A Change of View
Mark 2:13-17
INTRODUCTION
WWJD for a Prostitute?
Author and speaker Barbara Johnson writes:
I had just finished speaking at one of the last Women of Faith (WOF) conferences in 1998, challenging the audience to really think "What Would Jesus Do?" in their everyday situations. One way I apply the WWJD principle in my life is by distributing buttons inscribed SOMEONE JESUS LOVES HAS AIDS. A moment after leaving the auditorium, that button would speak volumes.
Running to grab a bite to eat before heading to my book table, the WOF director, Christie Barnes, headed me off. Her eyes were big, and she was talking fast. A prostitute, hiding from her pimp, was upstairs threatening suicide. She insisted on talking to me!
For a moment, I thought Why me? but quickly gathered five women to come with me to the locker room where the prostitute had been taken. A suicide unit, emergency personnel, and police were on their way. Christie filled me in as we walked, concluding with the fact that the prostitute had full-blown AIDS. How will the other women react? I thought. I’m sure they’ve never been near a prostitute, let alone one with AIDS!"
She was about 35 years old, dirty, and smelly from sleeping in a dumpster. Her pimp was trying to kill her because she wanted to stop turning tricks. The jagged scar on her face and the bullet hole in her leg were evidence.
The first thing I did was give her the button. As she held it tightly, we talked about how Jesus could give her a new heart and life. Within minutes, she was praying to accept Christ as Savior.
Now began the real WWJD action. One woman scrambled to get soap, shampoo, and towels; another ran upstairs to grab a WOF t-shirt and sweatshirt from the booth. As everyone disappeared. I sat the prostitute on a stool in the shower to start cleaning her up. An inspiration hit me—Maybe while I was scrubbing I could baptize her, too! —but then I saw a fresh gaping wound down her chest.
"We need to get you a doctor," I said.
"No," she insisted. "I just need to get out of town."
By the time we were done (with my head half soaked and frizzing from the shower’s spray), enough money had been scraped together for a bus ticket out of town.
My helpers gathered around us and we prayed. Their genuine love for this woman from the street brought tears to my eyes. The prostitute was in a win-win situation. If the pimp caught her and killed her, she would be safe in the arms of Jesus. If she made it to her family in Chicago, God was giving her a brand new start. Either way she was a winner!
Someone called a taxi.
"Wait!" she said. "The button!"
Pulling her filthy shirt out of the trash, she removed the button. Proudly, she pinned it on her clean sweatshirt.
We ran outside to catch the cab. Before she rolled up the window, I gave her one last hug. "If you get to heaven before you get to Chicago, you can polish the pearly gates for me."
T.S. What would you do to see someone else saved? The answer to that question has a lot to do with how we view the unsaved.
T.S. TURN WITH ME TO MARK 2:13-17
Jesus Calls Levi (Matthew)
13Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that gathered around him.14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax-collection booth. "Come, be my disciple," Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.15That night Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guests, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners. (There were many people of this kind among the crowds that followed Jesus.)16But when some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with people like that, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with such scum?"17When Jesus heard this, he told them, "Healthy people don’t need a doctor--sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough."
IF WE ARE TO REACH OTHERS WITH THE GOSPEL, WE MUST LEARN TO SEE THE WORLD AS CHRSIT SAW THE WORLD.
I. HOW DO YOU VIEW THE WORLD
Good and Bad Behavior
While visiting a neighbor, five-year-old Andrew pulled out his kindergarten class picture and immediately began describing each classmate. "This is Robert; he hits everyone. This is Stephen. He never listens to the teacher. This is Mark. He chases us and is very noisy." Pointing to his own picture, Andrew commented, "And this is me. I’m just sitting here minding my own business."
A. AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CONTAMINATION
Pointing Fingers Carlyle Marney, Leadership,
Many Christians define sin as the sum total of acts which they themselves do not commit.
The Real Alternative to Pharisaism
The Christian alternative to Pharisaism is costly discipleship.
B. AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CONVERSION
Place in the World
• Sent into the world John 17:18; 20:21
• Preaching to the world Mark 16:15
• The light of the world Phil. 2:15; Matt. 5:14
• Live godly in the world Titus 2:12
• Not conformed to the world Rom. 12:2; John 17:15
• As a saint, in separation from it John 17:16
• As a subject, in subjection to it Rom. 13:1
• As a servant, in service toward it John 20:21
II. HOW DO YOU VIEW UNCHURCHED
A. SEE THEIR PROBLEMS
Circumstances
It was F. B. Meyer, I believe, who once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin, there are two things we do not know: First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin. And second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.
B. SEE THEIR POTENTIAL
President Andrew Johnson
When 16-year old Eliza married the 20-year old tailor, he had never been to school. Others might have written his education off as a lost cause, but Eliza didn’t. She taught him to read, write, and spell. Those days were difficult, but he proved to be a fast learner. In fact, he learned so well that years later he was elected president of the United States! When he ran for a second term he lost, but refused to give up. Instead, he won a seat in the U.S. Senate. Who? our 17th president, Andrew Johnson.
T.S. How will you view the World? How will you view the unchurched?
SUMMARY
• HOW DO YOU VIEW THE WORLD
O AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CONTAMINATION
O AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CONVERSION
• HOW DO YOU VIEW UNCHURCHED
O SEE THEIR PROBLEMS
O SEE THEIR POTENTIAL
CHALLENGE
Have you had a wrong view of the world? Have you had a wrong view of the unchurched? Do you see yourself more like the Pharisees or like Jesus at Levi’s feast?
If you have had attitudes that need to be forsaken, then now is the time repent and ask god for a new attitude.
