The Rev. Herbert G. Hand

Faith Anglican Church

Cordova, Tennessee

June 8, 2008

Series: Developing an Outward Focus

Title: Dining with the Depraved

Text: Matthew 9:9-13

I.       Developing an Outward Focus

For the past year or so, we’ve been very busy doing God’s work:

By building our new church home.

By giving sacrificially to pay for the building.

By planning the use of our new building.

By necessity, for the past year or so, much of our focus has been inward.

It is now time for you and me:

To shift our focus from inward to outward.

To focus on those for whom we are building this building.

To make sure our new church home is not a hotel for saints, but a hospital for sinners.

For some of us, this shift will be welcome and comfortable.

For others, this shift – from an inward to an outward focus – will be a challenge.

Very appropriately, this morning’s lectionary gospel reading from Matthew chapter nine is about “dining with the depraved.”

II.     Not Dining with Depraved

Scripture is clear, you and I are to dine with certain depraved persons, but not with others.

Which sinful, corrupt, immoral, depraved persons are we to dine with?

And which sinful, corrupt, immoral, depraved persons are we not to dine with?

First Corinthians 5:9-13 gives us the answer.  St. Paul said,

⁹I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—¹⁰not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

1 Corinthians 5:9-11 (NIV)

Scripture is clear, the people we are to avoid like the plague, are those who claim to be believers, but brazenly refuse to repent of their sins:

Adultery, fornication, perversion.

Those who cling to their material possessions.

Those who worship false gods.

Those who slanderer others, who point the finger of accusation.

Those who abuse alcohol or drugs.

Those who take financial advantage of others.

We are not to even eat with such a person.  Why?

Because, they are fake Christians, what Jesus called wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15).

They are counterfeits.

They create an imminent danger to God’s people, who could easily be lead astray by their seductive words and lifestyle.

Not only does Scripture tell us to avoid them, but to even expel them from among us.

I’m sure it would have been easier for Moses to have turned a blind eye to Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16).

Jesus could have avoided the cross if he hadn’t confronted the godless religious leaders of his day.

It would have been less stressful for St. Peter to have avoided overseeing the divine death and burial of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5).

For me, clearly, confronting notorious sin within the congregation is my least favorite task.  It is extremely difficult, but absolutely necessary.

Those who remain unrepentant, blame everyone but themselves, and usually wreak as much havoc as possible.

Holy Scripture commands us to avoid those who claim to be believers, but are unrepentantly brazen in their sins; we are not to even dine with them.
III.    Dining with the Depraved

But on the other hand, the Bible gives us example after example of dining with the depraved, of spending intimate time with non-Christians:

Not so you will be influenced by them, but so they will be influenced by you.

Not so you will be dragged down in sin, but so you will lift them from the mire.

Not so you will walk away from Jesus, but so you will help turn them to the author of eternal life.

Let’s take a look at our reading from Matthew chapter nine, beginning at the ninth verse.  Verse nine:

⁹As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.

No respected first century rabbi would have even spoken to a tax collector.

Tax collectors were traitors.

They collected taxes for the hated ungodly idolatrous Romans.

The Romans were a brutal unwelcome occupying force.

Not only were tax collectors traitors, they were thieves as well:

They were notorious for overcharging the people, and the people hated them for it.

The tax collectors lived in mansions, while the people lived in squalor.

No respected rabbi of the day, would have dared dine with a tax collector.

In the second half of verse nine, to the astonishment and horror of many of the religious leaders, Jesus said to Matthew the tax collector:

“Follow me.”

In verse ten, we find Jesus,

¹⁰...having dinner at Matthew’s house...”

Not only dinner with one sinner, but,

“....many tax collectors and ‘sinners’ came and ate with him...”

Jesus was not dumbing down the gospel.

He was not lowering his moral standards.

He was not trying to appease the rich and powerful.

No, Jesus was reaching out with the life-giving gospel to those who were receptive and ready to repent.

I’ll be very very honest with you, I’m much more comfortable with churchgoing people, than with “tax collectors and sinners.”

For me it is a real struggle.  It’s work, hard work, to reach out to:

Those unashamedly living an immoral life.

Those seemingly hostile to the faith.

Those uncomfortable with the clergy.

But I do it.  If I don’t tell them the good news, if you don’t, who will?

No one.

Out on the church construction site, at the barber shop, in the hotel pool on vacation, on the airplane,

I’m praying for God to give me an opportunity:

To speak a word from Scripture.

To share a portion of my testimony.

To offer a prayer for their concerns.

God has repeatedly answered these prayers.

Mingling with the Unchurched

Last Thursday, out on the construction site, I was speaking with one of the workers.  At first he didn’t know I was a priest.  In fact, he thought Fred Robertson was our priest.

He was telling me all about his divorce, his ex-wife, his children, all of his many concerns.  Without condemning him, without being pushy, I peppered our conversation with Bible passages.

I asked him if I could pray for him.  What do you think he said?

Yes.  Please.

In verse 11,

¹¹When the Pharisees saw [Jesus dining with the depraved], they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

The same is true today, in some churches – often churches who say they believe in evangelism, who say they want to reach the lost – the members and the church board make it almost impossible for the pastor to have an external focus, to focus on the lost.

Their list of internal expectations is exhaustive – sermons, teachings, administration, budgets, buildings, overseeing staff, home visits, hospital visits, phone calls, emails, lots and lots of emails, counseling, meetings, articles, the list goes on and on.  By the end of the week, they’ve already put in 60 hours.

There is simply no time left for the lost, no time left to dine with the depraved.

Unfortunately, many pastors bow to these expectations, instead of bowing to Jesus example of searching for the lost sheep.

Pastors who leave no time for evangelism and discipling new believers, not only fail to follow Jesus’ example, but give their people an unbiblical example to follow.

Standing Rock

Next Monday through Friday, five of us will be ministering to the children of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota.

Our team members are sacrificing their income, their savings, their leisure time with their friends to follow Jesus’ example of reaching out, of dining with the depraved.

Some of these children we will be ministering to are believers, but many are not.

Sioux County is the sixth poorest county in the United States.

http://www.aaanativearts.com/printout1459.html

Most of the children we’ll be ministering to come from broken, alcoholic homes.

The alcoholism rate is roughly 50%.

The suicide rate for Sioux Indians, ages 15-24, is 382% higher than the suicide rate among whites.

http://www.health.state.nd.us/ndiac/pubs/FactsProfiles.pdf

Most of the children wander around town with no adult supervision.

Yet, like Matthew the tax collector, many of these Lakota-Dakota children are wonderfully receptive to the good news of Jesus.

Other Missionaries from Faith

Last week Ashley Lindsey went on a mission trip to the mountains of Mexico.

This summer Stephanie Guthrie will be spending two months in Nicaragua, discerning a possible call to full-time missionary work.

At the end of June Susan Blackburn will be leading the youth program for a renewal conference in North Carolina.

Along with our Standing Rock Mission Team, Ashley, Stephanie, and Susan, are going beyond their comfort zone and sacrificing their finances, to reach out to the lost, to dine with the depraved, with the hopes of bringing them to Jesus.

Verse 12 of Matthew chapter nine:

¹²On hearing this [on hearing the Pharisees grumble that he was dining with the depraved], Jesus said,

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:9-13 (NIV)

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners!

Jesus did not pick the well respected seemingly righteous Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes to be his apostles.

No, he called a bunch of misfits like you and me.  He picked:

A zealot, a first century terrorist.

James and John, the sons of thunder – two loud mouths.

Peter and Andrew, uneducated fishermen.

Doubting Thomas

Matthew, the traitor, the thief, the tax collector.

Jesus didn’t call the “righteous,” those who thought they were righteous.  He called sinners, people like you and me, not only to salvation, but to preach the gospel and to share their testimonies.

Unless you and I dine with the depraved, there will be many empty seats at Jesus’ heavenly banquet table.

Each day, God is giving you opportunities to dine with the depraved, to share the life-giving Good News with the lost.

Are you praying, Lord today give me an opportunity to share your love and truth?

Are you looking for those opportunities God is giving you?

My Jesus

In the final verse of Todd Agnew’s song, My Jesus, he sings:

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud
I think He’d prefer Beale Street to the stained glass crowd
But I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

http://x-evolutionist.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!25A0033DD834DD1D!1400.entry

I pray that you and I will:

Accept and promote the real Jesus in our church.

Reach out to the hurting.

Be willing to go out from the safety of these “stained glass” environs into the messy Beale streets of life.

If you and I don’t go, who will?

No one.