"Help Wanted!" (Matthew 9:35-38)

Our passage reads, "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." C. H. Spurgeon said that verse 38 weighed on his heart more than any other text in the Bible! He said that it haunted him perpetually. I pray that this message will continually seek our company as well! Concerning our passage, we need to see as Jesus saw, and feel as Jesus felt, so that we'll do as Jesus did!

We need to see as Jesus saw

Matthew says, "Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them" (v. 36). Our Lord saw the great need of those who are lost and because He did, "He felt compassion for them!" Compassion focuses on the feelings of sympathy for those who are in misery! Those without Jesus are in misery! Jesus describes them as "distressed and dispirited" and "sheep without a shepherd." This is how we're to see those who are lost! This will cause us to be moved with compassion and share the gospel with them. We'll never have compassion for the lost until we've seen them as Christ sees them! Let's examine these two phrases. The word "distressed" means, "troubled" or "vexed." It refers to the load of problems that those apart from Christ carry. The word "dispirited" means, "downcast" or "thrown down." It refers to the utterly helpless and forsaken condition of those who are lost in sin. Distressed and dispirited is in reference to their desperate spiritual needs! The phrase "sheep without a shepherd" is described by apostle Paul as "having no hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). As Christ followers, we need to see as Christ saw and feel as Christ felt in order to do as Christ did! Your move! Be encouraged!