{"id":32957,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"gods-compassion-for-sinners","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/","title":{"rendered":"God&#8217;s Compassion for Sinners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/19077.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>I have never known a time when Christians have been more mad about more\nthings than we are now. Over the last 30 years, something dramatic has happened\nin America. For hundreds of years the foundation of our land was built on\nJChristian truth. Suddenly everything changed. It wasn&#8217;t our land anymore,\nand we who affirmed Christian principles found ourselves on the outside looking\nin &#8212; intimidated, marginalized, , and ridiculed. <\/p><p>As all of this unfolded, despair has turned into a souring, growing anger in\nGod&#8217;s people. We&#8217;re angry about values, politics, television, media, education,\nthe violation of the unborn, condoms, and criminals. This anger has given rise\nto a warrior instinct in the body of Christ that has left us with a radical\nprofile. We&#8217;re shouting more, and we&#8217;re shooting at doctors of abortion\nclinics. Publicly we are perceived to be long on madness and short on mercy, to\nbe more committed to our consternation than we are to compassion.<\/p><p>Something is out of joint in the body of Christ because our madness is\nunlike Christ. Although he always held to the truth, he did it with grace. His\nlife and ministry were marked not by consternation but by compassion.<\/p><p><strong>Christ exemplified moving to the core of the crowd.<\/strong><\/p><p>Luke 15 contains three of the most famous parables in Scripture: the story\nof the shepherd who lost one of his hundred sheep and went to find it; the\nstory of the widow woman who had a bag of coins, lost one of these coins, and\nwent to find it; and the story of the lost son, which we call the Prodigal Son.<\/p><p>One might question what was happening in that moment that caused Jesus to\ntell these three stories. The answer to that is locked in verses one and two,\nwhich tell of a polarization between the upset religious folks of the day and\nthe people in their culture who didn&#8217;t rise to their standards. What is\nfascinating is that you have Christ compassionately hanging around the worst\nkind of people of his day.<\/p><p>Verse one says, &#8220;Now all the tax gatherers and the sinners were coming\nnear him to listen to him.&#8221; Jesus was probably in the outer court of the\ntemple, maybe in the marketplace, and gathered around Christ &#8212; right at the\ncore of the crowd &#8212; were the tax gatherers and &#8220;sinners.&#8221; These were\nthe worst kind of people the Jews knew.<\/p><p>The tax collectors were Jews who had sold out to the occupying empire to\ncollect exorbitant taxes from their own people on behalf of the Roman empire.\nThe empire said to them, &#8220;If you want to attach a few assessments of your\nown, you can do that.&#8221; So they put all those assessments in their own\npockets. There were no people in that day more reviled than the tax gatherers.<\/p><p>The sinners were people who did whatever they wanted with no regard for the\nlaw that the Pharisees held to be so important. Christ is at the core of the\ncrowd with the worst kind of people of his day.<\/p><p>Around the fringe of the crowd are the religious folks, and they&#8217;re\ngrumbling, saying, &#8220;This man spends time with sinners.&#8221; There is the\npolarization of the text &#8212;Christ at the core of the crowd, the religious at the\nfringe murmuring and grumbling.<\/p><p>We find ourselves there today, at the fringe of the crowd grumbling about\npeople like that. We become grumbling warriors instead of committed seekers.\nChrist calls us to the core of the crowd to be committed seekers. Jesus said,\n&#8220;I have come to seek and to save that which is lost.&#8221; When he left us\nin his Ascension, he said, &#8220;As the Father sent me, so send I you.&#8221;<\/p><p>It&#8217;s more like we&#8217;re on a  mission, not a \nmission. We have a nickname for tow trucks here in America: a wrecker. When I\nwas in England, I noticed their tow trucks all have one big word on them:\nRECOVERY. When I saw that, I thought, <em>Same vehicle, same instruments, same\nmission &#8212; totally different perspective<\/em>. We say, &#8220;There goes a\nwrecker.&#8221; They say, &#8220;Here comes recover.&#8221; A lot of people in the\nbody of Christ move like a wrecker, but Christ came on a recovery mission.\nThat&#8217;s why Jesus was at the core of the crowd. <\/p><p>The Pharisees&#8217; dislike of the sinners and tax collectors was a profound\ntheological problem. They understood well God&#8217;s holiness and perfection, but\nthey knew nothing of God&#8217;s compassionate mercy and grace. That&#8217;s why Christ\ntold these stories. Every one demonstrates that a God who had lost something\nsignificant would be compelled to go after what he had lost.<\/p><p><strong>Christ does not condone the sin of the crowd.<\/strong><\/p><p>There is a risk for Christ to be at the core of the crowd. If he hangs out\nwith those kinds of people, some people will think he&#8217;s light on sin. In\nresponse, he tells the story of the lost son.<\/p><p>The text says, &#8220;A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said\nto his father, &#8216;Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.&#8217; And\nso he divided his wealth between his younger and elder son.&#8221; Verse 13\nsays, &#8220;And not many days later the younger son gathered everything\ntogether and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered\nhis estate with loose living.&#8221;<\/p><p>In these two verses, Jesus makes a clear point about the weight of sin by\npointing out the three ways the prodigal son offends his father.<\/p><p>Offense number one: he asks for his inheritance early. In the Palestinian\nculture, even today, you don&#8217;t do that, for it is similar to wishing your\nparents were dead. It is the deepest offense a child can impose upon a parent,\nand the Pharisees understood that.<\/p><p>The second terrible offense against the father came when the text says, he\n&#8220;gathers all that he has.&#8221; He cashes out his portion of the estate.\nUnlike today, the estate was not measured in stock portfolios, bonds, money\nmarket funds, and cash. Instead, wealth was measured in land and in flocks. He\ncashes out the assets of his inheritance, he sells a portion of the land. In\nthe Palestinian culture you don&#8217;t sell land that belongs to your family. Land\nis a valuable family heritage. <\/p><p>The son&#8217;s third offense is he squanders his inheritance in loose living. The\nland and flocks were the family&#8217;s social security system. Aged parents made it\nthrough the end of their lives by living off the estate. Not only does the\nrebellious son sell part of the estate, he spends his family&#8217;s social security\nsystem in a far land.<\/p><p>When we cut our independence from God, our sin, no matter how safe and\nprivate it may be, is a phenomenally deep offense to God &#8212; always. Christ makes\nit clear he understands the weight of sin.<\/p><p>This boy goes through a vortex of degradation. Notice in verse 13 his step\nof : &#8220;He squandered the estate with loose living.&#8221;\nWhen you&#8217;re loose, you do anything you want: no leash and no tethers. Step\nnumber one in the degradation of sin is , which leads to\n.<\/p><p>Verse 14 says he spent everything. Sin is an expensive business. It is never\nan investment. When we sin, we always spend relationships, health, time that we\nnever get back again. <\/p><p>S leads to , and  leads to\n.<\/p><p>It says, &#8220;When he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in\nthat country, and he began to be in need. And he went and attached himself to\none of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed\nswine.&#8221; Think of the degradation of that moment.<\/p><p>The text says he fed himself with the pods they fed to the pigs, and nothing\never satisfied him. The word <em>pod<\/em> is for <em>carob pod<\/em>. There were two\ncarob pods in that day. One is rich in sugar and nourishment, the other had no\nnourishment &#8212; only fiber. At this moment of degradation he tried to stuff\nhimself, and nothing satisfied.<\/p><p>Some of us have been there. We have felt the degradation of sin and sought\nfor something to satisfy us. The problem is that the longer it goes, the\nemptier we feel.<\/p><p>Verse 17 says ultimately he came to his senses. We also do that. We go to\nbed at night, put our heads on our pillows, and say to ourselves, <em>How did I\nget like this? I can&#8217;t believe I turned out like this.<\/em> This is\n, the feeling that you have to do something about your situation.\nThe whole vortex of sin &#8212; , , and \n&#8212;leads to . And that is what led this boy to . <\/p><p>Verse 17 says when he came to his senses he said, &#8220;How many of my\nfather&#8217;s hired men have more than enough bread? And I&#8217;m dying out here with\nhunger. I will get up and go to my father.&#8221; He practices a little speech\nto his father: &#8220;Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I\nam no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired\nmen.&#8221;<\/p><p>You&#8217;re thinking, <em>Bravo for the boy. Repentance has come<\/em>. <\/p><p>But he says he is no longer worthy to be called his son, and he&#8217;d be glad to\nbe made as one of his hired men. In the system of that day, a household had\nthree kinds of laborers. The bondslave attached himself to the head master of\nthe home out of love and loyalty for nothing in return. It was the most\nintimate expression of servitude. Then there were the household servants who\nhad a little more independence. Finally there were the hired men &#8212; day laborers\nwho lived in the village, who came to work, collected their paychecks, and went\nback to the village, and did whatever they wanted to do.<\/p><p>Have you ever met somebody who says, &#8220;I don&#8217;t like where I ended up. I\nneed God.&#8221; She reaches out for God, but she says, &#8220;Keep your\ndistance.&#8221; That&#8217;s exactly what this boy has done. This is not repentance;\nthis is . <\/p><p>Jesus Christ in this story makes this point: I can be compassionately\ncommitted to these worst kind of people, but I fully understand what a weighty\nthing sin is in its offense to a father and in the degradation of an individual\nlife.<\/p><p>At this point the Pharisees agree, saying, &#8220;Exactly. These are sinners.\nThey&#8217;ve offended God. They&#8217;re degraded. Amen. Preach that sermon. &#8216;Turn or\nburn; forsake or bake.&#8217; We love this kind of stuff.&#8221;<\/p><p>But Christ doesn&#8217;t stop there. He moves from the weight of the sin toward\nGod and from the sinner to the worth of a sinner&#8217;s life. <\/p><p><strong>Christ demonstrated the value of the sinner in the Father&#8217;s eyes.<\/strong><\/p><p>Verse 20 says, &#8220;He got up, came to his father. But while he was still a\nlong way off, his father saw him.&#8221; I find myself wondering how his father\nsaw him from such a long way off. I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if this dad on a\nregular basis, walking across his estate, didn&#8217;t cast his eyes down that road\nto see if maybe his boy was coming back.<\/p><p>If I were the dad and I saw this boy coming home, I&#8217;d say, &#8220;Aaah, the\nwretch is coming home, huh? This kid embarrassed me. He broke every Jewish\ncustom. He offended me so deeply.&#8221; <\/p><p>But the text says, &#8220;When he saw his son a long way off, he felt\ncompassion for him.&#8221;<\/p><p>The one offended most deeply was the one who cared most deeply for this boy.\nThat explains why Christ is at the core of the crowd. He knows they&#8217;re sinners.\nHe knows they&#8217;re the worst kind of people in the Jewish economy. But he knows\ntheir worth and feels compassion for them and reaches out to bring them home.<\/p><p>The text says not only did the dad feel compassion for him, but the dad ran\nto meet him. When this Jewish dad ran and grabbed the boy, throwing his arms\naround him and kissing him over and over, this would have shocked the\nPharisees. A kiss in Palestinian culture is a sign for full acceptance and\nfriendship. In that public way, he received him and restored him, and the boy\nfalls before him.<\/p><p>The boys says, &#8220;Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.\nI am no longer worthy to be called your son&#8221; &#8212; period. He does not ask to\nbe made as one of the hired servants. This boy is stunned by grace. The\narrogance of his spirit is melted because this one he had offended so deeply\ncared so much about him. And he threw himself on his dad&#8217;s mercy.<\/p><p>That is true repentance. True repentance is when we come to God with no\ndeals. We don&#8217;t cut deals at the Cross. No negotiations. No strings attached.\nWe realize what a terrible offense our lives have been to God, and he reaches\nout and compassionately welcomes us. There, we fall in abject repentance and\nthrow ourselves on his mercy. <\/p><p>When the dad received the son, that was a marvelous act of grace. If I&#8217;d\nbeen the dad, I&#8217;d say, &#8220;Let&#8217;s go home. Wait till your mother sees you. And\nby the way, I&#8217;m glad to welcome you back, but you&#8217;re on probation for six\nmonths.&#8221;<\/p><p>This father, however, takes him back to the estate and says, &#8220;Bring my\nboy a robe.&#8221; Which was a sign of familyship. He says, &#8220;Give my son\nthe family ring,&#8221; which was a sign of family authority. He says, &#8220;Get\nshoes for this boy&#8217;s feet,&#8221; which was a sign of a free man, not a slave.<\/p><p>God the father has marvelously recognized the worth of the sinner. He has\ntotally forgiven him, and he has not put him on probation. He has cut him fully\ninto the family &#8212; no conditions, no probation &#8212; fully restored to the father\nand the family.<\/p><p>Christ said, &#8220;I&#8217;m at the core of the crowd because God the Father has\ncompassion on the lost son and seeks to welcome him and give him full sonship\nin his family.&#8221; He told this story to explain to these grumbling warriors at\nthe fringe of the crowd why he was compassionately at the core of the crowd.<\/p><p>One of the important applications for us today is the probing of our own\nsouls. When we look at those around us &#8212; maybe the &#8220;worst&#8221; kind of\npeople in our culture who are so unlike us in thought and value and philosophy\nand orientation &#8212; do we see them through eyes of compassion? Do we understand\nnot only the weight of the sin but also the worth of them as sinner? Or are we\nstill mad at people like this?<\/p><p>God calls us to be middlemen in compassion transactions, to let his\ncompassion flow through us. It&#8217;s not easy.<\/p><p>Dan Rather was on our campus a couple of years ago to interview on our\nnational radio broadcast <em>Open Line<\/em>. Dan Rather has not been one of my\nfavorite people. I looked at him as part of the left wing media establishment\nwith its secular, pluralistic, relativistic, God philosophy. He seemed a\nlittle cold to me and a touch arrogant, and he was never one of my favorite\nanchormen. And there he was on our campus.<\/p><p>Well, during a break he and I spent a bit of time together, and I was\nshocked because he was the warmest individual. He seemed interested in\neverything I was saying, and he seemed to care about me.<\/p><p>He said, &#8220;I grew up in a Baptist home. In my grandma&#8217;s house the only\nthings she had to read were the Bible and the Sears Roebuck catalog.&#8221; He\ncontinued, &#8220;My grandmother read me the Bible every day.&#8221;<\/p><p>He went back to the interview, and at the close as the tapes were rolling,\nready to go nationwide, one of the interviewers said to him, &#8220;Mr. Rather,\nexcuse me, I don&#8217;t want to hurry anything. But if you were to die today and\nstand before God at the edge of heaven, and God were to say to you, &#8216;Why should\nI let you into my heaven?&#8217; what would you say?&#8221;<\/p><p>He paused and said, &#8220;Well, I have to say it wouldn&#8217;t be for anything I\nhave done. It would have to be totally by the grace of God.&#8221;<\/p><p>All of that to say this: I have no idea what his spiritual condition is.\nThis is not a statement about his spiritual condition; it is a statement about\na shame I bear in my heart. The shame is it didn&#8217;t cross my mind once to pray\nfor Dan Rather that God would compassionately reach out and embrace his soul,\ncancel hell and guarantee heaven, and fill him with abundant living. I hate to\ntell you that; it just never crossed my mind. I was too mad about all this\nstuff to think about his need for a Savior. I refused to be a middleman in a\ncompassion transaction between God and one who possibly needed him.<\/p><p>So where are we? Are we long on madness and short on mercy? Do we have more\ncommitment to our consternation than we do to the compassion of God? Then\nsomething needs to change. We need to move from that grumbling warrior fringe\nto the core of the crowd with Christ.<\/p><p><em>Joseph Stowell is president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago,\nIllinois. He can be heard weekly on Moody&#8217;s broadcasts, &#8220;Proclaim&#8221;\nand &#8220;Moody Presents.&#8221; He is author of <\/em>Far From Home<em>.<\/em><\/p><p> (c)\n<span style=\"\" class=\"\">Joseph Stowell<\/span><\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Preaching Today Tape #188<\/h2><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a><\/p><p>A resource of\nChristianity Today International <\/p><p><strong>For Additional Preaching Today Resources:<\/strong><\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.preachingtoday.com<\/a><\/p><p>Perfect web site for Pastors! Get  sermon illustrations, relevant\narticles, preaching tips, and more!<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306],"tax_ctp_authors":[1965],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[3599,3648,5005],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-32957","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-joe-stowell","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-christlikeness","tax_ctp_tags-compassion","tax_ctp_tags-social-action"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>God&#039;s Compassion for Sinners - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God&#039;s Compassion for Sinners - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have never known a time when Christians have been more mad about more things than we are now. Over the last 30 years, something dramatic has happened in America. For hundreds of years the foundation of our land was built on JChristian truth. Suddenly everything changed. It wasn&#8217;t our land anymore, and we who Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/\",\"name\":\"God's Compassion for Sinners - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-08-26T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2005-08-26T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"God&#8217;s Compassion for Sinners\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God's Compassion for Sinners - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God's Compassion for Sinners - CT Pastors","og_description":"I have never known a time when Christians have been more mad about more things than we are now. Over the last 30 years, something dramatic has happened in America. For hundreds of years the foundation of our land was built on JChristian truth. Suddenly everything changed. It wasn&#8217;t our land anymore, and we who Read more...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/","og_site_name":"CT Pastors","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@CTpastors","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/","name":"God's Compassion for Sinners - CT Pastors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-08-26T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/gods-compassion-for-sinners\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God&#8217;s Compassion for Sinners"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","name":"CT Pastors","description":"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization","name":"Christianity Today","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","caption":"Christianity Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors"]}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermons\/32957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermons"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermons"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermons\/32957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32960,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermons\/32957\/revisions\/32960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_audience?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_authors?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_categories?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guides","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guides?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_format?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_multimedia","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_multimedia?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_point_editor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_point_editor?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_publications?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_sermon_series?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_tags?post=32957"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_topics?post=32957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}