The following is a manuscript of the sermon presented by Senior Pastor Dr. Roger Patterson on Sunday, January 21, 2024 at our West U Baptist campus. To view the sermon in full, check out the link below.

Have you ever read a book that “changed your life?” (Think about what book that changed your life). Once you finished it what did you do? You posted on social media about it. You wrote a review on Amazon in favor of it. You bought copies for your friends and family to read. You told everyone about it! Why? Because the book changed your life! You felt a burden and urgency to tell others because of what the book did for you.

If we do this for books, shows, music, products, vacations, and more, why wouldn’t we do this for the best possible news?! Chances are you’re here because Jesus has changed you! But are you telling others about him? Do you feel compelled and burdened to tell others? The gospel is the best possible news. Why wouldn’t we tell others?

Non-believers will consider the gospel either not the answer or just one answer among many. They will consider evangelism done the wrong way to be intrusive and a form of brainwashing.

In legalistic / moralistic Christianity, they will see the gospel as something they should do to earn God’s favor and evangelism will flow from that. If they are not regularly telling people about Jesus, God will not be happy with them.

The gospel reminds us that the death and resurrection of Jesus does matter. It is the power to save (Romans 1:16). Because Jesus gives us life, we are burdened and compelled to tell others about him. We have found what we were looking for and want others to find and experience Jesus as well. We have found abundant life and want others to have that life too.

The baseline cultural narrative is that evangelism is a thing of the past, simply because it is wrong. It is wrong to try to change someone’s mind, especially when it comes to religion and faith. Instead, we should let people do their own research and make up their own mind. This is especially true for Christianity because it is harmful. The beliefs and actions of Christians are outdated and do more harm than good.

1. Affirmation of Cultural Narrative

While there is not much about this cultural narrative that we can affirm, we can at least distinguish between persuading and forcing. The gospel should never be forced on anyone because faith cannot be forced. We must come to trust and believe in Jesus on our own. But this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek to persuade. We do this in life all the time for things we believe in.

1. Critique of Cultural Narrative

The critique is obvious. While many atrocities have been committed in the name of Christianity, more good has been done. Setting aside life change and eternal consequences, Christianity has led to the betterment of society in countless ways: education, medical care, abolition, art, culture, ethics, and more. Christianity has led to the value and dignity of humans being upheld. And again, evangelism is simply sharing how Jesus has changed your life. We do this with people and things all of the time. The critique of evangelism often comes against the abuses of evangelism, not evangelism itself.

1. Better Gospel Narrative 

The better gospel narrative is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to those who are harassed and helpless (that’s everyone, by the way!). Since the gospel is the answer, we should tell others about Jesus––his life, death, resurrection and our needed response. This should be a compelling burden for Christians because without the gospel people suffer both current and eternal consequences. In Jesus they can have life, the life they’ve always dreamt of.

All movement begins with a burden. And if you are going to be one who shares the gospel with others, it’s going to take a burden that is developed in you. Our text today is

Matthew 9:35-38

³⁵ And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Now this passage is at the end of one section of ministry and sets the table for a second phase of ministry. In this, Jesus’ disciples have been watching and observing. They have been watching and following. But here is the beginning point of the pivot, where Jesus begins to empower his followers to get involved in the mission.

And what we don’t yet know is whether or not they are burdened for what Jesus is burdened for. My guess is that it is too new and they are still figuring it out, as you will see as you read the gospels and see their development.

But they were living it moment by moment and day by day. We – we have the entirety of the New Testament. And we have the Great Commission of Jesus.

The Great Commission is:

• The Greatest Vision ever cast…
• The Greatest Mission ever undertaken…
• The Greatest Growth opportunity for our own lives that exists.

Matthew 28:16-20

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now, as you sit here today, you may say, “Amen. That’s the great commission…that’s the charge Jesus gave the church. And I’m so glad that my church does so much to reach out with the gospel to so many.”

But, let me ask you…ARE YOU BURDENED to see the Great Commission fulfilled? Are YOU BURDENED to give the good news of Jesus away?

You may say… “I think…I guess…I don’t know!”

Let’s use this text from Matthew 9 today to answer the question, “Are You Burdened?”

How do you know you are burdened to share the gospel?

1. Are you looking?

I. Are You Looking?

Matthew 9:35-36a

³⁵ And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds…

What do you see all around you?

My guess is you see people like I do. You see them with labels…Labels like:

• Liberal
• Coservative
• Never Trumper
• A MAGA Deplorable
• Straight or Gay
• Educated or Uneducated
• White Collar
• Blue Collar
• Black
• Asian
• Homophobic

We have a label for everyone and we love to divide through our labels.

But on December 31^st, Pastor Tim Yeager did a message to really challenge the way we look at people.

He quoted this Scripture and it really challenged me. It’s 2 Corinthians 5:16-17.

2 Corinthians 5:16-17

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When we regard someone according to the flesh, we see what the flesh reveals. Then we create a label for them.

The Apostle Paul is saying,

“We no longer look at people through our natural eyes. They are either in Christ or they are not. There’s no in between.”

Possessing Vision is Possessing Eyes for Something More. The Great Commission is the Greatest Vision Ever Cast. It’s Jesus proclaiming there is more…It’s the recapture of God’s Design. It’s the Restoration of Souls. It’s Victory for people’s Lives.

Illus: (Connect back to bumper video) — Like Roger Bridgwater said to a 2X Murderer – “God has a plan for your life…and you don’t have to be this person.”

Roger had eyes that didn’t simply view this man according to the flesh.

But we have to be looking? We have to be looking beyond what our natural eyes can see and ears can here?

How else might we know if we are burdened?

The second question that flows out of this passage is this…

How do you know you are burdened to share the gospel?

1. Are you looking?
2. Do you care?

II. Do you care?

Look at the rest of verse 36 with me. We will read verses 35 and 36 again.

Matthew 9:35-36

³⁵ And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 

Something happened when he saw the crowds.  What was it?

The Scripture says, “He had compassion for them.”

As both teacher and healer, Jesus was well-known and sought after. Therefore he often had crowds around him. While these throngs of people could no doubt become exhausting for Jesus (remember he would withdraw from time to time), Matthew tells us he had compassion on them. Rather than be angered or irritated, the crowds moved him. The verb, splanchnizomai, literally means “to be moved in the inward parts.”^[1] This sort of compassion is a gut-level kind of emotion, most often associated with the kidneys or bowels in the ancient world. Osborne describes Jesus’ compassion as “visceral emotions.”^[2]

            ^[1]Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 374.

            ^[2]Osborne, Matthew, 365. 

Vagus Nerve — Interestingly there is physiological connection to compassion. Jesus’ compassion was felt at the gut level.

We talk about things pulling at our heart strings. This isn’t just verbiage. It actually has a connection to our bodies.

The vagus nerve runs all the way from our brain to our gut, and it controls digestion, heart rate and our immune system. Some call it our second brain.

In a Study Titled: , “Measuring Compassion in the Body: What happens in Vagus . . . may make or break compassion,” the research showed that…

“the Vagus nerve appears to be intimately tied to experiencing compassion towards other people’s suffering. . . . More specifically, these studies show that what happens in your Vagus affects whether or not you can handle the feelings provoked by another person’s suffering—and whether or not you’ll feel concerned and motivated to help.”^[3]

When we have compassion on those in need of Jesus it literally does something to our bodies, just as it did for Jesus.

Now, as we ask the question, “Are you looking and Do you Care,” we have to ask our deeper question: What is it that Jesus observed?

Look at Matthew 9:36c.

Matthew 9:36c

…because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 

The people “were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” This is a problem for Jesus for two reasons.

1. First, no one should be harassed and helpless. The people are harassed in that are “bullied, oppressed,” which in turn left them helpless, or “unable to rescue themselves or escape their tormenters.”^[4] God’s original design was abundance and man ruling and reigning and exerting dominion in His image. Having people oppressed and beat down was never God’s design.
2. And Second, the irony here is that the people had plenty of religious leaders around them and yet no one was leading them rightly. They are sheep without a shepherd. The language of “sheep without a shepherd” too would have not been lost on Matthew’s readers.

In Numbers 27, Moses is about to go to the mountain range and look to the Promised Land and then die. And as the Lord gives him instruction, look at Moses’ request in Numbers 27:16-17.

Numbers 27:16-17

¹⁶ “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation ¹⁷ who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” 

Here is Moses, the Shepherd, who is about to die. His work is done. His assignment is over. But he has been leading this people for 40 years. And his prayer is that God would give them a shepherd…that they would be lead by them.

And what did the Shepherd do?

• He cared for them.
• He nourished them.
• He fed them.
• He watered the sheep.
• He kept the predators away.
• He kept them safe.
• He anointed their heads with oil to keep the gnats away.
• He hemmed them in to safety.

The shepherd led and fed His sheep and kept the wolves and other predators at bay.

And Jesus sees these sheep without a shepherd and it moves him. He’s tired of the masses of the people being bullied and pushed around by those in power who were evil.

In Ezekiel 37 there is a promise of a Shepherd over the House of Israel, and Jesus undoubtedly sees himself here as God’s answer to the people…

Ezekiel 37:24-28

²⁴ “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land^[g] and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ²⁷ My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

Jesus is the one who teaches, heals, and leads the people. He is the true shepherd of Israel. And his ministry is the beginning of this restoration and the establishment of this eternal kingdom. 

Part of the way that you know that you are burdened is that you ache for others. You see, when you have fully submitted to God, he takes that which made you a mess and gives you a message from it.

Then, when you see another in a similar predicament, you long to engage with them…get involved…shepherd them. This is what compassion in action looks like…it’s aching with and watching over.

Can you point to frequent times where you are aching with and watching over? If so…you just might be burdened for the Great Commission.

One other question that this passage causes us to ask as we begin our study of the Great Commission is this…

How do you know you are burdened to share the gospel?

1. Are you looking?
2. Do you care?
3. Will you pray?

How do you know you are burdened to share the gospel?

You have to answer the question, Will I pray?

III. Will You Pray?

 Notice the first step of this journey that Jesus asks His disciples to take.

Matthew 9:37-38

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Now for those of us who don’t understand the agricultural illustration, Jesus is referring to a wheat field. In John 4:35 we see these words.

John 4:35

Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”

When you’re looking at a field of wheat, it’s shimmering in the sunlight looking white.

It begins like this…but it turns into this…

Jesus is saying, that the Harvest is ready. It’s plentiful. He is barraged day in and day out with great need in His ministry. As you read Matthew 9, Jesus heals a:

• Paralytic
• Raises a girl back from the dead
• Heals the woman that continually bleeds
• And heals two men born blind
• And One man who is demon possessed and unable to speak.

More than that, Jesus has been preaching and teaching and traveling, and healing diseases and every affliction. He’s seen the ripe harvest and so many who need the Hand of God to touch their lives. It’s a massive harvest. And Jesus gives His disciples clear instructions…It’s his answer to this vast OPPORTUNITY for the Kingdom…

So, his first instruction…

• It isn’t sign up…
• It isn’t go to training…
• It isn’t even go and get baptized first or memorize the Roman Road.

His first instruction is PRAY to the Lord of the Harvest.

Why is that?

Before we talk about the prayer, let’s talk about this title He gives the Father.

Jesus calls the Father the Lord of the Harvest.

What does that mean?

It means that the Father is on a mission for a fruitful harvest.

Farmers don’t plant their crops simply to watch them grow. They plant them to harvest them.

The Father has authorized a mission…the Missio Dei – the Mission of God…and He Promised the Son and He Sent the Son, and Now the Son is saying, Pray…because it is God’s heart that more people join the mission…the Greatest Mission ever.

Now notice that Jesus doesn’t just say “Pray,” but gives clear instruction on what to pray and how to pray.

Matthew 9:38

therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

How are we to pray?

With Earnest – with Zeal, Passion, Urgency, Deliberately, Purposefully.

What are we to pray?

We are to pray for the workers to be sent out into his harvest.

Now, the disciples are about to be sent out 2×2 in Matthew 10. And Jesus will give them clear instructions.  But He first asks them to pray. And I believe He does this to prepare and align their hearts.

Do you remember this line in the Lord’s prayer…

“Thy kingdom come…thy will be done…on earth, as it is in heaven.”

When we pray that, we are praying a prayer of alignment of our hearts and lives to God’s mission.

So, will you pray? Will you earnestly pray for God to raise up workers into His harvest field?

It’s the Greatest Vision Ever Cast…the Greatest Mission Ever Launched…and the Greatest Growth Catalyst for your life possible…to get in on the Mission of God.

Pray…Pray earnestly…Lord, send out workers into the harvest field! Let that be your prayer this day.