pharisees saw these people and immediately judged them as tax collectors and
sinners.
o To be fair, they certainly were….yet they disdained Jesus for engaging with
them…and wouldn’t engage themselves other than to talk about Jesus behind His
back.
Jesus knows that and challenge them: (v13) “go and learn what this means”
o was an idiom that the rabbis used to challenge their students to study a particular
issue and served as a rebuke to those who did not know what they should have
known
Learn (Gk manthano) (aorist imperative = do this now! don’t delay!) means
to genuinely understand and accept a teaching as true and to apply it in
one’s life
What is he challenging them to learn and grow in: (v13) “I desire mercy and not
sacrifice”
o This passage is a direct rebuke of the empty ritual of the Pharisees which
neglected the true intent of God’s law. They practiced ceremony without mercy.
o Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 (discussed last week) – making the strong point to
pharisees that ritual devotion to religious motions is nothing without faithful
practice the heart of love and mercy God calls us to
Recall that Hosea was called by God to marry Gomer – a harlot – and
remain faithful to her despite her multiple unfaithfulness as a
condemnation to the people of God for their unfaithfulness to Him, their
religious ritual meant nothing because they lacked a faithful devotion to
Yahweh and did not live out his mercy and love to one another.
o Jesus was basically calling these pharisees Gomer and that their self-
righteousness was a stench to the Lord….He desires mercy.
Luke 6:36 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
James 2:13 “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no
mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD
require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with
your God?”
o What is mercy?
(Gk eleos) is the outward manifestation of a non-condescending pity for a
person, to be moved to show kindness or concern for someone in serious
need, to give help to the wretched, to relieve the miserable.
Mercy is an attitude toward a need that is compelled to take action to meet
that need.
In commenting on this section of scripture, John MacArthur writes “Without [mercy], all
the rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices of the Pharisees were unacceptable to God.
Without [mercy] they proved themselves to be more ungodly even than the despised
tax-gatherers and sinners, who made no pretense of godliness….The rituals and
ceremonies were only as valid as the contriteness of the worshiper. And the person who
sacrificed to God in genuine reverence would serve his fellow man in genuine [mercy].
Conversely, the person who is cold toward other people proves he is also cold toward
God, no matter how orthodox his theology and how impeccable his external moral
standards. The person who sees obvious sinners as those only to be condemned proves
himself to be a greater sinner than they. Those who are furthest from giving mercy are
furthest from receiving it.”
Jesus challenges these pharisees to show mercy to the broken and lost, to sinners. Jesus
ends His challenge by saying “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners”
o By “righteous” Jesus meant those who think they’re righteous.
Instead, Jesus calls sinners
o “calls” (Gk kaleo) (from which we get clamor), literally means to speak out to
another in order to attract their attention or to them bring nearer, either
physically or in a personal relationship, to call forth so as to invite.
Again MacArther summarizes this section well, the Kingdom of God is for:
o the spiritually sick who want to be healed,
o the spiritually corrupt who want to be cleansed,
o the spiritually poor who want to be rich,
o the spiritually hungry who want to be fed,
o the spiritually dead who want to be made alive.
o It is for ungodly outcasts who long to become God’s own beloved children.
What Jesus Sees
Matthew 9:35-36 “35 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. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because
they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
“He had compassion” (Gk splagchnizomai) the feeling of being moved as to one’s
bowels, hence to be moved with compassion (for the bowels were thought to be the
seat of love and pity). The strongest word for pity in Greek and describes the
compassion which moves a man to the deepest depths of his being.
o C.H. Spurgeon notes that “The original word is a very remarkable one. It is not
found in classic Greek. The fact is, it was a word coined by the evangelists
themselves. They did not find one in the whole Greek language that suited their
purpose, and therefore they had to make one.”
Compassion is the inner movement one feels when they look upon and see suffering,
while mercy is the lived out evidence of the sense of compassion one feels. God’s
compassion always moves Him to mercy, and if we are to walk in His Spirit and mature
into reflections of Him, we too must learn to feel compassion and be moved to mercy
for the lost and broken around us.
o Instances of Jesus’s compassion:
Jesus had compassion toward a leper and healed him and told him to tell
no one, but he did and from then on Jesus could not openly enter a town
(Mk.1:41-45) hence the following crowd language…
Jesus had compassion toward the crowd and it moved him to teach. (Mt.
9:36-38, Mk. 6:34)
Jesus had compassion toward the crowd and it moved him to heal them.
(Mt. 14:14)
Jesus had compassion toward the crowd and it moved him to feed them.
(Mt. 15:32, Mk. 8:2)
Jesus had compassion toward a widow with a considerable crowd around
her and it moved him to raise her son from the dead. (Lk. 7:13-15)
The master in the parable had compassion and it moved him to forgive the
debt. (Mt. 18:27)
The Samaritan in the parable had compassion and it moved him to care for
the robbed and beaten man. (Lk. 10:33)
The father in the parable had compassion and it moved him to run to his
prodigal son a long way off. (Lk. 15:20)
So when we look around at the people in this world, what do we see?
o How do you see the homeless or the beggar?
o How do you see the destitute and the infirm?
o How do you see the person who is angry or entitled?
o How do you see the person who is defensive and hostile?
o How do you see the person that offends you, mocks you, or criticizes you?
o How do you see the overbearing control freak or the passive yes-man?
o How do you see the person who is sad, depressed, and ‘weak-minded’?
o How do you see the person who is a user, a survivor, and does what they need to
get by?
o How do you see the person who is indulgent or flamboyant, who is confused or
deceived, who is abusing or stealing or cheating or addicted?
I’ll tell you how Jesus sees them, like (v36) “they were harassed and helpless, like sheep
without a shepherd”
o Harassed (GK skyllo) literally to skin, flay, lacerate; metaphorically meaning to be
grievously afflicted
o Helpless (GK rhipto) literally to hurl; metaphorically meaning to be dejected and
completely unable to control circumstances
They were like sheep without a shepherd….no one to lead them – left to their own
devices, foolish animals that will only end up devoured
Application and Conclusion
Brings us back to Chris the sheep
o Picture of sheered
This is what Chris really looked like
o Harassed and helpless, he was a sheep without a shepherd – literally wandered
for years which is what caused his wool to build up…so much so that he was
effectively blind – the wool had grown over his eyes.
Apart from Jesus Christ, this is every person on this planet…and we are called to be
moved by compassion and to act in mercy toward them…demonstrating the gospel with
our actions and speaking the truth of the good news to a world that is harassed and
helpless apart from Jesus Christ
Stats:
o Abortion
Over 6 in 10 U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
(Pew Research Center, 2023) https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2023/01/11/what-the-data-says-about-abortion-in-the-u-s-2/
Latest research from the CDC is from 2020 from legally certified facilities
voluntarily reporting 620,327 abortions. (Centers for Disease Control
Abortion Surveillance System)
https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/abortion.htm
o Abuse
1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience severe physical violence by an
intimate partner in their lifetime. (CDC, 2017)
https://www.pcadv.org/about-abuse/domestic-violence-statistics/
1 in 1,000 PA kids abused or neglected (PA Child Abuse Recognition and
Reporting, 2023) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33351411/
Over 1 in 10 teens admit they are cyberbullies. (Cyberbullying Research
Center, 2017)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170221102036.htm
o Pornography:
28,258 users are watching pornography every second.
$3,075.64 is spent on porn every second on the Internet.
88% of scenes in porn films contain acts of physical aggression, and 49% of
scenes contain verbal aggression.
1 in 5 mobile searches are for pornography.
90% of teens and 96% of young adults are either encouraging, accepting, or
neutral when they talk about porn with their friends.
Just 55% of adults 25 and older believe porn is wrong.
Only 43% of teens believe porn is bad for society, compared to 31%
of young adults 18-24, 51% of Millennials, 44% Gen-Xers, and 59% of
Boomers.
1 in 5 youth pastors and 1 in 7 senior pastors use porn on a regular
basis and currently struggling. That’s more than 50,000 U.S. church
leaders.
Nearly 27% of teens receive sexts, and around 15% are sending them.
As of 2018, 57% of teens search out porn at least monthly, and the average
age of exposure to pornography for the first time is middle school – the
average – many children much younger are exposed every day.
https://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/#:~:text=28%2C258%20users%2
0are%20watching%20pornography%20every%20second.%20%243%2C075.
64,1%20in%205%20mobile%20searches%20are%20for%20pornography.
o Crime
The total people in prison and jail in PA has increased by 288% between
1983 and 2015. Women in PA jails had the largest increase since 1980, up
1,023%. (Vera Institute of Justice)
https://www.vera.org/downloads/pdfdownloads/state-incarceration-
trends-pennsylvania.pdf
o Divorce
Over 30,000 divorces and annulments in PA in 2021, 755 in Northampton
County. (PA Department of Health, 2021)
o Gender dysphoria
Depending on what source is consulted, there are 2 to over 100 different
gender options.
There were about 9,000 transgender surgeries performed in the US in 2021
(Current Urology Journal)
https://journals.lww.com/cur/fulltext/2021/03000/transgender_surgery__
_knowledge_gap_among.12.aspx
o Mental Illness
1 in 5 U.S. adults live with a mental health condition (National Alliance on
Mental Illness, 2020) https://www.nami.org/mhstats
o Poverty
Latest census from 2021 – over 1 in 10 Americans are living in poverty. 12%
of Pennsylvanians are living in poverty. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023)
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/poverty-awareness-
month.html https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/PA
o Escapism (consumerism, social media, work, video games, drugs, suicide)
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among people aged 10-14 and the
3rd leading cause of death among those aged 15-24 in the U.S. (National
Alliance on Mental Illness, 2020) 988 is the mental health 911
97% of American boys 12-17 play video games on some kind of device. 83%
of girls do the same. (Pew Research Center, 2018)
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/17/5-facts-about-
americans-and-video-games/
Marijuana and hallucinogen use among young adults reached an all-time
high in 2021. (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2022)
https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/08/marijuana-and-
hallucinogen-use-among-young-adults-reached-all-time-high-in-2021
The only behavioral addiction in the DSM-V is pathological gambling, but
the criteria for this disorder is being modified and applied to other
unofficial behavioral addictions. For instance, Internet Gaming Disorder
(IGD) and Caffeine Use Disorder (CUD) are not classified yet in the DSM, but
mentioned and recommended for further research. (American Psychiatric
Association, 2023) https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/internet-
gaming
The market for luxury personal goods grew about 20% in 2022. This number
is forecasted to increase as much as 50% due to Gen Z and Gen Alpha
demanding luxury goods starting at age 15 (Bain & Company, 2023)
https://www.bain.com/insights/renaissance-in-uncertainty-luxury-builds-on-its-rebound/
Church, if we are ever going to be a people that shares the gospel in contravention of
the prevailing tendencies of the church today, we have got to ask the Lord to move us
with His compassion and to act out His mercy to the broken world around us.
We cannot look at the lost sheep and see anything by the harassed and helpless people
that they are, especially when it isn’t easy to do so – chances are they are so hurt and
broken that they know of no other way to live than in their brokenness.
Compassion and mercy must triumph over judgment, apathy, and neglect. Our comfort,
convenience, and control cannot move us to complacency and pharisaical, self-righteous
living. We cannot say we are followers of Jesus and then turn around like Gomer the
harlot and fail to live up to our pledge to our God of faithful loving kindness to the
broken people around us as messengers of His love, truth, and healing.
A people that does not share the gospel is a people that does not walk in mercy and a
people doesn’t walk in mercy because it is not compassionate and a people is not
compassionate because they need to be reminded of how wretched, pitiable, poor,
blind, and naked (see Rev. 3:17) they were before Jesus Christ saved them from being
harassed and helpless themselves.
1 Cor. 6:9-11 “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Church, every one of us has moments of pharisaical self-righteousness. Every one of us
still has moments where our flesh wins over the Spirit. And Jesus is calling us to learn
again what it means to walk in compassion and mercy toward the lost sheep around us.
Let us ask our God to humble us, and move us that we may be willing instruments in His
hands to show his loving kindness to the hurting world, sharing the truth of Jesus’s love,
grace, and mercy to the lost.