Talk

Friend or Foe?

Louie Giglio

October, 30, 2016

In part 2 of this collection, Louie Giglio explores how Jesus treated people and demonstrates throughout Scripture whether Jesus is a friend or a foe.

Key Takeaway

We are all sinners. The good news is that Jesus is a friend of sinners and has come to seek and to save the lost. If we want to be His friend, then we have to choose to follow His ways and let Him lead us into drastic life change that will lead to abundant life.

As Jesus is walking through Jericho, he sees a man named Zacchaeus up in a tree trying to get a glimpse.

Zacchaeus is a tax collector, who worked for Rome and became incredibly wealthy off of swindling the populations. However, he was interested in Jesus and asking, who is He?

If you're a sinner, Jesus is a friend of sinners. He came to seek and to save the lost. He has a gravitational pull towards those who aren't quite there yet. He loved to invite Himself to dinner of those who don't know fully who He is yet. The good news is we are all sinners.

Pastor Louie gave an illustration of how he taught someone how to do instastories. He was super confident, but he had only been doing them for about 30 days at that point. Yet, he couldn't believe the person did the first story wrong. He noted, isn't is amazing how fast we get it and then we get frustrated with people who haven't gotten it? Once we're searching and find it, we get so impatient with those still searching to find what we found.

We have to exercise wisdom, discernment, Spirit led leadership in life. If we see something in a fellow believer that we don't understand, but has a proven record of faithfulness, we should recognize that we don't know the entire situation and should trust what we do know about that person. We often discount a lifetime of faith in Christ all because we think we know the way Christians should act, where they should be and what they should do and they aren't doing things the way we would. People constantly give opinions that no one ever asked for. Jesus rebukes this kind of behavior in Matthew 23. If he wasn't to eat with sinners, he would have had to eat every meal alone.

1) Jesus was observing the moment.

2) Jesus was intentional in looking for Zacchaeus.

3) Jesus called him by name.

4) Zacchaeus drastically changed his life.

Jesus isn't just a good friend, He's a God friend. Things change and shift around Him. Life isn't in Jesus being your friend, life is found in life in Jesus because the road He is on is the way to Life.

Luke 18:18-23 is the narrative of the rich, young ruler who asked Jesus what he needed to have eternal life. Jesus told him and he walked away sad. Jesus wanted to be his friend, but he didn't want to be a follower, so their roads diverged. Zacchaeus wanted to be His friend and chose to follow him and their paths merged.

Being a friend of Jesus invites the transformational power of Jesus into our lives and we change. We become friends and followers and you can't stay the same. What you love changes.

Don't be afraid to be associated with those who have been left behind. We're not to cloister, we are to go and spread the Gospel, to seek and save what is lost.

“

"We become friends and followers of Jesus; we can't stay the same."

”

Louie Giglio

Discussion Questions

Pastor Louie gave many examples of people that Jesus interacted with that others were upset about. Why were they considered sinners? Were they sinners? How did their lives change when they met Jesus?

The blind beggar - Luke 18:35-43
The prostitute - Luke 7:37-39
The woman caught in adultery - John 8:1-11
The thief on the cross - Luke 23: 39-43
The Samaritan woman - John 4: 1-44
The leper - Matthew 8:1-4
Do you find it easy to criticize when you see a Christian when they do something that you disagree with?
Pastor Louie asked, what is Jesus thinking about you right now?
Have you chosen to just want to be a friend of Jesus, or do you see how to be His friend means you have to follow?
How has your friendship with Jesus and following Him changed your life?

Scripture References

1Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.

2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.

4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,

“Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”

6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “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.”

9Jesus said to him,

“Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

1Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

2Then the

Lord

said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

6So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the

Lord

and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” 7And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the

Lord

.”

8When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the

Lord

went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the

Lord

’s covenant followed them. 9The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” 11So he had the ark of the

Lord

carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.

12Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the

Lord

. 13The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the

Lord

and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the

Lord

, while the trumpets kept sounding. 14So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

15On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the

Lord

has given you the city! 17The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the

Lord

. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the

Lord

and must go into his treasury.”

20When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 21They devoted the city to the

Lord

and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

22Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” 23So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

24Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the

Lord

’s house. 25But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

26At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the

Lord

is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho:

“At the cost of his firstborn son

he will lay its foundations;

at the cost of his youngest

he will set up its gates.”

27So the

Lord

was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.

“Follow me,”

he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.

11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12On hearing this, Jesus said,

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’

For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

18A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?”

Jesus answered.

“No one is good—except God alone.

You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’

”

21“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

22When Jesus heard this, he said to him,

“You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.

35As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.

36When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening.

37They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

38He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

39Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

40Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.

42Jesus said to him,

“Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”

43Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

38As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group

and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them,

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them,

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

Jesus straightened up and asked her,

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,”

Jesus declared.

“Go now and leave your life of sin.”

39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

40But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?

41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43Jesus answered him,

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

1Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,

“Will you give me a drink?”

8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10Jesus answered her,

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13Jesus answered,

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16He told her,

“Go, call your husband and come back.”

17“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her,

“You are right when you say you have no husband.

The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,”

Jesus replied,

“believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26Then Jesus declared,

“I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32But he said to them,

“I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

“My food,”

said Jesus,

“is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.

Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.

42They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

43After the two days he left for Galilee. 44(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

46Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

“Unless you people see signs and wonders,”

Jesus told him,

“you will never believe.”

49The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

“Go,”

Jesus replied,

“your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

53Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him,

“Your son will live.”

So he and his whole household believed.

54This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

A Warning Against Hypocrisy

1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2

“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries

wide and the tassels on their garments long;

they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;

they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.

And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.

The greatest among you will be your servant.

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’

You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’

You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.

And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

Look, your house is left to you desolate.

For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’

”

1When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.

2A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

3Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.

“I am willing,”

he said.

“Be clean!”

Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.

4Then Jesus said to him,

“See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Louie Giglio

Louie Giglio is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.