The Controversy of Jesus
- Jesus attracts SINNERS. (Mk 2:13-15)
- Jesus evokes CRITICISM. (Mk 2:16)
- Jesus invites the SICK. (Mk 2:17)
What's your DIAGNOSIS?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:02
While you're turning there, do you want to hear a funny story?
00:05-00:21
This was many, many years ago, but the church that I was the associate pastor of for 11 years, is a church that now is about 110-ish years old, has a long history of faithfulness to the gospel.
00:21-00:42
And when you have a church that's been established that long, it's easy for things like this to happen, but sometimes people have been members of the church maybe back in the '50s or the '60s but haven't attended since then, but their name's still on the official membership.
00:44-00:44
Okay?
00:44-01:04
So a lot of times I would get phone calls from the hospital, and they would say, "You number of members of your church in the hospital, and I'd go through the list, and a lot of the names I'd recognize, obviously, from people that attended the church, but quite frequently we would get names pop up that honestly I had no idea who these people were.
01:04-01:17
Like I said, they were members of the church back in the '50s and '60s, and I'd never met them, but I'd always go visit them anyways, because I thought, "You know what?
01:17-01:19
I don't know why this person's not coming to our church.
01:19-01:27
Maybe they're going to another church, if they are, praise the Lord, whatever, but maybe they have another pastor visiting, I don't know, but I don't know.
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Maybe they don't have anybody visiting, so I used to just go.
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I'll just show up and see what happens.
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Well, this one time in particular, this name popped up, and I'm not going to use the real name because as soon as I share this story, somebody's going to be like, "That's my aunt, so I'm just going to call her Mrs. Smith." Well, Mrs. Smith showed up on this thing, and I'm like, "Well, I don't recognize Mrs. Smith," And remember how we talked about how Jesus can read minds?
01:54-01:55
We saw that, right?
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Jesus perceived people's thoughts, and I certainly can't do that, but what I like to do is read people's faces, and sometimes that's a lot easier than others.
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And I walked into Mrs. Smith's room, and she was sitting, like, in the chair beside the bed, and she just had this scowl on her face.
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She was just sitting there and she was chewing on something and she was just sitting there and she just looked like she was having like the worst day of her life, just sitting there.
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So I walk into the room.
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I knock on the door and I said, "Hello, Mrs. Smith." She turned and barked at me.
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He goes, "Who are you?" And I don't know where this came from, but it came out of my mouth before I could stop it.
02:57-03:01
But I said, "Hi, my name is Jeff Miller.
03:02-03:08
I'm with the IRS." She goes, "What?
03:08-03:08
What?
03:09-03:09
What?
03:10-03:10
The IRS?
03:11-03:12
"What, why are you here?
03:12-03:16
"Why would the IRS be after me in the hospital?" I said, "I'm just kidding.
03:17-03:22
"I'm from North Street Christian Church." And you know the funny thing was, she wasn't like any less disturbed by that.
03:24-03:24
(congregation laughing)
03:25-03:29
So, that's what you call like a drive-by prayer.
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Like I'm gonna pray for you and get to where I'm going because I can tell that's what you want.
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But, The IRS, the hospital, taxes, health care, today at Harvest Bible Chapel we are going after some very controversial topics.
03:51-04:05
And last week we talked about the four friends with their paralytic friend that they lowered down to Jesus because of the crowds, and Jesus said that He has the authority to forgive sin.
04:05-04:06
Do you remember that?
04:06-04:11
Jesus said, "I have authority to forgive sin." Well, here's the question we're going to answer today.
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Who can be forgiven?
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If Jesus has the authority to forgive sin, who can actually be forgiven?
04:22-04:28
And you're going to find that the answer is going to be more controversial than maybe you first realized.
04:31-05:02
So in your outline, the controversy of Jesus, if Jesus Christ doesn't strike you as a controversial person then I would encourage you to really go home and read your Bibles because He is by far the most controversial person who's ever walked on the planet, which is exactly what you would expect from someone who claimed that they were God in the flesh.
05:05-05:13
To the controversy of Jesus, number one, write this down, Jesus attracts sinners.
05:15-05:18
Jesus attracts sinners.
05:23-05:36
Verse 13 says, "He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to Him, and He was teaching them." Nothing new here.
05:37-05:41
Huge crowds, Jesus teaching, we've seen that over and over.
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This ministry is continuing.
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But look at verse 14, it says, "And as He passed by, He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth.
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And he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.
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And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him." Let's pause here.
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First of all, Jesus attracts sinners.
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And maybe, like me, you found it interesting to hear Jesus once again was being swarmed by these crowds.
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But you notice something interesting here.
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He singles out one guy.
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Did you see that?
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And the guy wasn't even like in the crowd.
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Did that strike you?
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Like, here's all these people with Jesus, and it would have been real easy for Jesus to be like, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, one of you people follow me," like anybody, because you're already following me, right?
06:57-07:04
Here's a guy sitting at a tax booth, and Jesus is like, "You." Totally singled Levi out.
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You're like, "Well, who's Levi?" Well, Levi's also known as Matthew.
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And like Simon and Andrew and James and John, Jesus said, "Follow me," but some radically Many different things were happening with this call to follow Jesus.
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Let's talk about the tax collector.
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At this point in the history of Israel, Israel was under Roman occupation, okay?
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So the Israelites were in their own land, but they weren't a sovereign nation at this point.
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Romans were in charge.
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Yes, you can live in your land, yes you can hold jobs, yes you can sort of have a quote-unquote normal life, but remember Rome's in charge.
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We write the rules, we enforce the rules.
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You're part of Rome, technically.
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You're just in your own land.
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Well, Rome would actually offer tax franchises to the highest bidder.
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Do you want to be a tax collector?
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You had to bid for the job.
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You had to actually pay for the job.
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And the highest bidder who would be given the franchise would actually set up a booth in their district, and they would tax people as they passed through.
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Now, there were different kinds of tax collectors.
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There were some who just collected on, you know, the fixed things like, you know, property and things like that.
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This type of tax collector, like Levi, would be the guy who you would say collects duties.
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Okay?
08:56-09:11
He would actually assess the dollar value of goods and demand that tax was paid just for carrying them through the region.
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They put tolls on everything, roads, bridges, packages, mail, the number of wheels on your cart, the number of legs on your donkey, they would just, they would tax everything.
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You're like, "Well, how much would they tax?" The truth is as much as they wanted.
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Understand this was, this was legalized crime was what it was.
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These tax collectors, you'd be passing through, be like, "Well, what do you got there?
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What do you got there?
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Let me see what you got there." You're like, "This isn't your business." "Yeah, it is my business.
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What do you got there?" They could actually take your mail and confiscate it.
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They could take any packages you have.
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Yeah, this belongs to the government now.
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And they would assess the value and they would say, "Oh, okay, Master Enos, I see you guys are carrying, I'm going to estimate you have like $300 worth of goods that you're carrying.
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So we're going to need like $80 tax." Now 50 of that might have gone to Rome.
10:20-10:53
where the other 30 went. That's why it was legalized crime, because Rome didn't care. Rome didn't care what these tax collectors were collecting as long as Rome was getting their fair share. But you have to understand this to know why tax collectors were so hated, because, especially this one, Levi was Jewish.
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So who was he robbing?
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Right, Jay?
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He was robbing his own people.
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For who?
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For the oppressive government.
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You understand that picture?
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You have to understand this or you won't get this passage.
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Imagine if, just to take it in modern terms, imagine if Canada took over the United States.
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Now all of a sudden all our money has like beavers and mooses on it.
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And you walk outside Marshall Middle School and the Canadian flag is flying and like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are out there.
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And yeah, we can live here, but we live under Canada's rule, okay?
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Are you with me?
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Everybody with me?
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And Canada says, "All right, we're going to employ some of you people to collect taxes for us." And Randy Campbell's like, "How do I get in on that?" And they're like, "Well, you have to pay." And Randy's like, so Randy bids and gets the job.
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All right, church, how do we feel about Randy?
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Come on, how do we feel about Randy?
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Now every, okay, so Randy has a toll booth set up now on 79.
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And when you drive through, you have to stop at his toll booth, and he's going through your glove box and the trunk of your car and demanding that you cough up some arbitrary amount of money that you know Canada is getting 60% of and 40% is going in Randy's pocket.
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How do you feel about Randy now?
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So you're willing to work for the oppressing government.
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I thought you were an American, Randy.
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Man, I thought you was the red, white, and blue, man.
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And you're ripping off your own people for the sake of what?
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Oh, I noticed you and Pam are driving a nice car.
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And you're like, "Thank you, you paid for it." So how do we feel about Randy now, church?
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Seriously, do you understand why tax collectors were hated?
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You were one of us, and now you're ripping us off for the...
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How could you sell out your own people, man?
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Well, you know, Randy's just like king of the hill, man.
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He's sitting on a pile of money that he's basically stolen, and Canada doesn't care as long as Canada gets their share, right?
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So that's what was happening here with Levi.
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So you have to understand that to know how badly he was hated.
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By the way, tax collectors in Jesus' day were actually considered unclean.
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Did you know that?
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Like a dead body, like barred from the synagogues.
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Meaning in our context, we see Randy coming and we're saying, "Randy, you're not allowed in here because you'll defile the good people with the stench of your awfulness." That's how tax collectors were treated.
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They were hated.
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Well, there was one difference from Matthew, from Levi, from the fishermen that Jesus called back in chapter 1, and that's this.
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Again, this is also very important as we go through this text.
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Hypothetically the fishermen could have always gone back to fishing, right?
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Let's say hypothetically that, you know, Peter, James, Andrew, John, you know what, Jesus, this just isn't working out.
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I'm going back fishing.
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I'm sure if they went back and begged their dad, their dad would, "Okay, you can come back to work." Not Levi.
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These licenses were such a premium, as soon as Levi quit, there would have been a rush to get that job because you made so much money doing it.
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I mean, think about a job where you could basically name your salary.
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So you would say, "Well, in that sense, I guess it's shocking that he left everything to follow Jesus." But that's not the controversy in this passage.
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Here's the controversy in this passage.
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A rabbi, Jesus, would call a tax collector to follow Him.
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That's the controversy.
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And it doesn't stop there.
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There's more controversy because we see that Levi actually has a party with the only friends that he has, which are basically other outcasts, right?
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Using our illustration, let's say Randy is that hated Canadian tax collector here.
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Like who are his friends going to be?
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Probably the only people that are in his line of work, right?
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So when Randy like gets together to like play Monopoly or whatever, that's who he does it with.
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Actually, it's kind of funny to think of a bunch of people like that playing Monopoly.
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Let's let that set for a second.
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But that's -- those would be Randy's poker buddies.
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Other slime.
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So Levi has this party, and you're like, "What was the party about?
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Was it a farewell bash?" Was it a come and meet Jesus party?
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The text doesn't really say.
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I just really love the fact that Jesus wasn't afraid to go to a party.
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Here's the first controversy.
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Jesus attracts sinners.
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So let me ask you, if you were God and you could hang out with anyone, who would you pick?
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Notice that God Himself comes to the earth and He doesn't hang out with celebrities, athletes, the religious elite.
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God comes to the earth and He chooses in the midst of all the crowd, He singles out the single most hated, wicked, and disreputable person in the entire town.
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So let me ask you, church, how willing are you to hang out with other sinners?
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How willing are you to hang out with people who don't have their act together yet?
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Are you willing to hang out with somebody that has a bad reputation, that's trying to figure some stuff out?
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Are you willing to do that?
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What about that lady that has all these kids to all these different men and can't seem to get it together?
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What about the addict that has relapsed over and over and over and is trying to get it together?
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What about the compulsive gambler?
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What about the alcoholic?
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What about the guy that just got out of prison?
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What would you do if somebody who worked at Blush came into church here some Sunday?
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Blush is the gentleman's club.
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You know, the only thing that's not at a gentleman's club is a gentleman.
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But what would you do if a lady walked in here and you got talking to her?
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Like, "Where do you work?" "Well, I, right now I work at Blush and I'm just really having a hard time getting it together and wanted to come check this church out." How would you treat her?
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What if I asked you to take somebody like that out to lunch?
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How would you feel about that?
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Like Randy, hey this is a guy, I'm going to pick on Randy in a good way now since he was our hated tax collector, but like, hey this was a guy that like Mark Ortt led to Christ in prison.
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He just got out of jail.
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Would you guys take him to lunch?
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Like how would you feel about that?
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The answer is, if those type of people repulse you, you don't have the attitude of Jesus.
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You just don't.
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If those type of people repulse you, you don't have the attitude of Jesus.
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If those type of people repulse you, they're not the ones that have a problem.
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You need to recheck yourself on that.
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Because Jesus attracts sinners.
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Controversial.
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Controversial.
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That's Jesus.
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Number two, Jesus evokes criticism.
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Jesus evokes criticism.
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We've already seen this, haven't we?
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In the previous passage, they didn't say anything, but they were thinking it in their hearts, right?
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Like, "This man's blaspheming." And Jesus totally can read your mind, right?
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He's like, "You're missing something here." But notice here, look at verse 16.
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It says, "And the scribes of the Pharisees," we met them last week, these are the seminary professors of the Pharisees, "And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples," Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?
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So in the previous passage they thought it, here notice they didn't even say something to Jesus, they said something to the disciples.
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Why do you think that is?
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I believe the previous encounter is probably still fresh in some people's minds, like Jesus with like the public rebuke, right?
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So like I'm not going to address Him directly, so that's usually the way complaining happens But they went to the disciples.
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Like, what?
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Okay, if He's like so holy, and if He's like this great rabbi, this great teacher, this… If He's so anointed, why is He partying with a bunch of criminals?
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Well, Jesus at work always, always, always, everybody say always, always, yes, evokes criticism.
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And you see this throughout Scripture, one of the biggest complaints about Jesus that the religious people had in His day was that Jesus is a friend of sinners.
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Matthew chapter 11, Luke chapter 7, Luke 15, Luke 18, over and over and over.
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That was the thing they hated about Jesus.
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Like, "Oh, He's...
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You know Jesus?
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He's a friend of sinners, you know?
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You know the guy just hangs out with sinners all the time.
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You know, if you're the Messiah, I think you're a little too comfy with Satan's people.
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"Oh, come on, he can't be the Messiah.
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Look at how low his standards are." Back in 1995 when I was called into ministry, just starting to read and understand the Bible, I really… I had this idea that most of the problems of ministry were going to come from the world.
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And I can tell you today that after seventeen years, pastoral work in three churches and involvement in countless other ministries, whether it's community outreach, prison, oversee, mission work, kids club, etc., etc., etc., etc., by far most of the bickering people problems come from the people that you expect to be on your team.
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True or false?
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True.
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Honestly, my problems with worldly people, with sinners, the problems I've encountered with people who think that they're the religious elite, the people that think, "I have my act together, and Jeff, I'm going to get your act together." That's how it was in Jesus' day.
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That's how it is today.
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You know, I was talking to the pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Philadelphia.
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It's an evangelism effort.
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You know how I feel about Philadelphia, right Paul?
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So I feel it's my job to try to minister to the pastor of Sodom.
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I was talking to him this past week, just quick phone call, twenty minutes, and he was telling me about the way Jesus was like at work in His church, and he was talking about specifically, he just did a, he's been going through 1 Peter, and he did this, he was doing this sermon that was addressing women, and he made this comment.
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It was something along the lines of, "Women, if you feel like you are in an abusive relationship, understand you have, you know, the governing authorities, first of all, you can turn to, and you need to turn to if you're in an abusive relationship.
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But also, ladies, you have a group of men at this church that will gladly, you know, with you and help protect you and get you through this." And he said like, the whole church like broke out into applause, which like has never happened.
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He said like, everybody was applauding and he said at the end of service, all these ladies were coming forward for prayer and he said it was just such a season of like, God was really just using that in a powerful way and of course this one lady came up to him after service and she's like, "I don't like the way you said that." He's like, "You don't like the way I said what?" She's like, "Oh, it just makes it sound like you and all the guys from the church are just going to beat up the guys that are abusing their women.
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I don't think it's your place to talk like that, and I don't think you should have said that." And she was just like in the face of seeing the way that the Lord was at work, and all she could walk away from with that was just criticism.
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And he tried to explain to her, "Look, we're not threatening people, we're just trying to convey our attitude that we love, you know, everybody in this church, and if there's a lady that feels like she needs some people from the church just..." He was trying to...
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Jesus at work always evokes criticism.
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That's why it's so much easier for churches to be lukewarm and soft in the gospel and let's not talk about anything controversial.
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If we leave Jesus out of the conversation, nobody's really going to have anything to get too fired up about.
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Anytime you mention Jesus, preach from His word, here come the critics.
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Finally, Jesus invites the sick.
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Jesus invites the sick.
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Look at verse 17.
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Okay, so getting the context, okay, so these scribes go to the disciples and they're like, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?
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That's how I imagine them talking.
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Notice verse 17 says, "And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick.
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I came not to call the righteous but sinners." Okay, so Jesus invites the sick, and word gets to Jesus, and Jesus says, "Let me clarify why I'm here." In this one statement, he makes an analogy and gives a mission statement.
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Look at his statement again.
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Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
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I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." And you're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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Obvious question.
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Who are the righteous?" Was Jesus saying that these people were righteous?
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Alright, pop quiz.
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Have you ever read the Bible?
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How many people have read at least some of the Bible?
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Hold up the universal symbol for how many righteous people have ever existed outside of Jesus Christ.
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Hold up the universal symbol.
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How many righteous people have ever existed?
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I'm impressed because these scribes would have had the Old Testament memorized.
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You understand that?
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These weren't like casual like Bible people.
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They would have had it memorized word for word.
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And all through the Old Testament, there is none righteous.
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There is none righteous.
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There is none righteous, right?
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No one's righteous.
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And they would have got what Jesus was saying.
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They totally would have picked up His point.
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And what Jesus does here is He plays along.
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He accepts on the surface their own premise, their own diagnosis of themselves.
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And I love this because Jesus could have just blasted them.
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Why does He eat with sinners?
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Jesus could have unloaded on them, right?
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He could have been like, "You blind, self-righteous fool.
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You have totally missed the purpose of the Messiah.
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Have you ever read the Old Testament?
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Have you ever read what the Scriptures say about the Messiah?" He could have like blasted them.
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But He didn't, right?
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He didn't.
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He just graciously deflected them.
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In essence, here's what Jesus was saying, "Oh, oh you're righteous?
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Then I'm not here for you.
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I'm here for people that know they're sinners." By the way, if you see how sick and sinful these people are, wouldn't it make sense that the Savior goes right after them?
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Right?
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Wouldn't that make sense?
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Last time I checked, Superman flies into the burning building to save people, right?
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Not the building where nothing's going on.
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It would make sense that the Savior of the universe would come after the people who need saved, but Jesus just deflected them.
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If you think you're righteous, okay, I'm not here for you then.
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It's so tragic that somehow on the other side of conversion we think of ourselves worthy to be saved, and my question is like, "When did that happen?
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When did that happen?" If you would have found me in 1995, I knew what a piece of dirt I was, and then somehow we get a few miles on the car, get a few steps down the road, and we start to think, "Yeah, God was pretty smart to save me.
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God made a good choice when He saved me, and we start looking down on other people who are in the exact same position that we were.
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How did that even happen?
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So as I close today, I just want to ask you this.
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What's your diagnosis?
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Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick." So question, when do you go to the doctor?
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When do you go to the doctor?
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Shout it out, when do you go to the doctor?
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Close.
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I heard a few people say, "When you're sick." That's close.
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You go to the doctor when you know you're sick, right?
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Are there people that are sick and don't realize it?
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You go to the doctor when you know you are sick.
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Because the truth is, no one is well, no one is righteous, and if you think you are, you've simply misdiagnosed yourself according to the Bible.
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So my job as a pastor is to make sure that no one here has misdiagnosed themselves.
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So here's what I want you to do.
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Get your outline.
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Somewhere off in the margin I want you to write the word "guilty." Okay, we're going to take a little test here.
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I don't want anybody to leave here being like, "Man, that was a great message for sinners." I don't want anybody to leave thinking that you are inherently righteous.
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I don't want anybody to leave here thinking that I don't need Jesus.
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I don't have a sin issue.
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I don't want anybody to leave with these attitudes that these scribes had.
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So I want you to write the word "guilty," and here's what we're going to do.
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I'm just going to go through the Ten Commandments, and if you...I'll just pick that part of the Old Testament law.
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And if you've ever been guilty of violating one of the commandments, give yourself a checkmark.
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Does everybody understand?
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If you've ever been guilty, give yourself a checkmark.
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And we're going to tally them up at the end.
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The first commandment, God says, "You shall have no other gods before Me." So let me ask you, has the Lord always been your priority in life?
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Every day has been passionately seeking Him, serving Him, has He always been number one?
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And if you can think of any point in your life when He hasn't been, you're guilty.
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The second commandment is to not make yourself an idol, a graven image, something you make with your hands that you worship.
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So question, has there ever been anything in your life that had been more important to you than your relationship with God?
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Can you think back at a time in your life at all where you're like, "You know what?
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There was a season that God wasn't my priority.
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This was," whether it was money or job or another person or whatever.
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It's an idol.
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If that's true, then you are guilty.
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Third commandment is, "Do not misuse the Lord's name," meaning don't misrepresent the Lord.
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A lot of times we think of that as just shouting GD or JC, and that certainly is part of it, but I think the commandment is more than that.
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It's misrepresenting, in vain means empty.
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It's throwing God's name around like it doesn't mean anything.
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Have you ever done that?
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If you have, guilty.
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The fourth commandment is to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy.
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And actually we were studying this in small group this past week, but that command has a lot more to do with just the one day of the week.
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The command really is, yes, work six days, but take a day to rest.
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The truth is spiritually we live in the Sabbath rest of Jesus Christ today, that is absolutely true.
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We live in the rest of Jesus, and there is not one day that is more holy or above any other days.
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But put yourself in the Old Testament mindset.
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Put yourself under the law for a second.
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Have you taken a day of the week to set aside that this is just for the Lord?
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If the answer is no, then you're in violation of this Old Testament commandment, and you are what?
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You're guilty.
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Give yourself a checkmark.
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The fifth commandment is to honor your parents.
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Have you honored your parents perfectly in all things, all the time, ever?
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Because I can call them, and I will ask them, "Have you always done what your parents told you to do?
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Always, without question, not even like a little hard attitude of rebellion?
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If not, then you're guilty." The sixth commandment is, "Thou shalt not murder." And you're like, "Yes!
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Finally we got one.
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Jesus said, "If you hate someone, you've committed murder in your heart.
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If you hate someone and there's something in you that you wish, 'You know what?
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I just wish she'd never even existed.
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I wouldn't care if she dropped off the planet today.'" Jesus said, "That's murder." So by that definition, how many people here are murderers?
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Guilty.
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Seventh commandment is to not commit adultery.
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God has a plan for marriage and sexuality, and anything outside of God's plan for marriage and sexuality is sin.
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Have you kept yourself always and exclusively pure for your spouse?
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A hundred percent?
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If you failed even once, then you're guilty.
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How are we doing?
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The eighth commandment is, "Don't steal.
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Thou shalt not steal." Have you ever stolen anything?
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Have you ever taken something that doesn't belong to you?
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Have you ever taken credit for hours' work that you didn't work?
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Have you taken things home from the office?
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That's stealing.
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The ninth commandment is, "Do not bear false witness," or we would say, "Don't lie." Have you always told the truth, always, no matter what, without exception?
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Have you always been truthful and straightforward?
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If you've ever, ever, ever lied, then you're guilty.
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And the tenth commandment is, "Do not covet." Have you ever at any point in your life looked at something that somebody else had, whether it was their spouse, whether it was their car, whether it was their house, whether it was their kids, their dog, their goldfish, their Nordic track, whatever, and you're like, "Man, I wish I had that." You're like, "Well, that's not really that big of a deal." To God it is.
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You know why?
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Because God wants you to be satisfied with what He's provided.
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And when you start looking around saying, "God, the stuff you gave me isn't enough.
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I need the stuff that He has." That's a heart problem, and God calls that coveting.
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So if you've ever had a point of dissatisfaction with what God's provided you, then you're guilty of coveting.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 2:13-17
Since He had not yet died on the cross, how could Jesus offer forgiveness to the paralytic (Matthew 2:1-12) and Levi (Mk 2:13-17)?
(Faith in Jesus is the only thing that ever saved anyone. Some, before His death on the cross [including those saved in OT times], believed in what He was going to do, others, like us, believe in what He had already done. Both are by faith.)
In Mk 2:17, Jesus makes an analogy and a mission statement. Was He saying the scribes and Pharisees were actually righteous and didn’t need Him?
(NO! Jesus was graciously deflecting their objections. They knew from the OT that there was “none righteous”, though they were acting as though they were righteous. Jesus was simply saying, “You are righteous? I am not here for you. I am here for people who recognize their need.)
If we are to imitate Jesus and be a “friend of sinners”, and at the same time “not be unequally yoked with unbelievers” (read 2 Corinthians 6:14-18), how can we effectively do both at the same time without violating the other?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.