Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Before I begin let me say that this is the third Sunday of a sermon series I’m giving called
“Discovering Jesus again.”
I have two aims for this series. First I want to help us see how the gospel writer Luke
viewed Jesus so all of us can discover Jesus again. At the end of his life Luke wrote what we
know as the gospel according to Luke. Luke spent much of his life immersed in the stories of
Jesus and at the end of his life he wanted to write an orderly account regarding the truth about
Jesus. Luke’s passion for Jesus just jumps off the page. I want us to understand Luke’s passion
for Jesus so that we can discover Jesus again.
I’ve shared that in this sermon I’ve taken the Sergeant Schultz approach to the Scriptures.
I’ve talked about this each week. S.S. was the guard in the TV show, Hogan’s Heroes. I loved
watching Hogan’s Heroes as a kid. The show was in a German POW camp and S was the guard.
He would find out that the Americans were doing things they shouldn’t be doing and S would
say.
“I know nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing.”
About the Bible I’m going to assume that “we know nothing, we know nothing, we know
nothing.”
I did a little research on SS this week. His name was John Banner. He was born in Vienna
Austria in 1910. He was a Jew. In 1940 he was touring with an acting troupe in Switzerland and
he couldn’t’ go back to his home country. They wouldn’t let him in. Because he was a Jew. So
he traveled to the United States to live. He couldn’t speak a lick of English. In 1942 he entered
the American army to fight the Nazis
The second aim for this series is to have us read through Luke. I encourage you to get out the
devotion that is in your bulletin. We’re reading through Luke as a congregation. This week
we’re reading Luke chapters 8 to 12. If you haven’t read the first seven chapters—just pick up at
chapter 8. We get to read some of the best stories in Luke. This week you’ll read about the
Samaritan, and the Gerasene Demoniac, and how Jesus healed a woman who had been suffering
from blood hemorrhages for 12 years. Can you imagine suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years
and then being healed? Jesus did this.
What an opportunity we have. Reading this devotion will take about ten minutes a day.
Let me ask you this—can all of us find ten minutes in our day to read the Scriptures.
Scriptures.
How many of us could decrease our TV watching by 10 minutes?
How many of us could decrease our Internet usage by 10 minutes?
How many of us could eat for 10 minutes less?
How many of us could sleep for 10 minutes less?
In this sermon we’re looking at the people with whom Jesus spent much of his time—the
outcasts. The title of this sermon is “A friend to outcasts.” I have a feeling if Jesus had done
ministry in the 1940’s he would have spent time with people like John Banner—a Jew, who
wasn’t allowed to go back to his country.
Page 2 of 8
On the back of our bulletin we’ve listed eight Core Values for Chain of Lakes Church.
I’d like you to look at them with me. Starting last September we had a group who developed
these. If you were part of that Task Force would you raise your hand? This group developed
these Core Values. They did such a good job that our Steering Committee voted to approve them
A Core Value is a principle, quality, belief and/or attitude that is foundational to our
community. The Core Values are in bold. We have eight. We’ve also included explanations
During worship last week Dave Nyberg shared how excited he is when he looks at the
back of the bulletin and reads our Purpose Statement and Core Values. I think he said he gets
chills when he reads them. I get chills too. What a thrill it is to create a church based on these
Core Values. How many people in their lifetime have the opportunity to start a new church?
Wow!!
The Core Value that I want to focus on today is Acceptance. This Core Value gives me
the chills. I so want us to be a place where “we accept people without judgment, regardless of
what has happened in their lives or where they are on their faith journeys.”
I have a feeling that we all want that for the church. I have a simple question for you?
I’m interested in your response to this question. Why is acceptance an important value for a
church?
Let me tell you why acceptance is important to me. Jesus accepted people without
judgment, regardless of what was happening in their lives or where they were on their faith
journey. The way Jesus lived out this value was one reason Jesus was so threatening to the
leaders of his time; it was a reason that he went to the cross. If Jesus accepted people this way,
then it seems to me that the community who is called the body of Christ is called to accept
On the surface acceptance isn’t a radical or threatening idea. Acceptance doesn’t become
radical or threatening until we reflect upon whom Jesus went out of his way to accept.
Jesus accepted the outcasts. Jesus intentionally established friends with people with
whom the leaders of his day didn’t want to spend time—the poor, the blind, the lame, the lepers,
children, women, the sinners, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, those possessed by unclean
Jesus’ friendship with outcasts was one reason Luke was so passionate about Jesus.
Jesus’ love for the outcasts just pours out of Luke. I want to show you this love by looking at
The story starts out when Jesus saw a tax collector sitting at a tax booth. Jesus asked
Levi, a tax collector, to be one of his followers. “Follow me,” Jesus said.
Let me ask you a question. Who likes to pay their taxes? I’m not making a statement
about government, but who gets excited about paying taxes. When was the last time we woke up
If we took a poll about respected professions, I doubt tax collectors would make it to the
top of the list. If we told our friends that we received a letter from the IRS saying we had to go
to a meeting at the local IRS office, our friends would probably activate the prayer chain.
Unfortunately there is hatred directed towards the IRS. Remember the story last month of a man
Our feelings about tax collectors don’t come close to the feelings about tax collectors in
Jesus’ day.
Let me set this up. Much of Jesus’ ministry was in Galilee. The Romans ruled Galilee.
As the occupying force the Romans received the taxes. The Romans worked out a system for
collecting taxes with the tax collectors. The tax collectors paid money in advance to Rome.
Then the tax collectors had free reign to collect taxes from the people. The tax collectors
Page 4 of 8
operated as independent contractors for Rome. As long as Rome got their money, the tax
collectors could collect their money in any way that they wanted.
Imagine a system where a group of people have the freedom to collect as much money as
they want in a way that they want. What kind of system do you think was developed? It was
There’s one more piece to this. The tax collectors were from the local community. As I
said they were independent contractors for the occupying country—Rome. The people in Galilee
didn’t want Rome to occupy them. The tax collectors represented the occupying force.
Imagine if the Soviet Union occupied the United States and our neighbor down the street
—who was a citizen of the United States—collected taxes for the Soviet Union. And by the way
our neighbor collected taxes in an unethical way. How would we view the tax collector. They
were traitors.
Levi was a crook and a traitor. Can you imagine being more of an outcast? Here was
Levi got up, left all that he had at the tax booth, and followed Jesus. Levi must have had
some excitement for Jesus because he threw a great banquet for Jesus.
Who did you think Levi invited to this party with Jesus? His friends—tax collectors—
other crooks. Levi wanted his friends to experience what he had experienced. All of a sudden
This is a classic way of building a community. I’ve told you over and over again that the
best way to build our new church is for you to invite your friends and family. Research shows
that over 90 percent of 1st time visitors come to a congregation because of a personal invitation
by a friend or family members. We pastors have a terrible record of encouraging people to come
to a church for the 1st time. Visitors come to a congregation for the first time only 10 percent of
This makes so much sense when we think about what happened to Levi. We can imagine
Levi saying to his friends. “Something really special is happening, and I want you to come and
see it. I’ve met this man Jesus,” we could imagine Levi saying “and he loves me unconditionally
and he’s showing me a better way to live. You have got to come and check this out.”
This is the type of authentic passion that we’re called to have when we invite people to
our community. When we invite people it’s not like, “oh would you come to my church.”
That’s an invitation, but who’s excited about that. Invite people like Levi did. Something
I was so touched last week when two of you stood up during worship—unsolicited—and
shared how much the people in this new church mean to you. Wow. That’s the Holy Spirit.
That’s spiritual energy. That’s the energy that Levi used to invite his friends to the party.
Is it any surprise that a large group of tax collectors gathered at Levi’s house for a party
to meet Jesus?
Luke didn’t say exactly what happened at this banquet. I don’t imagine that the banquet
was a stuffy affair. I would imagine that people were eating and drinking and sharing stories. It
wouldn’t surprise me if people started dancing. Jesus and his disciples and Levi and all the other
Then it happened. Somebody threw cold water on the party. Judgment. Judgment from
the Pharisess and the scribes. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had their arms folded. They asked
Jesus, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners.” Even hearing this story 2000
years later we can hear the scorn in their voice, can’t we? Just saying that other people are
sinners reveals that the Pharisees didn’t see themselves as sinners. It’s clear that the Pharisees
thought that Jesus should only associate with the good people and not go to parties with crooks
and traitors.
Page 6 of 8
All of a sudden there is this tension about who is going to receive Jesus’ attention. All
throughout Luke we’ll read of this tension. Jesus spent his time with the outcasts. With people
who need healing, with women, with people who had a mental illness, with widows, with the
crooks. Jesus loved them and healed them and helped fill the empty places in their lives. There
had never been someone before who loved this group of people live Jesus did.
It was just spectacular what was happening. But as is always the case—the forces of
judgment made their presence known. “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and
sinners?”
Jesus response was spectacular. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but
those who are sick.” He didn’t have to complete the sentence. We know what he meant. “I
have come to call not the righteous,” he said, “but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus didn’t mean that he only came to spend time with the outcasts; that there was no
place in his kingdom for the Pharisees. It’s just that the outcasts needed him so much.
I’ve spent all my life as a follower of Jesus. I’ve never had a conversion experience like
at a Billy Graham crusade where I dedicated my life to Jesus Christ. My dedication to Jesus took
place over time. Over time I chose to say that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. One of the main
reasons I chose Jesus is I just love to see how Jesus loved the outcasts. When I read some of
these stories in Luke I often want to stand up and just start cheering. I want to say, “you go
Jesus.” I especially love that Jesus resisted the forces that wanted to keep the outcasts as
outcasts. Jesus represented a movement of love—God’s love—that touched the emptiness of the
outcasts life. Jesus healed them and loved them and spent time with them. When he was
criticized for his work of loving the outcasts he stood his ground. I want to be on the team that
It seems logical to think that if Jesus spent so much time with outcasts and resisted the
forces of judgment that the church would be a place that is known for loving outcasts and not
Page 7 of 8
being a place of judgment. Right? Is the church thought of this way? No. People outside of the
church often think of the church as judgmental—even though Jesus resisted judgment.
Why is this?
It’s much easier to judge than to love. For all of this. I find judgment rearing up in
myself all the time. I’m on the side of God’s love. Something will happen to someone and I’ll
think “that person kind of deserved that, or that pain is probably a consequence of the person’s
In the church it’s easier to take the moral high ground instead of going out of our ways to
spend time with outcasts. We think the church is a place for good people—people who look like
us and think like us and act like us and dress like us. If someone came to our church with rings
hanging from their nose—with tongue piercings and tattoos we might have an silent conversation
with ourselves that goes says something like, “I wonder what that person is doing here?” Even
though Jesus would be spending a lot of time with people with tattoos.
At Chain of Lakes we can say that we accept people, but we have to resist the judgment
At Chain of Lakes one of my goals is to have fellowship group for people who only have
tattoos. You have to show your tattoo to get in the door. I don’t have a tattoo, so when we have
For us to have a fellowship group for people who have tattoos we have to be intentional
about loving the outcasts. We have to pray almost every day that we will accept people on their
journey no matter what has happened. We have to pray almost every day that we won’t have an
attitude that says, “why are we spending so much time with people who are outcasts.”
I want to close with a challenge. I want to encourage us this week to be intentional about
loving an outcast. I have a feeling all of us know of someone who the world would describe as
an outcast. Would we go out of our way to love that person this week? Maybe we can call the
Page 8 of 8
person on the phone, or send the person an encouraging E-mail, or maybe we can invite the
person out to dinner or perhaps invite the person over to our house. Maybe we can invite the
We do this not because I asked you to do it. We do it because that’s what Jesus would
do. This week I’m going to ask all of us how we are doing at loving the outcast.
Let’s be a place that loves the outcasts. Let me tell you—when we love the outcast each