Friend of Sinners? | Kingdom

Welcome to the Kingdom podcast, it's good to be with you again. Our goal this week is to clarify the purpose of the Kingdom. What does it mean to seek first the Kingdom of God in all of our life, and unravel things like the gospel, the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of Darkness, spiritual warfare, all that fun stuff as it relates to the Kingdom.

I'm your host John Moffitt, I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and the Kingdom podcast is a part of the Theocast Network, which is really a podcast about Reformed theology.

Why Sinners Are Drawn to Jesus

All right, all the niceties are over. I've kind of been going on a series of thoughts. Last week we were talking about antinomianism. There is a... I got contacted by someone recently, and they were being warned to stay away from our ministries, my church and Theocast, stuff like that.

And they said this phrase that those... the people that are... the people who Theocast attract are men who have wrecked their lives. And I think they intended that to be a direct... like, mean and negative.

I took it to be a massive compliment. It's probably one of the best compliments I've received in ministry for a very long time, because when I think about the nature of what I do, that I preach a message of good news to sinful, dying people, wretched sinners, people who cannot find their way to God's righteous holy kingdom without the righteousness of Jesus, and therefore they are all trainwrecks.

They are all wrecked. And wrecked people is who we are. What does the song say? He saved a wretch like me. And so if they're attracted to it, I find comfort. Let me tell you who else who had lives that were wrecked, that were attracted to the gospel as well.

This is in Matthew chapter 9 and verse 11. It says, when the Pharisees saw this, they said to the disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he had heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I have come to call the righteous. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. And Luke says this two times in his gospel, both in Luke 15 2 and Luke 19 7.

But in Matthew chapter 11, which is two chapters later, he says this, the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

A friend, meaning that people felt comfortable around Jesus, which is a very interesting observation. And just a few verses later, so this is verse 19, in verse 28, he is talking to the people who are under the weight of the Pharisees and their laws and their constant law, and he says to them, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Now think about who it is that Jesus called to himself, the woman at the well. She had been laboring so long to try and find comfort in all of these different relationships with these men, and Jesus promised her living water.

He's talking to the woman knowing she's thirsty and she keeps trying to quench the thirst by sin and it can't be done, and he offers himself living water. He's talking to tax collectors and sinners, people who keep trying to satisfy themselves by means of money and by sexuality and by fame or by stealing and hurting others, and Jesus becomes their friend.

But we know what he offers them. He doesn't offer them, it's okay, it's all right, I accept it for who you are. No, if that was the case, the woman at the well wouldn't have heard about living water. But the woman was intrigued by him, right?

She continued to have a conversation with him. Wait a minute, why are you talking to me? Why are you showing me honor and respect? Why do you care about me as a person because I come here in the middle of the day because no one does respect me and yet you respect me?

And then the tax collectors, those who were hated because they were stealing from their own people, and sinners, the worst you can think of in the culture, Jesus was around them enough for people to say, he's their friend.

He's their friend. And there's never a moment, otherwise he wouldn't be God. There was never a moment he affirmed their sin, but yet they felt drawn to him. I think we as the followers of Jesus, the disciple of Jesus, should stop and wonder if sinners aren't drawn to us and want to be around us, maybe there's something wrong with us.

Why wouldn't a sinner feel comfortable around another sinner who has found Jesus? That is something wonderful to contemplate. When someone says, John, people who've destroyed their lives are drawn to you.

Man, that's so comforting because I am not going to leave them in that wreck. I'm going to show them the power of Christ to be freed from it, to be set free from the very thing that slaves them. Complimenting a slave is just the most ironic situation I can find myself to think of.

That doesn't make any sense. Someone who clearly is pretending that all is well, but inside they know they're a slave, I wouldn't want to compliment them in that. I want to say, are you exhausted? Are you tired of trying to pretend that all is well when you know it is not?

Do you know what is waiting for you, the rest that you're longing for? What's interesting, I said this last video, we offer the burden first before the rest. There is no burden to come to Jesus. He says, if you've been weighed down by a burden, come to me and I'll take it off.

For what you will do with me is far, far different than what you will do outside of me. There is work to be done, but that work is a joy, that work is a pleasure. It's something that we do out of love, not out of obligation.

This is why he says it's easy compared to what you're doing. This is easy. My yoke that you carry with me, it's nothing. So I find it a great value to think that we who are sinners are drawing other sinners by the grace and the mercy that we have received, we give it to others.

Paul, Timothy, and the Grace That Saves Sinners

I think it's comforting that when I think about Paul and he's writing to Timothy and he tells him this statement, it's the position that Paul held about himself. This is 1st Timothy 1 .15, he says, this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, meaning he had to caveat it because he knew people would reject him.

They would give him the eyebrow, like, what? Wait a minute here. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am, present tense, the foremost. This is accepting. He's saying that Christ saved sinners and yet I'm still one.

Why does he hold that position? Because he holds the reality that we are both saint and sinner at the same time. That that is an important concept. You can go to the Theocast page, we recently did an episode on this, I think it'd be valuable for you to listen to it, a wonderful panel.

But that is the position that we hold and this is what makes sinners so attractive to other sinners. We who have received the grace of Christ understand what it means to be a slave and know how to be patient and kind and draw in other sinners who want the same.

Law, Gospel, and the Mercy That Draws

Now that to be said, not all sinners are going to come and they're going to come wanting to hear what we have to say. This is why we're warned that we will receive persecution and people will hate us.

So I'm not here to live in this Pollyanna dream that just because we have been saved from Christ or saved from sin by Christ that everyone's going to love us. As a matter of fact, most of them are going to hate us, but we're still obligated to love them.

And for whom God is drawing and for whom he's opening their eyes to their sin, we need to be the ones that they feel comfortable around. You who have Christ, tell me more. Versus I don't want to be around Christians because they're hypocrites and they're mean and they're nasty and all they do is judge.

And there's no love that comes out of their mouth. And so my encouragement to all of us is to hold that position. Just think about it this way, this is why the writer of Hebrews 2 had to write this, because he's explaining what is happening to us.

So this is Hebrews 2 .14,. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power over death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death would be subject to lifelong slavery.

So Jesus is the one who delivers them from the power of the death, not you preaching the law at them. The law will condemn them but never change them. If you throw the law at somebody and then tell them to repent, they can't.

All they'll know is that I'm convicted and all they feel from you is judgment. But if you hold up the law and say, see what it has done to us? See how both of us are just guilty? See how both of us are full of shame?

Do you know why I have hope? Let me tell you why I have hope. I was like you and I am like you, but the difference is I have a Savior who loves me and has cleansed me and is changing me from the inside out and has promised a home for me, and I believe in him.

Would you like to know more about him? See, that's what draws. But in order to have that conversation, you have to be with sinners, and you have to have the compassion of knowing that the only reason why you aren't that wretch that's across from you is because of what Christ has done to you, not because of what you have done.

There is no reason to boast. There is no personal righteousness to be claimed of. And so when we're thinking about this concept of drawing train wrecks, I find it a great comfort and so wonderful to think of that God would allow us to be the pathway to restoration and reconciliation through one sinner to another.

This is why even Paul says that we are ambassadors of Christ, imploring all men to be reconciled to God. Why? We're one sinner heralding the message of the gospel to other sinners. So I just want to challenge all of us who are listening to Kingdom and to Theocast to understand the tone that we take here.

The reason why I think sinners feel safe among Theocast, it's not that they want to remain in their sin. I can promise you that. They don't. They hate their sin. You can't hear the gospel and love your sin.

When you hear the gospel, you hate your sin. The gospel is the good news of Jesus saving you from sin. You don't want to stay in it. Antinomianism would be, it doesn't matter how you act, God's going to love you no matter what.

That's not good news. That's a lie. The good news is God loved you so much he had to cover your sin with his blood, and he has set you free from Satan and his terrible tyranny of sin and slavery, and you walk in newness of life.

Look unto Jesus now. Walk by the Spirit, trusting in the work and the words of Jesus on your behalf, and every day you're going to need to repent, running back into the throne room of the Father, asking him for mercy and grace.

But we will never leave a position of humility because we will always be humble sinners who have been saved by a powerful God, and it is by his grace that keeps us in the strength and in the strong, like even when he says in Ephesians 6 .10, stand in the strength of the Lord, right?

Be strong in the strength of the Lord. Why? Because it's in the armor of God, which is the gospel, the wonderful person of Christ, that we stand in the strength. It's not our own righteousness, our own faith, our own truth, our own salvation.

Those aren't the things that we put on. So if you're listening to this and you tend to be harsh and people around you have a hard time even confessing their sin, you might want to step back and say, well, why did sinners want to be around Jesus and sinners don't want to be around me?

It might be because you're judgmental and prideful. You've lost your position. Your position isn't God. Your position is not judge, it's ambassador. You represent him and what he wants you to represent, and that's reconciliation, right?

That's what Paul says. Be reconciled. Well, how are you reconciled? By the blood of Jesus Christ and the wonderful mercy and grace of our God on your behalf. That's how you are reconciled. So yes, preach the law and call sinners to see, but do it with compassion.

Do it with patience. Do it understanding where you came from. Jesus even did this. This is why they wanted to be around him. This is why they felt comfortable with him. This is why they worshiped him, because he was their savior, not their judge.

Yes, he's their judge, but he also is the one who saved them and they saw that. So my encouragement to all of us is that our lives should all be ones where people who have wrecked their life want to be around us because you are ready to give them an answer of the hope that lies within you.

That's why Peter says, be ready to give everyone a hope, an answer of the hope that lies within you. Why? Because you're different. You're a wretched sinner who has a hope. Most sinners don't have that, but you do.

So my encouragement to all of us is defend Christ and the power of the gospel. We don't need to defend ourselves. We're sinners, we know that. We don't need anybody to promote us or pat us on the back.

We've done nothing of worthy, but Christ has. That means you can put your arm around a wretched sinner, you can be sympathetic with them, you can explain to them that you are like them in every way, and the only difference is is that you have experienced the rest of Christ, and they too can experience it by faith through means of the gospel, and from that they will find repentance and turn from their sins and see what it's like to live for Christ in the kingdom and glorify Him, and as they work in the kingdom, they too will be the one who finds train wrecks and leads them to Christ and who finds train wrecks and leads them to Christ.

That's the hope of our life, not to get to the end and say, see how well I performed. You're not performing anything without the power of Christ in you, so look to Him, stop looking to yourself, and be thankful that wretched, wicked people want to hear what you have to say.

If they don't, you might need to ask God to humble you and give you wisdom, and in James chapter 1, he says he will. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of the Lord, and He will give it to him graciously.

Start asking God for wisdom so that you might be a beacon of light for those who have wrecked their life. We'll see you next week.