We'll read through just a few verses here. Let's
pray, and then we'll get started. God, we come
to you tonight, and we thank you that we have
the freedom to come into your house. God, your
word is good, and I pray that you would help
us to grow in it tonight. I pray that your Holy
Spirit would just help our minds to listen to
you tonight. that you would help us to pay attention
and to be free of distractions and worries. God,
I pray that you would be with me, that I would
be able to preach and teach in a way that brings
glory and honor to you, dear Lord. There is no
good word I can say if you do not speak, dear
Lord, through me. So I pray that you are the
one who does the talking tonight, that you would
lead us and just give us a good night in your
word. In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. This is
close to the beginning of Jesus' ministry when
we see these events take place. When we get into
the book of Mark, Mark really just kind of hits
the ground running. There's a lot of these stories
that Mark doesn't give a lot of details on. A
lot of the things that we see in Mark chapter
1 are just very briefly gone through. Now we
see... More details of these things in some of
the other gospel accounts. But Mark is, of course,
a much shorter book than the others. And part
of that is because he doesn't go into a lot of
detail. At this point in Jesus' ministry, he
has been going around and he has been doing a
lot of work, a lot of casting out demons we see
toward the beginning of Mark, a lot of healing
the sick, and the crowds are just flocking to
him as he's doing the work. And he's out and
he's trying to preach and teach to people. And
the people recognize that there's something different
about Jesus, that he is one who preaches with
authority. That not only does he preach with
authority, but his very words have authority.
That those who have been possessed by demons
that have likely been this way for years, when
Jesus comes onto the scene, he is able to free
them of that instantly. And so as the crowds
begin to see Jesus' preaching and the miracles
that he's doing, The crowds begin to follow Jesus.
And as Jesus is beginning his ministry, we see
as he begins to call these different people to
come alongside him. These are his disciples or
his apostles. And in this passage that we read
tonight, we see when Jesus called Levi or Matthew,
same person, might be a different name, different
books. Go by a different name. It's okay. We
can understand. Sometimes even people we know,
they may have multiple names that people know
them by. And so when you hear Levi or Matthew,
it's talking about the same person. Verse 13.
Then Jesus went out again beside the sea. The
whole crowd was coming to him, and he taught
them. Then moving on, he saw Levi, the son of
Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office. And he said
to him, Follow me. So he got up and followed
him. Now, Jesus had a similar experience to when
he called Simon Peter. He called Simon Peter
and Andrew, and he told them the same thing.
Y 'all follow me, James and John. Y 'all come
on and follow me. And Mark doesn't give many
details other than that they followed him, that
they left their livelihoods behind, that they
left their fishing boats behind, or in this case,
their job at the tax office behind, and followed
Jesus. Now, I believe that Jesus knew what he
was doing here. Now, we don't know much about
Matthew, but we know that Jesus called him, so
there's a pretty good chance that Matthew was
a godly man. But there was another issue with
Matthew that was a big issue, and that was that
Matthew was a tax collector. Now, notice when
Jesus picks his disciples, when you read through
the Bible, Jesus doesn't go to the synagogue
and pick the chief priest. He doesn't pick the
highest officials and the authorities within
the synagogue. Instead, Jesus picks normal people.
He picks fishermen and he picks tax collectors.
And of all the people to pick, why would you
pick a tax collector? We're not very liked, and
even we can relate to that today. Show of hands,
does anybody in here enjoy paying taxes to the
IRS? Raise your hand. We have one person that
enjoys paying taxes. No, I don't. Oh, you don't?
Oh, okay, you don't. Let's try this again. If
you enjoy paying taxes to the IRS, raise your
hand high. All right, for everybody listening
online, there's no hands raised this time. We
don't like paying taxes. Even if the IRS agents
that we know are the most friendly, nicest Christian
people in the world, we don't want to pay taxes.
But the problem is, especially when we look at
these tax collectors in the Bible, is that they
weren't always the best guys. They did a job
that nobody liked, which was bad enough. But
then on top of that, they would take a little
off the top. So it would be something like this.
So Rome would say, you need to collect $100 from
every person and bring back to us. And so it's
the tax collector's responsibility to make sure
that they bring back $100 from every person.
But the tax collector, as long as he got $100,
well, if he got a little extra, guess whose pocket
that went into? That went into his pocket. So
if he can get $120 from everybody, he gets $20
from everybody he collects taxes from. So he
goes to you and he says, hey, your taxes are
$120. And he pockets the $20 and he gives the
$100 to Rome, and Rome doesn't really care as
long as they get their share. They don't really
care about what the tax collector's doing. And
so tax collectors did not have a very good reputation
because they were known for cheating people.
You may recall the story of Nicodemus, not Nicodemus,
Zacchaeus, the wee little man who wanted to see
Jesus and he was too short and he climbed up
a tree. He was the chief tax collector. And when
he had this encounter with Jesus, and Jesus obviously
changed his heart, and he said, I'll give away
half of what I own, and if I've defrauded anyone,
I'll pay back four times what I've taken from
them. And so tax collectors weren't really the
best of people. And of all the people for Jesus
to pick to serve, to be one of his 12, I mean,
these were the guys that Jesus was going to pour
into. to really teach them, to really lead them,
to really show them the example, so that when
he was gone, it was going to be their job to
lead other people toward Jesus, to make sure
the gospel was going to hit the ground running.
These are the people that Jesus picked, and one
of them was a tax collector. Now, Jesus was probably
somewhat strategic in doing this. Jesus probably
didn't do this by coincidence. Perhaps Jesus
did this to remind us that the kingdom of God
is for everybody. The kingdom of God is not made
up of the religious. The kingdom of God is made
up of the righteous. The kingdom of God is made
up of those who have faith in him, who come from
all walks of life, whether Jew, whether Gentile,
whether priest, whether tax collector, whoever
you may be, the determining factor is not your
job. The determining factor is... Do you have
faith in Jesus Christ? And when he comes and
when we hear of Jesus Christ and we know of Jesus
Christ and the words of Scripture and the Holy
Spirit says, follow me, do we get up and follow
Jesus? Now, the apostles did. We see here that
Matthew did. Maybe sometimes we do. Maybe sometimes
we don't. Maybe there are some things that Jesus
calls us to and we get up and we're ready to
go. Maybe there are other things and we kind
of drag our feet. We're not quite so excited
to get up and follow Jesus. But Matthew did.
And praise the Lord that Jesus uses ordinary
people. That's good news for us. That we don't
have to be anything spectacular because we are
not. But Jesus is spectacular. And our faith
in him. is what allows Jesus to do a mighty work
in us, not on our own because of who we are,
but because of who he is. And so in verse 15,
while he was reclining at the table in Levi's
house, many tax collectors and sinners were also
guests with Jesus and his disciples because there
were many who were following him. So not only
did he get Matthew to follow him here, But it
appears as though he goes back to Matthew's house,
and there in Matthew's house would have been
the people that Matthew would have typically
hung out with, which would have been other tax
collectors. And it says sinners here. It doesn't
specify what these sinners were, but the sinners
that's being talked about here, we see in the
verses to come that it's the religious group,
the Pharisees and the scribes of the Pharisees
that call out these sinners. So whatever they
did, No matter how bad it may or may not have
been, they were certainly labeled by these Pharisees
as sinners. And here Jesus is, the Son of God.
He's going around and he's doing all these wonderful
things. But there's a certain group of people,
a lot of the religious crowd, are just really
having a hard time accepting Jesus. And this
didn't help him. When Jesus called Matthew to
follow him, and then Jesus, who was coming and
preaching and doing all these things in the name
of God, when Jesus went before these tax collectors
and sinners, well, this was a big problem for
the religious crowd. Obviously, we learn a little
bit about them in that they probably didn't go
to this crowd. They had issue with this crowd.
That's what we see in the next verse. When the
scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating
with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his
disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors
and sinners? So they took some offense to this.
Now, they themselves should have been trying
to reach these same people. They should have
been telling them about the word of God. They
should have been a good example to them, but
it appears as though they were keeping their
distance from them, and they were offended that
Jesus would associate with such people. Obviously,
this religious group, these scribes of the Pharisees,
and in other gospel accounts, it mentions the
Pharisees themselves. Obviously, they didn't
like what Jesus was doing here. And so they questioned
the disciples. Why is Jesus doing this? Why is
he eating with this filth? Why is he associating
with these people, these lowly people? The religious
people must have had a little higher view of
themselves than they should have, and that's
a real problem with religion that we have to
be on guard for. Sometimes we can fall into that
trap. We can fall into that holier -than -thou
trap. Boy, we think we're doing good, and it's
so easy for us to look at other people, and we
think we are all that and a bag of chips and
all these other poor sinners and tax collectors
and all this riffraff. We don't want to have
anything to do with them, and we have to be careful
because These are the very people that Jesus
calls us to minister to. And Jesus says so in
the next verse. Verse 17. When Jesus heard this,
he told them, Those who are well don't need a
doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn't come
to call the righteous, but sinners. Now, isn't
that a beautiful, simple thing that Jesus lays
out? Jesus says, these people are lost. These
people don't know God. The Pharisees, at the
very least, they knew of God. Perhaps some of
them genuinely did follow God and seek to follow
his will and live according to his word. But
as we see throughout the life of Jesus, there
were plenty of them that didn't too. There were
plenty of them that headed up the group that
was going to get Jesus nailed to the cross. So
they knew about God. But there were plenty of
them who didn't know God. But at least the Jews
had some exposure to the Word. At least they
had exposure to the Old Testament. The Gentiles,
they didn't grow up following the Word of God,
hearing the Word of God. Maybe they had heard
some here and there. But Jesus says, these people,
these sinners as you call them, these tax collectors,
the ones that you don't want to spend any time
associating with, these are the people who are
sick. That's how Jesus refers to them. He said
they are sick. Now, when you and I get sick,
where do we go? We go to the doctor's office.
We go to the hospital. Why? Because that's where
the doctors are. When I get sick, I don't go
to the Tasty Freeze. Why? Because it's just some
people up there, and they make a good hamburger,
and they make a good milkshake, and I like going
there, but I don't go there when I get sick.
When I get sick, I don't go to the bowling alley.
When I get sick, I go to the doctor. I go to
the hospital. Why? Because that's where the doctor
is. And sick people go to the doctor. So Jesus
said, look, I go to these people because the
sick people need a doctor. And he continues on.
I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Jesus acknowledged that there were some. who
were righteous. There were some who were doing
right. There were certainly some who were self
-righteous, who thought they were doing right.
There were others who really were righteous and
really were seeking God. And Jesus said, this
group knows. They know the word of God. They
know the commands of God. But it's my job to
go out here and reach the lost. And this has
not changed for you and I today. This example
that Jesus gives us has not changed. We are called
to... reach the lost. Now, it is good. It is
so good. We come together as brothers and sisters
in Christ. We come together and we have eatings
and we have all these get -togethers. And a lot
of times at our get -togethers, it might be predominantly
brothers and sisters in Christ or maybe 100 %
brothers and sisters in Christ sometimes. And
there may not be any lost people in the bunch.
And that's good that we do those things. It's
good that we associate and we praise God together.
But our real mission Our real call is that we
get out among the sinners and the tax collectors,
the people that we really don't want to go see.
Now, there's some people that we say, oh, yeah,
I'm going to talk to them. They're not a believer,
but they're okay. I don't mind going to talk
to them. But what we really need to think about
is you need to think for a second and think about
that person that you really don't want to go
talk to. That person is pretty bad and pretty
nasty and pretty dirty and pretty sinful. The
ones you really don't want to go talk to, well,
those are the ones that's being talked about
here. Those are the people that we need to try
to reach. Those are the ones that we can make
all kinds of excuses as to why we don't want
to go see them or why we don't want to associate
with them. But Jesus says, In Matthew chapter
18, when he's talking about dealing with a brother
that sins against you, he says, go to him. If
he still won't listen, take another and go to
him. And you present it before the church. And
Jesus says something interesting there. He says,
if this person refuses to listen and repent of
their sinfulness, he says to treat them like
an unbeliever and a tax collector. Now, isn't
that interesting? Jesus says one who professes
to be a brother but continues to live in sin,
he says treat them like a tax collector. Why
is that? Because a tax collector, in this case,
kind of using the same idea here, is one who
is sinful, one who needs to hear the good news,
one who needs to be taught what is right. And
that's what Jesus calls us to do. If there's
a brother who strays, then hey. We need to treat
them like an unbeliever and a tax collector.
We want to tell them the truth of the gospel.
We want to say, hey, you're sick. I want to show
you who the doctor is. When we encounter people
on the street or friends or family or whoever
it may be, we want to be those who say, look,
I want to teach you and preach to you and show
you the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's what
Jesus calls us to do. We do that in a variety
of ways. It may not always be words we say. It's
not like we have to sit down and preach a sermon
to everybody that we see. But our very actions
may be enough to lead someone to Christ. The
love that we show, the compassion that we show.
You never know the little actions that you do,
what kind of difference they're going to make
in people's lives. And so Jesus says, this is
what I've come for. I've come to reach the lost.
The sick. And Jesus didn't shy away from that.
Yeah, he spent time in the synagogues. He spent
time with the religious people. And some of them
got it and some of them didn't get it. But Jesus
said, look, I've come to do the work of the Father.
I've come to teach people the truth. And I have
come to save sinners. And praise God for you
and I that he did. Because that's us. Praise
God that Jesus came to our table. When we were
nothing more than a bunch of sinners. Just like
those tax collectors. And that Jesus chooses
us. Not because we're awesome. Not because we're
so amazing. Not because he looks at us and be
like, man, you are such a godly person. I'm going
to pick you. He picks us in spite of us. He picks
us if we just have faith. If we're just willing
when he comes and says, follow me. If we are
just willing, he picks us. And he makes us into
the men and the women that he wants us to be
to follow his example. Let's pray. God, we thank
you for your good word, and I pray that you would
help us, dear Lord, not to fall into that trap
to think we are ever holier than thou, dear Lord.
We want to try to be obedient to you and follow
your word and follow your example, dear Lord,
and listen to you, and sometimes maybe we do
a better job of that than others. But, dear Lord,
we never want to think that we're better than
anyone else, dear Lord. We are sinners and tax
collectors in this room tonight, dear Lord. But
we thank you that Jesus came to die for us. We
thank you that Jesus calls us tonight. Just as
he called his disciples all those years ago,
dear Lord, through your word, through the Holy
Spirit, Jesus still calls to us today if we would
just follow him. And I pray that we would, dear
Lord. I pray that we would follow him. I pray
that we'd follow every example, even when it
means going to reach to those that may be tough.
It may be hard for us to want to... I want to
go out to some people, dear Lord, but let us
not turn a blind eye to them. But let us be faithful
to love others just as Jesus has loved us. And
I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.