Sermon Tone Analysis

1.

The Call, v27

2. The Response, v28

3. The Fellowship, v29

4. The Purpose, v30-32

TRANSFORMATIVE and REDEMPTIVE power of the Gospel is shown in the conversion story of Matthew and how impactful one life changed can be for an entire community of people.

The Call, v27

After the event of the paralyzed man, one of the greatest healings that bring weight to Jesus’s authority to forgive sins, we see a miraculous calling.

Levi, or Matthew, was a tax collector, who undoubtedly knew who Jesus was through His preaching, and His disciples who were fisherman that paid taxes on goods.

We do not know though if Matthew was an honest tax collector or dishonest.

Either way, the Jews would have seen him as a sinner and unclean for doing business with the Roman Gentile Oppressor.

Everyone seen Levi as a sinner and perhaps he saw himself as one too, and this is in line with Scriptures

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” , Further here all have the HOPE as follows to which Levi must have BELIEVED,

Romans 3:24-25, “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

When Levi HEARD Jesus call him, he believed and trusted in the HOPE that was promised, that God would have mercy on him, a sinner.

This CALL is that same call that we have today and that is available for you today.

It has not changed nor is there any other Gospel by which you can be saved.

This is the same call that all people throughout history who have FOLLOWED Christ have RESPONDED too.

The Response, v28

Levi’s response to Jesus saying, “Follow Me,” is one of the most compelling actions of a life instantly transformed by the forgiveness of our Lord Jesus!

Luke 5:28, Four words can be used to describe the genuineness of Levi’s RESPONSE to his calling to Jesus.

-Leaving

-Everything

-Rose

-Followed

LEAVING, (Greek, kataleipo, leave behind, where we get the word catapult from) Matthew left physically, spiritually, and mentally from the place and position he was at.

He was no longer lost but found.

No longer a sinner but righteous.

No longer dead in sin but alive in Christ.

No longer Levi but Matthew, which means a gift from God.

EVERYTHING, Matthew abandon all the identifiers of a tax collector, sinner, and of Levi, his whole former life.

He left it for what Jesus had offered, a Savior worth following and the promise of life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

, Matthew latched onto the truth that in Christ we have new life and the old has passed.

Ephesians 4:22-24 “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Matthew no longer had to work for his innocence or righteousness, no longer enslaved by deceitful desires but was freed in Christ and created after His likeness, righteous and holy.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

The transforming power of Christ began immediately to shape and form Matthew into the same image of Christ for the sake of His glory.

ROSE, This rising of Matthew indicates the desire for action and service based on the faith he has in his calling to FOLLOW Jesus.

“He ROSE” this action was an immediate response to Jesus’s call for Matthew to follow Him.

This was not an “I’m not ready to submit to you” moment but an all in move.

Matthews physical rising up from the old life was a powerful show of God’s redemptive power through Christ to take that which is dead and bring it into the newness of life.

What beauty we can see in this now having seen and known the resurrection of Christ we ourselves can identify with the redemptive power of God in Christ through Baptism, Romans 6:4 “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

FOLLOWED, Matthew’s transformed life by the Good News of the Gospel, and his following was not delayed in any way.

Matthew 8:18-22 “Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.

And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.””

We never see Jesus lower the bar of FOLLOWING Him or of discipleship.

Those who Christ calls out in the NT must consider the cost of discipleship when the are to follow Him, consider Luke 14:26-33 ““If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

The message of repentance, brought Matthew to passionately live for Jesus in every way possible.

He was all in, all day, in all ways!

This meant from work to home, his life was now about the message of Christ.

Without delay Matthew LEFT on mission for Christ realizing that all things are satisfying and fulfilled in Christ.

He LEFT and followed Jesus and we can too, I use Acronyms to help me memorize basic Faith Prinicples;

L.E.F.T.

Leave the passions and desires of your former life in the flesh

Everything you have and are can be leveraged for the Gospel

Follow Jesus wholeheartedly by obeying His commands

Teach those who accept Christ to do the same

The Fellowship, v29

Luke 5:29, Matthew then done what every believer, new and old, ought to do, BRING others to FELLOWSHIP with Jesus.

This “great feast” was to honor the one who changed his life, but who would he invite?

Not new friends, not strangers, not those who are more righteous than he, BUT the very people he already knows and has been doing life with!

“Great Feast” signifies not only the extravagance of it but the sheer size of the party.

Matthew knew plenty of people.

Matthew held back nothing of his to serve the purpose of Christ, not his home or food, he held back no one that he knew from Christ!

Instead invited everyone!

Matthew didn’t let his former reputation hold back his willingness to give everything over to Christ.

And showed he was a serious disciple of Jesus.

In the same way, you and I, are to invite people to join us in FELLOWSHIP with Jesus no matter how good or bad they are, and especially those who we already KNOW that Jesus is calling us to reach for His Kingdom!

It was Matthew, the new convert, the new Christian, that Jesus would then use to communicate His message and ministry to the tax collectors, sinners, and religious leaders.

If a BRAND NEW Christian can, what does that mean for us who have known Him many years?

What it means is those we see come to accept the transformative power of Jesus Christ, we are to step into their lives and disciple them and change them to do the same.

Matthew 4:19 “And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.””

A disciple is someone who is Following Jesus being Transformed by Jesus and is on the Mission of Jesus.

Let us show them not hold anything back for Jesus and put on a “feast” for Him and invite those around them.

We are to practice missional living in order to advance the Kingdom of God so that we may see true change in our community!

Small Missional Community Groups a.k.a.

Small Groups are strategic points of the Gospels TRANSFORMATIVE and REDEMPTIVE power in your neighborhood and that of others.

The Purpose, v30-32

The “after” back in verse 27 shows that this chain of events start with the healing of the paralytic man in the passage before, a powerful testimony to Jesus’s authority to forgive sins.

He then continues the narrative that sin is like a sickness or disease that needs healing before it kills the body or soul!

In verse 30, Luke 5:30 “And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”” , we see the “righteous” question Jesus actions and motives trying to find fault and sin in Him.

Oh how we fall guilty to this as well when we lose sight of the vision of God’s Kingdom Grace for all people.

We begin to be so “morally” separated that we are no longer disciples of Christ but are Pharisees prioritizing our strict obedience to the Law or some moral code so much that we abandon Christ’s command to “make disciples” in hopes of not being stained by someone else’s sin.

Jesus then explains His ministry in a metaphor that transcends all generations, that is, it is timeless.

A doctor will alway be a doctor, and the sick will always need healing.

Luke 5:31 “And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

Jesus explicitly defines His ministry so there is NO question to who He is calling to follow Him into repentance, forgiveness, healing, and life.

He is calling the SINNERS those of us who are sick and are in desperate need of healing!