2024.05.04 Bad Company

It’s been two weeks since we were in our study in the book of Mark. Last time we talked about Jesus is the sin forgiver. When we ask the question of who is Jesus? We must see that he is God because God alone is able to forgive sins. I asked some tough questions like who is going to hold your casket. We saw that Jesus sees the real need beyond the circumstance. We also realized that we need to see Jesus accurately. The scribes could not see the real Jesus because of their false picture of him.

It is said that you can discern your character by looking at the five people you spend the most time with. We know this instinctively with our kids. We carefully curate who our children spend time with because we know that if they are around negative influences, we will see that behavior duplicated. This is also the stuff of sitcoms. we see little __ try out one of the new words he heard.

[meme] little kid cussing response

It would be hard to comprehend the messiah hanging out with the riff raft. I think the Pharisee exposes this kind of thinking in Luke 18:11

Luke 18:11 ESV

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

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It is Jesus that exposes this thinking. Today we will see how Jesus turns conventional wisdom on its ear and chooses Bad Company. We will continue to ask who is Jesus as we look at the text today in Mark chapter 2:13-17 or page 489 in your table Bible.

Let’s Pray

Jesus went out again to walk alongside the lake. Again a crowd amassed and he taught them. As he was walking he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, working collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Follow me.” and Levi rose and followed him.

This brings us to our first point,

1. Jesus calls a very unlikely team

I don’t think anyone likes to pay taxes. Much less the people of Israel who are subjugated by a foreign government that is occupying their God given land. Tax collectors are notoriously corrupt exacting payment for their personal gain. Levi or Matthew as we call him would have been considered a sell out. He would have been someone that other Jews would have distrusted and treated as an outsider. The question would be how could he have the audacity to work for the occupiers. Common thought would have been against him because of the dishonest work he was committed to. I share this so that you can see Levi as the original audience would have seen him. Jesus does not see Levi as they do. Jesus calls this hated tax man to follow him.

Mark 2:15 ESV

And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

Mark 2:16 ESV

And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

This brings us to our secobd point,

2. Do you Keep Bad Company?

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So far in Mark we have 4 surely fishermen and if that was not bad enough Jesus picks Levi a tax collector. This is not the dream team of scribes destined to great things, this is the bottom of the barrel or so the religious elite would think. So I have to think Jesus sees something more than I see. I think he sees mission first and then the hearts of those he interacts with. Jesus is not coming in the way that the religious would have thought. there was one who did but look how they treated him,

Matthew 11:18–19 ESV

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

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Essentially the religious are saying he can’t be my Messiah, he cant be the chosen one because he doesn’t act like I think he should. That is exactly what is happening here. They just can’t see what Jesus’ mission was and he tells them again and again. Lets take a look at Mark 2:17,

Mark 2:17 ESV

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

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What I think is a shame is how we buy into this same lie. If I get my life in order I can be holy, If I get that job, if I accomplish this, or if my kids turn out like this… Fill in the blank. Listen to be beloved. Jesus is not looking to make Pharisees. He is not enslaving us to a set of rules. No Jesus is looking to bring healing to our hurt. He is looking to restore those who have been blind to the gospel and to restore their sight. Take a look at John 9:39,

John 9:39 ESV

Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

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When we look at what Jesus came to do it can be more clear that it is not Bad Company that he is assembling but a team of willing servants who will trust him and follow him. Jesus is recruiting effective ministers who can reach real people. Think about that for a minute. Jesus is gathering a motley crew to reach a motley people. So do you keep bad company?

I think it is worth noticing what Jesus says here,

Mark 2:17 ESV

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “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 is calling sinners, broken people, those who are not close which brings us to our third point,

3. Jesus calls the Spiritually Unhealthy.

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In essence Jesus says, “To those who think they are righteous I have nothing to say. To those who know they are sinners in need of salvation I have come, to heal them and call them to Myself.” You must see yourself as lost before you can be saved. You must know you are spiritually sick before you can be spiritually healed. You must know you are spiritually dead in sin before you can be made spiritually alive by a Savior!

Conclusion

Jesus was a friend of sinners. He called the seemingly unlikely, reached out to the socially undesirable, and healed the spiritually unhealthy. He cared for them, He spent time with them, and He loved them. If this is true of our Master, then it should also be true of us.

Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 51.Conclusion

Jesus calls an unlikely team

Do you Keep Bad Company?

Jesus calls the spiritually unhealthy.

Pray

Table Questions

1. What kinds of “sinners” are you reluctant to befriend? What kind of weakness or fear keeps you from showing the love of Jesus to them?

2. What is an example of an unlikely team that you have been a part of? How is participating in church like that experience?

3. In what ways can you engage with bad company?