A Church for Sinners

 

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

In the days when Jesus walked the earth, He and His followers were counter-culture in their massages about God and godly living. Truth took over the world and we now measure human history by the Lord’s life. Yet, the message and the truth behind it, never change. This last week, Pastor Kyle’s Sunday Sermon focused on the main purpose of Jesus’ being sent by Father God to us and that what America needs today is a Church for Sinners. In Luke 5:31-32 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Why? Sin. There is not one person who does not need Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:21-23 “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God reaches everybody. The Lord doesn’t shy away or avoid those who do not know Him or reject Him; neither should we. We need to be where the fire is the hottest, in influencing our culture and making a difference for the kingdom of Heaven. Reverend Bonenberger gave us four groups of sinners Jesus came to heal and save. First, the cultural / nominal believer – those that believe in God, but don’t follow the Lord. Secondly, the sinner Sinners, who do not know God, do not follow Jesus Christ and actually like their sin. Thirdly, the redeemed sinners (whose true name is saint). Those who are in the world, but not of the world. Jesus meets you right where you are at, but He does not keep you where you are at. Sin is in this world, but the Child of God’s home in the kingdom of Heaven. Sin tries to come out and reclaim the past, so the saint dies to sin daily and puts on the full armor of God. Fourthly, the religious elite / self-righteous that do not  realize or are blind to their own sin. I heard that if you ever find a church that is perfect, please do not join it because then it won’t be perfect anymore. All have sinned and nobody is perfect, so the church needs to hang a sign outside saying: “Sinner’s Welcome”. 

Romans 3:22-24 “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

In Christ, Brian