Compassion Restoration
Notes
Transcript
Future Restoration
Future Restoration
35 And Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Observe the goodness of His mission - the constant provision of help and hope
Preaching the gospel - good news of the day of salvation, deliverance from the wrath to come, cancellation of debt that cannot ever be repaid by men
preaching the gospel from the OT
revelation from Jesus Himself that the gospel is in those Scriptures - 2 Tim. 3:15
15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
By preaching this good news He is also restoring hope that had been lost through the Jewish leaders - Matthew 15:7-9
7 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:
8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.
9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’”
so not only does He preach the gospel and restore hope, but through His healing He also makes clear He is restoring creation
every - the degree of compassion without bias or prejudice
temporary revelations of what He will do at the end of time, but first He must gather His sheep - some yet to even be born - those who were or are not His people must become His people
this is partly why He is bearing with vessels of wrath according to Romans 9:22–29 “22 And what if God, wanting to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath having been prepared for destruction, 23 and in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles? 25 As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’” 26 “And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” 27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; 28 for the Lord will execute His word on the land, thoroughly and quickly.” 29 And just as Isaiah foretold, “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”
He is after all the good Shepherd which must be established as we look at His compassionate restoration
14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16 “And I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.
18 “No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself, I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
Because of His great love for His sheep, He is patient as He calls and gathers
2 Peter 3:1-13, 15 - read vv. 7-13, 15
Whenever the day of eternity is, no one knows. Right now we are here for His purposes in Gospel proclamation, experiencing momentary light afflictions and trials of various kinds for our faith, holiness, and ability to comfort others. All of this is producing an eternal weight of glory not worth comparing to the trouble we face now. (2 Cor. 4; Rom. 8)
Current Compassion
Current Compassion
In this passage, the Jewish leaders had caused the people to be a hopeless, thrown away, disdained people. Jesus, full of compassion wants them to know who is calling them as beloved members of His fold. The implied indictment is on the teachers of Israel, they had failed to lead the sheep to green pastures, still waters, and most importantly, to the good shepherd. They were without hope and true food because they had been taught to strive for a self-born righteousness before Yahweh.
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.
2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For not knowing about the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
In Romans 10, Paul quotes the OT 11 times in speaking about the faith that comes by hearing, particularly faith in Jesus Christ. Which means, they should have known better.
Jesus sees their need. They need to be cared for, tended, led, fed, protected.
What is His response to seeing this? The sheep are coming, even wandering, they need shepherds. Practically speaking, there is and will be thousands and millions who will be in need. The Lord reaps what He sows. How does Jesus meet this need? Eph. 4:11-12
11 And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ,
read to v. 16
what do we do then if the laborers and not sufficient for the harvest, for all these sheep?
Pray - beg the Lord to send workers into the harvest
He will call and thereby send
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him,
13 for “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?
15 And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things!”
16 However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
This is how He calls His sheep - by the voice of His word
He has given shepherds, teachers, evangelists
The question then for you is…
who is sent? Where are the evangelists, teachers, shepherds? How are you a part of the harvest?
To be called is to be sent
you, according to Jesus prayer in John 17 and promise in Matt. 28 are sent in His name by the power, presence and authority of His name
There are countless areas in the world, country, state, region that need workers for the harvest. Lots of wandering sheep and lost sheep.
what do we do about it? Pray.
38 “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Matthew 10 begins with Jesus calling, giving authority, and sending out His 12 - giving them a taste and preparing them for a life of gospel ministry
The Most Important Part of Gospel Ministry
The Most Important Part of Gospel Ministry
knowing Jesus
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
keep in mind that Judas, in Matthew 10, was part of the 12 that were called, given authority and sent out, yet we find out that Judas does not love Him
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
Going in gospel ministry is not where you gain confidence as one of His sheep, not where eternal security is found.
You know by the word, and your faith and trust in Him, the Word - John 20:31
31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
so remember the confidence you have in His name
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;
30 and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?