Sinners and Saints

I remember when I was a kid and had pickup games.

We had Two captains and you began picking your team and the good ones got picked first

then the not so good ones and then the worst ones got picked last

it reminds me of a dream I had not to long after I was saved and started following Christ.

Some might call it a vision. I seen myself in a room with two tables.

At one table sat people who were believers but they were wearing t-shirts that promoted beer and all sorts of other worldly things.

They all sat there eating, talking, praying and sharing scriptures with one another.

Then at the other table which was a short distance away from it, was another table of believers who you could tell they weren’t from the area, and didn’t understand what was going on.

They read some of the shirts that the people at the other table were wearing. They started laughing and mocking the people at the other table.

in a Holy Huddle I am better than you type of way.

Jesus doesn’t look at the outward appearance. He looks at the heart.

It reminded me that Jesus loves everyone. He loves the social outcast, he loves the Pharisee and Jesus loves the ones who have made many mistakes.

That is you and that is me! Jesus does not say- If you take him, I’ll take her- He says I want them all.

Jesus speaks to this fact in Mark 2:13-17. Let’s read it...

Mark 2:13–17 (NIV)

13Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.

14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

A. Jesus invites us to leave our table

1. The conversion of Levi (2:13–14):

Jesus finds Levi sitting at his tax-collection booth and invites him to become a disciple.

Of all the people Jesus could have called to ministry, the tax collector should have been His last choice.

They were hated among the Jews.

The Romans used them to collect taxes so they were considered traitors. On top of that, they made money on the Jews.

They cheated and swindled money from their own people.

Jesus invites Levi to leave a table of greed and manipulation and be seated at a table of generosity and truth.

Jesus invites us too.

Jesus invites us to leave our table of lust and be seated at a table of purity

Jesus invites us to leave our table of anger and be seated at a table with the prince of peace.

Jesus invites us to leave our table of lonely-ness and be seated at the table in presence of God.

We all have a table that we once sat at that Jesus invited us away from.

I. Where Levi Got the Call.

“While sitting at the receipt of custom” (v. 14).

Levi recieved his call While busy at work. It was a sudden call.

Jesus knows where to find those who in their hearts are longing to throw off the bondage of sin.

In the midst of all the activities the call may come,

it may be while in the field,

the workshop,

the office,

the bar

or

the Church

where the still small voice of a passing Saviour is heard.

II. When the Call Came.

“As He passed by” (v. 14).

There is something mysterious about this. Jesus comes near, He spoke, He passed by.

What an opportunity! What a honor! How unexpected it was, how quickly it passes!

How short the time to decide, but how great the consequences!

It was a passing offer of salvation, Today is the day of Salvation. Jesus may be passing and calling you now,

III. The Nature of the Call.

“Follow Me” (v. 14).

Jesus said “follow me”. This was an invitation to be a disciple of Jesus.

Levi needed Christ,more than he ever knew.

Jesus knew what he needed, and that He was able to meet that need.

It was a call to follow, to a life of constant obedience.

IV. The Response Made.

“He arose and followed Him” (v. 14).

Levi had a heart that was ready because his heart had been prepared and made ready for it.

The seed fell into prepared soil. God was working in Levi’s life before he even thought of God.”

God’s call usually means separation from everything that the world offers.

Levi could not take his toll-booth with him.

we see that the voice of God is always in harmony with the word of God.

The outward call of Christ comes in answer to the inward voice of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit convicts, and the Saviour invites.

Jesus doesn’t only want us to leave our Worldly tables but…

B. Jesus wants us to bring others to sit at the table of his kingdom

1. The celebration by Levi (2:15–17): He invites many friends to dinner so that they might meet Jesus.

Levi responded, as Jesus would want all his followers to do; he followed immediately, and he called his friends together to meet him too.

He held a dinner for his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners so they also could meet Jesus.

In Levi’s house there gathered a crowd that Jesus could not reach in the synagogues.

The tax collectors had been excommunicated.

The term sinners referred to the common people who were not learned in the law and did not abide by the rigid standards of the Pharisees.

The Pharisees regarded these people as wicked and opposed to the will of God because they did not observe the rituals for purity, which enabled them to eat with others.

In any case, Jesus had attracted a following among these people.

These people gathered at Levi’s house, where they knew they were welcome, and they sat with Jesus and his disciples at dinner and listened to the message this marvelous teacher had for them.

Today I want to tell you how you all can have dinner with Jesus.

You would think that everyone would jump at that opportunity, but as we will see, many turn down the invitation.

When I say, “have dinner with Jesus,” I am using a metaphor of the joys and delights of being with Him in His kingdom, dining at the heavenly banquet that He provides throughout all eternity.

The Book of Revelation refers to it as the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9) and makes it clear that you will want to be there.

Jesus Himself referred to it in Luke 13:28-29, where He said that people from all corners of the earth will dine with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom, but many who assumed that they would be included will be cast out.

b. The bitterness against these guests (2:16): The Pharisees are outraged at this, demanding to know why Jesus associates with such sinners!

C. Those who don’t recognize who Jesus is won’t value what He brings to the table

“The scribes and Pharisees said, How is it that He eats with publicans and sinners?” (v. 16).

They still didn’t recognize who Jesus is. That he is the Son of God who takes away the sin the world.

The Messiah, the kings of kings and Lord of Lords that they have been waiting for!

They don’t value who Christ is and what He brought to the table.

They didn’t value the publicans or sinners either as what they could be.

They only judge them by their traditions and miserable standards.

The Straight Answer.

“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (v. 17).

This reminds me of C. T. Studd, the great missionary of Christ, who said this....

“Some want to live within the sound of the church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop Within a yard of hell.”

Levi felt himself to be a needy sinner. he needed Gods grace Because he was sick he needed a physician.

The righteous by their righteousness exclude themselves from His healing and saving power.

Verse 17 is sounds at first hearing, as if Jesus had no use for good people.

But the point of it is that the very people for whom Jesus can do nothing, are those who think themselves so good that they do not need anything done for them;

and the very people for whom Jesus can do everything,are those who are sinners and know it and who long in their hearts for a cure.

To have no sense of need is to have erected a barrier between us and Jesus;

but to have a sense of need is to possess the passport to his presence

Those who questioned Jesus are full of fear and not faith.

They were afraid of the sinner; they were afraid that they might be infected with what they called sin.

They were like doctors who would refuse to attend a case of infectious illness because they didn’t want to get infected themselves.

This reminds me of what God tells King David in the 23rd Psalm when he said “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows.

What I believe psalm 23 wants us to focus on is not what’s on the dinner plate but who we are seated with.

Just because it says that God prepared a table before him in the presence of his enemies doesn’t mean that he gave them a seat.

When we are in someone’s presence it could mean that they are just lingering around.

Close enough to hear but not close enough to get intimate.

Remember Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may steal, kill, and destroy”.

He may be in our presence but it doesn’t mean we have to give him a seat at our table!

“Now remember our enemy isn’t flesh and blood. Our enemy is the principalities of this dark world.”

let me share a story with you

Now There was a man who was having a anniversary dinner with his wife.

He was someone famous. Someone recognized him and said aren’t you…

The man interrupted him and said YES I AM!

And I am having dinner with my wife so if you would please excuse us....

The man leaves the table and the couple continues on their dinner date.

After a few minutes he see’s the same man approaching the table so he takes a quick survey of the table to see if the guy has forgotten anything.

Maybe a phone or a watch. Nope! The man gets to the table, pulls out a chair and sits down.

He says “Sir, I really need to talk to you for just a couple minutes. The man starts to eat grapes off this man’s plate as he is saying this.

Much to the displeasure of this couple on a dinner date. The husband then raises his voice and says “YOU NEED TO LEAVE. NOW!

We cannot allow the enemy to have a seat at our table.

We have allowed the enemy access to our conversations, our attitudes, our emotions, the way we respond to people, and the way we view situations.

We have allowed the enemy to enter our story. We are, in essence, having a conversation with a killer at our table.

APPLICATION

What table are we sitting at? Are we sitting at the table of judgment and and pride or the table of grace and humility?

Are there others God is calling you to invite to your table? To develop a relationship with so you can introduce them to Jesus?

Are there tables God is calling you out from? Such as a habitual sin? A bad friendship? Places you go or how you order your time and what you do?