Title: Who Is Your One?
Place: BLCC
Date:7/2/17
Text: Luke 5.27-32
CT: Jesus already knows whom we are trying to reach.
FAS: In his book The Gospel According to Jesus, Chris Seay mentions a profound lesson he learned from his father about loving the "bad people":
Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, so we used to get outfield deck seats (aka "the cheap seats") to see the baseball games at the [Houston] Astrodome. Most of the people buying the cheap seats did so to save more money for beer. After the first few innings, they were drunk, and by the time the seventh-inning stretch rolled around, there would be beer mixed with peanut shells on the floor, spilled beer down your back, and a brawl two rows over and back to the left. It was ugly out there. As a kid, I learned from a lot people that we were sitting with the "bad people."
There was one consistent drunk fan named Batty Bob. He was a self-proclaimed Houston Astros mascot. He'd come to all the games wearing a rainbow wig, and he'd lead slurred cheers in the stands. I remember one time my dad went out to sit and talk with Batty Bob. He spent the whole game with Bob, then walked him out to the parking lot to bring him home with us. I was more than confused, because this guy was one of the "bad people."
When we got home, my dad came to me and explained how God loved Batty Bob. I remember thinking, Really? Batty Bob? And he stayed with us for a few days to get back on his feet. This is when I started to realize that God did not despise these people; he dearly loved them.
Chris Seay, The Gospel According to Jesus (Thomas Nelson, 2011), p. 147
LS: As followers of Jesus we must live out our conviction to reach the “bad people” we meet.
Let’s go straight to scripture this morning.
Luke 5.27-32, 27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Are we expecting evangelism without evangelists? Are we an evangelistic church?
Do people come to Christ from what we do?
What is evangelism?
Evangelism is the preaching or the teaching of the gospel with the intention of exposing God's love to all mankind through Jesus Christ.
Are we a voice for people who are away from God?
Is BLCC a place where someone would feel comfortable coming in to meet Jesus?
Are we expecting our church to just drift into evangelism?
Are we maximizing what we have?
Are we connecting with men?
Are we connecting with women?
Are we connecting with young people?
Are we connecting with people who are not like us?
Are there people who feel like they can come here and worship with us without us judging them?
Are we celebrating our conversion stories? WE should be jumping and rejoicing when a young person like Elle Fulton comes forward and is baptized.
Do you have someone you need to invite not just to church but to talk and meet with you about what Jesus has done for you?
WE all have someone in our lives we need to be reaching out to.
WE should all have our ONES that we want to see find Jesus.
Jesus could see the ONES that needed to be reached. We see him going after one of his ones in our text today. Luke 5.27.
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.
Jesus sees this Levi as a tax collector, the worst of the worst to most of the Jews. Levi had to take the job to survive. WE don’t know why he did. I am sure it wasn’t his childhood dream to take a job that would cause him to be hated by his fellow Jews. Jesus knew exactly who Levi was and what he had done and was doing.
You would think he would go up to Levi and say, “How dare you.”
But He doesn’t say anything at all like that. Instead…
Jesus says, Follow Me. In other words, “How are you”? Let’s go eat.
You see Jesus made followers by making friends not by telling them how wrong what they were doing was.
Levi got up and left everything and followed Him.
---Jesus came to change our mind about God.
Jesus wants a relationship with everyone. He wants a friendship to start as you follow Him. Anyone is welcome to follow Jesus.
Jesus is the most exclusive because he is the only way to God, but He is also the most inclusive because all are welcome to follow and be changed by Him:
Someone needing a smile instead of a frown.
A marriage needing mending.
An alcoholic needing a push.
We need to know someone’s story and why they are where they are. And then go get them.
How did Levi end up being a tax collector? Can’t you imagine how much he hated what he did? Jesus knew he didn’t want to stay there. Levi’s life sucked.
So Jesus has to go to him.
---Stay near, not far. We have to be near to those we are trying to reach.
Luke 5.29-30, 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
A missionary, or evangelist, enters into a foreign culture to invite them into the kingdom of God. He or she has to go where they are no matter how awkward or unclean that place may be. That is where you meet people. Where they are.
Where is your church? Is it only found surrounded by the walls here or is it all over our community. Is it found at school, at work, at the ballgames?
Is it found at the hospital, the jails or wherever people may be in need?
Our church is wherever we are. Wherever we the people are that is where the church is. You get that. When we go out of this building we are the church on the move.
A little boy was upset over what some of his friends were saying. They were cussing all the time. He didn’t believe he should be around them. He went to talk to his dad about it thinking his dad would tell him to stay away from those boys.
Instead his dad said he ran into the same thing at work. People there did and said things that he did not approve of. The dad said he didn’t laugh at their jokes or talk as they did. He did his best to influence the others with his actions. Dad said he couldn’t stay away from work and actually thought God had him there for a reason.
We are to be the influencer not the “influencee”.
Jesus went to Levi’s house and he was the influencer. He made a lot of friends that would eventually follow Him and be changed.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law did not like what they were seeing.
People of the church may not approve of some of the things we do to reach people not like us.
No matter what we do in ministry we are going to be criticized even if more people are reached by our actions.
So Jesus went up to Levi and says, “How are you.”
He did not approach him with his past…but offered him a better future.
---Say start, not stop.
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus sees us as patients not problems.
He says follow me. Don’t stop but start following.
Jesus knows he will be getting something flawed. He came for the sick.
The gospels are full of stories like the one today where people follow Jesus and then change.
The church is full of sick people needing a savior. And where is our church. It is all around us everywhere. The message of Jesus is for all those people out there.
A preacher was giving out Bibles in an inner city area. He handed one to an older man who told the preacher he appreciated the offer of the Bible, but wanted him to know he would use the paper of the Bible to roll smokes with.
The preacher said that was fine but asked the man to read each page as he smoked it. The man agreed to that.
The man later told some people that he smoked Matthew, Luke and Mark but stopped when he got to John. When he read in John that Jesus loved him he quit.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (Those are good words)
Jesus did not invite cleaned up people.
Jesus invited messed up people.
Jesus seeks the flawed to make them flawless.
Doesn’t matter who or what they have done or are doing.
He invites you wherever you are.
If you’re in debt because you thought all that neat stuff would bring you joy. Didn’t happen, did it. Jesus invites you.
If your addicted to something that is controlling your life and destroying your family, whether its porn or gambling, Jesus is inviting you.
If your way of living is not with God’s ideal. If you don’t go along with one-man one woman in a marriage as the basis for our families, then Jesus invites you.
If you just don’t buy into this Jesus yet, at least you are here. Jesus invites you to follow him.
You see Jesus calls us to invite anyone to follow Him. Invite them AS IS.
We don’t fix them. Jesus will.
1 Corinthians 15.10, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
The Apostle Paul got it. It is only by the grace of Jesus that any of us can gain salvation.
Paul wrote of working harder than the other apostles. This was not an arrogant boast because he knew that his power came from God and that it really didn’t matter who worked hardest. Because of his prominent position as a Pharisee, Paul’s conversion made him the object of even greater persecution than the other apostles; thus he had to work harder to preach the same message.
Are we willing to work harder to reach those who are lost? Even at the risk of being persecuted or made fun of.
Jesus did well with Levi. He was later called Matthew. He wrote the Gospel of Matthew. He maintained his belief and followed Christ until his death as a martyr.
Grace is enough for anyone.
When the church starts reaching lost people it brings in a new perspective.
Who do you know that needs to be reached? Is there any one any better than you to do the reaching?
Claim that person as your One.
Pray for them.
Make a relationship with them.
Love them.
Let Jesus change them.
Conclusion: Jesus already knows who our ONE is. Make the move you need to make to reach out to your ONE.
If you are not in Christ yourself, make the move today. Come be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, the grace and forgiveness that come from becoming one with Jesus.
Bibliography:
Atchley, Rick; This is for Everyone—Even that One, Sermon from NACC, 2017
