Jesus—Friends & Frenemies
Notes
Transcript
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
This is a saying we have in our world. The question becomes, who is my friend.
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
The Old Testament revels we must be careful about the company we keep. Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 15.33
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
We struggle being separate from the world.
We struggle being separate from the world.
This is where we can look a lot like the world around us—there is no difference between Christ followers and those who are not. The things we value are no different, or at least we do not act like there is a difference.
We struggle to be in “holy huddles”.
We struggle to be in “holy huddles”.
If we as Christians are not careful we will become so insulated we never interact with anyone who is not already part of a church or our Christian friend group. We do this sometimes out of busyness, sometimes because of shared values and other times out of habit.
The culture of Jesus’ days was similar.
The culture of Jesus’ days was similar.
The different groups of the first century struggled with this. In fact, the NT was written in part to help the early Christ followers know how to be different than the world yet still reach the world. The Pharisees were preventative in their approach to sin; not a bad idea.
Jesus was doing a “new” work.
Jesus was doing a “new” work.
Jesus’ approach to sin was not preventative or treatment afterwards or denial but was creative in nature.
Jesus was creating new access to God.
Jesus was creating new access to God.
At heart of the issue is Jesus was creating a new way to access God. Not because the old was bad but because he was doing a new work. This is the significance of what we read in Mark 15.38
The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
Jesus was creating new standards of living.
Jesus was creating new standards of living.
The issue of fasting was going to be something many wanted to know about.
Jesus was delivering grace.
Jesus was delivering grace.
The Pharisees would give lectures or shame. Jesus was giving loving grace. The world told them get clean and then come back. Jesus said come to me and be clean.
Jesus was giving whole-ness not holiness.
Jesus was giving whole-ness not holiness.
Our world separates and compartmentalize many aspects of health and wholeness. Jesus is breaking in and saying “no to be whole you must address the whole of the situation”. It isn’t that he was not concerned with holiness and how one lived. He absolutely cared about sin and not sinning. But we cannot focus on one area to show others our “holiness” and thus their “unholiness”.
The grace of Jesus changes everything.
The grace of Jesus changes everything.