Well, let's call upon the Lord. Oh, our Lord Jesus, you are glorious beyond what our words can express and even what our minds can grasp. And I am unworthy to represent your glory And yet, Lord, you've called us to declare your word, and so we pray that your spirit would go beyond my feeble words and take the truth about yourself into the hearts of your people here, that we would know you better, that we would love you more, worship you, and also desire to be more like you. Father, show us your son this morning, we pray in his name, amen. Well, I've been speaking to you about the emotional life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why am I doing that? Because emotions are part of our makeup as those made in the image of God. On the one hand, we are thinking, reasoning, judging individuals. We are rational beings. We have a mind. We are also deciding, choosing, planning beings. We are volitional beings. We have a will. But those thoughts and those decisions come accompanied with feelings. They have a temperature because we are also emotional beings. Now, the fall of man into sin has messed up our emotions. And I had noted three ways. On the one hand, our emotions can be constricted. They can be restrained and kind of bottled up and stuffed down, and we don't express our emotions as we ought because of sin. Sin has also corrupted our emotions. Our emotions are often misguided and misdirected. Sometimes they are evil emotions. We love what we ought to hate, and we hate what we ought to love. Our emotions are corrupted. And sometimes our emotions become controlling. They become the horse that pulls the buggy, rather than the buggy being pulled by the horse, so to speak, of our reason. But God has sent His Son, Jesus, to restore what was wrong. He is the second Adam from above who has come to fix what the first Adam broke. He has come to restore us to what we ought to be. Jesus has come not only to eternally forgive us of our sins, but to change us. As was noted, we're doing this study, Behold Your God, on Thursday nights. And by the way, you ladies are welcome to come. You can ask about it. And the study upcoming is on the immutability, the unchangeability of God. And the author notes, it's a good thing that we are not immutable. Because we need to change. We need to change for the better. God can't change. God doesn't need to change because perfection can't get better. But we need to change. And God by His Spirit is at work in us to change us in salvation. To make us more holy. To make us more like Jesus Christ. And that includes in our emotional life. If we ask, What is emotional health? What is a healthy emotional life? We look to our Lord Jesus. He becomes the pattern for our emotional lives. Why is He a fit pattern? Well, first of all, as we noted, although He is fully God, He is also fully human. Jesus was fully a man and so he's worthy to be our role model as a man. Further, Jesus was perfect and sinless even in his emotional life. Remember how we saw that Jesus had perfect balance, perfect equilibrium in his emotional life. He could not be labeled as the psychologist would label some of us as melancholic in our temperament or choleric or or he's a type A or she's a type B personality. Why do we get those labels? Because we're so imbalanced. We're strong in one area but weak in another. Not so Jesus. His emotional life had perfect balance, perfect symmetry, perfect equilibrium. And we saw the key to becoming like Jesus is going to be fellowship with God and Jesus in His Word and in prayer. Since I only get to be with you once a month, what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring to you three more messages, including today, on the emotions of Jesus. And I want to focus on three of the most important emotions of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to relate them to the big picture of the Bible. You see, it's important to understand every part of the Bible in light of the big picture, in light of the overall plan of God. And that big scheme, that big picture might be looked at this way, creation, fall, redemption, new creation or consummation. That's the big storyline of the Bible, and we need to understand that big picture. God created us in His image. Man fell into sin, turned our back on God. God has a rescue mission, which culminates in the sending of Jesus, who brings us salvation initially now, but then we'll complete that when our very bodies are raised from the dead. So that's the big plan. Creation, fall, redemption, and then new creation or the consummation or completion of our salvation. And I want to relate the emotions, these last three emotions of Jesus to that big picture. How am I going to do that? Well, in this way. Today, we're going to consider the compassion and sorrow of Jesus, and I want to make this statement. Jesus' sorrow and compassion springs from his observation of the effects of man's fall. Jesus comes, and what moves him with sadness and compassion is seeing what is in light of what once was. The next sermon is going to be on the anger of Jesus. And I will make this connection. The anger of Jesus springs from His recognition of the source of man's fall, Satan and sin. Why it is the way it is. And then the last message, which would be slated for September, will be on the joy of Jesus. And I will make this connection. The joy of Jesus springs from his contemplation and anticipation of the solution to man's fall, the salvation he came to bring. So that's a lot to grasp, but we need to look at that, the emotions of Jesus in light of this big picture. So, let's begin by considering today the sorrow and compassion of Jesus. And I'm bringing these two together because they're very much connected. The things that made Jesus sorrowful are also the things that moved Him to compassion, with compassion. Now we know what sorrow is. Sorrow is grief or sadness. uses the word compassion, as we'll see it several times. Moved with compassion. Do you know what it actually literally is saying? Moved in the bowels. Because the Greeks understood that these strong emotions like pity and love and anger were rooted in the gut. In a sense, we understand that. That's the way we speak sometimes, don't we? We say, something turns my stomach. It's disgusting to me. Or we talk about something being gut-wrenching. Or we talk about butterflies in our stomach. The deep feelings we're feeling in our gut, in our digestive tract, as it were. And that's what it means to be moved with compassion, to be moved in the intestines. So, the first thing I want us to see is the emotions of sorrow and compassion in Jesus. And I want us to first note the variety of things that drew forth the sorrow and compassion of Jesus. I'll be just quoting some verses, and I'll be turning you in your Bibles to some passages. We've got a lot to cover, because I want you to get the full picture, and I'm not going to turn you to every passage. First of all, note Jesus' sorrowful compassion for physical misery, hunger, sickness, and disease. In Matthew 15, 32, I'll just read it. And Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry for they might faint on the way. Jesus is compassionate because he's concerned that they might be hungry. In Matthew 14, 14, when He went ashore and saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them and healed their sick, Jesus looked at sick people and He felt compassion. Turn to Matthew 20. To me, one of the most moving passages in the Gospels, Matthew chapter 20, And follow with me as I start at verse 29. Matthew 20. As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David. The crowd sternly told them to be quiet. But they cried out all the more, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. And Jesus stopped and called them and said, what do you want Me to do for you? They said to Him, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened. Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him. Now I could take the time to preach on this text alone, but consider Jesus Christ is on His way to Jerusalem to accomplish the the most important event ever to happen on planet Earth, to die in the place of sinners and to purchase eternal life. It is a big deal. He's got this entourage following him. This is the pinnacle of human history, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, dying for the sins of the world. And two blind beggars, nobodies, marginalized, lying in the gutter, not even able to see him, but hearing the crowd coming, cry out for mercy. And the Son of God stops dead in His tracks and gives attention to the chagrin of His followers. And mind you, He's got a lot on His mind. He's going to die. He's going to suffer agony on the cross and in the garden. And He stops dead in His tracks to deal with two blind, marginalized nobodies in that society. Behold the compassion of your Lord. In Mark 1, 40 and 41, and a leper came to Jesus, beseeching him and falling on his knees before him and saying, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Moved with compassion, moved in his bowels, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I am willing. Be cleansed. I am willing. You don't have to twist my arm. You don't have to cajole me. I am willing. I want to do this. We read the Luke version of the, oh no, here's before that. A centurion's paralyzed servant. Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented. Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. Jesus took the initiative. He didn't even ask. As soon as he heard it, he says, I know what I'll do, I'll come and heal him. The woman with the hemorrhage that we read about. If only I touch His garment, I will get well. Daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well. In Matthew 15.30, and large crowds came to Him, bringing with them lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others. And they laid them down at His feet, and He healed them. And listen to Mark 7.32 and following. And they brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty. And looking up to heaven with a deep Sigh, he said to him, effatha, that is, be opened. And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed. Friends, his sigh was a sigh here of compassion. You see that Jesus felt compassion for those who were hungry, those who were sick, those who were diseased, those who couldn't see, couldn't walk, couldn't talk, couldn't hear. But notice Jesus' sorrowful compassion for mental and emotional misery. Turn to Luke chapter seven. Luke seven. Beginning at verse 11, another familiar scene in the ministry of our Lord. Soon afterwards, He went to a city called Nain, and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd. Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of His mother. And she was a widow, and a sizable crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, do not weep. And he came up and touched the coffin. And the bearers came to a halt. And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. Here was a widow. She had lost her husband. They weren't working women in that day. Here was her son, presumably the only means of her earthly support. And now he had died. She was bereft. By the way, in Greek, the word widow means bereft. She had no one to support her. Jesus sees that. He sees the emotional and mental anguish that she was going through, not only for having lost her beloved son, but lost every earthly means of support remaining, and moved with compassion toward this woman. In John chapter 11, the familiar story, Jesus comes to Bethany. Turn there to John 11. After Lazarus, his friend has died. We're told in chapter 11, verse three, he whom you love is sick. And then in verse five, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. We see that Jesus' compassion was born of his love. But I want to pick up at verse 30 in John 11 to see the sorrowful compassion of Jesus for mental, emotional misery. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him and fell at His feet, and saying to Him, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, Where have you laid Him? They said to Him, Lord, come and see. And then the shortest verse in the English Bible, at least, Jesus wept. You know, He had interacted with Martha. He loved Martha. Busy, busy, busy Martha. But Mary, you remember from Luke 10, was the one who had sat at His feet to listen to Him and attend upon His Word. And when He interacted with Mary, and He saw Mary weeping, that broke Him. And He wept. Jesus' compassion. for mental, emotional misery. But then consider Jesus' sorrowful compassion for spiritual misery. I'm going to quote Matthew 9.36, seeing the people, He felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Here were the masses. Their pastors were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were cruel, legalistic, hard-hearted, money-loving, self-righteous men. They were not true shepherds. They didn't care for the sheep. And Jesus looked at this crowd, and He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Now, in the natural world, what is a sheep without a shepherd? A sheep without a shepherd is susceptible to wolves and to falling off cliffs and to the elements. Unprotected. They can't protect themselves. Sheep need a shepherd. In the spiritual realm, we're talking about people who are unfed with the Word of God. Uncared for. Unprotected from spiritual wolves. And Jesus looked at this shepherdless crowd and He was moved with compassion. Jesus' sorrowful compassion for spiritual misery here, presumably of His people. But I want you to see Jesus' sorrowful compassion for those who are spiritually lost. Turn to Matthew 9. Matthew 9, I'll pick up at verse 10. Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why is your teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners? But when Jesus heard this, he said, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners. In this context, toward whom is the compassion of Jesus directed? Tax collectors, sinners, the trash of society as the self-righteous Pharisees would see them. His compassion was for these sinners because they saw that they were sinners. They saw they needed a Savior. The self-righteous Pharisees did not. It's interesting in Matthew and Mark 10 and parallels, where Jesus interacts with the rich ruler. Remember the rich young ruler? What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus mentions a few commandments. I've done all these things. Then he says, go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, come follow me and you will have treasure in heaven. Do you remember the man's response? He wasn't willing. He loved his money too much. He appeared to want eternal life, but he didn't want it that much. Not enough to let go of his money. But the interesting thing is Jesus lets him go. There's no plan B. He doesn't come and say, well, look, you can take me as Savior now, and we'll negotiate lordship later. No, you either come with your whole person to all of me, or you can't come at all. And so he let him go away. But here's what it says in Mark 10, 21. Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him. The man was unwilling to pay the price to have eternal life. He was going off to be destined to hell. And Jesus didn't lower the terms, but it says Jesus felt a love for Him. Now that's not the divine, electing love of God. That's the human, compassionate love of Jesus for a sinner who wasn't willing to pay the price to have eternal life. His compassion for lost sinners. And how can we forget when Jesus at the end of His ministry comes to Jerusalem You want to know the heart of your Savior toward lost people. Luke 19.41, when He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes. In another place He says, How often I would have gathered you, as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. Jesus wept over a hard-hearted city who had largely rejected Him and His Messiahship. And so, do you see? the compassion of Jesus, the sorrowful compassion or the compassionate sorrow of Jesus. When He looked at physical misery, people who were sick or diseased or blind or crippled or hungry, He felt compassion. When He saw mental, emotional anguish because of people who had lost a loved one, He was moved with compassion. When He saw spiritual needs, shepherdless sheep, He was moved with compassion and toward those who refused to come to Him in their unbelief. He felt a love and a compassion for them. But, so much for the emotion of Jesus' compassion, I move now to consider the actions born from the sorrowful compassion of Jesus. We saw that Jesus is full of sorrowful compassion in His emotions. But the compassion of Jesus was not in word only. He did not merely look at suffering and say, I feel your pain. Rather, his feelings of sorrow and compassion compelled him to act to relieve the suffering. Here, Pastor Albert Martin has a wonderful quote. Listen to this. Jesus never sat in a hot tub of internal emotions, but let it become the steam to drive the wheels of appropriate action. Isn't that good? He didn't just sit in a hot tub of emotion, but he let the steam drive the wheels of action. He did something about it. He felt for them, but he acted on their behalf. Let's review some of those scenarios. When he felt compassion for the hungry crowd of people who had lingered under his teaching, he didn't say, go in peace, be warmed and filled. He said, give them something to eat. He ended up multiplying a few loaves and fish and feeding 5,000 people. He not only felt compassion for the hungry, he fed the hungry. When two blind men pleaded from the side of the road for mercy, he stopped dead in his tracks despite the large crowd following him and he touched their eyes and it says immediately they regained their sight. The leper said, if you are willing, Jesus said, I am willing, be cleansed. And that man was cured of his disease. And so with the paralyzed servant of the centurion, Jesus healed him with a word. The hemorrhaging woman healed her with a touch. With the man in the synagogue that we didn't read, who had a withered hand, Jesus said, stretch out your hand, and it was restored to normal, even though his enemies would then go out and plot to destroy him because he had violated their Sabbath tradition. So with the widow's son, he didn't merely look with pity upon this woman, now bereft, he raised the young man to life. And so, at the tomb of Lazarus, where he wept, he didn't just weep and sympathize, he went to the tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth! And by the power of his divinity, he gave life to a man who had been dead for four days. And when he looked at that crowd of shepherdless sheep, and was moved with compassion because they have no shepherd to care for them, what did he do? Well, first of all, he said, pray, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers. These people need shepherds. Pray, disciples, that God would send laborers to shepherd these people. And then he would later lay down his own life to become the good and great shepherd for them. And he said, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you, and you'll find rest to your souls. He looked at the shepherdless sheep, and he came to be the shepherd that they needed. And when it came to the lost, he was moved with compassion. He wept over the city. He was moved with compassion toward these tax collectors and sinners. And what did he do? He made himself available to them. He hung out with them. That was what he was accused of doing, right? He's a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He's hanging out with the scum of the earth. Because He made Himself available to them. With the single Samaritan woman, He climbed over cultural, religious barriers to reach this one woman with the Gospel about Himself. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Octavius Winslow, an old writer who wrote a book, The Sympathy of Christ, commenting on the sigh of Jesus, that compassionate sigh, he says this, it was a sigh of practical benevolence. I have remarked upon the hollow, vapid nature of human pity and compassion. How much of it evaporates in thin air? It is needless, it is heartless, nay, it is criminal to say, be ye warmed and be ye clothed, be ye fed, be ye healed, and yet extend not a hand and stir not a foot to help. Not so was the emotion of Christ. His was a real, tangible, practical principle. It was always connected with some sorrow comforted, some want supplied, some burden unclasped, some help needed. Some blessing bestowed. Oh, we deal with Christ with compassion and sympathy, robed with the beautiful garment of real, practical charity. In other words, Jesus just didn't feel compassion. He did something about it in each case. And so we see the compassionate emotions of Jesus accompanied by compassionate actions. But thirdly, We want to see the motivation behind the sorrowful compassion of Jesus. We've seen the emotion. Are you convinced? In fact, theologians tell us that the predominant emotion of Jesus presented in the Gospels is the compassion of Jesus. And that's why I've given you multiple instances of it, not just one example, but I wanted you to feel the weight of it. How compassion, the Lord walked through this world filled with compassion, filled with sorrow. His great heart was continually broken with the effects of sin. And we've seen he does something about it. But why? What's the motivation that drove his compassionate action? One answer might be he was representing God his father, which he was. Jesus is the exact representation of his, the Father's nature. He could say, he who has seen me has seen the Father. The things he did, he said, are the things he sees his Father doing. So in Jesus Christ, we have the perfect embodiment of God the Father. Is Jesus full of compassion? God the Father is full of compassion. And so Jesus was representing God his Father in what he did. That's one motivation. But the one I want to present to you is this. As I said at the outset, Jesus' compassion sprang from his observation of the effects of man's fall. He saw what is in light of what once was. And here let me give an extended illustration. Last year, our nation and the nearby Caribbean and Mexico were hit by some powerful hurricanes and earthquakes. Do you remember? My son is in Texas, but he was on the other side of Texas. But Hurricane Harvey hit landfall in Texas, Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean and Florida, and then Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, and they are still recovering from that, up to Category 4 And then earthquakes hit Mexico last year, Mexico City, registering 6.1, 7.1, 8.1 on a scale of 10 on the Richter scale. Imagine with me a family that, is told that your town is in the eye of the hurricane, it's going to hit, you need to get out. And so they flee their city, they flee their region, they go to stay with family or friends in another part of the state or even in another state. And after the hurricane hits, they return to their home. Imagine with me what some of them would have faced as they come to their hurricane ravaged town and neighborhood. after having taken refuge in another place. They walk among the rubble, and it is nothing like what it was. Roofs have collapsed or blown off. Walls have been knocked down. Trees have fallen on cars and crushed them. There are some remnants, some traces of what was. There's a wall standing here. Maybe there's a sofa. or a bed or a kitchen counter or here's a child stuffed animal or a broken bicycle. But structures have collapsed. Furniture is a soggy useless mess beginning to grow mold and mildew from the water. Telephone poles have been split apart, wires are all tangled, the whole landscape. The whole topography of what was their familiar comfortable home has been changed. It's nothing like what it was. Imagine the emotional trauma that these people would face coming back to what was their familiar comfortable home and everything is wrecked, everything is destroyed, everything is ruined. Well, friends, take that as a faint picture. of what it was like for Jesus Christ to come to earth. Remember, he was the co-creator of the earth with his father. John 1 says, all things came into being by him. Without him, nothing came into being that has come into being. Jesus created the world with his father. And when he created it, what was it like? It was pristine. It was pure. It was paradise. It was a realm of righteousness. There was no sorrow. There were no tears in that garden. No grieving, no harm, no death in the beginning. That was the world He and His Father had created. But the fall of man has come like a hurricane, like an earthquake, and it changed all of that. Man himself has been marred by the fall, and as a result of man's sin, the creation is marred. And Jesus now comes to, not that paradise, not that Garden of Eden that He created with His Father, He comes to a world full of sickness and disease and blindness and deafness and paralysis, oppression by the God of this world and his demons, the forces of nature, destructive winds and storms and earthquakes ravaging the physical landscape. And then the wickedness. He comes to a world where wickedness now reigns in the hearts of men. They continually belt forth, as Jesus says in Mark 7, evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. And the Son of God comes to what was previously the pristine creation. And He sees the ravages of sin. He sees the effects of the fall. And you can imagine how his holy heart was traumatized by that. And so I say that the sorrow and compassion of Jesus sprang from his observation of what now is in light of what once was. It would have been a shock to his holy sensibilities that we could not begin to understand. What is now in light of what once was. He walked it now, he knew it, of course, as God, but now he walked among the ravages as a man himself and he felt the effects of the fallen condition of the world. But before I make application of the sorrowful compassion of Jesus, I want to call our attention to the greatest sorrow that Jesus experienced on earth, which called forth his greatest display of compassion. Turn with me to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. As we're talking about the sorrow of Jesus and the compassion of Jesus, you may be aware that Jesus is actually called a man of sorrows. I want to show you the context of that. Isaiah 53, beginning at verse 3. This Mount Everest of Messianic prophecies, Isaiah 53. He, referring to the servant of Yahweh, was despised and forsaken of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There it is, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. Why was he a man of sorrows? Listen, surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. The greatest sorrow Jesus ever experienced was the sorrow of suffering for sins. Why was He a man of sorrows? Because He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The greatest sorrow that Jesus, the Son of God, experienced on earth was the occasion of His greatest display of compassion. He became that man of sorrows. And He bore that weight of sin, so that He might show compassion on us, not only for time, but for all eternity. That we might be eternally forgiven of our sins. We who are by nature children of wrath and deserve hell, might instead inherit eternal life in heaven forever. Now let's apply the sorrowful compassion of Jesus. What do we do with this? First, we are to receive and embrace the compassion of Jesus that he extends to us. Was Jesus full of compassion and sorrow when he walked the earth? Well, guess what? He's the same now in heaven. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same compassionate Lord who walked the earth is now in heaven with the same compassionate heart. So the first application of this truth is we need to receive and embrace the compassion of Jesus that He extends to us. If you're an unbeliever, if you've never come to Jesus, what is Jesus' heart toward you? Well, what was His heart toward unbelievers then? He looked over a city that had rejected Him, and He wept with sorrow over that. He looked at a man who was rejecting Him and choosing death instead of life, and it says Jesus loved him. If you have not believed in Jesus, Jesus would weep over you. He would be sorrowful over you, and He would plead with you to not reject Him, not walk away from Him, but to come to Him. If we are a believer, what is the heart of Jesus toward us? Well, we notice the heart of Jesus towards shepherdless sheep. You're all here because you're either part of a church, or you wanna be a part of a church that we want to form. So in a sense, I'm preaching to the choir here, okay, I understand that. But what I would say to a believer is if you're not in a biblical church under biblical shepherding, Jesus has compassion for you and he wants you to get shepherded. Get yourself into a church and get under shepherds because Jesus was moved with compassion because to be unshepherded as sheep is not good. It's not right, it's not healthy. Sheep need to be shepherded, and Jesus is the great shepherd, yes, but Jesus has assigned under-shepherds, humans, fallible humans like me, to be pastors to people, and every Christian needs to be in a local church and under shepherdly care. But I say, I think I'm preaching to the choir with that one. But what is Jesus' heart toward sickness and disease and handicap? or when we suffer some grievous loss as our brethren have in New Life Church, dear Mike Bauman having lost his wife of 53 years and Kelly Rothbard having lost her dear husband and one of our sisters whose mother was killed recently. And we have some loss in the church at New Life there. And what is the heart of Jesus toward them? Well, what was the heart of Jesus toward suffering and disease and handicap and loss then? He was moved with compassion. He is the God of all comfort, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort to us, who is able to comfort us in a deep down way beyond what we can comfort each other. But then, if you're a believer suffering from strong temptation, and aren't we always? This world is no friend of grace to lead us on to God. It's glaring at us with its temptations and would allure us away from God. What about our compassionate Lord? Well, listen to Hebrews 4, 15 and 16. where we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. When you are tempted, men, with sin, women, girls, boys, when you're tempted with sin, whatever your sin is that you wrestle with, and you know what it is, we all have a particularly besetting sin, when you wrestle with that temptation, Jesus is a sympathetic high priest. He was tempted too. but not only to feel sympathy, but to give grace to help. He can deliver us from our temptation. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who with the temptation will provide a way of escape that you may be able to bear. So your compassionate Lord looks from heaven upon you. In the fire of temptation, he sympathizes, and he offers his help and deliverance. But not only are we to receive the compassion of Jesus, but we are to imitate the emotional life of Jesus. We are to be like him. And here we are to imitate his sorrowful compassion. And let me speak for a moment to the men in particular. Men, we're dealing here with the more tender emotions, aren't we? Compassion, sensitivity. The ability to weep with sorrow over the effects of the fall. Men in particular, how are you doing in regard to these emotions? Do these emotions of sorrowful compassion and weeping have a place within your profile of manhood? Or are these emotions you associate with women? That's woman stuff, soft, effeminate. Men are to be strong and tough. Real men don't cry. Well, the real man, the true man, did cry. He cried quietly at the tomb of Lazarus, and he wept audibly like a child over the city of Jerusalem, even in public. Real men, the one true man, did cry. Men, have you cultivated the capacity to feel deeply with sorrow and compassion and not be ashamed to show it? And then all of us, are we moved with compassion by the things that move Jesus with compassion? Do we look at physical suffering with sorrow and compassion? And are we moved to relieve it? And as I speak to you, I'm aware that you are. You are. because I know that some of you have a ministry to the handicapped. Even our brother Chris, who is handicapped, has a ministry to others, and I know that you have hearts that go out toward those who are physically handicapped, and you're representing the heart of the Lord Jesus in that, because Jesus felt compassion for physical suffering. Do we look at mental and emotional anguish with sorrow and compassion? Do we know what it is to weep with those who weep? Like I said, we've suffered some losses there at New Life. You know, I've learned through the years that often that's not the time to theologize. We have answers. God does work all things together for good. But in the face of extreme anguish and suffering, the biblical prescription is weep with those who weep. Yes, there's a time to speak about the principles and the truth and the comfort with the reality of Romans 8.28, but we need to just come alongside and weep with those who weep. Do you look at your fellow Christians whose souls are not being cared for? And are you moved with compassion? Jesus did. He looked at sheep without shepherds, and he wanted to do something about it. And you say, well, that's why we have pastors. Yes, you do, and that's my job. I need to look out for sheep who aren't shepherded, but it's not only my job, it's the job of all the people of God. We're to love one another, encourage one another, admonish one another, confess sins to one another, show hospitality to one another, serve one another, exhort one another, admonish one another. Ooh, that's what we're all to do. We're all to be shepherding one another by the use of our gifts and by these various one another duties. And how do you look at the lost? Jesus looked at tax collectors and sinners, the scum of the earth, not good people, not church people, not nice people. And he hung around with them. And they were drawn to him somehow, weren't they? Why? I think somehow they sensed that this holy man cares for us. No, He's not like us. And no, He's not going to do some of the things we do. That's not why He's here. But He cares for us. He sees us as having worth and value as image bearers of God. That's why the tax collectors and sinners came to Jesus. What about us? How do we relate to sinners, even scum of the earth type sinners? Not clean, not washed sinners. Younger brother sinners. How do we relate to them? Again, let me address the men, because these are some of the tenderer emotions. We in particular need to cultivate this aspect of Jesus, because as men, especially with our society and macho views of manhood, we could miss this. Here's the true man. Here's the ideal man. Jesus, he's ideal for all humanity, but he's the ideal man. You wanna measure manhood according to truth, here it is. And Jesus was tender, moved with compassion. If we cultivate that, men, it will help us in our marriages. We're called to live sensitively, considerably, katanosin, according to knowledge, with our wives. As we cultivate the compassion of Jesus, it will help us to live sensitively with our wives, who are often more emotionally sensitive than we are. We're not to be exactly like them, but to have the compassion of Jesus will help us relate to them. You know that a woman doesn't relate so much to a buff body as she does a tender heart. You know that, men, right? You single men know that, know that now. Women aren't impressed with your biceps and your shoulders and your six-pack abs. They are concerned with a tender heart. That's what they respond to, and so we need to be like Jesus in that. Men, it will help you with your children, with your sons. Not too far from here, a few miles up, more than 100 Amish men show up for this men's fraternity, the Quest for Authentic Manhood. Many of them unbelievers. Merv knows, Merv's been there. Unbelieving Amish men coming to learn what it is to be a man. You know why? because so many of them have fathers who are wonderful workmen. Oh, they know how to work. They know how to make a living, but they don't know how to relate to their sons. They're emotionally detached and aloof, and the legalistic system doesn't help that. They're aloof, they're detached, and these young men don't have a relationship to their fathers, and so they're looking in this quest for true manhood to learn some of the sensitivity and tenderness and compassion of Jesus will help you to relate to your sons in a way that will build a bond there that will greatly bless them and set them up to be Christ-like, tender, sensitive, compassionate husbands. So we need to receive the compassion of Jesus and we need to imitate the compassion of Jesus. Finally, please understand that the only way we can be like Jesus is to cultivate friendship with him There's no shortcut, there's no pill you can take, no drink that you can drink that fills you with the compassion of Jesus. It's a process and how does it happen? As we immerse ourselves, as we do what he said, he said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Learn from him. How do we learn from him? I am gentle and humble in heart. How do we learn from him? We learn from Him by taking long looks at Him as He is portrayed in the Gospels and in the Epistles. To become like Him, we must behold Him. We must immerse ourselves in the Word of God and pray it and meditate it in. We need to behold Him and we will become like Him. And then we need to pray. We need to ask God to make us more like Jesus in His emotional life. We need to confess our emotional coldness, our compassionlessness. We need to repent of our lack of compassion, repent of our emotional disobedience, and we need to ask God to give us more of a godly sorrow and compassion for the things that moved his great heart, to break up the stony ground of our uncompassionate hearts and help us to feel as he felt. Well, let's pray. Oh, Lord Jesus, we thank you for the many-faceted beauty of your person. Oh, teach us, Lord, your compassion. Help us to go through life not just in a cold, calculating, cerebral, thinking way, but to feel, and to feel the effects of sin upon this earth, and to be moved with sorrow and compassion like yours. We pray in your name, amen.