TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Luke 5:30
Read: Luke 5:30-33
Listen: Luke 5
TODAY’S MESSAGE
There sits Jesus, eating with tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees are confused and scandalized. Their lives are spent earning God’s favor through spiritual purity. They believed the sin of others would contaminate them and avoided all sinners because of that. They would never share a meal with such wrong-doers.
But Jesus says, “Come as you are. I will eat with you as your life is changing, while it is changing, and with the hope that it might change.” When Jesus eats at Matthew’s house, he acknowledges the sin of this gang by saying, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.” He desires our company while we are changing and offers himself as the vehicle for our transformation by dying on the cross in our place—for both tax collectors and Pharisees.
IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). If you have never accepted this gift, today is the day to recognize you can’t save yourself. Come as you are and pray, “Father, I recognize I can never be good enough to save myself. I believe Jesus died on the cross in my place, and I receive what he did for me.” If you told God this, email us at btw@adabible.org. We can help you take the next steps in your journey.
Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.
