Core Values #3 – June 15, 2008 – “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."  Dennis Mullen

            We’ve been talking for several weeks about core values, the values our church holds that shape us, give us direction, help us make decisions about spending money or allocating time.  Today we’re going to talk about two that tell us about dealing with non-Christians, unbelievers, people outside the Kingdom of God:  Lost people matter to God, so they matter to us.  And:  Extending grace to others begins their process of restoration.

1.  Lost people matter to God, so they matter to us. 

            From I Sold My Soul on eBay, by Hemant Mehta:  “An assertion that comes up again and again in churches is the idea that non-Christians are lost.  I really would like to hear an explanation to back up that statement.  I don’t feel lost; in fact, I’ve felt found ever since I became an atheist.  So I’d like to hear a pastor tell me why he’s convinced I am lost.” (p. 87) 

            Zero in on that statement:  I don’t FEEL lost.  Mehta has found his place in the world.  He’s well-adjusted and successful.  When he hears us use the word lost, he feels a little insulted. It sounds like “heathen” or even “loser”.  Why DO we call people lost?  And can we justify it?

            I did a word search of the NT this week on lost and I was surprised how infrequently the word appears.  Paul almost never uses it to refer to the unsaved (maybe once or twice, depending on your English translation).  Jesus doesn’t use it often.  But there are a couple of times that Jesus DOES use it that are so memorable and effective, so the word has stuck with us. 

            One time he used it when he talked about a farmer who had 100 sheep and one wandered away (he doesn’t even say “lost” there).  He leaves the 99 on the hills to go look for the one, and it says that “if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.”  And then (Matthew 18:14) Jesus makes this application:  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

            The other especially memorable time Jesus talks about the lost is in Luke 15.  That’s the place where it says that Jesus was attracting tax collectors and sinners, and the Pharisees and teachers of the law muttered the line which gives this sermon its title:  "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

            In response to that criticism, Jesus again told the little parable about the lost sheep, but he made it personal:  Suppose YOU have 100 sheep and one wanders off.  Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.  That really makes the point clear, that God longs for his sheep to come home and that heaven rejoices in celebration over the lost coming home.

            But Jesus went on and told a story about a poor woman with ten coins who lost one – 10% of all her money.  She lit a lamp and swept the house till she found it, and then with great joy she called her neighbors and said:  Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.  And Jesus makes the application:  In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

            So being lost isn’t a feeling. It isn’t a state of mind.  It doesn’t mean that you’re miserable or that life seems pointless or that you’re a failure.  Those things may or may not be true about anyone.  But the Bible teaches that being lost is an objective reality – it’s the state of being separated from God.  We use the term because Jesus did.

            Now I can imagine that, if you’re not a Christian and you hear me talk about how you are like a lost sheep or a lost coin, that might seem a little impersonal or insulting.  So Jesus goes on in Luke 15 and tells his most beloved parable:

            "There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, `Father, give me my share of the estate.' An irregular request, very rude, much like saying “I wish you were dead so I could get my money).  So he divided his property between them.

            ¹³ "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.  (Just the bottom of the barrel for a good Jewish boy to be working with unclean animals, even envying them…) ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 

            ¹⁷ "When he came to his senses, he said, `How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

            This is the response of RELIGION, almost any religion.  I’m a sinner.  I’m not worthy to be in God’s presence with the holy ones.  But if God will just give me a corner in his house, I’ll mind my own business and work hard and not cause anyone any trouble.  But what the son forgot, what RELIGION discounts, is the Father’s love.

            "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

            ²¹ "The son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

            ²² "But the father said to his servants, `Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

            We call that the parable of the Prodigal Son (prodigal meaning extravagant and wasteful) but the key player is the father, and when you look at his love, HE is the extravagant one!  The parable tells us so many things about our relationship with God.  We have a place in his house.  We have the free will to leave.  He longs for us to come back, and he wants to welcome us with grace and love and restore us to our place as sons and daughters.  And there IS such a thing as being lost, separated from the Father and his house.

            Now, this father in the parable was so extravagant with his love that his neighbors might have thought him a little crazy. They might have even said:  “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!”  The fact is, someone DID take that attitude:

²⁵ "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ `Your brother has come,' he replied, `and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

            ²⁸ "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, `Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

            ³¹ " `My son,' the father said, `you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

            The Pharisees and teachers of the law felt exactly like that older brother.  Sometimes we do too.  After we’ve been faithful for 40 years (no exaggeration there!) and have built up a strong church and given money for a nice building…after all that it can get pretty irritating to see the church put effort into reaching messy sinners, welcoming them and making a big fuss over them.  And that’s why we don’t do it very well.  We’re much better at welcoming new Christians who move here from Indiana into our fellowship than we are at dealing with lost people who might be interested in coming home.  Well the older brother section of the parable deals with that, and here is what it reveals:

            1.  God loves the older brother too.  We usually kick him in the shins when we tell this story for being such a jerk, but the father loves him too and wants him to understand.

            2.  The father HAS to celebrate when the lost are found.  It is in his nature to rejoice.  How could he do otherwise?  And so the closer our hearts are to His heart, the more we’ll have to celebrate and be glad too.  IOW, lost people matter to God, so they matter to us.

            Now if they REALLY matter to us, how does it show?  My skeptical side wants to say:  “It doesn’t.”  Even my most optimistic side has to admit that our concern for the lost doesn’t show like it should, and it doesn’t show in enough of us – me included.  But if it did, how would it show?

            First, it would show in the quality of our lives – our morals, ethics, generosity, willingness to forgive, the things we watch and DON’T watch or listen to, our help for the poor, our willingness to be kind to everyone regardless of their sin or political beliefs, our ability to confess and apologize for our own sins, etc.  Why does the quality of our lives matter?  Because we don’t live unto ourselves alone.  That’s why Peter is able to say:  1PE 3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.  And:  1PE 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  If we care about the lost, we’ll live in such a way that we testify to the power of Christ to actually make a difference in our lives, and we’ll see that we have a responsibility to do that.  My life and yours is a testimony, for good or bad.

            And second, it would show in the attention we give to telling others about our faith in Christ, in inviting folks to church and Sunday School and VBS and lock-ins and camp.  I have occasionally wondered at the fact that, of all the things we fund in our church budget, there isn’t a line item for local evangelism.  But the thing is, when evangelism gets separated from regular life, the message changes.  Evangelism works when it’s part of everything we do, every program at church, every relationship we have.  I don’t mean we constantly pester people about accepting Christ, but we live the Gospel in front of them and they know where we stand and who our highest allegiance is to.  If our concern for the lost is where it should be, we’d walk across rooms (like that book says that we studied here last year) and we’d get to know people and not be afraid to talk about spiritual things. 

            Is that where we’re at?  Is it where you’re at?

            As we do it, we remember…

2.  Extending grace to others begins their process of restoration.

            The religious answer to being lost is to establish a system whereby you can draw yourself closer to God.  The NT rejects that approach. Another answer is that you can reach the lost by condemning them with their guilt.  Someone who holds up a sign in a protest that says “God hates f---“ apparently subscribes to this approach.  The NT rejects that too

            It was the fact that Jesus associated with such folks that the comment was made:  “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."  It’s as much from Jesus’ behavior as his teaching that we get the message that extending grace to others begins their process of restoration. 

It was an act of grace that Jesus looked up into the tree and saw Zacchaeus, tax-collector, outcast, crook, and said to him:  “I’m coming to your house today!”  What a statement of acceptance of Zacchaeus as a man.  And as a result, Zacchaeus repented (Look, Lord…Here and now…) which prompted Jesus to declare him saved and to use the word “lost” one of the few times he uses it (For the Son of Man came to seek and save…)

And it was an act of grace that Jesus spoke to the woman at the well and engaged her in spiritual conversation.  She was a Samaritan, after all, and it says right there in the text that the Jews and Samaritans didn’t talk to one another.  The proper religious attitude would have been for Jesus to treat her as unworthy of the Gospel, or at least to tell her right off the bat that he knew all about her sin, her serial monogamy and her current live-in relationship, and he does get to that, but he begins with grace and good news about water that refreshes the soul. 

Even the name of Jesus’ message – gospel, or good news – teaches us that grace comes first.  Recently Bob S. asked me to lay out the gospel at his mother’s funeral, and to do it in such a way that folks in attendance who don’t know Christ would understand.  So as I prepared, I began in a way that I have before, by stating that the gospel begins with some bad news – that we are sinners in need of a Savior.  But then it hit me:  That isn’t where the gospel begins at all.  I’m starting at the wrong place.  The gospel IS good news so it begins with good news – there is a God who loves us and cares what happens to us.  The universe hasn’t been left unattended; there is Someone home.  There is a God, and he isn’t hateful or vengeful or spiteful or even apathetic.  Rather, he longs to know us as a father knows his children.  GRACE begins the process of restoration.

Now we’ve been trained pretty well to know that there IS restoration to be done.  There is a relationship to be restored – between us and God.  And when I let God get involved in my life, he and I together begin to weed out the sins that damage me and others and that grieve God.  But that’s the result of coming to the Father, not a prerequisite for it. 

Or here’s a capsule summary of how Jesus deals with lost people.  Remember when they brought to him a woman who they caught in adultery? (John 8).  They said:  “The Law says we should stone her.”  Jesus said:  “OK, let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”  That’s a call to accurate, humble self-assessment, remembering how much WE depend on grace and forgiveness.”  So of course they don’t stone her.  They leave.  Then he says to her:  “Where are your accusers?”  “They’re gone.”  “Neither do I condemn you.”  That’s grace, and remember he and only he had a right to condemn her, being without sin himself.  And THEN is the call to change:  “Go and sin no more” or “Go, leave your life of sin behind.” 

I want to end with that call today:  Picture Christ saying to you:  “Neither do I condemn you.  Now go, and leave behind your sin.  Live differently.”

Invitation

Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205