Tattoos on the Heart

“Tattoos on the Heart:
A Case for Apocalyptic Compassion”—2

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□ Luke 5:27-32

•   v 30 NLT: “But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with such scum?’”
•   Two major points for third millennial followers:

 #1—The call of Christ is to .
o The church is not a for saints: it is rather a for sinners. o Luke 15:1, 2 NIV: “This fellow sinners, and eats with them.”
o Any church that calls Jesus “Lord” must sinners.

 #2—The call of Christ is to .
o Matthew 9:12, 13—“Go and learn what this means: ‘I, God, desire , not sacrifice.’”
o The line Luke left out declares that for the community of faith, more desirable to God than the of worship (“sacrifices”) is the of worship (“mercy”).
o James 2:13—“Mercy over judgment.”

 Glen Harold Stassen: “ . . . a thick, historically-embodied, realistic understanding of Jesus Christ as revealing God’s character and thus providing norms for guiding our lives . . . [will] not reduce Jesus to a thin principle or high ideal or only doctrinal affirmation without solid grounding in his actual history.” (A Thicker Jesus: Incarnational Discipleship in a Secular Age 16)

 1 John 2:6—“Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as .”

 1 Peter 2:21—“You should follow in .”

□ Seven ways the church must live out the radical example of our Lord Jesus:

  #1—We exist to call to the community of Christ.

 Luke 4:18, 19

•   #2—We must become a for all sinners seeking refuge in the Savior.
  •   Safe-haven means protecting their .
  •   Safe-haven means offering them .
  •   Safe-haven means providing them a community or circle within which they can experience mercy, compassion and love unconditionally while they toward God, even if they struggle all their life.

  #3—We will not fear those who mistake our loving sinners with on their behavior.

 Luke 7:36-50

  #4—We must expect .

 Luke 7:33, 34

•   #5—We will teach and defend Christ’s high calling to moral purity and holiness—“Go and sin no more”—by seeking to become .
•   #6—We will celebrate not only the pardon of Christ at Calvary in forgiving all our sins, but also the power of Christ at Calvary for all our sins.
•   #7—We will live and worship with continual , confessing that we too fall far short of God’s glory.
  •   Steps to Christ: “God does not regard all sins as of equal magnitude; there are degrees of guilt in His estimation. . . . The drunkard is despised and is told that his sin will exclude him from heaven; while pride, selfishness, and covetousness too often go unrebuked. But these are sins that are especially to God; for they are contrary to the benevolence of His character, to that unselfish love which is the very atmosphere of the unfallen universe. He who falls into some of the grosser sins may feel a sense of his shame and poverty and his need of the grace of Christ; but feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give.” (31)
  •   Paul: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst!” (1 Timothy 1:15)

    “Be like Jesus”