The Right Crowd

Good Morning Church

Bibles out…Mark 2:13-17.

Continuing our series in the gospel of Mark

Over the last few weeks we have seen…

The ministry of Jesus has begun…

Last week we saw Jesus casting out unclean spirits…healing the physical sickness and disability of people…

And the response, especially from the Pharisees, is one of astonishment…

They are mind blown at how Jesus teaches and heals with AUTHORITY…

By what authority does He do these things???

And so His fame has spread…and people all over Galilee are talking about Jesus of Nazareth…

As you look through scripture…we see that the people Jesus is interacting with have questions like the authority question…

They want to know who He is…

And why He has come…

I would be asking these questions as well…(put yourself in their shoes)

If I saw Him heal and cast out demons…Id be like who is this guy!?!?!?!

What is He doing here???

So today as we jump into verse 13 of Mark 2…

We are going to see exactly why Jesus has come, what He has come to do…

And hear this church… this is an appetizer…

What the Lord is going to lay out for us in these 5 verses is going to be the patern for every movement of Christs ministry on earth that we see in the Gospel of Mark…

So today we are going to lay the foundation fro the rest of our study of the gospel of Mark…

By seeing the 4 things Jesus came to do…and who He came to do them for…

And why he came to do them…

YALLL READY?!?!?

Jesus came to teach the common (v13)

READ V 13

Went forth again…

Jesus is hanging around this region of Galilee…

boating back and forth near Capernaum…

We spoke a few weeks ago about this region…a blue collar region…

Not prominent…mainly fishing villages and outskirts…not a massive population…

It was an area looked down upon by man in Judea…

Its here that Jesus begins His ministry…

So Jesus goes again and V13 tells us a multitude (a good number of people) are following Him from the region…and that He is teaching them…

This is a common in the ministry of Christ…TEACHING…

Jesus taught in synagogs, in villages, on top of mountains…

In Jerusalem, Galilee, and Samaria...

There are times He is teaching to Pharisees and scribes…BUT most of the people who are in attendance are common people…

His disciples are an example…most of them are common men…

The word of God is for the common man…

Psalm 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

I remember when I first heard about the bible and Jesus…I thought Im not smart enough to understand the words in that book…

There is no way I can read this day in and day out and understand it…

BUT the more I picked it up…the more I understood…

This was written for you and me to understand…to instruct us, rebuke us, reprove us, to teach us…

Jesus uses parables, examples, narratives, to help us understand the spiritual things…

He uses scripture to instruct on scripture…

So if anyone tells you…”you are not smart enough, holy enough, enlightened enough to understand the bible”

Thats a lie…

Gods word is meant for the common man…to make wise the simple…

Jesus came to teach his ways, His character, His mission, to the common people…

No matter your background…

He sought out the common…to teach them about Him and the ways of the Lord…To instruct them…to lead them

If you don’t believe me…look at V14 at who He sought out to lead…

Jesus came to lead the unlikely (v14)

4 fisherman- Follow me

Levi-soon to be called Matthew (Jesus often renamed His followers)

Matthew sitting in the “receipt of custom”…tax collecting booth

Matthew is a tax collector…but not just any old tax collector…

Im reading here from the KJB…it calls Matthew a “publican”

A publican was a Roman tax collector…(Rome had control over Israel at this time, the Jews were a conquered people)

Noah Webster 1828- Among the Romans, a publican was a farmer of the taxes and public revenues, and the inferior officers of this class were deemed oppressive.

Which means that Matthew works for the very empire that is ruling over his people…

Not only that …but the job he has taken as a publican means he is assisting Rome in oppressing his own people…

Laying heavy taxation on them as a conquered people…

Publicans were absolutely hated by the Jews…and any Jews who were publicans were seen as traitors

So here is Jesus…

running around…healing and casting…and TEACHING…

Calling men to follow Him…

And calling the most unlikely men…No “holy men of the cloth”

He didn't go to the religious place to lead men to be His followers…

He went to a fishing village…picked up 4 fisherman…

Stopped at a tax booth…picked up a tax collector…an oppressor of the people…

These are the people He is leading…these are the people He desires to follow Him…these are the men that will serve with Him…

He came to lead the unlikely to follow Him….

Jesus came to fellowship with the undesirable (v15)

He calls Matthew to follow Him…

Matthew arose and followed Him

So later the bible tells us…at Matthews house for supper…

So Jesus and His disciples are eating together having fellowship in Matthews house…

And there are man other tax collectors there…and sinners…

So Jesus is dining with other tax collectors and sinners…

Sinners is a pretty broad term…but lets investigate some possibilities of the types of sin the people dining with our Lord can have…

They could have been thieves, murderers, adulterers, worshippers of money, coveters, idolaters, or guilty of all of these things….

I mean these are undesirable people…no Jew wants to be around a publican…no Jew can dine with someone who is unclean with sin…

AND YET…Here sits the Messiah…breaking bread with an unholy sort….

WHY???

Why did Christ come to teach the common, to lead the unlikely, to fellowship with the undesirable…

He surrounded himself with what you would think is the wrong crowd for a Holy God to be around…

even the pharisees and scribes…the “holy men” of God question this

READ V16 ONLY

How is it that this man who teaches with such authority and cast out demons with such authority and heals with such authority…

How is it that He eats with publicans and sinners…with the most unclean people…

Why is he here???

Jesus came to heal the sinner  (v16-17)

READ V 17

IM HERE FOR THE SICK!!!!

The healthy have no need for a doctor…

The righteous have no need for a savior…

IM HERE FOR THE SINNER!!!!

Thats why I came…for the sinner…

Remember theses scribes and pharisees where men of the law…

During this time…as long as you kept the law…sacrificed when you sinned…gave offering…adhered to the food laws…honored the Sabbath…were circumcised…you could be righteous…

If you broke the law and atoned for it by the law you could be absolved…

So these Pharisees…they look at this and they go…we obey the law and IT saves us…

When we sin…we do what the Law says and we are cleansed…

The problem is they don’t even know the standard for sin…

In Matthew 5…Jesus tells the Jews…”you have heard it said you shall not commit adultery…”

Don’t cheat on your wife…many there would say “I HAVE NEVER COMMITTED ADULTERY”

Jesus says “ I say to you if you have looked at another woman with lust…you have committed adultery”

(DO THE SAME WITH MURDER…”though shall not commit murder…whosoever is angry without cause is in danger of this judgment”

So if the Jews look at that standard….the one set by God Himself…they must know…WE ARE SINNERS…

Thats what Jesus is here to do…In this time He says “I am here to call sinners to repentance…

To show people there absolute need for a savior…

And I AM THAT SAVIOR!!!!

Here is what this means to us:

-If you are a Christ follower in this room…Notice Jesus has sought out the people who need Him the most…

ARE YOU SEEKING PEOPLE WHO NEED JESUS???

If your not then you need to hear that this is what we are called to do…

-If you are in here and you came today saying to yourself “I don’t think Im going to fit in here with all these “holy people”…all these “church people”… these “perfect” people…

Let em tell you…stick around a few weeks…get to know us…WE AINT PERFECT…

You will find out we are all here because we are broken and sinful…

We are here because we discovered that we aren’t holy….and that in order not to die eternally we need to be holy…but we couldn’t make ourselves righteous (we tried and failed)…

SO WE PUT OUR FAITH IN THE ONE WHO COULD!!!!

if you thinking…Im way to sinful to be in this room…holding this bible… JOIN THE CLUB!!!

We are here because we read Mark 2:13-17 and realized it was people just like us…SINNERS…that Jesus sought out…people who need to be saved…and now we are just trying our best to follow obediently the one who healed us of our sinfulness…

HERE IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO SEE:

Jesus is telling the Jews…I have come to serve the sinner…

With my teaching (what kind of king spends one on one time with common people?)

With my shepherding (what kind of king cares about the leadership of the people??)

With my fellowship (what kind of king dines with the undesirable???)

With my ability to heal (what kind of king is this???)

BIG IDEA - Jesus: A king that deserved to be served, who came first to serve an unworthy people.

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.

ministered= to be served

I came not to be served but to serve…

When we serve…we give…our talents, efforts, time…

Jesus gave more than all of that…

JESUS CAME TO SERVE UP HIS LIFE

He says he came TO GIVE HIS LIFE!!!

FOR THE MOST UNWORTHY PEOPLE…

The common man….the sinful man…

WHAT KIND OF KING COMES TO SERVE THE UNWORTHY…

THERE IS NO KING LIKE KING JESUS!!!

PRAY!