Receiving sinners…
Luk 15:1 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.
Luk 15:2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”
The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners. As one reads through the New Testament and sees the birth of the church in the book of Acts in Jerusalem and then other churches beginning to pop up through out the known world through the spread of the gospel, we often overlook the make up of these churches.
Many people think that the churches were full of ‘decent’ people coming to know Christ. But if you do a little more research in the scriptures we find that the gospel touched NOT decent people, whoever they actually are, but people whose lives had been drenched in sin. The City of Corinth for example was a very wicked place as was Ephesus and people used the term “Corinthian” to describe anyone who was living a debauched lifestyle.
The church is for sinners, it’s for people seeking the blessed forgiveness and grace of God who knowing their sin, come to Christ to be set free from their sins and past lifestyle.
In Luke’s gospel we are told beautifully and succinctly that Jesus received sinners….
The church today needs to not simply and religiously sit in judgment on people living in sin as did the religious leaders in Jesus time – the Pharisees. But the church, you and I, need to see such people lost and without hope and us having the blessing of being able to give them good news – that Jesus desires to receive them and will indeed grant them new life.
May we never lose the very essence of the existence and purpose of the church – to go into all the world and preach the gospel!
My prayer is that you will receive sinners and lead them to Jesus Christ as this truly is the blessed ministry that we have been commanded to do. May our churches not be filled with ‘decent’ people but forgiven people, people in who the love of Christ, the blessed forgiveness of God radiates and has brought them new life.
Tomorrow in your workplace, in your school, in your street, may your eyes see the people that Jesus came to receive and may your heart be moved to reach them.