Master of the Multitudes

This message is part one in the series, Master of the Multitudes, and was presented on March 13th, 1988, by Dr. Jay Passavant, Senior Pastor of North Way Christian Community. The Gospel, rather, where Jesus speaks in Matthew chapter 9. Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing from disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. And he called his twelve disciples to him, and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits, and heal every disease and sickness. Let me just pray for you a moment, please. Lord, as I present my heart to you in these next few minutes, I pray that the word that you've been birthing in me these last several months for would take root in the heart of these, your people, and that something profound and supernatural would happen, a rising sense of the purposes of God being released through this, your church. I ask it in Jesus' name. The auditorium in which Carol and I sat about five weeks ago was completely packed with people, about 7,000 people, three balconies with people literally moving to the edge of their seat, waiting for the beginning of a Tuesday night service of worship. And I saw people buzzing with excitement, and I saw some sitting back somewhat uncertain and a little bit protective, it seemed, in their posture. And in the midst of that huge crowd of people, I heard the Lord speak to my heart. I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit when he said to me, Son, I know and I love each one of these people. And you may not think that's very profound, but I want you to know that in my spirit, something happened as sort of the final confirmation, something I'd been feeling for weeks prior to that, that God's heart is so much more able to feel for the needs of people and to love people right where they are than I could ever be. But I sensed in that moment God was releasing something into my heart to have that same capacity. You see, it began for me the night of the Christmas banquet, and I'm glad Lighthouse and some other folks are here. How many of you were at the Christmas banquet? Most of you didn't have the privilege, and I call it, it was a real privilege to stand up on that platform and look out and see that sea of faces, over 3,500 people. But something happened that night to begin to show me that God was reaching out far more broadly than I'd ever imagined. Someone asked me, they said, does this seem awesome to you? And I said, no, it doesn't. It seems natural to me, but I didn't fully understand what I was saying. Then Christmas Eve, and when it came Christmas Eve, especially that first service, we were lined up all along the walls and all the way into the other room, and people were hungry, looking for something. And then a couple other incidents took place in January, and then the other night, Michael Carr, people were hanging from the bulkheads trying to stay in this place. God was beginning to show me that He has a heart for the multitudes of people. Now personally, I don't care for crowds that much. I don't really enjoy all that much going to places where there's tons of people. In fact, I stay away from big concerts and things, because I just, you know, the other day I was over at the drugstore, and this gal came in, and it was short sleeve day yesterday, and she had this t-shirt on with a picture of a dove, or maybe it was a seagull, and across the front of the t-shirt was written the word, Solitude. Oh, did that minister to me, you know? I don't really care all that much for the noise and the pushing. Have you ever been to Chuck E. Cheese? I mean, if you had a bad day, do not volunteer to take your kids to Chuck E. Cheese. It will make a nightmare out of the rest of your day. We went down there on a Thursday night, thinking, hey, listen, no one's going to be out on a Thursday night with their kids. I mean, it starts in the parking lot with people competing for the last spot to get in, and then the noise, you know, you could call it chubby cheese as far as I'm concerned, you know, lining up to play these video games, and there's a lot of big dads in there, you know? You know what I'm saying? And the kids are watching, the dads are playing ski ball and fighting for the tickets, and you wait 45 minutes to get a pizza. You know, I just, the crowds are not that, I mean, I just don't get that excited about it, and yet I'll tell you, folks, any place something good is happening, a crowd is going to pour in, because people are searching for something. Whether it be the movie theater or the mall or Chuck E. Cheese, they're looking for a place where somehow something good is going to happen to them. And Jesus always causes something good to happen, and that's why people come where He is. When the Lord looked into my heart, and He knew what I was thinking, and He said, Son, I know and love each one. You see, the miracle of Jesus is, in the midst of a great crowd, you stand after Him. Isn't that something? And He doesn't run out of compassion if there's a bigger crowd. I mean, He has the same heart's love and concern for each one. And I look around here in the North Hills, and how many of you see just more and more people I mean, it's just... And I say, well, Lord, you know, maybe we ought to just go someplace where it's quieter. The Lord says, I know and I love each one. Every one of these, in Forest Oaks, I know and love each one, in Swan Acres, and down in Royal Manor Apartments, and over here in the North Side, I know and I love each one of them. God just began expanding my heart to what His vision might be. And the reason why He loves them, dear ones, is because, you see, Jesus sees their real condition. Do you ever feel like the people that you work with or live around or whatever, that they don't really have any need? Hey, they're all taken care of. I mean, especially out here in the suburbs, it's very common to have people say, that's fine for you, I don't care. I mean, I'm doing fine. I've got a good-paying job, new house, you know, my kids are... But I want you to know something. You see, Jesus sees past all that. And if we don't believe that the human heart in every single person has a void in it, I want you to know we're not believing the Bible. I want you to know that there's something God created in every heart that has not been met even by religion, even by the people who go to church and think that somehow by performing a ritual that those people still know that down inside it's not right. And I want us to see in the Scripture today how Jesus might give us a heart for the multitudes and see how he sees when he looks around Pittsburgh and the North Hills and throughout this great city. Look with me now in Matthew 9 and carefully look at a few verbs. Jesus saw the multitudes. The first thing he did is he saw them. When he saw the crowds, verse 36, he had compassion on them, and here's why. Because he really saw their need. The first verb I want you to look at, maybe write down, is the word... If we can put it up, Bob, go ahead. The word skulo, or skulo, if you want to just remember it in the vernacular, it's a word that means completely worn out, fatigued or stressed to the point of exhaustion. Am I ringing anybody's bell? How many of you know someone that's under a lot of stress? Okay, we'll leave it at that. You see, it is a fact of our culture that more than we know, stress bears down on the people of this land. And even the most successful now, even the ones who appear to have it together are under incredible stress to keep it together. And this is why psychologists deal more with helping people to cope with stress. That's why people get off on meditation and Eastern mysticism and New Age stuff because they're looking for a release from the real pressure of it. Can I say something, dear ones? Stress is also one of the reasons why people get into alcohol and drugs. They're trying to cope with it, get a little bolt to get through the night, you know? And stress is taking its toll, and it's all around us. You see it every place you look. You say, I don't see it. Let me give you an illustration where I see stress pouring out. When you get in your car, you put yourself at the mercy of people under stress. I was driving down McKnight Road a while back, heading in toward the mall there. How many of you know that the McKnight Road from Builders Square to Ross Park Mall was never created for human beings? It's not who that's for. And I'm driving down there, and of course I had something like, you know, Glory to the Lamb on one of my tapes on. I'm praising the Lord, driving down in the middle. And I'm smart enough now to know that you don't get into Ross Park Mall turning in the left lane. Now, I'm just going to tell you all a secret here. But if you're going in there, and you want to go in the right lane, folks, and go behind the bowling alley, that's where you want to go. Have you ever done that? You found that, didn't you? I've seen Gene Rink directing traffic back this way. So I'm going down the middle lane, ready to dive off into the right, you know, and I'm rejoicing because I know something. All these people lined up. For half a mile, don't know. And I get down there, and I look in my mirror, and I see a car behind me, and so I put my signal on and flip on in there. Well, folks, I didn't see one other person right there. Because, you know, the right side of your car is a little more of a blind spot there. And I was wrong. I mean, I cut this person off. But have you ever had the experience of looking in your rearview mirror and thinking that the creature from the Black Lagoon was coming? I mean, there was... It wasn't that this person was angry. This person was a little bit... I mean, the horn, that was just the first round, right? I guarantee if this person had cannons in their car... I mean, you know, gestures and fists... It looked like... I was wrong, and I admit that I didn't really see him, but we didn't hit cars. And, you know, I had this... After a while, I started thinking, you know, I didn't make her, by the way, her... Boy, we are touchy, aren't we, ladies? Actually, ladies are always more courteous, aren't they, men? Aren't they, men? You better say, men. But I realized that what was snapping in this lady was not what I had put in there. It was something else, you know? There was so much... She was so stressed that I was so stressed that it was just the trigger that popped the thing off. And, you know, that is a very common experience. You can name other ones. You know, it can happen any place, in the supermarket, waiting in the doctor's office, going to school. Dear ones, stress is bearing down heavily on our people. Jesus says, I see them. They're harassed. I see them the way they really are. The other word that's there is the word, ripto. Let's put that up. The word, ripto, means literally thrown to the ground, utterly helpless, can't defend, or literally to be violated. That's what... When Jesus looks at people and he sees their heart, he sees that many in that crowd were violated and felt ripped off. And I don't know if you know what it's like, dear ones, but many people, even in our church, know what it's like to lose a job and feel like, hey, I worked hard and got ripped off, and I can't do a thing about it. I want you to know there's just a lot of people right here, living in our neighborhoods, who feel like helpless. Their kids are going off in rebellion, and they can't do a thing about it. Helpless. Violated. They poured the first 14 years of their lives into the kids, and the kids now could care less. You know, there's a sense of utter helplessness that some parents feel today. There's some singles that are here today. You went ahead and entrusted yourself to someone. In our culture, there's a lot of people out there on the make. And you got violated, and you feel, what can I do? I mean, first of all, you feel guilty because before God, you know you failed. But also, you feel helpless. What do I do from this? It's all over the place. Jesus sees in the crowd, and he sees them helpless, violated. And then he sees them like sheep without a shepherd. And this image, I must have read this thing, I'd say 50 times in the last two years, this passage of Scripture. But I saw something here about the shepherd and the sheep image I'd never seen before. You see, dear ones, Jesus looks in the crowd, and he realizes that many of them are answering to what shepherd they know. But that shepherd is probably telling them something like, hey, this is all there is. This is all there is. And going to church is all that you really have to worry yourself about. I want you to know, Jesus looks in, and he sees that these sheep are lost. They don't know what direction their life is going. And one of the most difficult things for me to bear as a pastor is to see someone whose life is on waste. That's where it's said. It's said on waste. Talk to a very handsome and whatever, endearing couple a few weeks ago who were transferred into Pittsburgh from out of state. And I said, well, what brought you to Pittsburgh? And they just said, hey, my company sent me here. And I didn't say this at the time. I thought, well, what did God say about that? I mean, was it in the will of God? Did you seek God's will? You see, people get pushed around in life, and they don't know what this shepherd is seeing. They feel unprotected. They feel without carrying arms around them, you see. There aren't many people who can write like Marcia Brennan did and say, I feel the arms of your love around me. I drove past a bus stop here on Thursday morning. You know, young people, it's always, you've got to be careful when you look on the outside and judge somebody. But I saw a young man, I don't know, 15, 16. He had sort of blondish hair, just real long and parted so that you could barely see over his eyes, you know, kind of like this, jeans jacket on and real scruffy in the face, hadn't shaved or anything, and just standing in the bus stop kind of like this. I just had a glance into his eyes. I don't know if you can tell a lot from the eyes. I looked in there, and oh, I didn't see rebellion. In the eyes, I saw hurt. I saw defensiveness that gets covered up in the rebellion and the, you know, here I am, I'm going to make it on my own. And Jesus looks and sees the sheep without a shepherd. And He looks and He sees the real needs of people, dear ones, and here's what the Bible says. When He looks in the north hills and He sees the multitudes, I don't believe that He stands up with His fist in anger and says, you know what I believe? I believe Jesus would have compassion. Let's look at this for a second. Now look at it. It says there in verse 36, He had compassion because of these things. He was moved with compassion. Now the word in Greek for compassion is a profound word. We don't even have one word in English, but it means literally that down inside you feel it. Splaknon means literally in the guts. I feel so deeply about it that it grinds me in the gut. It moves me. Have you ever seen something that you just felt so strong about that even your tears didn't communicate the depth of your tears? I remember when I walked on the trash dumps outside the city, of Mexico City, and saw little kids literally playing, building hovels on huge, enormous garbage dumps. Something happened in my spirit. And I wept, but it wasn't enough, because I felt these kids had nothing. Jesus sees the needs, and He stirred in His heart with compassion. We had a work day at Lighthouse last summer. You all remember that? Came over. One of the ladies, I'm afraid I can't remember her name, she might even be here today. I hope she is. Went down to her house to get some more sodas and some ice. I drove her down in my car, and we talked for a few minutes. I said, you know, Pastor Jay, she said, I have a son that's in prison. He's been there for a few years, and he's been sending me money for when he comes out, so we can get a new start. And she got in the car, got out of the car, and she said, you know, just the other day, something broke in and stole all the money. And, you know, I don't know where it came from. I don't know. She didn't even know if it might have been someone under her own roof. But all she knows was that that money, that was the symbol of hope for her son coming out of prison, was gone, and she didn't have any. She was helpless. And I felt something. I mean, I felt it. Dear ones, I'm asking God, every time you see a person, whether they be, in your own physical eyes, arrogant, rebellious, defiant, or just visibly hurting, I'm going to ask God to put compassion in your heart. To love them as Jesus would love them. Because compassion is what's going to motivate us out of this beautiful setting, on into the nursing homes, and into the prisons, and out into North Park. You know, in a couple of weeks, you won't be able to get into North Park on Saturday and Sunday for all the people. And they'll come, and they'll fly their kites, and they'll ride their bikes, and they'll look like great, you know, suburbanite leisureites. But inside their heart, there's going to be a void, and only we have the answer for it. You say, well, I've shared with them, and no one's responded. Well, I believe that God's brought us to this point. Seven years, it'll be seven years in two weeks. He's just brought us to the point where this ministry's going to rise up and go out, and take the gospel out from this place, like never before. What did Jesus say? The first thing we saw now, what Jesus saw, look at this, here's what he said. Look at verse 37. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. How many believe the harvest is truly plentiful? I hear a lot, you know, I get a lot of journals, and I hear people say, you know, America is over-evangelized. Do you believe that? I see the harvest fields just white. I see them out there. I see people, but you see, it's not easy. It's not easy. We need to be equipped to go out and do the works of Jesus. We need to be equipped to go out and share and build relationships in a natural way. But I believe that Jesus was right. In fact, there are more people alive today than in all of combined history up until the year 1900. Did you know that? The fields are just, they're multiplying, and we have the opportunity to reap the harvest. I don't like crowds. This church is big enough for me. Well, I'm going to give Jesus the right to stop the increase. I believe Jesus has a heart for the multitudes, and if we'll obey Him, He'll give us the grace to care for them and still find that our needs are being met. You know, Jesus doesn't take a worker and wrap them up and dispose them. Aren't you glad about that? He always cares. Look what He says here. He says, the laborers are, or workers, are few. The word laborers, the word agartha, means day laborer, somebody who's just out there getting a day's wage for a day's work. Isn't it interesting that Jesus didn't say, hey, the harvest is plentiful, and the evangelists are few. Isn't that interesting? Or the harvest is plentiful, and the pastors are fewer, or the prophets, or the youth worker professionals, or whatever. He said the workers. And guess where the workers are? Turn to someone and tell them. You're a worker. You're a worker. Turn to the other person now, on the other side, and tell them. Amen. You're a worker. A worker is just someone who goes out in response to the master's call. Notice it. Jesus clearly says, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out the workers. I want you to know, don't go just because someone else is telling you to, but go because the master's sending you out. You know the word to be sent out is the word akbalah, which means to violently thrust. It's a picture. Mark, you're in a danger zone. But it's a picture of God taking us by the scruff of the neck and going, phew. And how many of you are just ready for God to do that? Who would like to be the hand of God to help that happen? To thrust the workers out there. And dear ones, you don't need to be gifted as a teacher or a singer. Please get your eyes off of the simple gifts that function up here. These are not what we're talking about necessarily at all. We're talking about just the ability to care. You see, when Marcia Brennan wrote this letter, she was just saying that people were calling. People stopped by. You were the arms of God to her. And I want you to know, I believe that we are terribly underutilized. I believe there are far more workers than we've been able to employ here. You're just saying, all right, well, direct me. Show me where I'm to go and what I'm to do. And I believe God's going to do some great things in these next months. Because Jesus said, send them out. And as much as we revel and delight in what happens here under our auditorium, as much as I love Seeker, Seeker won't mean anything unless the workers are out there bringing the harvest in. It takes workers. Notice what Jesus did. By the way, you know that all of the great separations in chapters, by the way, in the scriptures are all at the discretion of the writer. I mean, that's just the way it came down. And I really believe that 10.1 goes with 9.38. Look at it. Ask the Lord, and then Jesus says, and then he called the twelve disciples and sent them out. How many of you have ever prayed a prayer and known that God was saying, you're the answer to it? Whoa. If you're going to pray for workers, guess who might be the first answer. And God wants to use this church. It may be something as simple as driving the van to pick somebody up. It may be as significant in your eyes as teaching a class. It may be as simple as having a little coffee with the neighborhood ladies just to talk about how to raise kids in a godly way. I don't know. But I want to leave you with one picture that I've not been able to get out of my mind. In that same great auditorium I talked about a few minutes ago, the night before, as part of the demonstration of the ministry of that church, the pastor had the folks line up across the platform, about twenty-five people in wheelchairs. It was their ministry to the invalids in their community from the nursing homes. And lined up just all across the stage in varying degrees of brokenness of body and mind. Some were retarded very profoundly. Some were crippled. And all of them were there with one worker standing behind their wheelchair. And they wheeled them out and people applauded and I said, boy, that's really neat. It's a wonderful expression of people doing some things. The pastor told how they went out and purchased some buses with lifts on them to get the people. And that would have been enough, but you know what? He then walked down with a microphone and let each one of those twenty-five people in whatever way they could share what it meant to them to come to church and to hear about Jesus. And I want you to know there was not a dry eye in the place. This one twenty-year-old young person, twenty years old, driving, see if you've ever done this, driving in the back of a pickup, drinking a beer, partying, truck swerved, he fell out the back, quadriplegic. Now he's twenty-two and the microphone came down to him and he shared how somebody, one of the workers went to this rehabilitation center and said, would you like to come to church? They wheeled him on in and in the midst of his paralysis, his heart was soft and he found Jesus. And I just want you to know, in this tragedy, I found Jesus as my Savior and my Lord. And he was speaking in broken English. And everyone realized, you see, because a worker had gone out there, he never would have made it, but a worker reached out. Dear ones, I'm of the conviction that this whole auditorium is filled with people who want to make a difference. And I want you to know that beginning in April, I'm going to bring all of our resources and energies to bear to do what I can to train you. I'm going to call upon the elders and the staff to bring their talents and we're going to begin training you specifically to go out and work in that harvest field. It isn't going to be easy. When you have this many people, there's all kinds of gifts. But I'm going to be teaching and the elders ministering and the staff on how the Holy Spirit can come in power through your life. And between Easter and Pentecost, there's going to be a transformation in our church. Hallelujah. By the grace of God. Are you ready to hear Jesus today? He's filled with compassion for the multitudes. And you're going to be His hands and His feet and His mouthpiece. By His grace. Let's pray. Lord, I'm confident today that you who began this work in my spirit just a few months ago, you're going to begin, oh God, to release the same grace in this, your church. And Lord, however it works itself out, Lord, however the multitudes come, Lord, in whatever way we go on and establish other works and release other groups of people, whatever way it happens, God, we release it to You. And I ask You now in Jesus' name to give us the confidence that You will make it happen because You are Lord of this church. Lord, we give You glory today. We give You glory. You know it's right today that we share communion together. We share communion with Lighthouse. We share communion with the visitors that are here with us today. But communion is simply God's way of saying when you can't do it, I'm there. Let's stand together and sing this chorus, give thanks, preparing our hearts to receive Him. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One. Give thanks because He's near. Jesus Christ is born. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks because He's near. Jesus is holy. On the cross day, I am established. Because of what the Lord has done, I am healed. Oh God, we humbly yield to You now, thanking You for the grace of life that has come to us in Jesus. We set apart these elements now, Lord, the common use, and we ask You to open our hearts and eyes of faith to receive grace now, Lord, to live pleasingly and powerfully unto Jesus' name. Here in our church, we've established that we have an open table of communion. It is Jesus who gives the invitation to come today. We don't put any restrictions on that table except to say to you, it's important that you personally know that you are receiving the body and the blood of Christ Jesus. And if you've never personally encountered Him, if you've never opened to His love and said, Jesus, I accept you. Maybe you've been in a process over the last months or maybe something dramatic's happened in your life and you know that today, you want to know Him. This is a perfect time to do that. Just say, Jesus, I receive Your sacrifice for my sins. Come into my life. I believe everyone in this room who receives by faith will find power and grace to walk pleasingly to You. Let's bow our heads, please. Some of you out there just would say, Pastor, I need the Lord in my life and I receive Him right now according to your invitation. That's all I'm going to say. If that's who you are, just raise your hand up and put it down again. That's all I'm going to do. Go ahead. Put your hand up and take it down. All right? Go ahead. Put it up. Take it down again. In the name of Jesus, I receive grace to receive the Lord as my Savior. All right? Praise the Lord. In Jesus' name. Okay, now go ahead and be seated, church. The night that Jesus was betrayed, He took this bread, and when He'd given thanks, He broke it in seven. This is my body broken for you. If you would hold your portion until all have received, then we'll partake together. Come, ushers, if you would now and dispense the alms. Lord, now we receive this portion knowing that because You were willing to be broken for us, we have life. And I pray, Lord, whatever our own pride or resistance or even hurt would keep us from being broken for another. Lord, that this grace would come upon us today that we literally become the bridges over which others would walk. For their Savior, Jesus. The body of the Lord Jesus. This cup that I now lift before you is the cup of the new covenant in His blood. The new covenant means that it's no longer an outside work to please God, dear ones. It's an inside gift. And today, if you're here as a struggler, if you're here as a person who finds that failure is more common than victory, I want you to know that the blood of Jesus has not lost its power for you today. If you're here today as one who feels like it doesn't all make sense to you, simply trust in the fact that God did it all. What He did, you can now receive by putting your faith in Him. Just come near to Jesus. Let everything else fall aside and He'll put in you the very grace that He wants to have come upon you through Jesus. Come, ushers, if you would. Receive the cup together. Once again, hold your portion for just a moment. I'm filled with my fears, my inhibitions, my confusion. Jesus, after He had been raised from the dead, said these words to the disciples, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Think of it. Jesus was sent to give Himself for us, and now He says, Will you go for me? I'm sending you. And I pray as we receive this cup now, we will be with the assurance that He gives you the strength and the grace to fulfill that call upon you. Receive the cup together.