Introduction
Human beings are inherently religious. We were created by God to worship Him. He wired us that way. When sin entered into man, our worship became inherently corrupt. In our post-modern world, the common idea is that God is high on a mountain and that if a man can climb that mountain, one will reach God, and there are many paths on that mountain which a person can choose to climb.
As a result, there are thousands of religions, philosophies, and worldviews, ranging from primitive animistic religions all the way to sophisticated religious systems. But those religions, though differing widely from one in another in the details, nevertheless fall into two categories. On the one hand, there is the religion of human achievement; on the other hand, the religion of divine accomplishment. In every religion other than biblical Christianity, man achieves salvation by his own efforts. Buddhists seek nirvana by following the Eightfold Path; Muslims hope to enter Paradise by following the Five Pillars of Islam; Mormons seek godhood through baptism, membership in the Mormon church, accepting Joseph Smith and his successors as prophets of God, and going through the temple ceremonies; Jehovah’s Witnesses seek to earn everlasting life on earth by their morality and door-to-door proselytizing; Roman Catholics seek salvation by means of the Mass, sacraments, prayers, and good works that cooperate with grace to enable them to earn heaven. (MacArthur)
One of the most profound descriptions of the Gospel found in the Bible is "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son (Romans 5:10 ESV)
Here we find words that no other religion in the world can share. It is what separates Christianity from all other religions. I want to tell you that we have been given the greatest gift of all time. The free gift of eternal life. The is the message of God. This is the message of the gospel. This is the message of Luke. This is still the message of hope that we are preaching today. God saves sinners. He doesn’t save self-righteous people. He doesn’t save the religious. He doesn’t save the enlightened, the blessed, or the devout. God saves sinners. The dirty, wretched, broken, abused, addicted. The outcast, the lost, the lonely, and the imprisoned. God saves sinners.
As we go through the life of our Lord Jesus in the gospel of Luke, we are going to come across this matter again because it is at the heart of all gospel ministry to call sinners to repentance. That includes defining men as they must be defined as sinners, measuring them against the law of God by which the Spirit of God can then produce repentance, pointing out the glories of Christ which can elicit by the Spirit faith. And on the basis of that faith and repentance salvation comes. This has always been the theme of true preaching.
This brings us to our text today. Jesus’s popularity is growing and he is building his inner circle of disciples that he is going to train and build up. Keep in mind that these 12 are the ones that will one day usher in the church age. They will establish Christ’s Church and leave a legacy that will bring us to today as we continually await Christ’s return.
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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.” (Luke 5:27–32 ESV)
Verse 32 sums up the essence of what I read from Romans chapter 5. Salvation is offered by God only to sinners, only to self-confessed wicked people, not those who consider themselves good or good enough. The uniqueness of the gospel starts with the fact that there’s only one Savior, and there’s no salvation apart from Him.
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me.’” (John 14:6)
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” ( Acts 4:12)
“These have been written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believing might have life in His name.” (John 20:31)
The idea of all religions is that God, whoever they perceive Him to be, will save the good people – right? – the moral people, the devout people, the religious people. This is the most widespread lie of Satan on the planet, that salvation comes to good people, whatever religion.
In Matthew chapter 23 Jesus looked at the scribes and Pharisees and said, “You’re hypocrites. You shut off the kingdom of heaven from people. You don’t enter in yourselves, nor do you allow any others to enter in. Woe to you, hypocrites!” He says it over and over. “Woe to you, blind guides, fools, blind men.” And then He closes His diatribe, “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” They were the most religious Jews, and they were on the way to hell, and they were producing other sons of hell.
That is always the lie of false religion, that God lets into heaven the good people. That is not what Jesus said. Go back to the text of Luke chapter 5. “I have not come to call the righteous,” – the good people – “but sinners to repentance.” This has always been the good news, that salvation is not for the people who are good, and the reason is that no one is – what? – good. There’s none righteous, no, not one,” – Romans 3 – “there’s none who understands, there’s none who seeks after God; they’re all gone astray.”
Salvation is not for those who imagine that they’re worthy of it, who imagine they are righteous or pretend to be; salvation is for wicked people.
The Call of Levi
Levi (also known as Matthew) was a tax collector for the Roman government. The Romans collected their taxes through a system called “tax farming.” The system worked like this: First, the government determined the estimated amount of taxes each district should be assessed. Then they issued authority to someone to go out and collect those taxes, usually to the highest bidder. That person would then spend the year collecting taxes by whatever means necessary. He would often hire thugs and threaten people. Whatever the tax collector gathered that was above the district’s assessed value, he was allowed to keep. It was a corrupt system of extortion.
There were different kinds of taxes, just as there are today. There were fixed taxes or poll taxes based on property, commerce, and income. Then there were duties based on trade. That allowed the tax collectors to rob others. The people paid separate taxes for using roads and for docking in harbors, and also import and export duties,
and even a sales tax on certain items. There was even a cart tax, in which each wheel was taxed! The system was a breeding ground for graft and exploitation. A tax collector could stop anyone on the road, make him unpack his bundles, and charge just about anything his larcenous heart desired. (Hughes)
The Jews hated the Roman tax collector. For a Jewish man like Matthew to become a tax collector meant that The Jews who did this were the most hated of all Jews. Matthew Levi was such a wretched traitor. He extorted. He took bribes from rich Romans. He abused his own people. He served the pagan idol-worshiping Gentiles. And, of course, the Jews believed that only one God was the true God and all idols were blasphemous. And so here you have a Jew making money by serving idolaters and taking the money from the worshipers of the true God. They were excommunicated from the synagogues and equated with unclean animals. They were not allowed to testify in court.
Levi was a rich person. He acquired much wealth as a tax collector. It was materialism that drove him into such an occupation. But Levi was also a broken and empty man. Like the Leper that was diseased, like the paralytic on the mat, Levi’s sin did not make him inaccessible to Jesus. And so, Jesus comes to him while he’s still sitting in his tax booth and invites Levi to follow him.
This is transformation. We don’t hear the story of Matthew’s faith. Jesus said, “Follow Me,” and he left everything behind and got up and began to follow Him. He became a follower of Jesus, the most wretched sinner in the eyes of that society. When Jesus called him, his response is immediate. Matthew Levi, traitor, extortioner, robber, outcast, crime boss, became the apostle and the evangelist of Jesus Christ who wrote the first gospel.
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Conversion comes only by the choice and calling of God. It is a gift of his grace, which may explain why people started to call this man Matthew, which means “gift of God.” This is what happens in salvation: God turns Levis into Matthews. But of course, Levi still needed to respond to God in repentance and faith, which he did, for Luke tells us that he left everything behind to follow Jesus. Levi had more to lose than most people, but like the other disciples, he left it all behind. He gave up the sinful structures that led to his financial advantage. Once he left, he could never go back. But this is what repentance requires: a definitive break with the old life of sin, no matter what the cost. We must let go of everything that stands in the way of going with Jesus.
The fact that Levi was called by Jesus to follow him would cause a dust-up of the church police. How could Jesus associate with such miserable, filthy people?
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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.” (Luke 5:30–32 ESV)
Notice that immediately the church police started grumbling. Their complaint was that they had friendly relationships with notorious sinners, eating at the same table, attending the same feast with them. The accusation came indirectly against Jesus, through His disciples. People often attack Jesus, in the same way, today, through His disciples.
They were concerned with externals. They were concerned with what people could see. They were moral, but they were not holy. They were the moral majority. But as somebody said, God's not looking for a moral majority. He's looking for a holy minority. “Jesus answers and said to them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.’” Very simple, obvious analogy: it is not those who are well or think they’re well; those who are sick who need a physician. Jesus came to save sinners from their sin and that is exactly what happened with Matthew.
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Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13 ESV)
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For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6 ESV)
Conclusion
We’ve been given the greatest gift from God; the message of the gospel and it is up to us to share that message. This is why Jesus called his 12 and it is why we as a church exist. It is not to be entertained with the message. It is to be the message bearers to a hurting world. What are you going to do?
Jesus is here today. He is not passing you by. He is taking notice of you. He noticed your pains, he notices your hurts, he noticed that you are a sinner, and he wants to heal you of your sickness. Would you follow me? Come to me you who are weary and burden and I will give you rest. Come to me and I will forgive you of all your sins.
