Living Like Jesus (2)

Luke 19:10 ESV

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Q: How many of you have been to another country? Did you feel out of place or different?

Q: How do people tend to treat people who are very different?

bring attention to, make light of, reject, fear, not accept, etc....

Wonder: the movie wonder is based on a fictional book about a boy named Auggie who has a condition called Treacher Collins syndrome (which is a real syndrome) that causes the face and head to be deformed. The movie is about Auggie going to school for the first time and the the struggles of being different as he was rejected and ridiculed by many but also accepted by some.

Q: Is it the religious that are always the accepting ones?

No, in fact in Jesus’ day the religious leaders were some of the most unwelcoming people. They saw themselves as elite and did not associate with sinners.

In our day there is a lot of confusion as to who we should “accept” and who we should not and what that even means...

When Jesus came along and sought out the sinners, He was called out for it to which He answered back to with the truth that the unaccepted need help.

WE ARE GOING TO LOOK AT FOUR INSTANCES WHEN JESUS REACHED OUT TO PEOPLE WHO WERE REJECTED, IGNORED OR LOOKED DOWN UPON FOR DIFFERENT REASONS.

Luke 19:10 ESV

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus reached out to the ignored

THE FIRST IS BLIND BARTIMAEUS: let’s read

Mark 10:46–52 ESV

And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

READ

Jesus listens to the one who everyone else ignored.

Q: How were the blind and disabled looked at in Jesus’ day? (Today we try to help and have laws that protect those who are disable and try to make things accessible.)

In Jesus’ day they were seen as being in that position because they somehow deserved it. They were thought to have the condition they had because of sin (whether their own or their parents.)

This is shown true in Read…notice the only two options they ask about...

(This mindset is there sometimes because we do not feel comfortable or do not want to take responsibility to help them.)

One of the greatest lessons Jesus gives us are the lessons we learn from His actions to serve the ignored. JESUS CARED ABOUT THE ONE NO ONE ELSE WOULD!

Q: WHAT IS MOST IMPRESSIVE TO YOU ABOUT JESUS’ INTERACTION WITH BARTIMAEUS?

jesus took the time to stop and talk to him. He did not just say “you are healed” and move on.

Jesus did this with many people. He would interact with them. He never just used people to do a miracle. He did the miracles to help people as well.

Jesus reached out to searching sinners

THE NEXT THREE PEOPLE COULD ALL BE CATEGORIZED INTO THE SINNER BRACKET:

Jesus reached out to the sinners

ZACCHAEUS THE TAX COLLECTOR ()

Q: As a tax collector how would Zac have been treated socially?

He would have been ostracized socially and probably religiously as he most likely would have been rejected by any synagogue. Imagine how this would have been.

READ

Luke 19:1–10 ESV

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Q: What is most impressive to you about this story?

Out of all the people there Zac the rejected and hated tax collector was the one Jesus went to eat with.

Q: What do you think Zac’s willingness to climb a tree to see Jesus demonstrates?

It shows that he was truly seeking!

It demonstrates what his later actions demonstrated, that he was willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to see Jesus and be saved. (As later he promised to give half of what he owned and repay)

SOMETHING THAT THIS DEMONSTRATES IS THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD SEARCHING AND SOME OF THEM ARE THE ONES WE WOULD NOT SUSPECT.

2. THE SINFUL WOMAN ()

READ

Luke 7:36–50 ESV

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Q: if you were present in this instance what would have stood out to you most or been strange about these encounters?

It might be that a women coming in who was not invited to Peter a Pharisee’s home. Not just an woman but this woman who was well known around town (perhaps as a prostitute) coming in and weeping at Jesus’ feet.

To those there what seems strange to them is that Jesus (who is supposed to be a prophet) does not recognize (so they think) that this sinful woman is coming to Him.

But to Jesus it seems that what is out of place not any of these things but instead the condition of the hearts of Peter (the Pharisee, not Simon Peter) and the fact that they had less love for Him than the sinful woman.

Q: Jesus gives the truth that the sinful who are forgiven of much sin love God enormously; what does this tell us about the potential of sinners who no one thinks will amount to anything?

Those who are lost in deep sin can become powerful workers in Christ’s Kingdom.

There is a great contrast in the Peter here and the sinful woman.

3. THE WOMAN AT THE WELL (, )

READ ,

John 4:4–7 ESV

And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

John 4:27 ESV

Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”

Q: Why do you think the woman came at the sixth hour (or noon)? When usually people came earlier or later in the day?

It is possible that she did not want to bear the glares of others who knew what kind of life she was living. Regardless it was an appointment set by God that she meet Jesus.

Q: Do you think that she noticed that Jesus was treating her differently? Y

Yes, obviously because she brings it up.

THERE IS A HUGE, GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS LESSON HERE FOR US: PEOPLE SEE GOD’S LOVE FOR THEM BY HOW WE TREAT THEM.

Just as this woman was surprised (I believe pleasantly) by how Jesus noticed her and treated her as important people are surprised when we are willing to notice them, respect them, listen to them, have compassion on them and see them as important.

This is true because in our world people are so self absorbed that they do not respect and appreciate and notice one another.

We see people as Christ does as most important, priceless and worth helping.

DISCUSSION ON ACCEPTING OTHERS:

Our lesson is about accepting others and the book talks about it but does not get into what that actually means as people have different definitions of what “accepting other means.

Q: What does it mean to accept others or “be more accepting of others?”

According to Jesus’ example:

It means not ignoring, rejecting, hating, trivializing, ostracizing people because of the way they look, there past, affiliation, or sinfulness.

WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE MAKE THE POINT THAT JESUS ACCEPTED PEOPLE AS IMPORTANT BUT THAT DID NOT MEAN ACCEPTING THE SIN THAT THEY WERE LIVING IN.

In all the stories of the sinners the sin is addressed or implied as being wrong and needing to stop. Zacchaeus repented of his sin with actions, the sinful woman was crying because of her sin and Jesus intentionally bring up the woman at the well sin because it needed to change.

WE NEED TO MAKE THIS DISTINCTION BECAUSE IN OUR CULTURE MANY TIMES WHEN IT IS SAID THAT WE NEED TO BE MORE ACCEPTING OF PEOPLE WHAT IS MEANT IS THAT WE NEED TO ACCEPT PEOPLE’S SIN AS BEING OK. THAT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT JESUS EVER DID.

WE NEED TO ACCEPT PEOPLE AS LOVED BY GOD AND AND LOVE THEM WITHOUT GIVING THEM THE IMPRESSION THAT WE ACCEPT THEIR SIN. IN FACT IT IS BECAUSE OF OUR LOVE FOR THEM THAT WE DO NOT ACCEPT THEIR SIN BUT TRY TO GET THEM TO REPENT.