Fulfilling Christ's Mission

Seth

Independent Study • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago

Mark 2:13–17

0 ratings

· 90 views

Jesus had a mission to call people to repentance. Christians need to be fulfilling Christ's Mission.

Notes

Transcript

Handout

Sermon Tone Analysis

Emotion

Language

Social

View more →

Introduction

And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

13 And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. 15 And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? 17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

This morning we spoke about how that Jesus Came to Sinners. He came to them, sat with them, and ate with them. He sought to build a relationship that would be the bridge to brining them onto the path that God had for them. We also learned that he combatted the critics. There were those that were not happy that Christ sat and ate with sinners. They felt that, as a man that was a religious teacher, he should avoid such characters. Jesus pushed back against the idea noting that it was sinners that indeed needed to be helped and not those that thought they were better than other people. Lastly, we found that Jesus called sinners to repentance so that they could have a new life in him.

This evening we will dig deeper and look at how we can learn to Fulfill Christ’s mission in our community. Let us be reminded of that mission from the very words of Christ, “…I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” In our passage the Pharisees were critical of Jesus’ decision to sit and dine with sinners. From this morning’s message we learned that the word sinners more specifically applied to those in society that had been rejected for their particular occupation or lifestyle, not necessarily that they were simply sinners. We are all sinners. The Pharisees were sinners. Their meaning then was that Christ was dining with those they did not approve. We also noted that he was not at all implying that the Pharisees were righteous, but that they believed themselves to be righteous for their works of righteousness in keeping of the law. He was not saying that the Pharisees did not need salvation, but that his intent was to reach out to those who knew their condition needed something more than themselves to live the life God wanted them to live.

So, Christ had a mission to call sinners to repentance. How did he fulfill this mission?

Building Relationships

A. Christ Relationship with Levi

When Jesus passed by the reciept of customs and called Levi from his life as a tax collector to his journey as a disciple he immediately got up and went with Christ. Who would leave their job, their livlihood, to follow someone that they did not know? I would not think anyone would do something like that. One could argue that Jesus was divine in his knowledge and knew that Levi would simply do what he asked of him, but in light of what Scripture shows, it appears that Christ would have already built a relationship with Levi. Levi did what Christ had said because Jesus had spend time building and cultivating his relationship with this man. This man came to Jesus through a relationship that Christ had built with him over a period of time and Christ know that the relationship was strong enough that Levi would follow him.

B. Christ’s Relationships with “Sinners”

This is not the only time that Jesus would be criticized for dining with sinners. Christ would make this a habit throughout his ministry. Let us look at two other occasions where Christ was dining with sinners...

- Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

- And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

As we can see Jesus had a relationship with sinners. Was Christ a sinner? No. Was Christ sinning by building relationships with sinners? No. What was Christ’s intention in dining with sinners? To build a relationship that would allow his influence to call them to repentance. This is exactly what he was doing when the Pharisees began to speak up.

How are you fulfilling Christ’s mission? How are you building relatioships with lost people?

If you have not built these types of relationships here may be a few reasons why.

We have been taught to avoid “the world”.

While it is true that we should not participate in the unholy things that the world does this does not mean we should not have relationships with them. What a shame it is that for many years churches have been teaching us to avoid the lost world rather than building relationships with them like Jesus did so that we can through Him call them to repentance.

We must be careful that the relationships we build are truly for the cause of bringing the lost to Christ. We must watch carefully how we allow the influence of the lost to build in our lives. We must continue to adhere to the righteous teachings of Jesus while building these relationships.

However, if we forsake building relationships on the premise of retaining a righteouse image then how do we fulfill the Great Commission. You can preach to people all you want, but the Gospel will seldom reach someone with whom we refuse to show kindness, love, and relationship.

The lost should not be our best friends. They should not reside in our circle of influence, but to avoid them for the sake of being righteous is to forsake the ability to fulfill Christ’s mission on this earth.

ii. We have chosen to act like a Pharisee.

We are saved. We are sanctified. We are seperated. We cannot do anything with sinnders without sinning. This is the line we have learned, this is the line we have believed, and this is the line we have chosen to repeat time and again when the Holy Spirit speaks to us and tells us to develop a relationship with someone.

It does not go unnoted that we have been taught this as per the previous point. At some point, however, we are to grow in Christ enough to know better. This is not how Christ acted and this is not how we should act. To avoid building relationships because we developed the attitude that we are saved and seperated is to avoid fulfilling the mission of Christ upon this earth.

iii. We have developed an attitude of appathy.

We just do not care. Our neighbors are going to hell and we do not care. Our co-workers do not know Christ and we do not care. Our community does not know the Savior and we just do not care. We do not avoid the lost because we were taught to avoid the world. We do not avoid the lost because we have chosen to act like a Pharisee. We are avoiding the lost because we have developed an attitude of appathy. I do not care.

Many of us would readily deny this. We love Jesus. We want to see people saved. We want the lost to come to repentance. So, when is the last time you gave the Gospel to someone? When is the last time you sought out a relationship with someone so that you could influence them for Christ? When is the last time you cared enough to do something so that you could, through Christ, call someone to repentance? When those questions are answered with silence it may be that you have an attitude of appathy and you just do not care.

Loving People

Loving People Despite the Critics

Jesus was building relationships with people so that he could call them to repentance. He loved these people enough to wade through the criticism and tell them of their need to repent. The Pharisees were quick to point out when Jesus was with sinners, healing sinners, dining with sinners, talking with sinners, and ministering to sinners. None of this prevented Christ from going forward in his mission to call lost souls to repentance.

Jesus did not do this because he wanted to draw criticism. He did it out of love for the lost despite the criticism. Here is a thought; Christ loved people enough to tell them the truth about their condition even when the very person he was trying to reach for the Gospel would end up being the critic.

Offering Hope to the Forgotten

I read an article the other day, and I am not sure it is true or that there was even a study done, but it said that the average Christian did not tell someone else about Jesus out of fear of rejection from the very person they would share the Gospel with. They allowed fear and criticism to prevent them from carrying out the greatest act of love one human could have for another.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.” ()

While suffering through criticism may not actually cause us to lose our life we are laying down our life for them. If show them love by giving the Gospel even though we may suffer criticism from other people then we are laying down our own feelings. We are making ourselves vulerable to attack and rejection. In a way we are laying ourselves down out of love that we have for these lost people.

If we are to fulfill the mission of Christ we must learn to love people. We must learn to love people no one else wants to love. We must love the people that will hate us for loving them. We must love them by sharing the Gospel with them. We must love them by fufilling Christ’s mission. We must, through Christ, call men to repentance out of love for them.

Jeus loved these “sinners” enough to suffer the criticism of the Pharisees to share the truth with them and call them to repentance. Jesus loved us enough to suffer the death of the cross so that we might be called to repentance. Why do we love ourselves so much that we are not willing to suffer mere criticism to bring someone to the repentance? Why do think so highly of ourselves that we are unwilling to lay ourselves down for the cause of fulfilling Christ’s mission?

We must love people if we are to fulfill Christ’s mission to call sinners to repentance.

Preaching Repentance

It should be that this last point need not be said or included. However, because we are fallible people it must. If we are going to fulfill Christ’s mission then we must preach repentance. At this point you are thinking to yourself that this point should indeed have gone unsaid for it is obvious. Unfortunately, it does need to be said and preached because of our own misunderstanding of Christ’s teaching.

There are Christians who think that just because they build a relationship with someone that they will be saved or be presented with their need for salvation. There are Christians that believe if they simply show love to people without ever mentioning Christ that it will lead them to Christ. The Calvinist calls this “Lifestyle Evangelism”. I do not need to witness. I do not need to preach to sinners. I do not need to give the gospel. I simply need to live a life that reflects the acceptance and love of Christ and people that God will save will be saved simply by seeing my life.

This is false. We do need to build relationships with people. We do need to love people. However, if we do that and stop short of preaching repentance…preaching the Gospel then we are failing in our job to fulfill Christ’s mission to CALL sinners to repentance. You cannot CALL someone to something if you do not open your mouth. You may mow a widow’s lawn, but that is not calling her to repentance. It will build a relationship, show love for her, and build your influence with her, but only until you use the relationship you have built and CALL her to the repentance of which the Gospel speaks will you be able to fulfill the mission of Christ.

“How shall they call upon whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” ()

We must call the sinner to repentance by preaching about Christ, his love for them, his sacrifice for them, and his salvation that he offers them.

Conclusion

I am so glad that Christ called me to repentance. I am glad that Christ reached out to this rejected, outcasted, sinner and saved me by his grace through his shed blood. I am glad that Christ came to call sinners to repentance.

As someone that Christ has called to repentance I must honor Him with my life. I must honor him by using my life to build relationships, to love people, and to preach repentance to sinners that need to know Jesus Christ.

I must seek to fulfill Christ’s mission to call sinners to repentance by laying myself down for others to hear of their need for Christ. I must allow Christ to fulfill his mission through me, by being available to call sinners to repentance. May all Christians seek to fulfill Christ’s mission to call sinners to repentance.