Seeing with Jesus Eyes (Part 3 of 'Living the Christian Life')

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Sermons

2011

Written by David Charlton

Scripture

Matthew 9:35-38

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. 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 pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

James 2:1-9

My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. ² For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, ³ and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "Have a seat here, please," while you say to the poor man, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme that honorable name which was invoked over you? ⁸ If you really fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Core Idea, Purpose & Summary

Core Idea: We need to see people through Jesus eyes

Challenge: To challenge Christians to see all people through the eyes of Jesus and to allow this view to dictate how we treat people.

Summary: When Jesus saw the lost and hurting crowed, he had compassion. This compassion was directed towards everyone in the crowed. Like Jesus, we have a ‘crowed’ to look upon. Our ‘crowed’ consists of the people driving past the church on Atlantic Blvd., those who live south of us in the Glynlea/Grove Park neighborhoods, those who live east of us in the Woodland Acres area and those who live north of us across Pottsburg Creek. It’s a huge crowed that is full of lonely and hurting people. Are we like Jesus? Do we have compassion for everyone in our ‘crowed’? How do we go about seeing every person through the eyes of Jesus?

The Sermon

I. Introduction: The many perspective of one story

A. The facts of the story

When I was in 6^th or 7^th grade, I came home from school
The house was locked, I forgot my keys
I was frustrated and kept kicking the sliding glass window
The sliding glass window broke
My brother came home
My Mom came home
I told Mom I felt neglected
My Dad replaced the glass with a thin sheet of plywood

B. My brother’s version of the story

I was sitting outside of the broken sliding glass door when he arrived home
My brother empathized with how much trouble I was in
Mom came home and I told her I felt neglected
My Mom hugged me and immediately felt sorry for me
She said it was ok.
My brother was forced to help my Dad replace the sliding glass door while I played.
Not only was I not punished, I was pampered.

C. My Mom’s version of the story

When she arrived home, she saw the broken sliding glass door and was angry
When I told her that I felt neglected, she felt bad but remained stern. She told me that was no excuse for what I did
I was punished and had to help my Dad replace the sliding glass door

D. My version of the story

I was angry I couldn’t get into the house. There was a carton I wanted to watch
In my anger, I kept doing mule kicks against the sliding glass door. After about 3 or 4 kicks, I heard a loud crash. I turned and saw the shattered remains of the glass door.
I stood outside petrified of what my parents would do when my brother arrived home
My brother showed absolutely no sympathy. He laughed at me and anxiously awaited the arrival of my parents.
When my Mom arrived, I told her I felt neglected. She hugged me and I didn’t receive any punishment.
My Dad replaced the sliding glass door. I was supposed to help but I simply played around while he replaced it. My brother did not help replace it either.

E. When you have multiple witnesses to one story, you have multiple versions

Each person will bring their own bias and agendas to the story.
Each person will see and remember things other people miss
Each person will interpret things in their own way

F. There is only one person with a complete and accurate understanding of every

event and every person

That person is our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ
As fully God and fully human Jesus can look at a situation and get right at what’s really going on.
He can also look at a person and really know what’s in that person’s heart.
Fore this reason, we need to look at people with ‘Jesus eyes’

II. Looking at people with ‘Jesus eyes’. How did Jesus look at people? Matthew 9:35-38

answers this question.

A. Mat. 9:35-36 - And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their

synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease

and every infirmity. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them,

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

Jesus looked upon the crowed and had compassion because the crowed was lost and hurting
We (Glynlea Grace UMC) also have a ‘crowed’. Our ‘crowed’ consists of the people driving past the church on Atlantic Blvd., those who live south of us in the Glynlea/Grove Park neighborhoods, those who live east of us in the Woodland Acres area and those who live north of us across Pottsburg Creek.
Our ‘crowed’ is full of lonely and hurting people.
Do we have compassion on our ‘crowed’ the same way Jesus had compassion on his crowed? Do we see our crowed with ‘Jesus eyes’?

B. Mat. 9:37-38 - Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the

laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into

his harvest."

Jesus told His apostles to pray for the crowed and ask God to send people to the crowed to deliver the gospel (good news)
God answers this pray by sending the Apostles out to proclaim the gospel (Mat. 10:1-42)
We need to pray for our ‘crowed’. God will then send us in power to reach our ‘crowed’.

C. Jesus had compassion on everyone in the large, diverse crowed

Jesus showed no partiality…Jesus loves everyone and wants everyone invited into His kingdom
James 2:1-9 makes this clear

III. James 2:1-4 - My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord

Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing

comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and

you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "Have a seat

here, please," while you say to the poor man, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet,"

have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil

thoughts?

A. How do we treat homeless people when they visit us on Sunday morning? Do we

treat them the same as anyone else?

B. About a year ago a homeless man was sleeping outside the sanctuary one

Sunday morning. How did we treat him?

C. Did we see this man with ‘Jesus eyes’?

IV. How to see every person with ‘Jesus eyes’

A. First: We recognize Jesus was not an enabler. We do not do things to encourage

people to remain in their self-destructive behavior.

Jesus did not help people remain in bondage to sin.
Jesus was about freedom. He freed people from their sinful attitudes, demon possession, ailments, hurts, habits and hang-ups.
Jesus saw people as they could be when freed from their sinful attitudes, bad habits, hurts and hang-ups.
That’s how we need to see people.
Therefore, we should not enable people to continue self-destructive behavior. For example, we shouldn’t support a drug addict with money when we know he’s going to spend it on drugs.
Like Jesus, we need to see the addict as he could be free from drugs.

B. Second: We pray

It’s not easy to see every person with ‘Jesus eyes’. There are some people we don’t feel comfortable with. It’s hard to have compassion for some people.
When we pray for that person, however, Jesus will change our hearts. We’ll find ourselves genuinely caring for that person.

C. Third: We study Scripture

How can we know how Jesus would see people if we don’t study Scripture?
As we study Scripture, the Holy Spirit changes us and makes us more like Christ.

D. Fourth: Every time you interact with a person, ask this question: Am I seeing this

person with ‘Jesus eyes’?

Am I being compassionate?
Am I being loving? Do I desire what’s best for this person? Am I doing what’s best for this person?

V. Conclusion

A. Do you want to see people through ‘Jesus eyes’?

B. It starts with repentance and trust in Jesus. Surrender your life to Jesus.

Glynlea Grace United Methodist Chruch