Ill:
• Many of you know I have been taking school assemblies all week
• At Perin’s School in Alresford, Hants UK.
• It’s been great to have between 200 and 300 young people in the sports hall;
• And to give them a Christian perspective on a particular topic.
• The subject given me was the ‘thought for the week’;
• That goes in the school bulletin (register).
• It was a quote from George Washington:
"Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation;
for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company."
I think I surprised the teachers each day when I said I only agreed with half of the statement:
• The first part of the statement is very good advice:
• “Associate yourself with people of good quality”
• The Bible, especially the book of proverbs would echo similar thoughts.
• The second part of that quotation is the part I disagree with:
• “If you esteem your own reputation”.
• I shared with the young people that the Bible emphasises character not reputation.
• Reputation is what you and others think about me.
• Character is what I am.
Ill:
• You might think I am a ‘good egg’, I have a good reputation with you;
• And yet I could go home and be a rotten husband and a lousy father;
• And you not knowing that would still think I was a ‘good egg’,
• In contrast you might not think very much of me;
• But if I go home and I am a good husband and father etc
• Then my character wins despite your opinion of me.
• Reputation is what you think of me;
• Character is what God sees of me!
• Reputation is transient, it varies from person to person.
• Character is permanent, it is lasting.
• Reputation is what you and others think about me.
• Character is what I am.
We reached the point in Mark’s gospel when Jesus encounters the Pharisees:
Question: Who were the Pharisees?
Answer:
• (a). The Pharisees were an important, powerful,
• And at first, popular group of religious leaders among the Jews of Palestine.
• (b). The Pharisees were the guardians of the Jewish faith!
• Who prided themselves on strict observance of the Jewish laws, ceremonies & traditions.
• (c). At the time of Jesus there were around 6,000 Pharisees;
• (d). They were not priests more like politicians,
• (e). Many Pharisees were leaders in their local synagogues.
• And it was the Pharisees who held the power (Ill: Name for anyone who crossed them – victim!)
The word "Pharisee" simply means "separated".
• All Israelites avoided, as far as possible, any physical contact with Gentiles;
• In order to avoid being defiled.
• But the Pharisees took that idea a step further;
• They avoided all physical contact with anyone who was not a Pharisee!
• So as we are about to see;
• It was no wonder they constantly were shocked and outraged by Jesus;
• Who had regular contact with tax-collectors, prostitutes and sinners.
• He even called a tax collector to become one of His disciples!
• The main emphasis Mark show is in these next chapters is one of contrast:
• Jesus is the one who engages with sinners;
• The Pharisees as a group excluded sinners.
Ill:
• William Booth was a British Methodist preacher;
• Who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General.
• One Sunday evening, William Booth was walking in London with his son, Bramwell,
• Who was then 12 or 13 years old.
• The father surprised his son by taking him to a pub!
• The place was crowded with men and women.
• Some of them were drunk. Some of them were loud.
• And the air was filled with the smell of alcohol and tobacco.
• Bramwell said to his dad, "Can we go now? Why did you even bring me in here?"
• And General Booth said,
• "Son, these are our people; these are the ones I want you to love.
• These are the people I want you to live for.
• These are the people I want you to bring to Christ."
• Years later, Bramwell wrote,
• "That was a lesson I never forgot."
• It’s a lesson still worth learning today.
• And it’s the lesson we learn from Jesus here in Mark chapter two.
(A). JESUS & Levi (MATTHEW) (vs 13-17).
• In these verses (13-17);
• We have the calling of Levi (Matthew) to be a disciple and follower of Jesus.
• Not too much is said about Levi (Matthew) after this incident;
• So these are important verses in connection to Levi (Matthew).
• It is certainly the only time he is centre stage with the spot light on him.
An Occupation (vs 14a):
• Levi’s (Matthew’s) occupation was that of a tax-collector.
• In first century Palestine people did not like paying taxes – same is true today!
Ill:
Taxman jokes.
• People who complain about paying their income tax can be divided into two types:
• Men and women.
• What's the difference between an overzealous tax auditor and a rottweiler?
• A rottweiler eventually lets go!
• If a lawyer & an tax inspector were both drowning, and you could only save one of them,
• Would you carry on watching TV or read the paper?
• What is the difference between a terrorist and a tax inspector?
• You can negotiate with a terrorist.
In first century Palestine people did not like paying taxes – same is true today!
Ill:
The main trade route from Syria to Egypt went through Galilee,
• And Capernaum acted as a tax station;
• It was a good station to be at, besides regular taxes paid by residents;
• Travellers had to stop, present their imported products to the tax official,
• And pay their taxes,
• Levi (Matthew) was apparently one of the tax officials working at this tax station.
• And each day he went to 'the office' or in his case the 'tax-booth '.
These tax officials were very unpopular with the Jewish people for at least 3 reasons:
(A). THEY WERE DISHONEST.
• Often they were extortionists,
• Making themselves rich by taking too much money from their fellow Jews.
• The Roman government devised a system;
• To collect taxes as efficiently and as cheaply as possible.
• They did this by auctioning the right to collect taxes in a certain area.
• The man who bought that right was responsible to the Roman government for an agreed sum;
• Anything he could raise over and above that;
• He was allowed to keep as commission.
• Not only did they fleece their own countrymen,
• But they also did their best to swindle the government,
• And they made a flourishing income by taking bribes from rich people;
• Who wished to avoid taxes which they should have paid.
Ill:
• On one occasion when tax-collectors asked John the baptiser, how they should live;
• His reply was basic and straight to the point; "be honest!"
Application:
“One of the greatest miracles that Jesus Christ performs today,
is to take a dishonest person, from a dishonest world,
make that person honest,
then place them back in a dishonest world and keep them honest!”
• Question: How is your honesty Christian?
• ill: Penny last week was asked by someone to do something dishonest!
(B). THEY WERE TRIATORS.
• They were also hated because they were working for the Romans,
• Although they worked for them indirectly.
• The Romans contracted out to people like the Herod's.
• He ran the region on behalf of the Romans.
• The Herod’s contracted out to people like Matthew;
• Those who were willing to buy the position from them at great cost.
(C). THEY WERE SINNERS.
• They were disliked because they ignored the Jewish laws.
• This explains why the Pharisees called them 'sinners' (verse 16).
• ill: A sinner was someone who chose to live outside of God's laws.
• e.g. If you chose to work on the Sabbath,
• e.g. If you did not follow dietary laws (ate pork).
Ill:
• According to Jewish law a tax-gatherer was excluded from the synagogue;
• They were was included with things and beasts that were unclean,
• They were forbidden to be a witness in any case of law.
• In fact robbers, murderers and tax-gatherers were all classed together.
• On the social scale, tax collectors were on the bottom.
• (Even prostitutes had a higher social status).
(2), A CHALLENGE (vs 14b) "Follow me".
• We have recorded in the gospels the calling of six of the twelve disciples;
• Philip, Andrew, Peter, James and Matthew.
• Notice: To each of them, Jesus uses two key words to challenge them into action;
• "Follow me".
• At the time of Jesus Rabbi’s had disciples.
• Discipleship was not a 9 to 5 job – you lived with your teacher 24/7.
• To become a disciple took great commitment.
Those words of Jesus ''follow me" might sound to us an incomplete invitation:
• ill: If someone were to give you the same invitation to you and me;
• We would probably respond by asking; "Why? Where are you going?"
• It is interesting these men did not ask that question:
• The issue in discipleship is never “WHERE we are going”,
• But “WHO” are we going with!
• Never “WHERE we are going”, but ‘WHO’ are we following?
To be a disciple of Jesus Christ;
• Meant from now on you were caught up in the masters programme;
• And from now on you lived by the Masters agenda and not your own.
• Discipleship is not about the fulfilment of the follower,
• It is all about the fulfilment of the Master's purposes.
Ill:
• Henry Drummond, preacher and author,
• Was once asked to address a meeting of a select West-End Club in London.
• On his arrival he found his audience assembled;
• And everything arranged for him to give his message.
• He commenced his address with these words:
• 'Ladies and Gentlemen, the entrance fee into the Kingdom of Heaven is nothing:
• The annual subscription is everything.'
• Discipleship is not about the fulfilment of the follower,
• It is all about the fulfilment of the Master's purposes.
• It meant from now on you were caught up in the masters programme;
• And from now on you lived by the Masters agenda and not your own.
When Jesus called Matthew to ‘Follow him’:
• He called a man whom all men hated.
• Here is one of the greatest instances in the New Testament;
• Where Jesus has the ability and power to see in a man,
• Not only what he was, but also what he could be.
• ill: Gideon ("Mighty warrior").
• ill: Simon (“Rock'') .
(3). A RESPONSE (vs 14c)
"Levi got up and followed him".
Ill:
• John Henry Jowett was born in Halifax, England in 1864,
• He became Congregational pastor.
• He said on one occasion;
• He saw seventy Salvation Army officers receive their commission for foreign service.
• That is seventy men being assigned to serve God in a foreign country.
• John Henry Jowett said:
• Not one of them had any idea where the command would send him;
• Whether to Africa, or India, or Brazil, or to a crowded city in Japan.
• When each man received his commission, he welcomed it with a salute!
In similar fashion:
• Levi got up and followed Jesus;
• He did not know where he was going – but he did know who he was following!
Note:
• This would not have been Levi’s first encounter with Jesus.
• (Matthew chapter 4 verse 12 & Luke chapter 4 verse 23);
• Tell us Jesus had made his home here in Capernaum.
• This town became his headquarters during what is called his 'Galilean ministry'.
• As a resident of Capernaum Jesus would have been required to pay tax,
• And would have visited this tax-booths on a regular basis.
Ill:
• He may well have seen some of the miracles that Jesus had performed;
• Or listened to some of the teaching that Jesus taught the large crowds (vs 13).
• He would have noticed and seen that Numbered amongst his friends and followers;
• Were men and women from whom the orthodox good people of the day loathed.
• This Rabbi did not associate with ‘men & women of good reputations’.
On this occasion Levi and Jesus came face to face, eye to eye:
• And when Levi heard Jesus issue his challenge;
• Levi accepted that challenge and rose up and left all and followed him.
• He did what many of his own more respectable people from the town would not do!
• As we will see - Capernaum would soon reject Jesus (Matthew chapter 11 verse 23).
NOTE:
• Verse 14 simply says: “Levi got up and followed Jesus".
• Luke in his gospel informs us that it was costly for Levi to follow Jesus
• Luke chapter 5 verse 28:
• "He left everything" (K.J.B. "Forsook all".)
Quote:
• He lost a comfortable job, but found a destiny.
• He lost a good income, but found honour.
• He lost a comfortable security,
• But found an adventure of the like of which he had never dreamed.
• In Jesus Christ a man finds a wealth surpassing anything;
• He may have to abandon for the sake of Christ.
NOTE ALS0:
• He left his tax-collector's table; but he did take one thing from it:
• Quote Alexander White of Edinburgh once said:
"When Matthew left his job to follow Christ, Matthew brought his pen with him!
Little did this ex-tax-collector realise
that one day God would use him to write the first of the four gospels. "
This is a great example of how Jesus can use whatever gift a person may bring to him.
• It is not likely that the others of the Twelve were handy with a pen.
• Galilean fishermen would not have much skill in writing or in putting words together.
• But Levi had;
• And this man, whose trade had taught him to use a pen, went on to use it!
Ill:
• Mark & Luke in their gospels (chapter 2 verse 14),
• Tells us the tax-collectors name was ‘Levi’, the son of Alphaeus.
• Matthew in his gospel tells us about the same man with a new name ‘Matthew’:
• Maybe given to commemorate his conversion and his call to be a disciple.
• This new name ‘Matthew’ means "gift of God".
Ill:
• Nowhere in the four gospels do we find a single recorded word that Levi spoke,
• Yet in his gospel (called Matthew);
• He records for us more of the words of Jesus Christ than anyone else.
• Ill: Sermon on the mount.
• He used that skill to compose the first handbook of the teaching of Jesus,
• And what a gospel that is!
QUOTE: Warren Wiersbe:
"The gospel according to Matthew" has been called by many Bible scholars
'the most important single document of the Christian faith’
Historians tell us that this book was the most widely read, and the most quoted in the early Church.
While all four gospels are important to us,
it is not without reason that Matthew stands first. "
A Gathering (vs 15):
“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house,
many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. “
• Note: once again we see Mark’s sparing use of language;
• Verse 15 reads like it's a little dinner party.
• Dr Luke in his account who gives us the full story;
• He calls it "A great banquet" (Luke chapter 5 verse 29).
Jesus not only called Levi/Matthew to be his follower:
• But he actually sat at table with other men and women like Levi/Matthew,
• With other tax-gatherers and sinners.
• Jesus deliberately broke social and religious prejudices of his day,
• And these verses are a perfect illustration of that.
ill:
• Broadly speaking, in Palestine people were divided into two sections.
• There were the orthodox who rigidly kept the Law in every petty detail;
• And there were those who did not keep its petty regulations.
• The second were classed as the people of the land;
Quote William Barcley:
"…it was forbidden to the orthodox to go on a journey with them, to do any business with them, to give anything to them or to receive anything from them, to entertain them as guests or to be guests in their houses".
By spending time in the company with people like this;
• Jesus was doing something;
• Which the pious people of his day would never have done.
• His heart went out to the Levi’s/Matthew's of the world,
• And in return Levi’s/Matthew's heart went out to the Lord!
• He invited his friends to meet Jesus.
• Some of those friends were probably Gentiles.
• All his former friends and acquaintances were there.
• It was a going away party.
• Quote: John Wesley:
• “No man ever went to heaven alone; he must either find friends or make them”.
Application:
• Evangelism of his friends was a priority;
• And not an optional extra!
Quote:
“For God so loved the world, not just a few,
The wise and great, the noble and the true,
Or those of favoured class or rank or hue.
God loved the world. Do you?”
Ill:
• The New Testament records tell of forty people, each suffering from some disease,
• Who had been healed by Jesus.
• Of this number, thirty-four were either brought to Jesus by friends;
• Or Jesus was taken to them.
• In only six cases out of forty;
• Did sufferers find their way to Christ without assistance."
Question:
• Who are you bringing to Jesus this week?
• Who are you inviting to diner?
• Like Levi/Matthew are you following?
• Like Levi/Matthew have you responded to the call of Jesus?
