What Identifies A True Christian?
An Example of Preaching The Good News
Take the example of Zacchaeus, a tax collector that the Jews looked on as a man who sold his soul to the Devil, a man who worked for the Romans and extorted money from people. To them, he was on his way to Genhenna. He was as what we consider today a drug pusher, a pimp, or a trafficker in kiddie porn, but apparently his heart was searching for God. No one took this man seriously, nor did anyone care, except Jesus. Notice how Jesus preached the good news:
"To the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and to release the oppressed." (Luke 4:18)
Jesus picked Zacchaeus out of the crowd and invited him to eat and drink with him. Jesus wanted to be this man's friend.
"He looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a `sinner."
"All the people began to mutter" that this man was a low life, no good person, and who is this Jesus that he should show kindness to him? Who is he to even to invite himself over his house yet and socialize with him? The righteous religious leaders would have thought: who is this Jesus to invite himself inside the home of a sinner, a man who does not follow the religious laws and fails to obey the religious organization? Jesus did not judge this man, nor all the other so called sinners. His "Good News" was to preach faith in himself with the fruitage of agape love, both showing and living agape love as he did this. He came to "save what was lost." The end result, Zacchaeus was saved and claimed:
"Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Luke 19:8
Jesus said:
"Today, salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:9-10
Jesus did not count his time preaching doctrines to Zacchaeus, nor the quoting of detailed scriptural explanations, nor did he preach an obedience to a visible human organization to get to God. The Good News that he preached to Zacchaeus was not about 1914, pioneering, slave classes, holiday observances, political involvement, trinity doctrines or meeting attendance in a human religious organization. His Good News was the teaching of faith in the Son of Man, with mercy and love, which took in all of humanity, both the Jews and the Gentiles.