For Sinners Only
Sunday 10thNovember 2024
“For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:13 (NIV)
For Sinners Only
I have been reminded of a tongue-in-cheek suggestion I once heard: that we should display a sign outside our churches saying, ‘For Sinners Only.’ How would you feel if we did that?!
I suppose most of us would feel at least a little uncomfortable at the thought. Some of us might want to look around carefully to check who was watching before we entered the building. Some might even choose to go to church elsewhere. And we might well be nervous that such a sign would put people off trying our church.
The thing is, in the verse above Jesus says in effect that he is ‘for sinners only.’ If I don’t think I am a sinner, then Jesus isn’t for me. Of course, we know Jesus is for everyone, but we won’t think we need him unless we recognise that we are sinners – because he has come to call sinners.
If we don’t display such a sign, we should at least have the attitude that our church is for sinners only, and that we are among those sinners. It should keep us from pretending that we are better than we are. It should keep us from being shocked by the sins of others, whether church members or others. It should make sure we are genuinely welcoming to anyone who comes to church. It should stop us comparing ourselves to others, and either condemning them or despising ourselves. How will thinking that Jesus, and our church, is for sinners only change the way you think and act?
It is all too easy to forget that each of us only first came to Jesus as a sinner (after all, there is no other way to come), but that we have somehow moved on from that. Yes, we are now ‘saints’ or ‘holy ones’ set apart for God, and yet we remain sinners – sinners who are wonderfully forgiven and justified and reconciled to God – but sinners nonetheless.
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore,
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.
Prayer
Lord, thank you that ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ and that I am one of the sinners he came to save. May I never forget that this is who Jesus is, and who I am. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)