Sheep Without a Shepherd Matthew 9:35-38

We live in a world full of confusion and chaos. And people want to know where to go, but left to themselves, people go down the wrong path, inevitably.

The amount of confusion in our country right now is hard to fathom. People want to know where to go, but what if someone dangerous comes along and leads that person down the wrong path?

This is happening everywhere in America. It's happening with our political leaders, and it's happening in churches.

Over a month ago, I preached a sermon on the twilight zone that is happening in the

American church. We know that society is confused, but the church should never be confused.

And the church in America is confused because of bad leadership, because of bad shepherds.

This happened in ancient Israel as well. And this is what the Lord said in Isaiah 9 .16,

Those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.

When there is bad leadership or no leadership, what follows is confusion and chaos.

What follows is a lack of productivity, going in the right direction instead of going in the wrong direction.

And what follows is suffering for the people. Our country and the

American church needs leadership, and yet leadership is rare. By God's grace, there are many good leaders out there, but it is a minority.

And if the church in America were leading the way God calls His shepherds to lead, then the church would not find itself in the difficult place it finds itself in right now.

To live a life pleasing to the Lord where people prosper spiritually is not complicated.

We get all of our cues from the Bible. And the Bible is entirely sufficient to live the life of faith.

This is what God has called shepherds to do. To lead people down this path. The path of following Scripture.

As 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4 says, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which

He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

What this verse tells us is that the Bible is sufficient for the life of faith. Entirely sufficient.

The Bible doesn't tell you how to be a doctor. How to be a nurse. How to be a lawyer.

How to be a mechanic. How to be a carpenter. And so on and so forth.

But it does tell you everything you need to know to live out the life of faith. We do not need clever tricks that make up for what the

Bible is lacking because the Bible isn't lacking. But shepherds far too often treat the

Bible like it is lacking. Like we need to go outside of it. We need to find something else that is there to make up for where it is lacking.

And we see this in our country. In churches all over the place. When false ideas are brought in, this leads to confusion.

This hurts the mass of people that desire to know God, but who have been led poorly.

What we experience in America is confusing, but it's nothing new. It's nothing new.

This is always happening. And sometimes more than others. One time in history when this scenario was at a high point, was during Jesus' ministry.

And Jesus noticed this and it troubled Him. It troubled Him deeply. His heart went out to those who were being led astray by false shepherds.

We will see this in our sermon series this morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew. As I told you earlier, we'll be looking at verses 35 -38 in chapter 9.

At this time, I encourage you to turn there with me. And if you're using a red Bible and a pew, this is on page 968.

This sermon is titled, Sheep Without a Shepherd. Sheep Without a

Shepherd. And let's begin by reading these verses. 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.

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 the harvest.

This is what this sermon is calling each of us to do. Understand that Jesus has great compassion for this lost world.

Understand that Jesus has great compassion for this lost world.

We're going to see three examples how in these verses. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one week ago.

We looked at the narrative where Jesus once again healed several people. That's what we've seen in Matthew.

He just keeps healing everyone who comes to Him. He healed two blind men and a man who was unable to speak.

The main idea of that text is that we are to understand who Jesus is in His fullness. There are so many misunderstandings about who

Jesus is, but this text told us two realities about His true identity. The first is that He wants us to know that He is not the

Messiah of man's imagination. His role is not just to reign in power.

His role is to suffer. He came to this earth to die on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead.

And when He comes again, He will reign in power. But the unbelieving world thought

He just came to reign in power. And they missed the suffering aspect of His role.

And the second reality that Jesus wants us to know is that He does not get any of His power from an evil source.

Remember, the Pharisees accused Him. They said, you do these miracles from Satan, from the prince of demons.

But of course, all of His power comes from God. And what we know clearly from the

New Testament is that He is God. And everything that He does, all the power comes from God.

Now this leads us to our text this morning. Once again, Jesus picks up where He left off.

Let's see Him continue His healing ministry in verse 35 as we zero in on this verse.

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.

What we have learned in Matthew is that His center place of ministry, Jesus' center place of ministry was the town of Capernaum.

And what we read in verse 35 is that He journeyed in the surrounding area in the Galilean region.

When we look at Jesus' ministry, there were really three tasks that He performed. He performed miracles, including healing.

He taught His disciples. And He taught the masses of people. And this is what we read in verse 35.

This verse tells us that Jesus taught in the synagogues the secondary place of worship for the

Jews. The primary place was the temple in Jerusalem. And they had synagogues all over the place where they would meet on the

Sabbath and worship God together.

Now most of Jesus' ministry was directed toward the Jews. What we have seen thus far in Matthew and what we will continue to see is that the

Jewish people largely rejected Jesus. A few of them believed here and there, but most did not.

The group of people that mostly rejected Christ was the Jewish leaders. The very ones who had sent

Him before Pilate to be crucified. What Jesus offered these Jews was the gospel of the kingdom as verse 35 tells us.

And He proclaimed it to them. Wherever He went, He would proclaim to the people the gospel of the kingdom.

Now the Greek word for proclaim is the same word to preach. So I'm preaching to you right now.

So Jesus would preach this gospel to the people. And when biblical preaching takes place, what is happening is the heralding of the word of God.

I've heard it described as a messenger speaking on behalf of the king. There's nothing in the world like preaching.

It's not a speech. It's not teaching. I mean, those things are involved in it, but preaching is a proclamation.

It's a heralding. The messenger heralds the truth of God's word to the people.

But when Jesus speaks, He does not speak on behalf of anyone since He Himself is the king.

And so when He proclaims the gospel of the kingdom, He's proclaiming Himself. And when we hear the word gospel, we know what the gospel is.

If you come here on a Sunday, and you don't somewhere hear the gospel, then we're really blowing it big time.

You hear the gospel all the time. The gospel means good news. And there is only good news because there is first bad news.

Man was first created good, as Genesis 1 tells us, but mankind fell into sin, according to Genesis 3.

And we are all deserving of hell because this sinful nature is passed down to us that we are sinners by nature and by choice.

And we are deserving of punishment. But the beauty of the gospel is that God in His love sent

Jesus to die for our sins, and then He was raised gloriously from the dead. This is the good news.

And you do not have to face the punishment that you deserve because Jesus faced it for you. As Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom,

He called people to understand what true religion is. That one recognizes their sin and turns to God, and then through God's power, one is able to perform good works that are pleasing to Him.

Jesus also taught people to believe in Him, knowing that people's only hope was trusting in His finished work through His sacrificial death and His resurrection.

Jesus preached about the new covenant that was sealed with His own blood as He explained in Matthew 26 -28.

Jesus forgives sins publicly as we saw in Matthew 9 -2.

And He famously said in John 14 -6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the

Father except through Me. Jesus is saying, you want to enter

God's kingdom, you want to enter heaven, then listen to My words and follow Me.

When Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, this is what He proclaimed. One author wrote that Jesus not only proclaimed, but of which

He was both entrance and the ruler. So He proclaims, you're going to get there through Me, and once you get there,

I'm going to be the one who rules over it. I'm the king. You only get into the kingdom through Him.

Now the word kingdom, this word kingdom in the Bible has an enormous meaning to it.

The Bible describes three aspects of the kingdom. Its present state, its future state, and its further future state.

So the present state is you are God's kingdom citizens now. Because you are in fellowship with the king.

The closer future is the millennial kingdom. After Jesus returns to the earth, Christ will reign with His people for 1 ,000 years.

And then after that kingdom is the eternal state. The kingdom of the triune God where God will reign with His people forever and ever and ever.

But the kingdom is present as Jesus is going through His ministry.

He's proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom saying, join the kingdom now by believing in Me.

In Philippians 3 .20, Paul wrote, our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body.

We don't have that completely new life now.

We still sin and we still live in our sin -stained bodies. But a day is coming when we will be fully in God's kingdom for everyone here who knows

Christ as their Lord, Savior, and treasure. This kingdom is the reign of Christ over His people.

And now that reign is spiritual, but in the future, we will reign with Him in His physical presence.

But the only ones who will be there are those who have a relationship with the King by trusting in this crucified

Savior. And so, I want to always invite, if anyone here is listening, if anyone is present, if you've never believed in the

Lord Jesus Christ, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved and you will be in this future kingdom. So we are to understand that Jesus has great compassion for the lost world.

And the first example how is by proclaiming Himself as the good news. As He looks at sinners and sees their dreadful state and invites them to believe in Him, He is showing compassion.

The second example of how Jesus has great compassion for the lost world is by showing sympathy toward wandering people.

And we'll see this in verse 36. The great compassion that Jesus has for the people that He ministered to.

Let's read verse 36. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

As we read this, we see the heart of a shepherd in Jesus. People need shepherds.

And good shepherds lead people to the right place. Psalm 23 is one of the most famous passages in the

Bible. We read it this morning as we began our service. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for His namesake. What a wonderful psalm that is.

If you're ever going through a difficult time, quote the psalm. Psalm 23. Just remember, the Lord is your shepherd and He's taking care of you.

True shepherds have compassion on people. And we see that with Jesus right here.

But there's a darker picture and that is that there are sadly false shepherds that are out there.

And false shepherds only care for themselves and exploit the flock, take advantage of the flock.

The prophet Ezekiel gave a prophecy on behalf of the Lord toward the false shepherds of Israel. And this is the darker picture that this prophet describes.

In Ezekiel 34, verses 1 -6, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.

Prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God, Ah, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves.

Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat. You clothe yourselves with the wool.

You slaughter the fat ones. But you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened.

The sick you have not healed. The injured you have not bound up. The strayed you have not brought back.

The lost you have not sought. And with force and harshness you have ruled them.

So they were scattered because there was no shepherd. And they became food for the wild beasts.

My sheep were scattered. They wandered over the mountains and on every high hill.

My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search and seek for them.

Then he says in verse 10, this strong rebuke, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds.

And I will require My sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding of the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves.

I will rescue My sheep from their mouths that they may not be food for them. God hates witnessing false shepherds hurt

His people. There are few things that He hates more than false shepherds.

This was the experience of the first century Jews. The context that we see in our sermon text this morning.

False shepherds abounded. It was the religious system in first century

Judaism. In verse 36, Jesus describes the scene of first century

Israel. He said the people were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Now in the Greek word, the word harassed has the root word of skull or getting down to the bone from the skin.

Otherwise known as skinning. Another way to think of this is being worn out or battered.

Worn down. And they're also described as helpless. So Jesus looks on these people.

He looks at these so -called shepherds. And then He looks at the people, many of which just wanted to know how to follow

God, but they didn't know how. And He describes them as beaten down, worn out, exhausted, and helpless.

And He blames the shepherds. He looks on and He mourns.

He has great compassion for the people. I remember one time I was at an airport.

And when you're at an airport, there's tons of people around. Masses of people. And I remember making a comment to my father.

And I said to him, Dad, there's so many people here. And he made an offhand comment.

He said, these are sheep without a shepherd. And it's an accurate assessment because if you go to any place, if you see all the crowds of people, you can be sure that most people there don't know where they are going.

They don't know the right path. They don't have anybody looking after them. How many of them are following the

Lord, the Chief Shepherd? And how many of them belong to a good Bible -believing church where they are fed and have shepherds that look after them?

Everyone desires to go somewhere and people are looking to follow someone. But this is where people take advantage of others.

They exploit for their own gain and lead sheep after them.

And there are so many false shepherds in America right now that there are too many to count. I wrote an article in the local paper for January that was controversial.

Probably the most controversial pastor page I've ever written. And it's the same one that appears in our newsletter.

And in the article, I explained that evil powers are at work in America with the goal of silencing their opposition.

And what I explained is that those who stand on the Word of God will face persecution. And you've already seen it.

And what I said is the end of the world could be close. Brandon and I were talking about this yesterday.

Has there ever been a time in history where globally we're so connected and so many people are working together and in many cases it's not for good reasons.

I mean, in history, right, there's been small portions of places where things are really bad but then there's good happening somewhere else where in the world right now, you look everywhere, just about everywhere it's evil.

The table has been set for the end of the world. So what

I said in this article is that the world could be close and what we need is to be ready and anticipate

Christ's return. Now, I don't know how close the return of Christ is.

We don't know that. But I would be surprised if I lived into my old age, to be frank.

I could be wrong, but I'm just giving my best observation as we look at the landscape of the world, as we read the

Bible, and as we look at the world we live in. The stage is set for the Antichrist to set up his kingdom.

But intense persecution will likely precede his arrival as the world spirals downward, ready for him to step in and I believe we'll be raptured from this place before that happens.

But as we talk about the bad, there's always good news for Christians. Always good news. Things will get bad, but a day is coming when

Christ will reign with his people. So as things do get bad, we need to long for his return and even in the present, live with the joy that only comes from knowing him.

This life is mixed with joy and sorrow while the age to come will be only joy. That's the place you have as a

Christian. The worst you'll ever experience is in this life. In the age to come, there will be no pain, there will be no sorrow, there will be no suffering.

Now you might be wondering, what do people think about the article that I wrote? I received a few comments from some

Christians who thanked me for writing the article to encourage them as we likely face hard times ahead.

But I had one reader who wrote a really nasty email in response and the reason he wrote me this email is because he is being led by false shepherds.

That's the root issue. Let me read you a little bit what he wrote. He said, this is a direct quote from him,

Your peace was of gloom and doom and that the world was near the end. Far from the message of grace and hope that I get from my church leaders.

I mean, you go to some churches and all you hear is fluffy good news.

But what if there's bad news? Isn't it the responsibility of the shepherd to tell the truth?

To tell the whole story? We live in a world where people just choose what they want to hear. Let's hear the whole story.

Let's hear the whole thing because that's the only way you're going to get the truth. And what he said is what false shepherds do.

They only tell people what they want to hear. Affirming the false reality that the person finds himself in.

In Jeremiah 6 .14, the Lord says of these false shepherds, They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying,

Peace, peace, when there is no peace. In Ezekiel 13 .10,

the Lord said, They have misled my people, saying, Peace, when there is no peace.

But true shepherds don't do that. True shepherds tell the whole truth.

True shepherds tell the good news and the bad news. The one who tells you the truth is beneficial to you.

While the sheep are harassed and helpless from the leadership of the false shepherd. And many times those being led are deceived and they don't know that they are being hurt by a false shepherd.

So what I want to say about that is let's pray for that man. That Christ would lead him from the false shepherds to the true shepherd.

And to a good church where he would hear the truth. And as I mentioned, the Jews that Jesus had compassion on experienced this.

They had false shepherds. And Jesus is the true shepherd. The people were confused.

They were hurt. They were harassed. They were helpless because the shepherds of Israel were in leadership for their own gain.

You don't become a pastor because it's a good job. Because you have your own schedule.

It's flexible. And you get to be around nice church people who don't give you many problems.

That's not why you become a pastor. We've seen in Matthew, Jesus was so hard on Jewish leaders.

They are false shepherds. And it's the one group of people that deserve to be treated with harshness. Jesus was usually kind to people.

But when he was with them, he was so forward. We talked about the sandwich approach.

You give a compliment. You give criticism. Then you give a compliment when you give constructive criticism.

When Jesus was talking to these people, he just went straight to the criticism. Because sometimes you have to do that when you're dealing with very evil people like he was here.

In Matthew 23 -24, Jesus said of these false Jewish shepherds, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

You shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Think of how harsh that is. He's saying you're going to hell and you're leading people to hell. That's what false shepherds do.

In Matthew 23, he also called them blind guides. And in Matthew 15 -14, he said, If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.

But this passage, Jesus has a warm heart toward the sheep, toward those who are being led astray.

And this is why he says at the end of verse 36 that they are like sheep without a shepherd. The people who claim to be their shepherds are false shepherds.

And the people had very few true shepherds leading them. But now the best shepherd is in their midst.

The good shepherd. In John 10 -11, Jesus said this of himself, I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That's the opposite of what the false shepherds do.

The good shepherd takes a bullet for the people. The false shepherd is only in it for himself.

And this is the kind of heart that Jesus has for people. When Jesus came to this earth 2 ,000 years ago, he had enormous compassion for this lost world.

He knew that he was the only hope. And he unapologetically told people that.

He knew that without him, everyone would be cast into hell forever to pay the punishment for their sins.

But Jesus took the sins of the world upon himself and paid that penalty. That was the ultimate way that Jesus showed his compassion.

But we've already seen so many other ways that he showed compassion toward people in Matthew. Think of all the people that he healed who were in misery.

Jesus shows compassion in so many ways in our lives. He helps us. He takes care of us.

But the chief way that he cares for us is by saving us. By laying down his life for the sheep.

And if you know Christ here today, you are forever his. And nothing can ever change that.

John 10 .27, Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.

I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand.

You can't snatch yourself out of his hand. Satan can't snatch you out of his hand. And the world can't snatch you out of his hand.

I love what Jesus told Peter in Luke 22, verses 31 and 32. He said, Simon, Simon, behold,

Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.

But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And because the good shepherd was looking after Peter, the

Lord took care of him. His faith did not fail. Peter's a hero of the faith.

And the only reason he is, is because Jesus sustained him. The good shepherd brought him to the finish line.

And he'll do the same in your life. Jesus is the highest and best shepherd.

And once you belong to him, he never loses track of you. And always cares for you.

He has an enormous heart for his people. He knows the horrible place that sinners find themselves in.

And he is a shepherd who looks after the sheep and goes after those who will be his sheep.

So understand that Jesus has great compassion for this lost world. And the second example how is by showing sympathy toward wandering people.

And here's our third and final example how we are to understand that Jesus has great compassion for this lost world.

And that is this. Calling his disciples to pray for soul winners.

Calling his disciples to pray for soul winners. Verses 37 and 38. Jesus knew that the proclaimers of the

Gospel were few in number. And he opened up his heart about the reality that he and those with him are few in number.

Let's read what he says in verse 37. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

So what Jesus does here is he switches the metaphor. He goes from shepherd and sheep to laborers in a field.

To farmers. Now if I were preaching in the city, I might have to explain what a harvest is.

But I don't have to do that here. You have to explain to me. I'm the city guy. You know farming very well.

And the first question we need to ask is what does he mean by harvest? Now we know that the harvest comes around in the fall here.

But what does Jesus mean by the harvest in this illustration? And what does he mean by workers? So let's answer the workers one briefly.

In Matthew 10 .10, the same Greek word for worker is used and in that passage, it's referring to the disciples.

So worker here, it doesn't just mean the 12 disciples, it means every disciple. So if you belong to Christ here today, you are a worker that he is talking to.

Now, what harvest is coming that he is sending his workers out to prepare for? Since Jesus is talking about the

Gospel in this text, we know that the harvest is talking about salvation. The workers are being sent out to save people through the message of the

Gospel. But there are two harvests in mind. And both harvests arrive at the final judgment.

Later on in Matthew 13 .36 -43, Jesus was giving one of his many parables.

This parable was known as the parable of the weeds. And he gives us insight into what the harvest is referring to.

In the parable, Jesus sows the seeds and the field is the world. And in this field, there's good seed and then there's bad seed.

The good seed is everyone who is saved by Christ. And the bad seed are the ones who have rejected

Christ. The harvest is the end of the age.

And at the end of the age, Jesus will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom, the unbelievers.

And they will be thrown into the fiery furnace and the righteous will live in the

Canaan with their father. That's what that parable describes in Matthew 13. So we see from this parable that the harvest is the final judgment.

Where there will be a harvest of blessing for those who are saved and a harvest of judgment for those who are not saved.

As Jesus says this to his disciples, he knows that the need is urgent. And he knows the amount of workers does not match the need that is out there to get the gospel out to a lost world.

Maybe you've experienced this in employment. Sometimes you don't have enough employees. There's a lot of work to do. And you feel overwhelmed because you don't have enough and there's a great need.

And this is what Jesus is saying. There's a great need. There's lots of lost people out there. If you think about the world we live in, and we go to Southeast Asia, it's hard to find

Christians in Southeast Asia. Even in America today, it's hard to find true

Christians. The harvest is plentiful and there aren't a lot of workers. Most people have no idea the danger that they are in.

When our former interim pastor, Larry Forsberg, was here, before he left, he gave us the book

One Heartbeat Away. And the title of that book is so appropriate. We are one heartbeat away from eternity.

People are one heartbeat away from either going to heaven forever or going to hell forever. But Jesus is saying the ones who are bringing this message, this good news to the world, are few.

There are over 8 billion people in the world and all of them are heading toward the harvest at the final judgment.

But for how many of them will it be salvation and not judgment? In Matthew 7, 13, and 14,

Jesus talked about two roads. He said one road is wide while the other is narrow.

And so it's the people on this narrow road who are supposed to preach the gospel to those who are on the wide road.

Now with the knowledge that the harvest is plentiful and that there are few workers, Jesus said something very important to his disciples and something that we all need to pay very close attention to in verse 38.

He says this, Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

So Jesus tells us, pray for more workers. As I think about our church, we support six missionaries and we need to pray for these missionaries.

Our missionaries are in Mexico, Ireland, Croatia, Ukraine, Senegal, even though they're on home assignment right now, and Albania.

We have helped send these workers out so that more would be prepared to have the right harvest experience when it comes at the final judgment.

But as you think locally, we are those workers right here in the St. Croix Falls Valley. The Lord has called us in this area to prepare people for the final harvest.

We are the workers. And we are to pray for more workers to go out.

We are to share the Gospel with people. And you hear that frequently from this pulpit.

But Jesus says something here that has not been mentioned enough. And that is, we need to pray for him to send people to others to share the

Gospel. He tells us to pray earnestly for laborers to be sent out into the harvest.

So as we think about lost souls, we should not only pray for unbelievers to be saved, but we must also pray for people to be sent to share the

Gospel with others. And think about the unbelievers in our community. We need to pray for believers to come across their path and bring the

Gospel to them. And you know what's remarkable? If you share the

Gospel with someone, you can be sure that someone prayed for you to do that.

You are an answer to prayer when you share the Gospel to someone. And what the Bible says in Romans 10, is how are people to hear unless someone is sent?

And then it says, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. I'm interested in sinking ships, whether it's

Great Lakes, or even the ocean. And of course, the most famous sinking ship is the Titanic. It sank in 1912.

And there's one really inspiring story. There was a man, as he was dying, was sharing the

Gospel. He was going around to people saying, are you saved? As the boat is going down.

And this man died. He went down with the ship. But, one of the guys heard his message.

And maybe more, but there was one eyewitness testimony. And he said, I was his last convert.

That guy became a Christian. Because of this man's courage at the end of his life to share the good news.

And you have to think, that the Lord, through all the events, had designed it that someone would pray for a messenger to come to share the

Gospel to this man. And this man who went down with the ship was that answer to prayer.

And anytime someone shares the Gospel with someone, you are an answer to prayer.

So we are to pray for laborers to be willing to be that laborer for a lost person.

So that when the harvest comes at the end of the age, people would not be the weeds that are pulled out and thrown into the fire, but the wheat that is gathered into the barn.

Because everyone on earth is either a weed or wheat. If you're a weed, you're an unbeliever. If you're a wheat, you're a believer.

And the angels are going to come and they're going to gather the believers and they're going to gather the unbelievers and throw them into the fire.

That's the picture of the end of the age. Understand that Jesus has great compassion for this lost world.

And we've seen three examples of this compassion in our text. The first is by proclaiming Himself as the good news.

The second is by showing sympathy toward wandering people who are being led poorly.

And the third is by calling His disciples to pray for soul winners. Workers into the field to prepare people for the harvest.

One of the most remarkable realities of this world is that the God -man Jesus loves to show compassion toward sinners.

He is a friend of sinners. He forgives sinners who come to Him in repentance and faith.

Sometimes we sing that song, Jesus friend of sinners. And He is indeed a friend. He loves to have compassion and to act by delivering people from their bondage to sin.

And this is what He does. And this is what He has done for many of you. And may we praise

Christ that He has done this. And may we be willing to be used by Him to reach others.

So that at the final harvest, they would experience blessing and not judgment.

Now next Sunday, we are going to see Jesus call the full number of the twelve disciples.

We've seen Him call some of the disciples to this point. Now we're going to see Him call the full number of the twelve. And these men who are forerunners in this, they're going to be sent out into the world on the greatest mission this world has ever known.

The mission that you and I share in. Let's pray at this time. Father in Heaven, thank

You for this mission. We are sent out into the field.

And as we think about our shepherd, He's the one who sends us. And He's the one who takes care of us.

What a wonderful God You are. What a wonderful plan You have.

And my prayer, Lord, is that we would faithfully live this out. This sermon, in some way, Lord, is going to speak to people in different ways.

And I pray that the Holy Spirit would bring that application on to each individual life.

To those who are listening. And do abundantly more than we ask or imagine.

the word that has gone forth. In Jesus' name. Amen.