5. These are the kind of people Jesus would reach out to if He were here today.
I could not agree more! And Jesus would do with them just what he did with the Samaritan woman and the adulteress.
He would call them to Himself by calling them out of their sin and into a new life. Again, this is echoed in what the early Apostles understood when they themselves called people to follow Jesus (see 1 Tim. 1:8-11 for an example).
How did Jesus define reaching out to people?
He said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (see Luke 5:32).
Yes, Jesus would reach out to every kind of person. He would tell them of God’s love, and He would call them to repent of their sins. He would call murderers, thieves, liars, adulterers, homosexuals, gossips and racists.
And He would lead them out of their sin and into a new life with Him. In this sense, we could say that our churches should be full of ex-sinners who have become Jesus-followers!
