The Names of Jesus – Friend of Sinners

The pandemic may be over, but we now face a epidemic.

When it comes to ‘friendship’… people do _ things.

Illustration:  RentAFriend.

This name was given to Jesus as a ‘’.

“To what will I compare this generation? It is like a child sitting in the marketplaces calling out to others, 17 ‘We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance. We sang a funeral song and you didn’t mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 Yet the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved to be right by her works.”  (Matthew 11:16 – 19)

“I have called you .”  (John 15:15)

1. Jesus is !

“All of us have “sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” [Romans 3:23]. . .

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:9)

is beyond the forgiveness of God!

“I don’t you…Go on your way and from now on sin no more.”  (John 8:11) 

2. Jesus is a friend!

“There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”  (Proverbs 18:24)

He has been ‘my strength’ when I am ‘weak’.  (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Illustration:  Marathon runner

3. Jesus is .

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest!”  (Matthew 11:28)

Jesus invites us to come along with him on his  to change the world!

Jesus’ mission is to “seek and to save the lost.”  (Luke 19:10)

Illustration: “In His Steps”  (Charles Sheldon)

4. Jesus is .

Illustration:  Nate

5. Jesus is –.

Illustration:  85 year-old Alaskan, Dorothea Taylor  

On our side, we have as Eugene Peterson often refers to Him – ‘the God of .

“I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:20)

6. Jesus, is –!

Jesus faced and death!

Do you know him today?