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Revelation 7:9-17
Compassion - Caring for the Least of These
Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer
Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN
October 25-26, 2008
Scripture: Revelation 7:9-17
No. 3: What God and Therefore We Value
We are in the middle of a series entitled “What God and Therefore We Value.”
We are examining the six core values of Autumn Ridge Church.
Our mission statement is, “Loving God. Serving People.”
It is just four words so I hope all of us can remember it and articulate it. If someone asks what sort of church you go to or what do you believe in, or what does Autumn Ridge stand for you can reply, “Loving God. Serving People.”
In this series we are trying to get at the values behind that statement. This is important for all of us who consider Autumn Ridge our church home.
These half a dozen values define who we are as a church.
They are essential to our life together.
Number 1 was: Scripture – Live in the Word.
Number 2 was: Worship – Pray in Faith.
And today we come to Compassion – Caring for the Least of These. This is an appropriate time to be examining this subject because next weekend we begin our annual Missions Festival entitled iMission.
So this message will act as a springboard into next week.
It will provide a foundation for why Autumn Ridge cares for the world in which we live.
Today I want to give you five biblical reasons why we value demonstrating Compassion by Caring for the Least of These. Please take out your message outline if you would like to follow along.
First we care for our world because JESUS MODELLED COMPASSION
His compassion runs through the gospel.
Listen to these statements from Matthew.
“When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.” (Matthew 9:36)
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people.” Matthew 15:32)
As disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to share his compassion.
Jesus never got tired of helping people and neither must we.
Compassion like Christ’s is attractive.
It has a magnetism and beauty all its own.
I had the joy of interviewing some of the 52 new members who are joining our church this weekend.
I asked them what attracted them to Autumn Ridge.
A number said “It is because of the love you have for the community and the wider world and the practical things you do for people.” It thrilled my heart to hear that because that is exactly what God wants us to be doing.
It is God’s nature to be compassionate.
The Psalmist says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:13)
David tells us, “Our God is full of compassion.” (Psalm 116:5)
God’s compassion is supremely seen in the cross of Christ.
That is why all Christian mission must be shaped by the cross.
As we get to know God we are conformed to his likeness.
Because he has a heart of compassion we will have one too.
We will care for the things that are important to God.
This involves imparting and applying his mercy, love, righteousness and justice to every part of his creation.
I was delighted to learn that one of our high school students is making articles and selling them to raise money for the Compassion Evangelical Hospital in Guinea.
She can’t go there herself yet but God has given her a heart of compassion for people on the other side of the world.
That brings enormous pleasure to Jesus. He says, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
A second reason we must show compassion is that
PEOPLE ARE LOST.
The very reason Jesus had compassion on the crowds was, “Because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)
The Bible makes it abundantly clear that men and women, boys and girls are lost without Jesus Christ.
This means they are lost for this life as well as for eternity.
Paul told the Ephesians that before their conversion they were “Separate from Christ . . . without hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12)
Jesus tells us that, “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:18)
The book of Revelation speaks of a day when every person will stand before God.
At this judgment all are called to account. Those whose names are not found written on the Book of Life are lost.
People without Christ are not noble savages as the French Philosopher Rousseau thought. They are lost sinners.
They therefore need a Savior.
They must hear the good news that they can be forgiven.
These glad tidings not only liberate their soul, they liberate their society.
Now it is important that we grasp the truth that people without Christ are lost. Church history is littered with story of denominations that have abandoned this truth. In doing so they abandoned their mission outreach around the world. And it is not just liberal churches, increasingly evangelicals no longer believe that people without Christ are lost.
This was brought home forcibly to me in an email I received from Chuck Hohnbaum. Chuck is the Chief of Staff to the President of InterVarsity. He is one of our supported missionaries.
Chuck passed on some comments that Christian students attending a Christian college made in a missions class.
They were asked the question, ‘What do you believe is the eternal destiny of people who have never heard the gospel?”
Here are some of their answers.
“I believe the eternal destiny of people who have never heard the gospel is heaven. We can’t change something about ourselves if we don’t know that it needs changing. God states in his word that he hopes none will perish, so I think he will be merciful to those who have not heard.”
“In Romans chapter 1 Paul states that God shows himself in his creation to all men, so I think that if they live a moral life and believe in some form of an all powerful God or creator they will be saved.”
“It is hard to imagine that my gracious God will condemn those who have never heard the gospel.”
“I believe they will go to heaven . . . Jesus is in the business of loving people and he loves even those who do not know him.”
Now in many ways you have to commend these students for their desire to see everybody brought into the kingdom.
But in another way we should be appalled.
These are young people who have been raised in evangelical churches and they don’t understand a basic doctrine of the Christian faith, that people without Christ are lost.
Some of them do recognize the incongruity of their position.
After all if people who have never heard the gospel are all going to heaven then we should not sent missionaries because then they would hear the message of salvation and some people would reject it and then they would go to hell.
I think this wrong thinking is the result of some one sided teaching on the character of God in recent years.
We have emphasized the love of God and of course that is wonderfully true.
We have perhaps neglected to say that while God is a God of love his first love is for his own holiness and his own justice.
We have overlooked the truth that God cannot love evil and he cannot even have fellowship with sinful people.
Until that sin is removed by Jesus, God can not have a relationship with us.
The condition of those who do not know Jesus is immensely serious.
Jesus looked at lost people and his heart was filled with compassion. That compassion drove him to the cross.
The bad news is that people are lost. The good news is that they can be found.
A third reason why we must care for the least of these is because THE LOVE OF CHRIST COMPELS US
That was Paul’s explanation of his own missionary enthusiasm.
He told the Corinthians, “For Christ’s love compels us.” (2 Corinthians 5:14)
God’s compassion has a wide embrace. It includes human worth and human rights, social equality, and the value of human work. It involves earth keeping and the integrity of creation.
Compelled by the love of Christ, the church has been a pioneer in initiatives to provide healthcare for the poor, bring aid to the imprisoned, the homeless and the dying and to improve conditions of physical labor.
Christians in India, for instance have been in the forefront of the movement for the emancipation of women. The training of women doctors and nurses was first introduced in India by Christian missionaries.
Some of the finest medical hospitals and training schools in India owe their existence to Christian missions.
Many Hindus would rather go to a Christian hospital than a government hospital because they know the quality of care in Christian hospitals is better.
What is the difference? The love of Christ.
In the areas such as leprosy, tuberculosis, mental illness, and eye disease, Christian missionary doctors and nurses pioneered new methods of management and surgery.
What compelled them to live in a foreign land, separated from their families?
The love of Christ.
Medical historians have pointed out that the care of defective newborns was not a medical concern in classical antiquity.
The morality of killing sickly or deformed babies was not questioned until the birth of the Christian church.
What made the difference?
The love of Christ.
When we love Christ we love his word.
That word tells us we are made in God’s image.
Because we are made in the image of God that means injustice is a violation of God’s own being.
The Bible teaches that the poor and oppressed have legitimate claims on us so that striving for economic, social and political systems that help them secure their rights is a matter of restoring the divine image scarred by sin.
To regard people as divine image bearers entails promoting a society where there is not only equal treatment of all before the law but also equal treatment shown to all.
A society where there is equality of respect is one where no one has to grovel or beg before another, where women enjoy equal pay and employment opportunities as men.
Where the views of employees are welcomed and listened to by their employers. Where the disabled and the elderly have a voice in the affairs of their community.
Because the love of Christ compels us, Christians have been at the forefront of programs to prevent cruelty to animals. The Puritans of 16th century England campaigned tirelessly against cruel practices like bear-baiting and cock fighting. The legacy was continued in the Methodist Movement and the Evangelical Awakenings of the 18th century.
Today Christians in many Asian societies have led the change in efforts to protect animals from wanton killing.
Because we know that a God of love created the world we want to be faithful stewards of our planet.
That is why Christians are involved in projects to provide clean water, prevent soil erosion, improve farming techniques.
These are practical ways to show compassion to the least of these.
They flow out of a life of discipleship.
Henry Martyn, the brilliant Oxford mathematician who became a Bible translator put it well when he said, “The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions and the nearer we get to Christ the more intensely missionary we must become.”
A fourth reason why we value compassion is because THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE PLENTIFUL
On one occasion Jesus left Galilee and went to Samaria.
His disciples did not like it because the Samaritans were the enemies of the Jews.
The twelve wanted Jesus to stay in Jewish territory and look after Jewish people. After all there were plenty of Jews who were sick and needed healing.
But Jesus wanted his followers to understand that the gospel is not for one people or one place.
It is for everyone and every place. So he challenged them,
“Open your eyes and look at the fields!
They are ripe for harvest.” (John 4:35)
There are opportunities all around us.
God’s compassion is needed everywhere from Minnesota to Mongolia. It must not be restricted.
Some say “But there are pressing needs right here at home.”
Of course there are.
There are many poor living in the shadow of the American dream. We have racism and crime and injustice right here at home.
But that doesn’t mean we disobey Christ’s commission to go into all the world.
By almost every measure injustice is more stark elsewhere.
Dalits, the untouchables in India, have been ground into the dust for millennia by high caste Hindus.
There are countries where children are sold by their parents into the sex trade. There are places where slavery still exists.
There are lands where there are no churches.
So if we want to fight poverty, racism and spiritual darkness we must go into the whole world.
The exciting news is that God is opening doors like never before.
We found this with the Compassion Evangelical Hospital in Guinea, West Africa. Four of us went there a year ago.
We met with the Minister of Health. She said, “Please come.”
We met with the Deans of the medical school in the capital city of Conakry. They said “Please come.”
Now remember Guinea is a Muslim country in the 10/40 window but the government has agreed to a hospital whose mission statement says that every patient will be presented with the good news of Jesus. There is an opportunity for us right now to impact the healthcare of an entire nation. But we can’t just leave this to the mission committee.
Theologian N.T. Wright has wisely written, “No single individual can attempt more than a fraction of the mission of the church.
That is why mission is the work of the whole church, the whole time.”
A fifth reason God values compassion and why we must care for the least of these is because VICTORY IS ASSURED
Now grasping this is essential for our motivation and enthusiasm.
Let me show you how by telling you about the Moravians.
The Moravians are a group of Christians whose story begins in Germany in the 1720’s.
God started a work in wonderful ways in their lives. They realized they could not keep the gospel to themselves so in the 1730’s they sent missionaries to the West Indies and Greenland.
The Moravians faced opposition, persecution and misunderstanding but still they persevered in their task of telling others about Jesus.
What drove them?
We find the answer in their motto, which is “To win for the Lamb the reward of his suffering.”
How did they know they would win?
They had read the end of the story.
They discovered what it says in Revelation 7 about the Lamb that was slain surrounded by a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language.
It is not just a few who will be saved.
Paul tells us that Christ’s work in securing salvation will be more effective than Adam’s work in causing ruin.
This is because God’s grace in bringing life will outshine Adam’s work in bringing death.
This vast congregation gathered around the throne celebrate the victory of Christ when they shout, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:10)
Jesus will reign. His victory is assured.
He promised, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18)
The worldwide expansion of Christianity in the past 200 years has been unprecedented.
The church of Jesus Christ has been growing phenomenally.
It is estimated that over 75,000 people become Christians every single day.
God has created us with a desire for significance.
If we are involved in declaring and implementing the compassion of Christ we are part of something that will ultimately be successful.
So as we minister in Jesus’ name we look forward to the coming of the city of God through which flows the river of the water of life and in which grows the tree of life producing fruit each month, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
In the center of the city is the throne of God and of the Lamb, and all God’s servants will worship him there. “And there will be no more night. They need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and forever.” (Revelation 22:5)
Our Mission Festival theme next weekend is iMission.
We want to help you put the “I” in mission.
For there is a place for you and me to bring the compassion of God to a needy and lost world.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, open our eyes that we may see the deepest needs of the people. Move our hands that we may feed the hungry.
Touch our hearts that we may bring warmth to the despairing.
Teach us the generosity that welcomes strangers.
Let us share our possessions to clothe the naked.
Give us the care that strengthens the sick. Make us share in the quest to set the prisoner free.
Above all fill us with your compassion.