Eating with sinners
Luke 5:27-5:32
Luke 5:27-5:32
Prayer-
Introduction-
We live in a day and age of un-surety. Un-surety that you may put your shoes on in the morning and the undertaker may take them off at the end of the day.
Bad things happen to good people everyday. God never promised that life is fair.
We cannot be scared and hide because that would not be living. Living is fulfilling your purpose and being with the people you love and care for.
The setting for the text this morning is political unrest, spiritual upheaval, people betraying each other.
Jesus cared for people then and he cares for people now. He called people then and He is still calling people today.
Some will respond and some will not. We will see that the invitation is still out there, what we do with it and what others do as we share the invitation.
Luke chapter 5 Jesus calls His disciples-
Those He has called to spread the Gospel. He takes ordinary fishermen and calls them to be fishers of men.
He does many miracles – “I am willing… be clean and be healed.”
He forgives- “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
Then Jesus calls (Levi) Matthew, and they sit down and share meals with sinners.
Some have a fit
Some lives were changed by the power of God.
Which one are you today?
Jesus sees the traitor tax collector Matthew and invites him to “Follow Me.”
Jesus says two words to him that changed his life because of his response to those two words.
Third world countries understand this more that the West.
When Jesus calls someone to follow, they understand that it is total commitment and in the west, it is treated like a suggestion and the only ones who commit like that are the full time ministers and the rest get a pass to be involved only as much as they want too.
There are people who are willing to risk their lives to spread the gospel in dangerous areas of the world because they have committed their lives to Christ and committed to the message of Christ.
This passage show that everyone has a callings to reach out to the social outcast and share with them the love of Christ and the gospel that will set them free.
“Follow me”- he rose up and followed Jesus.
Growing up as a kid in the sixties and into the seventies in Milwaukee, I saw a lot of bad people doing a lot of bad things. It was tough then, and I believe it is constantly getting worse and more dangerous. But what I also saw was even bad people have a heart and a soul and need Jesus.
They need to feel the love of God and they need to experience someone that will look past what they are and what they did to someone that Jesus came for.
“Jesus came to seek and save the lost” those bad people the world keeps talking about but not willing to embrace and reach.
Illustration-
Remember when you were a kid and you had pickup games. Two captains and you began picking your team and the good ones got picked first and as you went down the line you get to the point of if you take him I’ll take her and at the end, those nobody wanted were left to get forced on a team. I want you to know that if you were at the end of the pick up that Jesus loves you as much as he does the talented ones and the bigger ones. Jesus loves the bad people and He loves the social outcast and Jesus loves the ones who have made many mistakes because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
That is you and that is me! Jesus does not say- If you take him, I’ll take her- He says He is mine, she is mine! I am happy to have them.
Of all the people Jesus could have called to ministry, the tax collector should have been His last choice.
They were hated among the Jews.
The Romans used them to collect taxes so they were considered traitors. On top of that, they made money on the Jews.
They cheated and swindled money from their own people.
Jesus approaches Levi (Matthew) “Follow Me” Matthew response to that was that he got up, left everything and followed him.
What does it mean to leave everything behind and follow Jesus?
Some when He says leave everything- He is calling them to a mission field and literally they will leave everything behind and follow Jesus to another country where he has called them.
To others, leaving everything means to be willing to leave behind the old lifestyle, the ways that they treated other people, to allow God to change them and use them for His honor and glory right where they are at.
For Matthew, it did not mean he was going to another country as we will see in a minute.
For Matthew, it was that his old way of stealing and treating people badly was going to change.
He was no looker going to take advantage of others but share with them the gospel message that Jesus
Christ saves sinners and that he was one of the worse but God’s love was still shown to him.
I believe there are two callings-
There is a general calling for all those that accept Christ as Lord. They have a responsibility to share the Good News of Christ. They must be sensitive to where God has placed them and be doing what God has called them to do.
Special calling for those that go into full-time ministry. They not only have a heart for the lost, they have surrendered all and will go and do what the Lord has called them too even if that means to up stake their families and travel into dangerous lands like our missionaries and those that take assignments that others cannot or will not take. There is a special anointing for those that God takes to these ministries.
Back to the text- Jesus calls Matthew to Follow Him- He does what God has called him to do. He leaves and goes with Jesus.
(29) “Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
I want you to understand something here- when Matthew stood up and decided to follow Jesus, there was a cost. He could no longer take money from his countrymen. He lost the right to collect taxes for Rome and he gave up a good living. He counted the cost and decided to follow Jesus knowing that things would be different.
Matthew was converted- He chose Jesus.
Matthew was transformed- a new way of living. The old was no longer an option.
Matthew was repentant- He was sorry, and he did a complete turnaround by God’s Grace and help.
It was not just being sorry for his sins, it was committing to a new life in Christ.
Matthew throws a big shindig for Jesus and invites all his tax collector fiends.
He invites them and Jesus to his house for a time of food and fellowship.
He puts the sinners in contact with the savior and hopes that God will transform them as He did for him.
Here is an important point I want you to see here.
Jesus saved him and transformed his life but he didn’t take him from reaching out to other sinners that he had known.
The problem with most Christians, the longer they are saved, the less they hang around or care about those that need Jesus.
We start hanging around with only Christians.
Our friends are only Christians, we alienate ourselves and let the reaching of sinners to those that are called to do it full time.
We forget that it is everyone of our responsibility to reach the lost.
The church would grow dramatically when we have a heart for the lost and desire to get them into God’s presence to touch their hearts like he did for us.
Why did the Pharisees and the teachers of the law throw such a fit about Matthew eating with sinners?
Because they thought if people were transformed by God, that they were not to hang out with sinners.
They were to disassociate themselves with the bad people.
They thought that you should be better than that now!
There has to be transformation! Christ changing us.
New priorities.
Not self but Christ living in us. That does not take us away from sinners and those that need Jesus. It should draw us close to them and want them to experience the love and mercy of God.
We just cannot let them influence us, we must influence them.
A couple of our board members I have been talking said I am talking in circles the last month because we are going to have a conversation that is going to be intense and intentional in the next few days.
Why do we reach out to this community?
Why do we have ministries for people who do not attend our church or support us financially?
Why care?
Because that is what Jesus told each one of us to do. “Follow Him” “Do as He does”
Philippians 1:12-13
“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.”
20-22
“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, weather by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.”
As the old hymn goes- “What a wonderful change in my life has been made since Jesus came into my heart.”
Follow me is an invitation- an invitation that Matthew took and we are also invited to take.
Jesus told his disciples- “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross.”
Jesus called him and he calls us to a life of surrender and a life of ministry to those he brings into our contact. As individuals saved by his grace- as a body of believers called Rosedale, we have Jesus calling each of us to follow Him in whatever way He determines for us.
As I close this morning… understand this.
We are all called to reach out to the lost. Every one of us, where God has us. It is not only the preachers job to share the love of Christ.
Each one of us has a unique story of how God reached out to us- nobody tells that story better than you do.
If our church is only defined by what happens inside these walls, we are being NOT THE CHURCH that God called us to be.
As followers of Christ, we are mandated by the Lord to reach out to those deemed bad people by the world and let them know that Jesus loves them. You work with them.
You go to school with them.
They are in your families. People who need to know your story and what your God has done and means to you.
You are the preacher God called to them.
31-32
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Do you have someone God has placed on your heart? Invite to church, but also invite to sit and talk and get involved with.
We should all have someone who God is calling us to eat with and get involved with and invite to church and sit with.
The Pharisees and teachers did not like that Jesus would sit and eat with sinners.
At times, people may not like or approve of the things we do to reach people not like us.
No matter what you do, there will always be some who criticize you, your church, your faith.
Make sure Jesus is happy with you and you will be okay.
The community is full of sick people who need Jesus.
The church is full of people who need Jesus .
Our families need Jesus.
Jesus did not invite cleaned up people- He called for the messed up.
We don’t fix people- that is Jesus job. We invite people to experience the love of Jesus and let Him transform people.
When the church starts reaching out to those people, we will see transformation in all our lives.
Pray for them
Reach out to them
Love them
Let Jesus change them.
Amen.
