I am a work in progress.  And so are you.

Here’s where I am at the moment.

I was called by God to be a New Testament pastor, not an Old Testament prophet, not an expert on prophecy, and not a community activist. I am not a politician and will not be advising people from the pulpit on how to vote.

I was not sent as a judge or critic for every controversial thing people in my community are doing, but as one declaring the good news of Jesus Christ.

I have no deep psychological insights on why people do wrong-headed things other than that the heart is a rebel and wants to be its own god.

–Only a new nature (given by God the Father when one repents and places trust in Jesus Christ) can change that. And even then, after the heart has been changed, the old nature is still around and the struggle to do right will only intensify. Anyone hoping that by following Christ he/she would be through with tough decisions is sadly mistaken.

–So, I work to get people into the Word, teach the importance of praying-without-ceasing, encourage them to plant themselves within a congregation of believers, help them to bring their friends to Jesus Christ, and caution them to expect opposition from the enemy of righteousness. No one said this life would be easy.

–I urge them to let the Son shine through them, to laugh and rejoice and encourage, and to love one and all.

–After all, if God did not “send His Son into the world to condemn the world” (John 3:17), then He surely didn’t ask me to!

I’ll just be sharing the good news of Jesus, thank you. That should be enough.

As I say, I am a New Testament pastor and not an Old Testament prophet, not a prophecy expert, and most definitely not the judge of all that is wrong in my community.  I have bigger fish to fry.

I am a beneficiary of the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary and a witness of his resurrection. That is the essence of Heaven’s good news.

I am sent to share Jesus’ gospel with the world and to make disciples of all who respond to that amazing news. I love Paul’s statement that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe… (Romans 1:16).  And again, I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed.  And I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him until that day (2 Timothy 1:12).

I am glad to see that Paul and his team were on the same page.  When they were ministering in Ephesus, God was blessing with so much spiritual fruit that the local merchants began to feel the loss in their pocketbooks and so stirred up the mob against them.  As the mob threatened Paul and his group, the town clerk stepped up and quietened them by explaining:

You have brought men here who are not robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess (Acts 19:37).

Do not rush past this.  In all their preaching of the gospel, not once had these evangelists spoken out against the great pagan shrine to Diana.  Not one time.  (Had they done so, the town clerk would have been interrupted by witnesses to contradict him.  They did not.)

These men are our role models.

I’m recalling that the great Billy Sunday, former baseball player turned evangelist, is said to have begun his crusades by publicly raving against some local sin in order to stir up hostility and force the community to take him seriously.  Soon, half the community was cursing him and the other half was filling his amphitheater to hear his message.  But no one was neutral.  He thought this was the right approach.  But we will search in vain for an instance when our Lord used such a technique or the Apostle Paul began a ministry in this way.

When friends have challenged me on this–particularly what appears to be criticism of the great Billy Sunday–pointing out that our Lord was most outspoken to the Pharisees, I have replied that preaching in-house to the family was one thing but preaching to the world’s crowd was another.  Jesus was toughest on the Pharisees and their associates, but Luke 15:1-2 sets a different pattern altogether for our interaction with the world.

I’m remembering when as a young pastor (I was in my late 20’s), I preached a weeklong revival in a prison camp at the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.  At the time I wondered why the inmates did not receive well what I shared.  What did I do? I would lower the boom and blister them with my plain-speaking about sin.  Later, I saw that this was a mistake. Our Lord would preach to some in the church crowd that way. But to the outside world, He spoke of God’s love and forgiveness.  He said, The Son of Man did not come to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17).

Let us preach the Gospel.  Let us call men and women to salvation through Christ.  But when we make our ministry about sin-naming and sinners-exposing, we subject ourselves and our people to charges of hypocrisy and judgmentalism.  Why? Because not all of our members are free of those vices we were slamming.  In truth, being sin-free has never been the definition of those who are born again and heaven-bound.

Don’t miss that last statement.  Being sin-free has never been the definition of the born again. If it were, Heaven would be mighty empty.  I give you Psalm 103:14. He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.  I take that to mean the Father is under no illusion about you and me.  He knows He got no bargain when He saved us.  And when we sin, the only one surprised is us.

I can already hear my detractors: “So, Joe, you believe you can get saved today and go out tomorrow and sin and still go to Heaven!” I do indeed. Friend, if you cannot sin and still go to Heaven, salvation is a mirage.  No one saved can live the Christian life perfectly.  But the Lord knows this and loves us still.

There are so many scriptures and this article is already over-long.  May I refer you to a well-known parable of our Lord and to something tiny which in all likelihood you have overlooked.  It’s the opening parable of Matthew 22.  And here is the part I wanted you to see…

Go therefore to the main highways and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.  Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. (verses 9 and 10)

If that motley crew assembled in the king’s dining hall represents the kingdom of God–the household of faith, believers who responded to the ultimate come-as-you-are invitation–then, sinners are in the kingdom too.