2.3.7 1.12.2020 (WJCTT He touches the Untouchable) He Honors them Luke 18
When Jesus comes to Town • Sermon • Submitted
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Entice: People. They are all around us. We live with some. We meet others occasionally, some routinely. Not all people are the same...but they are all alike. Made in the image of God. Fallen. Fickle. Temperamental. Good. Bad. Indifferent. Evil. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors, economic status, age, intelligence. You may not understand them at all, and even if you are pretty sharp-some will elude you. When Jesus comes to town He touches the untouchable and includes the excluded. The "haves" did not always accept or understand that Jesus honored those that society forgot.
Entice: People. They are all around us. We live with some. We meet others occasionally, some routinely. Not all people are the same...but they are all alike. Made in the image of God. Fallen. Fickle. Temperamental. Good. Bad. Indifferent. Evil. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors, economic status, age, intelligence. You may not understand them at all, and even if you are pretty sharp-some will elude you. When Jesus comes to town He touches the untouchable and the the includes the excluded. The "haves" did not always accept or understand that Jesus honored those that society forgot.
Engage: Not being God, as Jesus is, we find this approach difficult. Perhaps we lack the patience or the pluck. It is something we can-and must learn if we are to be fully-functioning participants in the Kingdom.
Engage: Not being God, as Jesus is, we find this approach difficult. Perhaps we lack the patientce or the pluck. It is something we can-and must learn if we are to be fully-functioning participants in the Kingdom.
Expand: In the full approach of Jesus to dealing with people is on display-instruction, interaction, and invitation. First Jesus illustrates with a parable. Then He demonstrates by His actions. Then He motivates with a lesson. His approach to people was undoubtedly shocking. He did not subscribe to the prejudices of His culture-or at least when He did it was to expose their hypocrisy and evil. In Jesus' view tax-collectors could be virtuous, children could be exemplary, and rich people needed to be careful. Not a bad lesson for our century, I would suppose.
Expand: In the full approach of Jesus to dealing with people is on display-instruction, interaction, and invitation. First Jesus illustrates with a parable. Then He demonstrates by His actions. Then He motivates with a lesson. His approach to people was undoubtedly shocking. He did not subscribe to the prejudices of His culture-or at least when He did it was to expose their hypocrisy and evil. In Jesus' view tax-collectors could be virtuous, children could be exemplary, and rich people needed to be careful. Not a bad lesson for our century, I would suppose.
Excite: Jesus has come. He is now ascended. Having given us both His Spirit and His word we are to now embrace His redemptive approach to people. When Jesus comes to town he honors those who are dishonored He has left us in Grayville to continue this redemptive approach to our fallen society.
Excite: Jeus has come. He is now ascended. Having given us both His Spirit and His word we are to now embraces His redemptive approach to people. When Jesus comes to town he honors those who are dishonored He has left us in Grayville to continue this redemptive approach to our fallen society.
Explore:
Explore: It is through this process of “unselfing” that we discover for ourselves and share the redemptive touch of Jesus that honors the dishonored and brings them Gospel.
It is through this process of “unselfing” that we discover for ourselves and share the redemptive touch of Jesus
It is through this process of “unselfing” that we discover for ourselves and share the redemptive touch of Jesus
that honors the dishonored and brings them Gospel.
Explain: Unselfing means accepting the three realities Jesus reveals in these stories.
Explain: Unselfing means accepting the three realities Jesus reveals in these stories.
Body of Sermon:
We have to accept the reality that...
We have to accept the reality that...
1. Exaltation is found in submission.
1. Exaltation is found in submission.
1. Exaltation is found in submission. (Illustration)
(Illustration)
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
1.1 Judging people externally dishonors them.
1.2 I cannot exalt myself and depend on God at the same time.
1.3 The beginning of redemptive faith is humility and trust; which God can exalt.
...From the parable we move to a demonstration of the principle in Jesus' own actions We have to accept the reality that...
2. Humiliation is necessary for faith.
2. Humiliation is necessary for faith.
(Demonstration.)
15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
2.1 Children were invisible...Jesus made them visible.
2.2 Children were vulnerable...Jesus honored that vulnerability..
2.3 Children were humble...Jesus commanded that humility.
Last, we have to accept the reality that...
3. Justification is impossible for the individual.
3. Justification is impossible for the individual.
(Motivation).
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!
25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”
27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
3.1 Justification is not:
3.1 Justification is not:
What you have
What you know
What you do
3.2 Justification is:
God's application of His divine possibility to our impossibilities.
This is the essence of Grace.
The Lost, The Last, The Least...
The Lost, The Last, The Least...
When Jesus comes to town He upends our time-honored tradtions of what makes a person good, acceptable, justified, honorable, righteous. We forget His radical approach. We domesticate the message. And pretty soon we are indifferent to the simple, haughty to the have-nots, and try and buy our way into the Kingdom.
When Jesus comes to town...He comes to stay. Through His body the Church He expects us to warn the self-righteous and the self-dependent and model the humility of the accepting child.
He has called and equipped us. He had taught and shown us. Will you follow His lead...When Jesus comes to town?