Jesus was a friend of sinners

Jesus was a friend of sinners

Evangelism begins with making friends

Luke 15

One of the telling things about the ministry of Jesus Christ was the criticism it endured – from religious leaders. We talked about their reactions to His dinner guests a couple of months ago when we were in Mark 2. The story reads this way: Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Mark 2:15-17).

The unanswerable question for these religious leaders was, “How can someone present himself as a teacher of truth when He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” Or, “how can this man, who claims to love God, love bad people?” This question was more than a request for an answer; it implied its own answer: “he can’t be a teacher of truth, he can’t love God. The evidence is clear: he is a friend of sinners.” Jesus’ friendship with sinners became the evidence against His teaching because it showed the “real” Jesus. He was covertly a “glutton,” and a “winebibber” (which means that He really liked wine), a “friend of tax collectors and sinners!” Jesus received the title, “a friend of sinners.” And it wasn’t intended to be a complement.

What do we make of this charge? Is it true that people who hang out with bad people are bad people? Isn’t it true that “birds of a feather flock together?” And yet how do you share the gospel when you are isolated from the world of unbelievers? I want to look today at Jesus’ answer to the question, “why do you eat with sinners?” The answer is in Luke 15. The chapter begins, “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, ‘This Man receives sinners and eats with them.’”

That’s the question, stated as a declaration. And we need to get the answer right from Jesus’ mouth. Why does He eat and spend so much time with sinners? Jesus takes an entire chapter to answer the question because it takes three stories to explain His motivation. He is saying in Luke 15, “I’m spending time with sinners because . . . . :”

1. “I am looking for something lost.” Each of the three stories that Jesus gives speaks of a loss – the loss of a sheep, a coin, and a son. Because of the loss, the individual’s lives were changed.

Jesus says, “I’m like a shepherd looking for one lost sheep.” “I’m like a woman looking for one lost coin.” “I’m like a father waiting for his prodigal son to return.”

The awful truth is that people apart from Christ are lost. “Lost” means that they don’t know where they are going, that they are in danger, and that they are going to end up in hell unless they come to Christ. Have you ever viewed unbelievers as LOST? On their way to an eternity of torment? Have you ever thought of your neighbors, your relatives, your co-workers as on their way to hell apart from Christ?

Jesus did, and that’s what made His actions so strange to these Pharisees. That’s why He changed the location of His lunch breaks. He wanted to eat with lost people. Couldn’t He just preach to thousands? Yes. Couldn’t He just do miracles for all to see? Yes. But part of seeking the lost was eating with them! Do you find that interesting? That even God, with all His power and authority, sought His lost sheep, lost coin, lost sons one at a time – one sheep, one coin, one son? You would think that God could come down and zap a couple of thousand people at once and get them saved. But no, He sought them one at a time, maybe 3 at a time or 5 at a time. But He did it the same way we do it, the slow way.

The fact that Jesus was eating with them doesn’t suggest that He was getting drunk with them. He wasn’t in bars with them, this was lunch or dinner; He was eating with them. But that was too close for the “holy ones,” the Pharisees. They protected themselves by having nothing to do with “sinners.” None of this friendship business. They were friends of God!

Do you see that they didn’t understand the heart of God? They could criticize God in the flesh by calling Him a “friend of sinners” and a “wine drinker,” thinking all the time that they were friends of God. They didn’t understand the passion of His heart, that longed so greatly for His lost ones that He sent His Son after them.

When you believe that lost people are really lost, your actions will change. You can’t just say, “yeah, my child is lost.” You have to do something. The shepherd left the rest of His sheep to go after the one. The woman dropped everything, lit a candle, swept the house, searching in the dust and dirt for one coin. The Father WAITED (after probably dropping all), watching the road back from the far country.

Are you concerned at all about people who are lost? Does something well up in your heart when you think about your neighbor spending eternity in hell? Do you get exercised, worried, pained about the loss of someone without Christ?

II. “What is lost is extremely valuable.” The second part of this tri-picture emphasizes the value of what has been lost. It’s one thing to be searching for a penny that you hope will show up some day, it’s significantly different when you are searching for your wallet. What do you do when you lose your wallet? What does a parent do when her five-year-old disappears at Walmart? Have you seen the frantic look in the face of a mother who has just lost her five-year-old in Walmart? She drops everything. Only one thing is important.

Have you ever pictured that attitude as the driving force behind Jesus’ work on earth? The panic stricken mother at Walmart? I don’t think He had the wild, panic stricken glare of a mother, but there was a similarity in His motivation. He wasn’t here casually. He wasn’t just visiting a few towns, doing a few miracles. He was searching for His sheep, His coin, His son. What energizes evangelism is a realization of the value of those without Christ. Without an understanding of the value, much of what we do in evangelism is ritual. We sort of play the “E” game – that is until we realize that it’s our wallet; it’s our child.

A. How does a SHEPHERD think? What is the loss one lamb to a shepherd with 100 sheep? His loss is not just of a “worthless sinner.” Sheep are His responsibility, his business, his work, his accomplishment on earth. Sheep are what He is doing in life. And to lose 1% of His business is significant. He doesn’t just say, “well, we’ll cut our losses and let him go.” Jesus said to His Father in John 17, “of those You gave Me, I have lost none.” That is the attitude of a shepherd.

B. How does a WOMAN think? What is the loss of one coin? She has nine others. But that one represents 10% of her wealth. It’s not just a “worthless” sinner. She was taking a big hit. Ten percent?! We can’t let that go. She couldn’t wait to mount a search. She turned the house upside down. Can’t you see her down there in the dust, on her hands and knees, breathing a little polluted air, interrupting her list of scheduled events, because she couldn’t let her coin remain lost?

Have you ever been there? Have you had experiences where there was nothing you could do until you found what had disappeared? That’s the way the woman thought.

C. How does a Father think? What’s the loss of one son to a father? How about a rebellious son? He had given the father pain all his life. He never obeyed. He always had a better idea. And yet, to the father, it was his son. He wasn’t a “worthless” sinner. He was his heir, the love and joy of his life, the one who had grown up with him, the one he had played with and taught to fish and catch baseballs. I can tell you that the Father sees the loss of a son as incredibly difficult.

You know it’s been two and a half years now since our son Jonathan died, and I still get so overwhelmed at times. I would so love to see him, to talk to him, to give him a hug. I still sit around thinking about what I “could” have done or “should” have done to have kept him from death.

Sometimes in my sadness, I get this “corrective word” from the Lord, from my Father, who says to me, “have you ever had that same yearning for a sinner? Have you ever cried over an unbeliever?” That is the heart of God.

Here are Muslim terrorists blowing their brains out with no recognition of a loving father. Here are people desperately climbing the ladder of success at work, in business, with little understanding of what makes for true satisfaction in life. Who cares? Who cares when a terrorist blows his brains out? Your Father does. That’s His son, His daughter. Each is extremely precious.

III. “What is lost is MINE.” The third part of this tri-picture is the personal part. Jesus makes each of these stories personal. These aren’t just someone’s sheep; they are the SHEPHERD’S. These aren’t just someone’s coins; they belong to the WOMAN. And it’s the FATHER who waits for the prodigal. Jesus was eating with sinners because they belonged to Him!

Have you noticed how your involvement changes when the situation gets personal? You see kids fighting and don’t think much about it until you realize that one of them is yours? The traffic accident you come upon involves a car that you recognize? The personal element changes the motivation.

This change came upon me two weeks ago when Annette Blair handed me two medical articles as she was leaving church. As she was explaining that the papers described a fatal disease which was attacking her family, I started reading the introduction. The first couple of paragraphs traced the source of the disease to a group of Germans who lived in Russia on the Volga river and came over to America at the beginning of the 20^th century. The paper even called them “Volga Germans.” All of a sudden the paper took on a new, personal meaning, because my grandparents were “Volga Germans” who came to America in 1912. That paper was describing me! All of a sudden I get this feeling that Annette (an Italian) and me (a German) are more closely related – by a disease.

It was the personal element that motivated Jesus to eat with sinners. They weren’t just “worthless sinners,” trash out on a pile, they were His, they belonged to Him! What did this mean to Him? Let me look at it from two different directions.

A. Part of me is lost. I think Jesus is saying, “part of Me is lost.” Not only “they belong to me like sheep or a coin,” but “they are part of Me.” It’s part of My sheepfold that left. It’s part of my wealth that was lost. It’s part of My family that took off. It was His sheepfold that was interrupted; it was His wealth that was lost; it was His son that took part of His heart with him when he stomped out.

There is a problem here. How could they be “sinners” if they belonged to Him? How could God “lose” His possessions, or state that “lost” people “belonged” to Him? Does this imply that sinners were once in the sheepfold? Or that they were once in the family? Aren’t they His enemies?

Think about it this way: didn’t He create them? Doesn’t all of creation belong to Him? Didn’t He choose Abraham and his children to be His people? They did (and do) belong to Him. The tragic fact is, as Isaiah says, “all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way . . .” (53:6). These sinners that Jesus is eating with represent His personal loss. They belong to Him and He wants them back. That’s why He’s eating lunch with them.

But how would that motivation fit us? We didn’t create all things; people don’t belong to us. In fact, we don’t have a sheepfold, wealth, or a family, do we? So how can we say “that person is my sheep, or my coin, or my son?” We can’t – until we evaluate the word, belong.

What does it mean to belong? We normally use the word for people in our family. Maybe we birthed them and are responsible for their well being. They belong to us. But real life the word goes further than that. David and Jonathan, for example, back in I Samuel, “belonged” to each other and made a covenant with each other, even though they weren’t part of the same family. And people “adopt” children and they belong to them. In fact people “adopt” children without even formally adopting them. They sort of just “live” at their house, or someone becomes their mother or father or brother or sister, even though there is no formal or legal relationship.

Could a person “adopt” someone else as a son or daughter, brother or sister, and act as if they really were their brother or sister by loving them, seeking their best and providing for their needs? Sure! Could a person adopt two other people? Could a person adopt the world? Cheryl Townshend has “adopted” our children downstairs even though her two sons are out of high school. What does it mean for her to “adopt” your children? It means that she spends her time, energy, money, working down there, searching for ways to meet their needs. Thank her next time you see her.

Am I my brother’s keeper? Does the fact that another human being is lost have any impact on me? I think Jesus is saying, “it ought to.” Because they belong to you. You are your brother’s keeper. In what way? In at least three ways: They represent your business (the shepherd); they represent your wealth (the woman); and they represent your family (the father).

Nina was only a waitress, who was fired by Manny, the restaurant owner. Jose was the chief cook, but when he saw Nina leave he went after her, originally to take her a teddy bear that she had dropped unknowingly, but then to help her any way he could. She had come in late for several days because she was sick and on the day she was fired, she had just found out that she was pregnant.

By the time Jose found her with the teddy bear, she had already decided to have an abortion. That bothered him immensely because he had accidently killed a baby girl in an auto accident four years earlier on the same day he was going to sign a contract to play professional soccer in the USA.

So her baby, scheduled for death by abortion, became his baby, by adoption, to rescue. She wasn’t actually his baby, but she became his because he chose to help her mother think through the tangle of her life and desires. The baby’s name is “Bella,” and the story is coming out as a movie this week. I don’t think it will show in this area until September, but you will want to see it. Jose is played by Eduardo Verastegui. Nina is played by Tammy Blanchard. Manny is played by Manny Perez

I think that movie illuminates the underlying motive of evangelism. The truth of the matter is that evangelism is an ADOPTION – choosing to love someone who is lost, choosing to eat with them and share one’s life with them, so that you can help them discover the truth.

B. When I find what is lost I will be complete again. Jesus not only said, “part of Me is lost,” but He also predicted what He would do when He recovered the lost part – He would celebrate! What happens when the sheep is found? The sheepfold is complete! And the discovered coin, and the returned son make the woman’s wealth and the father’s family complete. When that occurs it’s appropriate for the whole place to erupt in praise, celebration and dancing.

Each one of these sections has joy and praise connected to the salvation of the lost one. The sheep gets carried home on the shepherd’s shoulders, who calls his friends and neighbors together to rejoice with him. The woman calls together her woman friends and neighbors for rejoicing. And the father calls for the fatted calf to be killed and a merry celebration of music and dancing. Why this partying? It doesn’t seem to fit the Pharisees’ somber view of God. Maybe not, but it is intended to be a picture of what life is like in heaven when a lost one is found. Verse 7 says, "I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” Verse 10 says, “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Think about that: heaven parties over sinners that repent. There is a completeness that brings out the instruments, the fatted calf, angelic dancing when “one sinner repents.” How to encourage celebrations in heaven? Have lunch or dinner with a sinner and introduce them to their shepherd, their maker, their father.

People don’t understand God. They think that somehow behind the picture presented in the Bible there is an angry God who is really mad at all His disobedient creatures. What did the Father actually do when He finally got His hands on His prodigal son? The Pharisees drew a picture of an angry father who was going to give the son what he deserved.

But that’s not the picture Jesus gave. He told of the Father running toward His son when he was yet far off, a rather embarrassing display of excitement in that culture. Older dignified men didn’t run. And then He hugged and kissed him, even though he smelled like pigs. In those days, a kiss was a pledge of reconciliation and peace. And then before the prodigal could get his speech delivered in verse 21 the Father interrupts by shouting commands to the servants: bring forth "quickly" the best ROBE (to indicate “status”) and a RING (to indicate “royal authority” — the ring was the family credit card), and SHOES (to indicate that this son was to be a freeman, not a slave, since shoes were worn in the house only by the MASTER, not by guests or slaves). If the prodigal was thinking about how to negotiate with his Father, he was probably shocked when he heard those commands and realized their implication. His Father, the One he had stiffed, whose inheritance he had totally blown, was instantly giving him status, authority and freedom!

Then, inexplicably, the Father adds the command to kill the “fattened calf,” an animal kept and fed for the day when they would have honored guests. It was "the" fattened calf (23), the only one on hand. At the same time his Father commands the gathered people, “Eat and GET EXCITED!”

Do you see how badly the son misunderstands his father? He had grown up with Him, and yet did not understand Him. He expected negotiations; and a trial, and reprimands, perhaps spankings. Instead, status? A party? “Who is this?” he is probably saying to himself. For the first time in his life he is meeting his FATHER! He never knew Him! He had a totally distorted picture, a terribly wrong picture, one that had messed up his life. The truth was that even when he was back in the pigpen, his father had forgiven him already. He simply did not understand His father’s heart, and wouldn’t know it by experience until he came home.

Why did Jesus eat with sinners? Because He was like the Father, just waiting for the opportunity to grant to those sinners status, authority and freedom. How many unbelievers have any concept of a God of Grace. If they have grown up with the notion that “you-have-to-earn-every-penny-you-get-from-God,” they probably see Him as an angry God they need to placate in some way. And you and I have the privilege of introducing them to the God of all GRACE!

Have you ever read any of the stories on “testimonyshare.com?” Here is the entry for Friday a week ago, entitled, “I Never Thought I’d be Writing This.” I’ve edited it slightly to cut out a few details.

About six months ago I had some dreams about Jesus Christ and the nature of the world. I say ‘dreams,’ but they were not ordinary dreams. Basically I woke up knowing that the whole Jesus Christ story was true. I googled what had happened to me and was amazed to find heaps of people who’d experienced similar things. Finally I started talking, and also got in contact with an old friend from high school who I remembered was a Christian. Then I bought a Bible which I couldn’t put down, and started going to church. I’d got that the story was true, but now the details were being filled in.

There have been several things which I could say about the last six months. First: far out. If I’d known Christianity could make me feel like this, I would have done everything I could to be a Christian long ago. I can’t describe it. Obviously, it’s the contrast between how I am now and how I was before. I wish I’d understood the jargon. When they say you’ll feel peace, you’ll feel peace. When they say you’ll rejoice, you’ll rejoice. There is no emotion I’ve ever had that comes half_way to what I experience now (and I mean no drugs, no ‘meditation,’ no travel buzz or lover’s high, nothing).

Second, I’ve been fascinated by the Bible. I love literature, but the Bible is something I’d pretty much ignored. Turns out to be the best book I know! (He/she talks about how beautiful it is).

Third, I’m learning to deal with you all! (Talks about his/her interactions with people).

Last, most of the people around me are remarking on the changes in me, and becoming interested in the things that have happened to me. Well, I don’t want anyone to miss out; this is way too good, and I’m glad they’re starting to know it. How can I not advertise it like the best thing there ever was or is or will be, with more success stories than you could ever read, when I know (finally, and for sure) that it’s exactly that!! (From testimonyshare.com)

This could be the testimony of the prodigal son! This may be similar to your testimony. Do you remember the day when you met your Father for the first time in your life? You came with nothing – as a helpless sinner – and you met the God of ALL GRACE – who wanted to celebrate? The reason Jesus came searching for you was so He could put you on His shoulders and bring you home; so He could give you status and the family credit card, and a position as a freed person in His family, so He could stamp on your heart with indelible ink – "FORGIVEN"!!!

Why spend time with sinners? We must spend time with sinners. Take them to lunch. Invite them to your house. Introduce them to the Father they have never met. Evangelism is a process of ADOPTION – choosing to love someone who is lost, choosing to eat with them and share your life with them, so that you can introduce them to the Father they have never met, and add to the eternal celebration up there over sinners who have repented.

07/08/07, BBC, am