Life as a Radical // How to Live an Extraordinary Life, Part 3

Christianityworks Official Podcast

Jesus didn’t do things by half measures. His compassion wasn’t ordinary, everyday compassion. It was radical compassion. His power wasn’t religious power. It was God’s awesome power.

Radical Compassion

I have a confession to make. I’m not naturally a compassionate person. How about you? Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t care about people deeply. I do, but I’m not naturally compassionate.

So, what’s compassion? My dictionary tells me that compassion is a sympathetic pity and concern for the suffering or misfortunes of others. It’s derived from an old middle-English word, that comes from an even older French word, that’s derived from an even older Ecclesiastical Latin word, that means ‘to suffer with’. In other words, to feel someone else’s pain, and then to act on that, and to do something about it.

I’m pretty good at the second part – acting on it and doing something about it. I’m not always that good at the first part – actually feeling someone else’s pain. Why? Because of the way I’m wired on the inside; because of my motivations and my personality-type. Read Romans chapter 12 in the New Testament, and you’ll find several motivational giftings. Some of them involve a lot of compassion, and others don’t. A leader who’s too compassionate just won’t get anything done. On the other hand, people involved in caring for others – well, they’re naturally good at feeling someone else’s pain, which is why we absolutely love people like that.

So, why am I telling you this? Because today we’re continuing our look at what it means to lead an extraordinary life by looking at how Jesus lived His life, and one of the things He had in His makeup (we see it quite clearly on a number of occasions) is compassion. And I guess, as we take a look at this side of Jesus, I just wanted to make the point that just because we don’t all have compassion naturally wired into our DNA doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t show it from time to time. Have a listen to one of the compassionate things that Jesus did. Matthew 8:1:

When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And there was a leper who came and knelt before Him, saying: ‘Lord, if You choose, You can make me clean.

He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying: ‘I do choose. Be clean.’ Immediately the leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him: ‘See that you say nothing to anyone, but go. Show yourself to the priests, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’

Great crowds followed Jesus. He was a celebrity, a megastar, doing what I do, preaching the gospel. Often I’m dealing with crowds, whether here through the radio, or when I’m speaking at a church or an event, and as someone who’s naturally wired with not a huge amount of compassion, can I tell you how safe and how easy that is? Speaking in front of people, you’re detached. You rely on the fact that as the guy upfront, you are separated from the crowd, and that could easily have been the attitude that Jesus took. "I’ll stick away from the messy individuals with all those problems and pains that are going to inconvenience Me, and I’ll just preach to the big crowds."

We all have our ways of isolating ourselves from the pains and the problems of difficult people. Some live in gated communities. Some have stopped attending churches. We withdraw and we try to make ourselves comfortable, but Jesus met the leper – the leper who was smelly with open, pussy wounds; the leper whom others reviled, and whom God’s own Law segregated from mainstream society. And when the leper said to Jesus: "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean", Jesus did the one thing that no one had done since this man started exhibiting the signs of leprosy. Jesus reached out, and touched him. Touching the leper – now that’s compassion.

That speaks of the value that Jesus placed on this one man in his isolation and pain and suffering. In fact, Mark’s gospel account tells us that Jesus was moved with compassion, and that that’s what caused Him to reach out and touch this outcast. And the sense of the original Greek word translated into the English word compassion was that it was a deep, gut-reaction. It was something that Jesus felt in the core of His very being, and it was that feeling (literally the feeling of suffering with that leper in His heart, in His belly, in His gut) that caused Jesus to reach out, to touch him, and to heal him.

One of the reasons often we don’t suffer with people is that we’re too busy. When I think about who I am – because I’m a driven, outcome-focused, delivery-oriented kind of guy – time is at a premium for me. Now don’t get me wrong. In the mix of things, we need people like that, just as we need people who are nowhere near as time-focused, but who have buckets of compassion in their hearts. And what I’ve noticed is that when I slow down and just focus on the individual at hand, when I take the time to understand them and what they’re going through, I too can experience that sense of compassion, just like the next person.

It’s the speed at which we move sometimes that stops us from feeling and showing compassion. See, I want to skip right over the feeling bit, and the showing bit, to the doing bit. "What can I do to help this person?" That’s my natural desire, and there’s a 50-50 chance that you’re like that too, but often that’s not what they need. The biggest thing that someone who’s suffering needs is someone to stop and to be moved and impacted by their suffering. Sometimes just to understand them – to listen to them – to be with them.

I remember at a time in my life when I was suffering the biggest thing I’ve ever suffered in my 50-something years on this earth, there were some people who wept with me. That’s in fact the most powerful thing anyone’s ever done with me or for me. A truly extraordinary person is someone who shows compassion, whether or not it comes naturally.

Truth is, if we’ll just slow down a bit, take the foot off the accelerator a bit, we’re all capable of suffering with someone. We’re all capable of feeling their pain. We’re all capable of showing them that we feel their pain, and that will be one of the most transformative experiences of their lives. I can tell you that because I’ve had to learn it – because it doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m still learning it, and I’ll be learning it until the day I breathe my last breath.

That leper – I mean, I’m sure that he was absolutely over-the-moon at being healed. In fact, we know he was. Mark tells us he went racing round showing people what Jesus had done, even though Jesus had expressly asked him not to. This guy was completely, totally over-the-moon, and why wouldn’t you be? I would be; you would be. But I’m absolutely certain that in the days, weeks, months, and even years that followed, as he sat quietly by the fire in the evening at home, remembering that day in his life when Jesus reached out and touched him, that it’s the love and compassion that Jesus showed him that would bring tears to his eyes. What do you think?

Compassion is one of the things that sets a person apart. Compassion is one of the things that enables an ordinary person like you and me to live an extraordinary life. Compassion, in this day and age, truly is extraordinary.

Radical Power

I wonder what the word power means to you. There’s electrical power, there’s political power, and then – then there’s another type of power. It’s a power that’s completely set apart from any other power that you and I know about, think about, or have ever experienced, and that power is the power of God. Why is it different? Because it’s greater than any power that you and I can ever experience anywhere else.

Think of the immense power in a lightning bolt. It’s so powerful, it’s seriously scary. Well, all the power in every lightning bolt that has ever bolted down since the dawn of time is just a drop in the ocean compared to the power of God. And we’re going to talk about that power right now, because it’s that very power that is the key to leading an extraordinary life.

When I was young, I learned the harder you work, the longer you work, the faster you work, the more you’ll get done, the more items you’ll be able to tick off your to-do list, and the more impact you’ll be able to have in the lives of other people. But quite a few years ago, God convicted me to in fact pray more and do less. Let me say that again. Pray more and do less.

Recently on the programme, I mentioned a young woman at my church – Lucy, who was convicted through one of the posts on my blog to do just that. And do you know what she reported? She said, "Wow! The things I do just have so much more impact now." After just a month, she said: "I’m having all these conversations with my friends about Jesus and one by one, they’re coming to faith." I just smile to myself, because that’s exactly what I found when I decided to pray more and to do less.

And do you know why it is that when we pray more and do less, we get more done? It’s because prayer unleashes the power of God, and it’s the power of God that makes for an extraordinary life on this earth because the power of God is so much greater than anything we can ever begin to imagine.

Now, engaging that power is something that Jesus didn’t seem to have a problem doing; He just did it. You and I, of course, will say: "Yeah, sure, right. What do you expect? He’s the Son of God, of course He had all the power. That’s Him; I’m just me." But let’s take a look at how Jesus tapped into that power – the power of God to do extraordinary things. Matthew 8:5:

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, appealing to Him, saying: ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed in terrible distress.'

And Jesus said to him: ‘Look, I’ll come and cure him.'

But the centurion answered: ‘Lord, I’m not worthy to have You come in under my roof, but just speak the word, and I know that my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to one, ‘Go’ and he goes. I say to the other, ‘Come’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this’ and the slave does it.’

When Jesus heard him, He was amazed, and He said to those following Him: ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from the east and west, and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ And to the centurion, Jesus said: ‘Go. Let it be done for you according to your faith’, and the servant was healed that very hour.

Let me ask you something. Was there any uncertainty in Jesus’ mind about the power that God had given to Him? Apparently not. He just did what came before Him, and what came before Him that day was a man of faith. Importantly not one of God’s chosen people – not a Jew, but a Roman officer – one of those whose job it was to occupy and to oppress God’s chosen people, but he was a man with faith. In fact, it was faith so great that Jesus marvelled at it:

I tell you, many will come from the east and west, and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And it was this faith that caused the power of God to flow through Jesus and on into this centurion’s servant who, by the way, was nowhere to be seen! Remote-control distance healing. Pretty amazing stuff! No wonder Jesus marvelled at this man’s faith.

By way of sharp contrast, when Jesus was in His hometown of Nazareth, He was able to perform very few miracles indeed. Why? Well, let’s have a look. Mark 6:3:

Because they took offence at Jesus and didn’t believe in Him, He did hardly any deeds of power there.

In fact, Mark 6:6 says He was amazed at their unbelief. I love that. With the centurion, Jesus marvelled at his faith. But here, with God’s own people, He was amazed at their unbelief! In His own hometown.

It seems to me that one of the keys to an extraordinary life is extraordinary faith. Let me say that again. One of the keys to an extraordinary life is extraordinary faith – faith that goes against reason, in the miracle-working power of Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus never turned anyone away who came to ask Him to perform them a miracle – to pour the power of God out upon their lives. Not one.

Why do we walk around in the miry clay – feet heavy, shoulders hunched, when we have access to the indescribable power of God to get His will done on this earth? Question for you today: Would you rather that Jesus marvelled at your extraordinary faith in Him, or at your extraordinary unbelief in Him? Well, would you rather He walked away pinching Himself to make sure that the faith He’d just seen in you was for real, or that He walked away shaking His head, wondering: "How could you display such manifest unbelief in this Jesus you confess to believe?"

There are so many things in this life that we can’t do – so many mountains we can’t move. There are so many things Jesus calls us to do in His name that, for some reason, we think we have to do in our power. Sure, life’s full of mundane; full of challenges; full of hardships, but life is also full of the power of God, and it seems to me that the difference between the extraordinary and the ordinary is a bit like the difference between the centurion and one of those locals in Nazareth.

It’s Time to Go

We are such masters of self-delusion, you and I. Come on, we are – well at least I am, and I know for a fact that so often the church is too. Take Jesus’ great commission to His disciples.

'All power in heaven and on earth has been given unto Me,’ says Jesus. ‘Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And remember, I’ll be with you wherever you go, even unto the end of the age’.

Matthew 28 – the very last thing Jesus said to His disciples.

Notice what He told them to do. He told them to go – "Go on, get out there, get amongst them, this is what I’ve called you to do." And here we are, two thousand years on, building massive cathedrals – still sitting in our pews, expecting them to come to us. Now that’s a little unfair. So many of God’s people and God’s ministries and God’s churches are out there amongst it – going, just like Jesus told them to.

Jesus didn’t invite us to build a country club. He called us to go out into the world and be His hands and His feet, scarred as they are, and His voice and His heart of compassion to a lost and hurting world – to the parents of that little boy in the soccer club whose marriage is on the brink; to the guy who sits on the bench in the mall alone each day, a bit on the nose, in need of a good wash.

When I was at Bible-college, I was required to go and spend two semesters with a ministry, doing practical field training. The ministry I went to as a raw, wet-behind-the-ears seminary student was Christianityworks – the very same ministry I’m involved in today. It makes me speechless to think, at a time when I knew so little, I was already writing and producing radio-programmes that would be heard by rather a lot of people.

What was the principal of the college thinking? What were my lecturers thinking and come on, what was Jesus thinking, unleashing me in my ignorance to preach the gospel? Scary thought. Surely I needed to graduate first. Surely I needed to become a much deeper theologian first. Surely, there had to be something more – well, I wonder.

Not long into His public ministry, Jesus sent His disciples out to do some field ministry training. He sent them off completely without Him, and without anything much else either, it would seem. These guys were just fishermen and tax-collectors – seriously uneducated, unqualified, unreligious dudes, with absolutely no qualifications to do what Jesus was calling them to do. I seriously wonder sometimes if Jesus really knows what He’s up to. I mean, come on! Really! Have a listen to this. Matthew 6:6:

Then He went out among the villages teaching. He called the Twelve and began to send them two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff – no bread; no bag; no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them: ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you or they refuse to hear you, as you leave shake the dust off your sandals as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, anointed people with oil who were sick, and cured them.

Now just stop and imagine that that had been you that Jesus sent out like a sheep to slaughter. He gives you the authority to cast out demons. You’ve known Him for ... mmm ... 5 minutes at this point. Are you feeling confident? ‘Oh and by the way, don’t take any food or money or a change of clothes, ‘cos you won’t need them.’ What, is He dead-set crazy – this Jesus? Maybe He’s on the same stuff as John the Baptist, that lunatic in the wilderness, was on not so long ago.

Do you see how easy it is for us to think in conventional terms? Do you see how easy it is for us to sit in comfortable pews, in a comfortable church-building, and complain about the air-conditioning that’s not working properly? See, to us, conventional equals comfortable. Conventional equals convenient. Conventional is all about enjoying the experience. In any case, we’re not that qualified yet. We need to sit in those safe, comfortable pews just a little bit longer, before we get our hands too dirty.

Let me tell you something, friend (and this is for me as much as it is for you) if we’re someone who believes in Jesus, then Jesus has given us the authority to cast out demons. He has given us the authority to minister in His love, in His compassion, in His power, to those around us. And not only has He commissioned us, He’s commanded us to go!

Conventional wisdom says that I should never have been allowed to go out back then when I was so green, and tell people about Jesus, but that’s what led me on to doing what I’m involved in now, that reaches far wider – to many more people than I ever, ever could have imagined back then. ‘Cos when God calls us, when God commissions us, His power flows around us and through us to achieve what He always planned to achieve.

It was the same with those early disciples. Conventional wisdom says they should never have been sent out there on their own, but they weren’t on their own. The power and the presence of Christ was with them and around them, and ahead of them and behind them, through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And as a result, they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, they anointed many with oil who were sick, and cured them.

You know what I get out of this? Greatness is just about going. Just get up and go – go where Jesus calls you to go. Go where Jesus leads you to go. Just take the first few steps, as whacky and as weird as it may seem to you, because when He gives us the authority to do what He’s called us to do, watch out! His authority gives us the power to prevail in what He’s called us to do.

There are many comfortable, suburban, pew-sitting Christians, who will live out their very ordinary existence in that church. Then, there are those crazy disciples who dare to go – who dare to accept the authority given to them; who dare to live out a truly extraordinary life.