A Perceptive Christian
Notes
Transcript
The Pastor and the homeless man
The Pastor and the homeless man
It was a usual day for a Sunday keeping pastor as he came to the church and welcomed his congregants and visitors, he then went to his office to prepare himself for the divine service.
The service went smoothly and it came time for the pastor to share his message, as he got up he noticed in the pew one individual; scruffy looking, with a shaggy beard, beanie on his grey haired head, and a facial complexion that hasn’t seen clean running water to wipe the dirt on his face.
The pastor looked and saw his congregants sat far way from him making him like the dead centre of a target, the church members closet to this lonely man had their hands to their nose and look at his direction in disgust, he can see his members mumble something under their hands, unhappy with the pressence of this man who has disturb their peaceful church.
The pastor, uncomfortable at first, opened up his sermon notes and was about to share his inpsired message. But, he paused and he had to make a choice, whether to address the problem at hand or to continue with the message he had prepared.
The pastor decided to address the problem, you see he had the capacity to order this man who has caused distress amongst his members to leave the building, he could have asked the deacons to escort the man out and they could continue with the worship service.
But, he address the problem, by closing his notes, opening his Bible to Matthew 5 and focused his message on the beatitudes.
He started to read in verse 3:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
As he looked up to and he saw the homeless man in the pews smile and find joy in the words of Jesus. But, he continued to see those that was closest to the homeless man still show a facial expression of disdain.
The pastor continued, but this time he emphasised each adjective to encourage his members to listen to the words of Jesus rather than be distracted by one condemned by the world to rot in the gutters.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Finally, he concluded his reading as he read the final part of the beatitudes.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
As he finished the reading, he looked up to the man rejected by many with a great smile and joy on his face for this man who we do not know his backstory has found the great reward with gladness in his Saviour Jesus.
Friends, how would we react if we had a homeless person in our church? How would you react if they were to sit next to you? If they were to sit next to you in your fine dress or suit? Would you move seat? Would scold them? Or would you embrace them?
I want us to look at this fictionous story and see how we as Christians see the world, especially how we see people who are different, because the question I want to ask you is whether we as Christians, people who follow Jesus and look to Him as our standard.
Do we see people the way Jesus sees people? Or do we make our quick judgements and condemn like the disciples, Pharisees and the rest of them that turn away those that want to seek their Redeemer?
How do we become perceptive Christians? How do we see people or the world the way Jesus would have seen it.
Change of scenery
Change of scenery
You see, all of us are used to seeing goodness and happiness; there is some sort of normal that we’re all used to, it is different for each person and we all have our rountine that we follow each week, so we don’t want to have any changes made to alter how we feel for this normal that we experience day in day out.
So, when we meet with someone who brings discomfort or discouragement, we tend to avoid such person, or we are angered by their presence. This person who has altered your normal, could be anyone and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a homeless person. This could be a co-worker or a friend, it could be a family member, it could be a stranger. It could be anyone.
As a result, our natural reaction pivots away from such people because we’ve made a judgement call and banished this person from our presence. However, what can we learn from the reaction Jesus makes with such people?
So, let me teach you 3 basic steps to perceive others like Jesus?
1. Read the room
1. Read the room
Listen friends to the advice James:
19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.
The first thing before you read the room is check yourself, are you ready to be quick to listen? Are you ready to restrain your mouth and emotions? Are you ready to produce the righteousness of God? establish that first before you read the room.
For example, you might see someone crying on the side of the street, and you could come to their side and comfort them saying everything is going to be alright and you share to them that they can find healing in Jesus.
But then they look at you and point to their scooter and the hole that they tried to avoid.
Read yourself before you read the situation, before you read the room, then read the person.
27 He who has knowledge spares his words,
And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit.
An example of this is with the woman that was caught in adultry, while the woman who could have been naked lay on the floor begging for mercy, the roar of the crowd to demanded justice according to the law of Moses rang high in the ears of Jesus.
Yet, His focus as He read the room was not on the loud mob that was eager to throw the first stone and their demands. But, His focus was on the woman, the victim, the condemned who lay on the floor, hiding her shame and nakedness.
How easy is it for us to favour public opinions, to side with the vigilante crowd and demand blood. Let us be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry, be a person of understanding with a calm spirit increasing in knowledge by sparing our words for we fulfill the righteousness of God.
And sometimes, Jesus would do miracles outside the town and not in public display, like how Jesus lead a blind man out of town to heal him. Sometimes, another place would be better to help people rather than in public view.
2. Suffer the innocence
2. Suffer the innocence
Remember what Paul tells the Romans:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Understand that you aren’t holier than the person you're perceiving, just because you go to church on Sabbath and read the Bible does not mean that you are better.
To the eyes of God you’re all the same, you are all the children of God, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Don’t let your perception become clouded thinking that you’re better, remember we are changing our perception to be like how Jesus perceived others.
Paul talks about this 2 Corinthians 10:7
7 Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s.
Consider what God said to Samuel as he was looking for the next king of Israel.
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
So, when Jesus went to a town or a village, who was Jesus looking for?
Jesus was intently looking for those that were abandoned and forgotten, he could have gone to the high places and received the honour from the masses, instead, He went searching for the lost those that had a sincere heart for help.
Are you perceiving just as Jesus would have wanted you to perceive? Are you a perceptive Christian looking at the inside of people or are we making judgements on people’s appearances is that what we as Christians should perceive?
We need to suffer for the innocence as Jesus did, we need to choose mercy, humility and love by asking the right questions like ‘What is God doing in this person’s life?’ rather than ‘what is wrong with them?’
Consider what Jesus saw and how He felt when He saw the multitudes following Him.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
3. Abide in God
3. Abide in God
Finally the most important step that we should always consider before perceive others is our relationship with God through prayer and immersion in His Word.
In order for us to really see what Jesus sees, we need to truly understand John 3.16
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
If we can’t perceive people with love then there is no light in us. We have no right to make any judgements or even call ourselves Christian.
We need to know Jesus in order for us to fully grasp the concept of God loving a sinful, rebellious and disobedient world that He gave His only begotten Son.
We need to understand that Jesus, God Himself would willingly descend to this earth and be like us to give His life for you and me.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Friends, if we surrender and love the Lord God, it is He that will transform us and help us to perceive the way we should perceive others.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
A perceptive Christian
A perceptive Christian
Being a perceptive Christian is important, because it helps us to see the way the Lord wants us to see, it helps us fulfill His will and helping those with a sincere heart to be blessed by Jesus.
To help summarise what we’ve discussed the first step is:
Read the room
Suffer the innocence
Abide in God
For our final verse, we’ll look at Luke 19:10
10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Friends, are you willing to seek and save the lost? Are you willing to see as Jesus sees? Are you willing to be a perceptive Christian?
