Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Tone of specific sentences
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Who is the most sinful person you know?
(humor) DON’T POINT!
Maybe that person has used & abused others, cheated others.
Maybe that person is known because of their foul language or crude actions.
The person I think of is named Chris.
He was a middle linebacker on my high school football team.
He went to church.
He was friendly & fun.
But his language was always laced with 4 letter words.
His stories about sexual conquests were legendary in the locker room.
His love for alcohol led him into lots of brutal fights.
And that didn’t change after high school.
Getting drunk, fighting in bars, chasing women was his lifestyle for years.
Chris was THE LAST guy I thought would genuinely follow Jesus.
But years later, what I found out about Chris blew me away…I’ll explain in a few minutes.
Who do YOU know like that?
We are about to meet…THAT guy in today’s study - the last person you would ever think would follow Jesus.
PRAY
Luke 5:27a (NIV)
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.
This story is told in all the synoptics (seeing together - Matthew, Mark, & Luke).
Mark & Luke call this man “Levi” but Matthew 9:9 calls this man Matthew.
But it’s not the name of this man that is the focus of this passage; it’s his occupation.
Levi (aka Matthew) is a tax collector, a Jewish traitor - collecting taxes on behalf of the Romans PLUS cheating his own people for his own gain.
Levi was THAT GUY - the last one you think would follow Jesus.
Levi worked around Capernaum & since Jesus was living there, Levi had certainly heard the stories of what Jesus had done around town.
It’s likely that Levi had even gone to hear Jesus teach before.
Luke doesn’t give us any of that information.
He cuts right to the chase.
The tax collector is going about his daily business, cheating people & making mucho denarius - when Jesus steps up to his tax booth.
Notice this: Levi wasn’t pursuing Jesus…instead - Jesus was pursuing Levi!
And it was at this simple set-up just off the main road - where farmers, merchants, and caravans passed - that Jesus calls THAT GUY to be His disciple…
Luke 5:27b-28 (NIV)
“Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
You’ll remember that tax collectors came to be baptized by John the Baptist.
When they asked what God wanted them to change, John told them, ““Don’t collect any more than you are required to” (Luke 3:12-13).
In other words, John told them to be HONEST.
But when Jesus spoke to Levi, He told Levi to be DONE.
Follow me was more than a figurative phrase that we might use, ”Yes, I follow Jesus.”
Levi (aka Matthew) literally got up, left everything and followed him.
Where Jesus goes, Levi would go.
If Levi was a lower level tax collector as many commentators note, as Levi left his boss would have quickly hired someone to replace him.
Levi quit his lucrative job to follow Jesus.
Luke 5:29 (NIV)
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
I LOVE this! Levi/Matthew threw a dinner party…for Jesus!
He invited other friends to hang out with Jesus in his home.
Oh that we would use our homes the same way!
May our homes be a place where Jesus is honored and people are welcomed!
Sadly, many American Christians view their homes as a place of personal comfort rather than a tool to honor the King.
May we use our homes to welcome brothers & sisters…and invite a sinner to dinner…like Levi did.
In fact, Levi invited a large crowd of tax collectors.
Most Jews wouldn’t want to be ANYWHERE NEAR this motley crew, but Jesus accepted the invitation and took his disciples with Him.
Following oriental custom of the day, they would have reclined on a couch or a floor full of pillows as they ate & talked together for a long time.
<Enter Pharisees stage left> The Pharisees were aware that Jesus was there but they would never have contaminated themselves entering a sinner’s home.
So they either waited outside until the disciples of Jesus came out or filed their complaint days later.
Luke 5:30 (NIV)
30 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?”
I have 2 Questions about their complaint:
First, What’s the BIG DEAL?
Why is it ‘wrong’ to have dinner with a sinner?
“In their society table fellowship implied mutual acceptance.”
In other words, many understood that eating with another person communicated that you agreed with them.
But couldn’t Jesus be a friend of sinners & yet NOT be a friend of SIN?
Second question: Why did they complain to the disciples of Jesus, rather than to Him? Maybe Jesus wasn’t available - maybe He is inside saying His goodbyes.
Or maybe the Pharisees were looking for the perfect opportunity pick on the freshmen disciples - fishermen and a tax collector - instead of facing Jesus Himself.
Cowards!
But somehow the question to the disciples made it to the ears of Jesus.
Luke 5:31 (NIV)
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Jesus compares Himself to a doctor who comes to heal the sick.
This probably greatly interested Dr. Luke, the physician writing this text.
Dr. Jesus comes to help the sick.
You know who DOESN’T go to the doctor?
People who aren’t sick.
They have no need of a doctor.
Since these Pharisees didn’t view themselves as being sick…they had NO NEED of a doctor - especially if that was Jesus.
But the tax collectors at Levi’s house were very sick.
Even the Pharisees believed that.
So the argument in question form might sound like this:
“What exactly do you expect a doctor to DO? Stay away from sick people?”
The Pharisees act like Jesus is there to applaud their sickness, but He is there…to help them get well.
The Friend of Sinners is not a friend of sin.
THIS is why Jesus has come.
It’s the reason He went to Levi’s house.
BIG TRUTH Jesus calls people From Sin to Follow HimBIG TRUTH Jesus calls people From Sin to Follow HimBIG TRUTH Jesus calls people From Sin to Follow HimBIG TRUTH Jesus calls people From Sin to Follow Him
BIG TRUTH
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