Our November sermon series takes a look at some of Jesus’ teaching from the Gospels which can be hard. Hard to understand or hard to put into practice, or both! Jesus’ call to take up our cross and follow him comes at a cost but the benefits are always rich, deep and wide as we surrender every area of our lives to him.
Mark 2:17, Mark 2:13-17
It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Mark 2:17
Jesus is at Levi’s house eating with tax collectors and sinners some of whom were following him. The Pharisees saw this and questioned why Jesus could do this, they were baffled by his behaviour. In Luke 7:39 Simon another Pharisee rebuked Jesus for letting a sinful women anoint his feet.
Jesus had no issue with spending time with sinners, outcasts, the sick, women or those who were polluted. His mission was to call sinners to himself. In the preceding verses he has just forgiven the sins of the paralysed man and then healed him. Spiritual sickness and physical sickness were not a problem for Jesus and his power overcomes both. Far from being polluted by others sin and brokenness, Jesus redeems, heals and cleanses those who reach out for him and accept him. He was called the ‘friend of sinners’ Luke 7:34. We all need him as our friend because we are all sinners!
Explore what sin is and how it pollutes us / relationships / lives, we mustn’t downplay its seriousness. Without Jesus sin leads to death and separation from God forever, Rom 6:23. How do we treat our own sin, how do we practice confession? The only way to be ultimately free of its power is through Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is an opportunity to preach the gospel and give folk a chance to respond.
Explore the trap of religion. It’s so often the religious that are the first to judge, forgetting that they too need saving and are sinners. Why is this? How might we fall into that trap. Log, speck and eyes spring to mind! In Lukes account he adds, ‘calls sinners to repentance’ 5:32. What is repentance and how do we as Jesus followers stay in this place of repentance from our sin which we will continue to wrestle with.
