Mat 9:35-38, Come and Meet My Shepherd.

Class Outline:

Thursday January 2, 2025

 

Main Idea: People are weary and cast down when they don’t have a Shepherd.

 

Now, Jesus is going to send 12 chosen disciples on a mission, itinerant preaching tour, to do the same. Jesus has taught and healed and they are now going to be sent out to do this (Mat 4-9).

 

Your mission is right in your backyard. 

 

Jesus has His saints live and do what He lived and did.

 

As we would expect, there is an attitude in the soul of the missionary that makes him or her effective. Matthew shows us the heart of Jesus in the end of chapter 9 which prepares us for the sending out of the disciples in chapter 10. 

 

MAT 9:35-38

Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. 

 

36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  38 "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

 

What we see in verse 35 is what in literature is called an inclusio. 

 

MAT 4:23

Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. 

 

The inclusio contains the SOM and the ten miracles showing Jesus as the King who authoritatively teaches His disciples the ways of the Kingdom and Jesus as the Almighty who has infinite power and gives healing graciously and sets us free when we believe. 

 

Mission needs motivation (proper), fearlessness and boldness, and support. 

 

Life and mission: the Christian existence. Living by faith in your Shepherd and inviting others to meet and believe in Him. Life and mission - they grow or die together. 

 

Splagnizomai - have pity, feel empathy. It is an emotional word. It is a feeling. It is not something one can work up in themselves if it is not there. One has to have the heart of Christ who feels for others. Their hopelessness grabs Him deeply. 

 

The first need for mission is the love of God for others. 

 

Zacharias’ prophecy psalm about Messiah said He would be like this (uses the same word as the noun “tender”):

 

LUK 1:77-78

To give to His people the knowledge of salvation

By the forgiveness of their sins,

78 Because of the tender [splagnon] mercy of our God,

With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us,

 

We never read that Jesus is disgusted with sinners. Mission begins with compassionate help. Sin is the problem with people, but when sin is stressed above compassion, the gospel is smothered rather than stoked. 

 

MAT 9:36-38 

Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  38 "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

 

The people are (skullo) weary, harassed, or dejected; and (ripto) cast down. They are out of gas and barely making it. 

 

Jesus does not indicate that relief from their poverty or a more fair government is the answer. The reason they are weary and cast down is that they lack a shepherd. 

 

Great discrepancy in numbers: polus - extensive, comparatively large. 

The number of lost sheep are immense. The number of those who have the Shepherd is very small by comparison. 

 

MAT 9:37-38 

Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  38 "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

 

His solution to motivation was compassion. His solution to labor needs is prayer.

 

Jesus prayed all night before He chose the twelve (including Judas Iscariot). 

 

LUK 6:12-13

It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles:

 

ACT 1:14

These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. 

 

ACT 4:23-31

When they [Peter and John] had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, "O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM, 25 who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said,

 

'WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE,

AND THE PEOPLES DEVISE FUTILE THINGS? 

26 'THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND,

AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER

AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.' 

 

27 "For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur. 29 "And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, 30 while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus." 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. 

 

ACT 13:1-3

Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. 

 

We cannot make workers. Technically, we cannot make ourselves into workers. We pray for workers to be added to our ranks, and we will do so if our hearts are like Christ’s.

 

The prayer is that He will “send out” (ekballo) workers. The verb means to cast out (as in demons).

 

Application:

 

The power of mission: 

Compassion of Christ.

Prayer.

Spiritual gift. 

Fellowship of the saints.

 

Pray for workers. 

 

What is your heart towards all the people you see? 

 

A church without mission will grow stale. 

 

A church without prayer for workers will be stagnant and lose its life. 

 

It may remain open, but it is not alive. 

 

Show the world around you that you have the Shepherd (“I shall not want, I lie down in green pastures, I am led to peaceful waters.”)

 

1PE 2:25

For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

 

Then lead them to the Shepherd. 

 

Smile at people, reach out to them, seek what they are interested in, seek out their concerns and don’t tell them any of yours. Remind yourself every day in morning prayer - do this for two months and see if there is any difference in your life.

 

Find your Christian compassion. 

Pray for workers.