Matt's House Church: Arbutus, MD

Part I: Glutton, Drunk and Friend of Sinners

If you’ve ever talk with people far from God, many often have good things to say

about Jesus, but more often than not the can’t stand many of His Followers. Burke,

puts it this way, “Jesus, like a magnet, still attracts, while his Followers often repel.”

Question: What’s up with that, “Jesus attracts, Christians repel?”

Question: How can we, as Followers of Christ, accomplish our stated mission of

“seeking” out the “lost” sinners, if we repel the sinner (addict, lonely, buried in a

culture based on Hedonism - Pleasure seeking, etc.) before they ever have a chance

to meet Jesus?

Reading: Luke 15:1, Luke writes, “All tax collectors and sinners were coming near

(Jesus) to listen to Him.” Attracting Sinners…

Reading: Luke 7:34, Luke describing Jesus through the eyes of the Pharisees

looking to discredit Christ called, “Jesus a glutton, drunk, and friend of sinners.”

Jesus was having a Life-Giving impact…

In Luke 15, a prodigal son, wants to come home. He has spent his inheritance, living

off the chain, now he just wants to come back home…no money, no more friends,

no place to live, no food to eat, no clothes to where, no job, no family. Desperate for

mercy…

• Reading: Luke 15:20 “Filled with compassion” the Father (God) ran toward the

wayward son.”

• Reading: Luke 15:24 “My son was dead but now is alive, was lost but now he’s

found.”

Illustration - Rembrandt’s painting, “The Return of the Prodigal.”

Painting in the trash, behind the museum, mud all over it…recognized the hand of

the father on the back of the prodigal kneeling before him.

• Question: How would you treat this painting?

• Question: Would you leave it or retrieve it?

• Question: Would you try to clean it or bring it to an expert?

• Question: Do you treat it as worthless, or recognize its great value?

Making It Personal

Question: If Jesus sees great value in people, like John, or Diane who Richard first

found talking to herself on the bus stop, with her swastika knit cap, if sees

“Masterpieces,” why don’t we?

Question: When you see people that put you off what do you notice first?

Question: When you look into the mirror, at yourself, what do you see?

Question: Do you see the “mud” or the “Masterpiece”?

Jesus sees past the mud…He has the ability to glimpse the original, what God

intended, and Jesus also has a heart to bring renovation, Re-Construction, if you will.

Like the father in the prodigal, Jesus’ heart of mercy, “Is filled with Compassion”

toward us wayward children.

Reading: Ephesians 2:4-7

“We Were All Dead,” all sin-stained, all trashed in the garbage, tossed out by the

world, muddied…

Definition of Grace - Undeserved Favor, Good Will, Loving-Kindness offered “No

Strings Attached.”

Point: God’s Grace cleans and restores.

• Question: Most of us trust in God’s grace, but do you live in it?

• Question: Are some beyond the power of God’s grace?

• Question: How do you offer God’s grace to the sin-stained…mud-covered

Masterpieces who are lost prodigals?

• John’s life is changing because someone stopped…saw past the mud, and

glimpsed a Masterpiece.

• Diane found a kind heart in Richard, a church where she was safe, and a way

back home to reconnect with her children and get healthy.

• Rob Benson, found a God that accepts me as I am, sees me as His Masterpiece…

one He is restoring…re-constructing and using for His purposes in this world.

Question: How about you…do you focus on mud or usher those “Far from God”

into the Master’s presence so that they might find Restoration?

Closing

Reading: Ephesians 2:8-10

• NLT “Workmanship” = “Masterpiece”

• “Saved” = (GK-Sodzo) Carried to Safety, Made Whole, Restored to Original

Condition.