Sorry, did not change anything.
But, speaking of change... do you think Jesus would have promoted drunken behavior? It is a notorious sin.
Did Jesus turn water into grape juice? No. It was the "finest wine" and we know that because Scripture tells us that. The narrative says that usually the best wine is served first. But, when the guests are all tipsy, He gave them a treat.
I do not think Jesus would bless a gay wedding. I do think Jesus went where sinners congregate. Scripture repeats that theme.
I do smile when others are so quick to condemn behavior that they personally abhor, and try to "speak for God". He has already spoken. WE can learn from that!!
I will learn from the Master, thanks!
...This part of Jesus' life started at Bethlehem and ended at Calvary.
At His birth He was numbered with the transgressors. Mary, His mother, and Joseph, His foster father, were coming to Bethlehem. Why were they coming to Bethlehem? They came to register their names. A census was being taken. It says in the English language that they were going to Bethlehem to be taxed. That is not quite correct. A census was conducted and each person had to go to his own capital city. Jesus in His birth was registered in Bethlehem. He was numbered with sinners.
The very fact that He was circumcised numbers Him with sinners. Circumcision was a rite administered to people because of their sins, admitting that one was a sinner. Forgive me for being a bit blunt here, but the clipping of the wasted skin pictured that the Christian ought not to have sin in his life. We ought to be circumcised from sin, if you please. He was numbered with the transgressors. Our Lord, by the fact that He was circumcised, showed the race that He was identifying Himself with us: Jesus, a friend of sinners.
In Luke 5:27-29, Matthew, the tax collector, had just been converted. He decided that he wanted everybody to hear about his new-found faith in Christ and about his new-found Saviour. So Matthew had a meal and called all the publicans and sinners together. He said, "Folks, I want you all to know that I am resigning my position. I am leaving everything to follow Jesus Christ. I want you to know Jesus." Jesus was there at that feast with a crowd of the most motley people you ever saw in your life. There is Jesus sitting there, perhaps, at the head of the table.
"Well," said the Pharisees, "He's a friend of sinners. He eats with sinners!"
I am glad He is. I am glad He does. I am glad He was willing to eat with sinners. Our Lord said, "The whole hath no need of a physician. The sick people need a doctor. I am the Great Physician. Here are the sinners. They need Me." Our Lord defended the fact that He was a friend of sinners.
In Luke 7:36 Jesus went to the house of a Pharisee to eat. The Bible says while He was there a woman, "which was a sinner," came to the house and brought an alabaster box of ointment. She took that expensive ointment and anointed the Saviour. You recall that Judas Iscariot said, "Wait a minute! That could have been sold for a great price and could have been given to feed the poor."
Our Lord said, "The poor you have with you always."
I want you to notice that our Lord was eating in the house of a Pharisee and was defending a lady whom the Bible says was a sinner.
In Luke 15:2 again Jesus was accused of being a friend of sinners. Our Lord tells the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost boy. He said, "If a lady has a coin and she loses it, she will look until she finds it. If a shepherd has lost a sheep, he will leave the ninety and nine and go out into the highways and hedges and find the one and bring back the lost sheep. If a son goes off and is away in sin, when he comes home, the father will say, 'Oh, kill the fatted calf. Put a ring on his finger, shoes on his feet, and a robe on his back. My son who was gone has now returned. He was lost but now is found!" The one son who was home, got mad and said to his dad, 'You never did pay me that much attention, and I never did leave.'" Jesus was simply showing that He was a friend of the fallen one.
Jesus was a friend of the blind Bartimaeus beside the road, a Nicodemus at midnight, a fallen lady at noon day, and Zacchaeus, with whom He went home to eat.
In John 4, the disciples were out to MacDonalds to get some Kosher hamburgers. (They had sold only about one million back in those day.) Jesus said, "I think I'll sit here on the well." A little lady who was living in adultery came to the well. She was living with a man to whom she was not married. She had had five husbands. Jesus sat on that well and talked to her. Oh, Jesus was a friend of sinners. He loved her. He cared for her. Criticized though He was, He was always helping sinners.
Even when He was on the cross, suffering as no man has suffered, He saved a thief. He was numbered among the transgressors, dying between two thieves. He said, "Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise."
That is why we have our rescue mission. We want to be like Jesus, a friend of sinners. That is why we have a class for retarded children. That is why we have buses. Many of these bus kids who come from far and near have never been to church before. They don't know how to behave. When they come up here to the baptistery and I'm going to baptize them, some of them are almost doing the breast stroke while are coming in the water. As I start to baptize them, I go back and they go forward. I have to grab them quickly and take them backward. They do not know how to behave. All over this building, while we are here in this auditorium, hundreds of bus kids from over here in Chicago are here. I know some are little hoodlums. I know what they do. Thirteen of them got into the ladies rest room and locked the door. Some say words they should not say. I know that we sometimes have to disarm them. In some departments there are crayola marks. Once I thought, "Oh my, I'm embarrassed!" Then I thanked God and said, "No, I'm not embarrassed! Thank God, this church is a friend of sinners!" I'll tell you what. I know how we can have a real nice church. I know how we can have it so that no one will pull a switchblade knife on a Sunday school teacher and nobody will lock himself in the rest room. I know how. We can do just like most churches do and not be a friend to sinners.
Dwight Moody went to Chicago and started a Sunday school class of poor kids. One day he was walking down the street and saw a kid that had been absent for a few weeks. Mr. Moody said, "Hey, kid, you weren't there last Sunday." The boy ran down the street and Mr. Moody pursued. The fellow ran down the street and opened a door of an apartment house and ran upstairs. Mr. Moody got there just before the door went shut. He ran in the door and ran up the stairs. The little kid opened the door of his apartment and ran inside. Mr. Moody went into the apartment before the door shut, but the young fellow crawled under the bed. Mr. Moody got him by the foot and pulled him out from under there and said, "You didn't come to Sunday school last Sunday. I want to see you." About that time the father came in.
He said, "What's going on here?"
Mr. Moody said, "My name is Dwight Moody." "Oh," he said, "you must be 'crazy Moody!" Why was he crazy? He ran after sinners! Other churches did not want their carpet dirty. Other churches did not want their walls soiled. I know of churches who never have a sinner kneel at the altar, drunkards made sober, harlots made pure or bus kids made right. Do you know that we have about a dozen of our bus kids studying right now for the ministry? We have many of our little bus kids in Christian colleges. They were little urchins like a lot of the rest of them are. ...
