The King of the Broken

Father God,

You have brought us all together on this day at this time in this place to hear this particular message. Father please allow our hearts to be molded by this message and that our actions will follow. Lord let your will be done through this time with you. We love you, we praise you and we glorify you.

In Jesus name, Amen.

The Legend of the Golden Scars

In a distant realm, there was a King known for a strange decree: he did not recruit knights based on their strength or unblemished armor. Instead, he sought out the "Broken Brigade"—men and women whose shields were dented, whose swords were notched, and whose hearts were heavy with the weight of past failures.

One such man was Kael, a former captain who had abandoned his post in a moment of cowardice. He lived in the shadows of the city, hiding his face in shame. One evening, the King’s messenger found him and delivered an invitation to the Royal Feast. Kael protested, "I am a traitor. My armor is rusted, and my record is stained. I have nothing to offer a perfect King."

The messenger replied, "The King does not ask for your perfection. He asks for your presence. He has already paid the debt for your treason."

When Kael entered the hall, he saw hundreds like himself: former thieves, liars, and outcasts. To his shock, the King did not scold them. Instead, he stood before them and showed them his own hands, which bore deep, permanent scars from a battle he had fought on their behalf. He then touched Kael’s rusted breastplate, and where there were once dents and rust, there appeared veins of pure gold.

The King declared, "In my kingdom, your scars are not signs of shame, but evidence of my healing. You are accepted not because you are whole, but because I was broken for you." Kael realized then that his value didn't come from his own "work" to fix himself, but from the King’s work that had already mended him.

This story shows a King who draws in and invites the imperfect, the outcasts, and the broken into the Kingdom. One who has suffered so they can freely accept his invitation.

This is what we are talking about today. Except we are talking about the Ultimate King. How Jesus, the King of the Kingdom of Heaven calls the imperfect and the broken and invites us into His Kingdom.

The Big Idea- Jesus came to redeem the unwanted and to unite a broken people to the father.

Principles

Jesus calls and uses the undesirable, the outcasts.

Jesus calls sinners to full acceptance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

We long for Jesus’ return.

Today our primary text is coming from Mark 2:13-22. Here in this text Jesus is coming from healing a leper and and healing the paralytic and forgiving him of his sins showing that He has authority over all things.

After these occurrences Jesus continued to teach and as he was walking he encountered a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collecting booth and He called this tax collector to follow Him.

Now the fact that Jesus called a tax collector to follow Him is very significant.

You see, tax collectors were the worse of the worse in the eyes of the Jews.

At this time the Roman Empire ruled the region and much of the known world. What Rome would do is they would hire locals to collect taxes from their own people. To make profit the tax collectors would exploit the people charging them two to three times the amount that was actually due, pocketing the extra making themselves wealthy.

Tax collectors collaborated with the Roman army that invaded and occupied the region, the oppressors. They grew rich by squeezing money out of widows and starving farmers.

Because of this, the Jews saw tax collectors as the ultimate betrayers. They saw tax collectors as being greedy, exploiters of their own people and in the eyes of the religious Jews tax collectors were spiritually dead. They were seen as worse than sinners, they were perpetually unclean, they were barred from worship. Even their money was not accepted as alms for the poor because it was seen as stolen and blood money. Tax collectors couldn't even testify in court according to Jewish law because they were considered so dishonest that their word was worthless.

Tax collectors were despised and outcast in society.

But Jesus choose a tax collector and publically called him to follow Jesus.

But why?

See the religious rulers and society looked at tax collectors as worthless individuals, villains, the worst of the worst.

But Jesus looked and saw a lost child of the King. He looked at this despised individual and saw someone who was broken, someone who needed a savior. Jesus looked at Levi the tax collector who was also known as Matthew and He saw His worth, He valued him and called Him inviting Him to come follow the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Just as Jesus encountered this tax collector who was not seen as worth anyone’s time by society. Jesus encountered and called those of us who have placed our faith in Him to follow Him.

We have all sinned. We have all done terrible things that we are ashamed of or would be ashamed of, if everyone knew about them. Many of us have been or are despised for one reason or another by others in society. We were, the tax collector and are no better than the tax collector. And even though we did not, and do not deserve it Jesus called us out of our sin and invited us into the Kingdom of Heaven.

If you are not following Christ, and you hear His call. Do not harden your heart, follow Him.

Later on in the Bible we see that Jesus took this tax collector, Levi and God uses him mightily with Levi eventually being known as Matthew the Apostle. Matthew abandoned the life of a tax collector and followed Jesus where he is the author of the book of Matthew and God used him greatly throughout his life and beyond as we are still being impacted by his writings today.

In the same way God calls us into His Kingdom, and He sanctifies us and transforms us with the power of His Spirit and He uses us for His will to Glorify Him and work for the Kingdom of Heaven.

After Jesus calls Levi the tax collector to follow Him he goes to his house and there Jesus and His disciples eat with many tax collectors and sinners!

In the culture of the middle east in that day eating with people was a big deal. Who you ate with showed who you associated with. If you ate with someone it ment that you agree with them and this was one of the most intimate expressions of friendship.

So for a religious leader or teacher to eat with sinners and tax collectors was unheard of.

Why in the world would Jesus do such a thing?

In verse 17 Jesus tells the religious leaders why He is eating with Tax collectors and sinners. Mark 2:17b

Mark 2:17 NIV

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus tells who He came for, he came for the broken, the ones in need of a savior.

In Luke 4:18 Jesus quotes Isaiah explaining who he came for.

Luke 4:18 NIV

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,

This is who Jesus came for, those who are in need of healing, salvation and restoration.

Jesus physically healed, he really fed multitudes and He called sinners to full acceptance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus came for the lowly, the humble, the broken, those who need a savior.

He came for us.

In Mark 2:17 when Jesus says he did not come for the righteous He is talking about the self righteous. You see the Pharisee’s were self righteous, they kept a very legalistic practice of keeping the law as well as additional rules that they placed on top of the law to make sure that they do not break the law. The Pharisee’s placed this system of legalism as more important than anything else. Because of this they outwardly did things that seemed good that looked righteous, but inwardly they were dead.

The Pharisee’s were so obsessed with the law and keeping it that they were separatist. They worked to keep themselves apart from all others in order to remain pure. Not knowing that they were not pure. All have sinned and all are in need of a savior, legalism will not do it.

Should believers keep themselves from the lost?

Certainly not!

Jesus came for the broken, the humble, for those who are in need of a savior. Jesus calls us to be in the world but not of the Word.

He calls us to have a heart like His.

To care for the oppressed, to give hope to the hopeless in the good news of Jesus.

To do good works and to show Justice in the world reflecting the Kingdom of Heaven wherever we are.

Jesus called us to let the lost know that they can be freed from the bondage of sin through Jesus.

Jesus calls sinners to full acceptance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

If Jesus has drawn you to Himself, and if you have placed your faith in Him then His spirit is in you, and is changing your mind and your heart.

One of the things that Jesus does to us in this transformative process called sanctification, is that He gives us a new heart, one that is a heart for people.

Just as Jesus had a heart for those in need and the spiritually lost, we also have a heart for others.

Because we love them and we Love Jesus, we are compelled to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to those who are slaves to sin. We are compelled to help those in need who are around us and to interact with the lost showing them the love of Christ.

Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors.

After Jesus answered the Pharisees then some of the religious leaders and Johns disciples had a question for Jesus. They said in Mark 2:18b

Mark 2:18 NIV

“How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

Jesus answered them with an answer that not only was reflective of when fasting is appropriate. But Jesus’s answer is also relevant for today.

Jesus answered in verse 19.

Mark 2:19 NIV

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them.

Fasting was used for different things at that time. Some fasted when they did wrong or when they were showing remorse, also people fasted for mourning or loss, and others fasted as a spiritual discipline to focus on spiritual matters.

When Jesus gave the example of the bridegroom and the guests he was talking about Himself and the disciples. Jesus is the bridegroom in this case who is to be wed to His bride the church when he returns. The disciples are the guests in this illustration.

While Jesus was present, while the disciples were in the presence of the King of heaven there was no need for mourning. He was there with the disciples, but then there would be a time where the groom would be taken.

This time is now, Jesus died and rose again. Then he ascended to heaven empowering believers with His Spirit commissioning them to proclaim the gospel to all of the nations.

We do kingdom work in a fallen world.

We live in a world where presidents and authorities abuse their power and misuse those that they are suppose to protect. Children are being kidnapped and sold into various trades. We live in a world where fathers are abandoning their children and youth homicides are on the rise. These are symptoms of the corruption of sin in the world.

We mourn for those who are suffering and experiencing pain. We fast for strength to do the work in this dark world. We fast to express our deep dependance on God and we long for His return.

All of creation longs for the return of the King.

Romans 8:18–25 NIV

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

There is Hope.

There is Hope in Jesus.

We long for the return of the King of Heaven where he will make all things right and the Kingdom of Heaven will reign and rule over all of creation fully.

The King of the Kingdom of Heaven and all of us who place our faith in Him who he has called, the broken, the humble will be made whole and will reign with Him forever.

Jesus calls and uses the undesirable, the outcasts.

Jesus calls sinners to full acceptance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

We long for Jesus’ return.

Please Join me in Prayer: Father God, thank you for your Word. Thank you for the grace that you have given us to invite us into the Kingdom of Heaven. Lord please help us to be faithful in what you have call us to and to glorify you in everything.

In Jesus name amen