Jesus, Friend of Sinners

Intro: This morning, I want the scandal of grace to grab hold of us in this text. What I want us to really do this morning is to remove all barriers when it comes to the gospel being shared with anyone and everyone. I want us this morning to ask some questions of ourselves in how we engage people in our society today. Do we truly believe that all people deserve to hear the gospel, regardless of their history, background, sin, and whatever else we can think of? Let me give some concrete questions and example to think of this morning. Do the homeless deserve the gospel? Do prisoners in jail deserve the gospel? Do prostitutes deserve the gospel? Do strippers deserve the gospel? Do homosexuals deserve to hear the gospel? Do people struggling or duped by society about their gender deserve to hear the gospel? Do the Republicans deserve to hear the gospel? Do Democrats deserve to hear the gospel? Do murderers, thieves, rapists, liars, and even terrorists deserve to hear the gospel? We could go on and on. And maybe I listed off those questions, maybe some of those descriptors of people caused you to bristle.

The question the Jesus is going to address in this text is, “who deserves and needs God’s forgiveness?”

CTS: Jesus seeks, befriends, and saves sinners to become His followers and part of His kingdom.

Jesus Seeks Sinners (13-14)

To give us context, this section that we are currently in is a string of stories that present questioning by the religious authorities by the actions and teachings of Jesus. Last week, as Lonnie preached, Jesus dealt with the question of forgiveness of sins. We will come to the question here in a moment, not of who can forgive sins, but rather, who can be forgiven?

First, I want us to notice the parallels between this story and the calling of the four fisherrman of Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John. What Mark is doing here is putting the calling of this tax collector in the same light and same significance.

Jesus is fulfilling his mission as has been stated by Mark numerous times and by Jesus himself, to preach and to teach about salvation, the kingdom of God. He is doing so again alongside the sea. He is teaching and seeking sinners in a wide manner of teaching, alongside the sea that gave him ample opportunity to address crowds of people, particularly with good amplification because of the sloping of the land toward the sea. This would happen later when the crowd was so large that Jesus would use a boat to teach the crowds along the shore.

Is this Matthew or another disciple? But from there, we also see the individual seeking of sinners, and this happens in verse 14. Jesus, as he is teaching, passes a tax collectors booth, one of Levi the son of Alphaeus. Who is Levi? Many believe that Levi is another name for Matthew, which in the other gospels, Jesus does this very same thing. Some believe that this is a separate tax collector that Jesus calls to discipleship, but not one of the apostles like Matthew was. The evidence isn’t clear. Sometimes would be referred to by two names, but one was typically Jewish, and another would be Greek. Matthew and Levi are both Jewish names. Regardless, the point of the text for Mark is not to pinpoint whether this is Matthew or not, but rather, how Jesus seeks sinners. I think evidence suggests though by its similarity that this is Matthew.

What is a tax collector? Located in Caperneum, tax collectors were Jewish people contracted out by the Roman government to collect taxes. Here in this case, at the booth, where much commerce from other cities and nations were meeting, Levi would sit in his stand, taxing transported goods as middle-men for the Roman government. They often extorted the people by taking more taxes than demanded to line their own pockets, Jews and Gentiles alike. So, in light of this, tax collectors in Jewish society were hated. Why? They were traitors to the Jewish people by working for Romans. (Gentiles). They were also doing business with Gentiles, collecting taxes from them (unclean). Finally, they stole from many, furthering their disdain by their own greedy work.

Yet, whom does Jesus approach? Much like the leper, whom was outcast and could nothing about it, Jesus made clean with his healing. Levi, a tax collector, was a social outcast of his own doing, yet Jesus approached him anyway, and made a call to him of discipleship, to follow Him. The implications are staggering. Jesus is not just calling normal fisherman to be his disciples, he is also calling hated members of Jewish society to follow Him. And with the same response as those fisherman, this Levi leaves his post (which if he does, he will never be able to be tax collector again for abandoning his post) and follows Jesus. He gives us everything to follow this man with such authority. Jesus seeks fisherman and tax collectors alike. He seeks sinners! Sinners like you and me!

Application: The church is to seek sinners. This text by Jesus gives us a two-fold application. First, Jesus seeks the lost by proclaiming publicly and to many, but also, individually and personally. That should be the practice of the church. The public proclamation of the gospel should be to many, as we do so every Sunday or through public events. People can hear the gospel, repent, and believe. But also, the church should have the mind of Christ and also individually reach people with the gospel. This isn’t just the job of pastors, but also, for you. The church member should be often praying, readily able to share the gospel with friends, family, and coworkers in an individual manner. You may find some people in your life that would never darken the door of a church, and they still need the gospel, and you may be one of only a few people that can give them the gospel message. Pray for God to give you boldness and strength to seek the lost. If you need help in sharing your faith, let the church equip you. Ask for help. Ask you pastors or elders. This is the work of discipleship in the church!

Jesus Befriends Sinners (15-16)

But then, in light of this calling, we see an even more amazing scene, one more scandalous in the eyes of the Jews. Jesus is eating with sinners in a home. Who’s home? It’s either the place Jesus is staying or Levi’s. There is precedent for this when Jesus saves a tax collector in the book of John named Zacheus. But the Greek here doesn’t make clear who the “his” is. Regardless, Jesus is reclining at table with tax collectors and “sinners.” I like how the NIV puts that sinners in quotation marks, because its showing the perceived idea of how the Pharisees saw people. The recline is significant to. People normally sat at table, but when they reclined, it was a more formal dinner. In other words, Jesus has invited tax collectors and sinners to a formal dinner to be enjoyed with him and the disciples.

Eating together has some significance for us today. When you were in school, you may have experienced this yourself. Whom you sat with at the lunch table at school often defined your position in the hierarchy of school. Did you sit with the popular kids, the jocks, the geeks, the nobodies, or maybe just with some friends? Regardless, whom you sat with is whom you identified with. In Jewish culture, this was even more so. To eat with someone was to accept them. This was a huge slap in the face to Pharisee’s customs. Tax collectors and “sinners” alike were people that did not keep the law.

To understand how provocative and scandalous this was, we need to understand what a Pharisee is. They were those that read and taught knowledge of the Law presented in the Scriptures, and some external laws in order to make sure they kept those laws as well in the Mishnah. They were a sect of Jewish people that were dedicated to giving knowledge of the law and making sure people kept it. But their focus was external doing rather than faith. The Mishnah defined sinners as “gamblers, moneylenders, people who raced doves for sport, people who trade on the Sabbath year, thieves, the violent, shepherds, and of course, tax collectors.” Sure, some of those things were criminal acts, but some of those things are just people trying to get by in society. in order to keep this law, the requirements were such that some of the poor of society had no ability to keep it because of the inability to pay for sacrifices when they had sinned. So some of these Jewish “sinners” just gave up in keeping the law because they couldn’t afford it.

But the key to seeing this is that Jesus accepted this people are part of his kingdom. It says that many of these tax collectors and sinners were following him. This is the key to help us understand to. He was hospitable. He was friendly. He invited people to his home to serve them. But where we see, as the next point illustrates, he does it to transform them. To follow Jesus is to give up your old ways and to follow Him. To abandon your sin, your old self, and to be reborn, to have a new birth, and transformed to new life in Him. But the key for us is to see that Jesus reaches all of society, not just the ones that look religious, have moral lives. He intends that His gospel goes to the outcasts, to all sinners, which we ourselves were once.

Illustration: Rachelle Star shares the gospel in Kentucky at strip clubs on a weekly basis. She and other women go and serve the women who are in that line of work a meal and shares the gospel with those women. It is a ministry called Scarlet Hope. She makes the very keen observation that in her time with these women, they often don’t feel like they deserve to go to a Bible study, whether its because they are alcoholic or their line of work. She reminds them of Romans 5:8, “in that we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” She also makes a clear application for the church in that we can’t wait for them to walk through the doors of our church. They aren’t coming. They must be engaged.

Application: The church is to befriend sinners: This is how we as the church must apply this and other texts in the Bible. There is nothing wrong with inviting people to church, but for many, and oftentimes, we must be ready and willing to share the gospel where they are. We should be aware of these things:

People do not need to do something first to become worthy of the gospel.

Eating with sinners was not condoning.

Jesus makes no disctinctions, neither should we.

Jesus did not fear contamination, we should be willing and be prayed up and go to the hard places.

Here are some things we can do. I know that these things may seem odd or even wrong to some Christian.

Invite people into our homes and share a meal with them. Eating with them means you have no shame in being with them, but it doesn’t mean you condone their sin. Caring for others is healthy and opens a door to the gospel.

Don’t exclude places with the gospel. Be wise. I would not tell our men to go and minister at a strip club. That would not be wise. But some of you ladies may be gifted and able to do that. Same with a bar type atmosphere. If you have susceptability or temptation to get drunk, don’t go there. But maybe you are able to control yourself and there are some people there you can minister to that would never come to a church building.

Be present, love well, be bold about Jesus. Live holy, but not holier than thou. Eat with people. Care for people. Tell them about Jesus.

Jesus Saves Sinners (17)

The response to this scandal is that of grace. Jesus has come to save sinners. He makes this statement that should be on the mind of every church as they minister. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus overhearing the conversation and the objection to his acceptance and association with sinners is to reveal his mission. It would be ludicrous for a doctor to only accept patients who are healthy and reject those who are sick for fear of getting sick. A doctor’s job is to do everything they can to help make someone healthy. That means that this inherently means their job is to help heal the sick. Jesus makes the point here that he isn’t here to minister to the healthy but the sick. And spiritually, he hasn’t come to save righteous people, but rather sinners. Does this mean that he is saying that Jesus isn’t for the Pharisees or for those that proclaim themselves righteous? No. He has certainly come to save them, because they are sinners. But they don’t realize it.

Here’s the other side of the gospel: You must realize you are sick with sin, a sinner, and need a Savior in order to be saved. The Pharisees didn’t believe they needed salvation, because they were earning it by their keeping of the law. They are mistaken, and really in great danger. It is those who humble themselves and understand their state before God that can have salvation. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That includes you and me, and every man, women, and child in this world, regardless of what they have done. If they are breathing, they need the gospel. We don’t withhold it until someone gets their life right. Jesus makes their life right. People need to know Jesus, the Savior who came and lived sinless when we could not, died for our sins, paying its penalty on the cross, and with victory over sin and death through his resurrection, those that humble themselves but acknowledging their sin, repenting of it, and turning to Christ can be saved. This is our message, and its for all!

Application: The church is to tell sinners about who can save them: This is the concluding application, and the driving truth of this text. We as the church are called to this task. We are to be the body of Christ, Jesus as our head. If this is what Jesus does, who are we to ever withhold the gospel from those we think don’t deserve it. The reality is, none of us, including you and me deserve heaven, but God in his grace sent His Son to give us life when we deserved death. You and I, once lost ourselves. Remember what 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Such were some of us. And there are those that are, but need Jesus. Let us be like Jesus, friend of sinners, because he has befriended sinners like us. Let’s not grade ourselves more deserving, rather, humble ourselves and share the gospel with all, even the hardest, most hateful, spiteful, wicked people in the world. Why? Cause he saved you in your most wicked state in your heart as well.