A Study of the Book of Luke
Sermon # 10
“CALLING SINNERS HOME!”
Luke 5:27-39
“It was a beautiful Sunday morning. People were filling the church to its fullest capacity. As they entered, each were given a bulletin filled with announcements, topic of today’s sermon, what songs they would sing and who to pray for. At the end of the line stood an older man. His clothes were filthy and you could tell that he had not bathed in days. His face was covered in whiskers where he had not shaved for a very long time.
When he reached the usher, he removed his tattered old brown hat in respect. His hair was long, dirty and tangled mess. He had no shoes on his feet, and wore only soiled, black socks.
The usher put his fingers to his nose and glared at the old man and said, ‘Uh. I’m sorry sir, but I’m afraid we can’t let you in. You will distract the congregation and we don’t allow anyone to disrupt our service. I’m afraid you’ll have to leave.’
The old man looked down at himself and with a puzzled look on his face, he placed his old brown hat back on his head and turned to leave. He was sad as he loved to hear the choir sing praises to the Lord. He loved to watch the little children get up in the front of the church to sing their little songs. He carried in his pocket a small worn out Bible and love to see if the minister preached a passage from the Bible that the old man had underlined. He was respectful enough and didn’t want to cause any commotion, so he hung down his head and walked back down the steps of the big brick church. He sat down on the brick wall near the edge of the church yare and strained to listen through the closed doors and windows to the singing going on in the church. Oh how he wished he could be inside with all the others. A few minutes had passed by when all of a sudden a younger man came up behind him and sat down near him. He asked the old man what he was doing2.
He answered, ‘I was going to go to church today, but they thought I was filthy and my clothes are old and worn and they were afraid I would disrupt their service. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself. My name is George.
The two gentlemen shook hands and George couldn’t help but notice that this man had long hair like his. He wore a piece of cloth draped over his body tied with a royal purple sash. He had sandals on his feet, now covered with dust and dirt.
The stranger reached to touch George’s shoulder and said, ‘Hello, George, don’t feel bad because they would not let you in. My name is Jesus and I’ve been trying to get into this same church for years, and they won’t let me in either. “ {Source Unknown.]
It is possible to get so busy doing churchy things that we forget our purpose for existence. The church can become just another club – an elite society that has all the right externals but has forgotten what its true purpose is. In the eighteenth century the Church of England had become so elitist and inhospitable to the common man that in 1739 John Wesley had to take to the graveyards and fields in order to preach the gospel.
Yet Jesus met unbelievers where they were. He realized what many Christians today never seem to. According to one count, the gospel records 132 contacts that Jesus had with people. Six were in the Temple, four in the synagogue and 122 were out with people in the mainstream of life. [J.K. Johnston. Why Christians Sin. (Discovery House, 1992) p. 142]
“…Christians … sometimes become adept at maintaining a façade of spirituality that does not necessarily match what is going on within them. No one swears [at least publicly]. Everyone is well-mannered. Biblical metaphors effortlessly flow through conversations. Being good, externally, becomes second nature. Everyone seems so “together.” There are few evident needs, and those that do exist are skillfully disguised. But underneath…
It is too easy for Christian believers to forget that they are sinners- yes forgiven, but still, in themselves, weak and vulnerable. Church becomes an elite club that few on the outside want to join even if the could.
The radical regenerating work of Christ sours when redeemed people lose sight of their continuing need – when they forget that though their eternal future is secure, in their daily walk they are frail and needy. The church can easily become a self-righteous subculture with no room or sympathy for “sinners.”[R. Kent Hughes. Luke: That You May Know the Truth. Volume one. (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1998) p. 182]
The church is not a hotel for saints but a hospital for sinners who need Jesus. Jesus’ call of Levi speaks to this very issue and gives us some principles to remember.
1. JESUS OFFERS REAL FORGIVENESS FOR REAL GUILT (vv. 27-28)
“After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.”
The man called Levi here and in Mark (2:14) is elsewhere called Matthew (Matt. 9:9, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15) was a tax collector. Levi or Matthew was a tax collector for the Roman government. The Romans collected their taxes through a system called “tax farming.” They assessed a district a fixed tax figure and then sold the right to collect taxes to the highest bidder. The buyer then had to hand over the assessed figure at the end of the year and could keep anything he gathered above that amount. The tax collector could inspect the goods of travelers and levy a tax on the merchandise. Since the tax rates were not always clear, it was easy for an unscrupulous man to make himself rich.
There is no indication that Levi was dishonest. There is no indication that Matthew on making a decision to follow Jesus makes restitution as does Zacchaeus later does in (Luke 19). Perhaps it is because Matthew has been an honest tax collector. But even if the tax collector were honest, his fellow Jews still despised him because they were considered lackeys of the Romans. They were considered a traitor because of their connection with the government of Romans oppressors. Tax collectors were held in such low esteem that they could not serve as witnesses in court and were even excommunicated from the synagogues. He was excluded from all religious contact, because according to the religious thought of the day, there was no hope for a man like Levi. Perhaps of all the people in Capernaum, Levi was the most publicly unacceptable candidate to be a disciple of Jesus.
The word that is translated that Jesus “saw” Levi is a word that conveys more than a passing glance, it was “a calm, continuous contemplation...” [Marvin Vincent. Word Studies in the New Testament. Volume one. (Grand Rapids: Eerdman Pub., 1947) p. 64] Such a look from Jesus probably made Levi nervously wonder, “What does Jesus want from me.” But Jesus saw beyond a life disfigured with sin and “saw” a future recorder of the gospel, an evangelist and rescuer of souls.
Levi’s response to Jesus was immediate and drastic (v. 28). “ So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.” Just how decisive a break Levi makes with his old life is indicated by the words “he left all, rose up and followed him.” The word translated “followed” is an Aorist participle in the Greek and literally means – “he began to follow and continued following.” [Vincent. p. 304] Luke alone informs us that Levi, like the fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James and John) left everything and followed Jesus. For Levi, following Jesus was a substantial sacrifice, if this venture was a failure he could not go back. One did not give up collecting taxes for the Romans on a whim and expect to ever return. Matthew did follow Jesus for the rest of his life. Many think that just as Simon was named Peter (the rock) by the Lord, Levi was likewise renamed Matthew (the gift of God) by Jesus.
2. THOSE ARE TRULY SAVED DO NOT WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN ALONE (vv. 29-30)
Although other gospel accounts tell us the banquet that Jesus attends, Luke is the only gospel writer that informs us that dinner that Jesus attended was a celebration put on by Levi. Verse twenty-nine, “Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. (30) And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
The reason of the feast is very apparent. Levi’s friends and associates have to been astounded by his decision to leave his lucrative business and follow Jesus. The occasion gave him the opportunity to explain his decision and more importantly to introduce his friends to Jesus, and let them learn for themselves what kind of Person could have produced such a dramatic change in Levi’s life.
We all have heard testimonies of individuals who made it sound like they were having a great time with booze and drugs and etc. until Jesus came along and spoiled the party for them. But Levi gave a celebration to mark the change Jesus has made in his life.
To the religious leaders people were divided into two groups, “righteous” and “sinners.” The “righteous” were those who kept the rules, did the right things and associated with the right people. The “righteous” saw them selves as right with God because of what they did not do, where they would not go, and with whom they did not associate.
The compliant of the Pharisees sounds like “sour grapes” to me. The real question is never really stated. They are asking, “Why are your disciples able to enjoy life, while we merely endure it?” The comparison is not very favorable. The sinners are celebrating and the religious leaders are complaining. The sinners are happy, the Pharisees are sad. The misery of the Pharisees attracted no one. The questions for today are; “What kind of picture are you giving of being a Christian? And Are you content to go to heaven alone?”
3. THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN BE SAVED ARE THOSE WHO REALIZE THAT THEY ARE LOST (vv. 31-32)
“Jesus answered and said to 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.”
Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by indicating there are no good people and bad people – only those who know that they are bad and those who do not. The scribes and Pharisees saw Levi and his friends as condemned “sinners,” but Jesus saw them as spiritually sick “patients” who needed the help of a physician. The first step toward healing the “sin sickness” is admitting that we have a need and that we cannot heal ourselves.
Those who were “well” or at least think themselves so, as the Pharisees did, did not feel they had need of His help. But these people, who he is associating with did not suffer from the delusion that they were without spiritual needs. Jesus had come to call those who would acknowledge that they were “sinners” not those who thought they had no sin.
4. THERE IS JOY IN THE SERVICE OF THE LORD (vv. 33-35)
The scribes and Pharisees were not only upset at the disciple’s friends, but at the obvious joy as they fellowshipped with Jesus and the guest. Verse thirty-three, “Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?” (34) And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? (35) But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”
By Jesus time the Pharisees had decreed that godly people must fast twice a week (Mondays and Thursday). For them fasting was synonymous with mourning. To the Pharisees fasting was a sacrifice of the flesh in order to attract the attention of God. The overall affect of their views on fasting was to portray true religion as solemn, joyless and gloomy. The underlying idea is that you cannot be spiritual unless you were uncomfortable. To the Pharisees spirituality consist of doing things you do not want to do, and refraining from things that you do want to do.
But Jesus asserted that his presence justified a feast. Just as one was excused from fasting when they a part of the bridegrooms party, so it would have wrong if not down right impossible for his disciples to mourn while in the presence of the Lord of Heaven.
In parable form in verses thirty-six to thirty-eight, Jesus tells that he has not come to patch up the old but to give the new. “Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. (37) And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. (38) But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. Many people have a “patchwork” religion of their own making, instead of trusting Christ alone. Too many people when they hear about Jesus just try to add Him to whatever is already in their lives but verse thirty-six tells us that this will not work.
Jesus states very clearly that he did not come to patch up the old but to give the new. The New Testament grows out of the Old, but is fulfillment of, rather than an addition to the Old. Jesus was saying that the old forms of Judaism were not suitable for containing the force of the gospel. There is power in the gospel that demands a new container. The church became that new container.
He concludes his thought in verse thirty-nine and I believe he was looking right at the Pharisees when he said, “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’” He said in effect, “ You are so comfortable where you are you will not even try and is if what I am telling you is true.” The Pharisees, the religious conservatives of their day, had forgotten why they did what they did, they had forgotten that they were to tell “sinners” that there was a God who loved them. They had become so exclusive that they forgot their reason for existence. Unfortunately the church of today, can become so busy doing good things that we forget that have been left here with a commission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Conclusion
Let me conclude by saying to those of you who have not yet made a decision to follow Jesus, don’t let unhappy Christians convince you that you have give up all happiness and joy to follow Jesus. In fact just the opposite is true. The only lasting joy and ultimate pleasure is found through forgiveness of your sins and fellowship with Jesus.
