Tag: outreach

  • Jesus at My Table

    Jesus at My Table

    While he was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came to eat with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Now when he heard this he said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:10-13

    So often it’s easy for the believer to put themselves in the place of Jesus in this story. It is a good reminder that we should humble ourselves and bring the gospel to those who need it. I do fear that sometimes, in our search for application of a biblical text, we lose sight of some of the deeper spiritual truths we’re meant to internalize. When I think of Jesus at the table with sinners, it is not the natural response to think of myself as one of those the Pharisees thought unworthy to be eating with Him. But isn’t this the appropriate idea? I was once an object of God‘s wrath (Ephesians 2:3). I once stood in the same place as the sinners and tax collectors. Praise God that Jesus came to my table! Our focus then should be that of Matthew, to invite other sinners into the presence of Jesus.

    As we mature as disciples, our focus should be to model the life of Christ in our own lives. But even as we set out to eat with sinners and tax collectors and share with them the gospel of Jesus, we must not forget that, at one point, we were unworthy of sitting with Him. Scripture teaches clearly that we have all sinned and fall short of God‘s glory (Romans 3:23). This sin is not simply moral tarnish but serves to separate us from God (Isaiah 59:2). We were the sinners and tax collectors but by the grace of God, He has redeemed us from the pit and brought us into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9)! While we are now children of God, redeemed from our sin and saved by His grace; we need to remember our place at the table. To see this truth more clearly, we can look at how Mark and Luke record the story.

    This story is told in greater detail in Mark 2:13-17, where we see that the host of the event is Levi (another name of Matthew), who is called as a disciple just a few verses before. Luke’s account reveals even more about the event, noting that, after leaving everything behind to follow Jesus, he hosted a great banquet for Him (Luke 5:27-29). If we are looking for application in this passage, I believe this is the primary point: Matthew honored Jesus by inviting sinners to his table. Why did he do this? It is clear from the response of the Pharisees that the guests at the table were not considered honorable. They were deplorable! In any culture, you typically invite attendees to an event that will elevate the guest of honor. What the Pharisees did not comprehend was that Jesus is elevated the most when the sinner is brought into relationship with Him! 

    Jesus explains this beautifully. It is the sick who need a doctor. Imagine how needed, useful, and wealthy medical doctors would be if there were no sickness, disease, or injury! There is no elevation for someone who is utterly unneeded. In the presence of sinners and tax collectors, Jesus is revealed as the most needed person in the room. The salvation offered only by our Great Physician is the healing each person needs more than any other thing!

    When we welcome the sinner to our table, we do not welcome them into our love, mercy, and grace. We do not welcome them into our salvation. We should seek to do as Matthew did. Our focus on sitting with sinners and tax collectors is not for our condescension and humility. It should not rest merely in cultural trends or human definitions of justice, but in pointing people to the presence of Christ. We reach out for the glory of God. We feed for the exaltation of Jesus. We work for the sake of the kingdom and to welcome the lost to hear the call of Jesus to repent and believe. (It’s important to note that in Matthew 25:40, Jesus was speaking specifically about care for His people, not presenting a call to act on cultural definitions of social justice.) 

    This welcome can look like many things. It can be done by physically having someone over for dinner, but this idea resonates more as inviting someone into your life. As we do so, we must ensure that we are not the guest of honor. The “sinners and tax collectors” you invite are not to be the guest of honor either. Your invitation must be more than mere service to them. It must be meant to honor Jesus and bring the lost into fellowship with Him. We are not the main character of the story. It will always be Jesus at our table that makes the largest impact in both our lives and others. Like Matthew, we are simply blessed to know Him, and our lives should eternally reflect our gratitude for His salvation and our passion for seeing other sinners like us enjoy the same relationship. So, who is the Lord calling you to invite to the table – not to meet you, but to meet Jesus?

  • Gospel Fluency

    Gospel Fluency

    An important issue in the church today is gospel fluency in its members. Why do so many believers struggle to share their faith? Many believers confuse fluency with eloquence. But gospel fluency is not about polished speech. It’s about a life transformed by Christ, revealing to the world both the story and results of our redemption through Jesus. It involves learning, living, and loving this good news. 

    The path to gospel fluency begins in the same place for each believer. We must first learn the gospel. One learns the gospel when they hear it proclaimed. In Romans 10:14-17, Paul notes that no one can believe without hearing, and for one to hear, they must have been preached to. What is being preached? It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the fact that man is sinful and fallen (Romans 3:23), that their sin separates them from God (Isaiah 59:2), and because of this separation, there is a need for salvation and reconciliation to God (Romans 5:10). To redeem mankind, God sent his only son Jesus to live a sinless life and serve as the perfect sacrifice for sin (John 3:16). Making propitiation for sin, the death of Jesus satisfied the wrath of God which should have been poured out upon mankind individually in the Judgment (1 John 2:2). But because of God‘s great mercy and love, Jesus not only lived, but died a sinner’s death, was buried, and resurrected again on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Through this miraculous act, Jesus made reconciliation between man and God possible for those who would believe (John 1:12). 

    When one hears the gospel presentation with an inclination to respond, Scripture is clear that God is drawing them to his Son. Jesus said no one comes to Him unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). We also know that the Spirit brings conviction (John 16:8). And this is how God redeems sinful man: by calling sinful man into a relationship with Him through the sacrifice of His Son. God made a way for mankind to be fully and eternally reconciled to him. But learning the gospel is just the beginning—true fluency comes when belief becomes visible in the way we live.

    Learning of and responding to the gospel is only the first part of gospel fluency. For someone to be fluent in the gospel, they not only should learn the gospel, but they should also live the gospel. By saying this, I’m not referring to the quote often attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words when necessary.” It is impossible to share the good news without words! I simply mean that we interact with others in light of the gospel. I also mean that we think of ourselves in light of the gospel. Doing so is transformative. We treat others differently when we do this.

    When I live the gospel, I recognize that I was once a sinner separated from God by my sin – spiritually dead – and an object of his wrath. It is only through the work of Christ that I am made alive and live reconciled to God despite my transgressions (Ephesians 2:1-5). This is a humbling reminder that serves to ground me in my interactions with others. No longer do I look at people through the eyes of my preference, approval, or offense. To live the gospel, I must look at others through the eyes of Jesus Christ looking out from the cross. I must look at others with compassion and mercy, and in like manner, I give myself grace. Rather than live in self-condemnation when sin does occur in my life, I repent, worship, and look to the grace of God to work in my life as it has done time and time again. This is not a license for sin. Rather, it is a constant reminder of the love and mercy of God and drives me to want to share it with others. Learning the gospel introduces us to the idea that a loving God has made a way for sinful man to be reconciled to Him. Living the gospel brings us to a place in which we live like the Lord has done the miraculous in us! This leads us to love the gospel.

    To be truly fluent in the gospel, we must not only love the Lord with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, but we must also love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus said that both the law and the prophets hang on this idea. We know that the law and the prophets point to the Messiah of God, the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the son of the living God who gave his life for sinful man. The entirety of scripture points us to the gospel. When we hear the gospel, we have the opportunity to respond, and it is through the grace of God that he gives us faith to do so. This learning of the gospel should not only lead us to live the gospel, but also to love it. Seeing the Lord constantly redeem us and sanctify us causes us to love him all the more. Further, we not only love the work of the Lord in our lives, but we love the work of the gospel in the lives of others as well. This, in a way, is how we partake of that food that the disciples did not know of when Jesus spoke of doing the work of his Father. To love the gospel is to love God‘s work in the lives of ourselves and others.

    We can have the right things to say, but if we do not desire to see others miraculously brought from death to life by the power of the blood of Jesus, we are not fluent in the gospel. We can live lives that reflect the values of Jesus, but if we have not experienced new life in Christ, we are not fluent in the gospel. If we do not love to see God redeem the sinful and lost of the world, what does that say about our experience of this redemption? If we do not want God’s salvation for those in prison, if we do not want God’s salvation for those who persecute us, if we do not want God’s salvation for those who have wronged us; have we lost sight of the depths of God’s great mercy and love seen in the miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed to a sinner drawn by God to respond? 1 John 4:10 reminds us that it is not we who set the benchmark for love, but God set this standard in sending Jesus to atone for our sin. Our love of the gospel is simply a reaction to the love of God revealed in his gift of salvation. This love is revealed in our sharing the gospel with others, in celebrating the testimony of those born again with passion, and in faithfully pursuing depth in our own walk with the Lord.

    Gospel fluency can be summed up in this way. When we have experienced the gospel, it changes our lives, and it changes the desires of our hearts so that we want others to see and know Jesus in a real and saving way. Gospel fluency has everything to do with the transformation that comes through regeneration in Christ and should be the ultimate goal and work of every believer. It does not require a degree or decades of experience in ministry. Once you have learned it, you can live it. As you live it, you come to love it. So where are you in this process? Still learning, or living and loving it in such a way that others can see Christ in you?

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