Let's open our Bibles to Luke chapter 5. I know it says Luke chapter 6 up there on the slide. That's a little typo on my part, but it is actually Luke chapter 5, beginning in verse 27.
"After this, He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, 'Follow Me.' And leaving everything, he rose and followed Him. And Levi made Him a great feast in his house." And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this morning, for the chance to gather together to worship you, to gather as the church and to worship our God. But I also just want to remember Matthew and ask that you would touch his body. Lord, give him rest this morning, restore his strength. Lord, heal him of this virus and bring restoration to that household. I also pray that through the power of your Spirit that you would challenge us this morning, encourage us, and change us through this message. There's good news in this passage. If we were willing to hear it, there's a necessary challenge for many of us. So we ask that you would do your work in us this morning, Lord, through your Word and by your Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.
There's a couple reasons why this passage was, I think, I was drawn to this morning. One of them is one of the goals that we have as a church is to become more missional. That means to be more effective in evangelism, to begin to be more bold in our declaration of the gospel. One of the things we did with when we brought deacons, filled the office of deacon this year, we had Matt Brodin as our deacon overseeing missions and outreach. You know, that was done for a reason because as a church, we excel at a lot of things and a lot of you excel at sharing the gospel, but I think if we all would just stop and think for a minute, we can certainly grow in that and we want to grow in the next year, in the next years actually, as a church.
And, you know, one of the things that we're thinking about and talking about— I'm kind of rolling this out a little bit early, actually. I'm meeting with Matt later this week to talk about it, but I'm going to go ahead since I think the Holy Spirit obviously brought all this around— is we wanted to encourage people to, you know, we haven't come up with a fancy name for this yet, but we want to encourage people to do what for the time being we're calling missional meals. It simply means we want to set aside some time, what may be a specific week of each month, where we just encourage everyone to get together with someone who's not a Christian, who's outside of your normal sphere of influence, some that you don't normally get together with. And preeminently, they have to be someone who's not a Christian. Get together and have a meal with them. It could be inviting a neighbor into your home, it could be a co-worker, whatever the situation may be, whatever opportunities the Lord has given you. We want to encourage you on a monthly basis to begin to reach out to those who are not Christians, those who are lost and without hope in this world. And let's begin as a church to, to become more aware of these people, to have more of a heart for them, and to desire to spend time with them with the purpose of getting to know them, to pray for them, to pray with them, and ultimately to look for opportunities and to share the gospel with with them. So that's one of the things that we're preparing and working on. We have a lot more details about that in the new year, but I just wanted to let you know that's coming because I think this message kind of fits, ties in with that really nicely. So I just encourage you to keep that in mind and keep that in mind as you listen to what I have to say.
So recently, if you've been watching the news or reading on the internet, everybody should be aware of the Ebola crisis that's out there. It's some Deadly disease. It's highly contagious, what I've been told. It's primarily over in Africa, but there's been a few cases here in the United States. It's very deadly for those who contract it. It often ends in the death of the individual who contracts it. And if you're aware, if you've seen anything, you know that a number of people have been flown over to the United States to be cared for and treated here. And if you watch them, they're always going into quarantine. And if you watch them on I've seen it on TV and on the internet a few times. There are— obviously, you can't just quarantine someone in a room and just tell them to take care of themselves and do whatever they need to do to get better. Somebody has to go in there, into this room, and care for these people, to feed them, to give them the medications, to do whatever you do to a sick person to help them get over Ebola. But look at— have you noticed how those people are dressed? They're always in, you know, they're covered head to toe. They've got hats on, they've got face masks on, they've got, you know, a thing over their mouth, a thing over their faces. They're covered from head to toe in gowns and gloves and booties. There's not any exposed skin, or certainly there shouldn't be any exposed skin. But they do that. Why do they do that? They do that for a reason. They want to protect themselves and insulate themselves from Ebola, and that's a good thing to do. It's not a disease that they want to catch. So they're proper, they're right, they're wise to be dressed that way and to be careful around this dangerous disease. So they go to great lengths to protect themselves while they work in the midst of this terrible, terrible disease.
6 · Pivots the Ebola analogy to the congregation's relationship with sinners: do we insulate ourselves from "contamination" by avoiding contact with tax collectors and sinners—the very people Jesus pursued?
But do we do the same kind of thing in our lives, but in a slightly different way at times? Do we find ourselves going to great lengths to avoid that which we don't want to come in contact with? That which we are afraid of, that which we might think might contaminate us or our families. I'm not talking about diseases here or bacteria or viruses. Those are all bad things that can bring harm to us, and we were right and correct to be careful around those things, take precautions, and that's good. I don't have those things in mind this morning. The question for us to consider Today is, do we do the same thing with people? Do we do the same thing with the tax collectors and the sinners that are around us? Do we put up walls and shields and act and behave in certain ways that keep us from having any contact with these people or minimizing our contact wherever possible? Are we minimizing our contact with the very kinds of people that Jesus spent a lot of time with?
7 · Exposition of the narrative context: Jesus' public ministry was marked by constant crowds, drawn by His miracles and authoritative teaching, and at this moment He is about to call Levi as the fifth disciple
He spent a lot of time with tax collectors and sinners. Most every time we encounter Jesus in the Gospels, there are all sorts of people around Him. Once He began His public ministry, He's constantly surrounded by people. He calls out to people and people come to Him as word spreads about Him, especially around that region. The parallel passage in Mark tells us that Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee and it was often possible, or as often happened, people were attracted to Him. He attracted a crowd. There are lots of crowds who are interested in Jesus. We read that throughout the Gospels. Wherever He went, there were crowds coming to Him. They had heard about Him. Maybe they had heard about some of the miracles He was doing. Maybe they had heard about His teaching and the authority that which He taught with. They wanted to come and see, what's He going to do next? What's He going to say next? And at this point in Jesus' ministry, there's only 4 men who are with Him. He had called at this point in time, he called, or at this point in this story, in this passage, he's about to call the fifth. He's calling Levi.
8 · Exposition of the Roman tax system establishing the cultural and economic context: three types of taxes existed, and Levi collected the customs tax—the most hated by the Jewish population
And Levi, we are told, was a tax collector. Tax collectors were not the most popular men in town. It might be fair to say that that hasn't changed much in 2,000 years. Hopefully nobody here works for the IRS. There were 3 kinds of taxes back then for the Jews. Under the Roman Empire, there was a land tax of about 10% of their harvest. There was a second tax, it was called a poll tax or a head tax, that was roughly equivalent to a day's wages. And there was a third tax, it was a customs tax that was levied on goods and merchandise. There would be collection points set up along the roads, along the highways, along trade routes, at the entrance into towns, at the exits of towns. And it was kind of like a toll. If you've ever driven west on I-70 or gone south on I-35, you pass through some toll booths where they want to take money from you for the privilege of driving along that road. These customs taxes were somewhat similar to that. Tax wasn't exorbitant. It was typically in the range of 2% to 5%. And Levi was one of these tax collectors who collected this customs tax. And it happened to be that this tax is the one that the people, that the Jews hated the most.
9 · Detailed exposition of the Roman tax-farming system: contracts were bid out, investors paid upfront, and individual collectors added their own margins, creating a cascading profit-taking structure
Not only did these tax collectors take your money, but they weren't necessarily nice about it in the process. And here's how it would work. At the time of Jesus in the Roman Empire, the Romans had decided to get out of the business of actually collecting taxes. So what they would do is that they would bid out the right to collect taxes. So if you were a wealthy individual or maybe a group of individuals, individuals coming together, you could bid on a contract to collect taxes in a certain area of the empire. And if you outbid everybody else, you got the contract. Another unique thing about this tax is that these investors, these bidders, had to pay the tax up front. So they would bid on how much money they were going to give to Rome up front. So a group of men might get together, or a single individual who was wealthy enough might say, get together to bid on, might say, I'll bid $1 million to collect taxes around that city. If that was the best bid, Rome would give them the contract. They would pay the $1 million up front, and then they would go out and begin to collect taxes. Now, the chief tax collector, obviously, or these investors, obviously would want to collect enough taxes to pay that $1 million that they had to give to Rome, but they'd also want to make a profit for themselves. So they might set a goal of $2 million to raise in taxes. And then they would hire individuals to go and be the individual tax collectors. So if, for instance, if a company or a group of investors hired 10 tax collectors, each one was given a goal or objective of $200,000. Well, these individual tax collectors then might want to make a little extra money on the side. So they might set an individual goal of $250,000. So you can see how this just kind of builds up. Everybody wants to take a little cut of the profits here.
10 · Exposition of the corruption inherent in the customs tax system: lack of regulation enabled extortion, fraud, false accusations, and arbitrary valuations—making tax collectors hated as thieves and collaborators with Rome
The problem was with this customs tax that there was very little regulation, there was very little enforcement, and it allowed for a lot of corruption. And there was virtually no enforcement of the few rules that did exist. So these tax collectors, by whatever means they wanted— could be by extortion, could be by cheating or by fraud— they could pretty much collect however much they wanted to collect. Understandably, there were many reasons that these tax collectors were hated by the Jews. They were despised since they were often seen as being partners with the Roman Empire. So these tax collectors were viewed as sellouts. They were almost always thieves, swindlers. They could confiscate your goods if you didn't declare your goods properly. They could make false accusations and they could threaten you. You had the power to determine what your goods were worth. So if you go through the checkpoint and they look at your basket of fish and say, "Looks like about $1,000 of fish in there," but you look in and see only 3 fish. How can that be worth $1,000? And they look again and said, "Yep, $1,000. 5% is $50. That's your tax." It's kind of like going up to the toll booth on I-70. It's been a few years since I've been out there, but they do it based on the number of axles on your cars, if I remember right. So it would be like driving up there in your little Honda Civic and the tax collector, the toll booth collector looks out and says, "Looks like you got 5 axles to me." And you know very certainly that that car only has 2, but they're the collector and they get to decide how many axles are actually on that car and they would collect the appropriate amount. That's what these guys could do and were doing. That's why they were so hated.
11 · Exposition of the power imbalance: tax collectors held all the knowledge and authority, leaving the average person with no recourse against cheating or fraud
To make things worse, the average person probably didn't know what the tax regulations were. The tax collectors were the experts. One week they could charge you 3%, the next week they could charge you 5%. It was a classic injustice system in all of its glory, and there was very little that anybody could do about it. Tax collector had all the know-how, he had all the power, and that made for a system of corruption. If you had felt you had been cheated, The appeal process was long, it was difficult, and you faced great odds about ever winning any kinds of appeals. They would cheat, they would commit fraud, they would steal, they'd swindle, and there was no one who would stop them from doing it.
12 · Theological claim that Levi's immediate response to Jesus' call—leaving everything without hesitation—is remarkable given his despised status and lucrative position
So given the reputation of tax collectors, the contempt in which they were held, and the fact that most of them were cheats, the last 2 words of verse 27 here are actually quite remarkable. Jesus sees Levi sitting there in his tax booth and he says, Follow me. And we are told that Levi rose, he left everything, and he followed Jesus. He left his source of income, his security, all to follow Jesus, no questions asked, just an immediate response. He got up and he followed Jesus.
13 · Theological claim comparing the two miraculous elements of the story: while Levi's response is remarkable, Jesus' willingness to call such a despised sinner is even more remarkable
It's a bit difficult to figure out here what's more amazing in this part of the story. Is it more amazing that Levi got up and followed Jesus Or is it more amazing that Jesus called him? Levi didn't make any excuses to Jesus when he calls. He didn't say, "Oh, Jesus, sorry, it's really busy right now. April 15th is just around the corner. I've got to get to my quota. The rush is really on. If you could just come back in a few months, or better yet, just send me an email reminder and I'll get back to you when I have some free time." It's doubtful at this point in time that that Levi really understood completely who Jesus was. He probably didn't understand that Jesus was about to die in a couple of years for his sins. Levi probably didn't grasp that Jesus was the Son of God in flesh. He'd probably seen or heard enough about Jesus in order to follow him. He could recognize the power that Jesus had and his authority. There was something in him that resonated with that call, "Follow me." He must have believed just enough to get up and take those first steps. It's really amazing if you stop and think about what Levi did. But I actually think it's more amazing about what Jesus did.
14 · Illustration applying the Levi story to a modern parallel: Jesus calling George Tiller, a notorious abortionist, out of his clinic to follow Him—making the scandal of grace vivid to contemporary hearers
This is like Jesus walking into George Tiller's abortion clinic. I don't know if you know who George Tiller was, but he was a very well-known, sadly well-known abortionist in the state of Kansas. He performed late-term abortions was responsible for the death of thousands of babies. It's like Jesus going up to him and saying, "George, follow me," and George getting up, walking out of his abortion clinic, never going back, and following Christ.
15 · Exposition imagining the disciples' perspective: discomfort and scandal at Jesus accepting an invitation to a large feast with notorious sinners—the very kind of event respectable people would avoid
The story gets even better though, or worse, depending on how you look at it. Verse 29: "And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table." Here's Jesus with his disciples. What do you think is going through Peter, Andrew, James, and John's mind right now? Would they maybe be just freaking out a little bit? "Um, this is not what we had planned, Jesus. I'm okay with the Jesus who's doing all those miracles, the healings, those are really cool. I love to hear his teachings, the crowds gathering around him, that's really exciting. I'm good with Jesus who teaches on the kingdom and repentance." but now we're gonna go do some really weird stuff. We're gonna go some places that I don't think that we really should be going. What do you mean we're gonna go to Levi's house and have dinner with him? But it's not just a quiet dinner with Levi and his family. Levi invites all of his friends, other tax collectors and sinners, to come and join them. It's gonna be a dinner party, a big dinner party with lots of sinners, lots of tax collectors. There might be drinking there. What about the music that might be played? Those guys tell jokes that I'm not sure are very appropriate for me to be hearing. Don't you know what kind of women there might be at that party? How many of us would be tempted to think that way as we read this story and think about what's taking place? So there they are, they find themselves at Levi's house having dinner with tax collectors and sinners.
16 · Imaginative illustration transposing the ancient feast into a modern setting populated by the preacher's actual neighbors—drug addicts, sexually immoral, religiously diverse, morally respectable but lost—making the scandal of Jesus' fellowship contemporaneous
Let's use our imagination a bit and imagine the people that might be reclining around the table. As we look around the room, we might notice a young man who is a drug addict. Maybe there's a woman who sleeps around, known for sleeping around. There might be a gay couple over on the left. There would definitely be a few who would be into different religions—Muslims, Mormons, maybe some Buddhists. There's a married couple who's constantly fighting with each other. There are kids running around being disrespectful and loud and rude and obnoxious. The music's loud, the lyrics are offensive, there's flirting going on, there's crude jokes, there's smoking, there's drinking. Maybe in the back row there's a nominal Catholic couple whose wife is fighting cancer, and while they pray, and many of their prayers are misdirected to Mary and to other saints rather than to Christ. There's another couple, he was raised in the Baptist church, she in the Catholic church, and he walked away from his faith for a relationship. He believes, though, his kids are growing up Christian simply because they go to a Catholic school, they were baptized as infants, and have passed the Catholic catechism test. And finally, your eyes notice a couple that you know very well, people you enjoy to be with. They are nice, they're polite, they're generous, they're caring, they're well-off, they're upper middle class, they're thoughtful and intentional in their parenting, but they don't recognize their need for a Savior despite all the time that you have shared the gospel with them and prayed with them. These are not imaginary people, these are our neighbors. I described to you the people that live around my home here in Overland Park.
17 · Exposition of the Pharisees' scandal at Jesus' fellowship with sinners, followed by a rhetorical question challenging the congregation: what would your response be if you witnessed this scene?
Is it any wonder then though that the Pharisees and the scribes are grumbling as they think about who Jesus just went in to sit down with and have dinner with? They are absolutely scandalized seeing Jesus recline at the table with sinners and tax collectors. He's there with all the spiritual riffraff. Some of you may be familiar with this story. We could be tempted to think, "Oh, those crazy Pharisees. They don't ever like anything that Jesus did." If we were there watching as this event unfolded, what would our response be?
18 · Illustration drawing the congregation into a hypothetical scenario: you awaken to a raucous party and discover Jesus is the one there—forcing the listener to confront their reaction to Jesus' fellowship with sinners
Perhaps some of us have neighbors who like to throw parties from time to time, or perhaps their kids have parties when mom and dad are out of town. I think we all know a family or two has a reputation somewhat like this. It's Christmas time, there's gonna be lots of Christmas holiday parties taking place. There's gonna be gatherings, there's gonna be drinking, there's gonna be flirting, there's gonna be smoking, there's gonna be loud music, the whole bit. Everyone knows what's taking place at those parties, everyone knows who's at those homes joining in together. Around 2 in the morning, the party spills outside and someone sets off a bunch of fireworks. You get up from bed, you've been woken from a deep sleep, you're boiling mad, and you look out the window and you glance around to see if you can identify which neighbor it is, who's out there making all that noise. And your eyes are drawn to someone you recognize. You squint and you look closer and you realize it's Jesus.
19 · Application pressing the illustration into the Pharisees' perspective: their scandal at seeing Jesus at Levi's house mirrors our potential scandal at seeing Jesus at a morally compromised party
It's the immediate thought that comes into your mind. That's what the Pharisees were seeing here. They're looking out and they're saying, "It's Jesus in there with those tax collectors and those sinners. What in the world are you doing there, Jesus? You shouldn't be here. Don't you know what kind of house that is? Don't you know what kind of man Levi is? Don't you know what kind of friends he has?"
20 · Illustration contrasting two invitations to Jesus: the respectable Christian party versus the raucous sinner's feast—revealing the listener's preference for safe, culturally homogeneous gatherings
The next morning you're out for your morning walk or your morning jog and you encounter Jesus along the path. Maybe it's out by the lake and Jesus is there and you ask him to your Christmas party. You tell him you're going to have a nice Christmas, you're going to have nice Christmas carols together that night, there's going to be Christian music playing in the background, the children will all be there, they're all well trained and disciplined, everybody's going to be dressed really nice. Come to our party, Jesus. Everyone there is a Christian. Everyone there is respectable and godly. It will be a nice, safe, calm, and quiet environment, not at all like that party you were at last night.
21 · Theological claim distinguishing Jesus' presence from approval: Jesus' fellowship with sinners does not condone their behavior but demonstrates His mission to call them to repentance
Notice though that Jesus is not engaged in sin at Levi's house or at this dinner party. He's not condoning their sin by being there, but He's definitely there with them, eating with them—known sinners.
22 · Application pressing the congregation to examine their reaction if they saw their own pastors or church leaders at such a gathering—exposing the scandal they might feel at witnessing Jesus-like engagement with sinners
Is there any part of us that says, "Jesus, come on, you've got to get out of there, you don't You don't belong there. If you don't leave, I'm going to have to go tell one of the pastors what you were doing last night. What would we think if we had been with Jesus that night? If you were one of His disciples? If you were one of those four? You observed what He was doing. What if it was me that you saw there? What if it was Matthew? What if it was one of your care group leaders that you saw at that party? What would you think? What if it was another member of the congregation? What thoughts are going to go through our minds if we see— imagine that a Christian, a pastor, a care group leader engaging with sinners and tax collectors.
23 · Personal story of the preacher's four-year friendship with a homeless, drug-addicted, formerly incarcerated couple—demonstrating concrete engagement with modern-day tax collectors and sinners and the slow work of gospel witness bearing fruit
There's a homeless couple that I have been friends with now for about 4 years. They are meth addicts. It's very likely that she's an alcoholic. Most of the time I've known them, they've lived in hotels when they could afford it. If not, they slept in a storage unit that they have up in Miriam. And often, when the weather's nice, they would just sleep outside. The man spent 20 years in jail when he was younger because he killed someone. He's been back to jail twice in the last few years that I've known him. They smoke nonstop, and they look like they're drug addicts and that they're alcoholics. I've had the privilege of getting together with them often. Through the years I shared the gospel with them, I pray with them, I offer them my counsel and advice on how to get their lives turned around. Last summer the woman was finally able to secure a job, a steady job, and now they live— for 6 months now they've been living in a hotel down in South Olathe. It's the first time in probably, well, in the 4 years that I've known them that they stayed in the same place for more than just a few days. So now they're there, settling into that hotel. It's a small room. The man is able to get odd jobs here and there. You can imagine with his kind of record, it's hard to get a job with a murder conviction on your record. He's burglarized several homes in the past couple years as well. He went to jail for that. They're going to church now in South Olathe on a regular basis. It's probably 10 miles from here. It's too far for them to come to Providence, although they've been invited. But they are settling into a small church down there in Olathe. I went and visited them this last week, and they were extremely proud to show me their room, which they've been able to decorate. The hotel owner has given them some freedom to decorate their small hotel room. So they've got a few things up on the walls. They bought their own sheets, their own blankets, rather than having the hotel supplied things. They just got a little dog a couple weeks ago, and they're super excited to have someone to actually care for. It's giving them some encouragement, some motivation to try to get their lives straightened out. They've been clean and sober for 6 months now, the longest stretch since I've known them. And I help them out from time to time, primarily just driving them around when they need to go to the store, go to the doctor, or or whatever the case may be, I offer them rides.
24 · Pastoral confession of the preacher's own shame at being seen with his homeless friends—a moment of vulnerability exposing the universal temptation to avoid association with the disreputable out of concern for reputation
But the trouble is, I'm ashamed to say that when I am with them at times, I'm ashamed to be with them. They look the part of a homeless couple. They reek of smoke because they are chain smokers. They go through packs and packs of cigarettes every day. Their teeth have been all rotted out from the drugs that they've taken for years and years. They don't have nice clothes. He has a scraggly beard. Their faces are drawn and eyes are sunken back in their heads there. They look like drug addicts. They look like they're homeless people. When I go into restaurants with them, when I go into the store with them, when I go to the doctor's office with them, I'm looking around to see if there's anybody that I recognize because I don't want to be seen with these kind of people. And I'm convicted when I get with them. I go and I spend time with them, but I find that afterwards I wish I hadn't had to do that. And I think we all can be that same way. I don't want to be known at times as a friend of sinners and tax collectors because I'm afraid of what others might think of me when they see me with them.
25 · Theological claim establishing that Jesus' fellowship with sinners was always in the context of His core message of repentance and belief in the gospel—His presence did not signal acceptance of their behavior
What was Jesus' attitude towards these sinners and tax collectors? What was His attitude towards Levi and to his friends? He wasn't afraid to be seen with them. He was there with them, not to condone their behavior, but to call them to repentance. His whole ministry, His whole preaching ministry, remember, was summarized up in Mark 1:15. He said, "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand." Repent and believe in the gospel. That was the message that Jesus had. This was his bread and butter message: repent and believe in the gospel. And it's safe to assume that people who knew of Jesus knew that that was his message. That's what he taught, that's what he preached. Those people at Levi's home that evening had probably heard of Jesus. Maybe they had even heard him personally speak. Maybe they had seen him around town. So he wasn't there conveying that evening that he accepted their behavior that they would never have to change, His message was clearly one of repentance.
26 · Application question challenging the congregation to examine whom they truly want in their church—exposing the tension between affirming a wide gospel call and preferring only certain kinds of people
I don't think any of us would want this morning to say that we want to narrow the Gospel call, but what sorts of people do we want to be a part of our church? We understand the need to be baptized and become a member. There's a need for repentance and a desire to change. There's discipleship involved. But what sort of people do we want to come in here and be identified with us?
27 · Application pressing the congregation to examine whether their stated commitment to the poor would hold if many poor people actually attended—or whether they would seek a more comfortable church
It's easy to talk about ministering to the poor. It's a very popular thing to do, and it's a very good thing to do. But what if there are lots and lots of poor people who came into Providence and attended our services on Sunday morning? How many of us would actually engage these folks and truly minister and care for them week after week for year after year? Would we grow weary within a few weeks or a few months and begin to look for another church where everyone's a bit more like us, not quite so poor and not quite so needy?
28 · Application exposing the gap between stated commitment to diversity and true welcome: do we actually want people culturally different from us, or only those who fit our socioeconomic and cultural profile?
We hear a lot about diversity these days, and diversity is good. Do we really want to welcome people who eat different foods, though? Communicate in different ways, different languages? Maybe people who like different songs, different music. What about how we want to— we talk about how we want everyone to come to Christ. Anyone and everyone needs to come to Christ. I believe we're all sincere about that, but deep down, do we really mean everyone? Or do we mean the educated, the clean-cut, the culturally conservative families with well-paying jobs, the Caucasian, the middle-class family with 4 kids who homeschool, drive a minivan, kids who are well-behaved, dress nice, and say all the right things? Who is it that we really want to come to Providence?
29 · Illustration calling the congregation to observe their own behavior: which visitors receive warm welcome and which are ignored—revealing whom they instinctively welcome and whom they avoid
I encourage you sometime, watch the visitors who come in. Who are the ones who have large crowds gathered around them at the end of the service? Who are the ones who leave with no one approaching them at all? Think for a moment what effort we make, that you make, to go out and reach out to those visitors before and after the service.
30 · Personal examples illustrating that visitors who are socially marginalized (homeless, racially different) are often ignored by the congregation—concrete evidence of the selective nature of the church's welcome
My friend, this homeless man that I spoke about just a few minutes ago, he's visited Providence several times in the past. He worshiped with us, he always sat in the back row, he heard the Word of God preached, and only on only one occasion of his visit did anyone go up and approach him and introduce themselves to him. There was a young black man who came and visited one Sunday last summer. I only observed one person, I don't remember who it was, maybe others went up to him as well, but only one person went up and approached him and talked to him and introduced themselves.
31 · Application pressing the congregation to examine what message their actions communicate to outsiders: do their behaviors signal genuine welcome or implicit rejection?
So what are we communicating to visitors, to outsiders, to the sinners and tax collectors when they come in? What are we communicating to them in our neighborhoods, our friends, our neighbors, those that we encounter at work and in the neighborhood, in the stores, in the restaurants? Are our actions communicating welcome, that we welcome them into our midst, that we want to be friends with them, that we want to engage with them?
32 · Application challenging the congregation to examine whether they are willing to disciple messy, socially awkward, emotionally needy people—or whether they prefer to disciple only those who are easy and rewarding to engage
We say we want to make disciples, but who's going to be willing to step forward and disciple those whose lives are a mess? Who will come, who will welcome the awkward couple into their care group? A couple that doesn't quite understand social dynamics, they aren't as mature of a Christian as we would perceive ourselves to be. Will we go out of our way to approach that person in the lobby who we know is very emotionally needy and that if you ask them the dreaded question, how they are doing, that you're gonna be there for a while?