Christ’s Great Compassion

Christ’s Great Compassion

" And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them,
and He healed their sick
." - Matthew 14:14

After the disciples of John had come to Jesus and told Him that their master had been beheaded,
Jesus went out into a desert place, and the multitudes followed Him.
When Jesus saw the multitude He had compassion on them, and healed their sick.

If Jesus were here now in person, standing in my place, His heart would be moved as
He looked into your hearts because He would see the burdens and troubles and sorrows
that you are having.
They are hidden from my eyes, but Jesus knows all about your troubles.

When the multitude gathered around Him, He knew how many broken and aching hearts there were.

  • He is here now, although we cannot see Him with our human eyes.
  • He is the same Jesus who was here on earth. He knows what you are having to endure.
  • He knows your secret burdens.
  • He is the same compassionate Christ. When He saw the multitude, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.
    He is ready to bring healing to those who are sick of soul.
    There is no burden so heavy that He cannot lift.
    There is no heartache that He cannot heal.
    He will have compassion on you in your need if you will allow Him.

    I want to you to picture in your mind that great multitude on which Jesus had compassion.
    I want to tell you about some who came to Jesus and found help and healing.

    A Leper

    Watch with me as a man approaches Jesus.
    This man is covered with leprosy.
    He was banished from his home.
    He was banished from his family and friends.
    Now he comes to Jesus with his horrible condition.

    Think of how much he had suffered.
    He had to put on certain clothes so that anyone coming near him would know that he was unclean.
    When he saw anyone approaching him, he had to cry out, " Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!"
    If his own wife were to come to him to tell him that a beloved child was dying,
    he could not come near her.
    He had to run from her.
    He might hear her voice from a distance, but he could not come near his wife or a dying child.

    He was, as it were, in a living grave.
    It was worse than death.
    He was dying by inches.
    He was an outcast and there was no one to help him.
    What a horrible existence.

    Then Christ comes by and the Bible says that when Christ saw him, He was moved with compassion.
    His heart went out to this miserable, lonely leper.

    The leper cried out, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean!"
    He believed that Jesus could heal him.
    Jesus said, "I will; be thou clean!"
    The leprosy left the man immediately, and he was healed and whole again.
    What a scene!

    Look at that man on his way home to his wife and children and friends.

  • No longer an outcast.
  • No longer a loathsome thing.
  • No longer cursed with that terrible leprous disease.
  • He is going home.
  • He is rejoicing!
  • He is tremendously happy! There are many who would say that they pity someone so afflicted.
    But have you thought of the fact that if you are without Jesus, you are a thousand times worse.
    The leprosy of the soul is far worse than the leprosy of the body.
    I would rather a thousand times have my body full of leprosy and go to heaven than have my soul
    full of the leprosy of sin and go to hell forever.
    It would be better to have my hand chopped off and my legs cut off and my eyes plucked out
    and go without arms, legs, and eyes all my life than to be banished from the presence of God forever in hell.

    If you listen, you can hear the agony and wailing that is going up from this earth every day because of sin.
    If your soul filled with the leprosy of sin, come to Jesus.
    He will have compassion on you and He will say to you as He said to that leper,
    "I will; be thou clean."

    Now come with me to a little home at Nain. When we arrive at that little home at Nain we find a poor widow.
    Sometime before this she had buried her husband, and she had an only son left.

  • She loves him.
  • She dotes upon him.
  • She is expecting him to care for her and support her in her old age.
  • She loves him more than anything on earth. Then one day this beloved son becomes ill and death takes him from her arms.
    His eyes are closed.
    His voice is heard no more.
    She will have to bury him and then she will be without him for the rest of her life.
    All of her hopes and dreams are shattered.

    The time comes to take his body to be buried.
    Many of you have gone to a grave and have seen parents say goodbye to a child for the last time.
    It breaks your heart.
    This mother kisses the forehead of her son.
    It is her last kiss, her last look, her last moment to hold him, and then he was covered up
    and put on a funeral bier to be carried out to the cemetery.
    She had many friends who would accompany her that day.
    The little town of Nain was moved at the sight of the widow’s only son being carried away to be buried.

    See that great crowd as they come walking out of the city’s gates.
    Over to the side are thirteen men, weary, dusty, and tired.
    They have to stand by the wayside to let this great crowd pass.
    The Son of God is in this group, and the others with him are His disciples.

    He looks upon that scene.
    He sees that mother’s broken heart.
    His heart is touched.
    The great heart of the Son of God is moved with compassion.
    He came up to the procession and touched the bier, and said, "Young man, arise!"
    And the young man sat up!

    The multitude is startled and astonished.
    The widowed mother is thrilled beyond words.
    She goes back to her little home at Nain rejoicing with the morning rays of the resurrection
    shining in her heart.
    Her son was restored to her.
    All her hopes were alive, and she was holding her beloved son in her arms once again.
    Jesus had compassion on her.

    There are those who have had the experience of death coming into their homes and taking those
    who were dearly loved away from them.
    There are those who have never recovered from the loss of one who was so precious to you.
    There are those whose hearts are still broken and aching.

    I would say to each one of you that Jesus is the friend you need.

  • He will have compassion on you.
  • He will heal your broken spirits.
  • He will receive you.
  • He will draw you unto Himself and will whisper, "Peace be still!" Then you can walk in the sunlight of His love.
    Christ will be worth more to you than all the world.
    He is just the friend you need!
    My prayer is that you will be sure of your relationship with Jesus before you leave this place today.

    The Man Who Was Robbed

    I want you to look with me at a man going down to Jericho and who fell among thieves.

  • They took his coat.
  • They took his money.
  • They stripped him.
  • They beat him and left him half dead. Look at him!
    He is wounded.
    He is bleeding!
    He is dying!

    We are really concerned for this man.

    We wish that we could be there.
    We would help him.

    Look, here comes a priest down the road.
    He will help this poor man.
    He might have looked at him and said to himself, "Poor man!"
    But he passed by on the other side, and left him there to die.

    What will happen to that poor man if someone doesn’t come by soon and help him.
    Again, our spirits are lifted.
    Here comes a Levite.
    Surely, he will stop and give this man some needed care.
    But he must not have wanted to get involved, because he passed by on the other side.
    There are many today like that priest and Levite who will see a soul in desperate need
    and do not wish to get involved and simply pass by on the other side.

    At last a Samaritan came down that way.
    He looked on the man and had compassion on him.
    He got off his beast, took oil and poured it into the man’s wounds, bound them up, took him out of the ditch,
    placed him on his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
    That good Samaritan represents our Christ.
    He came into the world to seek and save that which was lost.

    There are those who have fallen in with the bad companions.
    They have taken you to places of sin.
    They have left you bleeding and wounded.
    Come now to the Son of God.
    He will have compassion on you.
    He will lift you out of the pit of despair into His glorious kingdom into the heights of glory.

    An Ungrateful Son

    Look with me again.
    It is in Luke chapter 15.
    It is the story of a son who was terribly ungrateful.
    He could not wait for his inheritance which he would receive after his father’s death.
    He wants his share at once.
    So, he said to his father, " Give me the goods that belong to me." His father gives him his goods and away he goes.

  • He is full of pride.
  • He is full of himself.
  • He is going to really live.
  • He is going to some foreign country where no one knows him, and let his money speak for him.
  • He will be somebody.
  • He will make it big.
  • He has a great time.
  • He does as he pleases. No one tells him what to do.
  • He is living it up.
  • He is popular. He pays for everything. He has plenty of friends.
  • He never dreamed that life could be that exciting. What a fool!

    His money runs out.
    His friends run out.
    They laugh at him.
    The devil is a hard master.
    What a blind, misguided young man he was!

    Look at what he lost!

  • He lost his father’s home.
  • He lost his father’s food.
  • He lost every comfort he had ever known.
  • He lost his testimony.
  • He lost his influence. No one has time for a loser. Look at him!
    The only work he could find is to feed the hogs.
    Can you see people in that far country coming by and seeing him in that hog pen, yelling,
    " Look at that miserable, wretched, filthy, dirty, bare footed fellow taking care of those hogs.
    He stinks
    !"

    The prodigal screams back, "Don’t talk to me like that. My father is a rich man,
    and has servants are better dressed than you are
    ."
    His taunters respond, "Don’t tell us that. If you had a father like that he wouldn’t claim you!"

    No one would believe him.
    No one believes a backslider.
    No one listens to a loser.

    At last the poor prodigal comes to himself, and says, "I will arise and go to my father..."
    So he starts for home.
    Look at him.

  • He looks different than when he started.
  • He is pale and hungry.
  • He is weary.
  • His head is down.
  • His ego and pride are shattered.
  • He is exhausted.
  • He wonders if his father will take him back. That father has spent many a night on the house top looking out into the night to see
    if he could get a glimpse of his son returning. He has prayed every night and day for his son’s return.
    He kept believing that one day God would send his boy back.

    One day the father sees someone way off in the distance.
    It might be his son, but he has thought that so many times only to be disappointed.
    The person gets closer.
    He walks like my boy.
    Then he exclaims, " Oh Yes! That’s my son!"
    He rushes down the stairs.
    He rushes along the road.
    He is running!

    The boy is anxious to tell him his story.
    He wants to tell his father what a horrible mistake he has made.
    He wants to tell his father how he has sinned against him.

    The father just reaches out and embraces him and cries, " My son is home!"
    His son said that he wanted to go to the kitchen and live with the servants because he didn’t
    deserve to be in his father’s house.
    His father would hear none of that.
    He told the servants to put shoes on his feet, and a ring on his finger, and kill the fatted calf, and make merry.
    "My son has come home! Let’s all rejoice!"

    I say to all who have wandered away from God.
    Come home!
    Life for you has been miserable.
    Come to Jesus and find the peace and joy that you have longed for.
    You will rejoice.
    We will rejoice with you.
    And all who have prayed for you will rejoice.
    All heaven will rejoice with us.

    Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem

    Look at Jesus!
    He comes to Mount Olivet.

  • The people are shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"
  • They are breaking off palm branches, and taking off their garments and spreading them before Him.
  • They continue to shout, " Hosanna to the Son of David."
  • They bow before Him. But He forgets it all.
    Gethsemane is before Him.
    He forgets it also.
    Calvary with its agony and suffering are ahead. He forgets it too.
    He looks upon the city which He loves and His great heart is moved with compassion, and He cries aloud:
    "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee,
    how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
    and ye would not
    !"

    Look at Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.
    What a great city.
    How exalted to heaven it was!
    If they had only known who was visiting them and had received Him instead of rejecting Him.
    How He would have blessed them!

    If we could look into the heart of God we would see Him weeping over our city.

  • There are those who have rejected Him.
  • There are those who have denied Him...those are those who have neglected Him.
  • There are those who have ignored Him. He weeps over each one.

    Let me ask have you turned away from Jesus?
    Have you refuse Him entrance into your heart and life?
    Why don't you not love Jesus?
    How could you not love one who has loved you so much and who died for your sins?

    D. L. Moody told a story of a school teacher urging all of her little students to follow Jesus
    and go tell others of His great love.
    One day a little girl in her class came to her and said, " I asked my friend to come to church with me,
    and she said she would like to come, but her father was an infidel
    ."
    The young girl wanted to know what as infidel was, and the teacher went on to explain it to her.

    One day, when she was on her way to school, this infidel father was coming out of the post office
    with his letters in his hand, when the child ran up to him, and said, "Mister, why don’t you love Jesus?"

    He thought at first to push her aside, but the child asked him again, "Why don’t you love Jesus?"
    If it had been a man, the infidel would have resented it.
    But he didn’t know what to do with the child.
    With tears in her eyes she asked Him again, " Oh! Please, tell me, why don’t you love Jesus?"

    He went to his office, but he felt as if every letter he opened read: " Why don’t you love Jesus?"
    He attempted to write with the same result; every letter seemed to ask him, "Why don’t you love Jesus?"
    He threw down his pen in despair, and went out of his office, but he could not get rid of that question.
    He could still hear that still, small voice within.
    As he walked along it seemed as if the ground and the heavens above were whispering to him:
    "Why don’t you love Jesus?"

    At last he went home, and there it seemed as if his own children were asking him that same question.
    He told his wife that he didn’t feel well and he was going to bed early.
    He thought he would sleep it away.
    But as he laid his head on the pillow it seemed as if the pillow were whispering it to him.
    So, about midnight he got up.
    He searched for his wife’s Bible and thought he would just read it and prove Jesus to be a liar.

    He opened the Bible and began to read.
    Then he came to these words: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
    that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life
    ."

    "What love," he thought.
    His heart was stirred by such love.
    He went down on his knees and prayed for Jesus to forgive him for his sins and come into his heart.
    Jesus saved that man right then!

    I would ask any of you who have never received Jesus as your personal Saviour:
    Why not? Why don’t you love Jesus?

    He is altogether lovely!
    He is the fairest of ten thousand!
    He is a friend who is always there for us.

    Have you ever felt the touch of Jesus?
    If so, you will know it again, for He has loved you so very much.
    Jesus reaches out to you and will forgive your sins and will give you the most wonderful life,
    and a life that will continue throughout all eternity.

    Come To Jesus Now!
    Receive Him As Your Saviour And Lord!

    This was the first sermon preached by Dr. Harold L. White.
    He was called to preach the first of June in 1950, and this sermon was preached
    in Marbledale Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 18, 1950.
    This sermon was based on a message by D. L. Moody.

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