Sermon Series Workflow | Luke 5:27–32

Hey Y’all! How are y’all doing? That’s good, we are a month away from spring break, who is ready?

Also question, where were you two years ago? It has been a whole two years since this whole Covid thing has started, man the world is different right? Two years is a long time.

Anyways, I’m going to do this a little different tonight, the text we are going to look at tonight has one main point, there is one main take away from that, and I’m going to give it to you up front, I’m going to give it to you even before we read the text, so if you remember only one thing from tonight remember this,

Jesus calls sinners to repentance, then invites them to become brothers and sisters.

That is the major theme of this passage, that is the take away, that is the main thing going on. So there is what we have from this passage. So let’s work knowing that going in to this, that is where we are going to get to.

So question for you, who has watched the Marvel movies? The main force for good in the the Marvel Universe is the Avengers, they’re the dudes. and they are made up of earth’s mightiest Heroes.

You’ve got Iron Man, who is just Marvel Batman and fights during the day, you have Capt. America, you have Vision which is just Googles avatar, Thor, literal God of thunder in the Marvel Universe, Dr. Strange, controls all realities and time, Spiderman, The Hulk who is indestructible.

Now let’s say you are in charge of building the avengers team, let’s say you’re tony stark, and you’re holding tryouts, you know Capt America throws his shield he has super human strength, check, hes in. Hulk, the name and size alone gets him on the team. Dr. Strange, puts an alternate reality out of a hat, Vision has almost total knowledge, and he can shoot lasers out of his eyes, check, Spiderman, check.

Then a guy named Hawkeye shows up. And you’re like, what is your super power? And he’s like, i’m really good archery. and you’re like oh cool like you can manipulate the arrows with your mind and stuff? and he’s like no, but some of my arrows can explode. Oh that’s pretty cool, what happens if you run out of arrows? I’ll need you to come pick me up, the archery is basically it.

Like you wouldn’t pick Hawkeye for the Avengers would. I’m not sure how they created the character and I’m sure he’s way more compelling in the comics, but homie is not a super hero. He’s not a super hero.

Anyways, I want you think about that, like you’re creating a team, you’re going to seek out the very best people, the brightest, the most charismatic, the most influential. That is the conventional wisdom of the day.

So keep that thought in the back of your head, we are going to look at this passage, and see that Jesus takes conventional wisdom and flips it on its head.

We are going to look at who and how Jesus calls people. Jesus’ call is for sinners, for the unrighteous, not for the righteous.

So tonight we are going to be in Luke 5:27-32, we are going to look at Jesus calling Levi, who is also known as Matthew. We are going to look at what this scene tells us about us, about Christ, and about our relationship to Christ.

So Luke 5:27-32, Does anyone need a bible? If you need a bible, throw a hand up and we will get a bible to you. While you’re flipping over there, let me set the stage here and give you some background, some context as to shat is going on. Last call for bible. Anyone?

Okay cool. So we are looking at the call of Levi. Jesus has been going around healing people, offering forgiveness of sin, calling people. He had already called Peter and James and John. So Jesus walking about and he sees Levi the tax collector.

And what should this tell you about Levi? That he was a tax collector.

Levi is collecting taxes, he not the head tax collector, but he’s the guy who is right under the head tax collector.

And the thing about tax collectors, is they are hated, no one likes tax collectors.

They were the IRS of the day, how many of y’all have jobs where they pay you with like a real check, not cash under the table, but like a payroll check? What was it like the first time you got your check, lets say for easy math sake, you were supposed to get 100 dollars, you had worked this many hours for this amount of pay, you knew what your check should read and then you get your check and see that it is about 30ish dollars less. Then you see the income tax line, state income tax, social security tax, federal income tax, all that wonderful stuff. and from that moment on, you were not a fan of the IRS.

Nobody is usually super pleased have to deal with the IRS, maybe if you get a refund, but for the most past, no one wants to deal with the IRS, nobody is looking out excitedly waiting for a letter from the IRS.

Levi was the IRS for their day, he’s a tax collector. They are hated, but why are the hated? Like i get paying taxes is kind of a necessary thing, not all taxes are good, but should you hate someone just because they are the ones who collect taxes?

Well, you gotta ask who they are collecting taxes for. We may not like taxes here in the US, i’m not a big fan, but like taxes pay teachers, police, fire fighters, the mail. You need those things, and someone has to pay them. That’s where our taxes go here, and their are laws about how taxes are calculated, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me how all that works, but there are laws that keep the Gov. from collecting too much taxes, essentially, kinda sorta. our tax code is confusing.

But in Levi’s day, he wasn’t collecting taxes so that it would go back in to the community, or pay for teachers or doctors, or anything like that. No Levi was collecting taxes for Rome. Levi was collecting taxes for a foreign power, a power that had come and taken them over.

If this is star wars, Levi is collecting taxes for the empire. He is raising money for Darth Vader. And on top of that, not only is he betraying his countrymen by working with the foreign powers, he is charging them more money than he has to. Tax Collectors were usually pretty well off, you knew how much tax the Romans wanted they would tell you to bring this much money in, but anything over that was yours, that’s how you made your money. So he could charge what ever he wanted, and there was nothing they could do about it.

So Levi is a despised hated person in jewish society. He is considered extremely immoral, unclean, the OT has laws about unfair practices and charging interest, they were considered extremely low people in the society.

Levi was a hated, looked down upon, immoral, liar. No one liked him except the other low people in the society.

And Jesus walks up to him, not to pay taxes but to talk to him.

and that brings us to the passage we are going so let’s pray for our time in the word, then let’s read this passage.

pray

So jesus about to talk to Levi, the most hated man in town pretty much, read this with me, Luke 5:27-32

Luke 5:27–32 ESV

27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. 29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

So knowing what we know now, this is much bigger deal that just Jesus walking up to to a guy who collects taxes and becomes Jesus walking up to and talking to a hated, despised tax collector.

And what does he say? Jesus says, follow me. And Levi does, the text says he left everything and followed him. He just left the tax booth and was like okay great, let’s roll.

Honestly, it doesn’t sound all that miraculous. Jesus says follow me and Levi is like, sweet sounds good.

And on the surface, might not have looked all that wild for Levi to leave his job where no one liked him to follow Jesus, but let’s think about what Levi is giving up and who is he turning his back on. Levi is wealthy, dude makes good money, he has money, he has security. There was a reason Levi wanted that job, he wanted to have money, he wanted the security this job provided. Who did he turn his back on? Rome, the prevailing power of the day, the people who crucified people because they stole things, Levi left his tax booth, Levi left everything he had right there, he left roman money un attended, and just left. The miracle is that he didn’t get hunted down by Rome.

So what does this tell us about what it means to follow Jesus? That following Jesus has to mean everything, following Jesus changes who you are. Levi probably was not a very religious man, he didn’t follow the law because just by him collecting taxes and in the way taxes were collected he would have broken most of the law. Levi was probably a nominal jewish person, he followed the customs of the day, but he wasn’t trying to be holy, he might have gone to synagogue every now and then, but he wasn’t striving for righteousness. He was making money.

Society looked down on him, might as well only look out for himself. Levi had made himself a little god, worship of self was his idol.

So what does this tell us about following Jesus, we have to lay our idols down. And we are all prone to have these idols, and what I mean by idol is not like a little statue that you pray to, anything can be an idol. Anything that you put in the place of God and worship.

The thing about us is that we are all hard wired to worship, we all are going to worship something. Whether that is ourselves, our relationships, a girlfriend of boyfriend, sports, video games, social media, music, anything. An idol is anything that we put in place of God, anything that takes our focus away from God. So while you’re sitting there think about it, do you have any idols in your life, is there anything taking priority over following Christ in your life? If you aren’t sure, ask the Lord to show you some idols.

Levi left the life he knew, to follow Christ. That is the essence of following Christ. The life that you may have planned out in your head may not be the one Christ is going to lead you to have. Part of following Christ is letting Him have the final say on what you do with your life.

Okay so let’s keep going,

The scene shifts from the tax booth. Levi sees Jesus for who He is, leaves everything right there and follows after Him. And what does Levi do, he gets his friends and other tax collectors together and is like you gotta meet this guy Jesus. He throws Jesus a Great Feast, this was to celebrate. Levi was celebrating that his sins were forgiven and wanted to reach his friends, who were also low in society, immoral, hated tax collectors, Christ broke bread with them. Christ sat at their table and shared a meal.

What does this say about Christ? Christ is willing to wade in to our messy lives to call us out of darkness, to call us to repentance, to invite the lowest of us, sinners in to his family and share a meal at his table. Christ will meet you where you are at, but he will not leave you there.

If Christ is willing to do this, so must we, Levi threw a party for his friends to meet Jesus, he didn’t come to know Jesus and all the sudden turn his nose up at is coworkers and friends, he knew they needed to have this same meeting he had with Jesus. He knew they need forgiveness of sins, they needed to repent.

Look at where you are, if you are a follower of Christ, and you are not sure who to tell about Jesus, look at your friends, go through your friend list and you most likely will have some names that stick out to you of people who you know need Jesus. If there are no names that pop in to your head, pray that the lord gives you some lost friends, pray that the lord puts some lost people in your life. Pray that the Lord would bring some lost people here, if you’re thinking you know some people who need Jesus but don’t need to come here, check yourself. If no one is too far gone for Christ, no one is too far gone for us.

Side bar, I do want to offer a word of warning though, as we find ourselves with people who are lost, you need to expect them to act like lost people, that means they are going to talk different than you, they are going to act different than you, they will value things differently than you. That is to be expected, what you need to watch out for is that in you trying to bring to the feet of jesus, they don’t pull you away from Jesus. You need to have some lost friends, but you need to have Christian community, you need to have a place where you are re-centered towards Christ. If your lost friends are influencing you more than you are influencing them, think about how they affect you after you are not near them. This is what your community of believers does, it brings you back to see God for who he is, this world is dark, this world will want to bring you down, you need to be anchored to Christ, if not you will be pulled every which way.

Okay that was my word of warning.

So let’s keep going, we see some different people show up, the Pharisees and their scribes show up. Now the Pharisees did not like tax collectors, the Pharisees are the religious leaders of the day, they are the leaders, they are the smartest, the most educated, the highest members of society. They already do not like tax collectors because of all the reasons we mentioned earlier, but the also really did not like Jesus, because they have seen how he talks, they hate that he is going around forgiving people of sin. In their mind that was blasphemous because only God could forgive sin. Jesus was telling them that He was God. So they hated Jesus as much as the tax collectors. So they show up and they don’t talk to Jesus, they talk to the disciples, they crash this party and start talking about Jesus with out talking to him first, they’re basically mean girls at this point.

But Jesus hears them, and talks to them. They ask why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Which should tell you what they thought of tax collectors, they were sinners by profession. They ask him why, and I love how Jesus responds, he doesn’t give them a straight answer, which Jesus rarely does in His ministry, he responds with allegory.

Luke 5:31–32 ESV

31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

We can understand this, when do you go to the doctor? when you’re sick, and sometimes even then you don’t go. I have to be physically dying for me to go to the Doctor, it takes a lot for me to go to the doctor. but you know when you don’t really go? When you’re fine. I know we do checkups and what not but, you’re not like you know what everything is fine, i guess I should go to the doctor. People who are well have no need for a doctor.

I usually try not to use a ton of quotes, but one of my favorite authors put this principle this way

Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness.” - CS Lewis

Jesus was calling out the Pharisees with his statement. The Pharisees lived their lives as if they were perfect, they followed the law to the letter. They knew all of the scriptures, the had memorized the OT, they knew the messiah was coming at some point, but their expectation was that the Messiah would come to them and choose them to help bring down the Romans, to usher in a new Jewish state. This is not why Christ came. Christ came to save sinners. For all the knowledge the Pharisees had it is wild to me that we only see really one of them who interacted with Jesus come to see him as the Christ. Nicodemus, i believe he is the only Pharisee from Jesus’s day who became a follower of Christ. I’m not sure Jospeh of Aramatheia was Pharisee but we know Nicodemus was.

Jesus her in this text is going against all of the conventional wisdom of the day, The Pharisees were expecting the Christ to come as a warrior for Israel, to over throw the Romans. The wanted a person to come defeat an earthly army. Christ flips their idea of kingdom on its head as says I will come to defeat death, come to defeat sin and the armies of darkness.

Christ came to save sinners.

Christ is of no use to anyone who does not have sin in their lives.

So what do we do with this? Why does this matter?

Christ came to save sinners, christ came to call the unrighteous to repentance, Christ came to call sinners to repentance and invite them to become brothers and sisters.

What this means for us is that all of us are in need of a savior, there are no righteous people in this world. All of us at one point are going to have to answer the question of what to do with Christ, he is calling all of us to repentance. Are you going to reject him, are you going to ignore him or are you going to see him as Lord and follow him.

The Gospel is the good news that Christ has come and made a way for us to have relationship with him, so forgive our sins and make us righteous in the eyes of a holy and almighty God. He is calling us to follow Him.

If you are a follower of Christ this passage should give you the same drive to see your friends come to know Christ. If you are follower of Christ, this passage should lead us to look around and see people who are lost and going to Hell. 17,000 people in Jones Co. are unchurched, and are going to die and bust hell wide open if we are not following Christ in to the darkness of this world to show them the light of Christ. This should compel us to want to see lives changed and people come to know Jesus.

If you are not a follower of Christ, this passage is calling you to follow Christ for the first time. There is nothing you have done to put you to far away from God. I know this world is crazy, Christ offers hope and Joy that lasts, Christ is calling you to submit to his lordship. If you have any questions about what it means to follow Christ, come talk to me, talk to one of the adults, come talk to me as we sing this last song, talk to one of your friends as we sing. Come see Christ as Lord, Come see Christ as King.

Y’all pray with me.