The Ministry of Grace

Mark 2:13-17

If you brought your bibles turn with me over to the gospel of Mark chapter two, the gospel of Mark chapter two and in a moment we are going to read verses 13-17 of the gospel of Mark chapter two.

We are continuing our study in the gospel of Mark and walking through this gospel verse by verse and line by line and today I want to talk to you about the Ministry of Grace.

 Let me ask you this; are you a saint, or are you a sinner? Now, let me be clear about what a saint is. A saint is a child of God. A saint is someone who has their sins forgiven, someone who has a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Now, let me be clear about what a saint is not. A saint is not someone who has arrived at a spiritual level everyone else is still trying to achieve. A saint is not someone who receives special recognition from heaven because of the works they have done in the world. Most of the epistles of the NT are letters written to the saints of the churches they are addressed too. So, according to the Bible a saint is someone who has given their heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and is connected in the church

     So, let me ask you again, are you a saint or are you a sinner? Because the reality is; you cannot be one, unless you know that you are the other. You cannot be a child of God unless you recognize you are a sinner, saved by grace and there is nothing special or different about you than anyone else in the world other than you know Jesus.

That is what we are going to see in this story. Jesus calls Levi to follow Him and it is a call to be forgiven. It is a call to receive the grace of God.

Levi was a sinner. He was lost and rejected by the world and for a good reason, he was doing terrible things to his people. However, Jesus saw past his sin and He saw his potential. And He does the same thing in your life and in mine.

     But there is another group of people in our story. They are the religious leaders of Israel, and they could not see past Levi’s sin. They wanted to condemn Levi, and they wanted to condemn Jesus for associating with him. This story teaches us that God’s grace is given to those who do not deserve it.

Mark 2:13–17 KJV 1900

And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

(Pray)

Father, I thank you for your Word! I pray that as your Word goes out you would give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and heart willing to respond.

Grant us the privilege of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of your Word and give me the ability to speak it clearly, in Jesus name, Amen!

    Let me ask you a hypothetical question; how would you feel if we put a sign out in front of the church that said, all drug addicts are welcome here?” How would you feel if we sent our deacons down to the bar and had them bring back as many drunks as they could find? What if we had a gay couple start coming to our church? How would you respond?

Many people in the church, whether you would admit it or not, would leave. You would stop coming to this church. Why?

Because we think that the church is for good people. We think the church is for people who don’t sin, people who have their act together.

I want you to notice; that’s the way the religious people in our story felt about Levi and his friends, but I also want you to notice that is not the way Jesus felt.

 In our passage this morning, we see Jesus call Levi to be His follower, and that shocked the religious leaders of Israel. Because they could not believe that a man of God, a religious person would want a sinner like Levi to be His disciple.

This story teaches us that God’s grace is given to those who do not deserve it. This is a principle taught throughout the New Testament. For example; 1 Cor. 1:26-28

The Apostle Paul writing to people who were deeply flawed at the church of Corinth says,

1 Corinthians 1:26–28 NASB95

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,

What Paul is saying here is recognize that God is not choosing perfect people to be His followers but people He can use to bring Him glory. People who know they have made mistakes in life.

Then consider Paul’s description of himself to his young protege Timothy in 1 Tim. 1:13-15

1 Timothy 1:13–15 NASB95

even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

This is the same principle we see in the call of Levi in the gospel of Mark. Christ does not choose perfect people, but His grace is given to those who know they do not deserve it.

The first thing I want you to see is,

I. The Call of Grace Vs. 13-15 We see the call of grace on Levi’s life.

 The invitation to Levi, is an invitation to follow Jesus. It is an invitation to the grace of God. Jesus invites him to a whole new way of life.

He invites him to leave the tax booth behind. To begin a journey into something new, into something better, something that was going to fill his life with meaning and purpose.

In case you don’t know it, Levi in this story is Matthew the disciple. He is the author of the very first book of the New Testament, barring his name; the Gospel of Matthew.

The name Matthew means; “the gift of God,” and that is what he received on that day. Jesus looked at him and He saw his potential. He saw his heart. He saw that he was ready for a change in his life and He offered him that opportunity and it is the same opportunity that He offers us today. It is the call of grace.

 Notice Vs. 13 says, “And he went forth again by the sea side” This is Jesus going forth by the sea. This is something you see a lot in Mark’s gospel. Jesus longed for some alone time with God the Father.

We saw this same thing back in chapter one, where He went out early in the morning to find a place to pray. I believe that is what we see here. He went forth from Capernaum. He left the house where the crowds were gathered, and He goes down by the seashore.

But, even there, He cannot escape the people, and the people continue to come to Him.  And it says, “and he taught them. .”

Jesus was the living, breathing Word of God and He loved to teach people about the Kingdom of God. He loved to teach people about life, and that is what He is doing here.

But even though He was teaching the people, and that is what He came to do, He kept moving forward, He kept moving away from the crowds.

 Verse 14, opens up with, “As He passed by.” As He continued to try and move on, He came across Levi sitting in a tax booth.

The tax booths were located on the roadways between the cities. You had to pass the tax booths as you were leaving one province going to another. They would tax you for anything they could.

They would tax you for importing or exporting whatever you had, and no matter what direction you were going. It was really more of a shake down or an extortion rather than a legitimate business. But it was all legalized by the Romans.

 Notice Jesus says to Levi “follow me,” and he got up and he followed Him. Now, it is important that we don’t see this as; some kind of supernatural obedience on the part of Levi. That is not what this is.

Levi did not react to Jesus, with some kind of blind faith and trust in God. I have heard this taught that way so many times.

However, Levi knew exactly who Jesus was. Levi knew exactly what Jesus had been doing. The stories about Jesus were spreading throughout Galilee. Levi has heard Jesus was healing the sick and casting out the demons.

So, Levi believed in Jesus, what Levi did not know is that Jesus believed in Him. He saw his potential and I want you to know that the same thing is true in your life.

God believes in you. He sees your potential, and He has a plan for your life. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

That word “workmanship” is the Greek word “Poemo” which is where we get our word Poem from. What this is saying is you are God’s poem. He wants to rewrite the story of your life.

He has a purpose and a plan for your life. There is something God wants to accomplish in you and through you, something only you can accomplish. And just like Levi, He is calling you to follow Him.

Something happened to Levi on that day Jesus called him, something that he thought would never happen. Jesus invited him to be a disciple.

Why is that such a big deal? Because Levi was a sinner. He was a tax collector. Tax collectors were the most hated rejected people in the world.

They were the lowest of the low. They were traitors stealing from their own people. I want you notice Tax collectors had their own category. There were tax collectors and then there were sinners.

Tax collectors were looked at as being worse than a sinner. They were worse than someone who committed murder or rape.

For example, It was totally appropriate and even taught to Jewish children that is was ok to break the Ten Commandments and lie to a tax collector.

No teacher, or Rabbi would ever want a tax collector to be their follower. To do so would be to commit religious suicide.

But Jesus was able to see something no one else could see. He was able to see someone who wanted to change. He was able to see someone who had a heart of repentance. So, Jesus calls Levi to follow Him, and he responds.

Levi walks away from his old life, and he walks into the life that Christ had for him. Let me ask you this, have you responded to Jesus that way? Are you following Him? Have you walked away from your old life into the life that Christ wants you to have? To do that, you have to want to change. You have to want more from life

     In the gospel of John chapter 5, there is a story about a paralyzed man who was lying by the pool of Bethsaida, and had been there for 38 years.

Jesus comes along one day, and He says to the man, “Do you want to get well?” In other words, “Do you want a better life?” He asks us the same question today, because if you want something different out of life, you have to response to Jesus the same way as Levi in this story. We must get up and follow Him.

Jesus tells us Himself in Luke 9:23 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

 It is important we understand, for Levi there was no turning back. When Levi got the call from Christ, he walked away from his tax booth, and he broke his contract with the Romans, and he could not go back. There was no plan B for Levi.  

Peter, Andrew, James, and John could all go back to fishing if this following the Messiah thing did not work out. But Levi, he burned his bridges, and he shows us total faith and dependence on God.

He changes his name to Matthew, probably a good idea considering his former occupation, but more importantly, his life was changed forever. Matthew means the gift of God and that is what he received.

 Notice The first thing Levi does when he becomes saved is take Jesus home with him. Look at Vs. 15 It says, “as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples“

Notice that all of Levi’s friends were just like him, they were tax collectors and sinners. That’s what a publican is; a tax collector, and birds of a feather flock together. No one else would go around these people, except for Jesus.  And the bible tells us there were many of them who were following Him.

That tells us the impact of the grace of God on Levi, was having an affect on his friends. They were becoming disciples too. They were following Him.

And I can’t help but wonder if that is happening in your life. Does your relationship with God have an impact on those around you? Do you take Jesus home with you, and share Him with the people who are closest to you?

That is the call of grace. God’s grace is given to those who do not deserve it. But it is also rejected by those who think they do deserve it. That is what we see in the next verse.

II. The Absence of Grace, notice Vs. 16, “When the scribes and the Pharisee’s saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said unto His disciples, “How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?”

These are the religious leaders of Israel who are questioning the disciples, and when they saw what Jesus was doing, it created a righteous indignation within them.

They were just waiting to crash the party at Levi’s house. They could not stand it that Jesus was hanging out with these sinners. They could not stand it that He had become their friend, that He treated them with dignity and respect.

 To share a meal in ancient Israel was a display of intimacy and fellowship with them. He wasn’t condoning their actions but He was spending time with them, and the Pharisee’s were shocked by it.

The Pharisees were proud righteous people, and they would never have done anything like this.

They thought to themselves what is Jesus doing? How could this claim to be the Messiah. How could He call Himself the Son of God? He is not even as holy as we are.

These are the same self -appointed church police we see every day in America.  Every church has them, there are people who think they are more righteous than everyone else. There are people who want to make sure everyone knows how righteous they are.

That is who the Pharisee’s were. Notice they even call the people Jesus is eating with “sinners,” that tells us what they thought about them. It tells us that they looked down at these people.

 Notice who they question in the story. They question the disciples, not Jesus. They don’t confront Jesus because it is meant to criticize Jesus. But their question is really more of an accusation. It is meant to make the disciples doubt His character.

The disciples would not know how to react to this, they had never been in this situation before. They did not know if they were doing something wrong and now, they are being questioned by the authority of Israel.

The lesson in this for us is, to follow Jesus with all our heart and don’t worry about making mistakes, and do not worry about what people think about you. When you follow Jesus, people are always going to try and create doubt in your mind about what you are doing.

What is interesting to me is that the Pharisee’s, did not care about the tax collectors and the sinners. They did not care about them until Jesus care about them. They didn’t care about them until there was a possibility they could come to know God.

The Pharisee’s were to holy and righteous to help the sinner and they were to holy and righteous to fellowship with Jesus. Their religion was worthless.

This story teaches us a very important truth; that separation from sin doesn’t mean separation from sinners, and it teaches us what the absence of grace looks like in our lives.

God’s grace is given to those who do not deserve it. In this passage we have seen the call of grace and we have seen the absence of grace and now, I want you to see

III. The Qualifications of Grace Vs. 17 “When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

This is actually a very soft response by Jesus. He takes a conciliatory tone. This is actually an ancient proverb that was well known and accepted by the Jews. The Pharisee’s would have recognized this immediately.

This teaches us a very important truth I don’t want you to miss. Jesus not only didn’t want to argue with them. But Jesus was not even interested in them and that is scary. 

He didn’t care to give them the time of day. There attitude was such that He couldn’t do anything with them and He wasn’t even going to try.

I am reminded of Romans chapter 1, where Paul talks about God giving people over to a reprobate mind to do whatever they want, and that is a scary place to be with God.

 So, what we see in this passage is; Jesus compliments them on their righteousness and there is nothing left for them to say. They just shut up and they go away.

But they are the ones who miss out on the grace of God. They are the ones who miss out on fellowship with Jesus. And I cannot help but wonder if this is us.

Can this be you and me? Do we have attitudes of self-righteousness that cause us to miss out on a true relationship with God.

 You know what is ironic?  Studies of mental health and physical health clinics show, that the people who come to them for help are more healthy than the ones who don’t.

Unfortunately, the same thing is true about the church. The people who need are help the most are the one’s who never come for it.

This passage teaches us that to qualify for the grace of God you must be a sinner. Which we all are, but more importantly, you must realize you are a sinner who needs grace. And that is where we struggle. We all need the grace of God but do we realize it.

Another thing this passage teaches us is, that if we are going to be like Jesus, we cannot become so comfortable hanging out with the saints that we stop reaching out to the sinners.

Illus. – History records that when Oliver Cromwell ruled England in the 1650’s, the nation experienced a crisis: They ran out of silver and could not mint any coins. So, Cromwell sent his soldiers to the Cathedral to see if any silver was available. They reported back that the only silver was the statues of the saints, to which Cromwell replied, “Melt down the saints and get them back into circulation.”

We too need to be in circulation among sinners. If we get opportunities to share our faith, we must take those opportunities because there are people who are sick with sin and unless Jesus, the Great Physician heals them, they are doomed to face God’s judgment and hell. God help us to introduce people to the Doctor.

     So, we have seen the call of God’s grace on our lives. It goes out to those who don’t deserve it. It goes out to those who want it. Those who are desperate for change in their life. That’s who Levi was.

Levi knew he needed to be different and when Jesus gave him the chance he took it. What about you, will you take the opportunity Jesus gives you to be different and follow Him?

     And we have seen what the absence of grace looks like in our lives. It looks like the Pharisee’s. It looks like self-righteousness that misses out on a relationship with God. I pray we never become that as a church. We only qualify for God’s grace when we realize we need it and we are willing to share it.

(Pray)

Father, I thank you for your Word. I thank you for the example that Levi gives us. I pray we would recognize your call of grace on our life. I pray that like Levi we would respond in faith and leap at a chance to be more like you.

Transform our hearts and our minds and grant us the privilege of surrendering our lives to you!! In Jesus name I pray, Amen