Straight Talk about Salvation!

INTRODUCTION

1 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.”Luke 15:1-2 NKJV

When D.L. Moody was directing his Sunday School in Chicago, one boy walked several miles to attend; and somebody asked him, “Why don’t you go to a Sunday School closer to home?”

His reply might have been used by the publicans and sinners in Jesus’ day: “Because they love a feller over there.”

It is significant that Jesus attracted sinners while the Pharisees repelled them. (What does this say about some of our churches today?)

Luke’s opening sentence doesn’t offer a specific. It’s a summary statement describing a growing trust for Jesus among Israel’s social outcasts. Gaining their trust was no easy feat.

The temple crowd had forsaken these men and women, so they had naturally returned the favor. By the time Jesus arrived, a great divide separated the equally sinful, stubbornly entrenched, and mutually hostile groups. Religious leaders stood on one side bellowing, “Unworthy!” while tax collectors and sinners shouted in return, “Hypocrites!” Some things never change.

Lost sinners came to Jesus, not because He catered to them or compromised His message, but because He cared for them. He understood their needs and tried to help them, while the Pharisees criticized them and kept their distance (see Luke 18:9–14).

For months, Jesus had been building a track record of gentle approachability. Without compromising morality or obedience to the Law, Jesus systematically challenged the hypocrisy of the religious leaders; and he socialized with irreligious Jews, accepted them as they were, ministered to their needs, and even stood with them against hypocritical condemnation. His consistency paid off. They “were coming near to listen to Him.”

On the other side of the great divide stood the scribes and Pharisees, men who referred to sinners as “people of the land.” This term became especially derisive during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, who led the Jews back to Israel after seventy years of exile in Babylon.

When this godly remnant tried to rebuild the temple and fortify the city of Jerusalem, they found resistance among the mixed-race inhabitants in the surrounding regions (Ezra 4:4; 10:2, 11; Neh. 10:28–31). As the nation of pure-blooded Jews reestablished its dominance, the social and religious elite used the term “people of the land” to refer to all other Jews. By the time of Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees rejected any Jew who didn’t observe their traditions, treating them as disdainfully as they treated Samaritans and Gentiles.

Ironically, Jesus had just concluded his message to the crowd with the invitation “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 14:35).

Now it was the outcasts who “were coming near Him to listen to Him” (“listen” is the same Greek verb as “to hear”). The scribes and Pharisees began to grumble.

The scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus for “receiving” these undesirables. The Greek term most often has one of two meanings: first, “to welcome favorably” and, second, “to look forward to” or “to wait for.” Jesus longed for the company of sinners, waited for them to overcome their suspicions, and then embraced them eagerly. He even socialized with them.

I want to confess to you that after almost 49 years of being a minister on the staff of a church, I still find evangelism hard. For me, telling people about Jesus has often been nerve wracking. But at the same time, it has been joyful.

My hope in sharing a month with you in the 15th Chapter of Luke is that I’ll help you experience some of the heavenly joy in getting out among the lost and seeing Jesus work His salvation in their hearts!

After I was found by Jesus as a 16 year old lost sheep, I experienced his shepherding and learned from my Youth Leaders the importance of getting in the family of God business myself.

Al Wright pointed out the importance of our witness for Jesus:

8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”Acts 1:8 NKJV

Moving about our lives, building relationships with the lost so that Jesus, the Great Shepherd, can call them to himself is our responsibility and joy!

In Luke 15, Jesus shows us that something of great value is lost. There’s an all-out search to find it. Then when it’s found, there’s unbridled joy right across heaven. And that “something” is people. God is the great evangelist, the great seeker and finder of people; and he’s called his followers to the same pursuit and the same emotion.

Three words summarize the message of this chapter: lost, found, and rejoice. Jesus spoke these parables to answer the accusations of the Pharisees and scribes who were scandalized at His behavior. It was bad enough that Jesus welcomed these outcasts and taught them, but He went so far as to eat with them!

The Jewish religious leaders did not yet understand Jesus’ mission: for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10 NKJV. Even more, they were still blind to the fact that they themselves were among the lost.

Let me go back to the time period of about a year that preceded your pastor as a 16 year old boy who got saved. I played sports and sports was my religion…especially baseball and football. When I went from the 9th grade at Old Dallas High School to the new consolidated North Gaston High School, I met a lot of new teens. It was awkward leaving the family at OLD Dallas and blending into the NEW of NGHS.

One character I met was really weird, Leroy Summey.

Why am I telling you about the schoolboy experiences of a teenager from 5 decades ago? Because I think being a Christian in our culture right now you find yourself facing a culture of growing hostility to Christianity. It’s not just apathy we face—it’s antipathy.

Many people really don’t like the gospel. Sometimes they express that politely, sometimes not politely at all; but they don’t like it. This shouldn’t really surprise us. Think how incendiary much of what Jesus teaches is.

We believe Jesus is the only way to know God. We believe the cross is the only way to be forgiven. We believe that one day, everyone will be judged. So if you are going to talk to people about Jesus, you are going to face persecution and rejection. It is going to sever some relationships. It is going to provoke people. Not every time, and depending on our circumstances, friendship groups, workplaces and so on, our experiences will vary; but we will face rejection enough of the time to give us second thoughts, because I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly like getting hurt.. I know there’s a painline that needs to be crossed if I want to tell someone about the gospel; but I want to stay the comfortable side of the painline. Of course I do!

But, lets not forget:

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”Acts 1:8 NKJV

We can’t get away from our calling!

Listen, there is increasing hostility to the gospel message. But something else is going on, too. There is also increased hunger. The same rising tide of secularism and materialism that rejects truth claims and is offended by absolute moral standards is proving to be an empty and hollow way to live. And that means that, excitingly, you’re more and more likely to find people quietly hungering for the content of the gospel, even as our culture teaches them to be hostile towards it.

Now what will you do?