The Call To Repentance

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Let’s begin by looking at the cast of characters:

Jesus: The True Witness, who, having come into the world, is the light of the world.

The Messiah. Called Rabbi, or Raboni, meaning ‘teacher’. The One who

began His earthly ministry with the public cry to ‘repent and believe in the

gospel’.

Pharisees: Meaning, ‘the separated ones’. The most powerful religious sect of the

Jews. Known primarily for their legalism, and their strict adherence to

Jewish tradition.

Scribes: The lawyers. The Pharisees were faithful followers of these, who were the

experts in interpreting the scriptures.

First century historian, Josephus, describes the Scribes and the Pharisees thus:

“A body of Jews who profess to be more religious than the rest, and to explain the laws more precisely”.

Next in our cast of characters:

Levi: Later known as Matthew, and who wrote the gospel of Matthew, the first book

of the New Testament. Prior to his calling, as we can see in our text, a tax-

gatherer; and therefore despised among other Jews, who saw the Jewish

tax-gatherers as thieves (which they often were) and traitors, because the

taxes they collected went to Rome’s coffers.

The rest of the cast in our account consists, says verse 29, of “a great crowd of tax-gatherers and other people,” ... and in verse 30 we see the Pharisees referring to them simply as ‘sinners’.

And finally, in a passive role in this instance, the Disciples of Jesus, which at this point would consist, not of the twelve as a group, but probably a small handful of people who had begun to follow Jesus early in His ministry.

The setting:

Jesus has passed by Levi’s tax table and commanded simply, “Follow Me”, and Levi’s response was to leave everything behind, and follow Jesus.

This might remind the Bible student of another tax collector, Zaccheus, who, as a result of a repentant heart and of placing his faith in this Jesus as the Promised Messiah, rejoices and throws a big party at his house, vowing to pay back 4-fold, that which he had acquired dishonestly.

C. H. MacKintosh wrote:

“God’s grace is magnified by man’s ruin. The more keenly the ruin is felt, the more highly the grace is valued.”

The most joyful converts to Christ you will ever see, are the ones who have come to realize how utterly lost and helpless they were without Him.

So Levi throws a party at his home, and I want you to notice that it is not called a “celebration for Levi”... it is not referred to as “a going away party” as Levi leaves his job to start a new life.

We’re told that he gave a ‘reception for Him”. A reception for Jesus. A banquet for Jesus. You see, true repentance is always followed by an open and joyful reception of Jesus into the life; and the focus is on Him. Not ourselves, that we are now clean and forgiven, not the church, as the appropriate recipient of our attentions and faithfulness to duty as a new member, but Jesus; the One who calls for repentance and imparts new life...His own life, and deserves all the praise and worship and glory.

So here we are now, in the home of Levi. A large crowd has gathered into this home and reclined around what was probably a long, low table. Levi is at the head with Jesus, his guest of honor, on his right. At this point in the early ministry of Jesus, some of His own disciples were probably standing back away from the table, wondering why the Master would condescend to sit and eat with these sullied people.

In fact, some of them were probably still seething inside over His having even invited Matthew, a despised tax-gatherer, to follow, side by side with them.

Standing just inside the door to the crowded house and observing the proceedings with disgust, and maybe sensing the same kind of emotions in the nearby disciples, the Pharisees hiss their grievance into the ears of the nearest followers of this itinerant Rabbi.

“Why do you eat and drink with the tax-gatherers and sinners?”

As usual, Jesus, who knows the hearts of all men, takes up the slack for his disciples and answers the question Himself; and here will be our focus for the remainder of our time today:

1. RELIGION WITHOUT REPENTANCE

2. REPENTANCE WITHOUT RELIGION

3. OF WHICH GROUP ARE YOU?

RELIGION WITHOUT REPENTANCE

By the time Jesus came on the scene, Judaism had been divided into various sects, the Pharisees being one of those, and the most influential, all over Palestine; not just in Jerusalem.

As is evidenced throughout the gospels, they practiced a religion without repentance.

In the seventh chapter of Luke Jesus offers a tribute to John the Baptist, revealing to His hearers just who John was, and what his purpose was in coming. Then the narrative of verses 29 and 30 shows us the distinct difference between someone whose heart is prepared to receive Christ, and one whose heart is not.