The Person of God No.4 The Compassion of Jesus Christ

And we're going to read a few verses from verse one, John's Gospel chapter eight. Then each went to his own home but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around him and he sat down to teach them.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, teacher this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman.

Now what do you say? They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. And when they kept on questioning him he straightened up and said to them, if any one of you is without sin let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, woman where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one sir, she said.

Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin. Changing all my tenderness is Father, as we come around your word, gather these sentiments which we feel are scripturally based and help us to understand afresh that we know what God is like through our Lord Jesus Christ, a God of great compassion, full of pity, with mercy in one hand and with the law in the other hand, and with the invitation to shake him with one or the other.

Lord, we need your grace, we need your compassion. Speak to us now as you have during the service from your word. Amen.

Do be seated. One of the things I could tell you about our Lord Jesus without any sense of false piety on my part is although I've studied his word for so many years and engaged in prayer, not as much as I should have done, and watched his activities in the lives of so many people, I honor him more now than I ever have in my life. I recognize his uniqueness.

There's something about him that rings true, far more true than anyone else of whom I could speak or who I know. You see, Jesus is not a clanging gong, he's not a tinkling cymbal, which is a biblical way of saying that he's not hollow, no shallowness in him. What you see is what you get.

And the distinction between this pulpit and the roving pulpit that our Lord occupied is this, this pulpit preaches the ideal but is represented by less than the ideal. Whereas the Lord Jesus, there's no bridge, there's not one feather of a difference between what he spoke and what he was. He's true.

If you have one word to describe the Lord Jesus Christ, it must be one of the great words of the Old and the New Testament, the word compassion. So many times I've sat near a Hindu temple in Nepal or India, and I've looked up and seen the little sort of fresco on the temple walls of those gods. The pornography is such, it's obnoxious in so many instances.

And you couldn't say of Kali or the myriad of gods that are part of the Indian pantheon, the Hindu pantheon, the pantheon is a name for a collection of gods, that any one of them would merit the description, compassion. I've gone through the Koran in some measure, and I have great esteem for a number of Islamic people, some of whom have been very kind to me. Although the Koran speaks of Allah as the most merciful one, it seems to me that the evidence is pretty scant.

But when I look into the life of the Lord Jesus, I see a compassion that's abounding. The Old Testament says of God as though He were engaged on a daily round of delivering, like a postman. His mercies are new every morning.

His compassions, they never fail. Compassion is love in action. The biblical understanding of compassion therefore is always practical.

It's always a word of doing. I love to repeat some of the old illustrations, simply because often the old ones are the best. And one which I particularly like comes from the days around Cromwell's time, when the Quakers really were the sort of evangelical charismatic movement of that day.

They were quaint people. They used the thee and the thou. They wouldn't stand up in the presence of anyone else, because they believed that only God should be honoured.

One Quaker with his leather breeches and his three-cornered hat witnessed a horse that had knocked a man down in the mall in London. And a crowd had gathered and were sympathizing with this man because of the wretchedness of his injuries. And the old Quaker took off his hat and he passed it round the crowd and he said, how much is your compassion worth? In other words, this man needs more than just your sympathy.

He needs money in order to buy medical help so that he might recover from his injuries. I slaved away at Hebrew and Greek many years ago and had sufficient knowledge to fool the examiners, but quite frankly it's rudimentary. That goes for Aramaic too.

These are the languages, the original languages of the Bible. Our Lord Jesus would have spoken not in Hebrew but in Aramaic. And if you study the history of words within Aramaic and particularly within Hebrew, you know that there are some very, very choice and interesting expressions that do add a texture to the words.

Come back to that in a moment. According to Hebrew psychology, your feelings were very much controlled by how your body was reacting. For example, your heart, that was the seat of your affections, your seat of your love.

And we've got that expression today. I mean, if you give your heart to someone or on Valentine's Day you send a card with a heart on it, it indicates love. The idea being that love was centered in the heart.

The feelings of pain, those could be in the kidneys. Always translated in the authorized version of the Bible as the bowels. I was once in Pakistan with one of the young men who joined me on my early trips to Asia.

And he got the Pakistan equivalent of Delhi belly. And I happened to have a tape of Dr. Lloyd Jones, a man who I used to listen to in London with me. And in his Welsh eloquence, he preached with great passion from Jeremiah on the sounding of the bowels.

I thought it was appropriate to play it to my young fellow as he managed to work his way through three days of discomfiture. I mean, he remembers the illness, he also remembers the teaching. And he's now a missionary out in the Middle East, so it couldn't have done him any harm.

The intestines too were recognized as being a contributory factor to the way that you felt. In fact, the word compassion as used in the Bible when speaking of the father who rushes down the hill and greets the prodigal, his heart is filled with compassion. If you push that back to the Aramaic and if you check it, the history of the word, what it's really saying is, my intestines are cut into pieces.

I watched a man, must be 23 years or so ago now, bring his drunken son back to his home in Worthing. I saw him as he took a bowl of water and wiped the vomit from off his son's lips and cleaned the mess up on the floor. I saw the tears in a man's eyes as he ministered to his lad.

And you could see the compassion. Compassion often has an element of pain to it. And you could witness that this father was still identifying with his son.

He was in no way advocating that what his son was doing was right. The action of the son disgusted him, but because he was his son, he ministered to him. Compassion, compassion.

If you had an epitaph of one word for someone to put on your tombstone, as a summary of the way that you've lived your life, I suggest to you that if you earned the title, Compassionate, you would have done well. Compassion is an attribute of God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus sees a crowd of people. They're like sheep without a shepherd. They're listless.

They have no direction. They're rudderless. And the Bible says Jesus has compassion.

One of the things I stood for without any apology here for 28 years on my own is that the gospel must be holistic. What I mean by that is that this pulpit does not just spew out words into the stratosphere. The ministry of the tab is more than just a verbal ministry.

It must be clothed. There must be actions. There must be an impact attempted on the immediate community, the wider community, and the community abroad.

For when Jesus saw a crowd that was hungry, He told His men to feed them. That's why time and time again here at the tab, we give you an opportunity to help people who are in need, those who are suffering, those who are starving in Sudan. We've got a box by the foyer, and you can put any cash that you want to in there, and we'll guarantee that it gets to the Sudan.

You see, credibility is given to the Christian faith when people are moved, when they're cut to the quick, when they're hurt in their intestines because of someone else's suffering or someone else making a mess of their life. Now, why do I say all this by way of a lengthy introduction? Well, you see, nowhere is this better illustrated than in that incident in John's gospel, which Dave read to you a little while ago, where some poor woman is propelled in front of the Lord Jesus, and her accusers want Him to deal harshly with her. Do you know something that the Bible makes very, very clear in terms of God? It is this, that you are so important to God.

He knows your name. I called Abraham by name. Jacob is my friend.

David is my beloved psalmist. I know my sheep, says the Lord Jesus, and they know me. I know them by name.

The name of a person is very important because when you know a person's name, you give him dignity, her dignity. She's not just a number. He's not just a number on a sheet, a computer readout.

God has no computer readouts. You say, why do you speak with such force? They didn't even give the name of this woman. They propelled her in front of Jesus.

Teacher, this woman caught in the act of adultery, what do you say? The men involved were, if you like, the clergy of that day, at least some of them. Not a complete representation because some were very good and tenderhearted men, but this bunch, they weren't concerned about this woman as a person, they were concerned about a principle. They were concerned to catch the Lord Jesus, to trap Him.

It was one of these situations in whichever way he jumped, he would be wrong. If he said, well, she should be killed, he would be in difficulty because no Jew had the right to take anyone else's life because Israel was controlled, the territory by Rome at that time. If he said it didn't matter, then again he would be in difficulty because Moses says, it does matter.

Fidelity is important. What was the role of these men? What should have been the role of these men? What in similar circumstances would you have wanted in terms of treatment? Hey, come on, how do you treat people? It doesn't matter what the crime is, in one sense that's incidental. People have done wrong, how do you handle them? I tell you as the years have gone by, my sharpness, I think, has blunted to some degree.

When I was in my twenties, I could have pontificated on many, many areas that now I am a little more unsure of, especially in terms of human misdemeanor. You see, it seems to me that one of the things that the Lord Jesus teaches you, one of the things that is vital for Christians to recognize is this, that our concerns is to be like the concerns or like the concern of a doctor. The disease may put you off, but your commitment is to your patient.

And you see, these men, they had no commitment to this woman whatsoever. Their concern was just with the disease. We had a lady who served God in the mission field in Egypt for many years, a diminutive woman, and she spent the remaining years, the last years of her life here in Worthing.

I buried her. She died on Heen Road, at least in a house on Heen Road. I remember seeing her, and on one occasion I had to rush out of her room.

She stank with cancer. And after I'd been to the bathroom and sorted myself out, then I went back to her. The cancer was foul, but the lady was wonderful.

Now, don't you see here, as far as the Lord Jesus is concerned, his attitude is so different from these men who would humiliate this woman. He is concerned for her as a person. They are concerned with her as an argument.

She is a computer readout, and God never looks upon any of you like that. He looks upon you as an individual with worth and with potential worth. And this is the reason why the Lord Jesus came on earth, to show us that this God is not some impassive Allah, that this God is not some bestial God whose image is on some temple.

This is a God with feeling. This is a God with passion. This is a God who knows what it is to wipe the vomit of a person's mouth and shed a few tears as he does so.

The Bible talks about God's heart and the breaking of God's heart in the Old Testament as he weeps over his children. And here you find all those qualities of God the Father adumbrated, that means illustrated, by our Lord Jesus. These men, they come along, this woman has been so roughly handled, and they want Jesus to make her situation worse.

And in their connivance, they also want to make his problems more compounded. But you know, the Lord's got an answer to every situation. This is why I love him so much.

I really do. I honor Jesus Christ. I wish I could say that I honored him in everything that I do, but from the base of my convictions, from the heart of my conviction, I do believe that he is the unique Son of God.

And here is an illustration of someone who is more than human, who has a sagacity, a wisdom that now comes into play that shows that he can handle every situation. He needs to get these men out of the way. He needs to deal with this lady and show compassion without in any way affirming her infidelity as being a proper way of life.

Jesus pauses, and he starts to write on the ground. Some suggest that he did that to buy time, as though somehow his ingenuity was stretched, and he didn't quite know what to do, and so he needed a little time to cogitate. I think you can put that on one side as being inadmissible.

Some people think that he did this because, well, he was so incensed with these men, these pastors, and their lack of pastoral concern, and he was so smitten with feelings of pity for this woman that he couldn't contain his own emotion. And he wanted to move his face downwards so they couldn't register the expression as he tries to cope in his own emotions with the hardness of men and the wretchedness of this lady. Or perhaps, and this seems to be the reasonable explanation for which we should go, perhaps he wants to do something to ensure that this small congregation takes its leave from the eldest to the youngest, leaving him just with her so that he, Jesus, can do for her what no one else could do for her, or seemingly so in this situation.

What was that? Show a little bit of compassion. Take off the hat and show how much your mercy is worth. So he starts to write on the ground.

What he writes is not disclosed, but it was obviously something that so embarrassed these individuals. At this, those who heard began to go away, one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. The Bible has a lot to say about judgment, and if you can put it in a nutshell, it's this.

Everyone has a right to judge who has never sinned. Everyone who, from an unquestioned goodness, can stand with his dignity and his integrity intact has a right to point a condemnatory finger. But those who would move a speck from the eye of another who entertains a plank in his own, he is a fool if he endeavours to judge.

That is why the Bible tells us that all judgment has finally been placed within the province of Jesus Christ, because he is the only impeccable person. He is the only flawless individual. For those of you who have never lusted, stay with me.

For those of you who have never done something that you wouldn't be embarrassed if it was placarded on some great poster for all to see, stay with me. And just to prompt any idle memory, Jesus writes in the ground, on the dust, on the ground, and from the oldest to the youngest, they leave. And Jesus has what he wants, the opportunity of a private, intimate conversation with this woman.

His compassions, they fail not. The man who succeeded Lloyd-Jones in London taught me one or two things. His name was Glyn Owen.

He was a Welshman too, and he came to Worthingham. On one occasion, he gave an illustration. It was a superb illustration.

It was of fishing, a sport in which I don't engage myself, but he obviously knew his stuff. And what he said was this, and he was talking about angling, just one line. He said, there's fishermen and fishermen.

He said, the ace fisherman will bring the fish to the shore or up to where he's standing. And with sensitivity and delicacy, he will pull the fish in so that the smallest amount of pain is experienced by the fish as he is brought to land. Other fishermen, they yank their rod and they tear the mouth of the fish.

Some counseling, it seems to me, some judgmental criticism, it seems to me, is like the fisherman that yanks, that pulls, that hurts, that tears. You never find Jesus the Lord doing that. He's a sensitive, compassionate Jesus who deals with this woman on the basis of love.

He has compassion. A woman? Where are they? Only you're standing. Jesus is now straight and the scene, it's naked as far as an audience is concerned, with the exception of this woman.

Has no one condemned you? No one, sir, she said. What does the Lord Jesus do in the process of showing his compassion? What does God always do from the Old Testament and into the New Testament? Because it is the same God with the same characteristic. What does he do? He will always underline the awfulness of sin.

He will never tell you that sin doesn't matter. Sin is a costly thing, but he will always give the possibility of a new beginning. He speaks to this woman, step out into the future, not as you were, but as now you can be.

The gospel that Jesus offers is the gospel of the second chance, of the third chance, of the fourth chance. The same word that comes to Jonah a second time comes to this woman, I don't condemn you, but I don't condone your sin. Step out and sin no more.

You see, here was Jesus taking a risk. He was directing a command which seems to be impossible for a woman who may be for a long time have been in dubious circumstances, and yet Jesus will say to this woman, go and sin no more. Because don't you see, Jesus sees potential in her as he sees potential in you.

He doesn't see you for what you are at the moment. That which is offensive, he wants to cut away. But there is that which can be good as you submit yourself to his grace, as you take on a new beginning, because he gives you that sanction, he gives you that approval.

And so he says to this woman, go on, go into the future. You see, within the compassion of Jesus, there is always a future offered. I don't care what you've done.

There is a future, not because I say so, but because he says so, because of his compassion. Now the compassion is not pushing aside what you have done that is wrong. Remember my definition of compassion from the Aramaic? A cutting of the intestines.

When that father embraces his son, he's filled with compassion. He's heartbroken. He feels there's pain.

When Jesus stoops down and he has in mind the predicament of this woman and all the dignity that she's lost, then he feels for it, because he is the man for others. This is our God. He has a concern for those who are broken.

He has a concern for those who make a mess, even those who make a mess as a result of their own carelessness and deliberate folly. You see, this is the God that we deal with. Don't tell me that I'm romanticizing when I talk about Jesus Christ as the man who merits, who has my respect.

This is the Jesus that I serve. This is my Savior. This is how he handles human failure.

This is the compassion of God that's new every morning. Does no one condemn you? No one, sir, she said. Then neither do I condemn you.

Go now and leave, leave your life of sin. And ultimately, the sin that she had committed, he would take the consequence for in the death that he died on the cross of Calvary. You see, she wasn't a computer readout.

She's a woman with potential, a woman to whom Jesus could restore dignity. And that's always the purposes of God, to restore dignity. He's in the remaking.

He's in the remolding business. These men who were her accusers, all they saw her was just as a pawn inconsequential. She wasn't important, what they wanted.

They were going for the main chance. They wanted to humiliate Jesus. They wanted to show that they'd ensnared him, that they trapped him, that they were cleverer than he was.

But he sends them away, every Tom, Dick, and Benjamin. And if they had any grain of feeling, then they should have gone to the temple and confess their own sin and ask for God's forgiveness. So, this is the God that we serve, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Father of all mercies, the Father of all compassion, who'll take you and wash you and make you clean, who will take this gamble that perhaps no one else will and say, go on into the future.

And with my help, sin no more. Leave your life for my honor, for my glory. This is what the Lord Jesus did then.

This is what he can do now. This is our God, who knows our name. Even when sometimes we haven't known his and given him the respect we should have done.

Christian people, I finish with a word for you. If you have had compassion shown, then I adjure you in the name of God, show that same compassion to others. If your sins, which are many, have been forgiven, then from the depths of your being, forgive those who have sinned against you.

For the compassions of God are to promote you not to a life of passivity, but a life of activity, showing compassion, reflecting the love of God to other people. Let's pray. The uniqueness of Jesus Christ, who gives himself for us, who offers his life on the cross for you and for me.

What kind of love is this that gave itself for me? I am the guilty one, yet I go free. What kind of man is this that died in agony? He who had done no wrong was crucified for me. What kind of love is this? A love I've never known.

I didn't even know his name. What kind of love is this? Our response to the message this evening is the words of 750. Let's prayerfully and thoughtfully sing it through, particularly meaning the third verse.

750, we'll stand and sing. I don't know who Bryn and Sally Haworth are, but they might well have had that incident in mind, for this lady could well have gone away singing. What kind of love is this that gave itself for me? I am the guilty one, yet I go free.

What kind of love is this? A love I've never known. I didn't even know his name. What kind of love is this? His name? The Lord Jesus.

The love, a compassionate love, directed to you, everybody here. Whatever you've done, if you respond to his saving death and his marvelous resurrection, if you ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you your sins, then he will receive you, send you on your way into a future that could be unparalleled in blessing and a sense of getting the best out of life. Father, we ask for your hand to be upon us now.

We thank you for the compassion of our Lord Jesus. Help us who have received it to show compassion too. Think of this offering for these Sudanese people that we might give out of our largesse, even though we've been asked to give so much, because they have so little.

Help us to give of our time to those who are in need. Help us to give forgiveness to those who have done us wrong. We thank you again for our Lord Jesus.

We're proud of him. Now we ask for your blessing, the blessing of God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, to be with us always. Amen.

Do sit down. Good night. God bless.

Thanks for coming. We're serving tea and coffee in the lounge. Glad to have your company.

Do remember the notices, especially for next Saturday and Sunday. Take notes and use with you and inwardly digest it, please. Thank you.