Jesus’ Merry Band of Misfits
Notes
Transcript
How many of you had the page of MVP’s on the back pages of your high school yearbook? You know the one’s that said, “Most Likely to Succeed.” Or, “Most Athletic.” How about “Cutest Couple?” I never made any of those pages. I don’t even think I made the top 10.
Here in a little bit we are going to name off Jesus’ top 12 disciples. We will look at them briefly today. Some of you may know them well because you have studied them. Have you ever thought of why God chose them to be in his circle of 12. Paul probably had an idea. He said this in 1 Corinthians 1:27
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
God is calling those that may not be the best and brightest to do His work. Think about it. He chose Abraham to be the father of His nation and Abraham failed twice. Moses was chosen to be the representative of Israel and he had a speech impediment. Gideon was too scared to thresh wheat in the open and an angel sees him and calls him a mighty man of valor.
God doesn’t look at the outward appearance. God looks inside of us and sees something great. It doesn’t matter what you think of yourself. God thinks you are something special.
We begin today at Luke chapter five and we are starting at verse 27.
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him,
28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
Levi is the birth name of Matthew. If you look at Matthew’s Gospel, he calls himself Matthew. Matthew is a tax collector. I think I have told you this before but tax collectors were the lowest. They were hated by many and they were considered dishonest.
It doesn’t say but you could possibly think that Jesus may have been the one to give Levi the name Matthew. Jesus likes to rename people. James and John were called the sons of thunder by Jesus. Simon’s name was changed to Peter. So, if this is true why would his name be changed. I believe it may be because Matthew means “Gift of God.” This is an instance where God sees something greater in us than we see in ourself.
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.
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?”
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.”
You will notice a pattern here beginning to form. It seems that everywhere Jesus is going the Pharisees are following Him. We don’t know why they are at this party but they are there. This party is in the home of Matthew and Matthew has invited his friends to come to this party so why would the Pharisees be there. But the question they ask is interesting. They ask Jesus, “why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” They asked this question because the Jews viewed meal time as an intimate time with people. You became one with a person. We would become a part of one another. And they are asking, “Why is your master sharing intimate with each other?”
This party that Matthew is throwing is a great example of how each of us should do evangelism. Invite your sinner friends to come and hang out with your Jesus friends. The Pharisees idea of evangelism was pointing a finger at one another. That is not a very good way to do evangelism.
Who are the people that go to doctor’s? Sick people. The same thing is for someone that is a sinner. They go to Jesus. When you are a sinner you come to Jesus and admit that you are sick in need of a savior. Just like when you are sick and you need a doctor you admit that you are sick to a doctor and he helps you. When you are a sinner you admit when you are a sinner and Jesus saves you.
The Gospel is not for those who think they are good, but for those who know they’re bad. The Gospel message says, “Come all who are messy.” Those who think they are good enough never admit they have a need.
33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?
35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.
38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’ ”
Then these Pharisees start to talk about fasting. If you remember I mentioned that there are three reasons that you fast. One of those reasons is for Afflicting ones soul. And some believed that you should do it more often. They would fast on Wednesdays and Thursdays because this was the busiest days of the week. Everyone would go to market on these days and these people would look like they hadn’t eaten and they would stand in the marketplace with their hands outstretched and they would close their eyes. They wanted everyone to see them. Their fasting had become a show.
In Judaism there are three main pillars: prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.
Here in America our problem isn’t food but it is usually too much food.
When you fast you can see all the things you can live without. Fasting reminds you of what you can do without. It also allows you to see those that are doing without.
Then Jesus gives an analogy of a husband and wife on their honeymoon. That is the best week of the wedding. All the gifts and the feast and time with family. Jesus is hinting at His death here.
Then Jesus gives them a parable.
How many of you remember back in the day when you would tear your pants your mom would go to the store and buy a patch to either sew or iron on where that whole was. After a few washes the patch will make the whole worst and you would just get a bigger patch until the jeans were so wore out that you could no longer patch them up any more.
Also, they would store wine in actual animal hides. Wine ferments which puts off gases and the skin would stretch. You couldn’t put new wine in old skins because the hide would be too stretched out and if you put new wine in it the hide would burst open.
Jesus is making an example of the Jewish system they were apart of. He was telling them that He didn’t come to patch up the old system, but He came to bring something new.
God doesn’t want to do the same old thing but He wants to do a new thing in us.
Martin Luther left the old to start something new. John Wesley tried to reform the church of England but they wouldn’t let him and so he had to leave and start something new. The Lord wants to expand you. He wants to stretch you and do something new in you. God is bringing a new system where anyone anywhere can allow God to pour into them and stretch them and begin a new work.
God is wanting to stretch us as a church into something new.
1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.
2 Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
3 Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
5 Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
So, what the disciples were doing was not against the Sabbath according to Leviticus, but over time tradition was added to the laws. The religious leaders became so enamored with themselves that they began adding to the law that Moses gave. In the Mishnah there are 39 laws that they added about the Sabbath. On the Sabbath there were four kinds of forbidden work. Those were reaping, threshing, winnowing, and preparing food. The disciples were breaking all of these.
But Jesus turns it around on them. He tells them about what David did. This story is found in 1 Samuel 21. The priest would keep the bread of the presence that was only for the priest. David was hungry and needed something to eat and so the priest gave this bread of presence to David and he ate it. This is what Jesus is referring to. He is telling them you make up laws not to do on the Sabbath and your special king even ate of what was not supposed to be eaten.
When you read verses 1-5 of chapter 6 you see the compassion of Christ. Christ will always put compassion before rituals. As a church we need to look at the compassion that Christ had and live out compassion in all that we do.
As we read verse 6 notice there is a pattern here. Luke is putting together a string of Sabbath stories and guess who is there again. It is the Pharisees. It is like they are following Jesus wherever He goes and they are just waiting on Him to make a mistake.
6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.
7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.
8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.
9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored.
11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
These religious cowards were angry with Jesus and why? Because He healed a man on the Sabbath. Aren’t you glad that we can come on the Sabbath and ask the father to heal our every need.
Jesus commanded the man to stretch out his hand. Whenever you read a command in the Bible it is a promise you can grab a hold of. God wants to touch His people. He loves us and His promises are for us.
Don’t get caught up in all the rules. Read God’s Word for yourself and find out what God is telling you. Religious people can be so narrow minded and hard to be around. Usually the greatest enemy is religious people.
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:
14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot,
16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Can you imagine something with me?
Verse 13 says, when morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles.
When I read this, immediately my mind went to pick up basketball as a kid. You would pick two captains and then take turns picking teams.
In my mind I can imagine Jesus calling all His disciples together that morning and then hand picking 12 to be a part of His inner circle. And this wasn’t a quick decision. Jesus had spent all night praying, making sure He chose the 12 that God wanted Him to choose. These 12 were very carefully selected. This group was a band of misfits.
There are four lists in scriptures where these guys are mentioned: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts. And when you see this group of disciples listed you will always see three things. Peter is always mentioned first. James before John because James was the oldest of the brothers. And Judas Iscariot is always mentioned last.
If you remember in the beginning I mentioned a high school vip page in the yearbook, non of these guys are making that list. And of all the ones that the religious leaders would of chose do you know who would have been their top choice of the 12. It would be Judas Iscariot. Here is why.
Judas was from a town called Kerioth. It was located in the region of Judaea. Judaea was considered a top region in the area. The others were from Galilee. If you remember what everyone thought of Galilee. They were like a bunch of hicks. People treated them with disrespect. But those from Judaea were treated with respect. They could trust people from Judaea. But as you know, Judas would end up betraying Jesus.
So, I believe that all of us should be encouraged by those that Jesus chose. Jesus would take those 11 men, because I can’t include Judas in this mix, and He would change the world. If He could take these 11, just think of what He can do with 1100 or even 11,000. This morning Jesus is choosing you. You have an opportunity to say yes to Jesus. You can choose this morning to accept the invitation to follow Jesus. Will you make the decision to follow Him?